Chapter 57: A Narrow Escape from Disaster

[PS: In order to ensure the plot flows smoothly, I thought long and hard and decided to completely rewrite chapter 57 and rearrange the storyline. The previous, fragmented chapter 57 doesn't count; just pretend you never saw it. Also, consider that there was no update yesterday. This chapter's extra content will be made up to everyone tomorrow.]

Just to be safe, Zhiwen Leng deliberately waited until the movie had already started and the entire theater had quieted down before she slipped in through the back door into the screening room.

After all, this was the last cinema in Wenzhou, and today happened to be the premiere of a major American blockbuster. The audience turnout was impressive—the place was nearly full, with only a handful of empty seats. As a result, Zhiwen couldn’t even tell where her own family was seated.

Fortunately, she still had her ticket. Guided by the seat number on it, she found her spot—a lone empty seat near the back, on the left side. The location was less than ideal, rather poor, in fact.

“Excuse me, miss, are you sure you’re not in the wrong seat?” A voice suddenly sounded, making Zhiwen’s body tense up instantly. She became incredibly nervous, because it was unmistakably her “bargain brother-in-law.”

“I’m not in the wrong seat, this is my seat. Here’s my ticket!” Zhiwen replied, her tone deliberately strained to disguise her voice, while holding up her ticket for him to see.

“How odd. I clearly asked my people to buy seats together, so why am I sitting alone now?” He scratched his head, confusion plain on his face.

He had specifically instructed his subordinate to purchase adjacent tickets, yet somehow ended up in the very last row all by himself—who could he even complain to about this?

Still, he didn’t suspect anything amiss, chalking it up to his subordinate’s incompetence. He was already plotting to give him a proper lesson later, to remind him why the boss was the boss.

In fact, he was wronging his subordinate. The tickets had indeed been bought as a set, but after he passed them along to his mother-in-law, she subsequently mixed the three tickets given to her by her two daughters. In the end, the one that landed back in his hands was a single, separate ticket—the other had ended up with Zhiwen.

Incidentally, both tickets had been purchased by Zhimeng Leng, the younger sister, who had purposefully chosen seats in the last row to create an opportunity for her brother-in-law to get close—a truly considerate sister-in-law. Unfortunately, everything had been muddled in the end.

Yet, fate seemed to have a sense of humor, because in the end, it was still the younger sister-in-law who sat next to him.

“Must’ve been a mix-up on my end. Sorry about that!” He apologized several times, then turned his attention to the movie.

He had, in fact, already seen this film in his previous life—and in a high-definition Blu-ray version, no less, much clearer than any cinema. This time, he’d brought the whole family out partly for a bit of entertainment, and partly because he wanted to experience what watching a movie in a 2001-era cinema felt like. After all, he hadn’t set foot in an old-style theater before 2010.

It was all about the novelty, really. But since he already knew all the spoilers, his attention quickly wandered, and he found himself increasingly focused on the beautiful young woman sitting beside him.

To be honest, he’d been somewhat stunned the moment he first saw her. He never would’ve expected to encounter a cosplayer in Wenzhou in 2001.

She wore a delicate ancient-style dress, held a sword, and even had a veil over her face. If she wasn’t a cosplayer, then what was she?

After all, even in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou, such a sight was probably extremely rare at the time.

It was all just so avant-garde.

He couldn’t help glancing at her from time to time, a subtle restlessness stirring within him that quickly grew—until the effect of that “Black Chicken White Dragon Wine” finally began to kick in.

“What’s wrong with me tonight?” He tried not to think about it, but all sorts of images kept popping into his head, making his mouth dry. He reached for the bottle of mineral water—one that his mother-in-law had thoughtfully brought for him.

But his hand closed on empty air. Looking over, he found that the ancient-style cosplayer beside him was holding his bottle, glugging the water down.

“Seriously? People in 2001 are this uninhibited at the movies?” He stared in disbelief, but found it awkward to ask for his drink back. He could only marvel at how extraordinary this cosplayer was.

Meanwhile, Zhiwen was incredibly embarrassed.

She hadn’t grabbed his water because she was bold—she knew the man next to her was her brother-in-law. His water was, in her mind, family’s water, and since it was unopened, it seemed only natural for her to drink it.

Only after she’d taken a sip did she realize that he had no idea who she really was. To him, what she’d just done must seem utterly shameless.

To make matters worse, the water had a strange taste—there was a distinct trace of liquor. Zhiwen suspected he’d poured spirits into the mineral water bottle.

But that wasn’t his fault; he’d spiked it for his own use, not hers. She’d helped herself, making her feel even more foolish.

“I have something to attend to—I’ll be going now!” Unable to endure any longer, Zhiwen hurriedly grabbed the bottle and her sword and made her escape, leaving halfway through the film.

She simply couldn’t stay any longer—any more and she’d have died of embarrassment right there.

“What on earth just happened?” He watched the cosplayer come and go in a whirlwind, bewildered, then simply shook his head and finished watching the movie until it ended, at which point he rejoined his family.

“Brother-in-law, that movie was amazing! The fighter jets were so cool! I want to fly one someday!” Zhi Ting, the younger sister, announced her dream enthusiastically.

“All right. Not only will I help you fly a fighter jet, I’ll figure out a way to get you into a spaceship too!” he replied with a laugh.

“Really? Pinky promise!”

“Pinky promise.”

He and Zhi Ting both smiled brightly, while Zhimeng, the younger sister-in-law, looked utterly frustrated. She’d planned everything so perfectly, only for her brother-in-law to end up sitting alone—what a mess!

Even the hotel room she’d booked in advance was wasted. After all, to ensure there would only be one room, Zhi Ting had spent tens of thousands of yuan, blowing her entire first month’s bonus from her brother-in-law!

No matter how resigned she felt, in the end, he drove his family home in his Iveco.

Yet, for some reason, thoughts of that ancient-style cosplayer lingered in his mind, along with certain scenes from Japanese films that he shouldn’t be recalling. Distracted, his mind wandered.

Naturally, he wasn’t paying proper attention to the road. After only a short distance, the car seemed to jolt violently, as though something had gripped the tires. There was a tremendous shaking and impact; the passengers inside even struck their heads on the ceiling. If he hadn’t gripped the steering wheel tightly, and if the road hadn’t been mostly empty, he might have followed his parents into the afterlife.

“What happened?” his panicked family asked as the car came to a stop.

“Someone stole the manhole cover!” he replied angrily, after getting out to check.