Rebirth of the Fashion King

Liu Yifei paused for a moment, holding the painting, then lowered her head, her fingers gently stroking the edge of the paper.

A long time passed.

"I don't know," she said softly.

"It's just... being with him is really comfortable."

"How comfortable?"

"It's just that... you don't need to deliberately find topics to talk about, it's not awkward when it's quiet, and it's effortless when you talk. Li Xun's eyes are very clean and won't make you feel offended. Moreover, he is very serious. Whether he's talking or drawing, he's doing things with his whole being and won't get distracted."

She paused, then added, "Mommy, when he's drawing, I watch him from the side, but he hardly ever looks up at me."

"Is this a good thing?"

"Of course it counts." Liu Yifei nodded seriously.

"He was really painting me, not just using painting as an excuse to look at me. That's different."

Upon hearing this, Liu Xiaoli was already seven or eight parts certain in her mind.

  

Sisi's attitude towards her suitors was always polite but distant.

Since her debut in her teens, she has had a constant stream of suitors, both inside and outside the entertainment industry, rich and powerful. Her approach to these suitors has always been the same: polite, keeping her distance, not meeting alone with them, and not responding to any ambiguous signals.

She has a very sophisticated self-protection mechanism that keeps everyone at a safe distance.

But after spending a few hours alone with Li Xun, she stared blankly at a painting when she came back. When talking about him, she used a string of nice things to say, even describing "he rarely looked up at me" as a virtue.

These are not ordinary friends.

"Sissi, when was the last time you so seriously said something nice about a guy?"

Liu Yifei thought for a moment but couldn't answer.

"Then why do you say you don't know?"

"I really don't know." Liu Yifei looked up, her expression showing a hint of embarrassment at being exposed. "I don't know if this counts as liking someone. I've never... never actively liked anyone before."

This sentence is true.

She debuted too early. Whether it was Zhao Ling'er at 16, Xiaolongnu at 17, or Wang Yuyan at 15, she was labeled "Fairy Sister" before she even reached adulthood.

This label made her incredibly famous, but it also put her in a very awkward position. Many people looked up to her, but few dared to pursue her. Male actors in the industry treated her with the utmost politeness, as if she were a fragile object, while those outside the industry dared not get close.

Of course, many of these reasons are for self-protection...

Therefore, Sisi is currently a blank slate when it comes to relationships.

She used to think this was a good thing, as it allowed her to focus on filming without getting distracted.

But today she suddenly realized that the problem with a blank sheet of paper is that when you want to draw something, you don't even know where to start.

"So what does he think of you?" Liu Xiaoli asked.

Over the years, she has always protected Xixi, keeping her away from a lot of trouble. Now that she has grown up, she has more and more fans and haters, and the storms she faces are getting bigger and bigger.

She felt she couldn't protect her anymore, and her help to Sisi's career was diminishing. If only someone could shield Sisi from the storm...

Liu Yifei looked down at the painting in her hand.

"I really don't know," she said softly.

"But look at this."

She turned the painting over and showed her mother the line of text in the bottom right corner.

The greatest luxury is not having to adjust yourself for others.

"We talked about a lot of random things. He didn't say anything extra, but when he was about to leave, he drew this picture and wrote this sentence at the end."

She put the painting back on her lap and gently ran her fingers over the words.

"Mommy, he seems to understand me very well."

Looking into her daughter's eyes, Liu Xiaoli's last bit of uncertainty disappeared.

A man who can understand the unspoken meaning in your words is much rarer than a man who can only say "Don't be sad".

She knew this because she could count the number of people she had ever met in her life who could truly understand her on one hand.

"So what do you want to do?"

Liu Yifei was silent for a while, then curled up her legs, buried her face in her knees, and her voice came out in a muffled tone.

"Maybe I should pursue him? If I wait for him to make the first move, I'll probably never get it. I can tell that Li Xun is a very 'lazy' person. He's very busy with work, and if I don't contact him first, he definitely won't contact me. I can sense that, Mommy."

Liu Xiaoli's hand, holding the cup, froze in mid-air.

Her first reaction was to laugh, not to mock, but the kind of adorable yet teasing feeling a mother has when she hears her daughter say she likes someone for the first time.

But she held back, because she saw that Sisi's expression was not the shyness of a young girl in love, but a seriousness that came from deep thought.

She wasn't acting impulsively; she seemed to be making a decision.

"Are you serious?"

"Seriously." Liu Yifei lifted her face off her knees, resting her chin on them.

"Mommy, I used to think that dating was something that should be left to fate, and there was no need to deliberately pursue it. I thought I would never take the initiative to pursue a boy in my life, but today I suddenly realized something."

"What is it?"

"Fate is something you can't wait for. When I was filming The Return of the Condor Heroes, I felt that the saying 'first meeting at the scenic ferry, meeting Yang Guo once and being doomed for life' was very unrealistic, but now..." Her eyes were clear and resolute.

"From childhood to adulthood, many things have been handed to me by others. Roles were offered to me by directors, brands that I endorsed contacted me proactively, and variety shows were invited by producers over the phone. I'm used to being chosen, but when it comes to relationships, I want to choose for myself this time."

Liu Xiaoli put down her water glass and sat up straight.

"Sisi, have you thought this through? You're a public figure. For ordinary people, a woman pursuing a man is brave, but in the entertainment industry, you can easily be portrayed as someone who's clinging to someone, engaging in hype, or using someone else for marketing. You've just crawled out of one of these rumors, and if you get another one, it'll be very tough for you."

"I know," Liu Yifei said calmly.

"But if I don't do it because I'm afraid of being criticized, then how am I any different from before? I didn't do anything when I was being slandered before, and what happened to me?"

What's meant to be criticized will still be criticized; if you're afraid of everything, you'll end up with nothing.

Looking at her daughter, Liu Xiaoli suddenly felt that she had grown up a lot in that instant.

It's not that she's grown up in appearance, but that something inside her has changed. The little girl who used to hide behind her when something happened can now say, "I want to choose for myself this time."

My daughter, who used to keep a safe distance from all suitors, now says, "I want to pursue him."

What caused this change in her was a boy she had only met a few times who drew a picture of her in a coffee shop.

"What do you want to do?"

Liu Yifei was stumped by this question.

She paused for a moment, then said softly, "I haven't decided yet."

I've never pursued anyone in my life, and I don't even have any theoretical knowledge about it.

Her romantic experience comes entirely from scripts, and in those scripts, the male lead always takes the initiative, sending flowers, confessing his love, and chasing after the female lead. In all the years she's acted, she's never played a character who pursues the female lead.

……