Defeated By Love

Translated by Fairy_Dust 

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Xie Ruhe was taller than Shu Nian so naturally, he had to lower his head to look at her. Although there was no expression on his face as if he didn’t understand what she meant, there was a slight change in his eyes.

Seeing that he still had no intention of speaking, Shu Nian got very depressed: “Why won’t you speak?”

“…”

Shu Nian had never encountered such a situation before. The other party didn’t ignore her. He would even stop when she called.

It wasn’t like she was being treated like air. He will listen to her but wouldn’t reply to her.

“You’re so rude.” Shu Nian began lecturing him. “I’ve said so many words to you but you continue to ignore me.”

Xie Ruhe looked away, still unwilling to speak.
Seeing that, Shu Nian suddenly thought of something and became a little uneasy: “Don’t tell me it’s because you can’t talk…”

Hearing this, Xie Ruhe’s eyelids moved. His fine eyelashes trembled slightly.

His reaction strengthened Shu Nian’s guess.

“If you can’t talk, you can communicate with gestures.” Shu Nian didn’t dare to look at him, feeling that she had just been too aggressive. “…I didn’t mean it.”

" "

Xie Ruhe didn’t look at her, his expression was casual. It seemed like he didn’t care about what she had just said as there was no need to.

Shu Nian fell into silence, considering how to speak. It took her a long time to thicken her skin and say: “What did you do outside Uncle Li Hong’s house yesterday? I saw you stand there for a while.”

“…”

Her words seemed to have been disappeared into the air without having any effects.

Shu Nian frowned and grabbed his wrist again. She approached him and said in a volume that only the two of them could hear: “Uncle Li Hong was wrong for not paying you but you can’t do this either.”

Hearing that, Xie Ruhe finally moved. He looked at Shu Nian with a dazed expression in his eyes.

Shu Nian didn’t notice and just focused on talking: “What if he has the bike checked and finds that the brakes have been tampered with? What will you do if he links it back to you?”

“…”

“People must not do bad things.” Shu Nian seriously said. “Because no matter what, even if you get away with it now you will still…”

Xie Ruhe’s expression gradually became clearer. Remembering what Shu Nian had said earlier, he finally understood the meaning of her words and his eyes darkened. He didn’t even finish listening to her words before he threw away her wrist.

Snap–

At that moment, all their surrounding sounds disappeared.

Xie Ruhe’s eyes seemed to have frozen over. They were gloomy with depression. He pursed his lips. His expression had unconcealed disgusted and self-deprecating.

Then, not caring about Shu Nian’s stunned expression, he turned and left.

…

…

Shu Nian lost sleep because of the call from yesterday.

Even after tossing about in bed with closed eyes, she still couldn’t fall asleep. She barely slept by the time dawn came around.

The next day, Shu Nian didn’t get up until 1 pm.

She randomly made something to eat in the kitchen. Shu Nian swallowed two cold medicine pills in the living room and felt that her throat was not as itchy as the previous day.

She coughed twice and then did a few silly “Ah’s-“, feeling that the state of her throat was not too bad.

Then, she stuffed a loquat candy into her mouth.

Shu Nian didn’t linger any more and went out.

The rain had stopped but the ground was still wet. The sky was dark and the thick clouds seemed to be pressing on the ground. There was a layer of moisture in the air, so cold as if it was going to seep into the bones with the chilly wind.

" "

Although it was not particularly cold yet, sickness rates were always at its highest when the seasons began to change. Shu Nian was weak and she didn’t want to let the cold worsen. She was dressed in two wool sweaters and in a camel coat that covered the thighs.

She had wrapped herself up very tightly.

In such weather, she was wearing a little bit too much.

After getting on the bus, Shu Nian found a seat in the back row.

It was at that time that she felt a little hot and sweat dripped down from her forehead. She subconsciously pulled her collar down.

Following the address given by her teacher, Shu Nian got off at the northern station of the city. It was her first time going to that recording studio. She didn’t know the roads very well. She navigated using her phone and walked to a building at the intersection of Bei Er Huan and Jinling Road.

She took the elevator up to the fifth floor.

After confirming it was the correct location, Shu Nian stood outside without moving. She sent a text message to her teacher first.

Not long after, a woman in her early forties opened the door. She seemed to be a bit anxious, wearing only a thin sweater and she had her hair up which made her look very professional.

The woman came out and said hello to Shu Nian.

Shu Nian respectfully replied: “Ms Huang.”

The woman in front of her was Huang Lizhi, a speech teacher at Shu Nian’s university.

Huang Lizhi smiled at her: “Come. There is a role available. Go and give it a try to see if it fits you.”

Shu Nian hummed and quickly followed her footsteps.

Huang Lizhi took her to the control room to see the dubbing director.

Now, Shu Nian could no longer deal with strangers as she once did. She had developed a slight social fear. When talking to strangers, she would get nervous and sweat. She licked her lips, forced herself to meet the director’s eyes and awkwardly introduced herself.

“My name is Li Qing, you can call me Director Li.” Li Qing smiled, not appearing very warm and handed her a piece of A4 paper. “Okay, let’s try a recording first.”

Shu Nian quickly took it and looked down at the contents on the sheet of A4 paper.

Li Qing said: “Go in the room when you’re ready.”

Truthfully though, there was not much time for her to prepare.

Shu Nian knew that well and closed her eyes to calm her emotions. Soon, she entered the recording studio.

The remaining space in the recording studio was not a lot with four or five people already sitting in it. The room was closed off, the air was not circulating and the smell in there was a bit unpleasant. The environment was not good and there was no air conditioning which made it unbearably hot.

Shu Nian walked to the microphone and put on the headphones.

The display in front of her moved.

Usually, before a formal recording was done, they would play the scene.

It was for her to observe and remember.

In her ears was the original voice of the actor in the movie as it was being filmed. She had to remember the actor’s mouth shape, their breathing pattern, time of speaking and the moment they opened their mouth. All those must overlap.

There were many people in the studio but it was extremely quiet.