Chapter 243
288 Veucherg
Chapter 243
“Tell her happy birthday for me… and… may all her wishes come true.”
The dancer was confused, “Sir, why don’t you give it to her yourself?”
“She’s right on stage.”
He smiled faintly, looking at the center of attention on stage, “No, it’s too crowded now, I don’t want to disturb her. You give it to her, she’ll know who I am.”
The dancer nodded, shaking the gift bag, “There’s a card inside, right?”
“Yes.”
He stood up with the cake, “Thank you, the dance today was beautiful, thank you for the performance.”
He left his seat and the theater.
Following him closely was a woman in red, who didn’t even take any cake and chased after him.
The cake was distributed in no time. The dancer returned to the stage and handed the item to Lucille. “A Chinese gen- tleman sent this. He said you’d recognize him when you opened it.”
Lucille held the gift bag, a faint suspicion stirring within.
“Oh, and he wished you a happy birthday,” the dancer added. “Said every wish you make tonight will come true.”
Lucille opened the gift bag to find a flat square box. Looks like the person who’d sent ten watches finally chose some- thing else this time.
Inside lay an emerald necklace.
Diamonds encircled large emeralds along the chain, culminating in a massive emerald pendant. Must be worth a for-
tune.
Girls from the tour group gasped, “So beautiful!” as they speculated about the sender.
“Hey, Lucille, no card?”
“The guy
said there was a card inside. You’d know it was him once you saw it!”
A dancer looked crestfallen, worried she’d lost the card. “Let me check downstairs again.”
“No need.”
Lucille stopped her, smiling. “There’s no card. That’s just how it is.”
12:08
Chapter 243
288 Wouchers
“But do you know who sent it?”
The girl felt responsible, afraid she’d messed up.
“Yes. Thank you.”
Lucille put the gift away.
So he came to watch the performance after all? But didn’t he look down on dancing?
Back when choosing colleges for the gaokao, he’d asked where she applied.
Back then, her teenage crush wasn’t enough to make her abandon her future just to follow him. Of course she’d pick the top dance academy.
He’d nodded regretfully, saying, “Well, you arts students are all like that.”
Most people then assumed arts students only took that path because they couldn’t handle academics. But she genuine- ly loved dance.
Though only eighteen, she’d already danced for over a decade–it filled most of her life.
As an arts student, she was used to being at the bottom of the academic hierarchy. His words disappointed her, but didn’t surprise her. Everyone was going their separate ways anyway; youthful infatuation was just a memory.
Later, when her injury ended her dancing career, he said the same thing: “It’s fine, Lucille. So you can’t dance any- more. I’ll take care of you forever.”
To him, it was just dancing–never a real career.
Not even a respectable profession. During her early attempts at rehabilitation after marriage, Cedrick drove her to ses- sions, often making him late for gatherings with Harlan. She overheard Harlan’s call in the car: “You married a crip- ple! Just let her accept it. Why bother with rehab?”
The mighty Mr. Maynard’s wife being a cripple was humiliation enough–and she used to dance for others‘ amuse- ment! How disgraceful!
Cedrick didn’t argue back.
She knew then: he agreed with Harlan.
He thought she hadn’t heard since he didn’t use speakerphone. But the car was silent, and Harlan was a loudmouth. She didn’t catch every word, but got the gist.
Eventually she walked again, but dancing remained impossible.