novelraw Chapter 493 - 492: Guan Yu Group’s Performance Room Finale
Chapter 493 - 492: Guan Yu Group’s Performance Room Finale
An uneducated but honest woman bears the entire cost of a high school student by herself. The level of her exhaustion is imaginable.
Moreover, he only has a vacation every two weeks, and normally he can’t go anywhere from school, leaving him unable and powerless to help.
The woman doesn’t see it this way. She only feels that breaking away from their current life with her child is the happiest thing.
The compromise idea she initially had for earning money was thrown to the back of her mind due to her intense desire to escape from suffering.
She grabbed the boy’s hand, tears still unshed, and joyfully talked to him about the beautiful future:
"It’s fine, Mom’s alright! A bit tired but it’s alright, we’ll move out, find a small apartment, hopefully closer to your school, so you can come back every day and just need to focus on studying; you don’t need to worry about anything else! If you need to meet..."
"Mom!" The boy interrupted her, his immature face full of seriousness, handing her a piece of paper he had written.
[If you go out and look for a job, I’ve checked, you can only find one that pays two or three thousand.]
There’s more on the next page.
[But Mom, my tuition costs thirty thousand a year.]
[Plus our rent and living expenses, need another twenty or thirty thousand a year.]
[And I am unable to help.]
[We would live a hard life, and Dad might not let us leave.]
[Mom, have you thought it through?]
The woman looked at the rows of words, as if searching for the last straw to clutch at, pinching her palms in panic, hurriedly thinking of solutions and speaking incoherently.
"It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter, I-I can do a tougher job, I can work two jobs! If-if your dad won’t let us leave..."
She grabbed his hand, her coarse hands cold to the touch.
"As long as you want to leave with mom, even if it’s embarrassing, we’ll go to court! We’ll find people, tell them your dad is abusing me! That would work, right?!"
"No."
His words were cruel, but his warm hands, broad like a man’s, held the woman’s hand, providing support.
He seemed to anticipate all situations, filling many pages with words in his notebook.
[If we go to court, the judge will decide based on who has better capability to raise me, who I should be handed to.]
[You don’t have a stable job or the financial means to support my living costs.]
[You can’t even provide me a stable home; the law will grant custody to him.]
[And if there’s a dispute in negotiation, if Dad wants to take me away, you might not see me for the rest of your life.]
Pages and pages like knives plunged straight into the woman’s heart, aiming dead center.
Her expression turned wooden; her wide-open eyes didn’t blink as large tears started to roll down.
Then she stepped back two paces, collapsed onto the sofa, slowly covered her face, and after a moment, cried out in despair.
"Why can’t the law stand on my side?"
"Isn’t the law supposed to be good?"
"Then who should I turn to? Is there no one who can help us?!"
Each sob choked more heavily than the last, each wail more heartbreaking.
The boy hung his head standing motionless, clenching his fist tightly.
Just when the woman was numbly despairing, ready to compromise with reality and continue living in these dark days, the boy crouched down, placed his hands on her knees, and looked up at her.
The posture was the same as when he was little, but his face now faintly showed the man’s contours.
His voice trembled, knowing she couldn’t hear, yet he spoke it out all the same.
"But don’t worry, Mom, there will always be a way. Please take me with you."
The woman couldn’t hear him, but it seemed she knew exactly what he was saying, her tears build up until they broke free, she instinctively turned her head, raised her hand to wipe them.
After wiping twice, unable to hold back, she buried her head into her hands and cried out loudly.
Not knowing if she cried for finally leaving or for the hardships ahead.
[Guan Yu, Shi Yuhuai, and Wei Yi’s performance ended.]
The lights went out.
There was silence on stage for a long time, followed by resounding applause.
Soon afterward, a soft light returned to the entire basement.
Electronic voice: "Performance finished! Control Lock released!"
Mu Qiu put away the tissue she used to wipe her tears and walked out of their set.
Guan Yu was still sitting on that sofa, crying uncontrollably. Shi Yuhuai had already returned to the cramped set, standing in front of Guan Yu, his gesture of handing tissues a bit awkward.
Like someone who knows they’ve made a mistake, standing around uneasily without speaking.
Once her emotions were settled, all nine of them came out to stand in the middle of the stage, first giving each other encouraging hugs.
No distinction between genders or teams at this moment, everyone gave sincere hugs, offering comfort and encouragement.
Mu Qiu first walked straight to Guan Yu and gave her a big hug, whispering in her ear.
"A proper underdog victory; you were amazing!"
Guan Yu rubbed her shoulder and said, "I’m sorry, we gave it our all to avoid being last."
"..."
After hugging her, Mu Qiu moved in order to the second person on the right.
The two opened their arms and gave each other a casual hug, Mu Qiu patted his shoulder: "Brother Huai, watching it really made me want to rush in and punch you."
Shi Yuhuai: "..."
Next was Wei Yi, whose eyes were still red, followed by Cheng Zhirang.
This was just a simple hug, Mu Qiu stood on tiptoe to hug him. Cheng Zhirang, in contrast to his earlier gentlemanly one-handed gesture, wrapped both arms around her waist, his warm palms resting against her lower back.
"You performed well." He said quietly.
Mu Qiu whispered back: "You were truly amazing, so captivating!"
The hug lasted very briefly; she withdrew her hands, held onto her crinoline skirt, nodded at him, and then moved toward Shu Ran.
Cheng Zhirang’s gaze lingered on her flushed eye corners for a moment, then he nodded at Wei Yi, who had walked up to him.
One by one they hugged, and everyone’s emotions gradually settled. The host came out, raising the microphone.
"Now that all three groups have completed their performances, the Control Lock is released, entering the final scoring stage!
We’ll give the instructors three minutes to assign scores based on the overall feeling, progress, and design for each performance, and the team with the highest score wins!"
From this moment, the comments in the livestream seemed to revive, accompanied by hashtags like #Different Variety Show# #Story Livestream#, rushing toward the trending list.
[They say it’s realism, but it truly is so real that I’m clenching my fists]
[I cried longer than Guan Yu]
[Guan Yu, Brother Huai, and Wei Yi must get first place!]
[I really want to hit Brother Huai]
[Mu Qiu’s performance, who exactly is the patient?]
[Is Guan Yu’s acting that good?! That’s amazing]
[Just this ten-minute performance, the set, costumes, and props arranged by the show are excessively good; how are some movies and TV shows going to compare /dog face]