Winter Time Rendering

In the end, he returned the photos he’d secretly taken and slowly walked out of the palace, but the princess never called for him to stay.

Zhang Shutong hadn’t seen the movie, but he was generally familiar with it. He warned Gu Qiuyan that the ending wasn’t very happy, but Gu Qiuyan just rolled her eyes and said this was the one.

The two returned to their seats to wait for the movie to start. He had wanted to just pick a random seat near the front, but Gu Qiuyan insisted on returning to her own spot by the window, and she even pulled Zhang Shutong into the seat beside her. Zhang Shutong was completely baffled. ’It’s one thing on a normal day, but no one else is here tonight. Aren’t the center seats the best viewing spot? Why does she have to go back to her original seat?’

But his current role was that of a lackey. Rule number two of serving the Goddess who presided over the young miss’s destiny was to safeguard her mood. For today, at least, he just had to go along with what she wanted.

The feature film soon began.

The pacing of old movies is usually slow, and it was sometimes hard to stay focused. Zhang Shutong occasionally glanced out the window, finding the whole situation surreal.

He never would have imagined spending the night like this: in a dark, quiet classroom, with a multicolored beam of light from the projector hitting the screen.

But the school’s equipment was truly terrible. Even though he had prepared himself for it, Zhang Shutong hadn’t expected the film to be this blurry. It made sense, though. It was hard enough to see the projector slides clearly on a sunny day, so how could this possibly compare to a real movie theater, let alone the home theater in the villa’s basement? He’d so confidently promised her they would watch a "movie," and now his face was burning with embarrassment.

He turned his head and saw the girl beside him resting her head quietly on the desk, her eyes glued to the screen.

’She really does love movies.’

Zhang Shutong kind of admired that hobby of hers. He himself had a hard time getting into old movies like this. *Roman Holiday* was released in 1953, and it was now 2012. If you did the math, it had already passed its 59th birthday, making it older than their parents.

But a classic was a classic for a reason. He watched casually, chin in hand, and noticed the filming locations were real places in Rome: the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Mouth of Truth, Castel Sant’Angelo... Even with the projector’s abysmal image quality, he could still feel the omnipresent romance and elegance through the black-and-white screen.

Compared to that, his own itinerary for the day seemed so crude it was shameful:

A "department store" that was just a three-story supermarket, a clothing shop on the third floor selling outdated styles, a desolate commercial street with instant milk tea, the unsettlingly quiet wilderness with compressed biscuits... Even their vehicle couldn’t compare. In the movie, the princess at least got to ride a cute little scooter, while the two of them rode bicycles that made their butts sore from the bumps. Comparing himself to the movie’s protagonist, he was a truly incompetent lackey.

’Is this a subtle warning from the young miss?’ Zhang Shutong wondered jokingly. He felt his thoughts were getting a bit too convoluted. Gu Qiuyan, however, watched intently from start to finish, not saying a single word.

About ten minutes later, the two protagonists went to the Mouth of Truth—which was actually just a wall with a bas-relief of the Sea God Poseidon. According to legend, if a liar placed their hand inside, it would be bitten off.

The princess grew a little nervous, because she had hidden her true identity from her lackey. In truth, the male protagonist had also lied; he knew from the start that the girl was a princess and was only acting as her lackey for his own ulterior motives.

’Thankfully, there aren’t any annoying places like that on the island,’ Zhang Shutong thought. In a way, he had also lied today. He’d hidden the truth from this girl for a whole day while accompanying her on her whims. Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t be sure if he’d actually fooled her, but she never asked.

Just like the princess in the movie, maybe most girls know that fairy tales are fake, but they are willing to believe they’re real.

You weave an illusory dream for her, and even if it’s full of holes, as long as you don’t actively pop the bubble, she will willingly jump right in.

Zhang Shutong felt like he’d heard something similar before. Thinking back, he realized it was something Song had said. That rainy night, while they were in the Fox, the man, a master at wooing girls, had said with a confident look on his face:

"You think they don’t know? Wrong. It’s that they’re willing."

The reason?

Because they’re dumb.

Zhang Shutong couldn’t help but glance at Gu Qiuyan, secretly wondering if she was dumb or not, when he suddenly heard the girl ask:

"Do you think they’ll end up together?"

The good thing about watching a movie here was that they could talk freely without worrying about bothering anyone:

"Don’t you already know the ending?"

"But I want to hear you say it."

Before he could open his mouth, Gu Qiuyan spoke again:

"Think carefully before you answer."

"I don’t think so," Zhang Shutong said after some careful thought.

"Because a princess and a poor boy can’t be together?" Even though she was a "young miss" herself, she said unhappily, "You’re so pragmatic."

"It’s not about being pragmatic."

Zhang Shutong turned his head. Just then, the scene in the movie changed. The two were dancing at a ball, but each wore a mask of pretense:

"Because neither of them is being entirely honest, you know? Look, one of them is a princess but doesn’t say so, and the other one wants to use a scandal to get fame and fortune."

"What if she has a reason she can’t say it?" she asked, staring at the screen. "If the princess tells the reporter she’s actually a princess, what if he gets other ideas? She doesn’t know what his attitude would be. Really... she just doesn’t want to be disappointed, right?"

Zhang Shutong fell silent at her words. He had wanted to say that if she didn’t tell him, no one would ever know, but wasn’t this whole story just a series of missed opportunities and misunderstandings?