hollywood billionaire

Chapter 429 Truth or Dare (Part )

The intention of Zhao Youzhen's question was very clear, and the direction of Barbara's answer was also extremely clear.

The two were trying to expose, or make Xu Yiru see her biggest weakness.

She hasn't found her place in the world yet.

Xiaoru is Han Yi's best friend whom he has known for two years, the object of his campus affection during college, and the "childhood sweetheart" who occupied most of Han Yi's social life before the other three girls showed up... It is not difficult to find that among these various titles, none of them is her own personal label.

In other words, next to Han Yi, she was actually reduced to a symbol, a suffix, and an additional word.

What does she desire?
What does she need?
Where does she want to go?
Who is Xu Yiru?
Not only can other people not see through it or guess it, Xiaoru herself certainly doesn't understand it either.

In her previous life, Xu Yiru had no special feelings for the profession of news anchor. She just did what her family arranged and followed her life plan step by step. It was not until she became brilliant with her innate conditions and professional qualities that she became more dependent on what she was doing.

Because, although this was the route planned by her parents, she still felt independent, free and relaxed while walking this path.

After all, this is her way of showing the world her existence and value, and it is also the first time in her life that she is seen as an individual.

It couldn't fill the void she had, but it certainly made her happy and proud.

But in this life, having encountered a miracle, it is impossible for her to choose the path her parents pointed out.

She saw a better one.

Unfortunately, good things never come at the right time; they come either too early or too late.

In the script of this life, the beauty that belonged to her appeared too early.

At the most confused stage of her life, she saw the ultimate answer that could solve everything.

But what about the intermediate problem-solving steps?
Without exploration and self-discovery, the answer is just an empty number.

Just like "42" in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The answer is right in front of you, but you can't find the puzzle.

Zhao Youzhen, Barbara, and Madison all have no doubt that there are people in this world who only want answers and not processes. They have seen countless examples of this around them. But the three girls know very well that the opponent who will have the opportunity to sit in the same room with them and compete in the finals tonight will never be such a person.

If she can't find her own puzzle, then the answer will only be the last straw that breaks the camel's back.

This is something more important than Han Yi, more important than love, and even more important than life.

If she can't find the meaning, she is not a complete person, and a broken body that falls asleep with money in its arms is Xiaoru's biggest nightmare.

So, even though it was not her turn to answer and this was not a question asked directly to her, Xu Yiru still poured herself another glass of Margarita with a gloomy look on her face and drank it all in small sips.

"Grace..."

"Xiao Ru, I..."

Before the question was asked, they were eager to win. After the answer was given, they saw Xu Yiru, who was stabbed and bleeding, and they felt pity and self-blame. In the final analysis, in terms of feelings, Zhao Youzhen and Barbara are both young and energetic girls with pure hearts - they hope that their opponents will be defeated, but not knocked down.

No one should be punished for liking something.

"I'm fine. What does your questions have to do with me... I'm fine, Barbara, I'm just thirsty." With a bright smile, Xu Yiru explained to the two in Chinese and English respectively, "You continue... Don't show mercy to my men, because I won't show mercy to your men."

"Can I continue to ask you questions, Grace?" Madison indicated with the index finger raised.

"Of course." Xu Yiru replied with a smile.

"I'm really curious about how you see each of us." Madison twirled her fingers in the air. "Can you describe us in one or two words?"

"What kind of words, adjectives? Or..."

"Wait, I should have been more precise," McGrady corrected himself. "I don't want to hear nice things. We all know there are nice things to say, but that's not what I'm interested in. What I want is your most primitive, basic instinctive judgment of us as opponents."

“I can do that.”

"Please." Madison raised her hand.

"Can I point out those things, I don't know how to put it... things I've observed in you that might be of use to me?"

“You can use whatever words you want as long as they’re pessimistic and negative…Gosh, that sounds a little weird.”

“It’s a bit strange, but it’s a really interesting question.”

Xiaoru pondered for a moment, then named them one by one with her eyes.

"Yujin... cautious and ambitious."

"Maddie... reckless and curious."

"Barbara... distant and in control."

"It's my turn next, so I guess I can just ask the question, right?"

"Yes, it's your turn." Maddie nodded heavily, "You are the one who likes to be in control... the alienated one."

"I'd really appreciate it if you stopped giving me new nicknames." Barbara smiled helplessly at Madison before turning her attention to Xu Yiru. "I'm sorry for bombarding you with these questions, and I'm sorry if I...anyway, why am I labeled 'distant' and 'likes to be in control'?"

"That's the feeling you give me." Xu Yiru raised her eyebrows and answered truthfully, "I can see security and insecurity in you at the same time. I can feel your devotion and the urge to escape at the same time. In you, they are symbiotic, which makes me feel very interesting."

"You always want to be on top of it, but you also want to be able to let go and just soak it all in. It's almost like... you feel like you're way above the rest of the players, but at the same time you feel like you don't deserve it."

"I guess that's why you're so 'distant' and 'like to be in control'."

"You are powerful, but you know that if you get too close to what he offers, you will be hurt."

"Very well said."

Barbara listened attentively to Xu Yiru's analysis of herself, staring at the transparent vodka on the coffee table, her eyes blurred and floating. It was not until Xiaoru's last word came out, rising to the sky and falling heavily, disappearing without a trace, that Barbara raised her head again and smiled charmingly.

"The best answer I've heard tonight... I'll have a drink with you."

Barbara's cheeks became even redder as she drank the 40-degree vodka again.

"Thank you, I hope I didn't offend you."

"Absolutely not."

"So... the next question I want to ask you is, why did you get close to him when you knew you would get hurt?"

“Aren’t we all doing the same thing?”

“You can’t answer a question with another question.”

"Well, how about this answer..." Barbara didn't even check the dosage. She poured some vodka into the goblet and drank it while answering, "If I'm going to get hurt, I want to get hurt in the most extravagant and flashy way."

"We all know that this is not the real answer." Xu Yiru stared at her.

"Yeah." But Barbara just shrugged. "That's why I'm drinking while answering this question... Next question?"

"The next question is also for you, Barbara." Zhao Youzhen chose her words carefully, "I know you are not just doing this... but how much impact has this 'extravagant and flashy' approach had on your previous interactions with him?"

"To be honest, it's a big impact. I mean, it's - big." To Zhao Yuzhen's surprise and unsurprisingness, Barbara spoke frankly about the issue, "Guys, let's face it. Without all that 'luxury and glitz'... Yuzhen, without all that 'luxury and glitz', you will just be the sexy, hot, but crazy and dangerous woman he met at the barbecue restaurant. He won't go to New York, and you won't see him at Masa or the Metropolis. You won't sit in next to each other on the way back to Los Angeles. More importantly, even if all this happened, your relationship would only be, 'ordinary friends who took the same Uber that night'."

"No chatting, no phone calls, no running into him in the mountains. No going home with him to take a shower and find out he's a billionaire who can change your life."

"You... remember all these things very clearly."

Yuzhen took a deep look at the bedroom door which was still silent.

"I remember so much because of 'Bonjour,'" Barbara pointed to her temple. "I remember that you, Madison, wouldn't have met him at the UTA dinner—because without 'Bonjour,' that dinner wouldn't have happened. You would have found another label, another manager, and started another career that would have been successful. There would have been no Mad City, and we wouldn't be here at all... None of us would have spent Halloween in Las Vegas this year, and I mean everyone."

"Including you, Grace."

"You can see through me, and I can see through you. I know that without 'extravagance', your feelings are just feelings. You won't go further, you won't take action. Not because you need 'extravagance', but because he needs 'extravagance'."

"So let's stop pretending we don't care about this. Everybody in the world cares about this, and so does Yi. It's his internal setup, his preconditioning, the reason this late-night drinking game goes on."

"Thank you for your honesty." Zhao Youzhen looked at Barbara, smiling slightly but sincerely. "In fact, if you gave a different answer, I would be a little worried."

"So before you asked me, you actually already had a preset answer in your mind." "As you said, let's not pretend that we don't care about this." Zhao Youzhen admitted frankly, "If we all answer honestly, there will be no so-called 'trap questions'."

"Well said." McGrady clapped his hands. "Let me follow up with a question. My question is still for our 'European Nightmare'."

"This nickname game has to stop." Barbara laughed and cried, "'European Nightmare'? What kind of a name is that? It sounds racist."

"How am I racist to you? You're white."

"How dare you assume my racial identity? I'm from Hungary, and I'm probably half Asian, half white, or 100% panda..." At this point, Barbara realized the problem. She quickly fell silent and gave Xu Yiru and Zhao Youzhen an apologetic smile, "I was just joking with Madison, and I really like pandas... no offense."

“None taken.”

"If you want to be geographically vague, I don't mind just calling you 'Nightmare,'" Madison suggested.

"You say that as if I can stop you." Barbara spread her hands. "Go ahead, what do you want to ask?"

"You've heard our story with him, all of our stories. So I think it's only fair that you share yours with us... Describe the first time you met him. I know it was in Ibiza and Diplo introduced you to each other, but what happened after that? Wait, don't..."

Madison tried to stop her in vain and could only watch Barbara drink another glass of vodka.

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"I won't tell you." Barbara blinked and raised her chin in the direction of the bedroom. "Go ask him."

"why?"

"This is the second question. Let's wait for the next round. Now it's my turn." Barbara frowned and tried to suppress the burning sensation from her throat to her stomach with some difficulty. After drinking several glasses of vodka in a row, the Hungarian supermodel, who rarely drank like this, was a little overwhelmed. "Describe the most intimate moment between you and Yi."

"...If you don't tell me, I won't tell you either." Madison looked at Zhao Youzhen with a guilty look on her face, then she drank the rest of the Diet Coke and immediately opened a new bottle for herself, "Anyway, I'm not drinking alcohol."

"Same question to you." Xu Yiru glanced at Madison, then continued to ask Barbara.

Not surprisingly, Barbara chose to drink again.

"Have you ever had any intimate moments with Yi?" In the next round, unexpectedly, Zhao Youzhen changed the subject of the question to Madison.

"Explain the word 'intimate'."

"that is……"

"Oh, God, no." Madison waved her hands quickly, "Don't get me wrong... I'm not an adult yet, and we didn't do anything out of the ordinary. Yi is not that kind of person."

"That's good." Zhao Youzhen further explained, "I'm not asking because I want to know... I should say, not just because I want to know, but because I care about you and don't want you to get hurt... At least when you shouldn't be hurt."

"I understand." Madison nodded slightly, and returned the favor, leaving the opportunity to ask questions to her manager. "What about you? Have you ever had an intimate moment?"

"Explain...don't explain. There is nothing."

"Since you've answered, why are you still drinking?" Madison looked at Zhao Youzhen who finished the last bit of Margarita and immediately opened a bottle of rum. "You're not telling the truth either?"

"It's the truth." Yuzhen looked a little depressed, "I just want to drink."

"So what do you think of the current situation?" Barbara also joined in the fun, "When you are clearly lagging behind everyone."

“Nothing.” Yujin continued drinking, “I’m working.”

"If you have to choose between the two - doing the career you both like with Yi, or being with Yi, which one would you choose?"

Yuzhen drinks again.

"If you could really establish a stable relationship with Yi, what do you think you would contribute to the relationship? What could you offer to help him grow?"

This time it's Xiaoru's turn to drink.

“You mentioned that you’re not giving up your career, which requires you to be away from Yi most of the time. How do you see yourself maintaining this relationship while keeping it fresh and lasting, whether in London, Paris or elsewhere in the world?”

Xiaoru drank and then Barbara drank.

"Speaking of career, career is the cornerstone of your relationship with Yi. Do you want people to see you and your boss together in public, or have you ever thought about making your relationship public?"

Barbara finished her drink and then Maddie drank.

"Has this happened before? A close encounter between you and a billionaire."

"If you're in a romantic relationship with your boss, how do you protect your interests as an artist? Do you take the lead in contract renewal negotiations, or do you let him handle all of your business and career from now on?"

"If you were in a relationship with him, what role do you think you would play in Han Music, or elsewhere in the music industry, five years from now? Would he be a key factor in that change?"

“If you could only put one title in front of your name, what would it be?”

The tension became stronger and the game progressed rapidly. Some people directly refuted the questions, while others remained silent and drank the wine. Most of the questions and their answers were soon forgotten because the alcohol in the body began to launch a fierce attack on the inner temporal lobe of the brain.

After finishing the second bottle of Diet Coke, Madison also secretly joined in drinking rum, and this time, Yuzhen didn't even make a move to stop her.

"See, I told you..."

Barbara started to drink vodka from the bottle, holding the bottle and giggling at Madison who had just returned from the bathroom in the living room.

"You can also vomit by drinking Coke."

"I didn't vomit. I was just emptying my stomach so I could take in more wine."

"How can your drinking of rum compare to my drinking of vodka?"

"They are both 40 degrees."

"Ah, really?"

"Then why is it written '25' here?"

"That's the '25th anniversary.'

"Anniversary? Whose anniversary?"

"Of course it's wine."

“Do you mean this brand, or this bottle of wine?”

"Everyone has drunk enough today. Let's just play one more round of this game and then end it."

Seeing that Barbara had entered the stage of talking nonsense, Xu Yiru insisted on using the last bit of her rationality to ask the question that she had been most concerned about for a long time.

"My last question is for you, Barbara."

“Have you had sex with Yi yet?”

The air conditioning temperature in the room was neither too hot nor too cold, but beads of sweat were oozing out of Xiaoru's nose.

"Huh?" Barbara, who was still teasing Madison, didn't hear clearly, "What did you say?"

"I said……"

Xiaoru clenched her fists and placed them on her knees.

"Have you and Yi ever slept together?"

Her eyes were so bright that she didn't seem drunk at all.

"us……"

Every pair of eyes in the room was glued to her face. Even the person behind the door who had remained silent seemed to have penetrated the physical barriers and was waiting for her answer with bated breath.

Everyone has different expectations and fears about the answers.

Carrying everyone's concern, Barbara put down the bottle of vodka in her hand, tied her hair back, then put her hands together in front of her lips, and answered the question very seriously and sincerely in what she thought was the most formal and solemn way.

"No."

“We never had sex.”

(End of this chapter)