Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu-Chapter 1146: Off the course and off the charts

Creativity sucks...

Shui stretched her arms and yawned. She had put her thinking cap on for close to four hours now but inspiration had slipped only farther and farther away from her.

Her assistant knocked on the door and stepped in. "Miss. Han, the manager of Blooming Art Gallery is on the phone."

Shui let out another yawn. "Tell him I’m sleeping."

Her brow twitched. "He must want to know your plans for the next exhibition."

"Hmmm, so tell him my plan is..." her eyes narrowed.

"Yes, Miss. Han."

"To have some corndogs."

"..."

"Creativity makes you really hungry."

"You haven’t even lifted your paint brush, Miss. Han," she said in a deadpan voice.

"Using your brain power is equally exhausting. Yes, tell him I’m going to eat some corndogs."

"You have been missing his calls for quite some time, Miss. Han."

Shui smiled and slung her bag across her shoulder. "Then let him miss me some more."

—

Shui was hyper focused on her aim. There was a set of pins at the far end. There was a ball in her hand. And a course in between them to hit the target. She locked her aim and released the bowling ball with a flawless spin.

The end result wasn’t so flawless though. The ball went off course and three out of ten bowling pins remained standing as they were.

Well, that’s some improvement.

But I’m never going to beat his score at this rate.

Her brows furrowed and she sat back on the couch, munching on the corndog. Even after months had passed by since the time at the game arcade, her bowling skills were still average at the best.

After her last art exhibition where Jin clearly communicated his rejection, Shui had hit a wall - both emotionally and artistically. It was at that point when she truly gave up on him because she could clearly see the huge wall staring right at her face. She had tried to overcome that wall for sometime now, but then realized that there was no peak of that wall for her to jump over to the other side.

She remained on one side. Jin stood at the other side. Reality wasn’t going to change.

In the end, she finally allowed herself to take a break at a game arcade.

None of her spins landed their marks. The ball always went off course no matter how much she tried. Tears had blurred her vision at one point because the ball going off course felt like it was slapping her with own reality every single time.

Then there was one man playing the same bowling game at the far side of the arena, who was hitting his targets every single time. Her bowling balls were off course but his scores were off the charts.

Well at least somebody’s life is going well...

Accepting defeat in both real life and bowling, Shui took to leave. As she approached nearer, she peeked at the man’s ball spins that hit the ball pins with flawless precision.

"That’s not fair!"

Shui didn’t realize she blurted her bitter feelings out loud. Fortunately, it was late in the evening so apart from one other participant giving her the odd looks, her reputation was pretty much intact.

Except for the other man who had been on his winning streaks. When he looked back, Shui’s jaw dropped in shock. His own eyes slightly widened in surprise.

A beat of silence remained because Shui remembered how she had lashed out at him at the end of the exhibition. Then a few days later, he visited her office to warn her about Kang Yuze.

So now, there was an awkward atmosphere between them. Or that’s what Shui thought because Hou Lin standing there before her, looked completely unfazed.

She wasn’t sure what to say so the best thing she thought was to leave, but then he came forward and suddenly handed her a tissue.

"...I don’t need it." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"Those are tears I believe."

She snatched the tissue with lightning speed and wiped the corner of her eyes.

Shit, I hadn’t completely wiped them off?

"They are not tears."

Lin said, "It’s not raining inside."

"Obviously? We are inside a building."

"What else can that water be if not tears?"

"..."

Her gaze darkened and her voice and expression turned further bitter. "Why don’t you concentrate on your game? Seems like luck is on your side tonight so play to your heart’s content."

"Luck?"

"Aren’t you winning every single time?"

"That’s not luck, that’s technique," he blinked.

"You mean to say I just suck at bowling that bad?"

He paused thoughtfully. Then he glanced at the far side and back at her.

"It was Miss. Han over there?"

She didn’t know why but his manner of asking that question hit a bad nerve within her.

"Yes, I was! What a loser I’m, am I not? Neither can I do anything about Jin, nor this stupid bowling game!"

Fresh tears spilled out of her eyes before she knew it and she hated herself from crying in front of that one man she would rather not show her face to, much less tears.

"I don’t know about Sir Liu Jin, but I can show you bowling if you want."

"No, thank you!"

Shui had stormed off the building and didn’t return there for days to come.

One day she did when she neither felt like staying back home nor at her office. Yet again, she found Lin at the arcade, spinning his perfect balls.

Her face blackened. "Don’t you have a cafe to run?"

"My brother forced a holiday," he said with no particular expression. "I tested some new coffee recipes. Then I had nothing to do."

She scowled and went to her bowling course. But as a fellow participant playing parallely to her, her attention was bound to fall over his winning streaks yet again. This time, she was forced to believe that it wasn’t luck but real technique.

Damn it! Do I just suck in everything!?