Half an hour later, Rex drives to the front of a French restaurant. When Joe sees the Mercedes-Benz
G63 driving over with a strong presence, he quickly moves towards it and welcomes him, “Mr. Rex, the
venue is all set up. Please take a look and if anything is inappropriate, we’ll adjust it.”
Rex nods and walks in swiftly. Just as he enters, he sees a bright and shining crystal chandelier above
his head, beneath his feet is a white marble floor with a light pattern. The public dining area and bar
counter on the first floor are all decorated with red and white balloons. The balloons are also tied with
ribbons. The stairs to the second floor are covered with white rose petals, and the fresh smell of flowers
completely covers the smell of food in the restaurant, which is very refreshing.
Rex then wanders around the hall a few more times, looking around. After a few minutes, he points at
the photo wall beside the stairs, his brow furrows, “Why is this put here? Are you planning a fans
meeting for Lily? Or you want her to think this is a photo shop when she walks in? Remove it and
replace it with something else.”
Joe wipes his sweat and re-examines the photo wall, after hearing what he said, it is indeed a bit…old-
fashioned.
He quickly asks the person beside him to move it away; and the person asks him where to put it. Joe
glares at him, “Keep it, you can’t just simply put Ms. Lily’s photo anywhere!”
Only then does Rex walk towards the second floor in satisfaction.
The second floor of the restaurant contains private rooms and an open-air space. The corridor has
been paved with a light gray soft carpet. It doesn’t feel clichéd but has a color that is plain and gives a
high-class feeling.
The walls on either side of the corridor hang a series of small flickering bulbs, which give a warm light.
They look like fireflies. Every few steps along the way, there are pictures hanging in the air.
Rex raises his hand to take a random one to look at. The woman in the picture is smiling brightly. Some
of them are Lily’s selfies, some are taken secretly, mostly five years ago. But the good thing is that she
hasn’t changed much in these five years, therefore they don’t feel irrelevant.
At the end of the corridor is the doorway to the open-air space outside, the light grey carpet stops at the
door. Rex walks out; all the chairs of the open-air space are taken away. A huge heart shape of white
round candles is set up in the middle, it consists of many layers. Although it is not yet lighted, Rex can
already imagine how nice it will look when it is lighted.
And next to it is a long table. There are two dark vine chairs with white cushions on top and a white
balloon tied to the back of each chair using a lace cloth. On the table, there are light gold cutlery and
also white china cutlery with a golden pattern. There’s also a dew-soaked champagne rose in the
middle of the plate.
Joe follows behind Rex, he nervously asks, “Mr. Rex, is the decoration of this floor okay?”
Rex only gave him the order yesterday. He spent more than half a day to decorate it all. Although
there’s help from a professional team, when he remembers that this place will be used by Rex to
confess to Lily, he feels unconfident.
Rex’s happiness is in his hands.
Rex looks around. It is indeed beautiful. But he feels that something is missing. Rex made a ‘tsk’ sound
with his lips. He touches his chin with one hand, observing the layout carefully with another hand in his
pocket, “This place is a bit empty.”
Empty?
Joe looks at the direction where his finger points at, it is a wall. Previously, there was a violinist who
would stand here and play the violin. But now, he is sent away. It will definitely feel like something is
missing.
“Mr. Rex, there was a performer standing over there before, the wall cannot be altered or damaged, so
we didn’t put anything there.”
Cannot be altered.
Rex wanders around a little uneasily with his head down; after thinking for a while, he suddenly has an
idea, “Is there a projector?”
Projector?
Joe is confused again, “There is one downstairs.”
“Bring it up. This wall will serve as a screen, and then we’ll project a picture of me and Lily on it.”
Joe also thinks it’s a great idea, he then instructs the team to prepare according to that. “Mr. Rex, do
you see anything else that needs to be changed?”
Rex is somehow nervous. He never cared about these kinds of things before, but today he is
surprisingly sensitive, “Do you think it would be a bit tacky to use so many balloons and roses?”
As a thirty-seven-year-old mature man, he never pays attention to romance at all. Most of the places he
dines in are some business clubs or business hotels, there will always be someone who leads him in
and out; therefore he rarely pays attention to their environment too. The only thing he can remember is
some high-grade soundproof carpet and magnificent decoration. The large flower petals and balloons
in front of him make him somewhat unable to accept.
He doesn’t want Lily, who is eight years younger than him, to find it funny.
Upon hearing that, Joe quickly shakes his head, “Mr. Rex, although these things seem to be a little bit
cheap, which woman doesn’t like roses and romance? These colors may be too feminine for you, but
Miss Lily will definitely love it when she sees them. She will surely be impressed.”
Joe looks at the layout of the venue and thinks to himself, he must try his best to brag. Besides, he is
not completely bragging too, it is very good indeed, at least much better than the pictures that Rex sent
to him before.
Rex hears him and finds it convincing, he nods. He then raises his wrist to look at his watch; it’s already
past three o’clock. He plans to bring Lily over at seven in the evening, and he has less than three hours
to go.
Thinking of this, Rex becomes nervous again, he confirms with Joe once again, “Will she like it?”
“Mr. Rex, you can rest assured. This is not the final result yet, it still needs to be adjusted a bit. You will
definitely be satisfied.” Looking at Rex who is uneasy, Joe feels surprised but at the same time feels
warm. It’s been a long time since he saw Rex being so humane and full of emotions.
Rex has no experience in this kind of thing. He can only blindly do what he can; he thinks that if every
detail is handled perfectly, it should go smoothly.
He asks Joe to go downstairs and check again, while he pushes open one of the private rooms’ door
and enters.
He takes out his phone from his pocket and looks at the draft he had written in advance. When he sees
the romantic lines in it, he feels anxious although Lily is not yet in front of him.
He has given speeches to thousands of audiences before, and he is never nervous. Even he feels that
he is very brave and rarely will have stage fright, this time, just looking at the draft with only a few
hundred words, his palm is already full of cold sweats.
He scrolls down the draft for a bit, but he is too anxious to continue looking at it. After a while, he pulls
open the room’s washroom door and stands in front of the mirror at the sink. He looks at himself in the
mirror, turns his head to the left, and then turns his head to the right, looking back and forth. For the
first time, he doubts his own appearance.
Can he really do this?
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