National Tide 1980.

Stories from the innocent days don't always have the happy and heartwarming ending they should have.

For some people, having a smooth start is not necessarily a good thing.

In fact, the experience of Ye Jihong, the champion of the model competition, is by no means an isolated case, but rather a common occurrence in the modeling industry that will continue to happen in the future.

Leaving aside others, Qu Xiao, the first champion of the Splendid Oriental Model Contest in China, who became famous even earlier than Ye Jihong and subsequently gained fame in Japan and France, is also experiencing the loss of her original glory, going from the heights of her life to a bleak and desolate state.

Originally, Qu Xiao had temporarily left her best friend Shi Kaili and returned to China from Paris, France, in order to see her critically ill mother one last time.

However, after the Spring Festival in 1989, Qu Xiao's mother passed away. After the funeral, Qu Xiao did not return to France to continue her modeling career as originally planned. Instead, she told Shi Kaili that she had decided to stay in China.

This is because she was heartbroken and devastated after her mother's passing.

Neither her mental nor physical condition supports her immediate return to that dazzling, glamorous, and dreamlike world, as if nothing had happened, to put on beautiful clothes and walk the runway, or to smile in front of magazine photographers' lenses.

To be honest, even she herself doesn't know when she will be able to get out of the grief of losing her loved ones. She needs to rest for a while before she can return to normal.

Secondly, as the only daughter in the family, she also felt sorry for her father and couldn't bear to leave him alone to go abroad again. Her mother's departure made her deeply understand the regret of "wanting to care for one's parents but finding them gone." Now her father was all alone and needed a relative to take care of him.

She secretly made up her mind to stay in China to take good care of her father, manage household affairs, share his grief over the loss of his wife, and fulfill her responsibility as a daughter.

In her mind, family should be the safest harbor during times of turmoil. As long as she stayed by her father's side, even if life was ordinary, it should still be warm and reassuring.

But she never expected that reality would be far colder and more chilling than she imagined, and everything that happened afterward veered off course in a direction she had never anticipated.

She gradually came to understand that emotions in the world are not static; even the bond of blood ties can fade with time and changes in circumstances.

Qu Xiao's father recovered much faster than she had expected.

Perhaps it's because men's emotions are inherently deep and reserved, or perhaps work became an outlet for his grief; before long, he emerged from the sorrow of losing his wife and threw himself into his work.

Just in time, an important tax audit was underway at his workplace. With his rich experience and decisive action, he successfully cracked a major case and made a significant contribution.

Not long after, the promotion notice came down, and he was directly promoted to the position of director of the tax bureau.

The promotion brought about a change in status. The once gentle and reserved father gradually became spirited and shrewd, with a hint of authority and undisguised pride in his eyes.

He began to enjoy the convenience and prestige that power brought, his social circle expanded, and he had more and more social engagements.

He gradually stopped caring about things at home, and even home became just a place to rest.

Aside from a simple breakfast at home every morning, he spends almost all his other meals at business dinners outside, often returning home late at night reeking of alcohol, collapsing into bed immediately. Father and daughter have increasingly less time to even have a proper conversation. The father who once needed her companionship and comfort no longer needs her care; the distance between them has grown ever wider without them even realizing it.

The indifference of her family had already chilled Qu Xiao's heart, and the setbacks in her career in China plunged her into deep confusion.

The first-generation model champion, who was once incredibly successful both domestically and internationally, found herself unable to keep up with the rapidly changing industry after returning to China.

She has looked through photos of herself walking the runways in Paris and Tokyo late at night more than once. In the photos, she has exquisite makeup and a confident look in her eyes, which is completely different from the forced smile she has now in the makeshift troupe. The gap in her heart washes over her self-esteem like a tide.

The textile bureau leader who used to admire her and was willing to provide her with high-quality resources has retired. Without this backing, her influence in the industry has weakened considerably.

Song Huagui, who was originally in charge of Pierre Cardin, also lost her husband that year.

Song Huagui, who was also deeply grieving, almost secluded herself at home and no longer cared about the company's affairs. Qu Xiao also didn't want to bother her anymore.

Even those models who debuted around the same time as Qu Xiao have mostly gone their separate ways. Some got married and had children, while others switched to business. Very few of them remain in the modeling industry.

What made her feel even more powerless was that the modeling industry is already highly competitive and its turnover rate is astonishingly fast.

Nowadays, clothing companies and event organizers are all adopting a youth-oriented strategy, and the height requirements for models have also risen accordingly, generally to the age of 20 and a height of 178 cm.

Qu Xiao, who is already 27 years old, is still carrying the halo of the first generation of model competition champion, but her height of 173 cm is no longer an advantage in front of newcomers, and her age has become an insurmountable hurdle for her.

No one believed that she voluntarily gave up her overseas development opportunities and returned to China on her own initiative.

Those high-paying, high-profile performance opportunities are no longer available to her.

At this point, the best option for her to stay in China would be to voluntarily step down from her current position and, relying on her industry experience and past achievements, become a professional model coach at a model training class.

The problem is that most of the money she earned went to her mother's medical treatment, and she still owes Shi Kaili a portion of the financial assistance she received when she came back this time.

Although the coach's salary is considered high in China, the income of five or six hundred yuan is still not enough to quickly make up for her debts.

So she had no choice but to grit her teeth and participate in some amateur troupes' performances for a performance fee of one or two hundred yuan per show.

These performance opportunities, for her, represented the most real form of her downfall.

Because most of those performances were held in open-air theaters in county towns or large auditoriums in townships.

The catwalk was a makeshift wooden plank that creaked underfoot. The area was enclosed by plastic sheeting, and the audience smoked cigarettes and ate sunflower seeds. The smell of cigarettes, sweat, and sunflower seed shells filled the air.

No one was paying attention to the models walking the runway; the noise from the audience drowned out the background music, with men whistling and laughing all around.

Their fashion show was more like a embellishment, interspersed with vulgar crosstalk, a erhu solo with a mournful tune, and a singer in a floral shirt belting out pop songs.

The entire venue was chaotic and noisy. The model show, which once symbolized fashion and beauty, was reduced to a cheap entertainment to amuse people.

A relatively better performance opportunity was to perform in the karaoke bars and dance halls that sprang up in various places.

The problem is that the performances are becoming increasingly explicit, gradually turning into near-pornographic displays.

In the dimly lit dance hall, models wearing scantily clad clothes swayed their bodies to deafening music, enduring the malicious stares and comments from the men in the audience.

The word "model," which Qu Xiao once regarded as an honor, has once again been stigmatized and become a synonym for vulgarity and ambiguity.

That's not all; female models have also become targets for nouveau riche in this era.

Many self-degrading female models, in order to hook up with wealthy men, willingly become their companions, drinking and sitting with them. They flirt with these rich and powerful men, willingly allowing them to take advantage of them.

This industry chaos is like a dull knife, cutting away the last bit of dignity about "models," making it completely unacceptable for Qu Xiao, who has always had dreams and persistence in this profession.

So unsurprisingly, after a year or two in China, she couldn't make it anymore and was completely ostracized by the domestic modeling industry.

That's not all. Most importantly, at this time, Qu Xiao's family environment also underwent a huge change.

After my father was promoted to section chief, he was surrounded by flattery and sycophancy, and his heart was no longer with this family.

Gradually, he began to consider starting a new family, with his partner being a divorced female subordinate from his workplace.

The two grew closer and closer, and before long they reached the point of discussing marriage.

One day, when Qu Xiao came home from get off work, she saw that woman in the kitchen helping her father cook. The two of them were chatting and laughing, looking just like a real family. Qu Xiao, the biological daughter, was the only one who felt superfluous and became an outsider.

What Qu Xiao found even more unacceptable was that the woman was only in her thirties, not much older than her, maybe five or six years older at most.

She is very beautiful, but her taste is poor; her words and actions are all superficial politeness and enthusiasm.

The thought of facing a "stepmother" who was close to her age made her feel uncomfortable all over, and her heart felt as if it were stuffed with cotton.

At the same time, her father seemed to find her an eyesore at home and began to urge her to find a partner frequently, introducing her to blind dates one after another.

Each time he arranged a meeting, he only cared about her family background and workplace, completely disregarding her feelings.

The director's son, a newly promoted cadre, a senior executive of a foreign company, those blind dates with ulterior motives, and the way strange men scrutinize her like a commodity—all these made Qu Xiao feel increasingly like an unwanted person in her family.

It's often said that with a stepmother comes a stepfather, and it seems that's true in reality.

The father-daughter bond she once thought she could rely on has now become a shackle weighing on her.

The warm harbor she once longed for now makes her feel suffocated.

It has to be said that the successive blows made her completely lose faith in relationships. Whether it was family or marriage, they all became cheap and mercenary in her eyes.

As if things weren't going to go wrong, she then heard the news that Ning Weimin had returned to China.

She saw his name in the newspaper and learned that after his return, he would not only build the Dragon Palace Aquarium but also acquire the Beijing Amusement Park, making his business very successful.

In the newspaper, he was wearing a sharp suit, with sharp eyes, radiating the aura of a successful person, gradually overlapping with the spirited young man in her memory.

These messages were like a fine needle, unexpectedly piercing the softest and most hidden corner of Qu Xiao's heart.

She had never forgotten Ning Weimin; their past was like a ray of light, leaving a mark on her heart.

But she never dreamed of anything out of line. She knew perfectly well that there was an insurmountable chasm between him and her, and that there was absolutely no possibility for them to be together.

Hearing the news of his successful career, she felt no jealousy, only bitterness and confusion.

The brighter his brilliance, the more it highlighted her desolation and wretchedness.

His presence in this city always reminded her of that hopeless feeling, making even breathing feel heavy. At that moment, the thought of escaping became incredibly firm.

She had to leave this place, leave home, leave this place filled with disappointment and heartbreak, and leave the person she loved but could not have.

After much deliberation, Qu Xiao finally made up her mind to go overseas to seek a turning point in her career.

The domestic modeling industry can no longer accommodate her, and there is no longer a place for her in this family. Perhaps only by returning to the familiar overseas stage can she find her former self and completely escape everything about Ning Weimin.

But when she contacted Kelly with high hopes, preparing to return to Paris, she discovered that everything had changed.

Shi Kaili's career in Paris has also hit a bottleneck. She has long lost her former glory and even shows signs of fading into obscurity. She can no longer easily secure high-quality performance opportunities for the two of them as she used to.

Qu Xiao could tell from Shi Kaili's slightly hesitant and troubled tone that she was in a difficult situation.

She hesitated for a long time, but finally decided not to burden her good friend with this trouble—Shi Kaili had already helped her too much back then, and she couldn't hold her back now.

Just as Qu Xiao was caught in a dilemma, an unexpected opportunity arose.

The textile department just signed a performance contract with the port city, and needs a group of experienced models to go to the port city for exchange performances.

Fortunately, a friend in the industry with whom she had a good relationship revealed this information to her.

Qu Xiao felt like she had grasped a lifeline and immediately volunteered to apply.

Perhaps it was the lingering glow of her first championship title, or perhaps it was her extensive overseas performance experience that impressed the organizers, but in the end, she actually won the opportunity.

The moment Qu Xiao received the notification, she felt a mix of emotions.

There wasn't much joy, just a sense of weariness that came with the dust settling down.

She quickly packed her bags without telling her father, and didn't linger too long in the capital city that had brought her both joy and heartbreak.

With disappointment in her family, a sense of relief over her hopeless unrequited love, and a faint hope for the future, she boarded a plane bound for the port city.

As the plane took off, she watched the outline of Beijing gradually shrink outside the window, gently closed her eyes, as if to leave all the past behind, including the figure that had once moved her heart but could never get close to.

But then again, what makes fate awe-inspiring is that it always surprises us in unexpected ways.

Some things cannot be changed according to one's subjective will.

Some people, the more you try to distance yourself from them, the closer you get.

What will happen next? What will we encounter? Who can say for sure? (End of Chapter)