From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

“June! June! June!”

The entire theater was a sea of excitement.

June Carter was furious, in the literal sense of the word.

However, precisely because she was at the peak of her anger, so angry that she laughed, June Carter didn't explode.

Instead, she put one hand on her hip, held her Coca-Cola, and looked at Johnny with a smile that wasn't a smile.

She completely ignored the increasingly noisy calls from the audience.

Her composed attitude seemed to say:

If I just leave like this, what can you do to me?

With a look, a smile, June Carter squarely faced Johnny's gaze, not avoiding it, nor cooperating, standing there at ease.

This demeanor directly stunned Johnny.

The smile still hung on his lips, but gradually stiffened.

He tried to find a trace of warmth, but failed time and time again, so he could only use alcohol to numb himself, clinging to fleeting support in one wrong target after another.

With great difficulty, while still hungover, taking advantage of the little strength of the residual alcohol in his blood, an impulse broke the deadlock, but plunged him into chaos.

A fear that no language could accurately describe seized Johnny's heart, seizing it hard.

Then, June Carter turned and left.

In an instant, Johnny felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar, a roar in his mind, the world spinning.

The imbalance caused by the hangover and lack of sleep made his temples throb and explode, his heart was slowly bursting open, but without the slightest pain.

“What to do, JR, what to do?”

Johnny tried to make some movements, but was completely stunned in place.

In that brief moment, he forgot to breathe.

The next second, the stiff arc of his lips bloomed proudly like a flower welcoming the first ray of sunshine in spring, his eyebrows, eyes, and expression completely unfolded—

Finally, he could breathe again.

June Carter did not leave.

She turned to the side, placed her slippers in the corner, and handed the Coca-Cola to someone else, then turned back again.

That look, that expression, carried a kind of heroic and fearless generosity:

A duet it is then, who's afraid of whom? She, June Carter, has never been afraid of anyone.

Not only did she appear on stage, but she also had a smile on her face, head held high, upright and dignified.

The moment June Carter appeared within sight, the theater erupted into frenzy, shouts, screams, and applause exploding in a massive wave.

June Carter even turned around familiarly and waved to the audience.

Johnny stared at June Carter without blinking, not even realizing that the smile on his lips had fully bloomed, the desire and greed in his eyes firmly locked on June Carter, mixed with the innocence and purity of a child and the dark, evil greed, both admiration and possession, contradictory yet harmoniously blended together.

Desire broke out of the ground.

The alcohol-numbed nerves and the hangover-disrupted reason were gradually loosening the reins, and it seemed that even the shackles of gravity were loosening as well.

His feet, standing in place, swayed continuously in the breeze like a hydrogen balloon.

When June Carter approached, Johnny could no longer control himself, he put his arm around her waist, pressed his forehead close, cheek to cheek, feeling her temperature, her breath, her presence at close range.

“See, June? They want to see us sing a duet.”

Johnny was trying to take credit.

But June Carter was once again in a dilemma.

A duet? No problem, a duet it is then; but Johnny's actions were too intimate, once again disrupting June Carter's composure.

She couldn't be as reckless as Johnny.

She had just divorced, the news was all over the place, and people didn't care about the truth behind it, habitually condemning women.

Society is always more tolerant of men.

She couldn't be involved with Johnny, she couldn't bear the stigma of ruining Johnny's happy family, she couldn't make her situation even more difficult.

At least, not now.

Even if she had feelings for Johnny, and she could feel Johnny's affection for her, she had to keep her distance, otherwise she would fall into a quagmire of condemnation.

However, Johnny didn't understand these things, not only didn't understand, but was also adding to the chaos.

June Carter tried to shake off Johnny's left hand, but couldn't openly slap Johnny, she had to put on a smile and joke into the microphone.

“Okay, okay, don't grab me, I'll sing a duet with you, but you have to let go of me first.”

In a semi-joking way, catering to the show's style, amidst the laughter of the audience, June Carter finally got rid of Johnny, but had no time to catch her breath, because they were now standing under the spotlight, every move was under the scrutiny of the public—

Public opinion is a fearful thing.

June Carter flashed a big smile, concealing her panic and nervousness.

“Hey, everyone, hello!”

“I hope you don't mind me being barefoot.”

A self-deprecating remark, casually defusing the awkwardness, but this time the audience didn't buy it much, the laughter in the audience was sparse, which made June Carter nervous.

She had to quickly change the subject, “So, what are we singing, Johnny?”

June Carter told herself, just sing a song, perform this one and leave, which added a bit of urgency to her professional smile.

“You pulled me out here, is that all you had planned?”

Spicy, sharp, straightforward—

June Carter was still June Carter, not showing any weakness, with a hint of provocation.

This time, June Carter successfully made the theater audience clap and laugh collectively.

June Carter turned to look at Johnny, smiling brightly, with a hint of schadenfreude; but she never expected that Johnny seemed to have been prepared for this.

Johnny took a deep look at June Carter, approached the microphone with a shy smile and looked at the audience, “I've always loved one of your songs, ‘Time’s-a-wasting,’ let's sing that one.”

June Carter looked at Johnny a little more, the smile on her lips paused slightly.

When Johnny looked at June Carter again, his pupils contracted slightly, with a little evilness and a little caution, his expression seemed a little hesitant.

Amidst the applause and cheers of the audience, June Carter ignored Johnny, glanced around, never expecting that Johnny had dug a pit waiting for her to jump in, now she had put herself in a difficult situation, she flashed a big professional smile.

“Oh, please, I don't even remember that song.”

“How about singing your hit single, ‘Big River’?”

Quickly change the subject and offer a solution.

The theater immediately responded with applause.

“That's a good song.” June Carter was also trying to mobilize the enthusiasm of the audience.

Sure enough, the theater was in an uproar, June Carter's strategy had temporarily worked.

However, Johnny refused to back down.

His entire brain was a mess, the constantly buzzing thoughts rushing around in a hungover state, a roar, his heart almost bursting open.

That desire, the dark, hideous, twisted desire, broke through the shackles with bared fangs and claws, and a resolute look flashed in his eyes between hesitation and pulling.

A reckless madness.

The reins of reason were broken, Johnny stared at June Carter, the aggressive aggressiveness no longer reserved, and was released.

Unrestrained, crazy, uninhibited.