Chapter 3
Chapter 3
After that, many more things happened.
Zhenzhen had to stay at the most expensive hospital and receive the best medicine. Dad injured someone in a drunken brawl and had to pay compensation. My stepmother lost everything after falling for a pyramid scheme…
None of it was my fault.
But in the end, I was the one who had to ask Ji Ye for money.
No one ever apologized to me again. No one said they would pay him back, either.
It all became something they took for granted.
There was nothing around my neck.
Unlike Zhenzhen, who wore the jade bodhisattva my stepmother had prayed for.
And yet, my head only grew heavier and heavier.
So heavy that I could no longer lift it in front of Ji Ye.
He knew nothing about any of this.
Several years passed, and we grew from children into teenagers.
The pens in our pencil cases, the shoes on our feet, and the caliber of private tutors we had after school gradually divided everyone into an invisible hierarchy.
But Ji Ye always treated me as the person closest to him.
Of course, he had his doubts.
He wondered why I was so often lost in thought, and why I kept avoiding him.
He simply assumed he hadn’t given me enough money, causing Dad and my stepmother to make my life difficult again-or even abuse me.
Then, one afternoon during our final year of high school, Ji Ye came to my house with a backpack full of cash.
Naturally, Dad and my stepmother were delighted. They warmly invited him inside.
But I blocked the doorway and refused to let him in, no matter what.
Ji Ye stared into my eyes in confusion.
“Ah Fu, what’s wrong?”
That was the first time I ever said anything cruel to him.
I told him to get lost.
I said he disgusted me.
I said I never wanted to be friends with him again.
All the color instantly drained from Ji Ye’s face.
Dad was so furious that he grabbed a broom to beat me.
How dare his ungrateful daughter, who didn’t know her place, speak to their god of wealth like that?!
Clearly, she’d had it too good for too long!
The broom whistled through the air toward my face.
Ji Ye pulled me into his arms and took several solid blows for me.
His embrace was so warm, almost scorching.
Like the height of summer-something I could neither hold on to nor bear.
Summer was too radiant.
How could someone as wretched as me let summer rot away with me?
Behind me, Ji Ye was still anxiously defending me.
“Don’t hit her. I must have done something wrong. Here-there’s two hundred thousand in this bag. The college entrance exam is coming up, so make Ah Fu something nutritious to build up her strength.”
Dad’s and my stepmother’s eyes immediately lit up. Clutching the backpack stuffed with money, they made a show of protesting politely. “Oh, how could we possibly accept this…?”
Ji Ye was already heading down the stairs. He waved a hand casually. “Remember to make more ribs for Ah Fu. During her physical, the nurse said she was too thin. She’s practically malnourished.”
Those words finally made me snap.
I had no idea where the strength came from. I shoved Dad aside, snatched the backpack away, and hurled it out the stairwell window with all my might.
“Listen carefully! I never thought of you as a friend! You were nothing but my personal ATM-a gullible fool I could take advantage of!”
Downstairs, Ji Ye’s face was utterly bloodless.
He tilted his head up to look at me. His lips parted, but after several attempts, he still couldn’t utter a word.
Behind me, Dad and my stepmother’s curses and blows rained down without pause.
But I only clung tightly to the windowsill and shouted another cruel insult at him.
“Every day I spent pretending to be your friend made me sick!”
“Take your filthy money and get lost! I never want to see you again!”
Tears filled my eyes.
Fortunately, Ji Ye didn’t look at me again.
“I understand.” After a long silence, he calmly picked up the bag. “I won’t bother you anymore.”
The young man walked away without looking back, his shadow stretching endlessly beneath the setting sun.
Until he disappeared from sight.
Dad and my stepmother’s furious curses were loud enough to shatter my eardrums.
But I only closed my eyes and let their fists, feet, and slaps fall upon me, a faint smile rising to my lips.
Keep moving forward, Ji Ye.
You will walk toward a bright and radiant horizon.
Never step into this mire of mine again.