Chapter 5
Chapter 5
What Pei Yingzhang saw most often in the Song family was Liang Yu writing furiously in her room.
He had seen her grades. They were beautiful, and her talent in mathematics was especially remarkable.
By comparison, Song Qiyu’s math was enough to make one’s vision go dark. She was too playful, and the moment no one watched her, she would doodle all over her test paper.
Pei Yingzhang decided to strip her of her happy winter vacation before final exams had even ended.
On New Year’s Day, a not-too-big, not-too-small accident occurred.
He had not expected Liang Yu to jump into the water without hesitation to save Song Qiwen. Her fearless courage and kindness made him feel ashamed of himself.
Some people were kind by nature. Even in desperate circumstances, even when they themselves were covered in wounds, they would still reach out to help the weak.
But good people did not receive good rewards. What she received was the same partiality and misfortune as always.
She was slapped. She did not argue back, only lifted her wet face. Her eyes were as still and dead as ash.
Pei Yingzhang kept feeling that he should do something. He walked over, took off his coat, draped it over her, and spoke up for her.
Once a heart tilted the first time, it would tilt a second time. After that came countless times.
Liang Yu never did get that apology.
She lay in bed. When the doctor examined her, her brows furrowed as if she were having a nightmare, and tears slid down her cheeks into the quilt.
Song Qiyu, who had always disliked her, turned her head away and muttered, “That awful woman is actually this cruel to her own daughter!”
The next second, she rushed out like a gust of wind and unleashed a full barrage at her stepmother. Her fighting power shot off the charts. For once, Pei Yingzhang did not stop her. Instead, he fanned the flames.
The person involved knew nothing about it.
Nor did she know that, in Song Qiyu’s eyes, their friendship began from this moment. Pei Yingzhang resolved not to stand by anymore.
When she woke, the Song family’s attitude toward her had changed completely.
Pei Yingzhang could see that she still had not accepted the fact that her biological mother hated her.
After all, she was only ten. Children were born with an instinct to love their parents. Going against that instinct was difficult, especially when time had the power to beautify memory. People subconsciously forgot a person’s flaws and kept only the beautiful moments.
She stood under the Christmas tree with her hands clasped, praying for an outdated wish.
Her expression was devout and sincere, enough to move anyone.
Pei Yingzhang had thought she would be sad when faced with his persuasion, that she would cry to him. Unexpectedly, she was like a hedgehog and lightly but sharply retorted.
Perhaps it was because she lacked a sense of security and feared getting hurt.
He could only change the subject and ask her to accompany him to feed the cat.
That beautiful white Ragdoll eventually became Song Qiyu’s possession after going in circles. Song Qiyu had always been like that, saying one thing while meaning another.
On the one hand, she said, “I don’t want a cat raised by that woman.” On the other hand, her hand never stopped petting the cat, and the whole room was full of “meow, meow, meow,” not a single sound made by the cat itself.
Even then, she still said that to preserve Liang Yu’s face, the cat would be kept by him for now, and after a few days she would find a good excuse to keep it herself.
He agreed helplessly. But once it grew dark, Pei Yingzhang would unconsciously remember his mother’s resentful eyes, and he had no choice but to hold Liang Yu’s hand and seek her help.
On that snowy night, the two of them fed a cat together, just as many years earlier, the two of them had buried a cat.
Only, she did not remember.