Chapter 5

I couldn’t take it anymore.

So I went to ask He Yu, “Do you really dislike me?”

He Yu looked genuinely surprised. “How could you think that, sister?”

I asked her, “Then why do your friends always give me a hard time-”

Before I could finish, He Wei interrupted me. “That’s enough. Can you stop trying to sow discord?”

I stood there, stunned.

Later, Mr. He smoothed things over with a smile. He asked me, “Are you being bullied at school? Tell Dad about it.”

After I finished speaking, he paused for a moment, then smiled and gently patted my head, his voice warm: “It’s all right. Let Dad handle these things, okay?”

So I had nothing more to say.

I didn’t know how he dealt with it, but after that, those people never bothered me again.

But I could never forget what happened after the crowd dispersed that day.

In the lobby on the first floor, He Wei stood atop the staircase, looking down at me.

He said, “After all these years together, I know her character better than you do. Your attempts to slander her are too clumsy.”

During that hardest, most unbearable year, whenever I felt like I couldn’t go on, I always wanted to call my brother.

My former brother-Jiang Qi.

I wanted to say, “I don’t want to stay in Nancheng anymore. I want to go home. Brother, they’re not good to me at all.”

But every time my brother asked how I was doing, the words would get stuck in my throat.

I didn’t want to make things difficult for him.