Chapter 13

Chapter 13

I didn’t see Zhou Jinyan for a long time after that.

The next time I heard news about him, it was actually on the news.

Lu Sisi’s life had become very difficult. Her family had stepped in to apply pressure, demanding that Zhou Jinyan marry her.

Zhou Jinyan refused no matter what. Driven to frustration by their persistence, he went out for a drive to clear his head.

As it turned out, his brakes failed on a mountain road, and he plunged off a cliff.

By the time he was rescued, he was covered in blood and had fallen into a deep coma.

The police investigated thoroughly and eventually traced the incident back to Lu Sisi.

She confessed.

“Yes, it was me. He was the one who provoked me first. Why should he get to abandon me for some penniless knockoff?”

The starlet who had once been held up to the clouds had now fallen into the mud, completely losing her composure. “If my life is miserable, he shouldn’t expect to get away scot-free either.”

A few of Zhou Jinyan’s former friends came to find me, wanting me to visit him at the hospital.

I refused decisively. “I don’t think that’s necessary, is it?”

One of them glared at me angrily. “Do you have any idea what Brother Yan did for you?”

“I do.”

I said with a smile, “Was it bringing me to your parties to let you all force drinks on me and mock me? Or was it releasing those out-of-context photos for Lu Sisi’s sake, throwing dirt on my name and slut-shaming me?”

His expression shifted drastically, and he was left speechless.

The research project went through many twists and turns, but in the end, it successfully produced results.

When the press conference for the results was held, Zhou Jinyan was still lying in the hospital, unconscious.

After it ended, I went to the cemetery again.

Grandmother was still there on the tombstone, looking at me with a kind smile.

I exhaled, watching the white mist dissipate into the cold air.

In truth, back when Grandmother was on her deathbed, she had once gripped Zhou Jinyan’s hand and asked him to be better to me.

She said, “I know Ningning borrowed three hundred thousand from you. That was because of my illness; I’m the useless one. Don’t blame her. It hasn’t been easy for her… she’s suffered so much over the years…”

Her withered hands were so strained that the veins stood out.

It became harder and harder for her to speak. “Treat her well.”

Zhou Jinyan remained silent for a long while before finally saying, “Okay.”

Only then was Grandmother willing to pass away in peace.

I had collapsed over her body, unable to make a sound, only weeping incessantly.

I happened to look up and saw Zhou Jinyan frowning, using a disinfectant wipe to clean his hands.

He had always looked down on me, just as he looked down on all the poor people in this world who struggled painfully just to survive.

But now, it was his turn.

“My experimental results are gradually being put into use, and I’ll be participating in the next project soon.”

“Maybe many years from now, I will be a famous biologist whose name is recorded in history. When that time comes, you’ll definitely be happy for me, right?”

I leaned against Grandmother’s tombstone and talked for a long, long time.

I didn’t get up to leave until the sky had turned completely dark.

Cen Yuqi was waiting at the entrance.

She had specifically told the driver to bring a black car to pick me up.

After getting into the car, my frozen body slowly regained sensation.

She asked me, “Now that Zhou Jinyan is lying in the hospital, it doesn’t matter anymore. Do you want to change your name back?”

I thought about it. “That sounds good.”

Yu Ning was the name Grandmother gave me.

I still hoped that if my name were to be recorded in the history books in the future, it would be that one.

That night, the sky was cloudless and the moonlight was bright.

The shadows of the trees and one streetlamp after another flashed past the car window.

I was finally walking once more on the path toward the ideals I had pursued for so many years.

This time, I wouldn’t stop again.

(The End)