Chapter 67 (Part 1)

Zhao Yuan returned to the company's dormitory that day, all the while in a daze.

The dormitory was a room containing six girls. Zhao Yuan was lying on the upper bunk, very close to the chandelier on the yellowed ceiling.

She could see tiny flying insects coming in through the window and flying around the lampshade that hadn't been scrubbed in a long time.

Zhao Yuan remembered when she used to live in the Zhao family's villa. She had never seen any flying insects indoors. There would be some in the garden, but the gardener hired by Zhao Zhanhuai was very professional and would spray special insect repellent drugs, so in spring, even bees couldn’t be seen.

She endured the buzzing of flying insects, closed her eyes, and bent her legs.

But she turned over and kicked a pile of clothes again.

Zhao Yuan suddenly felt overwhelming resentment.

Her previous room was larger than the three dormitories combined and her walk-in closet was more than 10 square meters in size. The designer clothes and jewelry in it were all matched by herself.

At that time, she never knew what the word "struggle" meant, because as long as she wanted it, the Zhao family would buy it for her unless it was as expensive as an airplane.

But here, the wardrobe in the dormitory was less than half a meter wide, which was not enough at all. So, she had to pile most of her clothes on the bed.

The whole single bed was extremely messy. Some clothes became crumpled, and they had lost the previous temperament they had when she wore them outdoors.

Now she couldn’t even sleep with her legs straight.

Soon, some girls came back from the dance practice room. When they entered the dormitory, they closed the door with a clanging sound.

One of them had dyed their hair pink. They were already wearing sexy denim shorts and a tank top in the spring of March. Another girl had dyed her hair an indigo blue. She was dressed in neutral clothes and she had a cigarette in her mouth. She held a basin of clothes that had not been washed for a long time and were about to stink in the water.

Zhao Yuan closed her eyes tightly, facing the wall.

However, the smell of sweat in the air, fermented clothes crowded together in a dormitory by several people, nail polish, and a dozen yuan of takeaway all mixed together, formed a smell that made people want to dry heave, penetrated her nose.

Zhao Yuan tightly clenched the bed sheet as her stomach churned.

Everything was different from what she imagined.

It was only after leaving the Zhao family's house did Zhao Yuan realize how difficult it was outside.

After she signed a contract with her agent, she thought she would be able to directly enter the entertainment industry and become a hit. But what she didn't expect was that there were many girls like her under the manager's purview, and there were even girls who were prettier and better at dancing than her.

Moreover, these trainees were unequal in age, and some of them had even only reached elementary school. For example, the pink haired girl liked to use the curse words "pig" and "b*tch" over and over again. The indigo-haired one was not talkative, but she was extremely unwilling to clean. She would soak her underwear for around 10 days before they were washed.

There were only three washing machines outside the dormitories, but more than a dozen trainees live in these crowded places.

After seeing someone throw 10 days old underwear into the washing machine at one time, Zhao Yuan could only start washing her underwear by hand.

She watched helplessly as her life fell in dire straits while Zhao Mingxi’s life was smooth sailing.

The unwillingness and resentment in her heart gradually accumulated, making the hatred in her heart more and more intense.

In April, Zhao Yuan went to Zhao Zhanhuai's company to find Zhao Zhanhuai.

Among all the members of the Zhao family, Zhao Zhanhuai was of extraordinary significance to Zhao Yuan.

This was the brother she admired, adored and loved the most since she was a child.

When she was living in the cramped trainee dormitory, she even dreamed that Zhao Zhanhuai would drive over and take her home. She hoped that Zhao Zhanhuai could think of their old relationship and provide her with some help, even if it was some money, a greeting to her entertainment company, or a word of comfort.

But unexpectedly, for the 8 out of more than 10 times in a row that she went to find Zhao Zhanhuai, she was directly turned away by the company guards. As for the 3 times she almost caught up with Zhao Zhanhuai's car, she didn’t know if Zhao Zhanhuai saw her, but his car that was directly in front of her drove away.

This continued until the last time Zhao Yuan met Zhao Zhanhuai in the underground garage.

Zhao Zhanhuai was almost annoyed by Zhao Yuan's harassment. He didn't understand why Zhao Yuan was looking for him now. If she had even an ounce of self-awareness, she would stay far away from his family.

After hearing that Zhao Yuan wanted money, Zhao Zhanhuai laughed angrily. "Zhang Yuan, please understand this: our family doesn't owe you anything."

"It was your mother who swapped the children. Your mother was the culprit who hurt our family and broke our whole family to pieces. The cost our family spent on you in the past 10 years was not tens of millions, but there were always millions, right? Also, our family cares about our old relationship, so we didn’t even ask you to pay back the debt! Under such circumstances, I don’t understand what mentality you have in coming to me to ask for money.”

Zhao Zhanhuai's face was ugly. "A man who is never content is like a snake trying to swallow an elephant. If you keep pestering and squatting at the company's gate, I will call for security!"

Zhao Yuan burst into tears. She stopped in front of Zhao Zhanhuai's car and said to Zhao Zhanhuai, "Brother, my mother was the culprit who changed the children, but what wrong did I commit?"

"Do you think we don't know who sent the text message that made Zhang Yufen escape??"

Zhao Yuan turned pale.

Zhao Zhan was full of anger. He yelled, "Miss Zhang, please respect yourself. At least you have been educated in our family for more than 10 years. Don't end up living like your biological mother!"

After he finished speaking, Zhao Zhanhuai stepped on the accelerator and said to Zhao Yuan, "Get out of the way!"

Zhao Yuan couldn't believe that Zhao Zhanhuai would treat her like this. She didn't move at first, but Zhao Zhanhuai's car drove straight over. The blood all over her body rushed to the top of her head, and then she ran away in a panic.

So Zhao Zhanhuai turned a corner, and the car sped away.

Zhao Yuan stood there in a daze. In the early May weather, her whole body became colder and colder.

She saw the disgust in Zhao Zhanhuai's eyes just now.

When Zhao Yuan returned to the trainee dormitory in a daze, someone in the dormitory heard that she went to speak to Zhao Zhanhuai. Someone taunted her in a strange tone, "Since you have a rich brother, why do you still come to fight and compete for the spot with us?"

Zhao Yuan dug her nails into her palm, resisting the urge to tear that girl apart.

After a while, the assistant agent under centralized management came to make rounds and scolded them, telling them not to make trouble, and not to use too many high-power electrical appliances, because it was easy to catch fire in this season.

If you want to dry your hair and the power of the hair dryer is too high, try to go downstairs to blow it.

It was said that an office building in this city burned up a few days ago. Although the fire was successfully extinguished in the end, the loss was worth millions. They still haven't figured out how it caught fire.

"Fire?" Zhao Yuan asked in a daze.

She raised her head and looked at the tiny flying insects on the ceiling. She didn't know what to think, and kept staring at them.

Seeing her act strangely, the people in the dormitory thought she had been triggered by something. They all felt goosebumps all over, so they simply walked around her.

*

Time flew by so fast in the second semester of high school. Once the winter, which could freeze every breath, was over, the spring was particularly short. Mingxi ushered in May directly amidst the busyness.

Several classes had very tight schedules. Although most of the International Class students will go abroad, they could also feel the urgency of the last semester from the pace of the Normal Class in the school cafeteria.

Starting from this semester, Fu Yangxi slept in class much less often. The pillow Mingxi gave him was useless. He washed it and threw it on the sofa at home.

While Mingxi was doing her homework every day, he would prop his head lazily, put on his silver noise-canceling headphones, flip through the book, or just stare at Mingxi stupidly, as if her face was blooming.

Although he was not studying seriously now, it was much better than last semester when he would sleep in class and cause trouble after class every day.

Last month, Fu Yangxi didn't make trouble for a whole month, so Lu Wangwei got his first performance bonus in three years. He almost cried with joy.

The followers in the class were devastated.

Although Fu Yangxi was fierce and had a bad temper, he was the cohesive force of the whole class.

But now, it's like a child king was gradually maturing, gradually no longer willing to be the boss who would lead them to misbehave, but gradually becoming a mature man who would buy ice cream for his girl in summer and ginger syrup in winter.

It would inevitably make them sad.

They were graduating soon. Zhao Mingxi might be able to be with Fu Yangxi forever.

But these people have to go their separate ways.

After school that day, someone even recited an impromptu poem to Zhao Mingxi and Fu Yangxi on the spot. "Ah! Youth!"

"..." Mingxi was startled. She turned to look at the follower.

The follower continued to yell heart-piercingly, "—is it always going to end?!"

Someone answered, "Just like the black gold skull chain on the boss's neck, has it completely disappeared?"

"What the hell? Get lost!" Fu Yangxi looked disgusted. He grabbed a book and threw it at them. That boy quickly dodged, and the book hit the blackboard with a crisp "snap" sound. The whole class burst into laughter, and there was a joyful atmosphere in the air.

Mingxi laughed, and suddenly felt that this scene looked familiar.

She thought about it, wasn't this the lively atmosphere when she returned to the class after she proposed to Lu Wangwei to sit at the same table with Fu Yangxi not long after the start of last semester?

It’s practically the same.

Memory really is a reincarnation.

For a moment, she thought it happened yesterday, but when she looked at the calendar again, half a year had passed.

Seeing Mingxi looking over, Fu Yangxi suddenly blushed a little. He quickly saved his image. "Don't listen to his nonsense. What black and gold chains, is my aesthetic so bad?! It was mainly because for those two days, Ke Chengwen and the people not from our school made a bet on motorcycles. So if we didn’t dress more pompously, we won’t be able to crush each other in terms of momentum.”

Ke Chengwen came out from behind them like a turtle from a hole and poked his head over. "Wait, it was my bet? Why did I remember that it was you, Xi ge, who—"

Fu Yangxi glanced over coldly.

Ke Chengwen: …Fine.

Ke Chengwen said, "I remember now. It was me."

Mingxi was about to laugh to death. She said, "Actually, it's not bad. It matches you very well."

“It matches me very well”? What does that mean? Does she mean that I’m the kind of person to sport cringy fashion?

Fu Yangxi became angry from embarrassment, and was about to speak when…

Mingxi said, "At that time, you were lying on the table, holding a sports coat. You raised your head impatiently, twisted your eyebrows, and for the first time you glanced at me, I thought you were cool and handsome. Do you understand this kind of feeling?"

Mingxi drew a small heart on the notebook, and drew an arrow through it.

Fu Yangxi pretended to glance casually, but almost choked himself. He coughed, and flicked through a few pages of the book in his hand, trying to make himself look serious, but he still couldn't control the redness at the base of his ears.

Mingxi loved to tease Fu Yangxi too much. Seeing him like this, she laughed.

Ke Chengwen who was on the side: "—"

A woman's mouth is as deceitful as a ghost’s.

He dared to bet that when Zhao Mingxi first saw Fu Yangxi, it was definitely not love at first sight.

Having said that, Ke Chengwen had a question in mind, so he had to ask.

He asked Zhao Mingxi, "Then when you switched classes, why were you always sticking your nose so close to Xi ge?"

Fu Yangxi also thought of this, and quickly raised his ears.

Mingxi took a look at the potted plants that had slowly grown to more than 600 small tender seedlings. Of course, she also wondered if she should tell the truth to Fu Yangxi, that she was actually approaching him for luck in the first place. But Mingxi thought about it later and realized that it didn’t really matter whether she told him or not.

Saying it out loud would only cause Fu Yangxi heartache.

ray's note: hi all, apologies for the late update! life has been hectic nowadays now that i've set up my own business. speaking of which, if you guys would like to see anything translated, please feel free to drop us requests! you can contact me via my business at admin@prowords.org or leave us a message on www.prowords.org! thank you all for the support so far and i'll see y'all at the next chapter! oh, and Happy Chinese New Year!