After washing up, the two lay down on a bed.

The lights were turned off, plunging the room into darkness, with only faint moonlight filtering softly through the dappled leaves. The fan beside the room whirred on its own, occasionally emitting a soft vibration.

From their angle, they could see a bright white moon overhead, which was exceptionally round tonight.

"Su Xun, can you tell me about the things I don't know all these years?" The surroundings quieted down, and all the doubts that had been hidden during the day suddenly surfaced.

She vaguely gleaned from Su Xun's words that something drastic must have happened back then, causing the family to move away in a hurry and cut off all contact with anyone. Also, the girl who used to be so quiet and shy was now poised, confident, and composed. This was a different Su Xun that she had never seen before.

This made her curious.

When asked the question again, Su Xun did not avoid it like she had in the afternoon. She had not intended to hide anything. In the afternoon, she had already figured out how to tell her about this dramatic experience.

My thoughts seemed to drift back to that desperate noon four years ago: the shards scattered on the ground, my disheveled mother, my missing father, and the days of homelessness and hiding from debt collectors.

She never told anyone about these things.

At first, whenever I thought about these things, it felt like there was a hard object stuck in my chest, and I couldn't organize my thoughts into fluent language.

Later, she came to understand a lot. Everyone has some painful experiences to some extent. She had had too smooth a life in the past few years, so God designed this kind of thing for her life.

But at this time, she realized that she had been so busy earning tuition fees over the years that she had neglected many things, such as her classmates. She had never had any close friends, let alone talked to anyone about these things.

Even now, looking at the still bright moonlight outside, she suddenly realizes that she is actually able to calmly recount these experiences.

In the small space, their bodies were covered in sweat.

There was no resentment, no fear, only peace.

She even felt lucky. These less-than-pleasant experiences made her more determined and earlier in understanding the hardships of life and the difficulties adults face.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you..." I didn't know you had had such a hard time all these years, and that I had secretly resented your sudden departure.

She was unsure how to face her best friend's past. For a girl not even fourteen years old, it must have felt like the sky had fallen. If it were her, she wasn't sure she wouldn't break down.

She finally understood why Su Xun's delicate, innocent demeanor had disappeared. When a family suddenly loses its father's protection, they can only rely on themselves to support everything.

Someone who used to be too shy to even speak to a stranger would now brave the scorching sun to hand out flyers to impatient pedestrians, work as a sales clerk in a supermarket, and dance in a shopping mall…

“I’m actually fine now. The three of us in my family are doing very well. I earn enough money to open a flower shop for the family.” She said this with pride in her voice.

Tang Shi knew about her writing novels.

Noticing the calm tone of the person beside her, who could even laugh with her, she finally believed that Su Xun was really alright. It was just heartbreaking to think about how hard she and her mother had worked to support the family all those years ago.

The people around her were already happily talking about how they got into their dream universities, and she listened quietly.

After a long time, she seemed to have gotten tired of talking and stopped.

The small space fell silent again; both of them had their eyes open, but neither of them spoke.

The moon was setting in the west, filling the room with moonlight and the mechanical sound of a fan turning.

"I'm with Pu Xiaochuan."

A faint sound suddenly came into my ears, which was quite abrupt in the quiet environment.

She suddenly turned around, her bright eyes fixed on the person next to her who was staring blankly at the ceiling. "How could you only tell me about something this important now? That's so inconsiderate."

"It seems your story is more important, so I have to show you some concern first. You're not going to start by saying my dating history is too hateful."

"Of course I'm not talking about now. You've been keeping this from me for a long time," Su Xun muttered irritably.

She had always felt that there was something going on between Pu Xiaochuan and Tang Shi, but since they were both her good friends, she didn't want to bring it up unless they wanted to talk to her, so she pretended not to know.

Moreover, things probably weren't going so smoothly between the two of them, otherwise she wouldn't have had that strange reaction when she unintentionally mentioned the other person while chatting with the two of them.

"So you already knew?" Tang Shi was startled by Su Xun's nonchalant attitude.

"I didn't read all those melodramatic romance novels back then for nothing."

"This is boring. Doesn't this mean there's no surprise at all?"

"You can't say that. Surprises are bound to happen. If you don't mind telling me more..."

"Actually, I don't know how things developed between him and me..."

She and Pu Xiaochuan had always disliked each other. She couldn't stand Pu Xiaochuan's always carefree and jovial demeanor, while Pu Xiaochuan often mocked her for being like a fierce woman. The two would always start arguing after just a few words, and Su Xun would have to mediate.

However, as she grew older, after glimpsing the vague connections between men and women in TV dramas and various comics, she was told something absurd: because you care, you will enjoy doing things that anger the other person, which is both childish and sincere.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!