After lunch break, Ying Qian changed into a dark brown pinafore dress as Xu Tiantian had suggested. The inner layer was a court-style top. She wasn't fat, and she looked graceful in it.

"Ying Qian, come find me at the coffee shop downstairs!"

"OK."

Ying Qian quickly tied her hair into a bun and hurriedly ran downstairs.

There was a lot of snow piled up at the door. She excitedly stepped into the snowdrift, and her black leather shoes got wet. She smiled and said she would be happy to roll around in the snow!

The coffee shop at the entrance of the residential area is rarely crowded.

Soothing music was playing inside the store.

"Ying Qian, over here!" Xu Tiantian waved from the last seat by the window.

Ying Qian smiled and jogged over.

Xu Tiantian pulled her to her side and patted the snow off her. "You look quite pretty today!"

"Hmm." Ying Qian deliberately tossed her hair. "So why do you want me to dress up?"

"There's something else I haven't told you," Xu Tiantian said with a guilty smile. "Actually, it's not just our class today... the science class 1 is here too..."

Ying Qian: "Is it possible that I know?"

"How did you know?" Xu Tiantian was shocked; she hadn't let it slip.

"Think about it carefully," Ying Qian smiled. "Who lives downstairs from me?"

"oh!"

Xu Tiantian clapped her hands, understanding dawning on her.

How could Chen Wenzhi not tell his girlfriend?

"Oh, right. I'll tell you, it seems my brother's girlfriend is a fake," Ying Qian said excitedly.

"What!" Xu Tiantian almost stood up. "A girlfriend can be fake?"

Under Ying Qian's indescribable expression.

Xu Tiantian realized: "It must be to fool his paranoid mother, right? He's really something, managing to find a fake girlfriend..."

After she finished speaking, she clicked her tongue twice and added, "But they must have paid me... Why didn't they ask me? Honestly, I'm pretty pretty too!"

Ying Qian chuckled and teased, "Have you locked yourself away from love lately? Don't you like Gu Xinan anymore?"

Xu Tiantian pushed her face away, "Get lost. I misjudged him back then. I saw him chatting and laughing with a freshman girl just a couple of days ago."

Ying Qian remained silent, lost in thought.

Xu Tiantian said to herself, "It's a good thing you got together with Chen Wenzhi first, otherwise you would definitely have been persecuted. I was so sad when I found out he was dating someone!"

“Sigh, Gu Xinan is too naive,” Ying Qian said.

Xu Tiantian nodded, then suddenly became serious: "I thought about your relationship with your brother when I got home. Based on my many years of experience, your brother's feelings for you are very complicated."

"Mmm." Ying Qian lowered her eyes, her eyelashes fluttering.

“But who wouldn’t want someone who treats them well?” Xu Tiantian held Ying Qian’s hand in her palm. “You’ve suffered so much, it’s only right that you enjoy something sweet now.”

Ying Qian sighed deeply, turned her head, stared at the falling snow outside the window, and said in an extremely soft voice, "If only life could always be this peaceful."

Hearing this, Xu Tiantian's smile froze for a moment, and a hint of heartache appeared in her eyes. She patted the back of her hand and encouraged her, "Yes, you will, you definitely will."

The shopping mall at Longhu Paradise Walk is very large.

Although there were supposed to be two classes of students, only about one class's worth of students actually showed up, a mere thirty people.

Behind Ren Yi, who was chatting animatedly with the class monitor, Ying Qian saw Chen Wenzhi standing there quietly, his face as calm as ever.

Only she knew the unease in Chen Wenzhi's heart.

Xu Tiantian met a handsome guy from the science class. As soon as she saw him, she said to the girl next to her, "Ying Qian, I'm going to pursue love now. See you at dinner tonight!"

Ying Qian was happy for her and nodded.

The original plan was for men and women to shop separately in pairs.

Everyone who came knew each other and automatically formed teams.

The class monitors of the two classes stood together. They had been best friends since elementary school and high school, and they heard that they wanted to go to the same university, but with different majors.

Today, that noisy, lively person didn't come.

Ying Qian had mixed feelings. She scrolled through her phone's chat list and found his name. She stood there in a daze for a long time, so long that the people around her dispersed. The wind blowing through the door behind her lifted the hem of her skirt, and a chill ran through her body.

She felt the helplessness and loneliness of the day her father abandoned her.

It felt as if all the noise around me didn't belong to me.

She clearly possessed something, yet she squandered it with her own hands; she knew what it was.

She felt as if a hole had been torn in her heart, and it was getting colder and colder inside.

In her mind, she recalled the ugly faces of her father and his mistress in a shopping mall in Qincheng, the finger that was broken by high heels, her father's love for his illegitimate child, and his neglect of her.

There were many people watching the commotion. The perpetrator, ashamed, left in a hurry. She lay on the ground, like a fish on a chopping board, unable to move, and fainted from the pain.

The feeling of suffocation spread to every corner of my body.

She slowly closed her eyes, her mind in turmoil.

It was the same kind of shopping mall, with just as many people, yet no one was beside me.

"What are you staring at?" A warm hand took hers.

Her fingertips trembled, as if grasping at a last straw, and she snuggled into that warm, broad embrace, whispering, "Don't leave me..."

Chen Wenzhi shook his head and said, "No..."

"..."

His eyes were deep, yet his emotions were completely transparent.

"Chen Wenzhi, I like you so much..." she said in a voice only they could hear.

This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!