First pick

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Wu Jianwei's throat tightened and tears flowed unconsciously.

"Fu Li, you slipped him your phone number and you're taking revenge on me for it? What's wrong with you? What's the difference between you and the person who slips small cards under the crack of a hotel door?"

Fu Li also shed tears, looking at Wu Jianwei with hatred in her eyes: "Wu Jianwei, I feel it's unfair. Why do all the good things happen to you? You can get along with your boss as a secretary, and you can be appreciated by seniors in the industry for your jewelry design. But what about me? I worked so hard to climb up, but in the end I got nothing."

"Go ahead and do it too. Is there nothing else on your mind except men? You're blaming the heavens and the earth, and you're going to take my money?"

Wu Jian sneered, picked up the wine corkscrew, and opened another bottle of wine. Tears streamed down her face. As soon as she poured half a glass of wine into the glass, her tears mixed in, tasting bitter and salty.

Faced with her questioning, Fu Li suddenly fell silent.

Wu Jianwei could no longer suppress her emotions and yelled at her, "Fu Li, do you know that that's all my savings! Not only that, you've been in arrears with the raw material suppliers for half a year. Everyone's asking me to pay you back, even your landlord is asking me to pay back the rent you owe. I also want to ask you, why?!"

"Because you were able to pay off my debt so easily, and because you are still so beautiful and beautiful now."

Fu Li's face twitched, and she continued, "To me, this heavy debt is nothing more than the price of a few clothes that Meng Yanxiu paid. It's just a matter of a word from you, and he paid it back in the blink of an eye. I lost my dignity once in exchange for three years of breathing space. I think it's worth it."

"What did you say?" Kirimi's eyelashes trembled, tears filling her eyes. "Did he get his money from the wind? I was blind and trusted you, which is why I'm in debt. Why should he pay it back? Is he being taken advantage of?"

Wu Jianwei lowered his eyes, with only a bitter smile on his face: "Fu Li, I no longer have any feelings for you as before. You make me so sad. You don't know how I have been through these years. You will never understand what I have lost."

"What do you mean? You paid the money back yourself? That's impossible!" Fu Li suddenly lost consciousness, her eyes wide open in shock. When she stumbled to her feet, her elbow hit the wine cart beside her, and the bottles collided with each other, making a crisp sound. Tears instantly welled up in her eyes, "No... How could you be so stupid!"

"Even Jiang He doesn't know I took on your debt! How could I possibly tell Meng Yanxiu?" Wu Jianwei burst into tears, his voice filled with desperate sarcasm. "If he knew you'd swindled all my money and left me with so much debt, do you think he'd let you go? Would I have found you only today?"

At the end of the conversation, both of them burst into tears. Wu Jianwei felt chilled to the bone. The heavy estrangement between her and Fu Li was so ridiculous and pathetic.

"Mi Wu, I..." Fu Li just opened her mouth.

With a "bang", the door of the private room was pushed open forcefully.

Meng Yanxiu walked straight up to Wu Jianwei and saw her tear-stained face. His eyes froze instantly: "What's going on? Who made you cry?"

"You get out..." Kirimi choked and tried to calm down, but her tears flowed even more violently.

Meng Yanxiu knelt down on one knee, pressed her into his arms, and quickly stroked her back with his palm: "Awu, tell me, what happened?"

"Get out! I told you to get out!" She broke down instantly and struggled hard, almost screaming.

"Wu Jianwei! How can I leave when you're crying like this!" Meng Yanxiu's eyes were red, and he held her shoulders with both hands. "What's going on? I'm here, let me handle it."

"Let me say it." Fu Li stepped forward, choking.

"Fu Li! Don't say it." She stopped him sternly, looking over with red eyes. "This is a matter between us. It has nothing to do with anyone else."

"I'm sorry..." Fu Li covered her face, tears of regret sliding through her fingers.

Meng Yanxiu was extremely anxious. He knew it was definitely not because of Fu Li's private visit to him. Wu Jianwei would not cry like this for such a thing. He held her face and forced her to look directly at him: "Look at me, what's wrong with you?"

She looked into Meng Yanxiu's anxious eyes, and her inner defenses suddenly collapsed. She suddenly reached out and hugged him tightly, burying her face in his neck. She said in a voice that was almost whispered, "You go out first, okay?"

"Impossible." Meng Yanxiu tightened his arms, holding her even deeper in his embrace. His voice was stern. "Tell me what's wrong with you. Whatever it is, I'll take care of it."

"Meng Yanxiu, if you don't leave now, I will never see you again." She spoke each word with a resolute tone. After that, she pushed him away with all her strength, "Get out."

"I'm not threatened. I said I won't leave." Meng Yanxiu saw unquestionable determination in her eyes, but precisely because of this, he would not back down at this moment.

In an instant, her tears burst out, she cried even harder than before, her eyes were red, and she looked at Meng Yanxiu silently with her tearful eyes.

After just looking at each other for a moment, Meng Yanxiu couldn't bear it anymore. Her show of weakness was more difficult for him to withstand than her threat.

"Okay, I'll go out." Meng Yanxiu couldn't bear the look in her eyes, so he finally softened his attitude and gently wiped away her tears with a tissue. "Then please stop crying, okay? I'll wait for you outside."

She uttered an almost inaudible "hmm".

As soon as the door closed, Fu Li choked up and said, "Mi Wu, I'm sorry, but I really don't have any money right now. Please trust me one last time, I will definitely pay you back."

"Of course you have to pay it back." Kirimi breathed slowly, and after regaining his composure, he asked, "Who gave you the wound on your face?"

Fu Li put away all her sharpness and cried, "I don't have a family to rely on. I even have to earn money for my tuition. But no matter how much I earn, it's not enough for my gambling father to squander. Later I realized that there is only one way to change my fate: marry a rich man."

"You weren't like this before. You always said that you wanted to rely on yourself to gain a foothold in this city." Wu Jianwei looked at Fu Li, and there was no trace of her former self left.

"Too slow!" Fu Li became excited. "Twenty years of hard work on my own is not as good as a class leap. You know what happened later. Meng Yuetong fell in love with me. Although he is not as good as Meng Yanxiu, for me, money is enough. So don't blame me for not listening to you at the beginning. I really needed to change my way of life. It's just that I was unlucky. He got tired of me and threw me away. Since then, I stopped sending money home, and my father came to Qingting and beat me up like this. See, my life is so worthless."

"Your father hit you?" Wu Jianwei stood up, tears welling up in her eyes again, "Does he do this often? I'll go with you to get your injuries checked, you can't just let it go like this!"

"Mi Wu, you don't understand. You can't escape your original family." Fu Li wiped away her tears, neatly packed up the wine bottles, and pushed the wine cart. "I have to go to work. Thank you for buying the wine."

"Fu Li..." Wu Jianwei choked in her throat, feeling mixed emotions in her heart, unable to tell whether it was more hatred, resentment, or sadness.

Fu Li turned around and gave her a tired smile: "I will pay you back after I get my salary. I can only pay you back slowly. I'm sorry. If you want to report it to the police, I don't blame you. I have committed fraud and I admit it."

After saying that, Fu Li pushed the cart away.

Outside the door, Meng Yanxiu was waiting there wearing only a black short-sleeved shirt. When Fu Li passed by him, she lowered her head in shame.

In the private room, Wu Jianwei shed tears silently.

Meng Yanxiu walked towards her and looked at her quietly: "Awu, I'm worried about you."

She stood up and wiped away her tears: "Go back, I'm fine."

"Are you okay?" Meng Yanxiu stopped her, "Then why did you hug me just now?"

Wu Jianwei heard the words, and a faint arc appeared on the corner of his mouth. He took a step forward and gently hugged him: "Then hug him again."

But she let go of her hand in just a moment.

"That's it?" Meng Yanxiu stopped her as she was about to leave. "What does this mean?"

"I just remembered some of your good things, that's all." She opened the door and walked out first.

Meng Yanxiu caught up with her, walking side by side with her: "Awu, why must we end this? Don't you have any regrets at all?"

Kirijianwei suddenly stopped, looked up at him, and said calmly: "You told your family yourself that you never liked me, and you only approached me because of the curse and had to be with me."

"Who told you that?" Meng Yanxiu was silent for a moment, "My mother or Meng Huaiyu?"

"Don't care who it is. Just like you readily admitted that the curse was real, now tell me, did you say these words yourself?" Wu Jianwei already had the answer in her heart, but still hoped that he had not said such words.

"I did say that," he said in a low voice, "but I didn't mean it. I have my reasons."

"You always have your reasons." Wu Jianwei smiled indifferently. "Just like you haven't married Song Yan yet, you also have your reasons, right? She is the one chosen by your family. You will get married sooner or later. Your whole family knows it, but you just hid it from me. You force me to stay by your side, while not delaying your relationship with Song Yan. This is your plan, right? Once I am no longer useful, once your curse is broken, you will abandon me, right?"

"That's not right." Meng Yanxiu's face darkened instantly. "I won't marry Song Yan. I didn't tell you because I was afraid you'd have wild thoughts. You don't need to worry about these things. I can handle them. Why do you believe anything else I say, but don't believe that I really love you?"

"Then I'm asking you this." Wu Jianwei looked into his eyes, which were as deep as black opals. "Are you willing to give up the family fortune? As long as you're not the heir to the Meng family, there will be no curse between us, and I won't doubt your motives anymore."

"Awu, I will not give up on you, nor will I give up my inheritance rights." Meng Yanxiu said the same words as before, "There is no contradiction between the two."

"There's really no contradiction." Wu Jian smiled bitterly and continued walking. "I know your ambition, so the one who will be sacrificed can always be me. I've never been your first choice."

"You're my first choice. If fate forces me to choose, I'll definitely choose you, but we're far from that point now." Meng Yanxiu pondered for a moment, his voice cold. "Besides, will you still love me if I have no money?"

Wu Jianwei sighed in her heart, but her tone was resolute: "No, whether you have money or not, I don't love you."

"I don't believe it." Meng Yanxiu raised his hand to stop her.

"Come in." Wu Jianwei stopped looking at him and pushed the door open.

Inside the private room, everyone was awake and stretching their backs as they recalled what happened last night.

When Wu Ze's friends saw Meng Yanxiu, they gathered around and greeted her: "Yanxiu, congratulations, and happy wedding!"

Meng Yanxiu responded briefly and just as he sat down, Wu Ze leaned over and lowered his voice, "Don't blame me for being so subtle. It was my bad idea."

Meng Yanxiu sneered: "That's my wife, why would I blame her? Of course I hate you."

"Ahem... you're quite the man." Wu Ze shook his head and asked someone to bring in toiletries. Several people got up and went to the bathroom, and Wu Jianwei also accompanied Jiang He to wash up.

Jiang He leaned over to wash her face. Amid the sound of water splashing, she suddenly looked up: "Mi Wu, what time is it now?"

Wu Jianwei leaned against the sink and said calmly, "I've seen Fu Li."

"Ah? When?" Jiang He paused, his face full of surprise. Wu Jianwei briefly described Fu Li's recent situation, omitting the fact that she was in debt and had a crush on Meng Yanxiu.

"Fu Li's dad is such a jerk!" Jiang He wiped her face with a tissue, her voice muffled. "But... aren't you being too soft-hearted? If I hadn't run into her this time, she wouldn't have planned to pay back the money, right?"

Wu Jian lowered her eyes slightly: "At this point, what else can I do? I won't forgive her, but if I push her any further, she will really go to the end of her rope."

"Ah." Jiang He sighed, blinked, and changed the subject. "By the way, when did Meng Yanxiu come? What is your relationship now?"

"Jiang Jiang, I kind of regret coming back." Wu Jianwei looked at herself in the mirror, "When I face him, I always think of his goodness, which makes me very painful."

"Pain often comes from thinking too much. Just focus on the present, follow your heart, and don't think too far ahead. Then you will have fewer worries." Jiang He took her hand and said, "Come on, let's go in."

After everyone finished washing up, they returned to the private room. Meng Yanxiu ordered the food. He placed a bowl of beef noodles on the table in front of Wu Jianwei, and the green coriander piled up like a small mountain.

"Have breakfast before you leave." His voice was not loud, but it carried a tone that could not be refused.

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