That day, Liu Yanran sat in front of a fan, a cup of iced milk tea in her hand, feeling the cool breeze on her cheeks. As she looked out at the street scene, a sense of peace and contentment welled up in her heart.
This was an era without cell phones, yet she found this simple and pure life intoxicating. She had fully embraced 1970s life, with a loving family, a thriving career, and a beloved partner. Her greatest wish now was to successfully attend university in Beijing, lead her family to prosperity, and raise her children to become the happy second-generation rich.
Just as Liu Yanran was immersed in her beautiful fantasy, the crisp ring of the phone suddenly interrupted her thoughts. She came to her senses and quickly walked to the phone and picked up the receiver.
That’s right, the hot pot restaurant has installed a telephone. If anyone needs to make a long-distance or local call, they can pay a certain fee to use it.
"Hello?" Liu Yanran's voice sounded somewhat puzzled.
Liu Chunping's familiar voice came from the other end of the phone: "Yanran! This is Dad."
Liu Yanran was originally in a good mood. After all, now that their family's financial situation had improved, her father had always been frugal and rarely willing to spend money on phone calls. She smiled and replied, "Dad, why did you think of calling? Did something happen at home?"
Liu Chunping's tone turned serious: "Yanran, someone came to ask your fourth brother to give up college. You and Guoxing should come back when you have time!"
Liu Yanran's face showed a surprised expression. She couldn't understand why someone would make such a ridiculous request. She said angrily: "Dad, what do you mean? Who is so excessive?"
Liu Chunping sighed and said, "I don't know the specific situation, but they directly brought over five bundles of Great Unity." One bundle of Great Unity contains 100 notes, which is equivalent to 5,000 yuan. Wow, they are quite generous and they are quite rich!
Liu Yanran frowned, lost in thought. She couldn't understand why anyone would want to stop her fourth brother from going to college. Was it jealousy or something else? She decided to go home and find out what was going on; she couldn't let her fourth brother's studies be affected.
"Dad, I'll be back as soon as possible to deal with this." Liu Yanran hung up the phone, feeling heavy in her heart. She put down her milk tea, stood up, and began to quickly pack her luggage. She knew time was running out and she had to return home as soon as possible to resolve the issue. At the same time, she also notified Liu Guoxing in Beijing and asked him to return home as soon as possible to deal with the matter.
In Jing City, Liu Yanran asked Liu Guoxing to arrange for Gao Zhonghua to help look after the child. She decided to pay him a salary because she knew Gao Zhonghua had originally planned to work in Jing City to earn money during the holiday.
Although college students could receive some subsidies at that time, Gao Zhonghua's family was in financial difficulty, and he had to save from his own food rations and send them home to his mother to ensure that his sister could continue to go to college.
Since he left his hometown and came to college, he deeply realized the importance of going to college to a person, so he worked hard and saved money, hoping to provide better living conditions for his family.
After Liu Yanran came back, she asked someone to help her investigate the matter. When she returned to Su City, she already knew all the details.
It turned out that the couple were the parents of Liu Guoxing's classmate Liu Chengxing. Back then, some people joked that they looked like brothers.
However, Liu Chengxing's father worked in the Education Bureau, his mother was their high school teacher, and his aunt was their homeroom teacher. This family background made them a typical intellectual family.
Last year, Liu Chengxing failed the college entrance exam, while Liu Guoxing successfully entered National Tsing Hua University. This prompted the family to devise a plan: to have Liu Chengxing replace Liu Guoxing at National Tsing Hua University. Thanks to the Liu family's connections in the education system, they easily transferred Liu Guoxing's file, enabling them to carry out their plan.
However, the Liu family hadn't anticipated that Liu Guoxing wouldn't give up on his studies despite failing the entrance exam. Instead, he chose to repeat his studies and successfully passed the entrance exam to Peking University this year. If Liu Guoxing were to retrieve his file, he would discover that it was already at National Tsing Hua University, and his impersonation would be exposed.
Originally, the Liu family had assumed that Liu Guoxing, from an ordinary family, would find a job to support himself after failing the college entrance exam. However, they never expected that Liu Guoxing would actually spend a large sum of money to repeat his studies in the city and successfully be admitted to university again.
Faced with this situation, the Liu family panicked. They had originally planned to seek help from a teacher at a repeater class in the city, who would manipulate the scores so that Liu Guoxing would mistakenly believe he had failed the exam again.
However, contrary to their wishes, Liu Guoxing chose not to let the school check his grades this year, but to check them on his own. This made the Liu family's plan go awry, and they had no choice but to come to the door in person, begging Liu Guoxing to give up his chance to go to school and promising him some financial compensation.
Liu Yanran grew angrier as she listened, her anger rising. She recalled her initial suspicions about Liu Guoxing, and how she hadn't expected them to be true. Now, hearing firsthand the Liu family's despicable and shameless actions, she felt immensely angry and disappointed.
Liu Yanran decided to go find Liu Chengxing first to see if she could find a way out from him. She wanted to see if Liu Chengxing was hopeless.
Arriving at Liu Chengxing's house, Liu Yanran knocked on the door. Liu Chengxing was a little surprised to see a strange and beautiful girl coming to see him, but he still politely invited her in.
Liu Yanran stated her purpose straight away, saying that she wanted to know what happened back then and hoped that Liu Chengxing could provide some clues.
Liu Chengxing was silent for a moment, then began to evade the question, as if he had something to hide. Liu Yanran noticed his strangeness and asked directly if it was related to him.
In desperation, Liu Chengxing finally admitted that it was his parents who planned all this, and said that he was not aware of it at the time and only found out later.
Liu Yanran's eyes widened, angrily questioning Liu Chengxing's decision to not tell her fourth brother sooner and even take his place at Tsinghua University. Liu Chengxing offered a wry smile, explaining, "I was forced to do this! My parents threatened to commit suicide if I revealed even a single word, leaving me with a lifetime of unrest."
After hearing this, Liu Yanran couldn't help but feel a surge of pity. She understood Liu Chengxing's situation, but at the same time, she felt immensely angry. She told Liu Chengxing that his actions would not only ruin Liu Guoxing's life, but would also leave her with a guilty conscience for the rest of her life.
After hearing this, Liu Chengxing fell into deep thought, realizing that the mistake he had made was irreversible. After a period of ideological struggle, he finally made up his mind and agreed to cooperate with Liu Yanran to expose his parents' conspiracy. After all, he had been living as Liu Guoxing for a year, and this repression and pain had long been unbearable for him.
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