Chapter 58: Of course your original family is to blame for you, it doesn’t matter who you fall in love with...
After Xia Yimo left, the cramped space fell into a continuous silence, and the noise of raindrops seemed particularly clear in the silent environment.
Hou Sisi was the first to break the deadlock. She walked to the desk, poured herself a glass of water, moistened her throat, sat down on a chair, and made a request: "Give me back my phone first."
"Yours?" Luo Shu clutched the hot potato tightly. "How are you going to prove this phone is yours? It's full of my photos, and the account is linked to my personal information."
Hearing this, Hou Sisi glanced at her.
Yes, it's not easy to fool her. After nearly two years of living together day and night, she understands Luo Shu's character, just as Luo Shu also understands her living habits.
Thinking of the cracked lock screen password: "How did I reveal myself? No, when did they confirm it was mine?"
"Just now, I confirmed some things with Liang Rong." Luo Shuan was as solid as a rock, allowing her to observe her expression unscrupulously.
"Liang Rong." Hou Sisi leaned back in her chair, chewing on the name and making a mocking comment, "What an idiot."
Luo Shu remained calm and composed. "At first, I suspected her. After all, I couldn't think of anyone else who had a history with me and met the criteria for committing the crime, until you sent me the photo."
"Photos? What photos?" Hou Sisi crossed her legs nonchalantly, then realized what was happening and stood up with a serious expression. "Is that person you?"
"It's me." Luo Shu took a breath. "The fish is hiding too deep. How can it take the bait easily without giving it enough bait?"
She stared at Hou Sisi as she stepped closer. "Then, to verify my suspicions, I approached Liang Rong and asked her about the details of the plagiarism. It was you who approached her, asking how her entry was going. It was you who told her directly that I didn't care about the other contestants. You boasted in the dorm that you were going to win the prize. Most importantly, it was you who leaked the information that my computer was on and that no one was in the dorm."
Hou Sisi seemed to have only heard the last part, and recalled with a rather aggrieved tone, "There was indeed no one in the dormitory that night. Even with the lights on, it was ten or a hundred times quieter than it is now."
As if he had finished reminiscing, he looked at Luo Shu and asked, "Do you remember what you did that night?"
Luo Shu frowned slightly and said nothing.
"Forgot?" Hou Sisi asked herself, answering, "That night, Xia Yimo treated you all to a barbecue. The food you posted on WeChat Moments looked delicious, and the fireworks were beautiful, too."
Her eyes suddenly sharpened, and she changed the subject. "But what you don't know is that I also ran back to the dorm that night with the employee meal I got as a bonus from my part-time job, intending to share it with you. But you were all away, and the employee meal was cold. In the end, I was the only one who gritted my teeth and ate it mouthful by mouthful with warm water, until not a drop was left. Do you know what I was thinking at the time? So what if it tasted bad? I had to eat my pride back bit by bit."
"So you deliberately led Liang Rong into the dormitory to take a peek at my competition design." Luo Shu said slowly, unable to accept the fact now.
"What do you mean by intentionally guiding? I was just enthusiastically helping my classmates."
Luo Shu forced a bitter smile. "Okay, because we ignored you, you chose revenge. Then why are you playing with other people's feelings in my name? Is it really just for money?"
Some word quickly ignited Hou Sisi's anger. She suddenly raised her voice: "Why? Luo Shu, you ask me why?"
The surging thunder roared, resounding through the dark sky.
Luo Shu was startled and her shoulders trembled almost imperceptibly. She was not sure whether the source was the violent thunder or the furious Hou Sisi. She calmed herself down a little, but she didn't know that the truth behind it made her scalp tingle.
"Of course it's your fault. You could date anyone else but Fang Qingzhuo. If it weren't for him, my scholarship wouldn't have stopped. It's a one-year scholarship. Do you know how much this money means to me? It can cover my four-year part-time job. It's my only way out of my family. I can apply for an exchange program abroad soon, so I won't allow myself to give up halfway."
Luo Shu froze in place for no reason, the temperature on her skin gradually decreasing. She believed that all the pain and mistakes made by everyone were her own fault.
While she was dazed, Hou Sisi suddenly grabbed her wrists and tried to wake her up with words, "Luo Shu, we are good friends. Since the fuse was your boyfriend, then it's not too much for me to get back from you, my girlfriend."
Brought back to reality by the ridiculous, specious arguments, Luo Shu coldly threw off the handcuffs that condemned her. She stepped back, shook her head, and pointed at the dressing mirror on the wall, cursing, "Do you want to see what you've become? Where's the Hou Sisi who used to earn a living by working part-time, even in poverty, gone?"
Hou Sisi followed the direction she pointed and looked at herself in the glasses. She had a loose ponytail, ordinary facial features, and was wearing cheap clothes. The word "ordinary" ran through her whole body.
"I've been working part-time day and night since my freshman year, for over 600 days. The 10 yuan an hour price is a constant reminder of how cheap I am. But when those men transfer the money without hesitation, I feel like I'm worth it."
Facing Luo Shu's puzzled and slightly contemptuous look, Hou Sisi raised her head and sighed for a long time: "That's right, you, a young lady who has everything handed to you, naturally don't understand the sufferings of the world. Then let me tell you, nothing can be easily changed by the word "hard work". What is the reality? I am a part-time worker who is squeezed out by the old employees. Not only is my salary lower than theirs, but I also have to do all the dirty work, suffer all kinds of unfair treatment, and be looked down upon. Fate is really unfair. We are the same age and have the same status, but you are eating, drinking, having fun and showing off your love. I am either on my way to catch the bus or on the way to change to the subway. You are discussing which online celebrity restaurant is delicious, but I only dare to order vegetarian dishes in the cafeteria. You are talking about the popular trends of the season, but I only dare to buy T-shirts, not to mention expensive cosmetics and skin care products."
Putting the judgmental eye out in the open has become a blatant show of strength.
"No one has the right to judge me. If you were given my birth card, put on my shoes and walked the same path I've come from, you wouldn't necessarily be able to come up with ridiculous statements like, 'You can live a good life if you just work hard.'"
Luo Shu silently had a needle pierced into her heart, followed by two, three, four, and countless more.
"I have no objection to you going abroad and starting a new life, and I'm sincerely happy for you, but have you ever thought about me? After the truth comes out, how will I, your so-called good friend, face all the condemnation and criticism? You were the one who did the evil, yet you planned to stay out of it and completely disappear, leaving me to take the blame. Don't you feel any remorse?"
"Immoral?" Hou Sisi grasped at the irrelevant point. "Luo Shu, please understand. I provide emotional value, and they pay me financially. What's wrong with that? I haven't broken any laws. At most, I've been morally corrupt. All the transfers were made voluntarily. I didn't force them to transfer money by holding a knife to their necks. If you think it's unfair, I'll give you half of the money I received. How about that?"
It was as if there was a ball of cotton stuck in Luo Shu's throat, preventing her from uttering any rebuttal, and a feeling of nausea arose spontaneously.
Hou Sisi thought she was dissatisfied with the share and bargained: "You take six and I take four."
Luo Shu remained silent.
"You take seven and I take three. It can't be any less."
The mind is poisoned and corroded by money, and the value of friendship is determined at this moment.
Luo Shu suppressed her nausea and said, "You've received higher education for so many years, and have walked out of the mountains step by step. It's not too late to turn back now."
Hou Sisi's patience was also exhausted by her refusal to budge. She rubbed her aching head and showed an expression of difficulty in communicating: "Luo Shu, don't be naive. I thought so at the beginning too. What knowledge can change destiny, and the college entrance examination is a watershed. For people like me, it's simply a fantasy. Living is already difficult enough. I clearly remember the first day of school freshman year. The first second your parents sent you to report and saw the dormitory environment, they were so distressed that they kept yelling that they wanted to rent you a house outside. As for me, my parents are bloodthirsty. The reason they sent me to school was because my younger brother wanted to visit Shenzhen. He changed buses again and again along the way and poked me in the head and scolded me for being a waste of money. If I hadn't insisted on studying and insisted on earning my own tuition and not spending a penny on him, I would have been forced into society by them and become a tool to support the family. Despite this, they still insisted on my scholarship, saying that they were saving up for my dowry but actually using it on my younger brother."
The choked voice gradually took on a tone of inferiority.
"Having said so much, I might as well tell you a little more about the ins and outs that you may not know. After entering university, I was really as free as I imagined. Working part-time was hard, but with your company, at least I had a brief moment of happiness. Just like the campus romance that Jiaqian talks about every day, I also had unrealistic dreams of having a boyfriend, working together after graduation, getting settled down, and then having my own little nest, away from my miserable family. Last summer, I stayed in Shenzhen to work during the summer vacation. When I was exhausted and couldn't find an outlet to vent, I registered on an online dating app and sent a photo. A boy came into my life. He was handsome, sunny, generous, and from the same school. Senior, every night before bed, we had endless topics to talk about. I could feel between the lines that he liked me. Soon, he actually confessed his love for me and hoped that I would be his girlfriend. It was one in the morning, and my biological clock had completely lost its sleepiness. I felt that God had finally blessed me for once. I was willing to type those three words in the text box. He seemed to be unable to wait and poured out his heart, saying that he had noticed me for a long time in school and recognized me from the photos posted by people from the same city, and signed it "Classmate Luo Shu". Only then did I realize that the reason he and I had been chatting for half a month was because of you. That casual photo we sent together made him mistakenly think I was you. So, self-righteous favoritism and redemption are just a beautiful facade.
After hearing this, Luo Shu also understood that the boy Hou Sisi was talking about was Fang Qingzhuo's childhood friend. So this was the whole story.
"Then why didn't you clarify it at the time? How did you get involved with him later?"
Hou Sisi sniffed and wiped away a tear that had fallen from the corner of her eye: "I can't bear to let go. It's so hard for someone to like me, even though it was a mistake and we're just separated by a screen. As the saying goes, don't let someone go to waste."
Indulging in a new life experience for a while, he lost control on the wrong path and weaved one gorgeous robe after another to cover up the lies he had told out of his humbleness.
"He's actually quite nice. He's a simpleton with a lot of money. The minimum transfer is 5,200 yuan. He's the most generous of all the men, and he even gives voluntary gifts. But he shouldn't have asked for a meeting, and he shouldn't have insisted on a public identity. It wasn't until my scholarship ran out that I was forced to pick up this business again, specifically to hook up with people outside the school."
As if to hide her own shameful inner feelings, or perhaps even more afraid of losing her composure, Hou Sisi put on a pretentious attitude, bowing to Luo Shu with a triumphant smile. "In order to charge a reasonable fee, I tried every possible way to bind your ID card. You're always forgetful, leaving your computer on and your ID card unsecured. In the end, who else should I blame if not you? You deserve it."
With a single word of "You deserve it," Luo Shu was pinned to the gate where people pointed at her: "Did you take the ID card I lost last time?"
"Well, I put it openly on the table. After I was done using it, I threw it under your bed. In the end, Jiaqian found it. There were also photos on the phone. You couldn't have guessed it. In order to avoid being discovered, I specially bought the same model to facilitate AirDrop. It's a bit expensive, but it leaves no trace."
The mist grew thicker, and Luo Shu in Hou Sisi's vision became uncontrollably blurred. "By the way, didn't you just ask me if I've ever repented? I tell you responsibly, no. From the beginning, I admit that I envied you. I envied you for being an only child and that everyone revolved around you. Later, classmates spread the rumor that our dormitory was the poverty alleviation office, and it evolved into jealousy and then disgust. I don't need your insignificant charity. You're so happy and fulfilled. What's wrong with me borrowing a little of your light? Are you still so petty?"
"People can't stand comparison. Don't use your lofty values to judge others, and don't try to influence them. What you have at your fingertips is something I can't grasp even if I try my best, and I don't bother to grasp it. It's like those contact lenses. They make me look weird, difficult, and uncomfortable to wear."
From the beginning to the end, Hou Sisi avoided the main issues from the perspective of her victim's innocence. Luo Shu was distracted in her heart, wondering if Fang Qingzhuo had dealt her too much of a blow recently, and her ability to withstand it had made a qualitative leap, so she didn't even shed a tear.
Blinking upward, I watched the mottled white paint on the ceiling peel away bit by bit, revealing its original color. My chest rose and fell, and my sense of smell was filled with the dampness of heavy rain and the refreshing feeling of being washed away by the dirt.
The rain has been going on for a long time, it's time to end.
"Did you all hear that clearly?"
Turning her back, Luo Shu took out her cell phone from her pocket, which showed that the call was even recorded.
On the other side, the three people who had been listening to the entire process from beginning to end had different expressions on their faces.
Guan Siqi scratched his head and said, "It seems we misunderstood her."
Looking around, Fang Qingzhuo was actually calmer than he had imagined, and so was Gu Yang.
Fang Qingzhuo didn't give any extra response. He picked up his coat, stood up and left quietly.
Only Gu Yang knew that with his departure, the relationship between them had come to an end.
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