Old grudges
Han Cheng tried to persuade Ci Yan, but she resolutely shut him down: "Enough! I don't want to hear it!"
He sighed helplessly, all his words seeming pale and powerless.
My gaze fell on the tightly closed door of Qi Xu's room. How much suffering that child must have endured over the years.
The resentment buried deep in Ci Yan's heart had been entangled for ten years. How could it be resolved with just a few words of letting go? If it weren't for Qi Yansheng's interference back then, she and Han Cheng should have been together naturally and had a warm and happy family.
Their first encounter was on a sudden rainy day. At that time, Qi Yansheng and Ci Yan were childhood playmates.
One afternoon after school during her senior year of high school, Ciyan said goodbye to her friends and embarked on her journey home alone.
The sky suddenly changed, and a torrential downpour instantly flooded the streets, followed by a hailstorm.
She hurriedly retreated and hid under a roof, only to bump into a warm embrace that had just come out—it was Han Cheng.
She hurriedly apologized, and when she looked up, their eyes met, and Ci Yan's eyes instantly lit up.
He handed me his umbrella: "Next time, remember to check the weather forecast." By then, the rain had subsided.
"Then what will you do?" She hesitated and didn't take the umbrella. His friend behind him leaned out at the right moment: "We can help you out." Only then did she take the umbrella, silently hoping to return it to its rightful owner when they met again.
Their second meeting took place in an awkward situation. In class, Qi Yansheng was playing with bubble clay and accidentally got some on Ciyan's hair.
He frantically tried to get it off, but only made things worse, and the sludge caked up half of her hair. Ci Yan felt her hair being pulled and turned around abruptly: "What are you up to now?" "N-nothing, you've got it all wrong." "You better not!" She turned back.
Qi Yansheng noticed the mess in her hair and had an extreme idea. He borrowed a pair of hand scissors from the person next to him and cut off the long hair that was stuck to the hair with a "snip".
He threw the severed hair into the trash bag with satisfaction, but Ci Yan was completely unaware that his appearance had changed.
It wasn't until I was eating with a friend in the cafeteria that my friend exclaimed in surprise, "Hey, you cut your hair short? It suits you quite well."
Ci Yan was taken aback: "I like long hair."
"Then why did you cut it?" Before her friend could finish speaking, Ci Yan's smile froze instantly, and a grain of rice fell from between her chopsticks.
She suddenly remembered his little antics during Qi Yansheng's class! Anger flared instantly; she stormed to Qi Yansheng's table and grabbed his hair: "You scoundrel! Who told you to cut my hair?"
Qi Yansheng winced in pain: "Let me explain!" "Explain what? I've kept my hair long for so long, why should you cut it off so easily?"
The heated argument alerted Han Cheng, who was sitting at the table in front of him.
He looked up at the sound, and his gaze met Ci Yan's angry eyes. It was her, the girl in the rain.
Ci Yan recognized him and froze on the spot.
Qi Yansheng followed her gaze and saw Han Cheng staring intently at Ci Yan, and alarm bells immediately went off in his mind.
On her way back to the classroom, Ciyan was still feeling frustrated about her short hair.
Han Cheng stepped forward and said, "Actually... you're not ugly at all, you're very cool."
Still angry, Ci Yan thought it was Qi Yansheng and retorted without turning around: "Cool my ass! I don't want to see you right now!"
When she saw that the person who came was Han Cheng, she immediately suppressed her anger and a pleasant smile appeared on her face: "You're from our school too? What a coincidence."
"What a coincidence." This scene was witnessed by Qi Yansheng, who happened to be passing by. He stared intently at the subtle atmosphere between the two, his eyes filled with complex emotions.
Later, Ci Yan learned that he was the son of the principal of Mingde Middle School. After graduation, the two naturally fell in love and soon reached the point of discussing marriage. However, fate played a cruel trick on them.
Qi Yan was deeply in love with Ci Yan. While she was away, he went to great lengths to please her parents, hoping to win a chance to be with her. His strategy succeeded.
Ci Yan's parents resolutely rejected Han Cheng, even threatening to kill themselves, claiming that Qi Yansheng was the only son-in-law they approved of.
With no other choice, Ci Yan finally obeyed her parents' wishes and married Qi Yansheng.
Life after marriage was as cold as ice.
Ci Yan refused to share a room with Qi Yansheng, but Qi Yansheng did not force her. He even offered to adopt a child from an orphanage, but after a few days he did not find a child he liked, so he put the idea aside for a few days.
He naively believed that time could melt the ice and cultivate feelings.
Unfortunately, Ci Yan's heart never wavered; she only harbored growing hatred for him. Qi Yansheng eventually despaired and considered setting her free, but fate had other plans, and the two of them reluctantly endured many more years together.
Ironically, Ci Yan had already been having an affair with Han Cheng during their marriage, not only giving him her virginity but also becoming pregnant with his daughter.
In order to give birth smoothly, she lied that she was too busy with work and hadn't been home for a long time. On a snowy day, she secretly gave birth to her daughter and named her Han Xue. A few days later, Qi Yansheng, who was completely unaware of the situation, took Qi Xu back from the orphanage.
During the lifetime of Qi Yansheng, he poured all his love and care into Qi Xu.
Ci Yan merely fulfilled her perfunctory obligations, providing the necessary material support, but reserving all the tenderness and attention to detail for her biological daughter, Han Xue, who lived far away.
Until Qi Yansheng passed away due to illness, Qi Xu's world completely lost its last source of light.
Until his death, he made no demands on Ciyan, only earnestly urging Qixu to be strong: "Don't care too much about how others treat you. The most important thing is to become strong yourself. If you are strong, you will have everything."
She seemed to have become an eyesore and a "dirty thing" in the house that needed to be dealt with.
Qi Xu never dared to ask for the tenderness of the departing geese.
Her adoptive father's dying words before she was about to start junior high school were her only support: to be independent and not rely on anyone. Before, with her father as her safety net, she could be vulnerable at times; now, she had to forge her own path through thorns.
However, no matter what she did, it seemed she couldn't escape Ci Yan's criticism.
Silence is seen as "lacking in opinion and deserving to be bullied"; any rebuttal is labeled as "disrespectful to elders and ruining one's reputation".
"Seven o'clock, wash the clothes."
"Seven o'clock, go cook."
"I've raised you for so many years, it wasn't for nothing, you should repay me with your hard-earned money, right?"
Qi Xu sneered inwardly, but his face remained calm.
One hot summer night, the power suddenly went out.
The sweltering heat woke Qi Xu from his deep sleep, his clothes soaked with sweat.
She opened the window, and the cool night breeze rushed in. Unable to bear the heat any longer, she forgot about her recently pierced ears and quickly took a hot shower.
She was shocked to realize after coming out that her ear piercings shouldn't get wet! She hurriedly searched for remedies on her phone and saw someone suggest using a hairdryer to dry them, so she immediately did so.
The room was still unbearably hot, so she went downstairs for some fresh air, but she was still uneasy.
Remembering how her junior high classmate quickly switched to ear sticks after getting her ears pierced, she decided to give it a try and went to the store to buy a box of plastic ear sticks.
Back home, she carefully removed her earrings in front of the mirror, but accidentally pulled her earlobe, causing her to gasp in pain.
She had finally managed to replace both ear piercings with earplugs when the electricity came back on. She sat down at her desk and tried to distract herself by sketching cartoon characters.
The results of the last exam are out.
The classroom was filled with tension and anticipation, with students eagerly asking each other questions and making comparisons.
When the test papers were handed out, she was quite satisfied with the passing score.
My deskmate, Wan Xiaoyi, peeked over and asked, "How did you do on the test?" "Just passed."
"That's not bad either, there's still time to work hard." In the front row, several students surrounded the class monitor to look at the grades, their exclamations of surprise rising and falling.
Hao Nan, who was sitting at the back of the table, naturally took the empty seat behind Qi Xu and gently poked Qi Xu's back with his pen: "And you? What score did you get?"
"Barely passing." Hearing this score, and thinking about his own dismal score of just over twenty on the test, Hao Nan suddenly felt a wave of humiliation and inferiority.
He silently shrank back into his seat, took out the test paper from the drawer, and began to painstakingly correct the almost blank textbook.
After only a few questions were corrected, a wave of frustration washed over me. The questions were like gibberish; I couldn't understand a single one of them.
Just as he was about to give up, Qi Xu happened to pass by his seat, saw him scratching his head, and stopped: "Do you need help?"
Hao Nan reacted as if he'd been burned, quickly hiding the test paper with the shameful score written on it, afraid that she would dislike him: "No need, no need! I'll change it, it's just... I'm a little tired, I'll do it later."
Qi Xu clearly didn't believe her: "But you seem very weak to me? You seem to really need help right now, are you sure you don't need it?"
"Really, you don't need to!" Hao Nan's voice was tinged with embarrassment.
Qi Xu didn't insist any further: "Alright."
Back in her seat, she glanced back and saw Hao Nan still futilely searching through that almost blank textbook. She sighed, took out her own study guide and notebook, and handed them to him: "Use mine, it has more complete notes."
Hao Nan smiled awkwardly, pushed her book aside, and continued to struggle with that incomprehensible book.
He dared not move, because beneath that mysterious book lay a test paper covered in red crosses and pitiful scores; once removed, those glaring scores would be laid bare.
He didn't want to lose face in front of her, so he secretly vowed: After this, I must start studying hard!
His gaze inadvertently fell on Qi Xu's earlobes, and he instantly forgot about the score. Her earrings were gone, and her two earlobes were swollen like small steamed buns!
He subconsciously grabbed Qi Xu's school uniform sleeve and moved to the empty seat next to him: "You sit here, turn around, let me see your ears."
Qi Xu obediently turned around.
The area around my ear piercing was terribly red and swollen, and in some places, it was even pressed into the flesh by cheap plastic ear sticks.
Hao Nan was both anxious and angry. He suppressed his anger and asked, "Who told you to change your earrings so early? Didn't you say at least a month? Look how swollen they are!"
"I heard that it can be changed in a week..."
"Then what kind of junk did you get? At least get something silver!"
"This is an earplug..." Hao Nan was speechless: "What use is plastic! Look here, it's embedded in the flesh!"
Qi Xu instinctively reached out to touch it, but Hao Nan stopped her, saying, "Don't touch it! It's inflamed!"
"What should we do then?" Qi Xu's voice carried a hint of panic.
Hao Nan quickly called over Wan Xiaoyi, who was not far away.
Wan Xiaoyi was discussing a problem with her classmate when she heard the noise and came over: "What's wrong?"
Hao Nan pointed at Qi Xu's ears: "Look at her ear piercings!"
Wan Xiaoyi gently brushed aside the stray hairs by Qi Xu's ear, her brows immediately furrowing: "My God, why did you change it so early? It's so swollen! It's like a ball!"
"I just... want to put on some pretty earrings as soon as possible."
Wan Xiaoyi rolled her eyes helplessly: "Can't you have a little patience? I'll take you to my sister's shop after school this afternoon and let her take a look."
Hao Nan remained anxious throughout the remaining classes.
As soon as school was over, he urged the two of them to hurry up and stuffed the disinfectant and anti-inflammatory ointment he had bought last time into Qi Xu's hands.
Looking at the medicine, Wan Xiaoyi teased, "Wow, you've even prepared disinfectant and anti-inflammatory medicine. How thoughtful!" Hao Nan's face flushed slightly as he explained, "I was just worried the inflammation would get worse!"
When they were almost at Wan Xiaoyi's shop, Hao Nan told them to go ahead, and then excused himself to go to the restroom and went into a jewelry store next door.
He took out his phone to check his WeChat wallet, where he had been saving up for a long time and originally planned to use it to buy a limited-edition game skin before midnight.
My gaze swept back and forth among the various silver earrings, finally settling on a pair of exquisite butterfly-shaped earrings.
He remembered the bows that often appeared on Qi Xu's hair ties, and without further hesitation, he made the payment.
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