Chapter 68
The arrival of Secretary Gao startled Wu Yanying, who almost tucked half her head into her collar, but her exposed eyes strangely shone with a fearless ferocity.
Secretary Gao's high heels clattered menacingly on the tiled floor. As she approached, Wu Yanying suddenly yelled, "What are you doing here? Trying to insult me? Let me tell you, I'm not afraid of you! Don't try to bully me!"
In response to Wu Yanying's intense reaction, Secretary Gao acted like a cold-faced demon, her expression remaining unchanged, but her sinister gaze swept over Yan Qing.
Yan Qing stood up from her seat and handed the things in her hand to Wu Yanying: "I'm leaving now."
Wu Yanying gripped Yan Qing's sleeve tightly, her voice barely audible: "Don't go! She'll kill me!"
Yan Qing was both amused and exasperated: "I have other things to do."
Wu Yanying then remembered that Yan Qing had come to get her brother's death certificate. "I'll go with you," she said to Yan Qing.
"Coming with me?"
“Yes!” Wu Yanying said firmly, glancing at Secretary Gao out of the corner of her eye. “Anyway, I’ll follow you wherever you go.”
Secretary Gao, with the air of a judge, slammed the plastic bag he was holding onto the soft chair, spilling its contents—a number of nutritional supplements. Perhaps due to his age, Secretary Gao's upper lip was thin, barely forming a line, and his lips hung down with difficulty. His thick glasses made his already serious face appear even more unapproachable.
"Fine, so now we're enemies, huh? I really asked for trouble, having nothing better to do than meddle in your business!"
Separated from Yan Qing, Wu Yanying retorted defiantly, "Come on, you're not really concerned about me! You just think I'll embarrass you and that I'll become a burden to you!"
"Wu Yanying, don't you have any conscience? Who have I sacrificed so much for? For myself?"
"It's all for your own sake! You've never treated me like a human being! You forced me to study, forced me to take the postgraduate entrance exam, just so I could make something of myself and bring you honor!"
Secretary Gao scoffed, "You really think too highly of yourself. I know your worth all too well. As for postgraduate studies or getting ahead in life, I don't have such high hopes for you. I just ask that you be an upright person. But now it seems even that's a pipe dream."
Wu Yanying's face turned deathly pale: "Since you look down on me so much, why didn't you beat me up back then?!"
Yan Qing didn't immediately grasp the meaning of those words, but she noticed that Secretary Gao's hand, half-hidden in her sleeve, was clenched tightly. She glared at Wu Yanying, her upper lip stretched taut like a steel wire, almost disappearing. Yan Qing was afraid that Secretary Gao would throw a punch at her in the next second, so she unconsciously moved closer to Wu Yanying.
Secretary Gao naturally didn't make a move; the flames of anger flickered in her pupils a few times before being extinguished. At this moment, Yan Qing had already shielded Wu Yanying behind her.
Secretary Gao looked at Yan Qing with the same old expression: "Don't tell me you accompanied her to the surgery."
Yan Qing did not answer directly, but said, "She is quite weak right now. Let's talk about it after she has rested."
"Does she need a rest? She has plenty of energy to argue with me."
A man rushed by, angrily speaking into the phone: "Where are you? Hurry up, it's already 11:30! The doctor gets off work at 12!"
Yan Qing glanced at the file folder in her bag that she had almost forgotten about, and said to Wu Yanying, "I really have to go take care of this."
The death certificate was processed very smoothly. After all the formalities were completed, the staff member said to her, "Please accept my condolences."
After leaving the office, Wu Yanying waited for her in the rest area across the street.
Outside the outpatient building, Secretary Gao was waiting for the two of them.
Secretary Gao led them to a residential area in the east of the city. In the underground parking garage, the footsteps of the three people rose and fell, each out of sync with the others.
Wu Yanying was clearly still sulking. In the dead of winter, having just undergone an abortion, she deliberately left her down jacket wide open, and Yan Qing's quiet persuasion was to no avail.
Once inside, Secretary Gao tossed the keys onto the coffee table and glared at Wu Yanying: "If you've got the guts, then strip naked!"
Wu Yanying replied viciously: "Crazy woman."
"Excellent," Secretary Gao clapped. "Why are you living with a mentally ill woman? Aren't you afraid she'll abuse you?"
Wu Yanying glared at her angrily: "Do you think I want to live with you? I'm packing my things and leaving today. I'll never set foot in your house again!"
Wu Yanying spoke through gritted teeth, as if the two harbored a deep-seated hatred. On the way, Yan Qing had already come to understand the meaning of Wu Yanying's ambiguous words—"Since you look down on me so much, why didn't you beat me up back then?!"—In her shock, she finally realized that the relationship between Wu Yanying and Secretary Gao was far more than just that of fellow villagers.
Secretary Gao's two-bedroom apartment had a very simple layout; it was obvious without asking that the smaller bedroom belonged to Wu Yanying. But out of politeness, she still asked Secretary Gao, "Which room is Xiao Wu's?"
Secretary Gao gestured with her chin toward the small house: "Weren't you packing your things and leaving? They're all there."
"You don't need to provoke me! I'll pack up right now!" Wu Yanying strode into the bedroom, while Secretary Gao, arms crossed, calmly glanced at her: "Where do you think you'll go? Sleep on the street?"
"I'd rather sleep on the street than share a room with you!"
Wu Yanying opened cabinet doors and pulled out drawers in the room, making a lot of noise.
Yan Qing sighed helplessly. These two clearly knew the other was important, yet they refused to talk to each other properly.
Wu Yanying was stuffing things into her suitcase when Yan Qing stopped her, saying, "Don't be stubborn. You just had surgery, you need to rest properly and not leave any health problems."
Wu Yanying deliberately raised her voice: "It would be better if he were dead!"
Secretary Gao shouted from the living room: "Go outside if you're going to die! Don't die in my house! It's bad luck!"
Wu Yanying retorted sharply: "Gao Meiyun, do you think I want to live? If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be where I am today!"
Yan Qing had heard the name Secretary Gao from Shen Hanyang before. However, in her mind, Secretary Gao was already a fixed image of a serious and unsmiling secretary. The three characters "Secretary Gao" were more clearly imprinted on her face than her real name, so much so that Yan Qing rarely remembered that she had such a woman's name with such an old-fashioned romantic connotation.
"You're the one who's brainless, and you're blaming me for it?"
Secretary Gao raised her voice, but Wu Yanying retorted without backing down: "Even if she's brainless, you gave birth to her!"
"Shut up!" Secretary Gao was furious, her voice trembling. "I sent you to school to learn skills, and you ended up having an affair with an old man who's about to retire! How can you face me and President Chen? If I had known you were this shameless, I should have strangled you when you were born! Like a rat's son who knows how to dig a hole, you're a bad seed, a rotten seed from the start!"
Wu Yanying was furious. She frantically overturned her suitcase, scattering her belongings all over the floor: "Gao Meiyun, since I've caused you so much pain, why don't you strangle me? Come on! Come on!"
"You think I don't want to? You're useless!"
Both of them were screaming and shouting, each more desperate than the last. Perhaps due to excessive excitement, Wu Yanying's body swayed and she fell downwards.
Wu Yanying only fainted briefly. When she was hurriedly carried to bed, she had already slightly opened her eyes. Seeing the panicked Gao Meiyun, Wu Yanying closed her eyes again, refusing to look at her.
"I'll stay with Xiao Wu," Yan Qing said.
Gao Meiyun's brows twitched, and she left in silence. Yan Qing noticed for the first time that her back was no longer straight, and her figure showed a hint of loneliness.
After Gao Meiyun left, Wu Yanying said, "She is a professor in our college."
Yan Qing snapped out of her daze: "What?"
Wu Yanying stared blankly at the ceiling: "The child belongs to one of our college professors."
Yan Qing then connected her words with what Secretary Gao had just said.
“I couldn’t get into graduate school, so I tried to find a professor to pull strings. I thought that if I stayed with him, he could guarantee me a place. He was old and smelly, and almost bald. I endured the disgust and stayed with him…” Recalling the terrible past, Wu Yanying’s voice trembled. “But later he said he couldn’t get a guaranteed place and gave me 10,000 yuan to have an abortion…” Wu Yanying closed her eyes, tears streaming down her face and into her hair. “Gao Meiyun didn’t wrong me. I’m brainless. I should die.”
Yan Qing tucked the blanket under her body: "Don't think about these things for now. You need to rest and not overexert yourself."
Wu Yanying's tear ducts burst open: "I deserve it. I'm not good enough for Brother Hanyang, so I wanted to find another shortcut. I didn't want to live a conventional life, fantasizing about rising to the top overnight and relying on others to become someone superior..."
You're just temporarily lost.
"It's my own fault. I was too stupid and greedy, and that's why I ended up like this."
Yan Qing sat down by the bed and took her hand: "Life is bound to have its ups and downs, but you'll get through them. Look ahead, the future will always be better."
“I’m ruined, I have no future. I’m useless. Brother Hanyang gave me such good conditions, but I couldn’t get good grades and I ended up all dirty. It’s no wonder Gao Meiyun hates me. Do you know, she was originally very outstanding and got into university, but she got pregnant by a bad man from the same village and gave birth to me at the age of nineteen. I am a disgrace she can never wash away.”
Once Wu Yanying opened up, she recounted many stories, and Yan Qing learned that the connection between Shen Hanyang and Gao Meiyun could be traced back more than two generations. Shen Hanyang's grandfather was an outdoor enthusiast. Once, he got lost in the mountains of Guizhou and broke his ankle; it was Gao Meiyun's maternal grandfather who carried him out. Gao Meiyun's parents died early, and she had always depended on her maternal grandfather. To repay this life-saving kindness, the Shen family did their best to support Gao Meiyun's education. However, Gao Meiyun's maternal grandfather was a stubborn old man, and he returned all the extra money to the Shen family, except for the necessary tuition and living expenses. Gao Meiyun joined the Shen family's company immediately after graduating from university. She took a year off from school due to pregnancy and childbirth, citing health reasons as the reason given to the Shen family. Wu Yanying took Gao Meiyun's maternal grandfather's surname and remained hidden in her hometown. Later, Huanyu Technology did charity work, sponsoring college students in mountainous areas, and Gao Meiyun finally took this opportunity to bring Wu Yanying into the public eye.
Wu Yanying kept talking, but her voice grew weaker and weaker until Yan Qing realized that she had fallen asleep.
Yan Qing tiptoed out of the room, while Gao Meiyun remained seated on the sofa.
When facing Yan Qing, Gao Meiyun always wore a serious and indifferent expression.
"You still have the leisure to meddle in her affairs?"
Yan Qing was taken aback.
Gao Meiyun scoffed lightly through her nose: "I really don't understand you. Your own backyard is on fire, yet you can still act like a confidante to others without batting an eye."
Yan Qing remained silent. It seemed that her affair with Shen Hanyang was no secret to Secretary Gao. Not wanting to discuss it further, she changed the subject: "Xiao Wu is already very upset. When she wakes up, please comfort her and stop scolding her."
Secretary Gao sighed, "People are so different. If Wu Yanying were half as smart as you..." She shook her head, "Never mind, you're not that smart either."
Yan Qing didn't speak.
Secretary Gao looked at her with disdain: "I'm talking to you. If you keep cowering like this, Ren Ruiyun will start riding on your head."
"Let her be."
"You're very generous."
“What can I do?” Yan Qing asked sadly. “They have a child together.”
Gao Meiyun corrected her: "First of all, Jiaming is not President Shen's child; they are not related by blood at all."
“But he raised Jiaming for so many years, and you can’t just wash your hands of it by saying there’s no blood relation.”
Gao Meiyun remained silent, seemingly lost in thought.
"Secretary Gao, after today, my opinion of you has changed."
Secretary Gao was stunned, and it took her a long time to react: "You've gone too far! Do I need you to change your mind?"
Yan Qing smiled and said, "Xiao Wu told me everything. You may look fierce, but you're a really good person inside. You insisted on taking care of Xiao Wu even under such difficult circumstances."
“What’s the use?” Secretary Gao glanced sadly at the tightly closed door to the second bedroom, “It’s still turned out like this…”
"It's different. Although she was seduced by a bad man this time, underwent painful surgery, and suffered both physically and mentally, she avoided an even more tragic fate because of your protection. Thank you for not abandoning her."
Gao Meiyun felt a little confused, but her tone softened considerably: "Why are you thanking me like that..."
Yan Qing didn't say anything more. She didn't know how to explain to Gao Meiyun that children with mothers are much happier than children without mothers. Because the one who understands the pain of separation between mother and child the most is not the mother, but the child who has lost her mother.
Before Yan Qing left, Gao Meiyun called her back at the entrance of the residential area.
"You—" After a moment's hesitation, Gao Meiyun said, "How do you plan to resolve your issue with President Shen?"
Yan Qing lowered her eyes for a long while, then said, "Sister Gao, I want to ask you for a favor."
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