Chapter 20 A strong possessive desire is not necessarily a bad thing...
"separate?"
Ren Yu frowned, and his already sharp features became even more menacing after his smile faded, giving him a thuggish air. "Did that brat Jiang Zhiyan bully you?"
Xia Zhiyu held Xia Xiaojiang's untreated forearm and remained silent for a long time. "It's not really bullying. We're just not compatible. Being with him is exhausting."
"He was tired, and I was tired too. So it was natural that we broke up."
She tilted her head, her expression revealing deep fatigue and exhaustion, looking very weak, much like Xia Xiaojiang who was receiving an injection.
The plight of the cat and the human is heartbreaking.
Ren Yu suddenly remembered Xia Zhiyu when she was a child. At the age of twelve, Xia Zhiyu lost her parents' only love and became timid and introverted. At the age of nineteen, Xia Zhiyu lost her mentor and her personality became more and more awkward.
What about Xia Zhiyu, who is twenty-five years old?
What did she lose during the two years he was away from her?
Ren Yu felt a dull, aching pain in his heart. Looking at the whorl of hair on the back of Xia Zhiyu's head, Ren Yu's Adam's apple bobbed slightly, and his eyes filled with heartache and regret.
"Let's not talk about him anymore," Xia Zhiyu forced a smile, "Let me see what kind of pet you have, and it even has the same name as mine."
His smile was forced and ugly, making him look like a pitiful little bitter gourd.
Ren Yu clicked her tongue and flicked Xia Zhiyu's forehead.
"You're still putting on an act in front of me. If you don't want to laugh, then don't. I'm not an outsider."
"I have a parrot named Yuyu because it always wants to escape, just like you. It always wants to fly out into the world and hates going home."
Their tone was light and their actions intimate, just like when they hadn't broken up.
Xia Zhiyu covered her forehead in a daze, her nose tingling, and she felt like crying again.
...
“I understand what you mean,” Ren Yu said through gritted teeth, his eyes filled with suppressed anger. “That bastard Jiang Zhiyan is a complete idiot.”
"Is his home a Cainiao Post Station? Is his house full of large and small items? Wow."
"How could I have gotten angry with you over this stupid thing? I should have flown to America and smashed him to death with a brick."
Ren Yu paced back and forth in anger. The parrotfish stood calmly on his shoulder, its wings bandaged. Even though it was sick, the bird was still active, stretching its neck and pecking at Ren Yu's earring every now and then.
Xia Zhiyu laughed, "How come you haven't changed at all after all these years? When you get angry, you run around the house like Old Zhao."
Old Zhao was their high school homeroom teacher. It was Xia Zhiyu who noticed that when Old Zhao and Ren Yu got angry, they would walk in circles, as if their emotions wouldn't move when their bodies were moving.
It's quite funny.
But it seems to make a lot of sense.
When you're angry, take action; when you're sad, speak up.
Just like now, when she told Fang Xinle the first time why she broke up with Jiang Zhiyan, she felt like she was being fried in oil and cooked in fire. But when she told Ren Yu the second time, she was obviously not as tormented as before. It was as if she had gotten used to it, or as if she didn't care anymore.
Regardless, this is a good thing.
This indicates that she is gradually becoming desensitized to Jiang Zhiyan.
Xia Zhiyu smiled, feeling as if another corner of the heavy stone in her heart named Jiang Zhiyan had been knocked off.
"Still laughing, still laughing! You've been bullied like this and you're still laughing!"
Ren Yu straightened her face and said, "No, I have to have a good talk with that kid, otherwise he'll really think you have no one to protect you and that he's bullying my kid."
Xia Zhiyu ate at his house for six years, so she could practically be considered his younger sister.
Ren Yu said "let's talk about it," but he cracked his knuckles hard, making a snapping sound. It didn't look like he was just talking about it.
It was the same when they were little. Whenever Xia Zhiyu was bullied, Ren Yu would always help her fight back. If something was stolen, they would take it back; if someone hit her, they would hit back.
Xia Zhiyu's limited courage was all learned from Ren Yu.
If Jiang Zhiyan helped her out of the mire of Teacher Song's death, then Ren Yu was the one who helped her out of the mire of her original family.
How could she have thought before that no one loved her except Jiang Zhiyan?
Many people clearly love her.
Xia Zhiyu felt a slight lump in her throat. She sniffed, picked up Xia Xiaojiang who had just received an injection, and looked up at Ren Yu. Her eyes were red, but her smile was clean and gentle, a million times more beautiful than the forced smile from before.
"It's okay, I'm fine. Don't get angry with someone like Jiang Zhiyan, just let him go."
Ren Yu looked at Xia Zhiyu's bright smile with annoyance, feeling a lump in her throat, and after a long while, she could only manage to say, "You stupid brat."
As he spoke, he vigorously rubbed Xia Zhiyu's head, successfully creating a new bird's nest.
"Don't touch or pull my hair. I don't have as much hair as I used to. I'm losing hair every day because of the people involved."
Xia Zhiyu slapped Ren Yu's hand away, her smile bright. The two looked like an intimate young couple playfully bickering.
While the doctor was giving Xia Xiaojiang his medicine, the two chatted for a while longer.
Ren Yu has always been a very principled person. After completing his master's degree, he experienced a period of confusion, falling into a nihilistic trap where he felt his life was meaningless. His advisor suggested that he could spend some time teaching in a rural area before returning to pursue his doctorate.
Ren Yu thought it made sense, so in September 2022, he returned to his hometown in Tibet with just a suitcase to teach. He had come to Beicheng for Xia Zhiyu's birthday to tell her about this, but unfortunately, he didn't say it.
When he first arrived at Wangcuo, he was assigned to teach at an altitude of over 3,000 meters because of his good physical condition. At the beginning of the class, he had to start using oxygen halfway through, and the students had to read the texts aloud because he would get out of breath if he talked too much.
I originally thought I'd give it a year as a teaching stint to change my mood, but who knew that once I got to that small county, I'd become inseparable from him.
Ren Yu decisively gave up her doctoral studies. After finishing her teaching stint, she opened a guesthouse near Wangcuo. She also studied the Gessar epic and made Thangkas with an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage. This time, she came to Beicheng to participate in a seminar on Tibetan culture.
"Here it is, isn't it beautiful?"
Ren Yu opened the photo album, and brightly colored Thangkas came into view. "Let me make this clear first, you generally can't take photos of Thangkas, but these are ones I made, so I took pictures of them. If you ever have the chance to go to Tibet, don't take pictures of them indiscriminately, especially Buddhist Thangkas, or you might get beaten up by the locals."
“They beat people who are disrespectful to religion very badly.”
After saying this, Ren Yu looked distressed.
This is very lifelike.
It's obvious that, given Ren Yu's personality, he must have been beaten up to have learned his lesson so well.
Xia Zhiyu laughed until tears streamed down her face.
She flipped through Ren Yu's photo album, from Thangka paintings to blue skies, white clouds, and clear lakes, to Tibetan children with rosy cheeks, and Ren Yu riding a bicycle on a loop, her head wrapped up and her whole body tanned and peeling.
Xia Zhiyu flipped through these photos one by one, and a powerful vitality swept over her: meadows, wild rabbits, lambs, lakes, and even a pack of wolves.
When you open the live stream, you can hear the crackling of matches during the bonfire party, a sound similar to the short, sharp cracking of firecrackers.
Xia Zhiyu clicked on the live stream again and again.
I could also vaguely hear Ren Yu speaking loudly in some dialect.
Ren Yu explained with great enthusiasm, "They invited me to have barbecue together. I told them that I can speak some everyday Tibetan now."
It turns out that there really are people living this kind of free and unrestrained life.
It turns out there's another path in life.
Xia Zhiyu held her breath; the brightly colored streets and Thangka paintings of the Tibetan region seemed to open the door to a new world for her.
She heard a sound echoing in her heart, like a bird hatching from its shell, or like ice breaking in early spring.
"I've also thought about that kind of life."
Xia Zhiyu heard herself say this.
Ren Yu raised an eyebrow and said seriously, "Then come and volunteer at my guesthouse. It'll cover all your food, lodging, and entertainment. I'll personally be your tour guide."
"You'll understand once you've been there."
"When you climb to the top of the mountain and look down at the empty world, there are lakes in the distance and yaks and herdsmen on motorcycles closer by. People look as small as grains of rice. Under this grand natural narrative, emotions, worries, and work will only dissipate like the clouds after sunrise."
"Little Fish," Ren Yu looked down at her, "I experienced a free life in Tibet for the first time, it was truly wonderful, and I hope you can experience that wonderful feeling too."
free……
“Okay, I’ll go,” Xia Zhiyu agreed immediately. “Anyway, I’ve resigned now, so I can rest for as long as I want.”
"So that I won't have to go back to my hometown to rest and get nagged by my parents."
Xia Zhiyu thought about it more and more and it seemed feasible. She knew her parents too well. If they knew that she had resigned, they would definitely be extremely nervous. They would either force Xia Zhiyu to find a new job or make her take the civil service exam.
In short, one cannot be idle, lest one become a laughing stock. A prestigious university student ending up staying at home only adds to the amusement of others at the dinner table.
In traditional Chinese thinking, wanting to stop and rest is considered a serious crime, and anyone can criticize you. Even if you don't think you've done anything wrong at first, being immersed in such a guilty environment will eventually make even the most steadfast person doubt themselves.
Xia Zhiyu didn't want to doubt herself.
Ren Yu: "Okay, then let's go together after I finish the seminar. I'll buy the plane tickets as a discount for your employees. Anyway, I have subsidies, so why not take advantage of it?"
"Wait, what will happen to my luggage if I don't go home? I can't just keep leaving it at Jiang Zhiyan's house."
Xia Zhiyu was a little worried, "I can't just send it back, my parents will definitely get suspicious."
“That’s easy, just send it to my house,” Ren Yu patted his chest. “I bought a house in Chuancheng, but no one lives there usually. Just send the things you don’t use often over there.”
"Do you have a lot of stuff? It's too late today. Let's go together tomorrow. I'll help you pack and ship it out directly. I got a SF Express card on Pinduoduo, so sending packages is super cost-effective."
"There aren't many items, and I've almost finished packing them, so I can just send them out directly."
Xia Zhiyu breathed a sigh of relief. The thought that she wouldn't have to go to Jiang Zhiyan's house alone to pack her things tomorrow, and that there was even a great risk of facing Jiang Zhiyan's cold face, made her feel much more relaxed.
Before he could finish speaking, Xia Zhiyu waved her hand and said, "I'll just stay at another friend's house. You don't need to worry about it."
After saying that, she added, just in case Ren Yu was worried, "She is my most trusted friend in Beicheng. She accompanied me to all my previous medical check-ups and follow-up examinations. We have a very good relationship, so don't worry."
Ren Yu's expression froze for a moment, then she regained her nonchalant air. "Alright, where is it? I'll take you there."
-
The Crystal Ballroom of the upscale hotel is hosting a charity gala tonight. Under the guise of raising funds for impoverished areas, it is essentially a social gathering for the upper class, a place for negotiating and collaborating.
Many business collaborations and marriages are reached in such places.
Jiang Zhiyan only saw the message that Xia Zhiyu had taken the cat to the hospital after dealing with several rounds of social interactions. He frowned and opened WeChat.
The veterinarian replied to messages very quickly.
Yes, Ms. Xia arrived around 3 PM. Xiao Jiang only has urinary retention, which isn't too serious. He just needs to take his medication on time and have his urine output checked regularly. However, he may need to stay in the hospital for observation for the next couple of days.
A gentleman just picked up Ms. Xia; they can leave after Xiao Jiang finishes his injection.
Then the doctor sent another photo.
In the photo, a tall man is rubbing Xia Zhiyu's head with a doting smile, and Xia Zhiyu is looking up at him with a sweet smile.
The handsome man and beautiful woman are an exceptionally good match.
The combination is glaringly obvious.
Ren Yu?
Jiang Zhiyan frowned, looking extremely displeased.
Where did he suddenly appear from again? Why does this guy always pounce on Xia Zhiyu like a hyena that smells blood whenever he hears them arguing?
It's incredibly annoying.
Jiang Zhiyan's expression grew increasingly cold.
He's disliked Ren Yu for a long time; after all, who would like a childhood friend who's always buzzing around their girlfriend like a fly?
Even though he knew this dislike would put Xia Zhiyu in a difficult position, Jiang Zhiyan clearly saw Xia Zhiyu's predicament, but he couldn't tolerate the fact that there was a scheming, scheming person lurking around Xia Zhiyu.
Whenever he thinks of how Xia Zhiyu would remember Ren Yu's birthday just like he would remember his, carefully preparing gifts for Ren Yu, and even possibly making some little trinkets herself.
Jealousy was like sulfuric acid, corroding Jiang Zhiyan's heart.
So he was unwilling to compromise. Heaven knows how happy Jiang Zhiyan was after Xia Zhiyu told him, crying, that she and Ren Yu had a fight and broke up.
During that period, Jiang Zhiyan was not as harsh on competitors who were trying to steal his business.
This is the part of him that most resembles Jiang Jing; Jiang Zhiyan also cannot bear to see any woman around his lover.
A strong possessiveness can be a pathological condition.
For a time, Jiang Zhiyan couldn't even bear to hear the phrase "childhood sweethearts." This phrase seemed to constantly remind him that before he met Xia Zhiyu, it was Ren Yu who was by Xia Zhiyu's side, making her happy and being relied upon by her.
He was jealous that Ren Yu had the first twenty years of her life that he could never have.
Jealousy runs deep in his bones. Just mentioning those two words sends his brain into a state of emergency, forcing him to want to be by Xia Zhiyu's side right now and drive away the dog-like Ren Yu.
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