Chapter 22
"Except for Cheng Nuo."
"He's a rich kid who's not very bright. He has a lot of pocket money and people often borrow money from him and don't pay it back. I've been observing him for a long time. When he borrowed money from me again, I stopped him. He was very happy and gave me a bag of snacks the next day, saying he wanted to be friends with me. I refused. I said I didn't have the money or the time to be his friend."
Cheng Nuo said it was okay, he could let him copy his homework. He said he wasn't smart enough, he got in through donations, and he couldn't understand a single word of his homework.
“After that, we started to ‘be friends.’ I would let him copy my homework, and he would bring me snacks, tell me interesting news, and bring me novels that his parents had bought for him but had never opened.”
"I kept these things very secret, but they were eventually discovered."
"My mother stormed into the classroom during class, searched my drawer for snacks and novels, threw them at Cheng Nuo's body and face, and called him shameless, a little bastard, and a bad influence on me."
"I thought Cheng Nuo would break off our friendship like everyone else and stay away from me forever. But he didn't. He still brought me snacks and novels, just much more carefully."
I asked him why, and he said—
At this point, Jiang Cheng paused for a moment before speaking again.
He said, "Jiang Chengyi, if I don't become friends with you, you won't be able to get snacks or read novels. That's so pitiful."
Jiang Chengyi suddenly laughed, "At that moment, I suddenly realized that I am indeed a pitiful person."
"The pitiful thing is not the way my mother treated me, but that I silently and unresistingly submitted for twelve years."
Yu Miaomiao noticed that his eyes had become very bright, as if something was burning inside them.
"From then on, I was determined to become a free and unfettered person."
“I borrowed a lot of law books from Cheng Nuo and learned that minors have very little right to do so. So I decided to start my fight after I became an adult. Before that, I need to prepare a lot of things: money, knowledge, and skills.”
"I skipped a month of tutoring classes and used the money from part-time jobs to buy my first mobile phone. Later, I made money by operating an online account. After the college entrance examination, on the last day of filling out college applications, I changed the Tsinghua and Peking Universities that she filled in for me to A University."
“She couldn’t accept it and forced me to repeat a year of high school, otherwise she wouldn’t provide me with a penny for tuition and living expenses, but I had already earned enough money to live on my own.”
Yu Miaomiao stared at Jiang Chengyi, somewhat lost in thought.
Perhaps due to some similar childhood experiences, she easily discovered the hidden things in Jiang Chengyi's narration.
For example, being overly controlled in terms of eating and sleeping can lead to extreme self-loathing; for example, a child who dislikes someone is more likely to vent their malice on that person than to ignore them; for example, a mother's fury and punishment after discovering that Jiang Chengyi has skipped class; for example, how difficult it is to make money online in a high-pressure monitoring environment.
These things were glossed over by Jiang Chengyi with a casual remark.
In summary, the last sentence says: "That's it. I learned how to manage an account and how to communicate with people in an appropriate way."
Yu Miaomiao was startled awake, her thoughts drifting away.
She asked, "Why are you telling me all this?"
She had thought that the other party might pretend not to hear, might avoid the topic, or might give a perfunctory answer, but she never expected it to be such a long and... disorienting reply.
Yu Miaomiao blinked, feeling a sense of unease.
This fear doesn't stem from seeing something terrible, but rather from touching upon a person's deepest memories.
She never showed her emotions outwardly, let alone told others about her past. To her, such behavior was like a cat retracting its claws, exposing its belly and neck, and luring others to attack—too dangerous and too foolish.
Jiang Chengyi, in front of Yu Miaomiao, let down all his guard, exposed his belly, and looked at her with such bright eyes, as if he was expecting something.
She tried to reach out and touch it, only to find it scalding hot.
This was a temperature Yu Miaomiao had never experienced before. She instinctively recoiled, but she couldn't; Yu Miaomiao couldn't be afraid of anything.
So she sneered, wanting to say something to mock the man's naivety and stupidity, and suppress her fear.
But the words just wouldn't come out.
Finally speaking, he repeated the question only once: "Why did you tell me?"
As soon as she finished speaking, she suddenly paused, realizing that she seemed to have asked Jiang Chengyi this question before.
He didn't answer at that time.
She thought it would be the same this time, but Jiang Chengyi gave a different answer.
He stood up, looked down at Yu Miaomiao, the backlighting dimmed his face, but his dark eyes shone brightly.
There were many complex emotions mixed in there, which Yu Miaomiao couldn't understand.
Jiang Cheng said, "Yu Miaomiao, from the first time I met you, I realized that you and I are the same kind of people."
“You look cold, but you’re always angry. You hate almost everything and everyone in the world. Your anger is like it’s going to burn the whole world, but before that, it will burn you first.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying,” Yu Miaomiao said.
Jiang Chengyi did not look away; every detail of Yu Miaomiao's face was clearly visible in the sunlight.
Those lake-green eyes were staring at him intently, so openly and without fear.
But the slightly trembling eyelashes, the tightly pursed pale lips, the stagnant breathing, and the trembling pupils indicated that it was nothing more than a barrier, a persistent, hard, yet fragile barrier.
With just one more word, Jiang Cheng could break through the barrier, see the girl's truest emotions behind the barrier, and touch her heart.
I know why she's angry, why she cries, and why she always seems detached from the world.
But in the end, he took a step back and smiled slightly, "Maybe I misspoke, don't worry about it."
Yu Miaomiao breathed a sigh of relief, and the atmosphere fell into a silent silence.
The two cleaned up the cardboard box that the silver tabby had brought and were about to leave when Yu Miaomiao's bell suddenly rang.
The caller was Hu Li. She answered the phone, thinking it was about a new project, but the tone on the other end sounded very urgent.
"Miaomiao, your distant relative has been acting like a madman since he woke up, wanting to see you. I told him to keep the information confidential, but he still stole your address and personal information and insisted on coming out to find you!"
"The Enforcement Division has already set off to make the arrest. Be careful, don't stay at home..."
Yu Miaomiao didn't hear the second half of Hu Li's sentence because her attention was entirely focused on a figure in the distance.
The figure seemed to have noticed Yu Miaomiao as well. Although his expression was unclear, his exaggerated body language revealed his excitement.
He ran towards Yu Miaomiao.
As the distance closed, Yu Miaomiao felt a resonance and mutual attraction from her bloodline, and even her demonic power stirred slightly, seemingly delighted by the appearance of a shared origin.
"I just received a message, the Enforcement Division is on their way, Miaomiao, Miaomiao, can you hear me—"
Yu Miaomiao hung up the phone.
The man was very fast, and in the blink of an eye he was in front of Yu Miaomiao.
This is a man in his thirties, who seems to have traveled from the early 2000s. He is wearing an exaggerated printed black shirt, washed skinny jeans, and several dangling silver chains around his neck. He has long, light blonde hair styled in an exaggerated way, as if he has used a pound of hair gel.
He was staring intently at Yu Miaomiao, her strange green eyes glistening with tears and turning red from being open for so long. The person before him was a rare treasure lost for a long time, and would disappear again if he wasn't careful.
"I've finally, finally found you."
His voice was hoarse and had an odd tone, as if he hadn't spoken for a long time.
Jiang Chengyi frowned slightly as he looked at the strange man, stepped forward, and stood in front of Yu Miaomiao.
"Sir, are you sure you haven't mistaken me for someone else?"
"No, I wouldn't be mistaken!"
"Miaomiao, you are Miaomiao, right!"
The man walked past Jiang Chengyi, reached out, and tried to grab Yu Miaomiao's hand.
But Yu Miaomiao retreated without hesitation, her expression showing a hint of impatience.
You've mistaken me for someone else.
The man's attempt failed, and his expression turned slightly disappointed by the other person's look of disgust.
But he quickly became agitated again, "I know you've never seen me, but your blood... you should be able to tell I'm yours—"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Yu Miaomiao immediately interrupted him, staring intently at the man with a warning and disgust in her eyes, "I also suggest you think carefully about what you're going to say."
The intense, almost overflowing emotion stung the man, and he flinched back a step.
"I...I understand..."
His tone shifted from excitement to fear, "Have I bothered you...?"
He gave a bitter laugh, "It's only right that you treat me this way."
He was about to say something more when a shout came from not far away.
"There it is, hurry, hurry, hurry!"
Immediately afterwards, a group of people in uniforms quickly approached and subdued the man in a few moments.
He didn't struggle, letting his hands be cuffed behind his back, staring at Yu Miaomiao, and called out in a hoarse voice:
"Miaomiao, I'm so sorry!"
"I know it's my fault. I let Xiaoqing down. It's all my fault..."
Yu Miaomiao's breathing suddenly quickened, her fingertips digging into her palm as she looked at the man through the crowd.
"You shouldn't be saying these things to me."
The man wanted to say something more, but his mouth was already sealed shut and he was put into a car.
A gentle, middle-aged woman looked at the two of them apologetically, her tone sincere.
“We are staff members of the municipal mental hospital. We are very sorry that the mental patient escaped this time. We hope it has not caused any impact on you.”
He looked at the ambulance-like vehicle, his tone tinged with distrust, "As far as I know, the ambulances from mental hospitals seem to be different from regular ambulances."
The woman's smile froze, and she quickly explained, "The hospital's ambulances are in short supply, so this was borrowed from the hospital next door."
Jiang Chengyi remained expressionless, unsure whether he had believed her or not, and then asked, "May I see your identification?"
The woman quickly took out her identification.
He glanced at the documents, his brow furrowing slightly. The woman's heart skipped a beat, fearing she would have to answer some questions again.
However, Jiang Cheng simply returned the documents, saying, "I hope your hospital can strengthen its management of patients in the future."
"Okay, thank you for the suggestion."
The woman handed several coupons to the two of them, saying, "This is a small token of our appreciation; please don't refuse."
After saying that, they quickly got into the car, and the ambulance sped away from their sight, as if afraid of staying for even a second longer.
Yu Miaomiao glanced at the coupon; it was a large discount coupon for a popular restaurant in the city center. The Enforcement Division was really generous.
She casually stuffed the coupon into her pocket and said, "Let's go."
Jiang Chengyi didn't move. "Do you know that 'mentally ill person'?"
Yu Miaomiao scoffed, "I don't know him at all. He's probably been in a mental hospital for too long and has gone insane. He just ran away and grabbed someone and started claiming kinship with them."
Having said that, he ignored the other person and walked away.
Jiang Chengyi remained where he was, watching Yu Miaomiao's retreating figure with a hint of worry and confusion in his eyes.
Although Yu Miaomiao is cold and aloof, she would never ridicule others casually. However, her words just now were full of sarcasm and belittlement.
Those seemingly indifferent cat eyes also seemed to be suppressing some kind of emotion.
And his slightly trembling body couldn't lie to him.
He wrote down the address on the coupon and strode to catch up with Yu Miaomiao.
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