Chapter 74
On the other side of the courtyard, Xiang Wan was somewhat surprised when she heard the village official say that he had agreed to subsidize Chen Yan's daily expenses.
She thought about it carefully and actually found the memory in a remote corner of her mind.
She had just finished her dance class and was playing with a cat toy with Ju Tuan in the living room when Li Xia came downstairs and told her about it.
She felt sorry for the child, so she readily agreed. After all, she was sponsoring all the children in the village, so it was just an extra subsidy for daily expenses, nothing to her, just a drop in the bucket.
Little did she expect that this sum of money, which she had given up unintentionally, would inadvertently change the course of Chen Yan's life...
*
For the next six years, Chen Yan relied on the Xiang family's financial support to attend junior high and high school, but Xiang Wan did not accompany him during those six years.
A flash of white light, and when Xiang Wan opened her eyes again, it was six years later in this world...
At this time, Chen Yan had already received his admission letter from Xijing University, but he didn't tell anyone in the village, and no one even knew that he had been admitted to university.
Besides Li Xiaohua, who also received the admission notice in the village.
After receiving financial assistance from the Xiang family, Zhou Chengze and Zhou Xinyi moved to Beiyi.
Besides the two siblings, only two other people in this village were admitted to university: Chen Yan and Li Xiaohua, the village chief's daughter.
Although Xiang Wan sponsored all the children in Lijia Village, while learning doesn't solely rely on talent, there is certainly a degree of natural ability involved. Furthermore, the children in the village were all used to being wild, and few could settle down to study.
Although Li Xiaohua and Li Yaozu are siblings born of the same mother, they are worlds apart. Li Yaozu spends his days fooling around with the children, while Li Xiaohua spends every day in school.
As for Chen Yan, he had been hiding his true abilities for the past six years, and no one knew his real strength. Everyone, including the volunteer teachers in the school, thought he would not be able to get into university.
Li Yaozu, in particular, would always make sarcastic remarks to Chen Yan whenever he was in class, mocking him for not missing a single class but still getting worse grades than him, but Chen Yan never paid any attention to him.
On the day Li Xiaohua received her university admission notice, village chief Li Shengde set up a banquet at the village entrance to celebrate his beloved daughter's admission to university.
Many people from the village went, and while greeting the guests, Wang Xiaohui was also looking for a wife for her son among their daughters.
At the banquet, Li Shengde talked at length, but Li Xiaohua only said a few words before saying that she still needed to prepare for university and then left.
Li Shengde's expression turned somewhat unpleasant when his daughter didn't give him face. It wasn't until the guests kept praising Li Xiaohua for being promising and studious, and also for his excellent parenting skills, that he regained his composure and resumed his journey between tables with his wine.
On the other side, Li Xiaohua went out with her schoolbag on her back, but she wasn't going to school at all; she was going to find Chen Yan.
The person who delivered mail to Lijia Village was Uncle Zhang, who was also a friend of her father, so she knew him.
After Uncle Zhang gave her her admission notice, Li Xiaohua saw another notice and asked about it. When she learned that it was Chen Yan's, she wasn't very surprised.
Although Chen Yan's grades in every small and big test were very poor, he always barely passed, even in the high school entrance exam.
Being able to just barely touch the line every time means either that person is incredibly lucky, or that their skill level is terrifying, allowing them to control their score at will.
Li Xiaohua inexplicably felt that Chen Yan was the latter.
She first went to Chen Yan's courtyard, but found no one there. Guessing that he might be at the school, she headed towards the school.
However, before she even reached the school, she saw Chen Yan carrying books back on the path.
Li Xiaohua stopped and looked at him, tilting her head up to ask, "Chen Yan, I saw your acceptance letter. Which university admitted you?"
She didn't know when it started, but she had to look up to him. The bastard who used to be bullied by everyone had grown into a handsome young man.
It's unclear when it started, but Li Xiaohua developed feelings for him that were different from what she had imagined.
Her heart was pounding, but Chen Yan's face across from her remained expressionless: "Xijing University."
Upon hearing that Chen Yan had been admitted to Xida University, one of the top four prestigious universities in China, Li Xiaohua was stunned for a moment. She even forgot to stop Chen Yan from leaving.
Chen Yan wasn't very interested in her little scheme. After moving the books back into the house, he started packing his luggage.
The walls here were drafty, so there wasn't much to bring. He only packed two sets of clothes, an old photo of his grandmother, and some books, and that was it.
He had already bought his train ticket for tomorrow morning and planned to leave with his packed luggage in the early hours of the morning.
Looking at the dilapidated house, Chen Yan felt a mix of emotions.
This was originally his mother-in-law's bedroom. After she died, he couldn't sleep. His insomnia was only relieved after he moved into her room.
For the next six years, he slept in his mother-in-law's room. Whenever he missed her, he would lie down in the dirt in the yard for a while.
It was as if his mother-in-law had never left him.
That night, Chen Yan had trouble sleeping again. He tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep, so he went to sit quietly in the courtyard for a while.
Although it was only a little past nine o'clock at night, the villagers of Lijia Village worked from sunrise to sunset. After the sun went down, there were no streetlights in the village, so it was dark and there were hardly any people around.
Chen Yan sat on the ground, looked up at the sky, and remained silent.
Beside him, Xiang Wan sat down. She looked at his profile with a hint of amusement in her eyes. She had no idea that Chen Ruilin had a childhood friend who had a crush on him in his past life.
Although six years have passed and the girl has grown into a beautiful young woman, Xiang Wan recognized her at a glance as Li Shengde's daughter, Li Xiaohua.
When Chen Yan's mother-in-law fell into a coma, Chen Yan went to beg Li Shengde for help. It was that girl who persuaded his father, and Li Shengde finally relented and sent her to the county hospital by donkey cart.
Although the two children have a rift due to their parents, they still see each other all the time and have spent six years together in the same school, so their friendship should be very deep.
But Xiang Wan remembered that she had never heard of Chen Ruilin having any female partners in her past life.
She was still pondering their relationship from their past lives when she heard the courtyard gate nearby creak.
Realizing someone was knocking on the door, Xiang Wan and Chen Yan both looked towards the courtyard gate.
Chen Yan got up to open the door and saw Li Xiaohua standing outside. His expression was clearly one of surprise.
He was taken aback, but Li Xiaohua across from him handed him a ceramic pig from her arms. Chen Yan took the ceramic pig, glanced at it, and guessed that it might be a piggy bank.
But he was still puzzled by her purpose in coming, looking at her with a puzzled expression: "What's this?"
Li Xiaohua lowered her head, looking a little shy: "This contains my New Year's money and pocket money, which I've kept in here."
She looked a little awkward as she said this. Chen Yan looked at her, but his eyes revealed his lack of understanding of her feelings, and even his brows were slightly furrowed.
Unseen by the two, Xiang Wan was leaning against the courtyard gate, watching someone with a leisurely air, as if she had caught someone's little secret. But she wasn't jealous; she just found it somewhat amusing.
She waited quietly for Chen Yan's reaction, but he returned the piggy bank to her: "Thank you, but I don't really need it."
"But..." Li Xiaohua said anxiously, "You'll need to pay tuition when you go to university. Did the Xiang family sponsor you?"
Chen Yan stood at least a meter away from her: "I applied for a student loan."
Li Xiaohua seemed a little sad: "Then why won't you accept my New Year's money? Is it because you hate my family?"
Chen Yan looked at her without speaking for a long time, as if he was agreeing. Seeing that he agreed, Li Xiaohua didn't say anything and turned to leave.
Watching Li Xiaohua's departing figure, he did not try to stop her, and even closed the courtyard gate.
After Chen Yan closed the courtyard gate and looked at the bare inner room, he still didn't say anything and walked into the house again without uttering a word.
He lay in bed, looking at the wooden frame on the roof, and felt a sense of irony.
Li Yaozu had mocked him in every way since he was a child. As for Li Shengde, his mother had saved his life and his family could afford to give him 5,000 yuan, but he refused to help. Ironically, his daughter Li Xiaohua liked him.
He didn't exactly hate the people in Lijia Village, but he didn't particularly like any of them.
He lay in bed and suddenly remembered the time when he was a child and Li Yaozu and the other children in the village threw stones at him. He tossed and turned and couldn't sleep until almost dawn.
At 4:30 a.m., Chen Yan finished washing up, took his packed luggage, and headed to the county's train station.
When he left Lijia Village, he had no regrets whatsoever. Apart from his deceased mother-in-law, he had no other concerns.
On the green train, Xiang Wan watched Chen Yan board the train. Before she could follow him, she felt another flash of white light appear before her eyes.
Realizing that the timeline was about to shift again, she stood on the platform and looked at him one last time through the train window.
At this moment, 18-year-old Chen Ruilin may be the last person she can see.
Whether it was because her will to stay was too strong or not, Xiang Wan seemed to see Chen Yan glance in her direction before she disappeared...
When the two looked at each other through the train window, Xiang Wan was startled. However, when she tried to look again, everything in front of her had changed once more.
After the white light disappeared, a place resembling a dormitory appeared before her eyes.
Based on the dark stickers on the wardrobe, Xiang Wan could roughly guess that this was a boys' dormitory. Moreover, based on the calendar on the desk, she could also roughly deduce that it should be the second semester of Chen Yan's college.
Strangely, although the dormitory was a standard four-person room, the other three beds had only one wooden board on them. Realizing that Chen Yan might be living alone, Xiang Wan breathed a sigh of relief.
Although she was just a soul at this moment, she didn't really want to be in the same space as a stranger.
The dormitory was so quiet that only the sound of the fan could be heard. She thought Chen Yan wasn't in the dormitory, but the next second she heard the sound of water flushing in the toilet.
Soon, the toilet door was pushed open from the inside, and Chen Yan, wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts, appeared in front of her.
Although Xiang Wan felt like she was with him just a moment ago, half a year had passed, and Chen Yan's changes were neither significant nor minor.
He had completely shed his youthful naiveté and was beginning to show the cold indifference of a business tycoon from his previous life.
Xiang Wan was initially curious about how Chen Yan spent the six months she was away at university.
She watched him go through the same period for a week, and without him saying a word, she knew how he had spent the past six months of university life alone...
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