Bei Ying saw Huo Jiangliu again three years after graduating from high school. Suddenly, everything went in the opposite direction from what she had expected. She went to an ordinary university, while Huo Jiangliu was a top student at one of the country's most prestigious universities.
While strolling through the mall she used to frequent, she suddenly noticed that the back of the person in front of her looked somewhat like Huo Jiangliu, and she couldn't help but call out to him.
But the man in front didn't turn around. He even seemed to quicken his pace a little. He walked up to a girl, lowered his head to talk to her, and spoke gently. Bei Ying realized that the girl was Mu Wenxi.
Mu Wenxi looked up: "You're here?"
Huo Jiangliu took the things from her hands: "Have you been waiting long?"
Mu Wenxi shook his head: "I think I just heard someone calling you."
Huo Jiangliu: "Maybe I misheard."
In fact, Huo Jiangliu hadn't misheard. The moment he heard that voice, his body instinctively shuddered. It was the same voice he had heard when he was in the car accident—it was Bei Ying's voice. He frowned and quickly moved away from the person who would bring him bad luck.
Mu Wenxi took his arm and said, "I must have misheard. Let's go."
As Bei Ying watched the two figures walk away, she suddenly remembered that she had met them when she went out with her friends in her second year of high school. At that time, Huo Jiangliu was still in a wheelchair, and Mu Wenxi was standing behind him pushing his wheelchair. The two walked forward together, and she even mocked them for being disabled.
But they've been doing very well ever since.
Huo Jiangliu stood up again. He was handsome and had not only an impressive academic background but also an easy family background.
Mu Wenxi's starting point wasn't as high as hers, but she became so outstanding through her own efforts that she was good enough to stand next to Huo Jiangliu.
Bei Ying used to always dislike Mu Wenxi and even did some bad things in secret.
She suddenly felt very bored. She had a wonderful life of her own, but she was always thinking about comparing herself to others, wasting time on scheming and intrigue, and even trying to climb the social ladder by attaching herself to others to gain wealth and status.
As a result, everyone else got everything, while she got nothing, and even lived a worse life than before. She took a deep breath, turned around and left. People always have to learn to say goodbye to their past selves.
Mu Wenxi and Huo Jiangliu, completely oblivious to the unrelated people, walked hand in hand into the restaurant. She led Huo Jiangliu to a familiar seat inside and asked, "Does this look familiar?"
Huo Jiangliu: "Yes, this was the first restaurant you brought me to the mall. I still remember it."
Mu Wenxi: "You still remember?"
Huo Jiangliu: "How could I not remember? I was in a wheelchair at the time, and it was the first time I went out after the car accident. You even won the first prize. We went to the mall to eat several times afterward."
Mu Wenxi reminisced: "Back then, I won a stack of restaurant vouchers, so many of them."
Huo Jiangliu: "You're very lucky."
Mu Wenxi: "Of course!"
Huo Jiangliu smiled and shook his head: "Meeting you was indeed very lucky."
Bei Ying heard news about Mu Wenxi and Huo Jiangliu again after they graduated from university. Huo Jiangliu and Mu Wenxi got married, and the news spread throughout the circle. She suddenly felt a little envious.
Her current boyfriend is Qu Jianghe, who is also in high society. But Bei Ying sometimes feels that she doesn't really like Qu Jianghe that much, as if she just agreed to date him because he pursued her.
Although Qu Jianghe is also handsome and comes from a very wealthy family, Bei Ying always felt that he was somewhat imitating Huo Jiangliu. He was stingy, narrow-minded, and easily jealous of people who were more outstanding than himself.
After hearing Qu Jianghe's mockery, Bei Ying realized something: perhaps she could try to rely on her own hands.
She left Qu Jianghe, and it turned out she made the right choice. Qu Jianghe was not doing well; his arrogance caused him a lot of losses.
Qu Jianghe never imagined that Huo Jiangliu would be in a car accident.
In the instant he was in the car accident, Qu Jianghe had to admit that because Huo Jiangliu was too outstanding, he felt a moment of relief, jealousy, and a fleeting malice in his mind.
Upon hearing that Huo Jiangliu was disabled in both legs, Qu Jianghe suddenly felt that he had lost a fierce competitor.
The name he heard most often since childhood was Huo Jiangliu, and the adults praised Huo Jiangliu the most. Every time he came back from an exam, the thing Qu Jianghe hated most was reading out his grades and attending parent-teacher conferences.
Because he could always hear Huo Jiangliu's parents praising him and bragging about it everywhere, Qu Jianghe couldn't understand why even his parents had to do the same thing.
Qu Jianghe had worked very hard, and after one exam, he came in second place, while Huo Jiangliu was always first.
The first thing he heard when he got home was his parents saying, "Why didn't you surpass Huo Jiangliu again? When are you going to get first place?"
"People will only remember the first place, not you who are always second."
"What's the use of you if you can't even get first place?"
They've said this so many times. Qu Jianghe gritted his teeth. At first, he wanted to prove himself and told himself that he must do better than Huo Jiangliu next time. But as time went on, Qu Jianghe was always the one at the back. His parents never gave him any affirmation, so he gave up. Look at how his parents even had to compete with Huo Jiangliu when naming their child.
Such incidents are countless.
Wherever Huo Jiangliu is, Qu Jianghe is just there to make up the numbers. People will only remember Huo Jiangliu's good points and ignore Qu Jianghe.
His parents always told him to learn more from Huo Jiangliu, so Qu Jianghe became Huo Jiangliu's friend or follower, because he felt that he was Huo Jiangliu's follower in other people's eyes.
When Huo Jiangliu was in a car accident, he admitted to the dark side of his heart. Later, when he heard that Huo Jiangliu's legs were permanently disabled, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Because when his parents mentioned Huo Jiangliu, they would no longer say how good he was, but instead say it was a pity that he became disabled at such a young age.
No one could compare to him except Huo Jiangliu, and now that Huo Jiangliu is disabled, he has finally become number one.
He never visited Huo Jiangliu again. A cripple could never compare to him. He began to learn how to manage the company's affairs, wanting to surpass Huo Jiangliu in some aspects.
But before he had achieved fame and success, he heard that Huo Jiangliu's leg had healed.
How could it be cured? Wasn't it supposed to be a lifelong disability?
Before he could even taste the fruits of victory, Huo Jiangliu started all over again.
Qu Jianghe can never escape the shadow of Huo Jiangliu.
He remembered what Bei Ying said to him when they broke up: "If you always compare yourself to others and insist on competing to see who is better and who is not, then you will only live in the shadow of others for the rest of your life."
But some people will never understand.
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