“The past is the past. You’re doing well now. You have to look forward,” Elmi comforted her.
"There's a saying that an unhappy childhood takes a lifetime to heal. My family was particularly poor, and I learned a lesson when I was young: poor children learn to be independent early. While other kids played during summer vacation, I went out to collect scraps. Back then, there were a lot of hooligans and thugs. I finally managed to collect a bag of scraps, and they robbed it."
“There were a lot of them, and they were thugs. That day, I was holding onto the tattered bag tightly, unwilling to let go. They came up and slapped me across the face, making me dizzy. Then several of them punched and kicked me, cursed at me, and urinated on me!”
“I really couldn’t take it anymore during those years. I was very young then, and I thought I might as well die. When I finally grew up a little, I dropped out of school because my family couldn’t afford it. I worked outside and fell in love with a girl. I had a crush on her for a long time. One day, I finally mustered up the courage to confess to her. I didn’t expect her to look at me with such disdain. She said I was a toad trying to eat swan meat and cursed at me in front of everyone.”
"Oh my god!" Elmi was stunned. She had grown up in a developed country and attended elite schools. She had never experienced anything like this before, and she had no way of distinguishing between what was true and what was false.
“She looked down on me for being poor, saying that I couldn’t even afford to go to a restaurant and that I ate communal meals every day, so I wasn’t worthy of ordering dishes. The man she liked, on the other hand, could not only go to a restaurant and order dishes, but he could also afford two cold dishes, two hot dishes, plus a bowl of dumpling soup with at least three eggs in it, and not just a thin layer of egg drop soup.”
"Just because of a few dishes? You must have been furious!" Elmi felt her values were being challenged.
“Yes, you don’t understand our poverty. Looking back now, I feel ashamed of my lack of ambition. I didn’t feel angry at the time; instead, I was thinking, how luxurious it would be to put three eggs in a bowl of dumpling soup! I rarely tell people about this, but I never expected him to tell you.” Lu Feng’s voice was full of emotion.
Elmi was a little embarrassed because Du Guoying hadn't told her this. She said, "I sympathize with you. Your experience is truly regrettable. But I also want to tell you that this isn't what he told me."
"Huh? Is that so?" Lu Feng sat up and leaned against the headboard, saying, "Since I've already told you, let me tell you the rest of the story. Do you want to hear it?"
Lu Feng's story had piqued Elmi's curiosity; nothing is easier to build a closer relationship than sharing your own hardships with someone.
If you want to get close to someone quickly, tell them about your hardships and unknown aspects; if you want to distance yourself quickly, show off your successes.
“If you don’t mind, of course you can. I’m just curious how you got to where you are today. It’s incredible,” Elmi asked, leaning against the headboard as well.
"Actually, that day I secretly made up my mind that I must work hard and not be poor anymore. I will never allow anyone to humiliate me like this again. At that time, I was just learning to be a chef in a restaurant, living a muddled life. You know that being a chef is not a very promising profession. I longed for a change."
"So, you changed careers?" Elmi's curiosity was completely piqued.
“One day, a man in his thirties came to the restaurant for dinner. I met him by chance. He thought highly of me and asked me to do some things for him. Later, I found out that he was a high-ranking official. From then on, my life was like opening a golden door.”
“He was very promising and rose through the ranks, and I climbed up alongside him. In just a few years, I have developed to where I am today, and he is now in charge of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Looking back on all of this, it really makes me feel a lot of emotions!” Lu Feng’s voice was full of melancholy, as if he was lamenting the ups and downs of his life.
But only three words remained in Elmi's mind: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology!
She seemed to have discovered some incredible secret, and her heart skipped a beat. She comforted him, saying, "It's all in the past, isn't it? You've gone much further than those who bullied you back then. By the way, do you still keep in touch with the leaders of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology?"
"Of course I contacted him. He's my big brother, a true confidant. Otherwise, do you think we could get network access and such so quickly? And when we acquired Ruixin Labs, we got an extra 400 million in foreign exchange quotas. Do you think just any company can get that?" Lu Feng seemed very naive, telling her everything in one go.
"Is it appropriate for you to tell me this?" Elmi asked.
"To be honest, if it were anyone else, I would never have told her so much. Over the years, I have never confided in a woman. But when I saw you, all the resentment I had felt for so many years vanished in an instant. To tell you the truth, I had seen your picture before I met you. I... I have admired you for a long time!" Lu Feng said shyly.
A smile appeared on Elmi's face. Just as she thought, how many people in the world could resist their own beauty? She had an indescribable confidence in her appearance, figure, and temperament, because she was not the first person in the world to do so since she was a child.
So many talented young men felt inferior in her presence, and would tell her secrets they wouldn't easily share with others, as if they were desperately hoping for a proud princess to glance at them.
Therefore, Elmi believed Lu Feng's words without a doubt and said into the phone, "Do you like me that much?"
“It’s not liking, it’s admiration. I really want to be by your side. I’m willing to give anything to protect you.” Lu Feng smiled a little shyly and said, “But I feel like I’m not good enough for you. I just come from a poor place and have never seen the world’s prosperity. I just want to talk to you a little more.”
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