The scandal came to light
With no outsiders interfering, Xia Tong and Fu Jia's relationship grew better and better, and the two were inseparable, like conjoined twins.
That day, Fu Jia escorted Xia Tong home again, and they walked along the road. It was already dusk, and the sunset was almost gone, leaving only some blurry shadows. Although the trees on both sides of the road had lost all their leaves, they did not appear lonely and desolate.
"So you like computers... I've never heard you mention it before?" Xia Tong asked, slightly surprised.
"That's only if you're willing to listen," Fu Jia said with a hint of helplessness.
"So, are you a hacker? Like the great Xiao Nai?" Xia Tong looked at him with starry eyes, somewhat expectant.
"Who is Xiao Nai?" I've been in the internet industry for so many years and I don't know who he is.
"He's a man who's both gentle and cunning, incredibly handsome and talented." Xia Tong looked longingly at him, her eyes sparkling with hearts, and then nodded. "He's very popular; he's the dream lover of many girls. Most guys don't know him, but any girl you randomly pick on the street will recognize him."
"..." Fu Jia looked at her speechlessly, "Has a new TV series come out recently?"
"..." We really are from different worlds.
Fu Jia led Xia Tong to her apartment building with practiced ease, but before they could even say a sweet goodbye, she felt a wave of dizziness.
Xia Tong let out a scream and ran away from beside her.
"Mom! What are you doing?"
Fu Jia finally regained his sight after the dizziness subsided. He saw Xia Tong stopping his mother, who was holding a phone and looking furious, and was quite alarmed. He covered his head, puzzled, and asked, "What's wrong, Auntie? Why this sudden attack?"
Xia's mother broke free from Xia Tong's obstruction, put her hands on her hips, pointed her phone at Fu Jia, and angrily said, "How dare you say 'what's wrong'? I originally thought you were polite and smart, and I always turned a blind eye when my Tongtong played with you. I never expected you to do such a thing to her. I'm going to kill you today, you little beast!"
After saying that, she was about to rush up and beat him again. Fu Jia seemed to understand something, and instead of dodging, she just stood there, looking like she could take the beating and scolding. Xia Tong hurriedly hugged her mother and asked, "What happened? Can't you talk it out? Why did you have to hit him?"
Unable to hit Fu Jia, Xia's mother, in a moment of panic, threw her phone at him, hitting him on the shoulder. Fu Jia only felt a sharp pain, but then he said, "Auntie, I was wrong. I really like Xia Xiaotong. I promise I won't bully her anymore, and I will treat her well."
Xia's mother spat at him, "In the future? You'd better stay far away from Xia Tong from now on, and don't let me see you! I will never agree to you two being together!" Then she turned to hug her daughter and scolded, "He ruined your reputation and you're still protecting him? Have I never taught you self-respect or self-love? Are you blinded by lard or have your brain filled with mush? You're a good-for-nothing, you can't even protect yourself and you demean yourself by following him. Didn't I tell you not to drink? Don't you even use your brain when you go out? You didn't even come back to tell me when you were bullied, how can you be so useless?!"
Xia Tong's face turned pale when she heard her mother mention this, and she froze, speechless. But Xia's mother was unwilling to let her off the hook. She poked Xia Tong's forehead with her finger, and her tone became even more cutting as she expressed her disappointment: "If your Aunt Zhao hadn't heard about this, would you have kept it from me your whole life? Do you know how ruined your reputation is? They all treat you like a joke! And yet you're so pathetic, shamelessly following him around. Don't you have any self-respect?"
Xia Tong's fair forehead was covered in red marks from being poked. She had no words to refute it and could only endure it. Fu Jia quickly protected her: "Auntie, don't blame her. It was me who shamelessly pestered her. It's all my fault."
Xia's mother was furious. Pointing at Fu Jia's nose, she scolded, "Of course it's your fault! I've watched you grow up, and now you've done something like this. Don't you feel any remorse? How dare you call me 'Auntie'?!" Then she pointed at Fu Jia, who was pulling Xia Tong's hand, and said, "Let go of her! Who told you to touch her again?!" After saying that, Xia's mother angrily slapped Fu Jia's head hard with both hands and pulled her daughter, who was hiding behind her, over.
Xia's mother shoved Xia Tong through the door, then turned to Fu Jia and warned, "Stay away from her! Don't think we're easy to bully just because we're a widow and her child now!"
Fu Jia stood there, watching Xia Tong leave. Why does happiness always come too quickly, while what is meant to come always arrives?
Once inside the house, Xia Tong couldn't escape her mother's scolding: "You break off all ties with him right now! You are you, he is him, and you must never contact him again! It would be embarrassing to take this to court. Consider it a thank you for all the help he's given you before." Seeing that Xia Tong remained silent, she knew she hadn't listened, so she continued to press her: "Didn't you hear me? Talk to me, don't play dead right now."
"Mom, I'm not belittling myself. I like him, and he's good to me." After a long silence, Xia Tong finally stated her position, her voice soft but firm.
"He's good to you? You think he's good to you even after how much he bullied you? What's wrong with your brain? Tell me what's bad about him!" Xia's mother laughed angrily, her voice shrill.
Xia Tong and her mother stood facing off, each sticking to their own opinion.
Xia's mother pointed at her and said, "You stand here and think it through before you go to sleep."
Xia Tong stood in a corner of the living room. The sky gradually darkened, the house was dark and quiet. She stood there for two or three hours, her legs numb, her mind blank. She thought of the despair she felt when she woke up in Fu Jia's bed that day, and the guilt and sadness she felt when Tan Zhihao repeatedly asked her where she had been that night. She had struggled and agonized; she knew how good Fu Jia was to her, and she genuinely enjoyed being with her. She also felt wronged; her forbearance hadn't kept Tan Zhihao. When her parents divorced, only Fu Jia was by her side; when she felt abandoned by the whole world, it was Fu Jia who pulled her out of it. They hadn't given her a chance to choose, so why blame everything on her? Why was everything she did wrong?
She shook her numb legs and pushed open the half-closed door to her mother's bedroom. The room was still dark and lifeless. Xia Tong turned on the bedside lamp and found her mother lying on the bed, covering her face with her arm, exactly the same gesture she had made during her argument with her father about divorce.
"Mom—" Xia Tong squatted by the bed and nudged her mother, her tone ambiguous.
"Mom, don't cry—" She was also upset, and her heart felt heavy.
"Mom—" She didn't know what to say.
"Do you think your mother is particularly useless, unable to protect the family or you?" Xia's mother's voice choked with emotion, her words filled with despair.
"Mom, I was wrong, please don't think like that."
Xia's mother's eyes were frighteningly red: "Do you know how angry I was when I heard about you and Fu Jia? I didn't know any of this, but I had to hear it from someone else. Just think about how your reputation is completely ruined?"
Xia Tong was speechless.
“You’re a girl! How can you not care? You’re going to get married. How can you find a good husband like this?” Xia’s mother’s tone was full of worry and regret.
"Wouldn't everything be fine if I married Fu Jia?" Since I can't find a good husband's family, wouldn't marrying him be the best choice?
"Don't you know his family background? He's not your equal. He could bully you like that before, what will he do after you get married? If he really bullies you, given our family's current situation, we won't even be able to say a word!"
“He won’t bully me. He always does what I want now,” Xia Tong retorted, twisting her clothes belt.
"It's now, but what about the future? You haven't even entered his family yet, so naturally he'll have to pamper you. But after you marry him and have him in your life, will he still spoil you like this? Don't you know what kind of people he associates with? And what about his family? Will they accept you? Our family doesn't care about wealth, we just want stability. I just hope you can find someone local, down-to-earth and ambitious. Their family shouldn't be too well-off, maybe even a little less well-off than ours. Ideally, they shouldn't be an only child; if they have brothers, their families can let them come live with us so I can take care of them." Xia's mother earnestly instilled her views on marriage and relationships in Xia Tong.
"Mom, don't you think it's too early for us to talk about marriage now?" Xia Tong felt a little embarrassed as it was the first time her mother had brought up this topic with her.
“If you continue to drag things out with Fu Jia, it’s not too early to bring it up now.” Xia’s mother looked at her with a resolute gaze.
Xia Tong was speechless.
"Listen to your mother and cut off all contact with him. That will put your mother's mind at ease, okay?" Xia's mother returned to her earnest and persuasive tone.
"We'll be fine..."
"Listen to me, don't make me worry about you. I'll be very busy in the future, so don't distract me."
"Busy? Busy with what?"
"I want to open a restaurant with your Aunt Zhao. It's on the road behind your old Jiyuan Elementary School. You can come and help out during your holidays. Don't go out to play all the time."
"Really? That's great! That's wonderful!"
====
When Fu Jia returned home, the obvious bruises on her face caught Fu Shaohua's attention: "Where did you go gallivanting again? Who did you get into a fight with and end up like this?"
Fu Jia was already unhappy, and hearing his scolding tone made her even more rude: "I didn't fight!"
"What happened? What happened? Who did this to you?" Li Funing saw it too and quickly came over to check on the injury.
Fu Jia obediently let her mother see, and when she heard her mother's concern, she told her about what happened that night: "Xia Xiaotong's mother knows what I did to her." Her tone was full of regret and helplessness.
Li Funing paused, remained silent for a moment, and then said unhappily, "But you can't just lay a hand on her! Why should she hit my son? This woman is really ruthless."
Fu Shaohua was unhappy with Li Funing's bias towards her son and sneered, "Do you still think your son was wronged by this beating? If that girl were my daughter, I would kill him!"
"Oh, I think she really is your daughter. She almost killed my son last time. Do you even know who your child is?" Li Funing went to get the first-aid kit to apply medicine to Fu Jia, not forgetting to retort.
Fu Jia felt uncomfortable listening to her parents, who were usually a harmonious couple, arguing over her sake: "Stop arguing, it's so annoying."
Li Funing gently blew on the wound on his face and complained, "Her family is so barbaric, can't they speak properly?"
Fu Jia frowned: "Mom, stop talking."
"Alright, alright, I won't say anymore, okay? People say 'once you have a wife, you forget your mother,' and it's so true! He's not even letting his mother speak before he's married yet." Li Funing was quite resentful. My son, his heart is actually on that other woman's side.
“This was Fu Jia’s fault to begin with. We’ll bring some gifts and apologize in person another day. We didn’t handle this properly before, which is why it’s dragged on until now. We can’t let this young lady suffer.” Fu Shaohua, who hadn’t spoken for a long time, made the decision.
"Why is it another apology? Are we just asking to get beaten up?" Li Funing said sarcastically.
"Stop nagging! Isn't Fu Jia the way she is now all because you spoiled her? It's true what they say, 'a doting mother spoils her son'!" Fu Shaohua stood there looking down at her.
Fu Jia remained silent and went into her room with her head down. Her parents' way of getting along was really strange these days; even their arguments had a sickeningly sweet tone.
Fu Jia pounded the bed twice as he lay down, but his hard fists hitting the soft mattress had little effect, only a feeling of helplessness. He always understood that wrongdoing had consequences, but what if the consequence was losing Xia Xiaotong? That price was too high.
He tossed and turned, trying to figure out how to get Xia's mother's forgiveness, his heart pounding with anxiety. He suddenly remembered Xia Tong, whom Xia's mother had dragged home, and his worry returned: Xia's mother seemed furious; would she take it out on Xia Tong? Would she continue to berate her? What if she hit her?
Xia Tong tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. She was happy that her mother had found a job and a new direction in her life, but also conflicted about her relationship with Fu Jia. She felt her mother's words made a lot of sense; who could be completely certain about the future? Wasn't her own father the most typical example? But Fu Jia… surely wouldn't be like her father?
The text message notification sound was a cute little girl's voice, standing out starkly in the quiet night. Xia Tong opened her phone and saw a message from Fu Jia: "Are you asleep? Did Auntie scold you later?"
Xia Tong thought for a moment, then didn't reply.
The phone rang again shortly after, and Fu Jia sent another message: "Why aren't you replying? Are you secretly crying because you got scolded?"
Xia Tong was both amused and exasperated, and retorted, "How annoying! You're the one crying!"
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I'm so tired! I finally finished writing 8,000 words from yesterday... I hope I won't be banned from writing now! Yay!!!
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