Since then, Gu An'an has found that she has more opportunities to run into Zhao Shanshan.
It can't even be called a chance encounter. Sometimes the other person would bring all sorts of food to her dorm or go to the classroom to find her.
Two days later, news of Ling Xiao's punishment spread throughout the school. Because he and Wang Rong were not actually married, and considering how difficult it was to get into university, the school did not expel him directly, but instead gave him a major demerit.
He stayed, but he lost both of his girlfriends, and the Wang family stopped providing him with any support.
He does want to find another girlfriend who can support him, but his reputation is ruined now, making it difficult to find a partner. Finding a girlfriend who can support him is like climbing to the sky, since nobody is stupid.
He had no choice but to try to earn money while attending classes.
But everyone at the school knew about his bad record, and the school was unwilling to give a work-study opportunity to a student who had a major demerit.
To survive, he had to shuttle between the school and off-campus part-time jobs, and these jobs relied entirely on physical labor.
It's not that he doesn't want to find mental work like Gu An'an, but with his limited abilities, he can't do jobs that require technical skills, and he can't get jobs that don't require technical skills.
The school was never short of interesting things, and before long everyone forgot about his incident, except for Ling Xiao, who was directly involved.
He couldn't get over this; whenever someone looked at him, he felt like they were laughing at him.
Gradually, the sense of relief at being able to stay in school disappeared, replaced by endless anger.
"Sister An'an, you're finally back!"
As soon as Gu An'an got home, she was hugged tightly by a bear.
"What brings you two here?"
Zhao Man and Ma Jianbin enrolled in the same school, which is quite far from the Xiao family's place. They visited once when school started, and this is their second visit.
However, the sharp-eyed Gu An'an immediately noticed something was wrong.
How should I put it? She was all too familiar with the way Ma Jianbin looked at Zhao Man; it was exactly the same way Xiao Yuheng had looked at her back then.
"Yeah, it's the weekend, so I came over to have some fun."
"Also, there's something else I'd like to ask An'an's opinion on."
Zhao Man glanced at Ma Jianbin, then turned away shyly, "Sister An'an, let's talk somewhere else."
When Erbao saw his mother being pulled away by Aunt Manman, he was about to chase after her to share his afternoon tea from kindergarten with his mother when Ma Jianbin hugged him.
"Uncle Ma, let me go, I need to find my mom."
How could Ma Jianbin possibly let go? He wanted Gu An'an to do more ideological work with Zhao Man so that he could win the heart of his beauty as soon as possible, and he would never let Erbao disturb her.
"Your Aunt Manman needs to talk to your mother. Please wait a moment."
Erbao glanced at the desserts in his hand, swallowed hard, and finally stuffed a handful into his mouth, muttering, "Never mind, I'll bring some for Mom tomorrow! I've already ruined everything, it's not good for Mom to eat spoiled food~"
Da Bao glanced at his younger brother with "disdain," then unconsciously touched the well-packaged pastries with his hand in his pocket, a smile appearing on his lips.
Gu An'an, who had been pulled into another room, calmly looked at the shy and helpless girl in front of her.
"Alright, Xiao Ma can't hear you anymore. Say whatever you want to say."
Zhao Man waved her hands repeatedly, "I'm not trying to hide it from him, I just... I just..."
"I'm just a little embarrassed?"
Zhao Man's ears turned red. "Yeah, he confessed to me a couple of days ago, saying he likes me and wants to be with me, but... but he knows all the stupid things I did before."
Are you afraid he'll mind those things?
Seeing that the other person nodded, Gu An'an continued, "In my opinion, none of these are problems. If Xiao Ma really cared about those things, he wouldn't have confessed to you. The question now is whether you like him or not?"
Do you like it or not?
Zhao Man recalled how they had gone through so much together, from working to preparing for exams and then going to university together. But whenever she wanted to give up, Ma Jianbin would always encourage and affirm her, and a smile would unconsciously appear on her lips.
"I think it's love, right? But I'm not sure. I'm afraid that what we feel for each other isn't love, but friendship."
Actually, it's more accurate to say that she had been hurt before and was afraid that Ma Jianbin would misunderstand her feelings.
Gu An'an understood this point quite well, and she strongly supported this attitude of carefully considering things before entering a new relationship.
"What's the big deal? Just test him. If he really likes you, even the smallest thing about you will be a big deal. Don't listen to what he says, just watch what he does. Once you feel you've tested him enough, then you can agree to be with him, right?"
Zhao Man's eyes widened slightly. "This works?"
"What's wrong with that? It's your right. Besides, who says that if you confess your feelings, the other person has to agree immediately?"
Zhao Man thought about it and agreed. Who made that rule?
Thinking about how she's been avoiding Ma Jianbin these past few days because of this issue, I really want to punch myself.
"Yes, I need to test him properly. If he's sincere towards me, it's not too late to agree."
When Ma Jianbin saw Zhao Man again, who was no longer avoiding him, he knew he had made the right trip and gave Gu An'an a grateful look.
Having resolved the major issue, Zhao Man played with the children again, pulling out a bunch of delicious and fun things from her bag, which made the second child keep calling her "Dear Auntie."
"Mom, this is for you."
Gu An'an took a paper package from her daughter and opened it to find a pastry shaped like a little rabbit inside.
"Did Da Bao bring this especially for Mom?"
Da Bao nodded, "The teacher gave out two. I ate one and saved one for my mom. I'll bring one for my grandma, great-grandma, and great-grandpa next time."
At this moment, Gu An'an felt that there was one thing that was absolutely true: a daughter is truly a mother's warm little cotton-padded jacket.
Gu An'an hugged her daughter tightly and couldn't resist giving Da Bao a couple of kisses on the cheek.
This scene was witnessed by Erbao, who was playing around. Erbao looked at his older sister being held in his mother's arms, and then at the familiar pastries in his mother's hands. How could he not know what had happened?
He couldn't care less about continuing to play with Zhao Man, and ran straight to Gu An'an.
"Mom, I brought you one too."
"Oh? And what about your pastries?"
Xiao Erbao felt a little guilty thinking about the pastry he had swallowed ten minutes ago. "The pastry... it's in my stomach."
"I was going to give it to my mom, but it got damaged and didn't look good, so I ate it myself. You can ask my sister if you don't believe me."
Gu An'an started teasing the child as usual, "But as long as it's from Erbao, even if it's not pretty, Mommy will still like it. Does Erbao think that Mommy is someone who only likes pretty things? I'm such a failure as a mother."
Erbao scratched his head, a look of regret on his chubby face. "No, Mommy's fine. It's not Mommy's fault. Actually, the main reason is that I was greedy..."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
