Warning: Mentions of abuse and suicide.
+
[6 Years Ago]
Zhang Yi Zhou coldly looked down on the school photo in the file on his table.
The girl wearing a high school uniform in the photo had an objectively exquisite face and long, pin-straight black hair. She had no jewelry or makeup and had a neat and clean appearance, as fitting for a girl her age.
But the blank expression and lifeless eyes ruin the whole picture.
Han Yu. 17 years old. Top student of her year and on full scholarship in one of S City's top science and mathematics schools. Won several awards and recognition, including the President's Medal for Most Outstanding Youth in Science for her paper about renewable energy.
Was recommended for early acceptance into one of C country's most prestigious universities but refused.
Recommended by professors to pursue a degree in a scientific field due to her outstanding achievements since her junior year.
Looking at her file, she indeed does seem too good to be true. Beautiful, elegant, intelligent, outstanding and already contributing to society. This is much more than what those proud madams can say about their spoiled heiress daughters.
If there was one blight in this whole file, however, it would be...
[*Unconfirmed: suspected victim of physical and emotional abuse but has repeatedly denied allegations when asked by teachers, guidance counselors and authorities.]
And the probable cause...
He taps his finger on two names listed in her data.
[Father: Han Yuncheng - Elementary school graduate. Former factory worker who was let go after sustaining an injury. Suspected alcohol addiction.]
[Mother: Ma Shaohua - Vocational school graduate. Office secretary for 22 years. Having an affair with a married manager in her company. Previously involved with the company's president who later dumped her for a younger secretary.]
An uneducated father who has been mostly unemployed for the past eight years and has alcoholism. A beautiful mother suspected of prostituting herself since her dead-beat husband refuses to take a job and is also a suspected victim of domestic violence.
Both parents turned their frustrations over each other and their wretched lives on their only daughter, a child who didn't understand anything. Growing up with being beaten and verbally abused, their child then normalized her parents' treatment of her and has no real understanding of how relationships work.
Her situation is not a rare occurrence in this messed-up world, but it is somewhat of a miracle that the child of these people has chosen to focus more on becoming outstanding rather than rebelling.
Zhang Yi Zhou turns his gaze once more at the school photo.
'It's no surprise that her eyes look dead.'
He holds up another photo, this time of her in a classroom sketching on paper. Among the six images in this file, this is the only photo of her in which she looks even remotely alive. While she isn't exactly smiling, there's a trace of excitement in those bright hazel eyes of hers, making her look like an actual human instead of the soulless doll she sometimes resembled.
'Maybe not completely hopeless,' he thought. 'Though I still don't know what he's thinking setting me up with a girl eight years my junior just because he made a promise to his comrade.'
Speaking of the devil, he picks up a call from the person who instigated this whole situation.
"Hello, grandfather."
"So did you meet her?" the Zhang patriarch says in lieu of a greeting. "What do you think of the child? Is she pretty? Well of course she is! But did you like her?"
Zhang Yi Zhou sighs, letting his old grandfather ramble on about his comrade's granddaughter, not even getting the chance to tell him he hasn't even seen her in person yet.
"—remember, you need to treat her gently and respectfully, alright? Not like how you treated those past women you cavorted with—you are not allowed to do that anymore, you got it?"
"Grandpa," he groaned. "I haven't met Han Yu yet, but I will inform you immediately once I do. And yes, I promise to treat her with utmost respect."
"Good, good, my good grandson. Now, go get her boy, make grandpa proud!" he said enthusiastically. "Now, I need to find my car keys, I swear your mother hid them again! She won't believe me when I say my eyesight is perfectly fine!"
He can only shake his head when his grandpa hangs up. He can't even bear to be annoyed with him, especially not after reading his future wife's files.
This grandfather of his has been urging them for years that they should approach Han Yu and her family and discuss their future marriage, but thankfully, he and his parents have been able to talk some sense into him and delay the marriage discussions.
Still, no matter how many girls his mother suggests to him, his grandfather is completely unmoved in his decision to marry his eldest grandson to his old war comrade's granddaughter.
His fellow soldier who lost a leg while helping him during the war and became his close friend in the years after they returned home. It is unfortunate that his old comrade died just five years after the war, but his grandfather has always been convinced that he needed to repay his late friend for saving his life, thus ensuring the continuation of the Zhang family line, by making them part of their family.
The only reason his dad hadn't been betrothed as a child to Grandfather Han's child is that he had a son instead of a daughter. Thus, it now falls to him to fulfill this pact.
Great.
If he's being honest with himself, he had no intention of marrying until he reached the age of 35. It's not that he particularly likes dating or sleeping with different women like his peers, though he has had one night stands and dated a couple of them. It's not that he's looking for love either.
But he just doesn't think he could put in the sufficient amount of time and effort into a marriage at the moment to make it out, not when his father is working him like a dog in preparation for taking over the Zhang Group someday. If he does marry someone at this point in his life, it's likely he'll only actually get to spend time with his wife once in a blue moon.
A marriage can be harmonious even without love or wealth, but it could never work without the two people involved putting in a great amount of effort.
And this girl...probably has no idea how normal relationships work in the first place.
Marriage? She's likely not even ready for a boyfriend.
She would probably run away the moment he tells her about what her grandfather had arranged for her.
He leans back into his leather chair and closes his eyes. He doesn't have much of a choice. He'll just set up a meeting and see how it goes.
'I'll meet her at least. If it's hopeless, I'll just do my best to convince grandfather we can repay his friend some other way.'
+
"Han Yu... Hey, Han Yu, I'm talking to you!"
The girl in question continues finishing the last page of her Calculus workbook, her elegant fingers moving unhurriedly but confidently. She's jolted out of her intense concentration, however, when a hand shoves her hard.
She, fortunately, caught herself before she could fall over, though her brows furrowed a little due to the burst of pain resulting from her bruised side hitting her chair.
It's gone, however, when she looks blankly to her right where a rather large girl with an unfortunate smattering of pimples on her forehead is sitting.
"Su Mengxi?"
"You fucking rude bitch, I've been calling for a while now. You think you're all that just because you got good grades, huh?" the portly girl with the unfortunate man-shoulders says under her breath, glaring at Han Yu. "Remember, I can tell my dad to kick you and your wretched family out of our building, so you better fucking answer me when I call you, got it?"
Han Yu just nods disinterestedly, not bothering to explain that she can't really hear anything if she is concentrating hard on something and thus wouldn't have noticed her calling her name.
She also tactfully doesn't say that Su Mengxi kind of resembles a bulldog she saw the other day, but the bulldog was much more attractive.
"Now give me your workbook before Ms. Wang returns, hurry up!" Su Mengxi says, then immediately grabs her workbook and starts flipping through the pages.
Han Yu just shakes her head. She didn't need to waste time asking if she was going to grab it herself anyway.
She really wants to suggest that Su Mengxi should just donate her brain to a person in need if she wasn't going to use it, at least her useless life would be worth something than just wasting oxygen and contributing to global warming. With her intelligence level, she might even actually do it.
"What the fuck? What the hell is this?!" she shrieks after browsing through Han Yu's workbook. Su Mengxi glares at her accusingly. "Where's your Calculus workbook? Give it to me now!"
Han Yu sighs. "This is my Calculus workbook," she says slowly, as if explaining the alphabet to a lesser species of primate.
"What?! But the questions are all different, I don't understand what all this is!"
Han Yu leans against her table, propping her chin on her fist, looking so effortlessly elegant that Su Mengxi is seething in annoyance.
She didn't know people's faces could get that red. Unfortunately for Su Mengxi, it was not a good look on her at all and only served to make her pimples stand out.
"Well, I would be very surprised if you understood college-level Calculus," she answered calmly.
"Then why would you give this to me?!" Su Mengxi throws the book back at her, hitting Han Yu's chest. "You fucking bitch, now I'll get a zero!"
"Oh, I'm sure that's not true," she replied, opening her book to where she had stopped a few minutes ago. "We get five points for filling in our name, grade and the date correctly after all."
Su Mengxi's eyes widened in realization. "Oh right, that's true! And if I answer all A's in the multiple question—" She suddenly stands up, causing her poor, abused chair to fall over with a bang. "Hey, did you just insult me?!"
"Is there a problem here?"
Su Mengxi immediately falters after hearing Deputy Principal Liu's voice and steps away from Han Yu. She was not the brightest crayon in the box but she at least knew not to openly antagonize the school's top student and the teachers' pride.
"Not at all, Mr. Liu, Mengxi was just telling me about something exciting," Han Yu smoothly lies. "Could we help you, sir?"
The deputy principal is almost sure that Mengxi girl was bullying Han Yu but can't openly pursue the matter since Han Yu herself has already settled it.
He sighs inwardly when he looks at the pretty but pokerfaced girl, still lamenting over Han Yu refusing early acceptance into T University.
"Han Yu, I need to talk to you, I've already told your teacher that you'll be a little late. Please follow me."
The student obediently tidies up her desk and brings her bag as she follows the deputy principal out of the classroom. Her classmates, already used to Han Yu being called to the principal's office for her achievements, go back to either talking or finishing their own work while waiting for the teacher.
Su Mengxi, on the other hand, forgets to put even her name and the date on her workbook, too irritated by Han Yu.
Mr. Liu stops a few steps away from the classroom and informs Han Yu, "Han Yu, a person who claims to be a family friend is here to see you. If you are willing to meet with him, you can talk in my office and I will chaperone."
The girl's brows furrow in contemplation. "If he is a family friend, he could have set up a meeting with my parents or directly visited our home."
"Yes, I did ask him about that, but he said he needed to talk to you specifically and was denied by your father when he called him." Mr. Liu pauses, looking hesitant before continuing, "Han Yu, this person is the young master of the Zhang Group. He claims that his family is connected to yours through your grandfather."
When he sees her hesitating, Mr. Liu nervously continues, "Honestly, he is not someone we can afford to offend, but if you feel uncomfortable about this, I can tell Mr. Zhang that you are very busy."
Unbeknownst to the deputy principal, Han Yu is not worried about meeting a stranger, but rather how angry her father will be if he ever gets wind of her talking to someone he has already refused to see.
Though it's not like she'll inform him and the teachers certainly won't either.
But she knew Mr. Liu was downplaying just how powerful young master Zhang is. At least if she talked to him here, she would be under the eyes of the teachers. Also, he would not have to find another, perhaps more drastic, way to meet with her.
Han Yu is silent for a few more moments, before shaking her head. "It's fine, sir. I will hear him out at least."
At the very least, he could be a much better conversationalist than Su Mengxi.