Alex woke up in a daze when he heard someone knocking at his door. He stood up and walked over barefoot to open it.
He saw Minnie and Hannah standing there, so he wanted to close it in their face.
"Wait a minute!" Minnie jammed her foot into the opening.
"What do you want?" Alex looked at her in dismay.
"Why are you so rude? You should be a little nicer and let us in first," Minnie said as she walked in with Hannah whether he liked it or not.
He looked at her and felt helpless. First, she scolded him for being so rude, and then she told him to be nicer.
How can she say that to me? he thought.
He felt very strange again.
Why did Minnie change so much, and why is she in my room in the middle of the night? he wondered.
She looked at him and sighed.
"It's my fault. I shouldn't have said those things to you. I'm here to apologize and to ask you to forgive me." To get him to go with her to the Trist party, she had to first lighten the mood between them and smooth things over. She thought she could do this by apologizing to him, although it was very uncomfortable for her.
He didn't say anything. He just looked at her quietly.
Is she like a three-year-old? She scolded me so badly, and now she's apologizing. And I'm supposed to just accept this? he thought.
"Oh, Alex, I'm apologizing to you, and you still look at me like this. I beg you. Will you forgive me?" she said as she held his hand, shaking it gently and giving him an earnest look.
But that wasn't what she was thinking.
Smelly loser, I'm not apologizing to you because I like you. It's only because Trist's boss asked me to bring you to the party, she thought.
"Alex, please forgive her. Sometimes she's just too impulsive. She felt bad and thought about it for a long time before she came over here to apologize to you," Hannah pleaded.
He looked at Minnie. She showed traces of sincerity.
"Okay, I forgive you. It's late. You should go back," he said casually. He didn't care if Minnie was sincere or not. He just wanted to send her away quickly.
Minnie and Hannah looked at each other and then at Alex.
"Alex, since you've forgiven me, let's be friends." Minnie looked at him, but there was no apology in her eyes. "Let me tell you the truth. My livestream was very successful, and the boss liked it. I'm going to Miami for the Trist party tomorrow night. I hope you can join me and help, okay?"
As he had expected, she had a different motive for her apology.
"Hmmm," Alex sneered.
Minnie, Minnie, if it wasn't because you needed my help, you would've never apologized to me, he thought.
He went to the door, opened it, and said, "It's time for you to go."
"Alex, I've apologized to you. What else do you want? You know this is a good opportunity for me to become famous. Maybe tomorrow night will be the most important night in my live streaming career. If come with me, I could become a famous streamer and get the support of the platform! I have to grab this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Do you understand?" Minnie said while feeling a little anxious when she saw him ask her to leave.
She hoped that he could understand how important the party was to her.
"Not only that—" Hannah also walked toward him and put her arm around Minnie. "The director of Trist called and said that if Minnie didn't show up with you tomorrow night, she might be blocked from the platform. Even if her results are okay, they won't let her progress. So, please think about it carefully. After all, it would be very easy for you to help her."
His heart moved when he heard that his presence would have such a profound impact on Minnie's career.
"I won't go with you," he finally said cruelly. If it was for something else, he would have agreed to help her. But her Livestream content was deceptive. He wouldn't be able to live with helping her cheat her fans.
"Why?" Minnie looked at him viciously. "This is for my career. It's not for fun! If you don't go, I'll be finished. You're so cruel and vicious. You want to ruin my future, don't you?"
She grabbed him by his pyjamas and said, "You're so bad!"
"Minnie, don't grab him!" Hannah pulled her away from him with her arms waving and legs kicking.
"Alex, she's put a lot of energy into her livestream. I don't think you want to ruin her future. You can see that she'll go nuts," said Hannah as she hugged her.
"I can help you with other things, but I can't help you fake this livestream. I'm sorry," he said to Minnie. He thought that he would use his family's power to help put her career in order. "Don't worry, Trist's boss won't interfere with Minnie's livestream. I guarantee that your livestreaming career will continue."
"Oh, are you kidding me? You're just a little garbage collector. Who do you think you are? Alex, are you so stupid to think you can solve this problem? It's no wonder you're picking up trash now. You deserve to be poor." Minnie felt that he was being ridiculous.
"You say that you don't want to help me because I cheat people. Ha… you're such a heartless and ungrateful man. Who do you think you are to talk to me about morals? Hannah, let me go." Hannah slowly let go of her. She sneered at Alex and walked up to him. He looked at her but didn't say a word.
"Do you remember Cathy?" When Minnie mentioned her name, he was stunned.
"Ah." Minnie laughed with contempt when she saw his reaction. The sneer on her face got even stronger. "It looks like you still remember her. I thought you'd forgotten about her."
"Did you know that Cathy dropped out of school?" Minnie asked softly.
"Do you know that on the day she left, she packed up her bedding and clothes in the dorm alone and that she walked out of the school with her suitcase all by herself? Do you know where she is now? Do you know how lonely and desolate she must have felt? How sad she must have been, and how many tears she must have cried the night before she left?" Minnie asked.
Her questions were like arrows shooting at his heart.
Since the last time he had seen Cathy at the Autumn Beauty Boutique, he had not heard any news about her. He had not attended classes recently, so he didn't know that Cathy had dropped out of school.
Cathy's family wasn't well-off, so how could she afford to drop out of school?
Did she give up? he thought and worried about her.
"You don't know… you don't know anything." Minnie stared into his eyes as she tried to judge him. "I think the culprit who drove Cathy to the point of dropping out was you!"
"You don't want to put this on my head, do you?" he complained.
"You coward! What's wrong with you?" she said more loudly.
Alex was shocked. He did feel some responsibility for Cathy's departure.
"Do you remember what you did to Cathy?" Minnie sneered. "If it hadn't been for you, Cathy wouldn't have gotten to that point! Do you want to say that Cathy dumped you and that she did a lot of unfaithful things to you? That she looked for another man behind your back? That she disliked the poor and loved the rich? She also sarcastically criticized you on all kinds of occasions. She's suffering now."
Alex stared at Minnie.
"Yes, it's all true, but does it make you relieved to hear it?" Minnie fiercely gouged out Alex. "You could only see her bad qualities, but you couldn't see a little bit of her good side? Is it because she wasn't good to you? Are you such a great man? Do you know that Cathy has never let you out of her heart in all this time?" She put forward a message that made him dumbfounded and puzzled.
"What are you talking about? You don't know—" he said.
"Cathy's family is not so great, so you know that she wants to change her destiny. You understand that, right? So, she did cheat on you with Billy behind your back. When you found out, I told her that if she wanted to make you feel better, it would be better to be cruel to you. Otherwise, you would blame yourself, which would be more painful. So, she behaved badly in front of you to drive you away and make you feel better.
"After that, Cathy and Simon got together," Minnie continued. "A girl from a poor family who tried hard to find a better boyfriend under the pressures of her family and society. She didn't rob anyone or break the law. Don't tell me that she was wrong," she said to him in a loud voice.