Yun Qingcheng has always believed that a person can live in whatever way they want.
So, she chose the best way to live for herself, well atleast that's what she thought.
For her staying inside her room playing games, reading novels and doing midnight streams was the best way to live.
But that's not what her parents thought, and living under her parent's roof meant following their rules once in a while so she had to go out of the house, come out of the room and sometimes even greet the relatives that came to visit occasionally.
But the past two days were the limit to her patience while dealing with such things.
"No!"
Tang Meirong tried to persuade her daughter by reasoning,
"Qingqing it's just your aunt and cousin, you only have to come down during dinner time."
"Not happening! Relatives…are the worstest!"
"Qingqing…I mean I know our relatives aren't very likable but-"
"Nooo"
"Fine."
Tang Meirong knew that once Yun Qingcheng became stubborn it would be difficult to make her change her mind so she let her be.
If it were any other person Yun Qingcheng would still have accepted her fate but this pair of mother and daughter was intolerable thinking this Tang Meirong remembered the incident from 5 years ago...
That was the day of the results of the college entrance examination.
Result day is one of the days when every person you ever met whether you are still connected or not, will give you a call to ask how much you scored.
Yun Qingcheng although was homeschooled, she also had to give this exam. And she was not the brightest student of all, she at most could be called average. Ofcourse her parents never forced her to get better results.
So this day when the results came, other than all the calls asking about the results, her aunt, Yun Feili decided to visit as well.
This aunt's daughter, Ming Zhen was the same age as Yun Qingcheng.
For some reason, Ming Zhen has been in a one-sided rivalry with Yun Qingcheng.
So ofcourse today was the day to have the showdown.
"Sister-in-law, where is Qingqing? Today her results should have also come right?"
"Mhmm, they did."
"She must have done better than my Zhenzhen."
Yun Feili knew that Yun Qingcheng didn't have any good results but how will one pull out the topic of comparison without putting the other party on a higher pedestal?
But Tang Meirong was not going to fall for it.
"Our Qingqing only scores around average, didn't I tell you this last time you visited."
Oh, I guess I mixed her with someone else."
An awkward silence prevailed, only for a short while. Yun Feili had come with a purpose and she was not going back without achieving it.
Unfortunately for Yun Qingcheng, she came down at this moment.
"Qingqing you are here! We were talking about you."
Yun Qingcheng gave her mother a quizzical look.
Her mother shook her head, as she told her with her eyes to endure it.
Yun Feili didn't let them continue on with their eye contact as she quickly threw her question at Yun Qingcheng
"We were talking about the results, so Qingqing what percentage did you make?"
'It's okay keep calm, just tell her the results, let her flaunt and be done with.'
"I got 52%"
"That's so low!"
"My Zhenzhen scored 97% and barely made it into the top college. With your score, you won't even get into the worst ones."
"Qingqing, don't tell me you were not planning on going to college at all."
"Sister-in-law this won't do! Let Qingqing repeat a year. You can't let her do whatever she wants. It's about her whole life. "
"blah blah blah"
After that, there was a lot of chattering about how her Zhenzhen was the best.
Tang Meirong came out of the memory and sighed.
'It's better if Qingqing doesn't come down.'
***
Yun Feili was Yun Qiang's elder sister. She was married to the wealthy Ming family but they faced some issues and then had a downfall in their status.
Back when they were still very rich Yun Feili had liked to come here every now and then to flaunt her wealth. But after the downfall of the family business, she stopped coming.
It was only recently when yun family faced the crisis that she started visiting again.
As soon as she entered the first thing she did was not to greet but get straight to the topic that was most taboo in their house to talk about.
"Brother, how can you let that illegitimate child work in the Yun corporation?"
"Yun corporation still belongs to father, it was his decision."
Did she not know this? Ofcourse, she knew but how will she spite them if she didn't ask.
Tang Meirong looked on from the sidelines without saying anything.
She knew her sister-in-law didn't really care who the Yun corporation belonged to as long as she got her year-end dividends on time.
Ming Zhen who had come with her mother walked up to Tang Rongmei and asked,
"Aunty, where is Qingqing?"
"She is not feeling well, so she is sleeping."
"Ah, I will go check on her then."
"No- "
But Ming Zhen didn't wait for her to say anything; she trotted her way to the stairs.
Tang Meirong whipped out her phone and sent a text to Yun Qingcheng about it.
Upstairs
Ming Zhen reached outside Yun Qingcheng's room and placed her ear on the door, not being able to hear anything, she barged into the room.
To her disappointment, there was nothing exciting happening inside. Yun Qingcheng was lying on the bed, she even gave her a smile and said politely,
"Please come in."
'Oh wait, you already have.'
"Aunt said you were ill so I came to see you as I was worried."
Ming Zhen sat down beside her and held her hand as she said with an expression filled with sadness,
"Qingqing I am so sorry to hear about what happened to you. But it's understandable, Aunt Lu doesn't like you very much. And brother Chen will obviously listen to his mother."
Yun Qingcheng gave her a look of bewilderment that said,
'What the hell are you talking about?!'
Looking at Yun Qingcheng who looked genuinely confused, Ming Zhen took out her phone and showed her a news headline that said, "Is there going to be good news soon?"
What captured Yun Qingcheng's attention was not the headline but the photo that was provided below.
In the photo a man and a woman were smiling at each other, they looked very close. Anyone who saw this image would think there was something between the two of them.
Ming Zhen smirked at Yun Qingcheng's dazed look and silently left the room.
That night Yun Qingcheng had a sleepless night as that photo kept appearing before her eyes, in her ears the conversation she had with her grandma yesterday echoed.
A resolute light flashed in her eyes as she said to herself,
"You can do this!"