Even in the most exasperating of lives, one must learn to keep calm.
"Heavens, it's a hassle every time they come, always giving me grief," Lu Youde's terrifyingly loud voice almost lifted the roof. His wife Yu Yizhen meekly came out from the next room, her voice careful and cautious as she pleaded, "Keep your voice down... Our daughter is busy with work, maybe say less."
"Work? I don't smell any alcohol on her," he sneered.
"..."
"She's doused in some wild perfume. Ask her, where did she find a lover to fool around with?"
"..."
Here we go again, here we go again!
Looking at her mother, who had been accommodating and submissive all her life, Zhan Se felt like her brain was about to twitch uncontrollably.
"Mom, Uncle Lu, I've got my own things to handle. If you're uncomfortable staying here, then go back to Yilan."
"Hah! You little wretch," snarled Lu Youde, his wrinkled face shaking like a layer of jelly with his curses, "I provided for you, clothed you, paid for your education... Now that you've spread your wings, can't bear to let me and your mother enjoy a few days of peace? ...Ungrateful little wretch!"
"Uncle Lu, I've been sending money home regularly!"
"Sending money? That pittance you call money..."
And so the endless complaints began anew.
Zhan Se's frown grew deeper and deeper.
As Lu Youde screeched, enumerating her faults while simultaneously griping about Yu Yizhen's various shortcomings, he ranted for a good five minutes before suddenly, as if something dawned on him, he changed tack and got to the point, "Given your age, I've been thinking of finding you a good family. That Boss Wang from the Yilan mine factory, he's been asking around a few times..."
Boss Wang? Ha!
Male, in his fifties, a widower with two children.
How creative, right?!
Anger burned in her heart, and her heart, long murdered by familial love, ached pretentiously again, almost bringing her to tears.
"Did you take money from someone?"
"...No, no, who told you that?"
Feeling a disgusting sourness rising in her stomach, she sneered, stepped forward, and quipped at rapid pace, "Your speech is forceful, your tone is rising, your answers are stiff. You still want to lie?!"
"What kind of attitude is that? Isn't moving up to Boss Wang a step up for you? He made it clear, once you marry into his family, he'll build us a big house..."
"Oh please, Uncle Lu!" Zhan Se retorted coldly, "Just tell me how much you took."
"Don't get smart with me!" Lu Youde snorted, his nose twitching, "Fine, I'll tell you. When we came here, kind Boss Wang graciously gave us one hundred thousand yuan for travel expenses. Said it was to honor me and your mother... Heh, you should count yourself lucky that he took a liking to you."
One hundred thousand yuan to sell her to an old widower?
As her stepfather continued to sing Boss Wang's praises, Zhan Se's ears tuned out.
It was so quiet that the room felt like a dark tomb.
Clutching her fists involuntarily, she smothered the raging anger within her, shut her eyes tight. When she reopened them, she raised her left wrist, and the 18-bead jade bracelet Lord Quan the Fourth had slipped onto her wrist shimmered with a soft glow.
"Don't trouble yourselves, I already have a boyfriend."
The delicate and moist jade under the light was sparkling, resplendent, dazzling, its lines smoothly flowing as if pulsating with a strong life force.
At the sight of it, Lu Youde's cursing mouth gaped open.
"Well, well, the girl has a suitor… Tsk tsk, that jade is a real treasure! So, Little Yao, when will you bring him over to meet us?"
Not wanting to spare a second glance at her stepfather's greedy expression, Zhan Se turned to look at Yu Yizhen, "Mom, if you're not feeling well, go rest early. I'm heading back to the center now, I have a night shift."
"Oh... Eh, Little Yao, wait a minute..."
"Hey girl, the one hundred thousand yuan we owe Boss Wang..."
Clutching her shoulder bag strap tightly, Zhan Se didn't look back.
She wasn't one to take things lying down, yet she felt powerless to change the situation.
Her stepfather, her sick mother, her younger sister... and her mother's love life. She snickered at herself mockingly. If one doesn't have the means to change one's circumstance, then the only choice left is "out of sight, out of mind."
Carrying her bag, she walked toward the bus stop in the rainy night, her head throbbing painfully.
Finding a make-do boyfriend was easy, but scraping together a hundred thousand yuan to pay someone back, for her, just two months into her job, was tougher than reaching the heavens.
One hundred thousand yuan!
Where to find it?
That evening.
Du Xiaoren was on duty.
She was Zhan Se's college classmate.
While Zhan Se was doing her master's, Du Xiaoren had already been working as a cultural mentor in the Juvenile Rehabilitation Center.
And now, with Zhan Se working there as a psychological counselor, they had become colleagues.
Both girls were from out of town, and they usually got along well. Now, they sat in the dormitory exchanging grievances about their family lives, both filled with woes. In the end, it always came back to 'money'. Still, staring at the jade bracelet on her wrist, Du Xiaoren couldn't hide her admiration, "Se Se, since you need money... why, sell it and you'll have money, right?"
Lifting her wrist, Zhan Se examined it again with a dispirited face.
"It's not even mine to sell, how disreputable would that be? Besides, I have no idea how much it's worth."
Unexpectedly, the girl leaned in even closer,
"Holy moly!" She burst into laughter, grabbing hold of Du Xiaoren's open mouth in retaliation, "Stop talking nonsense! A slap on the hand is 30, a reward of a red fabric one zhang long!"
"Go on, who would believe that? Hey Se Se, I really want to know, someone like him, a tall, rich, and handsome bachelor who instantly knocks women off their feet,
a handsome and cool man of such stature!?
Three highs: tall, lofty aspirations, high intelligence.
Three bigs: big fortune, big influence,
Ha, if there are such men in this world, wouldn't they be wrapped up in gold and covered in diamonds?
Zhan Se rolled her eyes in amusement.
"Your teardrop mole trembles lightly, your eyes brimming with moisture. Girl, you're in heat!"
"Zhan Se, are you getting neurotic again? We agreed you wouldn't analyze me! Annoying, you've seen right through me... You make me feel psychologically challenged."
Distracted by her own trifling matters, Zhan Se deflected after a couple of mental loops, weakly waving away the topic.
"Alright, stop it! Du Xiaoren, we've got an interview coming up, we need to prepare."
"Can you believe you? Tsk! Still able to focus on studying? I admire your detachment, Zhan Se."