Chapter 37: Disregarding You

Chapter 37: Indifference

As she stood for the security screening, Bai Li lowered her eyes. She had wanted to offer this apology for a long time, but never found the right opportunity. Ms. Hu had embezzled the assets belonging to Fang Ye’s father. It was deeply wrong.

Bai Li felt as though she were overwhelmed by guilt. She wanted to turn back and look at Fang Ye’s expression—to see if he was confused or at peace. But she didn't; perhaps out of cowardice. As she hesitated to turn away, she heard Fang Ye call her name.

"Bai Li."

She turned, and her eyes met his. Fang Ye stood beyond the railing, his hand resting casually on the iron bars. The silver bracelet dangled against his cool-toned wrist. His expression was detached yet gentle, a faint smile playing on his lips. "Don't overthink things. Just focus on your studies and stop worrying about everything else."

Bai Li froze for a second, then came to her senses and nodded gently. Fang Ye raised his hand and gave a light wave.

Her body felt stiff. The dappled light fell across her thin profile, casting a long shadow. After waving back, she walked into the high-speed rail station without looking back. She was incredibly reluctant to leave, yet terrified of returning to Jiangcheng. She wasn't prepared for the consequences of her unauthorized departure. Ms. Hu would likely be furious, and her stepfather would look at her with those strange, piercing eyes. In that "home" where she lived as a guest, she would face an even more miserable situation.

But she knew she did not regret coming to Lingjiang. That was enough. Furthermore, she had a secret—a secret that could not be revealed, a secret that drew her in deeper the longer she stayed.

...

Taking a deep breath, Bai Li dragged her luggage into the station’s convenience store. She grabbed a bag of French-style bread and a bottle of milk. When she went to pay, she realized all her spare cash was in that envelope, leaving her only enough for her train ticket. Faced with the cashier’s skeptical gaze, Bai Li fumbled for her phone, praying that her WeChat balance still had a little left.

When she saw the amount in her digital wallet, she went completely still. There were two thousand yuan in the account! The remaining nine yuan and eighty cents were negligible. She had had that small amount before; since it wasn't a round number, she couldn't withdraw it from the bank, so she had simply left it there. As a student, she rarely used WeChat for payments, so it wasn't strange to have no balance. But having extra money was very strange!

She paid the total in a daze and found a seat in the waiting area. She reviewed the transaction history repeatedly, but could not find the source of the two thousand yuan. Was there a bug in the system? That seemed impossible.

Bai Li squinted, her memory drifting back to the night they went out for dinner. Fang Ye had taken her money and borrowed her phone, though he never said why. Could it be... that he had transferred the money to her then?

Her nose stung. She hadn't been a person prone to crying, yet over the last two months, she had become a crybaby. It felt rather contradictory.

Her phone chimed with a notification. Bai Li unlocked it to find a message from Fang Ye. He had sent a string of inexplicable numbers and told her to take a taxi when she arrived, as it was raining in Jiangcheng. He also said he hoped she wouldn't dwell on the past; he didn't remember it, and he didn't want her to remember it either.

For the last part, he sent a voice message. "Being a child is fine. You aren't an adult yet; there's no need to make things difficult for yourself."

Bai Li couldn't bring herself to reply, so she just listened to the recording in a stupor until the station broadcast announced the boarding. She queued up, found her carriage, stowed her luggage, and took her seat. Once she had calmed down, she looked at the numbers again and finally replied:

【Brother, what are those numbers for?】

The answer came quickly.

【Tuition password.】

Bai Li was bewildered. Tuition? Whose tuition? Tuition she had given to Fang Ye? That didn't make sense! She asked again:

【Tuition password for what?】

There was no reply from the other side.

The train had been running for a long time while she wrestled with this mystery. It was only later that she opened her small white bag and, while checking her ID card, discovered a bank card tucked right behind it.

! ! !

The confusion cleared. Fang Ye had secretly tucked a bank card into her belongings—the money was likely for tuition, and those strange numbers were the password. She recalled that night when Fang Ye asked her, "How much do you think university tuition costs?"

In an instant, Bai Li couldn't process it. She didn't even dare to imagine how much was on the card—seven thousand? Eight thousand? Ten thousand? It was very likely more than she had given him. How had he earned that much money? She wasn't even at the age for university yet.

No matter how much she asked, Fang Ye remained silent. Bai Li could only clutch the bank card, feeling anxious and uneasy for the rest of the journey.

...

The train sped through tunnel after tunnel, cutting through the rain. Outside the window, the mountains retreated in a blur. Several hours later, it was three o'clock in the afternoon.

Rainy Jiangcheng was shrouded in mist. Beyond the cold air, the world looked as if it were viewed through a grey-tinted filter. Bai Li stood at her front door with her luggage. After several deep breaths, she pressed the doorbell.

Footsteps approached. It wasn't Ms. Hu who opened the door, but her stepfather, Su Changjin. Unlike most local businessmen, he had no beer belly and no thinning hair. He wore a pair of sharp, rectangular glasses and carried the air of a high-quality, middle-aged elite. This was the reason her mother had agreed to become his second wife; Ms. Hu always believed she had married up to such a wealthy, refined man.

The Su family lived in a large flat where every corner was opulent, filled with precious ornaments rarely seen in ordinary homes. Su Changjin held the door handle with one hand and adjusted his glasses, giving Bai Li a look of indifference. His tone, however, remained gentle: "You’re back. Come in; your mother has been worried sick."

Bai Li dragged her luggage inside. Under his gaze, she instinctively lowered her head further and murmured, "Yes."

As she entered the foyer and headed toward her room, she saw Ms. Hu standing in the living room. Ms. Hu was wearing a purple turtleneck sweater—even in the height of summer, she insisted on the rule that short sleeves were improper. Her makeup was elegant yet sharp, but her eyes were filled with a fierce, chilling light as she scrutinized her daughter. It was an oppressive, silent accusation.

After a long pause, Su Changjin patted Ms. Hu’s shoulder. "Alright, Meimei, let's talk about it properly. We're all family."

Ms. Hu seemed to deflate, or perhaps she simply wished to maintain her refined image. She gestured toward the room and said in a relatively soft tone, "Go inside and rest first. I'll come to talk to you in a while."

Bai Li stared at the disgust flashing in her mother's eyes. She nodded calmly and retreated to her room. She instinctively wanted to lock the door, but then remembered this wasn't Lingjiang—she had no right to lock her door here. She withdrew her hand and sat silently at her desk, waiting for the storm of judgment to arrive.