Chapter 48: I Like Him
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Chapter 48: I Like Him
People passing behind her turned their eyes toward her.
Seeing that she was only a young girl, the receptionist assumed she might not know how to operate the machine and quickly asked, “What’s wrong? Do you need help?”
“No, no, it’s nothing.”
Bai Li came to her senses at once. She picked up her bag from the floor, then turned her head and stared fixedly at the screen, her mind spinning.
It took her several counts before she finally understood how many zeros there were.
One hundred thousand…
A full one hundred thousand yuan!
Bai Li pressed her lips together, astonishment filling her small face. Afraid that others might notice something strange, she forced herself to keep her expression under control.
She didn’t dare withdraw the money.
For a high school senior, one hundred thousand yuan was an enormous sum. If she withdrew it, who knew what sort of strange people might set their sights on her?
But someone behind her was watching, so she only dared take out one hundred yuan. Then, beneath the receptionist’s look of “I knew it,” she hurriedly took her card and boarded the bus home.
Sitting in the very last row, Bai Li felt the thin card in her palm growing hotter and hotter, as though its heat might burn straight through the skin.
This was absurd.
Her brother had actually given her one hundred thousand yuan.
What kind of move was this?
There was no doubt about it: her brother must have paid a tremendous price to obtain this money. During that period…the house had been filled with the smell of blood, and he had suffered serious injuries.
But…
Why had he given her so much money?
In an instant, she remembered what Fang Ye had said: it was tuition from an older brother to his younger sister.
At the time, she had assumed it would be seven or eight thousand at most…
With one hundred thousand yuan, he had paid all four years of university tuition and living expenses in advance, hadn’t he?
He had, right?
She hadn’t misunderstood him, had she?
In a daze, she heard the sound of her own heartbeat again—sometimes light, sometimes heavy—beating so fiercely that she could hardly breathe. A strange, subtle emotion stirred within her.
Fang Ye had always been generous toward her, treating her extraordinarily well.
That kindness made her restless heart begin to beat again, inevitably—
In the early spring of February, the entire city seemed to have been coated with a fresh layer of paint.
When Bai Li returned home, she saw her stepfather, stepsister, and Madam Hu sitting together on the sofa watching television. They seemed warm and harmonious. Her stepsister’s favorite girls’ anime was playing, and on the table sat some heart-shaped snacks Madam Hu had made herself.
No one cared where Bai Li went or whether she came back. Madam Hu merely signaled for her to leave, and Bai Li said nothing as she withdrew into her room.
There was warmth in this family, but she alone was shut out from it. Compared with the many girls who were even more neglected, she was still relatively fortunate. She lived in an environment that was, all things considered, acceptable. She did not need to work, nor did she have to suffer for the sake of survival.
All she had to endure was the indifference brought by being pushed to the margins, along with occasional humiliation and bullying. She did her best to make herself invisible and transparent.
She had nearly reached the limit of what she could bear.
But after that trip to Lingjiang, she suddenly felt that whether people valued her or not no longer seemed so important.
She had a more important goal waiting for her to accomplish.
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She had no time to grieve and cry over people who did not love her.
…
She hadn’t withdrawn the money.
Bai Li buried herself beneath the covers. In the dim darkness of the bedclothes, she transferred the more than two thousand yuan in her WeChat balance to Fang Ye, leaving herself just over two hundred yuan to top up her meal card for the coming week. If she ate sparingly, it might last two weeks.
Then she secretly asked:
“Brother, where are you in North City right now? If I want to find you someday, where should I go?”
She had deliberately avoided mentioning the card, hoping to use those words to coax his address out of him.
If she asked directly, she was certain Fang Ye would refuse just as directly.
This time, Fang Ye replied rather quickly.
“What’s wrong? Have you been mistreated? Tell your brother about it.”
Bai Li was momentarily bewildered, then hurriedly replied.
“No. I just wanted to know.”
But Fang Ye seemed almost too clever. He saw through her intentions with ease. He returned the transfer and sent her a voice message.
“Little Bai Li, you’re asking for my address and sending me money at the same time? Are you trying to buy my address? What kind of person do you take me for?”
Although he was laughing, his tone was unmistakably playful.
Perhaps she had not heard him clearly, or perhaps the electric current had altered his voice. Bai Li felt that beneath his lazy tone there was a faint weakness.
She was about to say something else when Fang Ye sent another voice message.
“If you’re short of money, take some out of the card. Stop thinking about returning it to me. Once something has been given away, there’s no reason to take it back. I was actually happy when I received the withdrawal notification. I didn’t expect you to have this in mind. That wasn’t very obedient of you.”
The way he said “not very obedient” was intimate and affectionate.
Bai Li’s heart began to race. It was as though she could see the tender smile in his eyes even through the screen.
Uneasily biting her lip, she said, “Brother, I don’t need that much money. I should still give it back to you.”
She was nearly going mad. Ever since she had learned that the card contained a fortune, her hands had been trembling.
Fang Ye replied, “If it makes you feel too burdened, then just hold on to it for me. Once you get into Qing University, return it to me in person.”
After that, no matter what Bai Li said, he stopped replying.
When Chengzi heard Bai Li asking about Fang Ye’s address, he laughed and said, “Don’t bother asking, little sister. Brother Ye said that a girl should have some money on her.”
And so, in the end, she still could not return the money.
Because the room was well insulated, the air inside was perfectly quiet. Bai Li could only carefully place the card in the most difficult-to-open compartment of her schoolbag.
Suppressing the inexplicable pounding of her heart and the unevenness of her breathing, she opened a collection of past examination papers and wrote her name, stroke by stroke.
Then she would work hard.
She would get into Qing University and go find him.
The winter vacation ended quietly, and the final stage of the hectic preparation for the university entrance examination arrived.
The school administration completely prohibited students from bringing mobile phones onto campus. Metal detectors had been installed at every school gate to prevent students from trying to be clever and disrupting the progress of their studies.
Bai Li handed over her phone with particular seriousness.
Every week, she studied with complete dedication.
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Even on weekends, she rarely went home. Whenever she wanted to rest, He Suisui would invite Bai Li to her house.
It was a request Madam Hu would never refuse.
In the spring of April, the snow and ice had long since melted beneath the warm sunlight. Once again, it was the weekend, and Bai Li had been invited to visit He Suisui’s home.
Because of her academic performance, He Suisui’s mother was also very happy to have Bai Li come over.
When girls gathered together, they liked to confide their hidden thoughts to one another late into the night.
That year, board games were sweeping through the schools.
He Suisui brought out a stack of cards for a game of Truth or Dare.
She played rock-paper-scissors with Bai Li, and whoever lost had to draw a card at random and complete the task.
The first time, He Suisui drew a dare. Blushing, she sent a compliment to the first girl on her contact list.
The second time, Bai Li drew truth.
…
—Please reveal the greatest secret hidden within your heart.
…
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