GV – Chapter 94

A dramatic, edgy teenager. That was Ye Yuhuan’s first impression of Song Zhiqing, and it was also her public image.

The mighty Black Sanctuary, within a mere month of its establishment, had swept through all of Qinglin’s major and minor self-proclaimed school bully factions, unifying the fragmented landscape of school tyrants and laying a profound foundation for the further development of Qinglin’s school bully culture.

Song Zhiqing shot to fame at Qinglin. Of course, she had been a prominent figure before—after all, she was more or less the school belle. Now, the rose had become a carnivorous flower, and no one dared to even think about touching the school belle throne she sat on. Several school belle candidates who had paid for online trolls to boost their popularity all demanded refunds that year, or else had their paid posters switch sides to help Song Zhiqing secure her re-election.

After all, although the Song family was considered mid-tier among A-City’s elite, Song Chen only had this one daughter. Furthermore, Song Zhiqing’s mother, Gao Yiren, had fans all over the world. Now that she was gone, she had become an eternal, idealized memory. As her only daughter, Song Zhiqing was naturally well-protected. Besides, if the heirs of families more powerful than the Songs were to play such school bully games, it would be a foolish act tantamount to smashing their own imperial seal.

As for Song Zhiqing’s imperial seal, before Song Chen’s plan to have an illegitimate son succeeded, even if she smashed it, Song Chen would have had to forge her a new one.

Having become the top school bully, Song Zhiqing threw her weight around campus every day. Every time she appeared, it was with a whole entourage, a grand procession that was just short of featuring fighting cocks and racing dogs. It could be said that she took her dramatic flair to the absolute extreme.

But unfortunately, Ye Yuhuan wasn’t the type of good girl who falls for the bad student.

Admittedly, she liked Song Zhiqing’s looks, was grateful for her help, and admired her fighting prowess, but none of that necessarily led to love.

Ye Yuhuan had a common affliction among girls who loved arts and literature: she was fascinated by people with a story.

Unfortunately, a person could be both a dramatic teenager and have a story.

After Song Zhiqing dealt with Zhao Qi and her cronies, Ye Yuhuan’s school life became much more peaceful. But that didn’t mean that after months of being bullied, she could now befriend the group of people who had either bullied her or stood by and watched. Although she looked easy to bully, she actually held quite a grudge. For instance, Ye Yuhuan still remembered the time her father, Ye Chu, had stolen her snacks when she was five.

Qinglin was vast, large enough to accommodate good students, bad students, the children of the rich, and the children of commoners. They all coexisted in the sea that was Qinglin, and from its calm surface, you couldn’t accurately pick out any single one of them.

Ye Yuhuan blended in, a person intending to live in seclusion.

For people like her, Qinglin also had a place.

In the birch forest behind the school’s tennis courts, there was an exceptionally soft patch of grass. Ye Yuhuan often brought a book here to rest while others were out having fun.

Until one day, she discovered an intruder had come to this patch of grass. The newcomer had also brought a book. She was half-reclined on a natural slope, slowly turning the pages. The shadows of leaves dappled her face, which was still stunningly beautiful.

A beauty you could never forget.

Song Zhiqing.

Ye Yuhuan subconsciously hid behind a tree. Perhaps it was a cautious reluctance to ruin the beautiful scene, or perhaps it was the panic that came with a racing heart. She gave up her Garden of Eden, but in return, she received an apple tree. Ye Yuhuan didn’t know if she had gained or lost, but she certainly understood what desire was after that.

Humans are contradictory creatures, so they love contradictory things. Strength coexisting with softness, cruelty with fragility—such an existence often incites a kind of madness in people.

Ye Yuhuan was no exception.

She could restrain herself from falling for a campus hero.

But she couldn’t restrain herself from falling for a campus hero who read books on the patch of grass she frequented.

From then on, Ye Yuhuan’s secret world changed from a wide, comfortable lawn to a small patch of grass just big enough for one person to sit, surrounded on all sides by thick, heavy trees. They were suitable as backrests for reading, and also suitable for concealing a person’s quiet, distant gaze.

At the end of that gaze was the lonely campus hero. Only in this place was she quiet, the books in her hands mostly related to psychology. The way she read so intently made one wonder if her terrible grades were intentional.

The Interpretation of Dreams, Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, The Development of Personality, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, The Lucifer Effect…

Ye Yuhuan was grateful for the good eyesight her parents had passed down to her.

Gradually, the books by her side also became related to psychology. After the college entrance exams, she resolutely and enthusiastically embarked on the path of psychology. It would be a lie to say Song Zhiqing had no influence on this, and it would be self-deception to say there wasn’t a part of her that hoped to increase her own appeal in Song Zhiqing’s eyes by studying a subject that interested her.

Why did Ye Yuhuan take such a roundabout way to connect with Song Zhiqing?

The answer was the same as the reason why they had shared the same secret world for two years of high school but never once spoke to each other there.

Before the beautiful and dazzling Song Zhiqing, who was like a moon goddess of war, Ye Yuhuan felt ashamed of her own inadequacy.

And Song Zhiqing, just like the moon, shone on all things equally and ignored all things equally.

Her mind was consumed by Gao Yiren’s death and Song Chen’s increasingly monstrous face. She had already written the ending for herself: an inevitable early death. Thus, she used a corpse-like coldness to block out all warmth and connection from the world, including a gaze filled with love.

The only exception was Shangguan Xianxian, but that was a feigned warmth—she was merely a tool to achieve her goals.

Ye Yuhuan didn’t notice that the lofty moon goddess of war in her eyes was already rotting from the inside. Song Zhiqing was stewing in her own world, watching it with cold indifference as her mother’s corpse drew closer to her each day.

Song Zhiqing’s disguise was excellent. Her mother’s acting talent had been passed down to her, and she had everyone wrapped around her finger. Song Zhiqing perfectly played the part of a rebellious girl in the wake of her mother’s death.

The only place where a corner of the truth was revealed was in the pages of the books that lay on that soft patch of grass. But unfortunately, the person who witnessed it had lost her sharpness due to love and timidity, mistaking it for the coldness of moonlight and becoming utterly captivated.

It was even more impossible for others to see through her.

Outwardly, Song Zhiqing might as well have had “I am a lawless young mistress” written on her forehead.

Aside from actual violence, she had flaunted every kind of power a school bully could. And her crazy pursuit of Shangguan Xianxian was, in everyone’s eyes, just the standard drama of a school bully inevitably pursuing the school belle (or beau).

However, since Song Zhiqing also held the title of school belle, she had to settle for the next best thing: Shangguan Xianxian, who was only slightly less popular than her.

Song Zhiqing did everything a suitor should do. She was passionate, even passionately annoying.

Roses, jewelry, and high-priced works of art were sent to Shangguan Xianxian in a continuous stream by Song Zhiqing. Of course, when pursuing the daughter of the richest man, such a display was necessary.

But things like a loudspeaker playing a confession on a loop, confession fireworks suddenly launched during evening study hall, and carving “I love you from Qing” into the decorative radish on Shangguan Xianxian’s steak plate… that was all a bit unsettling.

It was conceivable that Shangguan Xianxian would not accept Song Zhiqing’s advances, and it was also conceivable that Song Zhiqing would go mad for love as a result.

When news of Song Zhiqing’s car accident reached the ears of those who had witnessed her “love story,” they all sighed with regret. Several of the more sentimental ones even posted on their social media feeds with the theme that deep love never lasts. But no one was surprised, not even Ye Yuhuan. Song Zhiqing’s act had been too good. Even Song Chen had only slapped her and called her a spendthrift.

No one could have imagined that this was an act of extremely passive revenge.

Just as fireworks go dark after they explode, strictly speaking, Song Zhiqing’s firework had burned for quite a long time.

After Song Zhiqing’s accident, since Song Chen had run into trouble before her, most of her friends, who were just fair-weather companions there to boost her image while she pursued her crush, had already scattered. The few who were genuine friends searched everywhere for doctors and medicine, while Uncle Yu prayed to every deity he could find. As for Ye Yuhuan, upon hearing the news, she bought a plane ticket that very day and flew back from abroad.

She carried only a small bag containing her documents, her phone, and a lab access card.

Because she wasn’t family and had no family with her, Ye Yuhuan was unable to see Song Zhiqing.

She waited outside the hospital room for two days and two nights. No one came.

She was never able to get in.

Through a tiny crack in the door, she could see Song Zhiqing’s face, wrapped in bandages. She heard the injury was to her head, a large gash. She had only survived because Shangguan Xianxian had gotten her to the hospital in time.

Shangguan Xianxian was the one who told Ye Yuhuan this. The two of them had met abroad and hit it off immediately, quickly becoming friends.

Ye Yuhuan had only ever been envious of Shangguan Xianxian; it wasn’t jealousy, and certainly not hatred. After getting to know her, it was even more impossible to harbor any ill will.

She had to admit, with great frustration, that Shangguan Xianxian was someone worthy of being loved so much.

Ye Yuhuan sat on the bench outside the hospital room, reviewing the few interactions she’d had with Song Zhiqing over the years. Would Song Zhiqing remember that she had once saved someone named Ye Yuhuan?

Would she remember that someone named Ye Yuhuan had once given her a love letter?

Probably not.

Song Zhiqing had saved too many people, and even more had given her love letters.

Ah, if only I were a little more special. Then Song Zhiqing might have noticed me, and I wouldn’t be stuck outside this door now.

On the night before she was to leave, a doctor couldn’t bear to watch any longer. Although he didn’t have the authority to let Ye Yuhuan in, he spoke with her for a long time about Song Zhiqing’s condition.

But the core of it was simple: she didn’t want to wake up.

Song Zhiqing’s will to live was extremely weak. To put it bluntly, she was seeking death. If it weren’t for the machines maintaining her heartbeat and breathing, she would be gone within half a month.

It seemed, then, that death was what Song Zhiqing truly wanted.

But Ye Yuhuan thought of something else.

Did Song Zhiqing love Shangguan Xianxian that much? So what if she couldn’t have the one she loved? I couldn’t either, and I’m still living just fine, eating properly every day.

So what if the person you like is with someone else?

The person I like spends every day chasing after someone else.

Did I say anything?

I still… eat properly every day.

Song Zhiqing, you have to wake up for me. You have to eat properly and live properly.

Years later, on the Ye family’s balcony, after listening to her daughter finish that sentence with a smile, Si Zhen turned her head away in anger. “It’s all your father’s fault! If he hadn’t been tricked into doing business back then instead of sticking to his painting, we wouldn’t have had to send you to Qinglin!”

“You never would have met that Song Zhiqing!”

Nearby, Ye Chu, who was bent over sunning his wife’s books, was so startled he sat down on the floor. A thousand words were in his heart, but he didn’t dare speak a single one.

Ye Yuhuan smiled and sidled up to Si Zhen, resting her head on her mother’s shoulder. “But after meeting Song Zhiqing,” she said softly, “I’ve been constantly becoming a better person.”

Si Zhen huffed.

She didn’t argue.

But she huffed again.