After Becoming Roommates with an Obnoxious Wealthy Heiress - Chapter 16

It wouldn’t be too much to call you “Triple Zero,” would it?

“Shut up!” Wu Xuhua listened to the swearing over the phone, her entire body trembling uncontrollably as her emotions surged to an extreme peak.

“Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!!! Who allowed you to call me that? Who gave you permission to call me that! Don’t you ever say that name again—no one is allowed to say it!! You want money? I’m telling you, you won’t get a single cent! My childhood? Do I really need to help you remember how you treated me back then? Home? What home?! Do you think I’d ever want to return to a ‘home’ like that?! You, and Wu Ruijie… you people have been latched onto my neck sucking my blood for years. Aren’t you satisfied yet?”

“I am also your child. I am also your daughter. In all these years, have you ever cared about how I was doing out there, whether I was being bullied, or if I had enough to eat? In all these years, have you said a single word!? Have you asked about me once? Have you shown an ounce of concern for me?”

Even though she had fueled her anger by asking her mother these questions in her heart countless times during her most desperate moments, every time she picked up the phone, a part of her still hoped. She hoped her mother would care just a little—that she might just ask, “Laidi, have you suffered while you were away all these years?”

But it never happened.

Cold reality constantly served as a warning to Wu Xuhua.

“The only thing you have ever cared about is my money.”

Her high-strung anger suddenly collapsed into a profound sorrow. A chill, sharp as a blade of ice, sliced through her heart, infusing it with an endless frost.

At this moment, she covered her face in agony, her body shaking without pause.

“I’ve changed my phone number more than once. Why do you always find me? Why must you keep monitoring my bank statements…”

“Do you have to drive me to my death before you’re satisfied?”

“Thank you, boss.”

Qin Shuyue bowed slightly toward the owner of the print shop.

The owner thoughtfully stapled the materials she had printed and placed them into her canvas bag.

“You college students have to memorize so much stuff. It’s so difficult. Sigh, you students are truly impressive.”

Wang Yingying gave her a thumbs-up and encouraged her: “Young lady, there are many things in this world that aren’t perfect. Sometimes you work a thousand times harder than anyone else, yet the results are still disappointing. But still, doing something is better than doing nothing, and trying is better than not trying at all.”

“But whatever you do, don’t get stuck in a horn’s point (obsessed with a dead end); don’t walk yourself into a blind alley. However…” Wang Yingying, having weathered years of hardship, possessed eyes that were far from clouded.

She placed her rough hand heavily atop Qin Shuyue’s hand, which was gripping the canvas bag. “Even if you do walk into a blind alley, it doesn’t matter. Look back, and the path you came from will become a new way out.”

Qin Shuyue was stunned, looking up and freezing in place.

She knew Wang Yingying was trying to comfort her. But how did she…

Wang Yingying’s clear, sharp gaze swept over her. She raised a hand marked by the wrinkles of time and pointed to her own eyes. “Your eyes are very red. Let me put it this way: I’ve known Old Lady Wang inside since we were sixteen. We’ve walked together until now, facing more rumors and cold shoulders than I can count… I remember when I was eighteen, my father wouldn’t let me go to school. He wanted me to get married—he sold me to an old bachelor in the same village for 80,000 yuan. I tried to run away, so he used thick rope to tie me up at home to force the marriage. The red bridal gown was pressed onto me by countless hands. Tied with ropes, I couldn’t move an inch. The doors and windows were locked tight; there was no chance of escape.”

“But then…” At this point, a strange brilliance erupted in Wang Yingying’s deep-set eyes. Her expression grew gentler, and a smile played on her face. Her gaze inadvertently drifted toward the inner room, where Old Lady Wang was wearing an apron and wielding a spatula to stir-fry vegetables.

“She was truly incredible. she kicked the door open, untied my ropes, and stood there with a knife in her hand. With her hands on her hips and a fierce look in her eyes, she glared at everyone who had come to celebrate the ‘wedding’ and scolded every single one of them. Some people wanted to fight her, but they were no match for her—not to mention she had a knife, so no one dared to go head-to-head.”

Wang Yingying lowered her head and laughed, looking no different from a young girl in the throes of first love.

“Especially that groom—he was over forty with a big beer belly. He was scolded until his face turned blue and white. Then, she threw 150,000 yuan at my father’s head and told him, and all the villagers present, that I, Wang Yingying, was free from that day forward.”

As she said this, Wang Yingying’s eyes seemed to sparkle with stars.

“Back then, 150,000 yuan…” Wang Yingying sighed with a complex expression. “That was 150,000… it was the hard-earned money she had saved by working day and night, suffering through God-knows-what! Just to buy my freedom, she gave it all to my father. Isn’t that ridiculous? Then she told me I had to go to school, that I couldn’t be like her. She supported my education while she lived on plain steamed buns… No… she gave me too much. I couldn’t be a burden to her anymore… so, I stopped going. If I don’t go, I don’t go; I decided I would earn money to take care of her instead! In our most impoverished moments, if we hadn’t had each other… we wouldn’t have made it.”

Her shoulders slumped for a moment, then squared again with pride. “But, life eventually got better. We earned enough money to open a print shop. We came up with the name ‘Wang-Pai Printing’ together!”

When she mentioned the shop’s name, her face was full of pride. She turned her gaze back to Qin Shuyue and pressed her hand lightly on the girl’s shoulder. “So, you see, what obstacle in this world is truly insurmountable?”

Moved by the sincerity of the shop owner’s story, Qin Shuyue felt her own eyes grow hot and red.

She pursed her lips and nodded. “Thank you, boss. I understand what you mean.”

“Just ‘knowing’ isn’t enough; you have to actually do it.”

“Old Wang! Get in here and eat lunch!” A voice roared from inside, like a lioness.

Qin Shuyue felt Wang Yingying’s hand on her shoulder jerk. The older woman chuckled and quickly ended the conversation. “Little girl, come back again next time! I quite like you!”

As soon as she finished speaking, she turned and hurried toward the voice, grumbling as she went, though her tone was filled with tenderness. “Nag, nag, nag. All day long, you’re trying to summon my soul!”

“I’m nagging? Hah! Eat or don’t eat! I worked hard this morning, running all the way to the market to pick out vegetables, buying them, and rushing back to cook for you, and you…”

Hearing Old Lady Wang’s “lion’s roar” about to erupt again, Qin Shuyue ran off faster than a rabbit.

She had witnessed the power of the old woman’s scolding before; it was like an echo in a concert hall.

Pure, unamplified shouting…

Qin Shuyue left with her canvas bag.

Before she walked away, she cast a glance back at Wu Xuhua’s barbecue stall.

She saw Wu Xuhua sitting alone on a small stool with her back to her. It was impossible to see what she was busy with.

Qin Shuyue hesitated, wondering if she should go in and say hello, but then the phone in her pocket rang.

She saw who it was and answered immediately.

“Hello, Dr. Li.”

Dr. Li’s deep, heavy voice came from the other end. His tone sounded relatively kind, but Qin Shuyue knew this call was her final ultimatum. “Qin Shuyue, have you gathered the funds for your mother’s hospitalization and treatment? If you don’t pay by six o’clock tonight, we will have to…”

“Dr. Li,” Qin Shuyue interrupted him. She paused for a second and said, “I’m on my way to the hospital right now. I will pay the full amount today.”

Dr. Li nodded. “That would be for the best.”

With that, he hung up.

Driven by the urgency of that call, Qin Shuyue turned and hurried away.

There will be other chances later, she thought.

She ran toward the bus stop.

“Route 62 is two stops away. Passengers, please wait patiently,” the mechanical female voice announced from the screen at the bus stop. Qin Shuyue took her transit card out of her bag and waited.

She opened her phone and clicked on her WeChat. The chat logs were empty. The most recent message was from two months ago, a conversation with her counselor about changing dorms. Other than that, there was nothing.

She scrolled down a bit further and realized she had deleted almost all of her high school friends. She had also left her freshman year dorm group long ago.

There was only one person left—a neighbor she had grown up with, a girl her own age. Qin Shuyue still had her contact information.

When they were little, they were inseparable, even sharing the same bed. Now, that friend was studying abroad, while she…

She lowered her head, shaking the encroaching thoughts out of her mind.

Her gaze returned to the chat list.

Ling Lingling.

Her name was quite interesting.

When they were kids, Qin Shuyue loved to chase her and call her “San Dan” (Triple Zero).

Since her name was made of “zeros,” after all.

Qin Shuyue’s finger paused, then she clicked into the chat box.

The latest message was from three months ago, sent by Ling Lingling.

“Yueyue, how has your life been lately? I heard your mom was in a car accident? Is she okay? We haven’t talked in so long…”

“Yueyue, I really miss our childhood. I still remember the first day you came to sleep over at my house. We were playing so hard we broke the crystal lamp. My mom was scared to death thinking something happened! Haha, I didn’t expect you to be fearless; you were just giggling…”

“Yueyue, it’s been five years since I moved, and I haven’t seen you since. I really want to come back to China and see you. You’re 19 this year too, right? After five years, I wonder if Yueyue has become even prettier? (PS: You were very pretty as a kid too!)”

But Qin Shuyue hadn’t replied.

She was no longer the Qin Shuyue of the past.

So much so that when she received the message, she was at a loss, not knowing how to respond.

Because Qin Shuyue hadn’t replied, the person on the other side hadn’t sent any more messages.

Qin Shuyue suddenly felt a sense of relief. It was a good thing Ling Lingling hadn’t messaged again; if she really did return to the country and asked to meet… Qin Shuyue had no idea how she could face her.

If her family hadn’t fallen apart, if her father hadn’t cheated, perhaps she would also be studying at some university abroad right now. But now… the school she was at was the best she could manage with everything she had left.

Qin Shuyue opened the chat box, but her thumb hovered over the screen. She didn’t know what to type.

After hesitating for a long time, she gave up and exited the chat.

We belong to two different worlds now. It’s better if we don’t communicate anymore.

If Ling Lingling knew about the life she was living now, she would probably look down on her like everyone else.

It was better to keep the memory of Lingling’s best self in her heart. If Lingling turned out to be like the others… Qin Shuyue thought she might actually go insane.

Looking up, the Route 62 bus had cleared the last traffic light and was pulling into the station.

Qin Shuyue gripped her bus card, turned off her phone screen, and put it back in her bag.

There’s nothing worth looking at anyway. I might as well read my books and materials.

Just then, the bus came to a steady stop in front of her.

With a crisp “beep” of the card reader, Qin Shuyue walked to the second single seat on the right and sat down. She opened the window, took out her newly printed materials, and began to read carefully.

As she read, her thoughts drifted. One moment she was thinking of the innocent days playing with Ling Lingling, the next she jumped to the day of her mother’s accident. She remembered seeing her mother covered in blood, her lips and face an unnatural white, looking so weak it felt like her breath would stop at any second.

Her mother had been lying on a pure white stretcher, stained with large patches of red. Blood dripped onto the floor, leaving a trail all the way into the emergency room.

The doctor said her mother’s injuries were too severe; they couldn’t stop the bleeding.

That short distance felt incredibly long—so long that Zhu Lingyi, standing outside the doors, fell into a vortex of endless panic that threatened to crush her and swallow her into the abyss.

One critical condition notice after another fell like a stream into her father’s hands.

Looking up, she saw her father’s conflicted yet calm face. Turning her head, she saw the serious, unsmiling doctor standing before him.

Qin Shuyue didn’t know what they were discussing. In that moment, the only thing in her mind was her mother, lying on the hospital bed at death’s door.

Her heart was exceptionally firm.

She would save her.

She had to save her mother!!

The blood her mother left on the floor continued to torment and stimulate Qin Shuyue’s nerves every second. The blood in her own body felt like it was boiling and tense. She didn’t dare breathe too loudly, fearing it might interfere with the surgeons in the operating room.

But when she heard her father calmly say, “We give up on treatment,” Qin Shuyue went mad.

She frantically snatched the critical condition notice from her father’s hands and tore it to shreds. Every time one came, she tore it. She tore them all to pieces!

At that time, she couldn’t care about school. She only cared about guarding the operating room door, crouching outside with her knees hugged to her chest, trembling as she waited.

That night, the change in Qin Shuyue was almost unrecognizable to her father, and her stubborn interference infuriated him.

He tried every kind word he could think of, but this “stubborn mule” wouldn’t budge.

She looked like someone who would attack anyone indiscriminately if they dared to try and move her—like an animal in shock.

Gradually, her father stopped trying to persuade her. Her paternal grandmother didn’t come to see them either, because she had cried herself blind and then died of a sudden heart attack.

Her other grandmother… never came once. She hoped her mother would die quickly so her father could be free to marry someone else and give her a grandson.

What a disgusting family!

It was only then that Qin Shuyue truly saw the ugly, thin-blooded faces of that family.

Her mother’s side only had her left, and she only had her mother.

Qin Shuyue leaned against the wall outside the emergency room, as if her mother were right there beside her.

“Airen Hospital is the next stop. Please exit the bus in an orderly fashion.”

The cold, mechanical voice rang out again. Qin Shuyue snapped out of her trance. She realized her hands had been clenched into tight fists.

Returning to reality, she relaxed her hands, put her study materials back in her bag, and got off the bus once it stopped.

Across from the station was Airen Hospital. Qin Shuyue crossed the zebra stripes, waited through two rounds of red lights, and finally reached the hospital entrance.

She pulled her phone from her pocket and opened her call history. The name “Dr. Li” was the first one she saw.

Qin Shuyue tapped it, and the heavy “ring-ring” of the waiting tone began.

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