After Becoming Roommates with an Obnoxious Wealthy Heiress - Chapter 7

Why is it that you’re always the one to see me at my lowest?

Zhu Lingyi scratched the back of her head with a hint of irritation. She extended a hand toward Qin Shuyue, looking down with an impatient gaze at the girl’s defeated state.

“Kneeling on the ground—what kind of look is that?”

“Get up.”

Her gaze lingered on the shards of broken porcelain scattered all around Qin Shuyue.

It was summer, and the pants the girl was wearing were so tattered. It would be a miracle if her legs weren’t cut by the field of ceramic debris.

Qin Shuyue looked up, her eyes filled with a complex swirl of emotions as she stared at the hand Zhu Lingyi had offered.

It was fair and flawless; there wasn’t even a single fine line on the palm. A hand like that ought to be as smooth as seawater and as soft as a feather.

And then there was her own hand. Covered in fine lines, calloused all over.

Qin Shuyue’s pupils shrank violently. Staring at Zhu Lingyi’s impeccable hand, the corners of her eyes gradually reddened.

Why? Why are you reaching out to me?! Why!!!

Even though the other girl was offering help, at this moment, Qin Shuyue felt an inexplicable sense of nausea. There was even a deep-seated self-loathing rising from the bottom of her heart.

She pushed herself off the ground, seemingly oblivious to the pain. Curling her fingers into her palms and pursing her lips, she stood up with trembling legs.

She didn’t need anyone’s help.

Perhaps because she was moving too hurriedly, she accidentally bumped into Zhu Lingyi’s shoulder as she left. She didn’t even have time to say an apology before she ran away.

To be precise, she fled in panic.

Until the moment she disappeared, Qin Shuyue kept her head low, refusing to look at anyone. Especially not Zhu Lingyi.

Zhu Lingyi’s hand, still suspended in the air, was knocked aside by Qin Shuyue’s sudden collision.

She smoothly shoved her hand back into her trouser pocket and turned to watch Qin Shuyue’s retreating figure.

Her expression held doubt, astonishment, and a trace of disdain.

No one was usually deemed worthy of Zhu Lingyi’s help, and no one ever dared to refuse it. This woman was truly strange.

She withdrew her gaze indifferently and muttered to herself, “Making such a mess of herself… does she think anyone is going to feel sorry for her?”

The moment she finished speaking, her peripheral vision caught Gao Yin, who was standing to the side, ready to slip away.

Her cold gaze suddenly shot toward the man by the iron table.

The moment their eyes met, Gao Yin instinctively closed his eyes, his heart sinking halfway into his chest.

In his heart, he swore with bitter regret that if there were such a thing as regret medicine in this world, he would have listened to Xu Lian and stayed out of this!

Curiosity really does kill the cat!!

“Gao Yin.” The next moment, Zhu Lingyi called his name without any emotion or warning.

With his eyes closed and a dejected expression, he responded weakly, “Sister Zhu.”

The expected kick or scolding didn’t come. Instead, she said something that baffled him.

“Go find the person in charge of the cafeteria for me.”

Gao Yin opened his eyes in surprise and looked at Zhu Lingyi. She wasn’t scolding him?

He saw that her gaze was still fixed on the floor, where the broken porcelain shards almost surrounded her feet.

There was always a smell of fermented swill in the back kitchen; both of them could smell it. If Zhu Lingyi hadn’t kicked him in here, he would never have stepped foot in this place.

Zhu Lingyi kept her eyes downcast. There was a faint touch of sorrow in her expression, though it was unclear exactly what that look was meant to convey.

Gao Yin grew even more confused.

He had only ever seen that look of indifferent sorrow on Zhu Lingyi’s face once before—for a homeless, wandering stray cat that had been crushed by the rushing traffic on the road.

But that unusual emotion had lasted only a second. Immediately after, she had made him and Xu Lian find a place to dig a hole and bury the cat.

Now, it was the same.

Qin Shuyue fled the cafeteria as if her life depended on it. She pulled her phone from her pocket to check the time.

It was only 8:30 AM. She still had an hour and a half before her class.

Her head felt heavy. Her nerves were still taut.

Uncontrollably, Qin Shuyue’s mind kept replaying the scene in the cafeteria.

Why did Zhu Lingyi rush over to help me?

Why?

Just why?

There was no sign, no reason. It was completely illogical!

Qin Shuyue’s heart felt like it was being tossed in boiling oil, turning over a thousand times. She still couldn’t understand why Zhu Lingyi had made such a trip today, even saying she had wasted her time on her.

Wouldn’t it have been better if she just hadn’t come?

Why did she come anyway?

Are we even that close?

Or… did she just want to see me as a joke? To see how I was being deliberately picked on and maliciously humiliated?

But Qin Shuyue felt that Zhu Lingyi wasn’t that kind of person.

“Hey, little mute.”

Several people blocked Qin Shuyue’s path, looking at her with ill-intentioned laughter.

“Did you lose your clothes today too? Is that why you had to wear a kitchen apron to school? Pfft, hahaha!”

“The little mute isn’t a little mute today; she’s a little beggar.”

“Aren’t they the same? Either way, she has that moldy smell of kitchen swill on her.”

The group waved their hands in disgust, acting as if the very air Qin Shuyue passed through was being contaminated.

The four people in front of her each looked at Qin Shuyue with utter contempt and a hint of loathing. This disgust radiated from their eyes and manifested in their every word and gesture, showing how much they were repulsed by the “little beggar” before them.

“How does someone like this even get into such a good school? Hmm?”

Another girl covered her mouth and whispered, “Maybe she used… some kind of ‘connection’ to get in? Pfft, hahahaha!!”

They exchanged glances and smiled maliciously at her.

Even under such humiliation, Qin Shuyue stood there like a fool.

“Hey, you stinking beggar! Did you hear us? Have you gone deaf too?!”

As she spoke, one of them poked Qin Shuyue hard in the collarbone, forcing her to stumble backward.

Pain washed over her, and Qin Shuyue closed her eyes.

She knew who they were without even looking up. This was her freshman year roommate, Song Jiajia.

Song Jiajia came from a wealthy family and was used to getting her way at home. At school, she naturally became the leader of their small clique.

Their only fun at school, besides playing pranks on teachers, was… well, making fun of her.

But why do they do this?

Qin Shuyue had pondered this question before. Why did they only hate her? Why was she the only one they wouldn’t play with?

What did I do wrong?

She clearly hadn’t done anything. Just standing there was enough to make everyone hate her.

Qin Shuyue didn’t want to be like this. But there were some things she was simply powerless to stop.

Just like her mother’s car accident, or her father’s affair. She couldn’t stop them.

The only thing she could do was…

She took a few steps back, turned around, and began to run frantically.

The group behind her chased her for a bit, laughing as they went. “Hey, little mute, running away again? Tsk tsk, how boring!”

But they stopped after a few paces. First, they had class soon and didn’t want to waste more time on her; second, they didn’t want to draw too much attention to themselves.

As Qin Shuyue ran, her apron flapped against her clothes behind her.

She ran the whole way. As she ran, she could even smell the grease on herself.

Why did it turn out like this?

So dirty.

So dirty, so dirty, so dirty!!!

Her mind flashed back to her pathetic state earlier—the mess, the filth, and how Zhu Lingyi had seen it all. That split second of hesitation in her gaze, that flash of disgust.

Everyone would hate her. Everyone would hate her!

But she had just changed dorms! She didn’t want… she really didn’t want a repeat of her freshman year!

Why did she have to let the other girl see her looking so hideous on only their second day in the dorm?

It’s not like this. I wasn’t always like this before!!!

Her emotions were on the verge of collapse. Tears fell silently at some point, blurring her vision and scattering in the wind, gradually obscuring the road ahead.

“Miss Zhu, I am terribly sorry that such a situation occurred in our cafeteria kitchen.”

“We will certainly investigate thoroughly and guarantee it won’t happen again.”

The male manager of the cafeteria wore a fawning smile, bowing and scraping before Zhu Lingyi.

A cafeteria manager is considered a leader of sorts at a school, yet he was being so subservient to a student. It would have looked quite ridiculous to any surrounding students.

Zhu Lingyi didn’t respond. Her gaze wasn’t even on him; she was looking off in another direction.

After he finished his robotic apology, she gave a faint “Mm.”

Standing beside her, Gao Yin took the opportunity to speak for her: “Sister Zhu doesn’t care for your pretty words; we need to see action.”

“Look at you people. Such a large cafeteria, and you let a young girl pick up porcelain shards piece by piece. Isn’t that deliberate bullying? Even if you don’t have a sweeping robot, where are the brooms? The mops? The dustpans? There has to be at least one, right?”

“Nothing at all, making her use her hands. I think you should just stop running this cafeteria and close down for good!”

Gao Yin was riding on Zhu Lingyi’s coattails, acting all high and mighty.

Zhu Lingyi didn’t interrupt him the entire time, which was essentially a silent endorsement of his behavior.

Under the weight of their combined presence, the manager felt an invisible pressure crushing his heart. These were all people he couldn’t afford to offend… sigh.

All he could do was nod and bow.

“Hey… hey!” Gao Yin was about to say something else when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone who seemed to have no eyes for the road, charging straight toward them.

Seeing that the girl wasn’t slowing down, Gao Yin couldn’t help but shout, “Hey, hey, hey! You’re going to hit someone!”

But she remained deaf to his warning, as if she hadn’t heard a thing.

In the nick of time, Zhu Lingyi took a large step sideways, moving in front of Gao Yin. The girl crashed directly into Zhu Lingyi.

Gao Yin was moved to tears, nearly wiping his eyes. “Sister Zhu, you really… I’m literally crying…?”

“Huh? Why is it you again?”

Seeing the familiar face, Gao Yin finally understood.

With a “thud,” Qin Shuyue hit something. The impact made her nose throb with pain.

The collision was so hard that both of them nearly fell. Fortunately, Zhu Lingyi was quick, wrapping an arm around Qin Shuyue’s waist and steadying her just in time to keep them both upright.

“It hurts…”

Qin Shuyue gasped.

“Now you know it hurts? I didn’t see you stopping a second ago.”

Zhu Lingyi let out a soft snort.

“Sss…” Qin Shuyue lifted her watery, wide eyes, blinking a few times to try and see who she had run into.

Two teardrops happened to roll past her temples and into her thick black hair as she blinked, disappearing and leaving only faint traces of salt behind.

“S-sorry.”

Out of habit, before she even recognized who it was, she immediately lowered her head again.

Looking at her like this, Zhu Lingyi couldn’t help herself. She slowly raised a finger and brushed it against Qin Shuyue’s slightly rough cheek, wiping away the tear track.

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