The Beloved One Is Always Coveted - Chapter 16

Chapter 16

◎The Ever-Changing Us◎

Yu Li slowly calmed down where she was, then started packing. Everything she had been preparing to take was put into her suitcase. She didn’t know when she would be able to return, so she even included a piece of winter clothing.

It was as if she wouldn’t be able to come back at all during the intervening time.

Midway through packing, she heard a knock at the door. Yu Li turned to open it. It was Qi Xue, holding a cat.

The moment she opened the door, the cat meowed. Qi Xue stood at the entrance, holding the cat, looking quite embarrassed. She raised the cat, offering a flimsy excuse: “This cat is naughty. It kept running upstairs. I chased it all the way up and happened to stop at your door, so I just came to check on you.”

As she spoke, the tabby cat cooperated, twitching its ears and meowing more sweetly.

Yu Li bent down and lightly touched the kitten’s head. The kitten rubbed against her palm—it was very affectionate.

“Your cat is so well-behaved. When did you get it?”

She stepped aside, inviting Qi Xue to sit down inside, but Qi Xue became shy again, acting completely pure, without any of her “Boss” demeanor. She just stood at the doorway and talked to her. She held the cat like a small truck, and didn’t seem to get tired.

“I got it when I first moved here. It was the only one that would follow me. It’s wild, treating the stairwell like its territory.”

“Is that so?” Yu Li lightly lifted the kitten’s paw, a smile gradually spreading on her face. “Just like you, a Cat Boss.”

“No way! I’m a good student. I’m not like it.”

Qi Xue blushed, quickly denying it. She said that was just a past stereotype. Although she wasn’t good at studying now and dyed her hair, deep down, she was a good kid, an obedient student—the kind who would turn in a penny found on the street.

Yu Li wasn’t entirely convinced. She asked teasingly how a good student could get into fights everywhere. They were both laughing happily.

They exchanged glances, each seeing the other reflected in their eyes. They were at the best age, their smiles like sunflowers chasing the sun. Yet, both were shy. After only a second, they both instinctively lowered their heads, breaking eye contact.

The kitten, having served its purpose, gave a push, jumped out of Qi Xue’s arms, and walked downstairs in little cat steps. It certainly didn’t look like the cat that “kept running upstairs,” as Qi Xue had claimed.

After a long while, the little leaping person inside Yu Li’s heart finally lay down lazily. The stairwell darkened due to their silence, and a feeling of indescribable melancholy suddenly washed over her.

They had only had a day or two like this before they had to separate. How fickle fate was! Always separating people, not even allowing a moment’s respite.

Technically, they were still in the same city, so it wasn’t like they would never see each other again.

But judging from the past few days, she was picked up and dropped off by Yang Zhuo. Once she moved to the Tang family, she would have no time of her own. How would she manage to get out? That place was in the mountains; there wasn’t even a bus for dozens of kilometers around. How could she walk to see her?

Hesitantly, she spoke up, thinking about what Qi Xue would do if she came looking for her and the door was locked. Yu Li stared at the tips of her shoes, quietly stating:

“I’m moving out, to live with my mom. It’s happening in the next day or two.”

Light returned to the stairwell, but this light offered no comfort to them.

For friends who had just reunited, this was a bolt from the blue. Qi Xue froze for a moment. The smile instantly faded from her eyes. She drooped her head like a puppy, losing all her vitality.

Yu Li couldn’t explain either. They stood there for a moment until she heard Qi Xue speak.

“Moving where? Is it far? Moving is tiring. Do you need my help?”

She shook her head, not saying where she was moving, only that she didn’t need help. Yu Rong had arranged everything on that end; she only needed to carry a suitcase.

In truth, Qi Xue should have guessed. Yu Li had transferred to Huizhi, that aristocratic school.

People in the neighborhood had been talking recently. She had overheard a few times: “How is that Yu girl suddenly riding in a luxury car? She’s been picked up and dropped off by a Cayenne for several days now. Could it be…?”

She hadn’t heard the rest. She had kicked off a chair leg right in front of the gossiping aunties, so now they had to look out for Qi Xue before speaking.

She could guess what they would say even without hearing it. Young girls were either rumored to be kept women or mistresses. The auntie, who fell when the leg broke, had cursed Qi Xue horribly, calling her meddlesome, saying she had nowhere to vent her anger. Then she added, “What’s your relationship with her that you protect her so much? Are you interested in her, too?”

Qi Xue didn’t deny it, silently smashing the chair to pieces.

It couldn’t be as bad as those aunties speculated. It must be that Aunt Rong struck it rich and was taking her daughter to enjoy life.

Qi Xue tried hard to process the news of Yu Li moving, forcing a smile that looked like she was about to cry.

Her voice was low, carrying a faint, unnoticed hurt of being abandoned. “What should I do if I want to come play with you?”

Yu Li didn’t know what to do either. She sighed and said, “We’re both in the final year of high school. We don’t have much time to play. It’s too late now. We have school tomorrow, Friday. You should go home.”

This was pure evasion.

Qi Xue didn’t leave, still holding onto hope and asking, “Where are you planning to go to college? I’ll try hard and go to the same university as you. I don’t have a target school anyway.”

Yu Li honestly told her the name of her dream school. The puppy was hit again. Qi Xue didn’t study. Forget Donglin University Medical School, she couldn’t even reach the threshold of Donglin University itself.

“There’s still a year left. If you work hard, you can make it. Qi Xue, I believe you can do it.”

Yu Li encouraged her, saying Donglin University was actually easy to get into, and that someone as smart as her could definitely do it.

Seeing her say this, as if she really could get into Donglin University, Qi Xue couldn’t help but believe in herself. Although she didn’t study and was always at the bottom of the class, maybe if she worked hard for a year, she could make it.

Getting hyped up was that simple.

So Qi Xue brightened up again, her eyes shining as she held Yu Li’s hand, promising to go to the same university. Then, she was too shy and immediately ran downstairs. The stairwell lights came on one by one. Yu Li watched her disappear around the corner before closing the door.

Perhaps because they were about to part, she felt a sense of melancholy. On top of that, it was a rainy day, and an indescribable gloom settled in her heart, as if it, too, was under a layer of rain.

Yu Li lay down on her bed, her mind constantly cycling through unhappy images.

When she was little, children surrounded and bullied her, pushing and shoving until her clothes were almost torn.

As she got a few years older, when classmates chose deskmates in elementary school, everyone avoided her, openly calling her ugly and unworthy of sitting with them.

In middle school, she grew thick bangs, and her classmates became more tactful, but she still heard mean things—whispers that she had to strain her ears to hear.

Finally, there was Tang Xi’s malicious smiling face, her pressing down on her in the equipment room, those threatening words stabbing her like knives, leaving only shallow cuts, but capable of gouging out a piece of flesh.

She fell asleep practically cradling her sadness. When she woke up on Friday, it was still a new day.

She walked to the apartment complex gate with her backpack and was called by a driver in an unfamiliar car. The driver, whose face she didn’t know, leaned out and called her name. She quickly glanced at the business card he held out, which read Tang.

She got into the car headed for school. Looking at the gates of Huizhi as she got out, she thought, It’s a new day again.

Biology teaches that the human body has trillions of cells, and these cells are constantly dying and regenerating every second.

Philosophy says that because of the constant change of cells, the person is also constantly changing. You think you see her, but you only see the her of the previous second.

So, how did others see Yu Li? Would Tang Xi’s malicious thoughts change? Would the class president be nicer to her? If she told her mom she wanted to come back, would her mom agree? Would Tang Nianyi agree?

And also, why haven’t humans invented a machine that can reverse time?

Her thoughts were a bit nonsensical; the possibility of such a thing appearing was nonexistent.

But… she should at least be allowed to fantasize. An eighteen-year-old girl is innocent and romantic. Even someone whose spirit has been rotting would, when exhausted from studying, inevitably fantasize that someone would rescue her, kicking away the endless sea of problems with no visible future, and taking her to an amusement park for a good time.

As she finished writing, Yu Li put down her pen and closed her diary. Her gaze fell on the empty seat by the window.

Her deskmate hadn’t come today either. She must be sick. Yu Li planned to send her a message to comfort her after she got home.

After all, they were friends…

Huizhi dismissed earlier on Fridays, with no classes in the afternoon. Students were free to leave or stay.

The young ladies were unwilling to stay in the classroom; they would rather go home early or go out with friends.

Yu Li had just opened a practice book and gotten to the third problem when half the classroom emptied. By the tenth problem, only two people were left in the classroom.

Her and the class president.

A bad feeling rose in Yu Li’s heart. She looked up and saw the class president walking toward her.

The sound of the desk and chair being moved was deafening. The class president, as if venting dissatisfaction, sat on the desk in front of her, her feet resting on the chair, kicking the back of the chair intermittently.

Yu Li didn’t need to think about what she would say or do. She lifted her eyelids, meeting the class president’s slightly raised, disgusted gaze, and asked coldly, “Can I help you?”

The chair immediately fell to the floor with a loud crash—the first step in intimidating her.

Yu Li didn’t even blink, still looking at the class president, showing no emotion.

The gaze she delivered through her bangs was blurred. Even though her pupils were clearly defined black and white, one would unconsciously project an image onto it.

An image of disdain and contempt, just like her own, as if watching a good show, a clown in a fit of impotent rage, only able to kick a chair to vent.

The class president felt belittled and became even more annoyed.

She had investigated Yu Li: an abandoned orphan, raised in a single-parent family. If her mother hadn’t become the Tang family’s nanny, Yu Li would have been stuck struggling at the bottom her whole life, let alone sitting in the same classroom as her.

Class is something difficult to overcome. The dividing line of their lives was determined from the very beginning.

What was the use of being good at studying? What was the use of having many certificates? In the end, she would still have to work for them.

This was the order, an unchangeable order.

Yet, under this strict order, a person from the lower class had climbed up and become their classmate.

She was naturally unhappy. She was a beneficiary of the class order and naturally had to protect her own interests, and even more so, drive out the anomaly in their circle.

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