To Get Married - Chapter 38

Chapter 38

Time always flies. It feels as if the military training of freshman year was only yesterday, yet in the blink of an eye, the countdown on the small whiteboard next to the large blackboard has reached “XX days until the Gaokao.”

This is the final sprint before the college entrance exams. Some students are giving it their all, while others have simply given up.

Of course, none of this affects Lu Yudong.

Zhang Ziyun had previously checked the academic admission scores for art students at Yuanchuan Conservatory. For liberal arts, the highest score for music performance majors in previous years was only around 340. For niche majors like Musicology or Recording Arts, the cut-off could be as low as 200. Naturally, Ziyun aimed for the former; the latter didn’t concern her.

Wenhai High School’s university admission rate was among the best in the city, and Lu Yudong was an above-average student in her grade. Reaching those scores was almost too easy for her.

Because they felt no pressure, Lu Yudong and Zhang Ziyun became the two “idlers” of the class, putting in far less effort than before. This relaxed pre-exam state naturally drew the envy of their three roommates, who usually barely spoke to them.

Without anyone noticing when it started, the once honest and strictly law-abiding Lu Yudong began secretly reading novels during class. Having no experience in such mischief, she nearly got caught by the teacher several times, her little heart pounding wildly with fear.

Seeing this, Zhang Ziyun couldn’t help but tease her: “The way you look reading novels in class is so cowardly and hilarious. You’re like a thief.”

To this, the former “good student” Yudong merely giggled, thinking: So this is what it feels like to ‘do bad things’ in class. It’s actually quite thrilling.

As the Gaokao approached, classmates began passing around “graduation memory books,” just as they had in middle school. Unlike middle school, however, Lu Yudong received many pages from both familiar and unfamiliar classmates.

Watching this, Zhang Ziyun couldn’t help but marvel that the saying “a girl changes eighteen times as she grows up” was true. Although Lu Yudong still didn’t socialize much, she had become beautiful and confident—far more popular than she was in middle school.

Ziyun, meanwhile, had changed in a different way. Once, everyone revolved around her, but gradually those people disappeared. She stopped maintaining those connections and stopped caring whether she was still the bright moon surrounded by stars. She was still beautiful and excellent, but she had become a lonely moon, content to orbit only the Earth, caring for nothing else.

Because she liked Lu Yudong, she wanted to cast aside all obstacles to pursue her. Lu Yudong was her Earth; she was willing to be the moon that waxed and waned, bright or dim, for her.

Ziyun had it all planned out: during their four years of university at the same school, she would have plenty of time to find ways to make Yudong unable to leave her. Because of this, she had to rid herself of Zhang Hao’s entanglement.

For two years, she had wanted to pay back every cent she owed him to end that endless haunting. With her part-time job at the bar, she managed to save between 8,000 and 10,000 yuan per semester (including long holidays) to pay him back. Every time she paid him, Zhang Hao would say, “No rush, really. You don’t even have to pay it back.” But she insisted on paying 6,000 during long breaks and 1,000 whenever she saved enough during school.

Now, as high school graduation loomed, the debt stood at 32,000 yuan. With a three-month break after the Gaokao, Ziyun prepared to find a second job. She planned to work day and night so she could cut ties with Zhang Hao completely before university started.

After the May Day holiday, Ziyun transferred another 1,000 yuan to him. That day, Zhang Hao said the same thing: “The Gaokao is almost here. Focus on your revision and stop working to pay me back. I’m really not in a hurry!”

Without a second thought, Ziyun said seriously, “Before the summer break ends, I will definitely pay you the rest.”

Zhang Hao was stunned. He pulled Ziyun to a deserted corner behind the laboratory building and whispered, “Summer? How are you going to earn 30,000 in three months?”

Ziyun said firmly, “I’ll find a way.”

The determination and urgency in her eyes made Zhang Hao panic. He grabbed her arm as she tried to leave, demanding, “Why are you in such a hurry? I’ve never pressured you. Isn’t it better to pay me back slowly? Your family is in such a difficult position; besides me, you owe others money. Why are you so unwilling to accept my help?”

Ziyun tried to shake him off but couldn’t. She explained patiently, “I did accept your help. I just want to pay you back as soon as possible so I can pay back the others.”

Zhang Hao said quickly, “I can wait. Pay back whoever is in a hurry first. What’s our relationship? We…”

“We have no relationship,” Ziyun interrupted.

“No relationship? Six years. I’ve been with you for six years…”

“We have been classmates for six years. You’ve been very good to me, and I’m moved and thankful that you helped me when I needed money most,” Ziyun said, smiling politely. “That’s why I can’t owe you for too long.”

Zhang Hao froze for several seconds, frowning. “Am I not being obvious enough?”

Ziyun asked back, “What are you saying?”

“I’m courting you! For six years! Middle school, high school—everyone in class knows. How could you not know?”

“I remember saying that we could be friends,” Ziyun replied.

Zhang Hao took a deep breath, gritting his teeth. “I am being your friend. You didn’t like it when I mentioned it, so I stopped… but why do I feel like you’re trying to wipe the slate clean? Right before university… why else would you be so desperate to pay me back?”

“There was no ‘relationship’ between us to begin with, so why talk about ‘wiping the slate clean’?”

“What do you mean ‘no relationship’? You’re so desperate to pay me back—do you not even want to be my friend anymore?” Zhang Hao suddenly exploded in anger, his grip on her wrist tightening. “Am I really that loathsome?”

The pain in her wrist sparked a surge of revulsion in Ziyun’s heart. She gritted her teeth and looked up coldly. “Yes. You are loathsome. These past two years you’ve become more and more loathsome. I am so tired of you haunting me!”

“But… but haven’t you been… haven’t you been less harsh to me these past two years?”

“Yeah, I was faking it,” Ziyun said, laughing mockingly. “I don’t like you at all. I don’t want to deal with you. But as long as I owed you money, I had to be pleasant to you… Do you have any idea how much I despise the way you wag your tail at any scrap of attention, constantly hovering in front of me?”

“You…”

“I said we could be friends, but you never respected that boundary! You’ve been crossing the line! You move yourself with your ‘sacrifices’ at a distance that makes me extremely uncomfortable. I said nothing, I did nothing, yet you managed to make everyone think we were together… You are a headache. I wanted a proper distance, a friend’s distance, but every step I took back, you took two steps forward. You’ve driven me to the point where I don’t know where else to retreat!”

“But I…”

“Zhang Hao, our relationship is average at best. I don’t like you monitoring me every second. I don’t need you to chat with me for no reason, and I certainly don’t want you bombarding my private messages every day. Can you stop acting like a clock-in machine, reporting your meals and asking about my mood every single day? If you can’t, then at least just send your messages and leave it be—stop asking me why I don’t reply, why I’m ignoring you!”

“Zhang Ziyun! Have you said enough!”

“No! I’m telling you now why I don’t reply! Because I don’t want to tell you what I’m thinking or doing at every moment! I don’t want to know what you are thinking or doing! I don’t care what you ate, what you bought, what you’re wearing, or your new haircut! I don’t want to know! Not at all!”

“Shut up!”

“I’m telling you! Even my mom isn’t as nagging as you! Who do you think you are? It’s only because I owed you money that I didn’t dare complain! Do you think if you had overstepped like this in the past, I wouldn’t have told you to get lost?”

“Get lost? You’re telling me to get lost?”

“I am!”

Zhang Ziyun had held these words in for too long. The moment she finished, she saw something terrifying in Zhang Hao’s eyes. She was afraid, yet she felt a sense of relief.

In the next second, Zhang Hao suddenly raised his hand and slapped her hard. He shoved her against the wall, eyes blazing with fury. “I gave you face, didn’t I? You really think you’re something special! If I did something to you right now, would you even dare let anyone know?”

Terrified, Ziyun tried to run, but she couldn’t break free. She screamed for help, but this was a corner of the school where few people came. Her resistance only earned her harder slaps and the pain of being slammed against the wall repeatedly.

Despair and fear nearly submerged her. She struggled and cried out helplessly, her face and wrists stinging. Even the school bell for class couldn’t save her.

Just then, a familiar voice came from nearby.

“Zhang Hao!” Lu Yudong ran up, panting, and stood about two meters away. She frowned. “Class has started. Go back to the classroom.”

Zhang Hao hesitated for a moment, then finally let go of Ziyun with a hateful glare. He walked away toward the teaching building, muttering curses.

Ziyun’s legs went weak with fear; she slumped to the ground, hugging her knees and sobbing.

“I saw you hadn’t come back, so I came looking for you…” Lu Yudong didn’t know how to comfort her, so she simply knelt beside her, straightening Ziyun’s school uniform and smoothing her hair. She whispered, “It’s okay now. I’ll stay with you after class from now on. The whole class knows I’m strong; he won’t dare fight me.”

But the matter didn’t end there.

Three days later, the wall below the school cafeteria was covered in posters insulting Zhang Ziyun. They claimed she was a manipulator who had “strung along” a sincere person for six years, using him as a tool while accepting countless gifts and refusing to pay back her debts. Much of it was fabricated or wildly exaggerated.

Some of the chat records between Ziyun and Zhang Hao were maliciously taken out of context and posted on Weibo, where they were shared by many students and strangers who didn’t know the truth.

The scandal spread throughout the school. In the end, Zhang Hao was only given a mild reprimand when his parents were called in. Ziyun, clearly the victim, was also forced to have her parent called in.

Zhang Hao’s parents were the same as ever—believing their son could do no wrong. They even had a shouting match with Ziyun’s mother. The homeroom teacher couldn’t stop them; even the threat of “no class until you write a self-criticism” didn’t work. In the end, the matter was simply dropped.

As the saying goes, “three people make a tiger”—once a rumor spreads, lies become truth. No matter how the slandered person explains, it’s hard to prove their innocence. Once people put on “colored glasses,” it’s very difficult to take them off.

Ziyun tried to fight back. She packed up every gift Zhang Hao had ever given her and threw them back at him. She posted the truth and the complete chat logs, but the most common response she heard was: “The guy is a thick-skinned simp, and the girl is a calculating gold-digger. Neither of them is any good.”

Eventually, no matter where Ziyun went in school, people she had never met would point and whisper. Even in the dorm, Wang Yan and Zhao Wen made snide, sarcastic remarks every day. Wu An’an stayed quiet but couldn’t help laughing whenever the other two were being mean.

Zhang Ziyun was suddenly isolated. Only Lu Yudong stayed by her side, and the consequence of that, naturally, was that Yudong was isolated as well.

But Lu Yudong didn’t care at all. She told Ziyun that nothing was insurmountable.

“The Gaokao is almost here. Once it’s over and we leave this school, why should we care about their opinions?” Yudong said. “You’ll pay back the money. Once you do, you won’t owe him anything.”

“So many people are saying I’m not a good person—that I kept him on the hook while not liking him… Do you really not think they’re right?” Ziyun said mockingly. “Think about it, they’re not wrong. I did seek him out when I needed him and wanted him to crawl away when I didn’t. I despised him in my heart, but I kept up a facade and never truly made a clean break… He had that delusion for so long because I never completely extinguished the hope in his heart, didn’t I?”

“…”

“They’re right. I’m just a sophisticated egoist. I know exactly what’s best for me; as long as someone has utility, I can’t bring myself to kick them away completely…” At this point, Ziyun couldn’t help but laugh. “This time, I messed up. I was too eager to kick him away, so I crashed… Actually, I could have strung him along a bit longer, and then slowly, slowly drifted away during university when we wouldn’t see each other often… Maybe years later, when he wasn’t so annoying, he’d have a new use.”

Lu Yudong hesitated for a long time before sighing. “You don’t have to talk about yourself like that. I know you’re not like that.”

Ziyun’s eyes grew red. She bit her lip. “What do you know?”

She was that kind of person. Everyone saw her that way now, didn’t they?

But Lu Yudong said with certainty, “I just know. If you had any other choice, you wouldn’t want to owe anyone anything.”

Ziyun fought back tears and looked down. “Everyone is isolating you because of me. This isn’t the first time you’ve been the subject of gossip because of me over the years…”

Yudong smiled. “I’m used to it. I’m your little sidekick, after all.”

Ziyun fell silent for a long time. Finally, she looked up at Lu Yudong with a complex expression. She asked, “Aren’t you afraid that saying things like that will make me unable to leave you?”

She had said the same thing to Yudong a long, long time ago.

But this time, Lu Yudong didn’t answer immediately. She just stared back blankly. In that moment, Yudong saw an expectation in Ziyun’s eyes that she didn’t dare respond to. She thought for a long time and finally said, “We aren’t bound together for life and death. No one is truly unable to leave someone else…”

Seeing a flash of disappointment in Ziyun’s eyes, Yudong quickly added, “Besides, we’ll still be together in university… and after graduation, if you don’t move away for work, we’ll always be friends.”

Zhang Ziyun opened her mouth as if to speak, then simply smiled.

“You’re right,” she said, her gaze a bit distant. “It’ll get better soon.”