Fingertip one

  After the school celebration ended, I went back to Gu's house with Gu Liu Yi.

  I thought I would be nervous, but I wasn't. I calmly pushed open the door and called out to Gu Huamin and Shen Bieru with a smile, "Dad, Mom." Gu Huamin nodded slightly as usual, while Shen Bieru glanced at me without saying anything. But her dissatisfied expression was clearly directed at me, so I pretended not to notice.

  Then Gu Liuyi came in and pushed me, indicating that I should go upstairs to change clothes. I nodded silently and went upstairs.

  Then I heard Gu Huamin ask Gu LiuYi: "How's the school anniversary going?"

  Gu Liuyi only replied: "Very successful. A Qian has handled everything well, Dad, you don't have to worry."

  Gu Huamin didn't speak, Shen Bieru took over and said: "What can that dead girl handle? The handover of power is still you who helped her behind the scenes, the foundation doesn't care at all, who does she think she is? A good birthday party had to invite some so-called friends, what happened? Her friends made a big mess, if it wasn't for Yun Ge's magnanimity, now..."

  Shen Bi Ru kept talking non-stop, I closed the door to block out all the noise and tried my best not to be affected by Shen Bi Ru's words.

  I told myself that I was already used to all this, and that I had heard worse things before. But deep down, I still resented Shen Bieru. Every time I saw other mothers being overly protective of their daughters, I couldn't help but wonder if I was really her daughter, since she never even gave me a smile, let alone showed me any affection.

  I locked myself in the house listening to music, during which someone came knocking on the door, I just pretended not to hear it, and that person seemed to have no patience either, only knocked twice and left.

  I called Xu Luo Kai, she answered the phone and excitedly shouted on the other end: "Ah Qian, don't tell me anything now, I'm going to develop my relationship and strive to bring him back for you all to see!" Then she hung up the phone without hesitation.

  I rolled my eyes silently and tried to call Ningjing again, but no one answered after several attempts. I thought that Ningjing was probably with Xiaoleng now, so I stopped calling.

  She finally called Su Yan, who answered quickly. On the other end of the phone, Su Yan asked warmly, "A Qian, where are you now?"

  "I'm at home." I stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down with a somewhat depressed tone.

  "After the school celebration ended, I didn't see you again. It turns out you went back." Su Yan said: "It just so happens that tomorrow is Saturday, and Xiao Jing and I are also going back." She paused for a moment, then asked: "You called me, was there something?"

  I was taken aback, and with a lowered brow said: "Nothing's wrong, I don't know what's going on either, I just wanted to hear your voices. Xu Luo Kai is busy talking about love, and Ning Jing didn't answer my call." I sat directly on the floor, but because of the thick blanket, it wasn't cold at all. I wrapped my arms around my legs and asked: "Are you available now or are you still busy?"

  Su Yan fell silent for a moment, and I heard the sound of "ding ding dong" on the other end of the phone. I frowned and asked again: "Is someone beside you?"

  That sound seems like something is being smashed.

  "Uh, I have some tricky things to deal with here." Su Yan apologized and said: "Sorry, Ah Qian, if it weren't for the fact that things are a bit serious here, I would definitely keep you company and chat with you."

  "It's okay." The commotion on that side was getting bigger and bigger, so I had to say: "Then you go ahead and take care of it first, I'll hang up, see you at school on Monday."

  "Okay, see you on Monday." Then there was a hang-up sound from the other end of the phone.

  I stared at the phone screen from bright to dark, and sat for a while, then got up and opened the door to go downstairs.