Chapter Fifty-Three

  About ten days later, Qi Shu Fan returned and handed Yu Cai three invitations. Yu Cai took a look and found that they were inviting her, Qi Shi Zhi, and Shi Cheng Yu to attend some kind of party. She was very surprised, "Why would they invite me?"

  "They don't know how they knew you lived at my place. Most of the kids who went to that party were about your age, so it's fine if you go and have some fun."

  Yu Cai was not familiar with such parties, but Qi Shi and He Qi had been there several times last year. He Qi urged her to go together, but she was rejected by Yu Cai.

  "Can we not go?"

  "Xiao Cai, I hope you go."

  "There's probably nothing much different from what I've already experienced, going or not going doesn't make a difference."

  "Xiao Cai, you're no worse than them."

  Yu Cai nodded in agreement, "But my dad is worse than their father in some ways, more than just a little bit."

  Qishu frowned, "Xiao Cai, you are my niece, and I have always treated you as if you were my own sister."

  Yu Cai shrugged her shoulders, "Thank you for your kind intentions, but that's a different story."

  He Qi waved the magazine that Fang had just brought back and said, "Uncle Qi, come take a look!"

  Qishu glanced over and a smile floated up in his eyes, "Our little Cai is getting more and more capable."

  Qin Wan leaned over and asked, "What are you talking about?"

  Yu Cai's unsatisfied gaze swept across Qi Shu Fan, "Nothing, Qin Wan sister, are you leaving?"

  "You didn't even invite me, what am I going for? Besides, you young people are having fun, what's the point of an old man like me joining in?"

  Qishu Fan laughed, "You are an old man, what am I? An old monster?"

  Qin Wan also smiled, "Secretary Qi, you're too modest."

  "Which secretary? Secretary of what?"

  "How contemptible! 'You won't know, will you? Secretary Qi is our municipal party secretary, don't tell me you don't know'."

  Yu Cai had always known he was high up in the ranks, but she hadn't expected him to be the highest one of all. For a moment, her expression was a bit stunned.

  Qin Wan smiled apologetically, "It's just my loose tongue."

  "It doesn't matter, I wasn't intentionally hiding it either, just didn't have the chance to say it. What's wrong, was our fearless and daring Yu Nu Xiaojie intimidated by a municipal party secretary?"

  Yu Nu Xia's three-character phrase came out after Yu Cai's second battle with Qiao Jia, and the poisonous tongue Yang Junze's evaluation was passed on to Qi Shu Fan by He Qi. Yu Cai didn't think that her tough image had already reached Qi Shu Fan's ears. The corner of his mouth twitched violently, and he immediately bowed his fist. "Sorry, sorry! So you are the legendary municipal party secretary, I've long admired your name, but today I see that hearing about someone is not as good as meeting them in person. Your demeanor is something a junior like me can only aspire to!"

  Qishu Fan laughed and scolded, "You still have the energy".

  Yu Cai pounced beside him, her right hand grasping the hair of a certain municipal party secretary, "Huh, where's the legendary cleverness? Can't find it?"

  "None of that!" Qi Shu Fan pulled Yu Cai down to sit beside him, "Don't change the subject, are you going or not?"

  "Don't go!"

  "Will Yu Nu Xia be afraid of a small party?"

  Yu Cai nodded seriously, "It's Yu Nu Xia, not Yu Nu Shen, of course I'm afraid".

  "You little scamp!" Ji Shu Fan affectionately ruffled her hair, "We'll talk about that later, you need to focus on your studies now."

  Yu Cai leaned against his chest and said, "By the way, why did you come back so early today?"

  "Tomorrow is a holiday, where do you want to go and have fun?"

  "It's so hot!"

  Qī shū fán pāi pāi tā de tóu, "jiù shǔ nǐ lǎn, hédàn, nǐmen xiǎng qù nǎr wán?"

  Translation:

  Qi Shu Fan patted her head, "You're lazy, how about you guys want to go where to play?

  He Qi glanced at Ji Shi and then looked at Shi Cheng Yu, thinking that it would be better to suggest something himself, "How about we go watch a movie?"

  "Xiao Cai——"

  Yu nodded, "Then go ahead, there's a new Spiderman movie out recently, I heard it's good, might as well take a look".

  "How has your recent release been?"

  "I'm currently tutoring him in math for the third year of junior high, and I estimate that it will be finished in a few more days. At that time, let He Qi tutor him on the first year of high school part. However, math is like English, it requires gradual accumulation, and impatience won't work."

  "You arrange it then, to be honest, I never expected him to get into university before, but now it seems like there's a little hope again."

  "He is smart, but his foundation is poor and he has a careless attitude towards learning. Although he has improved a lot this semester, I think we can't be impatient."

  Qishu nodded, "I know, next year is the college entrance exam, you take care of yourself first".

  Yu Cai smiled lazily and said, "What I want is just a university diploma, I believe this isn't very difficult".

  Qishu smiled and shook his head, wanting to ask about Yu Cai's draft, but thinking of Qin Wan and Shi Chengyu beside him, he changed the subject, "Let's hurry up and eat, after eating we'll go".

  On the third evening, He Qi and Qi Shi went to a gathering. The crowded living room became much quieter. Yu Cai buried her head in her homework, and when she looked up again, even Qin Wan was nowhere to be seen. Only Shi Chengyu was still lying on the sofa, holding a magazine, as he had been for ten years. Yu Cai shrugged, went into the kitchen, grabbed a glass of cold water, and also took a bottle of Coke and placed it on the small table in front of Shi Chengyu.

  "Left pick——"

  Yu Cai looked back with a mixture of surprise and suspicion, then continued walking as if nothing had happened.

  "Zuǒ cǎi ——" = "Left pick——"

  Yu Cai's footsteps didn't stop, her eyebrows didn't move, she sat down, leaned back in the chair, narrowed her eyes and slowly savored the cold white open as if it were wine. Just as she was feeling comfortable, a pale slender hand placed a magazine in front of her, "This is what you wrote".

  The words "can't bear the weight of youth" in bold font, like peach blossoms falling from above, made her mouth twitch uncontrollably. Okay, taking inspiration from life is fine, but what's wrong is that life always gets caught up in trivialities!

  "What you wrote is incorrect."

  Yu Cai couldn't help but say, "Take a closer look, that was written by Zuo Cai, it has nothing to do with me."

  "You don't have to deny it, I've already made up my mind."

  What else can she say?

  The young man's pale fingers pointed at the word "light", "It's not light, it's heavy. I promised to take care of her, marry her. A promise can't be taken lightly."

  Yucai sighed silently, trying to soften her tone, "Shi Cheng Yu, I only heard my uncle say that one of your teachers committed suicide, this article is based on that incident, the rest are made up by me."

  "Then you rewrite."

  Yu Cai was about to hit the wall, "Similar stories, how can I write them twice?"

  Rewrite

  If the person in front of her wasn't a high school student who had been severely hurt, but rather his annoying old dad, Yu Cai would have definitely ridiculed him mercilessly without hesitation. Unfortunately, this was a young boy who couldn't bear the weight of life, so Yu Cai could only speak gently, "Alright, I'll rewrite it, but I don't guarantee it will be published."

  "Give it to me."

  Is he implying that he wants to help her get in through the back door?

  "So what other places are you dissatisfied with?"

  "I didn't just watch her quietly, she liked me and told me everything."

  Yu Cai picked up her pen and carefully wrote it down, "Is there anything else?"

  "That man had a family, he only treated her as a plaything, never intending to marry her. She became pregnant, but that man wanted her to have an abortion -" Shi Chengyu paused for a moment, "You guessed this part, but what you didn't guess is that she killed herself because he sent someone to forcibly abort the child -"

  Yu Cai lost her voice in shock.

  "But rest assured, I've made that person's life worse than death," Shi Chengyu's deep eyes gleamed with a mad light, his pale face also flushed with waves of redness, "I've made him lose his wife and children, be poor and destitute, living not as good as dead..."

  Yu Cai forced down her fear, tentatively reached out to touch him, and found that he didn't react. She slowly covered him up, "Shi Cheng Yu, he's worse than dead now, your teacher's revenge has been avenged, you can rest in peace."

  Yu Cai's slightly cool palm calmed down Shi Chengyu's scorching body, "Yes, she can rest now, she can rest now".

  Yu Cai hastily shifted his attention, "Shi Cheng Yu, like this, I'll write you as an ordinary student with nothing to your name, watching the teacher suffer yet being powerless to do anything about it, until ten years later when you finally get revenge for the teacher through your own efforts. This way, the emotions will have traversed time and space, and it will be easier to resonate with readers, what do you think?"

  "No, I want you to write it down truthfully, I want everyone to remember her."

  Yu Cai wanted to say something, even if she wrote the truth, no one would remember her, let alone everyone else. However, she gently and softly agreed, "Okay, I'll definitely write it down honestly."

  Shi Chengyu stared blankly at the huge clock behind Yu Zai, lost in thought. Yu Zai withdrew his hand and quickly jotted down a few notes. Seeing that Shi Chengyu still showed no signs of snapping out of it, he ignored him and began to ponder his new article.

  "When you were born, I had not yet been born; when I was born, you were already old..."

  Yu Cai followed the sound and found that it was He Qi's phone left at home. She opened it and saw that it was a call from Ji Shi, so she pressed the answer button, "A Shi——"

  "I'm He Qi, I thought my phone was lost, luckily"

  Yu Cai was both angry and amused, "When are you coming back?"

  "It's only 9:30 now, at least until 12 o'clock, Yu Cai, today's cake is especially good, do you want me to bring some for you?"

  "No need, I won't eat that, uh, why don't you bring some for Qin Wan and Shi Chengyu instead?"

  He Qī hummed and hung up the phone, but when Yu Cǎi put down her mobile phone, she found that a certain young man was staring at her again with that straight and silly gaze. Yu Cǎi felt all the hairs on her body standing upright, and began to regret not going out with He Qī to join in the fun together.

  "Left pick——"

  "Hmm," Yu Cai sat back in her original position, "Anything else?"

  "She likes your 'Unfinished Song' very much."

  Yu Cai laughed and said, "I'm afraid you're the one who likes it, this experience is simply like an improved version of 'Unrequited Love'."

  "She said she had two wishes, one was to travel through time and space like the heroine in 'The Song of Everlasting Sorrow', and the other was to write a book that travels through time and space like you did, but she hadn't even started writing yet."

  Yu Cai nodded slightly, indicating that she was listening carefully.

  "Firstly, I have no choice; secondly, can you write another one and publish it under her name? I will try my best to meet your requirements."

  Can it be like this?

  "Two hundred thousand, is it enough?"

  Yu Cai was stunned, and the person in front of her should be a high school student?

  "I only have 200,000 cash on hand, if you think it's not enough, I can write an IOU first and definitely pay you back in a year."

  Yu Cai hastily waved her hand, "It's not a matter of money—"

  Tears welled up in her eyes as she said, "This is her last wish, please help her."

  "Let me think carefully," said the gunman, if caught by others, Yu Cai would never be able to mix again!