I won't advise you to live a positive and happy life.
"Because I am not in your situation, to feel what you feel."
"However, I still hope to offer you some advice from an outsider's perspective."
Yu Tang glanced at Lu Qingyuan, who was silent, and Yang Qingzhou, who was sitting next to An Rong with reddened eyes because he was thinking of his parents.
He said, "Put the suicide attempt aside for now and go talk to your mother."
An Rong said in a hoarse voice, "She won't listen..."
This time, An Rong spoke up without waiting for Yu Tang to ask.
"My mom and dad met in college. They had a great relationship back then, and everyone envied them."
My mother's family is wealthy and owns a house, but my father is not a local.
In my maternal grandparents' eyes, my father was marrying above his station with my mother.
So, as far back as I can remember, they often criticized my dad during family gatherings.
My mom is beautiful and has a very proud and arrogant personality. She has no shortage of suitors. It was only through my dad's persistent efforts that he won her over. So many people say this about my dad that she feels she's been shortchanged. Later, she joined in the gossip about him, arguing with him over the smallest things, calling him useless and incompetent, saying that if he were like her cousin's husband—both wealthy and capable—she wouldn't have to endure so much disdain.
"When I was in the third grade of elementary school, my dad's business finally started to improve, which allowed my mom to finally hold her head high in front of her family."
But not long after, my mom discovered that my dad was having an affair.
She broke down on the spot, smashed everything in the house in a fit of rage, and beat my dad so badly he ended up in the hospital. Later, my dad filed for divorce.
After their divorce, I lived with my mother. From then on, all I heard every day was about my father and that woman. Later, after my father married that woman and had a child, she compared me to that child, saying that the child was always a model student, first in the grade, and had won first place in all sorts of knowledge quizzes and calligraphy competitions in the city.
An Rong wiped away her tears and continued, "I'm actually not good at studying. When I got to high school, I realized the gap between myself and my classmates. They were all smarter than me and understood problems faster. I had to put in several times more effort than them just to barely catch up with them."
“I’ve thought about talking to my mom, but every day when I get home, all I hear is her talking about my dad and that woman, and that woman’s child.”
Then she said to me, "You're my only hope, so you have to live up to his expectations and show him that you can still get into the best university even without him." Hearing that, I didn't dare tell her that I wasn't actually that smart, that I was exhausted from studying every day, that I couldn't concentrate, and that Tsinghua University required being in the top five of my grade, which I really couldn't achieve.
"I have devoted all my time to studying. After leaving school, I go straight to tutoring classes, do exercises until 3 a.m., and then have to get up again at 6 a.m. the next morning."
Aside from school and tutoring classes, I had virtually no social life. My mom knew everything about all my classmates. If I talked to someone too much, she would bring it up when I got home, telling me what kind of person they were, how their family wasn't good, how bad their studies were, and advising me to avoid them.
"What I fear most is exams and rankings."
"When my report card came out and I dropped out of the top 50 in the grade, she would get really angry and call me a good-for-nothing."
But after she scolds me, she will prepare my favorite foods and buy me things I like, as if she is apologizing with these material things.
And she never said the word "sorry" to me.
"Just like her marriage with my father, she was always like a proud queen. She was never wrong; the fault lay with others. She would never apologize to anyone."
"This time, Yang Qingzhou was lying in the hospital room trying to save me, and she actually said those kinds of things to Yang Qingzhou's parents. I really..."
An Rong covered her face, choking back tears, and said, "I'm so disappointed in her..."
"I really hate myself for being born into this world as her daughter..."
This was also the first time Yang Qingzhou had heard An Rong open up about her feelings.
I was a little stunned.
Because he never imagined that An Rong, the goddess who was seen as excellent in both character and academics by everyone, was actually under so much pressure behind the scenes.
No wonder An Rong said back then that she didn't understand her.
Because his family background was so different from An Rong's.
In his memory, Liu Wanmei and Yang Zhiping rarely argued and were always harmonious. They even told him not to put too much pressure on himself in his senior year of high school, to eat well, sleep well, and just aim for average grades.
On weekends, I would take him hiking and boating, making his life fulfilling and happy.
Yang Zhiping, a university professor, told Yang Qingzhou that he should first be a good person before pursuing academic research.
You can give it your all in the college entrance exam, but it's okay if you don't succeed. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.
Some of his students have become food bloggers, travelers, or artists after entering the workforce, and they have all been very successful.
Yet none of them had anything to do with their university major.
But at this moment, they are doing what they like.
Only those who truly love something will truly put in the effort; the college entrance examination is undoubtedly a stepping stone.
However, many successful people have never even attended university.
You can't look at things from only one perspective. If you focus on one point and push yourself to the limit, it will often backfire.
Yang Qingzhou confided his innermost thoughts to Yu Tang.
Yu Tang sighed, feeling sorry for the boy once again.
A happy family fosters a kind and sunny personality in boys.
He may not be the top student in the class, but he has many strengths that others don't.
His decision to rush to save An Rong was not accidental, but inevitable.
Because this is Yang Qingzhou.
A handsome and outstanding boy who has been well-educated by his parents.
Chapter 14
The villain was resurrected for the fifth time (14)
Once An Rong calmed down, the group left the coffee shop.
Lu Qingyuan relayed to An Rong all the messages that Yang Qingzhou had asked him to convey.
An Rong took a taxi to the school, intending to find Yang Qingzhou's letter first.
Yu Tang and Lu Qingyuan stood by the roadside, watching the taxi drive away.
"Little devil..." Even though their identities had been reversed, Yu Tang still called Lu Qingyuan by that name.
"It's been so long, and I still haven't apologized to you."
Yu Tang looked at Lu Qingyuan beside her and said earnestly, "I'm sorry for making that decision on my own and leaving you behind."
Yu Tang, who was listening nearby, could vaguely sense the little devil's emotions from what Lu Qingyuan said to An Rong.
Very depressed, very helpless.
Yang Qingzhou saved An Rong.
He saved Lu Qingyuan.
But An Rong has family, and she feels guilty towards Yang Qingzhou's family.
Lu Qingyuan had nothing but him.
Wei Yuan was the same back then.
Being saved by himself was the greatest pain for Wei Yuan.
Lu Qingyuan was taken aback for a moment, but quickly realized what was wrong. He leaned closer to Yu Tang and smiled, "What's wrong? Are you worried about me?"
"Hmm..." Yu Tang asked knowingly, "After I sacrificed myself for you, what did you do? Can you tell me?"
He wanted to hear Lu Qingyuan say it himself.
"I didn't do anything," Lu Qingyuan said. "I just had amnesia for a while, went to the Fire Hell Pool to search around, and found this stone."
He stretched out his hand, and a stone appeared in his palm, engraved with the names of the two people, which Yu Tang had carved stroke by stroke.
"I already guessed back then that you were going to sacrifice me."
So my wish was to stop your decision.
"But you didn't listen."
"After I flipped over the stone, I regained my memory." Lu Qingyuan pretended to be fierce and emphasized to Yu Tang, "Then I got really angry and thought, how could you do this to me, you big liar."
“But…” Lu Qingyuan pulled Yu Tang’s hand and placed the stone on it: “I also understand that my life was given to me by you, a kind-hearted but foolish angel, who gave your soul. I have to do something about it.”
"So I ran to the human world, did some good deeds, and was discovered by the God of Light. He took one look and thought, 'Hey, this demon is not bad, he has the makings of an angel,' so he forcibly conscripted me into becoming an angel, just like the one you see."
Lu Qingyuan spoke in a relaxed tone, and even shrugged, saying, "Actually, I don't like being an angel at all. There are too many rules. It's not as carefree as being a demon."
Yu Tang looked at him quietly, as if trying to see through Lu Qingyuan, and leaned closer to ask, "Have you ever had the same thoughts as An Rong?"
Lu Qingyuan met his gaze, and after a long while, turned his face away: "Stop being narcissistic. I'm too afraid of dying. I won't be as stupid as her."
"real?"
"real……"
Yu Tang couldn't get the truth out of him, and he wasn't angry.
Instead, she put away the stone, pulled Lu Qingyuan to a corner, pushed him against the wall, and said, "But I will."
Lu Qingyuan was stunned for a moment, not understanding the meaning behind his words.
Yu Tang continued, "If you had saved me the way I saved you before, I would have had the same thoughts as An Rong."
"And no one could persuade me otherwise."
He smiled and said, “Because I have no family, no friends, and no one to be responsible for in this world. The only person I love now is you. So if you sacrifice yourself to save me, I will completely disregard the life you saved and give up on myself.”
Lu Qingyuan found Yu Tang's words hard to believe.
He immediately lost his composure and said anxiously, "You can't do that!"
Why not?
"I'll be sad!"
Yu Tang shrugged: "You died saving me, and I don't even know you're sad."
Lu Qingyuan was really anxious, but he couldn't think of any words to say to Yu Tang. After humming for a long time, he could only manage to utter, "You're confused!"
"Why are you so angry?" Yu Tang countered. "Is it because you had already planned to do this?"
Lu Qingyuan froze, his thoughts exposed.
Only then did he realize that he had fallen into Yu Tang's linguistic trap.