University A’s tradition had always been to select scholarship recipients based on grades and performance during the first semester and publish the list on the official website, forums, and campus bulletin boards in the second.
On the second week of the new semester, the list was posted.
Li Chengyu stared at the bulletin board, his eyes fixed on the first name listed: Tang Qi. A flame of fury roared to life in his chest.
In his mind, Tang Qi was nothing but a shady, good-for-nothing slut, a woman who had caused Luo Xue to break up with him and had now stolen his scholarship.
“Tang Qi, you’re ruthless. I don’t know what favors you did for the school’s teachers to make them play favorites, but just you wait,” Li Chengyu gritted his teeth. In his mind, anyone who was better than him had only achieved it through shady means. He was the only one who was truly the best.
He was so lost in his own world that he didn’t notice his phone ringing until someone else pointed it out. He answered, snapping, “What are you coming here for? Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves?… Wait a moment…”
Luo Xue never expected Li Chengyu, who had been out of contact for months since their breakup, to seek her out.
“Little Xue, for the sake of what we had, please just let me finish,” Li Chengyu begged shamelessly and humbly. Luo Xue instinctively wanted to find Tang Qi, only to remember that Tang Qi had gone to a tutoring session.
“What do you want?” She couldn’t articulate why, but she found the man in front of her terrifying, and she had to keep her guard up.
What she didn’t know was that the influence of the protagonist plotline had worn off. Now that it was gone, she could naturally see Li Chengyu for who he truly was.
Li Chengyu’s eyes were red. “My parents are here. They still think we’re together and want to meet you. You know their health isn’t good; I don’t dare tell them the truth and upset them.”
Seeing Luo Xue’s guarded expression, he gave a bitter smile. “I know I treated you badly, but I never hurt you, right? I just want you to meet my parents. They don’t have many years left, and I don’t want them to worry. Please? Just think of it as pitying two sick, elderly people.”
Li Chengyu knew Luo Xue well. Her parents were her weak spot.
As expected, Luo Xue softened. After hesitating for a moment, she sent a WeChat message to Tang Qi and then agreed.
When she arrived at the restaurant and saw the two people, dressed so simply they looked almost ragged, Luo Xue relaxed and greeted them with a smile.
“You must be Little Xue. Chengyu talks about you all the time,” Li Chengyu’s mother said enthusiastically, grabbing Luo Xue’s hands. Looking at the woman’s dark, calloused fingers full of cracks, Luo Xue didn’t have the heart to pull away.
Throughout the meal, Li Chengyu’s parents kept praising how perfect Li Chengyu and Luo Xue were for each other. Luo Xue wore a stiff smile. Li Chengyu, for his part, played along perfectly, occasionally putting food on Luo Xue’s plate and trying to put his arm around her shoulder, which she subtly dodged.
As they talked, Li’s mother suddenly burst into tears, lamenting that her time was short and that she would never see Li Chengyu get married and have children. On the spot, she pulled out a slightly tarnished ring and tried to put it on Luo Xue’s finger.
Frightened, Luo Xue quickly refused. Li’s mother looked displeased. “Little Xue, Auntie truly likes you. You have no idea how many girls back home have their eyes on Chengyu. This is your one and only chance; you have to cherish him! I dare say there’s no better young man than Chengyu in the whole world.”
“After you marry Chengyu, you can just sit back and enjoy life. Maybe we’ll even get to see a grandchild,” Li’s father chimed in.
“Have a few more, to expand our old Li family tree.”
“Mom, Little Xue is just shy,” Li Chengyu supported her. “Little Xue, take whatever Mom gives you. We’ll have a good life together from now on.”
“That’s good. As long as you two are happy, your mother is at peace. Your father and I don’t have many years left. Seeing you settled down makes me feel relieved,” Li’s mother said, then started to cry, her sobs sounding particularly miserable.
Li Chengyu also began to cry. “Mom, don’t say that. It’s all my fault for not being able to earn money. Once I graduate and make money, I can pay for your treatment.”
Li’s father joined in, hugging them both and weeping loudly, leaving Luo Xue standing there, troubled and awkward. She couldn’t help but feel that this family was essentially saying, “Look how miserable we are, why aren’t you handing over your money yet?”
After crying for a while with no reaction from Luo Xue, Li Chengyu looked embarrassed. “Little Xue, what’s wrong with you?”
“I’m going back to my dorm,” Luo Xue picked up her purse. Li Chengyu tried to stop her. “What is it? Are you meeting my parents and thinking I’m beneath you, that I’m embarrassing?” In the past, when he said this, Luo Xue would always bend to his will to prove she didn’t look down on others.
“I just have something to do,” Luo Xue regretted coming here. Seeing this ploy didn’t work, Li Chengyu pleaded humbly, “Little Xue, I know I made mistakes before. I apologize. But my parents’ illness can’t wait, could you just…”
“No.”
A clear voice rang through the private room. The door was pushed open forcefully by Tang Qi. Even though Tang Qi was also a girl, even though she was far less tall and robust than Li Chengyu, who always played basketball, Luo Xue felt her fear vanish in that instant. All she could see was Tang Qi striding in.
She walked in against the light, illuminating the gloom of the room.
“Luoluo has already broken up with you. Your affairs have nothing to do with her anymore. She only came today out of kindness. How long will you keep emotionally blackmailing her? Just because your family is poor, does she have to support you unconditionally and let you keep sucking her dry even after a breakup?” Tang Qi pulled Luo Xue behind her, shielding her.
Li Chengyu saw a few people from his dorm room standing outside the door, including Lao Liu and his lover.
In that moment, he felt like everything he had worked so hard for had turned to ashes. His mind was consumed by the terror of others finding out about his family background.
“In the year you dated, did your efforts match hers?” Tang Qi normally didn’t meddle, but since Luo Xue had sent her a text, she naturally couldn’t leave a girl to fight alone.
“What do you mean? You mean I didn’t put in any effort? Everyone saw everything I did for her!” Li Chengyu retorted shamelessly in his panic.
“What did you ever do for me? Tell me to drink more hot water when I was sick? Make me walk back to the dorm alone in the rain? Or was it me giving you a keyboard, mouse, suit, and computer, while you gave me… nothing?” Luo Xue refuted him, shrinking back behind Tang Qi as soon as she finished.
Tang Qi knew how to strike at the heart. She wouldn’t give him a chance to argue back. “Last year in September, someone needed an online loan and asked to borrow fifty thousand from you. You asked Luoluo for sixty thousand, gave the other person an extra five thousand, and told them to eat well. You kept five thousand for yourself to buy birthday gifts for your dorm mates and new clothes for yourself. Meanwhile, Luoluo was left penniless and had to work to support herself. And even then, you still took her meal card.”
“Shut up! Shut your mouth! Money, money, money! That’s all people like you talk about!” Li Chengyu roared.
“You despise money, yet used every trick to drain money from Luoluo. Money isn’t the only measure of a person, but it can sometimes reflect a person’s code of conduct. Li Chengyu, if you come looking for Luoluo again, what I expose won’t just be these few things.” Tang Qi looked around the room. “Sorry for disturbing everyone’s meal. We’re leaving!”
Luo Xue obediently followed behind Tang Qi, her eyes reddening slightly. She had once again caused Tang Qi trouble.
“One more thing,” Tang Qi looked back from the doorway. “I know a bit about traditional medicine. Your parents don’t have any serious illness. It’s overwork combined with age. But the money you’ve taken from Luoluo under the pretense of medical treatment… is a lot more than sixty thousand.”
She had the System retrieve Li Chengyu’s parents’ medical records. There was no illness at all. It could be said that he had been deceiving Luo Xue from the very start.
Luo Xue tugged at Tang Qi’s sleeve. Once they were somewhere private, she said, “Tang Qi, I’m sorry.”
“Why are you saying sorry?” Tang Qi was puzzled. She didn’t see anything Luo Xue needed to apologize for.
“I shouldn’t have been so soft-hearted, causing trouble for you again.” Tang Qi’s tutoring class wasn’t even over yet. As she spoke, Luo Xue couldn’t help but hug Tang Qi’s waist. “It’s all my fault. Why am I so stupid?”
Tang Qi chuckled softly and patted her shoulder. “It’s nothing. An occasional holiday is fine.”
Her words only made Luo Xue feel worse. The System bit its handkerchief. “Xuexue really is such a kind girl.”
Tang Qi rubbed the top of her head. “Let’s go. Stay away from him from now on.”
Back at the dorm, their roommates had already caught wind of the gossip online. Since it involved the two campus celebrities Li Chengyu and Tang Qi, the news spread like a tsunami across the entire university. Recordings and written accounts dominated the front page of the forums, spreading everywhere through various group chats.
Seeing Luo Xue return, the roommates put their phones away. Mai Lingling quickly asked, “You’re back! Are you hungry? Do you want anything to eat?”
Luo Xue was puzzled. Mai Lingling, afraid she might feel bad, kept trying to make conversation.
Off to the side, Tang Qi pretended to read a book. “System, bring me the Book of the World.” The System retrieved the Book of the World, and Tang Qi quickly finished reading it.
The book, simply put, was the story of Li Chengyu’s rise to fame. After graduating, he was down on his luck for three years. Then, after breaking up with his first love and struggling hard, he joined the showbiz world, gained recognition through good songs, released albums, acted in TV dramas, and finally married a beautiful, wealthy woman, becoming a generation’s King of Singers and Best Actor.
Luo Xue was merely a supporting character from his memories, dying impoverished in the end. When Li Chengyu found out, he sighed with feigned emotion and handled her funeral arrangements, earning him the title of a loyal and sentimental man from his fans.
No wonder the System had cursed Luo Xue for several days straight after reading it. In that book, Li Chengyu indeed seemed decent. But the Book of the World was written from the protagonist’s perspective and was heavily whitewashed.
“Host, what have you figured out?”
“Li Chengyu cares a great deal about money. Luoluo said her parents would stop providing for her after graduation. Why would he stay with her then?” Tang Qi tossed the book back to the System. “Let’s dissect this. First: the book briefly mentions that after graduation, Luoluo’s parents each gave her an apartment and an equivalent sum of money.”
“Second: What was Li Chengyu doing in those three years after graduation? Why did he suddenly find a talent scout right after leaving Luoluo? Third: Even if Li Chengyu spent all her money, she still would have had an apartment. How did she end up dying in abject poverty?” Tang Qi asked the System.
“Host, you mean… Li Chengyu swindled Luoluo out of her money and her apartment and used those assets to buy his way to fame?” The System understood instantly.
“It fits,” Tang Qi said, watching as Luo Xue chatted with Mai Lingling. It was hard to believe that in just over a decade, the optimistic and bubbly Luo Xue of today would turn into the gaunt, withered woman who looked twenty years older than she was, as described in the book, finally dying in a pile of garbage.
“We can’t let scum succeed.”
“Even without Luoluo, he’s still the protagonist. The world line will compensate him,” Tang Qi mused. The System grew anxious. “Host, you have to protect Luoluo! If Li Chengyu achieves fame, he won’t let her off. She’s your best friend in this world.”
Tang Qi didn’t reply. The System was so worried it was on the verge of crying. “That necklace you’re wearing right now was a gift from Luoluo. You can’t be ungrateful!”
The System’s outburst successfully made Tang Qi laugh. She nodded. “I know.” To protect Luo Xue, she would inevitably have to confront the male lead. It seemed she couldn’t just bury herself in nothing but tutoring anymore.
