Chapter 27 Part 1

Qiu Shuxue had a car, so she floored the accelerator and headed straight for the underground garage. The Store Manager stood below the whole time, glancing at Luo Qingmeng—perhaps wanting to say something, but she held back again and again until she finally swallowed her words.

Then she got into her car and drove away from there.

With both of them gone, Luo Qingmeng slowly made her way back. She felt much lighter, both in body and mind. Qiu Shuxue was probably waiting for her, so she stepped into the elevator with the auntie who had come down from the 12th Floor.

Luo Qingmeng’s phone vibrated as she received a message.

Qiu Shuxue: 【Come up. I need to talk to you.】

Luo Qingmeng didn’t reply to her.

She was still climbing the stairs, tears streaming down her face as she went. She didn’t want to cry in front of Qiu Shuxue—her pride would take a hit, and besides, she was truly heartbroken.

Once she had cried herself out, she sat on the stairs for a while.

When she continued upward, she discovered Qiu Shuxue standing at the top.

“I’m here to apologize,” Qiu Shuxue said. “I’m sorry.”

Luo Qingmeng pressed her lips together tightly and didn’t speak to her. She turned her body aside to avoid Qiu Shuxue, expressing her anger through silence.

Qiu Shuxue was about to speak again when Luo Qingmeng cut her off. “Not now. Don’t talk to me. I want to be alone for a bit.”

“Can I just say a few words?” Qiu Shuxue asked. “I know you went over to the Star Continent side. I saw how she kept stringing you along, watching you run yourself ragged, and it hurt to see. You still came home every day to cook for me, and that made me feel bad for you too. But out of respect for your work, I didn’t say anything. Today, though, I saw that you’d aced the interview but still hadn’t gotten the contract, so I had no choice but to do what I did.”

Luo Qingmeng was speechless.

She had never even thought about the contract. Her only goal had been to prove herself despite her circumstances by working extra hard to get noticed. She didn’t even have the concept of signing a contract on the spot after passing the interview.

She pressed her lips together tightly.

Qiu Shuxue continued, “I know you’re really upset right now, but I hope you won’t doubt yourself or feel inferior. Just think—a little—about how someone cares about you, someone aches for you.”

She said this as she spoke.

Luo Qingmeng suddenly looked up at her. Moments ago, Qiu Shuxue had seemed like a total psycho with something wrong in her head, but now her words were clear and logical. Luo Qingmeng’s eyes were red and glaring, with tears welling up that she desperately held back. She looked fierce, yet pitiful at the same time.

Qiu Shuxue swallowed and wanted to kiss her.

Qiu Shuxue coaxed her. “It’s okay now. The Store Manager will definitely pull some strings to get it for you. I’m sorry.”

Qiu Shuxue took her hand and placed it against her own body. She said, “You can hit me now.”

“I didn’t get out of the car earlier because I was afraid you’d hit or push me. If you did, that woman would think she had a shot and keep exploiting you.”

Luo Qingmeng rarely hit anyone. Back when she was little, her family had a younger sister. If the sister misbehaved and Luo Qingmeng scolded her, their mother would accuse her of not caring about her sister or bullying her. She was terrified of making her sister cry. Then the family had a little brother, who was even more untouchable.

Fine, she wouldn’t compete with her brother—she couldn’t anyway, not in a family that favored sons over daughters. But why did her mother only like her sister and not her?

She had cried until there were no tears left back then, but now they were falling again. Qiu Shuxue held her hand against herself, then gently tapped it against her own chest.

In a soft voice, looking into her eyes, Qiu Shuxue said, “Go ahead and hit me. Sis, I was wrong, okay?” She didn’t claim it was to help Luo Qingmeng secure the job, nor did she deny Luo Qingmeng’s efforts to win people over by running herself ragged. If Luo Qingmeng thought she was wrong, then she really was.

Part of Luo Qingmeng’s tears came from anger, but another part was pure frustration. Memories of those days spent treating people to meals and all the misery that came with it flooded back. She said, “Truth is, I don’t like my sister at all. I don’t like anyone younger than me. I especially don’t. Don’t bother. You’re acting like a nutcase. I hate everything younger than me. I just don’t like anything smaller than me.”

Qiu Shuxue let out an “mm” and wiped her tears with her fingers, sincerely apologizing. “I’m truly sorry. I’m really sorry that I’m younger than you.”

Luo Qingmeng’s eyes brimmed with tears that she held back fiercely. As Qiu Shuxue wiped them away, she shoved her hard.

She cried even harder now—not from that lingering grievance, but because someone had said to her, “I’m sorry that I’m younger than you.”

Luo Qingmeng truly didn’t want to be the eldest at home. As the big sister, she had to give money to the family. At eighteen, she had to become independent. She had to unconditionally yield to everyone younger than her. No one ever comforted her when she was upset just because she was the big sister. No one ever repaid her for it.

Why hadn’t her sister returned that hard-saved 4,500 yuan to her? Why hadn’t she given her that ugly bag?

By the time she reached the door, she had wiped her tears clean. She opened the door, but Qiu Shuxue didn’t follow. Instead, Qiu Shuxue stood at the neighboring door and said, “I’ll seriously think about how to be older than you.”

Luo Qingmeng pretended not to hear. In her heart, she cursed Qiu Shuxue: You’ve got issues, you’ve got issues. Go nuts, you’ve got mental problems.

She shut the door, rubbed her cheeks with both hands, composed herself, then went to the bathroom to wash her face. She hadn’t used to cry this much.

It must be from reading too many books. Luo Qingmeng remembered something from a book: If you can cry in front of someone again and again and get a response, it means you’ve found someone who will wipe away your tears.

Luo Qingmeng tidied herself up and lay on the sofa, thinking about the day’s events. Her eyes grew sore as she dwelled on it. Two hours later, her phone rang.

It was the Store Manager calling.

She sat up, steadied her emotions, and suppressed her choked voice before answering.

The Store Manager had gone back to review what happened. Where had things gone wrong? Qiu Shuxue had acted like a total psycho, and she still thought so.

She had genuinely believed Qiu Shuxue was some harasser stalking her and that Luo Qingmeng was too scared to speak up. At a time like that, she shouldn’t have stayed silent—she should have helped chase Qiu Shuxue off and given her a piece of her mind.

But then Qiu Shuxue had zeroed in on the key point: Luo Qingmeng had no contract. She accused the Store Manager of deliberately withholding it from Luo Qingmeng.

The Store Manager had indeed planned to use the job opportunity to get closer to Luo Qingmeng, maybe develop something. If it was pursuit, she didn’t have the energy for it anymore. She was an adult in her thirties, long past the point of chasing romance.

Qiu Shuxue’s psycho antics had provoked her repeatedly, and people get angry.

The Store Manager was furious, but she couldn’t take it out on Luo Qingmeng.

She realized her own behavior had been too extreme. She hadn’t given Luo Qingmeng any face. She claimed to like her, but she hadn’t considered her feelings, leaving her utterly humiliated.

The question was, how had Luo Qingmeng ended up living with the “other woman”?

Coincidence?

She hadn’t lost control and gotten this angry since catching her ex-husband cheating last time.

This Qiu Shuxue left her fuming with nowhere to vent—like facing a fierce rival at work who left her with nothing and humiliated her.

Either the woman was doing it on purpose, or she was a pure psycho.

The Store Manager said, “Give me her WeChat. I want to have a proper talk with her. Or cut me into a video call with her.”

Luo Qingmeng quickly replied, “I don’t have her WeChat.”

“You don’t?”

Luo Qingmeng nodded vigorously to show she really didn’t.

“I’ve blocked her. I figured I’d move out and cut contact for good. I never ended up adding her.”

The Store Manager said, “Looking back now, I still think there’s something wrong with her head. She’s like a total psycho.”

Luo Qingmeng stayed silent. Qiu Shuxue didn’t seem quite that psycho after all. She was just infuriating, but her intentions were good—for Luo Qingmeng’s sake.

As the Store Manager kept talking, she still felt something was off.

“You really…”

“How did the other woman fixate on you? Take a shine to you?”

Luo Qingmeng’s head began to ache again. She stayed quiet for a long time before saying, “Store Manager, it’s late. I have work tomorrow.”

She hung up.

She clutched her phone without realizing it, pressing it to her chest. The Store Manager still hadn’t apologized to her, but her mind was full of Qiu Shuxue’s words.

Was it just clever talk?

Or her true feelings?

The next morning, Luo Qingmeng headed out to work.

There was a bag hanging on her door handle. She took it down and hung it on Qiu Shuxue’s door.

Whatever book it was, Luo Qingmeng was determined to return it to her. She wouldn’t have anything to do with her. But then she noticed a line of English on the paper bag: 【You smiled and talked to me of nothing and I felt that for this I had been waiting long.】

Luo Qingmeng had been studying a bit of English every day lately, so she understood the gist at a glance: You smiled faintly and said nothing to me, yet I had been waiting for that for so long.

She racked her brain—it felt familiar, but she couldn’t place it. After thinking for a while, she flipped the bag over.

There was another line of English on the back.

【Shadow，with her veil drawn. follows Light in secret meekness. with her silent steps of love.】

A few key words piqued her curiosity even more.

Luo Qingmeng was truly furious—furious at herself for always falling for Qiu Shuxue’s traps. She wasn’t some book maniac who would do anything for a book, but Qiu Shuxue had played her hand just like this.

She couldn’t resist even the slightest hint of suspense.

She opened the paper bag. The golden wooden book bore the title Stray Birds, Tagore’s poetry collection.

She had seen several editions of it before.

These two lines were respectively: 【You smiled faintly without saying a word to me. And I felt that for this, I had waited a long time.】

【Shadow donned her veil, mysteriously and tenderly, following “light” with her silent footsteps of love.】

Luo Qingmeng didn’t understand what she meant. She was about to put it back inside but couldn’t resist untying the red string on the side and peeking in.

It was made of plant-based parchment paper, with each page featuring an evocative illustration: a dark night, summer flying birds, wanderers of the world. The English text was written in beautiful segments, as if penned by hand with a fountain pen.

Ruled lines were left blank beside the English. This wasn’t any classic translation edition; it was one where she could write her own translations.

It was a personal notebook.

The paper bag also contained a box designed with flying birds, holding a fountain pen and an ink sac.

Luo Qingmeng lowered her gaze slightly. It was impossible not to like it.

She put the items back one by one and hung the bag on the doorknob again.

Meanwhile, Qiu Shuxue was separated from her by just a door. She pressed her fingers against it, sensing her through the faint vibrations. She watched Luo Qingmeng turn and head toward the corridor exit, where she paused for a moment.

She turned her head back to look for a few seconds but still walked away.

Luo Qingmeng had bought a gift for the store manager earlier, and it had arrived by express delivery today. She took it with her to the bookstore.