Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“Shit! What sort of question is that?! Do I look like those superficial women that only like men for their good looks?” Su Xiaomo snapped.
He Jiayu chuckled, which made Su Xiaomo feel guilty.
“Fine, fine. I admit I’m just like that! I definitely wouldn’t have liked you if you didn’t look like this. But that’s my point! You’re so pretty! Even if I know bad things about you, like picking your nose with your middle finger or not flushing after doing a number two… I promise I won’t think any less of you!” Su Xiaomo said with an animated expression, which made He Jiayu secretly break into a cold sweat.
Well… Su Xiaomo sure had some hardcore preferences…
Su Xiaomo thought her words hadn’t convinced him, so she patted his shoulder like an old buddy. “Gosh, even if you don’t believe me, at least have some faith in your face!”
He Jiayu’s tone became brooding. “Alright. I’ll tell you… everything.”
–
He Jiayu’s childhood could be summed up in one word: tragedy.
His father’s gambling addiction had saddled him with a huge debt, which eventually led to his death. His mother then took him wandering from one city to another, and they endured many hardships. They had to travel across half the country and live anonymous lives.
When they fled to Yu City, they were finally able to throw off their creditors.
He couldn’t afford the transient student fee at school, which earned him much taunting and jeers from his teachers and fellow students. He went back home with eyes red from crying.
When Mother He asked him what happened, he stubbornly refused to tell her.
That night, Mother He woke up to find He Jiayu gone and she was scared out of her wits. She ran out to search for him right away.
She didn’t have to go very far to find He Jiayu, who was rummaging through garbage bins in the residential area they lived in. Next to him was a plastic bag filled with colorful soft drink bottles.
Hiding in the shadows, Mother He covered her mouth as tears streamed down her face.
Mother He didn’t tell him what she had seen. She even helped him sell the empty bottles the following day and gave him a few hundred-yuan notes in return.
Back then, He Jiayu had no idea what that amount of money meant and thought he had earned his school fee through his own hard labor. He went happily back to school.
When he was a little older, Mother He would give him pocket money, saying she had earned it by working two jobs. He Jiayu never gave it a second thought.
He would go work part-time jobs in his spare time so as to take some of the load off her shoulders.
It was not until he was covering a shift for a classmate, loading goods for a bar, that he spotted his mother…
Under the flashing colorful lights, his mother with heavy makeup on rubbed herself against a greasy, bulky man… That man then stuffed a wad of hundred-yuan notes into her bra…
He Jiayu took a deep breath, appearing very level-headed.
He then calmly picked up a bottle, calmly went up to them, and calmly smashed the bottle on the man’s head…
Everyone in the bar screamed. His mother saw him, froze, then began to cry.
He Jiayu never knew one could shed that many tears. He then dragged her out of the bar with an expressionless face…
He didn’t ask anything. He didn’t ask how his mother had made a living all these years, or if his school fee had been earned the same way like tonight… He asked nothing, but his hands wouldn’t stop shaking when he was back in his room…
“He Jiayu! Why are you still here? Run!” The big sister living next door rushed into his room and her voice brought him back to reality.
She snuck him out through a corner of the fence and they got onto an electric bike. He Jiayu then heard a hubbub of voices behind them. Someone yelled, “That’s the boy who cut Boss’s head open! Get him!”
The girl next door went pale. She then heard He Jiayu’s indifferent voice. “Put me down. Let me die.”