Tang Yanqi took a sip of water and rolled her eyes, "I’ve always been ."
"Then you... then how do you...?"
Qi Cheng pointed to Tang Yanqi, then to the things on her desk and her wardrobe. Tang Yanqi knew what Qi Cheng was getting at. Saying it out loud was rather ironic.
Do all the clothes on Tang Yanqi add up to even three hundred yuan?
And the things on her desk, in her wardrobe, there wasn’t a single valuable item. Their fellow students from normal families had a few expensive coats and down jackets, but Tang Yanqi didn’t even have those.
If she was trying to be low-key on purpose, she might keep it up for a while, but they had been together for four years already and never thought Tang Yanqi was rich. You could even say she was the poorest among the four of them.
They had gossiped behind Tang Yanqi’s back, surmising how she had a high scholarship and even worked a job, yet lived no better than those without side incomes. They concluded that Tang Yanqi’s family situation was so poor that her scholarship barely covered her tuition, and her work income was her living expense.
They had this understanding for a long time, but now she suddenly turned out to be a rich family’s daughter. Damn... this contrast, Qi Cheng was having a hard time accepting it.
"Tangtang, you didn’t grow accustomed to the life of a spoiled rich girl and come here to experience the hardships of the working class, did you?"
"If I said yes, would you believe it?"
"Then there’s your answer."
Qi Cheng was about to lose it. Tang Yanqi’s way of ending conversations usually left people feeling a bit chilly. Everyone would laugh while shivering and let it slide, but today, it wouldn’t work! Absolutely not!
"Tangtang, be honest with me. No jokes. How could you be Miss Tang? No, that’s not right. You’re even more impressively the Young Madam Sheng now, right? Damn, a rich household bride? How could that be? Please, please, just tell me, I swear I won’t spill it."
When it came to matters of herself and the Tang Family, Tang Yanqi never spoke about them—there was nothing worth saying. About herself and Sheng Jianan, Tang Yanqi didn’t want to talk either, nor was there anything worth saying.
But now, facing the pressing questions from her friend, and having just fled back from Sheng Jianan, with her mental defenses not fully restored, Tang Yanqi felt an overwhelming sense of fatigue. All along, she had shouldered everything herself and never confided in anyone, but she was just a woman too.
Tang Yanqi’s calm demeanor was hard-won after much tolerance, something she was almost unclear about herself.
She had emotions; she had negativity; she needed to vent, but over the years, she had forgotten, and no one had pushed her like Qi Cheng.
Suddenly, her nose tingled with a bit of sourness, but Tang Yanqi quickly suppressed it, forcing a smile. "Alright, what do you want to know? I’ll tell you everything."
Qi Cheng immediately sat upright, holding up a finger, "First question, are you really Miss Tang?"
"Second question, since you’re a rich family’s daughter, how do you... how do you live so... impoverished?"
Qi Cheng didn’t mince words, using "impoverished," yet it was the truth. Tang Yanqi really was too down-and-out.
"How is that possible? The Tang Family is so wealthy."
The Tang Family may have been a declining noble household, but to someone like Qi Cheng, it was still a rich family.