Tom Fish
He was the only person who looked somewhat decent in this terrible school; Yu Luoyu told a massive lie for the sake of her damn face – “Don’t look down on me, Fang Yuzhe is my boyfriend!” – and then those guys waited to see her make a fool of herself; “I want you to hug me, you can think I’m an idiot!” His lips kissed her forehead, cold to the heart…
- Hearing
Xia Yuluo was seventeen years old.
Before seventeen, she had never bought herself new clothes, never worn makeup, never dated a boy… She didn’t know if she would experience these things after seventeen, but now she had come to the city and started a new life.
She wasn’t beautiful, but if she thinned her eyebrows, whitened her face, and styled her hair more fashionably, she might still be salvageable. To be honest, her features were quite distinctive, with the delicate beauty unique to Eastern girls. She had heard that some men specifically liked her type, but she didn’t care at all about whether boys liked her or not.
In any case, Xia Dahao and Ma Jiao didn’t appreciate her, especially Ma Jiao, who grabbed her braids like a rag, “Oh my god, Xia Dahao, bringing her to the city is just embarrassing me!”
Xia Dahao, Yuluo’s father, glared at the woman, “What’s embarrassing? Next time you go to the beauty salon, take her with you, and she’ll come out looking better than you!”
Ma Jiao snorted and stormed upstairs.
Their home was a two-story small building.
She overheard a neighbor asking her stepmother, “Did you hire a new housekeeper?”
Her stepmother answered, “What housekeeper? Xia Dahao brought his illegitimate daughter from the countryside!”
The other voice replied, “Oh my, she’s so ugly. What taste does your Dahao have!”
Yuluo trembled with anger, wanting to slap them both, but she didn’t come to the city to fight. She wanted to please them, to make Xia Dahao like her, so he would give her money to treat her mother’s illness back in the countryside.
For her mother, what humiliation couldn’t she endure?
So Yuluo pretended not to hear, staying in her small room, not even called for dinner. Ma Jiao went out to play mahjong, and Xia Dahao went out drinking, with only a housekeeper on the first floor, completely ignoring her.
Yuluo ate two stale dry biscuits from her journey and wanted to drink water but didn’t know how to use the water dispenser. She finally got tap water from the bathroom.
By the time she was full and the sky was almost dark, she washed up simply and sat at her desk to study. She was in her second year of high school, and her grades were top-notch in their town’s high school. The principal had said that as long as she kept working hard, getting into a Beijing university would be no problem!
She was reluctant to leave the high school she’d attended for almost two years. She heard the new school Xia Dahao transferred her to was a private elite high school, where students were notoriously bad, and teachers were snobbish, only liking students from wealthy families and disliking poor kids.
She had heard that students at the private elite high school didn’t study at all, only thinking about showing off brand names.
That the male students would even hit female students.
That the female students would sleep with rich men.
She had heard many things about the private elite high school, and none were good.
The one who told her all this was her good friend Yuan Yuan, who had watched a TV drama called “Meteor Garden”.
She said, “When you go to the private elite high school, you’d better meet F4!”
Early the next morning, Xia Dahao knocked on Yuluo’s door – “Yuluo, wake up and go to school!”
Yuluo was already awake, reciting English vocabulary.
She had nightmares all night about the new school! Sometimes it turned into a haunted house, sometimes a cemetery, just like a ghost story. When she woke up in the middle of the night, it was raining outside, and the raindrops from the eaves were hitting a plastic sheet below, making a crisp sound.
The “tap tap” sound made Yuluo feel melancholic. She had only been here a day, and she was already homesick.
Breakfast was milk, bread, and eggs.
Ma Jiao tore a piece of bread with her dark red nail-polished fingers and glanced at her, “Yuluo, did you cry last night? Your eyes are so swollen.”
Yuluo hurriedly lowered her head, “No, just some sand in my eyes.”
Xia Dahao patted his daughter’s shoulder, “Are you homesick? Tell Dad if something’s wrong. This is your home, don’t be distant!”
“I’m not distant, really nothing’s wrong.” Yuluo hadn’t even called him “Dad” yet. She had lived sixteen years and suddenly had a dad appear – it was unexpected, and even after a year, she still couldn’t adapt.
“Dad will drive you to school after breakfast!”
“I can ride my bike.”
“No way. The school I got you into is a prestigious school. No one rides bikes. Once you’re settled, Dad will buy you a car and teach you to drive!”
Yuluo was shocked. How much would a car cost? She didn’t want to drive. She’d rather use that money to treat her mother’s illness and go home.
She decided to tell this strange father about her idea in a few days because her mother told her not to rush about money matters. And now, she needed to finish eating quickly to avoid being late for school.
After wolfing down her food, Yuluo grabbed her backpack and rushed out. Xia Dahao’s car was parked at the door – a brand new Mercedes-Benz.
Of course, Yu Luo didn’t know that was a Mercedes-Benz; she didn’t understand cars at all.
The envious look in her daughter’s eyes made Xia Dahao very proud. “How about it, daughter? This is the car your dad just bought – a ‘Benz’ – worth over 400,000!”
“400,000!” Yu Luo was truly shocked. That was an enormous sum. A man with so much money should certainly be willing to spend 30,000 to treat her mother’s illness. She decided she would ask him for the money tonight!
“Get in!” Xia Dahao opened the car door for his daughter.
Yu Luo sat in the car stiffly.
At the school entrance, Yu Luo discovered her father’s car was nothing special.
“Yu Luo, get out. Remember, you’re in Class 7 of Grade 2. I’ll pick you up tonight,” he said.
As soon as she got out, she became the center of attention. She preferred to believe their looks were admiring, though they clearly were not.
Some people behind her laughed uncontrollably. A boy tried to approach and say “Hi” but was immediately dragged away. Many voices called out “Beautiful girl!” behind her.
Yu Luo felt somewhat panicked. She couldn’t stand being the center of attention.
These guys are really annoying, harassing her during class, surrounding her during breaks, driving Xia Yuluo almost crazy. But this isn’t even the most unlucky thing in her life; the most unlucky thing happened after the history class.
The history class was about the modern history of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. The teacher intended to find a student to stand up and talk about the Japanese invasion conspiracy. He scanned the room with his eyes, “Oh, Xia Yuluo, you come and tell everyone about it.”
Xia Yuluo was a patriotic and passionate youth. She stood up and harshly criticized the Japanese, speaking with fervor that even moved the teacher, who said, “Xia Yuluo, while we must not forget national humiliation, you should also take care of your health and not make yourself sick.”
Actually, she didn’t hate them that much; she just had a belly full of anger today and was taking the opportunity to vent.
“You’re in trouble,” her deskmate suddenly sneered at her after she sat down.
As soon as the bell rang, Xia Yuluo prepared to face another round of attacks. Strangely, no one paid attention to her. Only a tall, long-haired girl walked up to her, rolled a book into a tube, and tapped her desk, “Xia Yuluo, do you really hate Japanese people?”
