Chapter 17 Chapter 17: The Economics Department’s “Love Saint”
Deliberately forgetting her transformation was Su Yuan’s anesthetic. Since childhood, she had believed people should adapt like water, shifting with their environment. Humans were masters of self adjustment.
When she was young, her family had been comfortable, not lavish but secure. Even then, a rebellious thought nagged her. Why study so hard. This was not pretentiousness, it was genuine confusion.
Though she had grown up without a father, she had grown accustomed to his absence. By third grade, classmates’ taunts and teachers’ pity had hardened her. She decided she must be different, superior.
Yes. Their smallness would highlight her stature. That was when her defiant personality took root. She began viewing others with detached superiority, unmoved by their provocations. She remained aloof, self contained.
Until the day emotion shattered reason. Even the calmest sage erupts. The historically patinated sky blue brick in her hands became the perfect catalyst. Su Yuan still remembered the fiery cosmos surging through her veins, exhilarating, terrifying.
When the brick connected and her enemy crumpled, fear left her forever. The tranquil Su Yuan vanished. In her place rose a force that dominated elementary, middle, and high school, a student thug named Su Yuan.
But karma followed. Her family’s fortunes dwindled. They moved repeatedly, homes shrinking, locations edging closer to school.
Before college entrance exams, just as she entered her final high school year, her mother Su Caiwei finally lost patience. Hoping Su Yuan would reflect on her actions was like buying a lottery ticket. On Su Yuan’s birthday, Su Caiwei initiated a late night heart to heart. She expected little. Yet, perhaps because Su Yuan had finally matured, she was pulled back from the cliff’s edge.
From then on, Su Yuan abandoned her delinquent past and swung to the opposite extreme.
...
September ten, Monday.
After class, Su Yuan headed toward her dorm when she spotted a crowd gathered in the hallway. Always a spectacle in China, she thought, recalling Lu Xun’s gray circle of numb onlookers.
“Something is happening. Let us check” Su Yuan squeezed through the crowd. At the center stood a young man and woman. The boy, clearly embarrassed, shoved through the onlookers and stalked off.
With the main actor gone, the audience dispersed. The girl’s friends surrounded her, offering comfort. From their murmurs, Su Yuan pieced together the scene, a couple arguing over a breakup. But soon she realized it was more complicated.
“Su Yuan, what happened” Gao Jun and Ji Yehan approached, eyes alight with gossip.
“Just a couple splitting up”
“That is worth a crowd” Gao Jun scoffed. Couples fought, they did not parade it publicly.
Su Yuan shrugged. “Turns out the guy is a textbook rich brat. Handsome, wealthy, but rotten to the core. He treats girlfriends like disposable clothes. Yet girls keep throwing themselves at him despite his track record. They deserve what they get”
How can they be so blind, she thought. Flying moths to a flame, hoping for miracles. Self inflicted wounds.
“What an overgrown pig” she muttered.
Every head in the hallway snapped toward her. Su Yuan yanked Ji Yehan and Gao Jun away.
“Why do some girls do that” she grumbled as they walked. “Knowing full well he is trouble, they still jump in. Asking for heartbreak”
“That is the allure of looks and money” Gao Jun mused. “That guy, Peng Jie, is famous"
Peng Jie.
The name triggered a memory. Him. The guy who had approached her while she handed out flyers.
Disgusting. A playboy who swings both ways. And I was dressed like a guy that day.
“You have heard of him” Gao Jun noticed her reaction.
“A little. Third year econ student, right” He told me himself, she thought bitterly.
“Exactly. The Economics Department’s campus heartthrob. He has dated every girl there, one after another. Weird habit though, none last over a month. He is unstoppable”
“Unbelievable. Evil to the bone”
“He ruined so many Econ girls, now he is invading our Biochemical Engineering Department” Gao Jun’s outrage seemed less about Peng Jie’s character and more about territorial violation. Su Yuan rolled her eyes.
“Yehan, your thoughts”
Ji Yehan had stayed silent. “I do not know him. But his actions are unacceptable. Stay away from people like that”
Su Yuan nodded approvingly. At least he gets it. Gao Jun needed a lesson in priorities.
She never imagined that after condemning Peng Jie as scum that morning, she would face him that very afternoon.
“Su Yuan. Someone is looking for you” A boy called from the classroom doorway as she packed her books.
“For me”
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