Chapter 342 - Her story(2) (1/2)
”I'm a lucky girl to have a friend like Lei Zhao, and he's been a great friend since forever. Did he tell you about what he did for me?” Yue Yan had asked softly.
Yan Mei nodded again before she replied ”Not much, I got the impression that it's not truly his story to tell”
It was Yue Yan's turn to nod curtly, her eyes fixed on everything in the room except her. ”Yes,” she answered finally, ”he's kind like that but it's more than that, what Lei Zhao did for me was save me.”
Yan Mei had waited patiently; she sensed a story and with the way her house-guest had refused to meet her eyes she knew it was no ordinary story. The show of vulnerability touched her and Yan Mei couldn't help the strong wave of sympathy that filled her at the lost look. At long last, her patience was rewarded
”I was raised in an orphanage, somehow I never got into the foster system and from the stories I've heard I believe I have much to be thankful for. But that's the power of hindsight talking, as a child it hurt me with every couple that passed me by and adopted another child. I wanted a family with a d.e.s.i.r.e that was almost tangible and I never got one so I channeled all that need into my education and it was rewarded”
Yue Yan recounted her history in a bland voice as if she was trying to actively distance herself from the emotions it evoked in her, judging by the stark look in her eyes, it wasn't exactly working.
Yan Mei herself had felt her throat swell with emotion, but she swallowed any overt show of emotion and kept quiet.
”I got a scholarship to college, not just any college, an Ivy league college all expenses paid and I thought life was finally being good being but despite my tough upbringing and the offhand way we were raised at the orphanage I was not prepared for the casual and determined hatred I received the hands of the so called elite because I didn't belong in their world” Yue Yan had spat the same entire sentence with uncharacteristic vitriol.
Yan Mei couldn't help nodding in silent agreement, she herself had suffered bitterly in the hands of the upper class who wanted to destroy her for the crime of not being from a moneyed family.
”I understand what you went through. They claim to be better than others but they're only vicious animals guarding what they think belongs to them from an intruder in their circles. In fact, calling them animals is an insult to animals actually” she finally replied, her first words since she sat down but it was clear she was not speaking out of empty sympathy but some private grief.
At those words Yue Yan had turned to look at her, revealing eyes that were studded with tears ”I was on the verge of dropping out or killing myself when Lei Zhao stepped in, he literally has me a stamp of approval and shielded me from the worst of it”
”Yes, he can be kind like that” Yan Mei echoed her earlier words.
Yue Yan smiled, a small sad smile but soldiered on with her story, ”at that point in time it was everything to me that someone stood up for me. He proposed we fake a relationship. After all, he was one of the ric.h.e.s.t people in the school so no-one would publicly bully his girlfriend. And he said something about keeping the leeches away. I won't lie and say I didn't fall in love with him, I did but I understood the boundaries and stayed inside them but deep inside of my heart he became my family.”