Chapter 9 (1/2)

Mingxi left school for a short while during the afternoon. As the syllabus of the International Class was different from that of the Normal Class whereby there were more bilingual teaching courses, she felt the need to buy some reference books.

After making her payment, she turned and immediately saw Zhao Yuning entering the cybercafé from across the street with a few delinquents from another school who had ear piercings.

He’s entering the cybercafé at this hour. Is he cutting class again?

When Zhao Yuning and his friends turned, they also saw Mingxi.

“Isn’t that girl with the mask your sister?” A blonde-haired guy beside Zhao Yuning said with furrowed brows. “Is she here to stop you again? Why the f*ck are your family members so nosy?”

Prior to this, Zhao Mingxi had bumped into them a few times while they were skipping school, and every time she would drag Zhao Yuning back to school.

The blonde-haired guy and the rest already recognized her.

“You should leave now before your sister glares at us too—”

But before the blonde-haired guy could finish his sentence, Zhao Mingxi had averted her gaze, turned and left with her plastic bag full of reference books.

Wait a minute. She left just like that?

The blonde-haired guy, Zhao Yuning and the rest were stunned. “Amazing! Did your sister go through a change in personality today? She obviously saw us yet she didn’t come over!”

“Let’s go. Since your sister is in a good mood today and decided to let us be, let’s seize the opportunity and enjoy ourselves.”

However, Zhao Yuning’s gaze was stuck on Zhao Mingxi’s retreating figure. He was frozen on the spot while his mind buzzed.

Zhao Mingxi actually left in such an unconcerned manner despite seeing him with these delinquents?!

She actually—?!

This was even more unbelievable than when he got blocked!

How did she used to reprimand him? You are a product of your environment. When she saw him hanging out with these kinds of people, she would get so angry that she would instantly drag him back to school.

But why was she acting like this today?!

—Even if she was now on bad terms with their family, she didn’t need to go to the extent of treating him like a stranger, right?!

Zhao Yuning used to hate it when Mingxi would butt into his affairs. He even once ridiculed her by saying that she really thought she was his sister.

But now that she was really ignoring him, he felt a sense of irritation.

As if he was suddenly going to lose something.

“You guys go in first. I have to deal with something.”

“What do you have to deal with? You can’t be f*cking trying to bail on us, right?” The blonde-haired guy was unhappy.

When Zhao Yuning saw that Mingxi’s figure was about to disappear from his field of vision, he swatted the blonde-haired guy’s hand away from his neck, ignored how his expression darkened and ran hurriedly after her.

Mingxi walked very quickly.

Zhao Yuning was panting heavily as a result of chasing after her. It wasn’t until they almost reached the Year 3 floor did he manage to stop her.

“Zhao Mingxi!” Zhao Yuning blocked her path. He was panting with his hands on his knees. “Jie, when will you stop being angry at us? Da ge* said that he already sent you a text. Even da ge has apologized to you, is that not enough? I know that we’ve wrongly accused you as being the person behind this incident, but you can’t keep staying in school. Where will you go during the holidays?”

Da ge = eldest brother

Mingxi knew that she had nowhere to go.

Even so, she didn’t want to go back.

”You stopped me just to say this? I have places I can go. Thank you. There’s no need for you guys to worry about me. I’m gonna go upstairs now.”

Seeing as how Mingxi was about to turn and leave, Zhao Yuning felt flustered and exasperated.

However, he knew that they were in the wrong this time for falsely accusing her. So it made sense for Mingxi to still be indignant about it.

Therefore, he tried his best to control his temper. He chased her to the bottom of the steps and said with a soft voice, “Jie, I beg you. Stop being angry at us. Mom always speaks with a sting in her words, but she really does care for you— I want to apologize as well for saying such disrespectful words to you when you left.”

“We are a family. What issues can’t we resolve? There’s no need for us to stay in a cold war just because of such a small matter.”

The more Zhao Yuning spoke, the more he felt wronged. He began to act coquettishly. “You ignored me, blocked me and pretended not to see me just now just because of a small matter?”

Mingxi quietly looked at the grass beside the academic building’s walls. She couldn’t understand what exactly was a small matter or a big matter.

Why did everyone from the Zhao family use the same words, “just because of a small matter”?

When she first arrived at the Zhao family home, she touched Zhao Yuan’s piano and was berated by her er ge* Zhao Mo. He said, “Don’t touch her things, you country bumpkin.”

Er ge = second eldest brother

Were those incidents minor matters as well?

However, she no longer wanted to think about who was right and who was wrong, or who was biased and who was fair.

Mingxi decided to clear things up once and for all. She turned and looked at Zhao Yuning. “I am not in a cold war with you guys.”

Zhao Yuning let out a breath of relief. “Then why don’t you come home—”

“I don’t plan on going back there anymore.”

Zhao Yuning froze.

“You guys were living well as a family before I came two years ago. My arrival later on was just redundant and really unnecessary.”

Zhao Yuning couldn’t think of a response. He widened his eyes. “What do you mean?”

“What I mean is that you no longer have to come find me. I wish to sever all ties with you all and for everything to return to how it was two years ago.”

Mingxi lowered her gaze, made a mental calculation and came up with a number.

“For the past two years, your family has spent some money on me. It should be about 130,000 yuan including the school fees.”

“Obviously as of now I don’t have the ability to return all this money at one go. I will slowly return them after my graduation. You guys have never given me a single cent for the first 15 years of my life and I cooked for you guys for the past two years. I will consider this as returning the debt of giving birth to me. I don’t owe you guys anything else beyond that.”

She still had to spend time to change her ending, so she could not spare any more time to deal with the Zhao family.

“Therefore, I’m going to have to trouble you to relay this message back to your family. Please give me more time. Don’t rush for me to repay the debt everyday.”

Even if Zhao Yuning turned the gears in his mind to the point of explosion, he would not have thought that this was what Mingxi was thinking. For a moment there he couldn’t determine if Mingxi said all this due to anger or if it was the truth.

He was dumbfounded.

A short while later.

“What debt?! You are part of our family. We spent so much time and effort to bring you home. Who wants you to return a debt?!”

Zhao Yuning was so angry that his eyes were bloodshot.

Mingxi looked at Zhao Yuning quietly. She couldn’t explain what happened in her past life to him.

Besides, she was too lazy to fight with him.

“Please relay my message to them.”

Since she was done clearing things up, Mingxi turned and walked upstairs.

Zhao Yuning was in disbelief. On one hand he was trying his best to assure himself that Zhao Mingxi said all this due to anger. Who cares if she comes home? If she doesn’t come home then so be it. When she sees how everyone no longer cares about her, she will definitely come home crying.

On the other hand, he looked at Zhao Mingxi’s figure which appeared so cold, and thought about how she didn’t care about him at all just now when they were outside school. A sense of panic began to bubble up in his heart—

What if Zhao Mingxi was speaking the truth?

It had never crossed Zhao Yuning’s mind that Zhao Mingxi would truly leave this home and never return.

The sun shone harshly on Zhao Yuning as he stood there with his mind empty.

It wasn’t until he realized that class was about to start that he turned and walked toward the Year 1 floor.

*

Zhao Yuan who was about to go for P.E. class at the sports field saw him and Zhao Mingxi standing at the bottom of the academic building.

She thought he was scolding Zhao Mingxi.

In the end when Zhao Yuning walked over, she realized that they didn’t have a fight. Zhao Yuning appeared to be flustered, even his eyes were red. He looked as if he got dumped by Zhao Mingxi.

“What happened? Did you go and look for Mingxi? What did you guys talk about?” Zhao Yuan casually called over a guy and asked him to help her carry some of the equipment she was holding in her arms.

Zhao Yuning took a glimpse at Zhao Yuan.

“Zhao Mingxi said—”