51 Down the Memory Lane 1 (1/2)

Xu Jing and Joann met when they were in high school. The power dynamic of their relationship back then was different or rather completely opposite from how it was in the present.

This was understandable because at the time, Xu Jing was the sole young master and thus the confirmed heir of the powerful Xu Corps. He commanded respect and power at their school. There was a constant line of people just waiting to do his bidding.

On the other hand, at the time, Joann had not been discovered by the talent scout, she was not yet the glorious star that she would one day become. She was just an orphan girl trying to survive in this harsh world while securing for herself an education.

Joann jumped from foster home to foster home before she eventually reached the age where she could live on her own. This meant that on top of school, she had to work many odd jobs that were available to an inexperienced girl like herself to keep her life afloat.

Probably opposites did attract because even though there were plenty of girls who were willing to throw themselves at Xu Jing, he did not pay attention to any of them. However, his heart was struck when he saw Joann.

He saw in her qualities like determination and hardworking that he did not need to possess because a life of ease had been handed to him since he was born. He did not even need to expend energy to lift the spoon while he ate. Life was that easy for Xu Jing.

He felt immediately attracted to Joann and he started pursuing her in earnest.

Unfortunately, for a girl like Joann who barely managed to eke by every month, love was the farthest thing on her mind. She had no time to be in a relationship when she had trouble putting food on the table.

Therefore, she rejected Xu Jing outright when he asked her to be his girlfriend.

Mrs. Xu noticed how downtrodden Xu Jing looked that few weeks and after some sniffing around, she heard wind that her son had gotten himself smitten with his schoolmate. When Mrs. Xu heard the girl was an orphan, her first instinct was to intervene and advise Xu Jing to give up on the relationship.

However, when she saw how dispirited her son was from the rejection, she did not have the heart to rub salt on his wound. Furthermore, since Xu Jing had already been rejected, she would not need to worry about this relationship blossoming. Xu Jing would heal and he would eventually find a girl from an appropriate social class to marry.

Mrs. Xu was right on one count, Xu Jing's wounds did heal but he only bounced back that much stronger as he continued his pursuit of Joann.

Mrs. Xu swore to snip the problem in the bud when her husband intercepted her. Unlike Mrs. Xu, Xu Jing's father had noticed the positive changes Joann had brought out in Xu Jing, even though they were not even in a relationship yet.