Transmigration: Flirted with My Childhood Sweetheart
Chapter 125 - 124 Just Like His Face

Chapter 125: Chapter 124 Just Like His Face

Sunlight scattered across the river’s surface, like shattered stars.

Wang Xue’s gaze was icy as she looked at Lin Nianhe.

She used to be quite pretty. Born in the Land of Fish and Rice in Jiangnan, even when quarreling with her stepmother, she retained a gentle demeanor.

But that was all in the past. The sun had darkened her skin, the Northwest winds had cracked her face, and even her hair no longer had the glossy black sheen it once did.

She hadn’t looked at herself in the mirror properly for a long time. Perhaps, since moving to the countryside, she had never again looked in a mirror. Whenever she caught her reflection in the water tank, she’d hastily avoid it, terrified of seeing herself clearly.

At this moment, looking at Lin Nianhe’s fair, delicate face, she frowned and said again, "Lin Nianhe, you really don’t understand anything."

"You’ve never truly struggled for life. Going to the countryside for you? Ha, it’s like a picnic... a total joke. You don’t have to work, you have your family to provide for you and neighbor boys to keep you company and humor you, but what about me? About us?"

"If we don’t work and earn points, we go hungry. We have no connections, no money to secure a spot to return to the city. We’ve always only had ourselves to rely on!"

"Everyone knows Yulan is pitiable. But you don’t know that Xiangqin was sent away to her grandmother’s house as a child, and before going to the countryside, she only saw her parents three or four times. You wouldn’t know that all my life, wanting to eat an egg turned into an affair known by the entire neighborhood..."

"You don’t know anything, so what right do you have to look down upon me? I just want to live a little better; is that wrong?"

She stared intensely at Lin Nianhe, her eyes filled with scorn, as if asking: You who know nothing of hardship, what gives you the right to judge me from your high ground?

Lin Nianhe quietly met her gaze, not avoiding it.

She came to see Wang Xue, not out of an overflowing saintly compassion to salvage the values of a rival in love who had already been refused once.

She simply did not want Wang Xue to trap herself in a blind alley, to end up hating her and creating trouble for her frequently, hindering her from making money.

Dating was already troublesome enough; she didn’t want to make it even harder on herself.

"You’re pitiable, Tiechui is pitiable, Yu Xiangqin is pitiable... but do you really think that grasping onto a man will change your fate? Girl, you’re dreaming too beautifully."

Lin Nianhe looked at Wang Xue, slowly shaking her head.

"The Su family’s circumstances are similar to mine. Though it’s said everyone is equal, do you really think marriage is just about two people? If you really did marry him and he took you back to Beijing, then what? Even if there wasn’t me, you would still face endless beauties from families just like his, or those who are average but younger and prettier."

"You’ll keep getting older, unable to match them in family background or looks... You start becoming suspicious, start arguing with him, and then go through a bitter divorce. Maybe you’ll have children, but you wouldn’t likely win custody."

"When that time comes, what will you do as a divorced outsider without a job, without any support, even the beauty you once relied on faded away?"

Lin Nianhe’s voice was calm, stating the harsh realities as if they were plain facts.

Yes, reality.

She had seen too much of this kind of thing before.

She slowly smiled, "Of course, what’s most likely to happen is that he leaves you behind and returns to Beijing alone."

Wang Xue, looking at her, felt a heavy hand gripping her throat, suffocating her.

Lin Nianhe saw her pale face shaking, genuinely worried she might collapse and throw herself into the river.

The river water is frighteningly cold; she didn’t want to jump in to rescue her.

After a silent moment, Lin Nianhe reached out and patted her shoulder, serving her some metaphorical chicken soup: "Aunt Wang constantly preaches that women can hold up half the sky, doesn’t that wake you up? Girl, never pin your hopes on someone else. Only you genuinely care about your own life the most."

Wang Xue felt the warmth of the hand resting on her shoulder.

She stared at Lin Nianhe for a long while, finally finding her voice again: "And what about you? Aren’t you just..."

"I am not," Lin Nianhe withdrew her hand, stretched lazily, "I am young, five years younger than him, I am pretty, and well, I don’t tan easily... I also come from a family that rivals his."

Wang Xue: "..."

Is this really comforting? Why do I feel like hitting her the more I listen?

Lin Nianhe lowered her hand and turned her head to look at her: "Think about it yourself, I’m going back to read."

She said and left, not intending to persuade her further.

"Like you said, he’s not that great, why do you like him?" Wang Xue shouted at her retreating figure.

Lin Nianhe stopped in her tracks.

"Um, he just happens to have a face that I like."

Lin Nianhe pursed her lips, chuckled softly, and walked away.

Wang Xue watched her back, and after a long while, tears streaked down her face.

She didn’t wipe away her tears, but quietly said: "I’m really envious..."

She would never know, the person she envied was the only one in the world truly without any family.

Sadly, her loneliness was unspeakable, and nobody thought she could be unhappy.

In this strange era, she carefully hid her secret, thinking ten steps ahead with each step she took.

"How annoying!"

Lin Nianhe pushed away the ledger, resting her head on the desk in frustration.

There was no income this month, and next month might not be stable for business either.

This made Lin Nianhe very anxious.

Being a seer who knew the economic trends for the next few decades, she was working hard to accumulate capital for the future.

She thought she had found a stable source of income, but external factors had ruined it.

The incident yesterday was evident, she did not just happen to pass by, neither did Su Yuncheng.

Those people were probably related to the case Su Yuncheng was investigating. Su Yuncheng had told her more than once lately not to go to town, thinking back to what Uncle Liu said about the fights in the black market...

Lin Nianhe’s brain worked swiftly, trying hard to think... then she took out a copy of the "Sherlock Holmes Mystery Collection."

Facing this finely bound collection, Comrade Xiao Lin clasped her hands together, sincerely making a wish:

"Mr. Holmes, though it’s a bit far, I still hope you could possess me for a bit across the seas... Um, are you dead yet, or should I pray to Di Renjie instead? Even a dream would suffice!"

Lin Nianhe gave up, realizing that this wasn’t something someone who had only watched a few episodes of Conan could solve.

She was pondering which book to find Di Renjie in when she suddenly heard rushed footsteps.

Very hurried footsteps.

"Quick, hurry! Sun Guanghui and Wang Dong have fallen into a trap and are injured!"

The urgent voice came from the front courtyard.

The girls remaining at the Educated Youth Corps, including Lin Nianhe, all ran out.

Fu Aiguo was leaning on the doorframe, breathless: "Everyone, please help, go, go find the team leader... Sun Guanghui’s leg is caught in a bear trap, we, we don’t have a rope, can’t, can’t pull him up..."