Chapter 43: No More Tests

She was surely going to complain to Ji Feiyang.
I followed her secretly back to her office and listened outside the door.
Through her tears, she said, “What am I supposed to do? I’ve put up with her again and again. I can’t take any more. Of all the girls you could have chosen, you had to pick this famously spoiled young woman. Are you determined to make our family a laughing stock?”
Then came the ultimatum.
“I simply cannot accept her. Don’t say another word. Choose: her or me. Ever since your father died, we’ve only had each other. You wouldn’t abandon your mother for her, would you?”
I froze.
Her or me?
Would Ji Feiyang give me up?
My phone rang.
I hurried away from the office.
“Didn’t you promise not to upset Mum?”
“Are you going to leave me?”
After a pause, he said, “Go home for now.”
“Ji Feiyang…”
“I think we should spend some time apart. Mum still can’t accept you.”
He’d chosen Yan Rong.
It felt as though lightning had struck overhead.
“Please give me another chance.”
Hanging up, I ran back into her office.
“Please. I’ll finish unloading all the rice.”
Yan Rong ignored me.
“Please give me another chance.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“No.”
“Please. I can do it.”
“Stop bothering me.”
“Please.”
I kept begging until she finally relented.
“All right. But you’ll do it alone, and it must be finished before the end of the working day.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Then don’t do it. It’s your choice. You haven’t much time, so I suggest you hurry.”
She paid me no further attention.
There was nothing for it.
I gritted my teeth and went back to work.
Somehow, I found strength I’d never had before.
Ignoring the pain in my shoulder, I carried one heavy sack after another into the storeroom.
Sweat poured off me.
My head felt light.
With my lips clenched tight, I kept moving mechanically.
“Yijun!”
Mum’s voice.
I really must be dizzy.
“Yijun!”
Again.
I looked up.
It really was Mum.
In my surprise, I lost my balance. The weight on my shoulder dragged me to the ground.
“Yijun!”
Zhou Guo rushed over and pushed the sack off me.
Mum was already crying.
At home, I didn’t even have to pour my own water.
Here I was, hauling rice.
“My darling, what are you doing? Where’s Ji Feiyang? Get him out here. How could he let you do this? I want an explanation.”
“Mum, please keep your voice down.”
What if her shouting brought Yan Rong over?
Mum looked stunned.
Her daughter was swallowing her pride and pleading for peace.
Was this really me?
There were still so many sacks to move. I didn’t have time to explain.
“Please leave it for now. I’ll tell you everything at home.”
I lifted the sack again.
My body swayed, but I managed a few steps.
“We’re going home!”
In a burst of anger, Mum knocked the sack from my shoulder.
It hit the ground with a heavy thud.
She seized my arm.
“Where is Ji Feiyang? I’m going to speak to him.”
Mum usually seemed gentle.
When she lost her temper, she was formidable.
“Come on. We’ll find him.”
“He isn’t here.”
“Then Yan Rong told you to do this?”
I didn’t dare answer.
“This is outrageous. She may not like you, but that gives her no right to treat you this way. We’re going to see her.”
“No… Mum, please. Let me finish the rice.”
“You still want to carry it? Absolutely not. Come with me.”
“Mum!”
I caught her arm.
“It’s nothing to do with her. I volunteered.”
“You would never volunteer for this unless someone told you to.”
She kept pulling me along.
“Yan Rong isn’t here either. I saw her go out.”
Mum looked at me doubtfully.
“It’s true. Let’s just go home.”
I hurriedly steered her towards the exit.
With a helpless sigh, she said, “I don’t understand you.”

The rice incident exploded like a bomb at home.
“What?”
Dad’s voice rose in shock and fury.
“They made our Yijun carry sacks of rice?”
“It’s cruel,” Mrs. Zhuang cried. “Absolutely cruel. My poor girl.”
“I volunteered,” I kept explaining. “I thought it would be fun.”
Nobody believed me.
How could carrying sacks of rice be fun?
“What does Ji Feiyang have to say?” Dad asked.
My heart jolted.
Big Brother was holding his phone.
“He says he didn’t know. He’s very sorry.”
“Yan Rong has gone too far. How dare she mistreat my daughter?”
“I’ll speak to her tomorrow,” Mum said.
“Please don’t.”
I tried to coax her.
“Mum, please. Don’t be angry. Look, I’m perfectly fine.”
“They say a married daughter belongs to another family. You haven’t even married, and you’re already defending them.”
Despair overwhelmed me.
Ji Feiyang and I were finished.
Quietly, I went back to my room, closed the door and cried.
Why was falling in love so easy, yet being together so difficult?
Ji Feiyang came to apologise.
I didn’t want to see him.
He was where all the pain began.
Naively, I hoped that seeing him less might make me love him less.
And perhaps hurt less too.
If I stopped loving him, it wouldn’t hurt anymore.
Falling in love was easy.
Giving it up was not.
So, hopeless as ever, I went after him once he’d left.
“Ji Feiyang, wait for me!”
I shouted into the phone.
His car was parked at Beishan Park.
With reddened eyes, I slowly walked towards him.
“What are we going to do? We can’t be together.”
He drew me into his arms.
“Silly girl. Of course we can. We just have to keep trying.”
“I’m sorry, Yijun.”
“For what?”
“For making you win Mum over.”
“I chose to do it. I’m the one who should apologise. I failed.”
He no longer insisted that I earn Yan Rong’s approval.
Instead, he said that familiarity would do its work. Given enough time, she would grow used to me and eventually accept our relationship.
I let out a long breath.
At last, I was free of the tests.
Then I glared at him.
“What?”
Thinking about it properly, my troubles had begun when I met Ji Feiyang.
I’d gone from a cherished little princess to a Cinderella who did nothing but suffer.
“Nothing good has happened since I met you.”
“Really?”
“Think how often you bullied me. You made me clean toilets and put me through all that misery. Then I was afraid to go home. Then Sun Wenyuan and the others bullied me. Then I spent ages heartbroken over you.
“And there’s more. So much more I couldn’t possibly list it all.
“Nothing good has happened since I met you.”
“I don’t think all of that was my fault.”
He frowned.
“My life was perfectly fine before you came along.”
With a rueful smile, he said, “Don’t blame everything on me.”