Chapter Fourteen Past Events

  "Be my girlfriend!"

  "But..."

  "Don't be like this, don't you like me?"

  "But..."

  "It's settled then, let's just leave it at that."

  "No..."

  Under the dormitory building, by a big tree, a boy and a girl are pulling each other.

  Ning Qingmin took a look at the dormitory, which was almost there. She tucked her English textbook under her arm and freed up her hand to retie the silk scarf around her neck. With a glance, she saw that it was Jiang Mingzhi and Zhou Ling who were pulling each other under the big tree in front of her. Without making a sound, she planned to sneak past them quietly.

  Jiang Mingzhi seemed to be in a hurry, pulling and tugging at Zhou Ling, saying: "You little demon, how long do you want to torment me?" As he spoke, he lowered his head and leaned in closer, pushing Zhou Ling against the tree trunk.

  Zhou Ling was at a loss, wailing loudly, "You push again, and I'll be embedded in the tree!"

  "Then you promise me!" Jiang Mingzhi said with a sly smile.

  Ning Qingmeng couldn't help but smile. This Jiang Mingzhi, sometimes he's clever, sometimes he's foolish. At this moment, just one kiss would have settled everything. But instead, he had to go and say so many unnecessary things. Girls who are used to being pampered always have to be a bit reserved. Wanting her to agree to be his girlfriend without any fuss was always going to be difficult.

  Smiling secretly. Ning Qingmin tiptoed quietly past. Sneaking by, she let out a quiet breath. On the other side, Zhou Ling's voice rang out. "Ning Qingmin, are you looking for me?" It was clearly a pleading tone.

  "No! No! I just passed by!" Ning Qingming saw that he was discovered. He quickly ran away, turning his head to say: "You all continue!"

  Zhou Ling was both embarrassed and anxious. He pushed Jiang Mingzhi away with great force and chased after Ning Qingmian, saying: "Ning Qingmian, you have no sense of justice!"

  Ning Qingmin made a wiping sweat gesture, slowed down her pace and said with a bitter smile: "Zhou Ling, you're leaving like this. Jiang Mingzhi will definitely hate me for it. He'll think I'm driving away the lovebirds at the critical moment."

  "So you'd rather I hated you!" Zhou Ling took a few quick steps forward, grabbed Ning Qing's silk scarf and pouted, saying: "No one is helping me!"

  "How can I help?" Ning Qingmin pulled back her silk scarf and pretended to faint, saying: "In the future, you two will be fine, and you'll still blame me for being nosy."

  "What nonsense! The eight characters haven't even been written yet!" Zhou Ling was unwilling to be caught by Jiang Mingzhi so quickly, and pinched Ning Qingmian's hand, "Don't dare to see death but not rescue in the future!"

  "Ow!" Ning Qingmin shook off Zhou Ling's hand, afraid she would pinch again, and hastily ran forward, rushing up the stairs.

  "Weren't you going to the library with Xiaohong and the others? Why are you alone now?" Ning Qingming asked, running back a few steps and turning around to ask Zhou Ling.

  "Never mind, as soon as I walked out of the library's gate, I bumped into Jiang Mingzhi. Xiao Hong and the others made faces at each other, held hands and ran off first. When Jiang Mingzhi saw that only I was left, he said he would send me back, sent me to the bottom of the tree, and what happened next you already know." Zhou Ling mentioned Mo Xiaohong and Wu Meimei, gritting her teeth: "I hate them to death!"

  "Ah-choo! Ah-choo!" Mo Xiaohong and Wu Meimei, sitting at their desks, each let out a sneeze, looked at each other and said: "There's killing energy!"

  The wind chime hanging on the door frame rang out in time, and the dormitory door was opened. Zhou Ling rushed in with a fierce aura, without giving anyone a chance to speak, and pinched Mo Xiaohong's face fiercely before rushing towards Wu Meimei.

  Wu Meimei covered her face and cried out: "It was Xiaohong who pulled me along, I had no choice, please spare your subordinates."

  Mo Honghong on the opposite side "hehe" smiled, "Mei Mei just applied lemon juice to the place where she had acne on her face, aren't you afraid of sour hands, go ahead and do it!"

  "Alright, I'll let you off this time since you're just an accomplice!" Zhou Ling withdrew his hand.

  "Thank you, sir!" Wu Meimei put down her hands and let out a breath. "To repay your kindness, I'd like to report something."

  "Speak!"

  "This morning, Sun Dangwen said that the Law Department has invited Lawyer Wang to give a lecture tonight, and at that time, he will focus on analyzing the case he won last time."

  "Where is the speech?"

  "The lecture hall of the law department has no restrictions on entry, and students from other departments can also go to listen in."

  Lawyer Wang is a graduate of the law department of this school. Last time, he won a very difficult lawsuit and successfully commuted a death sentence to a fixed-term imprisonment. This matter was reported in the newspaper, making him famous overnight. For several days, his classmates at school were discussing this matter, so when they heard that Lawyer Wang had been invited to talk about this case, everyone naturally wanted to go and listen.

  "You mean the case where a man got a new lover and wanted to divorce his wife, so he slandered her by saying that their premature daughter was not his own, but rather the result of his wife's affair with another man before marrying him? The wife, in a fit of rage, used a newly bought pair of scissors to stab the man to death?" Mo Xiaohong asked.

  "Yes, that woman was foolish too. When her husband said such a thing, she should have demanded a DNA test to clear her name. How could she stab him with scissors in a fit of rage?" Wu Meimei took out her nail clippers and trimmed her nails, blowing on them to dry the polish. "Poor their daughter, her father was mistakenly killed by her mother, and now her mother is in jail. Who will take care of her?"

  "That man said that, no wonder the woman was so angry. If it were in the past, without DNA testing, the woman would have been wrongly accused of being promiscuous and her daughter would have been labeled as a bastard." Mo Xiaohong nodded and sighed.

  "Qing Min, tomorrow night, do you want to go with us to eavesdrop?" Zhou Ling looked at Ning Qing Min, who was listening to their discussion. She felt a buzzing in her ears, her face turned pale, and her lips were tightly pursed. She looked up at Zhou Ling's eyes, silent for a moment, then shook her head.

  Yes, the reason why Lawyer Wang won that case is surprisingly similar to my mother's experience back then. However, unlike her, he didn't impulsively hurt his opponent, but instead got a divorce, took care of himself, and quietly returned to the countryside.

  That year, I was already six years old, and I witnessed with my own eyes the crazy quarrel between Dad and Mom, their enemy-like, red-eyed shouting.

  Mom's heart-wrenching and ear-piercing wail, those eyes that wanted to die together.

  At that time, little self also knew it was not good, only pulling mother's hand, shouting: "Mom, mom, mom... I will be obedient, I will be obedient, don't abandon me!"

  Her mother's reddened eyes fell on her little self, slowly focusing, muttering to herself: "What if something happens to me, what will you do?"

  Dad divorced Mom smoothly, and Mom carried me back to the countryside, knelt outside Grandma's door, and finally Grandma welcomed us in.

  From then on, I felt that the world was a dull gray, and it seemed that gray things were also very close to my heart, so for a long time, all the clothes I bought were gray.

  I recall the sound of mother's suppressed sobs in the dark of night, I recall the days when I was pointed at and criticized by others for being a illegitimate child, the pain is overwhelming, endless and boundless.

  That man who calls himself a father, for the sake of his own interests, where did he put his daughter? He even forced an early birth of one month to be said as his mother having had an affair with someone else before marrying him. Why did he frequently ask about her later? Does he also know guilt and want to make amends?

  There are some things that can't be made up for no matter how hard you try.

  Dad, are you doing well? Don't worry, in the future, Mom and I will be a hundred times better off than you!

  Tears secretly flowing from the bottom of my heart!

  Often, I have a dream, in which I see my small self standing alone at the end of the world. The road is so wide and the sky is so vast, yet there is no one around, no one to take me home.

  Little self is so, so afraid!