Previous
Fiction Page
Next
Font Size:
Chapter 83: Clinging Desperately to Lu Zhixing
“Get lost!”
Xie Mingcheng stormed forward and shoved Zhou Xinyue hard without holding back. His voice was icy cold: “Stay away from my sister!”
He didn’t know Zhou Xinyue personally, but he could tell at a glance this woman was entangled with Lu Zhixing—she was clearly the one he had kept outside of marriage. She was the one who had bullied his sister! After everything his sister had endured, even after the divorce, this woman still dared to provoke her? She deserved it!
Xie Yunshu grabbed his arm. “Don’t stoop to a dog’s level. We’ve got our clothes; let’s just go home.”
The rage in him dissolved with that one soft line. If not for the fact that he didn’t want to worry or trouble his sister, he would’ve already given Lu Zhixing and this woman a good beating. Heartless scum like them didn’t deserve anything good in life!
“Ah…”
Zhou Xinyue had let her guard down. Lu Zhixing didn’t even instinctively reach out to steady her—instead, he kept a distance from her in front of Xie Yunshu. With that sudden shove, she landed flat on her rear.
It was a busy time in the department store. People on the second floor turned and glanced curiously.
“Xie Yunshu!” Zhou Xinyue’s eyes turned red. She bit her lip hard and tugged at Lu Zhixing’s sleeve, looking pitiful. “Zhixing-ge, it hurts…”
She wanted him to help her up, then scold Xie Yunshu harshly without caring about the details. Wasn’t that what he always did before?
But Lu Zhixing ignored her completely. He just stood there, dumbly staring at Xie Yunshu, his eyes full of pain and longing. “Yunshu, are you okay?”
Xie Yunshu carried her newly purchased down jacket in one hand and lightly rested the other on her brother’s arm. She turned back with a sweet smile. “Seeing you doing this badly? I couldn’t be better.”
She still hated him.
Lu Zhixing couldn’t tell if he felt grief or joy in that moment. Since realizing his mistake, he had been trying hard to win her back—giving her the money, agreeing to the divorce. But why did it feel like they were only drifting further and further apart?
A nearby saleswoman helped Zhou Xinyue up and smiled, still thinking about the sale. “Didn’t you want a down jacket too? I’ll count it under that young lady’s purchase and give you a discount, plus a free pair of wool socks. How about it?”
Normally, there wouldn’t be any discounts for buying just one item, but since they came together, she figured it was a good excuse to hit her sales quota and earn more commission.
Zhou Xinyue had come to the department store today just to pester Lu Zhixing into buying her a new down jacket.
Some people find contentment and gratitude through hardship. Others have their greed magnified, driven by the need to escape past trauma. They crave more, long for validation, and desire a life that isn’t theirs.
Zhou Xinyue belonged to the latter. She couldn’t stand the pitiful gazes people gave her. She wanted to be envied. When Lu Zhixing let her live in his wedding home and gave her spending money every month, she wore the most fashionable clothes every day and basked in the envy of the young nurses around her. That made her feel powerful and proud.
Now even a woman like Xie Yunshu could afford such a nice down jacket—why couldn’t she? Not only would she buy one, she would buy the most expensive one!
Clenching her teeth, Zhou Xinyue pointed at the down jacket she had been eyeing. “Let me try that one.”
Lu Zhixing said nothing. He simply turned around and walked to the other counter across the aisle—the children’s section. He remembered that Xiaowei didn’t even have a decent thick coat. That was the real reason he agreed to come to the department store today.
But since arriving, what had Zhou Xinyue done? She hadn’t even glanced at the children’s section. Instead, she had picked a fight with Yunshu and focused on buying her own clothes.
The children’s section didn’t carry down jackets, but they had thick cotton vests for kids. They weren’t expensive—just twenty yuan. Lu Zhixing hesitated. He only had twenty yuan left after repaying debts. Then he recalled Xiaowei’s little face, purple from the cold that night.
Sighing deeply, he bought a black cotton vest. After paying, he was left with just three yuan.
No one would believe it: a prestigious overseas-trained surgical doctor, with only three yuan in his pocket right before the New Year.
He suddenly remembered a past New Year with Xie Yunshu. They had just gotten married. At that time, Zhou Xinyue wasn’t in the picture. He had no concept of money and hadn’t even thought about buying a New Year’s gift for her. But he loved her presence in the home—it made life so simple and free of worries, allowing him to focus entirely on his work.
Then, right before the holiday, he heard that Zhou Xinyue had been rescued from the mountains. He rushed to see her and felt immense pity when he saw how the once-proud and beautiful girl had been reduced to a battered wreck. He gave her all the money he had.
He saved Zhou Xinyue, but forgot to bring even a single gift home to Xie Yunshu.
And what did Yunshu say then?
She smiled and told him, “It’s okay. As long as we’re together, that’s the best New Year’s gift.”
She never cared about material things, never asked him for money. Back then, guilt weighed on him. After giving most of his salary to Zhou Xinyue, he promised to give Yunshu ten yuan a month.
He had planned that once Zhou Xinyue had a job, he would hand over his entire bankbook to Yunshu. But that day never came. They divorced before it could happen.
Back on the other side, Zhou Xinyue had already put on the down jacket and stepped out beaming. It was a foreign import, sleek and stylish. Though expensive, it made her look just like the high-society girls of the city.
She remembered Lu Xueting also had a jacket like this. She had been jealous for so long. If her father hadn’t gotten into trouble, if her life hadn’t gone so wrong, would she have had to envy anyone? She could’ve gone to university, gotten a government job, and married a rich man…
But now?
Now, she had no choice but to cling desperately to Lu Zhixing.
The saleswoman, of course, was the happiest of all. She brought over the packaging bag with a huge smile. “This jacket looks amazing on you—way better than that one the other girl picked out. This one’s two hundred yuan, and I guarantee every girl in Haicheng will envy you when they see you in it.”
In this era, anyone who could spend two hundred yuan on a jacket had to be from a rich family. That meant they were easily in the ten-thousand-yuan annual income bracket. The girl from earlier had forked over more than three hundred without blinking, so surely this one would pay up just as happily… right?
Previous
Fiction Page
Next