4: Life of Ups and Downs

There are many rumors about Ji Canghai dropping out of school.

Some say he is the illegitimate child of a certain group’s chairman, and he only went to school to experience life. Now he is preparing to go back and inherit the family business.

Others say he and the omega who used to cling to him have formed a bond and dropped out of school for true love, planning to retake the exam next year.

There are all sorts of rumors, and it’s hard to tell what’s true or false.

Since Ji Canghai dropped out of school, Ling Yunfan’s enthusiasm for studying has decreased. He even fell out of the top twenty in the last monthly exam, which scared the homeroom teacher, who quickly talked to him.

The homeroom teacher said, “Ling Yunfan, you know this is a very important year in your high school life. You can’t take it lightly. If you stand still while others are working hard, you will fall behind. Why did you drop back so much in the last monthly exam? Are you in a relationship?”

Ling Yunfan was overwhelmed by the lecture and didn’t really listen. He just responded, “Yes, yes, you’re right, teacher.”

The homeroom teacher said, “What? You’re really in a relationship? How dare you, young man!”

Ling Yunfan said, “No, I’m not! I don’t have a relationship!”

However, after the conversation, Ling Yunfan woke up and realized that he couldn’t slack off like this. 

After all, Ji Canghai could come back at any moment, and if he couldn’t even pass the exams for those who dropped out of school, wouldn’t he be embarrassed!

But until the day he left campus, Ling Yunfan never saw Ji Canghai again.

On graduation day, classmates gathered for dinner and sang until late at night, using riotous joy to mix with their reluctance to part.

Ling Yunfan didn’t get home until 2 a.m. after the party. He hurriedly took a shower and lay down on his bed to sleep. Suddenly, his phone next to the pillow vibrated.

Ling Yunfan forced himself to stay awake and picked up his phone. It was a text message from an unfamiliar number.

The message simply said, “Happy graduation, Brother Fan. Don’t forget about me.”

Ling Yunfan replied, “Thanks, but sorry, I didn’t save your number. Who are you?”

He didn’t receive a reply to this message.

Ling Yunfan didn’t think too much about it, as the upcoming exam scores and college applications kept him busy and preoccupied.

After everything settled down, Ling Yunfan successfully entered his dream university and chose his favorite major in computer science.

Then his life took a turning point.

During Ling Yunfan’s freshman year, his parents got into a car accident and both died.

When Ling Yunfan rushed to the hospital at 3:30 in the morning, he was greeted with two unrecognizable corpses in the morgue.

Feeling dizzy and disoriented, Ling Yunfan collapsed to the ground and felt as if his internal organs were thrown into an open blender, making him too weak to even sob and moan.

Under his knees, the cold white porcelain tiles seemed to shatter with a loud noise.

 Just like Ling Yunfan’s life.

When Ling Yunfan’s parents got married, there were some things they never talked about, so the Ling family never visited relatives over the years. Ling Yunfan didn’t even know who his grandparents were.

As a result, Ling Yunfan was left alone and struggling step by step.

The insurance company and the culprit paid a sum of money, but at that time, Ling’s father’s company was in a transitional period and borrowed a lot of money. After Ling’s father died, the company had no one to manage it, the capital chain broke, and the company lost millions and went bankrupt.

After forcing himself to gather his spirits, Ling Yunfan dealt with his parents’ affairs and the company’s issues, but he didn’t have much money left in his hands. 

He didn’t go back to school and locked himself at home, not seeing anyone.

Ling Yunfan began to suffer from severe insomnia, unable to sleep for several days and nights. 

Every time he closed his eyes, he could see the disfigured faces of his parents lying in the mortuary. 

In order to sleep, he started drinking alcohol and even taking sleeping pills, which eventually made his physical condition worse.

One day, he overdosed and vomited in the bathroom, feeling as if the Grim Reaper had mercilessly choked his throat. Ling Yunfan stumbled from the bathroom to the living room and collapsed on the floor, picking up his phone and calling 120 himself.

Although it was painful, Ling Yunfan persevered through his illness and his life.

After he was discharged from the hospital, Ling Yunfan began to adjust his daily routine, insisting on a regular diet and exercise. When his health was almost restored, Ling Yunfan contacted his university advisor, apologized for dropping out without reason, and hoped to return to school.

The advisor had already heard about the changes in Ling Yunfan’s family and felt sorry for him. They did their best to help him contact the school and obtained approval for him to return to school.

After achieving excellent grades and winning a scholarship at the end of his sophomore year, Ling Yunfan did not disappoint his academic advisor. 

However, trouble arose again during the summer between his sophomore and junior year.

It all started when a friend from high school came to Ling Yunfan for help. 

This friend had been encouraging Ling Yunfan and helping him out during his hospitalization when Ling’s family had their tragedy. 

Ling Yunfan was grateful for his friend’s support and offered to help him in any way he could.

However, Ling Yunfan was left stunned when he found out that this friend had borrowed a large sum of money from a loan shark using Ling Yunfan’s identity information and had disappeared the next day. 

Ling Yunfan reported the incident to the police, but as all the borrowing information pointed to him, he had no choice but to pay off the loan.

As a result of this incident, Ling Yunfan was suspended from school again. The illegal loan incident was reported to the school, and if it weren’t for his previous academic advisor’s efforts, Ling Yunfan would have been expelled instead of being allowed to keep his student status.

Bad things just kept happening to him. 

The loan shark even found out where Ling Yunfan lived and resorted to methods that did not constitute a crime, such as splashing paint, smashing doors, and posting stickers, but enough to drive people insane.

In order to quickly restore a normal life, Ling Yunfan sold the home he had lived in with his parents for twenty years, and scraped together all the money he had, but still couldn’t pay off his debts.

He rented a small, less than ten square meter old house in a dilapidated urban village, delivered takeout for a small restaurant during the day, and worked as a waiter in a bar at night, sleeping only four or five hours a day, just to be able to repay the loan as soon as possible.

The restaurant owner was a tattooed big guy with a scar on his face from his eye to his mouth, and his whole body was full of a message that said, “Do you have wine, I have a story?”

The tattooed big guy was enthusiastic and righteous. When he learned about Ling Yunfan’s situation, he not only didn’t look down on him, but also let him eat for free at the restaurant three times a day, and occasionally gave him some financial help.

Once, when the loan sharks came looking for trouble and found the restaurant, the big guy smoked a cigarette and slammed a butcher’s knife on the table, scaring them away.

The big guy had a daughter who was a beta, and the little girl inherited her father’s warmth. After two months of getting to know each other, she treated Ling Yunfan like a brother and secretly told him that her father’s scar was caused by a cat scratch.

Ling Yunfan, “? Was it a cat or a tiger? Be clear.”

The atmosphere of the small restaurant, full of smoke and human warmth, allowed Ling Yunfan to feel the warmth of home again.

But this warmth was far from enough to melt the three feet of ice in his destiny.

Although Ling Yunfan worked hard, the money he owed continued to accumulate with high interest, and the hole in his finances could not be filled at all.

One day, a loan shark’s thug found Ling Yunfan’s rental house late at night and trapped him inside.