Chapter 42: When a Gentleman is Lost in Love, There is Still a Way Out

This was the first time Xia Wei looked at her father—no, her mother—with such a gaze.

Xu Qing's expression also turned displeased. Instead of answering her daughter's question, she retorted, "What? What did he say to you?"

"I asked you first!"

Xia Wei was furious. Clearly, it was her question to ask; how could her mother be so confident and righteous in turning the tables?

Growing impatient, Xu Qing said, "I told him you two have no future. I made him give up early."

"What right do you have to say that?!"

Overwhelmed by grievance, Xia Wei felt tears welling up in her eyes. She couldn't understand it; didn't her mother always fawn over Uncle Zhou? Now that Uncle Zhou clearly showed no regard for her, wouldn't it be the same if she and Zhou Ziyang got together?

Didn't her mother always talk about how wonderful Uncle Zhou's family was, and how desperately she wanted to cross the threshold of the Zhou household?

Then wouldn't her relationship with Zhou Ziyang give them an even greater advantage than her mother's pursuit of Uncle Zhou?

"What right do I have? Just the right of being your mother!"

"Xia Wei, you've grown quite bold, haven't you? How dare you raise your voice at me?"

"Just look at who raised you this big!"

Xu Qing's face sank instantly. Originally, knowing the college entrance examination was right around the corner, she had wanted to avoid a fight, but here her daughter was, climbing all over her head.

You really have lost all sense of hierarchy.

Xu Qing demanded of Xia Wei, "Let me ask you, what did Zhou Ziyang say to you?"

"I made it crystal clear to him that the college entrance examination is just around the corner and told him not to disturb me. And what did he do? He turned right around and told you everything!"

"Do you call that liking you?"

"If he genuinely liked you, how could he possibly upset your mood at a time like this?"

"If you ask me, he did it on purpose!"

"He deliberately tried to drive a wedge between our mother-daughter relationship."

"I'm telling you, Xia Wei, Zhou Ziyang has a crooked mind and won't amount to anything in the future!"

"I'll say it right to your face: you two stand no chance!"

"Did you hear me or not?"

Xu Qing poured out a torrent of reprimands, but Xia Wei simply stared at her in silence.

This exasperated Xu Qing, who couldn't help but reach out and nudge Xia Wei twice to elicit some sort of response.

Yet Xia Wei only said, "Don't think I don't know!"

"Zhou Ziyang was right! You're just selfish."

"Because you want to be with Uncle Zhou yourself, you refuse to let me be with Zhou Ziyang!"

"It's been like this ever since I was a child. You always claim everything is for my sake, but in reality, it's all for yourself! You're nothing but a vain woman!"

Hearing this, Xu Qing blew a gasket, the blood rushing straight to her head.

She raised her head.

"Crack!"

A slap landed, and Xia Wei's cheek turned red instantly. Yet Xia Wei remained stubbornly defiant, glaring back at her mother with blazing eyes.

Seeing the print of the slap on Xia Wei's face, however, Xu Qing sobered up in an instant.

"Weiwei, no... Mom didn't mean it."

Xu Qing moved her hand forward, wanting to stroke Xia Wei's cheek.

"Don't touch me!"

Xia Wei checked her instantly with a sharp cry.

"Weiwei..."

Xu Qing wanted to say something more, but Xia Wei turned straight around, walked into her room, and slammed the door shut.

With a loud bang, Xu Qing was locked outside. Yet the sting of that slap weighed heavily on Xu Qing's heart, and more than half of her self-righteous confidence in disciplining Xia Wei evaporated into guilt.

She stood guard outside Xia Wei's door, calling out, "Weiwei, Mom didn't do it on purpose."

"Mom was just frantic with worry..."

Sitting at her desk, Xia Wei could no longer hold it in, and tears spilled down her face.

It wasn't even entirely out of heartbreak.

It was mainly because Xu Qing hadn't held back.

It genuinely hurt.

From childhood to this day, this was the first time Xu Qing had ever struck Xia Wei. How could she not cry?

***

What right?

What right did her mother have to pursue Uncle Zhou, while she wasn't allowed to be with Zhou Ziyang?

"Weiwei, listen to Mom's advice. You and Zhou Ziyang are truly not suited for each other."

"Even if it weren't for me and your Uncle Zhou, the two of you wouldn't be a match."

Xia Wei remained motionless inside the room, while Xu Qing stayed on guard outside the door.

She said, "Weiwei, although Mom hit you, Mom's heart aches for you."

"It hasn't been easy for us to get to this point."

Xu Qing began to recount Xia Wei's childhood. When Xia Wei was little, their family had already fallen into ruin; her father either drank or gambled, quarreling with Xu Qing and sometimes even turning to physical violence.

Back then, those days truly felt as dark as night.

At the time, the naive Xia Wei had asked Xu Qing, "Mom, are we going to be like this forever?"

Hugging Xia Wei tightly, Xu Qing had replied, "No, Weiwei, Mom will definitely lead you out of this!"

"Have you forgotten all of that?"

Later on, after Xu Qing got a divorce, Xia Wei spent a few years living in the countryside. With no money in hand and nothing to her name, Xia Wei had to use those primitive pit latrines whenever nature called.

Did Xia Wei really want to go back to living that kind of life?

"Weiwei, listen to Mom. It's not that Mom won't let you be with Zhou Ziyang, but rather that Zhou Ziyang doesn't like you at all—he's toying with you!"

"As for your Uncle Zhou and me, it's because he works at the Procuratorate. I cling to him in the hope of securing a bright future for you. But what about Zhou Ziyang? He has nothing. So what if he scored first place in the entire school—who knows if that's even real? Look at his personality, his temper. Is he really suited for you?"

"Mom told you long ago, when looking for a boyfriend in the future, never pick someone from an impoverished background. Have you forgotten all of that?"

Xu Qing pleaded earnestly outside. Following her mother's words, Xia Wei recalled her life from childhood onward, and then thought of Zhou Ziyang anew.

Her feelings for Zhou Ziyang weren't all that deep to begin with.

It was simply that she was so desperately thirsty for love, and ever since moving into the city, she hadn't even had a single person to talk to.

On top of that, she had to maintain her persona as the pampered daughter of a Procuratorate official.

Zhou Ziyang had suddenly appeared, touching her in ways she had never been touched before, right amidst the intense stress of their senior year.

At the time, Xia Wei couldn't tell the difference between affection in her heart and longing in her flesh.

When all was said and done, the main reason Xia Wei had reacted so violently today was an instinctive rebellion against her mother.

"Weiwei, Mom isn't forcing you."

"Mom is truly doing this for your own good."

"Think about it some more."

With those words, the noise outside died down.

That night, Xia Wei didn't sleep a wink.

As a time-traveler, Zhou Ziyang was indeed capable of playing Xia Wei in the palm of his hand.

Yet Xia Wei was not so fragile after all; her mother's slap had ultimately served some purpose.

Moreover, the time she had spent interacting with Zhou Ziyang was still brief. Upon careful reflection afterward, she felt that Zhou Ziyang truly did act as though he were toying with her.

No matter what, there was no way she would give up on the college entrance examination.

She had worked too hard to get where she was today; she wouldn't let two words from Zhou Ziyang drive her out of her mind.

Zhou Ziyang was playing with her.

Then she would show him that she wasn't as easily defeated as he thought!

Wiping away her tears, Xia Wei tidied herself up and headed out.

"Weiwei," Xu Qing was waiting outside. Seeing Xia Wei emerge, she hurried to her feet.

"I made breakfast for you. Have a bite." Seeing that Xia Wei's cheek was still marked with a red patch, Xu Qing's heart ached fiercely.

"I won't eat. I'll just buy something simple at school." Xia Wei's eyes were somewhat swollen, and her voice was indifferent.

This made Xu Qing's heart sink a little deeper.

Looking at her mother's exhausted and haggard appearance, Xia Wei felt a pang of pity. She said, "I will cut things off with Zhou Ziyang—at least until the college entrance examination is over."

"I know nothing is more important than the exam right now. I'm heading to school."

"Ah!" Hearing her daughter say this, Xu Qing finally let out a breath of relief.

When Xia Wei arrived at school, Zhou Ziyang was still deep in conversation at the classroom door with a junior-year girl who had come to borrow study materials.

Seeing Xia Wei, Zhou Ziyang assumed she was going to throw another tantrum.

To his surprise, however, Xia Wei didn't say a word.

She walked into the classroom on her own, picked up her Chinese textbook, and began her morning reading:

*The Mulberries with their leaves so green,*

*Ah, flutter down, fall to the ground...*

*O turtle-dove, fly away home,*

*And eat no more of our mulberries!*

*O maiden, fair and kind,*

*Give no man all your heart...*

Reading that line, Xia Wei tightened her grip on the book by a fraction.

The *Classic of Poetry* was right.

When a man gives his heart away, he can still break free.

When a woman gives her heart away, there is no escape!

Men who get distracted still have a second chance, but if *she* got distracted, she would never have another chance again!

Zhou Ziyang, whatever is between us, we can talk about it later. I won't let you drag me down!

And so, over the next few days, Xia Wei actually managed to block out all news related to Zhou Ziyang and threw herself wholeheartedly into her studies.

Xia Wei was a girl with her own independent judgment.

Yet Zhou Ziyang's behavior had genuinely disrupted her.

She didn't know whether Zhou Ziyang truly liked her or was merely playing with her for amusement.

Even though Zhou Ziyang had told her he was just toying with her, Xia Wei suspected he might have said that under coercion from her mother.

Regardless, she would wait until the college entrance examination was over before demanding a clear answer from Zhou Ziyang.

Right now, the single most important thing in the world was the college exam.

After another stretch of time passed, even Zhou Ziyang couldn't help but admire this young woman.

She was destined to become an elite lawyer in the future, and her mental fortitude was indeed formidable.

Since that was the case, there was no need for him to cling stubbornly and refuse to let go.

Everything was in the past now.

He had been reborn, and his body and mind had both been enhanced.

He had even made a tidy sum of money, achieving financial freedom ahead of schedule.

None of the rest mattered.

Study hard for the college entrance examination, and once he made something of himself, he would take his mother far away from this right-and-wrong-filled place.

Life returned to normal. Occasionally, when encountering difficult math problems, Zhou Ziyang and Xia Wei would discuss them during math class.

The two of them acted as though nothing had ever happened between them.

Yet they also acted as though something *had* happened.

During their problem-solving discussions, they would occasionally exchange a witty remark or two.

At those moments, Xia Wei would drift into a daze, wondering if things might have been different—if their families hadn't been tangled up in so much complication, perhaps the two of them really could have been together.

She wondered if Zhou Ziyang ever thought about that.

Time drifted onward, arriving at May 27th.

On this day, the stock price of Storm Technologies hit 327 yuan, once again locking onto the daily limit-up right at the opening bell.

Zhou Ziyang was a little nervous today. Even though he had been reborn, all of this still felt somewhat unreal to him.

With an excited heart, he opened his stock trading account.

He hesitated slightly as he entered his password.

He was genuinely afraid that everything right now was a fake.

Perhaps the moment he finished entering his password, he would wake up.

Fortunately, he did not wake up.

After a delay of a few seconds, the stock trading account opened.

There was only a single stock in his portfolio, glowing in red.

Holdings Market Value: 12,615,550.71