Struggle Life in the 1970s

When the two returned to the dormitory, Chu Ye told Mingzhu everything that had happened before.

She did not exaggerate or slander Zhou Wenlong, she just laid out the cause and effect of the matter.

After she finished speaking, the dormitory fell silent. Mingzhu's eyes widened, her emotions changing. After a long while, she opened her mouth, as if she had just found her voice, "How, how could it be? He is not the kind of person you said."

Although it was a cruel thing to shatter Mingzhu's fantasy, Chu Ye was more unwilling to let her step into the fire pit.

She repeated in a firm tone, "I have no reason to lie to you. He did do this. If you don't believe me, you can -"

"Don't say any more." Mingzhu covered her ears, her face extremely painful, and shouted loudly, "I don't want to hear you talk!"

Then she took off her shoes, ran to the bed, and wrapped herself tightly with the quilt.

Chu Ye swallowed the words she was about to say and thought about it. Mingzhu would definitely not want others to see her vulnerable side, so she packed up her things and planned to go to the office to deal with the lesson plan.

She opened the door and turned around.

"You can't go out."

A shout came out from under the quilt, and there was only one sentence and nothing else.

Chu Ye sighed silently, closed the door again, and sat back on the bed.

Thinking back to what happened in the morning, Mingzhu was so happy to change her clothes. According to her personality, this might be her first time to fall in love, but it was ruined by Chu Ye. However, she did not regret telling Mingzhu these things. If Mingzhu resented her because of this, she would accept it.

The fluffy quilt moved, and a small hole was opened at the corner. A low voice came out from inside, "You won't lie to me, right?"

"No, we are friends." Chu Ye said softly.

"Do you think it's possible that he has become a better person now?" Mingzhu's voice was hesitant but expectant.

Chu Ye thought for a while and replied, "I don't know if he has changed for the better, but he did do bad things in the past. If you think I ruined your mood today, I can apologize to you."

Mingzhu said in a muffled voice, "No need, I know you are doing this for my own good." After that, she closed the quilt corner silently. Chu Ye didn't know what to say, so she sat in the dormitory and read the book that Mu Jiajun had given her.

At noon, she originally wanted to go out for lunch and bring some food to Mingzhu. However, just as she opened the door, she heard a faint voice calling from inside the quilt, not letting her leave.

Chu Ye had no choice but to eat some biscuits and candies to fill his stomach. After Mingzhu called out to him, she hid in the quilt again and didn't make any noise. Chu Ye had no choice but to stay with her.

The sun outside doesn't care about the joys and sorrows of the world, it just keeps going forward, not caring about anyone. The light and shadows fall obliquely on the concrete floor, and the originally bright white light gradually turns golden. The wind blows in from the window, bringing the rustling sound of leaves.

The quilt that looked like a stone sculpture moved, first lifting a corner. After confirming that there was someone she wanted to see in the room, the corner gradually enlarged. Mingzhu climbed up from the bed, put on her shoes silently, and went to the corridor with her toiletries.

After a while, she came back with a wet face. After washing off the white and red paint she had put on her face in the morning, she regained her cool and coquettish look.

"I'm hungry, accompany me to eat." Miss Qiao left a simple sentence and opened the door to walk out. Chu Ye only heard her deliberately making the "clacking" sound of her shoes, looking very imposing, and then the loud footsteps quickly disappeared after she walked out of the door a few steps.

The corridor was quiet. Chu Ye had no choice but to put down the book in her hand. Her stomach was already empty with hunger. She walked out and heard a "hum". Mingzhu walked quickly in front of her with "pa pa" sounds.

Chu Ye followed her, and the two of them came to the state-owned restaurant. Mingzhu opened her mouth like a lion, and as soon as her butt touched the bench, she spouted a string of dishes, "Cold beef, sausage, twice-cooked pork, stir-fried three fresh vegetables, and mixed cucumber."

Finally, she was still not satisfied and asked, "Another bottle of Shaobai."

Chu Ye was stunned when she heard this. She reminded him softly, "Mingzhu, we can't eat so much. And why did you buy wine?"

Mingzhu waved her hand and said proudly, "Why can't we eat? We haven't eaten for a whole day, so we can eat as much as we want tonight."

After saying that, she ran to the counter to pay, and then brought a bottle of white wine and two wine glasses.

"I'll try this flavor today." She opened the bottle cap, filled the wine glass, moved one cup in front of Chu Ye, and drank the other cup directly from her mouth with her head tilted back.

Chu Ye's pupils widened, and it was too late for her to reach out to stop it. She saw Mingzhu slam the wine cup on the table with gravity. Her cheeks were even darker than the blush she had put on in the morning. She opened her mouth wide and kept fanning her mouth with both hands to reduce the spiciness.

"Hiss, so spicy! So spicy!" Tears were about to come out of her eyes, but she held them back.

Chu Ye quickly stood up and patted her back, and then went to the counter to pour her a glass of water. She held the glass and drank two sips eagerly, but the pain still did not subside. At this time, the waiter brought the cold beef and sausages. Mingzhu picked up the chopsticks and stuffed a large piece into her mouth to chew. After a while, the red marks on her face slowly faded. "Why did you drink that white wine for no reason? You are feeling uncomfortable now." Chu Ye nagging in confusion, but Mingzhu turned a deaf ear and asked Chu Ye to sit opposite her to eat.

After saying that, in order to stop Chu Ye from nagging, she picked up a piece of beef with chopsticks and stuffed it into Chu Ye's mouth.

Chu Ye:......

The dinner passed in a noisy manner. Perhaps they were really hungry and they finished all the food without noticing, especially Mingzhu. Although she knew that white wine would burn her throat, she still tried a few glasses and ended up drunk on the table.

Chu Ye didn't drink a drop of wine. Apart from a bloated stomach, her mind was still clear. She begged the people in the store to put Mingzhu around her neck and walked towards the school step by step.

Mingzhu was so drunk that she couldn't see clearly, but fortunately she had good alcohol tolerance and didn't make any noise even when drunk, and let others pull her away.

It was windy tonight. The two of them were walking on the dark road. There were no people around them, but there was a rustling sound from the friction between leaves and the chirping of insects in the weeds on both sides.

"I... I hate you so much." Mingzhu's voice was so soft and unclear that Chu Ye had to put a lot of effort to hear it clearly.

She didn't care much and continued walking with Mingzhu in her arms.

"You are obviously... from the country, so why are you better than me in every way?" Mingzhu said, unconsciously gesturing forward with her hands, as if accusing the person in front of her.

Chu Ye continued to remain silent.

"Wuwu... I finally met someone who likes me, but he's a bad guy, wuwu." Mingzhu started to feel sad again. She clung to Chu Ye with her hands and feet, almost making her unable to move.

Chu Ye could only comfort her and pat her back to ease her mind. Although she knew that she couldn't hear anything at the moment and wouldn't remember anything even if she heard it, she still said softly, "Don't just look at others. In fact, you are also very good. It's those people who don't deserve your love."

I don’t know if this worked, but Mingzhu gradually stopped making a fuss and the two of them returned to the dormitory.

The next day, Mingzhu woke up with a headache. She sat on the bed in a daze for a long time, then rubbed her face and called Chu Ye to eat as if nothing had happened.

From then on, she seemed to have forgotten about this matter and never mentioned it in front of Chu Ye. There were a few times when she received letters from outside, but she threw the envelopes away after seeing the sender.

Mingzhu returned to being the spoiled young lady she once was.

A year passed quickly. This year, Chu Ye once again won the recognition of the dean of studies with her excellent teaching level, and was asked to serve as the third-grade head teacher and English teacher.

Mu Jiajun would often take time out of his busy schedule to visit her. He was already a senior in college and was often overwhelmed with academic matters. Sometimes he couldn't come over, so he would write letters to Chu Ye and send her snacks. When they met in person, he would be like a big puppy, acting coquettishly and asking for a hug.

Also during this summer vacation, Chu Ye couldn't resist Mu Jiajun's constant nagging and followed him back home.

Mu Jiajun's home is in the provincial capital, a European-style detached house in a quiet location amidst the hustle and bustle of the city. His parents are a well-educated wealthy couple. They had long known about Chu Ye's family situation from Mu Jiajun, and had also seen her photos a long time ago. Now that they saw her in person, they entertained Chu Ye with all the courtesy and treated her like their own child.

Originally, Chu Ye was worried that her behavior was not good and that Mu Jiajun's parents would dislike her. However, she later found that these worries were in vain. Mu Jiajun had already said thousands of good things about Chu Ye in front of his parents, and her background had long been overshadowed.

Moreover, as parents, they only hope that their children can be happy. As for what kind of person she likes, as long as she is honest, kind and has no principles or mistakes, they will support her unconditionally.

Not long after this incident, Mu Jiajun proposed the idea of ​​getting married again. Chu Ye thought about it. He was now in his senior year and had completed one semester. He would graduate in half a year, so she made a promise that they would get the marriage certificate after Mu Jiajun graduated.

That day, Mu Jiajun hugged her and smiled foolishly for a long time, confirming over and over again that he had not heard wrongly.

After the summer vacation, Chu Ye went back to work. This year, she had the additional job of a class teacher. The tasks on her shoulders suddenly became much heavier. If she hadn't been involved in this before, she wouldn't have known that a class teacher not only had to coordinate teachers of various subjects and parents, but also had to deal with students' continuous problems. In their study and life, every single thing could not be neglected, and among all things, the most important thing was to ensure the students' safety.

She seemed to have returned to the year of her internship and became a novice who needed to learn everything from scratch.

Along with the tedious work of the class teacher come letters from home that are sent at regular intervals.

At the beginning of those letters, Chu's father would talk about family matters, and at the end of the letters, he would tell her to go home and visit her parents when she had time.

Chu Ye just looked at the letters and never replied. Later, as the letters became more frequent, she could see what her mother said. It was always the same, saying that what she had done was inappropriate at the beginning. Now that she hadn't seen her daughter for several years, she missed her daughter so much that they didn't dare to arrange her affairs at will. They just hoped that Chu Ye could come home to see her.

She ignored all of this.

(End of this chapter)