Going home for Chinese New Year, I squeezed onto a bus with three energetic young women.

Jiang Ruyue munched on a tomato, offering her unsparing critique.

Li Mengmeng panicked, her face turning bright red.

She turned and glared at the uninvited guest outside the glass door, her chest heaving, and her voice no longer soft and sweet:

"What do you know! I was just teasing Brother Bai Li! You're just a little brat who's never even held hands before, so stop pointing fingers!"

"The internet says that using drugs to control your partner is against the will of the woman or man, which is illegal, not romantic," Jiang Ruyue swallowed the tomato in her mouth and corrected him sternly.

"Shut up!" Li Mengmeng snapped, turning her head to hand the mug back to Bai Li's lips.

"Drink it! Drink it quickly! After you drink this sugar water, we won't have to worry about her anymore!"

Look at that murky, bubbling liquid, and listen to the incredible conversation between these two.

Bai Li could no longer bear it, and the veins on his forehead bulged.

"Ugh! I can't take it anymore. I'm quitting!"

He pushed the mug away, splashing water onto the countertop with a soft hissing sound.

"Is this some kind of aqua regia? It's even steaming?!"

"And Mengmeng, do you think I'm a three-year-old? You even used hypnosis?!" Bai Li snatched the cup back and turned around to pour the vodka with a huge amount of potent drugs directly down the drain.

If you drink this stuff, you'll either die or be severely injured.

"Oh! My medicine... no, my sugar water!" Li Mengmeng stamped her feet anxiously and reached out to grab it.

Bai Li didn't indulge her at all, and casually reached into the hidden pocket of her pleated skirt.

He pinched the folded paper package between two fingers and pulled it out.

"No need for Mengmeng to bother." Bai Li didn't even look at it before throwing the paper package into the corner trash can.

"You think you need to add this kind of seasoning to kick me?! Do you take me for some saint?"

"I knew it, Bai Li is so flirtatious... I wasn't wrong about him," Jiang Ruyue muttered to herself.

Knowing she was in the wrong, Li Mengmeng hung her head, twisted the apron straps with both hands, and muttered something, not daring to say another word.

"Stop fussing. Ruyue has to go home this afternoon." Bai Li pointed to the vegetables that had already been chopped on the cutting board: "Hurry up and stir-fry them, let us taste your cooking."

Half an hour later.

"Oh ho ho~ Chicken soup is here~" Li Mengmeng, with her short legs, brought four dishes and a soup to the table.

The sweet and sour pork ribs are bright red, the tomato and beef brisket soup is rich and flavorful, and there are two stir-fried seasonal vegetables.

It looks really good.

The three people sat down together.

Of course, drinks are indispensable.

The bottle of 96-proof vodka I bought from the supermarket was smugly placed on the corner of the table, next to the two bottles of pink peach wine.

Li Mengmeng, still harboring wicked intentions, took three wine glasses and began to act as a bartender.

"Ruyue is still a student, it's not good for her to drink too much." Li Mengmeng smiled insincerely, poured most of a glass of orange juice into Jiang Ruyue's glass, and added a little bit of fruit wine for flavoring.

When it was her turn and Bai Li's turn, she was quite generous, mixing fruit wine with vodka and adding fruit juice to mask the spiciness of the alcohol, pouring two full glasses.

"Cheers!"

The glasses clinked together, making a crisp sound.

Jiang Ruyue took a big gulp of the mixed fruit liqueur and smacked her lips:

"Sweet."

Bai Li picked up a piece of sweet and sour pork ribs and put it in her mouth. The meat was tender and soft, and the sweet and sour taste was just right.

"Mmm, delicious." Bai Li put down her chopsticks and sincerely praised, "This cooking skill is truly impeccable."

Upon hearing the praise, Li Mengmeng's tail practically flew up to the sky.

She held the cup and gulped down two large mouthfuls:

"Of course! Mengmeng practiced following the recipe for a long time!"

Halfway through the dinner, the atmosphere started to veer off course.

Li Mengmeng ultimately overestimated her alcohol tolerance.

That mixed drink with vodka had an extremely potent aftereffect.

After eating only a few bites of food, her fair, baby-faced complexion turned bright red, her eyes began to glaze over, and she rested her chin on her hand, looking at Bai Li with a silly grin.

"Hehe... Brother Bai Li is so handsome..."

Surprisingly, Jiang Ruyue, who was drinking "BabyBus" brand fruit wine next to her, also couldn't handle it.

Her meager alcohol tolerance meant that even a few drops of alcohol were enough to make her dizzy and disoriented.

An unnatural blush appeared on her usually aloof and ethereal face.

She held the glass in both hands, her once clear eyes now watery and misty.

Bai Li held his wine cup, as steady as a mountain.

With the strong kidneys and top-notch physical condition bestowed by the system, this little bit of alcohol won't even cause a ripple.

He looked at the drunkards slumped over and leaning back on either side of him, utterly speechless.

With such fighting ability, you still think you can get yourself drunk and do bad things?

Jiang Ruyue let out a small hiccup, put down her glass, and spoke with a heavy nasal tone, completely different from her usual coldness.

"I'm not happy at all..."

This sudden complaint quieted things down at the dinner table.

Li Mengmeng, her eyes still blurry with sleep, hummed in response:

"Who upset you? Let Mengmeng go and beat him up!"

Jiang Ruyue shook her head, her fingers unconsciously picking at the edge of the tablecloth.

"These past few days of the Lunar New Year, relatives have been coming to visit every day. I feel like a manipulated mannequin." She lowered her head, her voice muffled.

"You must sit up straight and not show too many teeth when you smile. You must greet people and also play the piano and recite ancient poems for them."

She looked up, her eyes red-rimmed, and the emotions that had been suppressed for so long were finally released, fueled by the alcohol.

"They all praised me for being well-behaved and for being multi-talented. They said I was the most outstanding asset of the Jiang family, and my parents' perfect creation."

"But who would have thought?" Jiang Ruyue laughed self-deprecatingly, tears welling in her eyes.

"The more talented, well-behaved, and academically successful I am, the more serious my psychological problems become."

"I took an online quiz and it showed I have severe depressive tendencies. Every night when I lie in bed, I think about tearing up all the certificates and awards I have at home."

At this point, she turned to look at Bai Li, her eyes filled with grievance:

"That's why I always want to go out and have fun, and I always search for things that bad girls do. I just want to rebel and make them jealous."

Bai Li's hand, which was holding a piece of food, stopped in mid-air.

This girl's head is full of incredible knowledge, not because she was born with a unique brain, but because of the reaction force brought out by extreme family education.

Extremes beget their opposites; the more intense the oppression, the more outrageous the idea of ​​a backlash becomes.

Looking at that tender, almost radiant face, yet filled with bitterness, Bai Li put down his chopsticks and became serious for once.

"You're still in school, so you're definitely at the mercy of others," Bai Li leaned back in her chair, offering her advice.

"But once you get through these six months and go to university in another city, the sky's the limit. After graduation, you'll be earning your own money, and they won't be able to control you anymore."

Jiang Ruyue sniffed, somewhat confused:

"But all I know is playing the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting. I definitely can't do physical labor."

"With your skinny arms and legs, who would expect you to do manual labor?" Bai Li waved his hand: "Aren't your grades very good? Then take the proper route."

He counted on his fingers: "Take the civil service exam, it's a secure job. If that doesn't work, I'll take the postgraduate entrance exam to improve my education. If that still doesn't work, I'll take the civil service exam."

"These are all paths you can choose, as long as you have good grades. There's bound to be one that will allow you to escape your family of origin."

This is the most universal and safest advice.

however.

Upon hearing the words "civil service exam," Jiang Ruyue's expression turned extremely strange.

She stared at the plate of tomato and beef brisket in front of her, sighed heavily, and spoke with a despairing calmness.

"I can't take the exam."

"What? You can't take the exam?" Bai Li was completely bewildered. "Top students from Tsinghua and Peking Universities don't even have confidence in a written exam?"

Jiang Ruyue shook her head, a smile that looked more like a grimace tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"My dad works for the Education Bureau. He's shrewder than anyone else and he knew I would run away."

Jiang Ruyue slowly revealed a shocking piece of gossip.

"When I had just turned 18, he used my ID card to register a shell company."

"Then, he paid my social security contributions for three years in the company's name."

The air seemed to freeze.

Li Mengmeng, who was still dazed and laughing foolishly on the side, suddenly opened her eyes wide upon hearing this, and sobered up halfway.

Bai Li even suspected that there was something wrong with her ears.

"So?" Bai Li pressed.

"So," Jiang Ruyue picked up her glass and drank the rest of the juice in one gulp.

"Because of these three years of social security payment records, I have been identified as an employed person in my personnel file."

"I don't even have the status of a recent graduate anymore."

Jiang Ruyue let out a burp and spread her hands:

"Many good positions now require recent graduates. I don't have that status, so I can only apply for those township positions that don't have any restrictions on applicants."

"The competition is so fierce, there's no way to pass the exam."

She turned her head to look at Bai Li, and tears finally fell:

"My dad cut off all my escape routes. He calculated this precisely, so that I would have no way out after graduation and could only obediently return to Ping County to follow his arrangements."

The restaurant fell into an eerie silence.

Only the remaining pork rib soup in the pot was still radiating residual heat.

This kind of operation is absolutely terrifying.

In order to control his daughter and make himself look good, he actually used the rules to strip her of her status as a recent graduate when she had just come of age, setting up this deadly trap several years in advance.

This is what it means to be cunning and shrewd; this is a truly ruthless character.

Bai Li opened his mouth, but a thousand words stuck in his throat.

He looked at Jiang Ruyue, whose face was streaked with tears, and could only manage to utter one sentence.

"How could your parents do this?"

Li Mengmeng, who was lying on the table, struggled to prop her head up.

She usually felt that her mother was quite strict, stipulating that she couldn't stay out all night and that she would check her phone.

Compared to the methods used by Jiang Ruyue's family, her own mother was simply a model of a loving mother.

"My God..." Li Mengmeng swallowed hard, her voice filled with shock and lingering fear.

"Although my family is strict, they're not that extreme. They just restrict themselves from going home at night..."

"You're not raising a daughter, you're raising an obedient puppet to make your family proud!"