"Sorry, I have something to do tomorrow. Hope you enjoy your gathering."
Shen Qing'e stared at her phone screen, disappointment written across her face.
The courage she had painstakingly worked up vanished again. She tossed her phone onto the bed, lay flat, and stared blankly at the ceiling.
When had it started? On countless nights, her thoughts returned to that day when she and Jiang Ning had taken the 311 Intercity Bus to Yuzhou City for high school.
Shen Qing'e had never been able to understand why he had changed completely the moment they got off the bus.
He had become cold and heartless, no longer the Jiang Ning who had once let her have whatever she wanted.
If we hadn't come to Yuzhou to study, would everything have turned out differently?
If they had stayed in their small town for high school, she would still have been under Jiang Ning's protection. He would have brought her breakfast and stood up for her everywhere...
Images of happiness and ease appeared in her mind, only to shatter like an illusion moments later.
She recalled the students in the Targeted Assistance Program. When they talked in the group chat about coming to Yuzhou City for school, their joy and excitement had been impossible to hide.
That was right. Wa Temple Town was too small. There were no malls, no cinemas, not even a proper milk tea shop...
Shen Qing'e had already taken the most important step. She did not want to remain in town and become mud on a rainy road, something everyone found disgusting.
In contrast stood Yuzhou, changing by the day, with its airport and towering buildings under construction... She belonged in the city, living as her older sister did.
An inexplicable force filled her heart, and she regained her