She had just transferred schools this morning.
Now she was saying she couldn’t afford the tuition.
The embarrassment laid bare at this moment made her feel utterly ashamed.
Teacher Cheng fell silent for a few seconds, and that silence made Pu Yu’s heart sink bit by bit.
Just as she thought she would be refused, the teacher’s gentle voice sounded:
“In principle, payment is required all at once, but if your family is truly facing difficulties, we can allow a few extra days. Just don’t exceed next week, okay?”
“…Okay, thank you, Teacher Cheng!!” Pu Yu’s heart eased, followed by an even deeper pang of sorrow. She nodded vigorously, “I’ll do it as soon as possible.”
When she walked out of the office,
she carefully folded the payment slip in half and tucked it into the inner pocket of her backpack.
The slip was light, yet it weighed on her so heavily she could hardly breathe.
The sky had turned completely dark.
Pu Yu followed the route from memory, walking alone on her way home.
The town’s alleyways crisscrossed, with white walls and dark tiles that all looked very similar.
Grandma had taken her through the small paths in the town this morning, winding around in all sorts of ways.
Pu Yu’s sense of direction was already poor, and after circling a few times, she stared at the nearly identical alleys ahead, completely lost.
Just as she was at a loss, light footsteps sounded behind her.
She instinctively turned around.
Yuan Su was carrying a black backpack over one shoulder, hands in his pockets, and happened to turn out from another alley.
His face showed no expression, and he walked past her without even glancing sideways.
Pu Yu opened her mouth, but the words “Excuse me, how do I get to Wind Chime Alley?” stuck in her throat, unable to come out.
He looked like he didn’t want to interact with anyone at all.
But…
Wait, no…
Pu Yu suddenly remembered that his house was right next to Grandma’s.
Almost without hesitation, she dragged her feet and quietly followed behind him, keeping a distance of three or four meters.
Yuan Su wasn’t walking fast, but perhaps because of his long legs, his strides were large.
He didn’t look back, seemingly unaware.
Or perhaps he simply didn’t care that there was a little tail behind him.
One after the other, the two of them walked silently through the maze-like alleys of the town.
After turning a few corners, familiar persimmon tree branches peeked out from over a wall.
Pu Yu’s heart eased.
She watched as Yuan Su walked up to his own weathered wooden door and took out his keys.
She quickly hurried a few steps forward and stopped in front of Grandma’s door.
Just before he pushed the door open and went inside, Pu Yu turned her head and quickly said to him, “…Thank you!”
“Click.”
The response she got was the clear sound of the lock turning next door.
Pu Yu stood there for several seconds before finally gathering the courage to push the door open and go inside.
Li Suhua was just setting dishes on the table.
A plate of stir-fried greens, a bowl of shredded pork with pickled vegetables, and steaming hot rice.
Seeing Pu Yu return, the old woman wiped her hands and frowned habitually. “Why are you back so late?”
Pu Yu stood at the entrance to the main room, not immediately going to wash her hands and help as she had that morning.
She lowered her head, both hands gripping the straps of her backpack tightly.
The stack of counterfeit bills in her backpack weighed heavily on her heart.
“What are you standing there for? Do I need to beg and urge you three or four times before you eat?”
“Grandma…” she forced herself to speak.
“What’s wrong? Did someone bully you at school?” Li Suhua paused her movements, her eyes sharpening slightly.
Pu Yu shook her head, her eyes stinging unbearably.
She took a deep breath, as if making some difficult decision. “Grandma, could you lend me some money? I want to go back to the city tomorrow.”
“Go back where?”
Li Suhua slammed her chopsticks down on the table with a sharp crack.
“You’ve only been here one day and you already want to leave? What? Is my cooking that bad? Or do you think this rundown town’s school isn’t good enough for you, and you want to go back to the city to study?”
The old woman’s temper had always been quick, but now it was like a lit firecracker:
“Fine! This place is too small for someone like you. If you want to leave, then go! But don’t you dare come back once you’re gone!”
Pu Yu finally couldn’t hold back anymore. “No! It’s not like that…”
All the grievances, fear, and despair she had bottled up throughout the day burst forth like a broken dam.
She unzipped her backpack, grabbed the stack of red banknotes, and before she could even hand them to Li Suhua, tears began to fall in large, heavy drops.
“It’s because of this… it’s all fake! The money they gave me is all fake!”
“I want to go back and ask him—am I not his daughter too? How could he do this to me? Does he really want me to die out here?”
She hadn’t cried when the shopkeeper at the school store accused her.
She hadn’t cried when she checked each of the two thousand fake bills in the classroom.
She hadn’t cried when she told the teacher in the office that she couldn’t pay the tuition for now.
But under Grandma’s barrage of seemingly harsh questions, which were actually filled with worry, Pu Yu couldn’t hold back any longer.
The girl’s sobs were broken and desperate, echoing through the dimly lit old house.
Li Suhua froze.
She took the stack of money, squinting her clouded eyes as her rough fingers traced the patterns on the hundred-yuan bills.
Having worked with her hands all her life and handled countless payments, she could tell real from fake with just a touch.
A few seconds later.
The old woman’s expression changed instantly, and she clenched the papers tightly in her hand.
“That beast… what an absolute beast!”
She gritted her teeth, her voice trembling. “Even a vicious tiger wouldn’t harm its own cub, but that damned Pu Zhiming—he actually used fake money to deceive his own daughter! He’s trying to push you to your death!”
After her outburst, the room fell into a deathly silence.
Only Pu Yu’s stifled sobs remained.
Li Suhua looked at her granddaughter, trembling as she cried, and the anger in her eyes gradually gave way to a complicated mix of heartache.
She sighed, then flung the stack of fake money fiercely into the nearby trash bin.
“Stop crying! Wipe those tears away!”
Li Suhua said sternly, “Crying over that scoundrel isn’t worth it!”
Pu Yu wiped her face haphazardly, her eyes red as she looked at her grandmother. “I want to go back to the city. I want to confront him. I still haven’t paid the tuition, I can’t…”
“Go back? If you go back now, you’ll be walking right into a trap!”
Li Suhua cut her off, her tone cold and firm. “Do you think your stepmother is some pushover? The moment you step through that door, they’ll tie you up and send you off to that so-called boss’s house. Once it’s done, your life will truly be over!”
“Your school registration has already been transferred here. If you dare take one step out of this town, whether you live or die from then on, I won’t care!”
Pu Yu was frightened by her grandmother’s harsh words and stood there in a daze.
But…
If she didn’t go back, what about the tuition? What about living expenses?
“Enough, eat!”
Li Suhua didn’t explain further. She simply picked up her chopsticks again and tapped the edge of her bowl. “If the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up. What’s a little girl like you worrying about?”
The meal tasted like chewing wax.
After dinner, Pu Yu was told by her grandmother to wash the pots and dishes.
When she finished cleaning the kitchen and came out, she found the main room empty.
Grandma was missing.
“Grandma?”
She grew somewhat panicked and was about to go out to search when she saw Li Suhua push the door open and come in.