14
Zhang Wenfang and Li Daidi looked at each other, both deeply bewildered by what they saw in the other’s eyes.
After a moment, Zhang Wenfang snapped out of it. “Jiang Suisui!”
“Huh? What?” Jiang Suisui was startled by her loud shout.
Zhang Wenfang’s anger flared up for no apparent reason. “Are you messing with me? All that roundabout nonsense! I don’t understand a word you’re saying!”
Jiang Suisui scratched her head. “I’m being serious. Didn’t you get it? Want me to break it down for you again?”
Zhang Wenfang huffed and stood up, hands on her hips. “I’m the one being serious here! Are you going to listen to me or not? Is he really that good? Do you have to hang yourself on that one tree?”
“Um…” Jiang Suisui’s gaze flickered, and she said a bit sheepishly, “Yeah, he really is that good. Song Weizheng is the best man in the whole world!”
Come on, he’s the male lead of this world! He’s going to get rich and rise to the top of the world later—who wouldn’t say he’s great if they knew?
Zhang Wenfang was nearly furious at Jiang Suisui’s stubbornness and defiance. Before, she used to listen to everything she said—now she was practically getting cocky.
Zhang Wenfang bluntly declared, “I don’t care. If you marry that Song Weizheng, we can’t be friends anymore—we’re done! No more hanging out together.”
“Li Daidi!” She called back over her shoulder. “We don’t make friends with people from bad family backgrounds, right?”
Li Daidi quickly stood up as well and echoed Zhang Wenfang, trying to persuade Jiang Suisui: “Suisui… I, we’re both doing this for your own good…”
“For my own good?” Jiang Suisui enunciated each word slowly, then rose to her feet, facing the two former besties of the original owner.
“And what am I supposed to do after calling off the engagement?” Jiang Suisui asked. “My reputation is already tied to Song Weizheng’s. If I don’t marry him, what happens to me then?”
Zhang Wenfang was taken aback for a moment, then stammered, “Th-that’s nothing, right… Isn’t your grandma the one who spoils you the most? She’ll definitely help you find someone else!”
“You both must have heard what the village has been saying about me since I had that accident, right?” Jiang Suisui reminded her.
Zhang Wenfang choked on her words. Of course she’d heard—not only had she heard, she’d relished every bit of it. Watching someone else make a fool of themselves was just too entertaining, especially when that someone was her own silly, proud friend.
Indecent, embarrassing, throwing herself at men, cheap, shameless, unwanted… She’d wanted nothing but to laugh.
That stupid, carefree Jiang Suisui, who was always showing off, had finally messed up.
She’d only casually mentioned the whole “hero saves the damsel and she gives herself to him” idea while chatting with Li Daidi—and Jiang Suisui had taken it to heart.
It wasn’t her fault—who knew Jiang Suisui would be that foolish?
Li Daidi, upon hearing Jiang Suisui’s words, hung her head timidly, as if trying to bury her face in her chest, seeming to feel embarrassed and ashamed for her friend’s misfortune. But her voice was still soft and meek as she said, “Suisui, people outside are just running their mouths. If you don’t listen, it’ll pass… everything will pass.”
Zhang Wenfang’s face was unpleasant as she hemmed and hawed for a while, finally forcing herself to speak: “Alright, I know you’re upset. Afraid you won’t find a husband, right? Fine—I’ll introduce you to my cousin on my mom’s side. That’s good enough for you, isn’t it?” She said it with an air of reluctant charity.
Jiang Suisui’s mouth twitched; she was speechless.
Of course she wasn’t afraid of not finding a husband, nor was she bothered by the gossip. She just wanted to see whether her so-called good friends would truly consider her situation.
Jiang Suisui looked at the two before her and shook her head silently. She really didn’t know how the original owner had ended up with such friends—one who purely wanted to see her make a fool of herself, and another who was discarded after being used.
She crossed her arms and stared at them coldly, her previous calm and easygoing demeanor gone. “You’re saying that if I marry Song Weizheng, you won’t be friends with me anymore? Is that true?”
Zhang Wenfang didn’t notice the shift in her attitude. Hearing her ask this, she assumed Jiang Suisui was scared—scared of losing her friends and said smugly, “Of course! If you don’t want to lose us, go call off the engagement right now. Otherwise, we’re done as friends!”
Jiang Suisui nodded, gave no response, then turned to Li Daidi, who had been silently echoing Zhang Wenfang all along. “Daidi, you and I… we’ve had a decent friendship, haven’t we? I haven’t treated you badly, have I? Are you really going to throw away our friendship over this too?”
Li Daidi kept her head low, her eyes flickering nervously, not daring to meet Jiang Suisui’s gaze. Seeing her stay silent for so long, Zhang Wenfang couldn’t help jabbing her with her elbow.
Li Daidi swayed from the nudge, quickly steadying herself. Then, she closed her eyes, bit her lower lip, and as if having made up her mind, gave a soft yet resolute nod.
Then, she hastily looked up at Jiang Suisui, her eyes urgent, as if grasping for something: “Suisui, just listen to us! Don’t get tangled up with Song Weizheng anymore, and we can still be good friends from now on!”
Jiang Suisui chuckled inwardly. Still good friends? Yeah, right. In the original plot, the original owner hadn’t even successfully gotten engaged to Song Weizheng, yet Li Daidi had still teamed up with the female lead to screw her over.
Her face remained expressionless as she nodded and said flatly, “Oh, I see.”
“Then that’s settle—”
“Then let’s stop being friends.”
Before Zhang Wenfang could finish her smug reply, Jiang Suisui’s words doused her like a bucket of cold water.
“What?!” Zhang Wenfang was so shocked that her voice shot up, nearly cracking. “Are you serious?! What are you thinking, Jiang Suisui! I’m not joking with you!”
Li Daidi’s face was full of shock and panic.
“I’m serious too, and I’m not joking with you either.” Jiang Suisui’s expression was calm. “I won’t be taking your ‘advice’ anymore. This time, I’ll honor your request. From now on, we’re not friends.”
Zhang Wenfang opened her mouth, but no words came out for a long time.
She looked at Jiang Suisui before her and suddenly realized that in the half-month or so since she’d last seen her, she had actually lost some weight. Her once-round cheeks were starting to show a clearer contour, her eyes gleamed with a brightness they’d never had before, and the smile at the corner of her mouth was different—subtle, yet firm.
For a moment, Zhang Wenfang felt dazed, as if the person standing in front of her was someone entirely new, not the same silly, gullible girl who had always trusted them.
Li Daidi looked nervously at Jiang Suisui, who now carried an inexplicably commanding presence, then at Zhang Wenfang, who was silent and speechless, unsure of what to do.
After a long pause, Zhang Wenfang gradually came back to her senses. Her face darkened as she glared at Jiang Suisui with displeasure. “Fine. You said it yourself. Don’t come crying to me later begging for help—I won’t even bother with you even if you do!”
With that harsh parting shot, she turned and walked away. “Li Daidi, let’s go!”
Li Daidi looked back and forth between the two of them, unsure whether to stay or leave. Jiang Suisui’s face remained cold, and she made no move to call her back. Biting her lip, Li Daidi cast one last look at Jiang Suisui and said weakly, “Suisui, we’re doing this for your own good. If you change your mind, come find us…” Then she turned and hurried after Zhang Wenfang.
Watching their angry, defeated retreating figures, Jiang Suisui felt a wave of relief wash over her.
She clapped her hands together and sat back down, bracing herself on the grass with both hands behind her, tilting her face up to the sky. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
What a relief!
With some unnecessary relationships and future potential troubles out of the way, it wouldn’t be so easy for them to use the guise of friendship to scheme against her again.
Just as she was lost in thought, she heard the rustle of footsteps approaching. As the footsteps stopped, a shadow fell over her.
She opened her eyes and unexpectedly found herself gazing into a cold, deep black ocean.
Jiang Suisui froze, her lips slightly parted, and stared blankly at the person before her for a good long while, still in her reclining position.
Then she suddenly snapped out of it, scrambled up from the ground, and blurted out in a fluster, “Why are you so quiet? Couldn’t you have at least said something?”
“You scared me!” She pressed a hand to her chest, as if startled, but her mind couldn’t help replaying the image she’d just seen from that low angle—a tall, firm nose bridge and sharply defined lips.
Dammit, the male lead is just too much my type! Jiang Suisui clutched her racing heart and thought.
Sure enough, the newcomer was Song Weizheng. He was dressed in the same coarse, short-sleeved shirt he had been wearing the first time Jiang Suisui saw him, with the muscles of his arms and calves exposed. A large bamboo basket was strapped to his back, filled to the brim. He must have been on his way home from work.
Jiang Suisui didn’t dare linger around the male lead. She was just about to come up with an excuse to slip away when Song Weizheng spoke, his voice calm and low. “Why didn’t you agree to them?”
Jiang Suisui paused and looked up at him, a hint of confusion in her eyes. “Why didn’t I agree to what?”
Song Weizheng shifted his gaze to the distance, seemingly in the direction Zhang Wenfang and Li Daidi had just left, and said softly, “I heard everything you said just now.”
Jiang Suisui: “…”
“You were eavesdropping!”
Song Weizheng caught the accusatory look in her eyes and gave an almost imperceptible tug at the corner of his mouth. “I was walking by normally. You two were just too absorbed in your conversation to notice me.”
“Fine, whatever…” Jiang Suisui muttered. “So you heard—it’s not like there’s anything shameful about it anyway.”
“Why didn’t you agree to them?” Song Weizheng suddenly repeated his earlier question.
Jiang Suisui was taken aback for a moment, then realized he was asking why she hadn’t agreed to their demand to call off the engagement.
Remembering what she had said just moments ago, she felt a little embarrassed. She lowered her head slightly, her toe unconsciously grinding a small pebble on the ground, and mumbled, “Why does there have to be a reason? I just didn’t want to, so I didn’t.”
Song Weizheng looked at her, his gaze puzzled and complex, yet more focused than ever before.
After a pause, he suddenly said, “Actually, they’re right. Marrying me could bring you trouble—like a ticking time bomb.” As he spoke, a flicker of pain and confusion passed through his eyes.
Jiang Suisui thought to herself, was the male lead trying to convince her to stop pestering him and call off the engagement? She felt the pressure mounting.
Facing the plastic besties, she could still refuse with righteous conviction and use the chance to cut ties.
But facing the male lead—who had been forced into this by her in the first place—it was really hard to come up with a good explanation…
**