When the registration period of her new university started, Jiang Ruo was still holed up in her rental apartment. If it were possible, she hoped she never had to leave this room forever.
Because she wasn’t admitted to her first choices, she had no other option but to apply to a second-tier university. After receiving her acceptance letter, worries began to haunt her, fearing that her fellow students and even the lecturers would look down on her because of her status as an illegitimate child.
While she was lost in thought, she heard a knock on the door. She got up and went to the door, and through the peephole, saw Bai Guolin standing outside. She opened the door and then returned to the sofa in the living room to curl up.
Bai Guolin changed into slippers and handed her a package, “This is from your brother. It contains your ID card. He said you’d need it, so he sent it over.” Since he had been in frequent contact with Jiang Ruo recently, sometimes even chatting via voice messages, Bai Guolin no longer stuttered when speaking to her, though he still blushed occasionally.
Jiang Ruo was slightly stunned and took a while before asking, “Did you tell him where I live?”
Bai Guolin immediately shook his head, “Your brother didn’t ask, and I didn’t tell him.”
Jiang Ruo wasn’t surprised by this answer. She knew that if her brother wanted to find her, he would always find a way, especially with Bai Guolin acting as a go-between. But her brother had never sought her out, not even asking Bai Guolin about her.
Because of their blood relationship, she and her brother could never be a couple, yet they couldn’t go back to being just siblings. From now on, they would have to live as strangers.
After a long silence, Jiang Ruo stood up from the sofa, looked at Bai Guolin, and asked, “I need to go register. Will you come with me?”
What must be faced must eventually be faced. Unless she wanted to stop her education at the high school level, she would have to move forward.
Bai Guolin immediately nodded and asked, “Are you going to live in the dorm?”
Jiang Ruo picked up a mask from the coffee table and put it on, shaking her head, “No, I’ll apply for off-campus accommodation. My health condition is special, so the faculty will approve it.” Nowadays, she avoided contact with others as much as possible, only leaving home for hospital dialysis. She couldn’t handle staying in the dorm and having to interact with roommates.
“T-then I’ll live off campus too. I want to take care of you,” Bai Guolin said, his face turning red as he looked at Jiang Ruo.
Hearing him start to stutter again, Jiang Ruo knew he was nervous. She hesitated for a few seconds, “But if you do that, it will make it more difficult for you to attend classes.”
Bai Guolin quickly replied, “It won’t be difficult at all, and you need someone with you when you go for dialysis anyway.”
Hearing this, Jiang Ruo decided not to say anything further. In truth, she could go for dialysis on her own; during the time when Bai Guolin was away at home, she had gone to the hospital alone. Although it felt lonely, she got used to it after a while. Now that Bai Guolin was willing to accompany her, she didn’t want to push him away.
Jiang Ruo and Bai Guolin left the rented apartment together and headed to the campus for registration. As soon as they arrived, a senior student approached them, politely guiding her through the registration process.
However, while she was filling out the forms, the senior suddenly asked, “Are you Jiang Ruo?”
Jiang Ruo remained silent for a moment before nodding, “Yes, my name is Jiang Ruo.”
The senior began to scrutinize Jiang Ruo closely, but because she was wearing a mask, it was difficult to confirm her identity. He then asked again, “Are you that child star, Jiang Ruo?”
The mention of ‘child star’ felt incredibly ironic to Jiang Ruo. She neither confirmed nor denied it, but her attitude made her feelings quite clear.
The senior scoffed, “I’ve got other things to do. You can handle the rest of the registration on your own!”
Jiang Ruo still said nothing, but Bai Guolin couldn’t tolerate the senior’s attitude and frowned, “What do you mean by that?”
The senior, who was about to leave, paused and replied, “Was I not clear enough? I don’t want to associate with someone like Jiang Ruo. Is that a problem?” His voice was loud enough to draw the attention of the surrounding students and their families, making Jiang Ruo wish she could disappear in that instant.
But Bai Guolin wasn’t willing to let it go. Using his towering figure as leverage, he grabbed the senior by the collar and demanded, “Apologize to her right now.”
Bai Guolin’s behavior caused a stir among the students nearby, and one parent couldn’t help but chide, “Why are young people so hot-headed these days? Can’t you just talk things out?”
Ignoring the parent’s advice, Bai Guolin glared menacingly at the senior. “Apologize to Ruoruo immediately and take back what you said.”
The senior sneered, “Jiang Ruo is just an illegitimate child, but her mother, who was a mistress, swapped her with her father’s legitimate child. It was bad enough that she lived in someone else’s place for so many years, but even after the legitimate daughter returned, she still wouldn’t step aside. She even conspired with her scumbag father to force the legitimate daughter to donate a kidney for her. Jiang Ruo dared to do all this, but people aren’t allowed to talk about it?”
With those few sentences, the senior laid everything out, making it clear to the crowd. Many of the people around quickly pieced together the story. After all, Jiang Ruo had once been a child star, and when Feng Yun bought trending topics online to spread her story, she had done so for several days in a row. As a result, many people had some memory of the incident.
Even those who never used Weibo or paid attention to the entertainment gossip could piece together a melodramatic moral tale from the senior’s words.
An elderly man who had come to drop off his granddaughter couldn’t help but comment, “I can’t believe such a thing could happen. That poor child who was switched at birth must have had a terrible life.”
Someone nearby chimed in, “The legitimate daughter grew up in an orphanage but ended up winning an IMO gold medal and becoming this year’s top scorer in science. It just goes to show that truly talented people can thrive even in the worst circumstances.”
The public opinion was overwhelmingly against her. Even with her mask on, Jiang Ruo felt her face burning. She wanted to flee, but the onlookers, attracted by the commotion, had grown in size and formed a circle, trapping her in the middle.
Bai Guolin couldn’t bear to see Jiang Ruo being wronged. As he looked at the culprit he was holding by the collar, he raised his fist, ready to strike. The people around, seeing how tall and strong he was, immediately began to worry for the senior.
A group of students who knew the senior rushed over, planning to restrain the 1.9-meter-tall Bai Guolin under the pretext of breaking up the fight.
They thought it would take some effort to subdue him, and if he really lost his temper, someone might get hurt. But to everyone’s surprise, after less than ten seconds of tugging, Bai Guolin suddenly let out a painful scream, which sounded like a pig being slaughtered.
The students exchanged puzzled glances. “What’s wrong with him?” One of them asked.
No one understood either. Another student replied, “He’s probably faking it. Since he is so close to Jiang Ruo, he’s probably picked up some acting skills from her. But I have to admit, he’s pretty convincing. He really seems hurt.”
An elderly man in the crowd, noticing Bai Guolin’s limp arm, spoke up hesitantly, “It doesn’t look like he’s faking it. It looks more like his shoulder is dislocated.”
“How could it dislocate so easily? We barely used any force,” one of the students complained.
Jiang Ruo hurried over to Bai Guolin, her expression anxious. “Let’s go to the hospital right away. Don’t argue with them anymore.”
Then she turned to the senior who had started the trouble and said, “I will file a formal complaint about this incident and leave it to the faculty to handle.”
The senior didn’t show the slightest hint of timidity and even challenged back, “Go ahead and complain! But make sure to tell them who started it first. I know you’re a good actress and can twist the truth, but with so many people here watching, don’t go too far with your lies.”
“…” Throughout Jiang Ruo’s life, no one had ever spoken to her with such an attitude. Even though she had mentally prepared herself, she still found it unbearable.
Jiang Ruo wiped away her tears as she supported Bai Guolin and left this place. For now, she only wanted to take him to the hospital to get his shoulder fixed.
Seeing that the sturdy young man wasn’t faking it, the surrounding people didn’t want to get involved any further, so they soon dispersed.
As the two walked away, someone couldn’t resist his curiosity and asked the senior, “You usually have a good temper. What made you suddenly get into a conflict with them?”
The senior smiled warmly, “I do have a good temper, but I’m not a pushover. I can’t bring myself to be polite to someone like Jiang Ruo.”
Coincidentally, he and Jiang Li had both graduated from the same junior high school in the county, only one grade apart. He remembered her particularly well; even though she was quiet and usually kept her head down, she was a genuinely nice person.
When he later found out that Jiang Li was originally born into a wealthy family and had endured hardships in an orphanage because of Jiang Ruo’s mistress mother and scumbag father, there was no way he could show Jiang Ruo any kindness.
Fortunately, Jiang Li was doing well now, even becoming the top student in this year’s college entrance exams, making her a legend in their county.
Meanwhile, the impostor who took her place, Jiang Ruo, had developed chronic kidney failure and needed dialysis to survive. It seemed like karma was at work. Perhaps this was what people meant when they said that justice prevails in the end!
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