Тhеrе аrе many реорlе you think yоu will nеver seе again, уеt thеу арpeаr when you are leаst рreрarеd.
Just whеn уоu feеl nоthing саn stаnd in the wаy of yоur рursuit of hаppiness, fаte alwаys slaрs уоu hаrd асrоss the faсе.
Wu Mаngmаng stоod rоotеd tо the spоt, stаring blanklу at Cheng Yuе.
Memoriеs shе hаd onсe struggled with all hеr might tо sеal аwау nоw flооded оvеr her likе a tоrrent breаching а dаm, swiftlу drowning hеr.
Тhеу had been сlassmates since juniоr high.
Cheng Yue’s fаmily cirсumstanсеs werе quite ordinary, but he was a genius student. As early as sixth grade in elementary school, he had won a bronze medal in the National Robot Creative Design Competition, which was why Wu Mangmang’s middle school had specially granted him admission.
Back then, Wu Mangmang was a rebellious underachiever, determined to become a delinquent. After all, she could fight and had money, making her quite popular at school.
However, even a small middle school had its own social hierarchy. As a first-year junior high girl, Wu Mangmang was naturally no match for the senior-year queen bee.
That night, when she was cornered in an alley, Cheng Yue was the one who came to her rescue like a hero riding on colorful clouds.
Wu Mangmang, just beginning to stir with youthful feelings, looked at Cheng Yue—a godlike figure in academics and equally dashing in a fight—and her young girl’s heart instantly melted into sweet syrup.
What followed was only natural. Although Wu Mangmang was a wealthy young lady, she held no advantage whatsoever in front of the academic prodigy Cheng Yue.
Several pretty girls in their class liked him.
And boys tend to mature later; Cheng Yue had no interest in girls at all.
Wu Mangmang went to great lengths for Cheng Yue, managing with great difficulty to move her seat next to his. However, she couldn’t bring herself to confess her feelings, while Cheng Yue’s desk drawer received love letters every day.
The budding affections of junior high girls should never be underestimated.
Wu Mangmang would secretly watch Cheng Yue every day, reading whatever books he read. When he played basketball, she would sit by the court cheering him on. He liked playing with robots, so she bought all kinds of robot books, hoping one day he might borrow one from her.
When the national robot exhibition was held, Cheng Yue couldn’t afford a plane ticket to attend. Wu Mangmang flew there herself, took photos of everything she could, and sent them to Cheng Yue.
The feelings back then were truly pure, innocent, and frighteningly intense.
Yet even so, Cheng Yue paid no attention to Wu Mangmang.
The change in their relationship happened on the day Wu Mangmang ran away from home during her second year of junior high.
She could no longer remember exactly why she ran away, but she clearly remembered that the weather seemed bitterly cold. Dragging her suitcase, she sat on the flowerbed opposite the school like a stray puppy.
She hated winter break because it meant she had to go home.
It was when Wu Mangmang was cold and hungry that Cheng Yue found her and took her back to his home.
Cheng Yue’s family lived in low-rent housing. His parents were migrant workers who, despite saving for over a decade, still couldn’t afford to buy a house in the city.
Wu Mangmang still remembered how Cheng Yue had cooked her a bowl of noodles, topped with a beautifully fried golden egg.
Tears streaming down her face, she sniffled as she ate the noodles.
“Aren’t you going to eat the egg?” Cheng Yue asked Wu Mangmang.Wu Mangmang blushed and said, "I don't eat soft-boiled eggs." This was the rich young lady—even when starving and dizzy from running away from home, she remained picky.
At the time, Cheng Yue said nothing and simply picked up the remaining fried egg she’d left, eating it in two bites.
Perhaps because they had shared an egg, it felt as though they had shared each other’s saliva, and Wu Mangmang felt their relationship instantly became something special.
Cheng Yue’s face grew redder and redder under her gaze, until even his ears flushed.
Wu Mangmang couldn’t remember how Cheng Yue had convinced her back then, but in any case, she obediently let him take her home.
Looking back now, even if Cheng Yue had given no reason at all, as long as he had spoken, she would have listened to him.
When Wu Mangmang returned home, apart from the servants, none of the family members actually knew she had run away from home.
Naturally, Wu Mangmang felt lost and distressed, but that winter break, everything was different.
Because she had found her own little sun.
Every day, Wu Mangmang would wait for Cheng Yue at McDonald’s to help her with her studies.
Each time, Cheng Yue would bring his own bottle of water, firmly refusing to drink the Coke she bought or eat the burgers she offered. Eventually, Wu Mangmang stopped buying things too, carrying a bottle of mineral water instead. The two of them would huddle in a corner of McDonald’s, studying and solving problems together.
During the summer before their third year of junior high, Wu Mangmang remembered the stars being particularly bright that night when Cheng Yue said to her, "If you want to be my girlfriend, get into Seventh High School with me."
Before that, Wu Mangmang had never considered attending Seventh High School—it was the top school among top schools, with the highest college admission rates year after year. The top ten students in each grade were almost guaranteed admission to first-tier universities in China.
Wu Mangmang had always attended private schools, and for her and her peers, taking high school or college entrance exams was never a concern.
But to become Cheng Yue’s girlfriend, Wu Mangmang spent a year transforming from an academic underachiever to a top student, getting into Seventh High School alongside Cheng Yue.
The power of love, when directed correctly, can be astonishingly creative.
Although high school girls wore oddly colored, outdated uniforms, the transformation of youth could not be stopped by anyone or anything.
Wu Mangmang began to grow taller, her figure slimming and her chest starting to fill out.
In just one summer, Wu Mangmang transformed from an unnoticed little girl into a stunningly beautiful young woman who seemed to have no rivals in looks.
At Seventh High School, Wu Mangmang—with her outstanding looks, privileged background, and excellent grades—quickly became a goddess-like figure. Cheng Yue, naturally, was the undisputed academic god.
Cheng Yue’s grades were excellent, and his athletic performance was even better. Whether it was basketball, soccer, or badminton, no one in the entire grade could outperform him.
In this public school, teachers were strict about early romance. Boss Wu and Ms. Liu didn’t interfere with Wu Mangmang, but Cheng Yue’s parents were determined to see their son succeed. So, Wu Mangmang consciously kept her relationship with Cheng Yue low-key.
Because of this, the number of girls writing love letters to Cheng Yue was overwhelming.
For high school girls, the ideal boy was usually the same type: good grades and good at sports. They never considered family background.
Cheng Yue excelled in both.
Not to mention, he was also incredibly good-looking.For Cheng Yue's numerous admirers, Wu Mangmang had quarreled with him countless times, yet their relationship seemed to grow stronger through the arguments, becoming increasingly sweet.
Wu Mangmang still remembered the feeling of her first kiss with Cheng Yue—her heart nearly leaped out of her chest. She truly experienced the sensation described in novels: "the world spinning, breathless."
To this day, Wu Mangmang still recalls how soft Cheng Yue's lips were, so warm and tender.
His kiss was gentle, sweet, and so tender, as if she were the most precious person in the world.
But misfortune always strikes at the sweetest moments.
That incident happened in their second year of high school.
By then, Wu Mangmang had already grown so beautiful that it was hard to look away.
That night, troublemakers from the school teamed up with local hoodlums and ambushed them on the road while Cheng Yue was riding his bike to take Wu Mangmang home.
The situation was chaotic, and all Wu Mangmang could remember was the overwhelming fear. For her sake, Cheng Yue fought the knife-wielding thugs bare-handed.
It was during that fight that the tendons in his right hand were severed, leaving him unable to use it with strength ever again.
But Cheng Yue never blamed her. Instead, he comforted Wu Mangmang, who was consumed by guilt.
To reassure her, he mastered eating and writing with his left hand in just over a month, joking that he was naturally left-handed but had been forced by his mother to use his right. Now, he was simply returning to his left hand, which meant both sides of his brain were getting exercise, and he was sure to achieve great things in the future.
Holding Cheng Yue, Wu Mangmang made a lifelong promise: "I’ll be good to you forever, Cheng Yue. Forever, only you."
Some might say that promises made by the young are not to be trusted.
But for Wu Mangmang at that time, it was the most sincere and earnest commitment she had ever made.
She wanted to give her love to only one person in her lifetime, without sharing it with anyone else—complete and whole, the most precious love she could offer.
"Me too," Cheng Yue said, lowering his head to press his forehead against hers.
At that moment, Wu Mangmang felt the saying was profoundly true: when God closes a door, He opens a window. And how fortunate she was to have found her window in the first twenty years of her life, letting the sunlight pour in.
By the age of seventeen, Wu Mangmang was already dreaming of her future married life with Cheng Yue.
They would have two children—a boy and a girl. Wu Mangmang even began flipping through classical texts to find names for them.
They had agreed that on her eighteenth birthday, they would take their ID cards and go to a hotel.
They had also agreed to register their marriage at the civil affairs office as soon as they were old enough.
But everything changed after the college entrance exams.
The change was sudden, yet somehow inevitable.
Boss Wu and Ms. Liu, who had never paid much attention to their daughter, suddenly emerged in her final year of high school, taking an interest in her future husband.
The day Cheng Yue came to tell Wu Mangmang he was going to America, the sunlight was exceptionally bright, almost blinding her.
"I’ll go with you," were Wu Mangmang’s first words.
"I want to walk this path alone," Cheng Yue replied, gently moving her hand from his sleeve.Wu Mangmang also knew she couldn’t blame Cheng Yue. Her parents must have said many, many harsh things, and Cheng Yue, who had always relied on himself to get where he was, shouldn’t have had to endure such insults.
“I hope that one day I can stand before your parents with dignity and ask for your hand in marriage, and they will nod in agreement,” Cheng Yue said.
Looking back now, Cheng Yue really hadn’t done anything wrong.
And if Wu Mangmang had been able to accept this fact rationally back then, perhaps today’s meeting would have been a joyous occasion for everyone.
Her first love had finally returned with honors, finally able to say with dignity, “Please give me your daughter’s hand in marriage.”
Unfortunately, people do not remain unchanged, and feelings cannot be sealed away, frozen and unmoving.
“But you know I don’t care about what they said. As long as I can be with you, I’m willing to do anything,” Wu Mangmang cried, reaching for Cheng Yue’s hand. All she wanted was a lover who wouldn’t abandon her.
A lover who wouldn’t turn his back and pretend not to see her tears.
“Mangmang, we’re both still young, and we can’t really be sure what we want most. I love you, but I also love my dreams. Please give me some time,” Cheng Yue said, looking into Wu Mangmang’s eyes.
“You’re still young now, thinking love is everything, but life has many other choices. Wait for me to return. If our feelings haven’t changed, I’ll keep my promise.”
If it were the twenty-seven-year-old Wu Mangmang today, she would wholeheartedly agree with Cheng Yue’s words.
But it wasn’t.
Back then, Wu Mangmang was just a young girl desperately craving love.
Her tears blurred her vision, making it impossible to see Cheng Yue’s face clearly.
That time, they parted on bad terms.
Afterward, Cheng Yue refused to see her again. The last time Wu Mangmang saw him was on the day he flew to the United States. She had learned his flight details from other classmates and rushed to the airport to see him.
Wu Mangmang could no longer clearly remember, or perhaps deliberately chose to forget, the events of that day, unwilling to recall how desperately and humbly she had begged Cheng Yue.
Cheng Yue simply helped her up from the ground and said, “Mangmang, if I don’t leave today, I’ll hate you one day.”
Hate you for hindering my pursuit of my dreams.
And hate you for making me face your parents without dignity.
Love has never been everything in a person’s life.
Watching Cheng Yue walk away, Wu Mangmang couldn’t understand why.
Why could her parents ignore her love for them?
Why did her love for Cheng Yue make him hate her?
Why did her parents, who claimed they would love her as long as she obeyed, turn around and let go of her hand for someone else, something else, or even some unimportant dinner party?
Why did Cheng Yue, who had promised a lifetime, erase six years of feelings for the sake of his dreams?
Why was she always the dispensable one, placed at the very bottom of their priorities?
The destruction of a person’s spirit is both difficult and easy.
When she began to question the meaning of her existence, her soul had already shattered.Wu Mangmang had once forcibly self-suggested, self-denied that memory, but when Cheng Yue reappeared before her, the truth was telling her that no matter how she tried to escape, she would always be the one abandoned, the one who was dispensable and should never have existed in this world.
Scenes from the past flickered before Wu Mangmang’s eyes, frame by frame.
Only, the person who left the airport seemed to be Cheng Yue, yet also seemed not to be.
That person turned back and said to her, “Mangmang, don’t make me hate you.”
This time, Wu Mangmang saw his face clearly—it was Lu Sui.
The scene quickly shifted to the Christmas banquet at Lu Manor the year before last. In the hallway on the second floor, Lu Sui had looked at her with that same cold, disappointed gaze before turning and walking away.
Everyone was destined to abandon her!
The moment Wu Mangmang saw Cheng Yue, her mental world had already collapsed.
She rushed forward, pushed aside Cheng Yue, who stood in her way, and dashed to the elevator, frantically pressing the down button. Then she turned and charged toward the emergency stairwell door, pushed open the heavy door, and ran down the stairs.
At that moment, Lu Sui, sitting in his office, glanced at his watch, calculated the time, and opened his phone. On the map, he saw a small red dot marking Wu Mangmang’s location.
Lu Sui’s lips curved slightly. This girl loved playing “surprises” too much—she never seemed to tire of it.
To accommodate her feelings, Lu Sui even had to put on an expression that said, “You’re here? I’m so overjoyed I could fly.” It was truly a test of his acting skills.
In truth, Wu Mangmang’s sudden appearance could indeed bring Lu Sui extraordinary joy.
But only if he could resist checking the app on his phone that reported Wu Mangmang’s movements in real time.
The map showed that Wu Mangmang was already at Lu Corporation Tower.
Lu Sui set down his phone and called Peng Ze, instructing him to fully cooperate with Miss Wu, who wanted to surprise him.
Lu Sui waited for about five minutes, but there was still no sign of Wu Mangmang. Just as he raised his hand to call Peng Ze, Peng Ze’s internal line came through. “The front desk says Miss Wu just ran down from the stairwell.”
Of course, this was a euphemistic way of putting it. Peng Ze had directly omitted the front desk’s description of her as “acting like a madwoman.”
Lu Sui dialed Wu Mangmang’s number, but no one answered.
Feeling uneasy, he stood up and walked out of his office.
As soon as he stepped out of Lu Corporation Tower, he saw a large crowd gathered on the opposite street.
“Is that woman insane? That driver is so unlucky,” passersby whispered among themselves.
Lu Sui immediately broke into a run.
Peng Ze had never seen his boss lose his composure like this before.
When Lu Sui pushed through the crowd, he saw Wu Mangmang kneeling on the ground in a daze, holding a motionless man in her arms.
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