Chapter 20: The Drunken Beauty's Struggle Against Fate

  A fork in the road off the main thoroughfare of downtown Ping'an City is a famous snack street, where you can see a microcosm of urban nightlife.

  At a barbecue stall at the end of the snack street, Mei Dabao was holding a skewer in each hand, eating with a greasy face.

  He looked exactly like a bandit from the mountains who drank wine out of big bowls and ate meat in large mouthfuls.

  The guests around who were playing rock-paper-scissors and drinking, even the young boss who was flipping skewers to attract business, couldn't help but steal glances. Apparently they were also curious, just how hungry would a beauty have to be, to eat skewers with such abandon and without any regard for her image?

  "Is this woman trying to turn shock and grief into appetite?" Qin Lang looked at Mei Yuxian sitting across from him with a headache, feeling a bit worried.

  What he was worried about wasn't whether Mei Yu Yan could finish so much food in a short time, but whether this woman would suddenly slap the table, stand up and laugh at him three times, then tell him that he was wrong, they were all wrong, and this was her true face.

  Shaking his head, Qin Lang dispelled the absurd thoughts in his mind. Just then, a vague voice entered his ears.

  "Thank you!"

  "Huh? What did you say?" Qin Lang looked at Mei Yuxuan in surprise.

  Mei Yu Yan, who had been eating with her head down, suddenly raised her head, and the gaze reflected in the lamp light fell on Qin Lang's face. This time, she made an effort to swallow the food in her mouth and said clearly: "Thank you."

  "Thank me?" Qin Lang looked at the woman in front of him with interest, "Are you thanking me for coming to drink with you and helping you avoid Zhao Xiaocui's sulfuric acid? Or are you thanking me for pulling you out of your shell? Or is it because I gave you that slap?"

  "We all do." Mei Yu Yan lowered her eyelids, "Actually, in front of the Public Security Bureau building, I wanted to say thank you to you, it's just...just..."

  "You don't need to say it, I understand." Qin Lang waved his hand, thinking about what he had done for this woman, and suddenly felt a little sentimental. "Actually, you don't need to thank me either. If you want to thank someone, you should thank the guy named Qin Lang who was infatuated with you back then."

  "Really?" Mei Yu Yan obviously didn't understand the implication of Qin Lang's words, she smiled wryly and said: "So, that means the current Qin Lang has no lingering feelings for me, right?"

  Qin Lang fell silent.

  He didn't know how to respond to Mei Yu Yan's words.

  Is there any lingering affection?

  It seems not. He helped Mei Yuexuan several times, although there was a component of sympathy and compassion, but more of it was the influence of the previous silly Qin Lang on him, and the one who should have lingering feelings is the previous silly Qin Lang.

  But... isn't there any lingering attachment?

  Qin Lang thought of the turmoil in his heart during that ambiguous treatment, thinking that he had already decided not to get involved with Mei Yu Yan again, but after splashing sulfuric acid, he couldn't help but forcibly take this woman to report to the police, and afterwards, he inexplicably agreed to accompany her for a drink.

  He was very clear that this was not Qin Da's consciousness influencing him, but rather his own heart.

  It had been a long time since she got a response, Mei Yu Yan suddenly grabbed a cup of wine on the table and gulped it down. The wine that poured in was not enough to fill her eyes, which were overflowing with tears, and together they flowed down her neck, wetting her clothes.

  A glass of wine was drained, and Mei Yu Yan collapsed on the table, sobbing: "I know that Qin Lang already looks down on me. Everyone looks down on me. In everyone's eyes, I'm just a cheap thing, a slut, a treacherous and ruthless person who betrays others... Waaahhh..."

  Qin Lang opened his mouth, but didn't know what to comfort her with. He knew that for Mei Yu Yan now, no matter how comforting the words were, they couldn't compare to a good cry.

  "Waaahhh... actually I'm not, I really am not, I'm not a cheap person, nor a prostitute, and even less a scoundrel." Mei Yu Yan continued to cry out in grievance, "I just want to live my own life, I just want to put up some resistance against fate, is that wrong?"

  The wailing sound spread out, and the surrounding noise seemed to have decreased a bit. Even customers from the neighboring stall came over to take a look, but all they saw was a figure huddled on the table, crying in sorrow.

  Alas, this poor woman. Qin Lang sighed in his heart.

  A sentence from Mei Yu Yan's resistance to fate made him think of his past self. The boy who begged from door to door in the cold snowy season, wasn't he also thinking about resisting fate at all times?

  With this idea in mind, when he looked at this sad woman again, his heart ached even more.

  Mei Yu Yan's crying gradually subsided, she lifted her head, her face covered in tears.

  Qin Lang handed over a paper towel, "Wipe it off, the table is about to be flooded."

  Mei Yu Yan didn't reach out to take it, her eyes staring blankly ahead, lost in thought as if immersed in memories, mumbling: "When I was fifteen, my adoptive father fell seriously ill..."

  As the cassette player opened, Qin Lang finally understood from Mei Yuxiang's mouth the unbearable past events.

  It turned out that Mei Yu Yan was an abandoned baby, adopted by a poor couple in the mountains. The reason why this couple adopted Mei Yu Yan was simply because they saw her as a girl who could be raised and married off for a dowry. Based on this purpose, it can be imagined that this couple did not have any affection for Mei Yu Yan.

  Mei Yu Yan grew up in such an environment.

  As she grew up, seeing other children carrying books and going to school, she also wanted to carry a small backpack like the others. But her parents' response to her pleas was cold rejection.

  Not until others told her foster parents that the child was uncultured and would be difficult to marry in the future, and that nine years of compulsory education only required paying for textbooks to attend school, did she finally carry a small school bag with satisfaction.

  By the time she was in third grade, her adoptive parents refused to pay for any more school fees. At a young age, she relied on collecting and selling scraps in wind and rain to save up money, only then could she continue going to school.

  Mei Yu Yan was very competitive, always ranking first in school exams. She thought she could continue to rely on the money she had saved from collecting scraps to attend high school and university, but darkness descended when she was 15 years old.

  Her adoptive father fell seriously ill and the family had no money for treatment, so her adoptive mother thought of taking her to exchange for medical expenses. At this time, Zhao Tiezhu's family came to the door.

  The Zhao family was a wealthy household in the village, and to marry off their own mentally ill son, they offered 200,000 yuan as a betrothal gift. Then Mei Yu Yan's adoptive mother agreed.

  Mei Yu Yan had thought of resisting, but she was powerless to resist. She studied even harder, wanting to leave the mountain village as soon as possible, work and earn money to pay off Zhao's family debt, and get rid of that engagement. But she, who had already grown into an exceptionally beautiful girl, was still targeted by Zhao Tiezhu.

  That night, she was deceived by Zhao Xiaocui and her foster mother to the Zhao family, where Zhao Xiaocui pressed her down on the bed, almost allowing Zhao Tiezhu to take advantage of her.

  But under Meiyu Yan's bitter pleading and desperate resistance, Zhao Tiezhu did not succeed after all. And perhaps it was that abnormal brain that occasionally flashed with insight, he actually let Meiyu Yan go, agreeing to her not to touch him until she finished college.

  It was also for this reason that she had always been grateful to Zhao Tiezhu, thanking him for not ruining her innocence and a girl's dreams that night.

  Her adoptive father eventually died, and her adoptive mother also passed away a few years later. She was left alone with over 10,000 yuan that her adoptive father had saved for medical treatment, which she used to pay the tuition fee for her first year of university. From then on, she relied on part-time tutoring during her free time to earn money for her university tuition and living expenses.

  After work, she took out most of her monthly salary and sent it to the Zhao family. The Zhao family had given 20,000 yuan as a gift that year, while she repaid 60,000 yuan, three times the amount.

  But Zhao's family did not let her off because of this. Zhao Tiezhu would come to find her from time to time. She kept avoiding, but was eventually found by Zhao Tiezhu.

  And then there was what happened in school that day.

  After listening to the whole story, Qin Lang felt a bit heavy in his heart. Mei Yuxian's experience was similar to his own; they were both abandoned babies and had once thought of fighting against their fate.

  Unlike others, he succeeded.

  But Mei Yu Yan, however, was only superficially successful.

  "I never thought of killing Tie Zhu Ge, I'm very grateful to him in my heart, but...but...he ended up dying because of me." Mei Yu Yan's tears fell again, she grabbed a cup of wine and gulped it down, until she was choked and coughing nonstop.

  "Teacher Mei, after hearing your story, I believe that you are a strong person at heart. Believe me, fate is most afraid of being strong, what you need now is just to persist, persist and persist again." Qin Lang also grabbed a cup of beer from the table, raised his glass and said: "Originally my body can't drink alcohol, but now I want to toast you a cup."

  Mei Yu Yan, who had just recovered from her coughing fit, took the wine and drank it all with Qin Lang without hesitation.

  It was unclear whether it was the effect of alcohol or finding a confidant, but she had vented out her emotions. When putting down the wine cup, Mei Yuxian's tears had stopped flowing. She took a deep breath and said: "I feel much better after talking about it. You toast me a glass, I'll toast you one too, let's consider this as my gratitude to you as your teacher."

  After finishing speaking, she picked up a cup of beer and drank it all in one gulp.

  Mei Yu Yan's alcohol capacity was clearly average, and in a short time, she had downed four large cups of beer. She was already tipsy, her face flushed red, and her eyes misty. Seeing that Qin Lang hadn't drunk any wine, she tapped the table and said: "Why aren't you drinking?"

  Qin Lang shook his head: "You drink, after all, there must be one person who is sober. Besides, my body can't handle wine, that last cup was already quite a struggle."

  "Also right." Mei Yu Yan nodded dizzily, suddenly shaking her head like a rattle drum, "Not right not right, the first reason is right, the second reason is not. How can your body not drink wine? Didn't teacher remember correctly that your family runs a winery? You can't drink?"

  It seems this woman isn't drunk after all! Qin Lang was somewhat surprised, he hadn't expected that this woman would actually know that his family ran a winery.

  He remembered that Qin Da had little contact with Teacher Mei before. Moreover, Mei Yuxuan was just an art teacher and not the class teacher, how could she know about his family situation?

  "Haha, can't hide it anymore?" Mei Yu Yan's wine had taken effect, and she completely forgot that just a second ago, she was still immersed in pain, tears streaming down her face. Suddenly, she became as cheerful as a little girl who had secretly eaten candy.

  She pointed at Qin Lang's nose and said, "Don't think I don't know what you've been up to. You secretly gave me love letters, secretly took pictures of me, and... and that time during the school sports meet, you took advantage of the crowd to sneak a grope of my butt, I know everything."

  "Was I that shameless before?" Qin Lang couldn't help but rub his nose with a mixture of laughter and tears, wanting to flip through the memories of Big Dumb Qin, but his heart couldn't help but burst out laughing. This Big Dumb Qin, although not too bright, had a high EQ!

  "You're very sly, but you can pretend even better." Mei Yu Yan smiled with her eyes narrowed, looking especially happy. "You pretend to be a fool in front of your classmates and teachers, and stutter when speaking in front of me, but this time the teacher got into trouble and finally forced out your true self. I only now realize that your previous behavior was all an act to deceive people, haha, you're a swindler, little swindler."

  "A cheat is a cheat after all." Qin Lang shook his head helplessly.

  He knew that Mei Yuxuan would always react when he showed a different attitude than usual.

  He couldn't possibly tell this drunken woman that he had changed because of the soul-snatching, nor was there any need to explain these things.

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