24. Two Different Worlds (Part One)

That reunion in front of the school gate had swept Wen Mingjuan up in the moment, her true feelings pouring out unguarded; she had never once imagined it would stir up so much unnecessary trouble.

Isn't that exactly what they mean by "the world grows more decadent by the day, and people's hearts are no longer what they once were"?

This whole scene had been witnessed by the gate guard, who of course made sure to broadcast it far and wide with plenty of embellishment. In this day and age, if you've got gossip and don't spread it around with a little extra seasoning, you might as well be counted among the mute. Naturally, within a day or two, practically the entire school knew about it.

The one who bore the brunt of this whole affair was, without a doubt, Lin Yitan. Everyone gossiped endlessly, all saying Gao Weizhao had swooped in and stolen another man's love, that he must have used some kind of trick to have Wen Mingjuan wrapped completely around his finger — after all, someone as kind and guileless as Wen Mingjuan was the easiest kind of person to be deceived.

Naturally, many colleagues came forward to try to talk sense into her, mainly hoping she would keep her distance from the underworld. A teacher and a gang boss — however you looked at it, the two simply shouldn't be mixed together. Some even cast themselves as guardians of moral purity, determined to strictly monitor Wen Mingjuan, resolved not to let Gao Weizhao get anywhere near her again. All this and more left Wen Mingjuan with a splitting headache.

Had she ever truly realized just how powerful this society's fixed values could be?

Was a profession representative of a person's status, a marker of social rank, a sharp tool for dividing people into different tiers?

No, that wasn't how she saw it.

This was an utterly absurd state of affairs.

The only trouble was, nobody agreed with her! Caught in the flood of society's established values, she had already been branded — and if she wanted to overturn that verdict, how could it possibly be easy?

Wave after wave of powerful public criticism kept crashing over her; even the principal and the head of student affairs had personally come to "express their concern" — what more could she possibly say to that?

What made it even sadder was this: she herself hadn't even seriously considered yet whether she liked Gao Weizhao at all, and already the pressure of public opinion was leaving her breathless.

Public opinion.

It really could strangle the very soul out of a person!

Isn't love simply a matter between two willing hearts? Why did it have to drag along so much terrifying public backlash and resistance?

She didn't understand it.

Perhaps this alone wasn't enough yet to call truly terrifying — something even more frightening still lay ahead.

* * *

After weathering two or three days of storms, she finally struggled through to the end of the workday. Wen Mingjuan sped home on her scooter, and just as she rounded the corner, she spotted her parents from a distance, standing in front of the intercom, each wearing a face full of worry.

What wind had blown these two old folks all the way here from their home in Kaohsiung?

Wen Mingjuan wondered to herself.

"Mom, Dad, why are you here?" Parking her scooter, she walked over to greet her parents.

"You, girl..." Her mother started to say something, her face twisted with such an ugly expression, but her father immediately cut her off.

"Whatever you have to say, let's say it upstairs."

Once the door opened and they climbed the stairs, Wen Mingjuan's heart was clenched tight the whole way up. Her parents had always trusted her; in all her years at this school, the two of them had only come to visit twice in total. This sudden, unannounced visit meant something serious must be going on. Just now her mother had seemed to want to say something to her, but held back in front of everyone — thinking about it only made her more uneasy.

Could this be about Gao Weizhao too?

But how could they possibly have found out?

Her heart hung in her chest, lurching up and down; Wen Mingjuan felt her head begin to throb terribly.

"I ask you, what on earth is going on, getting tangled up with that hoodlum?" The moment they were inside, Wen Mingjuan's mother could no longer hold back, immediately launching into a tirade, her tone harsh, every word an accusation. "You've dragged the Wen family's good name through the mud, do you have any idea?"

"Our family may not be from some scholarly lineage, but at the very least, your father and I have lived our whole lives obeying the law and behaving properly, and we're teachers ourselves besides — and you go running off to mix with hoodlums? What is this supposed to look like?" Wen Mingjuan's mother grew more furious the more she talked.

Wen Mingjuan's father didn't say anything, but the expression on his face was equally grave.

"Don't put it so ugly! What do you mean 'tangled up,' what do you mean 'mixing with hoodlums'? And here you call yourself a teacher too."

Perhaps because Wen Mingjuan's mood had already been worn thin by this topic these past several days, and now her mother was flying into a rage over it, coming to interrogate her — she was utterly fed up, and shot back a retort without thinking twice.

"There's nothing at all between him and me, don't go making things up."

"Just look at you! I said two words and you gave me back a whole tirade. My, how times have changed! It's true what they say, stay close to vermilion and you turn red, stay close to ink and you turn black. It's that hoodlum who's corrupted you, and now you dare talk back to your own parents like this."

Wen Mingjuan's mother was seething with fury; she'd already been full of anger, and never expected that her usually obedient daughter would give her such an ugly look right off the bat, and so her rage flared even higher, like adding fuel to the fire.

"That surnamed Gao hoodlum needn't get any bright ideas — your father and I will never agree to let you be with him. Our Wen family lives clean and upright, holding our heads high, and we will absolutely never allow our daughter to become some underworld boss's woman."

"Not a chance in the world." she repeated once more.

Wen Mingjuan's headache, mixed now with a wave of dizziness, kept assaulting her in that moment.

Suddenly, her mind went completely blank.

Three straight days of exhaustion, body and soul — she'd lost, utterly and completely lost. She would rather have been knocked unconscious by an accidental slap from Gao Weizhao than choose to be dizzied by the crushing pressure everyone kept piling onto her with their endless words. Her illness hadn't fully healed yet, and now, after several more days of "fighting this battle," she finally couldn't hold on any longer; her vision went black and she fainted dead away right there.

Could someone please tell her — is it truly impossible for society to accept two people from different worlds falling in love?

Would a love that hadn't even properly begun yet be forced to declare itself over, just like this?

And just who was it, exactly, who had drawn such a forceful line through this world, splitting it into two, and then splitting those into countless more?

* * *

Before her parents left, they had repeated their warnings over and over — under no circumstances was their beloved daughter to be with Gao Weizhao. Even with Wen Mingjuan lying unconscious, her mother showed not the slightest sign of backing down. Zhang Tingyu had also come back to the apartment after work, and her mother asked Zhang Tingyu to call Lin Yitan and insist he come over no matter what. It was only then that Wen Mingjuan understood how her parents had found out about all this in the first place — it had been Lin Yitan's doing all along.

Lin Yitan had tried to use Wen Mingjuan's parents to eliminate the threat Gao Weizhao posed to him, striking first by bringing in these two heaven-sent reinforcements.

Her parents' meaning was crystal clear: the one they approved of was Lin Yitan. To him, the two old folks earnestly entrusted their daughter, asking him to take good care of Wen Mingjuan.

Having entrusted their daughter to Lin Yitan, the two of them finally made their way back to Kaohsiung under cover of night. Before leaving, they didn't forget to threaten to cut off their mother-daughter relationship entirely, swearing they would never, under any circumstances, allow Wen Mingjuan to have anything more to do with Gao Weizhao.

Lying in bed, Wen Mingjuan's exhausted body refused to obey her. She couldn't manage even a single bite of the boxed meal Zhang Tingyu had bought for her. Her head kept throbbing without pause, though it was nothing compared to the heaviness pressing on her heart.

After a violent bout of coughing, Lin Yitan sat down on the edge of her bed, wanting to pat her back or something, but Wen Mingjuan flatly refused.

"Don't do that." Wen Mingjuan said coldly. "I don't love you, so why do you insist on making this so hard for yourself?"

"You could try to notice more of my good qualities." Lin Yitan tried to say more, but was cut off immediately by Wen Mingjuan.

"Love can't be forced. Don't think that bringing my parents into this will change anything. I'm so tired, do you understand? I'm already this exhausted, and you still won't let up?"

"But..."

"I know you're very good to me. But there's simply no connection between your feelings and mine, and that's true whether Gao Weizhao exists or not. Even if I can't be with Gao Weizhao, that absolutely doesn't mean I'll fall for you instead, or even be with you. Do you understand that or not?"

"Why?" Lin Yitan's face had gone ashen, looking rather wretched. "You'd rather like Gao Weizhao, and yet you won't even give me a second glance. What's so good about that hoodlum anyway? What could he possibly offer you? Maybe he's just toying with your feelings — and you'd trust someone like that?"

"I've told you already, this has nothing to do with him at all. I have no feelings for you — not before, not now, and never will." Wen Mingjuan said wearily, her head starting to spin again.

"Who can say for certain what the future holds? You ought to give me a chance — maybe someday you'll come to see how good I can be to you." Lin Yitan still tried to fight for something.

"No!" Wen Mingjuan turned her head away, her dizziness growing worse.

Especially with Lin Yitan's continued chattering right beside her ear.

"Please go." she finally issued the order to leave. "My head is spinning, I want to rest."

Lin Yitan sat there dazed for a good while, his face shifting from pale green to white, and then from white to a bleak, ashen gray. Wen Mingjuan had made herself perfectly clear — starting today, it seemed she was no longer going to give him any chance to cling on any longer.

He suddenly felt a heavy tightness in his chest.

Was this the moment, after a whole year, that his hopes finally went up in smoke?

He had cared for and cherished Wen Mingjuan so devotedly, and yet she looked right past him as if he weren't even there?

Even with the advantage of having the girl's own parents on his side, he had still lost this battle.

He felt so bitterly unwilling to accept it.

Even so, aside from leaving Wen Mingjuan's home in dejection, what else was there left for him to salvage?