☆, Chapter 16: An Encounter
The next day was Monday. Hao Yi went to school dejectedly, while Hao Ren took Daizi and Lucky out, preparing to patrol her territory and visit her subjects.
The animals’ enthusiasm for paying homage had not diminished, and H City was still the focus of many wildlife experts. The Hao family villa had become a tourist destination for animals during this time. The nearby park, which was originally a good place for everyone to walk their dogs, was now occupied by waves of animals from afar. Unable to go far, Hao Ren decided to visit the park first. She wondered how the three underage leopard cats she had left there were doing.
Thanks to the tireless efforts of our city’s leadership, with Comrade Zhu Jianhuan at its core, in building an ecological H City over the years, although various animals had arrived in waves, the initial chaos of animals running rampant did not occur. Every animal was able to successfully find shelter.
Of course, H City’s environmental capacity was also limited. If they continued to flock here without restraint, this balance would be broken sooner or later. Hao Ren did ask the well-informed animals like mice and sparrows to warn the small animals not to come here, but the effectiveness of this could be seen from the increasing number of strange offerings in her nursery. Compared to domestic pets, the gifts from wild animals were always so horrifying. Dead mice and raw legs of lamb were considered good. Hao Ren had even seen a large pile of writhing caterpillars on her windowsill once. Fortunately, she had closed the window tightly that night…
On the way to the park, Hao Ren saw an acquaintance she had never dreamed of seeing—that kidnapper.
When Hao Yi saw him, he was strenuously pedaling a tricycle up a slope. The tricycle was loaded with twenty-kilogram barrels of purified water, and his tricycle was not electric but entirely human-powered. There were a dozen such barrels of water on the vehicle, and one can imagine the hardship involved. The sun had not yet reached its zenith, so it wasn’t the hottest time of the day, but sweat was constantly streaming down his cheeks, and even his T-shirt was soaked with sweat. His face was flushed red.
Although the ferocious face of the kidnapper from her past life still lingered in Hao Ren’s memory, the young man in front of her was not that kidnapper. After a moment of hesitation, Hao Ren couldn’t help but go forward and give him a push. With Hao Ren’s help, the tense expression on the young man’s face immediately relaxed, and the tricycle’s speed changed from a snail’s pace to a normal speed.
The young man must have realized that someone had helped him. As soon as he finished climbing the slope, he stopped his vehicle under the shade of a tree and turned to thank Hao Ren.
“It’s you!” The young man recognized her. After thanking her, a surprised smile quickly appeared on his face. Hao Ren thought he was remembering the time he had saved her, but his next words were unexpected. “I saw you on TV, this year’s provincial top scorer in science!”
“Has that episode already aired?” Hao Ren smiled at him. Her mind had been full of cats and dogs recently, and she hadn’t even noticed.
Since they had run into each other three times, it must be fate. There was no harm in getting to know each other. To avoid the tragedy of her past life, Hao Ren decided to make the kidnapper her friend. “Thank you for what you did before. By the way, I still don’t know your name.”
“Li Fugui.” A shy smile instantly appeared on the kidnapper’s face. “Li as in the character for ‘plum tree,’ Fugui as in ‘rich and noble.'”
Hearing this name, Hao Ren instantly understood why his expression was so embarrassed when he said his name. What a rustic name! She never thought that a handsome boy like the kidnapper would have such a rustic name! His parents really hadn’t thought it through when they named him.
Looking at classmate Li Fugui’s uncomfortable expression, Hao Ren quickly changed the subject. “How did you do on the exam?”
“Fifth in the province. I can’t compare to you.” Li Fugui scratched his head in embarrassment.
Hao Ren was startled. She never thought that the kidnapper was so talented. After calming her shocked heart, she asked curiously, “Which university are you planning to go to?”
“Imperial University, probably. What about you?”
“What a coincidence!” Hao Ren was shocked. She had already decided to fight with Hao Yi for the family fortune, so of course, she had to study business administration. The best school for business administration in the country was Imperial University. After figuring this out, she had decisively set her first choice. She never expected that the kidnapper was planning to go to the same university as her.
Hearing that the top scorer of the college entrance exam was planning to apply to the same school as him, Li Fugui immediately became nervous. “What’s your major? I’m thinking of applying for the finance major at Imperial University.”
“Business administration.”
“Oh.” Classmate Li Fugui let out a long sigh of relief.
“It’s such a hot day, why are you doing this kind of work?” Hao Ren frowned slightly as she looked at his tricycle loaded with purified water. This kind of work was tiring enough on a normal day, let alone during the dog days of summer.
“Delivering water for someone, to earn some money for tuition.” Li Fugui rubbed his head in embarrassment again. Although his face was tired, his eyes were surprisingly clear, completely different from the kidnapper with murderous intent in his memory.
Looking at the young man in front of her, who exuded youth and vitality, Hao Ren sighed inwardly. As long as a person had a little hope in life, who would want to be a kidnapper? She wondered what kind of past the kidnapper from her previous life had experienced to have walked down that road of no return.
Looking at the current kidnapper with the mindset of an adult, he looked like a hardworking child from a poor family. Not only could she not hate him, but she even felt a little sorry for him. If it were Hao Yi, he would probably be watching beautiful women on a beach in Hawaii during the same summer vacation.
“Have some water.” Looking at the sweat-drenched young man in front of her, Hao Ren took out a water bottle from her Prada crossbody bag.
This time, the bag she was carrying was no longer a men’s bag that Hao Yi had discarded. Hao Yi had insisted on buying it for her when they were shopping at the mall. Well, actually, it had been Hao Yi’s card that was swiped that day. The amount of that guy’s allowance had always been staggering, so Hao Ren didn’t feel embarrassed at all.
Having been frugal for so many years, Hao Ren would, of course, not spend money on bottled water. The bottle was filled with cooled boiled water from home. The bottle was from a drink her grandmother had bought for her when she was still alive. Although that drink was still being sold, the company had long since changed its packaging, so this bottle could be considered an antique.
Li Fugui had originally wanted to refuse, but when he saw the old-fashioned water bottle, his expression suddenly relaxed. He thanked her and accepted it with a smile. It was a summer day, and after such a struggle under the sun, he was indeed extremely thirsty. He drank more than half the bottle in one go. Looking at the small amount of water left in the bottle in his hand, he gave a wry smile, feeling a little embarrassed. Although there was a water bottle hanging on his tricycle, with such severe dehydration, the water inside had long been drunk. From his appearance, he had clearly been thirsty for a long time.
“It’s fine, I’m not thirsty. You can have it all!” Hao Ren generously pushed back the water bottle he handed back.
“Thank you!” he said, then tilted his head back and gulped down another large mouthful.
His blissful expression made Hao Ren’s heart ache. If the young man’s current appearance were to be used in a beverage commercial, that drink would definitely sell like crazy.
She hadn’t noticed it when they first met, but now Hao Ren realized that the young man in front of her was slightly hunched. He stood there with a timid and restrained feeling, a stark contrast to the murderous and fearless kidnapper leader in her memory.
Hao Ren had been in a similar state before, so she of course understood the reason for his appearance. Inferiority! Just from his name and what he was doing now, she knew that his family background was definitely not good. Hao Ren understood that feeling all too well.
Although Hao Ren should technically be considered “pale, rich, and beautiful,” the image she had presented to her classmates since she was young was that of a classic poor loser. Children are really not as wonderful as adults imagine; they are never soft-hearted when it comes to bullying the weak and fearing the strong. The disheveled Hao Ren naturally became their best target for bullying and ridicule.
When she was still in elementary school, that feeling of inferiority had been deeply engraved in Hao Ren’s bones. She always felt that everyone was high and mighty, while she was as low as dust. For several years, Hao Ren had never walked with her back straight.
Fortunately, her grandmother had noticed the signs early on and quickly corrected her. Hao Ren still remembered being punished by standing against a wall for a whole summer vacation, remembered her grandmother forcing her to read the newspaper to the elderly at the nearby senior center every day… That summer, her grandmother had endured the disdainful looks of Mr. and Mrs. Hao and stayed in Hao Ren’s nursery for two months, personally teaching her what confidence was.
Thanks to her grandmother’s careful guidance, when she entered high school, Hao Ren was able to face the repeated provocations of the young ladies of the Angel Alliance with a healthy mindset. Thinking back now, that guy Hao Yi’s attitude towards her also seemed to have changed after that summer vacation. Just as her grandmother had once said, a person’s self-perception affects how others perceive you. If you don’t even love yourself, then who will love you? If you smile at the world, the world will smile back at you.
In fact, when she first entered high school, Hao Ren’s generous demeanor had once made the people of the Angel Alliance think of recruiting her. It was only later, when they discovered that she couldn’t even afford a decent meal, that they gave up the idea. The reason they hated her to the bone was probably because Hao Ren had made them feel foolish, probably thinking, “You’re a poor loser, what right do you have to be as confident and beautiful as us?”
If it weren’t for her grandmother, Hao Ren felt that she would have also developed a personality as inferior and timid as Li Fugui’s.
Thinking of everything her grandmother had done for her, Hao Ren would often imagine what an outstanding woman her mother, who had been raised by her, would have been.
Recalling her past self, Hao Ren suddenly felt a sense of kinship with the young man in front of her, and the last bit of resistance she had towards him vanished.
“Who else is in your family? Why do you need to earn your own tuition?” Since she was going to make him a friend, of course, she had to get to know him better.
Li Fugui smiled embarrassedly, his already hunched body shrinking even more. “It’s just my mother and my sister at home. My mother is sick, and my sister can’t work outside for some reason, so I have to rely on myself.”
“What about your father?”
Hearing Hao Ren mention his father, the smile on Li Fugui’s face quickly disappeared. He lowered his head and answered in a somewhat dry voice, “He used to work at a construction site. Later, he had an accident due to overwork. Because he didn’t have a labor contract, the boss just threw down twenty thousand yuan and refused to take any more responsibility. We spent all our family’s savings to save my father, and my mother also fell ill, but he didn’t make it.”
“Bastard! How can there be such an irresponsible boss! He should be struck by lightning!” Hearing Li Fugui’s answer, Hao Ren was filled with righteous indignation. “What’s the name of that construction company?”
“Yuntian Construction.”
Hao Ren sucked in a cold breath. That construction company was under the Hao Corporation. She had asked for the name of the construction company with the intention of using Hao Yi’s connections to give that company a lesson through Hao Weiguo, but she never expected the result to be so surprising.
“I have to continue delivering water. Thank you so much for today!” Li Fugui was completely unaware of the turmoil in Hao Ren’s heart. He climbed onto his tricycle and waved goodbye to Hao Ren.
Hao Ren still hadn’t come back to her senses even after watching the young man’s thin figure disappear around the street corner. Her mind kept replaying the ferocious eyes of the kidnapper from her past life. Now she finally understood why there was such deep hatred in them when he mentioned Hao Weiguo.
“Little girl, let’s go!”
The cat and dog had been sitting quietly at Hao Ren’s feet while she was talking to Li Fugui. It wasn’t until now that Daizi finally spoke. It was normal for Lucky not to react since it had never seen Li Fugui before, but Daizi’s reaction was somewhat unexpected to Hao Ren.
Thinking of Daizi’s reaction the first time it saw Li Fugui in this life, Hao Ren had thought that Daizi hadn’t attacked the kidnapper at that time because it didn’t want to repay kindness with enmity. Now that it saw him again, it would surely seek revenge. With Daizi’s temperament, even if it didn’t pounce on him and bite him, it would definitely bark at him a few times. She never expected it to be much calmer than she had imagined.
“Uncle Daizi, I thought you would have a big reaction when you saw him.”
Daizi let out a long sigh as it looked in the direction where Li Fugui had disappeared and said faintly, “He’s still just a child. He is him, but he is also not him.”