Chapter 40: Even So, I Want to Realize My Ideals
Unable to refuse Fang Jianing’s proposal, the three ended up wandering around the vicinity for a few rounds. Anyway, Fang Jianing’s parents were very polite, even offering to drive them back after they finished browsing. Nangong Ying ultimately declined, saying she could go back with Yu Linna herself.
Although Fang Jianing was slightly disappointed, she still wore a smile. She had fun today, so it didn’t matter. She also knew that compared to herself, Yu Linna’s relationship with Nangong Ying was closer.
“Your friend is quite enthusiastic. Is she always like this?”
“Well, you’ll get used to it.”
The two took a Didi back, with Nangong Ying still paying the fare. Looking at the shopping bags in her hand, Nangong Ying felt helpless. She had bought a bit too much without realizing it. She wouldn’t be living here often in the future; she had bought too many clothes.
“Linna, you don’t have any plans next, right?”
“No.”
“Come sit at my place. My mom wants to see you too. Haven’t you not come for a long time?”
Speaking of the Nangong family, Yu Linna hadn’t been there for a long time. When she first met Nangong Ying, she used to visit her home quite often. At that time, they often kept her for meals and were always very good to her. Yu Linna had also been taken care of by them for a period. But starting from the second year of high school, she never went again. Because although Yu Linna was thick-skinned, she didn’t want to trouble others.
This time Nangong Ying brought it up, Yu Linna hesitated slightly, but still agreed. Just visiting wouldn’t be a problem; after all, it wasn’t her first time.
Arriving at Nangong Ying’s home again, the long-lost feeling resurfaced. The flowers in front of the Nangong family’s door had been replaced with new ones. Stepping onto this land, a few birds sang on the branches. A fallen leaf landed at her feet. Yu Linna looked at this familiar yet strange place, feeling waves of discomfort in her heart. It had only been a while since she last came here, why did it feel so distant?
“Xiaoying, you’re back! It must be cold in Beijing, come in. Oh my, isn’t this Little Nana? You came too! Let Auntie see, you haven’t come for so long~”
Seeing Yu Linna, whom she hadn’t seen for a long time, Mother Nangong was overjoyed. She went forward and pinched her little cheek. Hmm, still as soft as before, feels really good.
“Hello, Auntie… Can you let go of me now…”
To be honest, she wasn’t quite used to such enthusiasm.
“Isn’t it because I missed you? Come in and sit down. Auntie will prepare snacks for you. You girl really like to eat, right? Come, come in quickly.”
“Mom, I’m your biological daughter.”
Nangong Ying silently complained behind her back. Her mother really… clearly she was the biological daughter, okay? Why was she so good to Yu Linna?
In the end, cuteness is the original sin!
Mother Nangong was genuinely good to Yu Linna, hugging her, pinching her cheeks, and finally serving her tea and snacks. She even asked if she wanted her to bake a cake, almost recognizing her as a goddaughter. Yu Linna felt a little embarrassed eating the snacks given to her. They were truly enthusiastic; even she, shameless as she was, would feel shy.
“Little Nana, you stopped coming to our house after starting sophomore year. Why?”
“This… I’ve been busy with studies. You know, I’m in the advanced class.”
This was a typical blatant lie. Her busy time was actually spent working part-time. Saying it was for studying was simply deceiving. Although her academic performance was indeed very good, it definitely wasn’t because she spent most of her time studying; she just memorized the key points.
“Little Nana, you can treat this place as your own home. You can come over anytime. Stay for dinner tonight. If you don’t mind, you can share a room with Xiaoying.”
“No, no, no, forget it, forget it. I can’t trouble you.”
“How is this troubling? Auntie is so happy you came. You must come here often to play, understand?”
Nangong Ying silently brewed tea nearby, casually picked up a newspaper, but her peripheral vision was still on these two. Seeing the slightly flustered expression on Yu Linna’s face, she secretly smiled.
Yu Linna’s family situation was very difficult, having nothing, drifting since childhood, pitifully without parents. Actually, if Yu Linna was willing, Nangong Ying wanted to adopt her as a younger sister, but Yu Linna never agreed.
But it didn’t matter. Just seeing the smile on her face was enough; she didn’t need too much luxury.
“By the way, Xiaoying, didn’t you say you were going to participate in a screen test? When are you going?”
Only after chatting with Yu Linna for a long time did the mother remember her own daughter’s existence and ask about her affairs. Her daughter had always been excellent, and she rarely worried. But when she heard her daughter was going for a screen test and wanted to act in a movie, she was still startled. She had never thought her daughter would have the idea of acting in movies.
The entertainment industry, after all, was a chaotic place, different from the sports field. The mother was still very worried about her daughter.
“Um, next week, I guess. I don’t know if I’ll be selected yet. I still need to work hard.”
“You’ve never had experience filming things before, unlike your father who filmed commercials. Can you really perform under the spotlight?”
Nangong Ying’s mother, Zhang Jing, although she had never been on stage, should know what kind of place the entertainment industry was – a huge stage, and also a huge vortex. To be honest, from a mother’s perspective, she didn’t like her daughter jumping into this big vortex.
“Whether it’s good or not, I’ll only know after trying. I know my dad definitely won’t agree to let me go, but I don’t plan to ask for his opinion. Besides, I’m eighteen, already an adult.”
Zhang Jing sighed heavily. Could it be that her daughter was going through a rebellious phase? She used to be so obedient.
As for Yu Linna, she was just a bystander, better to just silently drink tea.
Nangong Ying had been an excellent and good child since childhood, following in her father’s footsteps in training. She joined the martial arts team very early, thus forming an indissoluble bond with sports. From childhood to adulthood, she won many awards in sports competitions, almost sweeping all the awards for children of the same age, outstanding to the extreme. But after winning the tennis championship in her first year of high school, she announced she was giving up her career and would no longer be an athlete.
This really angered her father, almost to the point of severing father-daughter ties. But Nangong Ying still wouldn’t change her mind, insisting on not practicing sports, refusing to take the sports university entrance exam, and unwilling to be her father’s successor. The father-daughter relationship thus became delicate.
“You should still talk to your father about it. After all, he’s your dad. When you quit the martial arts team back then, your dad was furious, almost flew back from Denmark on a plane. Wasn’t it me who persuaded him? Later, you stopped playing tennis, and your dad flew back from Shanghai from afar to scold you. If you don’t tell him this time, be careful he doesn’t get angry again.”
Nangong Ying fell silent. She didn’t like this. It had been like this since childhood; her relationship with her dad was perhaps too tense. But she had to admit, her dad was always right.
But she didn’t think she was wrong either.
“Got it. I’ll call him tonight.”
Nangong Ying uttered this sentence helplessly. Although very unwilling, she had to do it.
Yu Linna, as an onlooker, scratched her head. She, an outsider, couldn’t interfere. She had known Nangong Ying for so long and naturally knew her family situation, but it wasn’t convenient for her to talk about these things. She had visited the Nangong home many times and had also met Nangong’s father a few times. Nangong Ying’s father was a professional athlete, a national-level elite, who had represented the country in the Olympics multiple times. He was also a big star. Her father had even endorsed commercials. It wasn’t wrong to say Nangong Ying was a second-generation star.
It was just that Nangong Ying didn’t want to be an athlete. The place she wanted to go was the stage, not the sports field. What she wanted was to express herself, not to compete for superiority.
She and Yu Linna were different from the very beginning. Yu Linna just appeared out of nowhere, while she was the legitimate descendant of a celebrity.
Yu Linna didn’t stay for dinner later, insisting on leaving. Zhang Jing couldn’t keep her, could only wave goodbye tearfully, asking her to definitely come again next time. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to come, but now she felt a bit awkward. She was embarrassed to say that she and Nangong Ying were actually competitors in the same arena next week.
Competing head-on with Nangong Ying, she really didn’t have much confidence. But in order to live a good life, she had to work hard. It couldn’t just be Nangong Ying climbing higher and higher while she remained stagnant. She also wanted to become a shining person.
“Just work a little harder.”
Looking at the date displayed on her phone, she encouraged herself. On this road, the dense crowd quickly submerged her. Like everyone else, she was instantly buried in the crowd, never to be found again.
Could fate really grant her wish, realize her ideals? It was really hard to say.
But the opportunity had been given to her. Whether she could create possibilities depended on herself.
Carrying her small bag, humming a little tune, she walked back to her home. After entering this complex, due to the darkness of the night, she always had an eerie feeling. And for some reason, she had a bad premonition.
“Calm down, okay!”
“How outrageous! That Yu girl has run off somewhere again! She still hasn’t paid off the rent she owes!”
“She might not have run away. Don’t be impulsive…”
“Damn it! I shouldn’t have rented this house to her in the first place! Ever since she rented it, she has never paid the rent on time! Sooner or later, I’ll kick her out!”
Yu Linna hid behind the wall, trembling, not daring to make a sound. She remembered clearly how much rent she still owed. She had earned little recently and spent a lot, having no spare capacity to make up the difference. If this continued, she would definitely be miserable.
“I must earn money quickly…”
Hiding behind the wall, listening to the jarring quarrel, the determination in her heart grew deeper.
She had to quickly earn enough money, then escape poverty, and pay off the owed money early. She, Yu Linna, would absolutely not be destined to work part-time jobs for a lifetime. She wanted to stand out, she wanted to become as outstanding as Nangong Ying.
For this, it didn’t matter if she became someone else.
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