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墨書 Inktalez
June 3rd is He Zhengwei's birthday.
But he is not happy.
In the morning, he eagerly answered a phone call from his mother, thinking it was a congratulatory call. Instead, she unleashed a torrent of complaints and criticisms. After she finished scolding him, she asked what his plans were after graduation.
"Mom, I got into graduate school."
His mother exploded on the other end of the line, "Graduate school? We don’t have the money for that! You need to find a job and start earning money, do you hear me?"
"Why can’t I go to grad school? I can pay for my own tuition!"
"And what about your brother? Are you just going to ignore him?"
"He's not my brother!" He Zhengwei retorted loudly.
His mother continued to berate him with harsh words until he finally hung up the phone.
His parents divorced when he was fifteen, on his birthday no less, and that was when his misfortune began. After leaving his father with his mother, the resentment from her previous marriage weighed heavily on them, causing He Zhengwei to live in shadows every day since turning fifteen.
When he turned eighteen, his mother remarried; by twenty, she had a baby boy. From that moment on, he not only had to take care of himself but was also forced to shoulder the responsibility of supporting his younger brother.
He had no desire to bear this obligation. After his mother remarried and while he was in college, his stepfather refused to even pay for his tuition—why should he have to support another child?
From the moment he decided to secretly apply for graduate school without telling his mother, he no longer held any illusions about family.
He stepped out of the bathroom and glanced at the upper bunk; Yan Qing was still asleep in bed.
He took the trash downstairs and tossed it into the bin.
He needed to find a classmate in Dong Yuan 15 Building Dormitory. On his way there, he noticed something following him stealthily.
It was Zhao Xiang’s cat; he often fed it when it roamed around their dormitory, and sometimes Yan Qing would toss it some cat food if she spotted it. But it was closest to He Zhengwei.
He stopped and said, "Can you go home?"
The cat meowed softly before turning away and leaving.
He arrived at the East Courtyard Dormitory. The classmate was still asleep.
He Zhengwei woke him up, speaking in a calm tone as if negotiating. "Classmate, Teacher Ke said that as long as the two of us go together to explain the situation to the academic affairs office, the school will delete the saved thesis information. I can resubmit it from my website, and everything will be fine. So I really need your help."
"What do you mean? When did I say I would go with you to talk to the teacher?" The classmate replied coldly.
"He Zhengwei, why should I bear the consequences of your mistake?"
He Zhengwei felt anxious. He had bought the thesis check count from this classmate at a cheap price, but it wasn’t him who clicked submit; it was this classmate who accidentally clicked it after he left. He knew it was too late now.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Classmate, I'm begging you. Just consider it cooperating with me, okay? I got accepted into Shouyin University for graduate studies, and my thesis can't have any issues."
"What does your acceptance into graduate school have to do with me?" the classmate said mercilessly.
"Are you really going to force me to tell the truth in front of the teacher?"
The classmate sneered, "Go ahead, who saw it? I can just say you're framing me!"
"You!" He Zhengwei was infuriated.
He took a deep breath to suppress his anger and pleaded quietly with him. The classmate remained unmoved, his malicious intent evident in his eyes; he was unwilling to cooperate with He Zhengwei at all.
In the end, He Zhengwei returned home dejectedly. He went to Ke Yan’s office to explain the situation.
"How could this happen? If he refuses to cooperate, your thesis is ruined!" Ke Yan exclaimed. "No, we need to think of a solution. Zhengwei, do you have any conflicts with this classmate? Bring him to the office and say I asked him to come."
"Okay." With Ke Yan backing him up, He Zhengwei felt more confident.
He sought out that classmate again. As he exited Professor Xu Yan's office in the teaching building, he bumped into a girl head-on.
He Zhengwei was about to greet her when he realized she wasn't Jiang Jie but rather someone else entirely. He walked past her and continued on his way through Fountain Square.
The pedestrians on the street gathered in front of something. He Zhengwei, curious, pushed through the crowd after hearing a classmate mention that another cat had been run over by a car. His heart sank as he approached and saw the White Cat lying on the ground. He gasped in shock.
With a soft whimper, he realized that its fur was soaked in blood, and it seemed to be holding on just for him. He Zhengwei felt an overwhelming sense of sorrow wash over him.
Kneeling down, he watched as the cat struggled to breathe its last breaths, tears streaming down his face. The sight was heart-wrenching; its insides were exposed, a gruesome scene that he could hardly bear.
After crying for a while, he looked up and shouted at the crowd, demanding to know who had run it over. "Who?!" he yelled, losing his grip on reason.
No one paid attention to his outburst; they regarded him as a madman.
"Zhengwei, what's wrong?" Zhao Xiang, passing by and noticing his tears, approached him.
"He’s dead," He Zhengwei replied, his voice trembling and broken.
Zhao Xiang glanced at the ground and clenched his fists. After a moment of silence, he placed a comforting hand on He Zhengwei's shoulder. "Don't be too upset. I will find out who did this. How's your thesis coming along?"
He Zhengwei explained that Zhao Xiang had inadvertently learned about his thesis troubles; he had come to school today specifically to resolve this issue.
"I just wanted to talk to that classmate," He Zhengwei said, frustration evident in his tone. "But they refused to cooperate."
Zhao Xiang reassured him with a pat on the shoulder. "Don’t worry; I have a friend who's good with computers. If they still refuse to help, I can ask my friend to delete their files."
He Zhengwei expressed his gratitude. "Thank you."
"It's nothing," Zhao Xiang replied, wiping away his own tears. "I’ll look for that classmate again."
"Me? No, no. Thank you."
He Zhengwei parted ways with Zhao Xiang as he headed back to the dormitory. Determined to find that classmate again, He Zhengwei initially thought about bringing up Ke Yan's name to instill some fear in them.
However, when he arrived at their place, their roommate informed him that the classmate had already left school.
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