Chapter 418 A Date With Xiaoxia
Hu Zhi was speechless. His boss was really too desperate and he suddenly felt that it wasn’t easy for Ruan Yang either.
…
Ruan Yang gave Changqing a call early in the morning on Saturday to invite Changqing to go to Northern City’s College for Film and Performance with her.
“I have a program recording today at the broadcasting station. Also, Chuchu is going to the States after the new year. I have to keep him company at night,” Changqing said sadly.
Ruan Yang had also heard Li Shaobin mention this before. It was almost January and in less than half a month, it would be the new year. The new year was a very depressing event for someone like her who had a home she couldn’t return to.
“Oh right, why did you suddenly want to go back to the College of Film and Performance?” Changqing was curious.
“Oh, I wanted to go over to have a look. After all, I studied there for many years. I wanted to see if I could regain some of my memory,” Ruan Yang said.
Changqing was shocked. “You want to regain your memory?”
“Yeah.”
Changqing was in disbelief. “Ruan Yang, I think you’re in a pretty good state now. Those memories… made you unhappy. I think you’ll be more relieved and happier now.”
“I thought so too at first, but my trip back to Norway made me understand some things.” Ruan Yang sighed softly, “I might feel more relieved if I don’t get my memories back, but what about the friends around me? You, Guan Ying, and Duoyao all have to be very careful in front of me, as though you’re afraid you would reopen my wounds. I’m afraid we can no longer talk about anything between us anymore. Because of my amnesia, it’s inevitable that we’ll drift apart. You guys always try so hard to maintain our friendship but I don’t remember anything. I don’t remember the days we laughed and cried together. It’s not just you guys—it’s my other friends too. Actually, in the few years that I’ve lost, not all of it was unhappy. I had my successes and also the true friends that I made. After all, in this day and age, we really don’t need a lot of friends—just a couple of true friends will do, yet I have four to five of you guys. I have to get my memory back for you all. I think the memories might be painful and difficult but there should be sweetness and laughter too.”
“Ruan Yang…” Changqing felt inexplicably touched. “Of course I hope for you to regain your memory but I’d rather you become more relieved even if that makes our friendship more estranged. Do you know that you didn’t believe in love anymore probably because you were too deeply hurt…”
“Love shouldn’t be all there is to life,” Ruan Yang said. “No matter how deeply I loved that person, I’m still willing to accept everything for my friends. After all, I now know that I wasn’t left with nothing throughout these eight years.”
“Alright.” Changqing couldn’t say anything further. ” If you need any help, feel free to call me.”
——————-
At around 10 am, Ruan Yang appeared at Northern City’s College of Film and Performance alone. She parked her car by the road and walked in alone with a mask on. It was the start of the winter break so there weren’t many people at school.
The lake, field, and every corner of the school felt very familiar.
As she stood in the school dormitory, a few blurred images flashed past her mind. She seemed to see four figures. She wanted to reach out to them but she couldn’t hold anything.
She walked around the college for more than an hour, and just when she was about to walk out of the school, a middle-aged woman wearing a pair of glasses came walking in the snow towards her with groceries in her hands.
She was stunned. She recalled seeing this person from the apartment album. She was standing right at the front in the class photo. She had also heard Changqing mention that her mentor had the surname Kang and was very nice to her.
The other party looked at Ruan Yang and suddenly stopped in her tracks. She said with a surprised smile, “Hey, Ruan Yang, it really is you? Why are you here to visit me so early this year?”
“Are you Teacher Kang?” Ruan Yang asked.
Teacher Kang frowned and scolded with a smile. “It’s only been a year. Have I aged so much? Who else would I be?”
“I got into a car accident a while ago, so there are some things I don’t really remember,” Ruan Yang explained apologetically.
“How did that happen?” Teacher Kang looked heartbroken. “I thought you came to wish me a happy new year. You always came the past few years. Let’s go. Come sit at my house.”
“Let me help you with the groceries.” Ruan Yang’s heart felt warm.
“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Teacher Kang held her hand warmly and that made Ruan Yang suddenly recall her mother’s hand.
Teacher Kang’s apartment was in the school’s newly built employees’ building on the seventh floor. When Ruan Yang changed her shoes and entered the unit, she saw a man in his fifties scooping some rice into an electric rice cooker. He turned his head back and said with a surprised smile, “Ruan Yang, why didn’t you tell us earlier that you were coming? Aye, luckily it’s not too late to add more rice. Have your lunch here.”
Ruan Yang was stunned and said, “It seems like I came over very often in the past.”
“Isn’t that so? There was you, Changqing, Duoyao, and Guan Ying. The four of you used to come very often. Aye, I’ve taught many students, but only the four of you still came over every year to visit me over the new year after you became successful.” Teacher Kang pointed to the man in the kitchen and said, “This is my husband, Ji Wenzhao. He is a professor for the radio broadcasting major. He basically taught Changqing and helped her with her hosting certificate.”
“Changqing called me just now and told me about Ruan Yang,” Ji Wenzhao said. “I wanted to tell you, but in the end, you saw her right after.”
“Yeah. What a good child. Why did the car accident happen?” Teacher Kang sighed.
Ji Wenzhao said with a smile, “You’re the student that made Teacher Kang proudest. Whenever she goes back, she boasts about you.”
Ruan Yang blushed. “But I must’ve made you feel very ashamed now.”
“What’s there to be ashamed of?” Teacher Kang shook her head. “I clearly understand what kind of person you are. You studied hard and even though you were the first to gain popularity in your class, you were still very respectful and grateful to me as a teacher even after you became popular. However, after a person becomes popular, scandals will follow. I didn’t know if you just liked to keep everything inside or if it was something else, but you would always just clench your teeth and be unwilling to give in no matter what you did. You always appeared as though nothing had happened but you would always cry when you were here, especially after you became very popular and suddenly lost your popularity. Many people mocked and ridiculed you and you would always cry terribly in front of me then. You said you didn’t do anything wrong and you would ask why so many people were attacking you and why the road towards getting the Best Actress was so difficult. Not to mention after that… aye, your journey has been filled with ups and downs. You’ve endured too much suffering, but you still overcame it all and won the Best Actress. You never gave up.”
Ji Wenzhao teased her at the side: “Your Teacher Kang cried the day you won the award and you even gave special thanks to your Teacher Kang when you received your award. She was so proud and kept boasting about it on her social media feed.”
Teacher Kang blushed. “Anyway, the Ruan Yang I knew would put all her weaknesses inside and never show it. The people outside might scold you and attack you because they don’t know you, but I do. I’m proud of you. There’s nothing wrong with falling in love with a person. A woman is still a woman. It’s easy to lose yourself in love and you didn’t make the same mistake.”
“Thank you, Teacher Kang.” Ruan Yang’s eyes reddened as she listened.
“Ruan Yang, you’re still young. Don’t be defeated by two or three setbacks,” Teacher Kang said her heartfelt words. “There are still many good men in this world. You used to be in that industry but not anymore. You can date some normal men occasionally and live a normal life. That’s actually very blissful too.”
…
When she came out after having lunch at Teacher Kang’s place, it was already past 2 pm. Ruan Yang felt very peaceful after a few hours of chatting.
Even if her parents were ashamed of her, there were still people who were proud of her.
In the past, she might’ve been too self-conscious of how people saw her. Actually, they didn’t even care about her, so why should she care about how they thought of her?
She drove for a while when her phone suddenly rang. She looked at the number and was stunned for a while, only picking up after a few seconds. “Xiaoxia…”
“Sister Ruan Yang, I have a break today. I wanted to look for you at your apartment but I couldn’t enter,” Li Xiaoxia said crisply.
“Er… I don’t live there now,” Ruan Yang said.
“What?” Li Xiaoxia suddenly sounded down. “I’m finally on a break and my parents allowed me to come out to play. I wanted to ask you out to watch the snow together—it snowed last night. I heard that the scenery on Lu Shan is exceptional. I even brought my camera out.”
Ruan Yang looked at the snow outside. She thought about it and didn’t seem to have anything to do today. It seemed like a good idea to go out with someone. “Alright, then wait for me at the estate for a while. I’ll go over to pick you up right away.”
“Really? Oh yay! That’s fantastic! I definitely won’t move an inch,” Li Xiaoxia shouted with excitement.
Ruan Yang couldn’t help but smile when she thought of that cute little face.
When she arrived at the Rong estate, she could see Li Xiaoxia from afar in a pair of jeans and a denim jacket standing by the road, rubbing his hands together and blowing warm air on them. The little fellow looked pretty young and dashing but his legs just weren’t that long. She was also bewildered since Li Shaobin was so tall but his nephew didn’t seem to be very tall despite already being in middle school. However, based on looks alone, Li Xiaoxia could be considered a 100/100.
On top of that, Li Xiaoxia was very talkative and was good at sweet-talking, so Ruan Yang’s impression of him was still pretty good. Sometimes, adults were too complicated and it was good to hang out with children for a change.
“Sister Ruan Yang, I haven’t seen you in a long time.” Li Xiaoxia opened the door to the passenger’s side and sat down. His eyes glimmered. “Sister Ruan Yang, you’re so beautiful today.”
“Thank you.” Ruan Yang stroked his little head. “You’re wearing so few clothes. Aren’t you cold?”