You can't fight city hall.
No matter how dissatisfied and how much Chen Haotian protested, he was still packed onto a plane by Chen Zhenye the very next day.
By the time Chen Liuyue found out, it was already Wednesday when she brought her roommates to the Chen family home.
Seeing the empty spot beside Chen Ruanruan, she asked:
"Where's my brother?"
Wu Peihua replied with a hint of complaint: "It's all because of you... he was assigned to follow a project in another province."
Before she could finish, Chen Zhenye, standing behind her, coughed pointedly a few times.
He then turned to greet Chen Liuyue's roommates with a beaming smile. A businessman by trade, he was highly emotionally intelligent, speaking with both courtesy and charm.
Little Zhu, Da Mai, and Ya Ya all murmured respectfully, "Hello, Uncle."
"Hello, hello. Make yourselves at home here. You're Liuyue's good roommates, good friends."
"Thank you for looking after Liuyue in the dormitory."
Chen Zhenye ushered them inside.
Upon seeing the opulently decorated interior, Little Zhu couldn't help but let out an audible gasp of 'ah'.
Not far away, a flicker of mockery passed through Chen Ruanruan's eyes.
So provincial.
After making the sound, Little Zhu stood there awkwardly.
Chen Liuyue immediately followed with an exaggerated 'wow'.
She said with a light laugh, "I had the exact same reaction the first time I came in. The house is huge, right?"
The other two roommates, Da Mai and Ya Ya, nodded vigorously, and the awkward moment transitioned naturally.
Little Zhu shot Chen Liuyue a grateful look.
Chen Zhenye took all of this in without a change in expression. His younger daughter was quite skilled at winning people over—a trait she'd inherited from him.
They moved to the tea room.
After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Chen Zhenye handed things over to Wu Peihua, saying,
"I have some business matters to attend to. You chat with our daughter and her roommates."
Wu Peihua listlessly replied, "Mhm."
After Chen Zhenye left, the atmosphere in the tea room grew somewhat stiff.
Little Zhu felt this elegant lady was just like Chen Ruanruan beside her—outwardly gentle and smiling, but inwardly arrogant and overbearing.
They looked down on them from the very marrow of their bones.
Da Mai seemed rather reserved, not daring to put down the teacup she was holding.
Ya Ya, however, kept looking around, her gaze shifting between Chen Liuyue, Chen Ruanruan, and their mother.
From a psychological perspective, one's sitting posture subconsciously reveals their leanings.
The three of them sat on a long sofa: Wu Peihua in the middle, Chen Ruanruan on her left, and Chen Liuyue on her right.
Wu Peihua's body leaned slightly forward towards the left, and the gap between her and that seat was also smaller.
"Auntie Wu, you must really love your daughter," Ya Ya suddenly spoke up.
Wu Peihua was taken aback. "Why do you say that?"
Ya Ya smiled. "Oh, nothing. I just think it must be wonderful to be your daughter."
"Looking at Ruanruan, you can tell she was raised with meticulous care. Even though we're from a different department, we've long heard of the famous beauty from the Dance Department."
A hint of satisfaction curved the corners of Wu Peihua's mouth.
"Of course. I've invested a great deal of effort into raising Ruanruan since she was little."
Chen Ruanruan, however, gave this roommate a somewhat suspicious glance, sensing she was up to no good.
Sure enough, Ya Ya continued in the next moment:
"Ruanruan is so fortunate. But I'm sure Liuyue will be even more outstanding in the future."
“Just think, you poured so much effort into raising a daughter who isn't even your own by blood. Surely you'll be a hundred, a thousand times better to your own biological daughter Liuyue, to make up for all the suffering she's endured over the years.”
Ya Ya spoke very quickly.
By the time everyone processed her words, she had already finished.
Little Zhu and Da Mai both shot her a look that said, 'Girl, you're amazing!'
Chen Liuyue was moved again. "Ya Ya..."
Wu Peihuawas put on the spot. She couldn't possibly admit in front of so many people that she favored Chen Ruanruan more.
So she could only brace herself and nod with a bitter smile.
Still, she couldn't help muttering under her breath,
"It wasn't exactly suffering. The Tao couple raised her quite well too."
Ya Ya suddenly let out a cold laugh.
Everyone present was stunned.
Chen Ruanruan frowned, finding her attitude inappropriate, and was about to open her mouth to defend her mother.
At that moment, Ya Ya fired off another rapid volley:
"Not suffering?"
"In her freshman year, her tuition was earned by working odd jobs off-campus. Whenever she didn't have classes, she was waitressing at restaurants, handing out flyers, or wearing mascot costumes. That doesn't count as suffering?"
"Not to mention living expenses. If it weren't for us roommates, she would have been malnourished!"
Wu Peihua unconsciously rubbed her ear. These words sounded understandable at first listen.
But upon closer hearing, they seemed so unbelievable.
Chen Ruanruan pursed her lips, looking doubtfully at Ya Ya.
Her gaze then shifted to Chen Liuyue. "Liuyue, is what your roommate said true?"
Chen Liuyue smiled very relaxedly.
"Oh, that."
"Teacher Jin said that once I turned eighteen, I had to be self-reliant and couldn't keep sucking my parents' blood anymore. So I had to cover my own university tuition and living expenses."
"For tuition, thank goodness for the country—I applied for a student loan. As for living expenses, the part-time jobs available to college students are pretty much all like that."
"It's a bit hard, a bit tiring, but it's fine. It'll be better once I graduate."
She spoke so lightly.
But her roommates' eyes were all turning red. They knew all too well how difficult it had been for Chen Liuyue.
The many times she stubbornly claimed she wasn't eating dinner to lose weight, when in reality it was because she had no money.
It was only because they insisted on stuffing snacks from their own desks into her hands, saying they couldn't let her be the only one getting thin, that they managed to laugh and joke their way through those times together.
That's why, after Chen Liuyue found her wealthy parents and prospered, her first thought was to repay her roommates' kindness.
She wanted to bring them back to the Chen family, to show them that Chen Liuyue could live well now.
But... while Chen Zhenye's attitude was acceptable, anyone who wasn't a fool could see from Wu Peihua's demeanor.
She didn't like Liuyue.
Her adoptive mother was already that stingy and mean, and now her biological mother's heart was so biased like this.
All her roommates couldn't help but feel heartbroken for her.
Wu Peihua stared at Chen Liuyue with a complex gaze, thinking to herself: Why didn't she mention these things earlier? They had assumed the Tao couple treated her well.
And she was her daughter—she shouldn't have had to worry about money in the first place.
To think she went out and did those hard, menial jobs...
Wu Peihua's jealousy towards her sister Wu Lihua was real.
But the most vicious punishment she could imagine for her sister was her ending up on the streets, working under the table and going hungry.
To think... her own biological daughter had actually endured a similar fate.
No wonder she found that so-called Teacher Jin so harsh and difficult to get along with at the family reunion banquet that day.
It was all true!
Wu Peihua thought for a moment, then took out a card from her wallet and handed it over.
"Liuyue, this is a supplementary card linked to my account. Take it for your spending money."
Her daughter, Wu Peihua's daughter, could not live such a miserable life, like some kind of indentured servant.
