Lin Jiaqiao knew that Gu Yiming's mother was worried that Gu Yiming would fall in love too early, so she dressed very well. She wore a polo shirt and cropped pants, and her hair was tied into a ponytail close to her scalp. At first glance, it was impossible to tell her gender.
Lin Jiaqiao said: "We have to act nice so that Gu Yiming's mother can believe us."
Qin Guan sighed: "What kind of fairy is this, Lao Gu, who has suffered so much trouble."
Unlike Ms. Qiao who works from home, Gu Yiming's mother is a full-time housewife.
She doesn't have a job and relies entirely on her ex-husband for living expenses.
Gu Yiming comes from a single-parent family; his parents divorced when he was in kindergarten.
His father was also a ruthless man. He completed the divorce procedures in the morning and immigrated to Sweden with his mistress in the afternoon.
Gu Yiming's mother is a strong-willed person. She is always worried about being looked down upon, so she uses Gu Yiming as a tool to maintain her own face.
She was very demanding of Gu Yiming in terms of academic performance, life, and even personality.
She likes to tell others that Gu Yiming is mediocre and it is her hard work that makes him so outstanding, just to hear others say "You are such an amazing mother".
It seemed that with these words, her life was complete.
When Lin Jiaqiao and Qin Guan arrived, Gu Yiming's mother was indeed at home.
She didn't let them in, but asked them suspiciously and cautiously: "Who are you?"
When the two came, they had agreed that in order to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, this conversation would be mainly conducted between Qin Guan and her.
Qin Guan said: "My name is Qin Guan, my mother called you. Is this Gu Yiming's classmate's home?"
Gu Yiming's mother asked: "Are you the city's top scholar?"
Her expression was a little strange, as if she was very jealous and a little resentful. She looked a little crazy, as if she wanted Qin Guan to be her child.
The weather was very hot, and Qin Guan was so surprised by her that he broke out in a cold sweat.
He unconsciously pushed up his glasses to block her sight.
He nodded uncomfortably, but Gu Yiming's mother still refused to let them in.
She stared at Lin Jiaqiao warily: "You are—"
Lin Jiaqiao pretended to be dumb, lowered her head and said nothing. Qin Guan quickly replied: "She is my classmate."
Gu Yiming's mother still blocked them at the door, "What do you want?"
"We have something important to discuss, something related to the university." Qin Guan looked around, "Can we talk outside?"
After living for two lifetimes, this is the first time that Lin Jiaqiao comes to Gu Yiming's house.
Gu Yiming's house is an ordinary three-bedroom apartment, but what's special is that the living room has been converted into a study.
There are three bookshelves that reach up to the ceiling against the three walls, making the already cramped space look even smaller.
There is a desk in the middle of the bookshelf, and Gu Yiming is sitting at the desk studying.
Compared to the last time we met, there were more bruises on the corners of his mouth and cheeks, and it was obvious that he had been beaten.
Qin Guan and Lin Jiaqiao looked at each other and saw determination in each other's eyes:
They must take Gu Yiming away.
He had actually heard his friend's voice a long time ago, but he couldn't go out.
He knew his mother didn't like him wasting time on these things.
So he kept his head down until his mother called him "Yiming", then he pretended to have just noticed the two of them.
He was surprised by their attire and curious about why they came, but he did not show it. He just greeted them like strangers.
Then, he heard Qin Guan introduce himself and Lin Jiaqiao as students of the medical school, who came today to convey the notice of the 'Medical School Summer Camp'.
Gu Yiming immediately realized that the news was false, and he roughly guessed their purpose:
They wanted to sneak him out. Gu Yiming smiled secretly, two cute little liars.
What a pity, they don’t understand his mother at all.
In fact, Gu Yiming would rather study psychology than clinical medicine.
He always thought his mother was mentally ill.
Sure enough, after listening to Qin Guan's words, Gu Yiming's mother said, "What summer camp? Our Gu Yiming has poor self-care ability. Without my care, he can't even eat."
He had always been indifferent to his mother's slander, but not this time. He didn't want to look like a moron in front of his friends.
He was about to retort, but when he saw Lin Jiaqiao winking at him, he clenched his fists and continued to endure.
He thought, that's right, they wouldn't believe it.
Qin Guan was still arguing, using the words he had prepared earlier to deal with Gu Yiming's mother.
But Gu Yiming's mother refused to listen and kept saying "no".
Later in the conversation, Gu Yiming's mother even started to ask about Qin Guan's three meals a day and what he was studying.
After Qin Guan finished speaking, she sighed, "It's not easy. Your mother has paid too much for your achievements."
Qin Guan instinctively replied, "No, my mother doesn't care what I study, I learn it on my own."
Gu Yiming's mother immediately scolded: "You really don't know how to be grateful."
"Don't you have your own dreams, mom? Don't you want your own friends? Mom also wants to do her own thing."
"But for you, Mommy has no choice but to give up."
"Mom chose you over me. You should remember her kindness for the rest of your life."
"You have to listen to your mother and repay her."
She smiled and said, "I know you can't understand your mother's good intentions now, but you will understand when you grow up."
"Mom won't hurt you."
"Because, you are the only one I have."
Lin Jiaqiao and Qin Guan both got goosebumps at this remark.
The two of them thought, my mother doesn’t just have me, she also has her own career, friends and lover, and she has her own life.
They looked at Gu Yiming with admiration:
Gu Yiming, you are amazing. You grew up to be a normal person even though you were brainwashed like this every day.
Gu Yiming misunderstood the gazes of the two people.
He was still young at that time, had little experience, and did not know his friends very well.
He misunderstood that they believed his mother's words like everyone else did, and he misunderstood that they wanted to abandon him.
In the past twenty years, Gu Yiming's life has been tightly controlled by his mother. Qin Guan and Lin Jiaqiao are his only salvation. Only when he is with them can he breathe a sigh of relief.
He was too afraid that they would abandon him.
So he started to save himself.
He asked Lin Jiaqiao: "What are you doing here?"
Lin Jiaqiao used her trump card. She pretended to be not good at speaking, and stammered: "Gu, Gu classmate, I want to discuss with you, since, since you are not going to participate in the summer camp, can you give me the quota?"
"This opportunity is really rare. I, I can give you money."
After that, she kept winking at Gu Yiming, asking him to assist her.
I don’t know if Gu Yiming understood what Lin Jiaqiao meant. He didn’t respond, but just lowered his head, not knowing what he was thinking.
Gu Yiming's mother immediately said, "What are you talking about money? You are so polite. You are all classmates, you should help each other."
A common problem in old residential areas is that the sound insulation is not very good.
As soon as Gu Yiming's mother finished speaking, everyone heard the sound of someone searching for keys.
It's the neighbor coming back.
Gu Yiming seemed to have received some signal and said to the two of them, "If you have nothing else to do, go ahead. I need to study."
"My mom is right, I'm not going to summer camp."
What happened? The knights haven't defeated the dragon yet, but Her Majesty the Princess gave up first.
Qin Guan and Lin Jiaqiao looked at Gu Yiming blankly, but Gu Yiming winked at them from an angle where his mother couldn't see.
The two men didn't understand what was going on, so they had to cooperate with him and stand up.
Gu Yiming opened the door first and said, "Even if my family is short of money, I won't sell anything that belongs to me."
After saying this, he realized that he was like a neighbor next door, and added: "Besides, my family is not short of money."
The neighbor had already walked most of the way inside, but when he heard this, he unconsciously slowed down his pace, wanting to watch their fun.
Lin Jiaqiao immediately understood his plan.
Since his mother cares so much about the opinions of outsiders, she certainly doesn't want to lose face in front of the neighbors.
So she said, "I, I can pay more."
Gu Yiming pretended to be at a loss and looked at his mother.
After cleaning the shoe cabinet at the door, the neighbor started cleaning the public area.
Qin Guan raised the price, "How much do you want?"
The neighbor finally came to them and pretended to have just discovered four living people. He asked curiously, "What are you talking about? What are you selling?"
Gu Yiming's mother wanted to fool him, but Lin Jiaqiao spoke first: "There is a summer camp in our medical school. All the doctors who come are famous doctors. Gu Yiming doesn't want to go. I want to buy-"
Gu Yiming's mother finally couldn't help it and interrupted Lin Jiaqiao: "You misunderstood, our Gu Yiming didn't say he wouldn't go."
This is agreed.
Lin Jiaqiao was actually very happy, but he pretended to be stupid: "No, you just—"
Gu Yiming's mother still smiled gently, but her tone became serious: "I said, you misunderstood."
She looked actually quite scary, and Qin Guan calmly protected Lin Jiaqiao behind him.
Gu Yiming winked at the two of them again. Lin Jiaqiao decided to quit, found an excuse and slipped away.
When he walked downstairs, Lin Jiaqiao realized belatedly that Gu Yiming's neighbor had a black mole on his chin.
Thinking of the homeless man, Lin Jiaqiao wondered, was it a coincidence
Gu Yiming's mother smiled and exchanged a few polite words with the neighbor. After closing the door, she immediately slapped Gu Yiming in the face.
Not satisfied with just one hit, she even hit him a second time.
She didn't even have time to take back the smile on her face.
"How can you be so ignorant!" She cried out in a state of collapse, "You are such a grown-up, don't you know what to say?"
"Do you have any brains!"
"If you talk like this, others will look down on us."
"They are a bunch of petty people who love to gossip. They will laugh at our poor family and the fact that you don't have a father. The other kids will bully you!"
She bit her nails and paced back and forth nervously, "What should we do? What should we do? No, I have to think of a way."
Gu Yiming thought that other children would not laugh at him for not having a father, but would only laugh at his mother for being crazy.
It’s not like Gu Yiming hadn’t thought about resisting.
He doesn't care about what others say, but he needs money.
The money his father gave him was directly deposited into his mother's card, and he needed the money to go to college.