Chapter 546 - 545: Real-Life Melodrama

Yang Xiangyun wiped away her tears. "Miao Zhi, what’s gotten into you? You were suffering in Su Li’s place! Weren’t you only kidnapped because they mistook you for her?"

"If it weren’t for her, you wouldn’t have had to suffer at all. Everyone knows that. This is all Su Li’s fault."

Miao Zhi let out a breath. "That’s not how it works. How can you possibly blame Su Li for this?"

"The criminals were the human traffickers. If you’re going to blame anyone, blame them. What good does it do to blame Su Li? If you really think about it, I was only rescued because of Su Li and the others. So please, don’t say things like that in the future."

Listening from outside, Su Li had complicated feelings. Yang Xiangyun, however, felt deeply uncomfortable hearing this.

"Fine... If you say it’s not her fault, it’s not her fault. Since you don’t like hearing anything bad about Su Li anymore, I’ll just drop it."

Yang Xiangyun lowered her head, tears welling up before she even spoke. "Miao Zhi, you really do blame me, don’t you? We used to be best friends, but now... you defend Su Li at every turn. You only care about her."

The topic had shifted so quickly that Su Li, who was accidentally eavesdropping, was momentarily at a loss for how to react.

Afraid that things would get even more awkward if she appeared after hearing all that, she finally gave a loud cough to announce her presence.

"Miao Zhi? Miao Zhi, are you there?"

"Su Li?" Hearing her voice, Miao Zhi came out to greet her, pleasantly surprised.

"Yes. I heard you’ve recovered and can go back to school. Congratulations." Su Li handed what she was carrying to Miao Zhi.

"Big Sister Miao Zhi," Little Tang Mo said, also handing her the bag he was carrying. "I picked these out for you. They’re all delicious treats."

"Why do you two bring so many things every time? It’s gotten to the point where I feel bad asking you to visit," Miao Zhi said with a look of resignation.

"It’s just some books and a few things. Both you and your father could use some nourishment."

Su Li followed Miao Zhi into the house and greeted Yang Xiangyun, who was inside and looking very displeased. "Nurse Yang."

Yang Xiangyun looked at the gifts they brought, then glanced at the few eggs she had brought earlier, which sat forlornly on the table. The comparison made her feel even worse.

She forced a smile and nodded without a word. When her gaze fell on Little Tang Mo, however, her expression instantly became incredibly complex, a mixture of gloom and resentment.

’She used to be so good to Little Tang Mo,’ she thought, ’but now he doesn’t even greet me when he sees me.’

Yang Xiangyun was getting older by the day, and Tang Yuanxiao, true to his word, showed not the slightest romantic interest in her.

Yang Xiangyun couldn’t delude herself any longer. Then Mrs. Tang had shown up with Qin Shanshan... In any case, while Yang Xiangyun had been reluctant to give up on Tang Yuanxiao, she finally lost all hope after the incident where Qin Shanshan essentially forced the relationship, turning an unstarted romance into an irreversible fact.

It was only then that she decided she wanted to find someone to marry, but she belatedly discovered... there was no one left for her.

Back then, she was a nurse and considered attractive, so relatives and friends were constantly setting her up with potential partners. There had been quite a few good men who were very interested in her.

But she had driven them all away with her difficult attitude.

And so, in the end, by the time she came to her senses and decided she wanted to find a good partner, her options were gone. The men who had once been interested in her had all found someone else, and her relatives and friends had stopped trying to set her up.

On the rare occasion that someone was introduced, their circumstances were exceptionally poor.

And so, Yang Xiangyun became what was, for that era, a rare "leftover woman."

Just three months ago, Miao Zhi and Yang Xiangyun had still been best friends, but a man had ultimately driven them apart.

Now, though they were still speaking to each other, their intimacy was a thing of the past. Both Miao Zhi and Yang Xiangyun were the type to put love above all else. They used to see eye-to-eye on everything, but now... they couldn’t find any common ground.

"Su Li, Little Mo, please sit down. My dad will be home from work soon."

Miao Zhi had grown tired of her conversation with Yang Xiangyun, so the arrival of Su Li and Little Mo was a welcome rescue.

She enthusiastically welcomed Su Li, paying little mind to Yang Xiangyun. Standing off to the side, Yang Xiangyun felt utterly neglected, and a bitter feeling washed over her.

She was angry, resentful, and hateful all at once. The sight of Su Li, looking so radiant and beautiful, was like a needle to her eyes.

’She’s just a girl from the countryside, so how come I can’t compare to her in any way?’

The last time Su Li came to visit Father Miao, she had arrived in a car, and word had quickly spread through the entire residential compound. Listening to everyone’s enthusiastic gossip had been torture for Yang Xiangyun. She had finally learned what happened to Miao Zhi and thought she could use it to put Su Li down, but that fool Miao Zhi had actually taken Su Li’s side completely!

Yang Xiangyun’s hands trembled with rage. Seeing Miao Zhi doting on Su Li without so much as a glance her way, she finally couldn’t take it anymore and announced her departure.

"Miao Zhi, since you have guests, I’ll be going now."

Miao Zhi didn’t try to stop her. "Alright. Come by again when you have time."

Yang Xiangyun forced a stiff smile, nodded at Su Li and the others, and then fled the Miao family’s home, her fists clenched tightly.

Miao Zhi watched Yang Xiangyun go, then quickly shut the door and let out a sigh.

"Su Li, you heard what we were talking about earlier, didn’t you? Please don’t take it to heart. I’ve never once blamed you."

Su Li nodded solemnly and changed the subject. "You don’t look very well. Is something wrong?"

"It’s nothing. I just feel down because of Xiangyun," Miao Zhi sighed. "We used to be so close, and now..."

Miao Zhi stared at the ceiling, suddenly recalling something that had happened in the residential compound a couple of years back. At the time, she had thought she was completely in the right, but now, the memory just made her want to bury her face in her hands.

"Su Li, I just remembered that time I stood up for Yang Xiangyun and told you that you should just step aside for them... Ugh... Thinking about it now makes me want to crawl into a hole. What was going through my head back then...?"

Miao Zhi let out a groan, then added limply, "No, forget that. I want to smack the person I was just three months ago."

"To think I acted like my world was ending over some guy..." Miao Zhi glanced at Little Tang Mo and trailed off.

However, from the snippets of conversation Su Li had overheard earlier, combined with what Miao Zhi was saying now, she could piece together the melodramatic story.

’Mm... The classic soap opera plot: best friend steals your man.’

There’s a saying: guard against fire, guard against thieves, and guard against your best friend. Miao Zhi had failed on that last front.

Su Li’s guess was correct; things were exactly as she had imagined.

At the start of her sophomore year of college, Miao Zhi met an upperclassman. There was a budding, innocent attraction between them, and after getting to know him for a while, Miao Zhi developed strong feelings for him.

Normally, with the way things were going, it was only natural that they would end up together.

The problem, however, was Miao Zhi herself—a loyal but foolish girl. Because Yang Xiangyun was in a bad mood one day, Miao Zhi brought her along to meet the upperclassman and even introduced them.

She hadn’t thought twice about it at the time, simply thinking that they were the two most important people in her life.

But less than two months later... the upperclassman had a change of heart.

Or perhaps it couldn’t be called a change of heart, since neither had confessed their feelings and they weren’t officially together. In any case... the upperclassman had fallen for Yang Xiangyun and was no longer interested in Miao Zhi.

Miao Zhi was the type of girl who would walk through fire for love, and she had already thrown her whole heart into her feelings for the upperclassman.

The upperclassman and Yang Xiangyun started dating behind her back, and she was the last to find out.

The double betrayal from her would-be boyfriend and her best friend was, as one can imagine, a devastating blow to Miao Zhi.

It was only then that Miao Zhi understood. Yang Xiangyun, who had become desperate to get married, had seen that the upperclassman was a good catch with a well-off family, and so she had struck first.