Chapter 6: “First Love” Jiang Cheng

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Without paying attention to the murmurs around them, Jiang Cheng took Gu Zhixia’s small hand and walked straight out of the Fuyuan Hotel.

Even after leaving the hotel, Gu Zhixia felt utterly dazed.

She quietly followed behind Jiang Cheng, feeling the warmth and strength of his large hand in hers, her heart pounding wildly.

The sensation was strange—strangely intoxicating.

Jiang Cheng had been her high school classmate. In their senior year, he transferred into her class.

From the first glance, she had fallen for this sunny, handsome boy.

But she was a reserved and shy girl.

Though she liked Jiang Cheng, she dared not confess, and with the pressure of the college entrance exam looming, she kept her feelings hidden deep within her heart.

Then one day, she discovered Jiang Cheng was actually with Song Yi!

Suddenly, her entire world seemed to darken.

She wanted to confess to Jiang Cheng in person but seeing the sweet couple, she hesitated.

She poured all her energy into her studies.

Unexpectedly, just before the exam, Jiang Cheng mysteriously dropped out, and she lost all contact with him.

Later, she was admitted to the Capital University of Finance and Economics, and after graduation, began working at a bank.

She never dated anyone seriously.

In her heart, there was always the image of a boy—Jiang Cheng.

Then her family’s factory went bankrupt, her father committed suicide, and her mother was diagnosed with cancer. She had faced despair time and again.

She even contemplated ending her life.

But her mother was still in the hospital, needing 300,000 yuan for treatment; she had no right to die.

Today, she was again faced with having to pay 30,000 yuan in compensation!

It felt as if the sky was collapsing.

She couldn’t even hold on to the precious jade pendant her grandmother had left her.

When she took the pendant off her neck and handed it to Sister Xu, her world had already lost all color, engulfed in gray despair.

But at her most desperate moment, Jiang Cheng appeared—just as he had when he first entered her life.

Like a ray of light in her dark world, he instantly pulled her out of hopelessness!

It was a feeling of safety she had never known before.

As long as this man stood before her, she felt fearless.

At the thought of this, tears welled up in Gu Zhixia’s eyes.

Hailing a taxi, Jiang Cheng didn’t speak; he opened the door and helped Gu Zhixia in.

Twenty minutes later, the taxi stopped beside a flower bed at the entrance of an old residential building.

Only then did Jiang Cheng exhale deeply.

Gu Zhixia looked at Jiang Cheng with a complicated expression.

Timidly, she said, “Jiang Cheng, thank you for what you did just now.”

Jiang Cheng looked back at Gu Zhixia, smiling and waving his hand, “It’s nothing. I just couldn’t bear to see an old classmate get scammed.”

“A scam?” Gu Zhixia was confused; she still didn’t understand what had just happened.

Sister Xu had inexplicably refused her pendant, then strangely talked about settling things privately and even gave her 100,000 yuan for medical expenses.

“Jiang Cheng, what exactly happened?”

Jiang Cheng grinned and carefully explained the entire story to Gu Zhixia.

The more she heard, the more stunned she became, speechless.

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Though her family had been quite wealthy before, influenced by her grandmother, Gu Zhixia was frugal.

She wasn’t interested in handbags or cosmetics and knew little about luxury brands.

If Jiang Cheng hadn’t recognized that limited-edition LV bag as a fake, the jade pendant left by her grandmother would have been swindled away.

The thought alone sent chills down her spine.

But when she realized Jiang Cheng had tricked the scammers out of 100,000 yuan, she couldn’t help but laugh softly.

“Heh heh, Jiang Cheng, you actually demanded 100,000 yuan in medical fees from the scammers? How bold of you! Why didn’t I know you were so clever before?”

Jiang Cheng chuckled, “Back then, you were the school belle, so many liked you; I was just a poor student who didn’t study well. Why would you have noticed me?”

Hearing this, Gu Zhixia bit her lip, her eyes flickering. “Actually...”

“Actually what?”

“N-nothing. Jiang Cheng, thank you!”

She wanted to confess that she had secretly liked him once, but looking at herself now, she didn’t say it after all.

Jiang Cheng gave a bitter smile, “No choice. We’re classmates after all. I couldn’t just stand by and watch you get scammed, lose that pendant to those crooks!”

Gu Zhixia’s gaze grew a little forlorn.

Were they really just classmates?

She thought of something else: “But what about the money...”

“Zhixia, don’t worry. Those scammers wouldn’t dare make trouble. They handed over 100,000 without hesitation. Judging by their behavior, they probably fooled a lot of people and committed many crimes. Consider this money as ‘robbing the rich to help the poor.’ Use it as you need. They won’t dare to come after you.”

“But...”

“Zhixia, isn’t your mother sick? Think of this 100,000 as a donation from those scammers for her treatment.”

Jiang Cheng knew Gu Zhixia was worried about the money and comforted her gently.

At his words, Gu Zhixia’s eyes reddened instantly. She wanted to say something but choked up, unable to speak.

Finally, she nodded silently, her eyes full of gratitude as she looked at Jiang Cheng.

“By the way, Zhixia, what exactly happened with your family?” Jiang Cheng asked softly.

In his memory, Gu Zhixia’s family ran a furniture factory, and her father was worth over a hundred million yuan.

How had things fallen to this state?

Gu Zhixia bit her lip and lowered her head in sadness, then began to tell Jiang Cheng everything.

Jiang Cheng listened quietly, never expecting that Gu Zhixia had endured so much over the past months.

Looking at her, he thought of himself.

How similar their situations were.

Both had faced countless moments of despair.

The difference was, he had pulled through and even gained a special ability with his eyes, while Gu Zhixia was still trapped in hopelessness.

As she finished, Gu Zhixia forced a smile that was harder to bear than tears.

“By the way, Jiang Cheng, enough about my troubles. What about you and Song Yi? You two were so close in high school. Are you married now?”

Her eyes flickered with hesitation.

“We broke up. She thought I was poor and uneducated. Forget it. Come on, let’s go to my place. You haven’t eaten yet, right? I haven’t had a proper meal either. I’ll cook you some noodles.”

Jiang Cheng smiled bitterly, unwilling to talk more about Song Yi.

The wounds she left in his heart were too deep—a pain that could never be erased.

Gu Zhixia nodded, a faint smile flickering at the corner of her lips before vanishing.

She quietly followed Jiang Cheng into the building and upstairs.

Morning Light Community, Building 7, Unit 3, Apartment 402—the house left by Jiang Cheng’s foster parents.

Seventy-three square meters, three bedrooms and one living room. Jiang Cheng had one room, his younger sister Jiang Ling had another.

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The third bedroom was rented to a minor actress named Wen Yao.

But Wen Yao was often away filming, rarely home.

Five days ago, she went to Hengdian, and Jiang Ling stayed in a dormitory at school.

So the apartment was empty except for him.

At the door, Jiang Cheng noticed a package with his name on it.

He hadn’t ordered anything.

Jiang Ling didn’t shop online.

No doubt, it was something Wen Yao had bought online.

Wen Yao was extremely vain.

She claimed that as an actress, she couldn’t use her own name for online purchases, so she always used Jiang Cheng’s name.

The package arrived before she did; Jiang Cheng was amused by this.

He didn’t think much of it, opened the door, and left the package outside Wen Yao’s room.

Then he went to the kitchen to cook noodles.

Gu Zhixia said she wanted to help, but Jiang Cheng just smiled and told her to sit and wait.

She obediently sat down quietly, watching Jiang Cheng busy in the kitchen, lost in thought.

Ten minutes later, two large bowls of pickled vegetable and shredded pork noodles were placed on the table.

Jiang Cheng even specially added some baby bok choy and a fried egg to Gu Zhixia’s bowl.

Then he smiled at her, “Well, there’s only one egg left at home, so you’ll have to make do!”

Without waiting for her response, he began eating heartily.

To be honest, Jiang Cheng had a big appetite from doing physical labor.

He’d only been drinking quietly at the hotel earlier, hardly eating. After a trip to the restroom, his stomach was growling.

Before long, the steaming hot bowl of noodles was gone, down to the last drop of soup.

After eating, he let out a long burp, rubbed his full belly, and looked completely satisfied.

Only those who have truly been hungry understand how precious a bowl of hot noodle soup can be.

Gu Zhixia ate slowly and carefully, quietly and gently—forming a sharp contrast to Jiang Cheng’s rugged demeanor.

Jiang Cheng just watched her eat quietly.

Gu Zhixia was truly hungry.

Though slow, she still finished about half to two-thirds of the large bowl.

“I’m full!” Gu Zhixia licked her lips and said coquettishly.

Jiang Cheng stood up to wash the bowls.

But Gu Zhixia insisted on doing it herself.

Jiang Cheng just smiled and didn’t stop her.

Watching her clumsy attempts at washing dishes, he felt a pang of sadness.

She was once a wealthy young lady who never lifted a finger for housework, and now she had to try doing chores that were not hers.

Come to think of it, Jiang Cheng had once secretly liked Gu Zhixia in high school!

But she was the school belle from a wealthy family, while he was a poor student without parents—there was no chance. Eventually, he got together with Song Yi.

He never imagined their reunion would come in such a way.

Life truly is full of twists and turns.