And yet his own daughter couldn’t even finish her basic education.

Cao Daqiang’s temper flared, and he raised his hand to discipline her.

Liu Yingzi scrambled to get between them.

She practically ran, stumbling as she went.

She spread her arms to shield the child behind her, her back ramrod straight.

She was angry too, but she couldn’t bear to see her child get hit.

Even knowing her daughter was in the wrong, she wouldn’t let him be the one to raise a hand to her.

Facing her father’s torrent of abuse, Cao Jiajia was overwhelmed with a sense of grievance. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

She stood behind her mother, clutching the hem of her own clothes, her shoulders trembling slightly.

Tears streamed down her face, one after another, and she pressed her lips together so tightly they turned white.

Finally, unable to hold it in any longer, she lifted her head and choked out the words she had been suppressing for so long.

"She gets one-on-one tutoring with the best teachers every day! What do I have? You’re never home to care about me. All you ever do is focus on..."

"Cao Jiajia!"

Cao Daqiang’s roar cut her off.

The air in the room seemed to freeze instantly, making it hard to breathe.

"The first thing you do is blame everyone else. Have you ever once tried to study properly? Do you pay attention to a single lesson in school? Even if I hired a private tutor for you, could you even sit still long enough to learn?"

He shot a quick glance at Liu Yingzi.

Seeing she hadn’t quite heard what Jiajia said, he breathed a silent sigh of relief before turning to shoot his daughter a vicious glare.

Cao Jiajia’s lip trembled, and she didn’t dare say another word.

She lowered her head, swallowing the rest of her grievances.

But Cao Daqiang didn’t stop, his words growing harsher and harsher.

He listed his daughter’s past transgressions, from skipping class to talking back to her teachers.

Listening to her husband repeatedly compare their own flesh-and-blood daughter with that other child...

Liu Yingzi held her tongue for as long as she could, but finally, she snapped.

She strode forward until she was standing directly in front of Cao Daqiang.

She looked him straight in the eye, her voice trembling but resolute.

"Cao Daqiang! Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to! That girl is part of someone else’s family now. She has nothing to do with you. Nothing you say will change that! Jiajia is your daughter, so why don’t you figure out a way to keep her from getting expelled from school!"

Liu Yingzi’s words struck a nerve, and Cao Daqiang’s face darkened.

He hadn’t expected her to be so blunt in front of their daughter.

"I..."

He was about to blurt out that he also had a son who made him proud.

But when he saw his daughter’s eyes fixed on him, he forced the words back down.

"I *am* trying to figure something out! If you don’t want my help, then shut your mouth!"

Liu Yingzi gritted her teeth and pulled her daughter into a hug.

Besides the Cao family, who were on pins and needles about Shanshan’s college entrance exam, there was someone else who was secretly keeping a close watch.

Qin Haoyu secretly checked the school’s announcement board every day.

Even though they weren’t in the same class, he asked his classmates to find out about Shanshan’s recent study habits and mock exam scores.

He knew Shanshan was a day student, so he would "coincidentally" take detours that led him past the intersection on her way home.

Qin Haoyu had grown up with Shanshan.

For every step she took, he desperately tried to take one too.

When they were little, they played hopscotch together in the courtyard of their apartment complex.

Shanshan was a fast hopper, and he always had to hurry to keep up.

After they started school, Shanshan won an award in a recitation competition. The very next day, he signed up for the speech club.

During every school-wide cleaning, Shanshan would volunteer for the task of washing the windows.

Emulating her had long since become a part of his life.

When he heard she was skipping a grade, he begged his parents to let him do the same.

He managed to skip the grade, but his studies immediately became a struggle.

The curriculum moved much faster. In math, they were expected to solve problems independently right after the teacher went through a single example.

The vocabulary in their English texts doubled, and there were many words whose pronunciation he couldn’t even get right from the phonetic symbols.

He struggled with the formula derivations required for physics labs.

Even after studying them three times before class, he still couldn’t fully grasp them.

Whenever he got a test back, he would just stare at his score, speechless. He knew he had fallen far behind.

To catch up, he studied so hard he would forget to eat or sleep.

At night, he’d force himself to keep reading even when he was nodding off, and his family’s hearts ached to see it.

He meticulously marked every wrong answer with a red pen.

In the margins, he’d scrawl dense notes on his problem-solving process and the correct steps.

Sometimes, he simply couldn’t stay awake any longer and would pass out at his desk.

He’d wake to find his desk lamp still on, with the previous day’s monthly exam paper spread out beside him.

Then he heard that Shanshan was planning to take the college entrance exam this year.

His first reaction was, ’I’ll take it this year too!’

He immediately opened his computer, looked up the registration process, and jotted down a list of all the required materials.

He even went to stake out the entrance to the academic affairs office.

He even dreamed he was in an exam hall, filling out an answer sheet.

He’d wake with a start and immediately grab a notebook to write down the questions from his dream.

But when his parents heard, they completely lost it. They absolutely refused.

They pointed to his rank on the last monthly exam, showing him that he wasn’t even in the top fifty of his year.

The two of them took turns trying to talk him out of it for two solid hours.

He pleaded with them for days, trying every tactic from begging to pestering, but in the end, they still forbade him from registering.

His last attempt was on a weekend morning.

He knelt before his parents, begging for just one chance.

His father sighed. "It’s not that we don’t believe in your hard work," he said. "We’re just afraid you’ll be crushed by the blow."

He knew it himself, really. Even if he did manage to take the exam...

...forget about getting into the same university as her, he probably couldn’t even meet the minimum score for a regular bachelor’s degree.

He had looked over the admission scores from the past three years.

When he compared them to his own recent test scores, he saw the gap was enormous.

For some subjects, even if he performed exceptionally well, he would barely meet the threshold for a vocational college.

He might not even qualify to apply to any universities at all.

But he wasn’t willing to give up, even if it just meant watching Shanshan walk into the exam hall from a distance.

With no other choice, Qin Haoyu dug out a gift he had hidden away for a long time and mustered the courage to go find Shanshan.

Before leaving, he practiced what he was going to say in the mirror five times, but in the end, he could only remember the opening line.

"Qin Haoyu? What are you doing here?"

Shanshan was surprised to see who was standing outside her door, and rather puzzled.

Ling Zhiwei, who was bustling about, happened to poke his head in and stumbled right into the scene.

He saw Qin Haoyu standing stiffly in the entryway, hands clasped in front of him.

"I thought you had exams coming up? What are you doing out wandering around? Aren’t you worried your grades will drop?"

Qin Haoyu’s expression soured.

But looking into Shanshan’s clear eyes, he could tell there was no ill intent, so he relaxed a little.

He carefully took out the small box he was holding.

His arm trembled as he held it out, but he quickly steadied it, presenting the box face-up in his palm.

"I... I already finished studying, so I came out for some fresh air. Um... I heard you’re taking the college entrance exam this year, so I wanted to give you something. For good luck. I hope you get into the school of your dreams."

"Oh? What’s this? A little green charm?"

When she opened the box, a pale green jade pendant lay inside.

Shanshan’s eyes lit up, and she leaned in for a closer look.

She reached out, and the instant her fingertip touched the pendant, a gentle warmth spread up from her finger.

The sensation was sudden, but not unpleasant.

"It’s nothing too valuable. I found the stone on a trip with my family a while back. When we had it cut open, this was the only good piece of material inside. The rest was useless, so we just had it made into this."

Qin Haoyu explained in a low, slightly awkward voice.