The Wealthy Tycoon's Game of Life-Chapter 1331 - 515: Peining

"Mom, I want to eat candied haw too..."

At the entrance of an alley somewhere in Beidou, there was a little girl around five or six years old, looking as delicate as a porcelain doll. With her black braid, she stared at the vendor hawking nearby and couldn’t help but tug on the woman’s hand beside her.

The woman was quite beautiful, but her face looked weary. Hearing the girl’s plea, she instinctively wanted to take a step forward, but her expression turned cold as if something crossed her mind.

She crouched down to meet the girl’s gaze and then seriously said:

"Peining, do you think mom is having a hard time?"

"Mom is always hiding to cry, so hard..."

"So if you don’t want to endure the hardships like mom does in the future, you can’t eat these sweet things now, do you understand?"

Hearing the girl’s response, the woman almost teared up, but she quickly took a deep breath, forced a smile, and said, "You need to have a healthy body so you won’t fall behind at the starting line, especially in our kind of family..."

As she spoke, the woman’s gaze instinctively shifted to the deeper part of the alley, where two red doors were tightly closed with guards standing at the entrance.

When the little girl seemed to half understand, the woman murmured, "Peining, I need to take you home now, where you’ll find your grandpa, grandma, uncles, and aunts... all your relatives are there, but they won’t welcome us, yet mom has nowhere else to go."

This time, the woman seemed unable to hold it in, and tears fell down.

The little girl quickly stepped forward to hug her, "Mom, don’t cry. I’ll listen to you, I won’t eat it. Please don’t cry, okay?"

"Oh, mom won’t cry!"

Crying and laughing, the woman looked at the sensible and obedient girl, stroked her head, and said, "Peining, dad has gone far away and won’t be back. Mom can only bring you back to raise you, so you can have a very good future. Mom can’t be selfish anymore..."

"But once we step through that door, many things will no longer be our choices. Maybe you’ll find life tough for a while in the future, and if one day you feel exhausted with this life, don’t ever blame mom..."

"Later, when we go inside, remember to greet people as I taught you, and you can’t accept anything they give you unless mom says it’s okay..."

"And remember, you can no longer be called Zhou Peining, your surname is Qu, and you are Qu Peining."

After speaking, the woman wiped away her tears, stood up with determination, and led the little girl deeper into the alley.

The little girl followed the woman, but couldn’t help turning back to glance at some children eating candied haw with delight, showing a hint of envy.

...

"Peining, are you free tonight?"

"Tonight?"

In the school classroom, with no makeup, wearing a single ponytail, exuding a clean, sharp aura, and having rare phoenix eyes, the girl lifted her head in confusion, "Isn’t there self-study tonight?"

"Oh come on, Peining, who attends such boring self-study anyway?"

The girl sitting next to her, dressed colorfully, giggled and said, "Tonight is Young Master Kong’s birthday, and he said he’s inviting all of us to OT for fun. Shall we go together?"

"OT?"

The girl displayed a look of puzzlement again.

"Peining, are you out of touch? Don’t even know OT? It’s ONE THIRD at the Workers’ Stadium, the absolute top flow among nightclubs at the moment..."

Another girl leaned in from behind, speaking with excitement.

"I’m not interested."

Upon hearing it’s a so-called nightclub, Qu Peining’s brows instantly furrowed as she refused coldly.

"Come on, Peining, who never skips class ever?"

"Exactly, or we can go shopping first. Recently Chanel opened a new store near Wangfujing, and I heard there are lots of new spring and summer dresses. Let’s go check it out."

However, no matter how the two girls persuaded, Qu Peining remained unmoved, soon burying her head back into the books, ignoring them completely.

Helplessly, the two girls could only get up and leave, muttering something and showing a bit of resentment on their faces as they left.

After they left the classroom chattering, Qu Peining lifted her head again. The lingering fragrance in the air made her a bit uncomfortable, but as she inadvertently glanced down at the sporty leggings hugging her toned legs, a hint of confusion appeared on her face.

"Are dresses... really nice to wear?"

...

"Qu Peining!"

"Present!"

"Why did you act on your own without waiting for your teammate to reach the designated position?"

In the pouring rain in the wilderness, a stern-faced female instructor loudly questioned.

"Report, she didn’t appear at the designated time in the assigned location. If I kept waiting, it would only result in mission failure..."

"Excuses!"

The female instructor scolded, interrupting her, "You never value teamwork, only thinking of individual heroism, with no sense of collective honor. Now, run ten laps around the foot of the mountain; you can’t eat dinner until you finish. Any objections?"

"No!"

With hands behind her back, wearing a tactical vest and combat pants, the energetic girl responded loudly, then turned to run along the foot of the mountain.

The female instructor couldn’t help but frown, hesitated to speak, but eventually shook her head, allowing her to go.

...

Qu Peining knew she was dreaming, yet she found herself unable to wake up, only struggling in one nightmare after another.

Those familiar scenes seemed to form an interconnected loop, and she kept spinning within, eventually returning to those five years of her youth, the most monotonous yet memorable.