My Youth Began With Him

“We didn’t even officially go out, so how could there be a break-up… At that time, he was good to me even though we didn’t go out like a formal couple. Sometimes, we’d go out to have snacks and walk in the night markets… I watched his matches and even bought him a pair of limited edition sneakers which was the same style as those worn by Jordan… I felt happy and thought I’d marry after graduation, just like all the lucky girls.”

An didn’t speak. He just drank beer silently and listened to her story.

He didn’t know why Zeng Rou told him this story since he was a stranger to her.

But sometimes one could only tell certain things to strangers.

“Due to my special background, I remained low-profiled at school and my dad had bodyguards protect me in secret. Not to draw attention, I always took a taxi to go home after school and never let our chauffeur drive me. So, the guy I liked thought I was only a daughter of a working family. When we were about to graduate and everyone was busy looking for work, he said to me one day that he wanted to continue his education in a university abroad.”

Zeng Rou glanced at An with unreadable eyes; she was still smiling but her smile looked sad.

“When he told me that, I was very happy; I was about to tell him that I’d go to any country he wanted to go and wanted to always stay with him. But I didn’t have a chance to say it because he told me, ‘I’m sorry, Rou, but it’s not easy for me to come to this stage and I want to go farther. I can’t waste my youth in this small city….’”

“What happened then?” An asked in a soft voice.

“Then he left. I thought he left me because he wanted to go and study abroad. When I returned to my dorm, my good friend told me that he had actually hooked up with a girl from another major. That girl looked ordinary and wasn’t brilliant, but her family was rich with her father running a chain of superstores. He went out with the girl and then her father paid for them to study in the U.S. together.”

“Why didn’t you tell him your background?” An felt any man would be stunned by her family background.

“It would be meaningless. If I told him and he stayed because of it, it wouldn’t be love,” Zeng Rou said sulkily.

“So, you broke up just like this?”

“Yeah. The funny thing is that when he came back, the girl’s family went broke; he broke up with her and immediately married a doctor working in an army hospital; then his father-in-law arranged for him to be a prosecutor in the procuratorate.”

“Well. This man climbed up by stepping on women.” An felt he wouldn’t do such a despicable thing even though he was only a bodyguard.

“Then a more ridiculous thing happened. Last year on my father’s birthday, many people came to our home to celebrate it. He was introduced to my father and then came to the party with a top-quality tea set, hoping my dad would promote him. When he saw me, his face was… Haha!”

“He was stunned, right?”

“Not stunned; he looked… very stupid,” Zeng Rou took another swig of beer and said.

“He must regret that he broke up with you.”

“Yeah. Anyway, he said, ‘Rou, I didn’t know your father… is Governor Zeng,’” Zeng Rou said.

“Do you think he loved you?”

“I don’t know. It was years ago, and I don’t want to dwell on it. It’s just a story about how a guy betrayed the love of a silly woman,” Zeng Rou said nonchalantly.

“So, does your story have anything to do with your interest in President Su?” An drew the topic back to the issue they had been talking about.

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