Chapter 282 The ending of an era [three]

A week later, the fracture of her leg was removed too. She could still not walk much on her own but it wasn’t as bad as it was earlier. When she reached home, her family and friends all gathered together to throw her a get-well-soon party. She plastered a smile on her face and pretended to be happy just like she had been doing for a month. She acted as if her life wasn’t in shambles. As if she wasn’t crumbling bit by bit. As if she wasn’t afraid of being left behind. Sometimes, it hurts less to leave first than to be left behind.

“Betty and August missed you, ” An Qinyan smiled as she saw the cats running to meet An Xiulan. She had to say not just people but even the animals missed her daughter a lot. The house was dark and empty without her. They couldn’t see their future without her in it. To say they missed her terribly would be an understatement.

“I missed home too, ” An Xiulan had said to her mother. She looked at her house with tears in her eyes while her friends and family were singing around her. She couldn’t hear a sound as her eye was just focused on the house.

Time was passing very quickly but An Xiulan was stuck right where she was. Every night, she would see herself falling from those stairs and wake up with a panic attack. The sessions with the therapist were helpful to some extent.

It was not that she wanted to keep being this pathetic, she wanted to change, she wanted to move on, but she knew that she had to feel this immense pain to learn a major lesson in life that sometimes hard work doesn’t guarantee success and one shouldn’t always be too cocky that they forgot that life could throw you back where it picked you from.

After a few days, she was able to walk on her own. Still, she could not jump around like she used to do. Not like she was leaving home to jump around like before.

It was another day when she was snuggling with Betty and August while staring at the Television when she felt her phone dinging. As she looked at her phone, she realized that there were more than a hundred messages in the class group all of a sudden. She opened the class group and saw her classmates excitedly chatting about the declaration of the National College Entrance Test.

[All hail Goddess Shen Yue for topping in Humanities!]

[Oh god, have you seen the results of Science students? Ice princess Xueyun, Prince Li and Genius Gu rocked!]

[I just saw that Genius Gu has perfect marks in mathematics, physics and chemistry.]

[What about Lu Xuan?]

[720/750! He will go to Tsinghua or Peking just as he has said!]

[Mona, what about you?]

[I will easily get into the art college I was eyeing. Qiao Wei and I are attending the same college. She can easily take literature while I will go for arts just like I decided.]

[Congratulations!]

[Big News! Big Boss Han’s scores are enough to get him into a good music university. Our class is amazing.]

[Who dared to say that our Class K is the worst class in Jingyuan High?]

[I just feel bad about our Xiao Lan. Why is God cruel to her?]

[We started studying seriously because of her. Why must god always hurt good people?]

The number of messages increased as someone started discussing her rotten luck and how she could have gotten into a nice university if not for the unfortunate accident.

An Xiulan turned off the wifi when they started discussing her. A tear slipped down her cheek and she hurriedly wiped it away. No, she couldn’t cry. Today was a happy day for her brothers and friends. She had to be happy for their sake. No, she had to be genuinely happy or it would look like she was just bitter for her misery. But it wasn’t easy for her. After all, she was a human too and negative emotions were a part of her essence.

She put on her signature bright smile on her face and got down from the bed to walk to her wardrobe. She took out three nicely packed gifts and walked out of her bedroom. She could walk slowly now. Meimei, who saw her coming, ran to meet her halfway.

“Missy, ” Meimei said, helping her to go to the living room. “Let me help you climb down the stairs.”

An Xiulan saw her brothers and Han Zixin quietly sitting in the living room. She walked to him with a bright smile and said, “Congratulations, guys. But don’t be too happy. Next year, I will beat your score.”

The three of them hugged her as they heard her congratulating them. Even though she was broken inside, she didn’t forget to be happy for them. She showed them that they meant a lot to her.

“Hey. Hey. Be happy. If I see you crying again, I will cry, ” An Xiulan told them, easing the tense situation. “Take your gifts. I got them for you from Beijing.”

“Thank you, ” They said in a soft voice.

“When you go to university, you have to bring it with you and miss me always, ” An Xiulan acted spoiled like in old times.

The three of them didn’t fight over gifts like they would have if it had been old times and thanked her again and again. It was getting awkward for all of them but it was how it was now and they could only pray for the bad time to be over so they could revert to their normal self.

“You know everyone is envious that I have two amazing brothers, ” An Xiulan said with a smile. “I’m so proud of you both. And Cheat prince, don’t forget to buy me a treat. I won’t leave you if you dared to be stingy.”

Han Zixin pulled her to him and hugged her tightly. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“What do you mean?” An Xiulan furrowed her brows.

“I will take another test. I’m not satisfied with my score, ” Han Zixin said.

She flicked his forehead. “Don’t be ridiculous. You are not doing anything like this. And if you dared to, I will never talk to you again.”

Han Zixin lowered his head and didn’t say anything else.