Chapter Twenty-Nine: An Embroidered Pillow

Yan Xue nodded and, together with Kang Ge, found the nearby sports field. There were quite a few students out for a night run. The two of them crossed the soft synthetic track, climbed up the stands, and walked all the way to the very top, settling in a quiet spot.

There weren’t any particularly bright lights around the stadium. The field below was lively enough, but the stands were much quieter — aside from a few couples whispering in the corners, there was almost no one else around.

Because the lighting was dim, if you lifted your head from the top of the stands, you could see the scattered stars in the sky, usually overlooked during the day.

“You seemed pretty understanding of Gao Yang’s situation today,” Kang Ge said as they sat side by side on the stands, gazing out over most of K University’s campus. He looked into the distance as he spoke to Yan Xue.

Yan Xue pursed her lips. Whenever it came to those vexing relatives in her family, she always felt a mixture of headache and rising anger. “Yeah, I was inexplicably made into some kind of rival by a distant relative — someone who really has nothing to do with me, but insists on comparing everything.

Whenever something good happens to me, they have to say something discouraging to ruin the mood. On the flip side, if things aren’t going well for me, they throw in a sarcastic remark. I can’t be bothered to deal with it, but I’ve dealt with this since childhood. That cousin has always had this strange hostility toward me.

I know exactly how that feels, so when Gao Yang mentioned it, I understood immediately. Did you ever experience something like that growing up?”

“More or less, I think everyone has,” Kang Ge replied lightly. “But it’s not all bad. After all, for someone to see you as a rival, the prerequisite is that you have to be pretty outstanding yourself!”

Yan Xue was amused by his take. “Honestly, I always found this inexplicable rivalry among relatives to be such a headache — frustrating beyond words. I didn’t expect you to be so optimistic about it! I really ought to learn from you!”

He waved his hand. “Well, there’s no need to imitate me. A good mindset is forced out of you. The really fragile souls are those who’ve never weathered a storm, while those who seem indestructible are the ones who’ve been tempered a thousand times over.”

Yan Xue pressed her lips together, forcibly pushing down the sudden curiosity that had surfaced. She suspected that Kang Ge’s real character might not be as carefree as he appeared — that beneath his easygoing, almost otherworldly manner, something deeper was concealed.

If what he just said was true, that indestructible spirits are forged by hardship, then perhaps the hint of depth and casual strength he showed was also the result of some kind of trial.

Yan Xue only speculated silently in her heart and didn’t ask. For one thing, the case at hand was most important. For another, given her current acquaintance with Kang Ge, asking about such things would clearly be overstepping boundaries.

Growing up, Yan Xue had suffered enough from people lacking boundaries and disrespecting others’ privacy. So she was especially careful in this regard, making a point not to trouble others, even if not out of selfish motives.

“This Xu Wenrui — just by talking to a few different people about him, you gain all sorts of new perspectives. The image I have of him now is nothing like the one his mother described at first,” she said, pressing her curiosity down and steering the conversation back to work. “I know people are multifaceted — we show different sides to different people — but the contrast with Xu Wenrui is just too stark. He feels a bit hypocritical.”

“Well, calling him hypocritical might even be giving him too much credit,” Kang Ge said, sharing much the same view as Yan Xue. “You’re being polite. I’d say he’s a showy pillow — all grand appearance, but nothing inside. He can fool those who admire him blindly or haven’t spent enough time with him to see through the act, but anyone who spends a bit more time with him can see right through it.”

Yan Xue nodded quickly. Kang Ge’s words were blunt, but not unfair.

From what they’d learned so far, Xu Wenrui was most passionate about things that could win him instant fame — not the kind of success that comes from years of silent effort, but the kind that allows him to strut and show off like a peacock, winning applause and praise at once. He preferred things where talent counted for more than hard work — like playing guitar and singing, or showing off on the basketball court when there was no real competition.

Thanks to his naturally outstanding looks and voice, he excelled in these areas with minimal effort. Neither the counselor nor the girls who liked him had spent any real time with Xu Wenrui, so their impressions were naturally positive.

His mother was different, though. She belonged to the category of blind admirers Kang Ge had described.

But after hearing Gao Yang describe the special bond between the two families, Yan Xue began to see Xu Wenrui’s mother’s “blind admiration” in a new light.

Perhaps her admiration for her son hadn’t always been so uncritical.

This was evident after Xu Wenrui was admitted to K University, when the family threw a huge celebration. If she truly believed her son was as perfect and outstanding as she claimed, his getting into K University would have seemed perfectly natural — hardly worth celebrating, and perhaps even a little disappointing.

But that wasn’t how she reacted. She was overjoyed, as if she had won the lottery. This showed that, at that moment, she had a realistic understanding of her son’s abilities.

However, given the long-standing rivalry between her and Gao Yang’s mother, Aunt Yang — having been bested in matters of marriage, career, even family background — Xu Wenrui’s sudden triumph in the college entrance exam, paired with Gao Yang’s disappointing university placement, was nothing short of a reversal of fortunes.

After so many years of feeling suppressed, this “comeback victory” let Xu Wenrui’s mother taste the sweetness of success. Xu Wenrui’s popularity at school, coupled with his own or others’ embellishments of his excellence, only added to the momentum, making the victory complete.

Thus, in the flush of triumph, she abandoned what little objectivity she had left, becoming ever more blindly admiring and indulgent of her cherished son.

As for why, despite being surpassed in every other respect by Gao Yang’s mother, Xu Wenrui’s mother felt utterly victorious after her son’s college entrance exam success and admission to K University, Yan Xue wasn’t puzzled at all.

It’s often said that each generation shares certain ways of thinking — an objective reality, in fact. Even today’s young people, who pride themselves on individuality and being “one of a kind,” have many obvious things in common; the older generation, even more so.

There’s an old saying: “Thirty years ago, people judged fathers by how they treated their sons; thirty years later, they judge sons by how they treat their fathers.” Many in the older generation hold this view — when things don’t go their way, they pin all their hopes for a comeback on their children.

Xu Wenrui’s family was a clear example. In the eyes of both Xu Wenrui’s and Gao Yang’s mothers, once their children became adults, the family’s financial status or the husband’s career mattered less than whether the child became a star and brought glory.

After being overshadowed for so many years by her friend, Xu Wenrui’s mother finally managed to turn the tables thanks to her son, and the sweet taste of victory went straight to her head. To hold on to this hard-won moment of triumph, she was willing to keep up the illusion at any cost — even if it meant deceiving herself — and make sure her son never fell from the pedestal.