Heartthrob, Your Image is Crumbling!

Chapter 347: Past and Present Lives, Looking Back at the Homeland

As the New Year approached, there were quite a few cars on the expressway. They had originally planned to arrive home by two in the afternoon, but looking at the endless line of cars snaking ahead, they estimated it would take until four or five o'clock.Fortunately, the few of them were not in a hurry, chatting as they drove home. During this time, Li Shiqi spoke very little, basically sitting quietly in the backseat. Su Qing, however, had quite a lot to say. She actually said to Zhou Yuwen, "Hey, Zhou Yuwen, your family is having a gathering tonight, why don't you take me with you?"

Zhou Yuwen retorted that she wasn't all that pretty, so why was she dreaming so beautifully?

"Why should I take you?"

"To let me see that interesting older cousin of yours again?" Su Qing said with an amused smile.

After all, the two had been married for two years, so Su Qing was well aware of Zhou Yuwen's family situation.

Speaking of Zhou Yuwen's family, they were considered a prominent clan locally. In his grandfather's generation, he was the chief of the public security bureau transferred from Huaian, and then he put down roots in the Xuhuai region, having six daughters and one son.

Zhou Yuwen's father, Zhou Guobin, was the third child and the only male heir. He was quite stubborn in his youth and suffered hardships out in the world for two years. Later, after being mocked a bit by his grandfather, he gritted his teeth and tested into the procuratorate with the highest score in the entire city. Now, over twenty years had passed in a flash, and he was considered a prominent figure in the city.

As for Zhou Yuwen's several aunts, with his grandfather's help, they were doing decently well. They all worked in public institutions with guaranteed stable incomes, and those who married slightly better moved to other cities.

The only one doing poorly was probably his eldest aunt. Back then, his eldest aunt had a conflict with his grandfather and married a workshop worker. As times progressed, everyone else was steadily rising, but only his eldest aunt's family remained stagnant.

Actually, his eldest aunt was quite stubborn herself. In the beginning, she refused to beg anyone for help, feeling that having a backbone was enough. However, practice brought true knowledge, and reality showed everyone that having a backbone was useless. If the foundation was poor, everything else was in vain.

His eldest aunt only wanted to prove one thing in her life: it did not matter how well the rest of them were doing, because her child was educated well!

Therefore, Zhou Yuwen's older cousin, Peng Xiaoyong, had been first in class since childhood.

But to be honest, Zhou Yuwen did not envy Peng Xiaoyong at all.

Zhou Yuwen had a very deep impression of this. When they were young, all the other children could go out and play, but Peng Xiaoyong basically had endless homework every single day. Wearing thick black-rimmed glasses, he would sit in his eldest aunt's house—a dilapidated two-room apartment assigned by the factory—at a simple desk piled high with stack after stack of endless test papers.

Because an undeniable class gap had formed between the various households, the relatives could no longer mingle together. This was especially true for his eldest aunt's family. They had absolutely no common language. Even when they gathered for dinner, they did not know what to talk about.

The younger generation of children did not understand these things at all, but his eldest aunt would tell her own child that they just saw their family had no money, and that was why they wouldn't play with them.

So Xiaoyong, you must make us proud!

You must focus on studying!

You must stand out and succeed!

His older cousin did indeed live up to expectations, securing full scholarships since he was young.

After graduating from high school, he even went to study abroad.

Of course, the money to go abroad was scraped together with a little help from each family.

That was also the first time his eldest aunt bowed her head to beg for help.

However, even when she asked for help, she was very unyielding. She declared that she had never begged anyone in her entire life, but for the sake of her son's future, she had to bow her head.

"My life is set in stone, but I cannot let my son remain here. Since my son has the ability, he deserves the absolute best!"

Zhou Yuwen had a very deep impression of those words because he was in high school at the time.

His eldest aunt had come to their home and gritted her teeth while saying this to his father.

Zhou Yuwen was not clear on how much the other families had given, but his family had contributed one hundred thousand yuan.

Because Zhou Yuwen's father, Zhou Guobin, truly hoped his nephew would become successful. His father treated his older cousin exceptionally well back then.

It was just a pity that later on, due to the demolition and relocation of the family property, they had a conflict and stopped contacting each other.

The topic of the demolition was another huge issue.

His grandfather had been a person of status back in the day. Right in the heart of the city, he owned a large three-story house by the roadside. While the self-built house could not be called luxurious, it was truly massive.

In any case, Zhou Yuwen remembered that many people used to rent rooms in their house when he was a child. At its peak, there were seven or eight households, ranging from young couples who came to the city to strive for a living, to parents who brought their children to the city for school.

Zhou Yuwen had been quite happy during that period.

Because he was the son of the landlord, the children of the tenants basically revolved around him. Although little children did not know what it meant to curry favor, the situation back then vaguely resembled exactly that.

Zhou Yuwen still remembered that a side room was rented to a single mother at the time. What left the deepest impression was that she was always changing boyfriends. Her daughter, who was about the same age as Zhou Yuwen, pestered him every day and would even secretly kiss him, claiming she would be his wife when she grew up.

She even told Zhou Yuwen, "This is..." and then pointed at her private parts, spouting some nonsense.

Anyway, Zhou Yuwen understood nothing back then, nor did he want to understand.

At that time, Zhou Yuwen's mind was filled entirely with Contra, Super Mario, and Adventure Island. He thought these women were incredibly annoying!

This single mother rented a room in their house for three months before leaving with her daughter and some man.

Later on, Zhou Yuwen actually ran into this little girl who could be considered his childhood sweetheart.

At that time, Zhou Yuwen was in high school and was out strolling on the streets with a classmate.

A woman running a street stall kept staring at him.

Zhou Yuwen did not pay much attention at first.

That was until the girl grabbed hold of him and asked, "Are you Zhou Yuwen?"

Zhou Yuwen froze for a moment, taking a long while to finally remember her.

She was running a balloon-shooting stall at the time. Zhou Yuwen was very surprised to see her and asked why she was there.

She smiled somewhat embarrassedly and said, "Well, we ran out of money, you see, so I came out with my man to scrape together some cash."

This incident left a very deep impression on Zhou Yuwen because the girl was exactly the same age as him. Yet, if she had not greeted him first, Zhou Yuwen probably would have called her Auntie.

They chatted a bit more after that.

She was quite enthusiastic toward Zhou Yuwen, asking him, "Where are you working at?"

Zhou Yuwen felt a strong sense of superiority at that moment and replied, "Oh, I'm still in school."

When Zhou Yuwen said this, the other party was visibly stunned. The look of an old friend reuniting dimmed in her eyes, and it took her a long time to just utter an "Oh."

After that, nothing more was said. When Zhou Yuwen and his friend shot some balloons, she refused to take his money, but Zhou Yuwen still paid her anyway.

Zhou Yuwen's family always had tenants. During his primary school years, there were many people swarming around him to play.

Then, during high school, there was a group of older girls who had come to the city to work that would constantly tease him.

This kind of thing continued right up until university, when Zhou Yuwen finally left his hometown.

Even later on, Zhou Yuwen's family home was slated for demolition.

In 2016, the real estate market was in full swing.

Zhou Yuwen did not know how much compensation money they received, because his parents never mentioned it. At any rate, his family ended up with seven or eight properties later on, as well as that Big Flat in Jinling.

Because of this matter, Zhou Yuwen was frequently subjected to passive-aggressive remarks from his older female cousins.

Their implication was that the house had belonged to their grandfather. Logically speaking, the assets should have been divided up among the family.

However, their uncle's family had truly handled this point poorly.

Not a single cent of the demolition compensation was shared; it was completely occupied by them.

Zhou Yuwen didn't know what to say to such remarks, because that was simply the truth.

Zhou Yuwen had thin skin and had even specifically discussed this issue with his mother, asking her, "Since our house was demolished, shouldn't you at least give a share to my aunts?"

As a result, before he could even finish his sentence, he was scolded by his mother.

His mother told him, "What does this have to do with you?"

At the time, he was young and ignorant. Looking back now, he realized she was right. What did it have to do with him? Being a good little ostrich and burying his head in the sand was better than anything else.

However, precisely because of this incident, Zhou Yuwen's family and their relatives grew somewhat estranged. The most estranged was undoubtedly his eldest aunt's family. His eldest aunt pointed this matter out multiple times at the dinner table, causing everyone to look incredibly awful.

Of course, all of this would happen after 2016.

Right now, it was only 2014, and the relationships within the family were still very harmonious.

This year, Zhou Yuwen's older cousin had just returned from across the ocean with a master's degree. Wearing gold-rimmed glasses and dressed smartly in a suit, he could certainly be considered a man of striking appearance.

That was the first time Zhou Yuwen brought Su Qing home. It was truly hilarious at the time. When Peng Xiaoyong spoke, his Chinese was peppered with English. For every three sentences, two of them would be: "Regarding this point, I feel that the domestic situation handles it very poorly. Abroad, it's like this and that."

Then, Zhou Yuwen's father asked him what his thoughts were regarding his career.

It had to be said that Peng Xiaoyong also had good luck.

He graduated in 2014 with a master's degree.

Father Zhou had connections and received news that there was an opening in the municipal party committee office. Peng Xiaoyong perfectly met the requirements and wouldn't even need to take an exam.

However, Peng Xiaoyong was full of arrogance at the time. He chuckled lightly and said there was no need, as he had already received offers from many companies.

"Regarding this point, I really feel that the domestic side handles it poorly. It feels like everyone domestically places too much importance on a fixed salary and is always thinking about stability. It's much better abroad."

"Oh."

Since the conversation had reached this point, Father Zhou did not continue speaking.

Peng Xiaoyong struggled in a big city for six years and finally bought his first property there in 2019.

It turned out that against the backdrop of a grand era, everyone was merely the most insignificant speck of dust.

By 2019, Zhou Yuwen and Su Qing had already divorced, yet Peng Xiaoyong still wasn't married.

Sigh, the past was like smoke. Everything replayed vividly before Zhou Yuwen's eyes as if it had all happened just yesterday.

Su Qing still had quite a deep impression of Peng Xiaoyong and wanted Zhou Yuwen to take her to see him again this time.

That was because she remembered the look on Peng Xiaoyong's face when he saw Zhou Yuwen bring Su Qing home for the first time. Peng Xiaoyong's glasses had nearly fallen off in shock.

He was not surprised by how beautiful Su Qing was.

Rather, he was shocked that a man like his younger cousin could actually find a girlfriend!

That was right.

In his eyes, only he himself was brimming with talent!

Someone like Zhou Yuwen was absolutely nothing besides having parents with good circumstances.

How could he have a girlfriend?

Zhou Yuwen's deepest impression at the time was of his older cousin Peng Xiaoyong asking three times in a row, "This is your girlfriend?"

This had Su Qing dying of laughter. That night, as she rested her head on Zhou Yuwen's waist while playing on her phone, she even said, "See? Even your older cousin thinks you don't deserve me."

The few of them kept chatting. They had left at eleven in the morning, and by two in the afternoon, they had not even covered half the distance.

They rested at a service area for a while and went to the restroom.

Today's service area could truly be considered a sea of people.

The two girls dragged out their time going to the restroom.

Taking advantage of this time, Liu Shuo smoked a cigarette outside the car. He offered one to Zhou Yuwen, but Zhou Yuwen shook his head and said he didn't smoke.

He asked if driving was tiring.

Grinning, Liu Shuo replied that it wasn't tiring.

Zhou Yuwen said, "Come on, I'll drive in a bit."

"Brother, I'm really not tired."

Liu Shuo said.

Zhou Yuwen replied, "Alright, alright, I know."

Quite a few students at this service area were studying in Jinling. After their final exams, they had found a part-time job in Jinling, so three or five students actually recognized Liu Shuo.

When they saw Liu Shuo, they could hardly believe their eyes and hurriedly rushed over to greet him.

They kept respectfully calling him Brother Shuo over and over again!

Before they even finished speaking, a cigarette was already offered to Liu Shuo.

Naturally, Liu Shuo greeted them boisterously and then introduced Zhou Yuwen to them.

"You're Brother Zhou?"

At their level, knowing Liu Shuo was already the absolute peak.

However, they had certainly heard plenty of legends about Zhou Yuwen.

Therefore, upon learning that the person before them was none other than Zhou Yuwen—the founder of the Xuhuai Association, and the man who had single-handedly brought great benefits to university students—their eyes completely lit up. It felt just like meeting an idol.

Zhou Yuwen's reaction was fairly calm. He nodded slightly and asked, "Heading home?"

"Yes!"

"Where is home?"

Upon asking, he discovered that they were actually all from the same county town.

Later on, they talked about which high school they attended.

Zhou Yuwen and Liu Shuo were both from the county's First High School, while these guys were from township middle schools, so they didn't have any shared connections there.

However, Zhou Yuwen realized that Liu Shuo's Xuhuai Association had truly grown to be quite massive. At first, he thought it was just a few people, but as they kept chatting, nearly thirty more students gathered around. Of course, very few were from the exact same county town; they were distributed across various areas of Xuhuai. Yet, upon spotting Zhou Yuwen and Liu Shuo, they all came over to offer their respectful greetings.

Liu Shuo felt that this was a highly awe-inspiring matter.

Zhou Yuwen, however, always felt that it was rather strange.

After leaving the service area, Zhou Yuwen took over the driving.

Su Qing asked Zhou Yuwen, "Zhou Yuwen, who were all those people greeting you just now?"

Zhou Yuwen replied, "I don't know them."

"You don't know them and they greeted you?"

"Sister-in-law, this is where you don't understand. These are all my brother's subordinates! How about it? Awesome, right?" Liu Shuo said, grinning.

Zhou Yuwen told him to stop spouting nonsense.

Liu Shuo, however, insisted it was the truth.

He said, "Brother, although you're not actively in the Xuhuai Association, our brothers absolutely worship you! Hey, Brother, speaking of which, I realized we actually have quite a lot of brothers from our county town. Since it's the New Year, should we call everyone out to gather together?"

While Liu Shuo was speaking, he was actually already chatting away in the group chat.

Zhou Yuwen asked him how many there were.

Liu Shuo said there were probably a few hundred.

Zhou Yuwen firmly told him, "Don't mess around."