The stubborn her

bad

The door of the private room was suddenly pushed open, and the people inside were taken aback when they saw Shen Zhitong. Their faces turned ugly in an instant. The mocking laughter that had filled the room abruptly ceased, replaced by an eerie silence. Zhou Xingjin's face twitched slightly when he saw Shen Zhitong's figure at the door. Shen Zhitong walked in expressionlessly, slowly approaching the man who had been laughing the most cruelly moments ago. She reached out and took back the expensive bag from his hands.

"I didn't intend to carry it on my cheap coat," she said flatly.

Lin Qianxiao scratched his head awkwardly, curling his fingers.

Shen Zhitong looked at Zhou Xingjin, who was sitting motionless in his seat. "I originally planned to return it to you," she said. "But now I've changed my mind."

Zhou Xingjin stared silently at Shen Zhitong as she walked to the corner of the room, in full view of everyone... and threw the bag into the trash can. His expression changed from slight embarrassment to coldness.

The people around them glanced back and forth between the two, afraid to speak, standing frozen in place. Shen Zhitong stared coldly at Zhou Xingjin across the room. "Next time you don't want something, please throw it in the trash yourself."

She walked up to Zhou Xingjin, looked down at him with cold eyes, tears pooling in her eyes but stubbornly refusing to fall. "Zhou Xingjin, do you know that my father wore his most expensive suit just to meet you today?"

Zhou Xingjin's rigid pupils visibly froze for a moment.

"Shen Zhitong..."

Her father had worn his most important suit, only to be insulted by these people in the end!

Suddenly, Shen Zhitong felt that the man in front of her was just like them. His expensive suit was nothing but a thin layer of hypocritical veneer, his precise features shining ominously in the dim blue light.

He and those spoiled rich kids were ultimately of the same ilk. The latter often behaved arrogantly, disdainfully, and aggressively towards the poor, while the former, compared to them, was just better at hiding. His arrogance seeped into his bones but was masked with manners. He was better at pretending... more hypocritical.

Lin Qianxiao, who had been rudely deprived of the bag by her earlier, felt resentful and lashed out at Shen Zhitong, "Indeed, poor people have no taste. A bag worth three hundred thousand, and she says she'll throw it away!"

Shen Zhitong ignored him and, passing by Lin Qianxiao, gave him a cold glance. "If you want the bag, you can pick it up and give it to someone."

"You...!!"

"That's enough!" came Zhou Xingjin's voice from behind.

Lin Qianxiao was stopped by him, reluctantly glaring at Shen Zhitong, before being dragged out of the room by his brothers, the door shutting firmly behind them.

Only Zhou Xingjin remained in the room.

The lighting inside grew dim, casting a shadow over Zhou Xingjin's gloomy figure in the pale blue corner, as he finished the remaining liquor in his glass.

***

Shen Zhitong searched the restaurant but didn't find her father. Finally, she saw him squatting in a corner outside the first floor, facing away from her, smoking a cigarette. Snowflakes had started to fall outside, and her father, thin and frail, looked completely different from before, even more desolate and lonely.

"Dad..." Shen Zhitong hurried over to stop him. "Why are you smoking again?!"

Her father shook the cigarette ashes off, his disheveled hair fluttering in the wind and snow.

"Shen Zhitong," he said without looking at her, his gaze drifting among the passing vehicles. "That Mr. Zhou... isn't really... suitable for you."

"Dad..."

"Dad just heard everything." Her father put the cigarette back into his mouth and took a deep drag.

Shen Zhitong's heart trembled.

He... had been standing behind her the whole time? Had he heard everything?

"Shen Zhitong, that kind of person is beyond our reach."

"Dad... don't listen to their nonsense..."

"I squatted here smoking a cigarette, thinking for a long time, and finally figured it out. It's... it's your dad... your dad isn't as good as their dads."

"No..."

"If I earned more money, bought you more expensive clothes, and shoes... you wouldn't have been mocked by those little animals like that. But in the end, your dad doesn't even have the courage to go in and punch them!" Her father slumped against the wall, trembling hands trembling with excitement, the cigarette butt rolling to the ground.

The faint light of the scattered fire struggled to shine for a moment before being extinguished by the wind and snow.

"All of that doesn't matter." Shen Zhitong wiped away her tears and went over to help him up. "No one is cheap, and I don't need a rich and powerful dad."

"I don't want to become like those vicious and uncultured people upstairs."

Shen Zhitong straightened the collar of the only suit her father had bought from the county, comforting him. "Let's go back."

"I'll go to the company tomorrow and resign. Let's go back to our hometown together."