Part 3The Misheard Affection
About 1,160 characters · Part 3 is the last of the three Parts printed here; Part 4 continues in the official app.
Since I was little, I told myself. Never be a "love brain" like my mom, spending a lifetime sacrificing for a broke man. Even when that man drank, gambled, cheated, beat his daughter until she was disabled and deaf, she forgave him time and time again. Before she died, she wouldn't even buy painkillers, running out of the hospital to make him one last meal of dumplings... I'd rather be a bad woman. Than a stupid woman.
When I first started college, I was truly poor. Even with financial aid, I could only afford steamed buns and pickles. If my roommates didn't sneak chicken legs into my lunchbox, I would have starved. A girl who walks out of the mountains. Has nothing left but resilience.
One hungry night, I met Caleb. It was an elective class open to the whole school. A group of boys sat in the back row gaming. They ordered bubble tea but were too lazy to pick it up, looking for someone to run the errand. Caleb offered me fifty bucks. I thought it was too little. Five hundred. I hesitated. Caleb lost patience and directly transferred five thousand. So, I gently kissed the corner of his mouth. He wanted me to run an errand. I heard "make out."