Chapter 369: Chapter 368: Let Her Deceive Herself?

After attending Rao Lu’s college acceptance banquet, Xu Su boarded a plane to Beijing with Zhou Mochen the very next day.

Besides Rao Lu, many other students in the "Rocket Class" had also done well on their exams. Those from well-off families in Chang City had pretty much all thrown college acceptance banquets for their children.

In the two days after the scores were released, Xu Su received several invitations one after another.

But she didn’t have time to go and had to decline them all.

Xi Zirong, the top student in the province, naturally held a banquet as well. By the time he sent her an invitation, Xu Su had already set foot in Beijing.

Originally, she had planned to wait for Huang Feng and Qian Jia to say their proper goodbyes to their classmates before the three of them went to Beijing together.

But ever since Xu Su submitted her university choices, Zhou Mochen acted as if he couldn’t stand to stay in Chang City for another day, rushing her constantly.

Xu Su couldn’t win against him. Thinking he had urgent company business, she let him coax her into rushing onto the plane. Before she knew it, she had already arrived in Beijing.

Young Master Shen came to pick them up personally. This time, his ride was a relatively low-key Cayenne.

Zhou Mochen pulled her into the back seat. As soon as she turned on her phone, she saw a message from Xi Zirong on QQ. Her fingers paused for a moment before she quickly typed a reply, honestly explaining that she was no longer in Chang City and couldn’t make it. Then, she locked the screen.

She typed very quickly. Zhou Mochen, assuming she was messaging Huang Feng and the others, paid no attention and continued chatting with Shen Chen in the front.

Shen Chen, however, glanced at Xu Su in the rearview mirror, a slight smile on his lips. "We’ve been waiting for what feels like forever, and now we finally have you in Beijing. How about I arrange a welcome dinner for you tonight?"

Xu Su put her phone away and looked up. "What kind of welcome?"

"What’s this?" Shen Chen raised an eyebrow. "Got any requests? Feel free to ask for any kind of entertainment. Now that you’re in Beijing, I have to be a good host."

"Don’t listen to his nonsense." Zhou Mochen squeezed Xu Su’s hand and explained with a smile, "A few friends want to meet you. Since we’re back, I’ll take you to meet them."

’Zhou Mochen’s friends...’

Xu Su blinked and nodded in agreement.

A few faces flashed through her mind.

The ones Zhou Mochen called friends were the few buddies he had known since childhood. Naturally, their family backgrounds were nothing to scoff at.

Xu Su had, of course, met them in her past life. As soon as she arrived in Beijing, Zhou Mochen had introduced her to his circle of friends, and she had seen them quite a few times.

But back then, she couldn’t even give Zhou Mochen himself a pleasant look, let alone his buddies, whom she considered a bunch of good-for-nothings.

Especially after Shen Chen had wronged Shi Lin, she had transferred her anger to Zhou Mochen, believing they were all cut from the same cloth. She would either stay silent or, if she did speak, she had to take a few jabs at him to feel satisfied.

Now, of course, she no longer thought that way. Zhou Mochen should be considered separately. As for the others in that circle, they were indeed cut from the same cloth as Shen Chen.

In her past life, no matter the occasion or who was present, as long as Zhou Mochen took her out, Xu Su was never willing to crack a smile.

Those who were closer to Zhou Mochen were fine; they more or less knew how incredibly important Xu Su was to him.

So, even though she always wore a stony expression and looked down on all of them, no one dared to cross Young Master Zhou by offending the girl he cherished most.

However, not many in that circle could be considered close to Young Master Zhou. Most were just hangers-on, trying to curry favor from the fringes.

Xu Su was beautiful, so plenty of people gossiped about her behind her back. In the eyes of those young scions who didn’t see women as people, her cold demeanor was novel at first. But after a while, no matter how divinely beautiful she was, it just became a real buzzkill.

’It’s one thing for the Crown Prince of the top business circle to give them the cold shoulder, but who does she think she is, daring to look down on people...’

Gradually, as more people gossiped behind her back, there were bound to be a few who couldn’t keep their mouths shut.

Until one time, a drunk, second-generation rich kid sneered at Xu Su, asking why she was acting so high and mighty when she was just selling herself, unable to recognize her own place...

Xu Su only remembered that line. She couldn’t clearly recall what else the man had said after that.

At the time, she herself didn’t really react. She even felt that what the man said made a lot of sense.

Who would have thought that Zhou Mochen, standing beside her, would be the one to explode? Smashing two liquor bottles wasn’t enough to vent his anger; he started throwing punches, each one landing with brutal force. He was truly vicious, not stopping until the rich kid had several broken ribs and was beaten into a near-lifeless pulp, too weak to even beg for mercy.

The circle of people standing around them was scared into collective silence by the scene. Not a single person dared to intervene.

In the end, it was Xu Su who called out to stop him. At the time, she had even asked in confusion, ’The guy’s right, what are you so angry about...’

Whether it was voluntary or not, the fact was that she had taken his money and slept with him, yet she acted cold and aloof, failing to recognize her own status.

That reluctant appearance—anyone who saw it would say she was ’acting high and mighty for a prostitute’...

In reality, though, Xu Su’s self-loathing had reached its peak by then. In her own mind, she thought of herself as something even worse than what that man had called her.

Hearing someone say it out loud, besides the humiliation of her pride being trampled, her self-loathing actually made her agree with his words.

’Wasn’t I just selling myself...’

It’s a bit hard to understand now, but the Xu Su of that time was mildly depressed, just that conflicted and twisted. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

She didn’t just despise Zhou Mochen and the Xu Family; she despised herself.

After hearing her words that day, the color of Zhou Mochen’s face wasn’t much better than that of the man he had beaten breathless on the floor.

The image of his deathly pale face was deeply etched in Xu Su’s memory.

At the time, she only found Zhou Mochen utterly ridiculous. He was the one who did the dirty deed, giving her money to sell her body and unhesitatingly keeping her by his side. What kind of proper girlfriend gets together with someone like that?

If he was going to act that way, he should have just adopted the attitude of someone keeping a mistress—set a time limit, and let her know when it would be over. But Zhou Mochen refused to do that.

He put Xu Su on a pedestal, cherishing her carefully. Not only did he refuse to cheapen her himself and forbid others from disrespecting her, but he also wouldn’t even let her speak ill of herself.

What was the difference between that and stripping a wild pheasant of its feathers, pointing to it and telling everyone it was a phoenix, and then trying to convince the pheasant it was a phoenix too?

Was he asking her to deceive herself?

He was simply insane.

After that incident, Zhou Mochen never again tried to force Xu Su to integrate into his circle, not even after they were married.

Wherever she went, no one dared to find fault with her. Never mind being cold and ignoring people—even if she cursed you out, you were expected to take it as a favor.

The past was too painful to recall. A pang went through Xu Su’s heart, and she couldn’t help but think of the hollow, zombie-like man from her dreams again.

In fact, over the past few months, she had rarely thought about her past life. She didn’t dare to dwell on what had become of that man. Every time she did, her heart would ache with such pain that her subconscious survival instinct made her refuse to think about it.

She hadn’t expected that just by coming to Beijing, all those memories, carved into her very blood, would come rushing back.