Ch 11: Comparisons Are Odious
During her lunch break, she still felt uneasy and took a taxi back to her parents’ home, only to discover Ling Yun Zhuang there.
Xiao Yao, through a half-opened door crack, saw Ling Yun Zhuang standing on a stool, using her mother’s favorite feather duster to carefully roll up the colorful paper decorations stuck to the ceiling, one by one, before pulling them down.
Xiao Yao’s Mother directed Ling Yun Zhuang from below, while Xiao Yao’s Father sat on the sofa using a toothpick to poke at balloons, grumbling angrily, “I said from the start not to bother with all this stuff. We’re not even having the wedding reception here. All this festive decoration… now it’s just heartbreaking to look at, isn’t it?”
Xiao Yao’s Mother sighed, “Who could have known this would happen? That Shen Mingzhe seemed so presentable, I thought he was a good match. If I’d only known his true character, I would have cut his photo into shards and burned them when we arranged the blind date. I wouldn’t have let my daughter meet such a scoundrel!”
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” Ling Yun Zhuang suddenly interjected, “Auntie, you don’t need to blame yourself too much. It hasn’t become a major catastrophe; there’s still time to make amends.”
“Alas, Yaoyao has had a hard time… and Little Zhuang, you too. If you had only revealed your feelings to us earlier, why would we have had to arrange for Yaoyao to go on so many blind dates? We could have arranged for you two long ago.”
Ling Yun Zhuang pulled down the last paper decoration, hopped off the chair, and turned around with a smile, “It’s not too late now.”
As he finished speaking, Ling Yun Zhuang noticed Xiao Yao peeking through the crack in the door.
The former smiled slightly, while the latter was startled, quickly ducked away, and rushed down the stairs, hailing a taxi and escaping.
Xiao Yao felt a mix of emotions. Lately, she had been avoiding him, her intentions quite clear. Yet he seemed completely unconcerned, resorting to a strategy of hitting where it hurts, aiming for the king to capture the thief.
Xiao Yao wondered about his true motives. But he appeared indifferent and detached, truly inscrutable.
She was relieved that her Father was alright, but because of Ling Yun Zhuang, Xiao Yao’s spirits couldn’t lift.
She had two more classes in the afternoon and couldn’t afford to be distracted; otherwise, she’d be publicly “praised” by the principal again during the evening meeting.
The Duo Ling Arts School offered a wide range of courses, mainly targeting teenagers with junior, middle, and senior classes. Besides working as a Belly Dance teacher, Xiao Yao also taught art and pottery.
After getting out of the taxi, as she entered the school gates, she saw Mu Yang waiting for her on a resting chair in the main hall.
Mu Yang was a dance teacher, tall and well-proportioned, a very handsome and sunny young man. Twice as many female students as male students attended his classes, mostly drawn by his good looks.
When Mu Yang saw Xiao Yao enter, he sprang up from his chair as if he had a spring in his butt, jumping to her side, “You’re back?”
Xiao Yao looked at him in surprise, nodded, and walked towards the elevator, “Waiting for me? Anything?”
Mu Yang followed beside her, his earlier gloomy expression gone, now beaming, shyly pulling a small gift box from his pocket and handing it to Xiao Yao, “For you.”
“What is it?”
“A gift.”
“Didn’t you already give me a gift this morning?”
Upon meeting this morning, Mu Yang had acted as if someone owed him three million yuan, his face stern as he forcefully shoved a blue gift box into her hand, claiming it was a wedding gift, then turning and leaving without a word.
Xiao Yao hadn’t yet figured out how to explain the broken engagement to her colleagues; everyone naturally assumed that after taking their wedding photos, the next step was marriage.
“I bought that morning’s gift on impulse, and its meaning is different. This one is to wish you a happy singlehood.”
Xiao Yao abruptly turned to look at Mu Yang.
Mu Yang grinned, “I heard all about it from Xiao Qiang. This gift was carefully chosen. See if you like it.”
Mu Yang opened the gift box, presenting it to her like a treasure. It was a sparkling brooch encrusted with countless tiny diamonds. The morning gift was also a brooch, but a plastic one.
Xiao Yao smiled perfunctorily, “Thank you, but I like the morning one better. This one… you should keep it.”
The elevator stopped on the third floor. Some colleagues entered, and seeing the diamond brooch Mu Yang hadn’t yet put away, looked at them both with surprise and suggestive ambiguity.
“Mu Shuai, you’re something! You don’t even spare married women? Yaoyao’s getting married! Give it up!” a female colleague joked.
Mu Yang glanced at Xiao Yao and said, “You can never say for sure. Even if people marry, they can still divorce. I need to be prepared.”
The female colleague bumped Xiao Yao’s shoulder, laughing suggestively, “You have quite the luck with men.”
Xiao Yao felt embarrassed, “Don’t listen to his nonsense, I have something to do. You guys go ahead.” Before the elevator doors closed, Xiao Yao slipped out.
Mu Yang didn’t manage to follow, and Xiao Yao breathed a sigh of relief.
She went to the teacher’s office; Xiao Qiang wasn’t there. Xiao Yao then went to the vocal music classroom on the second floor, where she found Xiao Qiang.
Indeed, Xiao Qiang also worked at the school, having been hired six months after Xiao Yao; she was a vocal music teacher.
The schedule on the door showed no vocal music class that afternoon; the classroom was empty, except for Xiao Qiang sitting alone in a corner, leaning on the table, playing on her mobile phone.
Hearing the door open, she glanced up and then listlessly went back to what she was doing.
Xiao Qiang was a beauty, with a melodious voice and a seductive and charming appearance.
Not only did she have a strikingly attractive face, but her figure was also extremely sexy. However, everything has two extremes; because she was excessively beautiful, while men considered her perfect, potential mothers-in-law saw her as inappropriate, someone to definitely cross off the daughter-in-law list.
So Xiao Qiang had many boyfriends, but none that she ever seriously considered marriage with. Lately, she had reached the longest period of singlehood, having been without a boyfriend for over half a year.
“What do you want?” Xiao Qiang asked listlessly.
“Why did you tell Mu Yang about my business? Are you bored, or is my business the only topic you and Mu Yang have to talk about?”
“It’s not like everyone won’t find out sooner or later. Do you think you can hide it for life?”
“That’s none of your concern; mind your own business.”
Even though they didn’t get along, they still had to maintain some face in front of others. However, Xiao Qiang’s gossiping had genuinely angered Xiao Yao; she didn’t want her private affairs to become the topic of after-dinner conversation for the whole company.
Xiao Qiang got up, her feet in her pointed apricot-colored high heels, and stood before Xiao Yao, mockingly curling her lips, and said with a smile, “What? Embarrassed? Yeah, if my fiancé cheated on me and I got my Father sent to the hospital, I wouldn’t be able to talk about it either.”
Xiao Yao took a deep breath, “Xiao Qiang, don’t overdo it. I’m single now.”
Xiao Qiang instantly understood the implication, her expression changing slightly, then turning into a cold sneer.
“Do you think Mu Yang genuinely likes you? He’s just finding you interesting. Don’t take it too seriously, or you’ll become another joke.”
“Even if I become a joke, it’s better than you just watching, never getting what you want.” Xiao Yao retorted with a sneer, “I know you’re not satisfied, having always been overshadowed by me. Even now, I’m still more liked than you. Comparison is the thief of joy. So I advise you to stay out of my life, otherwise, you’ll end up being driven mad by me.”
Leaving those words behind, Xiao Yao turned and left, leaving Xiao Qiang, her face ashen, to stomp her feet on the spot, wishing she could dig holes in the tiles with her heels.
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