Su Man suddenly stopped eating. She swallowed hard and lowered her head, falling into silence.
She didn't know how to tell Ding Ruola about this.
"It's something hard to talk about!"
Ding Ruola also put down her chopsticks and looked at Su Man, who was sitting there with her head down, silent.
Just as the two of them were sitting in silence, a loud female voice rang out beside them.
Ding Ruola didn't need to look to know that it was Bi Shuang.
"Dingding, have you heard? This account belongs to Shu Nian, the girl who dropped out of school before."
After she said that, the two people at the table showed no reaction. Thinking that she hadn't provided enough information, she repeated what she knew.
At first, Ding Ruola thought it was just someone with the same name. She never expected it to be that very Shu Nian.
The girl sitting between them suddenly stood up.
Bi Shuang was completely clueless. She thought these were just the petty tantrums of this "young miss".
Before Bi Shuang and Ding Ruola could say anything, Su Man got up from her seat and left.
"What's going on!"
Bi Shuang was carefree. She scooped up a big spoonful of rice and stuffed it into her mouth.
She was waiting for Ding Ruola to give her an answer. Instead, Ding Ruola also left.
"She said there was nothing going on, but they even run away together."
Bi Shuang felt a bit uncomfortable. The two of them used to be really close, but then Su Man suddenly came between them. Now there were secrets among the little sisters.
She slowed down her eating. In the end, she simply threw the spoon aside and started making an appointment in the game group to play black games.
"Do you know something?"
Ding Ruola knew that when Su Man was sad, she liked to run to the rooftop of the School of Economics and Management building.
In spring, the wind on the rooftop was quite strong. Both of them had their hair loose, and the wind blew their hair onto their faces, which hurt a bit.
She stood behind Su Man. Su Man's shoulders were trembling. It seemed as if she was holding back great sorrow.
What secret did this post uncover that made Su Man so sad?
"Shu Nian is dead!"
Hearing this news, Ding Ruola, who had just raised her hand halfway to pat Su Man on the shoulder, let her hand fall limply. Due to gravity, her hand landed on the sides of her thighs.
"How did you get this news?"
Su Man went to Song He's office in the morning. Before she could go in, she heard a woman crying.
She thought it was inappropriate to go in at that moment, so she stood outside and listened to the conversation between the two people inside.
This woman was Shu Nian's mother.
Shu Nian came from a single - parent family. She had been raised by her mother since childhood. This self - abased and sensitive girl committed suicide not long after she took a leave of absence from school.
For a middle - aged woman, the obsession of her later life was gone. All her efforts in the first half of her life had been in vain.
As for the reason for her suicide, it was depression.
Ding Ruola felt sorry about Shu Nian's death, but she also thought that this was no excuse to hurt others.
"This..."
"Let me show you!"
Ding Ruola took the phone that Su Man handed over. It seemed to be the chat record between Shu Nian and someone else.
The most frequent thing Shu Nian said was, "I really regret getting to know Su Man. She has made my life a complete mess."
There were also long paragraphs of text that described in detail what had happened before the day Ding Ruola was kidnapped.
Su Man threatened Shu Nian that if she didn't invite her boyfriend over, Su Man would tell Xiang Bei that Shu Nian was no longer a virgin.
Shu Nian was very fixated on this matter. In the end, she had no choice but to call Xiang Bei.
As for what happened after that, Ding Ruola already knew.
Shu Nian never expected such a dramatic turn of events.
The reason why Shu Nian was no longer a virgin was not that she had had a boyfriend before. Instead, when she was in middle school, while learning to ride a bike, she accidentally hit the crossbar of the bike.
She was in pain for a whole day. In the end, Mother Shu had no choice but to take her to the hospital. That was the doctor's final conclusion.
After that, Shu Nian had a psychological burden.
She was always afraid to fall in love until she met the man she couldn't resist.
When Su Man told this part, she couldn't hold back her tears and snot.
"It's all my fault. I shouldn't have..."
Ding Ruola stood in front of Su Man. She put one hand on Su Man's shoulder and stroked Su Man's head with the other.
"Then who posted that post?"
"Mother Shu."
Shu Nian's friend couldn't stand it anymore. She sorted out all the "useful information" that Shu Nian had sent before, wrote an article, and asked Mother Shu to post it.
When the truth of the matter was revealed, Ding Ruola felt a tightness in her chest.
No one had expected such an ending.
Who was the butterfly's wings?
Was it Su Man's threat, or the trouble Shu Nian left behind when she was young and ignorant?
Was it the girl's longing for pure love, or the fact that the social media always linked love with sex?
Was it the self - abased and self - unaware sentimentality, or the lack of care for depression?
Who was it?
Ding Ruola couldn't figure it out either. Now, besides feeling sorry for the lost life, any extra words would seem like an excuse for the mistakes Su Man had made before.
"Things have come to this. It's no use being sad."
Her words sounded so pale.
"You know, I thought she didn't care."
Su Man had gotten herself into a dead end. The chat record mentioned too many of Su Man's mistakes. Such hints made Su Man take all the blame for Shu Nian's death on herself.
Afraid that Su Man might do something stupid, Ding Ruola asked for leave in the afternoon and took Su Man home.
Su Man lived in an independent villa. A graceful woman came out of the house.
The woman looked about 70% similar to Su Man, but her face was much kinder.
The woman asked the nanny to take Su Man inside. Ding Ruola had a few words with the woman alone.
"Thank you!"
The woman's accent didn't sound like that of a local.
The woman insisted that the driver take Ding Ruola back. Ding Ruola wanted to refuse at first, but she couldn't resist the woman's kindness.
On her way back, she happened to meet Fang Siyan.
"Brother Fang!"
The girl's voice trailed off. "I have something to tell you..."
"Come inside and talk."
Fang Siyan held his briefcase in one hand and pulled Ding Ruola's hand with the other.
"Are you going to sue the person who posted that post?"
Ding Ruola stared at Fang Siyan. She was waiting for this man to answer, but the man seemed to be being mysterious and kept silent.
She was so anxious that she paced back and forth in the room.
Fang Siyan had no intention of suing Mother Shu at all. What he wanted was for Ding Ruola to tell him all the dirty things between her and Su Man.
Sure enough, Ding Ruola couldn't hold it in anymore.
She told Fang Siyan all the reasons behind the whole thing.
"You're quite brave. Your friend is also quite capable."
Ding Ruola wasn't stupid. At this moment, if she still thought Fang Siyan was complimenting her, she must be out of her mind.
"I've told you everything, haven't I?"
She leaned towards Fang Siyan and pressed her whole body against his arm, shaking his arm from side to side.
Seeing that Fang Siyan didn't respond, she widened her innocent eyes, acting coquettishly and cutely.
"If you don't want to sue, I won't either."
Fang Siyan was really a sly old fox. His words would make Ding Ruola feel that she owed him a favor.