So this meal was basically the Feast at Swan Goose Gate.

The class leader’s mom invited me here to interrogate on why I had the guts to be with her daughter.

It’s all because of Shu Zhe. He told Auntie Lin that I was the class leader’s boyfriend, and he also told her that I had a high fever, spent the night at his house, and used the class leader as a hug pillow for the night.

When Shu Zhe got up in the middle of the night to use the washroom, he realized that the light in the room I was sleeping in was still on and he came in to check on me. He found that his sister was being held tightly in my arms, and because she had already fallen asleep just like me after being tired from struggling.

Luckily, the class leader was wearing clothes at the time, otherwise she wouldn’t have forgiven me even if I used being sick as an excuse.

What exactly did Shu Zhe tell Auntie Lin? Did he tell her the truth, that I was delirious, and the class leader was wearing clothes, or did he add fake details and said I did that with the class leader.

It’s a crisis, it’s the largest crisis in my life. I can keep silent, but what I say next will be used as evidence in court.

Frankly speaking, the cause was unavoidable. I could only blame myself for not being able to sleep without a hug pillow. Although I vaguely remember, when I woke up, my right hand was on the class leader’s butt… but that’s also unavoidable. Everyone who uses a hug pillow always instinctively reaches for the softest parts.

Since I didn’t know how much Auntie Lin knows, or how many false facts she’s heard, it would be best to be completely honest. Anyway, I really was sick that day, and I dragged the class leader to the bed while I was unconscious. I didn’t even know that the class leader was in my arms, I only thought that it was just a super high quality hug pillow.

“It was my fault.”

I was just about to confess, but the class leader beat me to it and said those four words first.

I looked at the class leader in surprise. I don’t know why she took responsibility when she was clearly the victim.

“Ye Lin has a habit of not being able to fall asleep without a hug pillow since he was a child.”

The class leader placed her chopsticks down on her bowl and explained:

“I knew about it, but I was careless and forgot. Ye Lin had a high fever and kept tossing and turning, but he couldn’t sleep, and it seemed painful…”

“Is that so.” Auntie Lin raised her eyebrows, “And then you graciously offered yourself as a pillow. I’m so proud that my daughter has such a big heart.”

I can’t believe she could be so sarcastic while still have a warm smile on her face. Auntie Lin, can you use a more appropriate expression, even looking angry, disappointed, or contempt would be better. You’ve had a smile on your face from the beginning to the end and it makes me even more scared.

Before, when I saw Auntie Lin in the family photos, I thought it was rare to see her posing in a cheesy pose while still appearing elegant. Now I realize that when she’s going to chop me to death with a kitchen knife, she would still be as beautiful as a ballerina. She would be so elegant that people wouldn’t believe that she’s a murderer, right?

“I took care of some trash.” Auntie Lin would say to the surrounding crowd with a smile while dropping the knife next to my corpse, “Can I ask if anyone brought a military shovel, pick-axe, or something similar? It would be good if you could also help me bury the garbage…”

So in the end, the class leader’s mother still has a dark side.

The class leader blushed and couldn’t hold her head up after being sarcastically told by her mom that she gave herself as a hug pillow to her male classmate, so I knew I couldn’t stay silent any longer.

“It’s not the class leader’s fault, she didn’t that I had the habit of sleeping with a hug pillow. I didn’t tell the class leader that day because it would be humiliating.”

“Oh, so because it’s humiliating for you, you can snuggle with my 14-year-old daughter as much as you want?”

If I didn’t consider the content of the speech and only looked at Auntie Lin’s expression, then people would mistakenly think that Auntie Lin was praising me.

“Ye Lin was very sick at the time.” The class leader responded for me because I had trouble answering, “I didn’t take good enough care of him. I didn’t realize that Ye Lin wanted a pillow. I even got closer in order to tuck him in, so I was asking for it…”

I could imagine how flustered the class leader was that night when she was suddenly hugged by me. Even now, the class leader was still blushing with shame when she recalled the incident.

“So you were asking for it.” Auntie Lin’s face finally looked slightly angry, but of course it could have been my imagination.

“To put it another way, it’s ‘you did it willingly’, right?”

“Mom, how could you say that?” The class leader was shocked, “Of course it wasn’t willingly. It was because I wasn’t able to break free…”

“Wasn’t your brother home at the time.” Auntie Lin calmly pointed out, “Even if you didn’t want to show the scene to your brother, then couldn’t you have loudly shouted ‘I’m not a hug pillow’? Even if he has a high fever, he should still know that pillows don’t talk.”

“Um… I definitely said ‘let go of me’ or something like that at the time.” The class leader could not raise her head in front of her mother, “But I was too quiet and he couldn’t hear me. If I said it louder, then it would have woken Xiao Zhe. It was also hard for Ye Lin to fall asleep…”

“So you still sacrificed yourself for him.” Auntie Lin summarized.

The class leader didn’t know how to respond, so she could only bite her lip and avert her gaze.

Auntie Lin turned her attention back to me when she saw her daughter go silent.

“Ye Lin, I want to ask you, do you think there’s anything special about you that’s worth my daughter sacrificing herself for you?”

“I… I don’t have anything special about me.”

Those were my sincere words. Leaving aside the disadvantages of my mean mug, I felt that my only advantage was a relatively strong body. Now that I had heart problems, there wasn’t a single good point about me compared to the class leader.

“It’s good you’re at least self-aware.” Auntie Lin made a motion of removing her gloves, before realizing that she wasn’t wearing any, and she laughed to herself.

Auntie Lin, who was doing research work in Shanghai, probably had to wear gloves a lot in order to be able to touch the experimental equipment.

“Ye Lin, just now, were you curious when I said thieves would find it troublesome when they saw our institutes logo?”

I was curious at the time, but not anymore once you started to interrogate me and the class leader.

“Actually, our research institute is a subdivision of the AIDS prevention and control center, so many items will carry the word AIDS prevention. When thieves steal it, they would be afraid of being infected with AIDS, so of course, they will find it troublesome.”

Huh, so the class leader’s mother is related to the AIDS prevention and control center. It’s really the first time I’ve heard about it. I used to think that the vaccine research institute where she works focused on influenza vaccines or tuberculosis vaccines.

“I can honestly tell you the project that I’m responsible for is creating antibodies for AIDS. Although it’s only a small project that’s part of a larger project, but just like deciphering the human genome, it is a group effort.”

I understand that. It’s unrealistic to rely on one or two people to try and cure a disease of the century. Isn’t Ai ShuQiao also researching a new drug to treat AIDS, where Dr. Yu told me to rub one out…

“I can actually bring my family to live in the institute’s dormitory with my employee benefits. Do you know why I didn’t do that, but insisted on buying a house in Shanghai and then picking up Sha Sha and Xiao Zhe?”

“The dormitory don’t have good conditions?” I guessed randomly.

“It’s not much worse than a dorm in a first-rate university.” Based on her tone, she probably graduated from a first-rate university.

“The main reason I didn’t bring Sha Sha and Xiao Zhe is because: since the institute is a subdivision of the AIDS prevention center it has an AIDS prevention sign hanging outside. The neighborhood residents are prejudiced against people who come in and out of the institute. They think that coming into contact with these people will increase their chances of getting AIDS.”

“The discrimination against people with AIDS is manifested in every aspect of society. It’s even hard to hail a cab in front of our institute because of the rumors of AIDS. Many cabs don’t even pass by our front door at all, so even if we wanted to complain against them, we don’t have a chance to do so. “

“It doesn’t matter for me, but I saw some of my colleagues’ children were ostracized at school because they lived in the AIDS prevention center’s dormitory. After school, they wouldn’t even bring their friends over because they were afraid that their friends would ignore them after they had been here once.”

“I don’t want Sha Sha and Xiao Zhe to be subjected to the same discrimination, that’s why I didn’t let them live in the staff dormitories… of course, another reason is that my husband’s company is further away, and it’s inconvenient for him to live the institute’s dormitory. Currently, we’re still renting a house outside for the time being and trying to save up money for the down payment…”

The reason why she told me seemed to be: it wasn’t there intention to leave the class leader and her brother behind. Soon, they can move their family to Shanghai and not have anymore connections with Dong Shan City.

I took a quick glance at the class leader. I noticed that her face had a mixture of worry and indecisiveness. Of course, she wanted to be with mom and dad everyday, but she also found it difficult to cut off all connections to Dong Shan City.

“I wasn’t that angry when I didn’t see your face.” Auntie Lin continued, “But I’m incredibly angry after seeing you today, do you know why?”

“Because I’m ugly.” I answered.

“No, a man doesn’t have to be good looking, and you’re not that ugly.” Auntie Lin gave me a rare compliment, “It’s because your attitude. You have an arrogant and obstinate temperament that’s really similar to someone who is associated with the criminal underworld. It reminded me of a triad member who pestered me in Shanghai in the recent months.”

“That happened?” The class leader asked in shock, “Mom, why didn’t you mention… a word to me before?”

“I was too lazy to mention him.” Auntie Lin said angrily, “That Hong Kong man with the Huo last name seems to know the higher ups of the institute. He ran to Shanghai in order to cure his AIDS, but when he happened to bump into me at the institute, he actually tried to court me.”

“Stop joking around. I really don’t have any discriminatory views towards AIDS patients, after all, some AIDS is transmitted from a mother to child, and some people slip up and make a mistake and are quite pitiful…”

“But he’s not pitiful at all! I heard the higher ups say in private that he caught AIDS because he was a womanizer and was unrepentant.”

“He completely deserved it! He’s also scum that’s a part of the triads! Why wasn’t he killed by his enemies?! If he pesters me again, I’m going to inject a shot of air into him and send him straight to the afterlife.”