Second Sunrise - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

My relationship with my parents was never good. Although we lived under the same roof, our communication was limited to a few sparse words.

When I was little, I lived with my grandparents. I was what people called a left-behind child.

It wasn’t until I got into college in the city where my parents worked that they finally gritted their teeth and bought a sixty-square-meter secondhand apartment.

That was when I started living with them.

But it didn’t change anything. My parents still left early and came home late. Even on the occasional days off when we could spend a little time together, we had nothing to say to one another.

The distance built up over all those years had frozen into solid ice, unbreakable.

My longing for a father’s love and a mother’s love, my cries for help when I felt helpless, the desperate urge to pour out everything in my heart-all of it had vanished with my younger self into the long river of time.

Chapter 5

Early in the morning, Jiang Yi stood reverently in front of a jianbing stall, staring fixedly as the vendor made the crepe.

The steaming hot jianbing was handed to him. Without even paying, he gave it a symbolic little blow and took a huge bite, chewing slowly and carefully.

“It’s been so long since I tasted food. It smells amazing.”

I swallowed, feeling a little complicated.

I’d thought this guy would help me turn my life around and successfully lose weight.

I hadn’t expected that I could only watch and not eat-and I’d still get fat!

“Don’t worry. I’ll help you lose weight. Today, we’ll indulge just this once.” Jiang Yi bit into the jianbing and mumbled his consolation through a mouthful of food.

Like hell I believed him. I’d said that line plenty of times myself, okay?

One jianbing wasn’t enough for Jiang Yi. He bought a huge bag of breakfast to take back with him.

The moment he carried the breakfast into the classroom, someone teased, “Yan Xiao, your online girlfriend brought you breakfast.”

Laughter burst out all around us. Those gazes, some mocking and some outright malicious, landed on me in unison.

“Don’t talk nonsense. My girlfriend will get mad if she hears that.”

Yan Xiao swept a cold glance over me, the thick disgust in his eyes completely undisguised.

I wanted nothing more than to shrink into the floor.

Jiang Yi only looked over mildly and ignored them.

He sat down openly, took a bite of a pan-fried bun, and asked me, “What’s going on? Is he your online boyfriend? Why is he looking at you like that?”

I hesitated, not knowing how to answer.

Chapter 6

The year I graduated from high school, I became addicted to a game and met Yan Xiao.

We teamed up day and night, playing games and talking about what was on our minds.

Although I was fat, my voice was soft, sweet, and clear.

After a few voice calls, Yan Xiao sent me a request to become a couple in the game.

It was the first time a boy had ever taken the initiative to show interest in me. I fell for it far too easily and never considered the consequences.

He asked me for photos several times, but I refused every time.

So he took the initiative and sent me a lot of selfies. Yan Xiao was tall and slim, with fair, clean-cut looks and a good sense of style.

I couldn’t help having all kinds of sweet daydreams. I even started desperately trying to lose weight.

But fat accumulated over years and years couldn’t disappear overnight.

On the eve of the new semester, while I was sorting through my classmates’ files, I recognized Yan Xiao at a glance.

In a panic, I brought up breaking up with him.

He begged me bitterly to stay, saying one affectionate thing after another.

I even started to imagine that maybe he wouldn’t care about my appearance.

Until the first day of school, when I lowered my head and introduced myself in a trembling voice.

Hearing the same name and voice, Yan Xiao, who was sitting in front of me, whipped around and stared at me in shock. “You’re Mianmian?”

And just like that, the story of Yan Xiao’s online romance going up in flames spread across the entire campus.

I became a laughingstock in my classmates’ eyes: the “tank girl” who used her voice to trick boys into online dating.

That incident set the tone for my college life-absurd and miserable.

After that, Yan Xiao never looked me in the eye again. He deleted all my contact information and tried his hardest to distance himself from me.

I could understand what he did, and I didn’t blame him.