I am chasing a rough man in the 80s
Chapter 414: Are You Doing a Comedy Routine Here?

Chapter 414: Chapter 414: Are You Doing a Comedy Routine Here?

Suizi turned her gaze towards the sound, where she saw a woman in a red sweater at the next table, who was raising her voice and arguing loudly with the crowd.

This woman was plain-looking and shrill-voiced. If anything about her was striking, it was her exceptionally large forehead.

"Yuan Tietou, don’t spout nonsense. How could someone as accomplished in her field as our class beauty marry a farmer and return home to till the fields?"

"Exactly!"

A chorus of agreement rang out around them, while the two male classmates sitting at Suizi’s table shared a glance before simultaneously pointing at Suizi.

No wonder she looked so familiar, she was...!!!

Suizi smiled and made a shushing gesture over her lips, encouraging the two classmates not to interrupt Yuan Tietou’s "reveal."

The two male classmates instantly understood. This was going to be entertaining.

Yuan Tietou was a nickname, her real name was Yuan Youyou, and she used to be Suizi’s classmate.

She famously studied day and night until she nearly lost her eyesight, yet she still never managed to outdo Suizi, thus earning a reputation as the eternal runner-up.

Moreover, Suizi had far surpassed Yuan Youyou in their major; their achievements were worlds apart.

Upon graduation, the Newspaper Agency noticed Suizi and should have allocated her a position. However, Yuan Youyou sabotaged this by bribing a doctor to claim that Suizi had a contagious disease, thus stealing her place.

After Suizi was reborn, the first thing she did when she returned to the city was to seek out Yuan Youyou to settle their old scores. She pulled some strings and made the Chief Editor aware of what Yuan Youyou truly was.

With Yuan Youyou’s mediocre abilities and questionable character exposed to her supervisor, she had no place at the Newspaper Agency anymore.

The Chief Editor found an opportunity and transferred her to the Printing Workshop. Later on, she was kicked out to the county branch, which was equivalent to being exiled.

And then, Suizi heard no more about her. A year went by without any word from Yuan Youyou. Upon hearing her tell tales about Suizi when they met again, Suizi found it amusing– it stirred up her desire for a juicy drama.

She must have been heavily influenced by Yu Jingting, she thought to herself. She then couldn’t help but question whether she had always been this mischievous.

When you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss gazes back at you - and that abyss was...Yu Jingting.

While being grateful that she’d not picked up Yu Jingting’s unsociable habits, Suizi continued to eagerly listen to Yuan Youyou’s gossip.

Yuan Youyou was still holding court, oblivious to the fact that Suizi was right next to her.

"I’m telling you, Chen Hansui maliciously tried to slander me in an attempt to steal my position at the Newspaper Agency. When her deception was exposed, her anger led her to tarnish her reputation with the school. Her reputation was so ruined that when she returned home, no one wanted her, and she was forced to marry the town’s worst delinquent!"

"Stop spouting nonsense, Yuan Tietou. Everyone knows how capable the class beauty is. How could she possibly need to steal your place?"

Onlookers weren’t fools. While they might not have understood the full extent of the animosity between Suizi and Yuan Youyou, they knew that Suizi was a figure of note in their year, an academic deity.

Suizi listened with curiosity, supporting her cheek with one hand, interested in how Yuan Youyou was going to spin her tales - wait, that also sounded like a phrase often used by Yu Jingting.

Thinking about her husband made Suizi shift her focus for a moment.

Couples who had been together for a long time would adopt similar mannerisms and expressions. Occasionally, Suizi would use bold "Jingting phrases", and Tiegen would sometimes mimic Suizi’s eloquence and affectations.

"You all have been deceived by her. She always copied my homework, and I gave her the answers out of pity when she didn’t know how to solve a major problem during exams. Who would have thought that she would repay kindness with ingratitude in this way!"

Yuan Youyou was so worked up that she made a fist. She was just short of shouting out a slogan, ’down with Chen Hansui!’

Even Suizi couldn’t help but laugh at her.

Had she been lying so much that she started to believe her own lies?

Most of what Yuan Youyou was accusing Suizi of were indeed things she herself had done. Instead of apologising, she turned the tables to blame Suizi.

This just goes to show that when people do evil things, they are well aware that their actions are wrong. They just hope their misdeeds won’t be exposed.

In the eyes of such people, a crime that goes unnoticed might as well be considered "innocent".

Many people didn’t believe Yuan Youyou’s words. Anyone who had attended the same classes as Suizi would have been impressed by her knowledge.

It has to be acknowledged that academic excellence required some innate talent. Some people work so hard that they’re ready to pop their eyeballs out, but still can’t compete with a scholarly genius who barely tries.

However, people are easily swayed. Although many didn’t quite believe Yuan Youyou, her detailed narrative was persuasive enough to plant a seed of doubt, even going as far as to detail the dowry collected from Suizi’s marriage.

Some people began to waver, while others believed that even if they couldn’t fully trust Yuan Youyou’s tale, some of the things she said were probably true.

This was mob psychology: Yuan Youyou had seized upon the crowd’s inclination to make assumptions. She deliberately accused Suizi of many "crimes" and painted her as a vain, lazy, and ungrateful woman who met with ill fortune.

She didn’t need everyone to believe her. As long as a portion did, it would be enough to ruin Suizi’s reputation among her peers.

"The Yu family are notorious local tyrants back home, with a notorious bandit in their ancestry. How could she possibly marry into such a notoriously bad family if not for the money? It’s a shame that after so many years of nurturing her talents, she has nowhere to apply her knowledge and has to go back to farming. And speaking of...!"

As Yuan Youyou continued to get more excited throughout her speech, she eventually stood up and asked the crowd mysteriously:

"Do you want to know how she’s doing now?"

The crowd remained silent for a moment, still struggling to accept that the former towering figure had sunk so low.

During our school years, we often have people we idolize - people who stay in our hearts, who we can’t forget, even though we know we can never be with them.

Suizi was one of those girls. To many of her male classmates who once secretly admired her, anyone could potentially end up in that dreadful situation– be it Yuan Youyou, Zhao Youyou or Li Youyou - but not Suizi.

Yuan Youyou had hoped to garner sympathy from the crowd, but to her surprise, after her long-winded buildup, nobody responded.

Feeling rather deflated and ignored by everyone, she had no option but to continue to answer her own questions.

"The old Yu family has chained her up. She has been unable to find a proper job and is now insane. Some people say that she often parades around the village naked. At the next reunion, we might even have to raise money for her."

"Pffft!" Suizi couldn’t help but laugh.

"Yuan Youyou, with such a vivid imagination, you could have earned your keep at the Newspaper Agency, and you may never have been transferred. Or did you feel that the gathering wasn’t lively enough, so you decided to put up a stand-up performance? But what you’re saying ...isn’t really funny at all."

All eyes turned to Suizi. They found her very familiar and were still trying to figure out who she was when Liao Yong arrived late.

"Sorry I’m late, I just finished up... Oh, Suizi, you arrived early. I thought you’d be later than me. I met your husband Jingting on the road, and he asked me to give this to you."