After the 99th Confession , The Cold School Beauty's Personality Collapsed-Chapter 39
Seeing her daughter looking so guilty, Zhang Ru became even angrier.
Her expression was icy, and her voice was much colder than usual. "You never use makeup, but this morning I noticed you secretly used mine. That was when I knew something was off, but I didn’t expect that you’d go on a date with a man."
"Ji Yan, how has Mom taught you? It’s not that I forbid you from dating, but you’re still young. You should focus on your studies. You rarely interact with boys, so how can you tell if someone truly cares about you or if they just want something from you?"
"I won’t say that every man out there is bad, but you’re a naive and innocent child. People’s hearts are hard to see through. When someone approaches you with ulterior motives, you won’t be able to tell if they’re good or bad."
"You used to be such a good child. How did you suddenly change like this?"
Zhang Ru, usually elegant and composed, now looked like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, becoming more and more agitated as she spoke. Her voice grew louder, making Ji Yan bow her head even lower in guilt.
But as she listened, Ji Yan couldn’t help but softly argue, "I’m not dumb. I can tell who’s good and who’s bad. Qin Luo… he really likes me."
This statement only seemed to further enrage Zhang Ru, her eyes widening involuntarily.
"Do you even know what you’re saying?" she said, looking at Ji Yan with a mixture of disappointment and anger. "How do you know he really likes you? What makes you think that? Just because he walked you home?"
"It’s not like that," Ji Yan shook her head, trying to explain. "At first, I didn’t plan on paying attention to him either. But… but he kept pursuing me. He confessed to me ninety-nine times over the course of three months. If he didn’t really like me, how could he keep doing that?"
Ninety-nine confessions over three months…
Zhang Ru instinctively found it hard to believe. It seemed absurd, even to her. In this fast-paced world, even young love, no matter how pure, rarely endured that much effort.
But knowing her daughter’s character, she trusted that Ji Yan wasn’t lying.
She thought back to the young man who had been respectful and well-mannered in front of her earlier. Her hostility toward him lessened a little, though her expression remained stern.
Even so, Zhang Ru said coldly, "Even if that’s the case, are you really planning on dating him? Didn’t you promise me that you wouldn’t date anyone before graduating?"
"I..." Ji Yan hesitated, unable to refute her mother.
She had indeed promised Zhang Ru that she wouldn’t date before finishing university, never expecting that a day like this would come.
If it hadn’t been for Qin Luo, she wouldn’t have thought someone would continue pursuing her after being rejected so many times.
She never expected to care so much about someone—to care about his opinion of her, his mood, his likes and dislikes, his happiness and sadness...
Now that she had experienced all of this firsthand, she didn’t know how to answer her mother’s question.
So she chose silence, as if silently protesting.
Zhang Ru’s breathing grew rapid, clearly agitated by her daughter’s attitude, but this time she didn’t lose her temper.
After a moment of quiet, Zhang Ru calmed down a bit. She gently took Ji Yan’s hand, her tone softening with a hint of sadness. "Ji Yan, it’s not that Mom doesn’t want you to date. It’s just that I’m so scared of you getting hurt."
"I raised you by myself, always making sure that you never suffered any harm. But what happened when you were little left a deep scar in my heart. I can’t bear to let anything like that happen again. Do you understand?"
Her words brought Ji Yan back to silence, but tears slowly welled up in her eyes as memories from her childhood resurfaced—memories of the event that had become a shadow in her mother’s heart.
From the day Ji Yan was born, she had never seen her father. Later, she learned that her father had abandoned both her and her mother.
Her mother, Zhang Ru, had originally come from a wealthy family, while her father had been a poor man with nothing to his name. Out of blind love, Zhang Ru had eloped with him.
At first, their life together was happy, but when Zhang Ru became pregnant, her father disappeared without a word.
This devastated Zhang Ru, but her parents eventually took her back, comforting her and encouraging her to raise the child.
When Ji Yan was born, Zhang Ru made her daughter the center of her life, her source of emotional support.
But the incident that scarred Zhang Ru happened over a decade ago.
Ji Yan had been just under three years old at the time, a toddler who could barely speak and still walked unsteadily.
One day, Zhang Ru took Ji Yan out to run errands. She stepped into an ATM to withdraw some money, but by the time she came back out, Ji Yan was gone.
Zhang Ru nearly lost her mind, frantically crying out for help from people nearby. After a desperate search and with the help of the police, they found Ji Yan later that afternoon.
Security footage revealed that while Zhang Ru had been at the ATM, a masked woman had appeared at the entrance, luring Ji Yan away with a lollipop.
Little Ji Yan, too young to understand the dangers of the world, had only known that lollipops were sweet and delicious.
She walked toward the woman, who then grabbed her, quickly covering her mouth and nose with a cloth, causing her to pass out.
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It turned out the woman was part of a child trafficking ring, and thanks to this incident, the police were able to dismantle the entire operation.
When they found Ji Yan, she was asleep in a corner, with several other children around her, all about the same age.
Since then, Zhang Ru had developed a sort of psychological trauma, never allowing Ji Yan out of her sight.
From kindergarten to elementary school, from elementary to middle school, and all the way to high school, Zhang Ru personally took Ji Yan to and from school every day.
And during that time, she constantly instilled in Ji Yan the idea that the outside world was dangerous.
She made Ji Yan see anyone who approached her with suspicion, treating them as if they had ulterior motives. Zhang Ru taught her daughter to always protect herself, never to talk to strangers, and especially not to be alone with them.
As time went on, Ji Yan developed the aloof personality she had now, always keeping people at arm’s length. Her father’s abandonment had only deepened her aversion toward men.
Ji Yan knew that her mother’s overprotectiveness stemmed from that traumatic incident in her childhood. So, she never blamed her and always did her best to be a good, obedient daughter, never causing her mother any distress.
That was why, when she saw her mother tearing up, Ji Yan couldn’t help but be affected, her voice choking as she said, "Mom, please don’t cry. I know you’re just worried about me..."
"I’m glad you understand, I’m glad you understand," Zhang Ru cried as she hugged Ji Yan, gently stroking her hair.
