Reincarnated as a Poor Little Green Tea, Am I Destined to Be Bullied? - Volume 1 Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The So-Called Misfortune

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【Lin Yueye】 had just celebrated her coming-of-age birthday last month.

Of course, no one celebrated for her. She simply bought a small cake on her way home from school, used matches reserved for power outages as candles, blew out the match, and sang herself a happy birthday song in this small rented room.

She does this every year.

Holding up a small umbrella called a sense of ritual for herself, to shield against the continuous drizzle of life.

But she’s not sure if her birthday is really on that day.

After all, she’s an orphan, not knowing which day, which month, or which date she came into this world.

She was born an abandoned baby left at the orphanage door, picked up by the grandmother at the orphanage. The grandmother told her that the day she was picked up was her birthday.

The girl’s childhood should have been fairly happy. Although the orphanage wasn’t comparable to the high-rise buildings outside, the laughter and chatter in those clusters of single-story houses had their own unique qualities.

Even though there was no air conditioning then, there was always the gurgling of flowing water after meals in late summer and early autumn. The banana leaves where the children cooled off in the orphanage were always the starry sky of summer nights in the girl’s memories, accompanying her to sleep.

She once naively thought that the grandmother in the orphanage, the children of her age, and the fallen trees in front of those few single-story houses were all there was to this world.

Even when the children were allowed to go out to the city for activities, they would be called back by the teachers before long.

They said the outside world was too dangerous, wait a little longer, when everyone grows up, they can go to farther places.

Farther places…?

At first, Lin Yueye didn’t know where these farther places were.

In her view, the distance from the orphanage to the urban area was already the ends of the earth.

It wasn’t until she reached the age to attend elementary school that the girl began to notice the high walls surrounding the orphanage.

Above the walls, birds would always fly by.

Sometimes they would perch on the edge of the wall, but never lingered for long, flying into the blue sky and clouds, disappearing from sight.

【Grandmother, where do you think those birds are flying to?】

【Well, of course they’re flying to where they want to go, little Yueye. Didn’t grandmother teach you that poem? The sky is high for birds to fly, the sea is wide for fish to swim.】

【But Yueye thinks the orphanage is very nice… Why does everyone want to leave for school?】

【Ho ho, little girl, you can’t understand these things now. When you go out to study and broaden your horizons, you’ll know why they all want to climb over that wall.】

【They’ll get hurt.】

【Yes, but in this world, there are things worth doing even if you get hurt.】

【Is that so…】

At that time, Lin Yueye didn’t understand these things, nor did she have the heart to further question the wrinkles that years had carved on grandmother’s face.

But Grandmother Zhang had never lied to her.

This time was no exception.

In those years when she went to elementary school in the urban area with everyone else, she understood the answer.

Whenever Lin Yueye stayed back for duty after school, leaning on the windowsill, she could always see the expectant gazes of parents waiting for their children outside the school’s low fence, and the children’s waving hands bidding farewell each time.

She too, with eyes sparkling, had gazed at the scenery of mountains and seas, the four seasons’ fireworks, and skyscrapers displayed on LCD screens by teaching assistants from big cities. She listened to classmates planning summer vacation trips to the seaside, mountain climbing, and wilderness viewing.

Then returning to the orphanage for holidays.

She would sit under the banana leaves again, encountering once more the wall she had seen since childhood.

Looking at it this way — it seemed too high.

It wasn’t this high in Lin Yueye’s impression originally, was it…?

She would be curious about what the vast world really looked like.

She would also dream of turning into a bird, flying over that wall and seeing the splendid scenery of mountains and seas.

But upon waking, she gradually understood why batch after batch of orphanage children would eventually leave this place.

That’s because here, someone else was bearing the burden for you.

This world is too big, too heavy, the air is thin, there aren’t many oases, it often makes people breathless.

Children abandoned since infancy should have been carrying the greatest misfortune bestowed upon them by fate, but this misfortune was taken up by the kind-hearted people in the orphanage, preventing them from disappearing on some stormy, bitterly cold night when they first encountered this world.

But this doesn’t mean they can carry it for you for a lifetime.

Nor do they hope that the little lives they brought back would be forever confined within these walls that are neither high nor low.

So, they need to go out.

To see the mountains and rivers, to look at the starry seas.

Only in this way can they not let down the kind-hearted, nor themselves.

After graduating from elementary school, when she went to study at the best middle school in the city that only top grades could attend, Grandmother Zhang shed tears in front of her for the first time.

— Although behind Lin Yueye’s back, such tears had fallen countless times.

【If you’re tired, take a rest, don’t push yourself too hard. You children’s starting point… is so much lower than theirs, it’s not your fault, you can compete with yourself, but… never compete with everyone, understand?】

【Mm, I understand, don’t worry.】

The girl didn’t disappoint.

Later, she got into Qihai No.1 High School with high scores and a tuition waiver, that was the best high school in the whole city.

But it was too far from the orphanage, she couldn’t return to her familiar home every day, she could only live far away.

The little cat girl Yuebing paused here, her two swinging little feet coming to a stop.

“She also couldn’t choose to live in the dormitory, because you humans’ hearts… from ancient times to now, have never been able to accommodate ‘outsiders’.”

“Was she ostracized…?” Lin Yueye was very smart, hearing this, she thought of this possibility, “The gap in family background with the students of Qihai No.1 High School is too big… and at the same time her appearance is extraordinarily outstanding, two extreme situations placed on the same person, and encountering peers at the age when they are most rebellious and exclude outsiders before adulthood…”

“Yes, the memories she left with me before her reincarnation tell me that she has indeed encountered a considerable degree of ostracism recently.”

Rumors, slander, suppression, threats, mockery.

They were like a group of grimacing demons, driving Lin Yueye out of the dormitory.

【Laughable, acting all high and mighty, was your parent too busy to come to the parent-teacher meeting? No time to come? I think she just wants to be special, to attract attention, right?】

【Hey, hey, hey, don’t say that, haven’t you heard? She’s an orphan, has no parents.】

【You really can’t tell, huh? With a face like a young lady, but usually doesn’t care about anything outside her own world? Tch, so what if she studies well, I tell you, it’s probably all an act, who knows what kind of depraved person she is behind closed doors!】

This way, it’s also good.

Lin Yueye couldn’t keep living in the dormitory anyway, she had other plans long ago.

That was to rent a cheap apartment outside, study while working part-time to earn some living expenses.

Even though tuition was waived for high school, living expenses were much higher than before. Lin Yueye didn’t want to always rely on donations from the orphanage, she knew that the orphanage’s operations hadn’t been smooth in recent years, and their own living expenses were already very tight.

So, the girl applied for day school, staying away from that environment outside of study hours — after all, she knew she wasn’t a very strong person.

Because of those rumors and gossip, how painful it was to cry secretly each time, facing a world full of malice, a person who was once pure, just sitting under the banana tree looking at the sky, really couldn’t endure too much ridicule and rumors.

“But, like you, this is also an unlucky fellow.”

Yuebing sighed again, biting her snow cake into pieces.

It was clear that as a deity, she also felt a certain helplessness towards the sufferings of the world.

“Her part-time job was just carrying plates and handing out flyers every day, deliberately avoiding the time when classmates got out of school, afraid of being seen and mocked again.”

Yuebing pointed at a box of cold medicine on the table, gesturing for Lin Yueye to look that way.

“Unlike your broke constitution, she doesn’t clash with money, she can get her wages. But the problem is… she falls ill every few days, her constitution is too weak.”

This isn’t surprising.

Lin Yueye walked to the front of that box of cold medicine, only to discover that behind it, there were also cough medicine, anti-inflammatory drugs, painkillers for migraines, stomach medicine, it was practically a small drug storage station.

【Lin Yueye】, as an abandoned baby in her early years, had been exposed to rain for a long time, leaving her with a weak constitution since childhood. She was prone to illnesses, easily catching colds and headaches when slightly tired, sensitive to cold and physically weak.

Think about it, she not only had to study hard to maintain her grades for tuition waiver and earn scholarships, but also had to work part-time to earn money, with no time to rest. Additionally, she had to endure the high-pressure environment brought by her classmates every day, and even when the grandmother at the orphanage asked about her situation, she had to force a smile and say everything was fine, then cry silently.

In the faint light blocked by the curtains, Lin Yueye seemed to see the figure that once curled up in the corner, sobbing alone.

In such circumstances, how could one possibly be healthy?

Lin Yueye’s feelings were also very complex.

She deliberately arranged those scattered medicine boxes more neatly, then turned back and asked.

“So… did these things lead to her suicide, due to excessive pressure?”

“No… if it were just these, it wouldn’t have made her feel that ‘death’ was an ‘easy’ thing. After that, there was still the last camel that broke the cat’s back.”

“I don’t think a cat could withstand even one camel, let alone two… Plus, it’s supposed to be a straw, and it’s not the cat being crushed. Anyway, that’s not important… So what happened in the end? Yuebing, please continue.”