Return to Eighteen, the Spoiled Young Lady Acts Fierce with Her Beauty - Chapter 28: What's Her Name

Chapter 28: What’s Her Name

The young man swallowed a few mouthfuls of mineral water, coughed lightly several times, and slowly opened his eyes.

His pitch-black pupils held no vitality only emptiness, blandness, and desolation.

When Jiang Zhi opened his eyes, what he saw was a beautiful face extremely close to his.

The girl was squatting in front of him, sunlight casting a soft golden outline around her.

Her gaze was clear and transparent, holding nothing but pure compassion.

Neither disgust nor desire could be found in her expression.

For a moment, Jiang Zhi thought he had ascended to heaven and finally found release.

Until the sharp headache from his high fever dragged him back to his physical body.

So he was still alive.

Mingzhu noticed the fleeting relief in the young man’s eyes.

Then those beautiful eyes returned to their stagnant, deathly calm.

Jiang Zhi remembered the car accident that had just occurred.

He struggled to stand up, the oversized delivery uniform swaying on his thin frame.

Jiang Zhi first whispered “thank you” to the assistant supporting him.

Then he looked at Mingzhu, his voice somewhat hoarse: “I’m sorry, did I hit your car just now?”

Standing upright, the young man appeared even more frail, like a slender but resilient bamboo stalk that might snap in the wind at any moment.

His eyes looked weary, his face bore an unhealthy pallor, and his lips were pale without any trace of color.

Mingzhu nodded slightly: “Yes.”

Jiang Zhi’s gaze swept over the electric bike that had been righted, then passed over the gleaming luxury car parked by the roadside.

His eyes lingered on the car for only a moment before calmly looking away.

“I’ll pay for the damages,” he said softly, expressionless. “I don’t have that much money right now. Can I pay in installments?”

He had just paid his younger brother’s medical fees at the beginning of the month, leaving him with only two hundred yuan to his name his living expenses for the entire month.

If this girl, beautiful as an angel, didn’t agree to this arrangement,

he had no way to immediately come up with the compensation money.

Whispers emerged from the crowd of onlookers.

A well-meaning middle-aged man couldn’t help interjecting: “Young man, this is a Rolls-Royce. The repairs will cost at least several hundred thousand. Maybe you should call your parents…”

Jiang Zhi acted as if he hadn’t heard, pulling out a phone with a cracked screen from the worn pocket of his delivery uniform.

He looked directly at Mingzhu, the phone appearing particularly conspicuous in his bony, calloused hands.

The young man appeared to be around eighteen or nineteen years old. Aside from his strikingly handsome face,

everything about him exuded desperate poverty.

His finger joints were enlarged from years of labor, bearing dark frostbite scars from winter.

He wore severely worn sneakers and carried that old phone with its shattered screen.

Mingzhu felt a twinge of compassion and didn’t immediately address the compensation: “You look unwell. Should you go to the hospital first?”

Jiang Zhi only felt his headache intensifying, the beautiful girl before him beginning to appear blurry.

He barely stabilized his posture and shook his head in refusal: “No need.”

A hospital visit was too extravagant for him.

It was just a fever he could go home, take some fever reducers, and sleep it off.

Mingzhu nodded and signaled to her assistant with a glance.

The assistant immediately stepped forward to exchange contact information with the young man, also noting down his name and address.

Seeing the address, even the assistant’s eyes showed a hint of sympathy.

“Jiang Zhi,” Mingzhu read the name, a slight curve forming at the corner of her lips. “You’re not planning to run away, are you?”

The young man lifted his quiet eyes upon hearing his name. “No.”

Mingzhu had always believed in not doing meaningless things.

But this excessively handsome face before her.

Was enough to make her break her own rule and extend some extra leniency.

Consider it paying tribute to this rare beauty.

She knew all too well the advantages that good looks could bring.

Yet this pretty young man showed no intention of leveraging his appearance.

“Good,” Mingzhu looked at him. “But even if you run, I’ll still find you.”

Jiang Zhi watched her smiling face, showing none of the fear one should have toward a creditor, and nodded.

The assistant stayed behind waiting for the traffic police while Mingzhu had already left.

The crowd dispersed gradually as the spectacle ended.

Jiang Zhi carefully inspected the electric scooter, confirming it was undamaged and still operational.

Opening the delivery box, he found the food containers intact, though the delivery time had long expired.

The platform had already sent him a negative review from the customer.

Fortunately, with the platform subsidy, he wouldn’t be fined too much.

Jiang Zhi took out the now cold takeout.

Walking to the stone steps by the roadside, he sat down and began eating.

“Aren’t you going to make more deliveries?” the assistant couldn’t help asking.

Jiang Zhi paused briefly, shook his head, showing no intention to speak.

Bored, the assistant spoke again: “You’re only nineteen, why don’t your parents take care of you…”

“Dead.”

Jiang Zhi uttered the two words without looking up, his tone flat and unemotional.

The assistant immediately fell silent, never expecting to kill the conversation so abruptly, scratching his head awkwardly. “Sorry about that, young man…”

The assistant sighed – this young man truly had terrible luck.

And now he was burdened with massive debt.

“But our young lady has always been kind-hearted,” the assistant added. “You don’t need to worry too much.”

Jiang Zhi paused slightly and asked a question voluntarily: “What’s her name?”

“You mean our young lady?” The assistant’s voice carried pride. “Mingzhu, like the phrase ‘a beloved daughter’.”

Jiang Zhi nodded, as if having lost interest in everything again.

He didn’t speak further, continuing with his meal.

The assistant didn’t disturb him anymore.

Silence fell between them.

Jiang Zhi returned home with heavy steps.

What passed for home was actually just a dark, damp basement.

The small space was partitioned into many tiny compartments.

So narrow it could only fit a small bed and a table.

It was packed with low-wage workers like him, with rent as low as fifty yuan per month.

The only place he could afford now.

He dug out half a strip of fever medicine from the drawer of the worn wooden desk, popping two pills with cold water.

Listening to the arguments next door, footsteps in the corridor, and the dripping sound from somewhere.

Jiang Zhi fell into a heavy sleep like this.

He didn’t know how much time had passed when he woke up.

Though the headache had disappeared, his whole body still felt weak and sore.

Jiang Zhi got up, passing through the corridor cluttered with clutter.

Heading toward the shared public toilet used by dozens of people.

The yellowed walls were covered with mold stains, the pungent smell of stale urine growing stronger as he approached the public toilet.

Jiang Zhi washed his face with cold water, and was just unzipping his pants when.

The door suddenly rattled under violent pounding.

“Did someone die in there?! What’s taking so long? Hurry up!”

A shrill, unpleasant woman’s voice pierced through the thin door.

Jiang Zhi didn’t even furrow his brow, only opening the door after he had finished his business.

He looked down, his indifferent eyes gazing down at the overweight middle-aged woman outside.

The middle-aged woman was startled by his gaze, instantly falling silent as if someone had grabbed her by the throat.

Her aggressive demeanor deflated immediately, and she stammered, “Ah… well… I’m in a hurry…”

Her bulky body hastily squeezed past Jiang Zhi, the scent of cheap perfume mixed with sweat permeating the cramped space.

After the door closed, Jiang Zhi could still hear her muttering: “Clearly so poor he can’t even afford food, no idea how he grew so tall…”