Down the Memory Lane (1)

Xu Jing and Joann met when they were in high school. The power dynamic of their relationship back then was different or rather completely opposite from how it was in the present.

This was understandable because at the time, Xu Jing was the sole young master and thus the confirmed heir of the powerful Xu Corps. He commanded respect and power at their school. There was a constant line of people just waiting to do his bidding.

On the other hand, at the time, Joann had not been discovered by the talent scout, she was not yet the glorious star that she would one day become. She was just an orphan girl trying to survive in this harsh world while securing for herself an education.

Joann jumped from foster home to foster home before she eventually reached the age where she could live on her own. This meant that on top of school, she had to work many odd jobs that were available to an inexperienced girl like herself to keep her life afloat.

Probably opposites did attract because even though there were plenty of girls who were willing to throw themselves at Xu Jing, he did not pay attention to any of them. However, his heart was struck when he saw Joann.

He saw in her qualities like determination and hardworking that he did not need to possess because a life of ease had been handed to him since he was born. He did not even need to expend energy to lift the spoon while he ate. Life was that easy for Xu Jing.

He felt immediately attracted to Joann and he started pursuing her in earnest.

Unfortunately, for a girl like Joann who barely managed to eke by every month, love was the farthest thing on her mind. She had no time to be in a relationship when she had trouble putting food on the table.

Therefore, she rejected Xu Jing outright when he asked her to be his girlfriend.

Mrs. Xu noticed how downtrodden Xu Jing looked that few weeks and after some sniffing around, she heard wind that her son had gotten himself smitten with his schoolmate. When Mrs. Xu heard the girl was an orphan, her first instinct was to intervene and advise Xu Jing to give up on the relationship.

However, when she saw how dispirited her son was from the rejection, she did not have the heart to rub salt on his wound. Furthermore, since Xu Jing had already been rejected, she would not need to worry about this relationship blossoming. Xu Jing would heal and he would eventually find a girl from an appropriate social class to marry.

Mrs. Xu was right on one count, Xu Jing's wounds did heal but he only bounced back that much stronger as he continued his pursuit of Joann.

Mrs. Xu swore to snip the problem in the bud when her husband intercepted her. Unlike Mrs. Xu, Xu Jing's father had noticed the positive changes Joann had brought out in Xu Jing, even though they were not even in a relationship yet.

This son of theirs was prone to giving up because he lacked a drive in life. This was a common problem for those who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth. They did not have to work for anything in their life so they lacked a drive to succeed.

However, this time, Xu Jing did not give up even after the initial rebuff by Joann.

Mrs. Xu conceded to her husband's point and she decided to stay at the sidelines for now and continued to watch.

Xu Jing did learn plenty of things from this relationship. As pointed out by his father, the very first lesson he had was in the virtue of perseverance.

Even though Joann had rejected him, he stuck around stubbornly. With enough patience, even an iron rod could be grounded down to a sewing needle, Xu Jing believed one day he would be able to get Joann to say yes.

Xu Jing shadowed Joann like a stubborn twin. Joann was annoyed but there was nothing she could do short of reporting him for harassment to get rid of the young man. Her impression of Xu Jing was not that bad to do that to him. Admittedly, when he first approached her, she thought he was just a frivolous young master who believed the world was beneath him. She did not have a good first impression of the young man.

However, his persistence had surprised her and Joann's attitude towards the man softened, but that did not mean she was ready to accept him as her boyfriend. As mentioned above, she had more urgent needs to worry about than romance and love.

Xu Jing could have easily offered to handle her living fees but he understood that would be taken as an insult by Joann. This was the second lesson he had learned, which was to be understanding of the other person's concerns and feelings.

For someone who earned everything they own like Joann, a monetary support would be considered a beggar's donation. It would be an insult to all the hard work she had contributed so far to her life.

Love is a long and grueling road. Xu Jing believed that was the way to Joann's heart. He stayed by her side and this meant that he followed Joann to all the places she worked part time at.

One such places was a small traditional Chinese dessert shop that was close to their school. The shop was owned by a kind if a little busybody middle-aged lady. She had been a housewife her whole life and after all her children had left home, she was left with nothing to do.

Months of nagging finally pushed her retired husband crazy and he produced the capital for her to open this dessert shop.

Glad to finally have something to do, the woman threw herself into running the shop and it became a hotspot for the students nearby due to the cheap price and delicious desserts.