"Come sit over here."
Ji Chicheng had vacated the sofa, so Ji Anning grabbed two stools and placed them by the window to sit with Jin Yuanyuan.
Any distance from Ji Chicheng was preferable, after all.
Once seated, Ji Anning focused her attention entirely on Jin Yuanyuan, distressed at the sight of her thin face, which had lost its usual fairness to a wheatish hue, "You've lost so much weight this year, it must have been tough."
Jin Yuanyuan chuckled, "Getting thin has always been my goal."
She pursed her lips with a smile and took a small sip of water.
Despite her best efforts to hide it, there was a trace of bitter struggle and world-weariness in her smile. Ji Anning reached out, took her hand, and spoke with heartfelt earnestness, "Yuanyuan, if it's really hard on you, maybe you should consider changing your way of living. Why make things so difficult for yourself?"
Teaching in the countryside is commendable, but doing so out of a sense of guilt is something else entirely.
