When I found Ruan Qingyu, he was sitting quietly by the roadside selling paintings.
The streetlight cast a dim, yellow glow, stretching his shadow long and thin.
Pedestrians hurried past, none willing to pause for his artwork.
Sensing someone had stopped, Ruan Qingyu lifted his eyes slightly to meet mine.
His lashes were long, casting a small shadow across his face.
His eyes were dark, yet held no spark of light.
Seeing me approach, he seemed momentarily stunned. After all, I was one of those who had bullied him.
Ruan Qingyu was silent and withdrawn, slender in build, with a delicate, clean-cut appearance. In a campus romance novel, he'd be the object of every girl's secret crush—
A rare flower blooming atop snow-capped peaks.
But this was a forced-love BL story.
He was the one being forced.
The story began simply with him appearing in the sunlight when the male lead was at his lowest point.
Later, the male lead—an illegitimate son—was taken back into the wealthy family, becoming the young master everyone fawned over.
Everyone adored him, including me, the female supporting character.
In forced love stories, the enforcer and the forced must have a vast gap in status and position.
So, the Ruan family went bankrupt.
Father Ruan jumped to his death, Mother Ruan was in poor health, and with no income source, Ruan Qingyu had no choice but to sell paintings to make ends meet.
I was the male lead's biggest sycophant.
When Lu Mian explicitly stated he disliked Ruan Qingyu, I suffered bullying.
And I appeared when others were picking on him, mocking him with sharp, biting sarcasm.
Perhaps my image was simply too terrible.
Even when I stood quietly before his painting stall, I could see the helplessness in Ruan Qingyu's eyes.
He looked up at me, his face expressionless, but his tightly clenched fists betrayed his emotions.
I knew he feared that I, Lu Mian's sycophant, would use underhanded tactics to deprive him of his livelihood.
In truth, his worries were justified.
In the story's plot, Lin Yan, upon seeing the destitute Ruan Qingyu, first hurled scornful taunts at him, then hired people to destroy his paintings.
This torment lasted a full month.
Ruan Qingyu had no choice but to give up selling his paintings.
But then his mother fell gravely ill.
It was at this moment that Lu Mian proposed the plot twist: buying him and forcing him into a relationship.
For his mother's sake, he willingly became a canary in Lu Mian's cage.
Plunged from the clouds into the mud.
2
I didn't humiliate him like the plot dictated.
I simply knelt down and studied his paintings.
Ruan Qingyu was a genius—at least in art.
His paintings pulsed with life.
Sunflowers thriving on a windowsill, kittens sheltering under umbrellas, Mount Fuji blanketed in cherry blossoms.
His subjects were diverse, yet never included human figures.
The Ruan Qingyu in the novel never painted people either.
Even when Lu Mian pressured him, he never gave in.
I pointed at the sunflowers and asked, "How much?"
Ruan Qingyu looked slightly taken aback, surprised that this vicious female antagonist hadn't come to cause trouble.
But then again, I was the only one who bought his painting.
He answered honestly, "Fifty."
"Seriously, only fifty?" I was shocked by the low price.
Nowadays, even a random art print online costs more than fifty.
And Ruan Qingyu was selling oil paintings.
I'm no art major, but I know paint is expensive.
Was Ruan Qingyu even trying to make a profit at this price?
But he clearly hadn't considered that.
Hesitating, he asked, "Is it too expensive? I can lower the price."
I shook my head, pointing at his painting. "It's too cheap. I'll take it. Could you help me wrap it up, Ruan?"
Ruan Qingyu flinched slightly at the name, but quickly composed himself, bending down to pack the paintings for me.
The evening breeze brushed my face, carrying the unique warmth of summer.
The youth was slender, the hem of his white shirt fluttering slightly.
A clean scent drifted into my nostrils with the wind.
I watched Ruan Qingyu load the paintings into my car with a complex expression.
In the novel's ending, after enduring both physical and mental torment, Ruan Qingyu finally fell in love with Lu Mian.
But if he hadn't been dragged into the mud, would he still have fallen for his tormentor?
3
As I was about to leave, through the car window glass, Ruan Qingyu seemed to be speaking to me.
His lips formed the words: Thank you.
The villainess came from a wealthy family, residing in a manor.
A castle-like house where a single bedroom was larger than my entire home.
It was material I'd never dared dream of in my past life.
I placed Ruan Qingyu's sunflowers by the bedside.
I truly loved this painting.
As for buying the entire collection? That was just old habits from my impoverished past—the urge to bargain was ingrained.
Still, his work was undeniably good. Displaying every piece throughout the house felt mismatched.
I deliberately set aside a room just for his paintings.
After a lifetime of poverty, I'd finally become a wealthy young lady.
This sudden wealth made me want to experience the life of the rich—paying without glancing at the price tag.