Rebirth of a Fashionista: This Life Is Soo Last Season

At night, Lina and Sheng Jiaoyang lied down on the same bed, and Lina told Sheng Jiaoyang in detail about all the things that had happened since they last met, so that she could explain how she was able to make Sven place down his status and take care of her like an ordinary man.

Previously, due to jet lag and other reasons, Lina and Sheng Jiaoyang couldn't chat with each other properly. Even when they were on the phone, they would only converse briefly. Sometimes, there was another person beside either of them, and hence, they couldn't talk about such things, as they didn't want others to know about it.

It all started from the agreement Lina made with Sven.

Having gone through so many things, Lina was no longer the same person as before. Moreover, her many interactions with Sven allowed her to realize that she could only reason with Sven by using a soft approach, as he would never be cowed by force. There was no use in fighting against him head on. He was a man, and a bastard who had no sense of ethics or morality. The harder she resisted him, the more enjoyable he would find it to be.

So, she changed her approach.

A person would be in an endless state of turmoil if they couldn’t get what they wanted. Hence, she would do the exact opposite. She made an agreement with Sven, with the end date being the birthdate of the baby.

For a long while, she constructed and prepared her psychological state, so that she would be able to cope with the suffering from the upcoming interactions with Sven. This was the only thing she focused on when she stayed over with Sheng Jiaoyang.

As she watched Sheng Jiaoyang buzz around like a busy bee, the impetuosity in her heart was gradually replaced by calmness.

She would think of how Jiaojiao was able to still live life so brightly and positively despite staying in her old house for two years. At that time, Jiaojiao was not even ten years old yet. Ever since she knew Jiaojiao, she had never heard Jiaojiao complaining about the hardships of life. I'm already a grown up. Why can't I do what Jiaojiao did?

During her trying time, she often thought, "If Jiaojiao was faced with such a situation, what would she do?" Jiaojiao would definitely not blame her situation on others or on fate. She also wouldn’t let herself remain in a hopeless state. She's someone who likes to be in control of her life.

After Lina had calmed down, she realized that she still stood a chance to turn the tables around. Although she was at a disadvantage, she still had something to depend on. Sven's love for her was her largest advantage.

Lina found it to be somewhat ironic, but indeed, it was the only thing she could make use of at the moment.

Hence, she no longer rejected Sven's intimate actions, or his attempt to get closer to her. At the start, Sven only called a nanny over to take care of her daily necessities. She would intentionally or unintentionally express her disapproval of such an arrangement. Eventually, only hourly cleaners would show up on a regular basis to do the household chores.

She used such conscious or subconscious behaviors to change Sven's attitude towards her. Little by little, she made him change and learn to be like an ordinary man and do those things that he would not have done before.

At first, the food he cooked tasted terribly bad, but she didn't show it and ate everything on the plate. On the contrary, whenever they went out for meals in the restaurants, she would only eat a little, and ended up having to get up in the middle of the night to get something to eat from the kitchen.

She had never asked or requested Sven to do all these for her. She only expressed a little happiness when he did all these things.

Initially, before Sven stepped into the kitchen to cook, Lina would naturally get hungry at night because she had only eaten so little at the restaurant. But, she didn't wake Sven up. Instead, she went to the kitchen and rummaged through the refrigerator and cupboards.

With how alert Sven was, he was awakened the moment Lina got out of the bed. When he saw Lina leaving the room instead of going to the toilet, curiosity spurred him to follow after her. He saw her dig out a packet of instant noodles from God knows where and directly munched on it without cooking or boiling it. Her brows were clearly furrowed together, but she still bit on the noodles, chunk by chunk.

"What are you doing?" Sven's brows were pressed together. He clearly couldn't understand Lina's behavior.

Lina stopped munching on the noodles and answered him without turning her head, "I'm hungry."

Sven stepped forward, snatched the pre-cooked noodles from Lina's hands, and threw it into the dustbin. He grabbed her hand and headed out of the kitchen. "I'll send someone to get takeaway food."

"I can't stand eating outside food," Lina replied calmly.

"Is that why you are sitting here and eating all this stuff that is bad for your health?" Sven didn't even notice the fury in his voice as he spoke.

Lina remained silent.

Sven turned to look at Lina but could only see the latter with her eyes on the ground and an indiscernible expression. He took a deep breath, let go of her hand and entered the kitchen.

Lina stood in the doorway of the kitchen and watched him rummage through the refrigerator and cupboards. She could see that he had never personally cooked before. He even had to taste the salt and sugar before he could tell them apart. He went through every seasoning in the cupboards and studied them.

Finally, he appeared with a bowl of cooked noodle, with an egg placed on top.

The noodles were very badly cooked. But, she maintained a poker face as she silently finished the whole bowl, and that was enough to satisfy Sven. After all, Lina only ate a bite or two from the fancy restaurant outside, but she ate all the noodles he had cooked for the first time ever.

The next day, Sven no longer brought Lina to shop at high-end places. Instead, they went to the supermarkets and wet markets. They bought a whole bunch of groceries back, and Sven started to work in the kitchen.

Things were going according to Lina's plan. The only thing that she didn’t expect was that Sven didn't show the slightest sign of boredom or annoyance even after so many days. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying it.

However, Lina was not in a hurry. Those born of extraordinary backgrounds might be able to do these trivial and mundane things for a while out of the feeling of novelty. However, they would eventually grow tired of it someday, and this someday would arrive very soon.

While she was secretly plotting, Sven naturally had his own plans as well. Otherwise, he wouldn't have done all these things for her.

They were opponents sitting on the opposite sight of a Go board, each trying to encircle and capture the other's pieces.

Sven appeared to be the aggressive attacker, but a closer look revealed that his pieces were being gobbled up, one by one. From a strategic point of view, Lina's tactic was to conquer the unyielding by yielding.

"Mei Niu, there doesn't seem to be a problem with what you are doing. But as you said, Sven hasn't shown any signs of being tired of doing these things. It means that things have deviated from your plan, and this deviation would depend on how much you understand him," said Sheng Jiaoyang.

"Do you think he can do this for the rest of his life?" Lina turned to look at Sheng Jiaoyang.

"I don't know if he can do this for the rest of his life, but judging from his actions now, he still seems to be enjoying it."

"Whenever people want something at the beginning, they would work very hard just to obtain it. But once you have obtained it, can you be sure that you will still like it as much as you did before? For example, in your case, you used to like Lin Yan so much, but what about now?"

"That's different, I didn't stop liking him after I got together with him. Mei Niu, nothing in this world is absolute. Are you so sure that after spending so many days together, your resistance towards Sven still stands as firmly as before?"

Lina went quiet.

Humans are emotional creatures. You may hate someone to the bone, but a singular moment where the other party touches your heart could eliminate all the hatred you harbored towards them.

Sheng Jiaoyang held Lina's hand and looked at her with a very solemn expression. "Mei Niu, we cannot live our lives by letting someone else become the centre of our world. We should be the centre of our own world. Only then can nobody dictate our lives."

"If it were you, what would you do?"

If it were me, what would I do? It is indeed a question worth pondering over.

"I have never experienced anything like that before, so all I can tell you are my thoughts on this situation," replied Sheng Jiaoyang.

"Although you haven't experienced it before, I'm sure that you would be able to deal with it in your own way if you were to face something like this."

Sheng Jiaoyang stared at Lina for a little while before she said, "In my life, I would feel sadness and joy over my relationships. Sometimes, I would even hesitate because of them. But that's all to it. I won't let my relationships become the one and only thing that dominates my life. We are living not for others, but for ourselves."

"Was this the reason that you pressed through and survived the tough times when you were surrounded by people who scolded you and bullied you?" Lina asked softly.

Sheng Jiaoyang was stunned. She hadn't expected this question from Lina.

At the time…

"I felt very upset then. No one would like being bullied, wronged, and scolded with a finger pointed at their noses, unless they are a sick masochist."

Sheng Jiaoyang let out a chuckle, "You know, when you are in the dark, you would be afraid and terrified. But when a ray of light appears in the vast darkness, all your attention would be shifted to that ray of light. You would want to find and seek the origin of the light, so as to suppress or forget the fear of the dark."

"I shut myself in my room and cried until I couldn't breathe. But I thought of the many things that I wanted to do, and I thought that dying would only make my haters happy. So, I called Grandfather."

Sheng Jiaoyang paused briefly before she continued, "Grandfather took me to Aureate Manor. Initially, he wanted me to stay and grow up there. But to be honest, if I had stayed there, I might not become the person I am now. I would have become a person accustomed to being dependent on others."

"The moment I walked out the gates of Aureate Manor, I made up my mind on the person I was going to be."

"What kind of person did you want to become?" Lina’s interest was piqued. Jiaojiao had never talked about this with her before. Just like how she had almost never mentioned her childhood stories, Jiaojiao also never took the initiative to mention what happened during that period of her life.

"Why can others cause me pain, but I can't do the same to them? I'm not an angel, nor am I an ascetic. I'm just an ordinary person. I don't live in this world to suffer, so I want to be a…"

Sheng Jiaoyang organized her thoughts in her head. "A person who follows her heart."

Lina smiled, "You did it. In fact, you excelled in it."

"I believe that you can do it too."

"Lina," Sheng Jiaoyang spoke solemnly, "Before you decide whether to continue on your plan, you only have to consider whether you would be hurting yourself in the process. You don't have to think of anything else. And once you have decided, don't regret your decision."

Lina got lost in her thoughts.

She recalled the hardships that they had gone through together during their schooling days. At that time, it was basically Sheng Jiaoyang who shielded her. What did Jiaojiao do every time?

Sheng Jiaoyang would find their weaknesses and agitate them. Eventually, when they couldn't hold it in any longer, they would resort to violence, and she would then call Rita out. No disciplinary action was taken against Rita, as it was justifiable defense. In contrast, the other parties were beaten up black and blue, and they even received severe punishment from the school. As time passed, no one dared to use violence to oppress them.

Then, it was the emergence of endless pranks. To deal with the pranksters, Jiaojiao cooperated with Rita to get revenge on them with violent resistance, and they left no traces behind. Leaving no traces meant that they would throw a sack over the person in a place without any surveillance and give them a good beating. Having grown up through all sorts of fights, Rita knew very well which spots to hit that would deal maximum pain but leave no traces. These people grew fearful of Rita and eventually stopped their pranks.

However, fear cannot eliminate the hatred of Man. These people then changed their approach, and they tried to provoke Rita through a war of words. But having already found their weakness, Jiaojiao would exploit them and retorted their insults in such a vicious way that it was almost like she was striking a nail on their heads. In the end, these people were infuriated, but they couldn't do anything about it.

They couldn't win a brawl, and couldn't even win a war of words. Hence, these people came up with the idea of ostracising the trio and marginalizing them in school. But at this point, Jiaojiao had, by virtue of her own excellence, attracted the attention of the teachers. Very soon, she had also gathered a group of students who were the victims of the bullies. She even sowed distrust in the bullies' clique to alienate the members within. Eventually, the bullies got into an internal conflict, and disbanded.

Since then, they became the trio whom no one dared to bully.

Sheng Jiaoyang once told Lina that in the confrontation against a hateful person, there was no need to consider if the other party would get hurt. The only thing to consider was how to appease your hatred towards them without hurting yourself in the process.

The two of them could successfully graduate and get admitted into a university only because they had the protection of Rita. But on the other hand, Rita was also being protected by them. With that simple brain of hers, Rita would have probably fallen into a trap and got expelled from school if Sheng Jiaoyang wasn't on her side. Moreover, it was Jiaojiao who discovered Rita's strength in the first place, and she put them to good use.

If you still couldn’t win using your own strengths to fight the opponent's weaknesses,, it just meant that you were too stupid.

Then what was Sven's weakness?

"Mei Niu, would you marry Sven?" Sheng Jiaoyang's question traveled into her ears.

"Why do I have to marry him?"

"For the child."

Lina let out a chuckle. "Jiaojiao, I really can't believe that you have been my friend for 10 years. Do you think I will be tied down by a child? I only wish for him to be born healthy and give him the motherly love that he deserved. That's all my obligation is towards him."

"Then what if Sven threatens you with the child?"

Lina couldn't help but lift her hands to rub Sheng Jiaoyang's face. "Jiaojiao, I only just realized that you are so conservative."

"So even if he threatens to take the child away from you, you still won't marry him?" Sheng Jiaoyang wanted to reconfirm Lina's answer.

"Firstly, no matter where the child is, I will be relieved as long as he's living well. Secondly, due to the first reason, I won't be threatened by him. Thirdly, Sven wouldn't threaten me with something like this. Fourthly…"

"Wait, why do you have so many excuses?"

"Lastly, do you think Sven would want to marry me? Or should I say, do you think Sven would want to be with me for the rest of his life?" The smile on Lina's face faded away.

Sheng Jiaoyang placed her hand on Lina's tummy and said nonchalantly, "The last point you just mentioned isn't important. Since you don't have any feelings for him, then he isn't one of us. So, you don't have to care if he has any feelings for you or how deep his feelings for you runs. If his love for you runs deep, you can make use of it. If it isn't, then you can get rid of him earlier and live your life in a carefree manner."

Lina's eyes started to brighten up.