“Xiao Jie, you’ve grown,” Jinqian gave her best compliments.
Jing Jie didn’t know how to express himself and started blushing again.
He definitely had grown up. After watching how evil life could be and what happened with his father and sister, he was no longer the same person.
“So…. After this, I don’t have to care about anything here and wait for the final show of the Chloe Contest?”
Jing Jie smiled and nodded his head.
Ever since Carver met Jinqian, there was a beautiful, sweet smile that hung on her face. She rode past the wealthy region of Country I on her bicycle and arrived at the poorer area of Country I. Then, she stopped at one of the older three-story buildings and parked her bicycle.
This building had 100 years of history. Although there was still maintenance done to this building, there was still a shortage of water and electricity. Plus, the wiring systems here were already getting worn out.
Carver and her family stayed in this old, abandoned building.
However, they weren’t the only family in this building. The second floor of this building had three families living in it. All three families shared one kitchen, one bathroom, and one toilet.
The toilet was always filled with filthy things. This was because they had a new neighbor who was an alcoholic. He would always come home late and the entire room would be filled with the retching sounds coming from the toilet. On days where he could take care of himself, he would vomit in the toilet, which was why the toilet always had a horrible, disgusting stink coming from inside.
As for the bathroom, it was separated from the toilet but they could still smell the horrible smell brought in by the disgusting man.
Carver never liked using the bathroom or toilet back at home. She would rather ride her bicycle to the public bath that was a few miles away, especially now that the disgusting man had become their neighbor. Sometimes, when she wanted to wash her hands, she would find filthy vomit by the side of the toilet and she would feel nauseous.
She had enough of this life. She had been trying to free herself from this situation, but her father died when she was young and her mother got sick. She still had two younger brothers to raise and they couldn’t afford a house, which was why they had to rent this poor place.
Initially, when she met Jing Jie in the international online game, Country Strike Z16, he was the only one in their team that was from Country Z.
Her impression of Country Z was from the last decade. She thought that they were poor and she always had a sense of superiority whenever she was with Jing Jie.
Soon, she realized that it wasn’t because Jing Jie couldn’t afford the equipment in the game. It was because he was too good at it. Without any additional equipment, he was already good enough to play at the competitions.
As for money, he seemed to have a lot more than her. Whenever he noticed that she wanted something, he would buy it for her without any hesitation, even if it caused 70 dollars.
70 dollars was enough to afford good quality meat for a family of four, and they would be able to have it for at least a week.
Back then, she thought that Jing Jie had feelings for her, which was why she kept him hanging. However, this boy was not good with words and she was shy to be too blatant about it, worried that he may be annoyed.
So, for the past three years, she had been leeching off of Jing Jie for the equipment. She even accompanied Jing Jie into international ranks, but because her skills were much worse compared to Jing Jie, she did not make it to the elementary rounds of the competition.
