Sigma Saga

Does bitterness give way to sweetness?" The leader lifted his teacup and asked calmly. Mu Yuting took a small sip, savoring it carefully. It did seem to leave a sweet aftertaste. "Bitter bramble tea—the more bitter it is upon first taste, the cooler and sweeter the lingering flavor." The leader refilled both their cups. "Too rigid, and one breaks; too soft, and one crumbles. Only by balancing strength and flexibility can one succeed (this is a quote). A-Ting, as a Chinese literature major, you must understand this." Of course, Mu Yuting understood. It meant that in life, one shouldn’t be overly rigid nor excessively yielding, or else they’d find themselves trapped. One must know how to adapt, assess the situation, and balance firmness with flexibility to navigate with ease. Suddenly, she grasped why the leader had invited her to drink bitter bramble tea. Though the tea was bitter, its aftertaste was sweet and cool. He was trying to tell her that when anything r...

At three in the afternoon, Mu Yuting underwent a follow-up brain CT scan as advised by her doctor. By four o'clock, she had received the results, confirming there was no intracranial bleeding, and promptly completed the discharge procedures. She only had a little over 300 yuan on her, but fortunately, her mother had deposited enough money into her hospital account, leaving a refund after discharge—otherwise, it would have been quite awkward. She had made up her mind: once home, she would take the initiative to ask to manage her own salary instead of letting her mother handle it for her. In her past life, her mother controlled her finances before marriage, and after marriage, her husband took over. It wasn't until after her divorce that she finally managed her own money… She would never make such a foolish mistake again. When she arrived home, her mother was still doing manual bookkeeping for the two small companies she worked part-time for, with a pile of receipts and several l...

Another cold, snowy night passed. By morning, the heavy snowflakes still hadn't ceased, the sky gloomy and overcast. It looked like the snow would continue all day. The hospital room was warm with the air conditioning on. Mu Yuting gazed out the window at the thick blanket of snow, feeling quite emotional. In the future, with global warming, her hometown rarely saw snow. Even when it did snow, it was usually light and would stop within an hour or two. Such a heavy, continuous snowfall was truly rare. After breakfast, as she was typing on her phone's notepad, a call came in. Du Dawei, frozen to the bone, had finally given in. He had carefully revised the two agreements as Mu Yuting instructed and read them aloud to her again. "Is it acceptable now?" Du Dawei's face was pale, his lips trembling, his high-end down jacket crumpled beyond recognition. Enduring consecutive snowy, freezing nights was truly tough. Especially for a young man like him with liver issues, who...

After another night of freezing, Du Dawei finally understood that Mu Yuting was determined to break off the engagement. If he didn’t compromise, not only would he suffer a few more days of hardship, but he also wouldn’t be able to keep it hidden from his parents any longer. Although he had often stayed overnight at internet cafes playing games before, he had never skipped meals at home for days on end. He hadn’t returned home for two days and two nights and hadn’t even called. His parents would surely try his phone first, and if they couldn’t reach him, they’d contact his cousin, Du Dazhi. If his cousin didn’t say anything, his parents would go to his workplace to find out what was going on, then make a scene at Mu Yuting’s workplace and the hospital where she stayed. His foolish parents would only escalate the situation, making him lose face in front of everyone. Sure enough, early in the morning, his cousin Du Dazhi called, saying Du Dawei’s parents had been asking about his whereabo...

Du Dazhi felt he had completely lost face. That morning, he had arrogantly declared that Mu Yuting was unworthy of the Du family, yet now, for the sake of his cousin, he had to beg her not to call off the engagement. After being rejected by Mu Yuting, his face burned crimson. Fortunately, winter nights fell early, and in the darkness, no one could see his ugly expression. His pride severely wounded, he still had to grit his teeth and continue. "Dawei truly loves you. The agreement is already drafted, with apologies and compensation included—just please don’t break off the engagement." Mu Yuting knew that insincere apologies were useless. She also knew that the compensation from the Du family would be borrowed money, which would eventually have to be repaid. If the engagement wasn’t called off, that debt would ultimately fall on her shoulders, forcing her to pay it back! In her past life, even the wedding banquet expenses—the only money the Du family spent on taking a daughter...

The first time he entered the detention center, Du Dawei was so cold he couldn't sleep all night. His eyes were listless, with deep dark circles, and his face was pale. Detention centers were nothing like internet cafes—at least cafes had internet access for chatting and gaming, while detention centers offered no entertainment at all. Detainees weren't allowed to bring their phones inside, and Du Dawei's had been confiscated upon entry, to be returned only upon his release. After breakfast, estimating that his cousin would already be at work, he applied to use the detention center's dedicated phone to call his cousin, Du Dazhi. The call was limited to ten minutes. Apart from the first minute spent embellishing the miseries of his current life, the remaining nine were filled with his cousin's furious scolding. Du Dazhi berated him relentlessly, accusing him of wasting his bachelor's degree by not striving to become a civil servant while young, not working to marr...

On a cold, snowy night, Du Dawei was too frozen to sleep. The detention center had issued blankets, but he found them not fragrant enough, not soft enough, and the color not new enough. Worried they might dirty his brand-name clothes, he tossed them aside and refused to use them. Unable to sleep, he sat leaning against the wall, analyzing his situation. First, he considered who could get him out. He didn't want to stay there a moment longer. Asking his parents was out of the question—he had to keep it from them. He knew his parents were utterly unreasonable, uneducated and only capable of making a scene. If they came to the police station to cause trouble, they might end up getting detained themselves. Fortunately, he often stayed overnight at internet cafes gaming, so his parents wouldn’t notice even if he didn’t come home at night. His younger brother Du Xiaowei was no use either. Also poorly educated, Du Xiaowei worked as a taxi driver on alternating day and night shifts, with n...

 "Disregard the advice of the elderly, and regret will be at your doorstep. If you ignore my words and persist in your own way, there will certainly be no good outcome!" Mother Mu was somewhat irritated. She was accustomed to controlling everything in the household. Her love for her child was genuine, but so was her strong desire for control. The moment her child didn’t act according to her wishes, she would forcefully intervene and steer everything back. "Listening to you my whole life, being the obedient girl—does that guarantee a good outcome? A happy ending?" Mu Yuting scoffed. Hadn’t she been obedient her entire past life? And what was the result? "Mom, I’ve grown up. I have my own life, and I’ll take responsibility for it." "You can offer advice, but you can’t make decisions for me. Because this is my life." "My life, my choices." Mother Mu was stunned. Apart from yesterday’s demand to call off the engagement, her daughter had alm...

 The leader glanced at Du Dawei, who was being restrained by several people, then shifted his gaze to the injured and unsteady Mu Yuting, taking a deep breath. In truth, the leader knew Du Dawei—he was a contract worker from a county bureau nearby, often seen running errands to deliver documents to the municipal office. The leader was also aware of his family situation and had heard that Du Dawei’s troublemaking relatives were not to be trifled with. As for Mu Yuting, she was just an ordinary, well-behaved girl from their own unit. Weighing the pros and cons, the leader concluded that Mu Yuting was no match for Du Dawei. If things escalated, she might even face retaliation. The best solution was to resolve the matter peacefully—to calm the situation for the benefit of both individuals, avoiding any negative impact on their work and reputations, as well as on the unit itself. “A-Ting, you’re injured and need to go to the hospital right away. Don’t delay. Du Dawei will cover the medi...