The Mystery of Revenge by G. X. Chen

Chen volunteered to walk her around the corridor to Dr. Smith’s office door. Their first encounter led to a friendly coffee, and soon they becamefriends.
    He fell in love almost immediately, before he even realized. The girl was so beautiful; when she smiled, he thought the whole world was smiling. Her big eyes shone like diamonds, and her mouth shaped like a new moon in the dark sky. When she sought his advice for her course selections, Fang Chen jumped at the chance to helpher.
    Having grown up as the middle child, unattractive, and near-sighted, Fang Chen was a loner from a very early age, living miserably in the shadow of his brilliant and beautiful siblings. His older brother Lee, handsome and athletic, was good at everything he chose to do. His younger sister Mary, a talented pianist, had won several national competitions before becoming a successful concert pianist. Quiet and self-conscious, Fang Chen was always awkward in socialgatherings.
    But he turned into a different person when Yi-yun was around because she made him feel comfortable and relaxed. He became talkative, sharing his dreams, goals, and his research projects with her. She didn’t seem to mind if he wasn’t handsome, or sociable. She saw him as her equal—an intelligent, polite, and generousguy.
    A few months after becoming friends, Yi-yun revealed a painful secret; she was on the verge of being deported because she didn’t have the money to stay in college. She had been working day and night, but what she made as a part-time bartender could hardly cover her living expenses, not to mention the full-blown private school tuition, which mounted to tens of thousands of dollars a year. To legally remain in the US, she had to maintain her F-1 student visa. But to keep her visa, she had to pay off her tuition, which was so obviously beyond her financial capability. When she explored the possibility of transferring to a cheaper school, such as the state-run UMass, she found out that being a foreigner, she had to pay triple of what an in-state resident would have to pay. So it made absolutely no difference which school she attended. She had to pay orleave.
    Fang Chen was devastated when he heard this news because he hated to lose the girl who in a very short period of time had become the center of his life. Without thinking twice, he decided to help her out financially. Being from a rich family, he could easily ask his parents for help, but Fang Chen was reluctant to do so because he had been independent for years. Ever since enrolling in graduate school, he had been living on a humble teaching assistant’s salary, never asking his parents for any help. Fortunately, he had saved a reasonable sum from the money his parents had been sending over for birthdays andholidays.
    Yi-yun burst into tears when he showed her a paid receipt for her tuition of the semester. Crying and laughing at the same time, she offered to pay him back with cooking and housekeeping. Unsurprisingly, they became romantically involved within a week, proving to Fang Chen that he had made the smartest move afterall.
    “You can always share my place if you want to. No need to pay rent,” he offered when she complained about her job at China Dragon. She said she hated it so much that she would quit immediately if only she could find a way to pay herrent.
    “You’re so sweet,” she said gratefully. “You don’t know how much this means to me.” She sighed longingly. “Now the only thing I have to do is go to school. Oh, it’d be amazing if I could quit school as well.” Who could blame her? College was hard. The heavy workload plus a part-time job would be unbearable for someone as delicate as Yi-yun. It was a miracle that she hadn’t suffered a nervousbreakdown.
    Getting married made it possible for Yi-yun to quit everything. As Fang Chen’s wife, she became a legal alien, able to stay in the US as long as she wanted. Both of them accepted their union as a blessing. For him, it