In the car.
Shen Zhiyu sat to the side, stealing a glance at the woman who was lowering her head to play with her phone.
Shen Zhili kept her head down, her slender fingers swiftly swiping across the phone screen, her expression focused as if she were the only person in the car.
Her profile in the morning light was so beautiful it seemed almost dreamlike, like a classical oil painting.
Shen Zhiyu swallowed.
He remembered how she hadn’t exposed his awkwardness when he was secretly playing with the cat on the third floor that morning.
That silence… to him, was a rare act of kindness.
So, the boy mustered his courage and decided to say something to break the suffocating quiet.
“Um… thank you.”
Shen Zhili didn’t look up. “For what?”
“For… for driving me to school these past few days.”
Shen Zhiyu’s voice grew even softer, almost drowned out by the sound of the car’s air conditioning.
This finally drew Shen Zhili’s attention away from her phone.
She glanced up at him. “I’m not driving you specifically; it’s just on the way.”
After a pause, Shen Zhili added another sentence.
“If Truck could go to school, I’d definitely drive Truck.”
“…Oh.”
Shen Zhiyu’s mouth twitched, and the courage he had just mustered instantly deflated.
He’d better just keep quiet.
The car soon came to a stop in front of the imposing entrance of Qinzhou Academy.
Shen Zhili pushed the door open and got out, with Shen Zhiyu following behind.
Carrying his backpack, he watched Shen Zhili’s figure disappear into the crowd, a vague, indescribable feeling suddenly welling up in his heart.
…
As Shen Zhili walked into the teaching building, she suddenly felt a slight discomfort in her stomach.
Her brows furrowed.
That glass of ice-cold milk she had taken straight from the fridge before bed last night—as refreshing as it had been to drink then, the consequences were hitting her just as hard now.
Shen Zhili clicked her tongue and turned toward the direction with the brightest lights at the end of the corridor.
That was the nearest restroom.
She pushed the door open and was about to head for any available stall when she heard suppressed mocking laughter from inside.
“Ye Yinuo, you’re quite good at pretending, aren’t you?”
“Did you report to the homeroom teacher yesterday? Huh? Did you think telling her would help?”
A sharp female voice echoed in the empty restroom, dripping with undisguised malice.
“Think you’re something just because your grades are good?”
“Let me tell you, at Qinzhou Academy, without family background or connections, you’re nothing. I can bully you however I want.”
Shen Zhili’s footsteps halted.
She didn’t move, her gaze passing over a row of sinks and landing on the mirror at the very back.
The mirror reflected the scene in the corner.
Three girls in school uniforms had another person tightly cornered against the wall.
The girl being cornered was also wearing the same school uniform, but her top was slightly disheveled, with a few strands of black hair scattered across her cheeks.
She leaned against the cold tiled wall, her expression icy, not saying a word.
It was a delicate face with clean features, but at that moment, her eyes were filled with unyielding stubbornness and an almost overflowing disdain.
Among the three girls surrounding her, the leader had her hair permed into small brown curls, her face adorned with makeup too sophisticated for her age, and she held a bright red lipstick in her hand.
She used the tip of the lipstick to poke Ye Yinuo’s face repeatedly.
“Don’t be ungrateful in the future. The fact that I’m willing to bully you means I think you’re worth my time.”
“If you dare go around tattling again, next time you won’t be walking out of this bathroom.”
Ye Yinuo finally looked up, glaring coldly at them.
“In your dreams.”
The girl with the permed curls instantly changed expression.
She threw her lipstick to the ground and reached out to grab Ye Yinuo’s hair.
“Looking for trouble, huh?”
Ye Yinuo reacted faster, seizing the other girl’s wrist as it came toward her. With a fierce look in her eyes, she forcefully flung it away.
The girl staggered, nearly losing her balance and falling.
Once she steadied herself, her made-up face twisted with rage.
“You dare fight back? How dare you defy us?”
She shrieked.
“Get her together! I’m going to slap this bitch’s face until it’s ruined!”
The other two girls, who had been watching the scene unfold, immediately understood. They lunged at Ye Yinuo from both sides.
Ye Yinuo was tall for a girl and clearly had some experience in fights, but it was hard to fend off multiple attackers.
One of them pinned her shoulders firmly, while the other grabbed her hair and yanked it back hard.
The sharp pain from her scalp made her grunt.
Seeing this, the girl with the permed curls wore a smug, vicious smile.
She walked up to Ye Yinuo, raised her hand high, and aimed to slap that pale, stubborn face.
But that slap never landed on Ye Yinuo’s face.
A hand appeared out of nowhere, intercepting the descending one mid-air.
Shen Zhili had walked over at some point, firmly gripping the wrist of the girl with the permed curls, a smile on her face.
The smile was sweet, and paired with her bright yellow dress, she looked harmless.
“Fighting? So lively, why didn’t you invite me?”
All three girls froze.
They stiffly turned their heads and saw Shen Zhili, who had appeared beside them unnoticed.
Sunlight streamed in through the window behind her, making her seem to glow.
But in her beautiful eyes, there was a chilling coldness that made one’s heart tremble.
The moment the girl with the permed curls saw her face clearly, her pupils contracted sharply.
“Shen… Shen Zhili?”
Her voice trembled, and the wrist Shen Zhili held began to shake as well.
Who at Qinzhou Academy didn’t know Shen Zhili?
The eldest daughter of the Shen family, the cherished treasure of the school’s largest board member, even the principal had to politely step aside when he saw her.
What was worse, rumors said she held grudges fiercely, and her family protected her like their own eyes. Those who offended her ended up in terrible situations.
Last time, some clueless rich kid bumped into her car at the school gate and started cursing. The next day, that rich kid’s father was completely blacklisted by the Shen family, and his company declared bankruptcy within a week.
And…
The entire school knew that Xie Yuchi of the Xie family had been openly pursuing her.
Shen Zhili released the girl’s hand, brushing off nonexistent dust from her own.
“What, now that I’m here, you’re not continuing?”
The three girls exchanged panicked glances, their earlier arrogance vanishing instantly.
“Miss Shen, this… this is a misunderstanding. Do you know her?”
“Yes, yes, we were just joking with her. If we’d known you knew her, we wouldn’t have touched a hair on her head.”
“Ye Yinuo is fine, please don’t be angry.”
Shen Zhili smiled.
These people really knew how to change their tune.
But then again, before Shen Yinluo was utterly defeated by Jiang Xianzhuo, she too had thought she would live a life of privilege forever.
The identity of Miss Shen was indeed incredibly useful.
She ignored the few people who were frantically trying to explain themselves and instead walked over to Ye Yinuo. Reaching out, she used her fingertips to gently smooth the disheveled hair on Ye Yinuo’s forehead.
“Just a joke?”
“Then how about I make a joke too?”