After saying this, Shen Zhili suddenly raised her foot and kicked the girl with the small, permed curls in the back of her knee.
The girl let out a sharp cry and fell directly to her knees on the floor.
“Miss Shen!”
“You… what are you doing…”
Shen Zhili looked down at the kneeling girl.
“Just joking. What, you also know it’s not funny?”
The other two girls were already petrified, standing frozen in place, not daring to even breathe loudly.
Shen Zhili elegantly straightened her skirt.
“Get lost.”
Her voice returned to its usual flat tone.
“If I see you pulling this kind of stunt in the girls’ bathroom again, it won’t be as simple as just kneeling.”
Hearing this, the girls exchanged glances and immediately sprinted out of the bathroom as if running an 800-meter dash.
The entire restroom instantly fell silent, leaving only the sound of dripping water from the faucet.
Ye Yinuo was still leaning against the wall, watching Shen Zhili with a calm yet guarded expression in her eyes.
Shen Zhili turned around and met those icy eyes.
“No need to thank me. I just can’t stand people who bully others with their power.”
Ye Yinuo: “…?”
A huge question mark popped into her mind.
At Qinzhou Academy… wasn’t Shen Zhili herself the very embodiment of the phrase “bullying others with power”?
Although she thought this, the other party had, after all, helped her.
So, after a few seconds of silence, Ye Yinuo spoke up: “Thank you.”
Her tone was noticeably awkward, but she still said it.
Shen Zhili raised an eyebrow.
This girl gave her a feeling somewhat similar to… Jiang Xianzhuo.
Especially a certain part of her personality—it was practically carved from the same mold.
She sized up Ye Yinuo a few more times and suddenly remembered something.
“Are you in the same class as Jiang Xianzhuo?”
Hearing this name, Ye Yinuo was momentarily stunned, clearly not expecting Shen Zhili to bring it up.
After a brief hesitation, she nodded.
“Yes.”
Shen Zhili smiled again.
This smile was completely different from the previous one, carrying a touch of genuine warmth.
“That’s great. From now on, we’re friends.”
…
Shen Zhili forced Ye Yinuo to exchange Green Bubble contacts with her, then happily strolled back to the classroom in high spirits.
As soon as she reached the doorway, she noticed a crowd gathered inside.
Her steps halted, and her gaze pierced through the crowd, immediately landing on the gentle figure in a white shirt.
Xie Yuchi.
He was leaning against her desk, his slender fingers idly twirling a pen. The lines of his profile appeared especially sharp in the morning light, and there was a hint of perfectly measured gentleness in his eyes.
Shen Zhili was speechless.
Why was this guy so persistent?
Hadn’t she made herself perfectly clear to him?
Could it be… because Shen Yinluo agreed to the dinner on Saturday, making him feel hopeful again?
As she was pondering this, Xie Yuchi seemed to sense something.
He turned his head, and his gaze met Shen Zhili’s directly.
The smile at the corner of Xie Yuchi’s lips suddenly deepened.
A circle of girls surrounded him, chattering excitedly, their voices filled with flattery and excitement.
“Senior Xie, are you here to see Zhili again?”
One girl’s tone was tinged with envy.
“Senior, you’re so good to Zhili…”
Another girl chimed in.
“Sister Zhili is so lucky to have such a handsome senior pursuing her.”
“…”
Shen Zhili stood at the doorway, listening to those who usually never spoke a word to her now calling her “Zhili” with every breath.
Xie Yuchi smiled faintly but didn’t respond, simply continuing to twirl the pen in his hand.
His light brown eyes never strayed from Shen Zhili’s direction.
Seeing this, Shen Zhili decided not to linger any longer and pushed her way through the crowd.
“Move aside.”
Her voice wasn’t loud, but it successfully silenced everyone.
Xie Yuchi spoke to her gently, “Zhili, you’re here.”
Shen Zhili didn’t reply.
She walked to her seat and looked at the person occupying it.
“Get up.”
Xie Yuchi raised an eyebrow and stood up.
He didn’t leave immediately but remained nearby, his gaze following her movements.
“Have you been going to school with your brother lately?”
“Yes,” Shen Zhili plopped down into her seat and placed her bag on the desk, “so you’d better stop bothering to come pick me up at home.”
Xie Yuchi’s smile faded slightly.
“Our families are having dinner together this Saturday. Did Uncle Shen mention it to you?”
“Are you my dad’s parrot?”
The impatience in her tone was especially sharp in the quiet classroom.
“…”
The girls around them began whispering.
“Why is Shen Zhili so cold…”
“Yeah, Senior Xie is being so proactive.”
Another girl chimed in, her tone tinged with dissatisfaction.
“If it were me, I wouldn’t have the heart to stay angry just looking at Senior Xie’s face…”
Xie Yuchi ignored the whispers, still smiling. “Shall I pick you up on Saturday?”
“No need. I have a car, and it’s more expensive than yours.”
“…”
His smile stiffened again.
The atmosphere suddenly grew awkward.
The girls around them exchanged glances, clearly not expecting Shen Zhili to be so unsparing.
Xie Yuchi fell silent for a moment before finally smiling again and reaching out to touch Shen Zhili’s hair.
“Zhili, you…”
Shen Zhili tilted her head, avoiding his hand.
She glanced down at her wristwatch. “Class is about to start. Aren’t you going back?”
The implication was clear.
Xie Yuchi’s outstretched hand froze mid-air.
Slowly, he lowered it.
He looked deeply at Shen Zhili, emotions seeming to stir in his light brown eyes before he forcefully suppressed them.
“Then I’ll leave first. I’ll come find you later.”
With that, Xie Yuchi turned and left the classroom.
His back remained straight, but his steps were more hurried than when he arrived, betraying a hint of restlessness.
Once Xie Yuchi was gone, the crowd gathered in the classroom slowly dispersed.
However, as the girls returned to their seats, their whispers gradually drifted out.
Like boiling water, bubbling and simmering.
“How infuriating. How could she treat Senior Xie like that?”
“Exactly. Senior Xie’s family background isn’t worse than hers, and he’s so good to her, yet she doesn’t appreciate it at all.”
“Is she sick or something? Putting on such airs.”
“She’s so pretentious. Who does she think she’ll find better than Xie Yuchi?”
“…”
Their voices were hushed, clearly afraid Shen Zhili might hear.
But in the quiet classroom, the murmurs could still be faintly heard.
Shen Zhili expressionlessly pulled out her phone, unwilling to bother with the thinly veiled sour remarks.
She had heard these words too many times.
It was the same in her previous life.
The girls in her class would flatter her to her face, saying all sorts of nice things, but behind her back, they couldn’t wait to trample her into the mud.
On top of that, she never bothered to maintain those fake social connections, so in the entire class, apart from Qiao Yi, Shen Zhili had no one she could really talk to.
It wasn’t that she didn’t have friends of similar status—it was just that they weren’t in the same grade; most were sophomores or juniors.
Shen Zhili was incredibly lazy and never took the initiative to message anyone. At most, she’d like a friend’s post on social media or reconnect with them during gatherings.
Over time, there was less and less to talk about.
Thinking about it this way… she and Jiang Xianzhuo weren’t all that different.
The only difference was that he was bullied to his face, while she was bullied behind her back.