The black Bentley glided smoothly along the road.
Inside the spacious car, the air conditioning was set at just the right temperature.
Shen Zhili leaned back in the soft leather seat, took out her phone, and opened the familiar green app.
She scrolled through her chat history with Jiang Xianzhuo, wanting to see what exactly had happened between them at this point in time.
But as soon as she swiped the screen upward, her fingers froze in place.
She was stuck.
The entire chat window was unnervingly clean.
Apart from the messages she had mistakenly sent last night after being reborn, the only things in their conversation were a single transaction record and a sentence colder than the air conditioning in the car:
“Is this enough to cover your clothes?”
Looking at this sentence, Shen Zhili’s pupils contracted.
She remembered now.
The only reason she had Jiang Xianzhuo’s contact information was because he had accidentally stained one of her jackets.
That day…
In the crowded school hallway, Jiang Xianzhuo had been deliberately bumped into by some student. Staggering, he collided with her, and the coffee he was holding spilled all over the sleeve of her pure white jacket.
She hadn’t really cared about the jacket.
But when she saw that the person who had bumped into her was Jiang Xianzhuo, an inexplicable rage instantly surged to the top of her head.
“Are you blind?”
Shen Zhili stared at the glaring coffee stain and added mockingly,
“Couldn’t you at least drink something decent? What is this, instant coffee?”
All eyes around them turned toward them.
With looks of amusement, disdain, and schadenfreude, the crowd encircled the two of them.
The young man being publicly humiliated by her gradually turned pale.
But he never bent his straight, proud spine.
Jiang Xianzhuo looked at her, his eyes as cold as ice.
“How much? I’ll pay for it.”
…
Logically speaking, in her social circle, even if a jacket was stained, no one would ever ask for compensation—all for the sake of so-called face and grace.
Doing so would seem… cheap.
But she had insisted that he pay.
Shen Zhili’s gaze lingered on the transaction record on her phone screen. The amount was five thousand yuan.
Her fingertips felt a little cold.
If she remembered correctly, that jacket was an early spring limited edition from a luxury brand, and its price was over ten times that amount.
But at that time, Jiang Xianzhuo…
An illegitimate child abandoned by the Jiang Family, relying on occasional living expenses from his cold-hearted father when he remembered him, could only scrape together five thousand yuan, even if it meant emptying his pockets.
And she had accepted it without a second thought.
Not only did she accept it, but the moment the transfer came through, she took off the jacket in front of everyone—and in front of him.
Then…
Holding it by the collar, she casually tossed it into the trash can at the end of the hallway.
As if throwing away actual garbage.
Thud.
Shen Zhili’s head fell back heavily against the soft seat.
“…I was such a bitch.”
She cursed under her breath.
Jiang Xianzhuo had meant no harm at all; it was just an ordinary accident in a crowded place.
But because of her extreme disgust toward the identity of an illegitimate child, she had turned an unintentional mistake into a scene of humiliation.
At that time, everyone present was watching the spectacle.
Watching how Jiang Xianzhuo, the poor and arrogant illegitimate child, had angered the noble young lady of the Shen Family.
Let’s see how arrogant, domineering, mean, and vicious Shen Zhili is.
One is an illegitimate child who cannot see the light of day, the other is a wealthy heiress surrounded by admirers.
The conflict between them inherently carries enough explosive potential to ignite public opinion.
She doesn’t even dare to imagine how Jiang Xianzhuo was mocked and humiliated by those who fawn on the powerful and bully the weak after that.
The more Shen Zhili thought about it, the more agitated she became, and a sense of helplessness washed over her.
She felt so down that she could cry even while watching a pornographic film.
She raised her hand and rubbed her temples hard, trying to calm herself down.
Shen Zhiyu, sitting beside her, watched as she stared blankly at her phone one moment, turned pale the next, and now began banging her head against the seat. Unconsciously, he shifted his butt closer to the car door.
His hand also quietly grabbed the inner handle of the door, assuming a ready position to open the door and jump out at any moment.
This woman is truly possessed today.
Who knows, she might go crazy the next second and throw him out of the car going sixty kilometers per hour.
Better to be prepared early.
Beside her, Shen Zhili closed her eyes.
Forget it.
What happened in the past has already happened. Dwelling on it now only adds to her frustration and serves no purpose.
What matters is what to do next.
She must find a way to fix the messes she created with her own hands, one by one.
At the very least, she cannot let Jiang Xianzhuo continue to hate her.
Thinking of this, Shen Zhili turned on her screen again, opened the transfer record, tapped a few times on the screen, and prepared to refund the money.
But halfway through, she stopped again.
No.
Given her previous attitude of looking down on everyone, suddenly refunding the money now would only make Jiang Xianzhuo think she was pitying him.
Or that she was playing some new trick to humiliate him.
Returning this money would not only fail to improve their relationship but would instead make him more wary and disgusted.
Shen Zhili bit her lower lip, silently locked her phone screen, and tossed it aside.
She needed to find another way.
A way that was less abrupt and less like a provocation.
Just as she was thinking this, the car stopped at the school gate.
The driver turned around and respectfully said:
“Young Miss, we’ve arrived.”
…
Shen Zhili got out of the car.
Wearing high heels, she put on a face that said “mess with me and you die,” walking straight into the school without looking around.
Behind her followed a wary Shen Zhiyu.
Holding his small backpack, he deliberately maintained a safe distance of three steps away from her.
Just as they reached the square in front of the teaching building, they heard a burst of laughter ahead.
“Hey, Young Master Jiang, what happened? How did your clothes get so dirty?”
“Look at all this dust on you, covered in dirt. Could it be that you went to work at a construction site?”
“Hahahaha, I’m dying of laughter. An illegitimate child is just an illegitimate child—everything about them reeks of poverty, and it can’t even be washed away.”
Shen Zhili paused in her steps.
She looked in the direction of the noisy commotion.
In the center of the square, several boys wearing designer clothes with slicked-back hair were surrounding someone.
That person had his back to her, with a slender figure, a bit of dust on the shoulders of his school uniform, and slightly curly black hair that shimmered in the morning light.
It was clear that he had just washed his hair and hadn’t had time to dry it.
Even without seeing his face, even with just an ordinary back view… Shen Zhili could recognize him.
Those slender yet resilient shoulders had embraced her for so many years.
It was Jiang Xianzhuo.