When Xu Feng’s assistant had opened the surveillance footage earlier, the man had seen it too.
Unless one was blind, anyone could tell that it was this good brother’s sister who kept provoking that kid from the slums.
She had even stepped on him right in front of their classmates and humiliated him relentlessly.
Utterly a spoiled princess, lawless and unrestrained.
Chi Xiao couldn’t help but curl his lips. His good brother truly lived up to his reputation as a notorious sister-obsessed maniac. Without even waiting for his sister to speak, he had already sentenced the boy to death.
“No!” Xu Qiao tightened her grip on her phone and hurriedly spoke up to stop him. “Brother, that’s not what I meant. Don’t go talk to the principal.”
Xu Qiao wasn’t sure whether what she had heard from Cousin and Xitong was true or not.
If it was false, that would be for the best.
But if it was true, it would be safer to keep Pei Jinchuan and Cousin right under her watch.
“Brother, this morning’s incident was also because I wasn’t paying attention to the road, so…” Xu Qiao pursed her lips, making excuses, though deep down she didn’t feel she was in the wrong at all.
Halfway through her excuse, she remembered how Pei Jinchuan had stained the princess dress Xu Feng had bought for her, and anger flared up inside her again. Still, she changed the subject and cooed, “Brother, don’t do anything for now. Just help me look into this person. I just want to know his background.”
Hearing the first half of her words, Xu Feng was curious about how his little sister had suddenly learned to reflect on herself.
By the second half, he was already completely disoriented by Xu Qiao’s soft, sweet calls of “brother,” nodding repeatedly in agreement.
“Who would have thought that Chairman Xu, so decisive and unyielding in business, is secretly a sister-obsessed maniac?” Seeing Xu Feng hang up the phone, Chi Xiao raised an eyebrow teasingly.
The man standing before the floor-to-ceiling window still wore a doting smile in his eyes, as if bathed in sunlight. His tone was both proud and arrogant. “What can I do? I only have this one sister.”
“Wasn’t there another one in the surveillance footage earlier?” Chi Xiao retorted.
The scene of the little girl in the princess dress looking aggrieved as she questioned her cousin about why she had spoken up for that boy was still vivid in his mind.
Clearly, she was the one bullying others, yet she acted as if she were in the right. She was truly spoiled rotten.
But seeing his friend’s expression, Chi Xiao understood the reason.
“That one?” Hearing Chi Xiao mention Xu Rou, Xu Feng’s gaze turned sharp.
He, too, had recalled how in the surveillance footage, Xu Rou not only failed to defend Qiaoqiao but had even sided with that boy to blame her.
“Jiang Sui, assign someone to investigate the information the young lady wants. Also, tell Uncle Lin to suspend Xu Rou’s allowance for two months,” Xu Feng instructed calmly.
Jiang Sui, the assistant standing nearby, acknowledged the order and immediately went to arrange it, as if this were nothing out of the ordinary.
Chi Xiao, who had brought up the topic, couldn’t help but pause, a faint smile slowly curling his lips.
His friend truly was an utterly unreasonable sister-con.
After the afternoon classes ended, Xu Qiao waved goodbye to a few girls in her class she got along with fairly well and walked out of the school with Xu Rou, one after the other.
Xu Rou was the daughter of Xu Qiao’s second uncle. When they were ten years old, both of their parents died in a car accident.
Since then, Xu Feng had brought Xu Rou to Xu Jia Zhuangyuan to be Xu Qiao’s companion, so all these years, Xu Rou had lived with the Xu family.
Xu Rou was only a few months older than Xu Qiao. From elementary school to university, they had attended the same school and the same class.
They went to school and returned home together every day.
Upon reaching the Xu family's car, the driver stepped out to open the door for Xu Qiao. Suddenly, Xu Rou looked troubled and said, "Qiaoqiao, I just remembered I need to buy some study materials, so I won’t be going back with you."
At the same time, Xu Qiao heard the voice of Xitong: 【Host, Pei Jinchuan has already reached the entrance of the alley. The boys planning to bully him have followed him there.】
As Xu Rou finished speaking and prepared to leave, Xu Qiao grabbed her arm.
The girl’s delicate face showed curiosity, her curled and slightly upturned eyelashes like two tiny brushes, making one’s heart soften. "Cousin, what materials are you buying?"
In the past, if Xu Rou said she had something to do, Xu Qiao would simply turn and leave without looking back.
She wouldn’t care what materials Xu Rou needed to buy; she’d only be eager to return home and play games with Su Jiaojiao.
Buying materials was just an excuse Xu Rou had come up with on the spot. She never expected Xu Qiao to suddenly question her.
Under the girl’s clear and innocent gaze, Xu Rou couldn’t help but avert her eyes. "It’s… it’s the financial theory book Professor Zhang mentioned this morning…"
【Host, Pei Jinchuan has already been cornered. You’d better find an excuse to go over quickly, or it’ll be too late to play the 'hero saving the beauty.'】
The mechanical voice rang out again, and Xu Rou’s expression stiffened for a moment.
Just as she was about to find an excuse to brush Xu Qiao off, the arm held by the girl was suddenly released.
The girl in front of her wore a faint smile on her lips, her delicate and rosy features carrying just the right touch of charm. Her voice was soft and sweet. "Oh, I see. Then come back early tonight, Cousin."
With that, Xu Qiao turned and got into the car without looking back.
As the car door closed, Xu Rou even saw Xu Qiao obediently wave at her.
A strange feeling rose in Xu Rou’s heart—something felt off, but there was no time to dwell on it. As the car started, she turned and hurried toward the alley entrance Xitong had mentioned.
By the time Xu Rou arrived, Pei Jinchuan was already cornered against the wall by several boys wearing Luosi Xueyuan uniforms.
"Top student Pei, aren’t you usually so arrogant? Why are you silent now?"
"A filthy, stinking slum-dweller like you trying to seduce Miss Xu—are you blind?"
"Miss Xu didn’t make you pay for her clothes and shoes, but that doesn’t mean we’ll let it slide. Come on, let’s see how much money our top student Pei has earned from his part-time job at the internet café lately. Is it enough to pay for Miss Xu’s clothes and shoes?"
Four boys grabbed Pei Jinchuan’s legs and arms, while two others went straight for his uniform pockets.
Soon, one of them pulled out a crumpled stack of small bills and coins. The coins clattered to the ground with a sharp sound.
The group burst into laughter, doubling over in amusement.
The leader, wearing a cap, deliberately spread the money out and began counting. "Fifty, twenty, twenty, ten, ten, five, five…"
After counting for a while, one of the boys beside him grew confused and slapped his thigh, laughing. "Brother Yong, no need to count. This money won’t add up to a thousand. It can’t even buy one of Miss Xu’s shoelaces. How could our top student Pei possibly afford to pay for Miss Xu’s clothes and shoes?"
Hearing this, the other boys roared with laughter.
The boy in the cap also laughed, gathering the stack of bills together and using them like a fan to slap Pei Jinchuan’s face, lowering his voice in warning.
"Pei Jinchuan, the headmaster only let you lowlifes into the school for charity. Don’t think that just because you’ve entered Luosi Xueyuan, you’re on the same level as us. If I ever see you deliberately getting close to Miss Xu again, it won’t just be a beating!"
As he spoke, the boy in the cap tossed the coins in his hand. With a glance, another boy threw a punch, and soon blood trickled from the corner of Pei Jinchuan’s mouth.
"Miss Xu didn’t even hold it against me. Who do you think you are? Pathetic lapdogs?"
Pei Jinchuan had been punched several times, his face bruised and swollen, but his mouth refused to back down.
A mocking smile curled at the corner of his lips as he aimed at the boys’ weak spots. "You were all there this morning. Why didn’t you step up to help her then? Now you come here pretending to be heroes?"
A post he’d seen earlier on the school forum flashed through his mind, and Pei Jinchuan suddenly understood the intentions of these cowards.
"Oh, I forgot. You’re afraid that openly showing kindness to Xu Qiao will make you targets of Eldest Young Master Jiang, right?"
The boy, usually mild-mannered and obedient in school, now spoke with a venomous tone. "A bunch of spineless cowards. It seems you’re no different from a lowlife like me from the slums, huh?"
"Damn it!" The boy in the cap, stung by the remark, flared up with rage. "Beat him to death!"
The other boys, equally furious, swarmed forward, kicking and punching Pei Jinchuan.
"Stop!" Just then, a girl in a Luosi Xueyuan uniform rushed into the alley from the entrance.
Her face pale and trembling, she held a wooden stick she’d picked up from the ground. Despite her obvious fear, she stood firmly in front of Pei Jinchuan. "Assaulting a fellow student in private will get you demerits. Don’t you know the school rules?"
"Classmate, if you value your life, I suggest you leave now. Otherwise…" The boy in the cap, impatient, made a slashing motion across his throat.
Every word of the confrontation reached the ears of the few people hiding in the corner.
"Wow, Qiaoqiao, you’re amazing! It happened exactly as you said! But why did your cousin wait until Pei, the top student, was half-beaten to death before stepping in, even though she saw him being bullied earlier?"
Su Jiaojiao, brought along to watch the spectacle, was utterly confused by everything that had just unfolded.
Ever since receiving Xu Qiao’s strange phone call at noon, claiming she could hear someone’s inner thoughts, she’d felt something was off.
First, she was sent here in advance to wait, and sure enough, she witnessed the classic scene of bullies picking on a good student. Then came the "beauty saves the hero" act, and Qiaoqiao had even predicted exactly when her cousin would intervene.
Could it really be true, as Qiaoqiao said, that she could hear her cousin’s inner thoughts?
That’s so cool!
"Probably because salvation that appears in moments of despair feels more precious," Xu Qiao pursed her lips, a knowing smile spreading across her soft face.
Watching the confrontation ahead, she was now completely certain. The voices she’d been hearing since this morning weren’t hallucinations—it was all real.
Xitong had said that Pei Jinchuan would be cornered and bullied by male classmates who secretly admired her. So, long before school ended, she’d sent a few bodyguards with Jiaojiao to stake out the alley across from the school.
Everything that happened afterward matched exactly what the Xitong had said.
Even her cousin appeared when Pei Jinchuan was being beaten, completing the heroic rescue scenario where the beauty saves the hero.
So, this world truly was just a novel.
She was the wicked, foolish, and malicious female supporting character in the novel, destined for a tragic end, while her cousin was the female lead with a golden finger, possessing everything.
"Qiaoqiao, what are you planning to do next? Is it your turn to step in? Replace your cousin and become the beauty who saves the hero?"
Su Jiaojiao accepted the truth Xu Qiao revealed with friendly ease in just one second.
The facts were right in front of them.
Moreover, the woman in the alley confronting other boys to protect Pei Jinchuan was nothing like the timid, shrinking Xu Rou who used to cower in the Xu family.
Rather than believing that a person’s personality could change overnight, it was easier to believe that her shell had truly been replaced by a different soul!