He finally responds, and Xiaonan is relieved. “I haven"t completed registering yet, so I don"t know which cla.s.s I"m supposed to be in. All I know is that I"m in the second year. Shouldn"t I be a grade over you?”“So you"re an year older than me, I thought you"d be younger!” She cheerfully smiles at him before the car comes to a halt. She, then, looks around and realizes they"re about twenty meters from the drop-off. Why did they stop before reaching the Stein gates?
“What"s going on, uncle?” Meng Xiaonan asks the driver.
The driver turns and says, “There seems to be a crowd in front of the gate, miss. Would it be okay to drop you off here?”
“A crowd?” Meng Xiaonan curiously stands up and peers through the window. Sure enough, a sea of people, mostly girls, with varying lengths of shortened skirts leap. Don"t these people know this is Stein College and not a discount store?
I don"t know what"s going on, but let"s go, Dongyu!” She tugs him out of the car through his bag.
This may be the first time he"s come to the school as a student, but he can"t count the numerous times he"d been on this campus to steal a glance at his father when he picked up Han Qilu.
“Hey!” Meng Xiaonan reaches out to him and asks him with a smile. “What are you doing? Are you stupefied at the [campus"] beauty?”
“No.” Dongyu shakes his head and looks at the crowd. “What are they doing?”
“I don"t know.” She suddenly grabs his hand and says, “Let"s squeeze in and see… .”
Dongyu doesn"t have time to refuse, and is lead into the crowd.
“Excuse me, thank you!” Meng Xiaonan squeezes herself through the crowd without hesitation. It"s then she realizes that she has lost Liu Dongyu when his hand is suddenly absent from hers.
He can manage himself. He won"t get lost anyway.
There"s a commotion going on, but when she scans the scene, all she sees is a black car. Albeit it"s an expensive car, people from this school don"t have a shortage in seeing luxury vehicles. Why are they staring at it?
“Hey, what are you looking at? Who"s in the car?” She asks one of the girls in the crowd.
The girl was chatting with her friends, and couldn"t be bothered until she realizes who she is: Meng Xiaonan, Xiao Mingluo"s girlfriend. Her disposition suddenly changes.
“It"s Han Qilu. We can tell by the car plates,” she truthfully answers.
Flabbergasted, she stammers, “G.o.d… you… .” These girls are too much for recognizing a car just by its plates!
She looks at her watch and says, “So, what are you doing here? Hasn"t the young master come out yet? There"s ten minutes till the school bell rings.”
The girl grins at Xiaonan"s statement. Her friend chimes in. “We haven"t seen the young master in so long, being late for cla.s.s because of him won"t be a loss.”
They consider this a good loss? Won"t they have enough opportunities to see Han Qilu now that he"s back in cla.s.s? Should his appearance make such a scene?
Meng Xiaonan is about to leave when she realizes that if Han Qilu is in the car, An Chuxia should be in the car, too! She wanted to knock on her window, but she knows she wants to live to see the morrow. She doesn"t want to die an instant death in Qilu"s hands.
She just has to wait for them to exit.
One of the door cracks open, and a girl suddenly starts screeching.
“Young master Han Qilu, we love you!”
“I will die for you, young master Han!”
“Welcome back, young master Qilu!”
“G.o.d, young master Han, you are getting more and more handsome!”
.
A variety of flower idiots scream, and all she can do is cover her ears and hide from the crowd so he won"t be able to see her. If Han Qilu wants to be vengeful, he"d be able to pluck her from the ground and make her lose face!
As Han Qilu emerges, so does the steward. He apologizes to Qilu and says. “I am sorry you had to wait so long. Please go ahead.”
“Yeah.” His tone to the butler may be warm, but his expression as he marches toward the gate is frosty. People dare not approach him.
Meng Xiaonan looks toward the direction Qilu moves to. Who provoked his ancestors? The crowd waiting for him follows, and moments later, only a few people linger.
She was about to leave when she suddenly sees Liu Dongyu not too far away. “Hey, where did you go? Why did you let go of my hand?”
“No reason.” Dongyu shakes his head before walking toward steward Han.
Steward Han was conversing with Chuxia as he opens the door for her. She emerges with both her tea eggs and Han Qilu"s.
“An Chuxia laoda!” Meng Xiaonan stretches her hand and waves to Chuxia. She and Dongyu run up to her.
“Were you deliberately waiting for me at the entrance?” She asks, squinting.
“Isn"t it my job to wait for you by the entrance on your first day back to cla.s.s?” Xiaonan says with a sigh of relief. She gives her a high five before saying, “Welcome back, boss!”
“Silly… .” An Chuxia helplessly shakes her head.
Xiaonan"s days without An Chuxia are extremely boring. She didn"t do anything unless she was heading to cla.s.s. There are days all she does is hang out with Mingluo, or sleep, or play on her mobile phone. And the days she hang out with Mingluo, he ends up going from cla.s.s to work, and the more he becomes diligent with his work, the less time he spends with her.
“Miss, head to cla.s.s with Miss Jiangnan. I"ll accompany Dongyu to the office.” Steward Han bows with respect before following Dongyu.
“Okay. I know you"re busy.” An Chuxia nods before heading into the school with Xiaonan.
Meng Xiaonan notices the two bags of tea eggs An Chuxia is lugging around. She grabs a bag and says, “Thank you for remembering to bring me breakfast!”
“This is Qilu"s," Chuxia says, and she s.n.a.t.c.hes the eggs back. “I have to let him eat this.”
Meng Xiaonan knew the eggs weren"t for her, but she can"t help but tease. “What, boss, do I have to be a boy for you to give me a gift? I am better than any boy.”
Oh, speaking of the devil, Mo Xinwei awaits them as they turn the corner. The moment Xinwei sees An Chuxia, she approaches her with her big eyes.
“Are you returning to cla.s.s today? Did you come to school in the same car with Master Han?”
“What, are you upset? Haven"t you had your fill [being the school beauty]?” Meng Xiaonan asks.
An Chuxia looks at the big tower clock and reminds them, “Four minutes are left before cla.s.s starts. Shouldn"t you be running to cla.s.s so you won"t be late?”
“Shut it. I came running to you. I won"t run through the halls like an idiot,” Mo Xinwei says with disdain.
An Chuxia and Meng Xiaonan ignore Xinwei and run toward the lecture hall.
Surprised, Mo Xinwei"s eyes jump as she shouts after them, “You"re really running? Wait for me!” She runs after them despite wearing heels.
They reach the cla.s.sroom in time for the school bell to ring. Since they left her seat unoccupied, she slides in with relief. She places the eggs on her desk.
The physics teacher walks into the cla.s.s and doesn"t seem surprised to see An Chuxia in attendance. She a.s.sumes the Hans have told them of her return. After announcing himself, he says, “Let"s welcome An Chuxia back to our cla.s.s!”
Her reception is unprecedentedly warm.
“Thank you… .” Her voice is drowned by the applause.
“Okay, that"s good!” The teacher bellows. After a few more minutes, the applause continues. The teacher says in amus.e.m.e.nt, “Because of you, An Chuxa, your cla.s.s ranked high. When you left, your cla.s.s ranking dropped. Now that you"re back, I hope you can catch up by reading the books. Don"t hesitate to visit me if you have any questions.”
An Chuxia nods. “I will. Thank you, teacher.”
“Okay, let"s start today"s lesson. Yesterday, we talked about strength. Now, we"re going to a.n.a.lyze force. Mechanics… .”
The physics teacher pa.s.sionately talks abouts the lesson, and all Meng Xiaonan feels is the force of her eyelids closing. At first, she thought she could catch up being slightly behind. Now, the lessons are just incomprehensible. The blackboard blurs as her eyes rest on An Chuxia"s shoulders. Then, she surrenders to unconsciousness.