Chapter 88: Don’t Bully Her Because She’s A Girl
The moment his voice subsided, a strong voice came from behind.
“You little brat, don’t you know that it’s manners to visit your elders when you come back?”
Lu Huaiyu spun around.
“Grandfather, Uncle Yan said you’ve been bedridden for a few days now. It’s late, so why are you still up?”
Lu Qishan’s heart skipped a beat. He almost forgot that he was ‘unwell’. He curled his fist in front of his mouth and coughed. “Yeah, I’m unwell, but I can’t sleep either.”
As Lu Huaiyu stared at the man, Lu Qishan looked away out of guilt.
“Uh, Old Master feels better already.” Fang Qingyun quickly came in and eased the awkward situation. “He’s happy now that you are back, Second Master. When he’s happy, his body also feels better!”
“Yeah, yeah! That’s it!” Lu Qishan nodded repeatedly.
Lu Huaiyu grinned softly. “If that’s the case, why don’t we call Brother back? I believe that you will feel a lot better with the both of us here.”
Lu Qishan grunted. “Don’t even mention that kid! It’s even more difficult to contact him than calling you back.”
“I supposed it’s because you forced him into a blind date and urged him to get married the other time.”
Back then, Lu Huaiyu had still been in Yunzhou, and he heard that his brother had fled the house at night due to an important mission. He had not been back since then.
“He isn’t young anymore!” Lu Qishan was exasperated at his elder grandson.
While both his grandsons were outstanding, they had never been in a relations.h.i.+p even until now.
“Don’t end up like your brother! The longer you stay single, the harder it will be for you to get married!”
Lu Huaiyu smiled. “You don’t need to worry about that. I’m not like my brother.”
“You’d better not be.” Lu Qishan looked at him with a suspicious gaze. “I heard that the girl from the Xu family went to Yunzhou just for you, but you didn’t treat her well.”
When his grandfather mentioned Xu Yini, Lu Huaiyu responded thinly, “She went there for Old Master Cheng’s birthday dinner, not for me.”
Lu Qishan almost had a heart attack when he heard that. Anyone who was not blind could tell that Xu Yini had gone to Yunzhou for him.
She had liked Lu Huaiyu for many years, and it was no longer a secret, but Lu Huaiyu kept his distance from her. In fact, besides Xu Yini, Lu Huaiyu never really paid attention to any girls around him for the past few years.
Lu Qishan sat down on the couch. “Yini is a good girl. She practically grew up with you, and you are telling me you don’t like her?”
Lu Huaiyu tilted his head and said in an indifferent and lazy tone, “There are many girls out there who like me. Am I supposed to like all of them?”
Silenced, Lu Qishan carefully sized up his grandson and noticed that Lu Huaiyu’s condition was a lot better than before. “You’ve been in Yunzhou for quite some time now. When are you planning to come back?”
Lu Huaiyu poured himself a cup of tea.
“I’m not planning to come back in the foreseeable future.”
His succinct answer reminded Lu Qishan of something.
“You said you were there as a study companion. Is that it? Is that what’s keeping you there?”
Lu Huaiyu simply grunted as an agreement.
Lu Qishan sat up straight. “I heard that girl is only 17, a third-year high-schooler, and she’s living with the Ye family. You basically have nothing to do with her…”
Lu Huaiyu was not surprised that his grandfather knew about Ning Li, but it was not a problem for him because he would have to tell his family sooner or later.
When Lu Qishan recalled what Gu Tinglan had told him over the phone, he forcefully swallowed his words back down his throat.
Some careful thought later, the man said, “Fine. You can be in Yunzhou, but on one condition: you mustn’t bully her because she’s a girl.”
He had heard of Ning Li’s background and felt sorry for the girl. He was fine if Lu Huaiyu wanted to offer a helping hand, but he was just worried that his grandson would fall too deep for this girl.
Lu Huaiyu smiled. “You are thinking too much.”
He thought of the brief messages she had sent him earlier. He was not sure whether he was bullying her, or if it was the other way around.
…
In the evening compet.i.tive Physics cla.s.s, Zhou Fei had not joined the cla.s.s yet, but the cla.s.s was rather lively tonight.
“I heard that the results for the mini-test are out! I wonder how much my score is. I’m already sad just thinking about it.”
“The ranking this time is important. If you can’t get a satisfactory result, you might be told to leave the compet.i.tive cla.s.s.”
“It’s normal, isn’t it? It happens every year, and there’s more than one school partic.i.p.ating in the compet.i.tion. If we can’t get a good ranking, we won’t be able to do well in the finals.”
“Sigh. I’ve actually thought about it. I’m not suitable for competing, so I’m leaving after this cla.s.s.”
The person who wanted to leave was a tall boy, and his confession attracted the attention of the majority of the cla.s.s.
“Really?”
The boy nodded and shrugged. “I’m no match for the geniuses. It can’t be helped. If I go back to prepare for the entrance exam, I think I can still make it.”
His words silenced a few of his friends.
Everyone in the compet.i.tive Physics cla.s.s was smart in their own way, and they had their own ego and pride.
However, the compet.i.tion was cruel. There was always someone better than you no matter how hard you worked and it was difficult to catch up.
Everyone knew it deep down, but when it boiled down to logical thinking, throwing in the towel was not easy to do.
Ye Ci was not part of the conversation, but she heard all of it. She frowned and looked at Ning Li uncontrollably. Beside Ning Li was Pei Song.
The two of them obviously did not share the same worries as the others, so there was no need for them to join or listen to the conversation.
Zhou Fei then came in with the papers and the cla.s.s quietened down.
Everyone looked at him, anxiously waiting for him to announce the results.
He scanned the cla.s.s quickly and said, “There are 32 of you in this cla.s.s, and 11 of you either scored 100 or borderline pa.s.sed.”
The cla.s.s was so quiet that they could hear a pin drop.
Zhou Fei had prepared the paper himself, and he purposely added questions with high marks at the end. Those who left those questions empty would never get high scores.
After the mini-test, the cla.s.s already knew that the result would be terrible, but it seemed like it was worse than expected.
There were two stacks of papers in Zhou Fei’s hands.
“The left stack belongs to those who have pa.s.sed; the right stack belongs to those who have failed. When I call your name, come up and take your paper.”
He took the first paper.
“Liu Weiwei: failed.”
The tall and slim boy walked over. He sighed when he took the paper, but maybe because he had thought this through, he accepted it with an open heart.
“Zhang Lin: failed.”
A short-haired girl walked over and teared up when she saw her paper. She returned to her seat quietly.
Zhou Fei did not read their scores out loud, but according to the sequence, they practically knew their ranking in the cla.s.s. That was more than enough for the students.
He continued calling out names and giving out papers.
Those who got their papers had a complicated look on their faces whereas those who were yet to be called prayed as hard as they could, hoping that their names would be called later than sooner.
“Ye Ci.”
Ye Ci’s heart skipped a beat.
Zhou Fei then took the first paper from the left stack after he had finished distributing the right stack. Her name was the first he called.
“61.”