Chapter 292: Ten Years Ago, Fu Zhi Was 7 Years Old
It had been raining lately in Yu City, and the air smelled like a licorice field.
Sheng Hua’s hopes had been crushed, and he felt as if his heart had stopped pumping for a second.
He took a deep breath and said, “Why don’t you stop studying and come back to take over the Physics a.s.sociation? I have contacted a few big companies on your behalf, and you can easily earn a few million every year. Besides, you should have become the chairperson of the a.s.sociation ten years ago...”
Both of them were so immersed in their conversation that they did not notice Lu Yubai and Zhou Zihuai.
Eventually, Lu Yubai could not hold himself back anymore and called out to Fu Zhi, licking his chapped lips. “Zhizhi!”
His voice was soft, as if it would dissipate into the wind the moment his words tumbled out of his mouth.
The two people on the other end of the walkway turned their heads in unison. When Sheng Hua saw Lu Yubai, he turned his body sideways and bobbed his head in greeting at him. As for Fu Zhi, she lifted her eyes slowly and looked at Lu Yubai.
Her irises were pitch black and as calm as two pools of icy water. She had always been very cold to the people around her, but when she saw Lu Yubai, the coldness in her eyes melted and a smile made the tips of her lips curl up.
“Nope. I’m not going back,” Fu Zhi replied as she got to her feet. After she waved her hand at Lu Yubai, she added, “My family is here.”
Sheng Hua was stunned, but he did not press the matter further. He pointed outside the school and said, “Give me a call if you need anything.”
Then, he left. When he pa.s.sed by Zhou Zihuai and Lu Yubai, he nodded at them. However, neither of them responded, as they were too shocked.
Sheng Hua left through a hidden walkway.
Fu Zhi checked on her Weibo for a while before turning to the duo. “So... Shall we go back together?”
She seemed pretty calm. Well, the ones that were not calm were Zhou Zihuai and Lu Yubai.
Lu Yubai pressed his lips firmly. Fu Zhi was still wearing the baseball cap he had given her. He looked at her for a long while, then let out a chuckle and said, “Before we leave, don’t you think you owe us an explanation, Zhizhi?”
Fu Zhi turned her body sideways to look at Lu Yubai and replied matter-of-factly, “What do you want me to explain?”
“The relationship between you and Sheng Hua and the Physics a.s.sociation?”
Lu Yubai did not know how to describe his feelings right now. However, Fu Zhi was still able to keep her calm. Since she had been caught red-handed by them, she reckoned that there was no need to hide anymore.
She said, “He’s a friend of mine. He got caught up in an accident once, and I became the chairperson of the Physics a.s.sociation for a few days.”
“So the friend that Sheng Hua was talking about the other day...” Zhou Zihuai chimed in, his voice wavering as if he still could not come back to his senses. “And the reason he takes care of your cousin... is all because of you and not Gu Yan?”
“Yeah.” Fu Zhi nodded.
As the three of them were heading back to their own cla.s.srooms, Lu Yubai was walking behind her. Suddenly, something popped up in his brain. Since there was still some distance left until his cla.s.sroom, he took a few quick steps over to Fu Zhi and grabbed her wrist.
Fu Zhi turned around and looked at him.
Lu Yubai felt like his throat was sore. This was still the early study session, and the sound of students reciting English literature echoed in the hallway. He remembered Sheng Hua mentioning something that had happened about ten years ago.
Thus, he raised his voice and asked, “The mysterious person that won the international Physics compet.i.tion with Sheng Hua... was you, right?”
Zhou Zihuai stopped in his tracks as he looked incredulously at Lu Yubai. Then, he heard Fu Zhi reply in a low voice, “Well, I did partic.i.p.ate once when I was a kid. We won in the end, but since the situation at the time was not as good as it is now and the compet.i.tion was held in another country, the prize they gave us was pretty low.”
Lu Yubai was so stunned that he did not know what to say.
Everyone who watched CCTV News and other news would know that the international Physics compet.i.tion was one of the main reasons that had resulted in Sheng Hua’s current achievements.
However, it was not the four senior members of the Physics a.s.sociation, including Sheng Hua, who had successfully gotten through the close siege of the Physics questions that Country M had hurled at them at the compet.i.tion.
In fact, they had been losing at the time.
Just as they had been on the verge of getting eliminated, a mysterious teammate had turned the tables and won the compet.i.tion for them in the end.
Sheng Hua rarely mentioned this teammate in public, but those who knew about the event back then knew that he respected that person a lot and her position in his heart was more than that of a teacher and a friend.
As for Gu Yan, the fact that she remained silent when people said that she was the “friend and teacher” Sheng Hua was referring to was because she yearned for popularity. She was merely standing on the shoulders of giants to gain the support of some people. In essence, she just wanted to take shortcuts and become famous. She never put any effort into her career at all.
Fu Zhi was 17 years old this year, so she had merely been 7 years old 10 years ago!
Lu Yubai did not dare imagine how many hot topics would appear on Weibo and what would happen when the netizens found out that the “friend and teacher” Sheng Hua kept talking about was Fu Zhi and not Gu Yan.
“Why don’t you tell everyone about that?” Zhou Zihuai asked. He felt disgusted when he thought about how Gu Yan had s.n.a.t.c.hed all this glory from Fu Zhi.
“I took part in the compet.i.tion because I wanted to win for our country so that in the future, the partic.i.p.ants that represented our country could have the same chance as other countries to compete on the international level without other people looking down on them,” Fu Zhi replied. “As for why I don’t want to tell anyone about that, it’s because I see no reason to do so. This is my personal business, and I don’t want to share it with other people. Besides, I don’t want others to tell me what to do with my life.”
*
Fu Zhi and Zhou Zihuai returned to their cla.s.s. Song Fang was still discussing the hot topic with some of their cla.s.smates.
Gu Yan had been taken away by the secretary of Jiang Zong, and most of the students in the cla.s.s were jealous of her.
After all, the Jiang Corporation owned by the Jiang Family was one of the few corporations that could compete with the Fu Corporation and the Li Corporation.
There were a lot of things going on with these elite families, but the father of Jiang Zong, who was also the president of the Jiang Corporation, would only bring Jiang Zong with him whenever he was attending a major event.
Jiang Zong was handsome, had a good background, and most importantly, was filthy rich. He had once been hailed as a prince that had come out of a fairy tale or a celestial being that had walked out of a painting by the media and press.
Previously, there had been rumors that the Jiang Family had always wanted to cooperate with Sheng Hua, but he had turned down their offer because he’d still lacked experience. Therefore, all of them suspected that maybe Jiang Zong had seen the hot topics on Weibo and looked for Gu Yan to give her some benefits.
When Zhou Zihuai heard their discussion, he sneered as he commented, “I’m afraid that she won’t be lucky enough to enjoy it.”
Zhou Zihuai had always been a gentle, refined young man. This was the first time he commented on a girl like this.
The cla.s.s went silent for a moment. Then, all of them understood that he was standing up for Fu Zhi when they recalled the relationship between Fu Zhi and Gu Yan.
But so what? There was nothing he could do if Sheng Hua took a liking to Gu Yan and not Fu Zhi.
Fu Zhi went back to her seat. She took a book out of her drawer and began reading it.
After a short while, Song Fang shouted, “Holy... Guys, all the hot topics are gone!”
In a moment, everyone turned and looked at him. Song Fang took off his earphones and got closer to Fu Zhi. Then, he opened a webpage, and said, “Have you heard about the friendly tournament that will be held before the international Physics compet.i.tion? Country R will partic.i.p.ate in the tournament this time, and they arrived today!”
In the video, the man being interviewed was the team leader. There was a stern expression on his face as he replied word by word, using the Chinese language, “China? Well, you guys were pretty strong ten years ago, but that’s already history. A success that was achieved through pure luck is nothing but a joke in front of absolute strength!”
Every netizen had been disgusted by Fu Zhi before the speech of the representative of Country R. However, after the speech of the partic.i.p.ant from Country R, things began to change.