Chapter 19 - Can I Join You?

S International High School is the most prestigious school in the S city. In this school, many students from ordinary to strong backgrounds gathered. Although this school looked like a school for rich kids, it supported many scholarship programs that helped those from a common and less fortunate background enroll.

Li family wasn't that wealthy or powerful, but it had a notable reputation and fame in high-class society, considering it was a family of doctors with a long history. It might not be as powerful as the Meng family, who owned several chains of drugstores and operated in the pharmaceutical field, but the Li had a lot of connections that existed thanks to the family's influence and contribution throughout generations.

Li Jirong is very proud of the Li family's reputation, so much that he couldn't stand his kids having any thought of trying anything besides the road that he had decided. His ambition to take the family to another level of prestige, accompanied by his patriarchal nature, led the family down this road.

Li Caiyi scribbled on her book as she pondered what she should do after this.

She had written a few points that more or less contributed to her previous messy and irreparable life. The first problem on the list was her father.

The older you are, the more stubborn you become. These words can't be more accurate. When she realized everything had taken a turn into worse in her previous life, it was already too late to fix anything. She could only follow the flow and let Li Jirong decide everything for her. And that was her first mistake.

Thinking back, Li Caiyi felt she got the worst luck and talent out of the three siblings. It was somehow unfair.

She massaged her temple with a scrunched expression. The class has gone on for some time, but she can't focus at all. She put down her pen, feeling dizzy and bored. Then she looked outside the window. She sighed when she looked up at how blue the sky was.

'It was the same color as back then. I wonder where Shen Qiang is now?'

She missed him so much. The short time she spent with Shen Qiang was the happiest time in her life. Even when she closed her eyes, she still could vividly recall the warm and secure arms that embraced her. When she was beside him, she could genuinely become herself without restraint.

Li Caiyi wanted to meet him so bad. She clearly remembered everything that happened, but Shen Qiang wouldn't know her in this timeline.

Shen Qiang said he regretted not bringing his beloved woman to go with him; wouldn't that mean that they were together at some point? Was he with that woman right now, blissfully happy with no idea what would happen in the future?

Li Caiyi clenched her hand in a fist. Just imagining Shen Qiang walking happily with another woman with no memory of her was unbearable. She came back from death, but the man who promised to accompany her wasn't there anymore.

Li Caiyi felt God was being too much with her. It would be better if they let her be reborn in another life rather than re-doing her life all over again.

Li Caiyi was too numb to do anything at this point. She even thought that perhaps she should just let nature take its course, so at the end of her life, she could meet Shen Qiang again.

Of course, Li Caiyi knew she was just trying to run away again, just like last time. In the end, even if her body reverted, she was still the same Li Caiyi inside. That dull, gloomy, and stupid woman she hated the most.

The sound of the bell abruptly cut her line of thought. Li Caiyi glanced at her watch and found out it was already lunchtime. Everyone in her class dispersed the moment the teacher left, but Li Caiyi stayed in her spot and quietly pulled out her lunch box from her bag.

S International High School has a fancy cafeteria on the first floor, in which you can use points to trade for meals. The system was simple. You could collect points from the test or exercise you take in school, and sometimes the teacher would give you a bonus if you helped with stuff. The more you did well in your test, the more points you will get. The points were exclusive and could only be used within the school.

Of course, you can use your own money to purchase meals there, but most of the menus were simply too expensive for some kids, so the cafeteria was usually the gathering place for those who were bright or rich.

Li Caiyi didn't belong in any of those categories, but she could eat peacefully in the cafeteria thanks to Li Chunhua, Li Junjie, or Meng Renshu, who gave her their points. They wouldn't allow her to use her money at all.

She recalled how she refused to accept Meng Renshu's point once, and her action garnered hate from Meng Renshu's fans.

"What are you putting a noble and pure image for? You have been leeching on your siblings and our prince all this time. What difference would it make if you stop taking their charity now? What a pretentious girl."

Or so they said back then.

It was never her intention to make them 'pay' for her, but faced with heavy criticism, she couldn't talk back at all. Li Chunhua scolded those who spoke badly about her, but the hate grew even worse after that.

Li Jirong and almost everyone in school thought of her as a useless person who couldn't do anything without her siblings back then.

Li Caiyi chewed on her bread. She looked around and noticed some students stayed behind and ate together in small groups. These kids were probably the same as her, the students who didn't belong in any category.

However, even among those people, Li Caiyi was still alone.

They looked so happy eating while chatting with their friends. Li Caiyi was always with Li Chunhua, so she seldom talked with other kids.

If not for Shen Qiang, she might have ended her life alone in her previous life. She could imagine that nobody would notice that she was gone until her corpse became rotten, and no friends would come to her funeral to cry for her. It was simply because she didn't have anyone besides her family at all.

She looked down in a daze, and her situation now overlapped with the time when she was left alone in her wedding house after Meng Shuchun made her sign the divorce agreement. Alone and lonely.

Li Caiyi bit her bread a little too harshly when she thought of that time. She was unwilling to suffer the same fate again.

She never wanted to experience that same feeling again in this life!

Li Caiyi got up from her seat, and with her lunch box in her hand, she nervously approached a group of girls sitting on the corner with a smile.

"Hello, can I join you?"