Chapter 88 - Being Fought Over

"What did you say? You are so rude!" Li Chunhua exclaimed with anger on her face.

"Says the girl who picked a fight first," Shao Jingfei replied casually.

"We are sisters, so I have the right to take her away! Who are you anyway? Don't be a busybody and mind your own business!"

"But she made an appointment with me first. Even elementary school kids know it's not right to cut the line."

They bickered with each other, and Li Caiyi, who was stuck between them, could not take it anymore. 

"Guys, please stop it! Don't make a scene here. You are going to bother the others." Li Caiyi said while casting an apologetic look at students around them. 

"Xiaoyi, of course, you want to eat with me, right?" Li Chunhua pulled her by her left arm.

"No, you like talking with me more, right?" Shao Jingfei also pulled her by her other arm while flashing a charming smile. 

Li Chunhua glared at him. "What are you doing? Where do you think you are touching her?!" 

"You are such a pain in the ass. I'm holding her sleeve, duh." Shao Jingfei rolled his eyes, making Li Chunhua look even more furious. Li Caiyi could not stop them while they were going at each other fiercely. 

Was this how it felt to be fought over? She should say it didn't feel good at all.

Looking at the chaotic scene, Li Junjie sighed. "How long are you going to keep me waiting? Are you guys coming or not?"

"Brother! Help me take Xiaoyi away from this guy!" Li Chunhua pleaded to her brother, but the latter only looked at them indifferently.

"Why don't you guys just eat together, then? This is stupid."

"With this guy? Hmph, no way!" Li Chunhua snorted. She seemed genuinely pissed off and not putting on any act now. Li Caiyi had a possessive sister on her left side and a mischievous friend on her other side. Both of them were troublesome.

Meanwhile, Meng Renshu was surprised at first when he saw Li Caiyi in the cafeteria during lunchtime. It had been a while since she came here, and based on his last conversation with Su Suyin, he wondered if she came here to talk with him. It was not until he saw a boy sitting across from her that his anticipation dissipated.

Looking at them, they looked pretty close. Meng Renshu wanted to know what they were talking about. While he was hesitating to come over or not, Li Chunhua had beaten him to it.

Their rowdy exchange had garnered the other students' attention, and Meng Renshu gave embarrassed and apologetic smiles to those who felt disturbed by his childhood friends' antics.

Li Caiyi's eyes were spinning, being pulled and tossed around like this. She forcefully retracted her hand from both of their grips. "STOP IT!"

Everyone's movement froze after the sudden rise in her voice. Li Caiyi took a deep breath as she stood up while fixing her messy uniform. "Xiaohua, stop trying to pick a fight with him. And you too, Shao Jingfei, stop playing around!" She scolded them angrily. 

Li Chunhua was shocked at being told off in public by her sister, while Shao Jingfei broke out in laughter. "Haha, so you have found out?"

"Seriously, what are you doing? We have finished our talk, so why are you holding me back?" Li Caiyi complained at him. 

"No reason. You looked like you didn't want to go with them, so I was just trying to help."

His straightforward reply startled Li Caiyi. Li Chunhua and Meng Renshu studied Li Caiyi's reaction, and when they saw how flustered she was, their faces became gloomier. 

"But then again, it's none of my business. I guess I'm doing something unnecessary, sorry about that." 

"N-no, you're not wrong." Li Caiyi said in a low voice.

"Well, I gotta go now. I will wait for good news from you. See you later." Shao Jingfei waved his hand and walked away, just like that. Li Caiyi looked at his retreating back with a conflicted emotion before shifting her gaze to Li Chunhua.

"Where's your table? Let's sit down first."

"Huh? You are coming with us?" Li Chunhua was taken aback by her question. She thought Li Caiyi was angry and did not want to go with them? 

Li Caiyi looked at her strangely. Then, with a hint of impatience underneath her tone, she said, "Ah? You kept making a fuss about it, and you don't want me to come now?"

Meng Renshu sensed the flying spark between the girls and quickly intervened. "The table is over there. Let's go."

They went to the table in the corner and sat together. Li Caiyi did not have any appetite sitting with them, so she decided to cut into the chase and finished her business quickly.

"You can eat as you hear me out. I want to talk with you, Brother Renshu."

"Ah? With me?" Meng Renshu was surprised, but the corner of his lips soon curved up. So she did come here to talk with him. He strangely felt elated when he thought about it that way. "Sure. What do you want to talk about?"

"I want Xiaohua to take my place as your partner for your coming-of-age party."

Silence fell after she said that. Meng Renshu blinked his eyes a few times in disbelief before his facial feature hardened. "What do you mean?"

"It's exactly as you heard it. Mother and I thought Xiaohua suited you more than me, so we agreed to let her take my place."

Li Chunhua, who heard about this for the first time, stared at Li Caiyi in confusion. "Xiaoyi, are you still saying that? How many times do I have to tell you before you understand?"

"This is not my decision, but Mother's. I only did what I was told to do."

Meng Renshu could not believe this. Wasn't the talk he had with Su Suyin was to convince Li Caiyi to make time to choose her dress with him? Why did it escalate into this situation? 

However, what made Meng Renshu more upset was that Li Caiyi did not seem to care about it in the least, as though what she said was the most obvious thing to do. She must have thought she was doing someone else a favor by doing that, but Meng Renshu was unwilling. 

He did not hate Li Chunhua, and honestly, if he did not have that nightmare, he probably would ask Li Chunhua to be his partner. However, Li Caiyi's indifference always made him restless. He felt like she would disappear forever if he did not hold her back now, and Meng Renshu did not want that to happen.

"I disagree," Meng Renshu said in a deep and chilly voice, causing Li Caiyi and Li Chunhua's argument to stop. 

It had been a while since the last time Meng Renshu looked at her with that dark and threatening look. He always made that face whenever his patience ran out and was about to cause a storm to those around him. Li Caiyi was one of the victims too, so she was used to this.

Whatever he wanted to do with her now, it could not possibly be worse than what he did to her in her previous life.