Chapter 30：The Stolen Painting

As Gu Xiqiao returned to her desk in class, a system notification sprang up.

[Ding! The system has detected that Wu Hongwen and Xiao Yun have high affection towards you, do you want to add them to your Friends List?]

"Sure, do that." Gu Xiqiao didn't refuse this time. "Show me the map."

As she said so, a screen appeared in front of her with the map of the school, and there were two green points and an orange point on it.

She glanced at it cursorily, before folding her arms on the desk and burying her head into her arms, going to sleep.

Xiao Yun didn't know what to say about Gu Xiqiao. There were so many rumors about her, how could she fall asleep? Did she truly not care at all?

It turned out that not only did she fall asleep, but she even slept peacefully without even waking up through all the classes in the afternoon. The teachers didn't mind that she was sleeping in class, because she would be able to do well in her studies anyway.

When she woke up, school had already let out. Gu Xiqiao reached inside her drawer, realizing that her oil painting had disappeared.

[Hey, Er Qiao, your oil painting disappeared!] The system spirit exclaimed in shock in the void.

Gu Xiqiao rubbed her forehead. "Don't act like you just knew this."

[Fine…But Beauty Qiao, this oil painting wasn't taken by dangerous character Gu Xijin.]

"I know." Gu Xijin had always been extraordinarily careful in doing these things and would have never come to steal the painting herself.

"Are you leaving or not?" Xiao Yun spoke up from the entrance of the class. Why was this girl so lazy?

Gu Xiqiao took a few papers offhandedly, planning to do them later.

All of the students in the class would take home revision notes and notebooks so that they could check them when they didn't know how to do a specific question. Meanwhile, Gu Xiqiao would only have to take a few papers home and by the next morning, these papers would be completed without a single flaw. "What do you have in that head of yours?"

Gu Xiqiao glanced at Xiao Yun. "My brain nucleus, a limbic system, a cerebral cortex, one trillion brain cells, and about one hundred billion memory storage cells, I think?"

Xiao Yun's eye twitched slightly. "What do you do every day, only bringing back a few papers?"

"I draw." Gu Xiqiao sighed softly. She had just finished the oil painting the day before, and it was stolen so quickly by Gu Xijin.

Xiao Yun suddenly thought of how Gu Xiqiao had been carrying around a drawing canvas for the past few days, and how she went to the art studio at school sometimes. Xiao Yun had never seen her paintings, but she guessed that they wouldn't be half bad. She wouldn't be surprised if this girl that was good at studies and medicine could be able to paint well too.

Wu Hongwen was waiting at the stairs, and he glanced at Gu Xiqiao to asses her mood

As the trio walked towards the school gates, Wu Hongwen had wanted to speak up and comfort Gu Xiqiao, but he didn't know what to say, so he could only trail behind her, staring dazedly at the back of her head.

There were a bunch of people there at the junction in front of Building F, and they were all Rocket Class students. Wu Hongwen looked at them, sparks in his gaze and almost bursting out in anger.

The person that led them was Zhong Yongsi, and he completely ignored Wu Hongwen as he looked straight at Gu Xiqiao, his gaze disgusted. "Did you steal Ah Jin's painting?"

Gu Xiqiao squinted slightly and stuck her hands into her pockets with a cold gaze, tilting her chin upwards slightly and smirking. "Didn't you people steal my painting?"

"Yours? Do you think we're blind, that we can't even tell whose painting it is? This afternoon, I saw Jin's painting at your desk, and a lot of other people did too!" A girl walked out of the group and pointed at Gu Xiqiao. "Just be quiet and modest like the illegitimate daughter you are, don't be greedy for these things that aren't supposed to be yours! Don't you know that you're the disgrace of the Gu family?"

Evidently, they were the ones that were blind

Gu Xiqiao walked towards the girl, stopping close to her as their gazes met, giving her a mocking smirk. "I drew that oil painting with my own two hands, you say the oil painting is Gu Xijin's? Where is your proof?"

Her gaze was clear and bright, and the girl that had been huffy puffy the second before went mute, suddenly forgetting her lines.

Zhong Yongsi pulled the girl away and looked at Gu Xiqiao as if she had gone crazy. "We don't need proof, I've seen that painting before! It's so realistic that it might as well be a photo, and it has already reached the level of a master. How could such a painting be from the hands of you, a beginner at painting?! This is the painting that Jin had planned to take to join a contest, and has been chosen by a master from the art academy to be nominated for the country! Gu Xiqiao, a person must know how much they are worth!"

"I give this sentence right back to Gu Xijin. " Gu Xiqiao was expressionless as she listened to Zhong Yongsi speak, her demeanor as cold as ice.

The crowd was chattering amongst themselves, and most of them were mocking her. None of them believed her, just like in her past life where Gu Xijin's image was too perfect. None of her explanations worked, and so she burned it all down in a fire…

Xiao Yun walked forwards and stood beside Gu Xiqiao, her gaze sweeping over the crowd and making them clam up. "Don't think that you people can be so arrogant just because you're Rocket Class students, tell Gu Xijin that this isn't over!"

Wu Hongwen walked over and stood on Gu Xiqiao's other side without a word, but it was clear whose side he was on.

Most of the students in school knew Wu Hongwen, and these Rocket Class had heard rumors of his background. This family was involved in both the dark and bright sides of society, and the last time a bunch of gangsters from their neighboring school got into trouble with him, they disappeared the next day.

Everyone looked at each other, not daring to talk anymore, but everyone knew that things weren't over.

The Gu family's heir wasn't so easily dealt with, after all.

Zhong Yongsi glanced at Wu Hongwen and looked back at Gu Xiqiao. "Wu Hongwen's reach isn't that long, and soon enough what you have done will spread all over N City, we're going to let everyone know! Even his family wouldn't be able to save you."

"You…" Wu Hongwen stepped forward but was blocked by Gu Xiqiao.

"The book of Sirach says: 'If he needs you, he will trick you with his smiles and cheerful, kindly words."Do you need anything?" he will ask.'" Gu Xiqiao smiled softly.

Wu Hongwen stopped in his steps. "….What?"

"It's nothing." Gu Xiqiao looked at the two that stood next to her like protectors, and even though she didn't know why they believed in her so much, but their actions gave warmth to her heart that had gone cold. "Aren't you two going to leave?"

"I don't think you're this sort of person." Wu Hongwen's mind went astray again. This was the second time Gu Xiqiao looked straight at him, and if it weren't for the current situation he would run two circles around the field in excitement.

Xiao Yun exhaled a sigh of relief upon seeing that Gu Xiqiao was unaffected by what happened. "This matter seems quite strange, please be careful. I don't think this is going to end so easily."

"It's not all that complex, I can deal with it myself, so don't worry." She had never treated any of these schemes by Gu Xijin seriously before, and she only wanted to use this matter to dispel the last vestiges of those pipe dreams of hers.

Gu Xiqiao walked away and left the duo there, and even though she was walking slowly, she disappeared in their field of vision in a flash.