Zuo Hengyi was determined that, for the sake of his brother's reputation, he must persuade his older brother to stay away from Lu Lanshan.
Money could be foregone, but life was irreplaceable.
Everyone at the scene was busy with their own affairs until it was time for lunch.
Because there were guests and it was the New Year, the dishes on the Zuo family's dining table were particularly abundant.
Every household could afford such meals, and for everyone present, these were just ordinary home-cooked dishes.
Everyone displayed proper table manners, and no one spoke during the meal, finishing their food in peaceful silence.
During the meal, Shi Quan had already planned that after sitting for a while after lunch, he would find an excuse to take his two sisters home. There would be no need for New Year visits in the afternoon, so he could go see his girlfriend.
Indeed, after experiencing a simple rejection, Shi Quan was now considering the possibility of finding a girlfriend again.
Shi Quan hadn't intended to impose on the Zuo family for lunch, as their relationship with the Zuo family was merely casual and hadn't reached the level of staying for meals during holidays.
However, while chatting with Zuo's Father, time had slipped away until lunchtime.
Shi Li and Shi Ruan seemed to have lost their minds, neither helping him suggest going home, leaving him no choice but to stay for lunch.
After the meal, everyone gathered around for tea.
Zuo Hengyi's stepmother eagerly served tea to everyone.
While Shi Quan was secretly contemplating the right time to suggest leaving, Shi Li was still thinking about how to make Lu Lanshan break up with the Zuo family's eldest son.
While everyone was lost in thought, Shi Li noticed Shi Ruan being lovey-dovey with her boyfriend on the phone, which made her heart sink.
Great, she hadn't even succeeded in making Shi Ruan break up with her boyfriend, and now there was Lu Lanshan to deal with.
She might as well change her name to "Breakup Master."
After lunch, everyone was relaxed, even Liang Rongrong couldn't help but yawn twice, as the carbohydrates from lunch were making her drowsy.
Along with Shi Li's confused thoughts, Zuo Hengyi felt somewhat resigned - since his good friend already knew about his brother's story with their stepmother, there was no need to be nervous.
As for how his brother might meet his end in the future, Zuo Hengyi was concerned, but not overly so.
When you're too full, negative thoughts tend to surface. Whatever, let it be.
At least his brother wouldn't die immediately, so checking his phone for a while wouldn't hurt.
Seeing the discussion threads on the campus internal platform, Zuo Hengyi couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
The posts were anonymous, with both teachers and students having posting privileges, but only school administrators could see which IP belonged to which student or teacher.
Based on closeness, he should have shared this with his childhood friend Feng Yunhe, but having been friends since childhood, Zuo Hengyi knew Feng Yunhe wasn't interested in such romantic affairs and scandalous exposures.
Feng Yunhe: That's not true, don't make things up.
As for others present, he was closest to Shi Li, and he currently needed to get on her good side.
So Zuo Hengyi chose to offer this gossip as tribute to Shi Li.
Zuo Hengyi didn't know that Shi Li had been present at the scene that day, and enthusiastically shared with her.
He moved closer to Shi Li with his phone, saying, "Look what gossip I found."
Shi Ruan was right in front of Shi Li, who showed little reaction to the gossip she'd already seen, while Shi Ruan responded appropriately to Zuo Hengyi's tone, "Damn, I can't believe they're having an affair."
Shi Ruan had previously studied at Qianpu School, and while she didn't know Class 6's homeroom teacher, she remembered Teacher Sun.
Shi Ruan's exclamation wasn't particularly quiet, and almost everyone present heard her comment.
How could anyone not be interested in affairs like this?
Everyone perked up their ears, waiting to hear who was having an affair with whom.
But after her exclamation, Shi Ruan just focused on reading the comments.
Others were dying to shake Shi Ruan's shoulders and ask who was having an affair with whom - you can't just leave us hanging like this!
Fu Huixing noticed Shi Li's unconsciously smug expression, as if saying she had known about all this long ago.
He could vaguely guess it was probably about the incident in the school grove.
Aliali: 674846c1c4f3f33ac476874f
Shi Li had been present when it happened, which matched up with what her cousin had said about the affair.
Fu Zhanyang was an extremely gossip-loving person, and while others were still trying to peek, he had already moved closer to the three of them to get his share of the gossip.
"What's going on? Let me see too."
Everyone's inner thoughts:
Liang Rongrong: I want to see too
Shi Quan: Want to hurry home to find a girlfriend
Shi Ruan: Holy cow, this is wild
Feng Yunhe: Wants to look but too embarrassed
Shi Li: Is that all?
Fu Huixing: How cute...