CH 31

After Zhang Man came home that day, Li Wei made a phone call in the study.

He heard two days ago that Yan Hui recovered from his injuries and came back to school. A bully like him, who has suffered such a big loss, will definitely want to retaliate back.

He was fine with it, but not her. Just thinking about the day she was threatened by the guy holding her chin, thinking about her white knuckles squeezing her school bag would make him lose his mind.

Everything related to her is something he doesn’t dare to let up on.

The phone was answered after a few “rings” and the man’s voice on the other side was a bit rough: “Who is it?”

“…Brother Yi, it’s me, Li Wei.”

Si Yi is the owner of the bar Zhang Man went to last time, and is now one of the most prominent figures in N City. Back then in the orphanage, he owed Li Wei a personal favor and if it wasn’t for Zhang Man, perhaps this favor would never have been mentioned in his lifetime.

……

Since Si Jin came home, she keeps on thinking about the youth she saw in the store today, “Who is he…?”

She felt a very familiar feeling in her heart, and she was sure that she must have seen him somewhere before. But in her mind she had some doubts, such a handsome young man, if she had seen him somewhere, she must have had an impression.

She shook her head and stopped thinking about it, kicked off her shoes, threw the big bag she was carrying onto the couch and headed upstairs.

Si Yi is sitting in the study and is talking on the phone as she quietly walks behind him, listening to him talking to the other end of the phone: “…Yan Hui, right? I have a slight impression that it was one of the small bosses of some group that followed us around. Mmm, don’t worry. I’ll have someone warn him… Yeah, absolutely nothing will happen.”

When Si Yi hung up the phone, Si Jin slapped him violently on the shoulder.

Si Yi’s furrowed brow became especially gentle the moment he saw Si Jin: “Ah Jin, you’re back?”

Si Yi looks very imposing, broad shoulders, tall, and has a slightly square face. Although he looks handsome, he does not look anything like the exquisite doll-like Si Jin, and if not for the same last name, it is hard to imagine that these two are actually brother and sister.

“Yeah. Well, I’m exhausted. I got stood up today, so I’ve been shopping alone all day.”

She asked casually, “Big Brother, who did you call just now?”

Si Yi smiled and stroked her head: “Guess who it is? It’s someone you know too.”

“I know him?” Si Jin’s cute little nose wrinkled up and after thinking for a while, she couldn’t think of an answer.

“It’s Li Wei. He was in the orphanage with us when we were kids. He’s the same age as you, do you remember him?”

Seeing that she was still wrinkling her nose, Si Yi reached out and dotingly scratched her nose: “You ran out of the house when you were a kid and were greedy for food, and he ended up getting you back. Such a heartless little girl, how could you even forget him?”

As Si Jin listened, a vague figure emerged in her mind, and suddenly her eyes lit up.

Was it him? She remembered when she was a child, squatting on the street corner bawling, she was approached by that tiny boy who took her hand and bought her a candy.

It was especially sweet, and she still remembers it to this day.

Wait! …No wonder I felt that the person I met today at the store looked so familiar…

Memory and reality began to overlap, and Si Jin’s eyes grew brighter and brighter.

“Big brother, I want to transfer to another school!”

***

A very sensational event recently happened in N City First High School.

“Rong Huai’s school flower transferred to First High School!”

There are two best high schools in N City, one is First High School and the other is Rong Huai High School. First Middle School is a public high school, while Rong Huai High School is a very famous private school for the rich, where students attend a bilingual program, mostly with the goal of furthering their education abroad.

Most of the students of Rong Huai are either famous or affluent, and there are lots of handsome boys and girls, which are simply blinding compared to the plain public schools.

However, just a few days ago, Rong Huai’s school flower Si Jin transferred to the First High School, and was inserted into the senior arts class.

This is not all, what is even more sensational is that this little princess just came to school and started a frenzied pursuit of Li Wei from Class 1.

The number of gossipers posting it online is growing.

【Did you hear? Si Jin has transferred to our school! She is the school flower of RongHuai, I’ve seen her in person, and she’s super, super good looking! 】

【Si Jin? Who? I don’t know her. Isn’t Zhang Man our school’s new flower? 】

【What’s wrong with you? When Shi Jin was in junior high school, she was scouted, and before that she was in the news, have you forgotten? Although Sister Zhang is also very good-looking but I personally think she’s too silent and looks a bit cold, not as sweet as Si Jin.】

【Shut up upstairs!!! How is my goddess not as sweet as Si Jin, huh! My goddess just does NOT like to smile, and that is called being COOL and ALOOF!!! Do you understand that? Do YOU?!】

【Crap! Si Jin is chasing Li Wei? Is she not aware that Li Wei is a ……, Ahem, if they are together, I am certainly not worried about the face value of their children but regarding on their mentality…it is difficult to say… 】

【Aaaaaaahhh!!!!!!!!! My goddess is chasing that crazy person in class 1? What? Why??? Rong Huai has so many people lining up to chase her yet she’s being ignored by him, isn’t she? I don’t think I’ll ever love again. 】

【Yeah, she’s been bringing breakfast to Li Wei every morning since she came over last week…】

***

In just one math class, Zhang Man has looked over to Li Wei for the eighteenth time.

She squeezed her fingers and her whole face tightened.

The girl named Si Jin came to bring breakfast to Li Wei again just now during the recess. She recognized that she was the girl who was staring at them in front of the store at the mall a few days ago. She also heard other students say that she was the school flower of Rong Huai High School and had just transferred over a few days ago.

She tried hard to think about the person, combing through her memories over and over again and finally determined that there really was no such person in her previous life. In the previous life, apart from her, the other girls in the First High School kept away from Li Wei, after all he had so many bad reputations out there. She couldn’t help but wonder what had gone wrong that had changed so many things and led to the appearance of such a person.

Zhang Man’s heart is a little uncomfortable.

As she was thinking about it, she felt a pain in front of her forehead as a chalk tip hit her on the head and bounced back out. She looked back and found her math teacher looking at her angrily.

“Zhang Man, I don’t know how many times I’ve caught you drifting off somewhere. If you don’t want to go to class, go out and stand for punishment.”

The math teacher named Yang Min, is a very serious female teacher who usually does not smile and is even more fierce when she gets angry.

Zhang Man felt uncomfortable at first, and was now somewhat helpless. She also knew that she was indeed wrong, so she didn’t say a word to defend herself, and stood up to go outside the classroom.

But as soon as she stood up, she heard the sound of a chair moving beside her, and she looked over her shoulder to find that Li Wei had also stood up.

“Teacher, she was looking at me.”

The youth’s voice was calm, as if stating an extremely simple fact. The whole class looked over, full of gossip eyes wandering between the two. However, with Li Wei, they did not dare to make a fuss.

Zhang Man failed to hold back and blushed.

She shot him a glare.

He knew she was looking at him but still kept reading and pretending not to know.

As Yang Min listened to these words, her face turned grim with anger: “Then you two go together to stand outside as punishment. Have a good look outside, later I’ll talk to your homeroom teacher and simply say that you two won’t be in the next physics class and will stand until lunch.”

Li Wei nodded and followed Zhang Man out of the classroom.

The eyes of the students followed the two again in unison, and even the students sitting by the door poked out their heads. It was only when Yang Min slapped the podium desk hard that it settled down.

Of course, some students have already secretly taken out their phones to post it online.

【BREAKING NEWS!!! It turns out that Goddess Zhang likes Li Wei! She had just been looking at him in class, and she was caught by our math teacher! Now the two are standing together outside the classroom for punishment! 】

In this school, there are a lot of top students, but there are also a lot of people who don’t study and muddle through.

The sophomore building was just across from the freshman’s, so the sophomore side could see the hallway of the freshman class from their windows. By this time, hordes of heads were poking out of the sophomore windows, looking that way.

【Shit! It’s true, I took pictures.】

【What the hell! What’s going on here? I saw  Li Wei touch the head of our school flower!!! 】

【Urghhh!!! FU man! Didn’t you see the school flower dodge it, just now? 】

【So the author said the opposite? I guess the plot should be like this. Li Wei is chasing our school flower but she refuses, so Li Wei became a psychopath and threatened to retaliate against her if she did not agree. Then our school flower glared at her fiercely and ended up being caught by the teacher.】

【All of you upstairs are full of BS! How can two school flowers like him? He’s crazy and they’re not….】

【Though it’s true that girls are creatures that look at faces, but… although Li Wei is really handsome. I…still choose to cherish my life…】

Currently being punished to stand, Zhang Man, of course, cannot see these.

For she is panicking right now.

A pang of sourness roamed through her heart, and she didn’t know what was wrong with her. The things that are related to Li Wei can easily make her lose her mind. Clearly—clearly she would have wanted more people to like him and be kind to him, but in the past few days when Si Jin appeared, although she was also happy that someone liked him, but at the same time, the uneasiness in her heart was gradually accumulating.

To the point that she started to imagine things.

In the previous life, there was no Si Jin, so Li Wei has been subconsciously isolated by everyone in the two years of high school, except Zhang Man.

One can imagine that when a young man who grew up lacking love and has been living in his own world, met a girl who is not afraid of him and is willing to enter his world during adolescence will naturally develop a good feeling later on.

Just like her, in their previous life.

But apparently, she’s not the only one in this life, there’s also another one named Si Jin. Her pursuit of him was so passionate, and although he is now cold to her every day and does not eat the breakfast she brings him, she knows that Si Jin is very persistent.

She began to worry that there was no guarantee that he wouldn’t be impressed one day, just as slowly as he was impressed by her. She began to wonder if his feelings for herself in his previous life were really because that person was her and not because she was the only one around at his side…

Now that he has a choice, will he still choose her again? She hasn’t even said she likes him yet…

But how come Si Jin can pursue him so blatantly and so passionately?

Whereas she has been suppressing her emotions every time, telling herself that he is in a bad mental state and must not be frightened of him and must take things slowly. In everything she does, she controls herself carefully, not daring to show her heart from the very beginning.

Did she not want to,you ask? Clearly, she wanted to hug him the first day she saw him and for so many days after that, and she couldn’t wait to tell him she liked him every time they met.

But she held back, she didn’t dare, she was afraid he would resist. If she’s a step behind now, will he choose someone else?

Zhang Man thought about it and tears fell uncontrollably.

Li Wei has been watching the girl with the afterglow, seeing her whole face suddenly wrinkled, her black eyes slowly turning red as tears began to bubble out of her eyes like she was greatly aggrieved.

Seeing this, his heart felt like it was being stabbed by a needle. The youth who grew up soaking in physics books really didn’t know where her emotions were coming from at this point. In fact, earlier, he had just noticed that she had been looking at him, and he wanted to ask her immediately what was wrong, but the feeling of being watched by her all the time made his mood pleasant all over again.

Just like every time at home, after she finished her homework, she would look at him with her cheeks in her hands, so intently, thinking he didn’t know.

But now she’s crying.

She had no idea that her tears were fatal to him.

Li Wei only felt that every time she cried, there would be a sensation in his heart followed by a throbbing pain somewhere.

Forgetting that he was still standing for punishment, he walked over to her.

***

The grievances in Zhang Man’s heart after so many days, as well as the tightly wound she had kept since her rebirth, suddenly collapsed at this moment. She simply could not control herself and tears desperately bubbled out.

At that moment, she heard him ask her, “Zhang Man, did anyone bully you?”

The youth’s voice was so soft that it seemed to carry the same pain as hers.

Zhang Man flattened her mouth. At this time, she just doesn’t want to pay much attention to him, even if he’s never done anything wrong in the first place.

Li Wei lifted his hand, trying to touch her head to soothe her, but fell short.

The girl took two steps away from him and turned her head to ignore him.

Li Wei froze, looking at his fingers, his heart suddenly drew tight, and his body began to turn cold from the fingertips that she had just avoided.

He went over again and tried to take her hand, but she dodged him again.

The outstretched hand stopped in mid-air.

This emptiness pokes straight to his heart, creating a hole in his heart.

The feeling of being avoided by her was surprisingly harder than everyone hating him and ostracizing him together, combined.

The youth gaped, lowered his head, and suddenly lost his entire strength.

She’s crying…is it because of me? Did she start to hate me, so she refused my touch?

After Zhang Man dodged, she felt bad about it. He did nothing wrong, she couldn’t lose her temper with him for no reason.

But she was still feeling a little aggrieved.

“D-Do you……think Si Jin is pretty?”

When the youth heard her slightly sobbing voice, his first thought was one of surprise— so she wasn’t ignoring him.

The second thought was: What is the problem?

“Who is this…Si Jin?”

He’s a bit confused.

Zhang Man inhaled: “I-It’s the same girl who gives you breakfast every day these days, s-she said…she said you guys knew each other when you were little…”

As she spoke, she stared down at the youth on the side without blinking, watching his expression carefully.

He was silent for a moment, and that’s when he remembered.

His fine looking brows frowned slightly.

“…I didn’t notice whether she’s pretty or not. But she must be someone in school who hates me a lot. She gave me plain milk and hard-boiled eggs that I hated so much every day.”

After Zhang Man heard him, the sobbing stopped immediately. She quickly gulped, blinked, and after a good half-day of jaw-dropping, broke into tears and laughed.