After Becoming Roommates with an Obnoxious Wealthy Heiress - Chapter 6

Why Waste Time on You?

“You can’t even do such a small task right! Qin Shuyue, can you actually do this job or not?! If not, pack your things and get the hell out of here!”

A sharp, angry roar erupted in the cafeteria, causing the vast space to fall silent for a second.

Upon hearing the name “Qin Shuyue,” Zhu Lingyi finally showed a flicker of reaction. Her gaze slowly drifted toward the source of the commotion.

Qin Shuyue was clutching a hand that was beginning to flush red, yet she couldn’t hide her wrist, which had been scalded by hot soy milk. White liquid dripped steadily from her apron onto the floor. She lowered her head in terror, her entire body trembling where she stood, not daring to look up at Sister Yu’s ferocious face.

Zhu Lingyi narrowed her eyes, casting a dangerous glance at two people nearby who were intently gossiping with looks of great interest. She stood up and asked coldly, “Have you seen enough?”

The two turned their heads in unison, their expressions equally innocent. Seeing Zhu Lingyi drop her chopsticks and leave, they could only withdraw their gazes dejectedly and follow behind her.

Qin Shuyue’s gaze suddenly flickered upward. Her vision fixed on Zhu Lingyi’s retreating back for a few seconds before falling back to the ground. She had noticed Zhu Lingyi a long time ago.

If it weren’t for the mistake in dormitory assignments, someone like her—born worlds apart from someone like Zhu Lingyi—would probably only ever hear snippets of the heiress’s private life from others’ mouths.

“Did you hear? The eldest miss of the Zhu Group is actually coming to our school!”

But someone like her deserved to be stepped on, remaining silent and unheard. That was her lot in life. She didn’t care about academic success or a bright future; she only wanted her mother, who was lying in the ICU, to open her eyes and smile at her again. She just wanted to earn money so that once her mother recovered, she could return to her previously peaceful life.

“Sister Zhu, that girl just now…”

Zhu Lingyi had been frowning deeply throughout the walk, not saying a word. To an outsider, it looked as if someone had seriously offended her. And when she was angry, it was the two following her who usually suffered.

Seeing this, Gao Yin quickly chimed in, “Yeah, Sister Zhu, how did that girl provoke you? Do you want me to bring some guys to ‘teach’ her a lesson?” He punctuated this by shaking his fist.

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhu Lingyi stopped in her tracks and whipped around, shooting him a look lethal enough to kill. The two immediately fell silent. After scanning them coldly for a moment, she uttered a single word: “Beat it.”

She then turned and strode away with long steps, leaving the two of them standing there looking at each other in confusion.

Xu Lian calmly pushed up his glasses. “That girl… there’s something about her.”

Gao Yin scratched his messy hair, looking at Zhu Lingyi’s back with anxiety. “How did she provoke Zhu Lingyi? How would she even dare?”

Xu Lian shrugged, his gaze steady as he looked at Gao Yin. “Gao Yin, since that incident, have you ever seen Zhu Lingyi get this angry at anyone else?”

“Alright,” Xu Lian said, pushing his glasses again—a sign he was deep in thought. “Calm down. We’ll check that girl’s background first. Also, didn’t a newcomer arrive in Sister Zhu’s dorm recently? Investigate her too. If she’s another person sent by him, handle her quietly. Don’t let her bother Sister Zhu.”

Gao Yin nodded, his expression turning impatient. “I thought after Sister Zhu endured him for so many years, he’d learn some restraint! I didn’t expect that old man’s wicked intentions to still be alive!”

“If I find out that girl is a spy, I’ll give her a hell of a beating!”

Xu Lian sighed, feeling helpless. “What can we do? Sister Zhu has such a massive family estate… all we can do is clear the obstacles behind her.”

“Uh… so why exactly is Sister Zhu angry today?”

“You…” Xu Lian was starting to get exasperated. “Did you not hear a word I just said?”

Gao Yin, however, seemed to have a new idea pop into his head. He hooked his arm around Xu Lian’s and tried to pull him away. “Let’s go! Let’s go meet her!”

Xu Lian sensitively adjusted his custom gold-rimmed glasses, recalling Zhu Lingyi’s inscrutable attitude from earlier. He suddenly felt that following Gao Yin to do this would be far too dangerous.

He declined. “Gao Yin, I have a class soon, so I won’t be joining you.” He pried Gao Yin’s hand off his arm and pushed his glasses once more. The light reflected off his lenses, casting a glow over his refined face. He gave Gao Yin a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “Good luck, Gao Yin.”

Afraid of being associated with the matter, he turned and left immediately.

Gao Yin grumbled, “One by one, they all bail. If you won’t go, I’ll go by myself!”

The cafeteria was nearly empty. Most of the kitchen staff had already left. Only Qin Shuyue remained, crouching on the floor, picking up pieces of a broken porcelain bowl one by one to clean up the mess.

“Hey, what are you picking up down there by yourself?”

Gao Yin leaned against the doorframe in what he considered a “very cool” pose, looking down at her. Qin Shuyue paused for a split second but then continued as if nothing had happened, carefully collecting the shards in her apron, ignoring his presence entirely.

Gao Yin had never been ignored like this. Fuming with rage, he took three steps in two, grabbed her wrist—the one holding a shard—and yanked her up.

With a clatter, the results of Qin Shuyue’s hour-long effort on the floor went to waste. She stared in disbelief at the shards scattering once more, dazed by the fact that they had fallen again and broken even further. She could hardly hold onto them anymore.

Gao Yin looked at her nearly desperate face and let go of her hand with annoyance, as if disgusted by the smell of grease on her clothes. He wiped his hands and frowned. “Doesn’t the school have automated cleaning robots? Why are you crouching here picking up this trash?”

Perhaps because she had been crouching for too long, Qin Shuyue’s calves began to feel numb—a sensation like thousands of needles pricking her legs. Then, a soft but sharp pain surged through her, making her stagger. She propped her hand against the sink, her vision swimming.

But the pain in her legs masked the sting of the glass shards that had sliced into her hands. Her once-slender fingers had become rough and covered in tiny scars that pierced into her heart like bitterness.

“Hey, say something.” Gao Yin gave Qin Shuyue a shove.

Already weakened by the numbness in her legs, the shove—though not particularly heavy—sent her swaying until she collapsed. With a thud, her knees hit the ground, sending a jolt of extreme pain to her brain. She trembled on the floor.

Seeing her look so “frail,” Gao Yin panicked slightly. He waved his hands dismissively. “Hey, hey, I didn’t use force on you. I just wanted to ask you something. It’s your fault for not answering.”

“Who do you think you are? Do I have to answer just because you ask?” Qin Shuyue finally spoke. She gritted her teeth against the pain radiating through her nerves, but she looked up stubbornly, staring straight at Gao Yin.

“This is a punishment. A punishment for doing something wrong. Do you understand?”

Gao Yin’s heart sank under her intense gaze. Everyone he met, except for Zhu Lingyi, treated him with nothing but respect. Who else would dare stare him down like this?

“Hey, who gave you permission to look at me like that? Believe it or not, I’ll—”

“Believe what?”

A familiar female voice came from behind the door. Hearing it, a sense of foreboding rushed to Gao Yin’s head. His intuition was correct.

With a smack, Gao Yin was sent flying half a meter in the blink of an eye, his forehead nearly slamming into the long iron table in the kitchen.

Zhu Lingyi elegantly withdrew her leg and walked slowly into the room, her face devoid of expression. She lightly tossed her hair, which had been ruffled by the movement, and stared coldly at Gao Yin. “Gao Yin, have I been giving you too much face lately that you think you can act like a tyrant in this school?”

“Everything you do in school and outside—I will tell your old man every single bit of it.”

Gao Yin didn’t even need to turn around to know who it was from the voice and the force of the kick. He gave a bitter smile, rubbed his backside, and scrambled off the floor with a pained expression, his previous arrogance toward Qin Shuyue completely vanished. He immediately tucked his metaphorical tail and looked at Zhu Lingyi pleadingly, begging for mercy.

“Don’t, Sister Zhu! My old man has already frozen three of my cards! He can’t freeze any more! If he does, I’ll starve to death at school!” he wailed.

But Zhu Lingyi didn’t give him a single glance. Her eyes remained fixed on the floor.

“I wasted my precious class time because of you. Qin Shuyue.”

Zhu Lingyi stared down at the kneeling Qin Shuyue. The coldness in her eyes had vanished, replaced by a tangled sense of irritation. “Qin Shuyue, I don’t even know why I’m wasting my time on you.”

Qin Shuyue kept her head buried low, wishing she could sink into the ground. She didn’t want to be stared at so nakedly, having her most tragic, vulnerable, and humble side exposed.

Qin Shuyue remained silent for a long time. Zhu Lingyi didn’t move either. Gao Yin stood by the iron table, frozen. The cafeteria was empty now. Everything was silent, so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

Zhu Lingyi irritably kicked a porcelain shard away. She looked down at Qin Shuyue—this pitiful creature who was as miserable as could be, with hands covered in scars from the broken porcelain.

She said:

“Say something!”

“Qin Shuyue.”

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