After the Most Hated Persona Faked Their Death, the Ex-Husband Lost His Mind - Chapter 5

Beauty can also be a bargaining chip.

After forming that particular dream, Li Zhi naturally paid more attention to Chu Mingzhang. However, he never saw Chu Mingzhang visit the Zhou family again. Soon after, he had no time to worry about it because his high school entrance exams were approaching.

Thank the Buddha and thank God, the actual exam questions were much simpler than the practice problems Li Zhi usually did. He felt good during the test and had a hunch his scores would not be bad. As it turned out, he performed exceptionally well, exceeding his usual standards.

Because Zhou Baiyu attended a private school with a combined middle and high school system, he was promoted directly to high school without needing to take the entrance exams. Consequently, Zhou Guoxiong had never paid any attention to the concept of the high school entrance exam.

However, Li Zhi’s grades were impressive enough to make him look at the boy in a new light. His scores were sufficient to get him into a very good public high school in S City, but Wang Xiaochun did not want him to go there. “He should still go to the same school as Baiyu!”

Zhou Guoxiong ignored her and asked Li Zhi, “What about you? Which school do you want to attend?”

Li Zhi shot a cautious glance at Wang Xiaochun and then answered obediently, “I want to go to the same school as my brother.”

Zhou Guoxiong was unexpectedly easy to talk to that day. He nodded and said, “I understand.”

Not long after, Li Zhi received an admission letter from that private school. Since its founding, this private school had been known as a school for the elite. The students were either wealthy or influential, and the educational resources were top-tier. Countless people struggled and exhausted themselves just to obtain such a letter, yet Li Zhi had gotten in without even taking an entrance exam.

It seemed there were no truly difficult tasks in this world; it was simply a matter of how much money one had.

However, Zhou Guoxiong only did this one thing for Li Zhi. He still had not taken Li Zhi to change his last name. Wang Xiaochun dropped hints several times, but Zhou Guoxiong brushed her off with a few words every time.

It appeared that even excellent exam results were not enough to fully sway Zhou Guoxiong. Wang Xiaochun felt quite discouraged.

On August 20th of that year, Li Zhi changed into his Western-style school uniform and boarded the Zhou family’s car with a large suitcase. He felt a sense of infinite expectation and a faint excitement toward this unknown journey because the school required students to live on campus.

This meant he would not have to see Wang Xiaochun for five days a week. Although Wang Xiaochun had not been home much lately anyway, she was following Zhou Guoxiong to learn the business. Zhou Guoxiong was personally teaching her, starting from zero.

At first, Zhou Guoxiong was not very willing. He felt Wang Xiaochun was simply too bored at home and wanted something to do. “Why can you not be like the other wives? Open a Japanese restaurant or an art museum. Why must you follow me to the group to work?”

Wang Xiaochun was a little angry, but even when a beauty is angry, she is pleasant to look at, especially when she is dressed up. “Those kinds of businesses lose money. I do not want to do a losing business. Following you is the only way to make money.”

“Why do you need to worry about making money?” Zhou Guoxiong smiled and placed some food in her bowl. “Fine, everything shall be as you wish. I will personally teach you, how about that?”

Only then was Wang Xiaochun happy, her smile bright and radiant. Li Zhi was right there while they spoke. He appeared to be focused on his meal, but he was actually watching the two of them quietly.

Did Zhou Guoxiong really not know Wang Xiaochun’s true intentions? Yet he still agreed. Perhaps it was because he felt that a woman with Wang Xiaochun’s low level of education could not achieve much even if he taught her himself.

Since she posed no threat, there was no need to be on guard. He could simply treat it as buying her happiness; besides, she was so beautiful when she was happy.

Li Zhi learned one thing from this: beauty can also be a bargaining chip. Unfortunately, learning it was useless because his appearance was quite repulsive.

His hair was like a wanderer’s, his black-framed glasses covered half his face, and his thin body had slumped shoulders. He was the polar opposite of the word beauty.

Zhou Baiyu had lost his temper many times and cursed at him, “Li Zhi, can you not go get a goddamn haircut? Do you know you look like a zombie from an apocalypse movie? I feel like throwing up my dinner just looking at you!”

Li Zhi would timidly touch his head. In truth, he did not want a haircut. Although the thick bangs were ugly, they made him feel safe.

In a way, it was his protective shield, blocking out the many inquisitive or purely malicious stares. It made Li Zhi feel at ease.

Knock, knock. Li Zhi looked up and rolled down the car window. He looked at the youth outside rapping his knuckles against the glass. “Brother.”

“Do not call me that at school. When you see me, stay far away. Otherwise, I will hit you every time I see you, do you hear me?” Zhou Baiyu laughed sinisterly. “No one will protect you at school.”

Li Zhi shrank back and nodded.

“Speak! Has someone cut your tongue out?”

“I… I understand,” Li Zhi answered in a small voice.

Zhou Baiyu rolled his eyes and walked toward the Bentley parked in front with his hands in his pockets. He would certainly not share a car with Li Zhi because he found it embarrassing.

This was fine, Li Zhi thought, because he also did not want others to know he was Zhou Baiyu’s brother or the Zhou family’s illegitimate son.

It was Li Zhi’s first time at this school, and he was disoriented. It took him a long time just to find the dormitory building.

Seeing that he was about to be late, he did not have time to organize his daily necessities. He pushed his suitcase inside and ran back. Fortunately, the private school was wealthy, and the students lived in single rooms, so no one would complain if he left his luggage in a mess.

The teaching building was also far from the dormitory. Li Zhi was nearly out of breath by the time he arrived, but he was still late. The classroom was already full of people, and their gazes all shot toward him at once. Li Zhi’s face turned bright red under the scrutiny. He struggled for a long time before finally letting out a voice as faint as a mosquito, “Reporting.”

The teacher at the podium naturally did not hear him, but the students nearby did. A boy burst out laughing and whispered to his seatmate, “What a country bumpkin, he actually shouted ‘reporting’.”

Li Zhi heard this, and his face turned even redder. Just as he was hesitating, a male voice suddenly rang out behind him. “How much longer are you going to stand here?”

It was Chu Mingzhang.

Those words were like an electric whip, sending a jolt through Li Zhi. His blood rushed to his brain, and he took two clumsy steps forward.

His posture must have been ridiculous because several students were pointing at him and laughing secretly.

He was moving too slowly, and Chu Mingzhang naturally did not have the patience. He stepped past him and walked toward his seat. As he walked down the aisle, the students in the class all looked at him as if they were seeing a celebrity. Li Zhi suddenly realized that when they were looking at the door earlier, they were not looking at him.

They were looking at Chu Mingzhang behind him.

“Student, what is your name?” the teacher at the podium asked him.

Li Zhi felt as if he had been granted a pardon and turned to answer her, “Li Zhi. ‘Li’ as in ‘wood and plum’, ‘Zhi’ as in ‘to know’.”

The female teacher leaned over to write his name on a form and then asked, “And your English name?”

Li Zhi was instantly stumped by her question, his eyes widening slightly. An English name? He did not have an English name. Having no choice, Li Zhi spoke the truth: “I do not have an English name.”

Behind him, there was another wave of snickering. “What a bumpkin, he does not even have an English name.”

“Hey, he looks a bit unfamiliar. Do you guys know him?”

“I do not. Wait… is his name Li Zhi? Holy shit, I know who he is. He is the brother of the eldest Young Master Zhou, Zhou Baiyu. He is that illegitimate son. He got into the school through the back door.”

Those words made Li Zhi’s spine turn cold. His palms would not stop sweating, feeling slick and greasy. Waves of dizziness hit him, accompanied by sharp abdominal pain.

The teacher likely knew of his identity now as well. Her gaze was a bit deeper than before when she looked at him, though she still wore a smile. “It does not matter if you do not have one. Think of one over the next few days and come tell me. For now, go and sit down. Sit next to Gong Jie. Gong Jie, please raise your hand.”

A slender girl’s arm went up. Li Zhi kept his head down and walked to his seat. It was toward the back, in the second to last row.

Sitting behind him was Chu Mingzhang.

This seating arrangement made the hair on Li Zhi’s body stand on end. At the thought of Chu Mingzhang sitting behind him, he desperately wanted to dig a hole and bury himself.

It was not that he had anything against Chu Mingzhang. It was mainly because he was Zhou Baiyu’s friend, and Li Zhi felt a strange sense of admiration for him. Consequently, Li Zhi felt extremely uncomfortable and wanted to hide every time he saw him.

However, thinking that Chu Mingzhang treated him as if he were invisible made him feel a little better. Li Zhi felt he was a bit of an idiot for being so dramatic every day.

The female teacher said a few routine words at the podium and left. When the bell rang for the end of class, everyone began to chat warmly with one another. From middle school to high school, the classes had not been reshuffled, so everyone was a familiar face.

Except for him.

Furthermore, Li Zhi’s luck was particularly bad. It seemed both his seatmate and the person sitting behind him were the stars of the class. As soon as class ended, Chu Mingzhang was surrounded by a group of boys calling him “Brother Chu” and talking loudly about their vacations. Chu Mingzhang responded occasionally with a cold, detached air.

His seatmate, Gong Jie, was surrounded by a group of girls. A group of beauties gathered together was quite a sight. In fact, the boys in the back were also a group of stylish, fashionable youths.

This left Li Zhi stuck in the middle. Among such a group of classmates, he truly had become a country bumpkin. This created a massive sense of disparity in Li Zhi’s heart; after all, he had been quite looking forward to this before he arrived.

The bell rang for the start of class, and the Chinese teacher entered the classroom.

This school was somewhat unique. It was not a purely international school. It offered an international curriculum as well as a domestic one.

The international curriculum was divided into two systems: the AP system and the A-Level system, which students could choose freely. Choosing AP required passing academic proficiency tests, while A-Level did not. Therefore, students in the AP system still had to study the domestic curriculum during their first year of high school.

Consequently, students who chose the path of the regular national college entrance exam attended classes with the AP students in the first year, and they would only be split up in the second year. Of course, very few students chose the national entrance exam.

However, for Li Zhi, it did not matter which path he chose.

He sighed and began to listen to the lecture. Unfortunately, Li Zhi’s attention span had become worse after he started taking his medication. Concentrating had become a very difficult task. Halfway through the lesson, Li Zhi’s mind began to wander again.

He started writing in his diary, recording some very boring, trivial thoughts.

Li Zhi wrote on the paper, “I feel like I can see the end of my high school career in a single glance.”

He gave his high school life a rather pessimistic beginning, but Li Zhi forgot that his luck had always been quite poor. The reality was that Li Zhi’s high school life was going to be much worse than he imagined.