After the Most Hated Persona Faked Their Death, the Ex-Husband Lost His Mind - Chapter 6

No one in the class was willing to speak to Li Zhi.

On one hand, it was due to his introverted personality. He rarely spoke, which made him appear gloomy. Of course, this was subjective; Chu Mingzhang did not speak much either, yet he was always surrounded by people.

On the other hand, it was because his background was considered scandalous.

In a school like this, the students’ families all possessed some degree of wealth. Consequently, they were more sensitive to the distinction between legitimate children and those born out of wedlock, and they harbored a deep loathing for the latter.

To make matters worse, his older brother, Zhou Baiyu, was a prominent figure on campus. Along with Han Ziyao and Chu Mingzhang, Zhou Baiyu was one of the most famous names in school. Each of them came from an extremely powerful family, and they were all handsome and tall.

It was truly unfair. People like them had smooth sailing from the moment they were born. While others secretly envied them, they also aspired to be like them.

Naturally, the handsome and generous Zhou Baiyu had many followers.

Everyone felt indignant on Zhou Baiyu’s behalf. Good heavens, Zhou Baiyu was truly pitiful! His mother died in a car accident, and then his father married a mistress and brought a little bastard into the house to usurp the family nest. It was absolutely detestable!

Zhou Baiyu was pitiful! The mistress was detestable! The bastard was detestable!

Yet Li Zhi had actually done nothing. He did not covet the Zhou family business, nor did he want to usurp anyone’s place. If he could, he truly wanted to return to where he belonged: that old, dilapidated neighborhood filled with gossiping women and crude, shirtless men.

But who cared what Li Zhi thought?

The status of an illegitimate child was like an original sin that could only be erased by death.

As a result, he was naturally isolated.

Li Zhi was not mute, but he was forced to become one. The sensation was agonizing. It felt as if a heavy lock had been placed on his mouth. Anyone around Li Zhi could have helped him unlock it, but he could not do it himself.

That period was even worse than the beginning of the school year. Initially, while no classmates cared to talk to him, they at least treated him like a human being and spoke to him when necessary. Now, it was different.

Everyone treated him like a fly or a rat. Wherever he walked, laughter and conversation would abruptly vanish. People would look at him with disdain out of the corners of their eyes and instinctively move away. Those who were more cruel would even snicker and pinch their noses.

During that time, Li Zhi even had to be careful when washing his face to avoid touching his eyes.

His eyes were so swollen that it hurt to even touch them, yet he could not stop crying. At first, he could manage to hold it in until he returned to the dormitory after school. Later, however, that sense of grievance began to erode his heart at every moment.

Finally, one day, Li Zhi could bear it no longer. During the lunch break, he pretended to nap by burying his head in his arms and sobbing quietly. He managed to control himself at first, but eventually, he broke into a full-blown wail. He cried so hard he could barely breathe, and his hands and feet went cold.

He was crying so intensely that he did not even notice when the classroom door was pushed open. By the time Li Zhi realized something was wrong, two people had already walked into the classroom. From across the room, Li Zhi’s breathing instantly hitched, and his mind went blank.

Li Zhi still possessed a shred of reason; he knew these young masters and ladies usually did not return to the classroom during lunch breaks. But there is always an exception, and unfortunately, someone had returned today.

Li Zhi’s eyes were so swollen he could hardly open them. He could only vaguely make out a male and a female, both quite tall.

The boy stood there for a moment and then turned to leave. As for the girl, she asked him something. Li Zhi’s mind was a mess at the time, and by the time he regained enough composure to answer, the girl had already slipped out the door in embarrassment.

Li Zhi sat there in a daze for a while, waiting for his heart rate to steady. He then wiped his tears away harshly and opened his exercise book to write. However, as soon as he put pen to paper, the handwriting looked like a mess of crab crawls.

Only then did he realize that his hands were shaking uncontrollably.

The events of that day replayed in Li Zhi’s mind for a long time. Once his head cleared, he finally figured out who that man and woman were.

Thinking about how hard he had cried in front of them made Li Zhi feel ashamed whenever he saw them. However, although those two were hailed as the highest of socialites, they were not the type of people to look for trouble.

They appeared very calm, so that pathetic afternoon became a tiny, insignificant episode. It was like a needle falling into the sea, ending without creating a single ripple. A few days later, even Li Zhi himself was about to forget all about it.

That was until Gong Jie took the initiative to speak to him.

“Li Zhi.” Gong Jie hesitated for a moment before handing a bag of cookies toward him. “These are cookies I baked myself. Do you want some?”

The coursework in the first year at this school was relatively light, and there was not much homework. There were many club activities after school, and this bag of cookies was Gong Jie’s creation from the baking club.

Gong Jie held the bag out for a long time because Li Zhi was stunned. Then he spoke a sentence that Gong Jie never expected to hear: “Are you… are you talking to me?”

Gong Jie had been his seatmate for half a month. Honestly, this was the first time she had heard Li Zhi’s voice clearly. It was like a breeze, soft and much more pleasant than she had imagined.

“Ah,” Gong Jie nodded. “Yes, for you.”

She watched as Li Zhi sat dazed for another moment before he seemed to wake from a dream. He reached out with both hands to take the bag from Gong Jie, his movements very stiff.

Then, with great seriousness and sincerity, he said to Gong Jie: “Thank you.”

That day happened to be Friday. Li Zhi carefully carried the bag of cookies home. No one was at the Zhou house that day; Wang Xiaochun had gone to Zurich with Zhou Guoxiong, and Zhou Baiyu had gone to an internet cafe with Han Ziyao. Li Zhi curled up in his room, feeling incredibly at ease.

There were quite a few cookies in the bag, but Li Zhi only allowed himself to eat one.

As a return gift, Li Zhi prepared a box of chocolates that Wang Xiaochun had brought back for him from France.

He had possessed these chocolates for a month, but he had never eaten them. He kept them in the small refrigerator in his room. When he was hungry or had a craving, he would take them out to look at them, but he would not open them.

The reason was simple: he could not bring himself to use them.

Although Li Zhi had been back with the Zhou family for two years, he only inhabited the shell of a young master; the core of his being remained unchanged. Wang Xiaochun was fierce, but she did not deprive him of material goods. Whatever allowance Zhou Baiyu received, Li Zhi received the same amount.

But Li Zhi did not know how to spend it. It was not that he was forbidden from spending it; he simply had no concept of how to do so.

Wang Xiaochun had ascended to a high status and carried herself like a noble lady, but she had moved too fast, and her son could not keep up. Li Zhi’s understanding was still rooted in the past. He knew nothing of the elegance, charm, or luxury of high society.

In reality, with his current allowance, he could have eaten this kind of chocolate until he was sick of it. However, Li Zhi’s first reaction upon seeing these things was still: “So expensive.”

I cannot afford it. I cannot eat it.

He would sigh and prepare to leave, only to suddenly realize he had money in his pocket. Just as he was about to make an impulsive purchase, he would feel reluctant at the checkout, put the item back while enduring the cashier’s eye-rolls, and then slink away.

He had not changed. He still had the same stubborn mindset as before and could not adapt. Li Zhi needed someone to guide him and lead him through this strange world. Wang Xiaochun should have filled that role, but that impulsive woman had never been patient.

To date, Li Zhi’s most extravagant purchase was the latest iPhone model during the summer after the high school entrance exam. He played with the new phone all night, getting so tired that he slept until 4:00 PM the next day, his eyes feeling hazy.

Li Zhi reluctantly stroked the gold-stamped lettering on the exquisite gift box. He placed it carefully into a gift bag and dropped a letter inside.

On Sunday afternoon, he returned to school. He had not slept well on Saturday night. Before Gong Jie could leave the classroom for whatever club activity she had, Li Zhi summoned his courage, stood up abruptly, and called out to her, “Gong Jie!”

Gong Jie paused and looked back, somewhat surprised. “Hmm?”

“Uh, this,” Li Zhi handed over the bag. “For you.”

Gong Jie was surrounded by many girls at the time, making them a beautiful sight that attracted many eyes. Now that they had all stopped together, the attention was even more pronounced. Many people stared at the exquisite bag held between Gong Jie and Li Zhi.

Among those gazes, there was one that Li Zhi did not expect: it was from Chu Mingzhang, who sat behind him.

Li Zhi inexplicably began to feel nervous, his palms sweating. He swallowed hard. “Tha, thank you for your cookies. This,”

“This is a return gift.”

His voice grew lower and lower.

“Oh, oh!” Gong Jie realized. “That is nothing. Uh, then I will accept it!”

Gong Jie hurried away like she was fleeing. The people surrounding her dispersed, but they seemed to have misunderstood the situation. They looked at Li Zhi with looks of surprise and contempt.

Their eyes said one thing: “Know your place.”

They assumed Li Zhi was a suitor of Gong Jie.

After the initial surprise, most people treated the incident as a joke and moved on. Li Zhi was dreaming; he wanted to pursue Gong Jie? The kid was certainly bold.

Unexpectedly, what happened the next day was even more shocking. During the lunch break the following day, just as Li Zhi was preparing to return to the dormitory to eat instant noodles as usual, Gong Jie actually called out to him.

“Li Zhi, let us go have lunch together?”

The girls who were originally around Gong Jie were stunned. One of them stepped back in disbelief, her voice turning shrill: “Gong Jie, are you joking?”

“It is just a meal,” Gong Jie said, shrugging.

“I am not going.” That girl crossed her arms and wrinkled her nose. “If you want to go, go by yourself.”

Once the first person left, a second and third followed. Soon, the group around her scattered. Li Zhi felt awkward and was about to say something, but Gong Jie cut him off. “Hey, then the two of us will go. There is a Thai restaurant on the third floor of the cafeteria that tastes great. Want to try it?”

“Hey, let us go.” Gong Jie gave him no chance to argue. Under everyone’s gaze, she pulled him out of the classroom. “That curry crab is truly authentic.”

This was the first time Li Zhi had eaten a meal with someone else at this school.

This was also the first friend Li Zhi had ever found in his life, and the most sincere one.