After the Most Hated Persona Faked Their Death, the Ex-Husband Lost His Mind - Chapter 7

In truth, Gong Jie’s initial impression of Li Zhi was not very favorable.

You could not blame her. The label “illegitimate son” was enough to make anyone wary, and the rumors about Li Zhi at school never stopped. Gong Jie was not a bad person, but she was not the type to dispense kindness indiscriminately either. Li Zhi was a magnet for trouble, so she naturally chose to keep her distance.

Although Gong Jie was popular and well-liked at school, the main branch of the Gong family was actually based in Hong Kong. The truly powerful side of the family belonged to her distant cousin’s branch there.

As the saying goes, a powerful dragon cannot crush a local snake. It was an uphill battle for Gong Jie’s father to expand his business in a cutthroat place like S-City.

To broaden the domestic market for her family as quickly as possible, Gong Jie had to be socially adept, helping her father establish a firm foothold. However, Gong Jie did not actually enjoy this lifestyle.

People liked her because she wore a mask. For the sake of her family and to maintain appearances, she could never take that mask off. She was, after all, only a teenage girl who eventually grew weary and longed for true friendship.

She had been very surprised the day she saw Li Zhi crying. Gong Jie was completely stunned. She felt that Chu Mingzhang, who was standing behind her, might have also been dazed for a second or two in that moment. However, Gong Jie felt that was normal because Li Zhi was crying quite intensely.

She had asked him, “Do you want a tissue?” Li Zhi did not answer. He just sat there, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably.

At that moment, Gong Jie thought the boy was quite pitiful.

She had baked many bags of cookies, and one bag happened to be extra. For some reason, Gong Jie thought of Li Zhi and simply gave it to him. She did not expect a return gift, and she certainly did not expect a letter inside the bag.

The letter did not say much. Li Zhi wrote: “Classmate Gong, thank you. The cookies were truly delicious; I have never eaten cookies so good. Please accept this small gift and do not look down on it. Thank you truly, thank you very much.”

The letter originally mentioned the tissue, but that part had been crossed out. The writer was likely afraid of being too wordy.

Looking at those few short sentences, Gong Jie suddenly felt that Li Zhi was different from the rumors, in fact, very different.

She felt that this boy was pathetic, sad, and lonely. That loneliness was something she, surprisingly, could empathize with.

So, they began eating lunch together. At first, it was just lunch, but later they began to chat from time to time. They even passed notes during class. Through Gong Jie, Li Zhi learned many things about her.

For instance, Gong Jie had a brother, but his business philosophy clashed with their parents’, leading to a strained relationship. Consequently, her father placed all his bets on her. He also forced her to take boring extra courses, even though Gong Jie only wanted to play the violin.

Additionally, she often went out with Chu Mingzhang not because they were dating, as the classmates rumored, but because they had to go to the school orchestra rehearsals together.

Gong Jie was the first principal of the second violins, while Chu Mingzhang was the principal of the double basses. Li Zhi inexplicably wanted to hear her say more about Chu Mingzhang, but Gong Jie’s conversation quickly jumped to someone else, the concertmaster of the orchestra and the boy Gong Jie liked.

“He plays the violin so well, and he is so polite.”

“Is the violin harder to play, or the double bass?”

“He is so handsome, too.”

“Do you have a photo?”

“I did not dare to take one,” Gong Jie said, blushing slightly. “I only have a group photo of the entire orchestra from before.”

“Let me see.”

Gong Jie pulled out the photo as requested. Just as Li Zhi was about to lean his head over, the desk in front of him suddenly jolted. The edge of the desk slammed hard against his sternum, the pain making him momentarily dizzy.

Li Zhi looked up to see a boy standing there with his arms crossed, looking down at him with an unfriendly expression.

“Wang Kaixuan, are you walking without eyes?” Gong Jie snapped. The jolt to Li Zhi’s desk had inevitably affected her as well. She irritably picked up her things from the floor and lodged a complaint.

Wang Kaixuan was quite popular in their grade. While his family’s business could not compare to those of Chu, Han, and Zhou, they were still among the top tier. Not just Li Zhi, but even Zhou Baiyu usually showed him a measure of respect.

This made Wang Kaixuan think very highly of himself. Usually, this would be a good thing, because someone who thought they were that impressive would not normally bother with a person like Li Zhi.

But that was only if Li Zhi did not offend him.

Unfortunately, there was some bad blood between Wang Kaixuan and Gong Jie. At the beginning of the school year, Wang Kaixuan had pursued her.

One could guess that Gong Jie was not interested. She had grown annoyed by his persistence and, losing her temper, had said some harsh words. The relationship between the two could be described as quite unpleasant.

Wang Kaixuan had not persisted after being embarrassed, but the failure to get Gong Jie left a knot in his heart. Seeing Gong Jie laughing and talking with Li Zhi now made him feel as if he were being told he was inferior to Li Zhi. Was that not a slap in the face?

How could Wang Kaixuan endure that?

“Are you blind?” Wang Kaixuan accused first, kicking Li Zhi’s desk again. “Your desk is moved into the aisle. How am I supposed to walk past?”

The aisle was wide enough that even if Wang Kaixuan weighed two hundred pounds, he could have walked through easily. He was clearly distorting the truth to make trouble for Li Zhi. Gong Jie flared up instantly and stood up abruptly. “Stop twisting the facts. Apologize to Li Zhi!”

“What the hell did you say?” Wang Kaixuan frowned. “Say that again?”

“I said, apologize to Li Zhi! Do you think this is your house? That you can be this lawless?”

“Damn!”

The powder keg was officially lit. Young Master Wang got worked up, rolling up a sleeve and pointing at Li Zhi. “Apologize to this bastard? Gong Jie, have you lost your mind?”

He sneered: “You really will settle for anything. Looking at this bastard, do you not feel disgusted?”

“He is just a bastard. I will do whatever I want to him. I just do not like the look of you.” As he spoke, he raised his foot and kicked the leg of Li Zhi’s desk.

A sharp screech echoed as the desk scraped against the floor. The books on Li Zhi’s desk fell to the ground in the commotion, leaving the surrounding area a mess, like a small earthquake had occurred.

Wang Kaixuan was not satisfied and prepared to kick again. Li Zhi’s heart tightened in fear, and he instinctively pushed his chair back.

That retreat caused the desk behind him to shake as well.

It was not a major shake, but a pen on that desk rolled off.

The pen hit the floor with a soft clack. If one did not listen closely, they would not have noticed it, especially compared to the grand commotion Li Zhi had just made. However, everyone fell silent because of that tiny sound. Wang Kaixuan’s face changed, and he pulled back his raised leg.

Because Chu Mingzhang sat behind Li Zhi.

Chu Mingzhang looked at the fallen pen, his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly. Li Zhi froze for a moment. He was halfway through bending over to help when he saw that Chu Mingzhang had already picked up the pen. Li Zhi sat up awkwardly and murmured, “I am sorry.”

“So noisy,” Chu Mingzhang interrupted him. “Move forward.”

Li Zhi moved his desk forward, returning it exactly to the position it was in before Wang Kaixuan kicked it. Wang Kaixuan felt embarrassed and, with a weak show of bravado, muttered, “Just you wait,” before leaving.

Li Zhi had escaped a disaster and let out a tiny sigh of relief. Gong Jie leaned over with concern. “Are you okay?”

“I am fine.” Li Zhi shook his head. He even flashed a smile at Gong Jie, but his hair was so long and messy that she almost missed it.

“I think it is about time you cut your hair,” Gong Jie said as she helped him straighten the books on his desk. She mentioned casually, “I have known you for so long, and I have never seen your face clearly. What is your prescription?”

“One hundred degrees in both eyes,” Li Zhi said.

“Why do you wear glasses for only one hundred degrees?” Gong Jie was surprised. “My left eye is one hundred fifty and my right is two hundred, and I do not wear them. We are not that far from the blackboard.”

Li Zhi stammered, “I am used to it. Besides, I am afraid of people looking at me.”

“What are you afraid of?” Gong Jie laughed. She glanced at the section of Li Zhi’s arm exposed by his short sleeves. “You are so fair-skinned; how bad could you look?”

“When we come back from the National Day holiday, we will have equestrian and golf classes. If you do not cut your hair, you will die from the heat.”

“Well, we will see.” Li Zhi brushed his hair. Perhaps it really was time for a trim.

Gong Jie shook her head and did not pursue the topic. Instead, she unlocked her phone and pulled up the orchestra group photo. She pointed at the tall boy in the center of the front row. “Look, that is him.”

“Super, super handsome, right?”

Li Zhi squinted and looked closely for a while, then said sincerely, “He seems very ordinary.”

Gong Jie was displeased. “What? He is clearly very handsome. The photo just made him look bad.”

“No, you still look very pretty, and Chu,” Li Zhi instinctively argued back, but halfway through, he strangely froze.

Gong Jie followed where his finger was pointing. At that time, she had not noticed the subtle change in Li Zhi when he mentioned the other person. Gong Jie nonchalantly put her phone away. “Why are you looking at him? People with paralyzed faces just look better in photos.”

Li Zhi did not speak again, his fingers curling unnaturally. Gong Jie zoomed in and out of the photo, failing to notice that Li Zhi’s posture had become stiff.

“He is just very handsome,” Gong Jie concluded while looking at the photo.

“Mm-hmm,” Li Zhi agreed with her, his voice full of emotion as if he truly meant it.

The first friend in Li Zhi’s WeChat list was Gong Jie.

During the October holiday, Gong Jie flew to Montreal to visit her brother who had fallen out with the family. “I really hope he comes back to inherit the family business,” Gong Jie said fretfully.

“Are you going out for the holiday?” Gong Jie asked him.

“Me? I am not going out,” Li Zhi answered. “I am staying at home.”

Wang Xiaochun had gone out again with Zhou Guoxiong. Since she started getting involved in business matters, she seemed very busy. Li Zhi did not know if this was a good or bad thing.

When Wang Xiaochun was around him before, Li Zhi found her terrifying and felt like the house was suffocating him. But now that she was rarely around, Li Zhi could not help but feel lonely.

After all, Wang Xiaochun was the only person there who felt familiar to him.

“No way, do you not feel bored? Almost everyone in class is going out.”

Li Zhi did not know, so he told Gong Jie honestly.

Gong Jie replied quickly: “That should not be right? Everyone in the group chat is talking about it. Some people are even making plans to go to an auction.”

“I did not know,” Li Zhi typed. “I am not in the group.”

Gong Jie was quiet for a moment, and then a flurry of new messages popped up for Li Zhi, group messages.

Gong Jie had pulled him into the group chat. Li Zhi had not changed his nickname yet, and someone in the group asked her, “Gong Jie, who did you pull in?”

Gong Jie was concise: “Li Zhi.”

As soon as those two words appeared, the previously lively group chat froze. After a long while, a certain boy posted a question mark.

This boy was a loyal follower of Wang Kaixuan, so Gong Jie did not give him any face. She replied under the question mark, “What, we are all classmates in the same class. What is wrong with adding him?”

The boy replied with “Impressive,” and several other boys who usually played with Wang Kaixuan followed up with comments like “666.” They did not use many words, but the tone was thick with sarcasm. Almost all of Wang Kaixuan’s friends spoke up, yet Wang Kaixuan himself did not say a word.

Everyone knew that Wang Kaixuan was not a magnanimous person. He had just had a dispute with Li Zhi not long ago, and his attempt to show off had been interrupted by Chu Mingzhang, leaving him with a grudge.

Before that anger had even dissipated, Gong Jie had pulled Li Zhi in front of everyone. What the hell did she mean? Was she saying she was protecting this kid and insisting on going against him?

The more silent Wang Kaixuan was, the more it indicated he was uncomfortable. Li Zhi was a little scared and sent a private message to Gong Jie: “Maybe we should forget it? It is fine if I am not in it. I was not in it before, either.”

“How can that be?” Gong Jie said. “They are isolating you, which is their fault to begin with. You are a good person, not like the rumors at all. But people can only know that after they interact with you.”

Li Zhi knew that Gong Jie truly considered him a friend. This girl had been well-protected by her family and was very warm-hearted. She had never experienced the things Li Zhi had, so she sometimes did not think things through completely, but her intentions were good, she just wanted Li Zhi to fit into the environment.

Gong Jie was preparing to fight a verbal war with those idiots in the group to make them behave. But before she could strike, a new message popped up in the group.

Chu Mingzhang: Welcome.