The Beloved One Is Always Coveted - Chapter 13

Chapter 13

◎What Does Jiejie Like to Eat?◎

Yu Li suddenly felt that Yang Zhuo was like a fixed-program android, always in the same well-tailored black suit, always with the neat high ponytail, and always taking Tang Nianyi’s command as her standard.

However, Yang Zhuo wasn’t a typical cold android; she was an android with emotion.

Yang Zhuo would open a tiny window for her in a tightly closed door, a window through which she could see the moon and the endless starry sea. That was enough.

She said goodbye to Yang Zhuo and walked into the school with her backpack. Her seat was empty; her deskmate from yesterday, Jian Mingyue, wasn’t there.

The classroom was noisy, seemingly discussing something. When they saw her enter, they all abruptly fell silent. Only a few strange glances landed on her, carrying an air of probing and scrutiny.

Yu Li was confused. She retreated into her seat, pulled out her workbook, and started practicing problems. When she got tired of practicing, she would stand for a moment and look at the blue sky and white clouds outside the window.

Only the class president seemed to have an issue with her, clearly displeased, and now came over to ask her a question.

“Yu Li, how do you do this problem? I have no idea how to start.”

She wasn’t aware of the class president’s intentions. Since it was a question, she set aside any personal feelings and seriously took the problem to look at it. It was a very simple question, only a few lines, but the method was much more complex.

She glanced at the book title at the top of the page. She couldn’t see all of it, but the two words “Math Olympics” were very clear.

She had never encountered Math Olympics problems. Knowing they were difficult, those two words alone were enough to defeat her.

How to explain it? Her heart sank immediately. She handed the problem back to the class president. “I don’t know how.”

And just like that, she became the class president’s joke. The girl feigned surprise, her voice loud, “Yu Li wasn’t one of the top ten at her previous school? I thought your math was very good, that’s why I asked.”

Yu Li sat in her seat, watching the class president flutter around like a butterfly, holding up the Math Olympics book with the problem written on it. Everyone’s eyes were on her. She could almost predict what they would be discussing in the next class.

After the class president was done displaying the book, she leaned over and put both hands on Yu Li’s desk, smiling very kindly, yet with a flash of triumph in her eyes. “What do you know? Which subject are you better at? I’ve never been in the top ten. I’ll come to you for questions, Scholar Yu.”

Her voice was sweet and delicate, dripping with affectation, but it placed Yu Li on a high pedestal. She didn’t know how to step down, shrinking in her seat, like Alice who had stumbled into the rabbit hole.

Weren’t you one of the top ten at Twelfth High? How come you can’t even solve this one problem? I’ve never been in the top ten, I’m here to ask you questions, don’t be angry, be a little more generous, Scholar.

She had become the target of public scrutiny, and the class president wouldn’t stop until she gave an answer.

If she named a subject, the class president would ask her another problem. If she couldn’t answer it, the class president would sweetly ask if she wasn’t supposedly good at this subject, if she couldn’t even solve this problem, or if she was lying about being in the top ten at Twelfth High.

Everyone was watching her. She and Jian Mingyue seemed to have a connection—they had seen Jian Mingyue tutor her all day yesterday so no one was looking for trouble yet.

The class president wasn’t ignorant, but she wasn’t intimidated by Jian Mingyue. Power circles favor alliances, even among aristocratic students still in the ivory tower. She was on Tang Xi’s side. The interests of their families were strongly intertwined. If the towering tree of the Tang family fell, the class president’s family would be the first to be affected.

Seeing Yu Li silent, the class president tapped the desk a few more times. Her hand was slender and soft, a pianist’s hand, so even tapping the desk had a musical quality to it.

Everyone waited for Yu Li to speak.

She didn’t understand again. Why? Why did they have to see her embarrassed? She and the class president had no conflict when you got down to it. If anything, the class president should be apologizing to her.

She didn’t need to understand. Unprovoked hatred must be orchestrated by someone, like… Tang Xi.

She suddenly stood up. Her bangs swung with the movement. Tiny flashes of light burst from her eyes, carrying the sliver of courage she had painstakingly mustered.

Just then, someone tapped on the window. The words leaving her lips were masked.

Turning her head, she saw Tang Xi. The muffled whispers instantly vanished.

The classroom fell silent. The window opened. Tang Xi, her face cold, called her out.

This was a great opportunity—an escape from the stifling classroom, the acidic class president, and the coldly observing classmates. Yet, the person rescuing her was Tang Xi.

It was undoubtedly jumping from one fire pit into another.

But she still went. Compared to the suffocating classroom, Tang Xi’s humiliation was much more tolerable.

The class president’s expression behind her wasn’t good. All of Tang Xi’s attention was on Yu Li, who looked very different in the school uniform.

Tang Xi maintained her cold demeanor for a moment. As they walked past the classroom, she suddenly grabbed Yu Li’s arm, who was walking in small steps behind her, and pushed her into a music room.

Then came the sound of the lock clicking.

She hadn’t seen Tang Xi all day and thought she had escaped her clutches, but it turned out the girl was waiting for her here.

The light in the classroom wasn’t strong. Since no one used it, the warm, golden curtains were tightly drawn.

In the dimness, she was back in the equipment room of two days ago.

A smile touched Tang Xi’s brow a wicked, malicious smile. Her eyes and brows relaxed, but her lips were half-curved in a mischievous way. It somehow looked surprisingly fitting on that face, a natural bad seed.

The smile alone made Yu Li tremble, wanting to scream and rush out.

But this was a music room, with good soundproofing. The door was locked. She couldn’t escape, and she couldn’t scream either.

She was a turtle in a jar, clawing around with no way out, grabbed by the tail and thrown into a pot, unable even to struggle.

“Jiejie, why didn’t you accept my friend request?”

Tang Xi leaned in, a faint smile on her face. It didn’t sound like an interrogation at all, just a hint of a complaint, like sisterly teasing.

This casual questioning, however, tightened her heart, and fear crept into her eyes.

She had deliberately ignored it. She didn’t want to have any connection with Tang Xi, so she intentionally overlooked the red dot on her contacts, pretending not to see it and falling asleep. She hadn’t expected the consequences to arrive so quickly.

She retreated step by step until her calves hit a hard object. She knew she couldn’t escape. She mumbled an excuse: “I’m sorry, I… I didn’t see it.”

“Is that so?”

A hand pressed down on her shoulder with heavy force, pushing her down. Tang Xi clearly didn’t believe her.

Behind her was a piano stool. She instinctively braced her hand on the stool, and in an instant, her chin was hooked up to meet those icy eyes.

This was a small excuse, but it gave Tang Xi an opportunity to make an issue of it. Tang Xi leaned in close to her lips, face-to-face, nose-to-nose—the most intimate, yet most indifferent posture, devoid of any warmth or romance.

“Jiejie,”

She deliberately softened her voice, calling her Jiejie again and again, like a ghoul’s cannibalistic chant. If Yu Li answered, she would be eaten down to the bone shards.

She certainly didn’t answer. Her long, pale neck was pressed back. Her bangs also swept back, immediately exposing her birthmark and her small, terrified face.

“Don’t do this…” She wanted to push Tang Xi away, but the difference in strength and her passive position meant she could only endure it.

In fact, she wasn’t doing much. Miss Xi’s hand gripped her waist, but only gripped it, rubbing her through the thin fabric. The small area under her palm quickly heated up. If you lifted the shirt, you’d see a small red patch.

“This is punishment.”

A very small punishment, with no substantial contact, not even brushing against her chest just an outlet for frustration.

Yu Li knew it, but they were too close. She wasn’t used to such intimacy.

Tang Xi was half-leaning on her, almost sitting on the piano stool. Yu Li trembled and retreated. Her head, tilted backward, hit a table-like object, and then, the “table” suddenly sank.

It was an open grand piano. A young lady had been practicing here half an hour ago.

The sound of the piano rang out in the empty classroom. She jumped in fright, struggling to get up, but was pressed down again. Another string of discordant noises rang out. Afraid that passing students would hear, she didn’t dare to move anymore.

Tang Xi was the type of person who looked indifferent on the surface but was actually vindictive, seizing on the smallest mistake and taking it to the assembly hall.

“A locked music room is suddenly making piano sounds. Why aren’t you scared at all, Jiejie? If someone came in, what would they think of you?”

She couldn’t answer. She was too scared to remember to lock the door beforehand. She thought to herself, What else could they think? The new transfer student and the young lady of the Tang family are in the music room, practically hugging each other. How shameless!

She couldn’t stand such words. The power of language was unimaginable. She could only try to be obedient, letting out a pathetic little whimper and saying, “I’ll listen. I’ll be a good girl.”

Tang Xi still held her waist but offered no support. She was forced to crane her neck, which was sore but she dared not let it droop, afraid of making another sound.

“That’s right. Do what I tell you. Answer the phone, add me as a friend, or I can’t guarantee what I might do.”

Only after getting her promise did Tang Xi slowly stand up. She was even kind enough to pull Yu Li up, saying with a half-threat:

“Jiejie, you know me best, don’t you?”

Yu Li cautiously nodded, not daring to rub her aching neck.

Tang Xi was clinging to her now. She insisted Yu Li join her for lunch. After saying, “Come eat with me. You must be hungry too, Jiejie,” Yu Li had no right to refuse.

She could only follow behind her, trailing toward the cafeteria.

Huizhi’s cafeteria was largely for show. Few students actually ate there. The young ladies mostly went home or to high-end restaurants in the nearby commercial district.

Tang Xi, as if to tease her, led her into the cafeteria. After wandering around for a while without finding anything appealing, she casually ordered rice and two small side dishes and sat down.

“What does Jiejie like to eat?”

A gentle smile appeared on Tang Xi’s face as she kindly looked at Yu Li.

Tang Xi was a picky eater. At home, the chef always cooked according to her preferences. Now, eating in the cafeteria for the first time, she poked and prodded the food with her chopsticks but couldn’t find anything appetizing.

Yu Li was taken aback by the question. She had ordered scrambled eggs with tomato and sweet and sour pork, both sweet and sour, which were delicious with rice.

And she wasn’t picky. What she liked… she really couldn’t say.

But Tang Xi’s gaze was piercing, insisting on an answer. Yu Li braced herself and thought for a moment, then pointed to the dish she was currently eating and said, “Scrambled eggs with tomato, I guess.”

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