The Beloved One Is Always Coveted - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

◎Unsuccessful Escape◎

Twelfth High wasn’t a particularly good school. She had seen the “taimei” (rebellious girls) there heavily made up, wearing only a school uniform jacket draped over their shoulders, not looking like students at all.

She’d seen it, so she knew what to expect.

During the summer vacation of her second year of high school, after P.E. class was dismissed, she and her deskmate were wandering around the school when they accidentally ran into Qi Xue. She was in their grade, and there were vague rumors that she was the “boss” of Twelfth High.

Someone was bowing low and apologizing to Qi Xue over and over again. She and her deskmate huddled like little mice in a corner where Qi Xue couldn’t see them, watching Qi Xue impatiently furrow her brow, and then deliver a vicious kick.

Yu Li’s body trembled slightly. She was afraid Tang Xi would be like Qi Xue.

She didn’t dare look at Tang Xi’s face, her tears were close to soaking the car seat, but Tang Xi still didn’t react.

A tissue was passed to her from the side. Through tear-filled eyes, Yu Li followed the outstretched palm and saw it was Tang Xi.

The young lady’s impeccably clean fingers held a tissue. Her menacing smile had vanished. She looked into Yu Li’s eyes. The eyes of the young lady at the top of the pyramid were no different from an ordinary person’s deep black pupils, like a pool of dark, stagnant water, with something breaking and struggling within, unable to stir a single ripple.

But it was only for a moment; the next second, Tang Xi returned to her original state.

Seeing Yu Li stunned, Tang Xi directly pressed the tissue into her hand. She inconspicuously glanced at the damp car seat, leaned back, and her tone became gentle.

“Jiejie, don’t cry anymore. It’s the first day of the new semester; the teachers and students are looking forward to meeting you.”

In the blink of an eye, she reverted to the refined and polite young lady, completely moving past what had just happened.

Could Yu Li do that too?

She tightly clutched the tissue, but the tears couldn’t flow anymore.

“Miss Xi,” she wanted to show respect, wanted to appease her, “I’m very obedient.”

She lifted her face, her bangs covering her slightly red eyes, but unable to hide the pitiful look shining through them.

“I won’t wander around, I’ll stay where I should be. Please…”

Tang Xi lifted her eyelids. She casually pressed a button, and the black divider separating the driver’s seat rose. The space instantly shrunk, and Yu Li felt the tuberose scent grow even stronger.

She didn’t know what the rising divider meant, only that Tang Xi was smiling again, a menacing look returning, her eyes sinking.

She doesn’t know anything. Danger has already crept up to her ankles, yet she still has her ears pricked up like a rabbit, nibbling on a carrot. How innocent.

The rabbit, clutching her carrot, pitifully begged her: “…Please let me go.”

Like a gunshot, the caged beast suddenly lashed out.

Her body was forcibly pinned against the one-way car window. The coldness of the glass seeped into her bones through her shoulder, but it was nothing compared to the chill pumping from deep inside her body.

Yu Li was speechless. Experiencing the dark side of human nature for the first time, she was trembling with fear.

“Why aren’t you listening?” The beast, with its claws bared, squeezed her jaw, the force almost enough to crush her mandible.

Tang Xi’s tone was very light, as if she were gently coaxing a naughty child.

But Yu Li knew that wasn’t the case.

Her neck was grabbed. She desperately struggled to tilt her head to breathe but couldn’t overcome Tang Xi’s brute strength.

“I was trying my best to restrain myself. Why are you still crying?”

“It was just a photo. It’s not like I was going to kill you. What exactly are you crying about?”

“If you keep crying, how am I supposed to let you go?”

She met those stagnant, dark eyes again—cold, like an emotionless animal.

The accusations rang in her ears. Yu Li couldn’t speak now. Her windpipe was pressed by a thumb, her lungs were empty, and amidst a loud ringing in her ears, she finally realized the enormity of her mistake: she dared to speculate about Tang Xi!

And… and she even put on that pitiful act.

She had no doubt that Tang Xi truly wanted to kill her.

People like them are above the law. It would be a simple matter: kill her, and someone would immediately cover it up for Tang Xi.

Faking a car accident, the car exploding so the body couldn’t even be found, then telling her mother that Yu Li had died in a crash, followed by a large compensation payment.

It would all have nothing to do with Tang Xi. She would still be the high-and-mighty young lady, unconnected to a low-status person like her.

“What a shame, I promised my mother I wouldn’t kill anyone.”

The words dropped lightly, like a pardon. The force pressing on her body instantly withdrew. Yu Li half-slumped against the seat, gasping for air. As fresh air rushed into her lungs, she didn’t feel much joy at having survived.

“Jiejie, you can’t tell Mom. Otherwise, Jiejie’s mother will be my first target.”

Tang Xi lowered her eyes, pulled herself back, and lightly dropped a threat, but it landed like a heavy punch in Yu Li’s heart.

Mom…

She had just made a birthday wish yesterday to be with her mother forever…

It can’t be Mom…

Yu Li understood Tang Xi’s meaning. If she spoke out, if she told the Tang Family Head, death would immediately come for her mother, and then for her.

Yu Li dared not speak.

The Cayenne drove into the Huizhi High parking lot, and Tang Xi had already left.

She had no obligation or leisure time to soothe a red-eyed rabbit.

Yu Li sat in the car for a long time until the driver impatiently urged her out. She finally stepped out with a heavy heart.

She couldn’t find her way at all. This aristocratic school was much larger than Yu Li had imagined.

It took her nearly twenty minutes just to get out of the parking lot.

Yu Li had learned an ancient Chinese text in middle school that contained the phrase: “Huo Ran Kai Lang” (a sudden clearing of the view).

After exiting the parking lot, the view before her eyes was indeed a “Huo Ran Kai Lang”.

However, Yu Li was in no mood to appreciate it. Her mind was filled with one thought: Run. Run out of Huizhi, run home.

She really couldn’t adapt to the role of the wicked female antagonist around the young lady. She was being driven crazy by the young lady before even meeting the difficult classmates.

She couldn’t understand the upper-class, couldn’t understand how cheap human life was in their eyes.

So she wanted to get away from this social class. The first step was to escape Tang Xi.

The unfamiliar environment and equally unfamiliar students made her face pale.

The girls’ assessing stares fell on her without any pretense. She looked down at her clothes—a white T-shirt and black pants, just as out of place as the birthmark on her forehead.

Her sense of security trickled away bit by bit. She kept her eyes down, walked along a path for a long time that seemed endless, and finally gathered the courage to stop a girl passing by.

“H-hello, excuse me, how do I… get out?”

It was her first time speaking to a strange classmate, and she was too nervous to speak properly. However, the girl who was suddenly stopped didn’t show the slightest displeasure.

“Are you a new student?”

It was a very clear voice, soft and gentle, like a stream flowing under a small bridge.

Yu Li looked up. She was very curious about the girl’s appearance, but she only glanced.

She was a girl who looked like the moon wearing the dark Huizhi school uniform, but without Tang Xi’s temper. Instead, she was very gentle and gave Yu Li directions.

Yu Li thanked her and prepared to leave, but her arm was hooked by a finger.

She turned around. The girl who had given directions was smiling, her overall demeanor like a piece of warm, white jade, making it hard for Yu Li to look away. Even the humiliation she suffered from Tang Xi seemed to disappear.

“But you’ll be exhausted if you walk all the way. Let me take you; I’m going out anyway.”

Ah, she was picked up by a beautiful, kind-hearted girl.

Yu Li secretly clutched her chest and got into the car to ride out with the girl.

Yu Li wasn’t good at recognizing license plates, only that this girl, like Tang Xi, was a young lady with a private chauffeur.

She hugged her backpack in front of her, sitting beside the girl in a very reserved posture.

“Aren’t you checking in today, new student?”

The car drove through the campus. The girl turned slightly to face Yu Li, asking with concern.

Yu Li avoided the girl’s gaze. She lowered her head and told a small lie: “I’m not a new student. I accidentally took a wrong turn.”

“Is that so.” The girl smiled, not exposing her, and continued to ask, “Should I drop you off at the school gate or…”

Her gaze swept over the small ornament on Yu Li’s backpack zipper, “…or Twelfth High?”

Yu Li subconsciously covered the blue street sign ornament that read “I miss you very much at Twelfth High,” and said in a panic: “The school gate is fine. I’ll take the bus home myself.”

She wasn’t the kind of enthusiastic person who would immediately present the noticed ornament to the girl. She even started to regret why she hadn’t checked again before leaving the house and hidden this Twelfth High ornament.

In an aristocratic school like Huizhi, there probably weren’t many transfer students like her. Perhaps the news had already spread the day before a girl from a public high school was transferring to Huizhi.

If that’s the case, her escape will be discovered, won’t it?

“The new transfer student, the girl with the Twelfth High ornament on her backpack zipper, ran away after riding in my car this morning.”

Would the girl in the same space as her say this?

Tell Tang Xi, who would then tell Tang Nianyi, that she had run away from Huizhi.

The Tang Family Head took pity on the housekeeper’s daughter and let her attend school with her own daughter, but the girl ran away on the very first day! Ran away!

Yu Li shivered. She slowly looked up, meeting the girl’s still gentle and clear eyes. A coldness spread from her spine to her limbs.

She couldn’t run. She had to go back. This was tantamount to slapping the Tang Family Head in the face. If she did that, she wouldn’t have a good life either, and her mother would also be implicated…

“What’s wrong? You look very unwell.”

The girl’s voice deepened slightly, her warm-colored eyes holding just the right amount of worry, like a good student concerned about a new classmate.

It would be better if the girl’s phone didn’t have that picture of the young woman with red eyes and her forehead birthmark exposed.

Yu Li just shook her head. She pressed one hand against the car window, watching the scenery flash past outside.

In her internal struggle, she decided to stay.

“Could you…”

Yu Li nervously plucked at the girl’s sleeve and said with difficulty, “Could you stop the car? I need to get out.”

She spoke very softly, full of pleading, as if the girl in front of her were her savior.

Jian Mingyue silently curved her lips. Her eyes glanced at the fingers clutching her sleeve they were pale and slender, without any strength, the hands of a bookworm used to holding a pen.

However, she liked her eyes, the eyes of an inferior person, utterly innocent and pure. Even her tears would be more crystalline. Unlike them, who only cried for profit and scheming.

“Okay.”

The car stopped by the roadside. Yu Li got out, still hugging her backpack a posture of insecurity.

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