The Beloved One Is Always Coveted - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

◎So Foolish◎

The girl in the car told her to be careful. Yu Li lowered her head to thank her, but as she was leaving, the gentle female voice called out to her again.

“New student, my name is Jian Mingyue. Can you tell me yours?”

Jian Mingyue got out of the car and stood by the roadside, smiling at Yu Li, as if they were not two strangers who had just met fifteen minutes ago, but rather the best of parting lovers in the world.

She had a pair of very beautiful eyes. Her pupils weren’t completely black; they reflected a light tea color in the sun, and they were currently filled with Yu Li, looking reluctant to see her go.

To put it another way, those eyes would look soulful even if they were looking at a dog.

Upon hearing the girl’s name, Yu Li’s first thought was: Her name is Mingyue (Bright Moon). No wonder she’s like the moon in the sky.

Her second thought was: The surname is Jian. I think I’ve seen that surname on TV…

The soulful eyes that could look at a dog were not noticed by Yu Li. Her social etiquette did not teach her to look directly into a person’s eyes; she always carried a fear of direct eye contact.

It was as if once someone looked into her eyes, they could see through her heart, know her baseness, mock her selfishness, and despise her stupidity and wickedness.

She only half-turned, her gaze settling on the asphalt road next to Jian Mingyue, and then she spoke her name.

Yu Li.

The character Li, meaning “to leave/separate,” wasn’t suitable for a name. It was a bad character, always implying separation, always implying going far away.

However, it wasn’t a name Yu Rong had given her. It was the name that came with her in her swaddling clothes when she was found. The slip of paper had only the character Li. For her birth mother, one character could represent everything; but for Yu Rong, the character Li represented the baby’s separation from her past. From then on, she was her child, her everything.

Jian Mingyue returned the smile and said, “See you next time,” which was exactly what it was.

At least Yu Li wasn’t called back again. She put on her black backpack and walked along the way she had come.

The sycamore trees on both sides were tall, shading the entire path, but she still couldn’t avoid sweating.

Yu Li’s physical fitness wasn’t great; she was a pure bookworm. She had never passed the long-distance running portion of her high school physical tests. Walking on the asphalt road now, she was already drenched in sweat.

Compounding this, the campus was terrifyingly quiet right now. There was no one in sight, and the incessant buzzing of cicadas was noisy and irritating. Yu Li’s heart grew anxious, and she started regretting again.

It wasn’t that the asphalt road was long, but Yu Li walked slowly and was unfamiliar with the way. Every time she saw a fork in the road, she had to stop and consider if she should turn. Had the car driven on this road just now?

Finally, she squatted beneath a sycamore tree, her heart urgent and confused. She regretted not having gone out with Tang Xi in the first place. If she had gone with her, perhaps she wouldn’t have all these troubles.

Yu Sishu’s class had a transfer student. She didn’t have much of a background, but the dean said the transfer paperwork was handled by the Tang family.

She had looked at the child’s file. The child’s surname was Yu, not Tang, so she might be some distant old relative.

The child was a good student, and her grades were good, but she wasn’t very punctual. Yu Sishu waited in the office for a long time but still didn’t see Yu Li.

Did she get the time wrong? Did she not come to register today?

She called the number left in the file. The woman who answered spoke with an unemotional, flat tone, telling her the child hadn’t come to school, but didn’t even bother to ask a question. She just said coldly that the child had been sent over and rode in Tang Xi’s car.

It’s like a detective case, one clue leading to the next. She wasn’t a homeroom teacher; she was Detective Yu, solving the mystery of the missing new student.

Fine. She called Tang Xi over separately, who said the person was dropped off at school, but she didn’t come with her and didn’t know where she went.

Yu Sishu had a huge headache. She searched from the parking lot to the asphalt road and finally saw the new student under a sycamore tree.

The small figure was huddled in the shade of the tree, looking pitiful and tearful. Plop, plop, the wronged tears fell.

Actually, they weren’t tears, but sweat dripping like tears because of the heat.

“Yu Li, are you lost?” Yu Sishu softened her voice, trying not to frighten the seemingly fragile and easily broken new student.

Yu Li had already noticed her but was too embarrassed to speak up.

Squatting under the tree was humiliating, but she really couldn’t find her way. Huizhi was so big, and she had walked in circles, only to return to the starting point.

Seeing her approach, Yu Li just nodded sullenly. The face resting on her knees was timidly lifted. She cautiously glanced at Yu Sishu and quickly looked down again.

“I apologize, this was my oversight.”

The new student didn’t seem to have an outgoing personality.

Yu Sishu reached out a hand to help Yu Li up. She apologized to her for not being considerate enough.

“I’m your homeroom teacher, Yu Sishu. Can you forgive me, Yu Li?”

That’s strange. Why is she apologizing? It’s Yu Li’s own fault.

Yu Li stared at the hand reaching out, and even more cautiously offered her own hand, but before Yu Sishu could close her grip, she quickly pulled it back.

Like a mimosa plant that was too shy to accept the enthusiasm, it tried to open its leaves and then quickly folded them back up.

“Yu Li?”

Yu Sishu watched as Yu Li stood up with the aid of the tree root, and then deeply bowed to her.

“I’m sorry for causing you trouble.”

A bead of sweat slid down her cheek, plop, landing on the spot where she had been squatting.

Yu Li was forced to straighten up by a hand on her shoulder. Yu Sishu’s kind smile was right in front of her. “Yu Li, come with me to the office.”

Yu Li was stunned. She nodded woodenly, “Ah, okay.”

Despite all the complications on her first day of school, she had successfully found her homeroom teacher. Yu Li drew a half-crying, half-not-crying bean-face emoji in her notebook, thinking that things weren’t too bad.

She just needed to be obedient, not provoke Tang Xi, not tell the secret she had to keep to the Tang Family Head, and just finish this year quietly. Things would be fine once she got to university.

Her teachers at Twelfth High always said that things would be great once she got to university. University life was good she could sleep until she was completely exhausted, stay up until dawn playing games, and even casually date; no teachers would interfere.

Yu Li also thought: It will be fine once I get to university. She wanted to go to Dongda Medical School in Donglin City. Donglin City and Tunnan City were one north and one south, a city she had yearned for a long time.

She entered her new class, met new classmates and teachers. Everyone was nice and friendly to her, gathering around to ask questions after class.

Yet, intentionally or unintentionally, the crowd thinned significantly once they heard her surname.

Yu Li wasn’t good at handling social relations. A quick look at her classmates only gave her a familiar face. The novelty only lasted for one break. When the bell rang for the next class and the teacher left the room, Yu Li’s seat became quiet and empty.

It was as if a wall separated her spot, and the joy of others couldn’t reach her.

She spread out her workbook and leaned on her desk to solve a problem. She had only written the start of the solution for the last calculation problem when someone knocked on her desk.

“Class Monitor?”

Yu Li looked a bit lost, her gel pen still in her hand. The vertical line under the character for ‘solution’ was crooked.

“Yu Li, the next class is P.E.” The Class Monitor was a very gentle girl, also pretty, the kind who was very thoughtful of others.

Yu Li finally nodded slowly, her eyes scanning the class schedule on the blackboard. P.E. was clearly written for the last period.

Ah, P.E.

She couldn’t help but exclaim softly: Third-year high school students still have P.E. class.

She didn’t know the way to the gym, so the Class Monitor offered to take her, pointing out the school’s facilities and buildings along the way, telling her where she could go and where she couldn’t.

For example, students could go up to the school’s rooftop freely, but they were not allowed to go to the small garden behind the teaching building.

Yu Li just listened silently, quietly keeping it in mind.

This was different from her experience at Twelfth High. At Twelfth High, the rooftop was Qi Xue’s exclusive domain.

Yu Li wasn’t very familiar with Qi Xue. They lived in the same neighborhood and often saw each other but never greeted one another.

Qi Xue was a vicious fighter. Her deskmate said she was moody and could grab a stool and smash it if something didn’t please her.

Yu Li had always tried to avoid Qi Xue, afraid that if Qi Xue found her displeasing, she would beat her too.

But even with efforts to avoid her, they would still meet on the bus on Mondays.

At those times, she would stand far away, squatting in a corner with Zhou Yuqing, to prevent Qi Xue from seeing her. She really would hit people.

“Yu Li seems like someone who loves to study. You should really like our school library,” the Class Monitor said to Yu Li, brushing aside a strand of hair.

Her voice was lovely to listen to, like the slow-moving sound of a cello, every note hitting Yu Li’s inner ear.

Yu Li kept her head down, walking half a step behind the Class Monitor, thinking what a truly gentle person the Class Monitor was.

It was still very hot past 3:00 PM. Halfway there, the Class Monitor suddenly said she had forgotten something and needed to go back to get it. She very carefully pointed out the way to Yu Li, telling her to go ahead and she would catch up.

Yu Li nodded hesitantly, memorizing the route, and followed the path, but the destination wasn’t the gym.

After all, she was a new transfer student and didn’t yet know that the class divisions here were clear. Even the seemingly gentle Class Monitor was only in the middle section of the pyramid.

All of them had to bow to the small minority who held the power at the apex of the pyramid.

It was the equipment room. Only one door was open. The sky outside was blindingly bright, but the inside was pitch black.

She believed the Class Monitor and came to the equipment room alone. Even though she had doubts, she stepped half a foot inside.

There were many pieces of sports equipment stacked haphazardly inside the equipment room. She stood outside, not knowing what to do.

It was very dark inside. It didn’t look like anyone was there, nor did it look like a place for P.E. class.

Aside from academics, she didn’t understand human cruelty. She still simply thought the Class Monitor had given her the wrong directions, or that she had taken the wrong path.

The class bell rang. She wanted to leave, but danger had already arrived.

A hand reached out from the darkness. The fingers were fair and well-proportioned but burst with surprising strength, pulling her in without a word.

She had no time to resist. The hand shoved her onto a mat, pinning her down completely.

“So foolish. You’re so easily manipulated. You knew it was the equipment room, so why didn’t you leave?”

The person pinning her spoke slowly, sneering as she pinched Yu Li’s chin.

It was too dark in the equipment room. Even with her eyes wide open, Yu Li couldn’t clearly see who the person was.

But her memory was excellent, and her observation skills were quite sharp.

The person carried a tuberose scent, mixed with a hint of bitterness, which aggressively covered up the messy smell of the equipment room.

At least, that was the only scent she could detect.

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