The Beloved One Is Always Coveted - Chapter 9

Chapter 9

◎That’s Jian Mingyue◎

Who was it? How much did they hear? Would they… mock her?

She didn’t move from the spot, and the other person didn’t move either, but then the sound-activated light in the stairwell came on.

It was the cat perched on the windowsill.

The tabby cat stretched its body forward, pressing down on its hind legs, and let out a long, drawn-out “Meow.”

Yu Li ignored the cat, glancing down with her peripheral vision, and only caught sight of a few strands of red hair.

She sighed lightly, “Oh, so it was her.”

Knowing who it was brought a sense of relief, like a huge stone had been lifted from her heart.

Yu Li walked home with a pale face. Once inside, she quickly pressed her back against the door. All the strength suddenly drained from her body, and she collapsed.

She still cared about what Qi Xue would think of her.

Did she hear those things Tang Xi said?

There was actually nothing in the conversation—it was just a repetition of the incident in the equipment room. She’d heard it so clearly, but she couldn’t remember if she had the speakerphone on or not.

How could she have had speakerphone on? She just answered the phone by default. The voice wasn’t loud, only faintly audible—a few blurred words of “Jie-jie.”

It was her own inner fear and excessive worry. There was nothing to worry about, but she couldn’t stop herself from overthinking.

Sometimes, overthinking is what ruins things.

She showered, got into bed, and forced her eyes shut to sleep.

She thought she wouldn’t be able to, but unexpectedly, the moment she closed her eyes, she fell asleep. It was a dreamless night, and when she opened her eyes again, it was already morning.

Yu Li checked the time; it wasn’t early. She hurried to wash up and get dressed, skipping breakfast. Just as she was about to leave, the phone on the shoe cabinet by the entrance vibrated. She picked it up and saw a call from Yang Shuo, whose number she had saved yesterday.

Worried that Yang Shuo was waiting too long, she quickly said, “I’m heading downstairs now. It won’t be long, I’ll be right there!”

“No need to rush. I just got outside your neighborhood.”

She hung up after just that one sentence, as if she had only called to wake Yu Li up.

Yu Li went downstairs and ran into Grandma Qi, who was doing her morning exercises, and greeted her.

The Grandma was swinging on the striding machine. She smiled and called Yu Li over, saying she wanted to invite her for dinner that evening—not out, but at home. They were all familiar with each other, and Qi Xue would be there too. “Aren’t you classmates? Grandma will cook personally, I guarantee it’ll be delicious.”

Yu Li immediately wanted to refuse, waving her hands, but a freshly adult girl couldn’t out-argue the little old lady. In just a few words, Grandma Qi brushed aside Yu Li’s reasons for refusal. Left with no choice, she had to agree.

It was just a meal, not some dangerous place. Plus, she wanted to see Qi Xue’s reaction.

She finally walked out of the neighborhood and immediately spotted Yang Shuo’s car—it was still that black Cayenne. Expensive cars were rare in the old neighborhood, and many people turned their heads to look.

She quickly opened the car door and slid into the passenger seat. Before she could buckle her seatbelt, Yang Shuo handed her a paper bag.

“Breakfast.”

She was concise, starting the car with an expressionless face.

“No need, I already ate.”

Yu Li instinctively refused, waving the bag back, but Yang Shuo had both hands on the steering wheel and didn’t even glance at her.

Yu Li silently withdrew her hand, thanked her quietly, and took out a sandwich and a cup of milk from the paper bag.

She took another look at Yang Shuo. The woman was still dressed in black, her long hair tied into a neat ponytail, with even the wisps meticulously slicked back. Her demeanor was calm and cold, like a broadsword with its blade wrapped in thick cloth.

She looked like someone who would merely frown and step around a dead body lying in front of her, yet she was unexpectedly kind-hearted.

Hui Zhi School was in the Yaming District, and they arrived in about half an hour.

Yu Li got out of the car, said goodbye to Yang Shuo, and entered the school.

She was still wearing her own clothes, and she still felt out of place walking on campus.

As soon as she entered the classroom, she saw someone sitting at her desk, looking down at something. It must be her desk mate who was absent yesterday.

Her school bag was still on the seat; she had left in a hurry yesterday and hadn’t taken it home.

Before Yu Li could walk over, the class monitor suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her outside the classroom.

The girl was still gentle, but Yu Li felt none of yesterday’s gratitude. She looked blankly at her shoelaces, waiting for the monitor to speak.

After what happened, she didn’t exactly hate the monitor, but she felt she couldn’t easily trust anyone or consider herself important.

“I’m sorry. I found that you weren’t there after I got my things, and I realized I gave you the wrong directions.” The monitor looked guilty, as if she were the one who had done wrong and was wronged by the outcome. She kept pinching Yu Li’s arm.

The monitor was petite and pretty. Her eyes were teary and misty, staring unblinkingly at Yu Li, making her look pitiful.

It was as if Yu Li were the one who truly made the mistake and deserved the punishment.

Many students walked by in the hallway, their gaze drawn to the scene. They thought they were whispering: “Who is that? The new kid?”

Someone who thought they understood the situation answered from an objective standpoint: “Oh, the transfer student. She probably has a conflict with the class monitor.”

“How could the monitor provoke her? I remember your class monitor being a really nice person, right?”

“Yeah, who knows what happened? Which school did this transfer student come from?”

“I think it was that trash school, No. 12 Middle School. Isn’t Qi Xue from there too?”

“Oh, no wonder…”

Yu Li heard those whispers clearly. She lowered her head, feeling her shoulders getting heavier and heavier.

An individual cannot resist the collective. When the strong winds blew, she bowed, and only then did she realize this was just a signal before the storm.

“It’s okay,” she said.

She met the monitor’s eyes and watched the moisture in them gradually disperse, replaced by a smile. The monitor showed a very sincere smile.

But her shoulders still felt so heavy. Experiencing this for the first time, Yu Li felt like she couldn’t breathe.

Yet, the monitor acted as if nothing had happened, releasing her hand and generously saying they should get along well, Yu Li, before walking briskly back into the classroom.

Yu Li stood outside the classroom for a moment before walking in.

When she reached her seat, the unfamiliar desk mate finally looked up.

It was someone she had seen before—the person who had driven her yesterday.

It was Jian Mingyue.

“New classmate, I can’t believe we’re desk mates. What a coincidence!”

Jian Mingyue’s eyes curved into a smile, and she stood up to greet her warmly.

She naturally possessed a gentle aura. She was slender but not overly thin, yet when she stood up, she was a head taller than Yu Li, like a large rabbit.

Yu Li managed a faint smile. She couldn’t return Jian Mingyue’s enthusiasm—it was her nature, and her mood wasn’t great. She sat down on her own.

The smile on Jian Mingyue’s face froze, a hint of hostility surged in her eyes, then was forcefully suppressed. She blinked, and she was the gentle, soft Jian Mingyue again.

The students in the class were all paying attention to their movements. Seeing Jian Mingyue actively greeting the transfer student, they were estimating Yu Li’s status. Then, seeing Yu Li sit down without so much as batting an eye, they were all shocked.

That was Jian Mingyue, the eldest daughter of the Jian family, whom their elders had explicitly warned them not to provoke since they entered this class.

Last year, the only daughter of a real estate mogul, new to the school, didn’t know Jian Mingyue. Seeing her harmless appearance, she tried to use her to establish authority at Hui Zhi. Overnight, her family’s stock plummeted, they went bankrupt, sold their house and car, and the whole family slunk back to their hometown.

Yu Li was unaware of what the crowd was thinking. She sat down and immediately saw that the blank space on the exercise book she had left open yesterday had been filled with an answer.

The handwriting was very fluid and sharp, a completely different style from the slightly rounded “Solution” she had written on it.

“Sorry, I saw you only wrote the Solution and took the liberty of finishing it.”

Jian Mingyue sat down, leaning very close to her, and calmly explained when she saw Yu Li staring at the added steps.

Yu Li frowned slightly, not because she minded, but because she hadn’t encountered Jian Mingyue’s problem-solving method before, and the technique wasn’t even in the textbook.

“Here, why would you…”

Jian Mingyue was right there. Yu Li pointed her pen tip at the part she didn’t understand and sought her guidance without any shyness.

Jian Mingyue leaned in closer and took a piece of paper to demonstrate. Their starting lines were worlds apart from birth, and the things they had access to were vastly different, including their learning methods.

After explaining the problem, Yu Li reviewed the steps and was startled by how excellent the method was. She came back to her senses to thank Jian Mingyue, only to realize how close they were: shoulder touching shoulder, arm touching arm. The faint fragrance on the other person was wafting over.

She hadn’t been this close to anyone before. The other person’s body temperature transferred through their skin. Her face flushed, and she quickly pulled away, sitting properly in her seat, not daring to glance over.

“Thank you.”

She thanked her in a low voice, with a subtle upward lilt in her tone, not realizing how adorable she sounded.

Jian Mingyue responded with a soft laugh, thinking that Tang Xi’s judgment was indeed good.

Yu Li was very focused during class, concentrating on the teacher’s lecture. She also worked hard during the breaks, solving practice problems one by one, familiarizing herself with every type of question she didn’t know.

She had no choice. The talent of an ordinary person wasn’t naturally outstanding. If she didn’t work hard, how could she ever catch up?

Jian Mingyue occasionally offered pointers on a few problems, speaking gently and patiently. Even if Yu Li didn’t understand the first time, she wouldn’t look at her with contempt. She patiently broke the concepts down even further, feeding the solution method to Yu Li like a baby, earning herself a significant amount of goodwill.

Yu Li deliberately buried herself in a sea of questions, her heart constantly pounding, afraid that someone would knock on her desk during a break and tell her to go to a completely unfamiliar place.

To be direct, she was afraid of running into Tang Xi.

Fortunately, nothing happened. The sun suddenly set in the unseen distance, and in the blink of an eye, the last class arrived.

The last class was taught by the homeroom teacher, Yu Sishu. When the class ended, she went straight to Yu Li’s desk and gently asked her to come to the office.

Jian Mingyue curved her eyes and told Yu Li, “See you next time.” Yu Li numbly nodded. She packed her bag and went to Yu Sishu’s office.

It was two sets of school uniforms, the summer and autumn uniforms for Hui Zhi.

She took the uniforms in her hands, and her first thought was, How much do these two outfits cost? and How can I afford to pay for them?

“Teacher, how much are these two sets?” she asked Yu Sishu, her eyes filled with unease and awkwardness.

“The uniform fee is included in the tuition, don’t worry about it.”

Yu Sishu looked at her in surprise. An old relative of the Tang family shouldn’t be asking such a question. Being related to a family like that—even a little bit of what they let slip through their fingers would be enough for an ordinary person to live comfortably for over a decade. Why was Yu Li still worried about the uniform fee?

She was puzzled, but her attitude remained warm.

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