Chapter 17

After Lu Yao left, Xia Yue glanced at the people around her. Seeing them look at her with scrutinizing, suspicious eyes, her cheeks instantly burned with embarrassment.

[System: I told you long ago to be more careful, but you wouldn't listen to me. Now look what happened. Your wishful plan to turn the tables on Chu Jiaojiao has fallen through, and you've made a complete fool of yourself.]

[Xia Yue: Stop gloating!]

Xia Yue hurriedly steadied herself. She could only rely on herself now, and the most urgent thing was to restore her reputation as quickly as possible.

She lowered her head and put on a pitiful, delicate expression.

"Sorry, Sister. I didn't know what I said before would make you angry. I only hoped you could get along with Dad. After all, Dad is getting old. You always make him angry when you speak, and I'm worried he'll get sick from it. That's why I suggested you be a little gentler when talking to him. I really wasn't saying you had a bad temper. Please don't misunderstand me, okay?"

Chu Jiaojiao gave a cold laugh, her gaze frosty as she spoke without concealing her disgust. "Don't call me Sister! Are you on my family register? How dare you claim we're related? My mom only gave birth to me. Someone like you, who knows where you came from, should get the hell away from me."

Xia Yue's eyes reddened. "Sister, I know you blame me, but... but what happened between the previous generation wasn't something I could decide."

Chu Jiaojiao crossed her arms. "You couldn't decide how you were born, but can't you decide not to show up in front of me? Every time I see you, you make me want to puke!"

Xia Yue's eyes turned bright red, and a tear hanging at the corner of her eye slid down.

Xia Yue lowered her head, secretly pleased. During an argument, if one person acted pitiful, people would sympathize with and pity the weaker party. Meanwhile, Chu Jiaojiao's forcefulness would only seem overbearing, unreasonable, and aggressive to others.

Seeing Xia Yue looking so frail and pitiful, Liu Hao could not help stepping forward to shield her, glaring angrily at Chu Jiaojiao.

"That's enough, Chu Jiaojiao. Did you have to speak so harshly? Xia Yue didn't do anything wrong. She was only worried about your father's health, wasn't she? You have a bad temper and always make your dad angry when you talk. Aren't you at fault too?"

Chu Jiaojiao looked him up and down, openly disdainful. "A green tea bitch and a simp—a match made to last forever!"

With that, she shoved past Liu Hao and Xia Yue, who were blocking her way, and strode into the school gates furiously.

A simp? Chu Jiaojiao had called him a simp?! Liu Hao froze for a moment. Once he reacted, his chest heaved with anger.

Xia Yue looked at Liu Hao through tear-filled eyes. "I'm sorry, Liu Hao. You only offended Chu Jiaojiao because of me. I'll apologize to you on her behalf. Please don't blame her, okay?"

Liu Hao had felt upset because Xia Yue had been insulted, but when he saw her pale, aggrieved little face, he hurriedly began comforting her again. "It's not your fault, Xia Yue. Don't take all the blame on yourself. The one who's truly wrong is Chu Jiaojiao."

Watching Liu Hao comfort Xia Yue, one of the boys among the onlooking students spoke up. "Why do I feel like Chu Jiaojiao actually had a point?"

The short-haired girl beside him rolled her eyes. "So you've finally opened your eyes. When I told you before, you said I was overthinking and being too sensitive! Xia Yue reeks of green tea so badly she's beyond the national limit, okay? You guys just see that she's pretty and start blindly praising her."

After seeing Lu Yao ride his bicycle through the school gates, Jiang Bai, who had watched the entire scene from inside the car, finally got out with a cold expression. Ignoring the group still arguing and the crowd watching, he walked into the school with a grim face.

After parking his bicycle, Lu Yao happened to run into Jiang Bai as he slowly approached the stairs.

Lu Yao nodded at Jiang Bai in greeting.

Upon seeing Lu Yao, Jiang Bai had already concealed his earlier gloomy mood. Smiling warmly, he said lightly, "Good morning, Lu Yao."

"Good morning." Jiang Bai was in quite a good mood this early in the morning.

The two walked up the stairs side by side. Jiang Bai asked casually, "I heard someone say that you came to school with Chu Jiaojiao this morning?"

"Yeah. We happened to run into each other on the way here. She twisted her ankle."

Lu Yao had no intention of telling anyone about Chu Jiaojiao encountering those thugs. Although Chu Jiaojiao had been the victim, there was no guarantee that some gossiping people would not talk about her behind her back because of it.

Hearing that it had only been a chance encounter, Jiang Bai's eyes curved with a smile. "That's good. If anyone spreads nonsense about your relationship with her, don't worry. I'll help explain it to everyone."

Lu Yao nodded lightly. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. You're one of my club members, after all. As the president, I should take a little extra care of you. That's one of the benefits of joining the club."

"..." Why did that benefit sound a little strange?

Seeing the two enter the classroom one after the other, the students were all slightly surprised. Jiang Bai appeared gentle, but he had always kept his distance from them. How had the transfer student become so familiar with Jiang Bai?

When Lu Qi arrived in class and heard that Lu Yao had ridden Chu Jiaojiao to school on his bicycle that morning, he was so shocked he nearly lost his balance and fell to the floor.

Ye Muqing looked at him strangely. "What's wrong with you? Why are you making such a big fuss? Didn't you say you didn't care about Chu Jiaojiao?"

Lu Qi ignored him, internally spiraling into a frantic breakdown.

How could this be! Chu Jiaojiao had confessed to him before. If Lu Yao liked Chu Jiaojiao, then once he found out about that later, wouldn't he very likely hate him, his older brother!

[Honestly, I've recently been using a reading app to follow updates. It lets you switch sources and choose from many reading voices, and works on both Android and Apple devices.]

At the thought of that possibility, Lu Qi's expression immediately darkened.

And Chu Jiaojiao had such a fiery temper. In love, whoever fell first lost. Wouldn't Lu Yao end up completely wrapped around that spoiled young lady's finger? How could that be allowed!

Imagining Lu Yao losing his appetite and wasting away day by day because of Chu Jiaojiao, Lu Qi remained in a terrible mood for the entire day.

Because she had liked Lu Qi before, Chu Jiaojiao had applied to become captain of the Basketball Club cheerleading squad.

The Cheerleading Squad and the Basketball Club shared the same training grounds.

In the past, Lu Qi had almost never even glanced toward the Cheerleading Squad's training area, but today, both the Basketball Club members and Cheerleading Squad members were surprised to find that Lu Qi kept secretly looking at Chu Jiaojiao.

A ponytailed girl nudged Chu Jiaojiao's arm. "Captain, Lu Qi has been secretly looking at you all day."

Only after being nudged did Chu Jiaojiao come back to her senses. "Huh? What is it?"

Chu Jiaojiao had been distracted all day, constantly thinking about how Lu Yao had saved her that morning and spoken up for her.

The ponytailed girl sighed. "Captain, why have you been spacing out all day? I said Lu Qi was secretly looking at you just now."

"Oh."

The ponytailed girl stared at Chu Jiaojiao in surprise. Oh?! That was all Chu Jiaojiao had to say?! She was actually being so indifferent?!

Noticing Lu Qi secretly looking toward Chu Jiaojiao again, Xia Yue's face darkened with anger.

How could this be? Lu Qi was hers!

Xia Yue deliberately stepped in front of Lu Qi, blocking his view in that direction. "Lu Qi, this is the Basketball Club's recent training plan. The coach asked me to bring it to you and see whether anything needs changing."

Hearing that it was club business, Lu Qi finally lowered his head to look over the training plan.

Seeing that Lu Qi's attention had been diverted by her, Xia Yue secretly curled her lips in satisfaction.

After secretly observing for several days, Lu Qi found that Lu Yao and Chu Jiaojiao seemed to have no further contact or interaction. Only then did he relax slightly.

***

That morning, Uncle Wang, the driver, took Jiang Bai to school as usual. Halfway there, Jiang Bai looked out the window and suddenly said, "Uncle Wang, you can let me off here."

Though Uncle Wang was puzzled, he still followed Jiang Bai's instructions.

Jiang Bai had carefully planned for several days before finally settling on today's chance-encounter plan.

After getting out of the car, Jiang Bai walked straight toward the street ahead.

After turning left and crossing an intersection, he would reach the road Lu Yao traveled every day on his way to school.

"Waaah—"

Seeing the little boy in overalls sitting by the roadside ahead and crying his heart out, Jiang Bai frowned.

He looked around. On the early morning street, there was not a single person in sight.

Jiang Bai furrowed his brows in frustration. If he stayed to deal with the boy, he would definitely miss the time when Lu Yao passed through that road.

He walked forward, drawing closer and closer to the little boy.

When he reached the boy's side, he sighed inwardly in undisguised disappointment. Forget it. I can arrange another chance encounter another day.

Jiang Bai crouched down and said gently, "Little friend, what's wrong?"

The little boy sniffled and said in a childish voice, "Bad guy, go away."

"..."

He wanted to leave too. If he really were a bad guy, he would have left long ago!

Jiang Bai took a deep breath and put on a gentle expression. "Little friend, big brother isn't a bad guy. Where are your mom and dad? Why aren't they with you?"

"I don't want my mom and dad anymore!"

Jiang Bai sighed. It seemed this was a troublesome child who had run away from home.

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