Infuriating enough to kill

It wasn't that he thought ten thousand was a fortune. He simply couldn't understand spending ten thousand on a lousy pot.

"If it were inlaid with gold, it'd cost more than ten thousand. How about I explain why this pot is worth ten thousand? The material it's made of is-" Shen Banxia replied calmly.

"Stop, stop. I don't have time for your nonsense."

Xu Ziming nearly exploded with anger. He picked up his phone to transfer the money, and Shen Banxia promptly opened her payment code for him to scan.

Within two seconds, she received a transfer of ten thousand. Rich people really did pay without a fuss.

"Aren't you afraid I'll turn around and report you for extortion?" After paying, Xu Ziming suddenly glared at Shen Banxia with malicious delight, trying to intimidate her.

"Yes! So are you going to report me for extortion?" Shen Banxia asked in return, looking at Xu Ziming earnestly. She seemed perfectly sincere, not as though she were joking.

Her response left Xu Ziming choking on his words, unsure how to answer. In the end, he turned and left the classroom with a dark expression, choosing to ignore her altogether.

If he reported Shen Banxia over such a small amount, people would think he couldn't afford the compensation. How humiliating would that be?

"Boss, are we just letting her off?" His lackey, Dong Yulin, followed behind him.

"What else? Call the police and tell them that I, Xu Ziming, was extorted for ten thousand and actually paid up? Do you have a brain? Anyone who didn't know better would think I couldn't afford it, making a fuss over pocket change!"

Xu Ziming smacked Dong Yulin on the head, taking his anger out on him.

"That's not what I meant. I just thought you-" Dong Yulin met Xu Ziming's gaze and hastily shut his mouth.

"I won't let her get away with this!" Xu Ziming said viciously, then added a moment later, "It's not about that little bit of money. I'll show her that the consequences of crossing me are more than she can handle!"

With that, he brushed back his green hair and strode away with his head held high.

Shen Banxia had grasped exactly how Xu Ziming thought, which was why she had nothing to fear.

Of course she knew that offending Xu Ziming would bring trouble. But when dealing with a school bully like him, constantly backing down as the body's original owner had done would only make him more brazen and encourage him to push further.

"Truth only exists within the range of a cannon!" Those were the words of Bismarck, Germany's Iron Chancellor!

The greater the gap in strength-or force-between two sides, the less room there was for reason. Only one side got to decide.

That meant she needed to strike first and catch Xu Ziming off guard.

With that nuisance Xu Ziming dealt with for the moment, Shen Banxia could enjoy some peace and focus on her lessons.

The international class was taught entirely in English, which posed no difficulty for her.

But the curriculum wasn't geared toward the Gaokao, which was a little awkward. After all, her current goal was the Gaokao, not studying abroad.

Still, Shen Mingyue had deliberately pulled this petty trick to embarrass her, and she certainly couldn't let her be "disappointed"!

So when she discovered that she had been transferred to the international study-abroad class, she hadn't objected or asked to switch back to the Gaokao class.

Surrendering without a fight wasn't her style.

After the second period came the longer break, with twenty minutes for tea and snacks.

Xu Mingyue left the classroom surrounded by her classmates.

"Mingyue, how is she your sister? Don't you only have an older brother?" one classmate asked first.

The others all pricked up their ears, their faces full of curiosity.

"She isn't related to me by blood," Xu Mingyue replied with a faint smile.

She wasn't a child of the Shen Family; Shen Banxia was. But by phrasing it that way, Xu Mingyue had both told the truth and concealed the facts, killing two birds with one stone.

Yet she had forgotten that she and Shen Banxia weren't unrelated by blood. They were half sisters with the same father.

She simply didn't regard Shen Banxia as a real sister at all, so she naturally overlooked that detail.

"Then why did you say she was your sister?"

Xu Mingyue sighed softly, looking helpless, as though it were something she found difficult to discuss.

"She's not an illegitimate daughter, is she? The kind they keep hidden?" a classmate suddenly asked, eager for gossip.

"She must be. Otherwise, why would she have grown up in the countryside and only come back to the Shen Family now?" another immediately agreed.

"Please stop asking me. I don't know how to explain it either.

"Anyway, for my sake, please look out for her a little more from now on.

"Otherwise, she'll go home and say I've been bullying her," Xu Mingyue said helplessly.

Hearing that, everyone rushed to defend Xu Mingyue.

"You're just too kind."

"Exactly. You're actually letting an illegitimate daughter walk all over you."

"If it were me, I'd have killed her already. How dare she complain about me?"

Because of the Shen Family's influence, everyone usually liked to curry favor with Xu Mingyue.

And since Xu Mingyue knew how to win people over, they were more than happy to spend time with her.

Now that she had encountered something so upsetting, they naturally scrambled to show their support, afraid that being too slow would make them seem insincere.

Within a single break, the claim that Shen Banxia was an illegitimate daughter had spread to every corner of the international class, reaching everyone except Shen Banxia herself.

"Be careful from now on. You've offended Xu Ziming, and he won't leave you alone," her deskmate Ruyi timidly warned her.

With that, she quickly stood and walked away, afraid Xu Ziming would retaliate against her for getting too close to Shen Banxia.

Shen Banxia smiled as she watched her deskmate leave. What a kind girl.

After the fourth period, Xu Mingyue came over to invite Shen Banxia to have lunch with her in the school cafeteria. She still had to keep up the appearance of caring for her.

Shen Banxia said she hadn't finished copying her notes and told Xu Mingyue to eat first. She would go once she was done, rather than accompany her.

Though Shen Banxia said she was copying notes, she was actually reorganizing the high school math concepts using mind maps.

That way, whenever she got a practice problem wrong, she could quickly identify the relevant concepts and the areas she needed to strengthen.

Only after finishing her notes did Shen Banxia sling on her backpack and head toward the school cafeteria.

The cafeteria was self-service. Students could take whatever they wanted to eat.

Shen Banxia had a healthy appetite, and everything looked delicious, so she took two extra plates.

As she walked toward an empty table, someone deliberately stuck out a foot to trip her.

Shen Banxia spotted it but kept walking without giving anything away. Just as she was about to trip over the foot, she suddenly lengthened her stride and stepped straight onto it.

The pain made the other student yank their foot back, clutching it and hopping up with a scream.

"Oh dear, what's wrong?" Having been prepared, Shen Banxia didn't fall. Instead, she asked with a look of surprise.

"You damned bitch! How dare you step on me!" the student cursed, their face twisted with pain.

"I'm not a damned bitch. My name is Shen Banxia. And you've wrongly accused me. You're sitting over there, and I'm walking over here. How could I have stepped on your foot? Do your feet grow out of your back?" Shen Banxia countered innocently.

Her words instantly drew laughter from the people who had turned to watch the commotion.

Exactly. Unless someone had deliberately stuck out a foot to trip her, how could their foot end up behind them when they were sitting with their back to the aisle?

The student whose foot she had stepped on flushed with anger and frustration, glaring venomously at Shen Banxia, but couldn't find a rebuttal.

"Make sure you keep your feet where they belong next time. Then you won't get hurt!"

Shen Banxia even offered that kindly reminder before carrying her trays to a corner, sitting down, and focusing on her meal.

She really could infuriate someone to death and get away with it!