Urgent, urgent, urgent!
Lately, Xia Mi had been desperate to get back to her hometown, the southern city where Lu Mingfei had been born.
Just days ago, she had acted as though the childhood friend had the newcomer firmly beaten. Now she was so anxious she could barely sit still. No matter how you looked at it, she seemed like a sore loser.
Her classmates noticed, and everyone tacitly agreed not to get on her bad side.
A few even took some pleasure in her misfortune. Look how full of yourself you were before, thinking you had Lu Mingfei in the bag. Bet you never thought a childhood friend like you would lose to a girl who came out of nowhere, did you?
You acted like all you could do was win, win, win. That makes your helpless losing streak now look pretty laughable.
"Xia Mi," Isabella asked quietly, "are you taking leave again? We graduate next week. Are you coming on the graduation trip?"
"No. I have things to do over summer break. See you at Cassell in September," Xia Mi said absently.
"What's so urgent that you have to take leave early?" Isabella asked. "Are you going to see Lu Mingfei? I checked Cassell College's academic calendar. Their break starts earlier than ours."
"No, I just need to go back to my hometown. My dad is sick. He's dying," Xia Mi made up offhandedly. "I just want to see him one last time and watch him die."
"Watch him... die?" Isabella froze for a moment. Something about that sounded very strange.
"I mean, stay with him through the final stretch of his life," Xia Mi immediately rephrased it in a more human-sounding way.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Isabella said worriedly. "I can contact the