They Had Been Played by Li Yi!

His university application was settled perfectly. Beiqing University had called and told him to simply wait for his admission letter without worrying.

Over the next few days, Li Yi worked at the villa in Wisteria Garden during the day, then went to the nursing home after work to chat with the elderly residents. He left early and returned late every day, so the Lu family never saw him.

Zhou Xuanze and Lu Junjia actually gritted their teeth and waited until the application deadline before eagerly turning on the computer and entering Li Yi's personal information.

"Huh? Why isn't it working?" Lu Junjia repeatedly pressed the confirm key, but it kept displaying an error. "Did Li Yi enter it wrong?"

"I'll ask him." Zhou Xuanze picked up his phone and sent a message.

[Li Yi, did you enter your exam admission number wrong? Why isn't it working? It keeps showing an error on my end. Today's the deadline. Don't miss it.]

Li Yi sneered at the message. He hadn't expected them to actually hold out without testing whether it was real beforehand. Zhou Xuanze really was suspicious by nature.

[[Photo] No, this is my exam admission number. Look, I didn't enter it wrong.]

"Brother Xuanze, let me check it." Lu Junjia carefully entered the number from the photo. "Looks like Li Yi entered one digit wrong."

After he entered the correct exam admission number, the page loaded.

As they looked at the information on the screen, their expressions shifted again and again!

Bang!

Zhou Xuanze hurled the computer against the wall in fury.

They had been played by Li Yi!

"He locked in his choices ages ago, then had the nerve to message us pretending he'd only just scraped past the undergraduate cutoff!"

Lu Junjia's eyes reddened with anger. "How did Li Yi get so lucky? He actually got a high score!"

"He's already on his guard against us!" Zhou Xuanze's face twisted. "How did he figure it out? And how did he know your grandfather left him an inheritance?"

"I don't know. I only found out about the inheritance because my mom told me. There's no way Li Yi could know!

"My dad had someone investigate. He never contacted any lawyers. Maybe he only knows there's an inheritance and doesn't know it includes shares!"

Just then, the phone rang. Zhou Xuanze picked it up and saw a message from Li Yi.

[Did you find it? Which school did I apply to?]

Zhou Xuanze was furious and tapped out a reply. [Li Yi, is playing me fun? You submitted your own choices, and now you're asking me? What's the point?]

[They've already been submitted? I didn't know. When I asked you for help, I also asked a friend. Did he submit them for me ahead of time?]

Zhou Xuanze frowned slightly. [Who else did you ask to submit them?]

[Shi Yan. He said he'd check my score for me, then told me I only got 550. I didn't dare look at schools after that, so I asked him to help pick one too. What's wrong?]

[He checked your score?]

[Yeah. Hurry up and tell me which school I got into.]

[Shandong Nanxiang.]

Fuck you and your damn watermelon!

Li Yi tossed his phone onto the couch and laughed into a cushion for a while, then put on another performance. [Huh? Are you sure? Then I'm not going. I might as well repeat the year.]

"Brother Xuanze, does Li Yi really not know, or is he pretending? Why do I feel like something's fishy?" Lu Junjia frowned at the messages on the phone.

"He had Shi Yan check his score, but wouldn't reply to my messages!" Zhou Xuanze muttered to himself.

Hearing how differently Li Yi treated them and remembering how he had waited so eagerly for his reply a few days earlier left him feeling stifled.

"On the day of the race, my mom said Shi Yan drove him home," Lu Junjia said deliberately. "Could Shi Yan be the reason he's been so confident lately?"

"I saw Li Yi with Shi Yan on the day of the race too. They came over from the bar together. Maybe Shi Yan was the reason Li Yi could get into the bar that day!"

"No wonder he's been getting more and more arrogant lately. I thought he'd found out about the shares. So it's because he's gotten close to Shi Yan!"

Lu Junjia was jealous that Li Yi had managed to befriend someone as influential as Shi Yan, but outwardly, he sneered. "Doesn't Li Yi stop to think about who Shi Yan is and who he is? Does he really think Shi Yan will keep helping him?"

"Shi Yan doesn't care about his own family. He even dared to run into his own father. Following him will only make Li Yi fall harder!" Zhou Xuanze sneered. "I'll be waiting for the day he comes crawling back to beg me."

Zhou Xuanze stopped replying. Li Yi slipped his phone into his trouser pocket, took a small pair of pruning shears, and leisurely began trimming the trees.

He had revealed Shi Yan to them precisely to make them mistakenly believe Shi Yan was his backer.

Lu Hongshen must already have known he came to Shi Yan's villa every day, and Qiao Xinyue had seen Shi Yan bring him home. Now even Lu Junjia and Zhou Xuanze knew Shi Yan had helped check his score and submit his university choices.

Although the story was false, the impression it created was real.

Shi Yan really was firmly tied to him now~

The Lu family would have one more thing to worry about if they wanted to make a move against him.

Sorry, Mr. Shi. Let me borrow your clout to give them a little scare~

Ever since he had mentioned at the nursing home that he wanted to join Lu Xingluo's variety show, the production team had contacted him of their own accord.

They learned that he had taken the Gaokao that year, earned a high score, and would soon be attending Beiqing University.

The production team, which had initially been somewhat hesitant, immediately agreed to sign him.

The guests invited this time came from various backgrounds: a popular singer, a young actress, a third-tier celebrity, a corporate boss, a variety-show veteran, and an ordinary person like Li Yi.

For now, none of them knew who the others were. Everyone's identities would only be introduced when the show began airing.

Looking at the rumored cast list her manager had sent over, Lu Xingluo sat on the living room couch discussing it with her manager over the phone.

"Why is there an ordinary person too? And a student who only just took the Gaokao this year at that. What is the production team doing?"

"What are you getting worked up about? Aren't there a popular singer and a young actress too?

"And even if they don't work out, there's still a variety-show veteran. They're all bigger names than you. Behave yourself on the show, and this could be your chance to make a comeback."

"What's this corporate boss about, then?"

"She's probably an investor coming along for fun. Just get along with her. You don't need to go out of your way to suck up to her."

"Ugh, that ordinary person isn't going to cling to us the moment he sees us, is he? Young people like that go crazy over celebrities. I don't want someone following me around all the time."

Just then, Li Yi came home from work and heard that self-absorbed remark as soon as he stepped through the door.

A mocking smile immediately curled his lips.

He turned and headed upstairs.

"Don't worry. I'll remind him beforehand to remember his place."

"That's more like it. Look into exactly which popular singer it is. It'd be great if we could market ourselves as a couple."

"That's what the company has in mind too. Marketing celebrity pairings is huge right now. As long as the person paired with you has a large fan base and a good image, we won't have to worry about clearing your name or boosting your career."