The students’ attitude toward Yuan Keqing had changed once again. None of them sided with Tan Mo anymore.
The biggest reason for the change was that they weren’t really acquainted with Tan Mo, but were classmates with Yuan Keqing.
…
Time flew by, and the annual high school leaving exams were around the corner.
Summer arrived in B City earlier than other cities, and crickets’ chirps could be heard in every corner of the city.
Since Yuan Zhengwen had to work on the first day of the high school leaving exams, he could not accompany his daughter to the exam venue.
Only Xu Mingjing went with Yuan Keqing.
They sat in the backseat of the car while their driver drove them to the venue.
“I remember when Mo Mo took these exams, her whole family went with her. Uncle Tan and her brothers all took leave from their work so they could be there,” Yuan Keqing complained with a pout.
Xu Mingjing patted her daughter’s head and comforted her. “Only on the first day… Your uncle Tan went back to work the next day, am I right? Since our family business isn’t as stable as TanYue is, your dad has to make sure everything runs smoothly every day. You have to understand that he’s working this hard for us, okay?”
Yuan Keqing nodded unwillingly.
“You just have to focus on the exam, okay?” Xu Mingjing said.
“I will! I’m going to Beijing University for sure,” Yuan Keqing said confidently. “My classmates all think that the high school leaving exams aren’t that important because their families are rich. Even if they don’t get into a good local university, they can just study abroad. I’m not like them. I’m 100 percent getting into Beijing University so that I can prove that I’m better than them.”
“Thank you for enduring all of this stuff.” Xu Mingjing sighed.
Even though the Yuan family’s business was booming now, they still could not be compared to the other families that had been rich for generations. Yuan Keqing was still being bullied at school because all her classmates knew that her family was nouveau riche.
For the past few years, school life had been h*ll for Yuan Keqing.
And her mother knew all about it…
“This is all in the past. As long as you get into Beijing University, you will have a new start. The gap between you and your classmates will only widen from then onward. I’m sure things will get better with how well our family is doing and you’ll flourish at university.” Xu Mingjing wanted to encourage her.
Since Yuan Keqing was taking the art exam, it shouldn’t be a problem for her to get into Beijing University as long as Yuan Zhengwen used his connections.
Throughout the conversation, Yuan Keqing became more and more confident that she would soon be able to study at her dream university.
Suddenly, the car came to an abrupt stop, throwing the mother and daughter forward.
OUCH! They both yelled in pain as they hit their heads on the front seats.
“Keqing!” Xu Mingjing exclaimed after pulling herself back to her seat and checking on her daughter. “Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I’m fine…” Yuan Keqing said as she rubbed her forehead.
“Thank God! You have an important exam today.” Xu Mingjing let out a sigh of relief.
She couldn’t believe their bad luck having an accident on such an important day.
The mother then barked at the driver, “What the h*ll is going on?”
“Ma’am, w…we are surrounded…” the driver explained anxiously.
“Surrounded?” Xu Mingjing quickly turned to look outside the car window and noticed two cars were blocking the road.
When she turned to look behind them, she realized that two other cars were blocking them from behind as well.
Four other cars were parked on each of their sides also.
They were completely surrounded, and there was no way for them to get going unless these cars moved.
“What is going on here?” Xu Mingjing asked but quickly thought of something, and her voice began to tremble. “D…don’t tell me…”
Are they trying to kidnap us?
Even the driver was petrified after seeing so many cars surrounding them.
“Ma’am, miss, please stay in the car!” The driver warned them as sweat began to cover his forehead.
“I have an exam to attend!” Yuan Keqing shouted in panic as she checked her watch.
The high schooler wasn’t used to wearing a watch as she would usually check the time with her phone. However, since she couldn’t bring her phone with her into the exam venue, she had put on her watch so she could check the time during the exam.
Even though there was a huge clock at the venue, she’d brought the watch with her just to be on the safe side.
“We’ll be late if we don’t go now,” Yuan Keqing yelled after realizing the dire situation they were in.
“We should call the cops,” Xu Mingjing suggested and took her phone out.
However, just as she was about to make the call, she noticed that there was no signal on her phone.
The mother then looked outside the window once again in order to make sure that they were on one of the busiest roads in the city.
Since it was an important day, they had decided to leave early to avoid the rush hour. Even the sun was barely up now, and there were no other cars or people on the street except for those surrounding them.
The usually busy road was as empty as it could ever get.
What Xu Mingjing didn’t know was that no matter what time it was, as long as they were going to drive down that road, it would always be empty for them.
“How can we have no signal here?” Xu Mingjing asked anxiously.
It was practically impossible not to get a signal in B City unless they were in a tunnel or underground.
“Hey! Check if your phone has any signal.” Xu Mingjing then urged her daughter and the driver.
The other two quickly took their phones out.
“I don’t have a signal either,” Yuan Keqing wailed.
“This is impossible,” the driver exclaimed and quickly got a toothpick out of the glove box. He then used the toothpick to open the SIM card slot and removed it. “Miss, do you have an eraser?”
Since the exam only allowed the students to use pencils, it was normal for Yuan Keqing to have a few erasers with her as well.
Yuan Keqing opened her bag and took an eraser out for the driver.
The driver then cleaned his chip with the eraser and put it back in. Unfortunately, he still could not get a signal.
“The SIM card is working fine.” The driver frowned.
Xu Mingjing looked out the window once again. The cars were still parked all around them, but not a single person had gotten out of them.
“They must have some kind of signal jammer with them. They are trying to cut us off from the outside world,” the driver speculated.
Unfortunately, he was no more than a normal driver with no prior army experience who was employed by the Yuan family. This was a situation that he had never encountered before, and it was an eye-opening experience. Little did he know that he was spot on about the signal jammer.
“Why aren’t they approaching us? Are they planning to stay in their cars forever?” Xu Mingjing asked with a frown.
The more the people surrounding them remained in their cars, the more nervous it made the Yuan family feel.
They had no idea what these people wanted from them.
“Mom, I’m going to be late,” Yuan Keqing cried out. “I don’t want to wait for another second to take the exam! What do these people want?”
As she complained, the high schooler moved around in the car.
