Ever since offending the Su family, Yun Yuanfeng had been in a bad mood. Yun Xi had heard that someone from the Su family had put pressure on and taken several projects from Yun Yuanfeng.
Taking away these projects was equivalent to cutting off a hefty chunk of his income for Yun Yuanfeng.
The end of the year was approaching, and everyone was at their busiest. This was the time of year when Yun Yuanfeng’s department made the most money.
It was a pity that they had offended the Su family at this juncture. He was extremely fortunate to have this position, let alone being able to make a fortune.
But this sort of matter couldn’t be predicted or expected, so Yun Yuanfeng had no choice but to keep a low profile for the time being.
He resented Liang Xiuqin for the huge trouble she had brought upon him.
When Yun Xi came back home, she heard that Liang Xiuqin’s health club had been smashed up. Frightened, Liang Xiuqin had run back to the compound, but she had been stopped by the sentry and, no matter how hard she begged, no one dared to let her in.
Yun Xi heard that later Liang Xiuqin had run to beg the second aunt to intercede with the old man and let her return to the Yun family’s house.
Yun Xi knew that her second aunt definitely wouldn’t help her return.
Yao Ying had been bullied by her for so many years. If Liang Xiuqin had had a conscience before, Yao Ying wouldn’t have refused to help her.
It was a pity that because of her own actions, she’d destroyed the last shreds of sympathy people had for her.
…
Registration for the middle-school English competition began, and, from the preliminary to the final, the competition lasted two months.
Jing High School put great emphasis on its English curriculum, and the competition results had become an important reference for middle school students in entering high school, receiving bonus points, studying abroad, and priority in college admissions.
Although it was a foreign language, because Jing High School had a rigorous curriculum, its students’ English skills weren’t bad, and many people signed up for the competition.
The school held a round of quizzes and screenings, then sent those with the best grades to the preliminary round.
English was Zhao Yumo’s strength. As soon as the rankings for the entire grade came out, Yun Xi felt a little confused.
Zhou Chengzhe, who was usually ranked first in the entire grade, was ranked fifth.
Yun Xi got first place, Zhao Yumo got second place, Zhou Chengzhe’s deputy monitor Xie Wensi got third place, Li Sinuo got fourth place, and Zhou Chengzhe got fifth place.
It wasn’t surprising to Yun Xi that Li Sinuo could squeeze in. After all, Li Sinuo’s grades weren’t bad, and she was repeating the grade, so her Chinese and English grades were better than those of their classmates.
Surprisingly, Zhou Chengzhe fell to fifth place, and she, the second place incumbent, robbed him of first place.
At the same time, the school’s test results for the biology competition also came out.
Unlike Zhao Yumo, Yun Xi wouldn’t purposely answer questions with Zhou Chengzhe’s academic abilities in mind. She didn’t know how strong Zhou Chengzhe was academically, so she could only show her true academic abilities.
As soon as the rankings came out, she saw that she had gotten first place and Zhou Chengzhe had gotten third place. She vaguely sensed that this was bad news.
Although just one test didn’t mean anything, as soon as class started on Monday, rumors started to spread that Yun Xi and Zhao Yumo had always been academically capable, but they had always gotten second and third places out of pity for Zhou Chengzhe’s impoverished family background.
It wasn’t a big deal at first, since these kinds of unfounded rumors always started. Individual tests depend on academic strength and academic performance for that specific test, so various factors were at play.
If it had been someone else, they would’ve treated it as academic stars being competitive toward each other or as pure luck.
But when this sort of thing befell Zhou Chengzhe, who had been born into a poor family, it was always bad news.
Because of his background, Zhou Chengzhe had more pride than anyone else.
He desperately tried to get the highest grades every time because he didn’t want to be looked down upon just because of his family background.
Yun Xi had reminded Zhao Yumo early on that she couldn’t always be the second place incumbent, lest Zhou Chengzhe find out, and since his pride was too strong, he might even resent her for pitying him.
Occasionally, it was necessary for people to be a little unpredictable, so others wouldn’t be able to figure them out.
Now, all hell broke loose because someone started a rumor that they had pitied Zhou Chengzhe and looked down on him because of his poverty.
Wouldn’t that be humiliating to Zhou Chengzhe, denying his abilities and shaming him?
Obviously they didn’t mean that at all, but with the terrifying power that rumors had, they suddenly became the center of a scandal.
Yun Xi always stayed away from people like Zhou Chengzhe. In her previous life, men like him were usually ruthless social climbers.
In her previous life, Han Yaotian also had low self-esteem because of his status as an illegitimate child, and the slightest bruise to his ego could set off his insecurity.
