After hanging up the phone, Liang Xinyi checked the phone number display. She memorized the number, then headed upstairs and took out her backpack.
Chen Lixue noticed that her daughter was going out, so she hurriedly ran out of the dining room to catch her. “Xinyi, where are you going? It’s Chinese New Year. It’s not safe to go outside!”
Liang Xinyi glanced at her second aunt, who had just come back from the garden, and deliberately made an excuse: “Mom, my classmate is sick. The class monitor asked me to visit her. I will be back soon!”
Before Chen Lixue could reply, Liang Xinyi had already scooted into the hallway.
Because of the time, there was no bus at the entrance of the villa complex. Liang Xinyi brought out her bicycle from the garage and made her way out of the villa complex.
Along the way, she thought about Zhou Chengzhe and how he actually dared to ask her for help. It was either because he was desperate, or he knew that she had the backing of someone who could help.
Because of the final exam incident, Liang Xinyi also hated Yun Xi!
Liang Xinyi’s hatred and Zhou Chengzhe’s hatred added up. If she didn’t manage to exact her revenge, she would be restless throughout the New Year!
All this time Liang Xinyi had been racking her brains to figure out a way to set Yun Xi up. And all of a sudden Zhou Chengzhe entered the picture and presented himself as a handy knife that she could use to her advantage.
She hadn’t dared to use the phone at home. Not only would the second aunt report everything that happened at home to Yun Xi, but even the housekeeper was on her side. She could only contact Zhou Chengzhe on the outside.
On the main street, a lot of people were coming and going. Liang Xinyi went up to a phone and called Zhou Chengzhe’s phone. He was waiting anxiously at the public phone and he hurriedly picked it up when it finally rang.
“Zhou Chengzhe, if you want my help, you need to tell me exactly what happened.”
“Okay, I will tell you, but you have to help me! You can ask for anything, except money!”
Liang Xinyi snorted. “We have a common enemy, and I want Yun Xi to go down too. What would I want your money for?”
————
News that Zhou Chengzhe had been kicked out of the winter camp quickly spread to Jing High School.
This was a student who had always achieved good grades. But the teachers there barely paid attention to his mental health or his character. That’s why the teachers, and even the principal, were shocked to find out what happened.
At the same time, they also received the good news that Yun Xi had won an international award.
The positive news quickly buried the humiliation that Zhou Chengzhe had brought to the school.
The principal could hardly believe the news when he first heard it. He even contacted the person in charge of the Education Bureau to confirm that the news was correct.
All of the senior teachers were happy to hear the news, especially the homeroom teacher of Class 3. He was so delighted he acted as if it was his own child that had won the prize.
When Yun Xi received the call from her homeroom teacher, she knew that the news of her award had reached the school. The homeroom teacher didn’t want to disrupt her training so he didn’t say much over the phone.
The days in closed-access training flew by quickly. Every day was either an experiment or a problem-solving set. And now that a strong competitor like Zhou Chengzhe was out of the picture, everyone felt that they had an improved opportunity to clinch that spot in the final.
Soon, it was a day of fieldwork and investigation. This time, they were studying zoology. Snow had started to fall during this winter time, and the mountains were already covered with heavy snow.
During this season, many animals would hibernate, but some animals would come out to forage in the winter. This made it a good opportunity to carry out some research.
Long Qishan National Nature Reserve.
Early in the morning, the school arranged a bus to bring the students to the Long Qishan National Nature Reserve. Everyone was carrying a backpack. Some even brought a tape recorder with them, for fear that they wouldn’t be able to keep with taking down notes of what they saw during the field study.
Yun Xi, however, traveled lightly. She wore warm pants, snow boots, a down jacket, and a backpack.
Her backpack was stuffed with a lightweight down jacket to keep out the cold, some field tools she prepared herself, as well as paper and a pen.
This field study was on zoology, and mainly investigated animal ecology, so the pressure wasn’t great.
