He turned around and raised his eyebrows slightly.
“What?”
Ning Li, “!!!”
Why had she spoken out loud what she had been thinking?!
Facing Lu Huaiyu and the light gaze that had landed on her, Ning Li quickly regained her desire to live.
She opened her eyes wide, looking innocent.
“What? I didn’t say anything.”
Lu Huaiyu looked at her.
Her small face was fair and clear, clean and beautiful. Her peach blossom eyes, light and moist, as she looked over at him.
Not many people could resist such a pair of eyes, or even such a person.
It was no wonder that people liked her.
He narrowed his eyes and then laughed.
“Don’t you dislike him?”
Ning Li felt that his question was inexplicable.
Wasn’t it very obvious that she did not like Zhou Cheng?
Moreover, she had stated it very clearly in the office just now.
“Yeah.”
She said, “He’s a sophomore. I didn’t even know him before this.”
Lu Huaiyu nodded.
“Ah Li, do you know that there’s a word that means the difference between closeness and distance?”
Ning Li was stunned.
Lu Huaiyu lowered his head slightly and looked at her on the same level.
The April evening sunlight was warm and brilliant.
The shadows of the trees swayed and reflected in his eyes. They were deep yet shallow, as if they were smiling.
He chuckled and said, “If you don’t coax me, who else can you coax?”
…
The results of Zhou Cheng’s punishment came out the next day: a severe warning from the school and a 5,000-word review.
On Ning Li’s part, she did not seem to be affected at all.
At first, people had been very passionate about discussing this matter in private. However, seeing that the person involved did not take it seriously and that the school was starting to crack down on them, everyone gradually put the matter aside.
At night, even the small forest at the school seemed to be much quieter. No one went out for a walk after dinner.
What a joke. Who would dare try to challenge the wind at this time?
Zhou Cheng, on the other hand, was a typical example. Every day, he would go to the field to pick up trash. This was also one of his punishments.
The school’s attitude was clear.
Finally, everyone stopped.
…
On Saturday night, Ning Li went to the house that she had rented.
She went to the bedroom facing north and looked at the building opposite through the small telescope that had been set up in the room.
The house, which had been quiet and dark all year round, was now lit, and the curtains were half-closed.
Ning Li observed it quietly for a while before the curtains were pulled shut.
She was not in a hurry. She calmly got up, went back to the master bedroom, and turned on the computer.
She inserted a memory card and moved the files that were inside to a folder on the desktop.
Then, she opened the document.
This was an unfinished paper.
With the data processing results from Fino Lab, the latter part was much easier to write.
An hour later, she turned off the computer.
Her phone lit up.
She picked it up and took a look. It was a message from Lu Huaiyu.
He was going back to the Capital tomorrow.
Ning Li did not pay much attention at first. However, just as she was about to start typing, she suddenly remembered something.
The day after tomorrow was Lu Huaiyu’s birthday.
April 17th.
This had to be the reason why he was going back to the Capital, right?
She thought for a moment and asked him when he would return to Yunzhou.
Lu Huaiyu looked at the line of words, his slender fingers tapping gently on the screen.
In the past, no matter where he went, she would only answer obediently and rarely ask about anything else. She would not take the initiative to ask him when he would return.
This was something rare.
The corners of his lips curved slightly.
[ There are still some things that need to be settled in Yunzhou. I will return in the afternoon the day after tomorrow. ]
Ning Li was a little surprised.
She had thought that he would be going back to the Capital for his birthday to spend some time with his family. She had not expected him to be so busy.
She replied with an “Okay”.
…
At 9:30 pm, Ning Li returned to the Ye family home.
As usual, Ye Ming was not at home.
His company seemed to be quite busy recently. He spent more than half of the week away from home.
The matter of the exam questions being leaked had caused quite a big impact on the Ye family. Now, he put almost all of his energy into the Qinghe Bridge project.
Ye Cheng was lying on the sofa playing with his phone. Su Yuan was sitting at the side, talking about him going to his equestrian class the next day.
“… Lil Cheng, you haven’t gone to the equestrian class for two weeks. You can’t drag this out any longer. No matter what, you have to go tomorrow.”
Su Yuan’s voice was unusually stern.
Under normal circumstances, she was normally very indulgent and tolerant of Ye Cheng.
Sometimes, when Ye Cheng threw a tantrum, she would turn a blind eye and just let him be.
However, ever since Ye Ci’s incident, her attitude had also changed.
Ye Ci’s reputation was now completely ruined. At least in Yunzhou, the aristocratic families there would no longer accept her.
After all, she was Ye Ci’s mother. Of course, she would inevitably be implicated.
Recently, many of the ladies and wives had reduced their contact with her, intentionally or unintentionally distancing themselves from her.
If not for the fact that the Ye family was still around, they would not even give her this little bit of face.
Su Yuan had gone out and suffered a few times. Gradually, she became even less willing to join them.
Thus, she could only put all her energy into nurturing Ye Cheng.
After all, he was her biological son, and also the only son of the Ye family.
With the Ye family in such a state, if Ye Cheng did not do his best, she would be ridiculed to death by those people when she went out.
Therefore, she had hardened her heart and given Ye Sheng this rare bit of attitude.
However, Ye Sheng did not take it seriously at all.
He lay on the sofa, his hands sliding back and forth on the phone screen. The sound of intense gunfighting could be heard.
His eyes did not even move away from the screen.
“I’m not feeling well. I don’t want to go.”
Su Yuan frowned.
“That’s what you said the last two times. The doctor said that there’s nothing wrong with your body. You have to go tomorrow. Don’t give me any more excuses! Look at the other people your age. They’re all very outstanding. You can’t possibly not know how to do anything, right?”
Ye Cheng was most impatient to hear this, and his voice became much louder.
“What are you going to do? You don’t even know how badly those people talk! I’m not going!”
Su Yuan was stunned.
“What?”
Ye Cheng turned off his phone and said to her, “What else could it be about? It’s all our family’s stupid matters!”
At first, he had not believed that Ye Ci had cheated at all, much less that the matter of the leak had anything to do with her.
However, his classmates, friends, and even his teachers had all said the same thing.
Every time they looked at him, they looked very…
Ye Cheng was ten years old this year. He still did not understand how serious this matter was, but he could keenly sense the change in the attitude of the people around him.
One sentence, two sentences, once, twice.
He was used to being arrogant in the past. How could he tolerate this kind of treatment now?
Otherwise, he would not have fought with his classmates and broken their noses.
As for the equestrian class, those who attended it with him did not give him any face at all. Their words were very harsh, and they had even joined forces to isolate him.
He had reluctantly gone once and refused to go again.
Su Yuan opened her mouth and said after a long while, “What do you care what they say? You yourself are outstanding. Isn’t that better than anything else? When the time comes, what will they say about you?”
Ye Cheng sneered and suddenly looked at Ning Li who had just walked in.
“Aren’t her grades very good? However, I don’t see you and dad liking her very much either, right?”
