Director Shao understood. “Look at me—I forgot to explain. This was exactly how I arranged it in the first place!”
“Our park’s cafeteria has limited capacity today. It can only accommodate one school’s worth of students per meal.”
“That’s why we arranged for Mingde to eat lunch. Your students will have the buffet tonight, while they’ll be having boxed meals. And the ingredients tonight will definitely be better than the ones at noon!”
Lu Yanzhao’s tone was flat. “Well, that’s wonderful.”
-
The students also finished studying the safety regulations.
After ten minutes to digest what they had learned, they could enter the laboratory.
When Jiang Tinglan saw Lu Yanzhao outside, she followed him out to thank him. “Assistant Lu, thank you for standing up for me today.”
Lu Yanzhao said nothing. He looked through the window into the lounge.
Yu Xiaxing was sitting in a corner with her head lowered, holding her phone sideways as she played a game.
Once again, he couldn’t help thinking that Yu Xiaxing was truly an unusual person.
He remembered that when his parents had first passed away, many relatives had gone over to help.
Afterward, they had calculated the expenses, claiming how much they had fronted and how much effort they had put in, and then deciding how much they were owed.
At the time, Lu Yanzhao had also felt that if they had paid money upfront, it was only right to reimburse them. So almost all of his parents’ compensation money had been divided among them.
Later, whenever those people saw him during the holidays, they would always make a few remarks.
“You did so well in school. Once you get into a major company, don’t forget to take care of your aunt/uncle.”
“Without my help back then, your parents wouldn’t even have had anyone to collect their bodies.”
Hearing it once or twice would have been bearable.
But they had been saying such things for more than a decade, every single one of them.
In reality, they had already been paid for the help they had provided back then.
That was why he thought Yu Xiaxing was truly rare…
She had clearly been the one directing everything from beginning to end. She was the one who had made her students hold their heads high.
Yet she didn’t care in the slightest about receiving anyone’s thanks, much less constantly reminding them, “You have to repay me.”
Lu Yanzhao withdrew his gaze. “You don’t need to thank me. Everything was arranged by Director Yu.”
Jiang Tinglan had actually guessed as much. Even if the school board director hadn’t come in person, she must have been watching over them all along.
As a student, there wasn’t much she could do to repay Board Director Yu. All she could do was silently resolve to take her laboratory classes seriously and not let the board director’s efforts go to waste.
Lu Yanzhao had other matters to attend to, so he left first.
Jiang Tinglan was about to leave as well when she suddenly saw Zhao Chengyu return.
She stayed there, waiting for him to apologize.
Zhao Chengyu’s legs were still a little weak as he walked. It had all been far too terrifying…
When he got out of the car earlier, the vicious-looking man who resembled a mafia heir had already explained everything to him. They were from Shengde.
They had gone to such lengths to teach him that anyone could be deceived, and that he shouldn’t go around acting superior and insisting that victims were to blame.
Zhao Chengyu had agreed to that in person.
But he was still unconvinced deep down.
So what if he had been scammed? It wasn’t a big deal… His classmates probably didn’t know about it, and it shouldn’t be embarrassing enough to cost him his dignity.
Thus, when he saw Jiang Tinglan waiting there, he didn’t mention apologizing at all. Instead, he asked with a cheeky grin, “What? You waited outside just for me?”
Jiang Tinglan said nothing.
Zhao Chengyu clicked his tongue. “Boring.”
He turned and walked into the lounge area, immediately putting on an indifferent expression. He went over to the good friends he usually hung out with. “Yo, checking out the operating procedures? Taking it seriously, huh?”
One of his friends immediately began teasing him. “Yeah. So, Young Master, is your press conference over? Didn’t your old man keep you for dinner?”
Another friend chimed in. “Hahaha, back from northern Myanmar, are we?”
“Thanks, buddy, for sacrificing your dignity to teach us a lesson. Scams really can happen anywhere. From now on, if I see someone filming a video on the street, I’m going to walk around them!”
Zhao Chengyu began to feel awful.
What was it about his friends’ words that made his whole body burn, his head buzz, and his blood boil?
He soon understood.
It was mockery. Humiliation.
He had thought no one knew the truth. Yet not only did everyone know, they were all laughing at him together!
His sense of shame surged from his chest to his throat, nearly leaving him unable to breathe.
He wanted to curse them.
If you hadn’t egged me on from behind, how could I have fallen for it so easily?
But then he suddenly remembered how Jiang Tinglan had sought his help and told him about her suffering. Back then, he had treated it all like a joke and fanned the flames.
Afterward, he had even mocked her publicly, and the things he’d said had been far more vicious.
He had only been teased lightly a few times, yet he already felt so mortified that he wanted to crawl into a hole.
Then what had Jiang Tinglan felt at the time?
Just then, Jiang Tinglan came in and stared straight at him.
Zhao Chengyu swallowed and smiled at her. “Um… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have made fun of you. Why don’t you hit me once?”
Jiang Tinglan felt that the apology was acceptable until she heard the last sentence, at which point she was rendered speechless.
It was always like this. Every time he made her angry, he would brush it off with a cheeky grin!
But as a civilized person, she couldn’t exactly slap him. If the school found out, she would be disciplined too.
Then she would just cut things off decisively and end their friendship. Otherwise, he would keep thinking they were merely playing around.
She pulled out her phone and scrolled through her contacts until she found his name.
Then, in front of everyone, she deleted his contact information.
Zhao Chengyu’s expression darkened. “You…”
“I don’t want to accept an apology you don’t mean,” Jiang Tinglan said. “Your teacher already agreed to deduct your practical credits as punishment. Let’s end our friendship. Don’t contact me again. There are so many classmates here who witnessed this, so don’t shamelessly harass me later.”
With that, she left for the laboratory with her classmates.
Zhao Chengyu’s eyes stung terribly.
As he listened to his friends laughing around him, he wished he could leave the planet.
Actually, he had always known that he liked her.
He would say that her short hair looked ugly, and she would chase him with a book, yelling and asking whether he was sick in the head. He would dodge while continuing to grin and joke with her. He had thought it was happy and sweet.
Later, when he said her short hair looked ugly and she stopped reacting, he began saying that her handwriting was ugly, that she was stupid for only getting into Shengde… He kept escalating the humiliation, again and again.
Now she no longer gave him any response. She would never raise her fist again to give him a light, painless smack.
Only after enduring his classmates’ ridicule did he understand that if you liked someone, you should treat them well.
When you hurt someone, all they could feel was pain and humiliation!
-
No one knew whether Director Shao and the other school had been frightened, but from then on, they became polite and welcoming, greeting them with smiles.
After experiencing genuine scientific research equipment, the students from Shengde were all extremely excited. Each of them discovered where their strengths lay, and they truly developed an interest in science.
Only Yu Xiaxing was troubled.
This was bad. Why had everyone suddenly become so friendly?
At noon on Saturday, Director Shao took the initiative to invite Yu Xiaxing to discuss renewing the contract.
Here it comes. The success or failure of the whole matter would be decided in one stroke!
