Chapter 34

On the first day of school, Shen Li's biological clock hadn't adjusted during the winter break. When the alarm rang at 6:30, she quickly turned it off and pulled the covers over her head to continue sleeping.

It wasn't until around seven o'clock when her mother came and lifted the covers that she suddenly woke up, quickly got out of bed, washed up, grabbed her schoolbag, and ran out.

Once in the car, Aunt Luo chased after us and handed us hot milk and a sandwich through the window: "Eat this on the way, be careful the milk is hot."

"Thank you, Aunt Luo." Shen Li took the breakfast and told the driver to hurry up and leave.

High school morning self-study starts at 7:20. It takes about 20 minutes to get to school by bus. Usually, she gets up at 6:30 and doesn't have to rush to school. Today, she had to ask the driver to speed up.

Fortunately, there was no traffic on the way. Shen Li arrived just in time. The homeroom teacher was already standing at the classroom door catching latecomers. She rushed in just before the bell rang.

The teacher glared at her from behind, about to criticize her, when several others arrived even later.

"They're all so carefree and undisciplined; they've gone crazy on vacation and can't get back into the swing of things."

Hearing the heated words outside the door, Shen Li breathed a sigh of relief, thankful she hadn't been caught.

Our homeroom teacher was a middle-aged man. Because he was short and had a fiery temper, the boys in the class had a saying: "Don't mess with our homeroom teacher, or he might jump up and hit you."

"Chen Li, Little Li Li, have you missed me?" Shen Li was opening her schoolbag when a strange noise came from behind her. She frowned, took out her textbook, and joined the morning reading, ignoring the noise behind her.

After a while, the person behind her started kicking her stool. Shen Li moved the stool forward, and then the person pulled her hair.

Shen Li was furious. She couldn't help but roll up her textbook, turn around, and hit the man on the head.

.

Luo Mingxiu packed his schoolbag and prepared to leave. Luo Qiuli was waiting for him outside the gate, with an electric scooter parked beside her.

The boy looked left and right, then asked his mother, "Where's my sister?"

“She’s already gone to school. Your sister is a high school student and has to attend morning self-study sessions,” Luo Qiuli straightened her son’s collar, held his hand and said, “From now on, Mom will pick you up from school. If you want to go anywhere, you can ask me to drive you. Unless your godfather, godmother or sister allows it, don’t bother the driver by yourself.”

The driver was responsible for picking up and dropping off the Shen family, and Luo Mingxiu nodded to indicate that he understood.

She then asked, "When is my sister coming back? Will she have the weekend off?"

Luo Qiuli couldn't believe that her son and Shen Li's relationship had improved so much in just one month. She couldn't believe that her son's relationship with Shen Li had become so close.

She was both relieved and worried that her son was too clingy.

"Have you forgotten everything Mom said? You can't disturb your sister's studies. She's in the second semester of her junior year of high school and will be going to her senior year soon. She'll be starting intensive training soon, and she'll be under a lot of pressure. Once school starts, we can't be like during winter break, where you can always think about playing with her, understand?"

Luo Mingxiu lowered his eyes: "I understand."

Seeing her son's dejected look, Luo Qiuli couldn't bear it and comforted him, "Focus on your studies. Your sister doesn't live at school; she'll come home every day."

As soon as he finished speaking, Luo Mingxiu immediately raised his head, his eyes sparkling.

“But your sister also has homework to do when she gets back. She didn’t ask you to play, so you can’t bother her,” Luo Qiuli reminded her again.

"Mmm." Luo Mingxiu nodded obediently, a smile on his lips. He secretly warned himself not to bother his sister. He was happy as long as he could see her.

.

After morning self-study, the homeroom teacher called Shen Li and the boys in the back row to his office. He had caught five students being late this morning. He was already in a bad mood, and when the Chinese teacher told him that there had been a conflict among the students, his face darkened even more.

The boy transferred to the class last semester. There were few boys in the humanities class, no more than ten of them, and they were all arranged to sit at the back of the classroom. Shen Li was tall and had good eyesight, so she sat in the second to last row, right in front of the boy.

The boy was very enthusiastic towards her from the beginning. At first, seeing that he was a new classmate, she would help him with small things like asking questions or picking up his pen, but she never expected that this would become a reason for his subsequent harassment.

"Don't you have any good feelings towards me?" After hearing this, Shen Li realized what this person was up to, and immediately retorted, giving him a cold look.

Shen Li is exceptionally beautiful, and everyone knows how wealthy her family is. When someone is extraordinary to a certain degree, those around them dare not approach her, knowing that such a person is from a different world.

But the transfer student was different; relying on her good looks, she insisted on getting close to Shen Li.

Unfortunately, the class never changed seats; once you sat in a seat, it was fixed. Shen Li originally thought that she would reject this person and let the matter pass after the winter break, but when school started, this person asked her as soon as he opened his mouth if she missed him.

Isn't she annoyed with him obvious enough? Besides, when did she become that close to him? How can this guy be so confident?

So the scene that happened this morning occurred: she beat him up with a book and kicked over his desk.

"Speak up? What happened? Shen Li, how could you hit someone?" The teacher disliked her and spoke in a harsh tone, clearly still carrying the anger from the fact that she was almost late that morning.

“He harassed me,” Shen Li said frankly.

The boy next to me looked surprised and said, "What? Why are you saying that to me? I just wanted to borrow your homework to take a look."

"You wanted to copy her homework?" The teacher frowned, successfully shifting the focus of the conversation to the boy. He admitted his mistake and apologized, showing a sincere attitude. After this series of actions, the teacher's expression softened.

“Go back and write a self-criticism and hand it in. Don’t do it again next time,” the teacher said to the boy, then looked at Chen Li and said, “You too, if he wanted to copy your homework, you could have just refused. Why did you get angry and hit him?”

Shen Li was incredulous that this was how things were handled, and emphasized again, "I said he harassed me, didn't you understand?" Her voice was a little louder, and the other teachers in the office also looked over.

The teacher, feeling embarrassed, pulled the person outside and said, "You say he harassed you, do you have any evidence? You can't just make assumptions about classmates without evidence."

"Why do you believe everything he says, but when it comes to me you need evidence?" Shen Li laughed angrily. "Fine, then go check the surveillance footage, pull up all the footage from last semester, and see how many times he kicked my chair, pulled my clothes, and grabbed my hair during class!"

Seeing Shen Li clench her fists, the boy covered his head with his hands and squatted down behind the homeroom teacher: "I was wrong, I was wrong, Shen Li, I will never dare to provoke you again."

Fearing that the matter would escalate and his parents would be called in, the boy eventually admitted to his despicable behavior.

The Chinese teacher couldn't stand it anymore and stepped in to mediate, asking the homeroom teacher to move Chen Li's seat and publicly criticize her in class.

Back in class, the homeroom teacher gave the boy a serious reprimand as the Chinese teacher had suggested. Shen Li felt a little better after that, but when they moved seats, the looks she received from all sides were not friendly.

There were even two girls who gave her mocking looks and whispered about crickets, thinking that she couldn't see them because the book was blocking her view?

Shen Li tidied up the drawers, moving them back and forth silently. On the last trip, she accidentally knocked over the stack of books on the girl's desk, then pretended not to see it and stepped on it. The two girls immediately fell silent and bent down to pick up the books.

There are many female classmates in the class, and most of them are friendly. Shen Li has always been more tolerant of her own gender. As long as you don't provoke her, it's fine for you to help each other out and bring each other food. But if you provoke her, she won't give you a friendly look anymore.

Her two crickets are repeat offenders. In her first year of high school, Shen Li was pursued by a boy from another class. That boy would give her gifts during breaks and she could see him everywhere on her way to and from school.

She rejected him time and time again, but he still wouldn't give up and asked her what kind of boy she liked. Shen Li couldn't stand it anymore and casually said, "I like reserved guys, and I hate overly enthusiastic ones because they're annoying."

Thinking she had gotten rid of him, Shen Li was surprised to find love letters appearing in her drawer the next day, one every day. Speechless, she immediately reported him to the head teacher, saying he had a tendency to be in a relationship too early.

The person's parents were called in, and from then on, she made enemies. After cleaning up the trash and returning to the classroom that day, Shen Li overheard the two girls secretly discussing her, saying, "What are you pretending for?"

Before this, she had a good impression of the two of them. When she heard them say that they hated her, her heart sank. Why not completely? Because she was used to this situation.

She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and was envied by her peers. Everyone played with her, but they would disperse after playing. Groups of people came and went, but she didn't have a single close friend.

When she was little, she hoped to have a good friend who could accompany her for life, but things didn't go as planned.

When she was in elementary school, she thought she had met a good friend, but it turned out to be an uncle who wanted to curry favor with her father and used his child to get close to her.

In junior high school, she met a good friend who had helped her a few times. She opened up to her friend and gradually the girl started to dress like her and imitate her style.

At first, Shen Li didn't care and even praised her for being pretty, thinking that they were wearing matching outfits and that they had a close sisterly relationship.

In the end, she won first place in the arts performance. When I was about to share the prize with her, I heard her leading the class in saying that she was pretentious, acting weak, and trying to seduce men.

During that time, she was surrounded by a lot of rumors and gossip, and the words she uttered most often were rebuttals.

"Which eye of yours saw that I was interested in him?"

"I don't like him."

There was no point in arguing anymore, and no one wanted to believe her, so she gradually stopped arguing. She just found it ridiculous that some people cared so much about what men thought. Who was the one trying to seduce men?

Youth is painful, but it can also help people grow. Because she was betrayed so deeply this time, her goal for entering high school became very clear.

Classmates are just classmates. You can be friends for a while, but don't open your heart to them anymore.

Her most important thing is to study hard, build a solid foundation in academic subjects, pursue an arts career, get into a performing arts school, and realize her dream.

After a day of tests, at 9 p.m., Shen Li packed her schoolbag, left the school, chatted briefly with the driver, and then leaned back in her seat and fell into a deep sleep.

When they arrived home, the driver woke her up. After entering the house, Shen Li threw down her schoolbag, lay down on the bed, and felt like her brain was completely blank after the exam.

She stared blankly at the ceiling for a moment, then there was a knock at the door. Shen Li got up and opened the door. It was Aunt Luo who brought up the food: "Lili, I heard from Lao Liu that you had an exam all day today, and you bought some rice balls outside the school this afternoon. How can you do that? You can't go hungry."

"The mushroom meatball soup and walnut porridge I just made are still warm."

“I just chatted with Uncle Liu casually in the car, I didn’t expect him to remember it,” Shen Li said as she took the plate. “Thank you, Aunt Luo, please thank Uncle Liu and me for me too.”

"Oh, good boy, eat it while it's hot. Leave it here for me to collect later." Luo Qiuli said as she closed the door, then turned around and saw her son behind her.

"Why did you come up here? Is your hair dry?" Luo Qiuli touched the back of his head and found it wasn't wet before saying with relief, "Go back to your room and sleep after it's dry. Don't run around in the villa."

Luo Mingxiu took out a paper flower from behind his back: "Mom, I want to give this to my sister."

The school's craft class taught how to dot flowers with paper towels, creating a picture by piecing together doodles and paper folds. The son made two, but Luo Qiuli only received one after school; the other was hidden from her.

She knew her son was going to pull this stunt. Luo Qiuli sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Lili is eating now. She has to do her homework after she finishes eating. Give me the drawing, and I'll give it to her when I clear the table later, okay?"

Luo Mingxiu handed over the painting and was pulled by his mother towards the stairs. He looked back at Chen Li's room door with a reluctant expression. It was his first handmade work, and his teacher had praised him. He wanted to give it to his sister in person.

As if sensing his thoughts, the door opened, and Shen Li came out and called out to him.

"Sister, sister!" Luo Mingxiu immediately let go of his mother's hand and ran back.

Shen Li had overheard the whispers outside and said to Luo Qiuli, "Aunt Luo, I have an exam today and no homework. Let my little brother stay with me for a while, it's okay."

Her tone carried a hint of coquetry, and Luo Qiuli reluctantly walked over and returned the painting to Luo Mingxiu.

Shen Li led Luo Mingxiu to sit down on the sofa in the room and continued eating. Luo Mingxiu did not disturb her and sat quietly without making a sound.

He didn't hand her the painting until she finished eating and turned around.

The paper flowers were made from toilet paper, layered one on top of the other, and then the flower centers and petals were painted with different colors of watercolor. Luo Mingxiu made three flowers: pink, yellow, and blue. He also knew how to use similar colors to create a gradient transition. The flowers and the hand-drawn straight stems below connected naturally and without any sense of incongruity.

"You've got quite an artistic talent!" Shen Li praised, then asked, "It's really beautiful. Did you bring it back especially for me? Why didn't you give it to your teachers or classmates?"

Luo Mingxiu blinked, his clear eyes looking at her: "I picked other flowers to give to the teacher, but this one is intact. I was praised, and the teacher told me to take it home."

“My classmates all have origami, so they don’t care about mine. My deskmate said she wanted to give her creation to someone she likes, and that they would be very happy. So she gave me the star she folded!”

"Frog Fun? What is this?" Shen Li was taken aback by his words. "Are elementary school students these days so precocious? Isn't folding paper stars to confess feelings something only high school students do?"

“I like you, sister, so of course I want to give you my work.” Luo Mingxiu looked up.

Shen Li's eyes widened, and she quickly pinched his mouth shut: "Little brat, what do you know about liking things!"

She crouched down to be at eye level with Luo Mingxiu and said seriously, "Liking someone is when one person develops feelings for another. That girl giving you stars might..."

Well, it seems there's no rule that says girls sending stars means they're confessing their love. It's just that it's a popular thing to do on campus, which is why it's given that connotation.

Besides, she's not the type to teach anything here; she's never even liked anyone herself, so she can't just teach children anything.

Shen Li shook her head, looked into Luo Mingxiu's clear eyes, and felt even more guilty; her thoughts were too impure.

Luo Mingxiu was clearly doing this to express his gratitude. Shen Li put the painting into the drawer and said, "In short, the word 'like' is very important. You should save it for the person who makes your heart flutter. You can't just say it casually, understand?"

"Understood." Luo Ming smiled at her. He didn't understand what his sister was saying, but he knew that when he gave her the gift, she looked delighted. It seemed that, as Ruzhuo had said, she was very happy.

"Silly boy." Shen Li smiled gently and ruffled his hair.

She was exhausted from doing her homework all day, and the memories brought back by changing seats in the morning weighed heavily on her mind. Now, talking to Luo Mingxiu for a while made her feel much more relaxed.

She felt that the most annoying thing about going to school was maintaining interpersonal relationships, as there were always some people who would try to annoy her.

She doesn't have her younger brother yet; he's innocent and adorable.