Chapter 80

"Tsk, if Chen Zhoujing were here, I can imagine how he would behave. He would walk around the painting several times, constantly spouting lewd remarks and praising it until Jian Sheng felt embarrassed..." Xu Yanghe couldn't help but say.

He Shang slapped him and lowered his voice, "What are you talking about, Chen Zhoujing?"

Xu Yanghe froze, turned to look at Jian Sheng, and when she saw the smile on her face, she turned back and glared at He Shang: "What's wrong with talking about him? Why can't we talk about him? It's all thanks to Chen Zhoujing, otherwise I would still be lying at home."

He Shang didn't speak, but Xu Xiu chimed in: "That's true, monk. If it weren't for Chen Zhoujing, I would have really been punished."

"Sigh, if I hadn't thrown that first punch, everyone would be fine now, and he would be fine too..." The atmosphere was stirred up, and He Shang also felt a little uncomfortable.

Gu Zhenyi put one hand on Xu Xiu's shoulder and pointed at Jian Sheng's drawing with the other: "He will come back for the college entrance examination... I have to say, Jian Sheng, you are really awesome at drawing."

"Even I, a layman, think it's amazing. If Chen Zhoujing were here, I can imagine that I would hear him praising it without batting an eye for the rest of the afternoon, or even for a week."

She gave a thumbs up.

Jian Sheng touched her cheek, a little embarrassed, and stepped forward: "Thank you."

"Skill, oh skill!" the crowd echoed.

Shen Xuzheng glanced at his watch: "Shall we go? My uncle sent a message."

He glanced at the group of people chatting happily in front of him and offered a reminder.

When they moved on, Jian Sheng walked among several girls, listening to them share the latest gossip and chat about this and that. She would laugh along with them from time to time, as if she had completely relaxed.

Shen Xuzheng put down his phone and walked behind the crowd with Yu Chao.

He suddenly slowed his pace, tilted his head and paused for a few seconds before turning his head back.

"Did Chen Zhoujing send you a message?" Yu Chao asked.

Shen Xuzheng raised his eyes: "No, his phone was confiscated."

“Even if his phone is confiscated, he’ll find a way.” Yu Chao clicked his tongue. “Coward, he doesn’t dare to come back.”

"You overestimate him. His mother is not someone you can deal with. After fighting for so long, he still managed to call her back with just one piece of leverage."

"What's his mother after?" Yu Chao was also puzzled. "You know, she hates Li Jing, but Li Jing is quite innocent. His mother isn't a good person either. Li Xiangzhe took over and took care of Li Jing in every way. Li Jing didn't know until his mother abandoned him and Li Xiangzhe took him back. Only then did he realize that Li Xiangzhe wasn't his biological father and that he suddenly had a younger brother."

"He doesn't even know who his biological father is, and his mother abuses him from time to time."

Yu Chao shook his head, his expression somewhat unpleasant.

Shen Xuzheng looked at him with a puzzled expression, squinting his eyes.

"What are you doing? What kind of look is that?" Yu Chao frowned in disgust.

"You didn't say that before. Didn't you hate Li Xiangzhe and Li Jing?" Shen Xuzheng asked, puzzled.

“Yes, they are annoying, but that doesn’t stop me from saying they are pitiful,” Yu Chao said.

"oh."

"What do you mean 'oh'?" Yu Chao nudged him with his shoulder.

"Just talking nonsense." Shen Xuzheng shook his head.

"What 'talking nonsense' guy? Are you giving me another nickname? Just as annoying as that Chen Zhoujing!"

"You hate Li Xiangzhe and Li Jing because Chen Zhoujing is the victim, right? But Chen Zhoujing still shamelessly treats Li Jing well, which makes you angry. But you didn't expect that Li Jing is also quite nice to Chen Zhoujing." Shen Xuzheng suddenly became serious.

"After all these years of comparison, in your heart, Chen Zhoujing is already your brother, and his status is no less than Jian Qingyao's or mine."

"But you're too proud to admit it, which is why you keep going against him."

"Who said that!" Yu Chao looked uncomfortable. "I just really hate him."

"Oh, well, you must hate it." Shen Xuzheng clicked his tongue and waved his phone. "He already knows."

"What the hell? Are you crazy?" Yu Chao snatched his phone, just as the call ended. He tapped on the screen, "Where did this number come from? I've never seen it before."

"Chen Zhoujing's number doesn't start with 15?" he asked instinctively.

Shen Xuzheng pursed his lips and pulled his phone back: "The phone Xu Mai got for him is the one with the SIM card registered under Li Jing's name."

"Wow, that's awesome." Yu Chao coughed. "Then why didn't he call Jian Sheng?"

He gestured with his chin toward Jian Sheng's retreating figure: "She's clearly not in a good state these past few days because of his affairs and her grandmother's passing. I've seen her up here several times."

Shen Xuzheng shook his head: "He probably doesn't want to distract her."

“He knows he’s unstable, sometimes online and sometimes offline, which can easily upset people. It’s better to just not see him and wait until after the college entrance exam. He said he can get rid of his mother after the exam.”

“That makes sense, so what was he doing with his phone?” Yu Chao asked.

“Contact me,” Shen Xuzheng said smugly. “Of course, my relationship with him is better than yours.”

Yu Chao's face darkened. "I think you're quite ill."

"What are you two talking about?" Gu Zhenyi stepped back from the front and walked to Yu Chao's side. "You got a haircut?"

Yu Chao raised his right eyebrow: "I fixed it, you noticed?"

Gu Zhenyi stared at his hair for a while, then looked away: "No, I was just talking nonsense."

"Oh." Yu Chao didn't say anything.

"What's going on with Chen Zhoujing? I went to Qinjin last week and wanted to invite him out. I was sitting in his living room, but I didn't even get to see him. Aunt Xu invited me back."

"I don't quite understand what his mother is trying to do?" Gu Zhenyi frowned. "She wants to cultivate a puppet who listens to her, but Chen Zhoujing doesn't listen to her, so... she wouldn't want to eliminate him completely, would she?"

She muttered to herself, completely unaware of the expressions on their faces when she finished speaking.

"But that doesn't make sense either. Her mother is so powerful, how can she treat her son like this? She doesn't care about his life or death, she just keeps telling him to go back. What is he going back for? Is there gold in Qinjin? Can he go there and get it? Does that mean I should go back and get gold too?"

Yu Chao turned his head to the side, a slight upturn at the corners of his mouth.

"Well, or perhaps..."

“It’s hard to say.” Shen Xuzheng interrupted her. “Let’s help as much as we can. He’s been doing this all by himself, and it hasn’t been easy for him.”

“If this hadn’t come to light, we wouldn’t have known about his experiences in junior high school.”

"Otherwise, in the eyes of outsiders, he really is as Shen Shuting said, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, having everything."

“Actually, it’s all fake…” Gu Zhenyi added.

Chen Zhoujing, who was being mentioned, was sitting in front of the easel, looking at Jian Sheng's painting for more than half an hour.

Sunlight streamed in through the window, like the light in this painting, illuminating the dark corners beneath the trees through the gaps in the branches.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. He picked it up and saw that Xu Mai was calling.

He paused for a moment, waiting for the dial countdown to end before answering.

"Brother, where are you?" The voice on the other end of the line was anxious and breathless. "Mom will be back soon. If you don't come back soon, she'll find out and scold you again."

"Why aren't you saying anything? You told me to get those two big idiots away, and I did. Don't try to sabotage me. Last time, she scolded me half to death."

Chen Zhoujing raised his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose: "Later, just say I went to the bookstore to buy some review materials, she won't tell."

"Okay, hurry up!" Xu Mai said and hung up the phone.

Chen Zhoujing sat in the empty classroom for a while before getting up and leaving.

Downstairs, Li Jing's car was parked at the intersection. Chen Zhoujing opened the door, sat in the passenger seat, and took off his hat.

"You saw him?" Li Jing asked.

Chen Zhou hummed in surprise and said calmly, "He didn't say anything."

Li Jing started the car and drove for a while before speaking: "What did your mother say? She's got your visa all sorted out, and she's planning to dump you abroad?"

"Okay." Chen Zhoujing fastened his seatbelt and turned his back to him. "I won't go out."

Li Jing gripped the steering wheel tightly: "It's alright if we go out, I'll go with you."

"I told you, I'm not going out."

"Okay." Li Jing didn't say anything more, quietly drove him back to Qinjin, then handed the car over to him and took the high-speed train to Beilu.

With one month left until the college entrance examination, Jian Sheng recovered her composure. Following Qi Jing's example, she took a sticky note, wrote down the name of the university she wanted to attend, and stuck it on her desk and school desk to constantly remind herself.

The atmosphere in Class 13 gradually became tense. The long break running was canceled, but almost no one went out to play, and most people stayed in the classroom during activity periods.

Jian Sheng resumed his old desperate manner, regardless of whether it was Ye Hua's words, Liang Shuyuan's words, Zhou Yilian's words, or Chen Zhoujing's words.

She listened to everything; the future she wanted was definitely in her own hands.

She also hoped to see Chen Zhoujing soon after the college entrance examination.

Meanwhile, Chen Zhoujing didn't slack off for a moment in Qinjin, spending almost all his time doing practice problems and having virtually no entertainment.

Almost half a month passed in this monotonous way.

On Wednesday afternoon, after the first class, Jian Sheng was doing an English cloze test when a heavy thud sounded at the door, followed by screams, hurried, agitated, and panicked.

"Someone jumped off a building."

"Someone jumped off a building."

"He... someone jumped off a building outside."

Several piercing screams shattered the entire campus, and panic engulfed the area for a moment.

Jian Sheng's body was half numb, and a chill ran through his entire body like an electric current.

Her hand, which was turning the page, froze in mid-air. Only after the person had walked halfway away did she slowly turn her head and meet Qi Jing's gaze, whose eyes were equally vacant.

"Go back, all of you, back to the classroom. Don't cling to the railings, all of you go back." Zhong Mei's voice rang out.

She was holding a book in her hand, having just come down from class upstairs. She patted the front door of the classroom, the ring on her ring finger was half-crooked, and the iron door creaked as it slid open.

The sky, which was originally overcast with a light drizzle, suddenly turned into a torrential downpour.

Zhong Mei had no choice. Unable to persuade the people on the railing, she went over and pulled them one by one, saying, "I told you to go back. Do you know how dangerous this is? Go back now."

Her appearance seemed to awaken the dazed people on the railing. Rain poured in from outside, hitting the faces of the remaining people, but their tears fell even faster than the rain.

These people were eventually roughly dragged into the classroom by Zhong Mei. She closed the door and stood on the podium, her body trembling.

She looked at the students below the stage, who were too frightened to speak, and her eyes instantly reddened.

She turned her back, hugged her arms, and her shoulders were shaking uncontrollably.

Just then, the loudspeaker in the corner by the classroom door started playing.

"Class teachers of all grades, please manage your students well. In case of emergency, do not go outside; please study in the classroom first..."

As soon as the microphone finished speaking, Zhong Mei raised her hand to wipe away the tears from the corners of her eyes, turned around and said, "Everyone study on your own. Do what you're supposed to do. Don't go out unless you're notified. If you need to go to the toilet, tell me and I'll take you."

After she finished speaking, she sat in the chair in a daze. Soon, the siren of 120 sounded outside. The situation was handled quickly, and in less than twenty minutes, there was no sound outside at all.

The broadcast started again, offering a few words of reassurance to the students before shifting the topic to college entrance exam preparation.

He concluded by instructing everyone not to leak the information, and then summoned all the homeroom teachers of the senior high school classes.

Zhong Mei got up, walked to the door, and stopped.

She slowly turned around, looked at the students' terrified faces, walked back, stood on the podium, her voice still trembling: "For what happened, the school and I have to apologize to you for not paying attention to your mental health issues."

"You always complain about having too much homework, and I always tell you I only assigned one worksheet. But then I saw on the blackboard that all the teachers assigned one, making a total of six, and some even had after-class exercises. With so many worksheets, you'll definitely be working late into the night. It's because we haven't managed your daytime time well, and haven't set clear standards for the quality and quantity of the questions..."

"The teachers will coordinate with the teachers of each subject regarding the time and the amount of questions. We hope that everyone will get a good rest when they go home at night and not put too much pressure on themselves."

"Also, although teachers always say that you have to study hard and get into a good university for the future, the future is uncertain. What school you go to or what you do after graduation are all paths. You must ensure your physical and mental health. Everything else is just a bonus."

"You will all be fine no matter what, everyone should be fine."

She said a lot of things before leaving, and finally asked Lin You to come up and sit down while she went to her meeting.

Jian Sheng sat in his seat, unable to read a book, feeling a chill down his back and breaking out in a cold sweat.

The students who had the same reaction as her only reacted ten minutes after Zhong Mei left.

Some people hugged their arms and cried out in fear, while others whispered among themselves. It was impossible to manage everyone in the class at the moment, so Lin You didn't say anything, keeping his head down and his shoulders shaking.

Jian Sheng rubbed her arms and leaned on the table, looking out at the rain.

I let myself skip a whole class period and didn't do any exercises.