Xie Li immediately noticed that gaze, which could hardly be called friendly.

His gaze swept across the area indifferently, only catching a glimpse of Xie Zian's departing figure.

Chen Yuanzhou was left standing there, feeling both embarrassed and excited. He greeted him with a smile, "Li Shen."

Xie Li could tell that the other party meant no harm, so he nodded in acknowledgment and walked away.

The few girls who stayed behind were incredibly excited: "Ahhh, did Li Shen just smile at me?"

"I feel like I've done a good deed for some reason... By the way, that old lady was really strange, the way she spoke to Li Shen was so strange."

"Could she really be the head of the family that has strayed from God? Wow, she seems so harsh."

As Chen Yuanzhou listened to these conversations, his brows gradually furrowed.

Suddenly, a possibility occurred to him, and his eyes widened. "No way!"

She turned and hurriedly chased after Xie Zi'an in the direction he had left. By the time she found him, he had already said goodbye to Ding Huizhu at the school gate.

Chen Yuanzhou punched Xie Zian. "You've been hiding this well. Tell me honestly, is Xie Li your relative or sister?"

Xie Zian remained indifferent. Since his friend had seen through him, he didn't bother to make excuses to hide it.

“She’s just my sister by blood.” He brushed Chen Yuanzhou’s hand away, his eyes cold. “The kind of sister I have no feelings for.”

Chen Yuanzhou: "As expected of the Xie family's genes, they're too strong. Having an older sister like Xie Ziyuan is already impressive, but now another one like Xie Li has appeared... uh?"

Chen Yuanzhou only then noticed the second half of Xie Zian's sentence and was somewhat confused.

"Why is there no emotion?" Li Shen doesn't seem like the kind of person who's hard to get along with; in fact, he often seems a bit naive and innocent.

An unspoken sense of irritation crept into Xie Zi'an's eyes.

"Why should I have feelings for her?" He kicked a street lamp angrily. "Does someone like that deserve my feelings?"

Chen Yuanzhou frowned, his tone somewhat serious: "What do you mean by 'that kind of person'? You need to provide evidence before you speak."

"Evidence?" Xie Zian's agitation had reached a breaking point.

He originally didn't want to get involved in Xie Li's affairs, but Ding Huizhu had just cried in front of him. He hadn't seen his mother cry in so many years.

"Disrespect for one's own mother, arrogance, complacency, and constant lying—even—having affairs with men at night, isn't that enough?"

Recently, Xie Ziyuan has also been very worried about the old lady's situation. The old lady is very old, but she is being detained in the police station, which is a disgrace.

Ding Huizhu's pleas were completely ineffective, and instead prompted Xie Li to utter the outrageous statement that he did not acknowledge Ding Huizhu as his mother.

This cold-blooded attitude shows that they don't treat the Xie family members as their own.

Well, not entirely. At least Xie Li was quite good at putting on an act when it came to Grandpa Xie.

On the contrary, Xie Li's eyes were always indifferent to everyone else, whether it was Ding Huizhu or his younger brother. So indifferent that when he first saw her, he wondered if she didn't want to return to the Xie family at all.

It was all for naught that he had genuinely worried about Xie Li when she was in trouble.

Chen Yuanzhou's eyes widened slightly, clearly shocked and also somewhat angry: "Xie Zian, what nonsense are you spouting!"

Xie Zian realized he had spoken out of turn and took a few steps back to create some distance, saying, "Believe it or not, it's up to you."

He shouldn't have bothered to focus his attention on Xie Li at all, since they wouldn't have much interaction in the future anyway.

Chen Yuanzhou watched Xie Zian's departing figure, his fists clenching involuntarily.