Chapter 27
Sitting in the car, Tao Zhi was silent for a while, then asked Cheng Man: "Are you being targeted by them because you stood up for your deskmate?"
Cheng Man glanced at him secretly, not knowing how to answer.
"I didn't scold you, what is there to be afraid of?"
Cheng Man answered cautiously, "I guess so."
Tao Zhi was very curious: "What were you thinking at that time?"
"It's a matter of reciprocity. Huang Xinyue is my deskmate, and she has helped me before."
"Aren't you afraid you'll get caught in it too?"
"Mom, you taught us not to cause trouble, but we are not afraid of trouble either."
Tao Zhi never expected that what he had said before would turn into a boomerang and hit him.
"So, you lied to me a few days ago?"
"I just hid a small part of the truth." Cheng Man raised her little finger to cover it.
When they arrived at her sister-in-law's house, Cheng Xiangmei was already waiting. She hurried out to greet her: "Sister-in-law, what happened?"
Tao Zhi recounted the incident, and Cheng Xiangmei's eyebrows shot up in anger. "This is simply outrageous! They're bullying me because I have no one in the Cheng family?"
She made a phone call, and as soon as the other party picked up, Cheng Xiangmei said, "Yunzhou, come back."
Tao Zhi was startled: "Why bother to alarm the Third Young Master for such a small matter?"
The third young master of the Li family is the third brother of my brother-in-law Li Qize, the late-born son of my brother-in-law's parents, and is only in his thirties. If nothing else, just look at the Li family's food factory. He holds the largest share, and you'll know who has the greatest contribution to the Li family's prosperity.
Among the three brothers in the Li family, Li Qize is the eldest. When Cheng Xiangmei first married into the family, the Li family was still an ordinary family, and the whole family was crowded in a tube-shaped building.
Later it was Li Sanshao, who had learned a skill from somewhere and rented two production lines. He brought along his eldest brother Li Qize and his two brothers, and the four of them started working hard.
The second brother, Li Jinsheng, didn't like doing business, so the third brother, Li Yunzhou, asked him to invest money. According to my sister-in-law, at that time, the brothers lived and ate in the workshop, and only went home once every ten days or half a month.
Within three months, the brothers had purchased their own production line. Two months after that, they had taken over someone else's old factory. A year later, the government approved the land, and they quickly built their own factory, followed by an office building, a nursery, and staff dormitories.
Anyway, slowly, the business grew bigger and bigger. The snacks produced by the food factory began to be sold outside the province, and it gained a little bit of fame.
Later, Li Sanshao went against the crowd's advice, took most of the food factory's profits, went to Beijing alone and went to CCTV, where he shot an advertisement and aired it on CCTV. The food factory became famous overnight, and its products were sold all over the country.
From then on, Li Yunzhou became the Third Young Master Li and a prominent figure in the city.
How did Tao Zhi know so much? It was all Cheng Jun's fault. He idolized his uncle and was determined to emulate him. Every time Cheng Jun saw Cheng Xiangmei, he would ask about Li Yunzhou, and it was hard for Tao Zhi not to understand.
Cheng Xiangmei laughed, "Sister-in-law, those are just random calls from outsiders, how come you learned it too?"
“I’ve listened to it so many times, and it’s so deeply impressed me.”
"It was my third brother who arranged for Cheng Man to enroll in school. He knew the situation better." Cheng Xiangmei explained.
"How can this be so embarrassing?"
Cheng Xiangmei hugged her hand and said, "We are all family, so let's not talk about different things."
Tao Zhi was very pleased: "The Li family has been very good to you."
When Li Yunzhou entered the room, Cheng Man stood up and said, "Hello, Third Uncle." He nodded and said hello.
Tao Zhi also stood up, and Li Yunzhou quickly said, "Sister-in-law, please sit down. Family members don't do that kind of thing."
He sat down on another sofa and, seeing the crowd, turned to Cheng Man and asked, "Did anyone bully you at school?"
Cheng Man's pupils were filled with shock, and the expression on her face betrayed her completely.
Everyone was amused. Li Yunzhou encouraged her, saying, "Don't be afraid. Just tell us what you have to say. We will take care of it for you."
Cheng Man spoke up, "There were four female classmates who were quite domineering at school. If they didn't like someone, insulting and mocking them was the least of their worries. When they were upset, they'd just play tricks on them. For example, they'd push someone to the ground and then sarcastically say, 'Hey, why can't you even stand?' Or they'd pull someone's hair and make them cry, then say with disdain, 'You're such a pushover!' And so on."
"Originally, I had no interaction with them because of my deskmate Huang Xinyue. They would often come over and sit in her seat, surrounding her, forcing her to take out snacks and say nice things. If anyone was dissatisfied, they would beat and scold her. At that time, I had just transferred in and knew nothing about what was going on. I saw that they were relatively restrained in their attacks, so I just quietly pulled out the table and chairs and didn't mind their business."
"Later, I saw one of them take out a compass and try to pierce the yellow crescent moon, so I snatched the compass away from him. That's how the feud started."
"So I was also excluded, just like my deskmate Huang Xinyue. My classmates stopped talking to me. Maybe because they shifted their targets, Huang Xinyue was no longer targeted."
"They hadn't been aggressive before, but a few days ago, when the school had a basketball game and we had free time, I ran to the back hill to read because I was tired of the noise, and they cornered me there. There were four of them, one was there to keep me out, one came over and grabbed my hair, another grabbed my hand, and the last one came up and hit me in the face."
"I was caught off guard and slapped twice. I was so angry that I kicked the person over. The two nearby saw me and the one pulling my hair tried to hit me, but I hit her nose with my head, and she let go in pain. I kicked the one grabbing my hand, and she hit me in the corner of my eye, then hit herself against the wall. The one who was on guard saw this and ran to find the teacher."
"When the head teacher arrived, he pointed at my nose and started scolding me. Then he said he would find my parents and called my mom to the school."
Li Yunzhou listened carefully and asked, "Besides those two slaps, did he hit you anywhere else?"
Cheng Man shook her head, "I didn't give them a chance."
"Were there any other students there at the time?"
"I didn't see any in the back hills, and I don't know if there were any in the classrooms."
"Can you see the back mountain from the classroom?"
“It’s all in sight.”
Li Yunzhou touched his chin and asked, "How long have they been bullying you?"
"About a month or two."
"Why didn't you tell your family?"
Cheng Man scratched her head and said embarrassedly: "It's mainly because I think I can handle it."
"What does the school say?"
"I firmly believe that I was the one who hit him."
Cheng Xiangmei spoke up: "The Dean of Studies is very strong-willed. He insisted that Cheng Man apologize and that she be criticized throughout the school."
Li Yunzhou nodded: "Okay sister-in-law, I understand."
Cheng Man also said, "Uncle San, I've called the police too."
Li Yunzhou praised her: "You are very brave and did a great job. How do you want this matter to be resolved?"
"Repeale my punishment, hold them accountable, make them apologize to the victims, and accept sanctions if they are guilty."
Li Yunzhou smiled: "No problem, as you wish."
Tao Zhi quickly refused: "No, no, no, Third Brother, you are so busy, I can't trouble you so much, just help pass a message to the Education Bureau."
Cheng Xiangmei stopped her: "Third brother, this is just a matter of a word."
Li Yunzhou agreed: "Sister-in-law is right, I just asked, there are others to do the running errands."
Cheng Man was very happy: "Thank you, Uncle San."
Li Yunzhou stood up and said, "I have a dinner party tonight, so I'll excuse myself."
Tao Zhi also took the opportunity to say goodbye, but Cheng Xiangmei did not agree and tried hard to keep them for dinner. They went home only after they had eaten their fill.
Tao Zhi thought that with Li Yunzhou around, she would no longer be needed, so she asked Wen Xu to suspend the investigation for the time being.
If Young Master Li took action, there should be results soon. Tao Zhi informed her daughter to stay home for the week and Cheng Man should follow her mother's instructions.
The next day, Cheng Man went to the bookstore to buy some information. As luck would have it, when crossing an alley, she ran into the four-member group and was stopped on the spot.
The one Cheng Man had kicked over was named Guo Ying. With her long hair and exquisite designer clothes, she was universally considered beautiful. She had a sweet smile, but her gaze was filled with disdain, a condescending scrutiny. She was the leader of the foursome.
Li Hui was the one pulling the hair. She had two braids and a plain face, usually unremarkable. She only spoke freely when she was with a few other people.
Wang Yu was the tallest of the four, so she was responsible for holding Cheng Man that day. She was 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed nearly 140 kilograms. She always wore sportswear and had short hair, so from behind she looked like a boy.
Zhang Qianqian was the least visible, clearly not even close to the core group. Her usual duties were running errands and doing odd jobs, so that day she was simply on guard duty. She was frail, often hunching her shoulders, her hair tied in a ponytail, and keeping her head down. She rarely made a sound, hiding behind the others. Sometimes, when the three called out to her, she'd get inexplicably startled. Cheng Man suspected she'd been a victim of bullying.
"Oh, isn't this that guy? The one who was criticized in the notice." Li Hui laughed loudly, leaning forward and backward, as if she had seen a huge joke.
Guo Ying raised the corner of his mouth slightly, creating a sarcastic arc.
Cheng Man's heart was filled with alarm, and her intuition told her that something was wrong.
She slowly backed away, and before they could get close to her, she turned around and ran away.
"You can't run away." Wang Yu's low voice, like the whisper of a devil, exploded in Cheng Man's ears.
Cheng Man believed that she was up to something. She just needed to run out of the alley and go to a crowded place. No matter how brave they were, they would not dare to act recklessly in public.
Cheng Man was so focused on running that she didn't notice the road conditions. It felt like she had been running for a long time, but she still hadn't seen the shadow of the main road. She began to regret choosing such a crappy place just to take a shortcut. Laziness really does pay the price.
Cheng Man had seen the flowered shirt drying in the yard just a few minutes ago, if she remembered correctly. Only then did she realize a fatal problem: she was lost in this unfamiliar village.
Wang Yu was chasing closely behind. Cheng Man couldn't understand how such a fat girl could be so good at sports?
Cheng Man couldn't run anymore. She supported herself on her knees and gasped for breath.
She caught a glimpse of the yard door out of the corner of her eye, and as luck would have it, there was a crack in it, so Cheng Man dodged and hid inside.
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