Drowned Puppy
Facing everyone's gaze, Zheng Ruizhen's whole body stiffened.
She and Kwon Wook-ri both knew that the manuscript was plagiarized. She had always looked down on Kwon Wook-ri. If she admitted that she won, it would mean admitting that Kwon Wook-ri did a good job, and her faith would collapse in an instant.
And she will become a thief, an existence that she is ashamed of.
But if she admitted defeat, not to mention agreeing to Kwon Yu-ri's request, just the club's claims would bankrupt her and still not be enough.
Zheng Ruizhen gritted her teeth. Her cleverness backfired. She never expected it to come to this.
Kwon Woo-ri's words echoed once again:
"You are different from us. You are hardworking, upright, tenacious, and not afraid of power, right?"
How did she respond, "Yes, of course."
Zheng Ruizhen lowered her head and clenched her fists. No one knew the struggle going on in her heart. The long silence only made Song Minjing and others realize that something was fishy.
"Li Li, what's going on?" Song Minjing pulled Yu Li's sleeve. Her brain wasn't working, so she poked Zheng Zhihe, "Do you know?"
Zheng Zhihe secretly rolled her eyes. How on earth did that brainless guy get close to Yu Li? "Looking at her guilty look, I guess she cheated? Did she hire someone to write the manuscript for her?"
Yu Li remained silent, just wanting to wait for Zheng Ruizhen to speak. She knew that Zheng Ruizhen was having a hard time at the moment, but she was not going to give up.
Finally, Zheng Ruizhen raised her head, her face extremely pale. She looked at Yu Li, the anger in her heart collapsing, and she could only admit defeat: "I lost."
Zheng Zhihe suddenly jumped up and said, "How could you cheat? You dare to cheat in such an occasion? If anyone tells anyone, the director will definitely expel you!"
Zheng Ruizhen ignored Zheng Zhihe. She certainly knew the seriousness of admitting defeat, but what could she do?
Not admitting defeat means denying yourself fundamentally.
She suddenly asked Yu Li: "If I don't admit it, how are you going to expose me?"
How could Kwon Yu-ri miss the opportunity to insult her?
"I won't expose you." Yu Li's answer surprised Zheng Ruizhen. She walked up to Zheng Ruizhen and lowered her voice. "Settling the club's lawsuit for you is a piece of cake for me. Watching you struggle in pain every day is much more interesting than exposing you."
Zheng Ruizhen's eyes widened suddenly: "You——"
"Ah, yes." Yu Li knew what Zheng Ruizhen wanted to say and accepted the evaluation well. "I am just that bad."
What she wanted to say was interrupted. Zheng Ruizhen turned her head away. There was nothing she could do. Who let her fall into Quan Yuli's hands? "What do you want me to do?"
If she loses to Kwon Yu-ri, she needs to agree to one of her requests.
"It's very simple," Yu Li reached out and adjusted Zheng Ruizhen's head. She also lifted the corner of Zheng Ruizhen's mouth, trying to put on a smile. "Relax. There's a public meeting at the city's Ministry of Education this Friday afternoon. I'll be attending as a student representative. You can just come with me."
"That's it?" Zheng Ruizhen didn't quite believe it. Just attending a public meeting?
Yu Li nodded: "That's it."
Zheng Ruizhen frowned, her mind extremely unbalanced, and she felt like she was going to throw herself at the wall. She pushed Yu Li aside and walked towards the seat: "Whatever you want!"
Offended again, Yu Li looked over her shoulder and said "tsk". It seemed that she was indeed too kind.
Song Minjing and Zheng Zhihe came over, both of them "filled with righteous indignation": "Lili, I must deal with her!"
Zheng Zhihe was about to call for help: "Let her know who she is."
"No need." Yu Li stopped Zheng Zhihe from making the call and sighed, "Ms. Zheng must be very tired right now. After all, she got so many colleagues fired because of her. She must be feeling very burdened."
Zheng Zhihe was stunned for a moment, then laughed: "Yes, I won't bother her."
Naturally someone will disturb you.
In the afternoon, after school, Yu Li met Xu Zaitan who came to pick up his cousin. She would not miss the opportunity to go up and say hello to Xu Zaitan. Unfortunately, the Xu family had a family dinner tonight. Xu Zaitan apologized and said that they would get together next time.
"Okay, two meals, I'll remember it." Yu Li nodded at Xu Youyuan, turned around and got into her car.
As soon as Yuli left, Xu Youyuan touched his chin and said, "Brother Tan, when did you and Quan Yuli become so close?"
Xu Zaitan sat next to Xu Youyuan and said that he didn't know either.
Xu You pouted: "I definitely don't like you."
Xu Zaitan found it funny: "What do you mean?"
Xu Youyuan snorted, "That Quan Yuli is so arrogant. I really don't know who could catch her eye."
Arrogant? Xu Zaitan recalled the two times they had met. He was a little arrogant towards outsiders, but towards him...
"Don't you like Kwon Wook-ri?" he asked his cousin.
"Are the only two kinds of relationships between people: like and dislike?" Xu Youyuan asked back, crossing his arms over his chest, but did not clearly answer Xu Zaitan's question.
On the other side, Song Minjing was also asking Yu Li about Xu Jae-dam.
Song Minjing was used to hitchhiking, and would take Yu Li's car home whenever she had something to do. "Is there something special about Xu Zaitan? You went out of your way to find him."
"Nothing special." Yu Li tapped on the tablet. She hadn't written the draft for Friday's public meeting yet, and it had to be submitted for review tomorrow, so she started to rush.
Looking away, she saw Song Minjing looking at her eagerly, and Yu Li added: "If I really want to say who is better, I think Xu Youyuan is better than Xu Jaedam."
Xu Youyuan? Song Minjing's ears twitched. Someone was threatening her position? She listened carefully.
Yu Li: "Xu Jae-dam went abroad when he was young, and the company has always been managed by Xu Youyuan's father. Now he wants to take over the company and actually goes to Xu Youyuan to curry favor."
"He's so cowardly." Even Song Minjing, a second-generation prodigal who only cares about eating, drinking, and having fun, felt something was wrong. "He wants to act harmless in the hope that Xu Youyuan's father will agree to let him manage the company? It's not like his parents didn't leave him shares, so why is he so cowardly?"
"Xu Youyuan didn't even attend the last welcome party. It was clearly a way to intimidate him."
Yu Li shrugged: "Maybe his parents died too early and didn't give him enough sense of security, so he doesn't dare to break up easily."
So that night when she had dinner with Kwon Jae-kyung, Seo Jae-dam and others, she showed closeness to Seo Jae-dam and Kwon Jae-kyung was not worried at all. Kwon Jae-kyung believed that she could see that Seo Jae-dam was not working well mentally.
Song Minjing skipped over the matter and glanced at Yu Li's manuscript. "Is this for Friday? But why should I bring Zheng Ruizhen with me? She doesn't understand."
"She may not be able to write, but she can definitely tell good from bad." Yu Li said this with no expression on her face. The hair on her forehead fell down because she lowered her head. The car window was half open, and the setting sun shone in, adding a touch of tenderness to her profile.
On the side of the road, a young man riding a bicycle stared intently at the direction where the vehicle was going away, and a rare look of peace appeared on his gloomy face.
Zheng Ruizhen didn't come to school the next day. I heard that she took a leave to go back to her hometown, which is in Mingyuan Town under the jurisdiction of the capital. It only takes half a day to go back and forth.
The bet with Zheng Ruizhen was only known to the classmates who went to the club together. It was not told to anyone else. Zheng Ruizhen's incident was over and few people paid special attention to her.
During lunch, Zheng Ruizhen rushed back and immediately ran to the cafeteria to find Yu Li. She angrily said, "You are going too far!"
Yu Li was discussing camping with Song Minjing at the time. Zheng Zhihe said she wanted to go too, but Song Minjing refused. Zheng Ruizhen's arrival just saved Song Minjing.
"It's settled. Lili and I will go," Song Minjing said with finality. While Zheng Zhihe wasn't reacting, she glanced at Zheng Ruizhen and asked, "Mr. Zheng, where did we go too far?"
Zheng Ruizhen pounded the table, revealing a scratch on the back of her right hand. "My dad called me last night and told me that my colleagues from the club had come to our house and were causing trouble. Did you do this?!"
Yu Li looked puzzled: "Really? Then, are you injured, Zheng?"
Zheng Ruizhen shouted: "Don't act so pretentiously here. I don't even know who you are."
Yu Li smiled: "Yes, compared to your diligence and integrity, I am indeed extreme and ruthless."
"Student Zheng, is that right?"
"..." Zheng Ruizhen suddenly fell silent. She stubbornly believed that rich people were selfish and liked to use tricks. As a result, her speech yesterday received applause from the audience. And the applause was from herself who copied the manuscript of Quan Yuli because she thought she was hardworking and upright.
Just now, she made a conclusion about Quan Yuli without thinking.
——I still don’t know who you are?
Is that so? Does she really know? Is her perception correct?
Only then did Zheng Ruizhen realize how powerful Kwon Wook-ri's methods were. Kwon Wook-ri was good at attacking people's hearts. As long as she made a mistake once, she would have to live in self-doubt every day from then on.
"You're hilarious," Song Minjing said, throwing down her chopsticks. "You can still yell at us here, but what about your hard-working colleagues? Where can they go to complain if they lose their jobs?"
"That's right." Zheng Zhihe played with her newly-made manicure and looked at Zheng Ruizhen with disdain. "You can't stand someone coming to your house? If it were me, I would not only come to your house and curse them, but I would also hang a banner and sit outside your house every day, making your family lose face and never be able to raise their heads again."
The last sentence successfully made Zheng Ruizhen's body tremble. She was so angry that her breathing was heavy. She pointed at Zheng Zhihe and couldn't say a word.
Just as he was about to say something, a crackling sound suddenly came from not far away, attracting everyone in the cafeteria to look over.
"Sorry, brother, soup spilled on you." Someone patted another boy's face and laughed. The boy was covered in soup, with rice grains stuck in his hair, and there were rice bowls scattered on the ground at his feet.
"What the hell, Gao Zhuo Li is doing this again." Zheng Zhihe said with disdain, "But there's nothing we can do about it, after all, Gao Zhuo Yan is an illegitimate child."
She looked helpless: "Illegitimate child, this is how you deserve to be treated."
Zheng Ruizhen seemed frightened. Didn’t they say there was no bullying? Isn’t bullying between brothers also bullying?
Yu Li took a quick glance and quickly lost interest. The story of the Gao brothers was well known to everyone in Jiutang Private School. The Gao family was in politics, Gao Li and Gao Zhuyan's father was a prosecutor, and the two brothers would definitely follow this path in the future.
Just like in idol dramas, Gao Zhuyan has a hard life as an illegitimate child. Things like "accidentally" spilling food on Gao Zhuyan happen several times in a semester.
Others are not interested in Gao Shuoyan's game and usually choose to ignore it, not join Gao Shuoyan or help him.
Patting Gao Zhuyan's handsome but gloomy face, Gao Zhuli smiled heartily: "Excuse me, brother, please help me clean up the dishes. Oh, and the food that has been spilled on the floor, please clean it up as well."
Gao Zhuyan didn't say anything. It was hard to tell whether he was refusing or not. Anyway, he still sat there without moving after Yu Li left the cafeteria.
Song Minjing couldn't help but sigh: "Gao Zhuyan's ability to endure is really strong. If it were me, I would have given up long ago, but he can still sit there and finish his meal."
"I'm used to it." Zheng Zhihe said casually.
They have no connection with Gao Zhuyan. Gao Zhuyan has always been a marginal figure in this circle. Unless Gao Zhuyan is eliminated, he will never be able to make a breakthrough.
Yu Li said nothing.
In the cafeteria, Gao Zhuyan stood up to clean up the dishes after most people had left.
Someone picked up a soup bowl and put it on the table. Gao Zhuyan looked at the person. It was a girl whom he didn't know.
Liu Yina took out a wet towel and wiped her fingers, her eyes rolling around Gao Zhuyan's face: "I thought you were so powerful, but in the end you can only be obedient. Really..."
She found an adjective: "Like a drowned puppy that fell into a stinking ditch."
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