When Ruan Chen entered the classroom the next day, she noticed that many of her classmates were looking at her strangely.
I feel a bit sorry for them.
She sat down in her seat, glanced at her watch and saw that there was still half an hour left. She habitually picked up Yu Xiaoya's homework and buried herself in copying it.
"Ruan Chen, you didn't come yesterday. Was it related to your dad's company? You weren't in class just now, and everyone was talking about the Ruan Group."
Ruan Chen wrote in her dog-paddle style, stroke by stroke, and casually said, "You know what kind of relationship I have with the Ruan family. Even if the Ruan family goes bankrupt, it has nothing to do with me."
"No," Yu Xiaoya lowered her voice, "I wanted to ask, was you behind the Ruan Group's recent troubles...?"
Ruan Chen nudged Yu Xiaoya lightly with her shoulder, then flicked her wrist slightly, placing the pen to her lips. "Shh, don't talk nonsense."
"Just as dawn broke today, an investigation team was parachuted into the Ruan Group, saying they were going to thoroughly investigate the cause of the explosion, but it's hard to say exactly what they're investigating with such a large-scale operation. And then your dad... oops, Ruan Zhengde, was taken away by the China Securities Regulatory Commission last night, apparently because some of the Ruan Group's companies had engaged in irregularities when they went public."
Ruan Chen knew that this was the result of several families in Jingzhou working together behind the scenes.
It seems they intend to seize this opportunity to deliver a heavy blow to the Nguyen Group.
"I marked the mistakes you made with a pencil," Ruan Chen said casually, returning Yu Xiaoya's test paper to her.
Bo Nian, who was collecting homework, had been watching Ruan Chen from a distance. When he saw that she had finished "writing", he walked over with a stack of homework.
Ruan Chen casually tossed her own food on top, then bent down and tore open the packaging of the breakfast Yu Xiaoya had brought her with her mouth. Her slender fingers picked up the straw, stabbed it heavily into the milk carton, drank it all in one gulp, and tossed it into the trash can to her left in a parabola.
Decisive and efficient.
Bo Nian found every movement of hers pleasing to the eye.
"Is something wrong?" Seeing that he hadn't left yet, Ruan Chen asked vaguely while biting into her steamed bun.
Bo Nian wanted to comfort Ruan Chen.
While not fatal for the Nguyen Group, this incident is still a major blow.
Ruan Chensheng was beautiful and charming. Every move she made seemed to show the effort the Ruan family had put into her. Bo Nian thought that she must have been spoiled by the Ruan family. After such a change, she must have been in a state of turmoil.
But when he saw Ruan Chen, he couldn't utter a single word of comforting words.
Ruan Chen seemed completely unaffected. Even the weariness that often lingered in her eyes was much less noticeable today. She seemed to be in a good mood, slowly eating her steamed buns while rummaging through a messy drawer with one hand.
"It's okay, I'm waiting for Xiaoya to correct her mistakes."
Bo Nian was caught off guard when he met Ruan Chen's naturally cool gaze. His heart skipped a beat, and he turned his head away.
"By the way, the finalists for the global invention competition are out. Our group made it to the finals. How did your group do?"
Ruan Chen then remembered this matter.
She quickly took out her phone and downloaded the list.
Her group and Lin Fengzi's group were also among them.
Ruan Chen breathed a sigh of relief.
Then she saw a message from Ruan Yu'er in the notification window: "Sis, I and my high school classmates signed up for the Global Invention Competition and made it to the finals! You must have made it too, right? Mom is so happy and wants to go with us. She hasn't been shopping there in ages. There are several beautiful aunties in the US who are Mom's best friends, and they're super nice!"
Ruan Chen smiled warmly and replied, "Let's go together. I've never been to the US before. You can show me around."
Seeing Ruan Chen smile, Bo Nian felt relieved and cautiously asked, "Ruan Chen, how about we book tickets together? We can look after each other."
“No need,” Ruan Chen replied, closing her phone. “My family will arrange a private jet.”
A faint look of disappointment crossed Bo Nian's face.
Yu Xiaoya stepped on Ruan Chen's foot from below.
Ruan Chen belatedly realized what was happening.
Yu Xiaoya has always said that she doesn't know how to make friends, and it seems that she really is.
Bo Nian took the initiative to tell me about this, and normally, students of this age should participate in group activities in groups of three or five, but I, on the contrary, turned people away as soon as I opened my mouth.
Ruan Chen awkwardly rubbed her nose. "You guys don't need to book either. We can go together, it's on the way. Besides, it's only a dozen hours, and we'll be preparing for the finals as soon as we land. Private jets have more space, so we can get some rest."
After hesitating for a moment, Bo Nian asked, "Is it convenient?"
“That’s convenient.” Ruan Chen nodded. “My sister is going too. She likes having a lot of people, and she’ll be happy if I bring my classmates along.”
"Okay, I'll tell my team members. Thanks for your help."
"It's okay, we're just classmates."
Yu Xiaoya finally finished correcting her paper after much fuss, handed it over, and gave Bo Nian a big smile, "Class monitor, remember to take good care of our Ruan Chen when you get to the US. Our Ruan Chen can't stand being wronged."
“I will take good care of Ruan Chen, don’t worry,” Bo Nian seemed to realize that his words were a bit inappropriate, and quickly added, “We’re classmates.”
Seeing Bo Nian leave, Ruan Chen finally breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed completely.
She really wasn't good at handling these kinds of things, especially since she considered her relationship with Bo Nian to be merely acquaintances, yet she was trying to befriend him and build a friendship.
"Not bad."
Ruan Chen buried her face behind the book and sighed, "Xiao Ya, I really envy your personality of being able to get along with anyone so easily."
“Don’t be so aloof,” Yu Xiaoya said. “You came to No. 1 High School for three years to interact with your peers and live like a student. If you’re always so unapproachable, you’ll still be a person after three years of high school. It’s like you wasted those three years—your intelligence doesn’t necessarily require three years of high school.”
"You're right."
Ruan Chen was aware of this flaw in her personality.
First Military Academy
The First Affiliated Hospital applied to more than a dozen groups for the Global Invention Awards, and ultimately made it into three.
One of them was Ruan Yunhan's group.
Although Ruan Yunhan was relegated to the regular class, she still possessed a level seven mental strength and consistently achieved top grades, demonstrating considerable personal strength.
"Sister Yunhan, we really made it to the finals!"
"If anyone says that our Sister Yunhan isn't strong enough, I'll be the first to tear their mouth apart!"
"Exactly. It's just bad luck for the Rising Star Class that Yunhan isn't going to study there anymore. They only had one group make it to the finals, didn't they?"
Ruan Yunhan listened to the compliments around her with a faint smile.
Only she knew that she made it to the finals because she used a design she stole from Ruan Chen.
The draft paper she stole from Ruan Chen not only contained a complete design framework, but also detailed subsequent supplementary designs. Ruan Yunhan built upon Ruan Chen's almost completed design to make further improvements, naturally achieving twice the result with half the effort, and entered the finals almost without any major setbacks.
She looked down and sent a message to the number saved as "brother".
"Brother, I made it to the finals. I'll be going to the US next month. Can we meet up?"
"Ruan Chen is going too, I think we should join forces."
"My mother is still suffering in prison, so why should she, the culprit, live such a carefree and comfortable life?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com