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Fifteenth Period
T/N: Translated by Jen on Broken Jinsei! Please do not repost my translations! All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
Unknown as to why, seeing that friend request, Jiang Huihui’s heart strangely tightened all of a sudden.
A month ago, she wouldn’t even dare to imagine that she would have any contact with Zhou Jinwei.
Someone like him was worlds apart from her.
She clenched her phone and looked up at her own room.
It was narrow and cramp. That window in her room faced someone else’s kitchen on the other side. The window needed to be wiped once a day, else whenever the other side cooks, the oil and fume will just stick on there.
Zhou Jinwei lived in that big of a house. Even her mom was nothing more than just one of the servants in his house.
Yet Zhou Yanli said that they will become husband and wife in the future.
This was very absurd and also very unbelievable.
Jiang Huihui’s finger hovered over the screen, hesitating between accepting and rejecting for a very long time.
In the end, she still accepted his friend request.
The screen automatically jump to the chat window.
[The other party has already become your friend. You can start chatting now.]
Jiang Huihui blankly stared at her phone screen for while, but there wasn’t anything else.
Zhou Jinwei seemingly didn’t have any other thoughts. Meanwhile, she, on the other hand, because of a friend request, just had that many random thoughts.
Jiang Huihui rubbed her face and buried her head on her desk, feeling somewhat frustrated. However, her ears that were peeking out unconsciously began to heat up and turn pink.
In that [One Big Loving Family] group, only Jiang Huihui and Zhou Yanli remained in the end.
The system message below: ‘Z had already left the group chat’.
TN: All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
The time was a minute after adding her as a friend.
Because of this matter, Zhou Yanli held a grudge all the way into the next day, angrily grumbling, “If I say another word to him, I will write my name backwards!”
Jiang Huihui wanted to console him, but she didn’t know how she should console him. She could only hand him a piece of her favorite candy.
Zhou Yanli noticed that there was a red mark on her wrist, like having gotten burned.
He frowned, “What’s wrong with your hand?”
Jiang Huihui retracted her hand, “It’s nothing.”
Zhou Yanli’s brows furrowed even more, forcefully pulling her hand over.
He was very strong. With just a bit of strength, Jiang Huihui was unable to struggle free.
It clearly had been scalded by hot water.
He had experience with this kind of thing. He had been mischievous since he was little, having suffered from all sorts of odd injuries.
One time, when he was little, he’d accidentally knocked over the tea that his nanny had just brewed. It was so painful that his forehead broke out in cold sweat, but he still sat there without uttering a sound, forcibly enduring it.
In the end, it was his dad that discovered it, hurriedly having him carried into the bathroom, turning on the cold water, and running it over the wound.
Zhou Yanli already forgot how long it ran under the water, just knowing that afterwards, when applying burn medicine for him, a very big blister formed there. It was transparent, like about to burst through the skin.
His dad asked him, “Why didn’t you tell anyone, doesn’t it hurt?”
He shook his head, “I’m a boy, I’m not going to cry. I’m going to become someone as strong as daddy.”
At the time, he was just four. His dad was busy with work all day, so could only have him entrusted to the nanny.
He would occasionally hear about his dad from his nanny.
He was still small, so didn’t completely understand those things.
The only thing he knew was that his dad was a very very very powerful person.
Those people outside all revered him, and also feared him.
That’s why, he also wanted to become someone powerful like his dad.
But that powerful man wasn’t without any weaknesses.
The only time Zhou Yanli saw his dad cry was when he was six.
One night, amidst the flashes of lightning and claps of thunder, his dad drove back from the outside and frantically started looking for his mother’s belongings, like as if having gone crazy.
He seemed to have become a completely different person, no longer having his usual composure and self-control.
He was hysterical, nearing madness, rummaging through her things as he screamed, “Why is it like this, why is it like this? It shouldn’t be like this, it shouldn’t be like this!
The six-year-old Zhou Yanli watched all of this, not daring to go out. He could only stand there, watching his father who in his heart, was capable of anything, watching him go from distraught to mental breakdown.
He collapsed onto the ground, holding his mom’s picture in a daze.
Like a sand castle that lost the support of its pillars, instantly crumbling.
It was also that day, he took that white medicine bottle away from his dad’s hand and used his little body to tremblingly hug him, “Daddy, Xiao Li will always be with you. We’ll always be together.”
He wasn’t clear exactly what happened that day, but he had a feeling, that day was the closest he’d come to thoroughly losing his father.
Jiang Huihui didn’t know what Zhou Yanli was thinking about to be this lost in thought.
She had a worried look, asking him, “What’s wrong, do you feel unwell somewhere?”
Zhou Yanli returned to his senses, “It’s nothing. The smell of this ointment is too strong, got smothered by it.”
He lowered his head, continuing to apply the burn medicine for her. This was even dug out from that pile of useless junk that Zhou Jinwei bought last time. Fortunately, there was at least one thing in there that was useful.
Jiang Huihui was curious, leaning in to smell it, but there was no smell.
Qin Yu who was an aisle away was intently observing this side, seemingly collecting material for his love story.
He concluded that the relationship between these two definitely wasn’t simple.
“Alright, don’t touch water these next few days.” Zhou Yanli screwed the lid back on the ointment and casually threw it back into his backpack, returning back to the question at hand, “So tell me, how did you end up like this?”
Jiang Huihui was evasive with her words, “I…I accidentally did it to myself.”
Zhou Yanli narrowed his eyes. That pair of eyes that were as sharp as a hawk’s fixedly stared at her.
She didn’t have it yet when going home yesterday, which means it certainly must have happened at home. If it really was an accident caused on her own, she wouldn’t have this expression.
No matter how much his grandmother favored boys over girls, she wouldn’t go as far as to do this kind of thing.
So there was only one answer.
“Was it Jiang Man, that moron?”
Jiang Huihui had a surprised look, “How did you know?”
The thought of him just made Zhou Yanli furious. At the same time, he was also a bit disappointed in her, “He’s just that big. You can easily give him a slap and he won’t even be able to hit back.”
Jiang Huihui felt somewhat wronged, it’s not like she never tried to resist before, but Jiang Man was stronger than her, and her mom would always side with him.
Including today, it was also the same. Jiang Man went to snatch her soy milk, but he wasn’t steady, spilling half of it on the back of her hand.
By the time she realized what happened, he’d already ran off.
Seeing her upset, Zhou Yanli hurriedly apologized, “I wasn’t being mean with you. I just hope that you can toughen up a bit more and don’t always get bullied.”
He has never tolerated anyone. If he doesn’t like someone, he will directly go at them, beating them until he’s satisfied.
She nodded, but her answer didn’t have any confidence.
Her soft and weak personality partly came from birth and partly from her family evironment.
Zhou Yanli knew it wasn’t that easy to change. They can only take it slowly.
Their homeroom teacher came in with a blank enrollment form, “Zhou Yanli, what’s going on with your enrollment form, does your parents still not have time?”
F#%$, he almost forgot about this thing.
Zhou Yanli originally wanted to delay it a little longer. After all, he’d just boldly vowed that if he says another word to him, he will write his name backwards.
Only to then immediately turn around and look for the other party’s help.
Too pathetic.
However, the homeroom teacher said, “This can’t be delayed any further. It needs to be filed. The final exams will be here soon.”
Zhou Yanli had no other way and could only agree.
The homeroom teacher took out his phone, “Then give your family a call now.”
“No need.” Zhou Yanli got up, “He’s in the school right now.”
It was still fine when he was sitting, but as soon as he stood up, the homeroom teacher felt as if he was a dwarf that had accidentally stumbled into the land of giants.
He even needed to raise his neck to look at him.
Kids these days really were tall.
After exclaiming, he was also a bit surprised, “Your parent is a teacher in the school?”
Never heard before.
“No, he’s also a student.”
The homeroom teacher blanked, a student?
Zhou Yanli already took the enrollment form from his hand and went out.
That building across from them was just like another world within the school, a peak and ceiling beyond their reach.
The entire class was just made up of around twenty people. It had a total of eight floors, containing a piano room, art room, pottery room, and so on.
There was even a pool and a gym. They even had their own private chefs as well.
All just to serve these young masters and princesses from the capital.
Zhou Yanli found the only classroom in this place and knocked outside the door.
The teaching methods here were quite different from theirs, adopting free discussion and open expression.
This class was english class. The dark-skinned foreign teacher was currently presenting a powerpoint.
The knocking sound brought everything to a pause.
The classroom door was open to begin with. Zhou Yanli stood at the door and nonchalantly lifted his chin at Zhou Jinwei, “Come out for a moment.”
Everyone inside looked towards Zhou Jinwei because of this line from him.
The latter was expressionless, leaning against the back of his chair, motionless.
The two of them just stared at each other like this for a while.
One standing, one sitting.
One cocky to death, one as cold as frost.
Sun Ju had an intriguing look in his eyes, while Xu Lianyu slightly frowned. She remembered him.
The person that day, on the second floor, who wasn’t wearing the school uniform, even shamelessly talking big.
Although the people in the classroom all had their own thoughts, they were still all curious about the same question.
And that was exactly what was this person’s relationship with Zhou Jinwei?
Zhou Jinwei’s temper wasn’t really considered that bad, but he was extremely hard to approach, like as if covered in a fog. The more someone tried to walk inward, the more they’ll realize that inside the fog was even denser fog.
Don’t ever think about getting closer to him.
For people like them, a smiling tiger wasn’t scary, a central air-conditioner wasn’t scary, what was scary was Zhou Jinwei’s type where you can’t guess their thoughts.
But now, this person before them actually dared to directly come up and challenge him?
How could Zhou Yanli’s simple mind think of such complicated things? The homeroom teacher was still waiting outside. If this enrollment form can’t be sorted out today, he probably won’t be able to continue staying in the school.
He clenched his teeth, damn it, just this time today!
Enduring the humiliation in front of everyone, “Please, come out for a moment.”
“……..”
Everyone who thought that he had something bigger up his sleeve, waiting to watch a good show, was utterly dumbstruck.
What the hell was all this?
The great Young Master Zhou who was as cold as frost was finally willing to get up and come out.
The school uniform on him had the feel of a high-end tailored suit.
Just, what felt high-end wasn’t the clothes, but him.
Zhou Yanli had an annoyed look, pointing at Zhou Jinwei and saying to his homeroom teacher, “This is my older brother. He will take care of my enrollment form.”
His homeroom teacher blanked again.
Older brother?
“Biological brother?” His homeroom teacher had a shocked look.
Because of his random claim of being related, Zhou Jinwei revealed a somewhat rare look of disdain. He took the enrollment form from the teacher and then glanced up at Zhou Yanli.
This kind of thing required his personal identification, what use is there looking for him?
Zhou Yanli frowned and handed him an ID card, “I can’t just give him this thing, who’d believe it’s real?”
Zhou Jinwei looked at the birth year on there.
Five years later.
…….
“Forging an ID card is illegal, you don’t know?” He calmly asked him.
Zhou Yanli was even more annoyed, “I naturally know that, but the problem is I didn’t forge it. This is my actual ID card.”
Zhou Jinwei clearly was too lazy to continue wasting his breath with him, having that ID card handed back to him.
Zhou Yanli felt that he really must have lost him mind to even think of asking him for help.
Right when he was about to take back his ID card, Zhou Jinwei paused in his movement.
He looked at the household registration address on Zhou Yanli’s ID card.
It was his home.
His home in the capital.
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