Liu Yinuo returned to the classroom and sat down in her seat.
“Yinuo…? You’re back?”
A drowsy murmur came from beside her. Liu Yinuo turned to look.
The girl with pink eyes seemed to have been woken by her movements and was staring at her blankly.
“Yeah, someone called me, so I went out for a bit.”
“Mmm… I see…”
Ye Xingmian nodded absently.
“Aren’t you curious who it was?”
“Not really… If they came looking for you, I probably wouldn’t know them anyway.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
Liu Yinuo nodded, agreeing with her.
“Is your cold better? Does your stomach still hurt?”
“Mmm… It’s a lot better now…”
She had rested at home all day yesterday, and her body indeed felt much better.
Lying on the desk, Ye Xingmian suddenly asked in a low voice, “Yinuo, is it really okay for us to just transfer classes like this?”
“What? You don’t want to transfer?”
“It’s not that…”
Ye Xingmian thought of Lin Ziyan, her adopted younger sister.
After what had happened before, meeting again might be really awkward, right? And you never know what impulsive Lin Ziyan might do to her.
Though she wasn’t sure if she could avoid Qin Haiyue, at least she could make sure Qin Haiyue couldn’t find her. After all, for a loner like her, it didn’t matter where she was.
Thinking it over, transferring classes was indeed the best decision.
She’d need to get used to the environment, but for her, there was no difference anywhere.
And unlike before, this time there was someone familiar by her side to rely on.
“Since it’s not a problem, then it’s fine, right? Class is starting soon. Don’t you want to sleep a little more?”
They had studied late last night, so Ye Xingmian had been low on energy all morning.
“Mm.”
Nodding, Ye Xingmian buried her head and fell asleep again.
Elsewhere, Lin Ziyan, dazed and confused, returned to her classroom and spotted a familiar person.
But it wasn’t a classmate she was particularly close to—at least, Lin Ziyan didn’t want to see her right now.
She lowered her head to hide her face and was about to walk into the classroom.
“Hey! You! Stop right there!”
Unfortunately, Qin Haiyue called out to her.
That head of blonde hair, standing out among the student crowd, was hard to miss—let alone the fact that she was tall even by male standards.
Lin Ziyan stopped, bit her lip, and silently turned around.
“Is there something?”
Qin Haiyue crossed her arms, raised an eyebrow, and wore a haughty expression.
“Where’s Ye Xingmian? Is she still sick? Didn’t come today again?”
Hearing this, Lin Ziyan recalled what she had seen earlier in Class 31. She was silent for a moment.
“Yeah, she’s pretty sick. Maybe it’ll be a while before she can come back to school.”
“Huh? I’m warning you, don’t lie to me!”
Lin Ziyan’s body trembled. She instinctively stepped back half a pace, gritted her teeth, and barely suppressed the fear inside her.
“I’m not lying. It’s true.”
Qin Haiyue looked completely unconvinced.
“What about her phone? I called her, but she didn’t pick up. Don’t tell me her phone is broken too.”
Phone call?
Lin Ziyan was at a loss.
When she was charging that phone, it had been turned off the whole time, including now. She didn’t know Qin Haiyue had called.
And even if she had known, she probably wouldn’t have answered anyway.
So this was the kind of person her sister had been dealing with all along?
And she had been treated like that…
Thinking of the bruises on Ye Xingmian’s body, Lin Ziyan was now determined not to reveal Ye Xingmian’s class transfer.
“She… she gave me her phone and told me to return it to you…”
Lin Ziyan glanced around to make sure no teachers were nearby, then carefully raised her head, signaling Qin Haiyue to follow her somewhere private.
But Qin Haiyue clearly didn’t get it.
“Huh? What are you saying?”
Her blonde hair was already eye-catching, and with her outrageous behavior, many people were now staring.
In front of everyone, Qin Haiyue naturally extended her hand.
“Give me the phone. I want to see it.”
“I said… she told me to return it to you…”
“Oh, so that’s it! Lin, she’s got some nerve, daring to do something like this!”
Lin Ziyan’s face showed hesitation.
“Can we go somewhere private?”
She didn’t want others to know she brought her phone to school—who knew if it would attract a teacher’s attention.
“I told you to give it to me, so give it to me. Why so much trouble?”
“Fine…”
Lin Ziyan was ultimately forced to return the phone.
After getting it, Qin Haiyue fiddled with it for a moment, then clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction.
“I’ll come to your house later to look for her. If I don’t find her, you’re in trouble.”
After dropping that threat, Qin Haiyue walked off on her own.
But Lin Ziyan felt like she had fallen into an ice cellar.
She hadn’t considered that Qin Haiyue wasn’t like her—unable to even find someone’s address.
Qin Haiyue had money and power; there was hardly anything that could stump her.
If she found out that Ye Xingmian wasn’t at Lin Ziyan’s house, what would Qin Haiyue do?
The threat still echoed in her ears.
Would she beat her up? Like she did Ye Xingmian?
If it were just that, it might be bearable. But if she threatened her parents’ jobs…
She couldn’t bear to think further.
At that moment, the clueless onlookers even looked at her with sympathy.
She couldn’t stand it anymore and nearly broke down as she returned to her seat in the very back row.
“Hey… Ziyan… are you okay?”
Someone came to comfort her.
Lin Ziyan looked up and saw a close friend. When they used to sit together, she often shared snacks with her. Now, the other girl looked at her with worried eyes.
But Lin Ziyan didn’t need concern. Those sympathetic eyes stung her deeply.
“I’m fine… you can go…”
The other girl eventually took the hint and left.
Lin Ziyan felt that her social circle had also been affected.
No one wanted to be friends with someone Qin Haiyue had targeted; they were all afraid of getting caught in the crossfire.
It was the same for Ye Xingmian, and now for her.
She had quite a few friends, so the impact might be smaller, but the girls like the one just now were rare.
And if relationships weren’t maintained, they would gradually fade, eventually being forgotten.
Now, she was starting to understand Ye Xingmian’s feelings more and more.
So this had been your life all along, sister?
The bitterness of life, the bitterness of socializing, the bitterness of being bullied, the bitterness of saying things you didn’t mean, the loneliness of having nowhere to vent.
She gradually understood why Ye Xingmian had become so weak and overly cautious.
If she herself had lived in such an environment for over a decade, she might have turned out even worse than Ye Xingmian.
From that perspective, Ye Xingmian was actually quite strong.
At least she was still hoping to reunite with her mother, not completely giving up hope, right?
And what about Lin Ziyan?
Thinking this far, she realized with a shock that after losing Ye Xingmian, she had become like a headless fly, not knowing where to go.