Chapter 185: Yumo Cried – 1
“Don’t mind him. He is fully aware of our house rules. He knows he shouldn’t go to bars and that we have a curfew, yet he still chose to have fun with his friends. Do you know how much they spent in one night? A whopping 80 million! He must be made aware of his mistake, or he will never learn!”
That said, Xu Wei’s eyes were red around the rims as she watched the scene downstairs. It was apparent to Fu Zhi that she still felt distressed about punishing her eldest son. Then, she said, “If he died, then there would be one less person to take care of you when you grow old.”
Xu Wei was stumped, as she found Fu Zhi’s statement irrefutable. She tilted her head up at 45 degrees to prevent her tears from falling from her eyes as she said seriously, “I don’t care. He has to pay for his actions, or he will never learn from his mistake. Besides, have you ever seen a brother who needs his little sister to help him clean up his mess? He’s the only one and, seriously, that’s not cool at all.”
“But he’s also a victim. He just wanted to celebrate his friend’s birthday, and I’m sure he will be more careful next time.”
Fu Zhi took a glance at the scene downstairs and said, “If dad doesn’t stop now, his legs are going to break and we’ll have to spend money to send him to receive treatment at the hospital.”
“That’s not good. If his legs break, this will become a domestic violence case!” Xu Wei did not want anything to happen to her family again, so she craned her neck and shouted, “Jingqing, I guess he’s already understood his mistake! You can stop now. Zhizhi said she isn’t going to pay for his medical fees if his legs break!”
Fu Zhi was dumbstruck.
The sound coming from downstairs was drowned out by the pitter-patter of the rain.
Lu Jingqing was not using too much strength. After all, he just wanted to teach Lu Yumo a lesson. Toward the end, he gave him a slap on the cheek and said, “You should learn from your sister. You’re a mature young man now, so you should stop hanging out with those fair-weather friends of yours. As the eldest son, you should be an example for your younger brother and sister, not a bad influence! I hope you’ve learned your lesson this time.”
Lu Yumo rubbed his back and legs in pain, and his eyes looked red. He had become more mature after this incident, so he nodded and said, “It’s all my fault, dad. I’ll cut ties with those guys. I’ll reflect on myself and I promise you I won’t make this kind of mistake ever again.”
“It’s fine for you to be good to your friends, but you have to make sure they’re worthy. Write me 3,000 words of self-criticism and send them to my email tonight!”
Truth be told, Lu Jingqing did not blame his eldest son for being framed by Zhou Tingting. After all, he was the one who had gotten the short end of the stick. He had just gone to have fun with his friends in a bar. He had not expected that Zhou Tingting would be waiting for him to fall into her evil trap there.
Be that as it may, none of this would have happened if he had known how to differentiate between bad and good friends and he had come back home on time. Thus, he still had to punish him.
After seeing that his eldest son had learned his mistake, he nodded and walked toward the dining table. At the same time, he said, “We’re a family, and a family should not be divided. I know you’ve created several WeChat groups without me in them, so I’ll give you a chance now. Delete those groups and I’ll forgive you.”
Lu Jingqing had the goods on Lu Yumo, so the latter could not do anything but comply with his demand. After he deleted all the groups, he asked carefully, “What about you?”
“What about me? I didn’t create any WeChat groups. I’m not as childish as you.” Lu Jingqing denied it. “From this day onward, you will follow me to the company after school. It’s about time you learned how a corporation works.”
“Alright,” Lu Yumo answered as he kept his head low. He sniffled and buried his head in his bowl. He did not dare to eat, nor was he in the mood to eat anything right now.
Fu Zhi looked at the last sweet and sour pork rib on the plate. Her long eyelashes veiled her pretty eyes, and nobody could read her expression.
After a short tussle in her heart, she picked up a pork rib and put it in Lu Yumo’s bowl. Then, in a soft voice, she said, “Eat.”
Lu Yumo, who had buried his head in his bowl, was stunned. He looked blankly at his sister as a surge of warmth flooded his heart.
Chapter 186: Yumo Cried – 2
Lu Yumo’s eyes were red. Even though he tried his best to hold his tears back because of his pride as a man, it was a wasted effort. Tears slowly welled out of his eyes and streamed down his cheeks.
Xu Wei looked at him worriedly and asked, “What’s wrong, sweetie?”
Lu Yumo did not reply. Seeing that her brother was fighting back tears, Fu Zhi chimed in, “He’s fine. I guess he’s just got bricks in his eyes.”
What a reasonable and logical answer.
Thanks to Fu Zhi, Lu Yumo allowed two more tears to fall from his eyes, and Lu Jingqing nearly laughed.
At night, before he went to bed, he pulled Xu Wei aside and handed her a gaming console. Then, he said, “Go check on him and comfort him. I don’t want him to keep thinking about it, or he might get depressed later.”
*
It was 10 o’clock at night by the time Zhou Tingting came out of the operation room. She had lost her baby, but the silver lining was that she was going to survive.
That said, she was still plagued by a deep feeling of resentment. Even a bad person like Fu Zhi could have a bright future. Why did she have to get the short end of the stick and get plunged into the miserable mess she was in right now? She knew her life was over, but she did not condone going down just like this. Therefore, she went to the toilet by making an excuse and escaped through the window.
The moon was bright and the air was cold.
While walking in the alley behind the hospital, Zhou Tingting called her colleague. “I need your help. Please help me get a knife. Don’t ask me why. Just help me get it. I promise you I will remember your generosity.”
Her colleague did not know what she wanted to do with the knife, nor did she want to know. She told Zhou Tingting that her phone was running out of battery and then swiftly hung up the call.
There were not many pedestrians in the alley right now, and it took her roughly 10 minutes to walk to the main downtown street.
Zhou Tingting sniffled. She was on the verge of crying when she saw that there was only 10 yuan in her savings account.
Just as she was about to curse the world for being unfair to her, she heard a series of footfalls behind her. She jerked her head back, but other than the gloomy streetlight at the other end of the street, she could not see anything.
She thought her ears were playing tricks on her, so she paid no attention. However, as soon as she resumed walking, the footsteps rang out again. This time, the sound was clearer, and she could even hear the susurration of clothes in the air.
Zhou Tingting froze, her feet cemented on the ground as her heartbeat picked up its pace. She spun her head around once more, but there was no one behind her.
The moon disappeared suddenly, the darkness deepened, and the wind began to howl. Leaves fluttered about in the air, and Zhou Tingting felt her blood turning cold. She gulped a mouthful of saliva and asked in a faltering voice, “Who... Who’s there? Come on out now. I’m not scared of you!”
Suddenly, a silhouette blitzed past her. Before she could even do anything, she felt a strike on the back of her head and she slowly fell to the ground.
Before she completely passed out, she squinted her eyes, making one last effort, and looked at the face of the assailant with the help of the dim light.
It was a face that bore a great resemblance to Fu Zhi’s. It was so delicate it seemed like a masterpiece created by God. There was nothing but pure darkness in the depths of her eyes, and the mole at the corner of her eyes was the last thing Zhou Tingting saw before she was consumed by darkness.
*
The next day, the results of the national Physics competition would be published on the government’s website at 1 o’clock sharp.
All the students that had participated in the competition were exceptionally excited save for Fu Zhi.
She was not playing with her phone. Instead, she was reading a historical book.
Su Xing, who was sitting beside her, felt as restless as if there were ants in her pants. She pushed a cup of bubble tea toward Fu Zhi and asked, “Zhizhi, how do you think you did in this exam?”
“I think I did pretty well,” Fu Zhi replied as she snapped a few photos of the relics in the book. After doing that, she sent them to Fu Zhao and added, “I’m expecting a full score, but who knows...”
The other three students were talking with Zhou Zihuai about the competition. When they overheard the conversation between Fu Zhi and Su Xing, one of them couldn’t help chiming in, “Sister Zhi, I know you’re very good at guessing questions, but can you please stop beating around the bush and answer Su Xing’s question?”
“...”
Fu Zhi did not know what to say and was too lazy to explain everything. Instead of wasting her time talking to them, she figured that it would be better for her to make use of that time to earn money.
Chapter 187: A Student From No.1 High School Scored Full Marks
All the leaders and teachers of No.1 High School were excited about the results of the competition.
Since each class had sent in its respective representatives, all the teachers gathered in front of the computer and waited for the results after having lunch.
As the group leader of the Physics group, Ma Mingquan was tasked with computing the grades and ranking of each student from every class.
The group of teachers stared at the website with a worried expression on their faces. One of the teachers said, “The last four structured questions were way too difficult. It took me nearly half a day to complete two of them.”
They were fully aware of how difficult the questions of the qualifying round could be and they’d initially thought that the students could at least score some marks by predicting the style of the questions. However, little had they expected that the association would take an unusual approach and create the question paper by taking sample questions from the question bank. As a result, all the students had been thrown off guard, and most of them had not even answered the last four structured questions.
As they were waiting in front of the computer, Director Liu arrived. He gestured at the teachers and then took a seat as well. After roughly 10 minutes of waiting, the phone rang.
It was a call from the Education Bureau.
It was quiet in the office. All the teachers waited with bated breath as Director Liu answered the call. Suddenly, he jerked up from the chair and shouted excitedly, “Ah? Oh, we didn’t expect this either. Well, it is all thanks to our teachers’ effort...”
Very soon, he hung up the call. Qian Wenrui sensed something and looked anxiously at Director Liu.
“Good news!” Director Liu grasped his phone tightly and announced, his voice laced with great merriment, “One of our students scored full marks in the paper, and only one participant across the entire nation got all the answers right!”
As if he was the participant who had scored full marks, he brandished his fists in the air.
About 100 schools had participated in this competition. The fact that the Education Bureau would take the initiative and call them showed how important this competition was to the people in the capital. Every teacher in the office was filled with exhilaration. Then, one of the teachers asked, “Director Liu, do you know which student it is?”
“About that... They haven’t told me yet, so...”
That said, everyone in the office had a rough idea about the identity of the student. They turned to look at Qian Wenrui, and one of them said, “Ms. Qian, I’m sure it’s either Lu Chuwan or Lu Yubai from your class, right?”
Well, there was a reason why they would think that. No.1 High School had taken in the top 100 students in the province, and nearly half of them had been put into Qian Wenrui’s class.
All of them had inborn advantages over the others and, in combination with Qian Wenrui’s effective guidance, the teachers just could not think of any other student who would be capable of achieving such a feat other than the students in Class 1.
“Lu Yubai didn’t manage to finish the paper,” Qian Wenrui answered as she gripped her cup tightly. She also remembered Lu Chuwan’s face when she had come out of the examination hall, and it did not give her a good feeling.
However, she could not bring herself to deny this while facing the expectant gazes of the crowd of teachers. Therefore, she gave an ambiguous reply. “So it’s not him.”
Another teacher chimed in, “So it’s Lu Chuwan then? I have to say, she’s really a girl full of surprises. Even though her grades are pretty good, I didn’t expect her to... Anyway, if she’s really the one, then our school is going to become even more famous!”
Qian Wenrui glanced at Ma Mingquan.
Since there was some time left, she made up an excuse and went out of the office to look for Lu Chuwan. When she found her, she pulled her aside and asked, “One of our students scored full marks on the paper, so did you finish all the questions of the paper or not?”
*
On the other side, Fu Zhi did not know that all the teachers were discussing who had gotten all the answers right in the office.
Right now, she was talking to Lu Ning on the phone.
“If you want to get a license for the patent, you can drop that thought right now. The research on this medication is sponsored by the government, not to mention that some of the materials are hard to find. They demand really specific living conditions to grow and they are endangered species.
“It isn’t something you can grow, and even if you obtain the prescription and the required materials, your team will never be able to produce the same medication anyway.”
Lu Ning was standing in the hall of a hotel. She put her phone on speaker mode, while Dong Cun was standing behind her with a dark face.
After she hung up the call, Dong Cun sneered, “And you said she’s reliable? Does she know what an anti-cancer drug is? Does she know our team?”
Chapter 188: Fu Zhi Is Taken Away By The Police
“If she doesn’t want to help us, then she should say it. There’s no need to give us such a bullsh*t excuse and mess around with us as though we are fools!”
Lu Ning explained, “Professor He is her teacher. Perhaps he had mentioned it to her before, so she’s very familiar with the medication...”
“Alright, enough of your excuses. There’s no way Professor He would mention something so important to his student, and you should stop giving her so much credit!” Dong Cun interjected forcefully. He kicked the coffee table in frustration before adding, “I know exactly what she is trying to do. She thought that I would submit to her if she brought Professor He out? No way! I’d never do that!”
In the meantime, a group of policemen was approaching No.1 High School. Before Director Liu could recover from his reverie, he received a call from the entrance guard, who said that the police was there to investigate a case.
After the police ran him through the situation, the police chief, Sheriff Zhao, followed Director Liu to Class 21 to get the person that they had come for.
“You’re Fu Zhi, right?” Sheriff Zhao asked softly, looking at the quiet young girl before him. He showed her his badge and added, “We’re from the Yu City Police Station and we’d like to ask you to follow us back to the station. There are a few things that we need you to clarify.”
Why had they come for Fu Zhi? Because Zhou Tingting had been found dead in an alley behind the Yu City Hospital that morning. The tendons in her right arm had been severed, and the cause of her death had been a heavy blow to her head.
They had also found Fu Zhi’s fingerprints and her student ID on the scene. Therefore, due to the severity of the matter, Sheriff Zhao had taken the case into his own hands and decided to investigate it himself.
Fu Zhi was required to give a statement at the police station.
The policemen were all in uniform, and the students from Class 21 were studying them through the window.
Fu Zhi nodded in assent. She turned around and saw that Director Liu’s face had turned pale. There was sweat budding on his forehead, and his hands were shaking. He said, “Don’t worry. I already called your parents.”
Truth be told, Director Liu’s worry was totally uncalled for. Fu Zhi was not perturbed at all and even reassured him instead. “I’ll be back soon.”
Director Liu did not know what to say. His anxiety began to ebb away as he cursed Fu Zhi inwardly for her nonchalance. ‘Do you have any idea what you’re talking about? Do you think the police station is your home?!’
Fu Zhi passed by the other classrooms as she followed the police.
Lu Chuwan was talking to Qian Wenrui when she noticed the commotion. She turned her head toward the source and a surprised expression dawned on her face. She looked at Fu Zhi but soon averted her gaze.
She had no idea whether her ears were playing a trick on her or something else was happening, but she seemed to have caught the word “deceased” during their conversation.
She thought for a moment and then called Madam Lu after Qian Wenrui left.
“Bad news, grandma. You have to stay calm and listen to me. Fu Zhi seems to have been involved in a murder case.”
On the other side of the phone, Madam Lu was playing mahjong with her friends. When she heard what Lu Chuwan had said, she froze.
She excused herself and exited the room with the phone in her hand. After she ascertained that no one was within earshot, she asked, “What the hell is going on?”
Lu Chuwan was not very clear. She said, “There are police officers at school, and I heard that someone has been killed.”
*
When Fu Zhi arrived at the police station, a gentle-looking female police officer interrogated her.
“Were you familiar with the deceased?”
Fu Zhi nodded. “Yeah, I knew her.”
The female police officer scribbled something on the paper and said, “We found out that you had a conflict with the deceased. Is that right?”
It had not been a difficult task for the police to find out about this, especially since Zhou Tingting and her family had been admitted to the hospital yesterday because of a scam.
Fu Zhi had been on bad terms with Zhou Tingting at school, so she was at the top of the suspect list.
“Yeah, we did, but let me make myself clear. She was the one who kept picking on me,” Fu Zhi replied calmly. Then, she asked the police officer back, “So you guys think that a good student like me, who’s loyal to her country, is the murderer just because of some fake evidence you discovered on the scene?”