Chapter 526: Ah Li With Short Hair
He Xiaochen invited Ning Li to have dinner with her.
Just as the two of them walked to the Entrepreneurship Center, Ning Li’s phone rang.
It was Ji Shu who was calling.
“Sister Li.”
His voice always carried a wild and uninhibited tone as he asked with a lazy smile, “Are you free now?”
Ning Li asked, “What’s wrong?”
Ji Lyu smoothed down his hair.
“My car has broken down.”
Ning Li looked ahead and saw that He Xiaochen had already walked to the entrance of a restaurant. The glass door was already half-open.
As she walked forward, she lazily said, “Get someone to fix it.”
LY could not possibly be short of someone to fix the car.
However, Ji Shu was not willing to do that.
If he had been willing to get someone else to fix the car, he would not have called this number.
“Sister Li, the situation is quite serious this time. Moreover, the domestic league tournament is about to begin. Are you sure you don’t want to come and personally take a look?”
He did not feel at ease with other people overhauling his car.
Besides, Ning Li was the most familiar with his car and knew how to adjust it the best.
Ning Li stopped in her tracks.
“Got it. I’ll go over in a while.”
Ji Ci laughed.
“What are you waiting for? I’m waiting at the East Gate of your school. You’ll see it when you come over.”
Ning Li, “...”
She should have known that with Ji Shu’s personality, he really would do such a thing.
She called out to He Xiaochen.
“Xiaochen, a friend of mine has something urgent to discuss with me at the last minute. I won’t be able to have dinner with you today.”
“Huh?”
He Xiaochen already had one foot inside the door when she heard her voice. She was stunned.
However, she knew Ning Li’s personality. She would not easily miss an appointment, so she immediately nodded.
“Oh, okay. We’ll eat together another day then.”
...
Ning Li returned to her dormitory and changed into a pair of black casual pants and a loose short-sleeved shirt of the same color. Before she left, she pressed a baseball cap on her head.
It had been a while since the military training had ended. It was a rare time for the students to relax after eating, and there were many people on the road.
Ning Li walked towards the East Gate.
Although her attire was very simple and the baseball cap covered half of her face, her tall and slender figure was still very eye-catching.
School had not started that long ago, but Ning Li’s name was already known to almost everyone.
The top post on the school forum was still the one where she had been chosen as the school beauty.
The main picture was a picture of her during military training which had been secretly taken from afar.
Her face was bare, without any makeup, but she was still dazzlingly beautiful.
Many people recognized her and looked at her from time to time.
Ning Li turned a blind eye and walked to the East Gate.
Although the military training at Xijing University was strict, after training, their time was free at night.
In particular, some departments’ student dormitories were outside the campus, so the students came and went more frequently and the management was more lax.
As they approached the school gate, Ning Li heard a few girls walking over and discussing something in low voices. She could not hide her excitement.
“Did you see that car just now? It’s so beautiful!”
“Of course, I saw it! This is the first time I’ve seen a supercar in real life! It looks so good that I’m speechless!”
“I heard that the lowest price for that car is five million... Tsk, as expected of the Capital. Such a luxury car can even be seen on the street...”
“By the way, don’t you think that the young man in the car is even more handsome?!”
“It’s obvious that he’s the heir of a wealthy family. However, this kind of man must have a very wild attitude. An ordinary person would definitely not be able to take him down. Let’s go take a look.”
Ning Li suddenly had a feeling.
She walked out of the school gate and looked up. As expected, she saw a gradient red supercar parked across the road. It was gorgeous and eye-catching which made it extremely high-profile.
Ji Shu was sitting in the front passenger seat with one hand leaning against the car door.
At that time, it was already dark, but his car, his face, and his signature silver hair were really difficult to ignore.
Noticing Ning Li’s appearance, he turned on his double flash and smiled at her in a carefree manner.
Many people around the area immediately looked over. Their gazes wandered back and forth between Ning Li and Ji Shu, indicating that they were unclear about what this meant.
Ning Li frowned, but she still walked over.
“Ji Shu, don’t you have a car anymore?”
Even in the Capital, he could not suppress his ostentatiously wild nature all over the world.
Ji Shu spread out his hands, seemingly helpless.
“The cars in the team aren’t allowed to be driven out. Only Ron has a broken motorcycle, but didn’t you forbid me from driving that kind of thing? So, at the last minute, I even borrowed a car from Gu Siyang!”
When he spoke, his eyes were still unruly, and there was an unbridled and free spirit in them.
Obviously, he did not feel helpless or troubled at all. However, he was happy. After all, he had gotten a car for nothing.
He had long coveted Gu Siyang’s car, but Gu Siyang had been unwilling to let him drive it. Today, when he heard that Ji Shu was coming to pick Ning Li up, he nodded without saying a word.
Tsk, why was the gap in the treatment of people so big?
Ning Li knew that he had been training a lot lately and was probably taking the opportunity to go out to let off some steam. So, she turned a blind eye and got into the passenger seat.
Compared to the motorcycle, she still felt that it was better for Ji Shu to drive a car.
She buckled her seatbelt and slid further down the seat. The brim of her hat was lowered, covering most of her face.
“Let’s go.”
...
Ji Shu drove her to the LY base.
When Ron and the others heard that she was here, they all came to join in the fun, but Ji Shu chased them away.
“Sister Li rarely has time to test-drive a car, so all of you better behave! Don’t waste Sister Li’s precious time!”
Ning Li entered, while Ron and the others could only wait outside.
They pestered Ji Shu for a while before he finally escaped and followed Ning Li inside.
Ning Li had already lifted the hood, and she was holding a small wrench in her hand, checking the parts, bit by bit.
While she was in the middle of something, she was always extremely focused.
Ji Shu did not dare to disturb her and merely watched from the side.
Ning Li lowered her head slightly. Her gaze was fixed in a certain direction, and her baseball cap was lowered.
The light shone down and outlined her perfect side profile. Her smooth shoulders and back were hidden in the loose black short sleeves, making her appear exceptionally slender and thin.
Her expression was light. When she pursed her lips slightly, there was an additional coldness and sharpness.
A strand of her hair fell to the side of her cheeks, and she casually raised her hand to push it behind her ear.
When Ji Shu saw this, he suddenly laughed.
“Sister Li, your hair has grown so much. When you had short hair in the past, it was so easy and neat.”
Ning Li raised her eyebrows and glanced at him from the corner of her eyes.
Ji Shu seemed to have thought of something, and he slapped his legs and laughed.
“Hahahaha! But you were just so handsome! At that time, how many times did people call you ‘Little Brother’?”
Even he, when he had first seen Ning Li, had not seen her face and thought that she was a wild boy from some family.
She was already tall, to begin with, and at that time, she always wore loose black, white, and gray casual clothes. Her neat short hair fell down, barely covering her eyebrows and eyes. When the hat was pressed down, her whole body hunched, making her look like a thin and slender young man.
Only by looking at her face would one realize that she was a beautiful and elegant girl.
Ning Li could not be bothered with him.
After the inspection, Ning Li helped him with the debugging again.
After everything was settled, Ji Shu got up and prepared to send her back.
“Sister Li, I’ll send you back to school.”
She looked at the time.
It was ten minutes past ten.
The dormitory entrance closed at ten thirty.
It would be impossible for her to make it back in time.
She clapped her hands.
“Send me back to Shuiyuan Shijia instead.”
Chapter 527: Navigation, Can You Do It?
On the way, Ning Li received a message from Xue Langlang.
[ Ning Li, the dorm is about to be locked. Why aren’t you back yet? ]
During military training, the dorm matron would occasionally check on the dorm.
Ning Li replied: [ I won’t be back tonight. ]
Xue Langlang typed for quite a while before finally sending a message.
[ Okay. Then do be careful about your safety. Don’t be late for military training tomorrow morning. ]
Ning Li answered and put her phone aside.
Ji Shu sent her to her residence and left. Ning Li went upstairs alone.
She washed up briefly and went to bed to rest.
...
In 306.
Xue Langlang put away her phone.
Yao Mingjia was carefully applying face cream to her face.
During military training, she was exposed to the sun every day. Even if she applied sunscreen, she still worried about sunburn.
She looked at Ning Li’s side of the room.
“Ning Li isn’t back yet?”
Xue Langlang replied with a “Hmm” as she soaked her feet.
“She said that she won’t be coming back tonight.”
Yao Mingjia paused and recalled the post she had seen in the campus forum.
Someone had taken a photo of Ning Li leaving the school that evening and getting into a supercar.
Because of the distance and because she had been wearing a hat, although some people guessed that it was her, they were not completely sure.
But now it looked like... It had to be her.
Knock, knock.
The voice of the dormitory matron came from outside the door.
“306, bed check.”
Yao Mingjia went over to open the door.
The dormitory matron glanced around the dormitory.
“Yao Mingjia.”
“Yes.”
“Xue Langlang.”
“Yes.” Xue Langlang hurriedly wiped her feet.
“Ding Yu.”
“Yes.” Ding Yu closed the computer and got up to go to the bathroom.
“Ning Li.”
No one answered.
The dormitory matron asked again.
“Are there only three people in your dormitory?”
Yao Mingjia’s eyes twitched slightly. Before she could say anything, she heard Xue Langlang quickly say,?“Teacher, she’s in the bathroom.”
Ding Yu’s footsteps paused. She then walked to the balcony and collected her dried laundry.
The dormitory manager said “Oh.” Seeing that Ning Li’s backpack and clothes were all there, she did not bother. She drew a tick on the form and went out.
Yao Mingjia closed the door.
Xue Langlang heaved a sigh of relief.
Yao Mingjia seemed to be a little hesitant.
“Is it wise for us to do this? Ning Li is alone outside. What if she encounters any danger?”
Xue Langlang was stunned. “Huh? That shouldn’t be the case, right?”
“Isn’t she from Yunzhou? She just came to the Capital not long ago and she’s out alone at this time of night...” Yao Mingjia asked Ding Yu. “Ding Yu, what do you think?”
Ding Yu did not have any expression on her face as she casually hung her clothes in the closet.
“If you’re worried, you can call the police.”
Yao Mingjia choked for a moment.
They did not get along well.
She decided not to say anything else. She returned to her seat and continued applying her face cream.
...
Ning Li returned to her dormitory at 6:30 the next morning.
It was 7:00 a.m. when she left for training. By this time, there were already people coming in and out of the entrance of the dormitory building.
Ning Li blended in with them and went upstairs.
Xue Langlang and the others were preparing to go out. Seeing that she had returned, Xue Langlang was relieved.
She asked softly, “Ning Li, where did you sleep last night?”
Yao Mingjia was in the middle of putting on her military training cap, but she was listening to the conversation over here.
Ning Li changed into her military training uniform and casually said, “The home of an elder.”
“Oh, I see.”
Xue Langlang nodded and did not ask any more questions.
Living in the home of an elder was not a problem.
Yao Mingjia seemed to laugh and walked out first.
...
As soon as she arrived at the field, Ning Li noticed that the atmosphere today was a little different.
The people around her were all looking at her.
Actually, she had already gotten used to everyone’s attention. However, it was very difficult to tell if it was kindness or malice.
In particular, some of them even showed hints of contempt.
During the break, one could faintly hear the sounds of people conversing.
Occasionally, there were words like “sports car”, “not going home at night”, “bankrupt” and so on.
Ning Li’s eyes narrowed slightly. She had roughly guessed what was going on.
At lunchtime, she logged onto the Xijing University campus forum and indeed saw a hot post about it.
[ Shocking news! The newly-promoted campus belle has fallen in love with a?rich second generation1! She did not return late at night. She must be deep in love! ]
These extremely eye-piercing and melodramatic words easily attracted countless attention.
Ning Li frowned and scrolled down.
The first picture had been taken the moment she had gotten into Ji Shu’s car.
Only a small part of her face could be seen, but the owner of the forum was speaking with certainty and everything was about her.
[ Could this be the school belle’s boyfriend? With a rich guy who can afford to drive this car, it’s no wonder the school belle isn’t interested in Shu Hang! ]
[ However, this doesn’t seem like a boyfriend and girlfriend kind of relationship... Besides, these kinds of rich youngsters are just playing around, right? ]
[ I’ve seen this car outside the Malong Center. At that time, the person in the driver’s seat did not seem to be this little brother... But, I heard that Ning Li didn’t return to the dormitory yesterday... This little brother is quite handsome so I reckon... They must have had quite a good time. ]
[ Pfft, could it be that this man rented the car? Is he just catfishing her? ]
Catfishing.
What kind of fish was he trying to catch by renting a car to pretend to be a rich young master?
Xue Langlang sat opposite Ning Li. At a glance, she also saw the post.
She took a bite of beef and asked hesitantly, “Ahem, Ning Li, is that your boyfriend?”
Ning Li put her phone away.
“No.”
“Huh?”
Xue Langlang had not expected her to deny it. She almost choked. She patted her chest hard to calm herself down, as tears welled up in her eyes.
“No... no?”
“He’s a friend.” Ning Li saw that she was still in shock, so she added, “He was also the one who sent me back.”
After she said that, she sent the link to the post to Ji Shu.
Ji Shu had just come down from the track when he saw the post and immediately knelt down.
F*ck! Who was after his life?
If Lu Huaiyu saw this, he might not even be able to see the sun tomorrow!
Fifteen minutes later, this post was quickly hacked.
All the related search terms on the forum were also blocked.
Ning Li had just finished eating. She glanced at the forum and did not pay any more attention to it.
Just as she was about to go back to the dormitory for her lunch break, she received a call from Lu Huaiyu.
Staring at the name on the screen, Ning Li inexplicably felt a strong urge to interrogate him.
She gestured to Xue Langlang and went out to find a more remote location to answer the call.
“Second Brother.”
She called out.
Lu Huaiyu’s tone was as casual and elegant as usual.
“Have you eaten?”
“Yes.”
“Are you tired from the military training?”
“It’s alright.”
He gave an extremely soft “Oh.” His deep, cello-like voice fell into her ears. He said each word with a half-smile,?“Did you stay out last night?”
Ning Li rubbed the space between her brows. She knew that this man was going to take it personally.
“Yesterday, Ji Shu asked me to do at LY. It was too late when I finished, and the dormitory has a curfew. So, I went back to Shuiyuan Shijia.”
Lu Huaiyu’s nasally voice responded softly. Then, he raised his eyebrows slightly, and there was a hint of a smile in his low and lazy voice.
“Ah Li.
“There is Rongyue Mansion. Are you not sure of the way or can you navigate your way to it?
“This place will not impose a curfew on you.”
Chapter 528: I’ll Do as I See Fit
His voice fell by her ear, slow and steady, with a tantalizing itch.
Ning Li gently rubbed her ear, as if a slight tingling feeling was spreading there.
“Got it.”
She said.
Having gotten the answer that he wanted to hear and Lu Huaiyu laughed calmly.
She always seemed to stray from the rules, but in the end, she always obediently returned to his embrace.
And he could only accept it, with joy and pampering.
Ning Li remembered something.
“Oh right, my dorm mates said that they would like to see you and have a meal sometime.”
Actually, she had not really bothered much about this matter at first.
This could be considered a small tacit understanding between young girls on campus. However, she had never really cared about these things before, and Lu Huaiyu should be even more so.
However, there were quite a number of people who still had not given up and continued to try to pursue her. Secondly, after today’s post, all kinds of rumors about her were rampant.
She was not a person who was afraid of trouble, but she also did not like to be involved in these kinds of messy rumors.
Lu Huaiyu raised his eyebrows, his voice filled with joy.
“Sure.”
Except for Ning Li, the Second Master of the Lu family in the Capital had probably never agreed to a dinner party so easily before.
Especially with a few strangers whom he had never met before.
However, this time, not only did he respond with ease, he had obviously been coaxed into agreeing.
Ning Li knew that he had been quite busy recently.
After resting in Yunzhou for more than a year, he had finally officially returned to the Capital and taken charge of the Lu family’s business.
There were a lot of projects and work that required Lu Huaiyu’s personal supervision.
“This matter isn’t that urgent. Let’s see when it’s convenient for Second Brother.”
Lu Huaiyu laughed.
How could he not be anxious when it came to matters of his status?
Even though she did not even look. Yet, it had only been a few days since school started, and many pairs of eyes from Xijing University were already looking at her.
However, he still nodded and replied with a casual smile.
“Okay.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
...
Although the posts on the school forum had quickly been deleted, in private, the discussion about Ning Li did not stop.
Having just entered the school, this was time for new students to be extra curious about everything.
Moreover, the main character of the incident was the extremely attention-grabbing Ning Li.
She was the top scorer of the M province science college entrance examination.
The newly-promoted campus belle.
Yet, she had such a special background.
She was really beautiful, and her grades were really good. But apart from that, everything about her, including her father who had been imprisoned, her mother who had remarried, and the bankrupt Ye family... All this was like an extremely dirty swamp that was inseparable from her.
She had grown up in this kind of mud, and no matter how hard she tried, she could not get rid of it.
In the eyes of many people, even someone who had such beauty and education, a girl with such a poor and terrible background would likely find the easiest path was to be involved with money.
Moreover, she had indeed gotten into an expensive luxury car that day, and she had indeed not returned to the dormitory for the entire night.
Of course, they would not say those words in front of Ning Li. However, people would cast various glances her way from time to time.
Ning Li could not be bothered to pay attention to this and behaved as if everything was as usual.
...
The military training was nearing its end.
All the preparations for the school anniversary were also being carried out nervously.
The whole of Xijing University had already been decorated, and the air was filled with a lively and noisy atmosphere.
On the field, it was not known if the atmosphere had affected the freshmen, but the freshmen seemed to be more energetic than before.
The military training had ended that day, and everyone was about to disperse. When the training ended, Xia Rui, the counselor for this year’s freshmen from the Institute of Physics, came over and called Ning Li away.
“Ning Li, come to the office.”
Xia Rui was also from the Institute of Physics at Xijing University. After getting his PhD., he had immediately stayed in the school to teach. He could be considered young and promising.
Because he was not much older than the freshmen and was also a senior in his department, Xia Rui was able to get along with everyone easily and had a good relationship with them.
When he looked at Ning Li, he had a smile on his face which showed his undisguised appreciation.
Ning Li followed him.
Someone asked curiously,?“Why is the counselor calling Ning Li over at this time?”
Another person guessed,?“Probably to choose her as this year’s new student representative to speak at the school’s anniversary?”
Hearing this, Yao Mingjia tightened her grip on her water tumbler and frowned.
A few people were still whispering something.
“Ah, now that you mention it, I guess it’s true. She seems to have the highest score in this year’s national exam.”
“Don’t forget, she hasn’t even counted the results of the physics competition. She got full marks in that final.”
“But... is she really going to be chosen just like that? Don’t the counselors know about the rumors in the school recently? Wouldn’t it be controversial to choose Ning Li?”
“You said it yourself, all of it is only rumors! Besides, there are so many faculties in the school, and this is the only spot for the new student representative to speak. It’s quite rare...”
A girl looked over and suddenly shouted,?“Yao Mingjia!”
Yao Mingjia stopped in her tracks and seemed to turn around unintentionally. “What’s wrong?”
The girl looked left and right before taking a few steps forward. She lowered her voice and asked,?“That night, did Ning Li really not return to the dormitory?”
Yao Mingjia’s eyelids twitched slightly. Just as she was about to speak, Xue Langlang, who was beside her, suddenly interjected.
“Who spread all this?”
Her tone was a little cold, obviously unhappy.
The girl hesitated and said, “I was just asking casually. Moreover, someone really did see her returning to the dormitory the next morning... That means that she must have stayed outside that night.”
Xue Langlang’s expression darkened slightly.
“Ning Li stayed at a relative’s house. Do you have to interfere with other people’s private matters?”
The girl did not say anything and looked embarrassed.
Yao Mingjia suddenly smiled and nodded.
“Exactly. We can all testify to this. Those people on the forum just like to create fake news. What rich second generation....? Ning Li has a boyfriend, and she has already promised to bring her boyfriend to meet us when she has the chance.”