Chapter 1169: Chapter 1169: Turning Point (10)

This darkness was like a vortex, an abyss with no bottom in sight. For anyone else, just a glance would make their skin crawl. But Aunt Liu seemed not to notice at all as she walked up to the Old Mrs. Yuan and nodded respectfully. Only then did the Old Mrs. Yuan retract her gaze, lowered her head, and started turning the Buddha Beads in her hand, chanting softly.

——

Shu Jiao realized during the second class in the morning that both Jiaojiao and Xiu Xi hadn’t come to class. She was already worried about what happened with Xiao Yan yesterday, so during the second class, she went to find the teacher in charge of Class One.

Xiao Yan, who was seventeen this year, was smart from a young age. She came from a middle school in a township, with outstanding grades. Her family was not well-off, but considering her excellent grades, the school gave her a partial waiver of tuition and fees.

When she accidentally hit Ruan Jiaojiao, she was really frightened and her first reaction was to retreat. Later, when Yang Tao rushed over and argued with her, and with the encouragement of Ruan Lei and others, she realized she couldn’t hide anymore and finally admitted that the thermos was hers.

Her family was not wealthy; she had an older brother who was supposed to be in his last year of high school this year. But because of their poor family conditions, even with the school’s tuition help, they couldn’t afford to support both siblings’ education. So this year, they chose to let the one with better grades, her, continue studying while her brother dropped out to work in the south.

Although Xiao Yan’s family situation was poor, she was prideful since childhood due to her good grades, and both classmates and teachers liked her.

She knew she couldn’t hide, so she planned to take responsibility. But later, she heard from others that the Ruan Family was very rich. She had seen Jiaojiao, dressed like a little princess, with clothes rumored to be all big brands from Beidu. It’s said that the shoes Jiaojiao wore could cost an average family a month or two of wages.

Even a better thermos only cost seven or eight yuan, the cheapest about four or five yuan. Her parents were farmers with little income, earning merely a few hundred yuan a year. To her, those four or five yuan were not trivial money, not to mention the over ten yuan in medical fees.

After learning the Ruan Family was so wealthy, she didn’t want to pay it back.

She also knew that Jiaojiao had excellent grades, ranking second in school.

While she herself ranked seventh, she did not feel inferior to Jiaojiao. She believed Jiaojiao’s ranking was entirely because of her good family background and having Teacher Shu Jiao to guide her, which placed her ahead.

This caused a vague dissatisfaction within her.

It felt as if she should have been the best, but someone else, just because of some money, ranked above her, making her feel quite indignant.

Being intelligent, she knew the power of rumors. So that night, she intentionally cried in front of her roommates and classmates, implying that although the thermos was cheap and the medical bills weren’t much, they represented her family’s monthly living expenses. With the Ruan Family being so wealthy, couldn’t they allow her to repay slowly over several months? As expected, the rumor that the Ruan Family shouldn’t fuss over the matter quickly spread throughout the school.

She assumed that with Teacher Shu Jiao’s reputation, she would also be generous and let it go. So on the third day, she did not go to apologize or pay Jiaojiao back, and when no one from the Ruan Family came to find her, she thought her plan had succeeded. She was quite happy until she found out that Shu Jiao shamelessly brought her class teacher over directly.