Villainous Poor Student (10)
Song Xuyi was taken aback for a moment, suddenly finding it difficult to look directly into He Siyu’s stubborn eyes, and turned her face away.
Was she angry?
He Siyu, observing Song Xuyi’s demeanor, became stiff and bit her lip.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to listen to Xuyi’s words, but in her heart, she truly felt this way: no one was allowed to hurt Xuyi.
“Don’t be mad,” He Siyu didn’t believe there was anything wrong with her thoughts, but she couldn’t bear Song Xuyi’s coldness. Suppressing the pain in her heart, she spoke softly, “I can’t just stand by and watch you get hit. If you don’t like me fighting with them, then I won’t fight anymore. I’ll just take you and run away…”
“Too cute!” Song Xuyi didn’t speak, but the system in her mind had already started howling: “Xuyi, you’ve really raised a good little one!”
Song Xuyi sighed and bit her lower lip.
It would be a lie to say she wasn’t moved.
He Siyu’s emotions were candidly laid out before her, bare and straightforward; she probably considered herself as Song Xuyi’s best friend.
But the reason Song Xuyi had gotten close to her was with a clear purpose.
I shouldn’t keep approaching her with the intention of ‘reforming the villain’. Since she considers me a friend, I ought to trust her more and do my utmost to treat her well.
With resolve in her heart, Song Xuyi raised her eyes to meet He Siyu’s without missing the hint of grievance within He Siyu’s gaze. Song Xuyi felt a surge of guilt and softly whispered an apology, embracing He Siyu’s rigid body—
“I shouldn’t have said that; I was just too anxious. In truth, I’m really grateful that you’d fight for me,” Song Xuyi extended her hand, carefully making a pinky promise with He Siyu: “If you ever find yourself in danger, I’ll risk everything to protect you…”
He Siyu struggled to not lift the corners of her mouth, yet they involuntarily curved upwards:
Xuyi was always so clever, able to quickly dissolve any of her unhappiness.
He Siyu’s eyelashes quivered, and it took her a long while before she reached out, equally wrapping her arms around Song Xuyi’s body.
“Okay, it’s a promise—”
(Originally translated on littlepandatranslations.com, let's go!)
……
As for the knife that He Siyu carried in her bag, everyone tacitly chose not to mention the matter again.
Everyone understood that the marks left by a tormented childhood don’t just fade away quickly, but Song Xuyi was confident: He Siyu, now removed from the village that was like hell to her and growing up in a healthy environment, would eventually let go of her past nightmares.
The matter didn’t just end there.
The wounds on He Siyu’s face couldn’t be hidden from the adults. Song Xuyi told Father Song about being cornered in the alley, with particular emphasis on how He Siyu nearly got her face ruined trying to protect her. Song Xuyi had hoped that Father Song and Mother Song would look after He Siyu a bit more, but she underestimated how much Father Song and Mother Song cared about her. Since Song Xuyi had been kidnapped once, anything concerning her had become a major issue for them. When they learned that Song Xuyi had been blocked, Father Song immediately got in touch with the school’s dean of discipline…
Li Qing developed such a character because of her parents’ pampering. With Li Qing refusing to apologize and her parents spoiling her, the impasse between the two families lasted until the end of the term. Finally, Li Qing’s family decided to move her to a different class for the next semester, and only then did the situation come to a resolution.
After learning that He Siyu had risked her life to protect Song Xuyi, Father Song and Mother Song began to treat He Siyu as if she were their own daughter. Especially considering how He Siyu was a good student with excellent grades and a gentle nature, they even secretly hoped that He Siyu might influence Song Xuyi to get back on the right track. However, they were utterly unaware that when it came to protecting Song Xuyi, He Siyu could be fiercer than anyone else.
At the same time, Father Song and Mother Song, wanting to enhance their girls’ ability to deal with bad people, enrolled Song Han, Song Xuyi, and He Siyu in martial arts classes. Song Han would practice every now and then, Song Xuyi only attended once at the start of the term and never went again, but He Siyu was very diligent, nearly never missing a class…
During those days, the winter holiday quickly passed, and a new semester arrived.
The final exam scores from last semester had long been released: Song Xuyi ranked third, while Li Qing’s mood had been affected, causing her to fall to somewhere beyond the tenth place in class, and she was transferred to Class F9.
This semester, with Brother Song facing the college entrance examination and Song Han the middle school exams, Father Song and Mother Song’s attention was more heavily placed on these two children. Consequently, they naturally had less time to focus on Song Xuyi.
Song Xuyi enjoyed her newfound freedom, sweet-talking and pestering Father Song to ask for leave on her behalf, spending most of her time at her own company. Her platform had moved beyond Huashi, with many merchants expressing interest in joining. She began planning to speed up transportation through the courier industry. However, the development of things always faced various problems. The heterogeneous quality of merchants led to an influx of counterfeit goods on her platform, and there were even instances of merchants fleeing and the platform having to cover the losses.
“We must crack down on fake and inferior products; otherwise, the platform will be destroyed by these merchants,” Mr. Zhao frowned as he approached Song Xuyi, “I bought a composition book for my son from a store with bad reviews the day before. The price was higher than the composition books on the market. Guess what? After ten pages, it turned into some sort of comic…”
Song Xuyi hadn’t expected this turn of events. She leaned over to check out the store and her eyes widened in shock when she saw the name: this seemed to be the same store from which she had bought fairy tale books for He Siyu…
The link to the fairy tale books had been taken down, and the store had started selling composition books again.
While Song Xuyi was brainstorming a penalty scheme for stores selling fake and counterfeit goods, she couldn’t shake off an uneasy feeling, especially remembering the question He Siyu had asked on the bus. The more she thought about it, the more worried she became, fearing that the fairy tale books He Siyu received were also a case of passing off mutton as dog meat (scam).
Due to this matter, Song Xuyi couldn’t settle down for the entire day and eventually decided to ask He Siyu directly. She ran upstairs to Class A1 to find her.
He Siyu’s grades had improved rapidly, and by the end of the term, she was the top student in the school.
To Song Xuyi’s surprise, Li Qing was lingering outside Class A1. When she saw Song Xuyi, Li Qing rolled her eyes at her. Song Xuyi didn’t want to stoop to the level of arguments with a young girl and ignored her, standing at the doorway calling out to He Siyu.
The A1 class teacher didn’t allow students from other classes to barge in, so Song Xuyi stood properly at the doorway and called out. However, He Siyu, sitting inside by the window, didn’t hear her despite Song Xuyi’s several shouts. A girl near the door gave Song Xuyi a teasing look, “Don’t bother, so many people want to get to know Siyu, bringing her flowers, chocolates, and toys. Siyu never pays attention to them, and although you’re pretty cute, Siyu is pretty icy—you might as well give up…”
“A lot of people want to get to know Siyu?” Song Xuyi’s eyes lit up as she grinned and gossiped with the girl through the window, “Then who does Siyu hang out with the most in your class?”
Song Xuyi was merely trying to get a bit of juicy gossip about He Siyu’s social life, yet her question seemed to hit a nerve with the girl. The girl furrowed her brow, and after a moment’s hesitation, she began to stammer: “Siyu’s a great person, you know—she helps everyone who doesn’t understand their schoolwork… She’s friends with a lot of people—”
What the girl meant was that Siyu didn’t have a best friend in the class.
Song Xuyi wrinkled her nose, then pressed on with her questioning: “Then… are there any cool guys who like hanging out with Siyu?”
This time, the girl perked up: “Well, you wouldn’t believe it—not just our freshmen, but even the juniors…”
“Xuyi—”
However, the girl had barely got the words out when they were interrupted by a voice. He Siyu had approached without notice. Standing in front of Song Xuyi, her face was beautiful yet indifferent: “What are you guys chatting about?”
For some reason, He Siyu felt inexplicably irritated seeing Song Xuyi chatting happily with that girl.
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“We’re talking about you!” Song Xuyi was oblivious to He Siyu’s mood, and with great candor, she thanked the girl and, under her surprised gaze, took hold of He Siyu’s arm to walk aside, a smile curling on her lips: “I heard a lot of guys are keen to hang out with you…”
The tightness at the corners of He Siyu’s mouth eased somewhat. She tidied Song Xuyi’s slightly messy hair behind her ears, and said softly, “They’re all irrelevant.”
“Do you need something from me?” It was the first time Song Xuyi had taken the initiative to come up to the fourth floor to look for her. Given her character, she wouldn’t show up without good reason—after all, one doesn’t go to the temple without cause.
Distracted by the gossip, Song Xuyi finally remembered the purpose of her trip upstairs.
She felt a bit embarrassed, but as class was about to start and there was no time left for shyness, she began to stammer out: “I was just… thinking about those fairy tale books I gave you, I’d like to borrow them to read—”
He Siyu’s brows twitched.
Luckily, Song Xuyi was too nervous to notice her expression and only heard He Siyu respond with a hint of apology in her voice, “I did a major clean-up with Auntie Wang a while ago, and a lot of books were sold as scrap. Which one do you want to read? I can buy it for you…”
“No, no, that’s okay!” On hearing that the books were gone, Song Xuyi felt a sense of relief, yet she couldn’t entirely let it go and probed further: “I just wanted to know the ending of 《Cinderella》…”
“Cinderella finally put on the glass slipper and married the prince, and they lived happily ever after…”
“Oh, I see!” Upon hearing He Siyu knew the real ending of the story, Song Xuyi completely put her mind at ease: He Siyu must not have seen those knockoff versions that were a ‘mutton sold as dog meat’!
And at that moment, the bell rang. Song Xuyi quickly waved goodbye to He Siyu and hurried back downstairs—
It wasn’t until Song Xuyi’s figure disappeared from the stairwell that He Siyu let out a long sigh of relief, her clenched palm finally relaxing: Luckily, after realizing something was off with those fairy tales, she had found the original version to read through once more…
Soon, the matter of the fairy tale books slipped from Song Xuyi’s mind.
Time flew by in a blur of busyness, and soon it was July.
Brother Song was accepted into a prestigious university, and Song Han got into Yizhong, the top high school in the city. Father Song was so pleased that he threw them a joint celebration banquet, and He Siyu, who was on summer vacation, was also invited.
At the dinner table, Father Song never missed an opportunity to persuade Song Xuyi to give up her entrepreneurial ideas. He sighed and looked at her, “Xuyi, don’t you want to attend Yizhong? Siyu is a shoo-in for it. If you just put in a bit of effort, you could definitely get in as well…”
He Siyu, who was in the midst of picking up some food, heard Father Song’s words and suddenly a bad feeling surged in her heart. She couldn’t help but glance towards Song Xuyi—
Sure enough, Song Xuyi nonchalantly took a bite of her shrimp ball: “I never wanted to go to that high school anyway.”
“I want to go to Yuhua International High School.”
Yuhua International High School is a private institution with tuition fees amounting to hundreds of thousands yuan annually. Although its educational resources are pretty decent, the school’s rules are far less strict compared to Yizhong.
Once enrolled at Yuhua, as long as Song Xuyi takes the exams on time, the teachers wouldn’t care if she actually spent time in the classroom.
He Siyu knew that Song Xuyi’s decision was made to facilitate skipping classes to deal with company matters. Knowing this was one thing, but hearing Song Xuyi declare it so openly gave rise to a strong feeling of helplessness in He Siyu’s heart…
Father Song smiled helplessly, obviously understanding Song Xuyi’s implication, and with a sigh, he patted Song Xuyi on the head, which counted as an agreement to her words.
Multicolored confetti floated down from above the hotel, and a huge, multi-tiered cake emblazoned with “Golden List Honors” was wheeled out from a room. They presented Brother Song with the latest flip phone and an MP3 player…
Amidst the bustling and exuberant celebration, He Siyu bit her lower lip tightly.
In the past, she had been oblivious, but now, for the first time, He Siyu realized the importance of money.
He Siyu’s grades were good enough for Yuhua, but she couldn’t afford the steep tuition…
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Even though the two of them would be in different high schools, she could still frequently visit Xuyi at the company…
But what about later?
When Xuyi becomes richer and richer, could she keep up with her pace?
He Siyu was certain that Song Xuyi’s business would succeed, and that Xuyi would make lots and lots of money. She would have many friends just as wealthy as her, while she would just be one of the most ordinary friends among them…
Just the thought of becoming distant from Xuyi in the future made He Siyu’s heart feel as if it was being tightly grasped, leaving her breathless…
She bit her lower lip, lowered her head, and through the corner of her eye saw Song Han laughing while cutting the cake. Suddenly, she remembered something her mother had told her before she passed away:
“Your father is a very rich man from the city; he once said he would come back to marry me. Since I married He Biao, when he returns, I probably can’t marry him, but you are his daughter. He won’t ignore you. Once he takes you back, you’ll be the young lady of the city…”
Why hasn’t my real dad come back to the village in all these years? What exactly happened?
He Siyu had harbored deep resentment towards her biological father because it was his absence that made her and her mother suffer so much in the village.
When she first left the village, she was determined to find her real dad and demand an explanation. However, over the past year, He Siyu has found herself very content with her current life, and Auntie Wang often counseled her to have a kind heart. It’s been a long time since He Siyu thought about the idea of seeking out her real father…
At the moment, He Siyu didn’t even consider recognizing her real dad.
But if my real dad hasn’t come back all these years, what if he’s dead?
I am his lawful heir; if he really is rich as my mother said he was, then there must be an inheritance left behind…
If I inherit the wealth, then I can live a better life with Officer He and Auntie Wang, and I would also have the means to catch up with Xuyi’s pace!
He Siyu took a deep breath, her photographic memory recalling the photo of the man named “Xu Hongjiang” that her mother had once hidden away but was burned to ashes by He Biao in a fit of rage. She pursed her lips slightly.
The author has something to say:
It’s the end of the month, liquid, get it?
Don’t make me get on my knees and beg you guys, T_T~~~
I’ve made a slight change to Siyu’s real dad’s name.
LP: Re-translated on March 01, 2024