Chapter 58: The Love of a Naive Girl

Chapter 58: The Love of a Naive Girl

When Ye Xiaoxiao returned to the classroom, she saw Zhang Erni sitting at the back, playing cat's cradle with a few students.

Recently, Zhang Erni had been keeping a low profile at school and hadn’t been bullying her classmates.

She was always smiling, like a carefree girl, and all she could think about was marrying Li Deshu after the exams.

What a pity... she had no idea what was coming.

Thinking about what had happened earlier, Ye Xiaoxiao wondered if she should give Zhang Erni a heads-up, but she was afraid of sticking her nose where it didn’t belong.

However, if she didn’t say anything, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself.

She ripped out a sheet of paper and began writing a letter with her left hand.

Wang Ying was still deep in thought over a math problem and didn’t notice Ye Xiaoxiao’s actions.

Taking advantage of the noisy break time, Ye Xiaoxiao tucked the letter into Zhang Erni’s desk drawer.

The letter warned her to be careful of jerks, and any girl with half a brain could easily uncover Li Deshu’s shady past.

If Zhang Erni was really that clueless, there was nothing Ye Xiaoxiao could do.

The last class of the afternoon was math, taught by an elderly teacher. The classroom was dead silent, and even the boys who usually caused trouble in other classes were quietly paying attention.

Suddenly, a loud, heart-wrenching sob erupted from the back of the classroom.

The students were startled at first, then turned around to see what was happening.

There was Zhang Erni, holding a piece of paper, crying her eyes out.

The math teacher set down his notes and walked down from the podium. "Zhang Erni, what's wrong?"

Zhang Erni was crying so hard that she couldn’t speak. Seeing everyone looking at her, she completely lost it and ran out of the classroom.

Ye Xiaoxiao thought carefully—she hadn’t written anything that harsh, had she?

How would she handle the truth if she saw it firsthand?

The math teacher called out, "Zhang Erni, where do you think you're going?"

Ye Xiaoxiao stood up. "Teacher, I’ll go see if she’s okay."

The math teacher nodded. "If things get out of hand, go get your homeroom teacher. Don’t let her run out of the school."

Ye Xiaoxiao agreed and then chased after Zhang Erni.

She expected it would take a while to track Zhang Erni down, but as soon as she stepped out of the school building, she saw her huddled by the little flower bed near the school gate.

"What’s going on? Did something happen at home?"

Ye Xiaoxiao asked, already knowing the answer.

Zhang Erni looked up at her. "It’s not your concern. You’re just here to make fun of me."

Ye Xiaoxiao replied, "Be reasonable. If you don’t want people to laugh at you, don’t give them something to laugh about. The way you were just now, who wouldn’t want to ask what’s wrong?"

Zhang Erni buried her head in her arms. "Don’t ask. You’re the school beauty, and I’m the joke. We were never in the same league to begin with."

Ye Xiaoxiao: "..."

"Then I won't worry about you. Anyway, you can't leave the school. I'm going to go find Teacher Zhang."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Erni immediately looked up: "Don't go, I'm fine now."

Zhang Erni had calmed down by now. She didn't know who had placed the letter in her desk compartment, but she should have seen it for herself before getting upset.

She was already engaged to Li Deshu, after all. Even if she were to catch him in the act, it should be done openly.

Ye Xiaoxiao noticed that the other girl had stopped crying, "Then I'll go back to class."

Zhang Erni waved her hand, "Go on, go on."

After Ye Xiaoxiao left, she wiped the tears off her face and looked down at the unfamiliar letter again.

However, she was just putting on a calm front. As soon as the school bell rang, Zhang Erni slipped out of the school with the commuter students.

The letter said that Li Deshu was hugging and cuddling with a beautiful woman at the Supply and Marketing Building.

She didn't know where she could catch the two, so she could only wait at the Supply and Marketing Building like waiting for a hare.

It was already after work hours, and the beautiful and well-dressed salesgirls rode their bicycles past the avenue, forming a beautiful scene.

Zhang Erni stood by the roadside, her eyes fixed on the entrance of the Supply and Marketing Building.

Whether it was luck or not, after a while, she actually saw Li Deshu riding his bicycle towards her.

A beautiful girl stood at the entrance of the Supply and Marketing Building and directly sat on the back seat of his bicycle, hugging Li Deshu's waist intimately.

The two were chatting and laughing, extremely close.

At that moment, Zhang Erni's first reaction was not to rush up and question them, but to hide.

She hid for what felt like an eternity, until the noisy sounds around her had quieted down, before she dared to peek out and take a look.

The two were long gone from the road.

Zhang Erni recalled the girl's pretty face and looked at her own thick waist, feeling more and more like a sewer rat, afraid to be seen.

Ye Xiaoxiao went back to school for evening study after having dinner at home.

When she entered the classroom, she specifically looked at Zhang Erni's seat.

She saw the other girl holding a cooked corn cob, devouring it.

She had quite the appetite; she had bounced back so quickly.

Ye Xiaoxiao sat down at her own seat.

Wang Ying whispered to her, "Zhang... Zhang Erni is so strange. Ever since she came to the classroom, she's been... eating, eating. This is already her sixth cob."

Ye Xiaoxiao: "..."

Before she could turn her head to look, a sudden sound of vomiting came from the back of the classroom.

It was Zhang Erni.

A boy shouted exaggeratedly, "Zhang Erni made herself vomit from overeating, she really ate too much."

A girl scolded in dissatisfaction, "You really have no sympathy. Zhang Erni is vomiting, and you're still joking."

A boy responded discontentedly, "She vomited because she ate too much."

The class monitor quickly went to find the homeroom teacher, Zhang Xia.

When Zhang Xia arrived in the classroom, Zhang Erni had already stopped vomiting and was slumped in her seat, looking utterly drained.

Zhang Xia thought she was sick and immediately said, "The duty student, clean the floor, and I'll take Zhang Erni to the hospital."

After Zhang Erni left, she didn't attend classes the next day either.

She didn't appear in the classroom for three consecutive days.

All sorts of rumors were flying around the class. Some said she was seriously ill and couldn't continue studying, while others said she went home to get married and wouldn't even take the college exams.

There was no reliable information.

Zhang Xia said in the classroom that Zhang Erni was just going home to rest for a few days, and anyone who dared to spread rumors would be punished by copying the school rules ten times.

This finally put an end to the gossip in the class.

Ye Xiaoxiao, on the other hand, calculated that the person coming to pick up Xu Jianli would arrive soon. She specifically took leave from evening self-study to go to the pharmacy to get some traditional Chinese medicine.

Although it couldn't completely cure asthma, it was very helpful for regulating the body and stabilizing the condition.

She brought the medicine home, but as soon as she reached the door, she heard an argument going on inside.

Xu Jianli was worked up.

"I didn't ask you to come pick me up, so quit talking to me like that!"

"Xu Jianli!" a man's angry voice, "When are you going to grow up?"

"You don’t get to criticize me!"

Ye Xiaoxiao rushed in and pushed the door open, only to see Xu Jianli leaning on the dining table in the living room, struggling to catch his breath.

Ye Xiaoxiao shoved past the stranger blocking the door and came to Xu Jianli to help him calm down.

Once he caught his breath, she looked up and scolded the man angrily, "Do you even know how bad stress is for his condition? Did you come here just to pick a fight with him?"