Chapter 50: The Innocent Remain Innocent

Lu Yan He's phone rang.

It was a message from Chen Siqi: Meet at the science building after school.

The science building was where the first and second-year students had their biology labs. Compared to the teaching building, the science building was basically empty after school. Meeting there meant they wouldn't be seen.

After school, Lu Yan He arrived at the science building.

Chen Siqi was waiting for him in an empty lab on the top floor.

"Is your leg better?" Lu Yan He asked as soon as he entered the lab.

Chen Siqi nodded: "It's better, but the scar hasn't faded yet. I don't know if it will."

"It's fine, it's on your leg anyway, it can be covered."

"I'm not like you boys, wearing long pants from the beginning of the year to the end. I wear skirts too, you know." Chen Siqi gave Lu Yan He a speechless side-eye. "Forget it, I can't be bothered to talk to you about this. I heard you got into trouble again at noon and were called in by your parents?"

"My parents are both gone, so how could they be called? It wasn't my parents who were called." Lu Yan He pulled up a chair in the first row and sat down, several rows away from Chen Siqi.

The orange sunset slanted in from the window, like a cutting line dividing the room into two distinct realms: one bathed in the gentle light of the sunset, and the other swallowed by shadows.

Lu Yan He sat at the boundary, only the corner of his chin caught in the sunset's territory.

Chen Siqi scrutinized Lu Yan He. "Tell me, this time I implicated you. How do you want me to compensate you?"

"Forget it, you were a victim too. It wasn't you who made your stepmother come." Lu Yan He smiled, a silent smile. "Actually, today was quite interesting. I saw three different adults, all completely different. By comparison, your stepmother didn't annoy me that much."

Chen Siqi looked at him suspiciously and asked: "Who did you see that could be more annoying than her?"

"You don't know them. It was the mother of my classmate, Luo Zicheng."

"Who says I don't know them? I've seen them. Once they came to my house to find my father, begging him to help them handle something." Chen Siqi said. "That time they brought Luo Zicheng too, and my father even made me entertain him. He had no skills but kept bragging and showing off. It annoyed me to death; I have a very deep impression of it."

Lu Yan He was stunned.

Chen Siqi looked at him and asked: "What's wrong? Didn't expect that I hated that Luo Zicheng too?"

"I really didn't expect it, and that you even knew him." Lu Yan He asked. "Then why didn't you invite him to your birthday party before? If you had invited him, he would have been very happy to come."

"Forget it. If he had gone and appeared as my friend, I would have truly lost all my face." Chen Siqi said. "I invited you guys to preserve my face, not to lose it all."

"Besides talking very nastily, he's okay, isn't he? Does he talk that foully in front of you too?"

"Then you definitely haven't heard him tell his own history of growth." Chen Siqi suddenly changed her tone, seemingly imitating Luo Zicheng: "Chen Siqi, don't look at me as thin; I've been practicing martial arts since I was a child. I even participated in the National Children's Martial Arts Competition and made it to the semi-finals!"

After imitating him, Chen Siqi immediately switched back to her signature, disdainful tone: "The National Children's Martial Arts Competition—he has the nerve to bring that up? Even a gold medal would be embarrassing, let alone just a semi-final. Is he still a child now? He's got a face full of acne and still brings up his childhood stuff. I'm truly impressed."

"Haha." Lu Yan He laughed out loud.

"Did his mother give you a hard time today?"

"No, she gave my classmate a hard time." Lu Yan He asked. "You heard I was called in by my parents, so don't you know what happened?"

"I heard you were called in by your parents, which shows how many mouths the news passed through. I don't even know what's true anymore."

Lu Yan He summarized the matter in a few words.

"This Luo Zicheng, why is his mouth so foul! Your classmate threw that punch well. If it were me, I would have slapped him too." Chen Siqi looked like she was about to slam the table and go slap someone. "His mother still has the nerve to trouble your classmate? That's unreasonable."

"It's understandable."

"Understandable my foot. You're still speaking up for them."

"Which mother doesn't unconditionally protect her own child?" Lu Yan He said.

When he said this, he was thinking of his own mother.

He wondered if he still existed in his original time and space. If he didn't, were his parents looking for him?

Lu Yan He didn't dare to think too deeply, afraid he wouldn't be able to hold it together.

Lu Yan He looked up, only to see Chen Siqi, for some reason, suddenly streaming with tears.

He was stunned.

"You, why are you suddenly crying?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Yan He realized.

You blockhead!

Chen Siqi's biological mother left her early, and her current misery all comes from her stepmother. And you, at this time, mention "Which mother doesn't unconditionally protect her own child?" Isn't this specifically picking at Chen Siqi's wounds to irritate her?

"It's nothing." Chen Siqi raised the back of her hand, wiped her eyes, and stopped the tears. "Don't worry about me. I just couldn't control myself for a moment. It's nothing. You and I are both in the same boat, so neither of us needs to comfort the other."

Chen Siqi's words made Lu Yan He unable to help but smile bitterly.

True.

Chen Siqi stood up: "Since you don't want my compensation, let's go, let's head back."

Lu Yan He nodded and left the science building with Chen Siqi.

After such a scandal, when Lu Yan He and Chen Siqi walked out of the science building, neither of them avoided suspicion, still walking toward the school gate together.

Although there were fewer students on campus than right after school, there were still quite a few. Seeing the protagonists of today's campus forum scandal suddenly appear and walk side by side, they took out their phones to secretly take pictures and upload them to the campus forum. But they soon discovered that the posts they uploaded were deleted in less than a minute.

"Everyone suspects we are dating, but the teachers don't seem to suspect it at all," Chen Siqi said.

Lu Yan He: "Because of Luo Zicheng's matter, my homeroom teacher is very clear about how this rumor started, so she won't suspect anything."

"Lu Yan He, will you avoid suspicion with me in school from now on and pretend we don't know each other?"

"If we pretend not to know each other after a scandal, wouldn't that be like saying 'the thief has no silver buried here'?" Lu Yanhe said. "At first, I was a bit uncomfortable because of their pointing and whispering, but after Li Pengfei threw that punch at Luo Zicheng, I suddenly felt it didn't matter. Let them say what they want. The moment a rumor is born, it's destined that it can't be taken back. When dealing with rumors, the idea that 'the innocent remain innocent' still has some truth to it."

"The idea that 'the innocent remain innocent' will only make the rumors intensify." Chen Siqi looked at Lu Yan He in surprise. "You don't really like me, do you?"

Lu Yan He: "..."

He looked at Chen Siqi seriously and said: "The innocent remain innocent."

After saying this, he turned his head and walked forward. ===== CHAPTER 51 =====