Chapter 74

"Chu Lian, you're just a fake! The house in Yujingyuan belongs to Shu Lingchen's family! Your luxury goods are all bought with Shu Lingchen's money! Shu Lingchen is the real young master!"

"You really deceived us terribly!"

Chu Lian's chest tightened, she couldn't help but step back: "You... you... how..." How did you know.

"Do you know how embarrassing we were at the Quanxing Restaurant last Saturday? I feel like I've never lost this much face in my whole life!"

"I was even helping you speak up there!" Zhang Lu glared angrily at Chu Lian; her face no longer had the usual fawning flattery, her eyes could spit fire: "You still have the nerve to come to school! Fake! Get out! Get out of Yi Ban!"

As he spoke, a book flew at Chu Lian.

At that moment, everyone's humiliation from that night at Quanxing turned into anger, and in their frustration they also joined Zhang Lu in throwing books.

"Fake, get out!"

"I'll post a hundred threads on an online forum to expose you!"

Chu Lian only felt the world spin, her face turned pale instantly—it was over, completely over, the Eldest Young Lady's persona collapsed utterly.

"How could this happen?"

Chu Lian dodged the flying books, her legs went weak, and she almost collapsed to the ground.

Fortunately, a pair of hands behind her caught her in time.

Chu Lian turned her head, met Shi Jin's gentle eyes, and she stammered: "... Class Monitor?"

After Chu Lian steadied herself, Shi Jin let go; the boy had a backpack on his shoulder, and inside his neat school uniform was an immaculate white shirt. He calmly scanned the classroom, his voice calm: "There are ten minutes until morning reading; Teacher Huang Laoshi is coming over—are you sure you still want to cause a fuss?"

Shi Jin's status in Yi Ban remains high; he does well academically, and having transferred from Jing Shi, everyone speculates he is a wealthy young master.

People still listen to what he says.

Then everyone came over to pick up the books they had just thrown, and each person, as they passed, gave Chu Lian a fierce glare.

But, like everyone else, he was also one of the 'victims' of that night's Spring Star; unlike the others' anger, Shi Jin's expression remained gentle, his gaze toward Chu Lian devoid of even a hint of dislike or disgust.

Chu Lian's eyes lit up slightly, and another kind of hope rose in her heart.

…

After the labels 'school bully' and 'handsome guy' for Shu Lingchen on the forum, a new label was added—'rich second-generation'.

The forum posts exploded.

Who would have thought, who could have imagined, that the poorly dressed, shabby kill-mate little hooligan actually turned out to be an Eldest Young Master!

"Bro, you should have told me you're a rich second-gen earlier! When I mocked you before, my voice was too loud! Now I've been slapped in the face—ah, it hurts!"

"Houses are for living in, money is for spending, bro—I'm your pure love battle god! And I silently endure the scolding without saying a word!"

……

During the break, Bo Luo Zai handed his phone to Shu Lingchen, laughing loudly: 'Shu Lingchen bro, quick look, someone on the forum said you're the pure love battle god!'

"Get lost."

Shu Lingchen's mind was full of black history, black history.

These past two days, the people of Class 12 also went into an uproar, all immersed in the explosive 'news' of Shu Lingchen being a rich second-gen.

Suddenly, Bo Luo Zai caught sight of Shu Shu by the window out of the corner of his eye and immediately went over, saying, 'Shu Shu sis, why do I feel you're not at all surprised that Shu Lingchen bro is a rich second-gen? On the contrary, it seems you already knew.'

Strictly speaking, Shu Lingchen should be a rich n-th generation now.

Shu Shu raised her eyebrows and made an acknowledging sound.

This counted as her tacit acknowledgment of the latter half of Bo Luo Zai's sentence.

Bo Luo Zai's eyes lit up with curiosity again as he asked, 'Shu Shu sis, actually I've also wanted to ask: you and Shu Lingchen bro both have the surname Shu, so are you, is there any relation between you……?'

"You guessed it all right." Shu Shu recalled the time Chu Lian misunderstood her relationship with the little intellectually disabled person, as well as some of the scandalous rumors that had circulated in the school about heavenly thunder and earthly slash, and in order to avoid future trouble, she bluntly said: 'Actually, I am Shu Lingchen's distant cousin——'

She hadn't yet said 'aunt'.

Shu Lingchen: 'Cousin aunt!'

He seemed to know what she wanted to say, and he snatched the conversation: 'She is my distant cousin——little aunt.'

Shu Shu turned her head: '???'

…

Behind the empty teaching building.

Shu Shu crossed her arms and asked, 'Why did you say I'm your little aunt?'

Shu Lingchen retorted, 'Then why did you want to say you're my older cousin sister?'

Shu Shu matter-of-factly said, 'Because older sister sounds younger.' She initially thought 'older sister' wasn't suitable, but after saying it a while, it felt quite nice.

"But you are younger." Shu Lingchen's eyes accused: 'I'm a generation shorter than them!'

He had wanted to say this for a while; hearing Bo Luo Zai and the others shout 'mom' and 'Shu Shu sis' all at once, it sounded as if they were calling him simultaneously, like a great nephew, great nephew.

"Just little aunt, little aunt is just right."

Chu Lian felt that she and Shi Jin had a chance.

Since her identity was exposed, she used to be fawned over wherever she went, but now the forum is full of people calling her a fake, and passing schoolmates point at her scornfully.

This was an experience she had never had before, extremely embarrassing.

Even though she wasn't aware of it, these amount to less than a tenth of the mockery Shu Lingchen had endured in the past.

Everyone was scolding her, except Shi Jin.

His attitude toward her before remains the same now.

That day, Shi Jin invited Chu Lian to do problems at KFC.

Chu Lian gently tucked her hair, hoping to create an interaction with Shi Jin through the questions, when she suddenly heard him ask, 'Do you also think I'm a wealthy young master?'

Chu Lian blinked: 'What.'

Shi Jin repeated the sentence, his handsome features gazing lightly: 'I am not.'

"My family background is quite ordinary; the reason I transferred from Jing Shi is because I got into trouble at my previous school, offended someone, and was forced to transfer to the remote An Shi."

"Want to say why I live in Yujingyuan? That house isn't mine, and all I have on me adds up to less than two hundred dollars."

Shi Jin pulled out his phone again, opened the cash flow; monthly inflow basically doesn't exceed one thousand, and the balance is only 135.

"If you're trying to squeeze money out of me, it's impossible."

""

Chu Lian was dumbfounded, so shocked she couldn't utter a word.

So, in other words, she actually gave up Shu Lingchen, who still had a house and money, for a Shi Jin who was good for nothing?!

No, I heard that Shu Shu is actually a distant relative of Shu Lingchen, and she lives in a spacious apartment in Yujingyuan.

A family of rich people!

Chu Lian couldn't believe it; at that moment, the regret and heartache she couldn't conceal all showed on her face, looking like a merchant and laughable.

Opposite.

Shi Jin quietly watched her expression, as if admiring her sorry state.

His face remained gentle, but beyond that gentleness there was an inexplicably faint feeling of distortion.

After a moment, Shi Jin withdrew his gaze, picked up his bag, and got up to leave.

Returning to the house in Yujingyuan.

The house was pitch dark inside, empty everywhere; this place really wasn't his home—his mother had borrowed it through connections.

Shi Jin didn't even turn on the light, picked up a bottle of mineral water to drink; beside the trash can was a bucket full of unopened yogurt.

They were all sent by Chu Lian; he didn't drink a single one, he threw them all away.

A boring game, over.