—Don’t look at me anymore, don’t seek me out, don’t bum cigarettes from me, don’t casually talk to me. We’re on different levels. You be your poor student, I’ll be my school’s second-place student. What happened between us is best buried in our hearts. I don’t want others knowing I had any entanglement with a poor student—it’s embarrassing. Don’t come looking for me in the future because of some old feelings either. I won’t help you with your troubles, not a single one starting from today.

Jin Yiken’s words still seemed as vivid as yesterday. Now, three months later, Long Qi took the initiative to speak her first words to him, afraid he would leave, even urgently adding: “Just five minutes!”

Jin Yiken, being such a shrewd person, naturally knew what she was seeking him for, and immediately replied: “I don’t have time to help you.”

“I won’t pester you for help. I just want to know—if the protagonist in this matter were Bai Aiting, would you believe her?”

When Jin Yiken walked to the doorway, he finally paused for a moment. Long Qi stared at his back, attempting to move one step closer toward him, continuing to ask: “Would you believe her or not?”

He put both hands in his pockets and answered: “No matter whether she did it or not, her family would help resolve it. Whether I believe her isn’t important.”

Which meant Dong Xi’s family would resolve it, while she was now rashly sticking her neck out, throwing eggs at rocks, wasting her energy.

“What if the invigilating teacher who accused her of cheating is your stepfather?”

After Long Qi said this, Jin Yiken turned his head to the side, but he still didn’t look at her, nor did he turn around, as if recalling the figure she mentioned—the stepfather.

He would remember. He would definitely recall who that person was. Long Qi had once seen Chu Yaozhi when she was eating at a restaurant with Jin Yiken. Unfortunately at that time, Jin Yiken’s hand was resting on her knee, and she was forcefully feeding him hot soup because her anger from some matter hadn’t yet subsided. This happened to be seen by Chu Yaozhi, who had come to attend a business dinner, as an early romance scene filled with ambiguity and desire. It was Jin Yiken who first noticed his gaze. The absolute assertion that “Chu Yaozhi doesn’t like Long Qi,” which Long Ziyi never believed, was confirmed at Jin Yiken’s first sight of him. He said he had never seen a man’s eyes look as mournful as a resentful woman’s—like those of a young, beautiful but extremely lazy housemaid his family had once hired, looking at the Alaskan Malamute his younger brother kept, which would mess up the entire house at any time and place.

Later, Jin Yiken was force-fed an entire bowl of oily soup for comparing her to a dog, developing mouth sores for a week—listed as one of the ten most miserable moments of his life.

Two seconds later, he remembered this incident and this person.

Long Qi said: “If it’s him, then you, caught in the middle of these interpersonal relationships, what would you do at a time like this?”

“How much do you trust Dong Xi?” he asked.

“One hundred percent.”

“Not even a moment of hesitation?”

“None.”

Jin Yiken sighed—yes, a barely perceptible sigh like Chu Yaozhi’s. Long Qi slowly asked: “Do you have other thoughts?”

“Even if I had other thoughts, you wouldn’t listen to them.”

“Jin Yiken,” she took a breath and said, “I don’t presume you’ll help me, but if you have even the slightest solution regarding this matter, even the tiniest bit, whether it requires great effort or only has a minuscule chance of success, I just want you to tell me, even if it’s just a hint of the tip of the iceberg. I just want to quickly do something.”

He remained silent.

Inside the storage room, with a two-thirds shadow and one-third sunlight division ratio, Long Qi stood in the shadows while Jin Yiken stood in the thin slanting sunlight at the doorway. The two confronted each other for a long time before she said again: “Please.”

After a long while, he finally moved. Long Qi watched his back.

“If great effort doesn’t matter, what about spending a lot of money?”

“Spending it where?”

“Si Bolin.”

After hearing this, a reaction slowly appeared in her eyes, and then she quickly said “thank you,” immediately leaving the storage room first. Jin Yiken’s shoulder brushed lightly against hers. He watched her from behind. She moved too quickly—because she was eager to do this, she didn’t look back.

Long Qi understood what Jin Yiken’s hint meant.

During the Yu Jingli incident last time, Si Bolin had casually given her several “dark histories” of relevant people to keep on hand. He had the most of these kinds of things. Since he could obtain students’ “files,” he could also obtain teachers’… Jin Yiken wanted Long Qi to do the opposite—instead of racking her brains thinking about whether Dong Xi had cheated, she should directly force Chu Yaozhi into a corner and make him reveal some words he might not have originally said. But the premise for this operation had to be “Dong Xi didn’t cheat” and “Dong Xi is telling the truth,” otherwise it would…

So this was a crooked, underhanded approach.

But it was indeed currently the most efficient verification method.

She knew he was smart.

Long Qi dialed Si Bolin’s number while going upstairs to the teaching building. At this moment, she ran into Long Xinyi head-on. In one second, she recalled the monetary dispute between herself and this beast. Long Xinyi couldn’t dodge in time and frantically raised both hands high. Long Qi pointed at the tip of his nose and declared: “Pay me back!”

“You weren’t in a hurry yesterday, why are you suddenly urgent today!”

Si Bolin’s call didn’t go through, but there was a voicemail prompt. Long Qi abruptly covered Long Xinyi’s mouth to block out the noise, briefly told Si Bolin her request and left Chu Yaozhi’s basic information. Long Xinyi listened while widening his eyes. After Long Qi finished, he broke free from her hand and asked loudly: “Holy shit! Are you planning to turn your elbow outward!”

“There’s not a single human being within my elbow’s reach!” She was specifically referring to him.

“You’re crazy, you’re crazy!”

A text message arrived on her phone. It seemed Si Bolin knew about her call but didn’t answer, only replying with two words.

—Twenty thousand.

Long Qi stared at this number for a while, looking toward Long Xinyi, who had also seen the number and fallen silent. In a tone of restrained impatience that she was temporarily suppressing, she asked: “You at least left me this amount, right?”

Long Xinyi didn’t answer.

Long Qi immediately became furious, chasing Long Xinyi all the way to the balcony. Long Xinyi fled with his head covered while responding: “I’m helping you make money! I made a deal with someone to sell once the price rises! The money just went in and can’t be withdrawn on a whim. Besides, is this matter even worth it? Dong Xi isn’t your biological sister! I’m your actual relative!”

“You’re not!” Long Qi reached her limit, pointing at his nose and exploding, “Even loan sharks have more loyalty and righteousness than you! Long Xinyi, you’re just human trash, not worth anyone taking you seriously for a lifetime. Your aunt would have been better off giving birth to a toilet plunger than you!”

“Who knows if that money you have was even earned properly! How many events do you do in a month? You only appear in a magazine once every six months! You refuse to make money from the fans here. Don’t get too smooth with your insults—if your shady business gets exposed, you’re no better than me!” Long Xinyi couldn’t stand being criticized. Once agitated, he began adopting a mutually destructive stance. Long Qi had originally beaten him to satisfaction and was ready to leave, but now provoked by him again, she slapped him across the face!

Long Xinyi was stunned.

Long Qi said: “Fine, I’ll tell you—only one-quarter of that money is mine. The other three-quarters are money transferred punctually and in full amounts every month from a stranger’s account. I never touch it! Now Long Xinyi, you’ve touched it, so you’ll bear the consequences!”

“Holy shit, there’s something like this…” he retorted, “Who are you trying to fool!”

Long Qi no longer paid him any attention. As she was leaving, she discovered many students had already gathered in the corridor to watch the argument. Irritably, she shot back: “What are you looking at!”

On the east side of the corridor, in the top student class area, several girls were discussing the “noise decibel” issue. Her shout made several of them cover their hearts again as if still shaken. Bai Aiting also stood among them. She silently watched Long Qi, but when Long Qi’s gaze swept toward her, she immediately turned her head and entered the classroom, acting hurriedly.

Long Qi keenly caught this detail.

Bai Aiting didn’t usually look at her this way. Normally when surrounded by her close friends, she would glance at her with an attitude of “all beings are vulgar, only I am aloof.” Now, however, there was a hint of evasion, as if afraid of inviting trouble. And she had been in the same examination room as Dong Xi when the incident occurred, so she might understand the on-site situation more clearly.

But just as Long Qi was about to walk toward the east corridor, the call she had just dialed suddenly connected. The agent’s arrogant voice on the other end—”Oh my, Long Qi, you’ve finally thought to contact me”—instantly pulled her thoughts back.