The girl standing to Yan Qingqing's right couldn't help but purse her lips. She had been present the last time Yan Qingqing spoke to Ning Yue, and this encounter made her even more certain that Yan Qingqing wasn't as innocent and naive as she appeared to be. This also made her wonder if Yan Qingqing truly wanted to get close to Ning Yue, or if she merely wanted to belittle her in front of their classmates and make a laughingstock out of her.
Because of business matters, her father had told her to befriend this newly recovered eldest daughter of the Yan family. But was someone like her truly worth getting to know deeply?
At this moment, another female classmate who had been following Yan Qingqing scoffed. "Hmph, Qingqing, you shouldn't even bother with her. She stole someone else's identity and lived seventeen years enjoying a wealthy life. She should be feeling guilty when she sees you. Giving you the cold shoulder like that—you'd think you owed her something!"
"Exactly! You're the eldest daughter of the Yan family now. Why lower yourself to approach her?"
"Right, right, right. Just looking at her attitude tells you everything. She's just an ungrateful wretch. Your family really wasted all those years raising her.
"Otherwise, if she had even a shred of conscience, she'd be the one taking the initiative to suck up to you!"
The girl watched as a distinct look of smugness appeared on Yan Qingqing's face upon hearing these classmates' flattery. Having made up her mind, Yan Qingqing said, "Let's go. It's time to line up, otherwise the physical education representative is going to start yelling."
After the break exercises, Ning Yue returned to the classroom, picked up a sophomore physics textbook, and began to read. Yan Qingqing dared to provoke her relying on exactly three things: first, she had become the eldest daughter of the Yan family; second, she had stolen Gong Yuze; and third, she had good grades.
She didn't care about the first two, as they were never hers to begin with. As for the last one, Ning Yue was going to let her know that as long as she was around, Yan Qingqing would only ever be kept beneath her.
Her homeroom teacher had been silently observing her lately, afraid that the sudden change in Ning Yue's identity would affect her grades. Sometimes, out of consideration for her feelings, she would keep quiet even when she saw her reading other books during class. She had even discreetly spoken to the other subject teachers, asking them not to reprimand her as long as she was studying.
After a few days, she noticed that although Ning Yue was doing things unrelated to the current lesson during class, she seemed to be reviewing at her own pace. Furthermore, she completed the daily homework assigned by the teachers on time; her handwriting was even neater, and her accuracy was higher. The homeroom teacher secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
The news "#Lihua Group President Divorces#" was exposed. People stirred up trouble in the comments under the Lihua Group's official website, claiming that Mr. Li had an affair and that making his wife leave the marriage with nothing made him the ultimate scumbag. In short, there were many more vicious and awful comments. The Li Family didn't make any official response. Because of this incident, the Li Family's shares also took a hit, hitting the limit down for two consecutive days.
Right when the Li Family was in the midst of this storm, Mr. Li rode in an ordinary Volkswagen and rang the doorbell of the Ning Family's home on the weekend, carrying several gift boxes.
Ning Yue was surfing the internet at the time. When the doorbell rang, she went out and opened the door.
"Mr. Li? Why are you here at this time?"
"It's the weekend," Li Zhengmin said. "I asked around and found out your school is off today, so I came over. Oh, right, come here, Ming Rui. Let me introduce you. This is the Sister Ning I told you about, the one who saved my life the other day."
As he spoke, he pulled a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old boy from behind him. The boy was probably going through a growth spurt, so he looked a bit thin, but he was full of energy and shared about half of Li Zhengmin's facial features.
"Hello, Sister Ning. Thank you." He spoke generously, with obvious gratitude in his tone and eyes.
"It was nothing," Ning Yue said. "Come in and talk."
The father and son entered the house, and Ning Yue went to pour two cups of tea. "The tea isn't great. Just make do with it."
"Where are your parents?"
"They've been busy looking for jobs these past few days," Ning Yue replied. "They went out early this morning. I just sent them a message, and they'll be back in a while. Don't leave at noon; stay and have lunch with us."
Li Zhengmin had no reaction upon hearing this, which told Ning Yue that he had already investigated her family's situation thoroughly. However, she wasn't surprised at all.
"If you don't mind, I can arrange positions for them in my company."
Ning Yue shook her head. "There's no need. My parents already have some leads on jobs. We can handle it ourselves.
"By the way, how long do you plan to drag out the Li Family's situation? The chain reaction caused by a minor issue like divorce is limited. I still have a business deal to discuss with you."
Li Zhengmin wondered, "Should I say that a child raised in a wealthy family simply has a different perspective?"
Indeed, he was the one who had released the news of his divorce. Then, he had hired an internet water army to blow the matter out of proportion, even pushing it into the top three trending searches, all to reclaim some shares from certain people. The matter was also coming to a close. Although Ning Yue hadn't explicitly pointed it out, her meaning was clear—she had seen right through his objective.
"It's just about done. It will be completely over by next week at the latest. What does Miss Ning want to discuss with me?"
Ning Yue glanced at Li Mingrui. He was quite quick-witted. "Sister Ning, I want to find a book to read."
Ning Yue led him straight to her room and then pointed to the few extracurricular books she had. "Read whatever you like, though there's nothing particularly interesting."
Of course, Li Mingrui didn't really want to read a book. Too many things had happened at home these past few days, and his mood hadn't adjusted at all. In order to be with her lover, his biological mother had plotted to kill her husband and seize his assets. After narrowly escaping death, his father swiftly made his mother leave the marriage empty-handed. From beginning to end, his mother hadn't spared a single thought for him, her own son.
When his mother left the Li Family, she was nearly two months pregnant, and the child was not his father's.
His mother only had her lover and the baby in her womb in her heart. Otherwise, she wouldn't have started scheming for his father's company shares to pave the way for the child she had with her lover the moment she found out she was pregnant.
One could well imagine what his future would have been like if her scheme had succeeded: penniless, living at the mercy of others. Who knows, he might have been abandoned by his own mother at any moment, or even outright killed by her lover...
This outcome wasn't an exaggeration. After all, it wasn't as if they hadn't committed murder before. For money, what wouldn't they do?
Therefore, he was deeply grateful to this older sister who had saved his father. Today, he had also begged his father to bring him along just so he could thank her in person.
After he left, Ning Yue carried her laptop to the living room and opened a certain financial website. "Mr. Li, what do you think of this stock?"
Li Zhengmin took a glance. "Southern Home Furnishings? It's a domestic furniture brand. Not top-tier, just high-end."
"Then you're overestimating it. It doesn't even count as high-end," Ning Yue said. Because of poor management, Southern Home Furnishings had only enjoyed one year of glory after going public. Over the following few years, its performance had been mediocre, which naturally affected its stock price.
"Are you bringing up this specific stock because there's a problem with it?"