The 'Involution King' Second Female Lead Quits [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Trouble Knocking on the Door?

◎Trouble Knocking on the Door?◎

The insurance company was very efficient, delivering the repaired car early the next morning.

After getting the new car, Li Jianwei drove Shu Heng to the nearby vegetable market, ready to complete the task entrusted by Shu Heng’s mom—the big New Year’s Eve shopping trip.

The vegetable market on the 29th of the lunar month was very lively. After all, tomorrow was New Year’s Eve. If you wanted to cook a perfect New Year’s Eve dinner, you had to be busy from morning to night. There was no time to buy groceries on the same day.

Li Jianwei had no experience buying groceries in a place like this. After struggling to find a parking spot, she followed closely behind Shu Heng, watching her skillfully bargain with the stall owners.

“Are we buying a live chicken?” Li Jianwei took a step back and hid behind Shu Heng, scrutinizing the mother hen that was still flapping its wings with her head sticking out a good half a head above her.

“Live ones are fresh, and the owner will help clean them up,” Shu Heng said with a smile. “Don’t worry, we won’t be taking a live one back.”

“Ahem, I’m just worried about getting feathers on me. I’m not scared,” Li Jianwei said, trying to save face. She had taken down countless competitors; how could she be afraid of a mere chicken?

Shu Heng didn’t point out the person who was now grabbing the corner of her shirt. She talked to the vendor in a serious manner. “Sister, I’ll come back to pick it up later. Please pluck the feathers off cleanly.”

“Alright. Just so you know, your chicken is the one with the red string tied to it,” the sister replied enthusiastically. With a swift swing of the knife, she began to bleed the chicken.

Li Jianwei instinctively frowned. She wasn’t scared; she just hadn’t seen this before and was just maintaining the necessary caution toward the unknown.

“Let’s go buy some meat,” Shu Heng said with a smile, taking Li Jianwei’s hand for the first time.

The silent interaction last night seemed to have given Shu Heng a lot of courage. At least when it came to physical contact that didn’t exceed a friendly relationship, she wasn’t as prone to blushing.

Of course, it could also be that after sleeping together for a night, Shu Heng felt that holding hands was no big deal.

“Shu Heng, you’re home for the New Year. How’s your mom’s health lately?”

“Working in a big city is great. You can earn a lot of money and then take your mom to enjoy life.”

“Do you have a boyfriend? If not, do you want me to introduce you to someone? My friend’s child is a teacher, and their conditions are very good…”

Shu Heng used to come here often, so every now and then, a stall owner would recognize her, smiling and greeting her to ask about her life.

In another sense, these were also elders who had watched Shu Heng grow up, so she patiently answered all their questions.

The county, with a population of 300,000, wasn’t big. After buying pork and beef, Shu Heng ran into her high school classmate in the seafood section.

“Shu Heng, you’re really back. Hu Xuan mentioned you in the group yesterday.”

The grating name made the smile on Shu Heng’s lips freeze. She unconsciously tightened her grip on Li Jianwei’s hand.

“Yeah, I’m home for the New Year,” Shu Heng said, avoiding mentioning the name. “Are you done with your shopping?”

“I just got here. I’m still empty-handed,” the classmate just mentioned it in passing. Their attention was quickly drawn to Li Jianwei, and their eyes widened in admiration. “Shu Heng, who is this with you?”

“She’s an older friend of mine. We’re spending the New Year at home together,” Shu Heng didn’t introduce her much further. “You should hurry and buy your groceries. If you’re late, all the good stuff will be picked over.”

“Oh, okay,” the classmate retracted their admiring gaze. “By the way, we’re planning to have a get-together for the New Year. Are you going to come? They’re even going to invite our homeroom teacher.”

Shu Heng: “Did Teacher Gong agree?”

The classmate nodded: “Yeah. Jiang Kun is organizing it. He said he became a successful entrepreneur and made some money, so he wants to thank our homeroom teacher for his guidance and our classmates for their support. He told us to try and get as many classmates to come as possible. You just need to bring your appetite; he’s paying.”

“I remember you and Jiang Kun had a good relationship back then. If you go, Jiang Kun will probably be very happy.”

“We’ll see. If I have time,” Shu Heng didn’t directly refuse, but she wasn’t planning on going.

High school life wasn’t something she missed too much. Instead of attending a gathering like that, she would rather take a gift and visit her teacher who had taken care of her.

The classmate didn’t insist. They just added Shu Heng as a WeChat friend and then rushed into the vegetable section to start their big shopping trip.

“Jiang Kun was one of the students who didn’t like to study much. Our homeroom teacher once implemented a one-on-one tutoring system. I was assigned to his group to be his little tutor,” Shu Heng explained on her own. “But the homeroom teacher canceled the program a month later. I basically haven’t had any contact with him since graduation.”

“The tutoring group wasn’t effective?” Li Jianwei asked.

Shu Heng recalled: “I think the homeroom teacher found out that one of the tutoring groups started dating.”

Li Jianwei understood immediately: “If I’m not mistaken, the students who were good at studying were mostly girls.”

Shu Heng nodded: “Right. The homeroom teacher thought the female students were more meticulous, and those who didn’t like to study were all boys, so it was a one-to-one pairing of one girl and one boy.”

Shu Heng didn’t go into detail about a certain classmate’s thoughts. Li Jianwei took the opportunity to change the subject, talking about what other New Year’s goods they were going to buy.

But some things, the more you try to avoid them, the more they will come knocking on your door.

After finishing their shopping and returning to the entrance of the residential area, they saw Hu Xuan loitering at the entrance. After spotting the familiar car model, he walked straight to the middle of the road.

“Shu Heng, what’s wrong with you? Did you forget your old classmate after becoming successful?” Hu Xuan’s face showed obvious displeasure. When he saw the car slow down, he made a move to walk over and knock on the car window.

This made Shu Heng in the car feel suffocated. Why did Hu Xuan come to her home? We clearly don’t have anything to do with each other anymore!

Li Jianwei frowned, honked the horn, and then stepped on the gas, showing no intention of yielding.

This gave Hu Xuan a scare. Seeing the car speed up, he instinctively got out of the way. He ended up tumbling on the ground awkwardly because of his poor posture.

“How are you driving?! Didn’t you see me?!” Hu Xuan cursed as he got up from the ground.

Li Jianwei completely ignored his presence and continued to drive until the car was stably parked in a parking spot.

“Sister, he’s looking for me. I’ll go talk to him,” Shu Heng unbuckled her seatbelt, but after pulling on the door handle, she found that the car door was still locked.

“Sister?” Shu Heng turned her head to look at Li Jianwei.

“It’s probably related to the accident that happened last night. You don’t need to get out of the car. I’ll handle it,” Li Jianwei saw Shu Heng’s resistance to Hu Xuan, and there was even a hint of fear in that resistance.

Just because Li Jianwei didn’t ask, it didn’t mean she couldn’t guess what was going on.

“I’ll go with you, Sister,” Shu Heng said, mustering her courage. “Hu Xuan is my classmate. He knows my home address. I want to resolve this matter.”

Li Jianwei looked at Shu Heng. After seeing the look of determination in her eyes, she unlocked the car door.

“What’s wrong with you? Didn’t you see there was someone on the road?!” Hu Xuan caught up and yelled loudly, but his wrist ached when his eyes met Li Jianwei’s, so he didn’t dare to get too close to her.

“Can I help you?” Li Jianwei looked at Hu Xuan expressionlessly.

“I’m not looking for you. I’m looking for my old classmate.” Hu Xuan, who instinctively knew that the other party was not to be messed with, moved to the side and his eyes landed on Shu Heng.

“Shu Heng, that person on the motorcycle is pretty pitiful. His bike doesn’t have much insurance, so why don’t you just let it go?” Hu Xuan said. “Your car is already repaired anyway, so why don’t we just call it even?”

“The car is mine,” Li Jianwei emphasized.

Hu Xuan was speechless for a moment. He avoided looking at Li Jianwei and muttered: “Then you should just let it go. That person is quite pathetic.”

“You don’t look like someone who’s short on money. There’s no need to bicker with a poor person like him.”

“It seems the traffic police decided you’re responsible for the accident last night,” Li Jianwei said, exposing the truth. “I won’t give up the compensation I’m entitled to. If you disturb my life because of this, I will ask the police to intervene.”

“You’re so heartless!” Hu Xuan was a little annoyed. “Shu Heng, what kind of friend did you make? How can she be so cold-blooded and ruthless?”

“Didn’t you make the mistake first? You’re just paying the price for your actions,” Shu Heng’s hand, hidden in her sleeve, clenched into a fist. “Hu Xuan, you’re an adult now. You have to be responsible for what you do.”

“What are you talking about? Are you still holding a grudge? I was just in school…” Before Hu Xuan could finish his sentence, two Volkswagen Magotans approached and stopped one after another.

Five people in business jackets got out of the cars. After a brief search, their eyes all landed on Li Jianwei.

The female leader in the front’s eyes lit up. She immediately walked up with a smile. “CEO Li, hello. I’m Lu Xiaohong, the county party secretary of Quanyuan County. I apologize for the unpleasant experience you had last night.”

“Hello, Secretary Lu,” Li Jianwei said, offering a professional smile and shaking hands with her. “Are you here to see me?”

“You could say that. I also wanted to come and see the talent that came from our Quanyuan County,” Secretary Lu said with a smile, her eyes on Shu Heng, who hadn’t reacted yet.

“If I’m not mistaken, student Xiaoshu used to be a county-level ‘Three Good’ student, and her college entrance exam score was in the top three in the county,” Secretary Lu extended her hand toward Shu Heng. “You applied to Huada University, right?”

“That’s right, hello, Secretary,” Shu Heng nervously shook hands with the secretary, completely forgetting about Hu Xuan.

Hu Xuan, who had been completely ignored, was also stunned. It was true that he was an unemployed person who didn’t go to college, but he wasn’t so ignorant that he hadn’t even heard of the county secretary’s name.

What kind of friend did Shu Heng bring back? Why is the secretary even paying a visit to her home?