The Rebirth of the Socialite's Glory (GL) - Chapter 8

After sending Ye Qiu away, Feng Hua had no psychological burden whatsoever and proceeded to eat and sleep as usual. Wang Mu formulated a plan and took Feng Hua to tour the entire G Province.

Although G Province was not economically developed, its environment was first-rate, boasting many famous scenic spots, which kept Feng Hua’s impromptu trip from being boring.

Feng Hua enjoyed the trip, but she hadn’t forgotten the purpose of her outing. Reluctantly, she returned to the small town where Ye Qiu lived.

The appearance of the small town hadn’t changed, but Feng Hua’s mindset had shifted somewhat after her travels.

She decided to personally look for Ye Qiu. If Ye Qiu was still unwilling to go abroad, then she would acquiesce.

Perhaps the scenery she saw standing on the peak of the high mountain was too vast and magnificent, and she couldn’t help but be influenced by it. With this broadened perspective, her steadfastness and confidence returned completely. Ye Qiu had oppressed her so much in her previous life; could she, in this life, be controlled by her again, scared to the point of lacking the courage to even compete? Where was the pride she clung to?

Ye Qiu was not that terrifying; what was terrifying was her own inner demon.

Feng Hua found Ye Qiu’s house, but unexpectedly, Ye Qiu was not home. Considering Ye Qiu’s current situation, Feng Hua guessed that Ye Qiu might have gone to work odd jobs.

Although she knew Ye Qiu might be working, she didn’t know much about Ye Qiu’s thoughts. She hadn’t asked Ye Qiu for details before, so now she wouldn’t know where Ye Qiu had gone.

The only thing to do now was wait.

However, the two waited at the door until evening without seeing anyone return. Just as Feng Hua was getting impatient, a child skipped home holding a small red booklet. The child must have been playing and came home late, as Feng Hua could hear a woman scolding the child.

What was that thing…? It looked familiar. Feng Hua looked at Wang Mu and asked, “Uncle Wang, what was that child holding?”

Wang Mu was quite familiar with it and smiled, “That’s a student report card, Miss. You’ve seen it before.”

Although she had seen it, it was from when she first started school. The report card was a negligible thing to Feng Hua, so while it looked familiar, she wasn’t particularly acquainted with it.

“I see.” Feng Hua said, “It seems today is the day for collecting report cards. Do you think Ye Qiu also went to get hers?”

The time schools took to issue report cards varied. Fast ones could distribute them a week after the exams, while slow ones could take more than half a month. The day Feng Hua met Ye Qiu was only a few days after Ye Qiu finished her exams. However, because Feng Hua’s schooling time was somewhat different from that of ordinary children, plus the fact that she had just been reborn and hadn’t been able to fully integrate, she had completely forgotten about the matter of collecting report cards.

“I suppose so. Should we go to Ye Qiu’s school to look for her?” Wang Mu inquired.

Having stood here for most of the afternoon, he had suggested several times that Feng Hua go back, but Feng Hua insisted on staying. This made Wang Mu a little worried about Feng Hua’s health. Knowing Feng Hua’s temperament, he now thought about how to help Feng Hua find Ye Qiu quickly.

It was clearly fine, yet Ye Qiu wasn’t seen when Feng Hua suggested going out to play. Wang Mu wondered if the two little friends had quarreled? It wasn’t impossible; they were just children. See? After having fun outside, she was still thinking about coming back and immediately came to find Ye Qiu. Now she was just eager to make up with Ye Qiu.

Actually, Feng Hua’s true thoughts were just a bit awkward. She had casually chased Ye Qiu away and then ran off to play alone. Presumably, Ye Qiu must resent her in her heart, yet she had to come and see Ye Qiu again.

“It’s so late and she hasn’t returned… Let’s go take a look.” Feng Hua recalled the first time she saw Ye Qiu, when she was surrounded and beaten by a group of children. If she had let those children continue beating her, something serious would definitely have happened.

Thinking this, Feng Hua’s heart tightened.

Wang Mu inquired about the school’s address, and the two rushed to the school. They found the teacher’s office, and after mentioning Ye Qiu’s name, they easily located Ye Qiu’s homeroom teacher.

Feng Hua said she was Ye Qiu’s friend, who had come from another province to see her but was late in returning, so she was worried and came to look for her.

The teacher saw that Feng Hua was young and utterly adorable and didn’t doubt her words. She kindly led the two to check the classroom. Along the way, the female teacher secretly looked at Feng Hua several times, thinking, Such an exquisite child is truly rare, possessing more charm than even celebrity children.

The walk from the office to the classroom was not long, but the teacher couldn’t resist wanting to talk to Feng Hua. Since Feng Hua appeared very well-behaved, the female teacher naturally started talking to Feng Hua about Ye Qiu.

“Ye Qiu’s family is very poor, but she is a good child. She’s been taking care of her sick mother since she was little, and she does small jobs within her capacity to earn tuition fees. Most commendable is that she doesn’t feel sorry for herself; she’s very cheerful and her grades have always been top-notch in the class…”

Feng Hua listened to the description of Ye Qiu from another person’s mouth, maintaining a faint smile all the way, but a trace of unnaturalness flashed across her eyes.

She had only focused on how hateful Ye Qiu was for taking everything from her, and how innocent she herself was. She hadn’t thought about, or had subconsciously avoided thinking about, the life Ye Qiu lived before returning to the Feng family.

If her biological mother hadn’t swapped the two infants’ identities so her biological daughter could have a better life, the life Ye Qiu was living now would have been hers.

In other words, the things she was enjoying now actually belonged to Ye Qiu; she was a thief.

It wasn’t that Feng Hua couldn’t think of it; she simply refused to. She told herself that she wasn’t a thief. Since the incident had already happened, these things had been hers since childhood, so they were hers.

If anyone was to blame or resent, she was the least qualified…

Feng Hua thought she would be a little better to Ye Qiu in the future, but that didn’t mean she would become a saintly figure and tell Ye Qiu and Feng Heng the truth, only to be kicked out of the Feng family by them. It was useless to think too much. She still had to fight for what belonged to Ye Qiu once more.

The three arrived at a classroom door. The female teacher said, “Here we are.”

Feng Hua glanced at the door. The vermillion door was closed but not locked from the outside; it seemed to be locked from the inside. She then looked at the classroom windows, which were all tightly shut.

Something seemed amiss. The female teacher also felt something unusual and frowned slightly. If someone was studying inside, why would the classroom door and windows be tightly shut?

The female teacher knocked on the door, but there was no response for a long time.

Feng Hua suddenly spoke, “Uncle Wang.”

The female teacher looked as if she had just noticed Wang Mu, looking with some surprise at the tall man standing silently behind Feng Hua.

He was clearly an adult male much taller than Feng Hua, so why had she only been focused on talking to Feng Hua just now and hadn’t paid any attention to this man? There was no time for the female teacher to ponder this. At that moment, Wang Mu, who had received Feng Hua’s instruction, walked to the door, kicked it open, and the door fell to the ground with a loud crash, startling the female teacher outside and the group of people inside the room.

Feng Hua calmly stated, “I will pay for the door,” and then looked at the group of people inside the classroom.

The appearance of this group reminded Feng Hua of a movie she had seen before, Young and Dangerous. Non-mainstream attire, a ruffian-like demeanor, and a self-consciously fierce expression.

A look of disgust quickly flashed across the female teacher’s eyes, and she sternly shouted, “What are you doing in the classroom?” Her sharp gaze swept over them, and when she saw several of her own students and the trembling Ye Qiu surrounded in the middle, she instantly understood what was happening. She sternly scolded the students, “Zhang Jianing, Shen Jun, how dare you bring outsiders to bully your classmate? Do you want a major demerit and expulsion?”

A girl who had been called out, Zhang Jianing, walked out of the crowd, looking indifferent on the surface, but her eyes held a trace of panic. She thought she concealed it well, but in front of three people with mature adult minds, it was entirely transparent.

“Teacher, I need to remind you that our country implements nine years of compulsory education; you have no right to expel us,” Zhang Jianing said very calmly.

Feng Hua and Wang Mu might not know why Zhang Jianing was so composed after doing these things, but the female teacher knew some underlying reasons. Zhang Jianing was so reckless simply because her father was the county education bureau chief’s secretary. Although he was a small clerk with no real power, he was the closest person to the director, so many people sought to curry favor with him.

“Zhang Jianing, it looks like I need to call your father to have a serious talk. This behavior is against the law; you should be sent to a juvenile detention center.” The female teacher didn’t hesitate to use threatening words, successfully making Zhang Jianing’s face change color.

Although Zhang Jianing appeared fearless, she was, in fact, only a child. Startled by the teacher, a degree of fear crept into her heart. She said in a deliberately fierce, shrill voice, “It’s useless even if you call my father! I’ll just have my father make sure you can’t stay at this school, do you believe me?”

A trace of embarrassment and deliberation flashed in the female teacher’s eyes. Although the threat in Zhang Jianing’s words was unpleasant, she had to admit that Zhang Jianing’s words could genuinely threaten her. Zhang Jianing’s father’s influence was enough to make a regular female teacher with no background disappear from this school, or even make it impossible for her to find work in any middle school in this county.

But soon, a look of determination crossed the female teacher’s eyes. Regardless, she couldn’t ignore this matter today; it would go against her conscience. If she couldn’t be a teacher anymore, she could just find another job. She figured those people couldn’t entirely control everything. If worse came to worst, she could leave and try her luck elsewhere.

The female teacher had accepted the situation, so she was no longer constrained. She immediately reprimanded Zhang Jianing’s behavior. “Bullying classmates at such a young age, disrespecting your elders and teachers, and having such vile character. What will you be like when you grow up? Did you eat all the civilization, morals, and etiquette I taught you?”

They were her students, so the female teacher was somewhat reserved, but she was not so polite toward the bad students who looked like middle or high school ruffians. Her gaze was sharp, as if she still held a teaching cane. She immediately threatened to contact their parents, issue public criticisms and demerits, have them repeat the grade, and so on, making the group of people, who had been watching the scene like a show, stiffen and look at each other.

Unlike the female teacher’s threat to Zhang Jianing about juvenile detention and expulsion, which she could not enforce, they were the ones who could genuinely be disciplined by the school. Even if they couldn’t be expelled because of the nine years of compulsory education, being held back a grade, receiving a major demerit, or even going to a correctional facility was entirely possible.

Feng Hua frowned impatiently and suddenly said, “Uncle Wang, bring Ye Qiu.”

Wang Mu silently picked up the huddled Ye Qiu, holding her in his arms, and walked behind Feng Hua.

As Feng Hua reached the doorway, she looked back at the crowd. Everyone in the classroom felt a chill run down their spines and their hair stand on end from the glance of a little girl who was smaller than all of them.