"Come on! I've told you, but you just don't believe me. I really didn't fall in love early!" Lin Chengzhi stamped his feet in frustration. Although there were quite a few high - school students secretly having relationships, his situation was very complicated, and he definitely couldn't be labeled as an early - stage lover.
"Well, third brother, why don't you tell us what exactly happened? There are more of us, so we might be able to come up with some solutions. Otherwise, if you go home with a bruised face like this, Uncle and Aunt will surely ask questions, and then you won't be able to hide it." Wei Ziqi clearly didn't believe him and used a roundabout tactic to get the story out.
Lin Chengzhi glanced at Miaomiao beside him, then at Wei Ziqi who was pressing for details, and let out a deep sigh.
"Okay, I'll tell you! There's a student in our school named Xu Jinhua. She's a senior who's one year ahead of us. Her family situation is a bit complicated. They value sons over daughters. Back in junior high, the senior's academic performance was quite good. She got school grants and scholarships every year. In this way, her family didn't have to pay for her schooling, and junior high is compulsory, so she managed to finish it with that money. But when she got to high school, her grades were not that outstanding. She could only rank in the middle. However, our school is a key high school in the city, so there are many students with good grades. Actually, if her grades were in an ordinary high school, she could be among the top students."
As Lin Chengzhi was speaking, he couldn't help frowning, looking worried for that senior.
"Since her grades weren't the best, she surely didn't get the scholarship. And her family wasn't poor, so there was no poverty - related subsidy. High school is not free, and there are many other school - related fees. Her family didn't want her to continue studying because her younger brother had poor academic performance and it was a bit difficult for him to get into an ordinary high school. Her family wanted to save the money to help her brother get into high school through connections. At the beginning of the semester, the senior was crying in the small garden. I happened to see her. I thought something had happened to her, so I went over to ask. You have no idea. It was the first time in my life that I saw someone who didn't even have money for meals. She could only eat at home in the morning and evening, and had to go hungry at noon. Then I felt a bit soft - hearted. I deliberately bought extra food for the senior to eat. And I secretly used my pocket money to sign her up for some good tutoring classes and also paid some of her school fees. But the senior wrote IOU notes for all of these."
When Lin Chengzhi said this, he paused for a moment. Looking at the gossiping faces of his friends and his sister's friends around him, he didn't know whether to continue or stop.
"Come on, come on! Keep going!" The chubby boy couldn't hold back any longer and quickly urged.
They went to and from school with Lin Chengzhi every day, but they had no idea that Lin Chengzhi had secretly hooked up with a sophomore senior and had such a close relationship. They hadn't noticed it at all for such a long time!
"Hey! I'm being very serious. Don't make it seem like I'm telling some campus story, okay!" Lin Chengzhi's face was full of black lines, and he couldn't help roaring.
"Brother, I also want to hear!" Miaomiao tugged at her third brother's sleeve, her face full of curiosity.
Having spent a long time with Cheng Ruan and not caring about anything else, Miaomiao had actually been inspired with a gossipy nature.
Lin Chengzhi could get angry with others who urged him, but how could he bear to get angry with Miaomiao?
Of course, he would satisfy her.
Lin Chengzhi sighed helplessly and had to continue: "Later, I don't know what happened. A hooligan insisted on pursuing the senior. The senior didn't want to, but the hooligan just kept pestering her. One day, when I was taking the senior to the tutoring class, the hooligan happened to see me. He thought that the senior had rejected him because we were in a relationship. He got angry and came to pick on me several times. At first, it was just a verbal warning, but later it turned into physical harassment. I couldn't tell the teachers or my parents about this. If it got to the school and the school really misunderstood that there was something between the senior and me because of this false rumor of early love, and called the senior's parents, I'm afraid the senior really wouldn't be able to go to school anymore."
Lin Chengzhi didn't have the patience to tell the story in detail. He summarized the key points later and his concerns in a few words.
"Third brother, have you ever given money directly to that senior of yours? Not just spending on her behalf, but actually giving her cash." Wei Ziqi raised his eyebrows and asked.
Lin Chengzhi immediately understood why Wei Ziqi asked this and quickly waved his hands and shook his head: "No, no. I'm not that stupid. At first, I just brought her some food. Later, I signed her up for a few more tutoring classes to improve her academic performance. Maybe she could win the scholarship through her own efforts. As for the later school fees, I also made sure it was a real need through the people I knew in the sophomore year before I paid them."
"Is her family really that discriminatory against daughters?" Yao Mingxuan felt a bit incredulous.
Actually, among these so - called wealthy families, there were quite a few who valued sons over daughters. Many of them wanted to have a son to inherit the family business in the future. But if they had a daughter, even if they didn't give enough love, they wouldn't just abandon her. They would surely let the child finish college, not to mention providing for her daily needs.
"Yes. The senior's high - school tuition was earned from a summer job. Her family originally wanted to take that money away so that the senior wouldn't have the money to pay the tuition and would drop out voluntarily. But the senior was careful. She told the boss of the place where she worked that she would come to get the salary on the day before the start of school. As soon as she got the salary, she went to pay the tuition, so her parents didn't get the money."
"If what you said is true, it's so terrible. It's hard to imagine that there are such parents in the world. My mom and dad would even hold me in their hands." The chubby boy stroked his chin, feeling a bit hard to accept. He was like a little tyrant at home. If it weren't for the beating from his senior brother in the martial - arts school every week, he might have gone astray.
It was really hard to imagine what it felt like not to be valued by parents.
"So does that senior know about the hooligan blocking you today? We definitely can't hide this once we get home. It's easy to deal with the situation for the chubby boy. We can just say that we went to the martial - arts school in the evening and were beaten up by our fellow students. But if you go home with so many injuries on your face, how are you going to explain it? You can't just tell Uncle and Aunt that you fell, right?"