You hidden in my heart - Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The academic load in the third year of senior high school was heavy, so third-year students only got a one-day holiday for a week. Although the rest day was only one short day, it was very precious, so everyone’s mood was turbulent every Saturday afternoon after school, and Li Xining was no exception. However, all her good mood this week was ruined by Han Qiaowei, and she was still angry when she went to sleep.

‘Why are you snatching my rabbit? Who told you to touch my things? Did you move my things without my permission? And Lu Yuling! What’s wrong with her being taller than me? Dancing? Do you think she is better than me? How do you know people can dance? Also, how do you know that people are more flexible than me? You know a lot!’ The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. ‘This bastard Lu Yuling!’

It was half past eleven at night, and Li Xining was still awake. She was full of anger and wanted to vent, but she didn’t know who to turn to. At this moment, the cell phone placed next to the pillow vibrated suddenly, and when she picked it up, it was Xu Dongruo. Coincidentally, the call came just in time.

Li Xining pressed the answer button resolutely and said bluntly, “I’m going to be pissed off by Han Qiaowei!”

Xu Dongruo was puzzled. “Hey, what happened to you?”

Li Xining told her friend what happened after school.

Xu Dongruo gasped in disbelief and asked, “Lu Yuling really said that?”

Li Xining: “This is what he said!”

Xu Dongruo: “Isn’t this courting death?”

Li Xining: “He is already a dead person in my heart!”

Realising her friend was boiling with anger, Xu Dongruo hurriedly comforted her. “Oh, Lu Yuling has no other intentions, just to advise you not to be impulsive.”

Li Xining: “Am I impulsive? I’m not impulsive at all!”

Xu Dongruo: “Aren’t you impulsive? Who are you angry with? Lu Yuling or Han Qiaowei? Only by finding the right target can you vent your anger accurately, ah.”

Li Xining was silent for a moment and finally said what she was worried about the most, “He knew she could dance and said she was more flexible than me; how could he know so much?”

Xu Dongruo: “In the whole grade, who doesn’t know that Han Qiaowei can dance? Don’t you also know? People who can dance must be more flexible than ordinary people. This is common sense. You are jealous, right?”

Being exposed to her feelings, Li Xining felt a little ashamed. “I’m not jealous, I just hate Lu Yuling comparing me to Han Qiao.”

Xu Dongruo said helplessly, “Okay, I can’t tell you the truth.” Then she remembered why she called Li Xining late at night. “By the way, you asked me to ask Ma Pang about Lu Yuling’s affairs the other day, and I’ve done that, will you listen?”

Li Xining forgot about Han Qiaowei and became energetic in an instant. “Listen, I’ll listen!”

Xu Dongruo: “Oh, woman, didn’t you just say that he was dead in your heart?”

Li Xining urged: “Stop talking nonsense, or I’ll go to sleep!”

Xu Dongruo snorted coldly. “It’s as if you can fall asleep if I don’t make this call.” But she didn’t continue talking nonsense, and directly cut to the point: “I always thought that Ma Fatty followed Lu Yuling every day to curry favour with him, but now I know that is not the case at all. He really admires Lu Yuling and treats him as a friend.”

“Why?” In fact, Li Xining was also quite curious why Fatty Ma had always been so loyal to Lu Yuling, and he called out “Brother Lu” every day, and looked up to him.

Xu Dongruo: “Did you know that Ma Fatty was bullied when he was in his freshman year of high school?”

Li Xining was surprised and stunned. “I don’t know. Is it in our school?”

Li Xining, Xu Dongruo, Lu Yuling, and Ma Pang were all in the same class in her freshman year as well. But Li Xining had never heard of Ma Pang being bullied.

“Outside the school. If it was at school, wouldn’t everyone already know about it?” Xu Dongruo replied, “Isn’t there a Qixing Middle School next to our school? He was bullied by a boy from Qixing Middle School. The man’s name is Cheng Ling, one year older than us and has graduated now. He was also a man of influence in their school, which is equivalent to Lu Yuling’s status in our school, but his character is far worse than Lu Yuling’s. At least Lu Yuling will not bully the weak.”

Qixing Middle School was a second-class high school, and the school’s reputation was not very good. The students didn’t look like students, they dressed up more maturely and exaggeratedly than the others, and their behaviour was also very out of the ordinary. It didn’t look like a high school, but it looked like a gathering place for social gangsters.

Xu Dongruo continued. “Ma’s family is in good condition, but his parents are very busy, and they are almost not at home all year round. He lives with his grandparents all the time. He was bullied by Cheng Ling for a whole semester when he was in his first year of high school. After school on Friday, Cheng Ling led people to stop Ma Fatty on his way home to collect his protection fee, and each time he opened his mouth louder than a lion.”

Li Xining was shocked and angry. “Is this person a psychopath?”

“Who said he wasn’t!” Xu Dongruo also felt that this person was sick. “Ma Fatty said that he was very helpless at that time, and his parents were not around. Besides him, his grandparents are getting older, and he still dared not tell the teacher or call the police for fear that Cheng Ling would intensify his revenge. At that time, he didn’t know what to do and even thought about committing suicide.”

Li Xining: “What happened later?”

Xu Dongruo: “Later, Lu Yuling found out about this matter, so he went to talk to Cheng Ling, so that he would not offend the students of No. 1 Middle School in the future, but Cheng Ling refused and looked down on Lu Yuling, so the conversation broke down, and then the two had a fight. Cheng Ling couldn’t beat Lu Yuling and even had an arm broken. I heard from Fatty Ma that Lu Yuling took him with him during the fight that day, but considering that he was too cowardly, he didn’t let him. He went on the field and let him out after the fight was over. Then Lu Yuling pressed Cheng Ling to the ground and forced him to apologise to Fatty Ma or break his other arm. Fatty Ma also said that Cheng Ling’s face was covered in blood.”

Li Xining asked, “Did Cheng Ling apologise later?”

“He would be beaten to death if he didn’t apologize? Additionally, Lu Yuling urged him to promise that he would never bully the No. 1 Middle School kids. In fact, Cheng Ling never again incited our school’s students after doing so. Ma Pang was never again blocked by him. Since then, Ma Peng has been extremely appreciative of Lu Yuling and even worships him, believing that he is upright, charismatic, and endowed with an unbreakable spirit. He yelled out to him, “Brother Lu,” and followed after him.”

Hearing Ma Peng’s story, Li Xining was amused. “Oh, after Lu Yuling rescued Ma Peng, Lu Yuling became an ‘indomitable hero’?”

Xu Dongruo said, “But I also think Lu Yuling’s handling of this matter is really admirable. He obviously has nothing to do with Ma Pang, but he didn’t hesitate when he was in trouble. FattyMa said that before the fight, he didn’t have a positive image of Lu Yuling. I always thought that Lu Yuling was a gangster, but I didn’t expect him to be quite so good.”

Li Xining: “I told you before that he is not a gangster, he is just a bit rebellious.”

Xu Dongruo: “Oh, what are you doing now? Didn’t you say a while ago that he was dead for you?”

Li Xining: “It’s two different things!”

Xu Dongruo said, “Okay, okay… By the way, Cheng Ling hadn’t gone to college after high school, and he continues to lead his gang of gangsters to collect protection money. Xue Kun recognised that big brother outside the school as him. By the way, do you still remember Xue Kun? It’s the one from Class 5 who confessed to you with ninety-nine roses.”

When Xue Kun was mentioned, Li Xining got goosebumps all over her body.

Xue Kun was also a thorn-headed student, with average looks, an average body, and low grades, but he was very pretentious. Perhaps because of the good conditions in his family, he always thought that he was the best in the world. This person could be said to be a coercive king, whether it was talking or doing things, he was full of pretence.

On the day he confessed to Li Xining, he made Li Xining’s scalp tingle with embarrassment: “Three hundred and sixty-five days and nights a year, I love you for seven hundred and thirty days, Xiao Ning, be my girlfriend, and I will give you all the most precious things in the world.”

Li Xining was about to vomit at that time, and it was the kind of nausea that really wanted to vomit. Moreover, she was not familiar with Xue Kun at all, and she was in the same class in the first year of high school, and there was no interaction in the second class of high school after that.

Xue Kun somehow found Li Xining’s WeChat number and often sent her WeChat messages, but she didn’t reply much because she didn’t like Xue Kun at all, and she didn’t even have a deep impression of him. So Xue Kun’s confession was tantamount to a shock to Li Xining. She rejected Xue Kun on the spot and then hurried away, but Xue Kun couldn’t give up and sent her a WeChat message at night to ask her if she had considered it. Li Xining was angry and helpless—‘Didn’t I reject you directly? When did I say I would think about it?’

Li Xining simply replied: [I don’t like you, so don’t send me WeChat again. ] After replying, she blocked Xue Kun.

That was the first person she had blocked since she had WeChat.

Although it was a bit heartless to do so, it was very effective. After that, Xue Kun really didn’t harass her again, except that he always stared at her with disgust when the two met at school. But Li Xining didn’t care, just pretended she didn’t see it—she didn’t like Xue Kun in the first place.

After hearing Xu Dongruo said that Xue Kun recognised Cheng Ling, a psychopath, as his eldest brother, Li Xining’s facial features wrinkled, as if she smelled something bad. “Why did they get mixed up?”

Xu Dongruo: “Birds of a feather flock together. Xue Kun is not a good thing. By the way, there is also Han Qiaowei. She not only had an affair with Xue Kun but also had an affair with Cheng Ling.”

Li Xining didn’t know what expression to put on: “Han Qiaowei?”

Xu Dongruo: “Yes, it’s her, the one who tried to rob your Lu Yuling. She is not a good person in the first place, this woman is very vain. I heard from Ma Fatty that she chased Lu Yuling when she was a freshman in high school. She fell in love with him one day and gave him water for half a month, but Lu Yuling didn’t like her and never took her things. But Han Qiaowei didn’t give up, chasing after Lu Yuling’s butt every day. But as soon as the military training was over, she suddenly gave up. Guess why?”

Li Xining couldn’t figure it out. “Hurry up and say don’t be tricky!”

Xu Dongruo: “Because she found that the clothes Lu Yuling was wearing were not famous brands, she felt that Lu Yuling was poor. And the little sisters around her also said that boys who don’t wear famous brands are low, and if she wants to find a boyfriend, she must find a rich second-generation boyfriend.”

Li Xining was stunned by Han Qiaowei’s “brand theory”. “Is she a rich second generation?”

Xu Dongruo: “It’s a fart, parents are ordinary working-class.”

Li Xining: “Then why should she ask others to be the rich second generation?”

Xu Dongruo: “Because she loves vanity, her goal is to find a rich second generation.”

Li Xining was even more confused. “Then why did she pester Lu Yuling again?”

“She only found out this semester that Lu Yuling’s bicycle is a BMW, and because it is a global limited edition, she didn’t recognise it before. Now that she knew, she started chasing him again. ” After speaking, Xu Dongruo said with a little admiration, “Isn’t this woman particularly flexible?”

Li Xining: “Yes.”

Xu Dongruo continued: “However, Lu Yuling’s BMW bicycle is indeed attractive. The global limited edition is definitely a top-level configuration. It will cost more than a hundred thousand, right? It looks like he came from a wealthy family, and then I will continue to ask Ma Fatty about Lu Yuling’s family background, but Fatty Ma said he didn’t know, Lu Yuling never mentioned his parents in front of anyone, and the person who came every time the parent meeting was held was always his uncle, not his father.”

For some reason, after hearing these words, Li Xining suddenly thought of that snowy winter many years ago, when Lu Yuling hid himself in a remote stairwell, crying so hard.

Xu Dongruo: “Fatty Ma said that the only time he heard Lu Yuling mention his mother was when someone persuaded him to smoke. Lu Yuling didn’t smoke, no matter how much he was persuaded by his friends. Later, Fatty Ma asked him why he didn’t smoke. Lu Yuling said he didn’t want to make his mother sad.”

End of chapter 11

Have a nice day!