You hidden in my heart - Chapter 35.1

Chapter 35.1

Li Xining, with a panicked heart, wanted to talk to Lu Yuling as soon as possible. Therefore, she skipped the class for the first time in her life, hiding in the girls’ restroom and trying to contact him. 

But Lu Yuling didn’t answer the phone or reply to messages. Afterwards, his phone was also switched off.

Li Xining burst into tears of worry.

She needed to meet him and tell him everything he heard was not true.

At 5.30 p.m., the bell rang, and the quiet classrooms soon came to life. Li Xining had to go to the class this time and went there with a dejected feeling. 

She desperately wanted to find the boy, but she had no idea where he would be.

She felt quite uncertain and uneasy.

Xu Dongruo waited for Li Xining outside the classroom entrance because she didn’t grasp what was happening. “What’s the matter?” she worriedly inquired upon her return. “Where is Lu Yuling? Did the two of you fight?”

As soon as Xu Dongruo inquired, Li Xining’s tears started to fall like waterfalls.

Xu Dongruo was scared and tried to make her feel better by saying, “Oh, don’t cry… There’s a solution for every problem. There is no reason to cry.”

Li Xining also understood that crying was not going to help in this situation. Crying was a waste of time; therefore, she needed to take advantage of the time right now. She took a deep breath to calm down and then held Xu Dongruo’s wrist. She muttered, “Let’s go to the stairwell to talk.”

Normally, nobody used the stairs on the southeast corner, and nobody ever made it to the top floor except some boys who would smoke during evening self-study. 

Now it was dinnertime, and the upper floor was still empty of smokers. 

Xu Dongruo and Li Xining went to the top floor.

Li Xining told everything to Xu Dongruo. By the time the narrative ended, she was unable to stop her eyes from getting crimson. Feeling guilty, she sadly said, “I didn’t tell Lao Zhou everything. Only some of the truth.”

Xu Dongruo was surprised and asked in a confused way, “Why did you tell Lao Zhou a lie? Honestly, you are not a couple, so why can’t you tell the truth?”

Li Xining took a deep breath that tasted sour. “Lao Zhou doesn’t trust me… And if I knew Lu Yuling was in the utility room, I wouldn’t have lied.”

Xu Dongruo sighed and said, “It’s your choice if you want to tell the truth or not. Lao Zhou… it’s his matter whether he believes you or not.”

Li Xining: “But what if he punishes Lu Yuling? He will lose three hundred points, and he will get kicked out of school. It’s time to sign up for the college exam. What will happen if he gets kicked out of school?”

Xu Dongruo suddenly understood Li Xining’s thoughts and asked, “Are you worried about this?”

Li Xining wiped her tears and then nodded.

Xu Dongruo felt bad for her and thought Li Xining was not as smart as they thought. After thinking, she decided to tell her the truth: “You can pay 3000 yuan to the school office to get a new student status. Don’t worry, Lu Yuling… He has probably done it before, so he won’t get expelled from school.”

Li Xining was surprised and looked at Xu Dongruo in silence. After a while, she asked, “Who told you?” 

Xu Dongruo said, “Chen Lin. Do you remember when we were in our second year of high school, Lu Yuling got into a fight with a boy in the liberal arts class and hurt him a lot, even though his mother didn’t recognise him? The entire school criticised him and wanted to expel him and put him on probation.”

Li Xining couldn’t remember it. At that time, she didn’t pay attention to Lu Yuling. She only knew he was a tough boy who didn’t come to school regularly and got into fights every day. Also, the school had given him a lot of negative feedback. She was used to this happening, and she didn’t care how the school punished him at that time. 

While she was thinking, she just remembered something her friend said just now. “Who told you that?” she asked angrily.

“Chen Lin.” Xu Dongruo was unsure why Li Xining got mad all of a sudden. “A week after the school punished Lu Yuling, I passed the dean’s office, and the dean told me to call Lu Yuling. Chen Li was also there at that time, and later both Chen Li and Lu Yuling came out of the office together. I was a little curious about why the Dean asked Lu Yuling, and then I asked Chen Lin about that.” She held Li Xining’s hands and continued. “Chen Lin said that Lu Yuling could reissue his student status. I was surprised and asked how. He said that by just paying three thousand yuan, it could be done. So you don’t have to worry about him being expelled from school. Besides, as long as you two refuse to admit you are in puppy love, can Lao Zhou still do something? What he cares about is puppy love, not secret love. If he can care about people falling in love, can he also care about people liking each other secretly?”

Li Xining bit her bottom lip and stayed silent for some time. She felt very upset and thought she was really stupid. ‘Why did I believe Chen Lin but not Lu Yuling? Why didn’t you be honest with Lao Zhou? I’m stupid. Really stupid.’

Li Xining took a deep breath and said confidently, “I want Lu Yuling to come back.”

Xu Dongruo: “Where can you find him? Do you know where he went?” 

Li Xining still didn’t understand why her friend asked that.

Seeing her friend’s confused looks, Xu Dongruo said, “Our school has strict rules right now. You must have a letter from your teacher if you want to leave school in the middle of the day. How can you ask Lao Zhou for a letter? Besides, he is not here this time.”

Li Xining pondered for a while and decided to ask for help from the students in the back row. 

The boys sitting at the back of the class didn’t have good grades, but they were really clever and courageous. Sometimes they would go to the teacher’s office and steal absence notes to copy them. Li Muchen used Teacher Zhou’s absence to his advantage. He took Teacher Zhou’s special signature stamp and made a copy of it outside. Then he kept the original stamp back in the office.

It was Lu Yuling who told Li Xining that. She believed at the time that those students in the back rows had courage and other outstanding traits despite their lack of academic achievements.

Have a nice day!