Ji Huai treated her very well but in order not to delay both of their studies, she had to reject him. But Ji Huai hadn't confessed or said he liked her like Xu Shizhou had... Should she take the initiative to solve this problem and refuse him? This was too cruel, wasn't it? Just like the heroine of a novel in which the author hadn't determined the male lead yet. This was simply too irresponsible! Such an author must enjoy torturing their readers and characters!

Xia Yao stopped thinking about it, getting too anxious about it was simply interfering with her homework! And in the end, she finished her questions first and did a few more sets of papers on the way, looking at her bank card deposits on her phone afterward.

***

Thanks to her hard work, Xia Yao managed to earn about 100,000 yuan daily through the system. Although these 100,000 yuans were nothing for the Xia family, just like a stone thrown into the sea that couldn't make any waves, her goal was not to make them go bankrupt in a week. It wasn't a reachable goal and instead, she had chosen three months as her objective.

But while she was working hard, it was the Xia siblings scandal someone had uncovered not long ago that had caused their stock market to plummet; the market value of the Xia family had slumped by hundreds of millions of yuan in just a few days.

Xia Xi also seemed to have disappeared. Since the scandal had broken out, she had not been seen for a week.

Sometimes people were a little complicated. Xia Yao hadn't seen the heroine for a week and had started to miss her a little. She really wanted to raise her chin to her and sneer.

—Oh, are you uncomfortable? Which brother is your favorite today?

—It's true that Xia Yuan is not very good, ah. How can he satisfy you alone? You are so good, you should have more men to love.

Yes, last week, when a good Samaritan had exposed Xia Yuan and Xia Xi's pseudo-incest relationship, they had also exposed Xia Xi's fish pond. Countless chat records and various monitoring had been made public, like unshakable evidence against the female sea king.

Everything had been spread to their circle and naturally, the school had been full of gossip. Every time students met, the first sentence was always about Xia Xi.

—Are you familiar with Xia Xi from Class A? Let me tell you about her...

***

As soon as the school bell rang, Xia Yao packed her bag but the hem of her clothes was grabbed when she got up.

"Xia Yao, let's go home together."

Xu Shizhou also stood up and his chair made a sharp piercing sound on the ground

Xia Yao: Here we go again.

She really didn't want to lose her mind or affect her studies because of love and other emotions. But even though she kept telling him, Xu Shizhou kept acting as if he was deaf and since then Xia Yao had really stopped being afraid of him.

She looked back at him: "I'm going home with my friends."

Xu Shizhou frowned unhappily and sneered: "You don't even live in the same direction, my house is much closer to yours."

Xia Yao sighed helplessly and moved closer to say like every other day: "Classmate Xu, I already told you that I don't like you. I will not date or fall in love in high school, I don't want to influence my study. Stop wasting your time."

She had lowered her voice to prevent gossip from spreading out.

"I know, I know, Classmate Xia." Xu Shizhou also leaned closer and knocked her forehead slightly, "But it's not like it will disturb you if we go home together. You wouldn't see it as your boyfriend taking you home, would you?"

In such a short distance, the boy's breath tickled the tip of her nose and she quickly avoided it. Her cheeks felt slightly hot.

"Then wait here, I will go to the bathroom first." Xia Yao gave him a powerless look and grabbed her bag to head out of the classroom.

As usual, she was wearing it on only one shoulder and Xu Shizhou naturally grabbed the second strap: "Xia Yai, are you planning on running away with your bag on your back?"

Stopped in her tracks, Xia Yao took her bag off: "Sorry, conditional reflex. A student can't do anything without her things."

The boy snatched her bag before she could put it down.

"I will wait for you outside the restrooms."

It looked like her bag had just been taken hostage.

Xia Yao was speechless and at this time, she kind of missed Ji Huai. But he was the class representative and had to hand in homework. Had he been here, Xu Shizhou would not be behaving so lawlessly because Ji Huai would have also fought to send her home.

Xia Yao reluctantly glanced at her bag, as if she was in pain. Xu Shizhou, who was leaning on the railing, thought she was looking at him and he gave her a wink.

A black and white backpack was on his left shoulder and his right hand was casually inserted in his pocket. When he winked at her, his eyes were full of stars and he looked just like a brash and flamboyant youngster. Xia Yao didn't dare to look at him any longer and she hurriedly entered the ladies restrooms.

***

Xia Yao lowered her head and saw she was wearing simple, casual, sporty clothes; there would be no problem climbing down. She opened the restrooms' window, stretched her legs, and leaped on it with the help of her hands on the edge. She looked down; there were only five stories and no one was underneath.

Xia Yao climbed down dexterously, she had had enough practice going up and down her balcony at the Xia family house. Once she reached the ground, she took a deep breath and savored the freedom of being alone, before heading to the bookstore, whistling and swinging her hands.

—She needed to buy some exercises or she would have nothing to do once she got home.

Xia Yao had never thought she would meet Xia Xi when she got off the subway. She was listening to the BBC when her earphones were torn off— and her conditioned elbow hit Xia Xi's chin.

Even though the heroine had lost some of her baby fat, Xia Yao recognized her at a glance. She didn't even need to look at her, people's temperament would be integrated into their behavior and sometimes a person could be recognized just by a movement from the back.

The radio was cut off and Xia Yao frowned unhappily before asking indifferently: "What do you want?"

She wasn't even cursing her, she was really kind-hearted!

The girl had tears in her eyes and screamed painfully while holding her chin. She accused in a sullen expression: "That was you, wasn't it?! Why do mom and dad know? Why does my brother know? Did you hire a private investigator? Did you do it?"

The exit of the subway was full of people and her sharp and crying voice attracted the attention of many passersby.

Xia Yao found the situation rather interesting, this was the first time she saw the real green tea temperament of the white lotus. She smiled and said: "Get out of the way, Xia Xi. It's not respectful to block the exit."

Xia Yao didn't want to pay attention to her at all. Since her system had upgraded to the "Learning to get rich system", she no longer needed to follow the plot or deal with her stupid siblings. Ah, how awesome was it to be able to do what she wanted!

Seeing her leave, Xia Xi hurried after her, crying all the way as if she was getting bullied.

"You must have a guilty conscience! You spread rumors about me and I was kicked out of my own house because of you! My brother doesn't want me anymore! You think you're so powerful and that your schemes have succeeded but I—"

Xia Yao rubbed her ears. She looked at the red light then at her before saying in a derisive tone: "Spread rumors? Do you think I would take the trouble to? Are you worthy? Besides, are those even rumors? Xia Xi, you are capable of hooking up with someone else but you won't admit it. I want to know, why are you even looking for me now? Shouldn't you look for a man if you have no money?"

"Xia Yao, you—"

Xia Yao moved closer and asked in a low voice: "Shouldn't the Xia family be the ones you hate the most? Had they not adopted you in the first place, you wouldn't have experienced all of that. They also drove you out, you hate them even more, don't you?"

Xia Xi was silent for a moment. She looked at the bright smile in front of her and felt fear from the bottom of her heart.

"It doesn't matter. The Xia family will go bankrupt in two months, I will take revenge for you." Xia Yao patted her shoulder. The former heroine looked like a frightened rabbit, her eyes were red and full of tears, and she found the whole situation boring.

***

After meeting with Xia Xi, Xia Yao suddenly wasn't in a hurry to go home anymore. She strolled down the street and went to get some snacks. By coincidence, news of the Xia family was on the store's TV.

Her parents had called her three days ago. It had been an international call and they had asked about the situation, blah blah blah. Xia Yao had answered in a perfunctory manner and had not said anything about moving out. She had said everything had been fine and had asked them to not call again.

She had then blacklisted them and was now hoping she would never have to see them again.

The Xia family's situation was dire. Xia Xi had been kicked out because of her misbehavior and Xia Yuan had been sent abroad. Moreover, a plagiarism scandal had been revealed, and coupled with the sudden economic crisis, the Xia empire was devastated.

Xia Yao felt a little refreshed and after eating, she wandered around a little bit more, and when she came back home, the sky was already darkening.

Someone was squatting in front of her house. The teenager still looked tall in this position, he was holding his cheek in one hand, and the dim light was shining from the top of his head.

The moment his eyes fell on her, his dark eyes instantly brightened and all the depression and grievances disappeared from his heart.

Note: There are 44 chapters but the next two will be combined together. They are both short enough to make one full chapter, but mostly, they just go together.