Chapter 11: The Cold School Beauty’s Fierce Love
Tao Ning, who had pestered someone into completing her test paper, was initially in a good mood, even considering doing the homework assigned by the teacher.
However, Uncle Liu reported that the car’s paint seemed to have been slightly scratched by the bicycle. The car’s rear, despite its small size, hadn’t escaped unscathed while navigating the narrow alley and needed some touch-up.
Tao Ning decided to get out of the car early and stroll back home.
A car stopped behind Tao Ning. The door opened, and a man reeking of alcohol stumbled out, mumbling something unintelligible as he lunged towards Tao Ning.
The bodyguards, hidden in the shadows, seeing someone attempting to accost their employer, immediately rushed out and punched him, sending him sprawling to the ground.
However, upon closer inspection, they realized the man lying on the ground like a dead dog, flipping back and forth, was Nangong Yunfei, the same Nangong Yunfei their employer had specifically instructed them to treat with courtesy. They were instantly petrified.
In those few short seconds, the bodyguard who had thrown the punch had already imagined being fired, blacklisted from the industry, and returning home to plant potatoes.
However, Tao Ning’s words calmed her down. Thank goodness, she wouldn’t have to go home and farm potatoes.
Nangong Yunfei, who had been slightly drunk, was mostly sobered up by the punch. Propping himself up, he said incredulously, “You dare hit me?”
“I’ll hit you whenever I want, do I need to pick a day?” Tao Ning lifted her chin. “You look unconvinced, go ahead.”
The last word was directed at the bodyguard. With the employer’s order, the bodyguard acted without hesitation.
Nangong Yunfei didn’t expect her to actually dare. Caught off guard, he took a punch to the gut, his insides churning.
Tao Ning’s emotionless eyes watched as Nangong Yunfei, having been punched in the stomach, vomited profusely.
If someone had looked up at Tao Ning, they would have noticed something amiss. Her expression was arrogant and unrestrained, but her eyes held no emotion.
“Ugh—”
A hygiene-conscious bodyguard grimaced in disgust, stepping back slightly and holding his breath to lessen the impact of the smell.
Only Tao Ning, looking down from above, didn’t flinch: “Young Master Nangong, drunk and disoriented, tripped and fell. It was the kind neighborhood manager who helped him back.”
“Miss, is this… alright?”
Tao Ning glanced sideways: “Not alright? What’s not alright? Afraid of being seen?”
“Uh…”
Although the Tao family had deep roots and shouldn’t be underestimated, even the head of the Nangong family had to address Tao Yan respectfully. However, the Nangongs were known for their vindictiveness and weren’t easy to provoke.
Tao Ning asked, “Who saw it?”
Looking at Nangong Yunfei’s driver, still frozen in shock, Tao Ning asked, “Did you see it?”
The driver immediately panicked: “I, I, I…”
Tao Ning didn’t want to make things difficult for a driver who couldn’t even unbuckle his seatbelt smoothly. She turned to the bodyguard beside her and said, “Remove the dashcam from his car. I’ll compensate him tenfold, a hundredfold.”
Looking down at the flushed, almost contorted young face, she asked calmly, “Is Young Master Nangong satisfied?”
Those words…
How utterly like a vicious villainess, bullying someone and then adding insult to injury, except the target of her malice had shifted from the female lead to the male lead.
520 clapped enthusiastically: [You’re a very wicked young miss.]
Tao Ning: “You flatter me, Zero Zero.”
“How dare you…” These words sounded familiar. Nangong Yunfei suddenly realized, weren’t these the words he had said to Xu Qiuyi?
Then he heard Tao Ning mutter softly, “Adding ‘It’s your honor’ is too weird, I can’t say it. Forget it, let’s leave it at this.”
Nangong Yunfei: “…” It’s your honor was also something he had said to Xu Qiuyi.
The bodyguard, eager to avoid a career change to potato farming, returned and reported to Tao Ning, “Miss, I’ve removed it.”
Tao Ning: “Take the memory card too. Everyone, disperse. I still have homework to do.”
Bodyguard: “Roger!”
Tao Ning, having never seen such a cheerful bodyguard, asked, “What’s your name?”
Bodyguard: “Liao Shishi.”
Tao Ning looked at this 1.8-meter tall, broad-shouldered, slim-waisted, long-legged woman with a scorpion braid, black sunglasses, and Doc Martens, cool from head to toe, and said sincerely, “…That’s a very poetic name. You get a raise.”
Liao Shishi: “Roger!”
With that, Tao Ning left with her backpack, as clean and crisp as a pure high school girl returning from evening self-study, leaving the figure sprawled on the ground looking even more pathetic.
The bodyguard glanced at the person on the ground and called the neighborhood manager to send a shuttle bus to pick him up, along with the terrified driver.
The Tao family’s property here was a detached villa with a small garden and several servants taking care of everything.
As she entered the gate, a servant greeted her and informed her that dinner was ready, waiting for her to be seated.
Tao Ning had her backpack taken to the study, washed her hands, and sat in the dining room, waiting for dinner.
520, finally processing what had happened, asked softly, [Is it really okay to beat up the male lead like that?]
Tao Ning was lost in thought, and she blurted out, “Did I hit him too little?”
520: [Huh?]
Tao Ning coughed, realizing she had misspoken. She said, “I think I hit him too little. Only nineteen years old and already reeking of alcohol, scaring people like a ghost. Not good, not good. I’m doing this for society, teaching him a lesson, so he remembers not to scare people in the future.”
520 fell silent. After this incident, the male lead would probably have a lingering fear of alcohol.
But looking at Tao Ning’s data page, everything was normal, no values exceeding the limit. She shouldn’t… develop psychological problems from her first mission, right?
Tao Ning, who, in the system’s mind, had already developed a heart of steel and diamonds, said, “I shouldn’t have been so impulsive, but he talked too much, I don’t like it.”
520 thought that if it could sweat, it would be sweating profusely: […Stop trying to justify it.]
Tao Ning said innocently, “Huh?”
520 bluntly exposed her: [You just wanted to hit him, I understand.]
Tao Ning chuckled: “You understand me.”
After saying this, Tao Ning took out her phone and made a call: “Hello? Mom, there’s something I want to tell you…”
After dinner, Tao Ning took a shower and went to the study to get her homework. Every textbook and exercise book was blank without exception. A splash of color in the gaming world, a blank slate in the academic world.
Tao Ning wasn’t discouraged. She flipped to the lessons for today, which were covered in notes. If Jin Yue and Lü Xinxi saw this, they would exclaim that something was wrong with her, as if she was possessed.
As if on cue, Tao Ning’s phone rang. It was a video call from Jin Yue.
Tao Ning answered. Before she could see the screen clearly, Lü Xinxi’s loud voice came through the phone: “Ningning! My male god’s movie is out! I booked the entire theater today, want to go watch it? Jin Yue and I will come pick you up.”
Before Tao Ning could answer, Jin Yue also appeared on the screen: “It’s really weird that you moved. We can’t find you at night when we want to play.”
Tao Ning rested her chin on her hand, thought for a moment, and said, “Then I’ll move back.”
Her previous place seemed to be closer to Xiao’an Village. Although the distance wasn’t that different, at least it was in the same direction.
Hearing this, the two on the other end of the screen perked up: “Really? When are you coming back? Can you come back tomorrow? Jin Yue and I are struggling without you to carry us in games.”
Jin Yue’s delicately made-up face looked melancholic: “Yeah, I’m playing a male character and people keep calling me a noob, saying they could play better with their feet. It’s so infuriating.”
Tao Ning soothed them: “Okay, I’ll tutor you two after I move back.”
Lü Xinxi said excitedly: “Hurry up and put on your makeup, I’ll pick you up… Wait, what did you just say you’d do with us?”
Tao Ning smiled kindly, radiating an almost saintly glow, her lips moving slightly as she uttered the words that sent shivers down the spines of the two on the other end: “Study.”
Jin Yue: “…”
Lü Xinxi: “…”
What the hell, had she just woken up from a dream? She had actually heard those words from Tao Ning.
Not only that, Tao Ning moved her phone, revealing a desk covered in books. She said, “I’m studying right now, and you two will be joining me from now on.”
Silence reigned on both sides of the screen for a long moment. Finally, Lü Xinxi said tremblingly, “Why? Are you possessed?”
“Sigh, it’s a long story…” Tao Ning shook her head and sighed.
Hearing this tone, 520 knew the host was about to start making things up.
Tao Ning said, “Actually, I don’t like studying either, but the Tao Corporation is just too big. My mom is all alone, busy every day and rarely home. Although the income is good, she has very little vacation time.”
“She can still handle it now, but in the future… if I’m still like this, I won’t be able to help her at all, I might even become a burden. I think I should grow up.”
Anyone else would have scoffed at these words, angrily accusing her of showing off.
But Jin Yue and Lü Xinxi didn’t feel that way. The Tao Corporation was indeed huge, and Tao Yan, the head, was a notoriously busy person in the business world. It was difficult for even hundreds of people to get a meeting with her.
Moreover, Tao Ning, the rich young miss who didn’t know the meaning of hardship, always acted carelessly. The two who had grown up with her knew that Tao Ning was a filial daughter, her carelessness entirely a result of Tao Yan’s pampering.
She had never done anything to upset Tao Yan… oh right, there was one thing recently, saying she was interested in Nangong Yunfei.
Now it seemed that Tao Ning still couldn’t bear to disappoint Tao Yan and had given up on him.
“And my birthday is followed by my mom’s birthday. She has everything, she doesn’t lack anything. The only gift I can think of that would make her happy is my good grades, so…”
Jin Yue and Lü Xinxi were caught off guard by the sudden emotional card, their minds blanking out, completely fooled. They quickly said, “Then study hard, Yueyue and I won’t disturb you. We’ll play with you tomorrow, bye!”
Tao Ning waved her hand: “Bye.”
Ending the video call, Tao Ning exhaled slowly: “To fulfill the original owner’s wish, I can’t just maintain the status quo. To get revenge… I have to use the Tao Corporation’s power.”
Taking out her homework, Tao Ning tried her best to complete the parts she could, leaving the more difficult ones blank to avoid suspicion of cheating.
Seeing her studying seriously, 520 didn’t dare to interrupt, quietly playing by itself.
Suddenly, having finished writing an English essay, Tao Ning asked, “Do you think Xu Qiuyi would believe it if I used the same reason with her?”
520 was puzzled: [Why would you tell Xu Qiuyi?]
Tao Ning said matter-of-factly: “To borrow her notes and build a relationship, of course. Just being casual friends is unreliable, a bit strange. If I become her disciple, even a slight improvement in my grades would be thanks to her, and then it wouldn’t be strange for me to help her with anything.”
520 suddenly understood: [You can do that? That makes perfect sense, I agree.]
It was past midnight after finishing her homework. Tao Ning started organizing her books and preparing for bed when a physics test paper fell out, the blank advanced question staring back at her.
After staring at the question for a while, she wrote down the solution on a piece of scrap paper.
“Not too difficult after all.”
Then, she tore up the paper and threw it in the trash.
After midnight, Xiao’an Village was mostly quiet. Xu Qiuyi finished her homework and was preparing to brush her teeth and go to bed.
The slender girl wore Grandma Pan’s old clothes, washed clean and faintly scented with the solid perfume from the wardrobe.
She walked to the bathroom mirror in the dim light, her reflection illuminated, a testament to the saying that even simple clothes couldn’t hide her beauty. She was still young now, hard to imagine how stunning she would be when she grew up.
Xu Qiuyi tied up her long hair and quietly brushed her teeth, preparing to go back to sleep. Her slender, white fingers rubbed her stomach.
A growing girl got hungry quickly, and she was a bit hungry now. She could finish an entire bowl of rice at this moment.
As she passed Grandma Pan’s room, the door lock clicked softly. Someone getting up at night came out, and she asked, “Qiuyi?”
Xu Qiuyi: “It’s me, did I wake you?”
Grandma Pan, sleepy-eyed, rubbed her eyes: “I’m a heavy sleeper, even a rooster crowing can’t wake me.”
As she spoke, she handed Xu Qiuyi something from the cabinet by the door: “I saw a bruise on your hand tonight and wanted to give you this, but I didn’t want to disturb you while you were studying.”
Xu Qiuyi looked at the medicinal wine in her palm, emitting a strong herbal scent. It was homemade by Grandma Pan, and Xu Qiuyi had used it before with good results, so she accepted it with thanks.
“My granddaughter is the same age as you. Her parents wouldn’t even hurt a hair on her head,” Grandma Pan shook her head. “Xu Zhihong is truly a good-for-nothing…”
Back in her room, Xu Qiuyi put the medicine aside and sat on the bed, lost in thought.
Beside her was Zhichun’s peaceful sleeping face, a source of comfort in Xu Qiuyi’s life.
After a long while, she made a decision in her heart.
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