Chapter 288 - That was a statement!

Xiao Lei smiled and shrugged. "Well, you're in luck. I'm ready now. Just let me go and grab my bag and we can go."

Like a little kid, Han Ye nodded properly, but when Xiao Lei went back into her apartment, he pumped his fist as if he had won something. 

Not long after, they were in Han Ye's car on the way to a breakfast place that Han Ye described as "would blow your mind". 

"It better blows my mind, or I'm going to---" Xiao Lei was going to joke about something, but when she realized the route her joke was going, she immediately stopped herself. 

"What are you going to say?" Han Ye teased with a brow raised as he looked at her, but his eyes quickly darted back to the road. Even though it was still early in the morning, but there were already quite a lot of cars. The nearer they got to the city centre, the more cars there were. 

Xiao Lei scoffed. "Nothing."

After a while, Han Ye said with a smile, "I'm glad that everything is better now." 

Xiao Lei nodded as she looked out at the street that was slowly getting filled up by cars. "He's still bothered by something, and he didn't want to talk about it, but you're right. Everything is better now." 

They then sat quietly in the car, breaking the silence with the occasional light remarks about the things they saw on the street along the way. However, unlike before, both their hearts and minds felt lighter, especially Xiao Lei. The fact that she no longer had to hide things about herself and her husband from her son, whom she loved absolutely dearly, was a huge relief, and she felt as if she had a huge rock lifted off her shoulders.

...

A few hours later,

At Imperial Secondary,

Xiao Zhihao stopped outside Murong Yu's office, which had been cleared out. It was completely empty, even the carpet was pulled out, and it looked as if no one had been using the room for years.   

He stood there for a long time with a few books in his arms, until he heard the bell ring, and even so, he waited for another minute before turning around and walking toward his class with a dejected expression. 

"Murong Yu... You didn't just leave without saying anything, right? You'd be back, right?" he thought as he slowly dragged himself toward his class, completely ignoring the ruckus of the students running past him. 

His eyes were on the floor the whole time, so he didn't see that there was someone right in front of him.

BAM! 

"F*ck!" someone cursed. 

Xiao Zhihao bumped into someone, who had run out from a corner, and the impact caused him to fall backward. 

"Argh..." he groaned as he rubbed his elbow. He had landed quite hard on his elbow when he fell later. "Why do I always get bruises?" he mumbled as he got up and picked up his books.

Suddenly, someone grabbed him by the collar and snapped in his face, "Are you blind?!" 

Xiao Zhihao blinked as he looked at the person he bumped into. He recognized this person. This was the same person who hit him out of nowhere when he was walking back to his dorm a while ago.

"I'm sorry," Xiao Zhihao mumbled. It was his fault, so he was fine with admitting it. 

The older boy pushed him toward the locker and snapped, "Do you think sorry is enough?" 

The older boy had just come out of the principal's room after 30 minutes of lecture, and his mood was back. Xiao Zhihao just had to step in front of him when he was in a bad mood. "Blame it on yourself, kid," the older boy grinned evilly as he raised his fist.

Suddenly, the older boy was pushed away by another boy, whom Xiao Zhihao recognized as one of the prefects. Xiao Zhihao was confused. Usually, this guy would just turn a blind eye whenever he saw a scholarship student getting bullied by others. This guy was like every other rich brats here; caring only about his peers and those who could bring him and his family up the social ladder. 

"Stop that! No fighting allowed!" the prefect warned the older boy. 

The older boy sneered, "Or what?" 

One of the older boy's friends, who had been watching in amus.e.m.e.nt till now, stepped forward and whispered to his ear, "Stop it. You can't afford to mess with Xiao Zhihao now." 

"What?" The bully looked at Xiao Zhihao and scoffed. "Why would I be afraid of him?" 

His friend continued, "Since you just got back from your trip last night, obviously you didn't know. He's the kid whose father saved members of the Du Family a few years back. President Du of the Du Conglomerate, as well as his entire family, even came to the school for the commemoration ceremony."

"I'm not afraid of him," the bully snarled as he glared at Xiao Zhihao, but his friends forcefully dragged him away.

When he thrashed about as his friends dragged him further away from Xiao Zhihao, the same friend who spoke earlier snapped, "Are you an idiot? Xiao Zhihao is under the protection of the Du Family now!" 

"So what?" the bully snapped. 

When his friends saw that they were a distance away, they released him, and the same friend who spoke later asked, "How stable do you think your parents' companies are? You mess with him, you mess with the Du Family!"

"That scholarship kid? No way!" the bully snarled. 

His friend rolled his eyes. "Are you daft?! The Du twins have been protecting him previously, which we could somewhat ignore since they can't be with him forever, and President Du is unlikely to interfere with his children's scuffle. But this time is different! The person that Xiao Zhihao's father saved was President Du's wife and one of the twins. Do you really think President Du is so free to come for the commemoration ceremony of a random man? He's here to make a statement!"

The bully looked at his friend, who was top of their class, and he asked, "What statement?" 

"You really need to be smarter, or your parents' companies are going to be gone once they fall into your hands." 

"Hey!" the bully pushed his friend roughly. 

His friend laughed at his idiocy before saying, "President Du wouldn't make such a trip just for anyone. He must have known about people who has been bullying Xiao Zhihao, but because of his status, it wasn't right for him to interfere directly. Hence, he came for the ceremony to make a statement, to warn everyone that Xiao Zhihao and his family are under the care of the Du Family, and if you mess with him again, I don't think the Du Family is going to take this lightly." 

The bully could understand this much, and he shuddered to think about what he had almost done then. If he had landed the punch on Xiao Zhihao, his father would have landed thousands of punches on him!

The bully then nodded, and he knew that if he wanted to survive, he had to avoid messing around with Xiao Zhihao. "Fine... I'll just pick on the other scholarship students. I don't believe everyone has a backer like President Du!"

...