Madam Lu had jumped off a building.
It was three days later when Fu Zhi heard the news. Madam Lu had lost consciousness and had been in the hospital’s intensive care unit since that night.
She had just celebrated her 66th birthday. In order to threaten her second son, she had attempted to jump off the fifth floor of a building. Unfortunately, she had tripped, and had it not been for the cushion, she would have fallen to her death already.
Right now, Fu Zhi was sitting next to her bed. Wearing the oxygen mask, Madam Lu said weakly, “Grandma’s time has come. It’s all your fault, but I’m not going to blame you anymore. I just hope you will forgive Wanwan before I die.”
Lu Chuwan’s lawyer had done his best. He was very experienced. Using her age as an excuse, he had successfully reduced her serving time from three years to one year, and instead of serving her sentence in jail, she would be sent to a juvenile detention center.
It was her age that had saved her neck.
Fu Zhi felt that Madam Lu never knew when enough was enough.
Lu Jingqing was heartbroken and feeling helpless over his mother at the same time. He had taken care of her for two days straight. He had gone home that day, so only Fu Zhi, Lu Yumo, and the old lady were left in the ward.
Fu Zhi pulled “The Art of Feng Shui in Chinese Funeral Traditions” out of her bag and said, “Stop speaking nonsense. Before you die, come and pick your coffin.”
Madam Lu was stunned. There was still a long way to go before she died. She was just trying to scare Fu Zhi.
When he heard what Fu Zhi had said, Lu Yumo’s eyes glowed. He was an easy-going person. Even though Madam Lu did not treat him as well as her eldest grandson, he still respected her a lot. He went closer to Fu Zhi and began reading the book.
All the coffins in the book were pricey, and some cost up to millions of yuan. Some of the coffins also came with a few burial goods like jade and gold. The only problem was that their design was kind of old-fashioned.
“Grandma likes green. Is there a green coffin?” Lu Yumo queried as he flipped through the book. “She also likes big red flowers. Grandma always brings big red flowers to major occasions.”
Fu Zhi curled her lips as she shot a meaningful gaze at her brother.
She put on her earphones, pointed at the cheapest coffin, and said, “This looks quite good. It even comes with a ribbon.”
“But the ribbon is red. Wouldn’t it make the coffin look like a present? I think that’s not good.”
Lu Yumo chirped like a morning bird, and Madam Lu’s face was getting darker and darker with every passing second. At one point, she picked up a pair of chopsticks from the table and threw it weakly at Lu Yumo’s face.
Lu Yumo did not jump away, as the disposable chopsticks had not hit their intended target. Instead, they had landed on Madam Lu’s bedsheet.
Lu Yumo was speechless.
Madam Lu took a deep breath. “Fu Zhi, your cousin knows how to compose music. Let her out, and once she gets to know some superordinates, she will introduce them to you. Then, you will live a wealthy life.”
“I think my life is fine now.”
Madam Lu gritted her teeth. “You’d think so because you’ve spent your time in the countryside for too long! The Lu Family might be a prestigious family in Yu City, but we’re nothing compared to the families in the capital!”
She felt so exasperated that her chest was heaving up and down. “Why can’t you be more ambitious, huh?”
“Even though I’m not ambitious, I know that we shouldn’t cross the line.”
Fu Zhi got to her feet. “What kind of music composer can a trash company like RM Corporation Group bring? Stop having unrealistic dreams and face reality. Tell that to Lu Chuwan as well.”
“Go away!” Madam Lu shouted, her eyes turning red. “Get the hell out of my face! I’m going to tell Jingqing that you guys are bullying me!”
Before they left, Fu Zhi picked the chopsticks up from Madam Lu’s bedsheet and threw them into the dustbin.
Lu Yumo lamented. “You’re really nice to grandma, Zhizhi. I wouldn’t have been able to forgive everything she did if I were you.”
Fu Zhi put the book that Xu Wei had given her back into her bag. Then, she looked at Lu Yumo’s profile and said calmly, “That way, she’ll look like she’s being unreasonable when she tells on us.”
Lu Yumo did not know what to say.
The next day, at No.1 High School…
It was recess, and Fu Zhi had just returned from the bubble tea shop.
Although it was almost 12:30, a group of students in the back row of Class 21 was still whispering about something while looking at their cell phones.
Song Fang and Zhou Zihuai joined the discussion as well, which was a rare sight. All of them had a serious expression on their faces, and none of the students in the class were sleeping.
Zhou Zihuai rarely joined a gossip group like this. However, he was listening to the discussion right now while he worked on his homework.
Fu Zhi pulled an exercise book out of her drawer.
Song Fang noticed her and called out to her by tapping her chair with his leg. “Hey, sis, did you hear? There’s a new transfer student in our class. His surname is Ye, and he seems like a nice dude. I heard Mr. Ma say he’s sick, so he took a year off from school.”
He let out a laugh, as he was tickled pink by the stunt pulled by the new transfer student. After a short while, he changed the topic and said with a hint of admiration lacing his voice, “Oh yeah, Gu Yan returned to China today.”
“Okay,” Fu Zhi replied flatly.
“Ouch, that’s cold, sis.” Song Fang rested his chin on his palm and grinned at Fu Zhi. “Could you actually not know who Gu Yan is?”
“Yeah,” Fu Zhi replied again as she finished two more questions.
The exercise book had been given to her by Li Nanli, and the questions had been set by Sheng Hua. She had been playing with her phone too much recently, so she would work on the exercise book to pass her time and let her eyes rest.
“Are you serious?” someone said.
“You don’t know who Gu Yan is? She’s very popular overseas. She’s known as the youngest psychotherapist ever, and she has more than 500,000 fans on the internet. She’s our country’s glory!”
“She’s also a member of our National Physics Association, and she placed sixth at the national Physics competition last year!”
“The reason she ranked sixth is that she was not feeling well and she quit halfway through the exam! She’s truly a Physics genius!”
“It seems that she doesn’t really care about her fame, as she rarely participates in any competitions.”
People with true talent would be admired and respected by other people no matter where they went, just like Fu Zhi and Gu Yan. Nearly most of the students in Class 21 had loathed the former when she’d first joined their class, but as soon as she had shown her true strength, they had all begun to respect her. As for Gu Yan, well, she was already very capable since the day she had joined No.1 High School, so it went without saying that most of the students held her in high regard.
Song Fang lamented. “I think she will join Qian Wenrui’s class. After all, Qian Wenrui just lost one of her beloved students.”
Song Fang was talking about Lu Chuwan. The Lu Family had told the school that Lu Chuwan was not feeling well, so she’d be taking a break from school, but many students at school had not bought it. They’d kept talking about her for a few days straight, but none of them could come up with anything. Eventually, they’d slowly stopped talking about her.
Zhou Zihuai nodded. “If I had the chance, I’d love to discuss Physics questions with her.”
They kept talking for 30 minutes straight, and they only dispersed when the class started.
It was their language class.
The moment the language teacher stepped into their classroom, he rolled his eyes at Fu Zhi and announced, “The midterm examination will start in two weeks. As for that particular beautiful young girl who refuses to do her homework, you listen to me carefully. If you keep refusing to do the essay part this time, I’ll quit my job. I’ll make you the sinner of the class. I want you to cry all day long!”
Fu Zhi did not know what to say.
She had never expected the teacher to pull that stunt on her. Every student in the class was laughing at her, and she was left speechless.