Meng Xinran looked at the ticket that fell out of the book but did not reach out to get it.

  She simply turned to the rest and sneered sarcastically.

  Qin Ran hardly revised in the classroom in the afternoon.

  Lin Siran arrived earlier than Qin Ran did and was shocked when she saw the mess.

  Her desk had been pushed aside, Qin Ran’s desk was on the floor on its side, and the pile of books was sprawled all over the ground in a mess.

  “What happened to Ran Ran’s desk?” Lin Siran squatted down and began picking up the books. She narrowed her eyes on a few people. “Were you guys fighting?”


  “No, why would we be fighting at her seat?” The boy in front cowered back and said, “You’d better tidy up Sister Ran’s things. We dare not touch them.”


  Qin Ran usually appeared careless and casual, and no one in the class had ever seen her lose her temper, but she was considered a big boss that no one could afford to offend.

  Even Wei Zihang considered himself her underling.

  Nobody in the whole of First Middle School dared to offend her.

  Lin Siran was picking up the books, but upon hearing what that boy said, she put them down slowly.

  She stood up and scanned the Ninth Class.

  Most of them were already there. Only a few obvious people were missing.

  Qiao Sheng, Xu Yaoguang, Qin Ran, and the new student, Meng Xinran.

  “Tell me, what exactly happened here?” Lin Siran moved her desk back to where it originally was and calmly asked.

  A few of them exchanged glances, eventually stammering what Meng Xinran did.

  “Keep Sister Ran’s things first. Otherwise, she’d definitely be angry when she comes back,” the boy in front said again.

  By then, it’d be a major eruption.

  Lin Siran’s expression went a little cold as she said, “I won’t.”


  Everyone’s heart sank.

  “If you don’t have the guts to face Sister Ran, why didn’t you guys stop her when it happened?” Lin Siran looked at the books and saw that there was a faint footprint on one of her favorite books. She smiled as her eyes went cold. “Leave the books here. Nobody touches it.”


  Everyone in the Ninth Class kept quiet. The atmosphere was oddly tense.

  **

  On the other side, Qiao Sheng and Xu Yaoguang were still eating outside.

  They were particular when it came to food.

  Team OST’s exhibition match was the next day. Qiao Sheng decided to have a steamboat lunch as a form of celebration. He’d planned to call Meng Xinran along, but the food wasn’t quite to her liking.

  The steamboat pot was filled with spicy soup.

  Qiao Sheng had just one mouthful of meat and was already looking for water.

  Meanwhile, his cell phone rang. He only noticed it when an attendant reminded him.

  He placed more food into the pot while answering the call. “He Wen, what is it?”


  He evidently sounded like he was enjoying himself.

  He Wen, on the other hand, sounded tense. “Qiao Sheng, it’s terrible! Our class is about to erupt!”


  “Erupt what? Make yourself clear.” Qiao Sheng was scooping some food for himself.

  “Meng Xinran pushed Sister Ran’s desk!” He Wen took a deep breath and said seriously.

  Qiao Sheng paused. “What happened? Tell me slowly.”


  “Meng Xinran lost the entrance tickets and found it in Sister Ran’s book. Come back quickly before something happens in class.”


  Qiao Sheng put his chopsticks down and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “I’m coming.”


  Xu Yaoguang narrowed his eyes when he overheard the conversation from across him.

  **

  Qiao Sheng and Xu Yaoguang got back very quickly.

  When he went into the classroom, it was oddly quiet.

  Qin Ran and Meng Xinran were not in.

  Only Lin Siran was in her seat, working on some practice questions.

  Qiao Sheng recognized that practice booklet. Qin Ran had given it to Lin Siran.

  Lin Siran’s improvement was rather drastic recently, and a lot of them knew that her improvement had something to do with Qin Ran as well.

  Qiao Sheng looked at the books all over the floor as well as a few lollipops.

  He went straight to her desk and wanted to tidy up the books. “Lin Siran, why didn’t you pick up Sister Ran’s books?”


  Before he even picked the first one up, Lin Siran stopped him. “Qiao Sheng, you’d better not touch them.”


  She sounded calm as usual.

  “Sister Ran has a good memory. She knows exactly how she arranged her books before she left. Even if you tidy them up, she’d know that someone touched it.” Lin Siran put her pen down.

  “Damn!” Qiao Sheng kicked the desk in front of him.

  Bam!

  The other people in the class dared not look up.

  Lin Siran was rather expressionless.

  Qiao Sheng gave Meng Xinran a call. She rejected it the first time and only picked it up when he called again.

  “You saw that ticket?” Meng Xinran sounded mocking.

  Qiao Sheng scanned the floor and saw a ticket peeking out of the book.

  “You’re too rash. Sister Ran wouldn’t do something like this.” Qiao Sheng’s voice was deep.

  “She wouldn’t? Then what would my ticket be doing inside her book?” Meng Xinran was sitting in the cafeteria as she sneered. “She was the last to leave the classroom. Who else could it be if not her?”


  Meng Xinran leaned back in her seat as she stirred her coffee.

  Her smile was mocking. “So, Qiao Sheng, what is this call for? To defend her?”


  Meng Xinran couldn’t think of anyone who’d have taken it.

  It seemed like something Qin Ran would do anyway.

  “It’s better to thrash things out in person. I’m not defending her, but I trust her character. Come back first and I’ll help you get to the bottom of this.” Qiao Sheng took in a huge breath.

  “How are you going to do that? The ticket in her book is the best explanation. Surely you can’t be saying that the ticket is hers?” Meng Xinran found this amusing. “Qiao Sheng, would you even believe it?”


  It was indeed hard to explain what they’d seen.

  Qiao Sheng squatted down and looked at that ticket.

  He then looked at all the books on the ground and got a headache.

  “Anyone informed Sister Ran yet?” Qiao Sheng scanned the classroom.

  They all shook their heads.

  Who would dare break the news to her?

  It was courting death.

  Qiao Sheng inhaled and took out his cell phone.

  **

  At this point, Qin Ran was practicing some penmanship in the school doctor’s office.

  She was holding the pen in her left hand, doing it stroke by stroke.

  “Qin Ran, a person’s handwriting shows their character. Do it properly, don’t waste the efforts of Master Juan who’d got it custom-made for you,” Lu Zhaoying hurriedly said when he saw that Qin Ran was about to give up.

  “Do you know who this is?” Lu Zhaoying was trying to be all mysterious.

  Qin Ran was leaning her head on the table. “Who?”


  She sounded disinterested.

  “Jiang Jinyuan, Master Jiang. His calligraphy is very valued. Do you know how many collectors are willing to fork out tons of money for it? But too bad he moved away and not many people managed to get him anymore,” Lu Zhaoying said and sighed.

  “Oh.” Qin Ran wasn’t familiar with the name Jiang Jinyuan.

  So there wasn’t much interest in him too.

  “You’re going to be killed in the capital if you go on like this.” He sighed again as he looked at Qin Ran’s unchanging expression.

  Jiang Jinyuan was very known in the capital. Few people could engage him.

  And yet he actually specially came up with a penmanship copy for Qin Ran to practice with.

  On that note, Lu Zhaoying went to look in the storage box. He realized that there were a few more copies of Master Jiang’s original works.

  The monetary value of this aside, it was difficult enough having to get Master Jiang to agree to such a request.

  Seeing Qin Ran practice, Lu Zhaoying couldn’t help but think, if it was Old Master Cheng who approached Master Jiang instead, would he have managed to do this?

  It seemed unlikely.

  Lu Zhaoying turned towards Qin Ran again and thought, Do you know how many digits in RMB did he have to fork out for this?

  The high society in the capital knew that the Cheng family was rich. But Lu Zhaoying never thought that Cheng Juan would be that rich……

  No wonder so many people hated the wealthy.

  Lu Zhaoying was a little envious himself.

  Qin Ran was getting frustrated with the practice.

  It required a lot of patience to practice penmanship. And “patience” had never been Qin Ran’s strong suit.

  When Qiao Sheng called, her tone was rather impatient. “Speak.”


  It was cold and hurried.

  Just a single word was enough to push Qiao Sheng to speak.

  Qiao Sheng paused for a while before cautiously saying, “Something happened in the classroom. Sister Ran, are you free now to come over by for a moment?”


  Qiao Sheng had the guts to say this even after she used such a tone on him.

  Qin Ran figured that she had to go up for a moment. She tossed the pen onto the table and said, “I have to go back to the classroom for a while.”


  Lu Zhaoying was startled when Qin Ran threw the pen like that.

  That was Cheng Juan’s pen. Anything regarding Cheng Juan—even his nail-clipper—was probably expensive goods.

  **

  Qin Ran casually wore a baseball cap as she walked towards the Ninth Class.

  The Ninth Class was very quiet, to begin with, but it became even quieter after Qiao Sheng made the call.

  The back door was opened slowly.

  The Ninth Class had been very disciplined lately, and there was pin-drop silence.

  Qin Ran walked in, slightly confused.

  Xu Yaoguang was sitting at the back and he glanced up at her.

  Qiao Sheng and He Wen were standing close to Lin Siran.

  Qin Ran walked further in before she saw the scene around Lin Siran.

  Her books were all over the ground, and a few of them had footprints on them. Some pages were even torn from the impact as they were already worn out in the first place.

  Qin Ran removed her baseball cap.

  The atmosphere tensed up in the classroom as if any movement would cause an enormous balloon to burst.

  Most of them just kept their eyes on the book.

  Qiao Sheng opened his mouth but had no idea what to say.

  Just as everyone was reaching the peak of their nervousness, someone chuckled, but with much unhappiness.

  Qiao Sheng and the rest turned to look at Qin Ran. Her eyes were slightly red.

  Even her smile seemed threatening.

  “Lin Siran, tell me.” Qin Ran leaned towards her and said calmly.

  Lin Siran closed her book and told her everything she knew.

  “Sister Ran,” Qiao Sheng coughed and said. “Don’t worry, we’ll settle this for you.”


  Qiao Sheng was the Young Master of the Qiao family. Everyone in school knew that.

  It was easy for him to get this settled.

  “No need.” Qin Ran rejected easily. She made a call and asked, “Do you have 20 people on your side?”


  They couldn’t hear what the response was on the other end.

  Qin Ran nodded and hung up.

  She didn’t say much, neither did she pick up her books. She just stood aside with her cell phone spinning in her hand.

  In less than five minutes, Wei Zihang came up.

  Everyone in the Ninth Class had heard of Wei Zihang and was even tenser now.

  Wei Zihang had a cigarette in his mouth. He glanced at Qin Ran’s desk and said, “Wow, the guts.”


  “This one.” Qin Ran raised her chin and pointed at Meng Xinran’s seat.

  Wei Zihang did not say anything as he moved Meng Xinran’s desk to the hallway.

  The Ninth Class students still weren’t sure what Qin Ran was planning to do.

  Qiao Sheng glanced at Wei Zihang and was worried that Qin Ran would do something that alerted the school. He followed closely behind Qin Ran. “Sister Ran, what are you doing?”


  The rest of them slowly followed behind too.

  They went out and saw Qin Ran in the hallway, calm and composed as usual.

  She was slowly throwing Meng Xinran’s books down from the fifth floor, one by one.

  In order for them not to hit anyone, she got 20 people to clear out an area for that.