Lu Huaiyu looked at his phone for a second before he raised a brow. “She’s in your office?”
Zhou Fei scoffed. “What else? You did it this time, Second Master Lu! You reject my call, but you answered Ning Li’s call almost instantly?!”
Even if Lu Huaiyu was biased towards Ning Li, this was too much!
Lu Huaiyu answered in his lazy voice, “My phone is sensitive towards unrelated people.”
Zhou Fei was speechless. He had to repeatedly tell himself that he was talking to Lu Huaiyu on Ning Li’s phone so that he would not smash the phone to pieces. He had to fight his anger to calm himself down.
He could never reason with Lu Huaiyu.
He switched his hand and continued, “Let’s talk business. Did you get Ning Li’s lousy papers for her?”
Lu Huaiyu went silent.
Zhou Fei took advantage of the silence and blasted Lu Huaiyu, “What is wrong with you? With Ning Li’s score, she has no use for that garbage! You are just wasting her time and energy!
“Do you know Ning Li is joining the national Physics competition? I am hoping for her to get us a prize! Why must you drag her down!?”
He grabbed a chair and sat on it frivolously, seeming delighted. It was a rare chance for him to criticize Lu Huaiyu, so he would never let this go.
“Second Master Lu, even if you want to buy additional study materials for her, you must at least know her results. I don’t think you are that close to Ning Li, so why are you simply stuffing her with things that she doesn’t need?”
Zhou Fei sounded like he was Lu Huaiyu’s master at the last part.
Ning Li suddenly felt vulnerable. Lu Huaiyu had taken the effort to buy her study materials, and yet Zhou Fei was mocking him and wrongly assuming that he had wasted her time.
To be honest, her results in her past life had always been average, so the books that Lu Huaiyu had gotten were actually suitable.
She actually planned to tell Lu Huaiyu about it, but she believed it would make her look pretentious. Since she did not get the chance to do so, the matter slipped her mind.
Who would have thought…
“Mr. Zhou, actually—”
Lu Huaiyu heard the voice of the girl through the phone. He smiled and said with his usual low tone, “I thought you were the one who picked those books.”
The delight on Zhou Fei’s face froze in an instant.
Ning Li heard what Lu Huaiyu said as well, and she instinctively looked at Zhou Fei.
Lu Huaiyu had asked for Zhou Fei’s opinion about what books to buy for Ning Li. Now she finally knew why Lu Huaiyu was so familiar with the high school Physics curriculum.
However, she believed that she should at least try to save the books from being called ‘garbage’ by Zhou Fei. “Mr. Zhou, I think the books are great.”
Zhou Fei was silenced.
‘Shut up! Let me think!’
Zhou Fei raised his voice at Lu Huaiyu, “Lu Huaiyu! Let’s get something clear! If you had said you were choosing books for Ning Li, I would never have let you take those books!”
Lu Huaiyu raised a brow. “Why should I tell you about her?”
Zhou Fei was silenced once more. He did not know how to continue the conversation with Lu Huaiyu.
Meanwhile, Lu Huaiyu loosened his collar. “Put her on the phone, I have something to ask her.”
Ning Li cleared her throat and got the phone back from Zhou Fei. “Second brother.”
The man’s clear and lazy voice entered her ears. “You joined the competitive Physics class?”
Zhou Fei had made it clear enough for Lu Huaiyu. He did not have to ask Ning Li to know what she was doing.
Ning Li must be talented in Physics since Zhou Fei thought so highly of her. As for her previous results, it seemed like that was all part of her little trick.
Ning Li nodded. “Mm-hmm.”
Lu Huaiyu went silent, actually acknowledging that he had been fooled by the girl’s trick.
The conversation went silent, and Ning Li nervously curled her fingers.
For some reason, she believed that Lu Huaiyu was angry with her even though he was not in front of her or scolding her.
Zhou Fei noticed the silence which rejuvenated his shattered heart. He scoffed.
‘It’s rare to see that guy pay so much attention. This might be the only time, but he did this. Tsk, he was arrogant before, but this is a debt to society that he has to pay sooner or later!’
Ning Li blinked awkwardly and said, “Second brother, I did the exercise in the books.”
“Hmm?” Lu Huaiyu grunted with his nasal voice. It was strong and pleasant with a hint of frivolity. “If you don’t need the books, why did you do the exercise?”
Lu Huaiyu had actually gone through the materials before. If Ning Li was good enough to be in the competitive Physics class, those study materials were nothing to her.
Zhou Fei was right when he claimed that those books would only waste her time and energy.
“But you gave them to me.” Her clear and pleasant voice went straight into Lu Huaiyu’s ears, causing a symphony. The frustration that lingered in his heart disappeared.
Lu Huaiyu went silent for a long while before he smiled.
“You want it because it’s from me?”
Ning Li grunted softly. She knew that Lu Huaiyu’s time and thoughts were precious, so even though she had little use of those study materials, she felt great doing them.
There was one thing that she missed out on: it was the first time someone had given her books.
In her past life during her school days, her classmates had gone to all kinds of tuition classes and had all kinds of study materials.
She was poor back then, and her grandmother had no knowledge about studying. Plus, she believed the extra study materials would do her no good, so she barely cared about them.
At first, her grandmother would give her money to buy books for her studies. However, her grandmother noticed Ning Li was able to pass just nicely without even looking at the books, so she no longer insisted on her granddaughter getting extra study materials.
It was until she received the books from Lu Huaiyu that she realized the books felt different.
Lu Huaiyu heard chuckles through the phone.
“You don’t need to use the books anymore. If you have the time, it’s better for you to get some rest.”
Ning Li believed that Lu Huaiyu had a misunderstanding about her third year in high school.
“I do get enough sleep.”
“Great then.” Lu Huaiyu then thought of something. “Your classmates, those who were with you when I picked you up last time, they’re from the competitive Physics class as well?”
Some thoughts later, Ning Li answered, “No. Ren Qian is from the competitive Mathematics class.”
In other words, the other classmate would be in the same class as her.
“Is Zhou Fei teaching all your classes?”
“No, not really. I have to study extra on my own as well.”
While Zhou Fei was able to teach her, it required talent and gifts to win a competition.
Lu Huaiyu squinted his eyes. “He must be playing on his phone again.”
Ning Li was speechless. Lu Huaiyu was right if he wanted to put it that way.
“Okay, I got it.”
Lu Huaiyu looked at his watch. He gave Ning Li a few more pieces of advice and a reminder before he hung up.
Just when Zhou Fei wanted to find out more, the bell rang.
When Ning Li walked out of the office, she suddenly thought of something. “Does it mean that Lu Huaiyu came to school the other night just to deliver the books to me?”
…
At 7:30 p.m. in the competitive Physics class, the class was so quiet that the flipping of pages and writing on paper could be heard.
Zhou Fei was behind the rostrum, playing with his phone.
Suddenly, he received a message from Lu Huaiyu.
[Come. Let’s play one round.]
Zhou Fei’s eyes were sparkling.
[Hold on! I won’t lose this time!]
Five minutes later, Zhou Fei stared at the death of his character on-screen and his eyes twitched ceaselessly.
Lu Huaiyu sent him another message.
[Another game?]
Zhou Fei turned off his phone.
On the other hand, Ning Li was staring at her paper that she had not been answering for a while.
Pei Song looked at her. He then passed her his own paper.
“Let’s compare answers.”
Ning Li was stunned, and before she could take the paper, Zhou Fei bolted up from his seat. “Time for class! Lecture time!”
One of the male students said jokingly, “Mr. Zhou, aren’t you playing games today?”
Zhou Fei took a deep breath. “Games are not as fun as lecturing! Take out your papers! It’s time to study!”