“What?”
Su Yuan froze.
Ye Ci nodded her head and said, “Yeah, Sister Ning Li predicted several of the questions that even our teacher said might not be tested.”
It was normal to correctly predict a few of the questions, but not most of them…
Su Yuan’s expression changed slightly.
“Did you mean the notebook she gave you?”
“Yeah.”
“The questions on the paper are in that notebook?”
“Just a part of it, but they’re all quite similar.” Ye Ci sighed and continued, “Fortunately, I studied that notebook carefully before the exam. Otherwise, I might not have been able to pass the exam this time. Sister Ning Li is really…”
Su Yuan slowly frowned.
Since Ye Ci was also involved in the competition, Su Yuan had been very attentive to it. Knowing that even the most outstanding teacher had not been able to predict the questions and yet Ning Li had, what was up with her?
Ye Ci saw that Su Yuan was silent and reached out to wave her hand in front of Su Yuan’s eyes.
“Mom, what’s wrong?”
Su Yuan returned to her senses and smiled again.
“Nothing. I’m just thinking that your father will be very happy when he knows about your results later.”
Ye Ci stuck out her tongue.
“It’s nothing. I’ll be very satisfied if I’m even able to win the provincial award. Sister Ning Li is awesome, though. Mr. Zhou said that she’ll likely get into the top five within the province and enter the national finals!”
Su Yuan did not say anything.
If Ning Li achieved it herself, that would be great. But…what if it was not through her own efforts?
1
After a while, Su Yuan said, “Let’s just leave her be. Anyway, let’s go home and relax, okay? We can celebrate that the exam is over!”
Ye Ci’s eyes lit up.
“Okay!”
…
Heyuan District.
The apartment that Ning Li rented was located here.
Since she had been busy lately, she had not come here very often lately.
Ning Li went upstairs and entered the apartment.
She went to the bedroom and pulled the curtain open.
The evening sunlight came in through the window and lit up the desolate room.
Ning Li washed her hands and rolled up her sleeves. She then set up her drawing board, and mixed her paints.
She still had not done the painting that she had promised Yu Pingchuan earlier and finally had some free time today to do so.
Ning Li’s wrist felt frozen when she held the brush.
When she helped Wei Songze alter his painting previously, it was not considered her own artwork even though she had controlled the brush.
Those doodles that she casually drew with a pencil were definitely not considered her artwork either.
Thus, technically speaking, this would be her first artwork since she had been born again.
The vibrant and dull colors gradually layered on the white canvas. It felt like an invisible hand that was gently soothing her unsettled heart.
…
Ning Li painted for three hours.
She only stopped painting when it was completely dark outside and the buildings in front of her gradually lit up one after another.
Ning Li put down the palette and brushes, stood up, and moved her sore neck around.
She walked to the side, picked up her phone, and found several unread messages.
Most of them were from He Xiaochen and some others that had wished her well in her exams. What surprised Ning Li was a message from Gu Tinglan.
Ning Li had not mentioned her exam time to him, so Gu Tinglan must have had to inquire about it elsewhere.
She replied to the messages one by one.
She then scrolled through her messages and found that Lu Huaiyu had not sent her a text nor had he called.
Ning Li was stunned.
It was nearly 9:00 pm, so Lu Huaiyu should be awake, right?
Was he busy?
Ning Li frowned slightly and deliberately ignored the disappointment that she felt in her heart.
She put away her phone, picked up her bag, and prepared to leave.
Before she left, she looked at the painting again.
The painting was not complete yet. It needed several more days to complete it, but it should be smooth sailing from here.
She gently closed the door and carried her bag to the elevator.
Ding!
The elevator arrived and the doors opened.
Ning Li was about to walk into the elevator with her head down when she heard a familiar low chuckle.
“Where are you going?”
Ning Li jerked her head up and blinked her bright, round eyes.
“Second Brother?!”
‘Why had he come here?’
“Zhou Fei said that you left on your own after the exam, so I guessed that you had come here,” Lu Huaiyu said as he stepped out of the elevator.
Ning Li took a step back to make way for him. When she saw the box he was carrying, she was stunned again.
“Second Brother…is that…”
“Have you eaten yet?”
Ning Li shook her head honestly.
“No.”
Lu Huaiyu lifted his chin.
“Invite me in and I’ll treat you to dinner.”
…
The warm light shone on the dining table.
Ning Li looked at the food boxes laid out in front of her, still feeling a bit dumbstruck.
‘I’m having dinner with Lu Huaiyu?’
“This chef lives quite far away. Sorry for the long wait.”
As he said that, he handed over a wooden spoon.
“Try it.”
Ning Li digested his words and widened her eyes.
“Second Brother, did you specifically ask the chef to go back to work after hours?”
Lu Huaiyu nodded slightly.
“Fortunately, these aren’t that labor-intensive. Otherwise, I might not have made it here tonight.”
Ning Li looked at the exquisite plating in front of her and was silent for a moment.
Even if it was takeaway food, the standards were still extremely high.
If Ning Li was not mistaken, Hashima soup took several hours to boil, yet he said it was “not very labor-intensive”?
Lu Huaiyu seemed to have guessed what she was thinking and curled his lips slightly.
“I haven’t eaten either.”
Naturally, the noble Second Young Master Lu was extremely well-taken care of, so he was very particular about his meals, even if it was just a sip of tea.
Thus, all of this was normal to him.
Ning Li had not felt very hungry earlier, but when she got a whiff of the food on the table, her stomach growled.
She took a bowl of soup and handed it over to Lu Huaiyu, who looked at the wooden bowl and raised his eyebrows.
Ning Li said, “Drink the soup to warm your stomach.”
Lu Huaiyu could not sleep well and had an irregular diet, so he would eventually develop a serious stomach problem later.
It was better to pay more attention now.
Lu Huaiyu took over.
When he woke up from his nap, it had already been past 6:00 pm.
He originally thought that Ning Li would celebrate with friends after the exam, but Zhou Fei said that she had left alone after finishing the lab exam in the afternoon.
If Ning Li had not gone back to the Ye family home, then there were only a few places she could have gone to.
When he came here to take a look, he saw that Ning Li’s room was lit up which confirmed his suspicions.
Ning Li paused and looked at him with stunned eyes.
“So, you arrived two hours ago?”
Lu Huaiyu paused and thought for a moment.
“Less than that. I thought that you were busy, so I wanted to wait for you to come down. However, it was already past dinnertime, so I asked the chef to send over the food.”
Lu Huaiyu had only come up after seeing Ning Li turn off the lights.
Ning Li asked hesitantly, “Then…why didn’t you come up?”
Lu Huaiyu had waited downstairs for nearly two hours.
Yunzhou was already very cold at night during this season.
Lu Huaiyu’s thin lips curled up into a smile.
“I don’t have a key to this place, so all I could do was wait.”