Chapter 15: If You Want, You Can Have Her

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

After lunch at Xiang City High School, there was a break until 2:30 pm. Then lessons would resume.

Qiao Lingxiang entered her classroom quietly in her haggard state. The students around her noticed that she was covered with dirt. Her hair was a mess and her collar seemed to be stained all over with blood. Some of them covered their mouths and sniggered while others opened their mouths and wanted to express their concern. However, in the end, they didn’t say anything.

Her seat was right at the back of the classroom. She sat alone with an entire table to herself because no one wanted to sit with her. Unknowingly, the students had ostracized her.

Qiao Lingxiang wasn’t part of the school community.

The mock papers and revision and preparation notes that had just been distributed back to students lay crumpled on her table. She didn’t know who did it. She tidied them up and placed them in her bag silently.

Then she cleaned the garbage in her table drawer skillfully and properly. She didn’t know who dumped all the garbage inside either.

After some time, the class bell rang. Their headteacher walked in. She stood on the podium and called out the names of the top five students in class. She asked them to step out before announcing a piece of news.

From today onwards, the school would start to divide the classes. The top five students in each class would be sent to a class for gifted students. The rest… would be split randomly.

As Qiao Lingxiang listened to her headteacher speaking in front, the two young ladies sitting in front of her started whispering to each other.

“I heard that the top five outstanding students from this gifted class will have their school fees waived. They don’t have to hand over any coupons either.”

“This is nothing new. This has already been in place for a long time.”

The other girl snorted and continued, “I heard something interesting. Aside from the top five students from the genius class, the other students’ school fees will be waived too. However, they still need to hand over energy coupons. They just have to hand over half of ours.”

“Seriously…”

The lady sitting in front of Qiao Lingxiang counted with her fingers.

She said, “We need to bring five energy coupons every month. Does that mean that the students from the genius class only need to hand over 2.5 coupons?”

They were discussing amongst themselves and her headteacher was speaking really softly. Others were talking in class so Qiao Lingxiang had to exert a lot of effort to hear what the headteacher was saying.

After some time, the headteacher started the lesson. She probably knew that this class was hopeless so she seemed a little lifeless as she taught. She couldn’t be bothered with the order of the class either. The students talked amongst themselves and the teacher continued teaching. Neither interfered with the other.

Qiao Lingxiang sat at the back of the class and lowered her head to read the textbook on the table. She didn’t know what the teacher was saying. So, she decided to stop listening to class and read the textbook herself.

After around ten minutes, the headteacher finished going over the agenda for the day and handed out a few scripts. She asked the students to go over the scripts themselves and walked out.

The moment the headteacher left, the entire classroom erupted into an uproar. Besides a few students who were reading their scripts, the rest were talking. Some of them even ran out to play.

Qiao Lingxiang was going over her script seriously. Her grades weren’t good; she was near average in her class. She wasn’t bad but wasn’t good either.

The class was extremely noisy. She didn’t hear a single word of what the teacher said on the podium so when she answered her questions, she still needed to refer to her notes.

Actually, because of her fat figure and solitary personality, Qiao Lingxiang had always sat at the back of her classroom since she was in primary school. From primary school to high school, this had always been her seat.

Most of the time, she couldn’t hear what the teacher was saying. Thus, she learned how to self-study when she was very young. Her ability to study was slowly developed in this manner.

While she was flipping through her book, the girl sitting in front of her turned around and knocked on her table. After Qiao Lingxiang raised her head, the girl asked her, “Dinosaur, I heard that Senior Brother Cen Yi is chasing your older sister. Is that true?”

Qiao Lingxiang was dumbfounded. She shook her head to show that she didn’t know.

“Are you serious? How could you not know? They’re all saying that Qiu Chen beat you because Cen Yi offended him. That’s why he took his frustration out on you. Cen Yi hit Qiu Chen because Qiu Chen laughed at you this morning. He helped you because he’s trying to chase your sister.”

The girls in front gestured with their fingers as they explained everything slowly. Then they looked at Qiao Lingxiang and asked her again, “Do you understand now?”

Qiao Yuelan nodded. Xiang City High School was only so big and there were only a few popular people at school. The good-looking students such as Qiao Yuelan, Lu Zhengqing, and Wen Yuansi lived like celebrities.

These young ladies would comment about everything that happened to them in great detail.

“However, your sister doesn’t seem to care about you.”

Another girl walked over and pointed at Qiao Lingxiang’s haggard appearance. She continued talking as though she didn’t see the blood on Qiao Lingxiang’s collar.

“I went to see your sister a while ago and told her that you got hit by Qiu Chen. Your sister seemed indifferent. She only asked me to tell Qiu Chen to stop hitting you. Dinosaur, your older sister is so cold and cool.”

After she finished talking, the young girl looked very excited. She was like a fan who met her idol. She reenacted what Qiao Yuelan said along with her expressions and actions.

After she finished her imitation, she placed her finger on her lips. Her eyes were twinkling like stars as she shrieked a few times.

“Oh my god, I also want to have such a cool and collected older sister. Qiu Chen wouldn’t dare to do anything to you after a single sentence from her.”

“If you want, you can have her.”

Qiao Lingxiang suddenly opened her mouth. She appeared exceptionally calm and undisturbed.

The girls were stunned. They observed Qiao Lingxiang carefully. They noticed that her eyes were so dark that they looked like bottomless pits.

Aside from that, the girls couldn’t tell that Qiao Lingxiang was beaten up by Qiu Chen. Her clothes and her hair were dirty but her face and limbs were fine.

They assumed Qiu Chen hadn’t hit Qiao Lingxiang because of what Qiao Yuelan said.

One of the girls regained her senses and smiled awkwardly at Qiao Lingxiang.

“If you give your sister to me, you’ll be suffering a great loss.”

“Well, if you think it’d be a great loss for me and a huge gain for you, you can have her.”

Qiao Lingxiang spoke calmly. There was no emotion in her eyes when she saw her classmates’ admiration for her elder sister.

She wasn’t jealous of her elder sister. She acted like this because she had almost gotten beaten to death by Qiu Chen and his sidekicks.

She was fine now but what if she had died?

This wasn’t something that other people should talk about so casually. This behavior shouldn’t add points to Qiao Yuelan’s charm. To Qiao Yuelan, she was merely acting cool.

But, to Qiao Lingxiang, her life was at stake.