Chapter 151: Shadows of the Past (1)

"Your boyfriend?" Wang Yue asked with a smile.

"No, no. He’s from our academy student council. I don’t know what’s gotten into them these few days. The student council keeps trying to pull me in, and they send someone to talk me around every day." Li Yingying waved her hands, explaining in a rush.

A girl in the spring of feeling, at her age, was the easiest to have her heart move for the other sex.

Wang Yue was handsome, strong, and had done the Li family such a large favor. A young woman like Li Yingying could hardly help her heart moving.

She knew the gap between herself and Wang Yue very clearly, so she buried that feeling deep. Given time, it might slowly fade.

Today Wang Yue had appeared in front of her so suddenly, and seemed to have misunderstood something.

That made her want to explain on instinct.

"I was just asking. No need to explain that clearly." Wang Yue laughed and looked at the restaurant she had come out of. "You just finished eating?"

"No. I help out here." Li Yingying shook her head.

So this was work-study.

A thought moved in Wang Yue, and he praised her in secret. What a self-reliant woman.

"Your mom and your brother both have decent work now. You don’t have to work this hard." Wang Yue said.

Li Yingying said, "It’s not hard. I only help a while at noon during the break. It doesn’t delay anything."

Wang Yue nodded and stopped persuading her. Everyone had their own way of living. He was not the fish. How could he know the fish’s joy?

"Then go on with your work. I was only passing by." Wang Yue was ready to say goodbye.

Li Yingying said quickly, "It’s fine. The meal rush is over. I’ll tell the boss."

She turned and ran into the restaurant, so fast that even Wang Yue, a Return True expert, was a little slow to react.

In less than a minute Li Yingying ran back. She had run so fast that she, an ordinary person, was a little out of breath.

Wang Yue could not help a laugh. "No need to rush. I’m not going to run."

Li Yingying’s pretty face went red at once. She regretted it a little in secret. She knew she should not be like this, but she could not help wanting a little more time with him. Even if nothing happened, just quietly staying at his side made her heart sweet in a way she could not name.

"Does your academy let outsiders in?" Since Li Yingying was like this, Wang Yue could not leave at once. He was curious about an academy ordinary people attended, so he asked.

Li Yingying said, "During the noon break, yes. There’s still more than half an hour before afternoon class. Wang Yue, do you want to go in and look?"

"Of course. I’ve never been in an academy." Wang Yue nodded with a smile, then said, "From now on don’t call me Young Master Wang. Call me by my name, like just now."

"That doesn’t seem right." Li Yingying hesitated.

"Nothing wrong with it. Didn’t I say. You’re Sister Lan’s little sister, so you’re my sister too." Wang Yue had been about to say she was his little sister, then remembered he was younger than Li Yingying and changed it on the spot.

What he wanted more was for Li Yingying to call him brother-in-law. His relationship with Li Menglan was not public yet. Saying that might scare her.

Li Yingying could not help a laugh. "Sister?"

Wang Yue’s face went awkward. He laughed dryly. "Fine. Sister Yingying."

Poor children grew up early, but Li Yingying was still a student. She had not been knocked around by society. The sense of class in her was far from as strong as an adult’s.

Wang Yue showing this side in front of her made her feel he was no longer the high Wang Family young master, but someone like her. The wall in her heart dropped a great deal at once.

She still did not dare let Wang Yue call her sister. She said quietly, "Wang... Wang Yue, just call me Yingying."

"All right, Yingying." Wang Yue took it easily. "Take me to look at your academy."

"Mm." Li Yingying agreed and walked ahead toward the academy gate.

Wang Yue followed her straight into the campus. No one stopped them.

Inside, Wang Yue looked around, curious, and found the place suited him. Students in uniform like Li Yingying were not many. Most wore ordinary clothes.

At Wang Yue’s age, standing here, he did not look out of place at all.

His clothes were clearly not cheap, and the ring on his left little finger looked a bit arrogant, a sharp contrast with Li Yingying beside him. Students in the academy who wore their wealth openly were not few either.

"So this is an academy. I really envy you." Watching the students, carefree, some in groups of three or five, some sweating on the field, Wang Yue could not help saying it.

Li Yingying smiled. "I think more people envy you."

"And you? Do you envy me too?" Wang Yue teased.

"Yes. If I had been born in a family like yours, it would mean my mom didn’t have to work this hard every day, my brother didn’t have to drop out early to work, and my sister didn’t have to..." There Li Yingying caught herself and explained in a rush, "Wang Yue, sorry. I didn’t mean it that way."

"I understand. If I were you, I wouldn’t want my sister selling herself into someone else’s house as a maid either." Wang Yue said.

"Meeting you is my sister’s luck too." Li Yingying said it from the heart. She had heard of selling oneself into servitude. Once the contract was signed, the whole person belonged to the other house. No human rights left. Even if the master’s house beat them to death, no one would pursue it.

Li Menglan was this pretty. If the master she met had not been Wang Yue but a piece of trash, she would probably have become someone’s plaything long ago.

She did not know that her sister had already been eaten by this "great good man" in front of her until not even the bones were left. It had not been forced. It had been willing, and she was sunk in it.

"Don’t worry. As long as I’m here, I won’t let your sister suffer even a little." Wang Yue said, "But I told you to use my name. Why did you change back?"

Li Yingying gave Wang Yue a bright smile and said nothing. They had been walking one in front of the other. Now they walked side by side.