In the car, Nina and Albert were talking to each other.
"Thank you, Albert," Nina said gratefully as she wiped her hair with a dry towel and looked at Albert in appreciation.
"Don't worry about them anymore. The Zhang family won't do anything to you from now on. But you still need to be wary of Isabella," Albert warned her with a gentle smile gazed at her profile in melancholy. He couldn't help but sigh, "You resemble her a lot."
Nina's profile looked like her when she turned twenty years old.
"What did you say?" Nina was absentminded and didn't hear his last sentence clearly.
"Nothing, forget it."
After drying her hair, Nina glanced at him in confusion. "You seem to know everything that's happening."
"No, not really. For example, I don't know how you happened to have offended John." According to his informant, it was John who had sent the evidence against Nina to Glenn. Otherwise, the Zhang family wouldn't have known who the culprit was and they wouldn't have targeted Nina.
"Who? John?" Nina thought she had misheard him. Wasn't that the same man who had threatened her a few days ago?
She was suddenly enlightened. "It's really him!"
It was indeed him who had sold her out. Otherwise, why would the Zhang family send people to catch her? Had she been caught, she could have died.
That callous man was really ruthless beyond words.
His ruthlessness made Nina boil with anger. "The next time I meet him, I will make sure to beat him until he has to be hospitalized."
Hearing this, Albert thought that would be quite interesting. How could someone be so bold as to hit someone like John? But if that were to happen, he really deserved it, by all means.
"Aren't you in the least afraid of offending John?"
"So what if I offend him? You are awesome and you will protect me, won't you?" It seemed that with his support, Nina became bolder.
Albert couldn't help but laugh heartily. She was still the same as before and would always use him as a shield when faced with a critical situation. She was so smart and knew how to take advantage of the resources around her.
However, she might not be aware of how powerful the Shi family was, thus giving her blind courage and boldness.
"Have you heard about the three most powerful families in the city?"
"No, I haven't heard of them. They have nothing to do with me, anyway."
"Okay, if you say so," Albert replied. Sure enough, she didn't know who they were.
She did what she wanted without any hesitation because she didn't know who she was going up against. Had she known, she would have flinched and run as fast as she could otherwise.
"Go back and have a good rest. I'll inform you of his whereabouts as soon as I know where he will be. You can then plot your revenge against him." Albert reached out his hand and gently stroked Nina's head with full of affection.
Nina raised her eyes and noticed the tenderness in his eyes.
In fact, Albert was mild-mannered and good-looking. In girls' eyes, he would definitely be the ideal boyfriend.
But Albert had always been clean and chaste, and Nina had never heard of any scandal that involved him and any woman.
In the beginning, there was a rumor between them. But as time went by, everyone gradually realized that they were really just simple friends who had a platonic relationship.
Back at the apartment, Nina took a hot shower and fell asleep until ten o'clock in the evening. She only woke up when she became too hungry to sleep.
She wandered alone in the street in order to look for food. However, the restaurants had already closed by that time and she had no choice but to go to the night market in search of food.
The night market, which was near the normal university, was a little far from her home. In order to get there, she had to take a taxi.
As many couples in school would always go to the night market street, there was a traffic jam at night. Once she arrived, she had to get out of the taxi in advance and walk for another four hundred meters before she could reach her destination.
Nina was starving so ravenously that she felt a little weak. With great difficulty, she slowly inched forward.
"Hmm, it smells so good!" With the smell of the food drifting towards her, Nina's appetite was immediately aroused. She followed the sweet fragrant smell with her nose and saw that it was coming from a girl squatting under a tree.
She had absolutely no idea what the girl was eating.
She didn't seem to have eaten or seen it before.
Following the scent, Nina walked forward. The girl with a bun on her head was wearing a pair of suspenders. She was squatting in hiding under a tree like a spy, and was staring at the hotel in front of her.
"What are you eating? It smells so good!"
"Ah..." The girl was startled when she suddenly heard a voice talking to her.
She lost her balance and fell on the ground. "Are you okay?" Nina asked while biting her lips, all the while curiously staring at the unknown food in girl's hands.
Michelle He grinned foolishly and looked up at the girl in front of her. When she took a closer look, she was stunned to see that standing before her was the campus belle, Nina.
"Campus belle, is it really you? What are you
doing here?" This place was far from the campus. So why did she come here?
Moreover, why was she staring hungrily at her roasted sweet potato?
Hearing the girl call her campus belle, Nina thought it would be favorable for her if she knew her. So she raised her eyebrows delicately, making her look kind and gentle. Pointing at the roasted sweet potato, Nina asked hesitantly, "Well... can you share some of what you are holding with me?"
Michelle was speechless beyond words.
Was the lady before her really the aloof campus belle?
Why was she smiling so gently at her?
Michelle blinked her eyes incredulously and handed her another roasted sweet potato. "Sure, here you are."
"That's great. Thanks a lot." Nina was so hungry that she reached out to take it without any hesitation. She briefly glanced at the sweet potato in Michelle's hands and saw that it was peeled. She deduced that she had to peel it before eating.
Then she slowly took a bite to relish the sweet taste.
"What's this? It's so delicious," Nina delightedly said, full of praise while eating to her heart's content.
Michelle He licked her lips at this moment in disbelief. Since when did roasted sweet potato taste so great? Did she really like to eat it so much?
"This is roasted sweet potato," she replied when it suddenly occurred to her that she hadn't answered the question the campus belle had just asked her.
Nina wiped the corner of her mouth and asked in confusion, "Really? Can I roast sweet potato directly on the fire?"
"Yes, you can." Michelle felt awkward by her question. Had Nina never seen roasted sweet potato before?
Nina smacked her lips contentedly and said, "Well, I've seen it in a book, but I didn't know I can roast it directly. It's really delicious."
Oh my God!
Could the campus belle be so poor and pitiful that she hadn't even eaten roasted sweet potato, much less seen it before?
Michelle had heard that the campus belle came from a remote village and that her family was very poor. But she didn't expect that she would be so poor that she couldn't even afford to eat roasted sweet potato.
Since she had grown up alone in poverty, she must have been deprived of the basic necessities and hadn't eaten food that were easily taken for granted by more affluent people.
Michelle seemed to have seen and understood how Nina miserably lived the first half of her life. "It's distressingly pitiful. If you want to eat roasted sweet potato, roasted corn, or fancy eating anything else in the future, you can ask me. I'll personally take you there because I know where to find all the delicious food within a few miles."
With the talk of food, Michelle was very enthusiastic and she had an alluring smile on her chubby cheeks.
Nina was rendered speechless. She was clueless as to why Michelle would suddenly look at her with a tender, yet pitiful gaze, but she nodded in agreement.
"Okay, I will. I haven't eaten roasted corn before either.
But a grain of corn is so small. How can it be roasted?"
The campus belle wasn't even aware that corn could be roasted.
How much more pathetic could her situation in life be?
Michelle cautiously approached her and asked quietly, "Campus belle, are you living a miserable life?"
Nina realized that the girl, who was half a head shorter than her, seemed to be trying to protect her self-esteem. She asked the question concernedly in a low voice, as if afraid of being heard by passersby.
However, her worry was misplaced.
'I'm fine by myself, but I've been encountering one trouble after another recently, ' Nina answered in silence. It was true that since she met that person, she had really been unlucky.
But she couldn't confide in a stranger, so she replied instead, "Thank you for your sweet potato. It's delicious. How much does it cost? I'll pay for it."
It was just a roasted sweet potato and didn't cost that much. Michelle didn't want to accept Nina's money at first, but her parents told her it was best to accept if they offered. The poorer a person was, the more backbone they had. To show Nina some respect, she had to accept her payment.
"It's just 8 dollars," Michelle said and made a gesture with a sweet smile. She thought the campus belle was not only beautiful, but also gentle and soft-spoken.
"Okay." Nina touched her pocket, but she suddenly realized that she didn't bring any money with her.
This was so embarrassing.
Seeing that she couldn't find her wallet, Michelle immediately understood. She waved her hand and said nonchalantly, "If you forgot to bring any money with you, you can pay me some other day."
Nina thought it was feasible arrangement and nodded in agreement.
"Anyway, why are you squatting here?" Nina inquired, glancing at the hotel building behind her.
"Ah! How could I have forgotten my business here?" Michelle patted her forehead. She almost forgot her real agenda for being there because she was mesmerized by Nina's beauty.
She responded in a hurry, "It's already late. I have to go now, or I won't be able to catch adultery in action later. You can head back first, campus belle."
Adultery in action?
So this was the reason why she had been sneakily hiding here and spying around?