Chapter 500: Chapter 500: Pig-Feeding Should Be Done in the Countryside
"Student, what’s your name and class? Please mind your conduct," Principal Shen asked, suppressing his anger.
Wei Zhu was normally terrified of the principal, but she just couldn’t stand Gu Jiaojiao, so she had mustered the courage to step forward and intervene.
Seeing Principal Shen speak to her in such a mild tone was something she never would have dared to dream of.
’So Principal Shen is this approachable,’ she thought. ’No wonder Gu Jiaojiao can get so close to him and Professor Frank.’
’If I were also bold enough to act chummy with the principal, maybe I could ride in the same car as him in the future, and even get in before him!’
At this thought, Wei Zhu put on a sweet smile and said, "Principal, my name is Wei Zhu. I’m a sixth-year student."
"The advisor for the sixth-years is in the car behind this one. You’re at the wrong vehicle. Please return to your group immediately," the principal’s assistant said sternly.
"Principal, Wei Zhu is trying to pull this student out of the car! She’s gone too far, wanting to ride in the same car as you and even getting on before..."
"Get lost! I was the one who let Gu Jiaojiao get in the car first. What business is it of yours?" Principal Shen roared, unable to hold back his fury.
He had truly reached his limit to have roared like that. ’What class is this student from? So completely clueless.’
’Someone like her belongs in the countryside, feeding pigs.’ But his refined upbringing wouldn’t allow him to say it aloud.
Gu Jiaojiao looked up at the senior student arguing her case with the principal. She had a thin, melon-seed-shaped face.
She had sanpaku eyes, which gave off an unpleasant impression at first sight. One look was enough to tell she was selfish and arrogant.
Especially with her blade-sharp nose—a sign she would be a jinx to her future husband—and her narrow, sunken ’Palace of Life,’ she was destined to be unpopular.
Gu Jiaojiao couldn’t be bothered to waste her breath on her. Sitting in the car, she simply stuck out her foot and kicked.
"AHH!"
Wei Zhu cried out as she staggered back a few steps and face-planted onto the ground. The dust ruined her makeup, leaving her looking utterly wretched.
But Gu Jiaojiao wasn’t finished. She jumped out of the car, a creamy white trench coat enveloping her tall, slender frame.
Her striking features were breathtakingly beautiful, and her sharp, chiseled face held an air of unrivaled, cold arrogance.
She planted a foot on Wei Zhu’s back, her voice like ice. "You belong in the countryside feeding pigs. What are you doing causing a ruckus at school?
Not only did you try to drag me out of the car, but you also dared to defy Principal Shen. Where is the pig-feeder’s advisor? Come and get her."
’This girl is really after my own heart.’ He’d been wanting to give that student a good kick himself, but his dignity wouldn’t allow it.
Principal Shen suppressed a smile and gave Gu Jiaojiao a meaningful look. The more he saw, the more he liked her. ’His two grandsons were still single, after all.’
The principal’s assistant, however, lacked Principal Shen’s restraint. He let out a snort of laughter.
Professor Frank couldn’t understand what Gu Jiaojiao was saying, but that didn’t stop him from bursting into laughter.
And when his assistant translated Gu Jiaojiao’s words for him, he laughed so hard he threw his head back.
Wei Zhu lay on the ground, gasping for breath as she watched the principal’s assistant and Professor Frank roar with laughter.
Her heart pounded with rage, and tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.
She wanted to scream and curse, but one look at Principal Shen’s icy expression made her heart tremble with fear.
Still, she shot a defiant glare at Gu Jiaojiao, whose divinely beautiful face possessed an unmatched elegance.
’A bitter feeling welled up inside her. What she hated most in the world was being bullied, especially by those noble, elegant girls.’
But now, she had become a laughingstock in the eyes of the teachers and her fellow students. Her reputation, her very self-respect, was being ruthlessly trampled underfoot by this girl.
And she was doing it right in front of the principal and the professors, stomping on her again and again without mercy.
Wei Zhu came from an ordinary family, but she was exceptionally gifted. Her grades were excellent, and she had been at the top of her class since she was a child.
She was always her parents’ pride and joy, the "good kid" in everyone’s eyes.
But now, at twenty-five, she was still single. She looked down on average men, while men with good prospects looked down on her.
The men she liked—all of them exceptionally outstanding—wanted nothing to do with her.
As for the men who liked her, she looked down on them all. Even when a man with good prospects was interested, she would decide he wasn’t outstanding enough.
It wasn’t that she never met anyone she liked. Rather, whenever she considered marrying a man who was even slightly above average, she would inevitably conclude that he wasn’t good enough for her.
And so, year after year passed, and she remained single at twenty-five.
In those days, unlike in later years, a twenty-five-year-old single woman would be subjected to the scornful looks of her neighbors.
When she got into Imperial University, her parents had thrown a banquet to show her off.
But several years had passed since then, and all the neighborhood girls her age were married with children.
They lived happy lives, with children old enough to run errands, while she was still all alone.
This inevitably led to gossip from the neighborhood aunties. For the first couple of years, they only dared to whisper behind her back.
But in the last two years, they’d grown bold enough to "discreetly" discuss her within earshot. "Tell me, what kind of man is our Zhu Zhu holding out for?"
"Who knows? I thought that young man Xiao Li was a great catch. He’s married to your daughter now, and look how happy the two of them are."
"Exactly. Wei Zhu’s mother always goes on about how amazing she is, but I don’t see anything so special."
"No matter how amazing she is, she’s still living in this alley with the rest of us. It’s not like she’s sprouted wings and flown to heaven, has she?"
Wei Zhu usually lived in the dorms, but whenever she came home for the weekend, she would hear the neighbors whispering about her in the alley.
And they weren’t even trying to be quiet—their voices were just loud enough for her to overhear. ’Her parents must have heard it all, too,’ she thought.
No wonder her younger brother and sister-in-law hadn’t been pleasant to her for the past two years. Even her three-year-old nephew had stopped calling her "Auntie."
Wei Zhu hadn’t known Gu Jiaojiao before this. She first saw her during the reception for the foreign experts.
Gu Jiaojiao was standing dazzlingly on stage, serving as the translator. That was when Wei Zhu realized the freshman class had a new campus belle.
"Wei Zhu! What are you still doing on the ground? Had I known you would be this much of a disgrace, I never would have selected you for this trip!"
Her sixth-year advisor roared furiously at Wei Zhu on the ground.
"Professor, please don’t be angry. Zhu Zhu must have angered the principal to get punished like this."
A female student who had come over with the advisor spoke in a gentle voice, lightly patting the professor’s back to soothe him.
This student’s husband was a man from their own class—the very same man who had turned to her after being rejected by Wei Zhu.
Although she and her husband had a wonderful relationship, that didn’t stop her from despising Wei Zhu and jumping at any chance to kick her while she was down.
’Wei Zhu was truly blind. To think she’d dump such a wonderful man, leaving him for me to scoop up.’
"Professor Zhu, take your students and go back. Don’t bother following us for the rest of the day," Principal Shen declared.
The sixth-year advisor had brought four students, a perfect fit for one car.
"Principal, it’s enough if just Wei Zhu doesn’t go. The rest of us can still follow you," the advisor said, bowing and scraping.
The competition among the advisors was fierce. If he wasn’t allowed to accompany the principal on this trip, he’d be a laughingstock among his colleagues for the rest of his life.
