CHAPTER 305: CHAPTER 302: CINDERELLA’S COMEBACK 47

After the New Year, it didn’t feel like a long time had passed before it was time to start school.

At this time, the weather warmed up day by day.

Anning was no longer dressed as bulky as in the winter.

When school started, she just wore a cashmere coat over her school uniform, looking much slimmer.

Upon entering the classroom, Anning saw Wu Linna had already arrived.

She smiled and greeted Wu Linna, pushing the steamed buns she brought towards her: "Want to eat?"

Wu Linna shook her head listlessly: "No, thanks."

Anning examined the girl carefully and noticed she had lost a lot of weight.

"Others gained weight over the New Year, how come you lost some?"

She was quite surprised, pushing Wu Linna slightly: "Did you go on a diet?"

Wu Linna’s eyes were lifeless, looking particularly confused.

"What’s wrong with you?"

Anning immediately asked again: "Did something happen?"

Wu Linna looked towards Anning: "My parents found out about me and him, they scolded me at home during the holiday, and except for visiting relatives, they wouldn’t let me go out."

She sighed: "My dad also said he would pick me up after school to prevent me from mingling with undesirable people and affecting my studies."

Anning could understand Wu Linna’s parents’ approach.

Wu Linna was a student in the key class at First Middle School, and her academic performance had always been pretty good; if she followed the path smoothly, attending a good university shouldn’t be a problem.

Also, although Wu Linna was a bit plump, her features were delicate, and she seemed very likable when she smiled.

A girl like this seemed gentle and cute, with good academic results and a promising diploma, seemed to have a bright future.

But she happened to be dating a student from a vocational school.

How could Mr. and Mrs. Wu just watch and do nothing?

In their minds, students from vocational schools were all slackers, only attending vocational schools because they couldn’t get into high schools, bad at studies but good at causing trouble, and one couldn’t tell what they would become in the future.

They couldn’t just watch their daughter jump into a pit and do nothing.

However, Wu Linna was at the age where romantic feelings just began to blossom, a time when girls are very naive but take love very seriously, her feelings burning intensely for the person she liked.

She didn’t think about the future, only wanting to be with the person she loved.

When Wu Linna and that boy were deeply in love, Mr. and Mrs. Wu forcibly separated them, a method that was actually quite unwise.

Doing so might only make Wu Linna think even more about that boy, and if the girl started rebelling, who knew what could happen.

Moreover, Anning recalled the boy she had met once.

That boy was very stubborn and strong-willed.

Once he was committed to a person or a task, nothing could pull him back; he possessed a fearlessness that would brave death without regrets.

Such a strong character at this age could easily lead to trouble.

Anning was very clear about this.

However, she could not discuss it properly with Wu Linna, nor did she have the place to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Wu.

All she could do was comfort Wu Linna with a few words.

Then the class bell rang.

For several days after that, Wu Linna was listless in class.

Seeing her struggle even with attending classes, Anning softly said to her: "Don’t be like this, the more you are, the more your parents will think he’s influencing you negatively, and they’ll disapprove of him even more, making it even less possible for you two to be together. You have to face everything positively now, bring up your grades, and then look for other solutions."

"Ningning, can you help me think of a way?"

Wu Linna asked Anning.

Anning shook her head: "I don’t have a solution either, we have to take it one step at a time now."

"Then you and, you and your partner?"

Wu Linna asked softly.

Anning was taken aback: "What partner? What’s wrong with me?"

Wu Linna snorted, "You’ve kept it a tight secret, but I saw it a long time ago. It was during the holiday, I was playing near your home area, and I saw you walking hand in hand with a guy on the street..."

"Ah?"

Anning was momentarily stunned, then chuckled: "That was my uncle."

This time, Wu Linna was the one dumbfounded: "No, really?"

"How could it not be?"

Anning lowered her head to read her book: "Look at how old he is, how could he possibly be my boyfriend? He’s one of my elders."

Wu Linna wilted again.

A few days later, Wu Linna seemed to have recovered her energy and began to study hard.

In her words, she wanted to make a good impression on her boyfriend’s family, and also, she wanted to strive for their future together.

Anning gave Wu Linna a few words of encouragement.

However, Anning was also particularly busy during this period.

The Olympiad registration was approaching, and the biology prelims were starting in March, followed by the league in May, and then the chemistry and physics prelims, with the math prelims in June.

Due to the tight schedule, Anning was now being vigorously trained by her teacher to aim for good results.

Each day, she could barely manage to cover all the Olympiad questions, having no time to deal with Wu Linna’s romantic affairs.

But just at this time, something went wrong with Wu Linna.

Wu Linna’s boyfriend was Zhou Guangshen, who had agreed to tutor him during the winter holiday.

Zhou Guangshen wasn’t dumb, but he had fallen behind during middle school due to some issues and hadn’t managed to get into high school.

Now that he had fallen for Wu Linna, he naturally wanted to follow in her footsteps.

He didn’t want to imagine a future where his girlfriend attended a prestigious university while he could only work on construction sites. Even though Wu Linna didn’t mind now, people are hard to predict, and he didn’t want to gamble on Wu Linna’s acceptance in the future.

He thought about studying hard, improving his grades, and then striving to get into a good university to keep pace with Wu Linna.

But during the winter holiday, he only saw Wu Linna for the first few days, and then she disappeared.

Later, Wu Linna secretly called him, saying her family had found out, and she couldn’t come out at all.

Zhou Guangshen was very anxious, but also felt somewhat powerless.

He had hoped that things would be better once school started, that he should be able to see Wu Linna.

Who would have known that Mr. Wu had started dropping her off and picking her up every day, making it even harder for him to see her?

Zhou Guangshen, both anxious and missing Wu Linna, was young and reckless; one evening, he could no longer endure it and climbed through the window to secretly see Wu Linna.

Wu Linna’s home was on the fifth floor, yet he dared to climb all the way up there.

He sat on the windowsill talking to Wu Linna, just as the two were sharing their feelings, when Mrs. Wu came to bring Wu Linna some fruit, causing Wu Linna to hastily sit properly.

Mrs. Wu found the open window odd, and upon going to close it, she saw a shadow. She screamed, frightening Zhou Guangshen outside who failed to hold onto the windowsill and fell.

Wu Linna was terrified, rushed to the window, and saw Zhou Guangshen lying on the ground.

She ran downstairs while crying to check on him.

Only then did Mr. and Mrs. Wu realize that the boy had climbed the window and had fallen down.

They too were terrified, and rushed downstairs quickly to see how he was doing.

While running, they also called 120 [the emergency number].

Fortunately, Zhou Guangshen had been a mischievous child, often scaling heights and was used to taking a fall; he knew how to protect himself.

Moreover, during his fall, he managed to grab onto the windowsill on the third floor, which broke his fall somewhat, so he thankfully didn’t die.

But still, falling from such a height, it was impossible for him to be unscathed; he broke a leg.