Chapter 229: 085 Can’t Afford to Provoke (Second Update)_3
Xiangcheng Hotel Room 1205.

Knocking.

Inside, Yan Lu was taking a shower in the bathroom; knowing her propensity for cleanliness, her sister knew it would be a long one.

She opened the door to find a tall, handsome young man standing outside, “Ah, are you… little brother Zhang?”

Zhang Shize did, after all, represent the face of the male students at Xiangcheng No.1 Middle School.

Her sister recognized Zhang Shize and called out to the bathroom, “Yan Lu, little brother Zhang has come to see you.”

Bathroom.

Yan Lu’s hand shook, and the razor blade slipped from her wrist. She quickly stood up from the water, dried herself off, and got dressed before coming out.

With her tall stature and long legs, she wore the hotel’s slippers as she came out, drying her hair along the way, “What are you doing here instead of doing homework at home?”

“Just received a bouquet of flowers,” Zhang Shize chuckled, taking out a large bunch of iris flowers from behind him and handing them to Yan Lu, “I brought them to you.”

The motion of Yan Lu drying her hair came to a halt; she looked down at the bunch of pure white irises, glistening with water droplets.

It took her a while to hesitate before she reached out and took them.

“Thank you.”

Zhang Shize reached out and gave Yan Lu a very light hug for the first time, speaking softly, “Yan Lu, it’s going to be all right.”

After speaking, he pulled his cap down.

He turned and walked out the door.

The door closed behind him.

Only then did Yan Lu’s sister turn around with a stunned expression, looking at Yan Lu holding the flowers, and she couldn’t help but doubt, “You’re faking your germaphobia, aren’t you?”

Yan Lu ignored her, put the flowers away, and went back to the bathroom to throw the razor blade in the trash can.

The next day.

Bai Lian arrived at school, and Pu Xiaohan asked her usual daily question.

After receiving a negative response, she relayed the message to Dean Jian.

“Looks like this good person is going to be late again today.” Just before class started, Zhang Shize still hadn’t arrived, prompting Pu Xiaohan to glance at his empty desk with a raised eyebrow.

Him being late was the norm for Class 15.

Bai Lian opened her book, not surprised by this either.

However, today was out of the ordinary for everyone, as Zhang Shize didn’t come to school at all.

Even Lu Lingxi had no idea what the specific situation was.

In the evening, after school.

Bai Lian and a few others, including Pu Xiaohan, decided to inquire at his mother’s flower shop.

Zhang’s family lived above the flower shop, but the shop had not opened that day either. There was a backyard; Pu Xiaohan glanced at Bai Lian.

Bai Lian, holding a phone in one hand and a question bank in the other, gestured with a nod of her chin.

Pu Xiaohan understood the signal and began to knock on the backyard door, “Aunt Zhang, are you home?”

“I’m Pu Xiaohan, uh… Zhang Shize’s classmate.”

Zhang’s family living room.

Yan Lu sat on the couch in a daze. Next to her, Zhang’s mother’s head was buried in her knees, her expression obscured.

Of the three women, only her sister was somewhat composed, pacing the living room, “Yan Lu, you…”

She initially wanted to ask Yan Lu about Zhang Shize’s connection with Mr. Liu.

But seeing Yan Lu’s expression of total despair, she couldn’t bear to press the question.

“I’m going to look for the Liu Family,” Yan Lu suddenly stood up, a cigarette unlit in her hand and her eyes cast downward: “and see what they want to do about this!”

“You’re just going to go like that? Don’t you know what kind of people are in the Liu family?” Her sister shook her head, like scolding Yan Lu back to reality, “What’s most important right now is to seek the other party’s letter of forgiveness as soon as possible, and then find a lawyer to sue…”

Knox at the backyard door interrupted her.

She looked towards Zhang’s mother, “Those people outside…”

Zhang’s mother’s gaze was vacant as she looked up, as if coming back to her senses only now, “Yes, they’re classmates of Ah Ze, their class has good relationships.”

Zhang Shize had missed a day of school, and Bai Lian and the others must have come to inquire about his situation.

Her sister opened the door and saw several people in Xiangcheng No. 1 Middle School uniforms.

“Classmates, little brother Zhang has some issues and needs to take some time off,” her sister said with a smile.

“Something’s happened?” Bai Lian, holding her phone, squinted at Yan Lu’s sister with a casual smirk.

Yan Lu’s sister met Bai Lian’s gaze, and under any other circumstances, she would certainly have asked Bai Lian if she wanted to enter the entertainment industry, but now wasn’t the time.

She nodded, “Yes, I’m helping them look after the shop, so you all better go home and do your homework.”

She closed the door.

And let out a sigh of relief.

The girl just now was good-looking, with a seemingly casual expression, but those dark eyes made one feel completely exposed.

“I sent them away,” Yan Lu’s sister returned to the living room, and her phone finally rang.

The other two looked at her anxiously.

She answered, and it was Time Media calling. She had contacted them first thing in the morning, and all three had been waiting for a reply—

“Little Xin, I can’t handle this matter. Forget about getting a lawyer, you should also find a chance to extricate yourself as soon as possible. You know what the Xinming Family is like. Liu Xin had even managed to arrange a meeting with that person from the Xu Family, how bold you must be to mess with the Liu Family!”

The other party hung up after speaking.

Calls back went unanswered.

Yan Lu’s sister looked at the nervous Yan Lu and Zhang’s mother and sadly chuckled, “Liu Xin’s father has already arrived in Xiangcheng, and the Liu family’s background is not that clean to begin with. His son is now in the ICU… not to mention, Mr. Xu is also in Xiangcheng.”

“Mr. Xu?” Zhang’s mother lifted her head, her voice hoarse, hearing the name Mr. Xu for the first time.

“Mr. Xu, even the Liu family has to curry favor with him. He’s from Jiangjing, those people have enormous power, even our boss might not dare to intervene, we and them…” Being in the entertainment industry, Yan Lu’s sister was the clearest about these things as she shook her head, “You have to be prepared, little brother Zhang’s case… we might all be unable to extricate ourselves.”

Her sister had sent those students away moments ago, without saying much.

Firstly, there were already enough people involved, and the few decent ones left in her circle were distancing themselves from them; she feared involving the students as well.

Secondly…

This matter was complicated, and not a single person from Time Media dared to touch it, so it was futile to talk to those students.