When Shi Ruan's smiling face appeared on the screen, she said, "What's up? Are you checking on me? Don't worry, little housewife, Ji Chunsheng has already left."
Shi Li didn't believe Shi Ruan's words, but her casual tone made Shi Li believe that Ji Chunsheng must have indeed left. Shi Ruan was still in the stage of acting like a lady in front of Ji Chunsheng, and would never speak in such a manner if he were present.
As sisters, their focus was the same. Shi Li asked, "Did you finish copying the lesson plan?"
Shi Ruan grinned mischievously, "Of course I finished it. How could I let him leave if I hadn't?"
Shi Ruan on the screen shook her head and clicked her tongue, "He's truly a natural at copying lesson plans. It's a shame he didn't become a teacher."
Shi Li deflated her enthusiasm, "If he were a teacher, he wouldn't even be able to finish his own lesson plans, let alone write them for you."
"That's true."
Shi Ruan noticed through the camera that the car's interior indicated Shi Li hadn't returned home yet. She advised her sister, "Tell the driver not to rush. Ask him to drive slowly, there's no hurry to get home."
Shi Li was wearing earphones, afraid that Shi Ruan might say something inappropriate that the driver could overhear. Although the driver was a long-time employee of the family, it was still better to be cautious.
Shi Li nodded, "Don't worry, I'll tell him. You should get some rest too. Didn't you get injured? Don't stay up late, you have to get up early for work tomorrow."
Shi Li gave her usual reminders, though whether Shi Ruan would heed them or not was beyond her control.
The video call ended quickly. At this point, there was still some distance to Shi Li's villa. Shi Li kept her earphones on, now playing soothing music.
While Shi Li was still on her way, Rongrong had already prepared the bed sheets and pillowcases and placed toiletries in the bathroom. She took out her books and sat at the desk in the bedroom. After some thought, she took out her phone and began composing a message in an unfamiliar chat window.
At the same moment but in different places, Fu Huixing and Qiao Jingjia were doing something similar, compiling the information they had heard from Shi Li into text messages to send to Ji Feiyu.
Ji Feiyu received messages from three strangers almost simultaneously, curiously all in the form of short essays.
After reading through them, Ji Feiyu realized that these three well-meaning individuals had all sent her the information they had learned about her brother's cause of death from Shi Li.
Although they had all heard the same content, the three messages were quite different.
One message was concise, summarizing the main points and including the sender's analysis.
Another message was relatively long, seemingly a complete retelling of what they had heard from Shi Li.
From these two messages, Ji Feiyu could gather a lot of information, such as that her brother would soon pass away in a remote village due to a company-organized charity event, and that her sister-in-law was two months pregnant at the time.
The last message, which Ji Feiyu received latest, was also the most extensive.
This third message was interesting. It first recounted Shi Li's words in full, then briefly analyzed the sender's own conjectures. Unlike the vague guesses in the first message, this one used ambiguous terms yet mentioned some relatively accurate timeframes, such as "around February."
Ji Feiyu wondered if this third person had obtained additional inside information from Shi Li that the other two weren't aware of.
However, since the first two messages didn't mention February, Ji Feiyu didn't put much stock in this information.
She decided to focus on the facts about her sister-in-law being two months pregnant and the company's charity event.
As a result, the Ji family noticed that every morning after waking up, the first thing Ji Feiyu did was to ask her sister-in-law if she was pregnant.
Although Ji Feiyu's parents also wanted to hold a grandchild soon, they hadn't reached the state their younger daughter was in.
Who asks their sister-in-law every day if she's pregnant?
Ji Feiyu's elder brother felt that his little sister was acting abnormally. Worried that his wife might feel pressured by his sister's daily questioning, he had reprimanded Ji Feiyu more than once and privately told his wife not to rush into having children.
Ji Feiyu felt wronged. Did they think she enjoyed making herself a nuisance every day by asking her sister-in-law if she was pregnant?
She wasn't in a hurry to become an aunt. Her fondness for nieces and nephews was predicated on not disliking her sister-in-law.
Children born to a disliked sister-in-law would also be disliked.
Unable to openly annoy people, Ji Feiyu could only observe her sister-in-law secretly.
Ji Feiyu was exhausted by this, feeling like some kind of pervert.
While Ji Feiyu, having learned of her brother's cause of death and the approximate timeline from the three messages, was trying to secretly prevent it, Shi Li and two members of the "thieving trio" participated in a math competition over the weekend.
Everyone had prepared for this math competition for a long time.
In the final selection stage, there were four spots in total. Apart from Shi Li and her two companions, the fourth spot went to the math class representative from the neighboring class.
For this competition, the school had given the four students a half-day off on Friday afternoon, telling them to check out the exam venue and get some good rest.
The four traveled together, eating lunch in the cafeteria before taking a bus to see the exam venue.
The venue wasn't far from Qianpu Middle School, only five bus stops away.
It wasn't a peak hour, so the bus was empty. The four sat side by side on the sunny side of the bus.
Under the afternoon sun, the bus moved leisurely, making the four students in their seats drowsy.
When they arrived, the four hopped off the bus.
There weren't many students participating in the competition, and some didn't have the habit of checking the venue beforehand, so the entrance to the exam site was quiet, unlike the crowded scenes typical of middle and high school entrance exam venue checks.
The four acted as if they were just there to say "we've been here," merely glancing at the overall layout of the exam site before turning their full attention to the snacks around the venue.
With autumn's arrival, a few stalls selling roasted sweet potatoes had appeared on the street.
In the cold weather, Shi Li's hands were always icy.
Seeing the roasted sweet potatoes made Shi Li want to buy one to warm her hands.
Although they had eaten lunch, the sight of the roasted sweet potatoes made them feel a bit hungry again.
Shi Li pointed to a nearby sweet potato stall and suggested buying one, but just then, an unfamiliar male voice interrupted her action.
Although the voice wasn't particularly unpleasant, Shi Li detected a hint of sarcasm in it. "Rongrong, are you here to check out the exam venue too? Has Qianpu Middle School run out of capable students? You just got lucky once in a competition, and your school dares to let you represent them in a competition? Aren't they afraid you'll show your true colors and become another student who scores only eight points?"
She didn't know who this person was, but he seemed to know Rongrong from before.
Hearing this boy's mockery of Rongrong and the simultaneous ridicule of Qianpu Middle School, the math class representative from the neighboring class felt as if he had been slapped twice in public. If Rongrong, who consistently scored full marks on practice exams, was just getting lucky, what did that make him? A zombie cat that had been dead for eighty years?
