PPS Chapter 81
by VolareOn Monday, the results of the fourth round were officially announced. Xie Haoran remained in first place, closely followed by Chu Zhaoyi.
As the competition progressed, the two consistently ranked first and second for three consecutive times. The public’s attention on this matter was surprisingly high, and the evaluations of the two were extremely polarized. Naturally, Xie Haoran’s reputation was positive, while Chu Zhaoyi was heavily criticized online.
After the fourth round, only ten people remained.
The finals were scheduled for Saturday at a venue in A City.
“Congratulations, Ranran, you’re first again! You can directly win the finals and easily crush that Chu Zhaoyi under your feet!” Xie Haoran’s little follower, Xie Chengkai, said flatteringly to Xie Haoran after seeing the ranking released on the official website.
“But you’re really amazing, being able to get first place even after being sick and staying in the hospital for a week last week.” Xie Chengkai’s words were genuinely admiring. Xie Haoran’s talent was truly high, and the level of his painting published on the official website was exceptionally high. No wonder Teacher Li Ze chose to take him in.
That Professor Qin just doesn’t have an eye for talent.
What’s the point of taking in a Chu Zhaoyi?
He’s ruining his reputation and his name is getting tarnished.
Xie Chengkai and the other little followers continued to offer compliments one after another. Suddenly, he realized that the person involved hadn’t spoken since the beginning. Turning his head to look, Xie Haoran’s face was pale, and even his lips revealed an abnormal paleness.
“Ranran? What’s wrong?” Xie Chengkai didn’t know why Xie Haoran had this expression. He clearly got first place, so why does he look like this?
“Ah? Nothing… nothing,” Xie Haoran forced a smile. The screen of his phone was stuck on the official announcement, with his name prominently displayed in first place.
He remembered that the work he submitted this time was a very simple one, and it definitely wouldn’t be able to enter the finals!
Why is he in the finals now!
This time, the work hadn’t even been seen by Li Ze. Li Ze had been busy on a business trip recently and asked another student to help him oversee this matter. The student couldn’t really tell the level of the painting Xie Haoran submitted, so he didn’t realize anything was different and submitted it directly.
Xie Haoran’s hand gripped the phone tightly, and he clenched his teeth. Confused emotions surged in his chest, causing his eyes to involuntarily redden slightly.
As if suddenly thinking of something, his eyes suddenly sharpened, and all his attention instantly focused, his gaze like a torch on Chu Zhaoyi.
Chu Zhaoyi felt someone looking at him, slowly raised his head, met Xie Haoran’s scarlet eyes, and hooked the corners of his lips.
“Congratulations.”
The voice was neither loud nor soft, but the two were not far apart. A simple sentence clearly entered Xie Haoran’s ears.
“Ah? Congratulations to whom, suddenly?” Zhang Haoyu, who was munching on a bun, blinked his eyes in confusion when he suddenly heard this beside him. What’s going on?
Li Yu, who was sitting next to Xie Haoran, rolled his eyes at Zhang Haoyu’s stupid look.
Idiot.
“Eat your bun.” Chu Zhaoyi couldn’t help but reach out and touched Zhang Haoyu’s head again. It was prickly, really like a Chinese pastoral dog. When he had nothing to do, he would wag his tail and bask in the sun, and he would eat anything he was given with relish, not picky.
Oh, he likes to eat buns the most.
“Congratulations to you too for entering the finals. See you in the finals.” Xie Haoran sorted out his emotions in just a few minutes. When Chu Zhaoyi looked up, he was still gentle.
Chu Zhaoyi found his appearance boring and curled his lips, looked away, and ignored him.
The teacher delayed class a bit today, and the teaching building was almost empty after class.
Zhang Haoyu had already gone to the cafeteria to grab food. Chu Zhaoyi packed his things a little slower, and there were not many people left in the classroom when he left.
Strangely, Xie Haoran was still there.
Chu Zhaoyi had a bit of a cold recently, so he took a new mask from his bag and put it on his face, revealing a pair of dark eyes.
“Chu Zhaoyi!” It was Xie Haoran’s voice.
He thought about it for a whole class. He felt that Chu Zhaoyi definitely didn’t know anything, otherwise he wouldn’t have this expression now, otherwise he wouldn’t do anything.
He couldn’t not take away everything he had.
Chu Zhaoyi now had Gu Yusen as his backing, so what couldn’t he do?
Especially since Li Ze just sent him a message.
[I saw that the fourth-round work you submitted before looked like practice, the level was not right, but there was no time, so I directly found a painting you gave me before, I forgot to tell you. But fortunately, you entered the finals, prepare well, I will be there on Saturday]
So Li Ze replaced his work.
That explained everything.
Chu Zhaoyi didn’t even raise his head. He would directly ignore people he didn’t like.
But just as he walked to the door, he was stopped.
Chu Zhaoyi impatiently kicked the door frame beside his foot: “What do you want?”
“I didn’t, I just think there’s a misunderstanding between us, and I want to explain it clearly to you.” Xie Haoran still had a disgusting pretense on his face.
There’s no one here, what’s he pretending for?
Chu Zhaoyi quietly looked at him, carrying the crossbody bag Gu Yusen prepared for him on his shoulder, looking extremely well-behaved.
Xie Haoran didn’t like Chu Zhaoyi’s look, obviously this person was abandoned by everyone, a clown who lost everything.
Why could he face himself so calmly?
Why could he look like he didn’t care about anything?
Xie Haoran smiled and suddenly reached out to grab Chu Zhaoyi’s hand.
“Chu Zhaoyi, everything online is not what I wanted, and I have been helping you speak, but… can you not blame me?” Xie Haoran’s voice was particularly fragile, but the strength of his grip on Chu Zhaoyi’s hand was terrifying.
Chu Zhaoyi didn’t quite understand what he was pretending for now, obviously there were only two of them here.
He tilted his head and looked at the corridor behind Xie Haoran.
Oh, there was a figure in the darkness of the corridor.
Who is it?
Chu Zhaoyi thought about it carelessly.
Seeing that Chu Zhaoyi was still like this, Xie Haoran bit his teeth, grabbed Chu Zhaoyi’s hand and waved it towards his face.
Chu Zhaoyi frowned, his skin was tender, and his entire hand was red from being grabbed hard.
Xie Haoran slapped himself in the face with Chu Zhaoyi’s hand. To outsiders, it looked like Chu Zhaoyi took the initiative to slap him.
The surprised expression had just appeared on his face, and he didn’t even have time to say the lines he had prepared.
Chu Zhaoyi quickly withdrew his hand, and immediately after, without any hesitation, a heavy slap hit Xie Haoran’s face hard.
This slap was completely different from the previous pretense. Chu Zhaoyi poured all his strength into it, causing Xie Haoran’s entire face to suddenly turn to one side, and the corners of his mouth even twitched slightly.
The astonishment on Xie Haoran’s face instantly turned into genuine pain and anger, “Chu Zhaoyi! You…” He covered his cheek, and the burning sensation spread throughout his face.
“Don’t provoke me, Xie Haoran.” Chu Zhaoyi retracted his numb hand, his dark eyes still without any emotion, not even pure anger, as if the person in front of him was not worth his slightest attention.
Xie Haoran bit his lip, he had to continue acting out this scene, especially since it was even more real now, wasn’t it?
He covered half of his face weakly, the tears in his eyes were about to fall, and he looked at Chu Zhaoyi as if disappointed.
“I really treat you as a friend… why do you have to do this…”
“There is no why, I said I hate you.”
Chu Zhaoyi’s eyes fell on the darkness of the corridor. Sure enough, after what just happened, that figure came out of the darkness, but it was too late to stop Chu Zhaoyi’s slap.
The person who came was a woman in her twenties, looking still young, but the aura around her was very mature, with long black straight hair hanging down her sides, her eyes slightly narrowed, in a pair of narrow eyes, two dark eyeballs, exuding a cold threat.
“Sister, why are you here?” Xie Haoran seemed to have just discovered this person, glanced at Xie Yuyin and felt ashamed, and slowly lowered his head, not wanting her to see the redness on his cheeks.
Xie Yuyin pulled Xie Haoran behind her, her tall figure almost completely protecting him in her shadow, standing in front of Chu Zhaoyi in a confrontational posture.
Chu Zhaoyi was impatient, he wanted to meet Brother Sanmu for dinner now, instead of cooperating with Xie Haoran’s clumsy drama here.
Xie Yuyin paused when she met Chu Zhaoyi’s eyes, his eyes were pure black, bottomless.
She was sure she had never met this person.
But Chu Zhaoyi vaguely gave her a sense of familiarity.
Xie Haoran noticed Xie Yuyin’s hesitation, bit his lip, and pulled Xie Yuyin’s sleeve: “Sister, I’m fine, let’s go quickly.”
Looking like he was afraid of being bullied.
“Why do you want to bully my brother?” Xie Yuyin was called back to her attention by Xie Haoran’s action, and suppressed the strange familiarity, and opened her mouth in a cold voice. Although it was a questioning tone, she unconsciously slowed down a lot.
Although she didn’t really like this stupid and vicious brother, but after all, he was her own, how could she let others bully him.
These days, Xie Haoran had been arguing fiercely with his family. His parents were determined to give Xie Haoran a lesson, and wanted to remove the online storm about the two, but this farce had reached a point where even capital couldn’t suppress it, and there was a vaguely force opposing them.
Xie Yuyin was worried about what would happen to Xie Haoran, so she said she would come to school to see him today, but she didn’t expect to see this scene.
“So annoying.”
“I’ve said it many times.”
“Hate him, hate Xie Haoran.”
“Do you understand?”
Chu Zhaoyi rarely had such impatient emotions, he was really a little irritable, his body was very bad, so bad that after hitting someone, his own palm was numb and painful first.
The pain kept stimulating his nerves, and seeing Xie Yuyin completely protecting Xie Haoran behind her was even more irritable.
He missed Brother Sanmu.
As if thinking about something, Gu Yusen and Chu Zhaoyi agreed to meet at the east gate of the teaching building to go to dinner together. Although the young man said that the teacher had delayed class, Gu Yusen was vaguely uneasy in his heart. He couldn’t wait downstairs, so he simply came up directly.
He didn’t expect to see the Xie family bullying his own child.
“Ayi!” Gu Yusen felt particularly pitiful looking at the young man standing in front of the two. The young man was malnourished, and his height was shorter than his peers. Xie Yuyin had a big tall body of 1.8 meters, and her aura was very strong.
The young man looked particularly thin in front of the two.
Gu Yusen was so angry that he protected the person behind him, and slightly lowered his head to look at Xie Yuyin’s clear face.
“Are you fucking sick, Xie family? Bullying my kid? If you don’t want to mess around in A City, just go die.”
Gu Yusen’s words were extremely blunt.
Xie Yuyin’s expression didn’t change, but Xie Haoran behind her bit his lower lip tightly, revealing his swollen half of his face: “Little Gu, it was Chu Zhaoyi who attacked me first… I won’t blame him, but please don’t make things difficult for my sister.”
Gu Yusen then saw the red and swollen half of Xie Haoran’s face, swollen very high.
He looked at the well-behaved young man beside him, thinking that Chu Jiaojiao could really do this kind of thing, looking like a weak and pitiful appearance, he wouldn’t let himself suffer any loss.
Before he could speak, another person came over from the end of the corridor.
“Brother Gu, I saw it, it was Ayi who hit someone first.”
It was Mu Xi, she had been studying peacefully at school recently, and it was rare to appear here at this time.
Chu Zhaoyi looked at the four people in front of him.
This scene was getting bigger and bigger.
Gu Yusen didn’t even raise his head, but reached out and patted the young man’s furry head.
“Did you show your claws?”
Chu Zhaoyi wrinkled his nose and stretched out his hand pitifully, with a little red in his palm.
“It hurts, Brother Sanmu.”
Chu Jiaojiao, who didn’t care about anything just now, knew that he had a backer, revealed his fragile side, and stretched out his claws, feeling extremely aggrieved.
“You’re something, you can hurt yourself by hitting someone.” Since Gu Yusen raised Chu Zhaoyi, the young man hadn’t suffered any injuries except for that time he made a fuss about “independence”, this was the first time.
The young man was white all over, and his hands were also white. Now the fair skin had a few red marks on it, which was particularly eye-catching.
Gu Yusen distressedly looked up and down the young man’s claws, probably knowing that it was just swollen and barely relieved his heart.
Xie Yuyin had been silent from the beginning, just quietly observing a few people.
Xie Haoran’s acting skills were really clumsy, and his eyes were full of anger and jealousy that he couldn’t hide. Xie Yuyin almost immediately understood the problem. She closed her eyes disappointedly, and when she opened them again, she was the powerful Xie family successor.
As for Mu Xi, she had been ignored since she came out, and her face was a little unbearable, full of jealousy when she looked at Chu Zhaoyi.
Yes, after she went back that day, she always felt that the relationship between the two was not right, it was not a simple brotherhood.
She was really just passing by today, she dropped something in the classroom, and ran back to get it when she ran into this scene. She was going to just watch, but she saw Gu Yusen coming over, still looking like he was being deceived by Chu Zhaoyi, so she immediately stood up.
But she didn’t expect that no one cared about her at all.
“Want to post the video you recorded online?” Gu Yusen said this to Xie Haoran behind Xie Yuyin, his eyes fell on Xie Haoran’s phone, his tone full of playfulness.
What was Xie Haoran playing today? If Xie Yuyin couldn’t understand it, then the Xie family might as well close down early.
Gu Yusen pulled down Chu Zhaoyi’s mask, covered his nose, pulled the young man’s injured hand, glanced at Mu Xi and Xie Haoran, and fell on Xie Yuyin.
“Take care of your brother, don’t provoke my kid, if there is a next time, I will think that the Xie family is declaring war on my Gu family.”
“The Xie family hasn’t gained a firm foothold in the country yet, right?”
Gu Yusen raised his eyebrows, the Xie family had a lot of power abroad, but when it came to the country, in front of his Gu Yusen, even a dragon had to coil for me!
Gu Yusen turned his eyes, pointed to each of them, and finally fell on Mu Xi.
“Also, Mu Xi.”
“What did you see?”
“Is this your business?”
“Are you going to get out, or should I find someone to help you get out?”