Chapter 60: Xu Lecheng Is Released

He clicked his tongue and said, "If your family was well-off, you wouldn't need to care about these things at all. But your family's financial situation isn't great. Now that there is an opportunity to improve it, aren't you going to seize it?"

Zhu Xinyu hesitated and struggled. He wanted to improve his family's condition, but he felt that doing this wasn't quite right.

Taking notes was a very simple task for him, and if it could help his classmates, that was a good thing.

Now, using his notes to make money made him feel a bit conflicted and uneasy.

"With money, you can cure an illness." Yan Ziyue directly hit the nail on the head.

Zhu Xinyu was startled.

He pressed his lips together, seeming to make up his mind with great difficulty, "... I'll sell them!"

That was right. With money, he could help his mother get medical treatment, and she wouldn't have to suffer so much anymore, nor would she refuse treatment out of worry for his studies and their livelihood.

Yan Ziyue raised a single finger. "Also, tutoring is another way to make money."

"On weekends... we lack someone in need of tutoring to build our reputation and let everyone know that Zhu Xinyu's tutoring is actually useful."

She thought for a moment and added, "Primary school has already started summer vacation, and our vacation will begin before long. Tutoring right now won't have much effect."

Xu Yuanjie had an idea: "Summer tutoring!"

"We'll wait until Old Zhu takes first place in the final exams, and use all his final exam papers and grades to attract students and parents who need tutoring."

He smiled and said, "Let me tell you, just the title of being the top student alone will bring countless parents to him, asking him to tutor their children."

Zhu Xinyu said quietly, "Actually, parents have always been coming to me, hoping I could tutor their kids. It's just that I always refused."

He felt it wasn't right to take people's money for tutoring, and it would also distract him from his studies and taking care of his mother, so he hadn't agreed.

Yan Ziyue and Xu Yuanjie both stared at him simultaneously, wearing expressions that clearly said, "You really are hopeless at making money."

"Sigh, people truly aren't perfect. Heaven gives him the ability to study, but in exchange, it strips away his ability to make money."

"You said it. Such a great skill for making money, and he actually doesn't know how to use it. Just how much money is he missing out on?"

Zhu Xinyu shifted a little bit to the side. These two were truly birds of a feather, both single-mindedly obsessed with making money.

After the three of them finished discussing their plan, Xu Yuanjie would take the top-ten notes he received back home after school today, put them on sale in his family's sundry shop, and have his parents spread the word that the top student was offering tutoring.

For the time being, they would only tutor primary school and first-year junior high school students.

By dusk, Yan Ziyue had returned to the village, thinking about how she needed to rush through the extra assignments specifically given to her by her three teachers, when she heard Xu Lecheng's sinister voice.

"Yan Ziyue!"

Yan Ziyue snapped her head up and saw Xu Lecheng standing not far away, leaning on crutches with bruised and swollen marks on his face.

This guy had been released?

"Yan Ziyue, I heard you went to town for middle school?" The look Xu Lecheng gave her was full of resentment and unwillingness. It had always been him abandoning others; no one had ever abandoned him.

Just in case, Yan Ziyue picked up a stone from the ground and remained on guard against her surroundings.

"None of your damn business!"

Xu Lecheng laughed somewhat crazily. "Yan Ziyue, you ruined me... Ah!"

Yan Ziyue suddenly lunged forward, raising the stone and smashing it directly onto his head. "I ruined you?"

"You and Zhang Qingqing once harmed me so terribly, and now you actually have the nerve to say something like that."

"You are as shameless as ever!"

With a dull thud, Xu Lecheng collapsed onto the ground. He hurriedly scrambled back several steps, panic written all over his face, completely devoid of his previous sinister demeanor.

"You... Yan Ziyue, don't come any closer!"

He put on a fierce front while feeling cowardly inside. "I'm warning you, if you dare lay a hand on me again, I'll report you to the police station."

Her answer was to grab his collar and ruthlessly smash him with the stone several times over.

Only after she had vented her anger did Yan Ziyue toss away the blood-stained stone. "Go ahead and report me to the police station."

"I imagine you weren't released for good; you must be out temporarily. If you stir up any trouble during this period, what do you suppose will happen to you?"

Hearing this, Xu Lecheng's expression shifted several times. "Yan Ziyue, do you really think Xiao Heshuo is sincere about being with you?"

"He's a city boy and will return to the city very soon. When that happens, he'll abandon you."

Back then, when he found out that Xiao Heshuo was from the city, he felt both jealousy and frustration. Clearly, Xiao Heshuo had grown up in the village—how on earth did he become a city boy?

Yan Ziyue looked down at him from on high, her gaze resembling that of someone watching a clown performing on a stage. "Whether Xiao Heshuo abandons me or not is not for you to decide."

"Besides, even if that day really were to come, so what?"

She stood there with confidence and radiance. "I am capable of living a very good life relying on myself; I don't need to depend on any man to live well."

She did want to walk hand in hand with Xiao Heshuo for a lifetime, but that didn't mean she would throw her life away for a man or sacrifice everything for him the way she used to.

Xu Lecheng stared in a daze at the Yan Ziyue standing before him.

Yan Ziyue was wearing a plaid shirt paired with dark green trousers, her hair braided into a thick, neat plait. Her small, round face radiated confidence, and a brilliant glow seemed to envelop her entire being.

She was exceptionally captivating.

Xu Lecheng felt his heart pounding wildly against his ribs. Such a Yan Ziyue was simply too beautiful!

He had to possess her!

"Yan Ziyue, I advise you not to treat Xiao Heshuo too well. He is not as simple as you think."

Yan Ziyue cast a cold glance at him and continued walking toward her home.

Xu Lecheng slowly clenched his fingers into the dirt, his eyes filled with malice. In the end, the person who would get Yan Ziyue was going to be him!

As for Xiao Heshuo, he would make sure he was dead.

Upon returning home, Yan Ziyue immediately told Xiao Heshuo about encountering Xu Lecheng.

"I suspect the person who found out you're a city boy is the one who helped Xu Lecheng get out of the police station. That person wants to use Xu Lecheng to deal with you."

She placed her schoolbag on the table, picked up a bowl of water, and took a sip. "Do you have any idea who it is?"

A blade-like chill flickered across Xiao Heshuo's eyes. He shook his head. "I don't know who it is. I haven't found any clues."

He suspected it might be someone from his hometown, but people back home had long since presumed him dead. Furthermore, if they knew he was alive, they wouldn't resort to such tactics.

Yan Ziyue furrowed her brow tightly. "That's strange, then who could it be?"

"Only the village head knows you're from the city, but he wouldn't go around blabbing about it. Besides, knowing you're from the city isn't some huge secret."

"Why is the other party so determined to deal with you?"

Xiao Heshuo couldn't figure that out either, but his attention was currently drawn to another matter. "Starting tomorrow, I'll pick you up and drop you off at school, just in case."

"Xu Lecheng is easy to deal with, but the person behind him is not."

Yan Ziyue didn't refuse. "Alright then, you can escort me to and from school starting tomorrow."

"What do you plan to do about Xu Lecheng? Just keep an eye on him?"

Xiao Heshuo fetched a damp towel and gently helped wipe the sweat from her face. "For now, we can only keep an eye on Xu Lecheng. We don't have any other leads."

Yan Ziyue, however, had an idea. "Tell me, if Yan Zhuangshi and Zhang Juhua found out that Xu Lecheng has a promising path ahead of him, what do you think they would do?"