Chapter 28: Courting Disaster (Part One)

Although Chao Si was slow-witted, she still came from a distinguished family. Using fine needles in places unseen, she could inflict a piercing pain while leaving that slow-minded fool unable to utter a word. She had done this to Chao Si countless times before, and never once had she felt any guilt.

She knew Chao Si was the child of a prominent family, but so what? Was it not a waste for a simpleton to occupy such precious resources for nothing? She was merely upholding justice.

Here was someone whose intelligence was lacking, who couldn't even manage the simplest tasks or solve the most basic problems, yet she possessed beauty beyond compare and enjoyed luxuries that children from poor families like herself could never hope to glimpse in a lifetime.

Why should it be so? Why must she toil in this rundown school among a crowd of useless people while that girl, by virtue of her family background alone, could so effortlessly have everything she could not even dream of?

For the sake of fairness, she had feigned friendship with Chao Si on the very first day, taken the letter her family had entrusted for the principal, and burned it. She had also coaxed and tricked Chao Si out of her belongings, exchanging them for real money.

It was only right: Chao Si, born with a silver spoon in her mouth, should taste the hardships of poverty, while she herself obtained wealth. Was that not true justice?

With this thought, Shen Lu felt all the more justified. Any faint guilt she had for calling someone to deal with Chao Si vanished completely, replaced by a sense of entitlement. That slow-witted fool, barking on the ground like a dog, was only meeting her proper fate.

If Chao Xu, already far away, had known what was going on in Shen Lu’s mind, she would have flown into a rage, cracked open this little white lotus’s skull, and seen just what filth lay inside.

If being poor was reason enough, then was it really unjust for parents to spoil their own child? By that logic, would fairness only be served if every billionaire in the world gave away all their wealth?

There was no sense of justice in such a person; rather, she was wholly consumed by envy and greed, a worm eating away from within.

Ignorant, oblivious, and entirely unaware of her own pettiness, she had made it this far by mere luck—otherwise, she’d have long since been beaten to death.

Even though Chao Xu lacked mind-reading abilities, it didn’t stop her from disliking Shen Lu, that little white lotus with a villain’s face, and she was ready to stir up trouble.

Chao Xu walked quickly, eager to return home and avoid arousing the butler’s suspicion. In just a few moments, she had disappeared from the grove.

Long after she’d gone, the group of thugs Shen Lu called arrived at last—shuffling along in loafers, wielding a random broken stick they’d picked up somewhere.

“Damn, where is she? It’s pitch black out here—did she hide, or did she run off already?” The leader, a punk with a bowl-cut of brassy yellow hair, cursed as he kicked aside branches blocking his path.

“Don’t worry, Brother Huang,” one of his lackeys quickly soothed him, “Sister Lu said the fool shouldn’t be far. We just need to search nearby.”

Clearly, this yellow-haired thug was in charge. At the first sign of his irritation, his underlings crowded around.

“It’d better be that way,” he muttered, then, as if struck by an idea, rubbed his hands together with a lecherous grin. “I’ve heard that little fool may be slow, but she’s supposed to be a real beauty. Maybe tonight we can… heh heh heh.”