Chapter 064: Confident Ye Fuli Gets Played
"Hey! That's my account! How dare you use my account to chat with my little sister?"
He Ying reached out to grab the phone, but Ye Fuli quickly pressed her head down.
Ye Fuli stared at the phone screen, pursing her lips in silence.
After a long while, she finally said to He Ying, "You can't tell anyone about me chatting with Ye Zhen on your behalf."
He Ying: "Huh…?"
Ye Fuli glanced at her. "Especially Ye Zhen. She can't know a single word about it."
This wasn't a tone for discussion—it was an order.
Receiving such an order, He Ying's face bristled with defiance, but her mouth still managed to say, "Yes, yes, yes."
After a long while.
Ye Zhen sent over a photo.
The photo showed a beautiful mountain forest landscape and two skewers of meat roasted to a golden crisp.
Ye Zhen: Having some grilled skewers. Want some?
Ye Fuli remained silent.
Another moment passed.
Ye Fuli sent her a message: The mountain winds are strong at night. Where are you planning to stay?
This time, Ye Zhen replied quickly: "Did you forget? I have a tent."
Just a tent.
It seemed no different from roughing it under the stars.
Ye Fuli slowly lowered her phone, pressing her hand to her chest to steady her breathing.
Though she hated to admit it, seeing Ye Zhen sleeping under bridges, exposed to the elements, made her feel uneasy—even a little worried.
But such feelings, which she herself refused to acknowledge, naturally had no chance to surface.
Ye Fuli stubbornly believed she'd been driven mad by the black spider, conjuring up all sorts of bizarre thoughts.
This was an illness that demanded more rigorous treatment.
"This phone is great. It's mine now."
"Huh?!"
He Ying gasped, then weakly protested, "At least give me back the SIM card so I can format it…"
Of course, her protest fell on deaf ears.
Ye Fuli slipped the phone into her pocket and began packing her belongings, showing no intention of lingering. She was ready to leave.
Before leaving, she left enough cash to cover He Ying's store losses, plus the redemption fee for the phone.
Holding the stack of bills, He Ying felt a mix of emotions.
"What on earth is going on with these two?"
"It doesn't quite feel like they're enemies."
"But they don't seem like friends either."
He Ying sighed and pressed her hand to her forehead.
Such complicated matters were beyond her brain's capacity to analyze. Best to shelve it and mind her own business.
……
……
Not long after.
The graduation exam results were announced.
The class group chat where Ye Zhen belonged erupted like a bomb had been dropped, sending shockwaves through the group.
"What the hell? This is Ye Zhen's score!"
"No way. There must be something wrong with the test papers, or the grader is her relative, or… am I still drunk and not fully awake?"
"These scores would get her direct admission to the flagship college."
"Oh my god, oh my god, aaaah! Jealousy is eating me alive!"
"Where's Miss Ye Zhen? The group's going wild—isn't she gonna say something?"
Ye Zhen's homeroom teacher refreshed the webpage five times, rubbed her eyes hard, and slapped her face before finally confirming Ye Zhen's score.
Could this really be Ye Zhen's score?
Her first thought was still that Ye Zhen must have cheated.
But then, considering the strictness of the graduation exams, she had to dismiss that thought.
Who would risk their life cheating on the graduation exam?
That would result in immediate expulsion and permanent disqualification from ever taking the graduation exam again!
"This girl really knows how to hide her abilities."
The homeroom teacher removed her glasses, rubbed the bridge of her nose, and closed her eyes to rest.
In all her years teaching Class F, she had only produced ten students qualified for direct admission to the main campus's key college. She never imagined Ye Zhen, who had consistently ranked at the bottom for three years, would become the eleventh.
"Regardless, I suppose I should congratulate her."
Just as Class F erupted in chaos, the elite Class A's group chat exploded with commotion.
Ye Fuli's homeroom teacher refreshed the webpage ten times, rubbed her eyes vigorously, and slapped her own face before finally confirming Ye Fuli's scores.
This… is a score Ye Fuli could possibly achieve???
Heavens! Good heavens!
Seeing a score barely good enough for a regular college, the homeroom teacher couldn't accept it. Clutching her chest, she collapsed to the floor.
"No, no… Someone call an ambulance! I… I can't breathe!"
Woo-woo~ Woo-woo~
The ambulance screeched in with sirens blaring, rushed the homeroom teacher aboard, and sped off again.
Inside the ambulance, the unconscious homeroom teacher seemed to have lost her mind.
She clapped her hands and laughed loudly.
"Ah! Gone! Everything's gone! Hahaha… My title's gone, my bonus's gone, everything's gone! Hahaha!"
Ye Fuli, the academic superstar who had dominated the top spot in her grade year after year, had scored so dismally on her graduation exam. Not only was the homeroom teacher devastated, but even the dean of students and the principal felt as if their hearts had been wrenched.
Ambulance sirens echoed across the campus one after another…
As the instigator of it all, Ye Fuli sat in the school's most picturesque pavilion, amusedly observing the spectacle of chaos unfolding around her.
First place? She'd taken it far too many times.
In her previous life, she had never placed second. Her graduation exams had been nothing short of spectacular. The school had arranged for her to give speeches everywhere, peddling her study notes for every subject, repeatedly uttering insincere words of "gratitude to the school, gratitude to the teachers, gratitude to my parents."
Her scum of foster parents, meanwhile, pocketed the money until their hands ached, grinning so widely their faces nearly split.
What did she gain from it all?
Nothing but utter exhaustion and the condemnation of her biological parents.
Father Ye accused her of being short-sighted, saying she shouldn't have exposed herself everywhere, talking big for that little money.
Mrs. Ye accused her of ulterior motives, wondering why she'd secretly stay in touch with those gutter-dwelling adoptive parents after returning to the Ye family.
"How amusing."
She shook off the memories of her past life.
Ye Fuli quickly realized she didn't need this honor.
It was for someone else.
And she, she no longer needed to curry favor with others.
So, she'd give them a big "surprise."
This score, though seemingly odd, was precisely the result she had meticulously engineered.
She had analyzed Ye Zhen's academic performance and determined that this was likely her upper limit. She deliberately aimed to land precisely at that threshold.
That way, she could naturally follow Ye Zhen to the same city and the same school.
Of course, she didn't actually need to do this. With the highest possible score, she could enter any academy she chose. Elite institutions wouldn't force her into any predetermined path.
If pressed on why she manipulated the score, it was likely just her personal twisted sense of amusement.
As someone who had been reborn, she possessed an innate confidence in controlling everything.
However…
Ye Fuli's smile quickly faded.
Staring at Ye Zhen's equally bizarre scores, her brows furrowed deeply.
"Is this really a score Ye Zhen could achieve?"
With her intelligence, she quickly realized Ye Zhen had been hiding her true academic ability from her, deliberately playing dumb to get her to tutor her!
"But… did she even study properly in the years leading up to this?"
A flicker of bewilderment crossed Ye Fuli's eyes.
But soon, her gaze darkened.
A sudden realization dawned on her.
She couldn't help but laugh bitterly at herself.
"Perhaps her concealment didn't begin recently—it was premeditated. In this lifetime, she likely discovered the secret of the true and false heiresses before I did…"
"Hmph."
"What a remarkable feat for her. Such a talented actress—to have played this role for so many years!"
Ye Fuli had never lost to anyone.
But this time, she admitted defeat to Ye Zhen—the very person she’d once dismissed as a "coward," a "pretty vase," and a "brainless brat."
The thought made Ye Fuli clench her fists.
The feeling of being toyed with didn't anger her—instead, it ignited her fierce desire for conquest.
"Ye Zhen, our business isn't over yet."
Things were getting interesting.
An opponent like this was worth her serious attention…