Zhang Shumeng lowered her head to glance at her phone screen, a flicker of obvious panic flashing across her face.
"Who is it?" Wu Nianke asked.
"Tang Yixin," Zhang Shumeng said, sounding somewhat irritated.
Wu Nianke let out a curse, grabbed Li Susu by the collar, and pointed at her nose to threaten her: "Li Susu, if you don't want to get expelled, you'd better keep what just happened to yourself. Otherwise, when the time comes, you and Tang Yixin will both be kicked out of Jiang University, and even if Zhou Huaixu steps in, he won't be able to save you!"
"Let go!"
Li Susu completely ignored her words, a trace of stubbornness in her voice.
Assuming Li Susu was backing down, Wu Nianke exchanged a glance with Zhang Shumeng.
As Zhang Shumeng let go of Li Susu, she deliberately gave her a push. Li Susu staggered, lost her balance, and fell straight to the floor.
Her head struck the cabinet, hurting terribly. Li Susu fought down the urge to stand up and get into a physical fight with Zhang Shumeng, paused a moment to steady herself where she was, picked up her phone from the floor, slowly got back to her feet, and pulled her suitcase over, preparing to leave.
"Leaving without an explanation?"
Wu Nianke reached out and grabbed the handle of the suitcase, her tone hard.
The imprint of a hand quickly swelled up on Li Susu's face, and her left cheek burned with pain, but her words were breezy: "I told you before, Zhou Huaixu and I are just ordinary friends. You're the one imagining things."
Worried that Tang Yixin might return early, Wu Nianke asked directly, "So you're saying you don't plan to rent an apartment outside with Zhou Huaixu?"
Li Susu gave a faint "mm" and made up a random excuse to brush her off: "A high school classmate of mine is working in Jiangcheng, and I'm planning to rent a place together with her."
Wu Nianke looked her up and down with a hint of suspicion. "Renting a place outside isn't cheap. Where did you get that kind of money? Li Susu, is this high school classmate of yours a guy?"
Afraid that Bo Junyi would grow impatient waiting, Li Susu wanted to leave right away and casually replied, "Guy or girl, it certainly isn't Zhou Huaixu."
"Fine. I was too impulsive just now. Let's not have a next time."
Offering a completely insincere apology, Wu Nianke rummaged through a drawer to fish out a medical mask and handed it to Li Susu. "Don't let anyone know I hit you. Otherwise, it won't do anyone any good."
Li Susu took the mask expressionlessly and put it on.
That was fine, too—it would keep Bo Junyi from seeing the handprint and asking a million questions.
If he got impulsive and tried to back her up or something, it would only cause more trouble.
Even though he looked quite well-off, he might not have the power and influence of Wu Nianke's family.
She had already caused him a lot of trouble and didn't want to burden him further with messy business; offending some bigshot might end up affecting his career prospects.
With this thought, she pulled the mask up a bit higher to make sure the handprint on her face was completely covered.
Seeing her so submissive, Wu Nianke was rather surprised and put on a fake, sweet tone: "Li Susu, though we haven't gotten along very well, now that we won't be living together anymore, I actually feel a little sad to see you go."
Zhang Shumeng let out a scoff. "She sleeps late, wakes up early, and acts like she's hopped up on speed—she always kept me from sleeping. I couldn't wait for her to leave!"
Too lazy to deal with Zhang Shumeng's sarcasm, Li Susu reached out and opened the door.
As it happened, Tang Yixin was just about to knock. Her raised hand froze for a second before landing on the handle of Li Susu's suitcase instead.
"Susu, are you getting ready to head back to your hometown?"
Tang Yixin asked, looking surprised.
Li Susu didn't confirm or deny it. Remembering that Tang Yixin had just been bickering with her boyfriend, she quickly asked, "Weren't you eating? Why are you back so soon?"
Too lazy to bring up how her boyfriend had dumped her alone at the restaurant because of an emergency, Tang Yixin smiled and threw an arm around her shoulder. "I missed you, so I came back to keep you company."
Probably afraid that Tang Yixin would see the handprint on Li Susu's face, Wu Nianke and Zhang Shumeng sneaked out of the dormitory while the two friends were busy exchanging pleasantries.
Once they left, Tang Yixin pulled Li Susu's suitcase back into the dorm, looking somewhat displeased. "Why didn't you tell me in advance if you were going back to your hometown? I could have at least seen you off. What time is your train?"
Li Susu let out an imperceptible sigh, momentarily at a loss for how to explain it to her.
Guessing something, Tang Yixin lowered her voice and asked, "Is it because you're running low on money? It's fine, just say the word if you need any. I just got my royalties—tens of thousands—I'll transfer it all to you in a minute."
"No need, Xinxin, I have money in my account."
Li Susu locked the dorm door behind them, walked over to sit in the chair opposite Tang Yixin, and looked at her with utmost seriousness. "Xinxin, there's something I want to tell you, I—"
Seeing her hesitating and thinking back to the weird atmosphere in the room when she first walked in, Tang Yixin immediately put two and two together.
"Susu, I called your phone just now and nobody answered. Did Wu Nianke and Zhang Shumeng bully you again?"
Li Susu shook her head without hesitation. "Nothing like that."
She had no desire to drag Tang Yixin into fighting her battles again; it had already happened a few times before, and she was afraid that if she really pissed Wu Nianke off, the girl would start targeting Tang Yixin.
But Tang Yixin clearly didn't believe her.
Because Li Susu almost never wore a mask unless she was going somewhere very public and crowded.
Yet now, even though there were only the two of them in the room, she kept the mask on, clearly trying to hide something.
At that thought, she suddenly reached out and pulled the mask off.
Seeing the five-finger print already swelling on the fair cheek, Tang Yixin instinctively frowned.
"Did Wu Nianke hit you?"
Not expecting her to move so fast, Li Susu took the mask back from her hand, put it back on, and spoke in a light tone: "We bickered a bit, and I lost my temper and threw the first punch. I kicked her, she slapped me, so we're even."
Tang Yixin didn't believe a word of it, her eyes filled with heartache. "Did Zhang Shumeng join in too?"
Li Susu smiled and said, "She really didn't. When Wu Nianke and I were going at it, she even tried to play peacemaker."
"I never know which of your words are true and which are false." Tang Yixin sighed, looking rather helpless. "Susu, if all else fails, I'll go see the counselor in the next couple of days—I can even bring a gift or something—and get him to switch our dorm rooms."
Hearing this, Li Susu instinctively bit her lip, and after a long moment, forced out a few words: "Xinxin, I might not be living in the dorms anymore."
Tang Yixin paused slightly. "What do you mean? You're moving out?"
Li Susu gave a soft "mm."
Tang Yixin swallowed, her expression doubtful. "Susu, you—you don't have a boyfriend, do you?"
Li Susu shook her head.
Even facing her best friend, she still found it somewhat difficult to say.
Yet she knew very well that there was no use keeping it a secret anymore.
"Xinxin, I'm pregnant. When I borrowed three thousand yuan from you yesterday, I was actually planning to get an abortion. But the doctor said my physical constitution is unusual, and forcing an abortion could cause a severe hemorrhage." Li Susu blurted out everything she had been holding back in her heart.
Tang Yixin was utterly shocked. Since she had no boyfriend and yet was pregnant, she must have been wronged by some scumbag.
At that thought, she clenched her fists so hard her eyes turned red with anger.
"Susu, don't worry, there's always a way to fix this. Tell me first—which bastard did this to you?"