Because he had to participate in various competitions to secure an early admission qualification for senior high school, Zhan Bei Jue was constantly busy.
Although he truly wanted to understand what had happened in Jiang Nan Fang's family, over a month passed without him finding the time.
It wasn't until over a month later, when he went to the academic affairs office to retrieve something, that he encountered her again.
Just like the last time, Jiang Nan Fang had gotten into a fight.
Several students, both male and female, were standing in the dean's office, being reprimanded.
Among them, the tallest boy, who appeared the most disdainful, was someone Zhan Bei Jue recognized.
He deliberately lingered, and when everyone had left the academic affairs office, Zhan Bei Jue stopped him.
"What was the dean scolding you about just now?"
The boy disdainfully told him, "It's all because of that pigsy.
"So ugly and short, wearing such unfashionable clothes, and then not letting anyone say anything.
"Someone kindly got a bottle of deep-sea fish oil from my mom to put on her face, to help with the scar, but before it even touched her, she punched me. Good intentions get no reward.
"Not only is she ugly, but she also has a terrible temper. No one in class is willing to talk to her.
"Whoever dares to look at her, she'll start a fight with them. If she didn't rely on her good grades, she would have been expelled by the teachers eight hundred times already."
To frame his own meddling so elegantly was quite shameless.
Zhan Bei Jue suppressed the urge to punch the boy and continued to ask him.
"Do you know how she got the scar on her face?"
"You noticed it too, didn't you?"
When the scar was mentioned, the boy immediately grinned wickedly.
"Who knows. I heard her stepmother burned it onto her, and some people say it was from fire."
"With her rotten temper, don't you think she deserved to be burned? She's like a stone in a latrine, both smelly and hard. How could her stepmother like her?"
"Stepmother? Did his dad divorce his mom?"
The boy continued to laugh, "If they were divorced, and her mom was still alive, her stepmother wouldn't dare burn her like that!"
"I heard her mom died, possibly from depression, jumping from a building. It's been several years."
Although Zhan Bei Jue's parents didn't have a good relationship and his family wasn't very harmonious, he hadn't experienced too many setbacks at that age.
Hearing this, he was quite shocked.
"How could she have gotten depression? Did his dad do something bad behind his mom's back?"
The male classmate suddenly stopped talking, a look of confusion on his face.
"Why are you so curious about her affairs? Do you know her?"
Which teenage boy didn't want to know pretty, dignified, and popular girls?
Jiang Nan Fang, so ugly and ill-tempered, being the target of everyone's attention, and Zhan Bei Jue, the campus heartthrob...
He felt embarrassed to admit it, "I don't know her."
The boy grinned again, "Then she's quite famous in school for her face. Even you know her. Perhaps this scar is a good thing for her."
"Whatever how she got it, since she provoked me today, she shouldn't expect a good life from now on."
"Fighting at school is annoying to the teachers, so I'll go outside the school. I don't believe I can't deal with her."
The junior high evening self-study class ended at 8:30 PM, half an hour later than him.
To prevent Jiang Nan Fang from being targeted and harmed after school.
After their conversation, Zhan Bei Jue immediately went to find a teacher and requested to finish his evening self-study at 8:30 PM every day.
Zhan Bei Jue's academic performance was outstanding, and his personality was steady, making him a model student in the eyes of all teachers. His small request was, of course, granted.
Thus, starting from that evening, Zhan Bei Jue appeared at the school gate every day at 8:30 PM.
Using the half-hour gap before his driver picked him up, he followed her, tailing her for twenty minutes, until he watched her safely exit the narrow alley and board the bus home.
Jiang Nan Fang had a reclusive personality. After half a semester of observation, he never saw her interact with anyone.
Except for occasionally hearing that she had gotten into a fight again and was called in for a scolding, or seeing her ranked first when the school published its results, Zhan Bei Jue never saw her in school.
After a year, they never exchanged a single word, and Zhan Bei Jue graduated.
Entering senior high school, the Zhan Corporation's business grew more prosperous.
However, his uncle, at the peak of the company's success, committed fraud and abused his power to insert his cronies into the company.
His grandfather discovered a huge loophole in the accounts, and amidst a great commotion, he expelled his uncle from the Zhan family.
With only his father as the sole son in the family, his grandfather placed all his hopes on him.
As if having secured the position of Crown Prince, his father became increasingly reckless outside of work.
His mother seized every opportunity to argue with him.
After a semester, Zhan Bei Jue hadn't had a single peaceful day.
In the second semester of his first year of senior high, Beicheng University came to the school to select special recruits.
Wishing to leave this chaotic place as soon as possible, he began to frantically participate in physics and math competitions, hoping to be recruited early.
On the day he secured his special recruit spot and returned home, his mother informed him that his father had been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer.
Long-term alcoholism, late nights, and a life of debauchery had left his father, who was in his early forties and had a distinguished appearance, extremely frail.
Zhan Bei Jue had long stopped speaking to his father. Hearing that he had cancer, he felt no emotional stir.
And so, after the second semester of his first year of senior high, his father passed away.
After holding the funeral, Zhan Bei Jue embarked on his journey to Beicheng University alone.
Being younger than his classmates, Zhan Bei Jue had no interest in the girls around him.
During his three years of university, apart from participating in competitions, he was uninterested in anything else.
In his fourth year, the school organized internships, and the internship location was at the Zhan Corporation.
As the sole male heir of the Zhan family, Zhan Bei Jue was naturally placed with great expectations by his grandfather.
Learning from the bottom up through each department, after his internship, Zhan Bei Jue remained at the Zhan Corporation, taking on the role of Vice President of Sales.
It was during these two years that his personality, experience, and vision received a qualitative leap under his grandfather's personal guidance.
He experienced the cruelty of the business world, the viciousness of human nature, and the unreliability of people.
Zhan Bei Jue became increasingly immune to romance and disillusioned with marriage.
However, what was meant to come still came.
One year after graduating from university, his grandfather was hospitalized due to a stroke caused by a brain infarction.
After another successful resuscitation, his grandfather, fearing he might not live to see Zhan Bei Jue with a suitable partner, brought up Jiang Nan Fang, to whom he had been betrothed many years ago.
"I've already had someone investigate. This girl is now studying electromechanical engineering at Nanda University. Her academic performance is excellent, and her daily life is very simple. She's very suitable for you."
"Although her face is injured, one marries for virtue, not beauty. Spiritual connection is more important than anything."
"A'Jue, everyone has been disappointing me. Can you not disappoint your grandfather again? Just fulfill one wish for me before I die."
He hadn't heard any news from Jiang Nan Fang in several years.
Suddenly bringing her up, and as his fiancée, Zhan Bei Jue felt a stir in his heart again.
She was studying at university now too?
He wondered if her personality had changed from before.
He wondered if her dressing style had changed.
He wondered if her stepmother was treating her a bit better.
If marrying him could help her extricate herself from that mire.
From this perspective, Zhan Bei Jue was willing.