Searching for Treasures in the Clouds

"Let me ask you again, are you familiar with her?" Xiao Niu continued.

The two nodded, and Zhang Huining said, "We were quite familiar with each other before, but we lost contact after graduation."

"Me too. I only talk to her when we sit at the tables in front and behind each other. I don't talk to her at other times." Li Wenhao said.

"Do you remember who Yu Ru is?" Sister Shan asked again.

As soon as Yu Ru's name came out, Zhang Huining and Li Wenhao looked away, not daring to look directly at Sister Shan and Xiao Niu.

"Why are you looking down?" Xiao Niu slammed the table hard. "Look up, really. Looking at you like this, you should remember it, right? What's wrong? Are you feeling guilty?"

The two were silent.

"Yu Ru was bullied by you. Who is the mastermind behind this and why did you do such a thing? Besides Deng Huairou, who else could it be?" Sister Shan asked.

The two were silent for a while, and Li Wenhao said: "I didn't bully her, I was just a passerby. It happened eight or nine years ago, I don't remember it very clearly, anyway, I remember there was a rumor at the time that it was Deng Huairou's boyfriend who fell in love with Yu Ru, and then Deng Huairou was jealous and targeted her."

"What about you? What did you hear?" Sister Shan looked at Zhang Huining.

Zhang Huining met her gaze and immediately looked away, "I didn't hear anything. And I didn't bully her. I was just a bystander. I'm not like Deng Huairou who has a mine at home and doesn't need to study. I don't have that much time to bully others."

"You were considered Deng Huairou's younger sister at that time, right? You were a member of her small group. How could you not have heard it? Be honest and don't waste everyone's time. If you don't want the 50,000 yuan, you can leave now. I believe there are other people who can talk to you." Sister Shan looked Zhang Huining up and down with sharp eyes.

"Yes, don't think you are the only one." Xiao Niu glared and gritted his teeth, trying to make himself look fierce. "If you don't tell the truth, we will beat you up before you leave to teach you a lesson. It's your fault that you didn't learn your lesson at such a young age and engaged in school bullying."

After hearing this, Li Wenhao seemed a little unconvinced, but he dared not speak out, and could only secretly curl his lips to show his dissatisfaction. He stopped talking and only looked at the stack of money that Sister Shan took out.

Zhang Huining glanced at Shan Jie and Xiao Niu, then immediately lowered her eyes. "It's been so long, I've almost forgotten everything. I only remember a rough outline. At that time... Deng Huairou often told us that she wanted to shave Yu Ru's face, and she said it more than once. I think she was jealous of Yu Ru's beauty, so she targeted her."

Xiao Niu looked at her incredulously and said angrily: "Is this a reason? How can it be so bad? What kind of bullshit reason is this? How a person's face looks is what he was born with, and you don't allow people to be pretty? I'm telling you, that Deng Huairou really deserves a beating, there's no hope for her! She's so bad!"

"I didn't forbid Yu Ru to be pretty. It was Deng Huairou who said that alone, and a few others echoed her. I didn't say anything. I was just a background person. And I didn't even know what Yu Ru looked like after I graduated. What can I say?" Zhang Huining retorted immediately. "I'm not a heartless person. Yu Ru used to copy my homework and was very nice to people around her. I remember that I didn't say anything bad about her. It was all said by others."

Sister Shan raised her eyebrows slightly and asked in a cold voice: "Are you jealous of Yu Ru's beauty? What else?"

"And..." Zhang Huining thought for a moment and said, "Deng Huairou said... uh... this is not what I said, it was Deng Huairou who said it, and two girls, He Zhuye and Zhang Yaoyao who said it. It was them who always said bad things about Yu Ru. I think they are so mean."

"I know you didn't say it, so hurry up and tell me what Deng Huairou said to the other girls?" Sister Shan urged.

"They talked a lot, probably just..."

Nine years ago,

"Has anyone ever pretended to be her?" Deng Huairou sat in front of her desk, crossed her legs, looked sarcastic, straightened her back, and folded her hands on her knees. "Elegant ~ dignified ~ is that so? Hehehe..."

"Your neck is not straight enough, it should be like this." He Zhuye also straightened his body and deliberately stretched his neck. "This is called elegance."

"Hahahahaha..."

"Why is she so elegant? Has she ever learned to dance?" Zhang Yaoyao asked.

"Does she have the money to study? The shoes she wears are fake. I don't know what she is pretending to be all day long. She thinks she is a rich lady." Deng Huairou said disdainfully. "One class costs three or four hundred yuan. Her monthly food expenses are probably about that amount."

"But she does look quite elegant. She is dignified in everything she does and she pretends very well." Zhang Yaoyao said with emotion.

"Elegant?" He Zhuye rolled his eyes. "She's obviously pretending, isn't she? I feel tired for her. Who the hell walks and sits like this? This isn't a movie."

"That's not it. Yu Ru must be the number one loader in Luoluo County." Deng Huairou sneered.

Yu Ru just stepped into the classroom when she heard these words. She pretended that she didn't hear them and walked quietly to her seat and sat down.

Deng Huairou and the others caught a glimpse of a tall figure appearing out of the corner of their eyes. They immediately turned around and saw that the person was Yu Ru. They all showed meaningful smiles on their faces, which were neither smiles nor smiles, but mostly teasing.

"The princess is here, let's talk later." Zhang Yaoyao said in a low voice.

"Come here, why are you afraid of her? You're afraid you can't win over a mute." Deng Huairou curled her lips. "Let's go out. I don't want to breathe the same air with her."

"Let's go, let's go." He Zhuye was the first to stand up.

After they left, Yu Ru turned around cautiously and looked around. There were still a few students who had come to study early in the classroom. They were either studying hard or chatting quietly with their deskmates. No one noticed her. She looked outside the door again, but no one was coming in this direction.

She lowered her head, grabbed her trouser legs with both hands and pulled them up until her knees were exposed. On each of her knees was a semi-transparent, semi-circular object. This was a corrector, which she wore on the joints of her limbs and waist. She had worn it since she escaped from that shady factory and received treatment. She had done too much work beyond her limits in that factory, and had been injured too badly. Her body was worn out. If she didn't want her bones to develop deformities in the future, she would have to wear this corrector until she reached adulthood, until her bones were completely formed.

Wearing these things is not comfortable. She has to stand straight all the time and stand and sit in a standard way, otherwise the braces will poke her. She knows that many people say she is pretending behind her back. Her straight back has always been criticized, but she has no choice. On the one hand, it is a habit, and on the other hand, the braces are forcing her to be straight, which she doesn't want to do.

She didn't want to explain, nor could she, so she had to let others laugh at her behind her back. She thought, after graduation, no one would know each other anyway. Life is fleeting, very fast.

Yu Ru quickly untied the braces, took them off and stuffed them into the drawer. Then she put down her trouser legs, opened her book and started studying as if nothing had happened.

"They said Yu Ru was too pretentious, a pretender. That's about it, they really hate Yu Ru for pretending like that. That's the origin of everything, nothing special." Zhang Huining raised her eyes and looked at Xiao Niu and Sister Shan's expressions, "I don't think so, they were the ones fanning the flames, making everyone say Yu Ru was a pretender."