“Oh right, we are having literature next and we have physics, English, and math today. Do you have your textbooks with you?” asked Dong Mingming caringly.

“I do.” The school had sent over the schedule to Gu Shao yesterday and he had given it to her.

Gu Xi turned to dig through her backpack as she said that.

Dong Mingming, next to her, seemed to have noticed something very mystical all of a sudden. She cocked her head and stuck it in front of Gu Xi in surprise, “Gu Xi, I noticed that your irises have a very interesting color.”

Dong Mingming looked at Gu Xi from a few different angles to make sure that she was, indeed, seeing what she was seeing.

Teacher Chen and Gu Xi walked into the classroom right when the morning homeroom was over.

The classroom was very lively until the minute their class teacher walked in. They quieted down immediately.

Nevertheless, when they saw Gu Xi following behind her, the classroom became lively all over again.

“Look, look. Is that our new classmate?” said someone loudly.

Everybody looked over at Gu Xi when that person was done

“This new classmate of ours is quite pretty!”

“You sure this was the valedictorian that Teacher Chen mentioned yesterday?” They just could not associate this new classmate of theirs with the word “valedictorian”.

“That’s not true,” Gu Nian denied it reflexively.

Meeting the look coming from Gu Shao, Gu Xi bit her lip, struggled a little and finally said in a soft voice, “Maybe just a little.”

“I’m not anxious, just… …” Gu Xi thought about it some and said, “Nervous?”

The look in Gu Shao relaxed a little. He said to her, “There’s no need to be nervous, or anxious.

“When you start your new school, you can do what you want to do and what you think you should do. Get along well with your classmates but there is also no need to be too conscious of what others think of you. Do you understand?”

Was Gu Shao telling her how to adjust to her new environment?

The reason they were rumored to be related was because Lin Anxin had turned in one of Lin Xi’s work for a major homework assignment in her freshman year. She had, however, forgot to change the name on one spot.

The two of them were also spotted coming from the same direction after that.

As such, the speculation was born.

That also happened during the period of time when rumor on Lin Xi was at its worst and Lin Xi was being ostracized by everyone at school.

As such, Lin Anxin didn’t even think about it when she denied it.

As nobody had any concrete proof so the rumor went away when Lin Anxin denied it.

What Lin Xi didn’t know was that as soon as the two students who had walked passed her returned to the classroom, they immediately shared with the others that they had seen her in the hallway.

It wasn’t a big deal in and of itself but with Lin Xi’s “celebrity” effect, that had stirred up quite a bit of discussions among the students.

The classes had just finished and, seeing that Gu Shao and Gu Xi were leaving, many poked their heads out from the classrooms and ogled.

“Eh, that really is Lin Xi.”

“Is she leaving already?”

“Is she transferring?”

All sorts of voices could be heard.

Quickly, these individuals’ attention went from Gu Xi to Gu Shao.

The principal looked awkwardly at Gu Shao. Finally, he stood up, bowed at Gu Shao, and said, “You are right, Mr. Gu. We should have handled the matter better. I apologize. If Gu Xi wants to transfer out, we will work with you to make that happen.”

Gu Shao still looked cold and hard, “I thank you in advance then.”

“In addition, I would like to see the untruthful words that attacked my daughter on the forum during her stay at your school removed completely,” added Gu Shao. “If you are not able to do that, I will be happy to help.”

The first half of his words was a request and the second half were blatant threat.

The principal’s face changed color when he heard Gu Shao’s words. He replied nervously, “No, that will not be necessary. We shall take care of that from our end.”

Over on this side, after getting off the call with Butler Zhou, Gu Shao replied him with a “Alright.”

He took a look at the time, then over at Gu Xi who had been dragging her feet staying in the living room refusing to go to bed. Gu Shao frowned and put on a solemn face. “It’s 11 o’clock already. Go to bed.”

He then added after a slight pause. “I will bring you to Liming High School tomorrow.”

Liming High School was Gu Nian’s former high school.

There would only be one reason for them to head over there.

“Are we there for my transfer?” asked Gu Xi, feeling a little excited.

“Mmm,” acknowledged Gu Shao. He then added, “So go to bed now.”

When Uncle Zhou, the butler, saw that, he quickly came to comfort Old Mr. Gu. “Sir, that happened a long time ago and you shouldn’t let it bother you anymore. What had happened back then, was nobody’s fault.” Besides, he had a feeling that Gu Shao had already found out about the truth and possibly knew of more details than even Old Mr. Gu.

He had a feeling that Gu Shao didn’t truly blame Old Mr. Gu for that.

Perhaps… perhaps Gu Shao had other reasons…

“Yeah, what’s in the past is in the past,” said Old Mr. Gu before he let out a deep, long sigh. “It was just that our little princess ended it on someone else’s household register.”

Butler Zhou wanted to chuckle when he heard that: Her household register was transferred under Second Young Sir’s. How was that “someone else”?

It will take a few days before the ID card arrived but Gu Xi’s information had already been added to Gu Shao’s household register.

Seeing how Gu Xi kept on glancing over at the household register in his hand like a child looking at toys, Gu Shao found that amusing and handed it over to Gu Xi.

Gu Xi smiled to herself when she received the household register.

First, she flipped to the newest page – the page about her – and looked at it over and over again. Then, when Gu Shao wasn’t paying attention, she flipped to the page with his information.

“March 17?” Gu Xi quietly committed the date to her memory.

Then, to her surprised, Gu Xi noticed that Gu Shao had been in the military in the past.

Here she thought that he had always been in the academic research field.

Gu Xi grumbled to herself.

After taking the form from the cop sister and looking at the field that said “Name”, Lin Xi paused a little, bit her lower lip, said nothing but turned to look at Gu Shao. There were inquiry and a hint of anticipation in her eyes.

Under Lin Xi’s nervous and anticipating look, Gu Shao said, “Yes, we will change it.”

“We will be changing the surname to ‘Gu’,” said Gu Shao.

Lin Xi smiled when she heard that. She couldn’t even hold back her happiness.

“Okay!”

“Thanks, Dad.” Having said that, Lin Xi picked up the pen on the table and quickly started to fill out the form. She scribbled very fast as though she worried that Gu Shao might regret at any given moment.

She wrote down “Gu Xi” in the name field and was particularly attentive with each and every stroke.

After dinner, something suddenly occurred to Lin Xi. She looked over at Gu Shao “Dad, when we transfer the household register over, does that mean we can get my ID card at the same time?”

Gu Shao nodded, “Yes.”

Lin Xi’s eyes lit up.”

“Then give me a minute.” If she was going to have picture taken for her ID card, she shouldn’t be dressed so casually.

Lin Xi went back into her room, tied her hair up, combed them out nicely, before she picked up the prettiest outfit that she had.

It was a brown dress and would work for a casual or formal event. It was neither too casual nor was it too stuck up.

This was also one of the few from the batch that Aunty Mei had brought back the other day that was not pink and somewhat different in styles than other others.

Perhaps because she had already been at the Gu’s house for a few days, Lin Xi was now more familiar with Gu Shao’s scent.

Quite the contrary, the scent of dad from Gu Shao’s jacket made Lin Xi feel particularly secure.

Lin Xi rubbed up against the jacket and, as though it wasn’t comfortable enough, she leaned directly onto Gu Shao.

Clinging onto Gu Shao’s arm, Lin Xi, as though she had located a pillow and a posture in which she would not fall off said pillow, continue to sleep soundly, her breathing becoming more even.

Gu Shao wasn’t sure if Lin Xi was very hot after she had fallen asleep or that kids her age tend to run higher in temperature. It had only been a little while before he noticed that Lin Xi was beginning to sweat.

Her slightly wet hair resting on Gu Shao’s arm was not a pleasant feeling.

It was a very big challenge especially for one who was a germophobe.

Song Shishan, too, noticed Lin Xi who was just getting out of the car and seemed to have recognized her.

Song Shishan was a bit surprised. He walked over, looked at Lin Xi, and asked uncertainly, “You are Xiao Xi?”

Lin Xi nodded.

Song Shishan, too, nodded in a daze.

The two of them were not familiar with each other. There were strangers to each other, in fact. All Song Shishan knew was that this was his granddaughter but he didn’t know what to say to her. He even forgot to ask what she was doing there.

“Have some candies.” Song Shishan pulled out a handful of candies from his pocket and gave them to Lin Xi. There was a smile in his eyes.

“Are you still trying to look?” Gu Shao’s face dropped when he noticed that Lin Xi was still trying to turn her head and take a look.

“Mmm, no…” Lin Xi looked away and explained softly, “I just want to see if he is still alive.”

It’d be quite troublesome if he had died.

Lin Xi was a little worried.

“Don’t worry,” said Gu Shao. He found the nervousness on Lin Xi amusing.

“Back to the car,” said Gu Shao with a long face.

“Oh.”

On the other side, Lin Xi had been staying in the car.

The possibility of Gu Shao going to look for Zhang Qiang make it difficult for Lin Xi to sit still. After hesitating for two seconds, she told Wang Wu that she was going to stretch her legs before she walked aimlessly, pretending that she was going for a walk, and “happened” to head toward the direction of Zhang Qiang’s place.

Having been there once, Lin Xi remembered the way to Zhang Qiang’s place.

When she arrived there and, before she could even walk inside the front yard, Lin Xi was startled by the screams coming from inside of Zhang Qiang’s house and the voice belonged to none other than Zhang Qiang himself!

Frantic, Zhang Qiang quickly explained himself, “I, I, I did not hurt her.

“I am telling the truth. Zhang Cui was the one who brought her over. It had nothing to do with me.” Zhang Qiang wanted to place all the blame on Zhang Cui.

“She wasn’t very specific so I thought she sent the girl over to be my wife. That was the only reason that I, I attempted to… …” Noticing Gu Shao’s long face, Zhang Qiang stopped himself mid-sentence. “But I failed.”

“She sprayed some pepper water on me and brought me down with some sort of electrical devices. I was stuck to the door when I regained consciousness.

“It was that, that door.” Zhang Qiang pointed at the door and said, “I am not lying. You can still see the marks left by the benches.”

Lin Xi was right. Gu Shao did go look for Zhang Qiang.

At this moment, the door to Zhang Qiang’s place was shut tight. It looked just like usual from the outside when, in reality, 6 – 7 well-trained bodyguards were inside of Zhang Qiang’s yard, keeping Zhang Qiang inside.

The head of them opened up the door for Gu Shao when he arrived.

The name of this man is Wang Lu.

Much like Wang Wu, he, too, was an employee of the Gu family. The difference was that Wang Wu helped take care of the open businesses; whereas, Wang Lu, take care of the most subtle ones.

Under normal situation, Wang Lu’s service would not be required unless it was something very important or special.

When Gu Shao was making threats and lies seriously, he looked exactly like Lin Xi when she was bluffing Zhang Qiang.

“You have a son studying at an university in City A, right? And he’s graduating this year? It seemed he had secured a job as well. I’m afraid he’d lose his job when they found out that his parents have criminal records.”

Hearing that Gu Shao even knew about their son, Zhang Youfu’s wife collapsed onto the floor.

Gu Shao went on to say, “This is me trying to reason with you right now. If you don’t want to be reasonable, I am not above taking other actions.”

Even without any expressions, Gu Shao’s aura was enough to intimidate others.

Gu Shao didn’t have too much of an expression on him this entire time. His face, however, dropped when he saw Zhang Youfu starting at Lin Xi, who was standing next to him.

“No,” said Gu Shao.

“But my purpose of visit has something to do with Zhang Cui.”

“Oh, do come inside then.” Zhang Youfu had no idea who Gu Shao was but his instinct told him that he was someone that he couldn’t afford to offend.

***

Lin Xi walked in next to Gu Shao.

Even though both houses were in the same village, Zhang Youfu’s house was much better than Zhang Qiang’s. Not only was this house newly built, it was also much cleaner than Zhang Qiang’s place.

As Gu Shao had looked into both Zhang Village and Zhang Youfu, he had the car pulled out outside of Zhang Youfu’s house after they entered the village.

Quite a few individuals gathered around when they saw multiple cars pulled up in front of Zhang Youfu’s house.

“More people come looking for Zhang Youfu, huh?”

“What car brand is this? It looks expensive.”

“What kind of good happened upon Zhang Youfu’s family?”

“It’s Zhang Cui, right?” Someone said. “Her daughter married some big boss in the city. Didn’t you see her coming in some fancy car every time?”