Chapter 68
Zhong Ning stared at it closely for a while but couldn't see any difference between the repaired tooth and the real ones beside it. She clicked her tongue in amazement.
Her teeth were white and neatly aligned, never having had any issues or needed any dental work, so she had no idea that dentures could be made so skillfully.
"Sis, when did you get your tooth fixed? It looks just like the real ones."
Hearing her words, Zhong Zinuan's eyes darkened for a moment, and her smile turned slightly stiff. She quickly turned her head, handed over the menu, and adjusted her expression again. "Thank you for your concern, Little Ning."
Her neatly trimmed nails tightly gripped the menu as Zhong Zinuan's smile widened, looking rather touched.
Damn it, really damn it!
The old hatred was not yet gone, and now new resentment piled on. She wished she could skin Zhong Ning alive.
Ever since that fall, she felt that everyone who looked at her was thinking about how she had lost her front teeth.
Even the forums were talking about it, and so were many chat groups. Though they wouldn't be so tactless as to mention it in front of her, Fu Nanshuang always pretended to care, asking in front of others about her teeth, bringing up the incident of her broken front teeth again and again.
Others, trying to show their own concern, naturally came up to ask as well.
She had utterly lost face!
Zhong Zinuan smoothed her hair with her fingers and spoke in a tone so gentle it was almost dripping, "Shall we order drunken crabs? I remember you used to love this dish, Little Ning."
"You haven't been home for a long time. Even though your place outside is nice, you should still come home to visit. Mom misses you very much."
She blinked, her gaze seemingly gentle but filled with provocation.
This tactic always worked. Zhong Ning would always break down because she didn't have a mother. As long as she made trouble here, Zhong Ning could forget about building her network in the student council.
Zhong Ning took the menu and glanced at her.
After the buffer period of military training, the negative emotions brought by the original body's memories had faded. Besides, Zhong Zinuan's fall had been so ridiculous that she had vented quite a bit of her anger. She was no longer as furious as when she first learned the truth.
She no longer saw her as a family member, but as a competitor — and a morally corrupt one at that.
Zhong Ning built up a mental defense, sticking countless labels on Zhong Zinuan. No matter what this person said, she took it as lies; no matter what she did, she saw it as malicious.
So whatever Zhong Zinuan said now was definitely not kind.
She was slow, but not stupid. Her slowness came from treating everyone as good people by default, subconsciously blurring all anomalies, beautifying or ignoring strange parts, and giving up on thinking too deeply.
But Zhong Zinuan was already the enemy, the filter was gone, and the truth returned.
"Sis, did you forget? Just a few days ago at the engagement party, I was still talking to Mom. She asked me to cultivate my relationship with Shiqing. The two of us even went home to see her last weekend."
"You've just been too busy lately, your memory is failing, huh? Ah..." Zhong Ning put on a look of sudden realization. "That's right, you went out to a party that day and weren’t home."
The entire two sentences contained not a single truth, but it didn’t matter, no one here would go to the Zhong family to verify anyway.
Her kindness, patience, and silly smile were meant for good people, not for villains.
Zhong Ning's parents had taught her to be an upright, healthy, positive, and kind person, to approach life with goodwill, but they hadn't taught her to be a fool lacking intelligence.
When facing bad people, of course she had to act like the autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.
She forgave Liu Rushi because she hadn't actually been hurt in that matter. In fact, she had gained a lot of understanding and benefits from it, enough to offset any uneasiness. Besides, Liu Rushi had made an unintentional mistake, whereas Zhong Zinuan's actions were deliberate.
Unintentionally making a mistake and knowingly doing wrong were two completely different things. The former could be forgiven; the latter absolutely could not.
Zhong Ning smiled at her, ordered the drunken crab and a dessert, then handed the menu back to Zhong Zinuan.
At the side, Fu Nanshuang spoke up. "Zhong Zinuan is busy ordering and doesn’t have time, so I’ll introduce you. This is our student council president, Xun Xingyao."
A short-haired girl smiled at her. Zhong Ning returned the smile and greeted, "President."
Fu Nanshuang then introduced everyone else one by one, and finally said, "By the way, Liu Rushi will be coming too. Like you, she’s also a new member."
Zhong Ning was pleasantly surprised. "She’s coming too?"
Fu Nanshuang smiled and said, "How could we not recruit such an outstanding talent into our student council?"
After all, when the rumor about Zhong Ning being an illegitimate child broke out and was quickly dispelled, it was easy to guess who had been behind the effort. Fu Nanshuang deliberately brought it up to make it clear that they had a close relationship with Liu Rushi.
They had taken the initiative to become her backers.
After clearing up the misunderstanding, she truly admired Liu Rushi. It was like seeing a nice piece of meat that jumped into someone else’s bowl — she couldn’t snatch it back, only watch with envy.
But that didn’t stop her from extending goodwill.
One could never have too many talents and friends.
However, unlike with Zhong Ning, Fu Nanshuang didn’t call Liu Rushi over to sit next to her but instead let her sit with the new members, only greeting her from a distance.
Strictly speaking, this gathering wasn’t exactly relaxing. Everyone spoke with caution, each word carefully measured. It looked lively on the surface, but was full of subtle maneuvers.
At first glance, it even resembled a company management meeting, full of seasoned veterans exchanging polite but cautious pleasantries, every sentence watertight.
By the end of the meal, Zhong Ning felt like she had exhausted all her energy for the entire week.
She had thought she was an extrovert who could draw energy from social interactions, but this dinner left her mentally drained, as if her very soul had left her body.
She appeared to still be there, but in truth, her mind had checked out a while ago.
As the gathering ended and everyone left one by one, Fu Nanshuang looked at her friend and burst out laughing. "Look at you, you’re so wilted, even my little aunt’s hand-raised flowers look more energetic than you."