Chapter 90

Xie Shiqing had never felt that what she did had hurted Zhong Ning. She only thought that she had already done everything to apologize, and the young alpha still refuse to forgive her. Are you deliberately making things difficult for me?

The thin layer of tears in her eyes quickly receded. Xie Shiqing let go of the hand she was holding and straightened her body.

“I’m going upstairs to change clothes.”

The slender fingertips withdrew from her palm. Watching her walk into the elevator without looking back, Zhong Ning pressed her lips together, crouched down, and patted Pine Mushroom’s little head.

The round little fluff ball was warm. Its fur was soft, and when her palm touched it, she could clearly feel its heartbeat—thump thump—fast and powerful, just like the dog itself, brimming with vibrant energy.

Pine Mushroom was three months old and already full of cleverness.

Its room’s original wooden door had been cut open, leaving only the upper half, while the lower half was replaced with a frosted plastic panel, so it could nudge its head through to go inside.

Pine Mushroom trotted back to the room on all four legs and carried out a fluorescent green tennis ball. It placed the ball in front of Zhong Ning’s feet, then sat down, tilting its head to look at her.

“Do you want to play fetch?” Zhong Ning picked up the tennis ball and followed Pine Mushroom out to the lawn, then threw the ball far.

Pine Mushroom looked at her, then at the ball, ran over and picked it up, but did not bring it back. Instead, it barked twice and nudged the ball aside with its nose.

Zhong Ning told it to fetch the ball again, but it only barked and didn’t move. She had no choice but to walk over herself to pick it up. Just as her hand touched the ball, Pine Mushroom rushed over, quickly took the tennis ball from her hand, and nudged it even farther away with its nose.

Zhong Ning looked at the ball, then at the dog, and in its pair of icy blue dog eyes, she strangely saw an expression of urging.

“Wait a second.” She belatedly realized, “You’re not…playing ball with me on purpose, are you?”

Pine Mushroom loved fetch games very much. Tennis balls and flying discs were its favorites. When it played, it was always the happiest.

She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry and felt a little moved.

“I don’t need to play ball. Thank you, Pine Mushroom, sweetheart.”

Zhong Ning opened her arms and scooped up the little dog that ran toward her.

“I’m not very sad, just a little bit.”

This was not her fault.

She had done nothing wrong.

After Xie Shiqing went back to her room, she never came down again. The next day, they still didn’t get to have breakfast together—she had left early.

The leave she had applied for had reached its limit. After finishing breakfast, Zhong Ning took a car back to the university.

She had fallen behind in several courses. Returning to the classroom that day, she found herself only half-understanding the lecture.

So she decided to take advantage of the break between classes to go to the library to study on her own.

The school’s system included online recordings for every class period. Although the instructors weren’t always the same, the content was more or less identical.

She was only a freshman who had just started college not long ago. The curriculum hadn’t reached any particularly advanced material yet, so it didn’t matter if another teacher was lecturing.

Fengcheng University never lacked diligent students. Its library and study rooms were astonishingly large—bigger than the teaching buildings Zhong Ning had seen in her previous life. Even so, after searching through three whole floors, she hadn’t managed to find a single empty seat.

When she reached the fourth floor, by coincidence, she ran into an acquaintance. Liu Rushi was walking toward her with a few books in her arms.

The corridor was a place where talking was allowed. Even so, both of them lowered their voices and instinctively moved to the far corner away from the study room.

“Miss Zhong, are you here to study as well?”

“Always calling me Miss Zhong sounds too distant. Just call me Little Ning. I took a few days off and missed some classes, so I’m planning to use the system to watch online lectures and catch up,” Zhong Ning said. “What about you? How have you been lately? How’s Miaomiao?”

“We’re both doing well,” Liu Rushi said. “I actually studied last semester’s material already. Going over it again is pretty easy. I’ve quit all my other part-time jobs except for the translation work, since that’s more flexible—I can do it whenever I have time. There’s no fixed schedule.”

“I can’t just sit around and watch the money run out.” She spoke calmly about her situation. With her bare face and some color returning to her cheeks, she looked gentle and quietly beautiful.

“Miaomiao’s condition has also been growing more stable. She’ll be discharged soon.”

“That’s wonderful. Once she’s out of the hospital, we must celebrate properly,” Zhong Ning didn’t hide her happiness. “You have to invite me.”

Liu Rushi agreed.

After chatting for a while, the two of them went their separate ways to take care of their own tasks. It seemed her luck had finally arrived: as soon as Zhong Ning stepped into the study room, she spotted an empty computer station.

She walked over, turned it on while putting on her headphones, then sat in the chair and spent the entire afternoon there—after sitting so long, her hips felt sore.

Zhong Ning had never studied anything related to business administration before. In her previous life, she’d majored in English and had done well academically, but she had spent most of her skills playing video games without Chinese subtitles—playing while acting as her own translator.

But she had a clever mind. When she studied, she was fully focused. She absorbed the knowledge points thoroughly, then pulled out her assignment paper, planning to complete the homework assigned that day.

As her pen touched the page, Zhong Ning thought again of the abrupt conversation the night before—of that chaotic argument, or perhaps confrontation.

She had said she wanted to leave Fengcheng. Although it was an impulsive statement, deep down she really had entertained the idea. That was why she’d blurted it out when emotion overtook her.

There wasn’t any real conflict between her and Xie Shiqing. They hadn’t registered their marriage, so even if they separated now, she wouldn’t end up suffering the same fate as the original body’s owner.

As for university, she would simply choose to withdraw and pursue her career from her previous life. There was no need to study business administration at all.

It was a pity, undeniably so—this was an excellent university. But it truly wasn’t a field she liked. The reason she was working so hard now was because inheriting the Zhong family required it.

In her past life, she’d already earned every certificate relevant to her original major. If needed, she could retake all the exams.

Leaving here—leaving the whirlpool of powerful families—moving to a small city, twenty thousand yuan would be enough to rent an apartment, pay for airfare, and buy a new computer. She still had income from her live-streaming work. She wouldn’t even have to worry about living expenses. That amount was more than enough.

The only thing that made her feel guilty was the unresolved grudges of the original body. By leaving, she was basically handing the Zhong family over to others.

Their engagement would be annulled. That would definitely bring a lot of consequences, good and bad.

But at that moment, Zhong Ning hadn’t thought that far ahead.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep