Chapter 272

How did Song Ying end up encountering those thugs?

"I understand. Thank you for this. Shall I treat you to a meal the day after tomorrow?"

"We're classmates, helping each other is natural. Don't mention thanks. Focus on handling Song Ying's situation first before thinking about treating me to meals."

After hanging up the phone, Shi Li told Feng Yunhe in the hospital room that she had matters to attend to at home, then left the hospital.

She didn't call her family's driver again, instead hailing a taxi. On her way home, she called Song Ying.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Hey, are you home?"

Her voice sounded normal as she replied, "I'm home already. Did Fu Huixing tell you something? Don't worry, I'm fine. Those thugs didn't hurt me." Though she had some minor injuries on her body, she wasn't psychologically affected.

Those ​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​​​‌‍people had hit her, and she had fought back. Her only regret was that she hadn't managed to knock them down.

Song Ying didn't want Shi Li to worry, "I'm perfectly fine, really. Were you just visiting Feng Yunhe at the hospital? How is he? Is he out of danger? Has he woken up?"

She deliberately steered the conversation far away, hoping Shi Li would overlook the incident.

Shi Li's voice carried a hint of seriousness. When dealing with Song Ying, she always took on a big sister role, "Don't try to change the subject. Feng Yunhe is tough as nails. Rather than worrying about him, you should be concerned about yourself."

Song Ying knew exactly how to handle Shi Li. She softened her voice, "Sister, I know you're worried about me, but I'm not a child anymore. I wouldn't just stand there and let people bully me. Besides, I was lucky that Fu Huixing happened to pass by. Those thugs got scared when they saw I had backup and ran away. He even took me to file a police report. Looking at it from any angle, I didn't lose out."

"I'm not a little kid anymore, so please don't worry too much about me. I can handle this myself."

After hanging up, Shi Li suddenly felt like her well-behaved child had entered a rebellious phase.

She sighed and told the taxi driver to change the address. When they were almost home, Shi Li still felt uneasy, "I'm sorry, driver, could we go to the address I mentioned earlier?"

"No problem at all, you can tell me the new destination." With meter charging, what's there to refuse? As long as you're willing to pay, we can keep changing addresses.

The taxi driver thought to himself: Who can relate? Today I got a big fare, driving all around Blue City.

Shi Li occasionally visited the Xu family as a guest, worried that they might not treat Song Ying well, concerned that Song Ying might not adapt to life with the Xu family.

The Xu family's servants were quite familiar with her, knowing her good relationship with the main family, and readily let her in when they saw her.

Shi Li entered the villa and directly said she was looking for Song Ying.

"Young Miss Ying went straight to her room after school. I noticed she was wearing a mask, perhaps she has a cold."

Song Ying definitely wasn't sick - she had been fine in the morning, so her face must have been injured, even though she had claimed everything was fine on the phone.

Thankfully she had come to check.

Since Song Ying didn't want her family to know about her injuries, Shi Li didn't immediately expose this, "Then I'll go to her room."

At Song Ying's door, Shi Li knocked, "Song Ying, are you available? Can I come in?"

Song Ying hadn't expected Shi Li to make a special trip here. Although she didn't want Shi Li to see her facial injuries, since she had already come, she couldn't let her visit be in vain by hiding.

Besides, constantly avoiding her would only make things more obvious.

The bruises on Song Ying's small face looked terribly pitiful.

Shi Li frowned, "How did this happen?"

"Do you recognize those bad people?"

Song Ying shook her head, "I don't know them. I was just walking normally on the street when a group of people suddenly rushed over and attacked me for no reason."

Song Ying had actually concealed some details - those thugs had also hurled many insulting words at her.

"Have you made any enemies recently?"

She continued shaking her head, "I don't remember offending anyone, though maybe I unknowingly upset someone?"

When Song Ying suggested she might have unknowingly offended someone, Shi Li didn't believe it. Song Ying had such a gentle temperament, how could she offend anyone?

"Maybe you just had bad luck and ran into some trash."

Song Ying smiled slightly, "Perhaps."

The smile pulled at her facial injuries, making her wince in pain.

"Have you been to the hospital to check your injuries?"

Song Ying shook her head, "It's nothing serious, it'll heal in a couple of days. There's no need to specially go to the hospital."

Fu Huixing, being male, wasn't detail-oriented enough. Having grown up rough himself, it was already good that he remembered to take Song Ying to file a police report - he completely forgot about getting her injuries treated.

Song Ying had experienced plenty of injuries growing up, and such wounds were trivial to her. She thought she'd be fine after a good night's sleep, so she didn't take it seriously.

Shi Li frowned, "How can you not take this seriously? I'll take you to the hospital, or we can have a doctor come to the house to check."

Song Ying couldn't be compared to Feng Yunhe - she was just a short-lived minor character, unlike the hard-to-kill Feng Yunhe.

Main characters could survive fatal injuries, but supporting characters were different - even a small cold could be fatal for her.

Song Ying's expression turned hesitant, "I'm really fine. If the family finds out, they'll just worry unnecessarily."

Shi Li gave her a look, "You're family. So what if they know and worry? That's what family does. You can't keep this hidden forever. How hurt would your parents be if they learned about this from someone else - that you were bullied but didn't want to tell them?"

"I understand." Using the phrase 'can't keep this hidden' to describe this situation somehow felt strange.

Shi Li stayed for dinner at the Xu residence, and during dinner, she finally understood why Song Ying wanted to hide this from her family.

The Xu family's reaction was truly over the top.

Song Ying had to comfort one person after another, turning the entire dinner into chaos.

Xu Xing wanted to pressure the police station to catch the culprits quickly, while Madam Xu said it was too dangerous outside and wanted to hire a security company to escort her to school.

Xu's Second Son suggested sending Song Ying to learn Muay Thai with him, saying that next time she encountered bad people, she could knock them out one by one, leaving them disoriented.

Everyone's ideas were outlandish - imagine sending the delicate, five-foot-three Song Ying to learn Muay Thai. Who knows what her brother was thinking.

The Xu parents also called him out for being ridiculous, "Our family can afford security guards, why make your sister suffer like that?"

Not a single person in this family was being sensible.

Shi Li didn't think Song Ying would take her brother's suggestion to learn Muay Thai, but she heard amusement in Song Ying's voice as she said, "That sounds great! This way, no matter what danger I encounter, I can protect myself. Bodyguards can protect me, but they can't do it forever - I need to become strong myself."

"Besides, learning this won't just help me protect myself and others who are weak, it's also good exercise."

Xu's Second Son cheered, "That's the spirit! I'll go learn with sister, now you can all stop worrying."

With an outsider present, Madam Xu didn't expose her son's ulterior motives - all this talk about accompanying his sister to train, when really he had wanted to learn Muay Thai himself but the family wouldn't let him for fear he'd get hurt. This kid was getting bold, not only wanting to go himself but also dragging his sister into it.

Madam Xu shot her son a fierce glare.

Regarding Song Ying's desire to become stronger, Shi Li had no objections and thought it was a good idea.

As Song Ying said, if she learned it well, she could defend herself; even if she didn't excel, it would still improve her physical fitness - there were no downsides either way.

Moreover, Shi Li also felt that Song Ying was easily bullied, and during school hours, they couldn't have bodyguards following her around, so her personal strength was indeed very important.

Hearing Grandpa Xu cursing about how times had changed in the background, Shi Li fell into deep thought, [Having escaped school bullying, now came harassment from outside school]