Shadow In Your Mind [ARC 1- 5]

Chapter 132 - A norm to appear dirty

XG 132 - A norm to appear dirty

Chen Yibo enrolled in the same school as her, and coincidentally also in the same class as her. Their class was the second to the last according to their grades, and he only joined the class because he was a new student. It does not take long for him to shift to a better grade class after the next exam.

During those three months as classmates, she had witnessed his sharp mind, dutiful attitude, and humble manner. She never knew if his behaviour was natural, or moulded to make his father proud of him. It was only after a long while did she recalled the prickling pain during their first meeting and then realized hits her hard.

He gave her the feeling that she was looking at a mirror image of herself. If she was not kidnapped from her primary school graduation school trip, she would have continued working hard to please her parents.

It was at that moment of realization that she grew to detest him under her polite mask. It was a miracle he still treated her politely despite her constantly offering him a borderline attitude between polite and rude.

Her childish side was not willing to lose so badly, and thus she picked up her study and her improved results allowed her to jump to a better grade class. But her efforts do not allow her to overtake him, much less able to touch his tailcoat.

Thanks to her not being overly competitive in nature and quickly accepting the fact that he was smarter than her, she learned to be satisfied with her average grade. At least it would not embarrass her greatly. It was also a positive outlook that would not hinder her time in indulging in her new hobby.

As a brainiac, she had expected him to join science stream class for his senior year, but he chose art stream, the same as her and his cousin. That was the only reason why they got the chance to be in the same class. His decision puzzled many people, including her, who knew he might join his father's workplace after he completed his studies.

Nevertheless, she never asked him why, as their relationship was not close enough to comfortably ask so.

It was only an assumption on her part that he was allotting time to do something else outside school hours. His lack of worry about not choosing the suitable course for his preferred occupation could be related to it. Besides, what his father and brother could teach him was definitely more than what high school could teach, and Chen Yibo could have already mastered the basics way earlier than his peers.

Thinking up to this point, the question rolled to the tip of her tongue, wanting to utter it. Their relationship was pretty good now and it would not be intrusive to ask that as good friends that had experienced great life and death together.

But Chen Yibo left as soon as they arrived at her family apartment, likely to help his elder brother.

Her desire deflated like a balloon out of air, just as exhaustion finally greeted her. She immediately dozed off once she hugged Mr Rabbit, and her dreams were messy. It was the type that feels important, yet forgotten once she woke up.

"Xue Guo, there will be a meeting now." When there was no response from her room, Chen Yibo was tempted to let her continue sleeping. But remembering her stubbornness in wanting to join the meeting, he entered her room and gently shook her shoulder until she finally opened her eyes.

Resisting the urge to bury her face in Mr Rabbit's soft stomach and continue sleeping, she crawled out of her bed. "Thank you for calling me."

She carefully placed Mr Rabbit to be seated upright on her pillow, brushed her hair, and tidied up the wrinkles on the dress that she did not bother changing before taking a nap.

Unlike how she would normally care about her image and clothing, she was not concerned about appearing in public in a slightly wrinkled dress she had worn to sleep. She had appeared even worse, such as muddy clothes and sweaty, in public in these four months.

In fact, it was now a norm to appear dirty rather than clean. The latter definitely got her more attention when she exited Musihada base and most of it was with bad intention.

After sleeping for more than three hours, she had regained most of her energy, but there was still some deep exhaustion that could only be fixed with relaxation. At least she felt her mind was clearer than before.

To her surprise, she was stopped by a guard before the meeting room.

"I'm sorry, you do not have permission to enter," the guard said apologetically, unlike how he would usually be harsher towards others.

Most of the people in the Musihada Laboratory recognized Wong Xue Guo as Director Charles Wong's daughter and even knew her latest act of volunteering to undergo the new experimental method of activating the Alpha gene.

Gossip was a popular pick for people in the lab to destress themselves.

There was nothing but good feelings toward her, but the guard still had to obey the orders given to him. Not even Chen Yibo's words could move him.

The door to the meeting room was not shut, so she could look into the room and meet the eyes of those inside the room. With politeness that no one could find fault in, she asked, "May I listen in?"

"Oh, that's not really good-" the person that said it found that he lost his voice when her gaze met his. He originally wanted to say this meeting was confidential, and even if she was the tester, there was still something she does not have the privilege to listen to, but his originally tough attitude ended up becoming unbelievably weak.

As a big guy that spends every day in a lab with more males than females, he does not have much immunity toward soft and pretty-looking girls like Wong Xue Guo, especially in her dress and soft blush on her face from her slumber.

"Director Chen, could you not treat this as a reward for Xue Guo to discover this more cost-efficient way?" Chen YiWen asked his father.

Surprisingly Director Choi also spoke up. "There's no harm in having our special test participant join our discussion. We are mostly going to talk about her after all and there's nothing she could not listen to. Perhaps she could even contribute something during our discussion."

As someone that had been sought out by Director Wong and asked for a return favour before he went to Zinnia country, Director Choi had to speak up on Wong Xue Guo's behalf. That was because Director Wong had asked him to let his daughter do whatever she wanted while he was away, including meddling in the research. This was the first time he had seen for himself that Director Wong would love and spoil his daughter to this degree, even more than he spoiled his granddaughter.

If not for Miss Wong's discovery of the new Awakening method, Director Choi might still continue thinking that the favour was asked just to indulge his daughter.

Thus, he was much more willing and sincere in advocating for Wong Xue Guo.

Director Choi was afraid Director Chen would outright reject the young lady and even coldly send her away. Even if he knew Director Wong and Director Chen were good friends, it was not guaranteed that the latter's goodwill would extend to the younger generation.

"Let her in," Director Chen said.

With a bright smile, she walked in after the guard stepped aside. "Thank you. I will do my best not to disturb the meeting."