Chapter 8 Don't Be So Stupid Next Time

"Thank you for what you did today." Lily thanked Eric as they walked out of the principal's office. Though he was that jerk Frank's cousin and she barely knew him from the previous life, in his own way, he really did save her today. She felt it necessary to express her gratitude.

Eric was still in his sleep-like trance. "Only you would be foolish enough to follow that teacher," he replied.

"I..." Lily took a deep breath and said, "Well. Anyway, thank you for your help today!"

"Don't be so stupid next time." He took off his coat and threw it at Lily.

"You!" Lily wanted to protest, but Eric's coat covered her head and completely blocked her view. When she pulled the coat off, being careful not to lose her temper, she saw that Eric was already far ahead of her.

Lily could only watch him leave, holding his coat in her hands. She didn't understand why Eric just did that, but then she saw her bare chest. She blushed.

She quickly put the coat on. Earlier, she was mad that Eric dismissed her, but she felt grateful after realizing that he was only trying to help.

The school, as always, was teeming with rumors. When Lily arrived, news that she would need to retake the exam was already widespread, and one of the school's trustees would be there to personally supervise. Of course, they didn't know the whole story. They thought that the school's management was punishing her for cheating, and everybody wanted to see how Lily would do on the retake.

She wasn't worried about what people would say anymore. After the test results was released, they would know exactly what she could do.

The exam was to be held in one of the school's meeting rooms. The time was set from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, then from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.. This meant that she would have to finish the retake in one day.

To everyone's surprise, Lily finished the tests of all the subjects before noon. She also requested Vivian to show her the results in the afternoon.

It was kind of embarrassing for a school's trustee to receive such a request from a student, but Vivian agreed nonetheless.

As such, the results for all her retakes were already posted on the campus bulletin board before classes were even over.

There was already a crowd had gathering to see the results during break time. Lily smiled wryly when she saw them.

"How is that possible?" someone in the crowd exclaimed. "Lily even got a higher score than last time!"

"Better grades than the last? So that puts her almost at the top of the grade?"

"Wow, that's awesome!"

"Unbelievable! There must be some kind of trick."

"I agree. How could she make such rapid progress?"

There was a lot of talk as the other students passed different judgements on her.

"You're awesome, Lily! You did even better than last time." Becky looked at her with admiration.

"It's not a big deal. You know my family. I was just forced to do this," Lily replied bitterly.

In a competitive family such as hers, the only way she could hold her head high was if she performed well. Becky sighed and nodded. She held Lily's hand and said, "I understand. Don't forget that you still have me. I'll always stay by your side and cheer you up. Let's improve ourselves together!"

Lily was touched. They were best friends in the previous life and if it weren't for Frank, their friendship would have lasted for a longer time.

Because she performed considerably better in the retake, Lily rose almost to the second place in the whole grade. Rumors about her spread even more wildly.

At the same time, there was also hushed talk about how the son of the legal wife could not surpass the daughter of a mistress.

This rumor did not need specific names attached to it; people at the school very well knew who these two were.

JC Middle School was a private institution attended by rich people, where young ladies and masters with elite backgrounds came to study. As such, rumors quickly spread not only amongst the students, but to the high-society parents who sent their kids to the school, as well.

Lily had an idea how it went. In the past few days, every time she came home from school, she could feel the obvious change in Dillon's attitude toward her.

During evenings, Dillon would prepare her favorite food and serve it in a bowl. "You should eat more, Lily. Then you will have more energy to study."

"Thank you, father," Lily replied with a sweet smile.

"I'm so proud of you. You really worked hard to get those grades!" Dillon smiled happily, then turned to Eden. "You have to work harder, Eden. See, your sister's grades were higher than yours."

"Humph!" Claire snorted. "Who's to say she didn't cheat to get those grades?"

"Claire." Dillon gave his daughter a stern look. "Watch your attitude, please. If you're not easily convinced, then you can also try to get such grades for me."

"Dad, you're being mean to me..." Claire cried at her father's words and turned to hug Lucia. "Mom, dad only likes the daughter with the good grades. He doesn't like me anymore, and he doesn't like Eden!"

"All right, now, don't cry." Lucia hugged Claire back and glared at Dillon. "Why did you have to say that? Claire just voiced her thoughts and you're being unnecessarily cruel."

"I'm not being cruel, nor biased. What she said was wrong."

"As I said, she just raised her own doubts. How is that wrong?"

When Lily saw Dillon and Lucia about to quarrel, she tried to interrupt. "Dad, aunt, please stop. It's alright, I understand why Claire's so doubtful. Even I, myself, am surprised by my progress."

"See? Lily's making sense. You really have to work hard to get success in the future," Dillon praised.

"I will." Lily nodded. "I will, Dad."

"I'm full. May I be excused? I'll be at my room." Eden, who had been silent all this time, put down his bowl and chopsticks. He stood up and left, eyebrows deeply furrowed.

"Eden..." Lucia called. Seeing that she couldn't stop Eden, she turned at Lily and Dillon. "You can spend the rest of dinner with your precious daughter. We are full."

She stood up after she spoke. She took Claire, who was still sobbing, and they left together.

Lily and her father were left sitting at the table.

"Dad, I'm sorry. It's all my fault," Lily said as she lowered her head, feeling guilty.

Dillon sighed and patted her shoulder. "No. You didn't do anything wrong," he said. "It's them. They started it."

Hearing her father's approval, Lily smiled.

In Claire's bedroom,

she only got more upset the more she thought about the situation. She became nervous as she lay in bed, unable to fall asleep. Her father was paying more attention to Lily, which was not good. Even Eden, who seemed to be his favorite, was then being ignored.

No. Lily couldn't be allowed to continue her arrogance in this house anymore!

Claire made up her mind. She sat up, took out her phone and dialed a number. The call connected after a few rings.

"Hello, Terence. Can you gather some people to wait for me at school tomorrow? Yes, I'll tell you the details tomorrow. Good night."

She hung up after those few words. 'You'll be finished tomorrow, Lily!' she thought, cold light glinting in her eyes.

As soon as Lily went downstairs the next morning, Claire came to her and took her arm. "I'm sorry for last night, Lily. It was my fault. I shouldn't have said that. Please don't be mad at me."

Lily was surprised by her behavior, but she smiled and answered, "No. How could I be angry with you? You're my sister. Come, let's have breakfast, or we'll be late for school!"

"Thanks! By the way, if I have some questions about my subjects, can I ask you?"

"Of course!" Lily answered. In her mind, she was wondering what Claire was up to.

Eden had just finished eating as the two girls arrived at the table. He stood up and left. However, Lily noticed dark circles under his eyes. Did he stay up late at night just to study?

They finished breakfast, prepared for school, and got in Tom's car. But they noticed that Eden was not there. "Where is Eden?" Claire asked.

"Mr. Eden has already gone to school," Tom replied respectfully.

"Alright. Well, let's go."

Lily raised her eyebrows. It seemed that Eden was really upset with how their exam results turned out.

When they got to their destination, Lily finally understood what Claire was trying to do. She didn't expect that her sister would send men to hit her, especially not four boys!

"Terence, it's her! She kept bullying me. It was her who asked those girls to beat me last time," Claire shouted. She held Terence Qin's arm with one hand and pointed at Lily with the other.

Lily regarded Terence Qin and glanced at the three boys with him. Then, she gave an extremely sarcastic laugh. "Claire, is this why you dragged me out here?"

"Were you surprised? You're dad's favorite now. He doesn't even like me or Eden anymore. Even mom and dad almost fought because of you. Now, I would have let that pass, but you continued to threaten me and even hired people to beat me. You really need to be taught a lesson!"

"Huh? What are you even talking about?" Lily didn't know what to do. Her sister was quite good at making stuff up.

She tried to think of ways to escape, but she was caught in the most remote place in the school. It was almost impossible to call for help immediately.

"Alright. Claire, how hard do you want her to suffer?" Terence Qin asked Claire as the boy looked at Lily with malicious eyes.

"Do whatever it takes. I want her seriously injured. If you only knew... this girl had me beaten so badly that I had blue bruises all over my face. I had to stay in bed for days, and I could barely move," Claire said as she exaggerated her condition.

"Got it." Terence Qin nodded and turned to the other three guys. "Alright, guys, get her! Beat her up, but try not to break any bones."

"Alright." They ran up to Lily.

Lily felt genuinely afraid and desperately thought of ways she could just run away and escape. But escape seemed impossible... could she somehow reason with them? But they were on Claire's side, so speaking to them would do nothing!

She was still thinking about ways to escape as one of the gangsters sneaked behind her and kicked her on the calf.

"Ah!" Lily lost her balance and fell to the ground. Before she could recover, a fist came to give her another blow, this time directly at her face. She held her head and screamed, "Help!"

To her surprise, she heard a cry of pain before the succeeding blows even landed on her body.

"Oh! That hurt too much..."