She could dream on

"Eternal Valor…" Li Lanni repeated the name in contemplation. "It's quite suiting. Is it your entrance for the competition?"

Cheng Yu's face blushed even more as her eyes turned into slits. "Of course not. I was only fooling around. The competition will require something more refined."

"Is it? I think it's good enough. There's no competition you can't win with this. After all, most judges take into consideration the 'life' of a piece of art. Yours looks so real and expresses a lot. Not like some lifeless painting you see littering the walls of this building."

At the side, Ji Feifei's expression darkened. It was still alright for Li Lanni to keep showering Cheng Yu's ugly masterpiece with praise, but it was another matter altogether to indirectly insult her. Especially since her painting was obviously so beautiful... She couldn't contain her anger. "Lanni, what do you mean by that?!"

Li Lanni out a hand over her mouth. "Oh, you're here too. I was talking to Cheng Yu just now. Isn't her painting pretty?"

Ji Feifei clenched her fists and wanted nothing more than to berate Cheng Yu with her hands over her hips. However, more students streamed in at this moment.

It was more important to maintain her image of the easy going and kind girl. Moreover, she was not done with Li Lanni yet. She would deal with Cheng Yu later.

Hmph! Win the art competitions with that piece of rubbish? She could dream on.

"Lanni, let's have a word." Ji Feifei restrained her anger to say.

Li Lanni tapped Cheng Yu's shoulder. "I bet you didn't eat breakfast. You need to recharge; I brought your favorite meals from Eastern Kitchen. You should eat it before it goes cold." She pointed at the box she had given to Cheng Yu earlier before following Ji Feifei out.

Cheng Yu was stunned silly. So the box contained breakfast from Eastern Kitchen? She had thought that it was something Li Lanni wanted her to help her keep. She opened the box excitedly.

Meanwhile, Ji Feifei's expression was even darker. Li Lanni actually bought someone food from Eastern Kitchen so casually?

It was worth noting that it was one of the most expensive restaurants in the city. A mere glass of juice was capable of giving one a dent in the wallet.

Even as the heiress of the Ji family, she couldn't go to that restaurant mainly because the family didn't let her. She had been overspending money for a while so her father froze her cards. Yet that piece of trash…

"Why did you want to speak to me?" Li Lanni's voice brought her back from her thoughts.

Ji Feifei maintained her composure. "Is your relationship with Cheng Yu so good?"

"What about it?" Li Lanni was passive.

"Nothing much. I just heard some not-so-pleasant rumors about her. You should be careful."

Li Lanni snorted. "Thanks. I will take care. Is that all you wanted to say?"

Ji Feifei's fingernails stabbed into her palms. Since when was Li Lanni so cold towards her? Had she discovered something? "I just wanted to know how you got your hands on that flash drive yesterday."

Li Lanni swept a lock of her long hair to her back. Of course this was the only reason why Ji Feifei would seek her. That flash drive belonged to her. "Oh, that… I was just lucky. I found it in my locker mysteriously. Someone must be trying to help me out."

Ji Feifei wanted to slap her across the face and call her out for making things up, but she chose not to. It sounded far fetched but it was a tiny bit possible.

Wait… the aphrodisiac on the night of Li Lanni's welcome party… how did it turn into a sleeping pill?

As this thought surfaced in Ji Feifei's mind, her eyes turned blank. It seemed quite possible… that there was someone helping Li Lanni out from behind the scenes. Just who was it?

"I suddenly remembered I have something to do before the art class. I'll get going now." Ji Feifei left before she could explode.

Li Lanni wore a smug expression. "Tch."

Now it totally made sense.

Ji Feifei must be fond of driving wedges between people. Paired with what her mother had said about her being naive in the past, it answered one of her questions.

She now understood why she didn't have any real friends.

At the thought of it, Li Lanni really wanted to have a meeting with her younger self and scold the hell out of her. Just how stupid must she have been, to regard such a scheming b*tch as her best friend?

…

Ji Feifei wheeled her breathing back to normal.

Why did Li Lanni suddenly turn cold towards her?

She did want to eliminate that piece of garbage, but the piece of garbage still had some use. The exams were coming up soon. What would she do?

…

Li Lanni walked back into Art Classroom 03 and laughed when she saw Cheng Yu enthusiastically inhaling the food like she had been famished for months.

"Is it that good?"

Cheng Yu looked up and swallowed the food she was chewing. "So good! Lanni, I was about to tell you that you don't have to spend so much money buying me food but when I tasted it, it was totally worth it."

Li Lanni giggled. While one was a scheming fake friend, the other was so honest and her friendship seemed genuine.

Even a fool would know who to chose.

"Right. About that art thingie… didn't they arrange it at a very inconvenient time? The exams are coming up after all. Sigh, it's giving me a headache."

Cheng Yu frowned at her oblivious friend. "Of course they knew this. That's why the competition will be held two days after the end of the exams.

Moreover, I heard insider news that there's no such thing as submitting entries. All the competitors will paint their pieces on stage at the designated time."

"Wait, what?"

"Exciting, right!" Cheng Yu rattled on. "The prize is totally worth it! The winner will be recruited in Star Art International as a trainee and after the training period, a permanent job as a comic artist is guaranteed."

Edited by Essy