A Paranoid Alpha Childhood Friend is Acting Spoiled Again - Chapter 18

By the next day, Nuo Fanxi’s fever had essentially broken, with no signs of returning. Bai Xiaozhu felt that since there were no major issues, she shouldn’t fall behind on her studies. Thus, after breakfast, she had the butler send both girls to school together.

However, as soon as Nuo Fanxi sat down at her desk, Fang Xiaoyu immediately approached her, sobbing hysterically. Her face was a mess of snot and tears, but no one offered her a tissue—not even the lackeys who usually swarmed around her.

“What’s wrong with her? Why is she crying so early in the morning?”

“Don’t you know yet?”

“Know what?”

“Fang Xiaoyu got beaten terribly by her parents last night. There are belt marks all over her arms and legs. She hasn’t stopped crying since she got to school; even the teachers couldn’t comfort her.”

The classmates were gossiping fervently, curious about what had actually happened.

A student named Ou Shang, whose family did business with Fang Xiaoyu’s family, shared some insider information.

“I heard from my parents that after Fang Xiaoyu caused Nuo Fanxi’s fever, Tang Mo’s mother got angry and sent people to teach Fang Xiaoyu’s dad a lesson. Then, some of his business deals fell through, so he took his anger out on her.”

“Wow, is Tang Mo’s mom that powerful?! Even Fang Xiaoyu’s dad was no match for her!”

“Wait, is Tang Mo’s family richer than Fang Xiaoyu’s? I mean, Fang Xiaoyu is already so rich.”

“Definitely! But after getting beaten so badly by her dad this time, she probably won’t dare to bully people in class anymore, right?”

“She’s so mean; she deserved it.”

Before this incident, Fang Xiaoyu had been the class bully, and no one dared to speak ill of her. But things had changed; her family business was in trouble, and the world had turned upside down overnight. Without Fang Zhenghai’s backing, Fang Xiaoyu lacked the confidence to boss others around. Naturally, she became a “rat crossing the street”—someone everyone wanted to hit.

Fang Xiaoyu cried as if she were the victim of a great injustice, making Nuo Fanxi want to roll her eyes. Finally, she sighed helplessly. “Fang Xiaoyu, can you please stop crying? If you really have to cry, go back to your seat. Otherwise, the teacher and classmates will think I’m bullying you.”

“My… my dad hit me yesterday,” Fang Xiaoyu sobbed.

Nuo Fanxi looked at her with confusion. “What does your dad hitting you have to do with me? I didn’t hit you. If you want to cry, you should go cry to your mom. I’m not your mom.”

Fang Xiaoyu’s crying stopped instantly as she turned red with fury. She pointed a finger at Nuo Fanxi and shouted, “It’s all your fault that my dad hit me! If you hadn’t snitched to Tang Mo’s mom, why would my dad have beaten me!”

Nuo Fanxi had never met someone so unreasonable. It reminded her of the son of that Mrs. Wang who had pushed her before; both were irrational, overbearing, and completely out of line.

Nuo Fanxi stood up from her seat, her sharp, childish voice booming without restraint. “Fang Xiaoyu, don’t you go too far! You bullied me first! If you hadn’t thrown my book into the rain, how could Godmother have gotten angry? This is clearly your own problem, yet you’re trying to push the responsibility onto me. You are too much!”

Back in kindergarten, Nuo Fanxi had been the “little devil” no one dared to bully. But since entering primary school, she felt that since she was a “big kid” now, she couldn’t act the way she used to.

Secondly, she didn’t want to cause any more trouble for Godmother Xiaozhu. Yesterday’s incident had already been a huge burden. If something similar happened again, Godmother would surely be disappointed in her.

She didn’t want Godmother to be disappointed.

Nuo Fanxi controlled the urge to physically teach Fang Xiaoyu a lesson and sat back down after speaking.

But Fang Xiaoyu didn’t understand reason. She only felt that since she was beaten, it was because Nuo Fanxi snitched. She continued her tantrum. “If you had just answered my question, I wouldn’t have grabbed your workbook. If you hadn’t tried to grab it back, it wouldn’t have fallen in the rain, and I wouldn’t have been hit by my dad. Nuo Fanxi, it’s your fault. You have to a-pol-o-gize to me!”

Nuo Fanxi found her too speechless to handle. She turned her body away and ignored her, treating her as if she didn’t exist.

Fang Xiaoyu, used to being savage and having not learned her lesson, tried to pull at Nuo Fanxi to force an apology. But as soon as she reached out, a pair of hands shoved her from the side. Unsteady, she fell straight onto the floor.

Fang Xiaoyu was about to wail to attract the teacher, but when she looked up and saw that the person who pushed her was Tang Mo, she swallowed her cries. “Tang Mo, why did you push me!”

Tang Mo stood in front of Nuo Fanxi, shielding her completely. “I’m warning you: stop pestering Xixi, or I’ll have my mom punish you again!”

The moment she saw Tang Mo, Fang Xiaoyu thought of her father’s belt. She didn’t dare cause a scene anymore and sat back in her seat until class began.

After this, Fang Xiaoyu became completely quiet. Beyond losing her arrogance, she would go out of her way to avoid Nuo Fanxi. However, since the whole class knew what kind of person she was, no one wanted to play with her. Over time, she was isolated.

Fang Xiaoyu couldn’t stand being treated that way. She started skipping school, and even when she did show up, she’d just slump over her desk without listening to the teacher. Eventually, she vanished entirely. The teacher had her desk moved away, saying she had transferred schools because she “didn’t adjust well to the environment.” But everyone knew she had to leave because she couldn’t handle the isolation.

“Xixi, do you think… we went too far?” Tang Mo sat on the floor, her head buried in her knees, feeling guilty.

“How were we too far? It was clearly Fang Xiaoyu’s own fault!” Nuo Fanxi patted Tang Mo’s back. “Momo, think about it: if she hadn’t bullied me, why would Godmother have gone to find trouble with her dad? And if you hadn’t been there, her family definitely would have bullied me instead.”

The Fang family was wealthy—though not on the Tangs’ level—and Nuo Fanxi was aware of the disparity. At home, her parents always told her to seek harmony unless the other party was truly excessive.

Tang Mo felt that Nuo Fanxi’s words made sense, and the weight on her heart lifted. She nodded. “Xixi is right!”

With Fang Xiaoyu gone, the class atmosphere improved significantly. During recess, everyone wanted to play with Nuo Fanxi and Tang Mo. But because Tang Mo had so much to study at home, she spent most of her free time catching up on homework. This led to many students clinging to Nuo Fanxi instead.

As time went on, the only time Tang Mo and Nuo Fanxi really spent together was during the commute and on weekends.

Even on weekends, Tang Mo was buried in the curriculum Bai Xiaozhu assigned. She could only steal a few words with Nuo Fanxi during breaks, which made her very unhappy. She wanted to go out and play with Xixi and the others, but any such thought was immediately crushed by Bai Xiaozhu.

“Momo, do you want to go out and play with me this weekend?” Nuo Fanxi asked, taking the seat next to Tang Mo during a break.

Tang Mo thought that sounded wonderful, but thinking of her mother, she deflated. “But Mommy said if I don’t learn the new material, I’m not allowed to go anywhere.”

“Then you just have to learn it, right?!”

“…I’m too stupid. I can’t learn as fast as Xixi.”

Nuo Fanxi learned things incredibly quickly and often ranked first in her grade. Between her grades and her homework completion, she was a teacher’s favorite. At parent-teacher meetings, she was always the first to be praised. While Tang Mo wasn’t bad, and teachers often praised her to Bai Xiaozhu, she was still a bit behind Nuo Fanxi.

This led Bai Xiaozhu—a straight-A student who had won every scholarship imaginable—to suspect Tang Mo was just playing too much at school. Consequently, she hired even more tutors to give Tang Mo extra lessons.

“No way! Momo isn’t stupid at all!” Nuo Fanxi counted on her fingers. “Momo knows so many things: piano, painting, singing, dancing, and even that… ‘golf’ thing. I don’t know how to do any of those. So, Momo isn’t stupid!”

Tang Mo’s eyes lit up instantly. “Really?!”

“Of course!”

“But Mommy always says that when she was this age, she had already won international awards for children’s competitions. But I’m still learning so slowly with my teachers.”

Nuo Fanxi turned sideways and placed both hands on Tang Mo’s shoulders, saying solemnly, “Godmother Xiaozhu being amazing is her business; it has nothing to do with you! There are so many kids in the world—some are smart and some are slow. How could everyone be a genius? Besides, Momo is already super amazing. Godmother shouldn’t call you stupid just because you learn slowly. You’re the best kid I’ve ever seen!”

No one had ever spoken such encouraging words to Tang Mo except Nuo Fanxi. After hearing this, Tang Mo burst into tears and hugged Nuo Fanxi.

Nuo Fanxi gently patted her back, comforting her like an adult. “It’s okay, it’s okay. Good girl, Momo.”