Chapter 19: The Truth Behind the Graduation Project

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“By the way, Yunyun, I know why you ended up drawing the assignment to develop a barren star,” Chen Jiaojiao suddenly said.

“What happened?” Hua Yun asked. The original owner had never offended anyone, but Hua Yun also refused to believe that her luck had truly been that terrible.

“We have that deadbeat scumbag Zhao Weining to thank for this.” Chen Jiaojiao clenched her little fists. “He did it. He didn’t dare offend Li Na, so he wanted to stir up trouble—and you were the stepping stone he used to do it.”

“So it really was him!” Hua Yun was not particularly surprised.

“Exactly. He likes another girl at our school and wanted to break off his engagement with Li Na, but he was too timid to say it outright. He was afraid Li Na would hurt that girl, and he was also worried that the Li family would be displeased and turn against the Zhao family.” Chen Jiaojiao’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “He’s the kind of petty person who dares to scheme but never dares to take responsibility. When it comes to manipulating women, he’s remarkably capable.”

“He went about it very discreetly. On the one hand, he kept appearing around you from time to time, creating the illusion that he liked you. On the other, he guided Li Na into noticing you, hoping she would target you. That way, he would have a reason to refuse the marriage, and the Li family would give up on making trouble for him because Li Na had done something wrong.” Chen Jiaojiao’s face was full of anger.

“If he didn’t like her, he could simply have said so. Why deliberately find a scapegoat? Wasn’t it because he saw that you were an orphan and thought you would be easy to bully?”

“Who could have guessed that after looking for you once, Li Na would take no further action—let alone confront you?” Even Chen Jiaojiao had not expected Li Na, so overbearing at school, not to lay a hand on Hua Yun.

“So… he tampered with my graduation project?” Hua Yun had already figured out the rest. The academy’s rules were strict, but where was there a system with no loopholes?

“Yes and no.” Chen Jiaojiao nodded, then shook her head. “My brother said that at first, his investigation really did point to Li Na. It was only after we asked him to investigate Zhao Weining as well that he discovered something was wrong.”

“My brother said Zhao Weining played a little game of killing with a borrowed knife. The person who actually did it was someone dependent on the Li family. Shortly before the graduation project was due, Zhao Weining and Li Na went to see that person together.”

“If you weren’t paying close attention, it would have been very easy to assume Li Na was responsible.”

“So Zhao Weining really did intend to sit back and reap the benefits,” Hua Yun said.

An incident like this could have produced several possible outcomes.

If Hua Yun had possessed a fiery temper and made a public scene, while the original owner had lacked the ability to uncover the truth, the blame would have been splashed onto Li Na. That alone would not have harmed Li Na in the slightest—but what if Zhao Weining had fanned the flames and muddied the waters?

Given Li Na’s usual conduct at school, it would have been difficult for her to escape without being covered in disgrace. If Zhao Weining had then seized the opportunity to stir things up, he might truly have achieved his goal under the pressure of public opinion.

And if the original owner had endured it and gone off to the barren star, then whether he used her as an excuse or secretly slandered Li Na, either option would have worked. If he went even further, her life itself might have become a tool for Zhao Weining to profit from.

Don’t say such a thing was impossible. Hua Yun had never been reluctant to assume the worst of others.

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“Exactly! He’s the worst of the worst, the ultimate combat machine among pieces of trash!” Chen Jiaojiao ground her teeth furiously. “Fortunately, things didn’t turn out the way he wanted!”

First of all, no one had expected there to be a barren star near the main star that nobody cared about. Hua Yun had not been sent far away at all. What was more, she had shown no intention of making a fuss—in fact, when rumors began circulating, she had even helped Li Na. This had completely exceeded Zhao Weining’s expectations.

“Good. Does Li Na know?” Hua Yun asked. She might not be able to do anything to Zhao Weining for the moment, but that did not mean no one else could. He had borrowed someone else’s knife; how could he know that others would not do the same?

Don’t say it was only a graduation project and therefore not a big deal. The person he had framed was the original owner. Could she really complete the development of a barren star?

If she failed to complete her graduation project, she would be unable to graduate, meaning all the effort she had invested in the first half of her life would come to nothing. And Zhao Weining had even wanted to send her far away. Hua Yun could never casually let him off for trying to destroy someone’s future. Besides, who could guarantee that, having failed this time, Zhao Weining would not try again later?

Everything had to be nipped in the bud.

“She didn’t know at first, but now…” Chen Jiaojiao gave a sly little laugh. Everything was clear without needing to be said.

“Jiaojiao, you’re amazing. But I’ll still have to trouble you to keep an eye on things for me,” Hua Yun said.

“Of course. I’ll contact my brother in a little while.” Her brother was still the safest person to turn to in matters like this.

“Then thank you, Jiaojiao!” Hua Yun said. “Remember to wait for me to come back!”

The two chatted a little longer about their daily lives before ending the call.

After Chen Jiaojiao ended the video call, the more she thought about it, the more upset she became. Her best friend had been forced into having no time to return to the main star, afraid that once the deadline arrived, she would be unable to graduate. On top of that, she was eating food whose safety had not been fully confirmed.

Although Chen Jiaojiao trusted Hua Yun’s testing, what about in the beginning? If she had not been forced into it, if she had not needed to attract viewers in order to complete her graduation project, who would willingly risk studying things that had long since been lost to history?

That was right. In Chen Jiaojiao’s mind, her friend was eating those things in the livestream because she had been forced to. It never occurred to her that her friend might simply be a food lover.

An image of Hua Yun alone on the barren star, enduring hardship and biding her time, flashed through Chen Jiaojiao’s mind. She shuddered violently.

No! She would never be satisfied until that scumbag was reduced to absolute trash!

After arranging things with her brother, Chen Jiaojiao only felt more and more aggrieved.

She could not be happy when she was unable to beat the villain senseless in person!

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Chen Jiaojiao’s eyes rolled thoughtfully before she sent a message to one of her friends.

Did Zhao Weining think Chen Jiaojiao had only one best friend, Hua Yun? She had plenty of other friends too.

Just you wait, you piece of trash!

How dare you hurt my friend? Just watch what I do to you.

Chen Jiaojiao tossed her head back and marched forward with her chest thrust out, looking fierce and imposing.

What Chen Jiaojiao did not know was that Hua Yun was busy packing parcels.

One was for a viewer who had confidently left an address; Hua Yun needed to keep her promise.

The other was for Chen Jiaojiao. Now that the development of the barren star had just begun to stabilize, Hua Yun would not be leaving anytime soon unless something unavoidable arose. Even if she did leave, it would probably only be to return to the academy for practical classes.

Thinking of how Chen Jiaojiao had enlisted the help of her brother, Chen Xuyang, in both investigations, Hua Yun could not simply turn a blind eye. Chen Xuyang might not care about receiving anything, but she had specially prepared an additional parcel for him as well.

Once everything was packed, Hua Yun logged onto the StarNet and contacted an interstellar logistics company to send the parcels out. If nothing went wrong, they should receive them soon.

As for her, she needed to check whether there had been any problems with the progress over the past two days, then prepare for her next livestream.

Hua Yun studied the data from today’s livestream. There had been two particularly large fluctuations. One had occurred after the donations came in, while the other…

She glanced at the corresponding timestamp.

It was when she had been eating!

Could she have been born with the perfect constitution for food livestreaming?

No… The real problem was that interstellar cuisine was simply too lacking!

At that thought, Hua Yun seemed to understand what she should do next. After all, livestreaming could not consist of barren-star development alone; she also needed something compelling to attract viewers.

In a sense, Hua Yun’s thoughts now coincided with Chen Jiaojiao’s for a brief moment.

It was merely that the cause and effect had been reversed.

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