Rebirth: The Comeback of the Girl
Chapter 142: Direct Action

Chapter 142: Chapter 142: Direct Action

As winter leaves and spring arrives, Tomb-Sweeping Festival is upon us in the blink of an eye.

Zhen Yu and Han Mingyue have both sent off their entries for the essay competition, and the judgment on Ju Ming has also been handed down.

He was ultimately convicted of attempted armed burglary and sentenced to three years of fixed-term imprisonment.

The Zhen Family had no objections to this, but there are no walls without cracks in this world, and once the neighbors from the streets and alleys heard, they all started talking.

Some people were saying behind the scenes that the Zhen Family was making a mountain out of a molehill. When Zhen Yu heard this, she just smiled it off and even persuaded her mother and brother not to get angry, not to stoop to the level of irrelevant people.

After all, it’s not their pain to feel, how could they empathize? What the world never lacks are people who talk without feeling the pain of standing!

Mrs. Zhen mentioned the situation on Mr. Zhen’s side when she came home, saying that the mistress had caused more than one scene with him.

But Mr. Zhen had taken no action and had not come to Mrs. Zhen and his children to beg for mercy.

When Mrs. Zhen talked about this, she would sigh and say, "At least he has some conscience! If he dares to come here, I’ll throw him out!"

To this, Zhen Yu and her brother did not express any opinion.

——

Han Mingyue kept her word; since the beginning of school, she had continuously brought her younger brother to the Zhen Family to do homework.

Zhen Yu noticed that her Knowledge Point growth rate seemed to have sped up quite a bit, from over forty Points per regular school day last semester to seventy-eighty Points per day.

On the weekends, she could even break a hundred in a single day. In a month’s time, Zhen Yu had amassed another 28 ability points.

At this rate, by Labor Day on May 1st, her brother could start using the prop.

By then, he would have less than two months left until the middle school exams.

But why had the data growth accelerated? Zhen Yu pondered for a moment - maybe it was because she earned more Points studying advanced content with Han Mingyue after school in the evenings!

Then what else is there to say! Keep going! Come on! Study!

——

While Zhen Yu was passionately immersed in her studies, the quiet battle for custody over Zhen Yan by Mr. Zhen had also begun.

Zhen Yan had recently noticed that his cousin from the same class in his second year of junior high, Wu Jing, always came to find him to play. This cousin was from the divorced Third Aunt Zhen’s family, who owned a pharmacy in the town center.

Speaking of which, she had some contact with the Han Family, and cousin Wu Jing was in the same class as Han Mingyue, and was thick as thieves with Wang Meng.

Zhen Yan didn’t have a particularly good or bad impression of this cousin, it was more accurate to say he was indifferent!

As the saying goes, one does not slap the hand that reaches out with a smile.

He always came over with a beaming smile, and after some time, Zhen Yan actually got to know him better than before.

In this way, amidst Wu Jing’s occasional flattery about how great Mr. Zhen was and how good life was living with his father, Labor Day arrived.

Zhen Yu finally saved up enough ability points, not just 80, but 84 ability points/26 Knowledge Points.

Lying in bed at night, Zhen Yu felt a painful twitching in her hand, but she still clenched her teeth, shut her eyes, and made the exchange!

This self-discipline alarm clock was like a small pendant that could be hung directly around the neck.

She didn’t dare recklessly use the remaining 4 ability points.

She thought about saving them for now, just in case her brother’s autonomous learning wasn’t up to par, then she would have to come up with another solution for him before the middle school exams, to double up on insurance!

The next day, bright and early, she put the alarm clock to use for her brother!

The time was set from 7 AM to 9 PM, excluding eating and going to the bathroom, all the rest of the time was to be dedicated to studying! Studying!

——

Zhen Yan momentarily got carried away, easily coaxed by his sister into wearing this little pendant. It didn’t take him even one class period to realize something was amiss, but by then he couldn’t take it off!

Tell me, does that infuriate you or what? But even though it’s infuriating, there’s nothing you can do about it!

That evening when he got home and went to settle the score with his sister, Zhen Yu finally told him, once the day’s time is activated, it cannot be paused—it has to run its course!

You want to take it off, huh! You’ll have to wait until after 9 o’clock at night. But do you think I’d let you take it off? You wish...

So the miserable Zhen Yan was forced into a grueling, intense study mode, even more desperately than his sister!

While it was no big deal for him to go crazy like this, Wu Jing had asked him to hang out for several days running to no avail and had gone home to tell his mother.

Third Aunt Zhen thought maybe the sharp Zhen family mother and daughter had been spooked, and deciding not to do things halfway, went straight to Mr. Zhen and told him the cat was out of the bag.

Mr. Zhen had hoped to gradually lure his son into his arms willingly, but seeing how unlikely that now was, he decided to take direct action!

Mrs. Zhen was completely dumbfounded when she received the court notice.

She closed the shoe shop in a dither and went home to discuss countermeasures with her children.

After Tomb-Sweeping Festival, the school had already dismantled their stoves, and students had long since begun going home for lunch.

Ever since the New Year, Mrs. Han had found a way to keep the lunches for her two sons stewing in the pot after school started, but she could only keep it up until Tomb-Sweeping Festival. Since households were no longer firing up their stoves, the Han family brothers began freeloading meals at the Zhen family again.

—

When Zhen Yu and her brother brought the Han family brothers home for lunch, they found their mother unexpectedly at home, and she looked as if she might as well have worn a sign saying "Something’s Wrong With Me!"

"Mom! What happened to you?" Zhen Yu asked straight to the point.

Mrs. Zhen looked up blankly, not having given a second thought to seeing the Han family brothers during her nap, "Your dad... he’s suing me!"

"Suing you?" Zhen Yu first frowned, then immediately regained her expressionless face, "Is he filing for custody over my brother?"

"Yeah!" Mrs. Zhen nodded.

Zhen Yu asked about the timing, "When’s the hearing?"

"Next Monday."

"It’s okay, I’ll cook first." Zhen Yu turned around and swiftly prepared a simple meal. It was as if she had queried casually, not giving a second thought to her mother getting sued.

"Why aren’t you worried at all?!" Mrs. Zhen was somewhat angry. Why was her daughter so indifferent? Could it be she...

Zhen Yu swallowed the food in her mouth, "What’s there to worry about? He can’t win the case."

Hearing her daughter say this, Mrs. Zhen’s spirits lifted. "What do you mean?"

"Just wait for the court date," Zhen Yu answered impatiently, leaving the question hanging as she continued to eat.

Zhen Yan meanwhile was eating hurriedly, constrained by an alarm clock, not allowing for any wasted talk or a second’s loss of study time.

After finishing, he dived into the small bedroom to study.

Mrs. Zhen had been startled by her son’s behavior for a few days but was getting used to it, "If your brother had shown this much drive earlier, what would there be for me to worry about! Ah... But now, with only two months left, is there still time?"

Zhen Yu didn’t offer an opinion; it was up to her whether there was time or not. She had to study too!

Hurriedly wolfing down her last two bites, Zhen Yu went to join her brother.

He was sitting exams for middle school, and she had her own mission! She wanted to skip a grade!

—

Before the following Monday arrived, Zhen Yu received a large envelope earlier, on Friday.

"It’s finally published! It wasn’t easy!" Zhen Yu thought to herself.

She didn’t even bother to open it, taking the envelope straight to the second-year classroom and asked Han Mingyue to step outside with her.