The women went quiet when she came near them, confirming that it was indeed her who they had been talking about, more specifically was Rui and Han XiGuang.
One of the women who seemed to be the most bravest and proudest smiled at Wu SuYi, "Hello, of course you can. It's my first time to see you around, are you Rui's mother?"
The question was direct and Wu SuYi wondered what was the reason for their chit chat, making her curious, "I am not," the women smiled. "But I am closed to—"
"Mr. Han?" The same woman questioned, intrusively.
"To Rui," Wu SuYi fixed. She then looked at Han XiGuang and pursed her lips, making a hesitant face. "Rui is a good boy, I just knew him a few weeks ago. I don't know much about Mr. Han. I was hoping to ask about the family."
"You can refuse to answer, but how do you became acquainted to Rui, Miss…?" The woman hung her words as if she wanted Wu SuYi to reply to her.
Wu SuYi smiled, she can see through the woman's question as a test. If she refused to answer, she would probably come home without answer to what these women were gossiping about, but if she doesn't try to find out now, she knew it could root badly for Rui.
As she had also been in the position like Rui, where she was the center of the attention, she could tell the effect of being in the attention could either be a great one or the terrible one. Most of the time, she would bet on the terrible side effect.
Offering a smile, Wu SuYi pretended to be the naive woman, "I'm Wu SuYi. Well, I knew Rui from where I work from. He is such a bright child and we soon became closer to each other."
"Oh you're a nurse?" The other woman create an assumption to which she smiled, not agreeing but the other women seemed to take this as a tacit confirmation.
"I genuinely thought you are Mr. Han's new girlfriend," the first woman spoke, "But as a nurse for Rui, I think I get it. My son often says he would often suffer from a panic attack occasionally."
Panic attack? Wu SuYi raised her eyebrow internally. That was the first time she knew about this.
"Mr. Han is known to be a playboy, you know," the woman the continued. "I think in the house, Rui is always alone."
"How can you say that?" Wu SuYi questioned, "I mean I have never entered Mr.Han's house, and I don't think outsider like us would be able to make out something such as that."
"Maybe others would not know, but we all seen. Our children saw it. There were bruises after bruises on Rui's body. When he got changed, we all see it happened," Wu SuYi who had been smiling while hearing the women talk immediately had her smile dropped. She looked at the women who were immersed in talking without noticing the change of her expression. "Even that speech Rui talked about earlier were suspicious. It feels as if Mr. Han had forced him to talk about it."
"I don't think Mr. Han is that kind of person," especially being a man who work every day, she doubted he would have the time to hurt Rui. Not when Wu SuYi had seen his care and concern sincerely by her own eyes.
"Everyone couldn't imagine it happening. He's such a perfect man. We all only heard and make a guess that Rui is the child of his previous marriage, seeing how caring he is, we can never imagine he would hurt his own son."
"But the proof have already been seen by the children. Please don't think us terribly, we tried to warn the school about it, but everyone is scared of him," said the first woman again.
Wu SuYi's eyes narrowed, "Why would they be scared of him?" Sure, she was scared of Han XiGuang too before, but that was due to her fear that Han XiGuang was working for her father and the family. His job was far from being dangerous, instead it was the most trusted job, like the police. Seeing Han XiGuang never flaunt his power, the school had nothing to be scared of from him.
She couldn't think of any other reason why anyone would be scared of him. When the same woman who had been talking to her said, "It's also a rumor but they said, Mr. Han is associated to the famous Dragon group."
"What group is that?" Wu SuYi inquired more.
"You don't know, Miss Wu? It's the famous group from the underworld… you know, the mafia," The woman replied.
Wu SuYi couldn't understand anymore. She didn't understand what was lie and what was the truth.
At that moment, a loud thud resounded from the room, the sound of tables tumbling together. Wu SuYi snapped her eyes and quickly saw the tall boy who had been sitting next to Rui falling down the floor.
The boy cried and cried as the same woman who had been gladly give her information, ran toward the boy.
"Fan Fan!" The woman shouted, wrapping her arms around her son as she gasped when she saw blood dropping from the boy's forehead.
As the boy cried and sobbed, he pointed his hand on Rui, causing both Wu SuYi and Han XiGuang to frowned at the same time.
"R… Rui! He did it!! He pushed me!"
Rui who had been holding his calligraphy brush looked at the boy with wide eyes, completely confused. The class that had been silent and calm had turned chaos as whispers were thrown across the room.
*****
A/N: If you like the book, please consider to vote, comment, or drop a review! Reviewing would be helpful to me and the book to continue!