"Young Master Lei, don't trouble yourself, we were just teaching this penniless beggar her place." Jiang Mei smiled at the youth in hopes of gaining his favor.
"Oh? Why does it look to me like it's the three of you who don't know your place?" He knelt down and lifted Li Na's chin to inspect her face. There was a bright red handprint on her right cheek and blood was trickling out of the corner of her mouth. He wiped the blood away with his thumb while frowning.
"Young Master Lei, you shouldn't touch her, who knows what kind of diseases she has?" This mockery came from the girl who had just slapped Li Na.
Young Master Lei helped Li Na to her feet gently. "Stand back, I'll take care of it for you this time," he told Li Na calmly. Although he was calm on the outside, inside he was seething with rage. Someone dared to lay a hand on the one person who might be able to help him. How could he possibly be calm? "It was you who hit her?" he asked the girl who had just spoken.
"I did, but she was disrespecting Sis Mei..." That was all she was able to say before Young Master Lei backhanded her with full strength. She was knocked to the ground as tears welled up in her eyes.
"If any of you so much as touch a hair on her head again I will destroy not only you but your family as well." With that he turned to Li Na, "come, I'll take you to the nurse's office to get looked at."
Li Na just silently nodded and followed him leaving the three girls flabbergasted while she tried to process what just happened. 'This isn't how this happened before. Did just answering the question change things this much? I don't even know this guy, but he acts like we've known each other for a long time.' It's not that she had never heard of Fu Lei in her past life, but she was unable to connect this bright and sunny young boy with the future king of the underworld. They had met once at a party for the wealthy in their past lives, but neither had much interest in socializing so they had given a casual greeting in passing and walked on. So it's understandable why Li Na couldn't put two and two together yet.
Like their past encounter, the two walked in silence all the way to the nurse's office. "You head in, I'll take you home afterwards." When Li Na walked inside Fu Lei's phone rang.
"Young Master, the Old Madam would like you to attend the banquet tonight." It was the family butler on the other end. Fu Lei had forgotten that tonight his grndmother wanted to show him off to all the young women. His family wasn't looking for a marriage alliance, they just wanted to find a girl that Fu Lei would be interested in. It was important to continue the family bloodline, but Fu Lei had shown no interest in women even before he got stuck in his endless cycle of rebirth.
"Fine, tell her I'll come, but I plan on bringing a guest." Fu Lei suddenly thought it might be a good idea to bring Li Na. He wasn't sure if she had gotten caught up in this cycle now too because of the old hag, but he still wanted to get close to her incase she could help him solve his problem.
"Understood, I'll let the Old Madam know."
When the call ended, Fu Lei knocked on the door to the office. 'It'd be rude to just walk in, incase she is hurt in a spot that would have required her to remove her clothes to get examined," he thought to himself.
"You may come in," a woman's voice called from inside. When Fu Lei entered he saw the nurse applying an ointment to Li Na's cheek. "This will help it heal faster. Really, your real issue is you're not eating enough. You should eat more."
Li Na sighed, "it's not that I don't want to, it's just my family situation isn't that good. We can't really afford that much."
Fu Lei gritted his teeth at Li Na's words, he knew she was raised in a poor household, but he didn't know it was so bad that they could barely afford to eat. "I could help with that," he offered.
"Thanks, but not thanks. We don't want pity or charity." Li Na's tone was firm and reminded Fu Lei of the wealthy businessmen he had dealt with in his past lives.
'Maybe she really did reincarnate.' He pulled out his phone and texted the butler. "Find out where my classmate Li Na lives. Then buy up a months worth of perishable and non-perishable food and deliver it to her house. If nobody is home just get your men to forcefully open the door and put it away for them. I don't care how you get it done just make sure it's done in under an hour. I want you to continue doing this every month from now on." After sending the text he looked back at Li Na, 'now how do I invite her to accompany me to the banquet tonight? I'd need to convince her in such away that allows me to pay for her gown and styling... Maybe offer it as a job? If she did reincarnate then she wouldn't pass up a job opportunity right?'
"Alright, you're all set, remember to try and eat more if you can." The nurse reminded Li Na to eat more sternly.
"Excuse me ma'am, if I promise to make sure she eats some lunch can you apply for a leave for the afternoon for her? I planned on taking her home to avoid more trouble."
"Very good, that should be fine," the nurse replied with a warm smile.
Li Na glared at Fu Lei while he chose to ignore it and the two headed out. After the two had been gone for a minute the nurse headed out to handle their leave of absence for the afternoon. 'Seems my plan worked, the stubborn fool is finally on the right path. It's too bad that he's doing for the wrong reason right now, but in time he'll come around since it's her I chose.'