Chapter 257
The moment Beatrix saw Zoey appear, her nose suddenly stung, and an indescribable sense of grievance and shame welled up inside her.
She instinctively wanted to move closer to the person she once despised most, as if that was the only lifeline at this moment.
"Don't come over." Zoey's voice rang out coldly, her gaze sweeping past her toward the noisy crowd. "I'm not speaking up for you. It's just that you're all too loud and it's annoying me."
But these words nearly brought tears to Beatrix's eyes.
She stubbornly believed that Zoey was protecting her in this way, just too embarrassed to say it directly.
Because hidden in the most secret corner of her heart was her crush on Caspian, yet she only dared to steal glances at him from afar, using the excuse of accompanying Cleo.
Zoey must have figured it out long ago. Several times, when she pretended not to understand something and timidly approached Caspian, Zoey would always glance at her with a knowing look, then silently move aside, letting her naturally stand next to Caspian.
Back then, she had mistaken it for Zoey's coldness and distance. Now, thinking carefully, it was clearly a silent accommodation after seeing through everything.
"I was so... completely wrong." Beatrix cursed herself internally. She had done so many bad things for Cleo, only to end up like this.
Intense regret gnawed at her. She was afraid that once Caspian found out those vicious forum posts came from her, he would completely despise her, and she wouldn't even have the right to watch him from afar anymore.
She immediately pulled out her phone, forcefully wiping away the tears blurring her vision. Her fingers trembling, she deleted all the posts she had published one by one.
Then she turned to Cleo with a desperate determination: "Cleo, don't think you're hiding it well! Let me tell you, I'm waiting to see the day when everyone mocks and despises you!"
After saying this, without waiting for Cleo's response, she turned and ran away quickly, as if staying one more second would suffocate her.
Cleo watched Beatrix's panicked fleeing figure with the look one gives a stupid, pitiful creature, a barely noticeable cold smile curling at the corner of her mouth.
Then she put on her gentle mask and said softly to the concerned classmates around her: "Thank you, everyone. I have something I want to talk to Zoey about privately. Could you go to the classroom first and save me a good seat?"
The girls were a bit worried to see Zoey there, but, noticing Cleo's somewhat stern expression after her smile faded, they tactfully left one by one.
Once the crowd dispersed and the surroundings became empty, the smile on Cleo's face instantly vanished without a trace.
She stepped forward, staring directly at Zoey without any pretense, her eyes cold and challenging:
"Zoey, I told you, you'll never beat me."
She lowered her voice, each word dripping with hatred: "You should know better than anyone that two years ago I could send you in there, and now, I can still make you fall completely."
"So, be smart and stay away from what's mine from now on. Got it?"
She was certain in her heart that Zoey's expulsion was already set in stone. No matter how she struggled or begged for help now, she was destined to be unable to change this outcome.
That's why she dared to be so arrogant.
Facing her provocation and arrogance, Zoey didn't back down. Instead, she stepped closer.
This forced Cleo to involuntarily step back, fear showing on her face.
"Cleo, you're getting more and more shameless," Zoey said with a smile, her tone light but full of mockery.
Even an idiot like Cleo could hear it.
She was furious, but still steadied herself and said with a smile, "I know you're trying to provoke me, thinking you've won, but Zoey, I have the Blake family behind me. What do you have?"
"You have nothing. Mom and Dad won't help you either. What are you going to fight me with?"
"Be smart and pack your things and get out of the medical school yourself. I might consider letting you go and not holding it against you."
Zoey shrugged: "You're using all this background to pressure me. I'm so scared. Is that the effect you want?"
"Well, I'm going to disappoint you. I don't need to rely on anyone to deal with you. Cleo, want to make a bet?"
Cleo really couldn't stand Zoey being so cocky, but she couldn't refute it. She frowned and instinctively responded: "What bet?"
As soon as she answered, she regretted it, feeling like she'd fallen into a trap Zoey had set.
"If I don't get expelled, I want you to bark like a dog three times, into the broadcast microphone," Zoey said coldly.
Zoey closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She had indeed fallen for this person's trick, but she didn't believe Zoey would win.
So she smiled provocatively and said, "Fine, then if you lose, I want you to streak around the field twice. Do you dare?"
Zoey was digging a pit for her, so she had to dig an even bigger and more disgusting one.
"Sure." Zoey wasn't afraid at all. She just looked at Cleo with a disgusted expression and said, "I didn't expect you to have such heavy tastes and like streaking. You should have said so earlier. I wouldn't have asked you to bark like a pig. How about we change it so you also streak if you lose?"
"No!" Cleo immediately objected.
She was fuming. After she finished speaking, she noticed Zoey looking at her with a teasing expression, and her heart skipped a beat.
This Zoey was really too annoying, always playing these dirty psychological tactics.
Those useless people didn't manage to kill her in prison back then. What a waste of money.
She couldn't lose again. If she lost, the Blake family's attitude toward her would be different.
Zoey could see that Cleo was very panicked. This person only knew how to talk nonsense, yet she kept provoking her again and again. She really didn't know where she got the courage.
"Cleo, do you hate me because I took away Caspian's attention or because of the King family?"
She had wanted to ask this for a long time. She didn't care at all back then, but she didn't expect Cleo to get worse and worse, not knowing how to restrain herself at all.
Now she was even using this matter to try to get the dean to expel her.
Cleo gritted her teeth. She really wanted to shout out "yes," but she couldn't. There were so many people coming and going around here. She couldn't let her true face show.
So she shook her head slightly and said with a smile, "No, I don't hate you. I just think you're not suitable to stay here. How could someone who's been in prison for murder possibly become a doctor in the future?"
"I think we need to be responsible to patients and to society. Most importantly, you're still my sister, a member of the King family. Although the King family has already kicked you out, I still consider you my sister."
"I'm also doing this for your own good, which is why I'm advising you to leave the medical school yourself. So please don't misunderstand, okay?"
This explanation was really watertight.
But Zoey didn't believe it at all: "If you could just hide the hatred in your eyes a bit, I might believe you. Cleo, you're really like a cockroach in the gutter, only using dirty tricks, not daring to confront me directly, because you can't beat me, and you're more afraid I'll retaliate against you."