Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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Yu Zhuo had found out from Yang Xinyuan the time and place where the group from No. 3 Middle School would ambush Ji Rang.
As soon as school got over, he went to pick up Qi Ying from Class 2 of Grade 11, but Yue Li, arm in arm with Qi Ying, said, “We’re going to Yinxiang City for shopping.”
Yinxiang City was a once bustling wholesale market, with cheap and varied goods. Now it had evolved into a dazzling street of small commodities, and nearby there were several KTVs, arcades, billiard halls, and a series of other mid-to-low-end entertainment venues, making it a must-visit for junior and senior high school students.
Okay, okay, let’s go shopping, anyway, there’s still more than an hour before the fight starts. Yu Zhuo followed behind them, carrying his backpack. At first, he only carried his own backpack on one shoulder, but later, somehow he became a clothes rack, carrying three backpacks. They had a lot of homework on the weekend, and the three backpacks, filled with textbooks, were incredibly heavy.
Shopping like this was like being slowly tortured; he’d be better off running with heavy loads.
Seeing how exhausted he was, Yue Li took pity on him and said, “Why don’t you sit and wait for us at the milk tea shop? Coco Milk Tea is just down that alley ahead. We can wander around there for a bit more and then we’ll be done.”
Yu Zhuo felt like he’d been granted a pardon: “Let’s go!”
The three of them took a shortcut through the alley.
There were many old houses nearby, with a tangled mess of cables and sparrows swarming around, leaving droppings everywhere. Long bamboo poles stretched out of the windows, their brightly colored underwear swaying in the wind.
The alleys were a maze, and it was easy to go the wrong way if you weren’t careful. Yue Li led the way, saying, “I’ll treat you to milk tea later.”
Yu Zhuo snapped, “A short guy like you has no right to call her ‘sister’!”
Yue Li turned around and walked backwards, holding up two fingers at him: “You’ve already offended me twice. Once you called my legs thick, and once you called me short.”
Yu Zhuo: “…”
Was she really that vengeful?
As they turned the corner, six or seven people stood under a telephone pole in the deep alley.
One of them lay face down on the ground, his head slightly tilted back because the boy squatting down was holding his hair at the back of his head. Blood streamed down his forehead, covering his face in a gruesome manner.
The boy still had a smirk on his lips, seemingly nonchalant, but his tone was sinister: “This is the last warning. If you keep bothering me, it won’t just be bloodshed.”
He dusted himself off, stood up, and stepped on the man’s face, asking in a chilling voice, “Got it?”
The man nodded, crying.
He smiled with satisfaction, casually looking up and seeing the three people standing dumbfounded at the alley entrance.
His expression immediately changed.
Yue Li’s legs trembled slightly, and she stammered, “He…he won’t come and kill us, will he?”
Yu Zhuo: “…”
Yang Xinyuan, what an unreliable bast**d! What happened to Zhang Daqing leading people to ambush Ji Rang? What he saw was Ji Rang rubbing Zhang Daqing to the ground!
However… he glanced at Qi Ying.
Hadn’r he accidentally let Qi Ying see this side of Ji Rang? Was this the success of his plan?
To be honest, even he was scared of Ji Rang’s appearance just now.
Yue Li trembled and tugged at his sleeve, almost crying, “He’s coming… he’s coming… I can’t move, waaaaah, my legs are so weak, Mom, I’m sorry, your daughter has to go before you, waaaaah…”
Yu Zhuo mustered his courage and stepped forward.
Ji Rang walked up to him.
But his gaze passed over him, landing on Qi Ying, who stood quietly behind him.
She saw it, didn’t she?
She saw it all, how fierce and wicked he looked.
She must be afraid of him too.
Damn it.
Yu Zhuo tried to straighten his back, but sadly realized he was still a few centimeters shorter than Ji Rang. He reached out to shield the two girls behind him, wary and alert, “What are you doing? We were just passing by.”
Yue Li nodded like a chick pecking at rice, “Right, right, we didn’t see anything.”
These two treated him like a murderer.
But Qi Ying smiled at him.
It was the same joyful and gentle look she gave him every time she saw him.
There was no fear or disgust in those crescent-shaped eyes, not even a trace of it, as he had imagined.
Ji Rang froze, even the sinister aura emanating from him dissipated considerably.
Yu Zhuo, holding Qi Ying with one hand and Yue Li with the other, three schoolbags slung over his shoulders, tried to run.
Ji Rang suddenly spoke: “Don’t come to places like this again.” He glanced at Yu Zhuo, his face expressionless. “It’s not safe.”
With that, he turned and walked back. He beckoned with his finger, and the group of menacing-looking teenagers by the telephone pole obediently followed, leaving only Zhang Daqing groaning on the ground.
Yue Li’s legs went weak, and she almost sat down. She then asked Yu Zhuo, “Should we call the police?”
Yu Zhuo stared at Ji Rang’s retreating figure and slowly shook his head. “That guy asked for it. Let’s go.”
The Coco milk tea shop was just beyond the alley.
Yue Li collapsed as soon as she arrived at the store, her legs too weak to move. Qi Ying stayed with her while Yu Zhuo went to buy milk tea. When she returned, she heard Yue Li sobbing and wailing, “Ying Ying, why do you seem so calm? I was so scared just now, waaaaaah!”
Yu Zhuo also found it strange. So after sitting down, he took out his phone and sent a WeChat message to Qi Ying: “Sister, aren’t you scared?”
Qi Ying, biting her straw, replied: “Scared of what?”
Yu Zhuo: “Didn’t you see how Ji Rang hit that person? He was so ruthless.”
Qi Ying: “Someone has to do the work of punishing evil and promoting good.”
Yu Zhuo: “Wait, sister, are you using the wrong idiom?”
Qi Ying sipped her milk tea, thinking, “It would be strange if I was scared. It was the same back then. The general only rectified the decadent and neglectful training camp after returning to the capital. During that time, the young masters of the noble families in the capital would avoid him, turning pale at the mention of his name and trembling at the sight of him.”
It wasn’t until he led his troops into battle again that many of the reclusive playboys finally dared to venture out.
She was furious to hear that some people were even setting off firecrackers in front of their homes to celebrate the general’s departure from the capital.
Yu Zhuo, who was poking pearls with a straw, was inexplicably glared at by his older sister.
After this bloody little incident, Yue Li lost all interest in shopping, said goodbye to the siblings at the intersection, and got into a taxi. Yu Zhuo had originally planned to take Qi Ying to catch the bus, but as they passed the billiards hall, he got itchy fingers.
It was Friday, and all the schools were on holiday, making the billiard hall incredibly lively. Many skilled players would show off their skills there; Yu Zhuo had learned to play billiards there.
However, it was mostly filled with boys, and the atmosphere was smoky and chaotic. He looked around and saw a nicely decorated ice cream shop downstairs. He took Qi Ying there and ordered her favorite strawberry ice cream.
He then texted her: “Sis, I’m going to play a game of billiards. Wait here for me.”
Qi Ying nodded.
Yu Zhuo threw his backpack down and ran off.
Qi Ying sat obediently eating her ice cream. The ice cream shop wasn’t crowded, and the staff just treated her like a regular customer, idly playing on their phones behind the counter while waiting for the next customer.
Soon, two girls came in, chatting and laughing.
One of them nudged her companion with her elbow when she saw Qi Ying.
He Jing looked over, following the gesture, and her smile vanished.
The two girls exchanged a glance, and He Jing took out her phone and sent a message to Xue Manqing, quickly receiving a reply: “Bring her over.”
He Jing walked up to Qi Ying, a slight smile on her face, and showed her the screen: “Qi Ying, I’m from the class next door. Some of my classmates and I are having fun at the karaoke bar over there, and we’d like you to come along.”
Qi Ying read the message, her gaze falling on He Jing’s face, and she shook her head. He Jing’s eyes held a wary glint; she wasn’t as easily fooled as she seemed. He Jing stared at her for a while, then her smile faded. Suddenly, she reached for two backpacks on the sofa, grabbed them, and turned to leave.
Qi Ying was startled, calling out silently. Seeing He Jing walk out the door, she could only chase after her.
He Jing and her companion each carried a backpack and walked incredibly fast. Qi Ying chased for a long time but couldn’t catch up, so she simply gave up, stopping to take out her phone and text Yu Zhuo: “Our backpacks have been stolen!”
Seeing her stop, He Jing smiled broadly and shook the backpacks, as if to say, “Don’t you want them anymore?”
Qi Ying took two steps forward, and He Jing took two more steps.
Qi Ying was about to cry from anger.
He Jing laughed so hard she almost fell over, saying to her companion, “Doesn’t it look like walking a dog?”
Before she could finish speaking, her arm was suddenly pulled back, almost dislocated, and the backpacks were snatched away. The two girls screamed and turned around, but their screams caught in their throats when they saw Ji Rang behind them.
He was wearing a white T-shirt, the hem stained with someone else’s blood from the fight, standing there carrying a backpack in each hand, a smile playing on his lips, asking them very “amiably,” “What are you doing?”
He Jing was so frightened she couldn’t speak.
After a long while, she stammered, “We…we were just playing around…”
Ji Rang didn’t speak, just staring at her coldly.
He Jing was almost crying, “We were helping our new classmate carry her schoolbag…it’s too heavy, we were helping her…”
Ji Rang finally spoke, “The schoolbags are full of homework. Since you like them so much, why don’t you do all the homework you snatched?”
He placed the two schoolbags on the white porcelain flower bed next to him and coldly ordered, “Open them.”
He Jing and her companion didn’t dare to hesitate and hurriedly went over, squatted down, and opened the schoolbags.
Haicheng No. 1 Middle School required students to use a special notebook to record their weekly homework. Qi Ying and Yu Zhuo’s homework notebooks were on the outermost side, and could be seen by flipping them open.
He Jing tremblingly took out the test paper that Qi Ying had to do this weekend. She then heard Ji Rang say, “Squat here and finish it.”
The two didn’t dare to disobey, they took out their pens and notebooks, and squatted by the flower bed, crying as they wrote.
Ji Rang said, “You can’t get a single question wrong.”
The two cried even harder.
He turned around, and Qi Ying was standing obediently behind him, her eyes still red, which was heartbreaking to see. He looked around; seeing he had no sleeves, he offered her the hem of his own shirt, tilting his chin slightly as he said, “Let’s go get something to eat.”
Qi Ying obediently took his hand and followed him.
Around the corner was a dessert shop. He bought her a box of strawberry pudding and sat down opposite her.
Qi Ying had never tried pudding before. She took a bite; it was sweet and creamy, melting in her mouth. She looked at Ji Rang with surprise and then took another bite.
Ji Rang rested his chin on his hand and asked calmly, “Why did your brother leave you behind again?”
She pushed the pudding towards him a little, her beautiful eyes blinking.
He laughed, “I don’t like sweets.”
But the sweetness was irresistible.
He picked up a spoon and scooped a spoonful into his mouth.
Qi Ying looked at him expectantly.
Ji Rang thought to himself: What awful stuff, sickeningly sweet.
Then he nodded at Qi Ying.
She smiled happily.
After finishing their dessert, the two returned to the spot where they had been fighting over the backpack. He Jing and her friend were still squatting there, writing, their legs numb from squatting. But they didn’t dare get up. Seeing him return, He Jing’s voice trembled with tears as she pleaded softly, “Can we leave now?”
Ji Rang coldly replied, “You can only leave when you’ve finished.”
He Jing’s tears, which had just stopped, immediately flowed again: “I’m bad at math, I really can’t do this math paper…”
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