Liu Xingfa gripped her chin. “Haven’t I been good enough to you?” “You have.” “Then why do you want to break up with me?” “Because now isn’t the time for dating, and my grades have dropped significantly.”
Her grades had declined, and Li Xin had questioned her repeatedly, asking over and over if she was dating someone. If she was, they would have to break up.
Liu Xingfa clicked his tongue and grabbed her wrist. When she struggled, he tied her to the equipment. She began crying.
Liu Xingfa took out his phone and took several photos, smirking. “I wonder what everyone would think if they saw the top student like this? Just thinking about it is exciting, don’t you think?”
“Don’t take photos of me, please don’t.”
“Brother Si, I think I hear something in there,” Yang Shikun said suspiciously, looking at the closed equipment room.
Xu Si glanced over, hearing rustling sounds and suddenly a girl’s voice: “Help me!”
Liu Xingfa covered Qin Lu’s mouth, threatening: “Be quiet. You dare break up with me? One more sound and these photos will be all over the school forum tomorrow.”
Xu Si told Yang Shikun: “Break down the door, someone’s inside.”
He kicked open the door of the equipment room. He appeared against the light, like a hero.
Yang Shikun saw Qin Lu in distress and Liu Xingfa restraining her. “What are you doing? Why did you lock her in here?”
Xu Si pulled Liu Xingfa away and told Yang Shikun: “Hold him. Don’t let him leave.”
He turned his head away: “Fix your clothes first. Take your time and tell us what happened.”
Qin Lu straightened her uniform, crying so hard she could barely speak: “He…dragged me here…took photos…”
Xu Si’s eyes flashed. Yang Shikun searched Liu Xingfa’s pockets and found a phone. “Unlock it.”
“It’s my phone. You have no right to look.”
Xu Si punched him in the face: “Unlock it.”
Liu Xingfa was a coward who only preyed on the weak. He entered his password.
Xu Si commanded coldly: “Delete those photos.”
Liu Xingfa trembled as he went to his gallery, selected the photos, and deleted them.
“Anything else? Did you clear the recently deleted folder?”
Liu Xingfa shook his head desperately: “No, nothing else. That’s all. Everything’s deleted.”
Yang Shikun checked the phone and nodded to Xu Si.
Xu Si, unsure how to comfort a girl, asked Qin Lu: “Do you want me to call the police or teachers?”
“No police. Don’t tell the teachers.”
Yang Shikun said: “But what he did was criminal. If we hadn’t passed by, do you know what could have happened?”
Qin Lu just repeated: “No police. Don’t tell the teachers.”
If this got out, Li Xin would be furious. She wouldn’t care what Qin Lu had been through. She would only think Qin Lu was tainted, like a rotten flower.
Xu Si was quiet for a moment before asking: “We’ll respect your decision. But I’ll ask one last time – are you sure you don’t want to report this?”
Qin Lu shook her head: “No need. Thank you.”
Xu Si walked up to Liu Xingfa, looking down at him: “Do you understand what you were trying to do today?”
Liu Xingfa kept his head down, biting his lip without speaking.
Yang Shikun burst out: “Stop acting like a coward. This is attempted assault, do you understand? Taking photos of a girl like that – are you even a man? Disgusting.”
Liu Xingfa knew who Xu Si was. Provoking this troublemaker meant spending weeks in the hospital. He knelt and grabbed Xu Si’s legs: “I was wrong. I shouldn’t have taken those photos or had bad intentions. Nothing happened – please let me go.”
Xu Si recorded everything he said as evidence in case the girl changed her mind later.
Xu Si kicked him away: “Don’t touch me. You’re disgusting.”
As he dragged Liu Xingfa out, someone tugged his sleeve gently.
“Please, could you not tell anyone about this?”
Xu Si responded: “Alright, I’ll keep it secret.” After a pause, he added: “Do you need to borrow my phone to call home?”
“Thank you.” Qin Lu was still extremely tense as she took his phone.
…
Qin Lu felt she might have made a mistake asking Xu Si to keep her secret. He had saved her, yet she brought him trouble. He had burst in like a hero radiating light, but now everyone saw him as the aggressor. And it was all because of her.
She saw Liu Xingfa walk into the classroom and look at her. His gaze was sickening, making her nauseous as memories of that day and his ugly face flooded back.
She noticed a white paper in her desk – the latest test scores. She pulled it out and saw Liu Xingfa ranked near the top, while she had fallen to the bottom. The paper crumpled in her grip.
“Qin Lu, come out for a moment.”
Class 7’s head teacher was a strict woman with black-framed glasses. She put the score sheet on the desk and pointed to Qin Lu’s ranking: “Do you see your ranking this time?”
Qin Lu kept her head down, not daring to look: “Yes.”
“Qin Lu, you weren’t like this before. I always thought you were a promising student. How did your grades drop so much? Are you not focusing on your studies? I called your mother today – she says you don’t want to come to school. I’ve noticed too that you haven’t been concentrating on your studies lately…”
Qin Lu was in a daze, barely aware of how she left the office.
…
“Holy shit, did you hear? Something happened on the roof!” “What?”
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