Chapter 29: Add My WeChat, Little Classmate
“Hello.”
Shen Yuchun almost burst into tears as soon as she heard the voice. She bit her lip, holding back tears: “Hi, could you lend me some money… I’ll pay you back as soon as I have it.”
“How much do you need?”
“Three hundred thousand.”
Shortly after she spoke, a text message notification came.
[Your card ending in XXXX received 300,000.00 yuan on September 9th at 17:15, balance 301,230.07 yuan [ICBC]]
“How have you been?”
Shen Yuchun’s voice was choked with tears: “Not good, not good at all. Liang Zhengzhi had an affair and took Ranran away. I have nothing left, and my mom keeps forcing me to send her money.”
Xu Yanyu’s grip on his cup tightened until it nearly shattered. After a long silence, he finally said: “Where are you? I’ll come pick you up.”
“At the old place.”
…
On weekends, Jiang Qiao’s favorite place was the bookstore, where she could sit for an entire day. Being Friday, the bookstore was quite full of readers – some sitting against bookshelves, some by windows, people everywhere.
Jiang Qiao walked to a bookshelf, her attention caught by a book. Just as she reached for it, another hand reached for the same book. She softly said “sorry” and pulled out another copy from beside it.
Xia Chen’an looked at Jiang Qiao, surprised. She wore a blue and white school uniform, looking particularly well-behaved. She was thin and fair-skinned, with beautiful clear eyes, a pure and clean appearance that caught one’s attention at first glance.
By the time he recovered, the girl had disappeared. He looked down at the book in his hand, thinking about the girl he’d just seen.
Jiang Qiao leaned against the bookshelf, reading until the store was about to close. She finally closed her book and noticed the darkening sky outside. She liked that book “Summer Fireworks and My Corpse” – the hand that reached out had taken it, so she bought another copy.
A stray cat wandered near a grilled sausage stand, meowing. Jiang Qiao bought several sausages and crouched down to feed the cat. It was a little black cat with some injuries, scared of people. Seeing the sausage Jiang Qiao offered, it fearfully hid in the nearby shrubbery.
Afraid it wouldn’t dare eat, Jiang Qiao left the sausage by the road and walked away a bit. She watched as the little cat poked its head out and took the sausage, making her smile. She stood up, preparing to go home.
A young man wore a black short-sleeved shirt, his eyes cold. Yellow-hair now had people with him, giving him courage: “I’m not afraid of you now, Xu Si. Last time I was alone, but not this time.” He complained to the man beside him: “Brother Qian, he’s the one who beat me up last time. My body still hurts.”
The one called Brother Qian wore a floral shirt with permed bangs. He spat out his cigarette and looked at Xu Si, showing yellow teeth: “Kid, I advise you to be sensible. You dare touch Brother Qian’s people?”
He was about to pat Xu Si’s shoulder but Xu Si grabbed his arm.
Qian Wu grimaced in pain and cursed “You’re asking for death.”
Xu Si couldn’t be bothered arguing with these people. His knee hit the man’s stomach, then he grabbed his hair and kicked him to the ground.
Yellow-hair held a metal pipe and tried to hit Xu Si, but Xu Si grabbed his hand and took the pipe, striking his arm.
Xu Si fought recklessly – even against over ten people, none could get the better of him. Xu Si took a solid hit from a pipe, then kicked Yellow-hair away and slammed him against the wall: “You’re fucking asking for death.”
Everyone around was scared by Xu Si’s reckless fighting style.
Yang Shikun and Hao Ming quickly arrived with others.
“Brother Si!” Yang Shikun saw all the people around and silently cursed their shamelessness.
“I’m fine,” he glanced at Yang Shikun. “They didn’t get the better of me.”
Yang Shikun couldn’t help cursing: “Fucking hell, Yellow-hair, Brother Si should’ve finished you last time. You dare bring people to ambush Brother Si? Want to die?”
With the additional people, Xu Si quickly gained the upper hand.
Xu Si played with the metal pipe, his foot on the man before him: “Weren’t you good at fighting?”
This was the scene Jiang Qiao came upon. She stood frozen with her book, unsure whether to leave or what to do.
Xu Si kicked away the person in front of him and looked up to see Jiang Qiao. The girl wore her blue and white school uniform, carrying a backpack and book, seeming completely out of place with her surroundings.
Xu Si walked to her, seeing her calm expression, and smiled strangely: “Not scared this time?”
“I am scared.” Jiang Qiao looked at his fierce face and swallowed.
Xu Si handed her his phone: “Wait here.”
Jiang Qiao stood dumbly holding his phone, watching him go back.
Xu Si raised the metal pipe to strike Yellow-hair. Jiang Qiao closed her eyes in fright.
“Get lost.”
The expected pain didn’t come. Yellow-hair scrambled up and fled.
Xu Si walked to Jiang Qiao, seeing she had indeed obediently waited there holding his phone.
Seeing him approach, Jiang Qiao handed back his phone: “Your phone.”
She stared at the wound on Xu Si’s neck for a moment: “Your neck is bleeding.”
Xu Si casually wiped it: “I know.”
Yang Shikun looked at the two, feeling his ship might be sailing again.
“Don’t take shortcuts alone so late.”
Jiang Qiao made an “mm” sound: “I understand. I’ll go now.”
Xu Si walked beside her: “I’ll walk with you for a bit. It’s on my way.”
“Thank you.”
Yang Shikun looked between Jiang Qiao and Xu Si: “Brother Si, we’ll go first then.”
“Mm.”
Jiang Qiao saw an open supermarket and said to the person beside her: “I’m going to the supermarket.”
Xu Si replied: “Okay.”
As Jiang Qiao was about to pay for the bandaids, she saw Xu Si come in. He took a bottle of milk from the shelf and asked the owner: “How much in total?”
“Eight yuan.”
Xu Si paid, took the bandaids from her hand, and put the milk in her hand.
Jiang Qiao stared blankly at the milk in her hand, watching him tear open the bandaid package and casually stick it on his neck.
“Add my WeChat, little classmate.”
“Huh?”
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