Chapter 5: He Said Don’t Leave After School
During the third afternoon class, Jiang Qiao was reading in the classroom when she heard someone was looking for her outside. She walked to the door and saw an unfamiliar female student.
The girl wore a crop top and had dyed her hair chestnut brown with curls that reached her collarbone. She had multiple ear piercings and wore bright red lipstick, looking quite flashy.
“Can I help you?” Jiang Qiao asked.
The girl looked Jiang Qiao up and down. The girl before her was thin and fair-skinned, wearing a blue and white school uniform neatly with a low ponytail.
Crossing her arms, the girl asked, “You’re Xu Si’s desk mate? I’ve never seen you before.”
“I’m new here,” Jiang Qiao explained. “I just transferred a few days ago, and the teacher assigned me to sit next to him.”
“Oh,” the girl said threateningly, “Stay away from him.”
Back at her seat, Jiang Qiao pondered these words. Stay away from Xu Si? Was she just threatened?
Yang Shikun watched Jiang Qiao continue writing and drawing on paper. He couldn’t help but ask, “Jiang, what did they say to you?”
“I’m not sure what she meant.”
Looking into her clear eyes, Yang Shikun felt he couldn’t say anything crude to such a good girl. No wonder Si-ge helped her on the first day. Jiang Qiao was just too well-behaved. And pretty too.
“Did they say anything mean to you?”
Jiang Qiao thought for a moment, then shook her head. “She just told me to stay away from Xu Si.”
“That girl is Shen Mo. She’s crazy about Si-ge, but he doesn’t like her. He’s rejected her many times. Si-ge doesn’t like any girls.” Yang Shikun didn’t know why he was explaining, but seeing Jiang Qiao watching him, he felt compelled to explain.
“I see, thank you.”
Luo Xing and two others gathered around, asking if Shen Mo had given her trouble. Jiang Qiao shook her head: “She just told me to stay away from Xu Si, nothing else.”
“She threatened you for no reason and you’re not angry?” Luo Xing asked in surprise.
“No, I’m not.”
Looking at her obedient expression, Luo Xing was almost starry-eyed. “Wow, you really have such a good temper!”
She then added quietly, “Actually, quite a few girls like Xu Si. He’s good-looking, comes from a good family, just a bit fierce. He doesn’t interact with girls, which is why some people spread rumors that he doesn’t like girls.”
Likes boys instead? Jiang Qiao didn’t have much time left and just wanted to be happy. She didn’t want to waste energy on unimportant things.
Xu Si barely made it back before class started. Yang Shikun tossed a note onto his desk.
Xu Si raised an eyebrow. “What’s this? Can’t you just tell me directly?”
Yang Shikun made faces at him to open and read it. Xu Si opened the note to find Yang Shikun had written: Shen Mo came to see Jiang Qiao during break.
Xu Si frowned, glanced at Jiang Qiao who was seriously reading her book, and decided to talk to her after class. What did Shen Mo want with Jiang Qiao?
Fighting his irritation, he tossed a note to Jiang Qiao. He watched as she slipped it under her book and sneakily read it when the teacher turned around. Such a good student, peeking at notes like an elementary school kid.
The note read: “Don’t leave after school. Need to talk to you.”
The note came back to him. Xu Si opened it to find a single word: “Okay.”
Jiang Qiao didn’t know what he wanted to discuss, maybe about the afternoon’s events? She quickly put it out of her mind and focused on the teacher’s lecture.
Soon it was time to leave school. Most students had left when Jiang Qiao turned to Xu Si and asked, “What did you want to talk about?”
“Shen Mo came to see you today?”
Jiang Qiao thought for a moment, realizing he meant the girl from earlier. She nodded.
“What did she say?”
“She told me to stay away from you.”
“That’s all?”
“Yes, that’s all.”
Xu Si was quiet for a while, looking at the well-behaved girl in front of him before finally saying, “Don’t mind her.”
Jiang Qiao glanced at him. “I know.”
Remembering the bruises he’d seen on her wrist days before, Xu Si instinctively looked at her wrists. Today she wore a jacket that covered the marks.
Unable to hold back, Xu Si asked what was on his mind: “Do your parents abuse you?”
Jiang Qiao: “?”
She looked up at him confused.
Seeing her bewildered expression, Xu Si explained, “I saw the marks on your arm the other day. I wasn’t going to ask…”
Jiang Qiao rolled up her sleeve to show him. “You mean this?”
Her wrists were naturally pale, making the purple bruises look particularly frightening, as if someone had hit her.
“I did this to myself.”
“You self-harm?”
Jiang Qiao shook her head. “No, I was feeling unwell and pinched myself.”
Watching her answer questions so earnestly, Xu Si found her exceptionally well-behaved.
“I’ve answered everything. Can I go now?”
“Yes.”
Watching Jiang Qiao’s retreating figure, Xu Si’s lips curved into a slight smile.
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