“You can’t slander our children without evidence!”
“Yes! Our child’s grades aren’t good enough and is a bit naughty. But what era is this now? Are we still discriminating based on grades?”
“Doesn’t your No. 26 High School advocate the all-round development of moral, intellectual, physical, beauty, and labor education? How do you still judge children by their grades? Just because these two are good students, does that mean what they say is always right?”
The commotion in the office continued for a long time without any result. Eventually, all people involved were suspended from classes to reflect at home, while awaiting further notice from the school.
Mai Dayong and his group were all taken away by their parents. The crowd left in a noisy manner, leaving Fu Xiang standing along, looking particularly isolated.
When Shen Ji left, he took advantage of his family and teachers not paying attention to quietly look back and silently say something to Fu Xiang. Judging from his lip movements, it roughly said, “See you later, brother.”
“Alright, you two go back to class first.” Lao Gu put his hands on Yu Sui and Yan Xiu’s shoulders, leading them out of the office. “We will discuss the rest with Fu Xiang.”
The office door closed again. And through the blinds, one could vaguely make out the figure of the boy tightly clutching his backpack.
The homeroom teacher, teachers from other classes, department heads, and even principal surrounded him.
Yu Sui suddenly felt that the seemingly powerful circle was constantly squeezing the living space of the person to survive.
Fu Xiang was restrained, trapped in a dilemma because an obvious matter remained unresolved due to his persistent denial.
Yu Sui pressed his lips together and said nothing. He noticed from the corner of his eye that Yan Xiu was standing at the side waiting for him, so he didn’t stay for long.
The silence brought out from the office suddenly felt abrupt.
This wasn’t a comforting kind of quiet. Yu Sui glanced at the back of the head of the person in front of him and silently closed his mouth again.
Depressed and irritable emotions were emotions that was unpredictable. Words that Young Master Yu would never say before suddenly popped out without any warning. It wasn’t known whether Yan Xiu was angry or not, but it definitely startled himself.
He was caught in subtle embarrassment and regret, while worrying about Fu Xiang who remained in the office behind them. He was still angry and felt that the more he said, the more mistakes he would make, so he simply stopped speaking.
He didn’t speak, and Yan Xiu didn’t speak either. Awkwardness was the connecting thread of the evening as they walked one after the other, ignoring each other.
If they hadn’t run into Fu Xiang’s family at the stairwell, they could have maintained this state.
It was an elderly auntie—holding onto her skirt and supporting her legs, while walking slowly. When she saw them, she asked hurriedly: “Do you know which class Fu Xiang from Grade 12, Class 6, is in?”
The two men stopped to point her in the direction of the office. The old lady paused, grabbing onto the hem of her shirt to wipe her hands, and asked, “Little classmate, do you know what our Fu Xiang did wrong? How did he end up in the office?”
Yu Sui froze. He instinctively wanted to look at Yan Xiu, but stopped: “Auntie, he didn’t do anything wrong.”
He said with some difficulty: “He just ran into a bit of trouble. The school and the teachers will help him solve it.”
Later, after evening study, someone in the class said they saw Fu Xiang leaving the school with an old woman. And, he didn’t come to the class the next day.
“Did you hear? Yesterday, Mai Dayong and Shen Ji blocked Fu Xiang from Class 6 in the toilet.”
“The area wasn’t allowed, so I’m not sure.”
“……”
Two girls walking together to the restroom passed by the stairwell and saw a boy standing near the handrail. They both paused.
“… Yu Sui.” One of the girls stepped forward quietly. “What happened yesterday?”
Even though the school was tight-lipped and strictly prohibited the discussion of the matter, the little rumor that got out still made people smell something.
Yu Sui didn’t answer her. If the girl was a little less excited and embarrassed to look at Yu Sui more, she would have noticed that this usually good-tempered boy was in a bad mood at the moment.
“Yu Sui?”
Yu Sui glanced at her and said, “I don’t know.”
He nodded, before grabbing the railing and going upstairs. During this period, Class 3 had a PE class—as soon as he turned around, he saw Yan Xiu coming down the stairs. Their eyes met each other unexpectedly.
Yu Sui froze, then passed Yan Xiu and ran upstairs.
“Where are you running off?” Yang Feiwen hooked an arm around Yu Sui. “It’s time for class.”
A few boys followed closely behind Yang Feiwen, holding Yu Sui on both sides and saying, “Come on, let us play basketball with you. Look at you, spacing out all day—”
Yu Sui was pulled and dragged, stumbling along, past Yan Xi. Yang Feiwen suddenly let go of Yu Sui and turned to ask Yan Xiu: “Minister, we are going to play basketball. Do you want to join us?”
Yu Sui felt goosebumps on his neck again and couldn’t move.
All the nerves in his body were focused on his ears and his back. It took a long moment before he heard Yan Xiu’s cool, indifferent voice.
“Mm.”
Yan Xiu agreed.
Yu Sui’s nervousness instantly dissipated—he let out a sigh of relief for no apparent reason, but immediately grew tense again.
The basketball court of No. 26 High School was wide open. The weather was particularly good that day, the sunlight shining brightly on them. Before they’d even played half a game, a boy had already lifted half his shirt to wring out the sweat.
The girls from Class 3 were rushing around delivering water and towels—even busier than the boys who were playing.
Yi Tian, clutching two bottles of water, squeezed over to Yu Sui and Yang Feiwen and handed them over. She lowered her voice and asked, “Yu Sui, did you have a fight with Yan Xiu?”
Yu Sui took the water. Glancing in the direction of Yan Xiu with his eyes, he said gently, “No.”
To begin with, the two of them weren’t close with each other.
After Yi Tian walked away, Yang Feiwen turned his face closer: “You two definitely have a problem.”
“What problem?” Yu Sui unscrewed the cap off to drink, then casually leaned against the railing. Squinting his eyes, he swept seemingly a casual glance across the court.
Yan Xiu’s handsome profile easily became the focus among high school students. Yu Sui glanced over intentionally or unintentionally several times, and couldn’t help being annoyed while holding the water bottle in his mouth.
When they were divided into groups, he and Yan Xiu were always in the same team, but they never ended up near each other during the game. Every time he got the ball, he always saw Yan Xiu standing far away.
The villain in Yu Sui’s heart screamed wildly.
“When has Young Master Yu ever been given the cold shoulder like this before?” Yang Feiwen said.
Yi Tian brought the water to Yan Xiu. Yu Sui followed the bottle of water and suddenly met Yan Xiu’s eyes. He hastily took it back and touched his nose guiltily.
“What?” he mumbled in reply.
Yang Feiwen sounded a bit helpless: “Ah.”
In the next game, Yang Feiwen got the ball and turned around to pass it to Yan Xiu, who dribbled past the opponent. Yu Sui was blocking and found himself next to Yan Xiu. They were still far from the basket, and the situation wasn’t optimistic, since the opposing defender Tang Bohu was tall and fierce at blocking.
Yu Sui paused for a moment, then asked in a low voice, “A-Wen ran over. How about calling A-Wen?”
Yan Xiu seemed to hesitate for a moment, but didn’t respond. Then he jumped up with the ball and made a long shot.
The basketball arched through the air with swift efficiency and entered the hoop, thumping onto the ground.
Three points.
No one expected that the Minister had such a skill to show off, and he was so efficient that only when the ball went into the basket did some people jump up and scream, covering their mouths.
Yu Sui turned around, but Yan Xiu didn’t even have the awareness to celebrate and high-five his teammates.
He didn’t leave though, just holding the hem of his clothes to wipe his sweat. He didn’t have time to say the response just now, but now he casually said: “No need.”
Cold, inhuman, and dull.
Yu Sui muttered a bunch of words in his heart, not daring to utter a single word. He stared at the man’s finger for a long time and whispered, “Are you angry?”
Yan Xiu: “…”
He didn’t continue wiping his sweat off his face, just held up his clothes.
Actually, Yan Xiu just wanted to leave early to change his clothes. He agreed to play basketball only because a certain young master was sulking and in a bad mood, and seemed to be holding back on what he wanted to say.
But he had been on the basketball court for too long and was sweating too much—he didn’t want to stay any longer.
Yu Sui waited for three seconds and said quickly, “I’m sorry.”
After saying that, he jogged away before anyone else came over.
Yang Feiwen shouted after him: “You’re not playing anymore?”
“No more playing.” Yu Sui said.
Outside the basketball court, sunlight and shadows crisscrossed on the cement ground. As he passed the school gate, a group of people suddenly appeared outside the iron fence.
They weren’t wearing school uniforms and stood in a row laughing. Someone shouted “Yu Sui” from a distance.
A white object flew towards Yu Sui. It was a sandbag. But Yu Sui was standing far away, so the sandbag didn’t hit him; instead, it hit his feet, raising a cloud of sand.
Yu Sui turned around and looked at those people expressionlessly.
Mai Dayong leaned against the iron railing and said, “I originally thought of you as a half-brother, but you treat me like this.”
“You’re really something.” Mai Dayong stared at him and said, “If you insist on licking that police, don’t blame me for being merciless in the future.”
Yu Sui didn’t say anything. He picked up the sandbag and weighed it in his hand.
A hand suddenly came down on his shoulder, forcibly stopping Yu Sui’s action.
Yu Sui didn’t move, his arms stiff, allowing the person behind him to take the sandbag from his hands.
It was Yan Xiu.
Yan Xiu wrapped an arm around Yu Sui from behind, gripping him firmly the way Yang Feiwen usually did to comfort him.
Yan Xiu was still as unmoved as usual. He even walked to the railing and asked them, “Why do you dare to come back?”
“You bastard.” Someone sneered.
“Why shouldn’t we?” Nothing thrilled them more than challenging authority.
Mai Dayong wasn’t afraid of Yan Xiu now: “So what if I fucking break the rules right now? To be honest, those few points you fucking deduct mean nothing to me.”
“Don’t even mention that poor bastard.” Mai Dayong pointed at him, “Once you leave the school, you’ll have to kneel down on the ground, calling me daddy.”
Yu Sui tried to grab the sandbag from Yan Xiu’s hand, but Yan Xiu dodged it easily.
Yan Xiu seemed to not expect that Yu Sui would rush over to snatch things, so he simply wrapped his arms around Yu Sui’s neck and held him to prevent him from moving.
Mai Dayong and Shen Ji’s group were cursing loudly, and the security office had to call three security guards over to drive them away.
The young master rarely swore: “Let me go. Are you crazy? Why are you standing here and letting them curse at you?”
“Young master, hitting people is wrong.” Yan Xiu released him, pushing his head to look upwards at around 45-degree angle. “Look, there’s a surveillance camera there, with audio recording.”
No. 26 High School had once experienced an incident, where parents got into a fight with school administrators at the gate—causing the case to go to court. Since then, the equipment at the school gate had always been the most advanced models.
Yan Xiu, with his position as the Minister of Disciplinary Committee, was able to retrieve the video very quickly. Just from Mai Dayong’s reckless words in the video, he could directly prove that Mai Dayong, Shen Ji, and others were bullying Fu Xiang.
After obtaining this, Yu Sui didn’t rush to find a teacher. At this time, Mai Dayong and others were suspended from school, and Fu Xiang hadn’t returned to school either. He wanted to wait for Fu Xiang to come back, then ask Fu Xiang about this.
However, after waiting for several days, Fu Xiang didn’t come back, but he did get some strange news.
It was said that Mai Dayong and his group went to an internet cafe—when they came out to relieve themselves, they were dragged into an alley and beaten up. Because they were in an illegal internet cafe, they didn’t dare to report it to the police. But when they returned to the internet cafe, they ran right into a raid on unlicensed internet cafes and got hauled into a police station.
