Chapter 17
Winter nights were always long.
At seven in the morning, the sky was still dark.
At the entrance of Class 8, Year 10, a few students were gathered by the railing, eating breakfast brought in by day students from outside the school, whispering about something.
“She only has one set of school uniform. She usually washes it on the weekend, and it’s not even dry by Monday when she has to wear it. This time someone drew on it, and she didn’t dare to say a word… If she’s willing to be a doormat, then she deserves to be bullied, right?”
“Are you talking about her? Isn’t Qi Xia in the same dorm as her? I heard this person is very stingy. If you use a little bit of her stuff, she’ll hide it away, as if anyone cares. Everyone’s stuff is on the washstand. If something is missing, isn’t it just a matter of saying something and borrowing it? Who knows which one is hers?”
“She’s not even willing to buy hot water tickets. She uses cold water for everything…”
“Her family is poor. She mooches off other people’s meal cards every day.”
“But she’s not a student with special financial difficulties…”
Suddenly, someone coughed and gave a look, and the conversation came to an abrupt halt.
Jian Xin had just finished her breakfast at the school gate. Before she even entered the classroom, she heard a bunch of gossip, and she felt a little annoyed.
“Hey, why did you stop talking? I only heard a few sentences,” Jian Xin said with a smile, walking over. “Who were you guys talking about just now?”
“No one, just… someone from another class.”
“Someone from another class? Then how are they in the same dorm as Qi Xia? I remember the dorms aren’t mixed,” Jian Xin’s smile didn’t fade as she looked at her former deskmate. “Zhang Danya, aren’t you good friends with Qi Xia? I’m a day student, so I don’t know about these things. Which of her roommates were you talking about?”
Zhang Danya’s mouth hung open, not daring to speak.
Li Yue: “What’s it to you? You obviously heard, so why are you still asking? What’s with the passive-aggressive tone?”
Zhang Danya: “Li Yue! That’s not what Jian Xin meant!”
“Right, right, that’s really not what I meant,” Jian Xin smiled, her tone calm. “It’s just that from what you were talking about, I almost thought No. 3 High was some kind of elite academy, where they look at your background, not your grades.”
“What do you mean by that?!”
“Literally what I said,” Jian Xin said, flipping her ponytail and turning to walk into the classroom.
“What’s with her passive-aggressive attitude?” Someone behind her was clearly triggered, their voice much louder. “What’s with all this talk about grades? Are her grades that good?! A good-for-nothing who ranks in the seven hundreds!”
“Calm down, calm down!”
“Birds of a feather really do flock together…”
Jian Xin rolled her eyes, her lips twitching slightly, and let out a soft “tch.”
Returning to her seat, Jian Xin saw Yan Lu engrossed in writing her novel. She casually greeted her, then subconsciously glanced behind her.
She had gone to her vocal lesson during last night’s self-study session. In just one night, someone had used a green watercolor pen to draw an ugly crying face on Yan Lu’s school uniform.
Jian Xin: “Who drew that?”
Yan Lu shook her head, not saying a word.
Jian Xin: “Just tell me. It’s not like I’m going to fight with anyone. I just want to avoid trouble and stay away from them in the future.”
Yan Lu thought for a moment and said softly, “Wang Xiaofeng.”
“Oh, that bastard,” Jian Xin said, suddenly standing up from her seat.
Yan Lu quickly grabbed her sleeve. “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t…”
Jian Xin: “Of course I’m not going to fight.”
Yan Lu opened her mouth, about to say something persuasive, when she saw Jian Xin put her hands on her hips, stride back a few rows with an “I-don’t-recognize-my-own-kin” gait, and ask a female classmate in a pleasant tone, “Does Wang Xiaofeng sit here?”
“Yes,” the girl nodded. “He’s outside eating break…”
Before the girl could finish her sentence, Jian Xin had already reached out and pulled the schoolbag out of the desk.
The bag’s zipper was open, and her actions were too rough. With a clatter, the books and stationery inside the bag fell to the floor.
The girl beside them stared with wide eyes and subconsciously moved away.
Jian Xin crouched down, picked up a green watercolor pen from the floor, and drew a big smiley face on the blue schoolbag.
Just as she finished drawing the smiley face, an angry shout came from behind her.
Wang Xiaofeng: “Jian Xin? Are you sick!!”
Jian Xin looked up, her face innocent. “Is there a problem?”
Wang Xiaofeng: “You…”
Jian Xin tossed the pen in her hand, propped her hands on her knees, and stood up from the floor with a “heyo.”
She pointed to the smiley face on the schoolbag and smiled, her eyebrows arching. “Classmate, I saw the crying face you drew. I feel like you’ve been lacking some sunshine in your heart lately, so this is for you. No need to be too moved.”
Wang Xiaofeng: “You, you you…!”
“Why are you so angry?” Jian Xin asked, tilting her head. “You’re not going to tell the teacher on me, are you?”
“I…”
“It was wrong of me to draw on your things without permission,” Jian Xin said, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly. “But you also drew on Yan Lu, and I saw that she wasn’t angry. I thought this was a friendly exchange between classmates, and that you wouldn’t be angry either.”
She said the whole thing very loudly, deliberately emphasizing the word “friendly.” Many students in the class looked over.
Wang Xiaofeng’s face was as ugly as if he had eaten shit. But since he was in the wrong, it took him a long time to squeeze out a sentence: “A good man doesn’t fight with a woman!”
“Thank you, good man classmate,” Jian Xin said, pushing Wang Xiaofeng aside with some disgust and walking out from his seat. Before returning to her own seat, she added seriously, “I hope you can remember how to write that sentence when you’re bullying female classmates too!”
The girl who had witnessed the whole thing couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Wang Xiaofeng: “What are you laughing at!”
The girl instantly suppressed her smile, lowered her head, and pretended to be memorizing vocabulary.
Wang Xiaofeng shouted through gritted teeth as he crouched down to clean up the mess under his desk, “You’d better watch out!”
Yan Lu stood dazed in the middle of the aisle, her face full of worry.
Jian Xin pulled her along, leading her all the way back to their seats.
The moment they sat down, Yan Lu muttered, “You really didn’t have to do that. He’ll hold a grudge against us.”
“Why not? Let him hold a grudge. Do we need to be afraid of him?” Jian Xin said irritably. “When people talk about you, you endure it. When they draw on you, you endure it too… Are you going to endure it when someone throws bugs on you, cuts your clothes and hair with scissors, or burns you with a lighter?”
“The school rules at No. 3 High are so strict. If there’s any real bullying, every teacher and school leader will deal with it. I don’t believe there are any school bullies we can’t afford to offend,” Jian Xin said, her tone suddenly becoming triumphant. “See? I gave him a taste of his own medicine. Did he dare to say anything?”
“The ones who act tough in class are usually just bullies who pick on the weak and fear the strong. The more you’re afraid to fight back, the more they’ll target you!” she said, clenching her fists. “You have to let people know that there’s a price to pay for bullying you. The next time someone wants to bully you, they’ll think twice!”
“…” Yan Lu couldn’t help but lower her head.
“I don’t mean to blame you for not daring to fight back. Keeping the peace isn’t a bad thing, and I hate victim-blaming the most!” Jian Xin patted Yan Lu’s thin arm. “What I’m trying to say is, if anything happens in the future, just tell me. I’ll have your back. Let’s see who dares to bully you then!”
“…”
“It’s only Tuesday, and you only have one set of school uniform. You can only wash it on the weekend…” Jian Xin thought for a moment, then leaned closer to Yan Lu, propping her face in her hands. “Why don’t you take it off for me tonight? I’ll take it home and wash it for you. We have a dryer at home, so it’ll dry quickly!”
Yan Lu blinked and said softly, “Is that okay?”
Jian Xin: “What’s not okay about it?”
Yan Lu: “It’s too much trouble for you.”
Jian Xin: “Don’t be so polite. Are you not treating me as a friend?”
Yan Lu lowered her eyes and shook her head.
“There you go!” Jian Xin smiled and nudged the novel on Yan Lu’s desk with her chin. “You just focus on writing. Leave the uniform washing to me from now on. I can help you wash it every weekend. I have to wash my own anyway, so it’s no trouble at all. Don’t be embarrassed.”
Yan Lu pursed her lips and nodded with an “mm.”
After a few seconds of silence, she suddenly said, “You seem to know how to do everything.”
Her voice was as small as a mosquito’s buzz.
Jian Xin took a moment to process, then tilted her head and replied, “I don’t. I just throw it to my mom to wash.”
Yan Lu: “…”
That’s not what I was talking about, but… forget it…
Day students had one less evening self-study session than boarding students.
That night, Jian Xin and Yan Lu swapped uniforms. With the crying face on her back, Jian Xin smiled and waved at Yan Lu, walking out of the classroom without a care in the world.
Yan Lu chased her to the classroom door, silently watching her figure, watching the ugly crying face on the uniform, as it slowly, unhurriedly, faded from her sight.
Jian Xin’s uniform was much smaller than Yan Lu’s, but it fit Yan Lu perfectly.
The bell for class rang. She came back to her senses, adjusted her collar, and turned to walk back into the classroom.
*
[Lin Xiaoshuang was always curious, how could there be someone like Li Xia in the world.]
[Other people’s gazes seemed to mean nothing to her.]
[No matter what she encountered, she could handle it very well, and even had the spare energy to help those who had fallen beside her.]
[Just like… the sun in the sky.]
[Whether cloudy or sunny, it would always light up every morning.]
