Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 31p2

Chapter 31 p2: The Bland Anger

Shen Yiyi had heard Guo Rui’s name from the mouths of countless boys.

In their jokes at the dinner table, in their dirty desire to win, in the corners where they smoked, accompanied by a foul smell of nicotine, Guo Rui had become their beautiful lamb to be slaughtered.

Who could possess her became a kind of banner.

She was filled with gazes and statements in their dirty jokes.

Shen Yiyi took out a pad and placed it in her palm. She unfolded it expressionlessly, disassembled it according to the steps, and stuck it on. “Like this. Go try.”

Guo Rui nodded and went into the stall with the sanitary pad.

Qin Luo and Shen Yiyi waited at the restroom door. Qin Luo couldn’t help but ask in a low voice, “Have you had yours before?”

Shen Yiyi shook her head. “Not yet.”

“Then you…” Qin Luo hid the sanitary pad behind her back.

Shen Yiyi stood where she was and opened her textbook, staring at the words on the page. “I was taught at home.”

Qin Luo nodded. “Thank you for today.”

Shen Yiyi turned a page. “You’re welcome.”

With Shen Yiyi around, even though they were five minutes late for class, the three girls were not punished by the teacher.

Shen Yiyi said lightly to the teacher, “Teacher, Guo Rui has a stomachache. We just went to the infirmary.”

The teacher nodded and let them go.

At that time, Qin Luo still didn’t know what “meritocracy” was.

She only knew that she and Shen Yiyi were far apart.

After that, Shen Yiyi and Qin Luo’s interactions became intermittent. Sometimes they would say a word or two a day, sometimes they wouldn’t say anything for two weeks. But Qin Luo, sitting in the back row, would always look at her back through the heads of her classmates during every class.

It wasn’t until Guo Rui asked Shen Yiyi for help for the second time that Qin Luo officially began to trust Shen Yiyi.

It was the day before the summer vacation of their first year of high school.

The grades had been released, and the parent-teacher conference was over. The teachers were busy with summarizing and planning and had no time to manage the students.

For them, who were about to be “released from prison,” freedom was right in front of them. A self-study class didn’t matter. So before school was even over, a group of boys began to run wild in the classroom.

Fighting, teasing the class representative who was assigning homework, and taking the opportunity to ask out the girls they liked for the summer vacation.

Guo Rui, as a coveted prize, was a hot commodity in their eyes.

She was cornered in an alley as soon as school was over.

The boy who was confessing to her held the wheel of Guo Rui’s shabby bicycle between his legs and squeezed the brake, not allowing her to leave. The male classmates who were watching the show surrounded Guo Rui, forming an inescapable cage.

He said, “Be my girlfriend, and I’ll take you to play pool.”

Guo Rui didn’t dare to speak.

The group of people in front of her were like flies, the boys who had been pestering her since the first day of school. They were laughing at her with feral smiles, teasing smiles, and insulting smiles.

Seeing that she didn’t answer, the boy flicked the bicycle bell, and the harsh ringing echoed in the alley.

He said with a cold face, “Don’t play games with me.”

Qin Luo and Liu Jia were pushing their bicycles along the side of the road and saw the group of people in the alley.

She stopped and immediately recognized Guo Rui’s bicycle through the gap in their arms.

Seeing that Qin Luo wanted to help, Liu Jia quickly grabbed Qin Luo’s bicycle. “Don’t go. They’re too annoying. I’ll go find a teacher.”

Find a teacher…

It wasn’t that Guo Rui hadn’t looked for a teacher, but in the end, she was still cornered in an alley, her desk stuffed with martial arts novels filled with drawings of genitals, and cigarette butts put in her blanket.

Qin Luo didn’t dare to go forward alone either. She agreed to Liu Jia’s plan. “Then you go find a teacher. I’ll wait here.”

The boy in the alley grinned coldly. “If you’re my girlfriend, I guarantee no one in school will dare to bully you again.”

Guo Rui’s face was numb, her shoulders hunched together. “I don’t want to be your girlfriend.”

A single sentence caused a burst of laughter in the alley, and the onlookers began to jeer.

The rejected boy’s face tensed. He threw the cigarette butt on the ground and stomped on it hard. “Guo Rui, don’t be ungrateful.”

Qin Luo didn’t wait for Liu Jia… but she did wait for Guo Rui’s scream.

She heard the argument in the alley and saw the boys on the periphery start to clap and cheer. She hurriedly looked around for a passing teacher but unexpectedly saw Shen Qinwen, who had come to pick up Shen Yiyi from school.

Shen Qinwen was one of the few parents in the class who drove a small car. Qin Luo had seen Shen Yiyi get into that car on the day of the parent-teacher conference.

In her urgency, Qin Luo abandoned her bicycle and hurried forward to ask for help.

She knocked on the car window and, without even catching her breath, stated her purpose. “Uncle Shen, I’m Shen Yiyi’s classmate. A girl from our class has been cornered in an alley by a group of hooligans. Can you please go and take a look?”

Shen Qinwen frowned, looked at the school gate, and immediately took out his car key and got out. “Where?”

“That alley.”

Qin Luo led her uncle in a run. They stopped outside the alley.

Shen Qinwen stood firm, his hands on his hips, and took a look. The boy in the lead was pushing the girl.

He immediately roared, “What are you doing?! Come here!”

A successful man in a suit and tie had a natural suppressive effect on these young hooligans. Seeing an adult male, their minds would be filled with scenes of being beaten up, similar to the image of a father, the fear of violence instilled in them since childhood dominating them.

The alley instantly fell silent.

Shen Qinwen took out his phone, his heart burning with anger. He searched for his daughter’s head teacher’s number on his phone. He thought, if it had been Shen Yiyi in the alley today, he would have really skinned them alive.

He dialed the phone as he walked, but unfortunately, the head teacher was busy in a meeting, and no one answered his call.

Qin Luo didn’t dare to go forward. She stood outside the alley and watched.

A few of the boys on the periphery were scared and ran away as soon as they heard the voice, leaving only a few of the boy’s close friends standing there, at a loss.

Shen Qinwen walked over, grabbed the boy by the collar, and pulled him in front of him, scolding him and saying he was going to call the police and take him to the school. Guo Rui was also scared by the sudden appearance of Shen’s father and couldn’t stop sobbing.

The boy argued defiantly, “We were just playing around. She and I are good friends. Talking for a few minutes after school didn’t bother her.”

Shen Qinwen was not a teacher at the school. As a parent, it was difficult for him to handle the situation. In addition, Shen Yiyi was about to get out of school. If she came over and saw this scene, she would definitely be pestered by these boys.

So he let go and pointed his finger at the boy’s head. “Apologize to her and get lost.”

The boy nodded reluctantly at Guo Rui. “Sorry.”

With that, he turned and ran.

When Shen Yiyi walked out with her backpack, she saw Guo Rui crying on Qin Luo’s shoulder, Liu Jia gently patting her back, and her dad standing next to the three of them, waving at her.

She walked up, closed her book, and asked with confusion, “What’s wrong?”

Liu Jia said angrily, “It’s that Han Cheng and his gang again. They were forcing Guo Rui to be his girlfriend.”

“Huh?”

Shen Yiyi’s face was full of naivety. She was amazed that they were already thinking about relationships in their first year of high school. “Then how did they make her cry?”

Shen Qinwen didn’t speak, just stood on the side and observed his daughter.

At home, Shen Yiyi would only force a stiff smile at him. Other than that, she was obedient and compliant.

He hadn’t seen such an outward display of emotion from his daughter in a long time. Her surprised tone, her face full of confusion and doubt, was the kind of gossipy curiosity that a girl should have in her adolescence.

A little bit of liveliness.

Shen Qinwen didn’t want to disturb his daughter’s social life. He turned and went back to the car to wait.

“Shen Yiyi, thank you for Uncle Shen’s help tonight. Otherwise, I really don’t know what would have happened.” Qin Luo didn’t dare to mention what had happened in the alley in front of Guo Rui. She gently patted her back to comfort her and expressed her gratitude on her behalf.

“My dad helped?”

Shen Yiyi turned to look for her dad but didn’t see him. So she bent down and looked at her dad through the car window.

She only saw Shen Qinwen on the phone.

Old Shen, an old cadre who only loved to nag? How could he help?

Liu Jia put her hand on Guo Rui’s back. “Yiyi, since your dad is a leader, can you ask him to talk to Old Li and get those boys to stop bothering Guo Rui every day?”

Qin Luo kicked the talkative Liu Jia. “We’ll take Guo Rui home in a bit. Thank you so much for your help tonight, Uncle. You should get in the car. Uncle is waiting for you.”

It was still light when Shen Yiyi left school. In the time it took to say a few words, it had gotten dark. She couldn’t see Qin Luo’s expression, only Guo Rui’s incessant sobs.

Shen Yiyi put her book in her backpack and said sincerely, “It’s too late. Let my dad take her home. What if Han Cheng corners her on the way again?”