Xie Tao finally learned the truth of the whole matter.
She also finally understood why Zhou Xinyue chose to remain silent.
Because she had heard Song Shiman mention it before, so both Xu Hui and Zhao Yixuan knew very well that Zhou Xinyue’s father was Song Shiman’s father’s special assistant, and her mother was also a small employee in the Song Corporation.
So they told Zhou Xinyue, that if she dared to reveal a word, Song Shiman would make her father dismiss her parents on the grounds of stealing company secrets.
And for someone dismissed by a big company like Song Corporation, with stains on their record, finding another job wasn’t an easy task.
Even though Song Shiman was completely unaware that they had threatened Zhou Xinyue in her name from beginning to end.
This was something Xie Tao overheard.
Because Zhou Xinyue’s mother, Yan Xiping, once again came to the school and caused a scene in the principal’s office, which made Zhao Yixuan feel somewhat uneasy.
When she mentioned these things to Xu Hui, Xie Tao was secretly following behind them.
She listened to their various mocking words towards Zhou Xinyue, listened to their grating laughter, and various pent-up emotions piled up in her heart, but she could only endure it in the end.
Just as that person said, she needed evidence.
Because of his reminder, Xie Tao began to consciously and unconsciously pay attention to Yu Chengfei’s affairs.
She found that although Xu Hui was Yu Chengfei’s girlfriend, Yu Chengfei didn’t seem to pay much attention to her, which made Xu Hui extremely nervous, fearing every little thing.
Whenever a girl approached Yu Chengfei, she would warn them one by one.
Xie Tao didn’t know what she should do until… one time when she was eating, Song Shiman brought them over, and Zhao Yixuan reluctantly sat next to her.
She unconsciously turned her head and saw Zhao Yixuan’s phone screen, catching a glimpse of the familiar name on her chat interface.
At that moment, Xie Tao didn’t notice anything wrong.
Later, a stranger added her on WeChat, and after being rejected by her, they sent verification messages for several days in a row.
It was from Yu Chengfei.
That noon, while Xie Tao was eating, Song Shiman brought Xu Hui over as scheduled and sat down beside her as if they were old acquaintances.
Zhao Yixuan sat beside her, and when Xie Tao picked up her chopsticks to eat, she casually placed her phone beside her.
The WeChat notification sound rang, and Xie Tao instinctively tilted her head.
In that instant, she happened to see a familiar WeChat name flashing on the lit-up phone screen.
Although the content of the message was short, it was already very ambiguous:
“Stop mentioning Xu Hui, just having you is enough for me.”
In that moment, Zhao Yixuan hurriedly grabbed her phone without even checking the WeChat messages, and simply placed it in the pocket of her coat.
She glanced at Xu Hui, who was chatting with Song Shiman across from her, and then shifted her gaze to Xie Tao beside her.
Apart from the surface contempt in her eyes, there was also a hint of anxiety and unease hidden within.
Did she see it? Zhao Yixuan wasn’t sure.
Xie Tao didn’t look at her again, lowering her head to eat rice, seeming oblivious to everything.
But Zhao Yixuan tightened the chopsticks in her hand, staring at Xie Tao’s profile, feeling a bit panicked inside.
Eventually, Xu Hui found out about the incident.
That day, when Zhao Yixuan was pulled into an embrace by Yu Chengfei in the KTV private room, she happened to lift her head and caught a glimpse of a pair of eyes peering in through the transparent glass on the door.
Her pupils contracted, the smile on her face stiffened instantly.
The next moment, she watched as Xu Hui kicked open the door of the room and walked in, followed by Song Shiman.
“Zhao Yixuan, having fun with my boyfriend?” Xu Hui stood there, arms crossed, a smirk playing on her lips.
Zhao Yixuan reflexively stood up, about to call out “Sister Hui,” but the next second she saw Xu Hui grab a bottle of beer from the table and smash it towards Yu Chengfei.
Yu Chengfei was already a bit drunk, his mind not very clear at the moment, coupled with Xu Hui’s sudden and swift action, he didn’t even have a chance to dodge.
So Xu Hui’s merciless blow directly caused him to hit his forehead.
Then, without giving him a chance to react, Xu Hui grabbed Zhao Yixuan’s wrist and dragged her into the restroom of the private room, locking the door behind them.
Xu Hui had practiced martial arts, and her strength was not something Zhao Yixuan could contend with. Being grabbed by Xu Hui, she had no chance to break free.
Outside, Song Shiman’s attempts to knock on the door were futile, only hearing Zhao Yixuan’s screams from inside, and even Xu Hui’s curses.
The next day, the whole school knew that Xu Hui had beaten up Zhao Yixuan.
No one had expected that these two, who usually bullied others together, would have a falling out.
But clearly, this matter was far from over.
Zhao Yixuan and Xu Hui had completely torn their faces apart, not just because of Yu Chengfei, but also because Xu Hui had sent the photo she took of Zhao Yixuan being held by Yu Chengfei in the KTV room to her father.
Xu Hui knew how strict Zhao Yixuan’s father was with her. Like many parents who feared poverty, he had placed all his hopes, even the unfulfilled fantasies of his own life, on his daughter. He hoped she would succeed and excel academically.
So, in dealing with Zhao Yixuan, he had become exceedingly strict.
These are all the complaints Zhao Yixuan had with Xu Hui before.
But now, they have become Xu Hui’s best leverage against her.
So not only did Zhao Yixuan get beaten by Xu Hui, because of the photo incident, she was also severely scolded by her own father, and in the end, she was locked up at home for a full two weeks.
During this time, Yu Chengfei quietly went through the procedures for transferring schools.
Because Xu Hui took his phone and added all the girls he had flirted with to a group chat, then took screenshots of some chat records and posted them in the group, which resulted in several girls coming to confront him, some even resorted to physical violence against him.
Both from within and outside the school, it was quite comprehensive.
Coupled with Zhao Yixuan’s father causing a scene with the photos, Yu Chengfei’s discreetly juggling multiple relationships was blown out of proportion.
Before the school’s decision came out, his parents arranged for him to transfer schools.
And just at this time, there appeared on the Tiancheng High School forum some videos of Xu Hui physically assaulting others.
These were filmed when Zhao Yixuan followed Xu Hui.
At the time she recorded them, she thought it was fun, but now, she did it to retaliate against Xu Hui.
Each video wasn’t too long, but Xu Hui’s face was clear, and her actions of assault were very apparent.
She even stepped on someone’s head, pulled hair, slapped, kicked fiercely… even dragged someone to the edge of the toilet sink and pressed them into the water.
How far can one person go in being bad?
After watching these videos, many felt a chill down their spine.
The victims in these videos weren’t just Zhou Xinyue; there were several other girls as well.
As soon as Zhou Xinyue’s parents found out about the evidence the school had, they hurriedly went to the school to discuss.
And when things reached this point, the school leadership realized that this was no longer something they could suppress, so they handed the videos to her.
Then Xu Hui was taken to court.
This incident also garnered a high level of attention online.
In the end, Xu Hui was sentenced to juvenile detention.
Zhao Yixuan portrayed herself as clean, but Xie Tao knew that, deep down, she and Xu Hui were of the same kind.
The day Zhao Yixuan returned to school, her face still bore bruises that hadn’t yet faded.
Xie Tao saw her entering the classroom, but she was stopped in the corridor by Song Shiman, who suddenly appeared.
Song Shiman’s complexion looked very bad.
Through the glass window, Xie Tao saw the backs of Song Shiman and Zhao Yixuan in the corridor. She lowered her eyes, stared at the open textbook on her desk, and had no intention of following them.
The bell rang for class, and Zhao Yixuan followed Song Shiman into the girls’ restroom.
As she pushed open the doors of each stall one by one, as if checking if there was anyone else, she asked, “Man Man, do you want to tell me something?”
Song Shiman looked at Zhao Yixuan, and for a moment, she seemed to be looking at a complete stranger.
“Regarding Zhou Xinyue,”
She paused for a moment, then continued, “No, I should say, the things Xu Hui did, you were involved too, right?”
When Zhao Yixuan heard her say this, she remained silent for a few seconds before looking at Song Siman and saying, “Manman, I didn’t.”
“Okay,”
Song Siman nodded, “What about Zhou Xinyue? Haven’t you bullied Zhou Xinyue before?”
As Zhao Yixuan opened her mouth to speak, Song Siman quickly added, “I went to the hospital to see Zhou Xinyue a few days ago.”
At that time, Zhou Xinyue was sitting in a wheelchair, being pushed by her mother, basking in the sun by the flower beds in the hospital.
Although, due to inexplicable anxiety and fear, Song Siman didn’t have the courage to approach her, it was enough for Song Siman to see her pale face clearly.
The chubby girl in her memory seemed to have lost a lot of weight.
But the doctor said it was the consequence of severe anorexia.
Song Siman’s mind was buzzing at that time. She only knew that Zhou Xinyue had broken her leg and was hospitalized, but she didn’t know she also suffered from severe depression and anorexia, and had attempted suicide twice because of it…
Death… It seemed like an excessively distant topic for her.
But that day, she scrutinized the girl she had once mocked from a distance, as if it were the first time.
For some reason, she suddenly felt a sense of guilt.
That feeling made her anxious, guilty, and seemed a little overwhelming.
“There are cigarette scars on Zhou Xinyue’s wrist.”
Song Siman looked up and stared at Zhao Yixuan firmly, “But Xu Hui doesn’t smoke.”
“Zhao Yixuan, I never imagined that you two would be like this!” Song Siman took a deep breath.
At that moment, it was eerily quiet around, with only occasional dripping sounds of water.
Zhao Yixuan suddenly laughed.
When she looked at Song Shimang, there was a hint of sarcasm in her eyes. “Us? What kind of people are we?”
It seemed like she had been pretending to please Xu Hui and Song Shimang for too long, wearing a mask. But at this moment, when Song Shimang removed that mask, she unexpectedly felt a rare sense of relief.
So she approached Song Shimang, speaking in a very soft voice, “Do you think you are any different from us?”
At the moment she saw Song Shimang’s face slightly change, Zhao Yixuan leaned close to her ear and said, “Don’t forget, you are also an offender, Manman.”
“You said, what makes us different?”
“I didn’t hit her!” Song Shimang pushed her away.
Zhao Yixuan laughed, “Yes, you didn’t hit her.”
But, is only direct physical violence considered real violence?
That day, Zhao Yixuan and Song Shimang completely fell out.
When school was over in the afternoon, because it was Xie Tao and Shi Cheng’s duty, they stayed until the end.
After cleaning up, Shi Cheng hurriedly left because her father came to pick her up.
As Xie Tao arranged the tables and chairs neatly and prepared to leave with her backpack, Zhao Yixuan suddenly appeared, quickly locked the classroom door, and pulled down all the curtains.
The whole classroom suddenly became dim.
“No wonder I always feel your name is familiar.”
“You know Zhou Xinyue, right?”
These were the first words Zhao Yixuan said when she turned to look at Xie Tao.
With a cigarette in her mouth, her eyes narrowed. Despite her young face, her smoking gesture was mature.
She finally remembered that she had seen the name “Xie Tao” several times while flipping through Zhou Xinyue’s diary.
“Did you tell Xu Hui about me and Yu Chengfei?”
Holding the cigarette between two fingers, amidst the swirling smoke, her eyes were fixed on Xie Tao.
“Do you care?”
Facing Zhao Yixuan’s somewhat cold gaze, Xie Tao said she wasn’t afraid, but it was a lie.
But as she stood there, even though her palms were sweaty, she spoke calmly enough.
Xie Tao’s voice was soft, “Do you, as someone like you, ever feel embarrassed?”
At that moment, Zhao Yixuan seemed to read a hint of mockery from the seemingly timid girl’s eyes.
She walked up to Xie Tao, grabbed her collar, and raised the hand holding the cigarette, ready to slap her.
Xie Tao grabbed her hand, while her other hand pulled at her hair.
The cigarette between Zhao Yixuan’s fingers fell to the ground. She seemed thoroughly enraged by Xie Tao’s action of pulling her hair, breaking free from Xie Tao’s grip on her wrist.
As the two wrestled, they collided with many desks, making a loud noise.
This was the first time in her life that the usually timid Xie Tao had fought.
So many days of restrained anger and sadness seemed to have reached a critical point, as she kicked and punched Zhao Yixuan with all her might, regardless of knowing she couldn’t win.
Just as Zhao Yixuan was about to press Xie Tao down and pick up the cigarette still burning with a fierce smile, intending to press the lit end onto Xie Tao’s face, Xie Tao clenched her teeth, reached out forcefully, snatched the cigarette from Zhao Yixuan’s hand, and aimed the end with the ember directly at her palm, pressing it down.
Zhao Yixuan let out a scream as she was burned.
Xie Tao’s face was scratched by her nails, her lips bleeding.
“When you burn others with a cigarette, have you ever thought about how much it hurts?”
The sparks burning on the cigarette in her hand had already extinguished in Zhao Yixuan’s palm, and Xie Tao saw her wincing, her wrist trembling.
“Xie Tao!” At this moment, Zhao Yixuan’s eyes had turned red from the burns; she tightly gripped Xie Tao’s other hand, and slapped down fiercely.
At that moment, a faint blue light surged from Xie Tao’s right wrist, swiftly entering Zhao Yixuan’s back.
It was as if Zhao Yixuan had suddenly been controlled, her hands forcefully clasping around Xie Tao’s neck.
At the same time, in another dimension, Wei Yun suddenly felt like he was deprived of breath; his jade-like face quickly paled.
His body also began to experience inexplicable pain.
He abruptly stood up, but in a sudden dizziness, he lost his strength and sat back down on the wooden chair.
When he was sprawled across the desk, his wide sleeves scattered books and writing materials all over the floor, even the golden incense burner was knocked over, its ashes spilling everywhere.
What on earth was happening?
Wei Yun didn’t have time to think further; his consciousness was gradually fading, even the hurried figure of Wei Jing rushing in seemed somewhat blurry.
“My lord!”
