The farce finally ceased. Bian Ying tried to stir up trouble, but it ended up backfiring, harming herself in the process. She was publicly exposed and scolded, unable to regain what she had lost.
Hua Jie had nothing she wanted to discuss with Yu Tonglin. The situation was crystal clear; if he couldn’t understand that Bian Ying was simply playing dumb, then he was truly a fool. And what’s the point in talking to a fool?
After class started, Hua Jie sat calmly at her desk. Turning her head, she saw Bian Ying, eyes red, continuing to attend class and playing the victim.
Yu Tonglin continued to look upset, his cheekbone swollen and bruised.
She suddenly realized—
A fist intimidates all pretenders and suppresses all jerks.
Glancing back at Shen Mo, she couldn’t help but marvel at his fierce and straightforward nature in an age where thoughts are immature and logic hasn’t yet connected with wisdom.
In the future, she wanted to be like him: decisive and straightforward, doing whatever she wanted without hesitation.
Never letting the scoundrels have a good night.
Oh dear, after just over a month with these adolescent troublemakers, she was already picking up their bad habits.
Shen Mo, feeling a bit embarrassed after being glanced at a few times, casually smoothed his hair.
Noticing she was still sneaking peeks at him, his face turned slightly red. He was indeed handsome, but that was no excuse for her to neglect her studies.
He kicked her gently on the leg, his gaze fixed on the blackboard, and muttered lowly, “Focus on your studies!”
“Yes!” Hua Jie promptly responded, turning her head towards the teacher.
The kids’ frivolous antics with their youth must eventually return to their studies.
…
After class, Hua Jie went out to use the restroom. Liao Shanshan came from the back row and called for Hua Jie to wait for her.
As they passed by Bian Ying, Liao Shanshan paused, a sly smile suddenly appearing on her face. She cleared her throat and deliberately spoke loudly:
“Hua Jie is so impressive, doing the radio calisthenics so beautifully. I heard boys from the next class praising her, saying no wonder she’s chosen as our class leader. She moves gracefully, even in thick clothes her legs are still so slim, so beautiful. And she’s serious and cute when exercising, wow, she’s totally born to lead!”
Her tone was exaggerated and flamboyant, almost enough to infuriate someone.
Just as Bian Ying was starting to recover from her sadness during the class, Liao Shanshan’s words made her face redden and her neck thicken with anger.
Hua Jie pursed her lips and smiled, clearing her throat too, and with the most villainous expression and posture she could muster, she asked Liao Shanshan:
“Really? I was so nervous being watched by everyone while leading the exercises.”
Pure banter and teasing.
“Are you really nervous?” Liao Shanshan raised an eyebrow, genuinely curious. “What’s it like to be the drill leader?”
“Not at all.” Hua Jie regained her normal expression and tilted her head, making a silly face.
The two then looked at each other and laughed, hand in hand as they walked towards the door.
Just before leaving the classroom, Liao Shanshan looked back and saw Bian Ying glaring angrily. She shook her head smugly and stuck out her tongue in provocation.
Bian Ying was so angry that she cried through another class period.
In fact, Bian Ying wasn’t the drill leader in the previous life either.
Back then, Bian Ying had mocked the body, movements, and appearance of the first-year drill leader for half a term, sometimes even escalating to personal attacks and insults.
However, last time Hua Jie was just an unnoticed listener, but this time she was directly involved.
Returning from the bathroom and seeing Bian Ying sobbing with her shoulders shaking, Hua Jie thought, ‘Cry, it would be best if you could wipe your tears and remember this, turn over a new leaf and be a good person.’
…
To the adults, the quarrel seemed severe, but the first-year teenagers quickly put it behind them.
But while others had moved on to other matters, Shen Mo had not.
Throughout the next day, he was like a mother hen protecting her chick, glaring coldly at Yu Tonglin whenever he got close to Hua Jie after class.
In the evening, as he saw Hua Jie bumping into Bian Hong before riding off, he finally pedaled away, keeping a vigilant eye on Yu Tonglin as if he were a terrorist.
But after pedaling a few strokes, Shen Mo stopped.
He propped his bike with one leg and turned to look at the receding figures of Hua Jie and Bian Hong riding side by side, feeling inexplicably uncomfortable.
It shouldn’t be like this. With Bian Hong around, even if Yu Tonglin encountered Hua Jie, it shouldn’t matter—Bian Hong was tall and in his second year, surely he could handle Yu Tonglin.
Little Potato was safe; he should be relieved.
But why did he still feel this inexplicable unease? And why did he find Bian Hong’s silhouette increasingly irritating?
…
After the onset of winter, it got dark early. Hua Jie and Bian Hong rode for a while, and as the sky darkened completely, they both got off their bikes to push them up the steep slope before them. Bian Hong turned and asked her:
“Are you cold?”
Hua Jie raised a smile, “Not cold.”
She was always happy, always so cheerful.
Bian Hong’s gaze swept over her tightly wrapped scarf and neatly worn hat, and past her thick gloves, before he finally nodded.
Just as Hua Jie pushed her bike to ride alongside him, her backpack was suddenly grabbed.
She stopped with an “Ouch” and turned to look behind her.
Bian Hong, hearing her exclamation, turned to look at her.
A gust of wind swept over the hillside, disturbing the snow accumulated on the treetops, scattering it flurriedly onto the three of them.
Yu Tonglin, lips pursed, noticed Bian Hong glaring at him defensively and hesitated before speaking:
“I mean no harm; I just want to talk to you for a moment.”
“I thought we had nothing to say to each other,” Hua Jie frowned.
“I do,” Yu Tonglin stubbornly clutched her backpack, refusing to let go.
The two glared at each other, holding the standoff for a few moments. Hua Jie sighed, turned back to ask Bian Hong to wait a moment, and then took Yu Tonglin under a tree at the side of the hill.
“Speak.”
“When I passed that note, I meant no harm,” Yu Tonglin stood in the moonlight, his adolescent body tall and lean, characteristic of his age, his stubborn gaze fixed on the handle of her bicycle, making it hard to continue to despise him.
Hua Jie stared into his eyes for a while, suddenly feeling a sense of relief.
A fourteen- or fifteen-year-old might not fully understand what it is to like someone.
The younger Hua Jie once resented him, but now, as an adult, reflecting on that awkward and painful crush, she could be calm and rational.
He might not have intended to hurt her; perhaps he just didn’t like her.
Added to that, Bian Ying had stirred up trouble, causing her harm.
Now, she would no longer believe the divisive and demeaning things Bian Ying said about her. Thus, there was no need to hold any grudge against Yu Tonglin anymore.
“I didn’t steal anything. I became the drill leader because I helped paint the school walls and then applied with a teacher. The head of discipline said our school promotes the development of talented individuals, which is why they chose me.” She had earned it, and it just happened that way.
It was that simple.
“I understand now, I’m sorry,” the boy did not berate Bian Ying for causing trouble in between; he simply lowered his eyes and apologized solemnly.
It was even harder for Hua Jie to remain angry.
“I don’t blame you anymore; let’s leave it at that,” she said, and then looking up at his still swollen cheekbone, she added: “And don’t blame Shen Mo; he thought you were going to hit me.”
“I wasn’t,” Yu Tonglin suddenly looked up to deny it.
“I know.” In Jinsong, this small northern town with a fierce local culture, brawls were common in that era, but ‘hitting a woman’ was universally scorned. Boys were taught from a young age that hitting a woman was the most cowardly and despicable act.
Although Hua Jie thought Yu Tonglin was immature, she didn’t consider him truly bad.
“…Yeah.” Yu Tonglin nodded, then suddenly added urgently, “As of today, I’ve cut ties with Bian Ying.”
“…” Hua Jie paused, surprised. Wasn’t he fond of Bian Ying? How could he just cut ties so suddenly?
“Really.” He seemed to be assuring her.
“That’s your business,” she said lightly.
It was getting even later, and Hua Jie was feeling a bit hungry.
She turned to see Bian Hong waiting by the roadside, watching them with a guarded expression. She smiled slightly at Yu Tonglin and said:
“Okay, I need to go home for dinner, bye.”
“Hey!” The boy reached out to hold her back.
“?”
“Are we okay now?” he asked.
“Are we okay now?” he repeated.
Hua Jie twisted her hand free, then pulled her bicycle back a few steps with force, and said seriously:
“Let’s not interfere with each other, but remain friends.”
A clear setting of boundaries.
“…” Yu Tonglin’s expression darkened slightly, a bitter smile flickering across his face, but he said nothing.
Hua Jie didn’t linger, waving her hand in farewell and pushing her bicycle quickly back to Bian Hong’s side, not looking back again.
Bian Hong, however, took a couple of steps, looked back at Yu Tonglin still standing there, and then frowned and glared at him threateningly.
Turning back to Hua Jie, Bian Hong asked:
“Is he chasing you?”
“Not at all, just a classmate. We had a misunderstanding today, and he was apologizing.”
“This kind of punk, better stay away from him; you can tell he’s no good.” It was rare for Bian Hong to say so much.
“Hahaha, Bian Hong, you sound like my dad.” Hua Jie laughed heartily, not at all ladylike.
Her laughter made Bian Hong blush, and he didn’t speak to her again for the rest of the way.
Silly girl, knows nothing!
….
….
Before the final deadline set by the head of discipline, Shen Jiaru finally took a break from his creative inspirations to attend school and hear about his son’s misconduct.
In the car, he was pondering how to handle his emotions as the teacher furiously complained, when a sharp electronic tone from his phone suddenly rang out.
He flipped open his large-screen flip phone with his thumb and pressed a button to answer the call.
It was another request for him to provide artwork for an exhibition—last year, the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts was incorporated into Tsinghua University, renamed Tsinghua University School of Fine Arts. They wanted to invite domestic senior artists for an exhibition.
After a series of polite exchanges and refusals, he looked up to find that the car had already arrived at the school gate.
As he stepped out of the car, the person on the phone was still persistently trying to persuade him. He responded reluctantly, and just as he was about to cross the gate of No.1 Middle School, he suddenly stopped, then took a few steps back, staring intently at a painting on the white wall beside the gate.
After that, he quickly said goodbye to the person on the phone, hung up, closed his phone, and kept his gaze fixed on the wall as he did all this.
Laymen enjoy the show, experts appreciate the technique.
The more expert one is, the more they see.
The first painting depicted a person reading; the artist had used almost entirely rounded lines to convey tranquility and the gentle qualities of a girl.
In contrast, the painting of a boy dunking a basketball was all sharp angles and dynamic lines, full of movement.
Shen Jiaru stepped back to view the whole scene, then stopped at each step to carefully admire the wall.