At the time when Xie Tao’s right hand was hurting the most, her elbow touched the mobile phone that she had placed on the desk.
The phone moved, pressing against a photo she had set aside.
As she held her right hand, sweating from the pain, the photo had already silently disappeared.
The inexplicable pain in her right palm felt like a knife blade deeply slicing into her flesh, the stabbing pain like needles made her unable to sleep well all night.
When she was hazily awakened by the alarm, Xie Tao lay in bed in a daze for a while, then lifted her right hand and looked at it back and forth for quite some time.
It seemed… not painful anymore?
Xie Tao frowned, feeling that the sudden pain last night was somewhat inexplicable.
Because she was in a hurry to go to school, she didn’t have time to think more about it and quickly got out of bed to wash up in the bathroom.
After hurriedly buying a steamed bun from a breakfast shop outside the residential area, Xie Tao ran to the bus station.
Due to Song Shiman’s deliberate friendliness towards Xie Tao, Zhao Yixuan’s attitude towards her had also softened a lot from the initial confrontation.
But this superficial friendliness was just for Song Shiman to see.
In class, Zhao Yixuan mostly couldn’t be bothered to give Xie Tao a glance.
Of course, Xie Tao didn’t want to deal with her either.
But this peaceful coexistence was not what Xie Tao wanted.
Zhou Xinyue still refuses to see her to this day, and even her mother, Yan Xiping, couldn’t get any useful information from her because the current Zhou Xinyue is so reticent that she could even go a whole day without saying a word.
She refuses to confide.
And even more, refuses treatment from a psychologist.
Like a hedgehog covered in wounds, curling up in her corner, as if there’s nothing in this world she cares about anymore.
For the things Zhou Xinyue won’t talk about, Xie Tao can only rely on herself to investigate.
Song Shiman, Xu Hui, Zhao Yixuan, Yu Chengfei, which one of these four is closest to the truth?
After the math class in the afternoon ended, the blue garbage bin at the back of the classroom was full. Since it was Xie Tao and Shi Cheng’s turn to take out the trash, the two of them carried the garbage bin to the garbage room behind the teaching building.
“Ah, it stinks!”
Arriving at the garbage room, Shi Cheng pinched her nose with one hand, expressing her sincere exclamation.
After dumping the trash with her, Xie Tao turned to leave, but saw two figures leisurely walking this way from a distance.
“Dumping garbage, it really fucking stinks.”
A tall boy cursed.
The boy with glasses next to him saw him carrying the trash can while not forgetting to tap on his phone screen and laughed as he asked, “Yu Chengfei, who are you chatting with now?”
“How long have you and Xu Hui been together? Who have you taken a liking to now?”
The glasses-wearing boy’s smile became more mocking.
“God, it’s so annoying. I kind of regret getting involved with her,” Yu Chengfei said irritably.
“Your girlfriend is pretty formidable, I heard she sent that girl everyone was talking about liking you… what’s her name… ah, something, Zhou something, to the hospital,” the boy with glasses remarked.
“Don’t talk to me about that fat pig, okay?” Yu Chengfei’s brows furrowed tightly, displaying a look of disgust, “Xu Hui even sent me a few photos of her, just thinking about it makes me feel sick.”
Xie Tao happened to hear their conversation clearly as she passed by them.
She had heard the name Yu Chengfei before.
He was Xu Hui’s boyfriend.
And the one Zhou Xinyue had liked, according to them.
In that instant, anger surged within Xie Tao. She pursed her lips, her gaze fixed on Yu Chengfei.
The two boys continued to chat nonchalantly, focusing their topic on “that fat pig.”
“Indeed, that girl surnamed Zhou has gotten so fat, do you think she can even clearly see her own facial features when she wakes up in the morning? Hahaha…”
“See clearly my ass, I can’t even see clearly,” Yu Chengfei snorted, “That toad, still dreaming of eating swan meat?”
At this point, Xie Tao couldn’t listen any longer. Her fingers curled up then relaxed.
“What makes you think you’re swan meat?”
She suddenly spoke up.
Yu Chengfei and the boy with glasses reflexively turned their heads upon hearing this sudden female voice.
“Who are you…” The girl in front of them had a clear and beautiful face, which momentarily dazed Yu Chengfei.
“Why do I feel like you’re the actual toad?”
Xie Tao stared at him, her voice seemingly calm yet slightly soft.
She seemed to want to say more, but Shi Cheng, sensing something was off, quickly pulled her away.
Leaving Yu Chengfei and the boy with glasses looking at each other in bewilderment.
After a moment, Yu Chengfei kicked a trash can, “Where did she pop out from?”
“Damn it, this is so inexplicable!”
After school in the afternoon, Xie Tao called the boss lady of the dessert shop and asked for leave.
She planned to go to the hospital to see Zhou Xinyue.
But just as she walked out of the school gate, she was intercepted by someone.
It was Yu Chengfei.
Yu Chengfei saw her as soon as he left the school gate. He was very concerned about her inexplicable targeting today.
When he intercepted her, he carefully re-evaluated her appearance.
She didn’t belong to the kind of stunning appearance at first sight, but she was agile and clean enough, as charming as water.
Yu Chengfei had never seen this type of girl before.
“Get out of the way.”
Xie Tao wanted to bypass him, but Yu Chengfei blocked her path again, “I say, are you…”
When he frowned and was about to touch her shoulder, he was forcefully pushed away by a hand.
When Xie Tao looked up, she saw the somewhat familiar face.
It was Zheng Hejia.
She lowered her eyes, clutching the straps of her school bag.
“Who are you?”
Yu Chengfei was now very annoyed.
Zheng Hejia reached out, forcefully grabbed Xie Tao’s wrist, pulled her behind him, and when he looked at Yu Chengfei again, he didn’t speak, but his eyes were very unfriendly.
Standing beside Zheng Hejia was another boy with a crew cut, who was Xiao Ling.
“You should be grateful that your hand didn’t touch a single strand of my sister Jia’s hair, otherwise… you’d lose your hand.” He seemed to be smiling, but his tone was cold.
Yu Chengfei hadn’t seen Zheng Hejia before, but he knew some things about him, not to mention Xiao Ling, whom he had seen before.
Knowing that these two were not easy to deal with, and considering that this was the busy school gate, Yu Chengfei had no choice but to walk away with a grimace.
Xie Tao originally wanted to walk away directly, but after thinking about what just happened, she still said to Zheng Hejia, “Thank you.”
Both polite and unfamiliar.
It’s as if they were complete strangers.
Zheng Hejia had a lot to say, but seeing that she had already turned and walked towards the bus stop, he moved his lips, but in the end, he didn’t say anything.
“Brother Jia, what did you do to upset sister?” Xiao Ling was really curious.
To make Zheng Hejia, who had always been indifferent, willingly squat at the school gate for so many days and silently follow her home, this girl must be the only one in so many years, right?
It’s still his sister.
How big of a mess did he get into to make his own sister not even bother to deal with him?
“Whose sister?”
Zheng Hejia heard Xiao Ling’s words, turned his head to look at him, his expression was very indifferent, but Xiao Ling, looking at him, inexplicably felt a chill down his spine.
He chuckled dryly, “Your sister, your sister.”
…?
Saying it like that seems a bit off?
Zheng Hejia sneered and kicked him directly, “Get lost.”
As he saw the figure not far ahead about to reach the corner, he hurriedly followed.
Maintaining a distance not too close nor too far, he remained cautious.
Xiao Ling watched from afar, still unable to help but make a clicking sound.
What a miraculous scene this is.
And over there, Song Shiman and Xu Hui, who had just left the school gate, also witnessed this scene.
“It seems Xie Tao and her brother aren’t getting along well, huh,” Xu Hui commented.
“Did Zheng Hejia make her angry?” Song Shiman looked at Zheng Hejia’s increasingly distant figure, sighed holding her face, “If Zheng Hejia could treat me like he treats his sister…”
“Then wouldn’t they be like siblings in love?” Xu Hui chewed her gum and casually said.
Song Shiman glared at her.
After Xie Tao arrived at the hospital, standing there behind the glass door of the ward, she looked at Zhou Xinyue, who was sitting on the bed holding her knees, motionless, for a long time.
At that moment, many past scenes flashed through her mind.
Isolation, bullying, verbal insults – Xie Tao had experienced all of these before.
At that time, she was only Shiyi years old.
No one knew how young Xie Tao managed to survive each day, not even her mother, Su Linghua, who was completely immersed in the pain of being betrayed by her husband, Xie Zhengyuan, refusing to give her any attention.
Even if she could have hugged her when Xie Tao came home after being pushed into the mud by her classmates, with a cut on her forehead, helped her take a bath, or even changed into clean clothes… that would have been good.
But she didn’t.
Once, Xie Tao had hoped to receive more attention from her mother.
But later on, she didn’t want anything anymore.
The one who truly rescued Xie Tao from that murky existence was her new desk mate, Zhou Xinyue.
As a child, Zhou Xinyue had the warmest smile in the world, like a sunflower.
How absurd life can be.
Once the girl who had helped her so much, encouraged her, and even fought for her, now she has become the one bullied and humiliated by others.
Once, it was Zhou Xinyue who protected Xie Tao.
But now, she must protect Zhou Xinyue.
Standing outside the ward for over an hour, Xie Tao eventually turned away from the hospital and returned to her rented house.
Wrapped in her blanket at night, Xie Tao never managed to close her eyes.
Thinking of the sight of Zhou Xinyue sitting outside the ward, hugging her knees and lost in thought, Xie Tao suddenly turned over and buried her face in the pillow.
The bitterness in her heart surged and overturned like an endless sea.
It wasn’t until the vibrating sound of her phone beside the pillow that Xie Tao reached out to pick it up. She stared at the WeChat icon for a while before finally opening it.
It was him.
“After you’ve found out everything, do what you want to do.”
That was the message he sent.
She had already told him everything that happened today in the afternoon.
He seemed to have been busy all this time.
It was only now that she received his reply.
What was it that she should do?
“You need evidence,” he said.
“Maybe start with this Yu Chengfei.”
Yu Chengfei?
Xie Tao remembered Zhao Yixuan and Xu Hui’s conversation today, remembered how this boy publicly humiliated Zhou Xinyue, and her anger became even harder to contain.
She sniffled and began typing slowly:
“I went to see my friend again today.”
She said, “I just stood outside the ward, just looking at her, and I felt so miserable.”
“She once helped me fight with boys, and the scar on her hand was from that time…”
“But now, she doesn’t even want to see me.”
As she typed these words, Xie Tao wiped away the tears on her face, her knuckles whitening as she gripped the phone tightly.
She pursed her lips, her eyes red as she stared at the ceiling above.
In front of the purple-gold incense burner, the cold fragrance burned, wisps of smoke swirling and dispersing, the faint yellow light flickering, gradually casting the slender figure in front of the case into uncertain light and shadow.
On the gold-lined letter paper in the clearly defined fingers, there were still rows of lifeless words.
When the young gentleman lowered his eyes, his amber-like pupils seemed to have caught the light and shadow of the lamp on the case. He casually spread out several sheets of paper and read through them one by one in order.
Between the lines of those words, there was the sadness and anger of a young girl.
The face under the light was like the faint spring color between distant mountains covered in mist, his eyes seeming to have never had any ripples, but it seemed as if there was a moment when a hint of interest flickered.
Her emotions, so vividly expressed and utterly unguarded, truly resembled a small animal.
She was like a pitiful little thing that he could break its neck at any moment.
