This was the second time Qing Ye gave Xing Wu a sense of turning decay into magic. If the first time was effortlessly sorting out his mother’s chronically messy accounts, this incident gave Xing Wu a new perspective on her.

She was the first good student to appear in Xing Wu’s life who dared to break conventions and social norms. She seemed to always know exactly what she wanted and how to ensure her goals wouldn’t be disrupted. She wasn’t afraid of others’ opinions, nor did she fear the bad influence of their group. She could even transform this bad influence overnight into legitimate protection, leaving everyone astounded.

Originally, people at school thought that when Qing Ye was called to the teaching affairs office early in the morning, she would definitely be lectured about yesterday afternoon’s incident with the outside school students, especially her inexplicably getting involved with Xing Wu’s group.

Who could have imagined that not only did the school leaders not severely discipline her, but they personally escorted her back to class and even had Xing Wu’s group protect her from now on? No one could understand such a bizarre turn of events.

Of course, the reason they couldn’t understand was that this morning, the school leaders had planned to take turns convincing Qing Ye to stay away from those unruly bad students at school. Instead, as soon as Qing Ye entered the teaching affairs office, she volunteered that Xing Wu was her cousin, they were family – did they want her to cut ties with relatives?

The school leaders were stunned before they could even speak. They then pulled up the contact information for Xing Wu’s mother, Li Lanfang, and confirmed their family relationship with her in front of Qing Ye. On speakerphone, Li Lanfang’s loud voice came through: “Yes, Qing Ye is my niece, she’s staying with me now. I’m busy with business, Director, please look after our Qing Ye and Xing Wu at school.”

Then Qing Ye heard Pockmark Zhao shouting in the background: “Second Sister Li, Zhang Guang’s father went for hemorrhoid surgery, we’re short one person for mahjong this afternoon.”

The leaders’ faces all turned green, and Qing Ye wanted to find a hole to crawl into, regretting so much that she had brought up Li Lanfang.

After hanging up, the school leaders all looked worried. They were legitimate relatives, living together – they couldn’t prevent them from associating. Yet they were worried about Qing Ye’s studies being affected. Finally, Director Gu came up with this perfect solution.

Thus, under the school leaders’ orders, Qing Ye was officially under Xing Wu’s protection, and no one dared say a word about it.

When Cao Fan heard about this, he nearly died from coughing up blood, because it meant that from today on, even if he was unhappy with Qing Ye, he couldn’t touch a hair on her head at school.

Regarding this bizarre situation, news quickly leaked that Xing Wu was Qing Ye’s little brother, that he had accepted her as his sister, and so on. Of course, the vast majority didn’t believe it. Everyone at Anzhong knew Xing Wu’s personality – when had he ever bowed his head to anyone? Let alone a girl?

Qing Ye could feel that Xing Wu seemed to be deliberately maintaining a distance from her lately. For example, when eating, he would always browse his phone while eating, basically having zero eye contact with her. Previously he would occasionally sleep on the couch outside, but recently he had hardly come back at all.

Even at school, he was like a dragon – you might see his head but not his tail. He would often saunter in through the back door after one or two classes, but when the bell rang and Qing Ye turned around, he would be gone again. They barely saw each other a few times – he was completely an unqualified safety pacesetter.

But except for him, the others Director Gu had named were very dutiful. This week, almost every day after school there would be a group of people “escorting” Qing Ye home. Speaking of escorting, it was just a bunch of students who didn’t attend evening self-study and had nothing better to do than walk the streets.

Even those from other classes whom Director Gu hadn’t named, like Yellow Hair and Wolf Dai’s group, would occasionally follow behind Qing Ye, bragging and wandering. Usually after seeing Qing Ye enter Xuan Island, they would leave. The Anzhi group hadn’t come to trouble Qing Ye again recently.

This situation left people at school very confused. After all, since Anzhong’s establishment, there had never been a girl who could walk around with a group of troublemakers following her. These people were students in name, but they acted like lords at school every day, the kind that even the principal couldn’t control.

This led to recently no one daring to show any aggression towards Qing Ye wherever she went. Even her brisk walking style gave off the air of Anzhong’s female boss.

But in reality, Qing Ye was just making the most of every minute, unwilling to waste time on irrelevant things, because they would soon face their first monthly exam since entering senior year.

On exam day, Xing Wu wasn’t late, arriving quite early. When his tall figure slipped in through the back door, Qing Ye glanced at him from the corner of her eye. He was wearing a clean white short-sleeved t-shirt and black cargo pants. Qing Ye had always thought Xing Wu was quite stylish – he could wear simple clothes with neat and capable handsomeness. In this school floating with non-mainstream styles, his dress was rarely something that could meet her standards.

Shortly after he entered the classroom, Yellow Hair and the others called him out. Qing Ye opened her book preparing to review some chemistry formulas when suddenly a shadow fell across her desk. Qing Ye slowly raised her head to see Li Wenhui standing in front of her holding a bottle of yogurt.

Because of the seat-changing incident, Qing Ye had some friction with this girl on her first day, so she didn’t have a good impression of her. She hadn’t spoken to Qing Ye at all these many days, so standing in front of her now left Qing Ye feeling somewhat puzzled.

She raised an eyebrow and asked: “Something wrong?”

Li Wenhui glanced outside, and Qing Ye followed her line of sight, looking at the group of boys bragging in the corridor.

Then Li Wenhui bent down and said in a low voice to Qing Ye: “I heard from others, are you really Xing Wu’s sister?”

Qing Ye calmly looked at her cautious demeanor, so different from her arrogant appearance on the first day, and suddenly found it somewhat interesting. She asked in return: “What if I am or aren’t his sister?”

Li Wenhui said somewhat awkwardly: “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you then… that you knew Xing Wu… I’ll leave this on Xing Wu’s desk. If he asks, could you mention me?”

Saying this, Li Wenhui put the yogurt on the corner of Xing Wu’s desk and hurriedly returned to her seat. Qing Ye watched her back, then looked at Xing Wu leaning in the corridor outside, and hooked her lips in amusement.

When the class bell rang, the group of boys outside gradually dispersed. Xing Wu strolled in leisurely through the back door. Qing Ye turned around to find that today he had unprecedentedly brought a pen to class. Qing Ye was worried about whether that broken pen could write.

Seeing her turn around, Xing Wu raised his eyes to look at her but didn’t speak.

Qing Ye glanced at the desk corner: “Hey, yogurt.”

Only then did Xing Wu look towards the edge of his desk, hearing Qing Ye continue: “Li Wenhui gave it to you.”

Xing Wu frowned slightly and called out: “Fatty.”

Panghu turned around, and Xing Wu raised his hand to directly throw the yogurt to Panghu, then calmly looked at Qing Ye. Qing Ye turned around indifferently.

It was originally just an unremarkable incident, but after finishing the math exam, when Panghu was drinking the yogurt carelessly and someone asked him where it came from, Panghu thoughtlessly said Brother Wu gave it to him.

Li Wenhui happened to hear these words. She ran out of the classroom to block Xing Wu who was heading to the bathroom.

In the corridor, Xing Wu stood with a cold face, hands in his cargo pants pockets, his tall figure outlined against the light, the stripes at his temples somehow giving off an untouchable air of danger.

Xing Wu wasn’t unaware of Li Wenhui’s little thoughts, but he had no other interest in her.

He just hadn’t expected her to suddenly block his way. Although Li Wenhui had sat in front of Xing Wu for over a year, because she couldn’t often see Xing Wu and Xing Wu generally didn’t pay attention to girls in the class, Li Wenhui still felt somewhat nervous standing in front of him.

She lowered her head and asked with a slight grievance: “Why did you give the yogurt I gave you to Fan Tong?”

Xing Wu said expressionlessly: “Didn’t want to drink it.”

Li Wenhui bit her lip, seeming to struggle for a long time before finally raising her head to look at Xing Wu and tell him: “I got that, especially for you, you know what I mean?”

Xing Wu’s eyes drifted slightly, seeing Qing Ye who had just finished getting water not far behind Li Wenhui, now leaning in the corridor with her water cup, smiling as she stared at him.

When Xing Wu looked back at the persistent Li Wenhui in front of him, he only felt a headache coming on.

Qing Ye had originally wanted to see how this usually supremely arrogant lord would handle a girl’s confession, but then she saw Xing Wu take twenty yuan from his pocket – yes, a twenty yuan bill – and hand it to Li Wenhui. Li Wenhui of course also looked at him in bewilderment, not knowing why he was giving her twenty yuan. Seeing she wouldn’t take it, Xing Wu stuffed the money into her and said faintly: “Consider it bought from you.”

Then he left. Left? Leaving Li Wenhui standing there alone holding twenty yuan with a completely confused face.

Xing Wu went to the bathroom without thinking much of it. When he strolled back to class, Qing Ye was still holding her water cup standing in the corridor by Class 2’s back door watching him.

His eyes also fell on Qing Ye, but when he walked up to her, Qing Ye suddenly said lightly: “So ruthless.”

Xing Wu’s footsteps slowed as he glanced sideways at her: “Watching the show without buying a ticket?”

Qing Ye smiled: “Li Wenhui is quite nice, having such devoted feelings for you, even buying you yogurt.”

Xing Wu narrowed his eyes and said coldly: “I don’t eat grass from my backyard.”

Qing Ye nodded pretending to understand, then changed the subject: “You’re quite something, having Yellow Hair and them follow me every day while you can’t even be seen.”

Xing Wu raised an eyebrow and turned to stare at her. Qing Ye raised her head, her long eyelashes blinking slightly: “Isn’t that right? If you hadn’t given the word, would that group have nothing better to do?”

Xing Wu simply folded his arms and leaned against the wall behind him, hooking his lips playfully: “Isn’t that because I’m afraid if I spend too much time with you, I’ll be attracted by your beauty and excellence, and fall for you? After all, you’re the daddy I can never…”

Xing Wu’s face darkened, unable to say those two words. He just glared at her before turning to go back to class. Qing Ye watched his retreating figure and smiled, then walked back to class unhurriedly. When passing his seat, she secretly gave him the middle finger.

…

The monthly exam results came out quickly. To Qing Ye’s great surprise, Shi Min, who never let her mind wander for even a minute during class and even economized on bathroom time, ranked in the bottom five of the class, leaving her stunned.

So Qing Ye very seriously asked her: “You pay such close attention in class, did you understand everything?”

Shi Min answered her equally seriously: “I understood it, I just didn’t comprehend it.”

“…”

Qing Ye was utterly speechless. She had always thought her deskmate was one of Class 2’s top students. As soon as Shi Min left her seat, Qing Ye hurriedly turned around to peek at Xing Wu’s test papers. Xing Wu was leaning back in his chair playing games, with his papers lying on the desk.

It would have been better not to look – Qing Ye was left speechless. Someone who had never properly attended a single class, probably just randomly guessing the multiple choice questions, though not passing, still scored higher than Shi Min who had studied so earnestly. How could something so bizarre happen?

So Qing Ye sighed at his test papers: “I didn’t know Shi Min didn’t understand. She never said anything, and I don’t see anyone in class more serious than her. How could she score lower than even you?”

The words “even you” were said with extreme disdain. Xing Wu glanced at her sideways: “Then you never considered that it’s not that she’s stupid, but that I’m naturally gifted?”

“…” With a 72-point natural gift, Qing Ye looked at her score of 147 – if he was gifted, what was she? A goddess?

Just after speaking, Xing Wu received a phone call. Seeming to have something to attend to, he folded his test paper, stuffed it in the drawer, and said to Qing Ye: “I’m going to Shunyi, won’t be back tonight.”

Then he walked straight out the back door.

After school, Yellow Hair’s group was squatting by the roadside at the school gate smoking. Seeing Qing Ye come out, Yellow Hair immediately tossed his cigarette and walked over: “Cousin, how did you do on the exam?”

Qing Ye said expressionlessly: “Not so good.”

Wolf Dai beside them was immediately shocked: “Our head teacher said you beat the second place in our grade by 58 points and nearly got a perfect score in science!”

Qing Ye said disdainfully: “In a real exam, would my competition be your grade’s second place?”

One sentence made the group of troublemakers shudder. Qing Ye turned and walked back carrying her bag, and the group gradually stood up too.

Qing Ye was indeed unsatisfied with this monthly exam. It could be said it was her worst performance ever – losing points in places she shouldn’t have, with a total score of barely over 650, not even reaching her previous level.

According to last year’s admission scores for top-tier 985 universities in this province for science students, she was still short by 15-20 points. Moreover, she had checked that last year there were 81 people in this province who scored over 650 in science. Referring to last year’s enrollment plan, those few top schools had an admission rate of less than 0.4% in this province. If she couldn’t rank in the province’s top ten, her situation would become very passive. She had never liked putting choices in others’ hands, so Qing Ye’s mood was very low.

But at least she knew where to focus her efforts next. She now had a vague worry – this score wouldn’t be remarkable at her previous school, but here, it seemed everyone thought her results were godlike. But she knew that wasn’t the case. She was afraid she might become slightly complacent because of these voices.

Now she could only refer to those top 985 universities’ score requirements. If she wanted to get scholarships abroad, she would be facing academic elites from all over the world, plus the challenges of a foreign environment. These were all things she needed to overcome. So the more impressive others thought she was, the more she needed to keep herself tightly wound.

On the way back, Qing Ye casually asked: “How did you all do?”

The scattered scores they reported were simply too painful to hear. Qing Ye said helplessly: “You all still come to school every day, yet can’t even score higher than Xing Wu?”

Yellow Hair said to Qing Ye: “Actually, our Brother Wu’s grades were okay in middle school.”

Qing Ye looked at him skeptically. Yellow Hair smiled: “Really. Except for Chinese – asking him to write an essay was like trying to kill him – but for other subjects like math and sciences, our Brother Wu usually passed in middle school, sometimes even with pretty good scores.”

Qing Ye was somewhat surprised: “I thought with his attitude he’d just end up at some vocational school.”

Yellow Hair continued: “You know what, Brother Wu was planning to go straight to Anzhi after middle school graduation. After all, as you know, he’s not very interested in studying.”

“Then why did he go to high school?”

Yellow Hair let out a long sigh: “Wasn’t it because of the trouble with the Anzhi people? At that time, some Anzhi students came to his family’s barbershop for haircuts, deliberately causing trouble and flipping Aunt Li’s mahjong table. Of course, Brother Wu wouldn’t let them off. When the conflict started, who could have expected that halfway through the fight, Brother Wu would go to the kitchen and grab a cleaver to hack at several people? Although money was paid in compensation later, it scared the Anzhi people at that time. Afterward, people outside spread rumors that Brother Wu was crazy, didn’t care about his life, and would hack even himself if provoked.

So a grudge was formed between the Anzhi people and Brother Wu. Brother Wu also felt the Anzhi crowd was too trashy and didn’t want to sink to their level. He made an effort on the high school entrance exam, forced himself to write the essay, and came to Anzhong.”

“…”

This was the first time Qing Ye had heard of such an absurd reason for attending high school.

She couldn’t help saying: “If his foundation wasn’t bad and he made it to high school, why doesn’t he study properly?”

Yellow Hair responded casually: “Probably can’t absorb it, just like us. Besides, what’s the point of putting in all that effort to study? For university? For Brother Wu, it’s more practical to take on more work to earn money.”

Qing Ye sighed silently in her heart. She only had to feed herself, but Xing Wu was different from her.

Yellow Hair and the others parted ways with Qing Ye at the entrance of Xuan Island.

As soon as Qing Ye entered, she saw that Du Qiyan and Liu Nian hadn’t left yet today, standing in a corner whispering about something. She asked curiously: “Not getting off work?”

Liu Nian turned to look at Qing Ye, hesitated for a moment, and then discussed something with Du Qiyan. The two walked up to Qing Ye, and Liu Nian asked: “We’re about to go ask Yanyan’s ex-boyfriend for money, not sure if we can get it back.”

Qing Ye put down her bag, poured a cup of water, and glanced at them asking what money. That’s when she heard that when Du Qiyan was dating her “widower,” he had taken quite a bit of money from her, using various excuses. From what Du Qiyan said, in their relationship of less than a year, that widower had gradually taken over ten thousand from her. Now Du Qiyan’s mother was unwell and urgently needed money for medical treatment, so she wanted to ask the widower to return the money.

After hearing their explanation, Qing Ye suddenly understood why Du Qiyan had cried so miserably when she broke up last time. She had reason to cry – damn, with such a meager monthly salary, she still gave that scumbag over ten thousand. True love was invincible indeed.

Qing Ye casually asked: “Do you have an IOU?”

“No.”

“WeChat transfer records or chat history?”

“No.”

“…”

Qing Ye put down her water cup and looked at them: “Good luck to you.”

Then these two walked off into the night.

Qing Ye ate a few bites of food and took out her test papers to start practicing problems. About an hour later, she suddenly received a call from Liu Nian, who said breathlessly: “I got beaten up.”

“…”