That time, Jin Yiken truly didn’t give her any face. It could even be said he had viciously slapped her face on behalf of Bai Aiting. She also felt that the next few days definitely wouldn’t be peaceful. It was equivalent to giving him a weakness to hold over her. On the other hand, she had also reserved a grave for herself—if he stood on Bai Aiting’s side, then she would truly confirm the rumors about her poor reputation. Just wait for death.
Hot-headed. She felt that being hot-headed at the time had ruined her. She also found her own behavior absurd—why did she take off her clothes in front of a male student she hadn’t known for even two hours? Why? Was she crazy?
But the following days passed without any abnormality. Jin Yiken didn’t tell Bai Aiting. Even the way he looked at Long Qi didn’t change. It wasn’t that he didn’t care what kind of person she was, but rather as if he had already known what kind of person she was. Occasionally, when she kept her gaze on him for a long time, he would gently turn his head sideways and make eye contact with her in the crowd for a second or two.
During those one or two seconds, he was always simultaneously doing other things. Sometimes he had just pulled out his phone from his pants pocket, sometimes he had just received a basketball thrown by a teammate, sometimes he was crumpling up a high-scoring exam paper and silently throwing it into the trash can.
Long Xinyi was the first to discover this slightly illicit interaction. He found Long Qi during PE class and said in a sarcastic tone: “Oh damn, you’re incredible, you’re incredible.”
“Get lost.”
“Is there something or nothing going on between you and that Jin Yiken from Class 1?”
“Get lost.”
Bai Aiting was Long Xinyi’s goddess, so he couldn’t wait for there to be something between Long Qi and Jin Yiken. When he couldn’t get her to talk, he took out a stack of postcards and a marker pen from his pocket as usual: “Sis, come help your bro sign a few autographs.”
Without even looking, Long Qi took the postcards directly from Long Xinyi’s hand and threw them into a nearby trash can. Long Xinyi exploded on the spot: “What kind of diva act is this! What’s wrong with signing! What’s wrong with helping your bro sign a few autographs!”
“I just don’t want you to make money.”
“Damn!” He shouted very loudly. “Selling your postcards is doing you a favor! Besides, after selling them, the money’s split forty-sixty—what are you losing out on!”
Long Qi walked toward the PE equipment storage room without looking back. Long Xinyi followed behind her buttocks desperately, walking and shouting. After Long Qi entered the storage room, he even followed her in and closed the door. She picked out equipment on her own while he gestured wildly behind her, accusing her. Finally, Long Qi picked up a baseball bat, put it on her shoulder, turned around and said to Long Xinyi: “Twenty-eighty split.”
He shook his head like a rattle drum: “Thirty-seventy split. You seventy, me thirty, plus you cover my round-trip shipping costs.”
“Ten-ninety split. You ten, me ninety. Shipping costs included. Only magazine hard photos allowed, no candid life photos.”
“Damn, you’re robbing me?”
“Do you want to do this business or not?”
“Twenty-eighty split. You eighty, me twenty. Only sell magazine hard photos, not your life photos. Shipping costs included. But you have to write twenty more words and add a lip print.”
“Fine, you give me money to buy lipstick. If the brand isn’t big, I won’t apply it. If the color isn’t right, I won’t stamp it.”
“Damn!” Long Xinyi only knew how to say this catchphrase. He roughly pinched her cheeks. Right at this moment, the storage room door suddenly opened. Bai Aiting, holding a box of magnesium powder and about to enter, saw this scene and froze for a moment.
Long Xinyi was so flustered upon seeing his goddess, his heart racing like crazy. He immediately let go of Long Qi. His own face turned red as a lion’s head within one second. Long Qi said unexpectedly: “Ten-ninety.”
“Ten-ninety, ten-ninety, just ten-ninety.” Long Xinyi replied softly.
Then she left. When brushing past Bai Aiting, Bai Aiting leaned toward the door edge, straightening her back, but didn’t make eye contact with her at all.
That afternoon, rumors came out, such as “Long Qi is really ruthless, she can even get it on with her cousin,” “The two of them stayed in the storage room for half a class period,” “They were even haggling, something about one thousand nine hundred per time,” “She even wanted her cousin to buy her lipstick,” “Disgusting”…
Long Qi knew all too clearly that Bai Aiting’s old habit had flared up again. She couldn’t stand it, absolutely couldn’t stand it anymore. She practically slammed the classroom door and rushed into the hallway. After reaching Class 1’s classroom, without a word, she hit the window with the blackboard eraser in her hand and shouted explosively: “Bai Aiting, get out here!”
Several girls by the window screamed and retreated toward the center of the classroom. Bai Aiting, who was distributing homework, shrank back another step. Long Qi had just entered through the front door when Zhuo Qing, who had rushed over upon hearing the commotion, grabbed her. She pointed at Bai Aiting from afar and shouted: “You really want your grandmother to cut your mouth to pieces, don’t you!”
Long Xinyi also rushed over from his own class. He couldn’t bear to see his goddess frightened. He immediately hugged Long Qi’s waist like carrying firewood: “Let’s go, let’s go, you’ve gone crazy!”
Jin Yiken wasn’t there at the time—he had just been called to the office. So Bai Aiting was as helpless as could be, her expression practically achieving saintly martyrdom. She was surrounded by a group of girls. After several quick-reacting girls recovered, they all glared angrily at Long Qi. Outside the classroom, a crowd of spectators packed in. Zhuo Qing and Long Xinyi worked together to restrain her. Her anger couldn’t be vented satisfactorily at all. Her mouth was even covered by Long Xinyi. Those watching the excitement didn’t fear trouble escalating, so a series of suggestive jeering sounds rang out from outside the window. The scene was extremely chaotic.
Later, Long Qi was caught on the spot by the second-year grade director, who sternly ordered her homeroom teacher to take her away for proper education. The homeroom teacher was almost mad with anger, slamming the desk three times in the office.
“Long Qi, what exactly do you want to do? Tell me, Long Qi!”
After every sentence came a hoarse “ah.” Listening to it made her feel that living was boring. At the adjacent desk, the Class 1 homeroom teacher, who was discussing matters with Jin Yiken, couldn’t help but stand up and take her student to the small conference room next to the office. Long Qi saw Jin Yiken’s joint exam report card in her hand.
Half an hour of relentless education, another hour of facing the wall in reflection. The rain had started falling, and the sky had darkened before the homeroom teacher let her go.
By then, school had long since let out. Few students remained in the teaching building. She packed her bag in the empty classroom, rubbed the bruises on her face that Long Xinyi had pinched out, covered the lingering soreness in her waist and abdomen, with not a trace of expression on her face.
Passing through the hallway, she only then noticed the newly posted high-score rankings from the joint exam. She stopped alone in front of the list, slowly looking up from tenth place, seeing Bai Aiting in fourth place by total score, Dong Xi in third place by total score. Looking further up, she saw Jin Yiken in second place and Zhuo Qing in first place by total score. Between Bai Aiting and Dong Xi was a six-point difference. Between Dong Xi’s third place and Jin Yiken’s second place was a ten-point difference. And between Jin Yiken’s second place and Zhuo Qing’s first place was only a one-point difference.
Rain and light intertwined. In her mind flashed that exam paper Jin Yiken had crumpled into a ball, along with his cold profile as he threw the paper into the trash can. At the same time, there flashed Bai Aiting’s expression during the day and the various rumors around the school.
Her chest began to rise and fall subtly. She tore off the page with Bai Aiting’s fourth-place name, crumpled it into a ball, and stuffed it into her pocket.
And then? Then she returned to the entrance of the convenience store below the residential complex. Long Xinyi had told on her to his aunt again, making it so she couldn’t enter the house. She could only hug her arms and lean against the automatic door of the supermarket.
The female clerk deliberately splashed a basin of water outward. She had no heart for another argument. She just stood there unmoved, using her fingers to touch the rain curtain under the eaves in a daze, treating all other sounds as if she couldn’t hear them.
Later, a car horn sounded. Water droplets splashed up from under the car wheels and landed on the sidewalk one meter in front of Long Qi. She looked forward. Jin Yiken was looking at her through the slowly descending car window.
Torrential rain, gray dark sky, a person in despair, the desire for victory and defeat.
If the flirtatious glances of the previous days were foreplay, this moment of eye contact in the rain directly allowed the two of them to achieve a kind of unity in spirit. You belong to Bai Aiting, and I belong to Zhuo Qing. What Zhuo Qing can’t get, I’ll give to you. What Bai Aiting has been desperately longing for, I’ll take first.
Still that room with the broken water pipe, still the humid air and continuous sound of rain. The bedsheets wrinkled with creases, fine cold sweat on the forehead. Under Jin Yiken’s slow exertion of force, she let out an unrestrained muffled groan. Her lips were somewhat pale, her brow slightly furrowed, but in her heart she bit down on the three characters of Bai Aiting’s name, biting continuously. Even at the most painful moment, she didn’t let go or regret. Later, the swift wind and fine rain intoxicated them. That night, their kissing was both awkward and intensely entangled, like lovers in passionate love.