This battle exhausted all of Long Qi’s energy. She stood in the cold wind, watching the direction Chu Yaozhi disappeared, bent down, used her hands to support her knees, and gasped for breath.

While gasping, she began to cry.

It was a nearly desperate kind of distress—unable to see the future, unable to see light. Because from Long Ziyi she glimpsed her future self, and from Chu Yaozhi she glimpsed the future worldly perspective. It was as if everything she persisted in was wrong, everything she was striving for was absurd and impractical. She squatted on the ground crying, cried until her makeup ran, like a clown.

She was a clown.

Chu Yaozhi had given advance instructions to the complex’s security. The security desk wouldn’t let her enter his complex, and she no longer had the energy to stake out the entire night. That night she finally went home to sleep.

But she didn’t sleep the entire night.

Early the next morning, her homeroom teacher called, ordering her, who had been absent from class for nearly a week, to come to school. She asked: “Has Dong Xi come?”

The homeroom teacher said regardless of whether Dong Xi had come or not, she must get her ass over there.

The old man’s tone revealed his worry—it seemed in this world, he was probably the only one who truly cared whether she lived or died. She replied: “Oh.”

Then, with the dark circles that had accumulated over the entire night, she went to school like a walking corpse.

She slumped through one class in the morning, slept through the lunch break, and near the first class in the afternoon received a private message from a campus network account—Bai Aiting’s, asking her to arrange a time to meet.

Bai Aiting using her campus network account to send her a message was absurd enough, but she even wanted to meet with her. Long Qi treated it as a dream, deleted the private message, and continued sleeping.

Bai Aiting’s second private message came: I saw the invigilating teacher give Dong Xi a pack of tissues.

At that time, the classroom was still noisy. Long Qi’s eyes were fixed firmly on the screen. Three seconds later, she rose from the desk, brushed aside the hair from her forehead, stared hard at it again, then suddenly left her seat.

Bai Aiting was waiting for her at the stairway in the middle of the corridor.

It was lunch break—few people around. Long Qi couldn’t wait to question her from five meters away from Bai Aiting: “You know but won’t testify—what do you want?”

Bai Aiting was quite calm. As soon as Long Qi approached, she turned and walked upstairs, forcing Long Qi to follow her. But Long Qi simply couldn’t wait for her to lead her to some secluded place and directly grabbed her on the landing: “Why don’t you go testify?”

“Why should I?”

Bai Aiting responded.

Long Qi faced her. The two were separated by less than half a meter, their eyes mixed with complex emotions. Bai Aiting continued unhurriedly: “I’m neither related to her by blood nor friendship, and we’re academic rivals. Why should I help her testify?”

“Then aren’t you sick in the head for luring me out?”

“Yesterday our family and Jin Yiken’s family had dinner together.”

“So what?”

“It was an engagement banquet.”

Long Qi didn’t speak for two seconds. Two seconds later, she reacted and pressed closer to Bai Aiting by another step: “Mm-hmm, so what?”

Bai Aiting was unexpectedly bold. She constantly stared at Long Qi’s eyes, without any of her previous retreating and evasive manner, as if she suddenly had backing as solid as rock and abundant capital, saying: “Long Qi, do you know what engagement means? It’s a kind of identity contract in law, representing that he must bear a kind of moral responsibility toward me, representing that if you or Dong Xi intervene further, you’ll be genuine mistresses subject to society’s condemnation.”

“What the hell does that have to do with me?”

Long Qi replied with these four words. Bai Aiting showed no change in expression at all. Afterward, Long Qi finally gave up the dominance in eye contact and proposed as if compromising: “So what do you want?”

“I’ll testify for Dong Xi, you transfer schools. My family will cover the transfer costs.”

Long Qi laughed sarcastically: “Rich families really are bold.”

After speaking, she immediately wanted to leave, but after three steps, she lingered in place, emotions surging in her chest, wanting to speak but unable to stop. Bai Aiting calmly stood in place, waiting for her.

But afterward, Long Qi still replied: “You’re delusional.”

Bai Aiting also said after Long Qi’s response: “I’ll still wait for you. Three days is the limit.”

Jin Yiken knew about the fact that Bai Aiting could testify for Dong Xi.

Long Qi grabbed many boys from the top student class and finally asked where he was—in the lecture hall in the school’s north building. When she found him, he was sitting in the middle of the first row of seats, head lowered, elbows against his knees, phone spinning in his hand, thinking about things, looking quite exhausted.

The lecture hall’s curtains were very heavy and completely drawn—especially dark, with only that bit of light from the doorway illuminating the area at his feet.

Also illuminating Long Qi’s feet.

She stood before him.

Jin Yiken knew it was her who came, but still kept his head lowered, always immersed in his own thoughts. Otherwise, he only added one more sentence: “What are you here for? Aiting needs to use this classroom for a meeting soon.”

“Are you willing to look at me?”

Jin Yiken was unwilling.

His slightly weary voice indicated his powerlessness toward her, indicated how strongly last night’s events had affected and persecuted him, indicated his current attitude toward life of a heart like still water.

After Long Qi was quiet for a while, she slowly bent her knees.

Her left knee touched the ground slowly first, then her right knee. Both knees pressed against the soft floor mat. Her hands also covered his hands, covering the back of his hand that she had scratched red. Because he kept not looking at her, she looked at him in this posture, this humble posture, saying softly: “I know I was wrong first, unreasonable first, ungrateful first.”

Jin Yiken silently withdrew his hand.

Long Qi continued gripping it, her voice trembling: “But Dong Xi is because of me.”

While listening to his breathing, she continued: “It’s because of the fact that I like her that she suffered retaliation. I bear full responsibility.”

Jin Yiken moved slightly. Long Qi immediately gripped his hand tightly, afraid he would leave, begging: “Help me, persuade Bai Aiting.”

He didn’t speak.

And Long Qi gazed at him for a long time.

The classroom was so dim, so quiet. After a long while, he withdrew his hand from beneath hers, finally willing to caress her face, using his thumb to brush away the moisture at the corner of her eye. She therefore looked up at him. The two were one above and one below, one restrained and one humble, shadows overlapping, breaths mingling together. She was careful and cautious, repeatedly begging: “Just for the sake of… how good we once were.”

Using old feelings to beg him.

The demands she had made when she was heartless were broken one by one by her. Her eyes slowly reddened, and after he finished listening, he wordlessly pressed her forehead against his own forehead, his thumb slowly pressing to the corner of her mouth. Both closed their eyes. She tightly gripped his other hand on his knee, continuing her begging.

Later, Jin Yiken withdrew this hand as well.

Their foreheads temporarily separated. He seemed to have completed a long contemplation, holding his phone up before her, staring into her eyes, wanting her to look at the screen.

Long Qi looked.

On the phone screen’s message interface were his chat records with Bai Aiting. He had sent a message two days ago: Can you testify for Dong Xi?

And Bai Aiting replied to him this afternoon. The content of the reply was: “Before leaving home this morning, I told my mom the school has camping and I can’t come home, that I need to stay out overnight. I want to spend the night with you.”

So she wanted to make herself legitimate.

Using Dong Xi’s matter as leverage, demanding he legitimize her, thoroughly making him take full responsibility for her.

Long Qi understood Bai Aiting’s obscure hint almost instantly. In an instant, she also suddenly understood Jin Yiken’s emotional depression, understood what kind of cunning threat he was facing, understood what kind of dilemma he was in. Bai Aiting was using Dong Xi to negotiate conditions with her while coercing him, shamelessly conducting a bidirectional transaction.

By this point she couldn’t speak anymore. Her entire body was trembling. Jin Yiken was still very close to her at this time, asking: “Do you want me to agree to her?”

She didn’t answer.

“Should I agree or not?” he asked again.

Each time he asked, he tightened his grip on her nape once. She gradually frowned, her breathing chaotically colliding with his. At his third inquiry, she finally answered as weakly as gossamer: “Don’t agree.”

He became quiet.

Soon, he said: “Then I’ll have to use another method.”

Just after speaking, the phone fell vertically from his hand, landing on the floor mat with a thud. Long Qi’s shoulders shook, and he kissed her.

First kissing her lips, then from the corner of her mouth to her ear. She didn’t dare make a sound, both hands placed on his knees, until Jin Yiken lifted her up in one motion, kissing from her ear to her neck. She opened her eyes and called out: “Jin Yiken…”

He turned a deaf ear, his hand groping to the position of her collar, unbuttoning one by one downward. She twisted her head away: “What are you doing…”

He still didn’t listen. Long Qi began to get angry, but Jin Yiken’s strength was especially great. When he stood up, he lifted her up, groping all the way to her lower back, kissing while pushing her against the edge of the podium, then lifting her entirely onto the podium. At that moment, she heard her joints making creaking sounds due to his violent actions, and also felt her outer garment being pulled down by him, her entire shoulder turning cold. She could bear it no longer and placed her hand between herself and him: “What are you doing!”

She pushed him two meters away from herself, and she was also harmed by the reaction force, falling off the podium and kneeling on the floor mat. At the same time, several stunned figures at the lecture hall doorway came into view.

Long Qi looked over, caught off guard.

At that moment, her clothes were disheveled.

At that moment, Jin Yiken’s hand still held the button torn from her collar.

And the people at the door were the entire school leadership preparing to hold a meeting in this classroom. The only student serving as note-taker, Bai Aiting, stood at the front. She stared blankly at this scene. Behind her, the group of teachers exuded low pressure. After a long while, someone’s voice rang out, unusually stern, asking: “Jin Yiken, what are you doing!”

At that moment, Jin Yiken breathed steadily.

Not a shred of blame fell on Long Qi, only because at that moment she appeared before everyone in a victim’s posture shaped by Jin Yiken. She gasped and looked at him, and he was turning his head to look at these teachers. He didn’t speak, didn’t express his position, only released his hand, letting the button from her collar drop challengingly onto the floor mat.

Glaringly obvious.

Bai Aiting’s explanation and the teacher’s rebuke rang out almost simultaneously. Bai Aiting said palely that he didn’t do it on purpose, while the teacher rebuked: “Come here! Go to the office to talk!”

A female teacher also came over to drape an outer garment over Long Qi. Bai Aiting immediately looked at her and shouted: “Say something! Explain this matter!”

Long Qi’s mind was filled only with buzzing. While being helped up by the female teacher, she stared at Jin Yiken. He was being “invited” to walk by a male teacher, methodically retreating toward the doorway, looking into her eyes, silently indicating two words with his lip movements.

—Report me.