After Officer Fu finished his scolding and completed the routine paperwork, he asked for the children’s home addresses, phone numbers, and names before letting them go.

“Ah Xi, how will you explain this when you get home?” Si Wan looked at Yan Xi’s arm with furrowed brows.

“I’ll say I ran into a bear!” Yan Xi was afraid of pain, and his mood had soured even more after getting treated.

“Brother, I’m sorry about today!” Hu Ba shrunk his neck, feeling guilty. He wasn’t bad by nature – his anger had been focused on Mei Mei, but seeing that Yan Xi had no interest in her, plus having shared in their troubles at the police station, he increasingly felt these boys matched his temperament, stirring feelings of kinship.

“Forget it, forget it, just don’t let young master me see you again…” Yan Xi waved his hand listlessly, accepting his bad luck.

“Brother, what kind of talk is that? As long as you don’t try to steal Mei Mei, I’ll look after you guys from now on – our brotherhood will last!” Hu Ba patted the youth’s shoulder with grand spirit. Unfortunately, he hit the wound, causing Yan Xi to cry out immediately.

Si Wan was somewhat displeased and gently pulled Yan Xi to her side by his shoulder.

“Look at my memory!” Hu Ba smiled sheepishly, appearing rather foolish.

Xin Dayi whistled while looking at the sky, wearing a disdainful expression.

A Heng felt Hu Ba was a good person and smiled at him in a gentle, understanding manner. Hu Ba smiled back – his typically fierce face showed traces of lovable foolishness.

A Heng continued smiling, chuckling, smiling, and smiling.

“Does your cheek hurt?” Yan Xi glanced sideways at A Heng.

“A little.” A Heng poked his cheek, smiling until it hurt.

“Hey Noodle King, if you want to be my brother that’s fine, but you have to join my Pork Rib Sect,” Yan Xi said lazily, leaning against Si Wan with wandering eyes.

“Pork Rib Sect?” Hu Ba stumbled over his words, “What’s that? Some kind of cult?”

Si Wan stifled a laugh.

“What are you laughing at, Right Guardian?” Yan Xi feigned innocence.

Right Guardian – Si Wan?

A Heng remembered Si Wan standing in the wind, raising her arms and shouting “Sect Leader Yan Xi shall unify the martial world, remaining undefeated for thousands of generations!” He immediately shuddered.

“Yan Xi, you punk can start whatever sect you want with me and Si Wan. But can’t you pick a better name? Pork Rib Sect? Damn, who could stand hearing that? If that gets out, I, Xin Dayi, won’t be able to show my face!” The wild-haired youth looked at Yan Xi woefully.

“Left Guardian, are you thinking of betraying the sect?” Yan Xi spoke softly, gazing at Xin Dayi with sorrowful eyes.

“Oh oh, Brother Dayi, go ahead and betray! If you betray, I’ll get promoted!” Little Shrimp’s eyes lit up.

“You are… what?” Hu Ba looked at Little Shrimp, trembling.

The child smiled, pointing at himself: “You’re asking me? I’m the Four Great Dharma Kings.”

“You alone are all Four Great Dharma Kings?”

“Yes, yes!”

“So, want to join?” Yan Xi ruffled Little Shrimp’s hat and looked at Hu Ba with bright eyes, smiling like flowers.

Hu Ba stared at Yan Xi’s face, dazed, and unconsciously nodded.

“Good, from now on you’ll be one of the Eight Golden Guardians!” Yan Xi nodded with satisfaction, like a leader.

Si Wan and Xin Dayi looked at Yan Xi helplessly, letting him have fun.

“Why… is it… the Pork Rib Sect?” A Heng asked.

“What else could it be? It’s just because he likes eating pork ribs.” Si Wan squinted, looking at Yan Xi’s thin figure as she spoke softly.

A Heng tilted his head and chuckled.

Finally, the storm had passed.

School started.

Following Xi Lin’s tradition, new semester seating was typically arranged by grades. A Heng’s class was the top-performing class, so naturally they had to carry through with the “grades first” principle to the end.

Their homeroom teacher, Teacher Guo, said: “Everyone takes your bags and go outside. According to the grade list, I’ll call you in one by one to choose your seats.”

“Discrimination, absolute personal discrimination!” Xin Dayi was very indignant outside the classroom. His grades had always been decent, but unfortunately, he got addicted to gaming before last semester’s finals. While his foundation in science subjects carried him through, he got red marks in every humanities subject. Overall ranking: somewhere past the twentieth in the class.

When Xin Dayi was admitted to Xi Lin, he had entered gloriously with the title of First Place in the Math Olympics. Now, he couldn’t even be found on the grade rankings. Originally he was thick-skinned and didn’t care much, but homeroom teacher Guo kept finding him for tea and heart-to-hearts every few days – who could stand that?! So, this fellow’s rare sense of self-esteem emerged, and now this policy of seating by grades severely wounded his tender young heart.

“Wen Heng.” Ms. Guo lazily called out names while holding the roster, reaching the grade’s dark horse second.

A wave of hisses arose from the crowd.

“Here.” A Heng walked in and sat in her old spot – second to last row, by the window.

One by one they were called in, but everyone pretended not to see A Heng, staying far away from her. This behavior was like treating some contagious virus – from beginning to end, no one sat next to her.

Deskmate, front desk, back desk – all empty seats.

She was detested…

A Heng felt dejected – she wasn’t the plague.

In 2003 when SARS arrived, their entire dormitory building had been quarantined. Later when they were released, it was the same scene – whenever people at school saw anyone from their dorm out walking, dating, stargazing, holding hands, or feeding mosquitoes, they immediately cleared out. Wherever they went, there wasn’t a soul for miles around. That situation hurt far more than this small-scale classroom isolation.

Unfortunately, back then in those days, she was young and couldn’t see past it, hiding in her shell to lick her wounds, which only made them hurt more.

She remembered looking toward Xin Dayi then, but that fellow very ungraciously turned his head and pretended not to see.

Compared to other strangers, though she never mentioned it, she had still presumptuously thought that even if they weren’t friends, they at least counted as acquaintances.

But reality proved she had thought too much.

A Heng wasn’t clear whether that glance of hers represented helplessness – after all, that was much easier than admitting rejection.

Years later, Xin Dayi half-jokingly said to A Heng: “A Heng, how did you end up liking Yan Xi? I knew you earlier than him.”

A Heng wanted to joke that Yan Xi was somewhat good-looking, but in that instant, what suddenly flooded her mind wasn’t his appearance. The youth’s features had already faded with time. The only thing she could still remember was how beautifully alive the youth looked when angry, like flames in the light and shadow, eternal. No matter what tune he hummed or how casually he carried himself, in this lifetime, it would be impossible to forget.

She said: “Dayi, do you remember how Yan Xi looked when he was angry?”

How could he not remember?

Xin Dayi shrank his neck.

She lived her days trembling, ordinary yet full of shock. Sometimes, she would have to stare contests with the toad in her locker; sometimes, she would find textbooks in her drawer that had been stepped on and torn; occasionally, during others’ horseplay, the blackboard eraser would somehow hit her; more occasionally, when it was her turn for cleaning duty, there would be several times more garbage on the ground than usual…

But no matter how shocking, nothing compared to Yan Xi’s sudden appearance.

That day, she was doing exercises when someone suddenly walked into the classroom. Before she could look up, the female students had already started screaming excitedly.

She raised her head to see him in his blue school uniform, white shirt, black hair backlit, eyes calm and clear.

Yan Xi was a year older than Xin Dayi, one grade above Xin Dayi and A Heng. A Heng had heard Si Wan mumbling before that Yan Xi had skipped too many classes last year, barely learning anything all year, so Grandfather Yan wanted him to go back to the first year for rehabilitation.

But this was too sudden, wasn’t it?

Xin Dayi seemed to know about it, grinning straight at Yan Xi and proudly telling the boys next to him: “See that? Our school’s beauty, my brother Yan Xi!”

Yan Xi’s title as school beauty had a long history.

Just after starting high school, he was mistaken for a girl by the former student council president who only pursued each year’s school beauty – love letters every three days, roses every five days, “I love you” constantly on his lips.

Yan Xi shouted at him: “I’m a guy!”

But that person just smiled sincerely: “Beautiful, come on, let’s come out of the closet right now!”

Thus, the title of school beauty was established, and unshakeable.

When A Heng first heard this story, she broke out in a cold sweat. Why did everything that happened to Yan Xi seem so abnormal?…

Just as Teacher Guo announced Yan Xi’s transfer to the class, her voice was quickly drowned out. Mind you, this lady’s voice could echo between two teaching buildings when she lectured, but now her volume was overwhelmed by a group of usually quiet and weak girls.

Indeed, beauty was the world’s most destructive ultimate weapon.

Yan Xi’s mouth curved up on one side, his eyes calm and expressionless. He picked up the chalk and wrote “Yan Xi” on the blackboard.

Two neat characters, completely unlike the flourishing talent A Heng had seen that day.

She guessed he wanted to avoid trouble and keep a low profile. But at Xi Lin, just the character “Yan Xi” couldn’t possibly remain ordinary. So the screaming continued below.

“Yan Xi, come here, sit here!” Xin Dayi pointed at the empty seat behind him, bouncing up and down excitedly like a monkey.

The youth glanced at Xin Dayi and was about to walk over, but seeing too many girls sitting around him, he immediately turned away in disgust, walking in the opposite direction. Looking down, he saw A Heng with her two braids staring at him stupidly, her surroundings forming a stark contrast with the crowd around Xin Dayi.

Yan Xi couldn’t be bothered to think and simply sat down in the seat behind A Heng.

The air in the classroom stagnated briefly, then came the rustle of turning pages and scratching of pencils as the quiet study atmosphere resumed.

A Heng kept drawing circuit diagrams until she felt her brain turning into a jumble of lines. She put down her pen and gently lay on her desk looking out the window when she heard soft snoring from behind.

A Heng turned around to see Yan Xi asleep on his desk.

She had never seen Yan Xi like this before – defenseless, stripped of layer upon layer of armor, only youth’s pure innocence remaining.

She stared blankly at the youth’s bent elbow.

This uniform, the blue color, looked quite nice.

She chuckled.

When the class bell rang, A Heng had already rallied her spirits and continued with series-parallel circuits. Meanwhile, Yan Xi remained in dreamland.

After writing for quite a while, a female classmate came to her desk, tapped her shoulder, and smiled: “Wen Heng, someone’s looking for you at the school gate!”

A Heng was startled – who could be looking for her at this time?

But the girl’s expression was sincere, so she didn’t suspect anything and left her seat.

The classmates who saw her started pointing and whispering. Xin Dayi glanced at her, then quickly lowered his head.

A Heng was puzzled but hurried out of the classroom toward the school gate.

From the teaching building to the school gate was quite a distance. Along the way, A Heng noticed everyone’s expressions were strange, looking at her as if seeing a lunatic. Some people started laughing unkindly, pointing at her.

“Hey hey, how can someone be so shameless?”

“Right? It’s disgusting, must be crazy right?”

A Heng looked at her clothes but found nothing wrong, yet those words became increasingly unbearable.

She quickened her pace and ran to the school gate, but there was no one there. A Heng knew she had been tricked again and felt a bit dejected as she walked back.

When she returned to the classroom, a group of girls stared at her, laughing exaggeratedly and proudly.

“Wen Heng, everyone saw you right? Did they compliment you?” asked the girl who had previously clashed with A Heng over volleyball, smiling.

A Heng looked at her, thinking her eyes were ugly like they wanted to devour her. She stayed silent but understood, her hand lightly reaching toward her shoulder, indeed finding a note that must have been stuck there when that girl patted her earlier.

“I am a slut.” A Heng read the note softly.

She looked at that girl and handed the note back to her, suppressing the trembling in her palm as she spoke gently: “Your thing, I’m returning it to you.”

The girl’s face instantly turned red: “Wen Heng, you slut, stop acting high and mighty! Clinging to Wen Si Wan every day, so shameless!”

A Heng lowered her head, then raised it again, speaking seriously: “You like Wen Si Wan, but why bother… slandering others? Being a girl, how can you… say such ugly… dirty words?”

The girl tore up the note: “Who do you think you are? Lecturing me? Look at yourself, some country bumpkin who came from who knows where!”

Country bumpkin – well, probably still a country bumpkin who couldn’t learn the Beijing dialect even after a hundred years. A Heng smiled.

But the other party became enraged from embarrassment and grabbed A Heng’s clothes.

“Today, if you dare touch Wen Heng once, this young master will cripple your hand.” From behind came a flat, emotionless voice, as casual as discussing the weather.

That girl was stunned, looking at the youth who suddenly appeared.

A Heng turned her head slightly, her nose brushing against the youth’s collar with its faint milk scent.

“Yan Xi.” She smiled, but then, suddenly felt wrong.

A Heng sighed inwardly – what a troublesome emotion, what was it the beginning of, and what was it the end of?

That youth, thin and delicate-looking, had protected her behind him. He raised his eyebrows, his large eyes flashing with cold light as he smiled without warmth at the girl opposite: “If Wen Si Wan knew you were bullying his sister like this, he probably wouldn’t hit you because of some damn gentlemanly manner. But young master me doesn’t mind hitting women!”

The girl’s face instantly turned pale as she looked at A Heng in disbelief: “She’s Wen Si Wan’s sister?”

Yan Xi sneered: “She’s not – are you?”

Then he turned and walked to Xin Dayi, viciously kicking his desk with a huge crash as it toppled over.

Books scattered everywhere.

Xin Dayi stood up, somewhat guilty.

Yan Xi looked at him, his beautiful black pupils hiding flame-like flowing light, his voice icy cold and piercing: “Xin Dayi, do you fucking enjoy watching Wen Heng getting bullied every day?”