Zhao Dai Lin had a nickname called the Great Demon King.

This was because whenever she wanted something, she never failed to get it. From kindergarten, she was a child with clear plans for herself. At an age when other children were playing with mud, shooting marbles, and rolling iron hoops, little Zhao Dai Lin was already pretentiously planning her future life and even harbored wicked thoughts about the little brother from next door.

The Zhao family had no girls; she had three or four older brothers above her, and she was the only daughter born to them. She grew up rolling around with the boys, her temperament was indeed somewhat wild, and she was pampered and cherished by everyone as she grew up. Along the way, she had a very clear plan for herself, and everything went smoothly, so she didn’t suffer any hardships.

This title of Great Demon King originated from her several brothers. Because she was their only sister, they were especially fond of her. If Zhao Dai Lin said she wanted the moon from the sky, these brothers would move heaven and earth to take turns fetching it for her.

This “moon” began with the little brother from next door.

She remembered that north of the hutong courtyard where she lived as a child was a dense grove of white birch trees. The bark of the white birch trees was as smooth as silk, and when the breeze gently blew, the triangular leaves would make a rustling sound. The thousands of knots on the trunks were like thousands of eyes, imperceptibly peering at the reality of this world.

Zhao Dai Lin felt that the little brother from next door was particularly like a white birch tree, possessing a pair of eyes that could see through worldly matters.

So he became Zhao Dai Lin’s first love. She was still only four or five years old, and although she didn’t understand these adult emotions, in a child’s world, liking someone meant giving them your best things. For Zhao Dai Lin, her most precious possession was her brothers, and their task, from that time on, changed from protecting Zhao Dai Lin to protecting the object of her secret crush.

However, the object of her secret crush was very aloof, ignoring her most of the time. Occasionally he would smile, but only when he saw other pretty girls; he would slightly curl up the corners of his mouth. But when he turned his head and saw little Zhao Dai Lin resting her chin in her hands, smiling at him foolishly, the smile at the corner of his mouth would freeze and wouldn’t move.

When little Zhao Dai Lin saw that he stopped smiling, she was also stunned.

What puzzled little Zhao Dai Lin even more was that although Brother Yu Cheng didn’t like her very much and was indifferent to her, he never rejected her. He was also very polite to her brothers, appearing very proper, which made little Zhao Dai Lin think of the phrase “comply in public but oppose in private.”

Despite her young age at that time, she could recite Tang and Song poetry with ease, and she had mastered the dictionary of idioms thoroughly. She was very interesting and knew many things that ordinary children didn’t know, but Brother Yu Cheng didn’t like to play with her, preferring to play with her brothers instead. Brother Yu Cheng treated her like a fool, and little Zhao Dai Lin didn’t expose him, earnestly playing the role of a little fool.

Perhaps he liked such foolish girls?

Little Zhao Dai Lin comforted herself with such thoughts, but later she discovered that was not the case. Brother Yu Cheng didn’t like foolish girls; Brother Yu Cheng was just accustomed to enjoying her affection and the protection of her brothers.

On the way to school at that time, elementary school students were often made to pay protection fees by middle school students. One day, Hu Yu Cheng somehow offended some social youths, and during that period, he was harassed daily by a guy with dyed yellow hair. After school, they would bring a group of delinquents with hair dyed in various colors and block his way home every day, punching and kicking him, and even extorting him, wanting to take the money that Hu Yu Cheng’s grandmother used to buy medicine. Hu Yu Cheng vowed never to give it and was pressed hard against the ground with a foot on his face until the corner of his mouth was scraped and he tasted a hint of blood.

He squinted his eyes, feeling the cold wind blowing through the old hutong, and in his haze, he saw an unknown flower blooming in the corner, bright red and full of hope.

Someone lifted him, pressed him against the wall, and stripped him of his clothes. Hu Yu Cheng would rather die than submit and was stripped to just his underwear, standing naked in the cold wind.

Zhao Dai Lin was on her way to find her brothers to go to her grandmother’s house for dinner. As she passed by the entrance of a hutong, she seemed to smell something familiar. She sniffed with her little nose, and when her gaze unexpectedly turned, she saw Brother Yu Cheng being cornered by a group of bad boys.

She was only tiny at that time and didn’t think much. She stood at the gloomy entrance of the hutong with her legs apart, hands on her hips. Perhaps she had watched too many episodes of The Powerpuff Girls; she forgot that she was just an elementary school student, but for her beloved, she shouted at the group of people inside with mighty courage: “What are you doing?!!!!!”

“…”

Three minutes later.

The “Powerpuff Girl” was also dangled beside her beloved boy, held by the neck like a little chick, pulled so tight that she was rolling her eyes, still chattering to the person: “Big brother, you’re choking my neck, I can’t breathe… cough cough… can I pull your sleeve instead?”

Hu Yu Cheng looked at her speechlessly and finally waited for the person to stand still beside him.

He lowered his head and snorted: “Idiot.”

Zhao Dai Lin still cheerfully looked the boy’s bare body up and down, “You’re so white, even whiter than our Mao Mao.” Until she saw the blood at the corner of his mouth, her eyes darkened.

“…Who is Mao Mao?”

“My second brother’s dog! It’s super small, a little Bichon Frise, purebred, with really white fur.”

Hu Yu Cheng felt he couldn’t communicate with her.

“What are you two whispering about? Stand properly!” said the yellow-haired boy opposite.

Little Zhao Dai Lin secretly moved closer to Hu Yu Cheng, brushing against his warm skin, her little heart beating wildly, then excitedly looked at the yellow-haired boy opposite and asked: “Do you want me to take off my clothes?”

Hu Yu Cheng looked at the sky speechlessly, gritting his teeth and saying word by word: “Zhao Dai Lin, is there something wrong with your brain?”

But Zhao Dai Lin was heard seriously negotiating with the boy word by word, “Can you please let him put his clothes back on? His health is poor. My grandmother says Brother Yu Cheng is physically weak and gets sick easily. He’s the future pillar of our country, we can’t let him catch a cold. Can I take off my clothes instead?”

…

Even the little yellow-haired boy opposite was touched to pieces, looking at Hu Yu Cheng and saying: “Tsk tsk tsk, that face of yours does attract butterflies.”

It turned out that the little yellow-haired boy knew Hu Yu Cheng; he was a childhood friend from the countryside before Hu Yu Cheng came to Beijing. Hu Yu Cheng had lived with his grandmother from an early age, and until he was five, he lived with her in a small mountain village in Xi City. Later, his second uncle bought a house in Beijing and brought him and his grandmother to Beijing, next door to Zhao Dai Lin’s grandmother’s house. Ever since Hu Yu Cheng moved in next door to Zhao Dai Lin’s grandmother, Zhao Dai Lin began visiting her grandmother more frequently.

The little yellow-haired boy had only come to the city with his mother last year.

As soon as he came to the city, he excitedly went to find his old friend, but unexpectedly, though the person was still the same, things were no longer as they once were. Hu Yu Cheng didn’t want to be friends with him anymore, which made the little yellow-haired boy furious. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. The feeling of being abandoned was hard to bear, and he wanted to get it back double from Hu Yu Cheng!

What angered the little yellow-haired boy even more was that no matter where this guy went, he was always surrounded by little girls willing to die for him.

Just as he steeled his resolve, he saw the girl suddenly brighten up and shout behind her: “Second brother!”

When they turned around, they saw several middle school-aged boys looking this way.

It was over.

After that, entrusted by his sister, Hu Yu Cheng became their key protected person.

However, what Zhao Dai Lin didn’t expect was that this white-eyed wolf enjoyed her benefits but still flirted with the class beauty!

After learning that Brother Yu Cheng had a little wild cat outside, Zhao Dai Lin was angry, but she didn’t dare tell her brothers, fearing they would beat him up. Brother Yu Cheng’s small frame couldn’t take a beating.

Zhao Dai Lin was plotting in her heart, wondering how to break up the class beauty and Brother Yu Cheng without making a fuss. Speaking of which, Zhao Dai Lin had been full of mischief since she was little, and even her brothers dared not provoke her. If you made her angry, she could make you regret coming into this world. What made Zhao Dai Lin bad was that she never hid or covered up; she openly admitted when she did something bad, honestly apologizing to you. She apologized in a way she had learned from somewhere, slightly bowing her body, a 90-degree bow, with a loud and guilt-free “sorry” that left you at a loss for what to do with her. She apologized, but she wouldn’t change.

In elementary school, there weren’t many schemes, just hiding pencil cases and playing some harmless pranks.

Zhao Dai Lin wasn’t interested in these boring tricks. She originally wanted to directly fight with the class beauty, whoever won would get Brother Yu Cheng. But just as she was about to go to the next class to confront the person during the break, she was stopped by a boy from her class. Coincidentally, that boy had been dumped by the class beauty once. Don’t ask her why she was dumped in elementary school; she also wanted to know why some people could have four or five boyfriends in elementary school. She even hesitated to eat four or five popsicles and couldn’t help feeling ashamed of her greediness!

Zhao Dai Lin wasn’t very familiar with that boy. He was very good-looking, with a pretty boy face, but his grades were very poor, always among the last in every exam. Zhao Dai Lin had never been interested in such people. The person she liked must be someone with a super high IQ and EQ; otherwise, communicating with someone too stupid would be super tiring. In her eyes, Brother Yu Cheng was this kind of person.

The boy asked her: “Do you want to see her embarrassed?”

Zhao Dai Lin naturally nodded.

“Then don’t worry about it. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you what to do, and you just do it. I’ll make her come to you crying.”

Zhao Dai Lin was extremely vigilant at that time, frowning and looking at him with a stern expression, pretentiously saying: “Why should I help you?”

The boy snickered, scratching his ear: “Who’s helping whom? Don’t think I don’t know about you and Hu Yu Cheng. Everyone knows you like him, and she’s been close to Hu Yu Cheng recently. You must be feeling awful, right? Don’t take my words lightly; this girl is quite formidable. As far as I know, she has more than one boyfriend.”

Zhao Dai Lin hadn’t agreed at that time, snorting to show disdain: “As if I care.”

Seeing that she was unmoved, the boy dropped a bombshell: “I heard they’ve arranged to go to Hu Yu Cheng’s house this weekend to do homework. Their class recently formed study groups, and Hu Yu Cheng is in a group with her.”

“When do we act?” Zhao Dai Lin heard this and impatiently put her hands on her hips.

The boy chuckled, “This weekend. Let’s make her embarrassed right under Hu Yu Cheng’s nose!”

Zhao Dai Lin also smiled, “Reliable.”

But on the weekend, the boy stood Zhao Dai Lin up. Hu Yu Cheng’s house was next to her grandmother’s house, and she squatted alone under that big camphor tree, waiting and waiting, but didn’t see any sign of the boy. Finally, she saw Hu Yu Cheng and the class beauty coming out of his house. Zhao Dai Lin didn’t know where the impulse came from, but she rolled up her sleeves and fiercely rushed over to fight with the class beauty.

Hu Yu Cheng had just come out when he saw a bright red thing charging toward him, and then the girl in front of him was knocked to the ground. Zhao Dai Lin was wearing a big red padded jacket. It was winter at that time, and he remembered that the trees at the entrance were bare. Winter came early in Beijing; a light snow had fallen at the end of November. There were still remnants of snow on the tips of the red brick and tile walls of the small hutong as if the entire wall had been fitted with a small hat.

It was extremely cold.

Zhao Dai Lin had learned some half-baked martial arts from somewhere, completely without form, pressing the person to the ground and grabbing her hair, pulling it wildly. The girl underneath cried loudly in pain, crying and heart-rendingly calling out Hu Yu Cheng’s name.

Hu Yu Cheng tried to pull her away a couple of times but found that Zhao Dai Lin was as strong as an ox, with strength from who knows where almost pulling the class beauty’s hair bald. Hu Yu Cheng had always been in poor health, belonging to the sickly beautiful boy type.

He found he couldn’t pull Zhao Dai Lin away at all, so he simply gave up.

Zhao Dai Lin was quite funny. That winter was especially cold, the kind where your drool would freeze immediately. She had left in a hurry and forgotten to bring gloves. As she sat on the class beauty, rolling up her sleeves to hit her, she found it a bit cold, so she pulled her sleeves down over her arms, hit once, blew a breath, hit once, blew a breath.

Hu Yu Cheng stood by and laughed.

The class beauty, lying on the ice-cold ground, saw him grinning at that moment, and her entire heart seemed to sink to the bottom of the sea. It was very incredible and extremely incomprehensible why, at such a time, he could still laugh.

Hu Yu Cheng was a very heartless person, and only Zhao Dai Lin knew his heartlessness. Forget about the two in front of him fighting until their heads were broken and bleeding; even if they died, perhaps he wouldn’t even furrow his brow.

Zhao Dai Lin knew this very clearly.

Hu Yu Cheng was a person who wouldn’t be moved by anyone, even if you gave him your heart and soul, he would still be indifferent. After all these years, she had long become accustomed to it.

That was the first time she fought for him, and also the last.

At the end of the fight, she pulled the class beauty up from the ground, tugged at her collar, then slowly wiped away the blood remaining at the corner of her mouth, breathing white mist, and said in a gentle voice: “In the future, don’t cling to Brother Yu Cheng anymore, okay? You have so many boyfriends, you don’t need him too, right?”

The class beauty looked at Zhao Dai Lin, trembling, her hair in disarray, her eyes full of tears, her gaze filled with grievance and unwillingness. She glanced at Hu Yu Cheng behind her, but the boy did not express any opinion.

“Freaks! Both of you are freaks!”

She cursed through gritted teeth, afraid that Zhao Dai Lin would beat her again, and ran out of the hutong crying, as if her feet were greased.

That year in the hutong alley, there were still towering Chinese scholar trees, and occasionally old people would pass under those trees carrying birdcages, accompanied by leisurely old tunes, as the clouds slowly spread out, quite pleasantly.

Zhao Dai Lin turned back to find Hu Yu Cheng, the boy leaning against a tree.

She wrapped her bright red down jacket tightly, tidied herself up, and stood before him beautifully, smiling and saying: “Brother Yu Cheng, will you not associate with those girls in the future? I’ll get angry.”

Hu Yu Cheng didn’t respond.

But after that, he did become more restrained, with much fewer girls around him. Zhao Dai Lin occasionally heard rumors about him and some girl, but Zhao Dai Lin never saw him go out alone with any girl.

This also reflected, from the side, that Hu Yu Cheng had finally begun to care about her feelings.

In the second year of high school, Zhao Dai Lin began to plan to attend university with Hu Yu Cheng. She spent several nights barely sleeping, hiding under her quilt with a small flashlight, studying the admission brochures of several top universities.

Given their grades, as long as they didn’t perform poorly, getting into the same university wouldn’t be a problem, Zhao Dai Lin thought happily, wrapped in her quilt. A week later, after she had researched all the universities and developed two big black panda eyes, she excitedly took her little notebook to discuss with Hu Yu Cheng.

But she saw that Hu Yu Cheng had been called away by the teacher.

The two came to a quiet corner of the corridor, and Zhao Dai Lin curiously stopped, followed the two stealthily, and arrived at the discussion spot, quietly poking her head out to look.

Their homeroom teacher, the math teacher, pointed at Hu Yu Cheng with a triangular ruler and earnestly said: “I’ve discussed with your grandmother. There’s a winter vacation training camp you can try. If you can win an award before the college entrance exam, Peking University and Tsinghua won’t be a problem. I know you want to go to Nanjing University, and getting a recommendation isn’t an issue, but I think there are more opportunities, you can try…”