Chapter 3: High school youth is like a torrential seasonal downpour. ...

After saying goodbye to Ke Yanchen, Yu Wu went home, washed up, and lay down on the bed, exhausted.

The room was completely silent, and memories of the past flooded in like a tide.

I've run into too many people I don't want to see lately.

As she drifted into a dream, Yuwu felt herself surrounded by deep darkness. In the distance, she heard the faint sounds of traffic, which gradually grew into a cacophony of voices, eventually turning into shrill laughter. The sounds faded into the distance, and a faint light before her eyes gradually magnified, stinging her vision.

*

A youth shrouded in mist is like a torrential seasonal downpour.

In mid-September, not long after I started high school, the sun was shining brightly and the weather was still hot.

After Monday morning self-study, students from Tenggui Middle School arrived at the playground one by one to prepare for the flag-raising ceremony. Dressed in black and white school uniforms, the students were full of vigor and walked in twos and threes to their respective class lines.

Yu Wu and her friend Ji Lingwei walked side by side. The two girls had only been enrolled for a short time and were chatting excitedly about some of the new things happening at school.

Suddenly, Yuwu felt waves of cramping pain in her lower abdomen. She clutched her stomach and frowned slightly.

Ji Lingwei stopped and asked with concern, "Yu Wu, what's wrong?"

Yu Wu felt a little embarrassed and whispered to Ji Lingwei, "Lingwei, could you check my school pants for me? Is there anything dirty on them...?"

Ji Lingwei turned her head to look, her bright almond-shaped eyes widening in surprise. She immediately exclaimed, "Oh my god, Yu Wu, you're on your period! Your pants are all stained!"

Yu Wu immediately felt awkward and tugged at her school trousers, unsure of what to do. She looked around and saw the students behind her staring at her strangely, making her face burn with embarrassment.

Ji Lingwei suggested, "Why don't you ask for leave and go back to your dorm? Just go back to your dorm, and I'll ask for leave for you—"

......

Her voice abruptly stopped as a school uniform jacket was thrown at Yu Wu's feet.

Yu Wu looked up and immediately spotted the carefree, unruly boy in the crowd. He had strikingly handsome features and a cold, indifferent expression. Unlike the students around him who were all in summer uniforms, he wore an autumn jacket over his own trendy T-shirt. He was being teased and winked at by several boys around him, but he remained unmoved, giving Yu Wu a cold glance, tilting his head, and raising an eyebrow.

Yu Wu pursed her lips, squatted down, picked up the school uniform jacket, and stood there dumbfounded, unsure of what to do.

Ji Lingwei also opened her mouth wide, looking back and forth between Yu Wu and the boy in surprise.

Yu Wu held up the school uniform in her hand, offering it to him from a distance, and softly said, "Excuse me, your school uniform..."

"Here you go." After saying that, the boy lazily strode away.

Yu Wu and Ji Lingwei exchanged a glance, at a loss for what to do.

Ji Lingwei blinked and suggested, "Why don't you tie it around your waist to cover it up for now?"

Yu Wu watched the boy's tall, receding figure and could only tie his school uniform around her waist to cover up the unsightly sight behind her.

She recognized him.

Ke Yanchen, from Class 7 next door, comes from a wealthy family and is arrogant and unruly. Despite only having been in school for a short time, he's already a popular figure, with countless girls secretly swooning over him and pursuing him relentlessly. When he and his small group of friends appear on campus, they're often a striking sight.

The girls in Yuwu's class often liked to gather together in class and discuss him with great enthusiasm.

Yu Wu, too, is one of the countless girls who are beyond our control.

His aura was truly unique. He possessed the kind of refined elegance that money could buy, a lazy and indifferent gaze that exuded a captivating, languid charm. Just one glance from him was enough to make countless girls scream and swoon.

He never accepted or cared about those crazy pursuits.

Yu Wu once saw a girl hand him a love letter. The girl blushed as she handed it to him, and he just stood there, his thin eyelids slightly lowered, a half-smile on his face, his hands in his pockets, and turned to leave.

He let his intense crushes and open romances fester, and simply lived his life as he pleased.

His aloofness towards women and the difficulty of pursuing him only made him seem more like a devoted and clean-cut rich young man, driving the school girls even crazier. Whenever they saw him on campus, their adoring screams made them want to devour him alive.

......

Yu Wu and Ji Lingwei continued walking side by side towards their class. Ji Lingwei kept gossiping, "Hey, how come Ke Yanchen gave you the school uniform? Do you two know each other? Oh my god, do you really know Ke Yanchen? Why didn't you say so sooner! I wish I had known and benefited from your good fortune!"

Yu Wu shook her head in denial; she truly didn't know Ke Yanchen. She was also quite surprised; he was the kind of playboy you should absolutely avoid.

They were complete strangers, yet he was willing to give her his school uniform to cover the unsightly bloodstains on her pants. He wasn't as vulgar as the boys in his grade.

High school boys often possess an animalistic nature untouched by civilization, vile and vulgar. They enjoy comparing girls' breast sizes and making lewd jokes while using girls' sanitary napkins. If any of the boys in her class saw bloodstains on her pants, they wouldn't even bother to cover them up with their school uniforms; they would definitely smirk and ridicule you in front of you.

...

On the stage in the playground, Director Liu of the Academic Affairs Office held a microphone and reiterated in a stern tone that students must wear complete school uniforms on campus, and those who violate this rule will be severely punished.

Director Liu is the strictest teacher in the school. The students are all afraid of him and usually avoid him.

The microphone's sound pierced through her ears, and Yu Wu suddenly looked up in the direction the boy was. Just then, Director Liu from the Academic Affairs Office stopped speaking. Holding the microphone, he strode off the stage and rushed towards Ke Yanchen, angrily shouting, "Which class is this student in? Go! Stand up there!"

Ke Yanchen remained indifferent, while his friends beside him laughed and joked. He turned his head and glanced at them indifferently, and they immediately raised their hands and became quiet.

Ke Yanchen, with his shoulders clasped, casually followed Director Liu from the Academic Affairs Office onto the podium. Once on the podium, he maintained his dignified demeanor, calmly looking down at the students below, exuding a natural air of superiority, showing no embarrassment at being caught making a mistake.

While continuing to arrest people offstage, Director Liu of the Academic Affairs Office continued to sternly reiterate the school's disciplinary rules through the microphone.

Yu Wu looked at the boy on the stage, pursed her lips, and felt a pang of guilt in her heart. After all, he was being punished because he was trying to help her.

Yu Wu didn't hear a single word of the following morning meeting.

......

Ke Yanchen was forced to stand there for nearly forty minutes as punishment.

School leaders spoke one after another, and finally, Director Liu of the Academic Affairs Office reiterated the school rules to Ke Yanchen, even using him as an example to deal with. He was punished by having ten points deducted from his class's pay, cleaning for a week, and writing a 3,000-word self-criticism.

Yu Wu watched the still nonchalant-looking boy from below the stage, her heart aching with each passing moment.

*

Later, Yu Wu carefully brushed Ke Yanchen's school uniform several times. Even though there was no dirt, she washed it five times until it was spotless. Then, she hesitated for a while outside Class 7 before mustering up the courage to ask one of his classmates to return it to him.

As for whether Ke Yanchen would continue wearing that school uniform, she didn't know.

At that time, Yu Wu was so innocent and naively thought that Ke Yanchen was covering up the indiscretion of her pants, not minding the bloodstains from a girl's period, and that he was different from the boys in her grade, secretly developing a unique affection for him. He seemed so arrogant and unruly, yet he respected women so much; she thought he possessed that delicate sensitivity that women have.

What happened next shattered those unique feelings of affection into countless shards of glass.

*

Soon, the school's bi-weekly major cleaning came. Yuwu's class was responsible for cleaning the area behind the school's laboratory building, which required sweeping, mopping, and wiping the dust off the desks, chairs, and laboratory equipment.

Yu Wu's back ached from working so hard, and just then, one of the buckets for washing handkerchiefs broke, so Yu Wu went back to her classroom in the teaching building to replace it.

She had just taken a plastic bucket from the classroom and come down from the second floor to the first-floor corridor when she was bumped by a group of boys running wildly. She quickly took a few steps back.

The boys ran ahead, laughing and joking, saying things like "This is going to be good" and "He's going to make a fool of himself now."

Yu Wu blinked, puzzled, as Ke Yanchen walked past her.

He strolled along lazily, hands in his pockets. His eyes gleamed with the same mischievous excitement as the group of boys ahead of him, and a slow, smirking smile played on his lips.

"Hurry up! Ke Yanchen, come here quickly!" Several boys hiding outside the teaching building shouted to him hurriedly.

Ke Yanchen quickened his pace slightly and walked outside the teaching building.

Yu Wu tried to suppress her unusually rapid heartbeat, looked away, and with the bucket in her hand, she turned around and met Director Liu who was walking briskly towards her.

"Director Liu," Yu Wu greeted him obediently.

Director Liu grunted in acknowledgment, pushed open his office door with a loud crash, and burst out roaring, "Who! Who put the bucket of water on my door?!"

He was soaking wet, with a few strands of hair sticking to his bald head, making him look extremely comical.

Yu Wu's eyes widened, and she stammered, "It wasn't me."

Director Liu glared, about to lash out, when the arrogant laughter of a boy came from the exit of the teaching building.

He strode over angrily, only to see the backs of several boys running wildly.

"Which class are you in?! You must have seen it! Who was it?!" Director Liu was furious, panting heavily, pointing at Yu Wu's face, his gaze then falling on the bucket Yu Wu was carrying. "Were you involved? Speak up!"

Yu Wu was so anxious she was about to cry, shaking her head repeatedly.

"Stand here! Don't run until the truth is revealed!"

Director Liu entered the office and slammed the door shut.

Yu Wu stood outside the office door, on the verge of tears, frowning in frustration, and awkwardly shifting her toes with her head down.

Not long after, Director Liu came out. He glared at Yu Wu and said, "You guys messed up the surveillance cameras too! If you don't explain yourself clearly today, you'll be standing there until evening self-study!"

Yu Wu trembled in fright and buried her head deeply.

Director Liu went to change his clothes. He said he would come back to interrogate Yu Wu later and demand an explanation from her.

Yu Wu kept her head down, biting her lip and staring at her toes.

Should we expose him?

Laughter echoed across the campus; it was the fourth period in the afternoon, and students who had finished cleaning could go eat.

Her stomach was growling with hunger.

A low, mellow "tsk" came from above.

Yu Wu looked up and saw the arrogant-looking boy with striking features, then quickly looked down again.

"How can you be so stupid? Don't you even know how to run?"

"I haven't had a chance yet..." the girl replied softly.

"You can leave now, I'll take care of this."

"Director Liu said we can't leave."

He chuckled softly, his voice languidly sexy: "Whatever he says goes? You'd walk around and sniff his fart several times?"

Yu Wu lowered her head and twisted her hands, at a loss, a blush creeping up the tips of her ears.

Ke Yanchen neither spoke nor moved, leaning casually against the wall.

"Hey, Ke Zi, you!" A boy walked over from the entrance of the teaching building, his face full of complaints. "Let's go! If Old Liu finds out it's us, he'll go crazy again!"

"Then you're making the girl take the blame?" Ke Yanchen glanced at him indifferently.

The boy stomped his foot, glared at him irritably, and said, "I'm really fed up!" After saying that, he didn't leave.

Director Liu returned quickly, having changed into clean clothes. His eyes blazed with anger when he saw Ke Yanchen.

"It's you again! Ke Yanchen! And you, Ye Ren!"

The boy named Ye Ren said with a grin, "Just kidding, don't be angry!"

Director Liu entered the office, turned around, and roared, "Come in!"

Ke Yanchen raised his chin: "This girl just happened to be passing by, Lao Liu, don't drag her into this."

Director Liu sneered: "Who knows if I'm not one of your accomplices?"

Ye Ren: "Really not! We don't know each other! Punish us however you want, Ke Zi and I won't complain, okay?"

Director Liu snorted coldly, and seeing Yu Wu's frightened appearance, said to her, "Then you can go first."

Yu Wu pursed her lips, turned around and took a deep look, only to see Ke Yanchen's tall and slender back.

Yu Wu hurriedly ate her meal and then returned to the classroom to prepare for the upcoming evening self-study session.

During evening self-study, she worried about him and kept looking towards the corridor, but she couldn't see him.

A note from the author:

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