Targeting the first place

The pavilion halfway up the mountain was small and could not accommodate students from three grades; it was already full of people who had arrived earlier.

Many students chose to rest on the stone steps outside the pavilion or under the trees, putting their schoolbags on the ground, sitting down, eating steamed buns and drinking water while tilting their heads back.

Some energetic students simply didn't rest, carrying their backpacks and climbing uphill, shouting as they ran, "I want to be the first to reach the top of the mountain!"

Immediately, someone behind them started jeering: "Just lie down halfway up!"

A few daring boys got together and started playing cards when the teacher wasn't looking. They threw the cards on the ground with a thud, attracting a crowd of onlookers who cheered and applauded.

Xu Jianing found it noisy and found a spot a little further away from the crowd, on a slightly higher stone staircase outside the pavilion. Because of the higher position, she could overlook the entire mountainside.

Li Changshui followed behind him, threw his schoolbag onto the stone steps, plopped down, and picked up a foxtail grass to chew on. "This is so comfortable, much better than school."

As he spoke, he leaned back, put his hands behind his head, closed his eyes to rest, and looked like he was about to fall into a deep sleep.

Just as Xu Jianing thought he was really going to fall asleep, Li Changshui suddenly sat up abruptly, pulled a bag of packaged bread from his schoolbag, tore open the outer bag, broke off half and stuffed it into Xu Jianing's hand: "Here, eat. Don't always eat pickled vegetables and steamed buns, change things up."

The bread had a faint milky aroma. Xu Jianing took a bite and found it to be soft, sweet, and fragrant, but she felt that something was missing.

He pulled a small glass jar from his schoolbag, which contained chili sauce made by Chen Tianying. He broke off a small piece of bread, swallowed it with the chili sauce, and found that the spiciness mixed with the milky aroma was surprisingly good.

Li Changshui shook his head, "This is a Chinese-style hamburger."

"Would you like to try it? It's my mom's homemade chili sauce," Xu Jianing asked.

Li Changshui initially wanted to refuse, but after smelling the aroma of chili peppers, he couldn't resist his curiosity and simply broke off a small piece of bread, dipped it in chili sauce, and put it in his mouth.

The moment it entered his mouth, the fiery heat hit his tongue, and he kept hissing and gasping for breath. His cheeks flushed instantly, and he almost choked on his tears, with beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.

"Water...water!" he cried out frantically, reaching out to grab at the water.

Xu Jianing had anticipated this. She unscrewed the lid of the water glass and handed it over, not forgetting to gently remind him, "Drink slowly."

Li Changshui took the water bottle and gulped it down, coughing and panting, and it took him a while to recover.

"Why is there hot water in your kettle?!" He slapped his thigh, his tongue burning even more from the spiciness. The hot water did nothing to relieve the spiciness; instead, it made the burning sensation even worse.

"It was installed this morning, and it's not completely cooled down yet," Xu Jianing said.

"You're really wicked!" Li Changshui exhaled and glared at him, sweat still dripping from his forehead. "But these chilies are really fragrant and delicious, it's just that I can't handle spicy food very well."

Just as Xu Jianing was about to put away the kettle and chili sauce, she suddenly heard a shoving sound coming from below the stone steps.

"Lin Fei, are these shoes new?"

Xu Jianing peeked out and saw several people standing by a tree at the bottom of the stone steps. Xie Liming was standing in the center of the crowd, shaking a bottle of orange soda. Orange bubbles were churning at the bottle opening, ready to burst out at any moment.

Lin Fei was half-pushed and half-dragged to the side of the tree trunk, his back pressed tightly against the rough bark. His eyes darted around, and he wanted to retreat, but there was nowhere to go.

Xie Liming looked down at the brand-new white sneakers on his feet and sighed with feigned regret: "Oh dear, they're white! How could you be so careless? Wearing such clean shoes on a spring outing, you don't want them anymore, do you?"

As he spoke, he deliberately shook the soda vigorously, causing the orange bubbles inside the bottle to churn violently and hiss loudly. He then pointed the bottle at Lin Fei's shoes.

"Pfft—" The bottle cap was suddenly twisted open, and the pressure rushed out, causing the orange soda with white foam to spray out wildly, splashing everywhere.

A few drops landed heavily on Lin Fei's new shoes, instantly staining the white cloth with unsightly yellow spots. The liquid seeped into the shoes, soaking the shoelaces and trouser legs.

Lin Fei immediately squatted down and hurriedly wiped the cloth with his hands, but because it was a white cloth, the more he wiped, the more obvious the marks became.

Several students nearby, who had joined in the commotion, immediately started laughing and joking. One of them deliberately kicked a tree root, making Lin Fei flinch. Another deliberately whispered in a crying voice, "Oh dear, it's dirty, what should we do?"

Xu Jianing and the others, sitting on the high stone steps, saw this scene clearly. Li Changshui couldn't help but spit and cursed in a low voice, "Damn it, bullying people!" He then stood up and rushed down.

Xu Jianing stopped him, calmly saying, "Don't be impulsive. If you go down alone, they'll only gang up on you."

Li Changshui was extremely anxious: "What can we do? Can we just watch him get bullied?"

Xu Jianing's gaze never left the area below. "Go find the homeroom teacher. It would be even better if you could call the dean of students up here."

"And what about you?"

"I'm going down."

Li Changshui's eyes widened: "Are you crazy? You wouldn't let me go down, but you went down alone?"

Xu Jianing's eyes darkened: "Xie Liming is only targeting the top student in the grade. I'll stall him and catch him red-handed when the teacher arrives."

"Okay, I'll go find the teacher. Aning, be careful!" Li Changshui turned around and ran away quickly.

Xu Jianing casually picked up a small stone from beside his feet, weighed it in his hand, lowered his eyes, and played with it casually. The stone was gently tossed up in his palm and then landed steadily. He slowly raised his eyes and finally chose the student who was laughing the most wildly.

The next second, the shoulder leads the wrist, and it is thrown forward.

"call out--"

The stone slammed down at the feet of the person who was laughing the loudest, creating a deep crater, with dirt and gravel flying everywhere.

The man who had been laughing the loudest suddenly contracted his pupils. He didn't even dare to look at the hole at his feet, and a terrible thought popped into his mind:

What would happen if the stone hit him instead of the ground? A fracture? Or a bloody mess?

A flurry of panic erupted as people tried to figure out who had thrown the stone. Soon, someone with sharp eyes pointed to the stone steps: "There it is!"

All eyes turned to him, and there he saw a boy casually playing with another stone on the high stone steps.

Xie Liming noticed this too and said disdainfully, "You're afraid of a cucumber seller? You're too cowardly!"

When his henchmen heard "selling cucumbers," they immediately burst into laughter, pointing at Xu Jianing on the stone steps and loudly mocking, "Yeah, what's so great about a cucumber seller?"

But soon, their smiles faded.

Xu Jianing walked up to Xie Liming, slowly raised the stone in his hand, and casually tossed it a few times in front of him.

Having witnessed the deep crater left at his feet and knowing how strong the other party was, Xie Liming felt a deep sense of oppression as he watched the action up close. His Adam's apple bobbed. "You... what do you want?"

"Not very good."

Xu Jianing raised his hand, then let go, and the stone fell right in front of Xie Liming.

Seeing that the stone hadn't hit him, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. To hide the fear that had just surfaced, he sneered, "So it was all just an act."

The next second, Xu Jianing threw a punch, which landed squarely on Xie Liming's abdomen.

Caught off guard, Xie Liming jolted violently, letting out a low groan. His face contorted, his body arched abruptly from the pain, and his hands instinctively clutched his lower abdomen.

He staggered back a few steps, instinctively clutching his lower abdomen with both hands. His face was covered in cold sweat, and he was in so much pain that he couldn't even utter a complete sentence; he could only gasp for breath with his mouth open.

The punch landed with perfect accuracy, hitting the vital spot, but cleverly avoiding any areas that could leave bruises or blood. Apart from his face turning deathly pale and his forehead breaking out in a cold sweat, Xie Liming had no marks on his body. If someone were to look at him from a distance, they might think he had simply suffered from heatstroke or a stomachache.

Li Changshui rushed over, panting, accompanied by the homeroom teacher and the dean of students.

"Teacher!" Li Changshui shouted, pointing the way for them, "They just bullied someone, they poured all the soda on Lin Fei's head!"

Lin Fei was soaked to the bone, his shoes were covered in unsightly stains, and he was huddled by a tree, looking utterly disheveled. His appearance spoke volumes without needing further explanation.

Upon seeing this scene, the head of the teaching department immediately turned pale and shouted sternly, "Xie Liming, what are you doing!"

Liu Zhigang saw his student was also there and asked, "Xu Jianing, you're here too. Explain what just happened."

All eyes were on him.

Xu Jianing spoke slowly and deliberately: "I saw Xie Liming and a few others bullying Lin Fei, so I told Li Changshui to go find the teacher. I was about to step forward to stop them when he suddenly clutched his stomach and said he was in a lot of pain."

The few underlings who had just joined in the commotion looked at each other, wanting to say that Xu Jianing had hit Xie Liming, but they swallowed the words back.

They had no evidence. Xie Liming had no bruises on his body, and he was clutching his stomach as if he had suddenly had a stomachache. Moreover, he had caused a lot of trouble at school by relying on his family's wealth and power. He often formed gangs to fight and bullied his classmates. The teachers had long harbored resentment towards him. Who would believe what they said?

The underlings looked at each other, and in the end, none of them dared to say a word.

The dean of students' faces were extremely gloomy. "Xie Liming, how many demerits have you received? Fighting, skipping classes, bullying classmates... the disciplinary office's file is almost full! This time, you bullied a classmate in public again, and I caught you red-handed."

"This time, a major demerit, and immediate expulsion!"

Xie Liming gasped for breath, trying to defend himself, but the bullying was a fact, and he couldn't bring himself to say anything.

At the dean's command, the other students led him down the mountain. Liu Zhigang chased away the students who were watching: "What are you all standing there for? Keep climbing!"

Liu Zhigang gave Xu Jianing one last look, told her, "Pack your things and don't fall behind," and then followed the head of the teaching department.

The hillside quickly returned to quiet.

Lin Fei remained squatting under the tree, stubbornly keeping his head down, wiping his thoroughly dirty white shoes again and again, refusing to stop.

Xu Jianing walked over, stopped beside him, and looked down at him.

"Alright, stop wiping, they're all gone."

Lin Fei paused in his shoe-wiping motion: "I...I just want to get my shoes clean."

Xu Jianing parted his thin lips slightly: "Lin Fei, now it's just you and me left, stop acting."

"You know Xie Liming likes to target the top student in the grade, so you deliberately went up to him and told his underlings that you were number one, and even showed off your new white shoes."

“When you saw that I didn’t rush up with the group but chose a high place to rest, you became even more scheming and deliberately provoked him, even leading him towards me.”

"Using someone else to do the dirty work is indeed a very clever tactic."

Lin Fei looked up at Xu Jianing with an innocent expression: "...I just wanted to clean my shoes, I don't understand what you're talking about."

Xu Jianing stared at him and smiled, "Oh, then just pretend I was talking nonsense."

He turned and walked up the stone steps, saying to the person standing in the distance, "Li Changshui, let's go, let's continue climbing the mountain."

Li Changshui immediately followed, slung his schoolbag over his shoulder, and muttered, "What happened today is really strange."

Xu Jianing said calmly, "Strange? It's just someone being presumptuous."

"What do you mean?" Li Changshui didn't understand.

Xu Jianing didn't intend to say more: "The literal meaning."

Lin Fei remained squatting under the tree, watching their figures gradually disappear into the distance. He stopped wiping his already yellowed shoes, and a slow smile crept onto his lips.

"We've been discovered..."

The spring rain pattered down, splashing on the stone steps and the umbrella, bringing us back to the present moment.

“Actually, I’ve always been curious,” Xu Jianing lowered her eyes and spoke slowly, “why do you always like to target the number one player?”

Xie Liming stood at the bottom of the steps. When he heard the question, he first laughed self-deprecatingly, then his eyes gradually darkened.

"Why? Because first place ruined me."

“From childhood to adulthood, my parents only cared about being number one. When other children got first place, they would receive smiles, rewards, and praise from them. But when it came to me? Whether I was second, third, or even in the top ten of the grade, they would only ask why I wasn’t number one.”

He continued through gritted teeth, "Do you know what that feels like? Always working your hardest, but always being a loser. You get 99 points, but they only care about the one point you lost; you try your best to catch up, but they insist on using someone else's first place to trample on you. Your efforts are worthless in their eyes."

"Over time, I started to want to trample on whoever was number one. Why? Why are they born to be praised while I'm destined to be trampled underfoot?"

Xie Liming's voice was hoarse and his eyes were bloodshot as he vented his years of resentment. Rainwater streamed down his forehead, mixing with the bloodshot eyes, making him appear almost insane.

Xu Jia listened quietly without responding to Xie Liming's complaints, but simply peeked outside.

The rain had subsided at some point, and it seemed to be stopping.

He lowered his eyes, too lazy to argue with the other person, and said, "I'm leaving."

Xie Liming looked at him and suddenly said:

"You know Wen Sheng, right?"