Chapter 45 The Madman "Brother, you're bleeding so much..."

Qi Bo grabbed Li Baidong by the collar and dragged him all the way from the classroom to the men's restroom at the far end of the floor, where almost no one passed by at noon and there were no security cameras, making it easy for them to do their thing.

He had disliked Xing Lan for a long time, but everyone knew that Xing Lan's father was rich and powerful, and as a very successful entrepreneur, he was quite famous in the local area.

Although Qi Bo was a bit reckless, he wasn't stupid. He considered this and never dared to make a move against him. At most, he would just whisper a few words behind his back, and even if he was discovered, he could stubbornly deny it.

But it's a different story with this little brat who came to my door.

First, everyone saw it; this kid inexplicably rushed up and hit him first, so his subsequent retaliation was self-defense. Second, this kid is so skinny, always covered in dirt, and his clothes are tattered; you can tell he comes from a poor family and is easy to bully.

So that noon, he vented all his pent-up resentment and disgust towards Xing Lan on this brat, cornering Li Baidong in the cold, damp corner of the toilet and kicking and stomping at him mercilessly.

Although Qi Bo and his younger brother were not good-looking, they were both very strong. His seemingly simple-minded younger brother was a sports specialist who was admitted with a reduced score.

Li Baidong had only graduated from elementary school last year, and had only recently taken off his red scarf. He was no match for the two almost-adults. He could only grit his teeth, remain silent, and protect his head with his arms.

"Here's your punch back! Damn it, you dare hit me, you ungrateful bastard!"

Qi Bo ordered his underlings to restrain the man, then swung his arm with all his might, delivering a powerful punch that nearly killed him. Li Baidong only felt a flash of white light before his eyes, followed by a violent ringing in his ears.

His face was covered in bruises, looking quite unsightly. His cheek, which had been punched by Qi Bo, swelled up instantly, and a trickle of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth.

He slowly took a breath, his face expressionless, except for a pair of dark, deep eyes that stared intently at Qi Bo in front of him, as if he wanted to tear him to pieces with his gaze.

The younger brother lowered his head, looking at Li Baidong's deathly pale face and the bloodstains on the ground. He was a little frightened and stammered, "Brother Qi, how about we call it quits? The parent-teacher conference is in a couple of days, I'm scared..."

"What are you afraid of?" Qi Bo glared at him fiercely. "You coward! If you're so afraid of getting punished, don't fucking call me brother anymore."

Qi Bo had several brothers who were involved in gangs and had fought a lot both on and off campus, making them more experienced than his cowardly and foolish underlings.

Since you've already done it, you have to completely subdue the person. Once they're subdued, they'll never dare to complain again. If you show any mercy and leave them a way out, things will become much more complicated.

"But, Brother Qi..." The underling supported Li Baidong's thin arms from behind, feeling that the boy was not moving and his head was gradually drooping. He became even more frightened and said in a panic, "I...I...I feel like he's almost out of breath..."

His voice trembled: "Could he...could he be dead??"

"Idiot, how could a few blows like that kill someone?" Qi Bo slapped his underling's head hard. "Do you think he's made of paper?"

"But he's still just a child!" The younger brother was on the verge of tears, his legs beginning to tremble. "Look, he struggled so hard just now, he shouted so loudly, but now he's not uttering a sound..."

"..."

Fear is contagious, and after hearing what he said, Qi Bo felt a little uneasy.

Fighting is one thing, but they're all still minors. At worst, they'll get a scolding from the teacher, their parents will be called, and they might be suspended from school for a few days. But killing someone is a crime, and that leads to jail time.

Qi Bo's cousin spent a few days in detention a few years ago for petty theft. When he came out, he was emaciated and looked like a ghost. He used to complain about how bad the meat buns tasted, but he wolfed down more than a dozen of them. If detention is this hard, prison must be a million times more terrifying.

He swallowed hard, his mind a jumble of emotions, and reached out to check Li Baidong's breath.

But just like that, the little brat who had seemed half-dead suddenly opened his eyes and, without the slightest hesitation, used all his strength to kick Qi Bo hard in the stomach.

Qi Bo never expected Li Baidong to suddenly come back to life. He screamed, clutched his stomach in pain, his face contorted, and felt as if his intestines had shifted.

The younger brother was terrified by Qi Bo's miserable state, and in his fear, he subconsciously released his grip on Li Baidong.

Li Baidong yelled and, freed from the restraints of those behind him, charged at Qi Bo like a calf ready to pounce. He tackled Qi Bo to the ground, grabbed his hair, and slammed his head against the tiled floor with all his might, his expression fierce, as if he were smashing a hateful eggshell.

"Holy shit—!"

Qi Bo's stomach injury hadn't healed yet, and his head was throbbing from the impact. For a moment, he was stunned and couldn't utter a single word.

The younger brother was stunned to see his older brother being beaten up like this by a kid who had just started junior high school. It took him a few seconds to belatedly realize what had happened.

In desperation, he grabbed a metal winnowing basket lying to the side and slammed it down hard on Li Baidong's back, shouting, "Brother Qi! Don't be afraid! I'm here to save you!"

Li Baidong was so focused on killing Qi Bo to avenge Xing Lan that he didn't notice the commotion of the big, dumb guy behind him.

As the sharp, metallic-shine iron dustpan drew closer to Li Baidong's thin body, a slender figure in a pure white school uniform suddenly flashed through the dim space.

The man had just arrived at the door a second ago. Without pausing for a moment, he pounced on them almost without hesitation, shielding Li Baidong from this clumsy and powerful sneak attack.

Li Baidong's angry fist suddenly froze in mid-air. In the damp and cold bathroom, he smelled a familiar, faint fragrance.

-

A few minutes ago, Xing Lan returned to the classroom after finishing her meal and saw that the desks and chairs were in disarray, textbooks were scattered all over the floor, and there were shocking signs of a fight everywhere.

The floor, which had been mopped clean and shiny by the students on duty that morning, now bore several messy, dirty shoe prints of varying sizes. Upon closer inspection, there were even mottled traces of unidentified blood.

Just then, the girls in the class returned from the convenience store. When they saw this scene, they all froze at the door, too scared to breathe.

"This is--"

"Could it be that Qi Bo... killed that child?"

"What child?" Xing Lan subconsciously scanned the face and asked.

"It's just a... dark-skinned kid." The girls gestured to Xing Lan, "Just now, a very thin and dark-skinned junior high school kid suddenly came to our class. We don't know who he was, but he didn't say a word and inexplicably punched Qi Bo from our class, making Qi Bo's nose bleed."

"And then?" For some reason, Xing Lan suddenly had a bad feeling, and her delicate brows furrowed slightly.

The girl touched her nose, glanced furtively at Xing Lan, and said somewhat embarrassedly, "Then I got a little hungry, so we went to buy potato chips together, and we're just getting back now..."

"..."

In a flash, Xing Lan seemed to hear Li Baidong's soft gasps and a roar like that of a small beast coming from the quiet, deserted men's restroom at midday.

The men's restroom was located at the very end of the teaching building, far from their classrooms, so the sound shouldn't have reached their ears. But in that instant, Xing Lan clearly heard Li Baidong's slightly suppressed breathing.

He paused for a second, and amidst the puzzled looks of the girls around him, he rushed out of the classroom without looking back.

-

When Xing Lan rushed into the bathroom, she saw Qi Bo's underling, Lu Ziao, raising a metal dustpan high and about to smash it down on the skinny boy who was fighting with Qi Bo on the ground.

His breath hitched, and he quickly lunged forward, bowing his head to tightly embrace Li Baidong, firmly shielding him from this unexpected disaster.

With a soft "whoosh," his usually pristine white school uniform was instantly ripped open by the sharp corner of the iron dustpan. A deep, long gash was cut into his thin back, and glaring blood kept gushing out, staining the surrounding white fabric red.

"Xing...Xing Lan??!"

Lu Ziao opened his eyes with a start, only to find that he had hit his classmate Xing Lan with the winnowing basket, not the child. He was so frightened that his eyes almost popped out of their sockets. He took two steps back in a panic, bumped into the door, opened it quickly, and scrambled away.

Xing Lan lowered her eyes and remained silent. Even though she was also injured, her body still instinctively protected Li Baidong in her arms. However, her brows furrowed slightly, and her face was a little paler than usual.

Li Baidong froze, then turned around and saw Xing Lan had suddenly arrived, and was momentarily stunned.

Before my brain could fully process what was happening, I smelled a pungent, metallic scent of blood that gradually spread throughout the small space.

"elder brother……"

No matter how he had been beaten, Li Baidong felt no fear, only intense hatred. But now, looking at Xing Lan's indifferent and pale face, his voice trembled, and his expression panicked, like a child who had done something wrong.

He raised his hand, filled with immense tension and fear, and slowly reached towards Xing Lan's back, immediately touching a warm, blood-red substance.

Xing Lan frowned, looking at Li Baidong expressionlessly. The guy's face was as dirty as a palette, his expression was very serious, and his whole body was trembling slightly.

He sighed softly, stood up, and casually pulled Li Baidong off Qi Bo as well. He looked Li Baidong up and down but didn't say anything.

Li Baidong's mind went blank. He stared down at his hands, stained red with Xing Lan's blood, and murmured helplessly, "Blood... Brother, you've lost so much blood..."

Li Baidong looked up at Xing Lan with concern. Her eyes were as dark and bright as ever, with large tears welling up helplessly in her eyes, which she held back from falling.

Xing Lan casually lifted Li Baidong's scalp with her fingertips. There was still a clear handprint on Li Baidong's face, and his forehead was swollen. He must have bumped into the corner of the wall while he was struggling.

He turned his gaze away from Li Baidong and looked at Qi Bo, who was still slumped on the ground. His voice was cold and emotionless: "Qi Bo, do you have any fun? Two people bullying a child?"

Qi Bo, who was still dizzy from Li Baidong's flurry of punches, had recovered a bit. He braced himself on the ground and cursed, "Who bullied him? Do you think this brat is a child? He hit so hard and even bit people. Damn, he's a mad dog."

Xing Lan stared coldly at Qi Bo: "Say that again?"

Qi Bo was not afraid at all. He glared angrily at Xing Lan and suddenly raised his voice: "I told you so! What's wrong? Mad dog! You're a madman, and this little brat next to you is a mad dog! You two are a match made in heaven, a fucking perfect couple!"

Xing Lan tilted her head and licked her back teeth with the tip of her tongue.

Qi Bo rubbed his aching head in frustration. He finally managed to stand up and was staggering toward Xing Lan when Xing Lan glanced at him quietly and suddenly threw a punch at him.

Qi Bo was sent flying backward by the punch, crashing heavily into the dirty, moldy wall behind him. He covered his face, staring at Xing Lan in disbelief: "What the hell? Xing Lan? You fucking dare hit me?"

Unlike Qi Bo and the others, Xing Lan was usually a model student, an exemplary moral exemplar almost to the point of being a doll. Since enrolling, he had never violated any school rules or regulations. Qi Bo never imagined that he would actually take action against him for the first time, all for this little brat who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

After a while, he came to his senses and immediately charged at Xing Lan with his fists raised. The two quickly started fighting.