7 Chapter Six

Even if you die, I won't like her!

— Li Yingqiao is such a jinx.

That evening, Yu Jinyang had just finished his street dance class when he was cornered in an alleyway fifty meters from the art gallery. Tang Xiang and Yu Renjie were watching a movie, so he was walking home alone when he ran into the two big fifth-graders coming out of the arcade across the alley. As soon as they saw him, they pounced on him like cats seeing mice, flanking him from both sides and trapping him against the wall.

"Yu Xiaomiao," Shi Xiaobei, a large and burly man with arms like iron clamps, hooked his arm around Yu Jinyang's neck and held him tightly under his armpits, behaving like a thug. He even patted Yu Jinyang's cheek with the back of his hand. "Do you still have any pocket money lately? Your brothers are a little short on cash—"

Yu Jinyang was shoved against the moss-covered, fishy-smelling brick wall, a chill running down his spine. He was already annoyed; every day was filled with class officer meetings and brigade meetings. Now, after class, he had to learn street dance to grow taller, keeping him spinning like a top. Occasionally, he'd be left out and then cornered and humiliated. He was utterly fed up, and thinking about it, his fists clenched involuntarily in his pockets—

So be it!

Just as he was about to pull his fist out, he heard a loud and familiar voice coming from outside the alley: "Fatty Shi! Are you bullying my deskmate again?!"

Before Yu Jinyang could react, Shi Xiaobei was slapped hard on the back of the head. He instinctively released Yu Jinyang, his head buzzing as he turned around. Sure enough, he saw Tank, a fourth-grader who was about the same height as him, holding a rolling pin. No sportsmanship whatsoever, carrying a weapon!

"What are you doing!" Shi Xiaobei rubbed the back of his head and tried to reason with her, "I was just having a chat with Yu Xiaomiao, why did you hit me!"

"Do you think I'm stupid? You're trying to rob him!" Li Yingqiao hit him on the forehead with a rolling pin. It wasn't hard, but it was enough to give him a dull ache. "If I ever see you asking him for money again, I guarantee I'll smash your forehead open with this rolling pin until your mother can't even close it!"

Shi Xiaobei, the biggest student at Huacheng Elementary School, was indignant at Li Yingqiao's threats. He covered his forehead and gritted his teeth, saying, "Li Yingqiao! You think I'm a pushover? Do you believe I'll really beat you up?"

Yu Jinyang, stuck in the middle of the group, called out "Hey!" but no one paid any attention. He was about to say that he wasn't very familiar with her and that Shi Xiaobei shouldn't make things difficult for her when a familiar, stern voice suddenly cut in from the end of the alley: "You lot! What are you doing!"

The Shi brothers turned their heads and saw that the woman's shadow was stretched long under the streetlight at the alley entrance in the distance. The shadow looked like a drawn sword, seemingly slashing straight at them: "What are you doing! Bullying which class's students!"

Li Yingqiao, with her sharp ears, immediately shouted, "Teacher Liang! They're your students! The Shi brothers are asking Yu Miaomiao for money!"

"What! You bastard! You dare to rob me?! Come on, come on, shoot them all!" From afar, Liang Mei's footsteps on the bluestone slabs made a "thump, thump, thump" sound, like muffled thunder rolling in the clouds on a summer day. You could hear her voice but not see her.

The alley had a very dark section, and before Liang Mei could reach her, Shi Xiaobei seized the opportunity to say, "Teacher! No! We didn't! We just wanted to borrow some pocket money from him."

Li Yingqiao smacked him on the head again with the stick: "Have you paid back what you 'borrowed' before?!"

"I'll pay it back tomorrow!" Shi Xiaobei said, and immediately grabbed his younger brother and ran away. He stumbled and a high heel flew out of nowhere and hit the telephone pole in front of him with a "bang". He simply shook off his brother's hand and ran away in a flash.

The next second, Liang Mei limped up to Li Yingqiao and Yu Jinyang, looked them up and down, and said in her usual calm tone, "Alright, I'll take you two home."

However, seeing her figure completely exposed in the moonlight, Li Yingqiao and Yu Jinyang were both stunned.

They exchanged a glance instinctively, neither of them expecting to see Liang Mei like this—the teacher who was exceptionally strict about checking classroom cleanliness, even checking the cracks in the windowsills with her fingers, was now standing barefoot on the bluestone path. She held a high heel with a broken heel in one hand, and with the other, she was trying to smooth her disheveled hair. This teacher rarely had moments like this; most of the time, her hair was meticulously combed and sleek. Now, she looked as if she had just crawled out of a chicken coop; the collar of her shirt was askew, and her skirt was soaking wet, leaving a puddle of water where she stood within moments.

The two children stared at her intently.

Liang Mei realized she had been impolite and didn't say anything more: "Are you two alright? If not, I'll take you home. I'll go see Shi Dapang's homeroom teacher tomorrow."

On the way home, the two children kept looking back at Liang Mei, who was riding her electric scooter behind them to escort them. Liang Mei got annoyed by their stares and said, "What are you looking at! Your teacher fell into a ditch on her electric scooter. Do you want me to demonstrate it to you two again?"

The two children, yelled at, could only shrink back and keep walking until they passed a pharmacy.

Li Yingqiao glanced at it, and Yu Jinyang followed suit, as if he knew what she was going to say. "I'll go buy it."

After saying that, he ran straight into the pharmacy, followed by Liang Mei's furious roar, "You brat! Where have you been again!"

Just as the two children finished applying medicine to Liang Mei, who was speechless on the electric scooter, Tang Xiang and Yu Renjie were walking back to Xiaohua City from the direction of the cinema when they bumped into each other at the entrance. After Liang Mei recounted what had happened, Tang Xiang pushed her son and Li Yingqiao aside, saying, "Let me take care of you. Your wound needs to be disinfected. Also, Teacher Liang, riding home like this, wet as you are, will easily make you catch a cold. I'll give you some clean clothes."

Liang Mei knew that Tang Xiang had probably guessed it, so she tugged at the corner of her mouth and didn't try to hide it anymore, "Okay, thank you for your help."

She didn't feel ashamed at all. It wasn't her fault, and she had already decided that she would go to the principal's office first thing tomorrow morning to hand over her resignation letter. Let whoever wants to do this lousy job do it.

Yu Jinyang felt his clothes being tugged, and Li Yingqiao winked at him. He was confused, not understanding the meaning in her eyes, but Li Yingqiao, who was insightful and precocious from a young age, understood the low pressure in the eyes of these adults and Teacher Liang Mei's unspoken words.

—Teacher Liang definitely didn't fall into the ditch.

Li Yingqiao followed them to the intersection of Chuanming Street. She patted Yu Jinyang on the shoulder and said in a condescending tone, "Meow Meow, I'm leaving Teacher Liang in your care. I'm going home now; my mom is waiting for me."

Yu Jinyang stared at her for a long time. He wanted to thank her for standing up for what was right, but those two words were like a lint that had accidentally gotten into his mouth. He knew it was right there, but he couldn't get it out. After a while, he asked again, "Li Yingqiao, have you decided where you want to go to junior high school?"

Li Yingqiao rolled her eyes dramatically: "Yu Miaomiao, are you annoying or what! If you ask this again, I'll assume you like me!"

Yu Jinyang was immediately confused: "Huh?"

Before he could say anything more, Yu Renjie came up from behind, grabbed his head, and pulled him away, as if afraid that the two of them might talk about something.

Tang Xiang took Liang Mei upstairs to change clothes first, and the father and son walked slowly home at a snail's pace under the dim streetlights of Chuanming Street. Yu Renjie stroked his head and said to him, "Teacher Liang may stay at home for a while, let's take a walk before going back."

Yu Jinyang nodded as if he understood, still pondering Li Yingqiao's question, and looked up to ask, "Dad, what does 'like' mean? Why did Li Yingqiao say I like her?"

Yu Renjie stopped and, for the first time seriously, emphasized to him, "First of all, liking someone is a very serious matter. You can't say things like that lightly. That brat Li Yingqiao is obviously outspoken and will say anything. She's just as disrespectful to adults. You can't learn from her."

Yu Jinyang nodded.

"Secondly, at your age, it's too early to talk about liking or disliking someone. At most, it's just a childhood sweetheart relationship. When you get to junior high or high school, you'll realize that this kind of relationship is nothing. Besides, with her grades, you two won't even finish junior high together. After a few years apart, you'll be no different from strangers. Even if you find a girl you like in high school, those feelings will be very naive. It's too early to talk about these things before everything is settled. So your mother and I are firmly against early relationships, except for Li Yingqiao. Even if I'm on my deathbed, she'll still be on my blacklist."

Yu Jinyang nodded obediently, pounding his fist on the ground, and said with great loyalty, "Dad, don't worry, I will never like her! Even if you die, I will never like her."

"..."

Yu Renjie patted his head. "Alright, good son. Let's go home. Dad will cook you a bowl of noodles. By the way, what dance did you practice today?"

Yu Jinyang hopped forward two steps, "Popping—like this, like this."

After saying that, he quickly demonstrated the effects of the 100-yuan class to his dad, afraid that his dad would feel cheated, so he jumped extra hard—with a flick of his wrist, it was as if an electric current surged from his fingertips, slid across his elbow joint, and silently slid all the way to his shoulder blade. The next second, with a "click," he froze instantly, followed by a series of effortless tremors throughout his entire body.

Yu Renjie suddenly felt that his ten-year-old son was starting to show some character, and teased him, "Handsome! You're quite stylish. Son, what else would you like to learn? How about the piano?"

Yu Jinyang shook his head instantly.

Yu Renjie laughed heartily and put his arm around him as they walked home. “Let’s go home! Mom must be getting impatient! Oh, by the way, Mom just got her hair permed today. Remember to compliment her when you come in. You were so busy dealing with your things that you didn’t even notice she got a new hairstyle! She was complaining the whole way home, saying it looked awful and she can’t sleep tonight, so she’s going to take sleeping pills! You’d better comfort her.”

"good!"

Li Yingqiao tossed and turned, unable to sleep. So much had happened lately—the bloodstained madman in Madman Harbor; Teacher Liang clearly hadn't fallen into the ditch after all; and the man who came to buy cigarettes during the day—no matter how she questioned him, he wouldn't say a word, a flawless smile on his face, as he said to her, "Okay, tomorrow after school, I'll wait for you at the milk tea shop next to the back gate of the school. I'll treat you to something, and we can talk, okay?"

She had gone to the milk tea shop beforehand to scout it out, so that in case of any emergency tomorrow, she could plan an escape route in advance. She was just too curious. As it turned out, she happened to run into Yu Miaomiao being cornered in the alley by Shi Dapang. But why was Teacher Liang leaving work so late today? She always leaves on time.

The next evening, as soon as the school bell rang, Li Yingqiao appeared at the milk tea shop near the back gate. The afterglow of the setting sun slanted through the glass windows onto the ground. She casually chewed on her straw, her eyes scanning the crowd, but she still didn't see the man who had bought cigarettes from her the day before. Only after everyone had left the milk tea shop and the students had been picked up by their parents did the once bustling shop return to its quiet state. At that moment, a black van slowly pulled up at the nearby intersection. The side door slid open automatically, and the handsome man from yesterday stepped out. He was still impeccably dressed in a suit, his shoes gleaming. He gave her a gentle smile and gestured for her to come over.

To the man's surprise, the girl not only didn't come out, but also said something to the shop assistant, and the next second, the shop assistant locked the door.

The shop assistant recognized Li Yingqiao. The two hid behind the counter, calling the police while asking, "Are you sure this person is a bad guy?"

Li Yingqiao nodded. "Look at his license plate. Such a dilapidated car, yet the license plate is so new it reflects light. My uncle said that cars like this are usually either stolen or have fake license plates that are changed every day. Also, look at his car windows; they're sealed so tightly you can't see inside. My uncle said that the back seats of these vans are usually removed and used to tie people up. And his tires—why are they covered in so much mud? Isn't that suspicious?"

Yes, logically speaking, it hasn't rained for the past few days, so the car wheels shouldn't be covered in so much mud, unless he lives in the mountains. But someone dressed like that is unlikely to live in the mountains; Xiaohua City is already in the suburbs, and further into the mountains are only for elderly people left behind. Although the shop assistant was still skeptical, he decided to call the police first. If he turned out to be a law-abiding citizen, he could just work for free today and buy him two cups of milk tea.

Five minutes later, two police officers from the nearby police station arrived and immediately retrieved the only surveillance camera at the intersection. Surveillance cameras were very scarce back then, especially in the suburbs. A strange vehicle appearing in such a rural-urban fringe area was indeed very suspicious. Moreover, quite cleverly, the car avoided the location of the surveillance camera, which actually increased its suspiciousness. Normally, parked vehicles wouldn't deliberately avoid the location of surveillance cameras.

A week later, the police officers, who had been tracking the car day and night, finally caught it. That same afternoon, Gao Dian, a child, was tied up in the car because he had succumbed to the other party's temptation to go to Shenzhen to find his parents.

"Oh my, Qiaoqiao's really something this time," Tang Xiang said during dinner, involuntarily bringing up the big news in Xiaohuacheng. "The doorstep of Li Shuli's grocery store has been worn down by people. Every day, reporters are crowding around it wanting to interview her. The front page of the Fengtan Daily is all about Qiaoqiao. Although she's using a pseudonym, everyone in Xiaohuacheng knows that Xiaofang is Qiaoqiao. She's truly become a little hero of Xiaohuacheng this time."

That evening, Gao Dian, who had been starving for a week, was carried to the door by his grandparents, who were holding his arms. The two old people were carrying a whole basket of dried sweet potatoes they had made themselves. The two old people were so thin that they were just skin and bones. They knelt down in front of Li Shuli with a thud.

"Shuli! You've raised a wonderful daughter! Thank you! I really thank Qiaoqiao this time, otherwise I really wouldn't know how to explain it to the child's parents!"

"If you don't mind in the future, let Gao Dian be Qiao Qiao's slave! He will definitely repay this kindness!"

Li Shuli was seething with anger. She had originally intended to lock herself in the door and give this troublesome child a good beating. She even took out the rolling pin, gripping it tightly and loosening her grip repeatedly. Looking at the two elderly people's hunched backs, withered like two hollow stalks, impossible to straighten no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness. She felt even more reluctant to hit their young benefactor in front of them.

Gao Dian was probably starving and squatted on the ground with a blank look in his eyes.

Li Yingqiao walked over and said, "Quickly help your grandparents back, my mom is going to beat me up."

[Author's Note]

Therefore, we will move Sunday's shift to Saturday from now on.

I'll update on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from now on.

So there will be an update tomorrow, hehe.

100 small red envelopes.

Happy reading.