Chapter 20
◎It's you again◎
Actually, Zhan Xinyue's sharp actions today were not her usual style; it was just that she suddenly remembered some things from the past. Some, not so good things.
In my memory, Wang Zhiyi was famous throughout the school for her beauty, but she didn't stay there for long.
That year, a serious incident occurred at the school, and one of the people involved was Wang Zhiyi.
It is said that she was almost raped by a student in the school's faculty apartment.
Private schools value their reputation above all else, so they naturally tried their best to suppress such a big matter. However, the truth could not be hidden forever, and various rumors soon spread.
Zhan Xinyue wasn't really clear on the details of the matter. She only knew that the police came to the school that day, and that a senior student had indeed been quietly expelled. Wang Zhiyi had also not come to work for several weeks, so it was likely true.
After the incident, the school leaders strictly forbade anyone to talk about it privately, but the more they did so, the more curious everyone became.
A high school student and a beautiful female teacher.
It's still about topics that are too stimulating for high school students, like [specific topic name].
Soon, the news spread throughout the entire school, and countless true and false details emerged from the word-of-mouth. For example, it was said that Wang Zhiyi had actually been secretly dating a student, and that he had originally invited the student to his apartment that day, but later, when the scandal was exposed, he lied and said that he had been forced.
Some people secretly speculated about the veracity of the claim that she was almost raped, saying that the student might actually have succeeded, but only said it was a near miss to protect her reputation...
The perpetrator's name goes unnoticed, while the victim's name is passed around by word of mouth. The evil of human nature is laid bare in this moment.
The reputation of women is of paramount importance in this society, and these rampant rumors were enough to crush a young female teacher just starting her career. Although Wang Zhiyi returned to work for a while, it is said that she resigned due to depression not long afterward.
On the day she resigned, Zhan Xinyue happened to run into her in the administration building. She was standing in front of Vice Principal Gao Qiang, her eyes red, asking him word by word, "Why? I didn't do anything wrong." She looked extremely haggard then, not at all like the beautiful female teacher who was famous throughout the school.
That was the last time Zhan Xinyue saw her at school.
Those tear-filled eyes continued to appear in Zhan Xinyue's memory for a long time afterward.
Later, Xinyue gradually understood the "why." Why were the perpetrators' crimes glossed over so lightly, while the victims had to endure the greatest malice, suffering those vile fabrications and slanders? Perhaps what tormented her more than the crime she almost suffered was the malice from the bystanders. Especially those arrows aimed at Wang Zhiyi, which came directly from the students she had treated with kindness.
Seeing Wang Zhiyi's smiling face again today brought back a flood of emotions she thought she had long forgotten. Besides sympathy for her plight, she also felt a deep sense of self-reproach.
At that time, Zhan Xinyue didn't participate in the discussions about her; she merely listened silently as others gossiped. But she knew all too well that sometimes silence was a crime, an unspoken endorsement of evil. Because no one refuted her, the malicious speculations escalated without restraint. Because of her silence, she too became one of the perpetrators.
She had actually been holding a grudge about it all along.
After art class, Zhan Xinyue felt depressed for several days until the monthly exam, at which point she finally put the matter aside for the time being.
The night before the exam, after evening classes, everyone emptied their lockers and set up the exam room. This time, the exam room numbers were reversed, with Class 10 as the first exam room. The seat numbers were based on the ranking of the previous exam scores. Zhan Xinyue did fairly well in the last exam, so she stayed in her class to take the exam.
She arrived very early in the morning, before the lights were even on in the exam room. Name tags were already affixed to the desks. She found her seat, sat down, and began studying diligently, making the most of every minute.
She felt she had never taken a test before with such a completely uncertain outcome. The feeling of being out of control was more unsettling than the final score itself. But time was too short, and this was all she could do. While last-minute cramming might not be very effective, it could at least slightly alleviate her uncertainty.
She sat there for a long time before people started to appear in the exam hall. Compared to her tense demeanor, the others were much more relaxed, even more so than usual. These high school students were already used to exams, and this was just a monthly exam. The first exam hall was mostly filled with students from Class 1 and Class 10. Many of them didn't even have books in their hands; they sat down and immediately started looking around, chatting with people they knew.
Zhan Xinyue had her Chinese textbook spread out on her desk, quickly skimming through the classical poems. She hadn't reviewed her Chinese at all and could only catch up now before the exam. As the exam hall gradually filled up and became noisier, Zhan Xinyue started to have trouble concentrating. Every time a figure appeared at the door, she would involuntarily glance in that direction, pause, and then look down again.
The clock at the front of the classroom was about to point to eight o'clock. The classroom was almost full, and now it finally quieted down.
Only one seat at the very front of the classroom, right by the door, remained empty.
Zhan Xinyue closed the book and breathed a long sigh of relief. It seemed that Xu Shen would not be appearing in this examination room.
Her emotions fluctuated greatly each time she encountered Xu Shen. If the two of them were in the same examination room, she would inevitably be distracted, so she was anxious about it for quite a while.
Actually, Xu Shen's grades were better than hers, so he should have been in the first examination room as well. But whatever the reason, it was a good thing for her.
Shi Ziqian appeared at the door at that moment. He didn't look at the crowded classroom much, but went straight to the front seat, which represented the top student in the grade, and placed two pens on the corner of the desk.
She didn't even consider whether the last remaining spot would be labeled with Xu Shen's name; that spot had always belonged only to Shi Ziqian.
A few students from other classes, who probably hadn't seen Shi Ziqian much before, were glancing at him in the exam room.
A few seconds after he entered, the proctor walked in carrying the exam papers.
Zhan Xinyue withdrew her gaze and looked at the words "Zhan Xinyue" pasted on the corner of the table, silently encouraging herself.
The first exam was Chinese. After the test papers were handed out, Zhan Xinyue stared at the words "Grade 11 Monthly Exam (Chinese)" at the top of the paper for a while. Having not taken an exam for so many years, she felt a strange and unfamiliar feeling in the exam room. Fortunately, everything went smoothly and the Chinese exam ended quickly. After a short 20-minute break, the English test papers were handed out.
This time it went much more smoothly than the Chinese exam, but she knew the real challenge was yet to come; the math and science exams in the afternoon would be the most difficult.
After lunch, Xie Wanzhi went back to her dormitory for a nap, while Zhan Xinyue walked to the classroom alone, wanting to review the math formulas one last time.
The shortest route from the cafeteria to the classroom passes through the basketball court. At midday, there are hardly any people on the court, except for a few boys playing basketball under the scorching sun.
It was the hottest time of day, and there wasn't a single tree to be seen above the court. The air was thick with the pungent smell of rubber under the blazing sun. She shielded her eyes from the sun and quickened her pace, glancing over at the scene. In this kind of weather, what immense passion must they have to play basketball here?
With just one glance, her gaze froze, for she immediately spotted Xu Shen among the group.
He still didn't wear his school uniform properly, running quickly on the field, leaping up to catch the ball, revealing a section of his taut waistline beneath the hem of his shirt.
The fact that this group of people were playing ball at this hour clearly meant they hadn't had lunch. Zhan Xinyue looked away, focusing on her own thoughts, and quickly walked past them.
"Catch!" The dark-skinned, thin boy raised his hand to pass the ball. Xu Shen turned to receive the ball, but in the instant he turned, a glimpse caught his eye, and he stopped moving.
He changed the gesture of his half-raised hand and waved in Zhan Xinyue's direction: "Hey... Zhan Xinyue, hello!"
Caught off guard by the sudden call, Zhan Xinyue instinctively looked at him. Xu Shen, his forehead still damp with sweat, smiled warmly in the blazing sun.
In that brief moment of distraction, out of the corner of his eye, the ball, which he had ignored, flew over his head and hurtled straight toward her face.
"Oh no!" Xu Shen snapped out of his daze and hurriedly reached out to block, but it was too late.
In her panic, Zhan Xinyue only had time to raise her hand to shield her face before the basketball slammed into her hand. In that instant, she clearly heard a cracking sound from her knuckles, followed by a sharp, piercing pain. The intense, unbearable pain made her unable to stand, and she slowly crouched down.
"Are you alright?" Xu Shen ran over in a few steps, his voice a little stiff.
Hearing his voice amidst the excruciating pain, Zhan Xinyue thought to herself: What a tragic fate.
At least we weren't in the same exam room this morning, but now we've bumped into each other again in this way.
Zhan Xinyue clenched her right hand, lowered her head and took a few deep breaths. It took her a long time to recover a little before she looked at her fingers.
The basketball had just hit the tip of her little finger, and now her knuckle was in a very unnatural twisted shape.
Behind Xu Shen, several other boys gathered around. The boy who had passed the ball squeezed in front of Xu Shen, and seeing the state of her hand, his dark skin almost turned whiter than Zhan Xinyue's: "Sorry, I didn't notice anyone on the sidelines. I was going to pass the ball..."
Before Zhan Xinyue could say anything, someone behind her said, "You're partly to blame for this too. Why did you walk across the basketball court? There's nobody here at noon."
“Yeah, the basketball court isn’t really a place for dribbling past opponents…” someone else chimed in.
What they said was indeed true; she was in a hurry and crossed the basketball court, so she was responsible for that. So she forced herself to stand up and walked away.
Xu Shen pulled the boy in front of her aside and stood in front of her, saying, "This is my fault. I made a stupid mistake. But now is not the time to talk about this. I'll take you to the school clinic first."
"No need." Zhan Xinyue squeezed out two words, walked directly past him, and headed towards the school hospital.
"Wait a minute." Xu Shen quickly caught up. "I'll go with you."
Zhan Xinyue was a little annoyed: "I said I don't need it."
"How can that be? You got hurt because of me, after all." Xu Shen seemed oblivious to her annoyance and followed closely beside her relentlessly.
Zhan Xinyue really didn't have the mind to argue with him at this moment, so she simply shut her mouth and ignored him, focusing only on walking forward.
The school hospital is right next to the back playground. It's not a long way, but today it felt incredibly long. Zhan Xinyue was drenched in sweat under the scorching sun, unsure whether it was from the pain or the heat.
Xu Shen pulled out a tissue to hand to her, but seeing that her lips, which were clutching her wrist, were completely bloodless, he suddenly suggested, "How about I carry you on my back?"
Zhan Xinyue didn't bother to reply and just rolled her eyes at him.
Xu Shen seemed to know what she was thinking, and quickly added, "I know you injured your hand, not your leg, but at least I can carry you faster. If you don't want to, that's fine too."
When the two arrived at the school clinic, the doctors were probably taking their lunch break, and there wasn't a single person in sight. While Zhan Xinyue paused to catch her breath, Xu Shen had already rushed past her to find a doctor.
Zhan Xinyue found a bench and sat down. Her finger was hurting more and more, making it difficult for her to sit still. She looked down at her hand; the injured finger was dangling in a very strange position, the knuckles clearly displaced, making it look grotesque and frightening.
She had a bad feeling, and sweat poured down her forehead even more.
Finally, the school doctor arrived with Xu Shen. After only one glance, he said, "You might have a fracture. The school hospital can't handle it; you'll have to go to an outside hospital for X-rays. Who is your homeroom teacher?"
Her suspicions were confirmed, and Zhan Xinyue's face turned deathly pale. She looked up and met Xu Shen's grave gaze from behind the school doctor.
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