Chapter 29 The Man Who Broke His Promise During the Bitter Summer
When the office door opened, everyone was still standing at the door. They looked up when they heard the sound and could clearly see the clear handprint on his face.
His skin was quite fair, so the mark on his face looked particularly noticeable and frightening.
But no one said anything. Only Chen Wei walked up to him and patted him on the shoulder reassuringly.
He noticed the teacher's worried gaze, turned his head away without speaking, his face pale. But he unexpectedly met Shen Qingli's gaze, who was also secretly looking at him. She noticed him looking at her, so she quickly lowered her head again, pretending nothing was wrong.
She was avoiding him. Realizing this, a bitter feeling welled up in his heart. He recalled the look of fear on her face when she looked at him before they were pulled apart. Lin Xiaqing suddenly felt a sense of self-abandonment and thought, "Maybe this is it, let him be hated by Shen Qingli along with the Xiaqing of the past."
He wanted her to hate not only Lin Xiaqing, but also Xiaqing. Only in this way could everything end more smoothly, and only in this way would he never implicate her.
Even though... even though he knew that being disliked by Shen Qingli would be a very sad thing, even though he didn't want to.
But he could no longer be Xia Qing, nor could he ever become the Lin Xia Qing who could stand by her side again.
From the moment his destiny began to veer off course, he knew it all along. So many times, he even felt that he was trapping himself, unwilling to be forgotten by her, yet disgusted by becoming everything Lin Xiaqing had become.
He also knew that Shen Qingli would only hate the present him; what she truly cared about was the past him. And it seemed that he had been constantly destroying the image of her in his mind, causing everything to fall apart.
...
This farce finally came to a hasty end with the school's punishment and handling. Shen Qingli and Luo Yiqiu were only arguing, and it was forced upon them, so they shouldn't have been punished. However, Luo's father was afraid of gossip saying that he was biased towards his daughters, so he still punished them by making each of them write a 1,000-word self-criticism as a warning to others.
Lin Xiaqing and Tao Huchen were suspended from school for a week because one of them assaulted another and the other provoked trouble and harassed classmates. In addition, after returning to school, they had to publicly apologize for their behavior and mistakes in front of the whole school before doing exercises on Monday.
Because the parents of these families all knew each other except for Shen Qingli's family, they didn't show much objection on the surface. Shen's parents already felt ashamed about the matter, and left after learning the result.
Lin Xiaqing and Tao Huchen were taken home, and the farce finally came to an end. However, Shen Qingli still felt very confused. After returning to her class, Chen Wei specifically instructed his classmates not to discuss what happened that day in class, and not to allow such a situation to happen again.
"If you have any problems in the future, come to the teacher. Otherwise, even if the other party is at fault, if things get out of hand, the teacher can't protect you, you know?" Chen Wei earnestly instructed them.
"Okay," came the casual reply from the class.
After Chen Wei left, the class erupted in noise again. Chen Chaoxi sat next to the two of them and said indignantly, "Lin Xiaqing always seems so indifferent, but I didn't expect him to be so reliable at crucial moments. Good job! He should have beaten Tao Huchen into a pig's head to feel better! But judging from his appearance just now, he was pretty much right."
After saying that, she laughed a few times, feeling relieved, but then noticed that the two people beside her still had somber expressions. She mistakenly thought it was because of the self-criticisms, so she waved her hand and comforted them, "It's okay, it's just two self-criticisms. If you don't know how to write them, I'll write them for you. Don't be upset!"
“It’s not because of that.” Luo Yiqiu finally raised her head upon hearing this. She shook her head and explained that she didn’t care about this matter at all, because she didn’t think they had done anything wrong today, and she was also very dissatisfied with her father’s decision to sit down, but she really couldn’t change it. “I was just thinking… why did Lin Xiaqing suddenly rush in and hit Tao Huchen? He’s not usually the kind of person who meddles in other people’s business.”
She knew very well what Lin Xiaqing's family situation was like, especially his father, who was extremely concerned about his reputation in public. So, Lin Xiaqing's blatant actions were undoubtedly a provocation in his eyes. She didn't believe Lin Xiaqing himself was unaware of this. From the moment she met him, he had always lived a life of extreme caution at home, almost never doing anything wrong, and trying his best to play the role of a good son in his father's eyes. That's why she couldn't understand why he would do such a thing.
"Maybe it was just a case of standing up for what was right. After all, I heard from people in my class later that Tao Huchen's words were really awful!" Chen Chaoxi didn't think much of it. As soon as she saw Luo Yiqiu rush forward, she quickly took a detour to find the teacher, so she didn't know what was going on at the scene.
“Really…” Luo Yiqiu murmured, half believing and half doubting her words.
Shen Qingli's mind was not on their conversation at all. The look Lin Xiaqing gave her kept replaying in her mind. She had never seen Lin Xiaqing with that look before, nor had she ever seen him so disheveled.
Just now, because of what Luo Yiqiu said, she vaguely realized that he might not be doing well at all. Thinking of this, Shen Qingli felt even more uneasy.
And so, each of them ended their day of study with their own thoughts on their own.
Since that day, because of Lin Xiaqing's actions, the rumors that had circulated in the school gradually faded away. People started to focus another gossip on Lin Xiaqing. Nothing could arouse more curiosity than a top student who had been ranked first for years getting into a fight. Many people said that he did it for Luo Yiqiu, and various versions of the hero saving the beauty spread in secret. Shen Qingli's name also slowly disappeared amidst these gossips.
As she passed through the gossip and rumors once again, no one would doubt that Lin Xiaqing's actions were related to her.
After all, in everyone's eyes, they were just two complete strangers.
-
Because of what happened that day, one day after school, Luo Yiqiu ran into Zhao Yixiao at the school gate after a long time. He was standing there all alone, and she, as usual, planned to pretend she didn't see him and walk away.
But this time, Zhao Yixiao took the initiative to call out to her: "Yi Qiu, let's go together."
Upon hearing this, Luo Yiqiu stopped in her tracks. She turned around in surprise and asked him, "Since you were waiting for me, why didn't you go to my classroom door?"
"..."
He stopped talking. She waited for him for a while, and his silence was exactly what she expected. So she chuckled and said in a deliberately mean tone, "What? Are you worried about gossip spreading about someone like me, Senior Zhao? After all, you probably don't want to have anything to do with me right now."
"Yiqiu!" Hearing her say that about herself, he finally couldn't stand it anymore. He quickly walked up to her and said in a rare serious tone, "Don't say such angry things, and don't talk about yourself like that. We all know that those are just rumors, they're all false."
“Yes, those are fake, but what about us, Zhao Yixiao?” She raised her head, stared straight at him, and questioned, “What about us? I don’t care about all the disgusting things Tao Huchen said, but he only got one thing right, which is that you really don’t want to talk to me, so now, I don’t want to talk to you either.”
After saying that, she turned around and was about to leave in a huff, but Zhao Yixiao quickly grabbed her. Knowing that she was angry, he sighed and softened his tone, saying, "Don't run away just because you're angry. Can we talk this out?"
As gentle as ever, but behind her veil, Luo Yiqiu found his words absurd. She realized that it was never her who had refused to speak properly from beginning to end. So, she broke free from his grasp and said angrily, "Fine! Let's talk this out! Tell me why you're distancing yourself from me when nothing has happened? Zhao Yixiao, you know... you know how hard I've worked for this relationship... yet you still gave up so easily."
As she finished speaking, her voice grew louder and louder, but her words became increasingly choked with emotion, and her eyes involuntarily stung. Tears and anger erupted together that night. She felt wronged and angry, angry at everything he did, and angry that he had made a decision about their relationship without telling her anything.
She really wanted to stand right there and have a huge, undignified argument with Zhao Yixiao, so that at least they could both vent their anger. But the person in front of her was still the same as in the past. He never got angry because of her nonsense, and he didn't show the slightest anger at her hurtful words.
He remained silent for a long time before finally uttering an apology.
He's always like this. Once Zhao Yixiao makes a decision, no one can change it, not even her. Luo Yiqiu thought desperately to herself. She had wanted to tear off the mask of gentleness countless times, but she also knew in her heart that it was precisely because Zhao Yixiao was this kind of person that she liked him.
But when the reasons for liking him and the reasons for disliking him became the same, she finally felt lost. Over the years, she had tried so hard for Zhao Yixiao and made so many mistakes, but all the hardships and difficulties were far less devastating than his casual resignation.
Thinking about this, she didn't want to continue talking to him, because she felt utterly powerless.
A long, long time passed. The wind even picked up outside, chilling Luo Yiqiu and stinging her face. She looked up at the weather, which was about to change, and sighed deeply. The sigh drifted away with the wind. She spoke softly, as if she had lost all her strength: "If you're waiting for me here today because of Tao Huchen, then thank you. But I refuse your kindness. Also, if you've really made up your mind, then I respect that. Zhao Yixiao, don't regret it."
As the strong wind picked up beside her, her figure blurred as she walked away.
Zhao Yixiao watched her walk away, the words stuck in his throat, as if he were mute, unable to utter a single word.
He couldn't offer any explanation, because, as Loyal said, it was he who voluntarily gave up.
For some reason, the noisy wind around him reminded him of many years ago when he and Luo Yiqiu were in kindergarten. There was a boy who was taller than them who liked to bully Luo Yiqiu. He, who was still young, had stood in front of her small body more than once and told her that he would always protect her and that she should not be afraid.
But everything that happened today indicates that he broke his promise.
They are the closest childhood sweethearts, the people who understand each other best, the people who cannot be easily separated, yet they are also the people who can hurt each other the most.
-----------------------
A note from the author: TT
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
