The dining table is very small, it is a table for four people, and it is impossible to add five seats.
Zhang Yao's friend dared to say this because he was sure that everyone just knew each other and would not hit someone who smiled at him.
But what no one expected was that Lu Zhihao was extremely tough. He held Shen Mei's hand and placed it on the table, saying four words: "It's not very convenient."
Comrade Lao Lu was very aggressive, and several boys were shocked and a little angry. At this time, the waiter came out and brought out the small hot pot they ordered.
There were four hot pots with fire burning underneath, plus a lot of hot pot dishes, and the table was packed full.
Just as they were interrupted, several basketball players seemed to have adjusted their mood. One boy started to smile at Shen Mei: "Xiao Mei, let's have a meal together. We'll order our own food and not take yours~"
As he spoke, he took a chair and squeezed in between Shen Mei and Lu Zhihao.
Lin Chaoxi walked behind the boy and took a sip of his drink: "Classmate, please make way."
The boy subconsciously moved aside, and Lin Chaoxi brushed past him and sat down on the chair he had just placed.
The boy's face changed, but he still smiled: "Classmate, please stand up for a moment, can't you see that my buddy and I... can you give us a chance to sit together?"
Lin Chaoxi glanced at Zhang Yao, who had a gloomy face and said nothing.
"But this is my seat, why should I give it to him?" Lin Chaoxi said to the boy curiously.
"Isn't that your place?"
"Oh, that's right." Lin Chaoxi stood up, picked up the empty chair, put it next to his seat, and then put school bags and everyone's coats on it, piling it up like a small mountain.
"Classmate, you are being disrespectful." The boy lowered his voice.
Lin Chaoxi ignored him and looked at Zhang Yao and said, "You are quite boring."
In her memory, Zhang Yao would reveal his true nature when facing Lu Zhihao, but he would always restrain himself in front of Shen Mei, like a polite older brother.
But at this moment, her words triggered Zhang Yao's nerves. He stood up suddenly, kicked the hot pot table with a "bang", and yelled at Lin Zhaoxi: "Have you meddled enough?"
With this kick, the whole table crashed towards Lin Chaoxi, and the boiling hot pot overturned in an instant.
Lin Zhaoxi stepped back subconsciously, but the stove on the edge of the table in front of her fell over. At the critical moment, the human instinct is to freeze. Lin Zhaoxi had no time to react. In the chaos, someone pulled her hard and she fell to the side.
With a loud "clang", the hot pot and the iron pot on it fell heavily to the ground.
There was a moment of peace in the hot pot restaurant.
But then, a scream suddenly rang out, Lin Chaoxi's legs were burned badly, but the first person he saw was Pei Zhi.
Pei Zhi held her arm tightly, looking serious and tense.
Lin Chaoxi was about to speak when Pei Zhi pulled her back a few steps. After she stood still, she turned around and saw the burning stove that had just been smashed land right at her toes.
The light blue solid alcohol in the stove spilled all over the floor and burned with the fallen paper towels. Flames suddenly appeared and the scene was extremely dangerous.
"Are you crazy?" Lin Chaoxi finally came back to his senses and shouted at Zhang Yao.
Zhang Yao seemed a little dazed, but when he heard this, he slapped him with his backhand.
At this moment, everything seemed to stop.
Pei Zhi stepped forward, grabbed Zhang Yao's neck, restrained him, and dragged him out of the store.
After a few seconds.
The sound of bodies hitting the wall came from outside the store. Zhang Yao screamed, and the boy who came with him finally woke up as if from a dream and rushed out like crazy.
The floor was in a mess, and the students who stayed in the store had expressions of shock on their faces. Lin Chaoxi looked at the small hot pots burning on other tables and gradually calmed down.
Fighting in the store was too dangerous, so Pei Zhicai dragged the people out. It turned out that he was Brother Pei who remained extremely calm even when beating people.
She bent down, picked up the fallen stool, made sure the fire was out, took off the hair tie on her wrist, tied her hair into a small bun, and walked out of the store.
Long before her, Lu Zhihao had already rushed out of the store, but when she walked to the street, the wind blew and she felt that the surroundings were very quiet.
There was no fighting, no howling.
Zhang Yao and the other four boys had all fallen to the ground, and Pei Zhi was looking down at them. He had a cut on his lip, and was wiping away the blood with the back of his hand.
——Unrestricted fighting requires using all means to knock down the opponent in the shortest time possible, making him or her unable to resist.
Looking at the almost frozen picture in front of him, Lin Chaoxi recalled the encyclopedia introduction he had seen when searching for keywords.
Through the astonished Lu Zhihao, Lin Chaoxi looked at Pei Zhi.
The boy's eyes were calm but cold, something she had never seen before in her memory.
——
Wuchang Subdistrict Police Station, Anning City.
Zhang Yao kicked the table in the hot pot restaurant, which was a very bad behavior. A customer called the police early on.
But they had no experience in fighting. After Pei Zhi subdued them, they were still standing outside the store and were taken back to the station by the police officers who arrived on duty.
There are surveillance cameras in the store, and the waiter also explained what happened. The police officer asked about the whole process and was very reasonable. He didn't mean to punish both of us.
Pei Zhi said very little from beginning to end. In the end, even the police said, "I didn't expect you, a gentle boy, to be so tough in a fight?"
Pei Zhi shook his head slightly and said nothing.
The incandescent light was bright, and the room was eerily quiet. Opposite them, Zhang Yao and the others all had sullen faces.
"Uncle police, when can we leave?" Lu Zhihao asked in a low voice.
"You guys can leave on your own. The problem has not been resolved yet."
There were footsteps outside the door, and the door opened with a swish, revealing two men and two women.
They looked like two couples, one of whom Lin Chaoxi knew; they were Lu Zhihao's parents.
"Dad, Mom...Mom." Lu Zhihao stood up nervously.
Lu Zhihao's mother, Teacher Xu, frowned and said nothing.
Lu Zhihao's father scolded his son: "Look what you did, fighting and being sent to the police station?"
"Dad...it wasn't me, they were the ones who beat us." Lu Zhihao resisted timidly.
Another couple walked up to Shen Mei, they were probably the girl's parents.
"What's going on?"
Shen Mei's father was tall and strong, with a stern face and wearing a uniform. He looked like a government official.
"Dad." The girl called out in a low voice, she was so panicked that she didn't know what to do.
Seeing the reactions of Shen's father and Shen Mei, Lin Chaoxi roughly guessed why Lu Zhihao had to keep their relationship strictly secret. Not all parents are like Lao Lin.
"Uncle and aunt, this matter has nothing to do with them. We were beaten by someone when we were having dinner together." Lin Chaoxi stepped forward and explained.
"It was you who beat us!"
Father Shen had noticed Zhang Yao standing in the corner early in the morning. Looking at Lu Zhihao and his daughter, his face darkened a few shades, as if he had guessed something: "What's going on?"
"It has nothing to do with Shen Mei." Lin Chaoxi said.
"How come it doesn't matter? My buddy has liked Shen Mei for so many years, and she turned around and got together with someone else!" the boy shouted with his neck stiff.
"Shut up!" Zhang Yao yelled at his friend with veins popping out of his forehead.
Upon hearing this, Mr. Shen turned around and slapped Shen Mei in the face.
After the slap, the room suddenly fell silent.
Shen Mei's eyes were immediately filled with tears.
Lu Zhihao stepped forward and asked, "Uncle, what are you doing?"
"Mr. Shen, don't be impulsive." Lu Zhihao's parents hurriedly advised.
"Hey, don't hit people. Talk to the child if you have anything to say." The police also said.
"You are shameless, but we still have some dignity!" Shen's father scolded.
At this time, several other parents came into the room, and after understanding the general situation, they began to teach their children.
For a while, there were sounds of insults, exhortations, and beatings. The room was in chaos, and the voices of more than a dozen parents almost exploded into one.
Lin Chaoxi was given a headache by the noise. She tried to persuade him, but out of the corner of her eye she only saw Pei Zhi sitting quietly on the chair, as if he didn't care about anything happening around him.
Lin Chaoxi felt nervous. All the students' parents were here, so what about Pei Zhi's?
When she thought of this, she felt that the whole room suddenly became quiet.
Someone is standing at the door.
It was a woman who was wearing a printed silk scarf and a loose gown for chemotherapy. Although she was skinny, she still put on makeup for going out.
Her lips were deep red, and her high heels were completely black. Her eyes were cold and her demeanor was stern. Everyone in the room was so attracted by her aura that they dared not make a sound.
The chair rubbed against the ground, making a slight "creaking" sound.
Pei Zhi stood up.
"I called your coach." Pei Zhi's mother's voice was very soft and weak.
Lin Chaoxi came back to her senses and her heart tightened when she heard that. She looked at Pei Zhi, but the boy just looked at his mother.
"What did the coach say?" Pei Zhi asked.
"The coach said that you had diarrhea during the exam today, so you didn't take it and went to the hospital first."
Pei Zhi lowered his eyelashes and said nothing.
"But when I got the call, the police said you were involved in a fight at the hot pot restaurant."
"And then?" Pei Zhi asked.
"Then I told your coach that something had happened to you, and if he kept it a secret for you, I would make him die miserably."
Everyone's eyes fell on Pei Zhi, and everyone's expression was full of confusion, as if they didn't know what was going on.
Pei Zhi looked up and said, "The coach is helping me to lie."
"What about the jiu-jitsu class on the weekend?"
“I’ve never been there.”
"That's right. Every time you come back you are sweating all over. You act very realistically."
She took a step forward, her high heels tapping the ground. She stood in front of Pei Zhi and said, "Kneel down."
There was a commotion in the police station.
"Mother Pei, don't be angry. It's normal for boys to act on impulse all of a sudden."
"Yes, Pei Zhi's performance is so good..."
It was a scene of mother-son interaction that Lin Chaoxi had never seen before. On one side, there were noisy voices of persuasion, and on the other side, the mother and son were extremely quiet.
Lin Chaoxi finally knew what the abnormality was that Old Lin noticed that night.
Then, everything seemed to be frozen in slow motion.
She saw Pei Zhi bend one knee slightly and drop it to the ground, then his hand and the other knee. She saw the Pei Zhi she knew, kneeling down on both knees in the lobby of the police station under the gaze of all the parents and classmates.
That was Pei Zhi, calm, peaceful, and always knew what he wanted to do. She had liked Pei Zhi for many years.
Lin Chaoxi stared at the boy's face, motionless.
"You have good grades, you are a genius in the Mathematical Olympiad, and you even participated in the Mathematical League today. It is very likely that you will enter the national winter camp and represent the country in the World Mathematical Olympiad?"
Pei Zhi's mother's voice was very soft and weak, and there was no sign of anger in her voice, but every word she spoke was enough to make people shudder.
"A child like this has been secretly deceiving his seriously ill mother. Do you think you deserve the praise from others?"
"Not worthy."
"Say sorry."
"sorry."
Pei Zhi knelt on the ground and spoke calmly.
The question and answer were the most naked humiliation of the son by the mother. Everyone present looked unbearable. Even Shen Mei's father, who had slapped his daughter in the face, seemed to be hesitant to say something to persuade her.
"Our lawyers will handle the subsequent compensation matters on your behalf. We are very sorry for what happened today."
Mother Pei looked at everyone present with a cold eye, and then said to Pei Zhi: "Let's go."
Pei Zhi stood up and followed his mother.
A policeman chased after him.
Lu Zhihao woke up as if from a dream and wanted to go forward frantically, but Lin Zhaoxi grabbed him.
"What are you doing?" Lu Zhihao shouted at her, "Lin Zhaoxi, his mother is crazy, help him!"
Lin Chaoxi only felt that all the sounds in her ears were buzzing, and she looked at Pei Zhi's back as he left.
She recalled the calm look the boy gave her before he left.
After being together for a long time, many words can be conveyed with just a glance.
——Don’t interfere, and don’t let Lu Zhihao interfere either.
This was a rare request from Pei Zhi to her. His dignity probably did not allow them to quarrel over him anymore.
She must agree.
"Mom, this is all for your own good."
In a trance, she seemed to hear someone say this.
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