I want to pick on the easy target too.
Today is the last day of military training for the new first-year high school students. The thick night light illuminates the campfire, and loud military songs resound on the playground. Many people in the teaching building are looking out the window.
The announcement that the last evening self-study session for senior high school students had been cancelled sent excitement throughout the entire floor.
It was already dark, and the tree-lined path leading to the entrance was filled with the rustling of voices. Lin Shiren walked quickly by herself. Dong Rui called her name, but she didn't slow down. Dong Rui was forced to raise her voice: "Lin Shiren."
Lin Shiren turned around, her long hair drawing an arc in the air. The person behind her almost rear-ended her because they couldn't avoid her in time. She apologized softly.
Dong Rui jogged to catch up with her and walked alongside her: "Why are you walking so fast? Are you taking the bus again today?"
She shook her head: "Take the subway."
Buses during rush hour are so crowded, while the subway, though also crowded, at least doesn't have traffic jams.
Dong Rui's home is near the school, and she couldn't empathize with the pain of rush hour, so she smiled and said, "Why don't you come to my house for dinner tonight? My mom made braised prawns today."
Lin Shih-jen was too shy to go to someone else's house for a meal, so he made up an excuse to refuse. The two parted ways at the school gate.
Amidst the bustling crowd, she spotted Pang Ziyi on the roadside. This woman, whose face she had publicly humiliated earlier that day, was now staring intently at her from about five meters away, seemingly looking to cause her trouble.
It would be a lie to say he wasn't afraid. Lin Shih-jen had rarely had conflicts with anyone since he was a child, and he had never been cornered by anyone before. His heart was pounding.
Should she pretend nothing happened or turn back to school to find the teacher? After a few seconds of hesitation, she took out her phone from her pocket, found "Mom's" number in her contacts, and pressed the dial button.
She heard a long "beep beep beep" sound in her ears, and the calls she made went unanswered. After the third call went to voicemail, she silently locked her phone.
It was already ten minutes past school dismissal time, and the crowd at the gate gradually dispersed, but Pang Ziyi was still waiting in the same spot, as if she knew Lin Shiren had nowhere to turn for help. She had a mocking smile on her face, and Lin Shiren's hands were trembling slightly.
She took a deep breath and told herself that this was a society governed by law, and Pang Ziyi couldn't do anything to her; at worst, she could just call the police. With this in mind, Lin Shiren followed the flowing crowd toward the station, her pace quickening unconsciously.
The bus closed its doors five meters away. There were still quite a few boys at the station who hadn't managed to get on the bus cursing. As she walked, she secretly observed the movements behind her. Pang Ziyi followed her at a distance of five or six meters. She called Xin Xiaomei again, but there was still no answer.
Lin Shih-ren crossed the bus stop and walked along the road towards the subway station, which was 300 meters away. She had thought it through; the subway was well-lit, had many security cameras, and she could find staff if she encountered any danger.
What should have been a ten-minute journey was compressed into five minutes. By the time she entered the subway station, her chest was heaving from heavy breathing, and her forehead and palms were sweating. Following the flow of people down the escalator, Pang Ziyi caught up again, just two people's width apart. Lin Shiren walked down the left side, trying to create some distance between them, and the person behind her followed even closer.
The wind was strong in the passageway. The subway happened to arrive, and she randomly chose a door to board. Pang Ziyi blatantly followed her.
The two were less than half a meter apart when Lin Shiren suddenly turned around, his entire body in a highly vigilant state: "What are you going to do?"
At this moment, Pang Ziyi looked like a delinquent girl. She said with a grin, "Weren't you quite sharp-tongued this afternoon? Now you're scared?"
Lin Shih-ren was silent for two seconds. When he spoke again, he seemed quite calm: "If you continue like this, I will call the police."
Pang Ziyi seemed completely unafraid, staring into her eyes and taking a small step forward: "Didn't you say I owe you money and won't pay it back? I just want to pay you back, I didn't do anything to you, do you think the police will care?"
They spoke softly, and since they were both wearing Huiwen school uniforms, bystanders assumed they were together and paid no attention to them.
Emotions surged in her chest, but Lin Shiren's expression remained unchanged. She took out her phone, dialed "110" in front of her, her thumb hovering over the green call button, and looked up at her: "You can say that to the police..."
"Are you crazy? You have to call the police for something so small." Pang Ziyi reached out to grab her phone.
"Beep beep beep," the car door emitted a closing alarm.
Lin Shih-jen suddenly walked past her, slipped out the moment the car door closed, and then saw her horrified expression through the glass, along with a mouth that started with a "C".
Only then did she belatedly realize that she was panicking. Her legs suddenly lost strength and she collapsed. Just when she thought she was going to fall to the ground, an arm wrapped around her slender waist.
The refreshing scent of gardenias.
The person who came just in time caught Lin Shiren, who was about to stumble and fall. White light shone down from above, and his neat bangs swayed slightly with the movement. Zhou Lin's dark eyes lit up with a burning light, silently burning into Lin Shiren's eyes.
He asked, "Are you alright?"
*
School let out early tonight, and Song Ci said that we had to celebrate by having something nice to eat. He had been craving the barbecue place on Nangang Street for a long time. After packing his schoolbag, he dragged Zhou Lin out of the building and said, "At this time, there must be a long line at that place. Let's take the subway today, there won't be any traffic."
Thinking of Lin Shiren's red-rimmed and silent appearance an hour ago, Zhou Lin's mood wasn't high. He turned out of the corridor and slowly went down the stairs. A few girls were discussing a question in front of him. For some reason, in the dim light, seeing long, straight black hair reminded him of her.
After chatting with a few acquaintances from other classes for a while, Song Ci returned with some new gossip, saying mysteriously, "Did you hear about Lin Shiren and Pang Ziyi arguing this afternoon?"
Zhou Lin glanced at him.
He was definitely not the type to meddle in other people's business, but he still asked anyway. Lin Shiren said it was nothing, but he didn't seem to be okay at all.
Song Ci glanced at his expression and gave a sly smile: "Do you want to hear the low-frequency version, or the full version?"
Zhou Lin sensed the teasing tone in his voice and looked at him with even more impatience: "If you want to talk, then shut up."
Song Ci clicked his tongue, a little disappointed that he hadn't gotten a reaction from him, but that didn't stop him from continuing to spread the gossip: "The provincial version is that the team leader got into an argument with someone and won."
Did we win?
That pitiful look of his didn't make him look like a winner at all.
Such a mindset inevitably showed on his face. Zhou Lin's expression was indescribably complicated as he repeated, "Did you win?"
"You didn't expect that, did you? I just checked it several times."
Song Ci's voice was also excited: "With her small frame and cowardly nature, how dare she argue with someone?"
Zhou Lin thought to himself, "That's because you haven't seen how bold this girl is. She left a message online slandering him after drinking. She's incredibly daring. Last night she even called me 'I'."
Song Ci continued to tell him the news she had heard: "It is said that the girl owed the team leader money and then made sarcastic remarks. The team leader did not tolerate her behavior and gave her a good scolding, which made her cry."
Zhou Lin raised an eyebrow. It turned out that it wasn't her who was crying, but the other person.
The frustration in his chest dissipated instantly, and he suddenly felt a sense of pride and joy. So, in a good mood, he suggested, "Let's not eat barbecue. Didn't you say you wanted to eat Japanese food last time?"
Song Ci's smile froze on his face: "Little Zhou Zhou, that restaurant costs 300 yuan per person. My little savings were just confiscated by my sister, so I'm short on cash..."
Zhou Lin interrupted him: "I'm in a good mood today, so it's my treat."
"..."
Song Dynasty poem: A man's heart is like a needle at the bottom of the sea.
Song Ci's dream of eating Japanese food was shattered half an hour later.
When the subway arrived at Nangang Street station, Lin Shiren got off, and Zhou Lin followed her off. Song Ci was caught off guard and was abandoned. She asked blankly, "Weren't we going to eat Japanese food?"
His response was the slow closing of the cold subway doors and the two heartless figures standing in the distance.
The lights were dim, and the night wind carried the chill of early autumn, blowing mercilessly.
The road is usually not long, only about ten minutes' walk, but with a tall and strong boy by his side, Lin Shih-ren felt particularly uneasy, constantly looking around, afraid of running into someone he knew.
She comforted herself, telling herself that they were just ordinary classmates, not in a puppy love relationship, so there was nothing to be ashamed of.
Even though he thought that, he was still as deflated as a balloon, until he heard a cold laugh that sounded like a breath: "Lin Shiren, don't you have anything to say?"
Lin Shiren didn't understand what he was angry about, thinking it was because he had delayed his mealtime, so he stood there and replied very seriously, "No need to see me off, I can go back by myself."
Zhou Lin seemed perfectly normal and reminded him, "What if they're waiting for you downstairs?"
"No way..." she stammered.
Zhou Lin bent down and leaned closer to her. His imposing presence silenced her. The neckline of his T-shirt fluttered in the wind, and the weak moonlight shone on his face, casting a small shadow under his eyelashes.
He said, "Lin Shih-ren, you need to learn to protect yourself."
Upon hearing this, Lin Shiren's eyes instantly reddened. She turned her head away from him, trying her best to ignore the pain in her heart.
Her face was small, her skin pale in the moonlight, her dark eyes looked as if they had been washed with water, and her lips, bitten, were an unnatural red, making her look pitiful.
A strange feeling washed over Zhou Lin, his eyes softened, and he sighed, "I'm not being mean to you, but how could you walk away alone in this situation? What if she brought help? You need to contact your family or friends..."
"I've always been alone." Lin Shiren interrupted him, tears still streaming down her face.
It wasn't that she had guts, but rather that no one was there to protect her; besides herself, she had no one behind her.
Lin Shiren's crying was silent, her nose was red, her lips trembled, and she hid a stubbornness completely different from her usual gentle personality. Tears streamed down her cheeks and dripped onto her school uniform T-shirt, quickly soaking the fabric.
If falling in love is something that happens in an instant, then in this moment, Zhou Lin instinctively pulled her in front of him and reached out to wipe away the tears on her face.
"Don't cry." His voice was unnaturally hoarse.
Lin Shih-jen turned her head away, avoiding his hand, but tears still kept flowing.
...
At the convenience store, Zhou Lin paid for the oden and tissues, then pulled out a chair for Lin Shiren in the rest area.
She was still on the phone with Xin Xiaomei at that moment: "It's nothing, school just let out early and I wanted to let you know." After the other end of the line said something else, she hummed a few times and hung up.
But after hanging up the phone, the atmosphere between the two became even more awkward.
Lin Shiren hated her incontinence and cried uncontrollably. Why did she cry over such a small thing? Especially in front of Zhou Lin, she propped her head up and stared out the window, not wanting to have any conversation with him.
She peeked at Zhou Lin through the glass wall; he was still in the same position, his dark eyes fixed on her, his expression shrouded in mystery.
Finally, Lin Shih-ren couldn't take it anymore and said, "It's so late, aren't you going home yet?"
"Let's wait until you're in a better mood." Perhaps she had just lost control of her emotions and frightened him; his voice was softer than ever before.
Lin Shih-ren lowered his eyelids: "I'm fine."
Zhou Lin thought for a moment and asked her, "How do you plan to resolve this?"
If it's just talk and there's no real harm done, what can you do besides just endure it?
Lin Shih-ren took a bite of oden in a fit of anger, chewing it forcefully: "I want to buy a scratch-off lottery ticket."
Zhou Lin was full of questions: "?"
The convenience store was brightly lit. They stared at each other silently. Lin Shiren had food in his mouth and said through gritted teeth, "Pang Ziyi owes me 330 yuan. I guess I won't get it back. I really want to get that 330 yuan back."
She's such a pitiful, silly girl.
Even when it comes to winning the lottery, he's not greedy at all; three hundred and thirty yuan is enough.
The miserable mood from just now seemed to have dissipated without her noticing. Zhou Lin wondered if all girls were like this, so fragile and pitiful yet still mindful of other people's feelings.
His gaze darkened: "Lin Shiren, can you lend me some money?"
Lin Shih-ren's almond-shaped eyes widened in astonishment: "Aren't you very rich?"
These words were spoken by Tang Shi. Zhou Lin had been refusing to accept payment for the meals, so she had to ask Tang Shi to pass it on. Tang Shi told her not to try to save money for Zhou Lin, as he had won a lot of prize money in competitions and had also earned a considerable amount of money writing programs for others.
The two were very close, their breaths mingling. Zhou Lin regained his composed demeanor, his voice tinged with laughter: "I may be rich, but I'm not a pushover..."
"I want to pinch it too."
-----------------------
Author's note: 50 red envelopes to thank you for your support!
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