In the end, the conflict did not escalate to the point where the shameful things were said aloud...
Zhou Lin didn't pay much attention to the scrape that day. The next day, when he took a shower, he found that the area around the wound was inflamed and the red and swollen area had expanded. In the end, Zhou's mother couldn't bear to see it and forced him to go to the hospital for treatment and bandaging.
Three days is enough time for the wound to scab over, and also enough time for him to think things through...
Lin Shih-jen was the one who confessed her crush on him first, and now he wants to change seats to keep his distance?
impossible.
When Zhou Lin received Song Ci's message, he was adding Coenzyme Q10 to the cat food.
Schrödinger was getting old, and his heart and stomach were not good. He would spend a lot of time during the day sitting on the windowsill looking at the scenery outside.
This was also part of the reason for his decision not to go to school. His parents knew he was sensible and had no complaints about it.
Zhou Lin swiped the screen, and Lin Shiren's figure came into view. She was talking to someone with her head tilted back, her eyes smiling, curved like the bright moon in the night sky.
She still had that quiet, reserved demeanor, but it was different from what he usually saw her in; she carried a subtle, almost imperceptible shyness, which was quite striking.
His absence from school didn't seem to affect her mood at all.
They also noticed another person in the photo, a boy in a school uniform, whose back was the only part of the picture; it was Shen Xuqing.
The pleasure he felt from Schrödinger's delicious meal vanished instantly. Before he could even savor the bittersweet emotion, his phone rang. It was as if Song Ci had timed it perfectly, calling right on the last minute after he finished looking at the photos.
The rain was still falling, and the outside of the window was shrouded in mist.
Zhou Lin frowned as he pressed the answer button, and Song Ci's anxious voice immediately burst out: "Bro, when are you coming back to school? Your base has been raided..."
He interrupted coldly: "Why are you following her?"
"Stalking? Do you think I have that much free time?"
Song Ci was also wronged. The photos were sent to him by Ruan Ya. As for why they weren't sent directly to Zhou Lin, everyone knew the truth. However, he believed that Lin Shiren was not capable of two-timing. Rather than letting the photos end up in Zhou Lin's hands and cause a lot of gossip, it was better to be direct and expose the truth: "The photos were sent by Xu Yiqiao. You know whose best friend she is, right?"
Zhou Lin responded softly.
"It's like the emperor isn't worried, but the eunuch is!"
Song Ci was so angry she almost laughed, and she was speechless: "What's wrong with Lin Shiren? If you and Shen Xuqing stood together, even a blind man would choose you, whether it's looks or academic achievements."
But some people just happen to have bad eyesight.
Zhou Lin looked at his reflection in the glass wall. He knew he was good-looking, the kind of person who would get a second glance even on the street. He had never been treated coldly since he was a child, and the only exception in his life was Lin Shiren.
Song Ci was still muttering to herself, "It was raining, and she didn't bring an umbrella. She was standing pitifully by the roadside all by herself. Tang Shi and I had to take her home."
He tried to create a pitiful image with his words to provoke his good friend. A sensational scandal unfolded, the female lead showed no joy, and the male lead simply didn't show up. Even a fool could see through it… Song Ci subtly probed, “Are you really not going back to school?”
Zhou Lin remained silent for several seconds, his jawline tightening and then relaxing: "Let's talk about it later."
He has his own timeline for doing things. The scandal at the sports meet was just the first step; now he's using a strategic retreat to advance...
Lin Shiren caught a cold after getting caught in the rain that day. That evening, she received a message from Shen Xuqing, who said that his family had decided to continue with conservative treatment in Huai City. He also said that his family wanted to invite her and her mother to dinner, but Lin Shiren declined.
These days, another big news has emerged at school: Xu Yiqiao posted a social media message that went viral, attracting several groups of boys and girls from other schools to wait for her after school. Everyone has been talking about it lately, and it's said that even an MCN (Multi-Channel Network) for internet celebrities has approached her. No one cares about her and Zhou Lin's unfounded rumors anymore.
During lunch break, sunlight filtered through the curtains, casting dappled shadows of trees. A large group of students slumped over in the classroom. Lin Shiren, propping his forehead with one hand, stared blankly at the empty seat beside him.
More than a week has passed, and her message to Zhou Lin has vanished without a trace, with no reply received to this day.
Not only that, his WeChat Moments and Weibo accounts have also stopped being updated, as if he has truly disappeared from life. In fact, Zhou Lin is also a victim, and he is more innocent than anyone else. He was not only injured, but also bore the brunt of her emotional outburst that day.
When Dong Rui returned from the bathroom, she glanced at her as she passed by and asked, "Are you feeling better from your cold?"
Lin Shiren pursed his lips and replied softly, "Okay, I just feel sleepy every day."
Dong Rui sat down in the empty seat in front of her, resting her elbows on the table: "Why didn't Old Chen arrange a new deskmate for you? Did he save a seat for Zhou Lin instead?"
Lin Shiren took a sip of water from his glass and said, "I don't know either."
"I asked Song Ci that day, and he said he didn't know either. Why is he being so mysterious..."
She was puzzled and spoke a little loudly when the boy behind her suddenly complained, "If you want to talk, go outside and talk. Can't people even take a nap?"
It was supposed to be a perfectly normal reminder, but the other person's choice of words and tone were particularly unfriendly. Dong Rui reflexively looked towards the source of the sound, her lips curving into a smile: "Don't you have any manners?"
The boy, his hair slicked back, got up, grabbed his glasses from the table, put them on, and scoffed impatiently, "You're disturbing other people's sleep, and you still think you're right?"
His name is Cai Shichen. Because he has rhinitis, he blows his nose a lot every day and uses a lot of tissues. His classmates gave him the nickname Cai Lun.
Lin Shiren didn't need to turn around to know that he was the one throwing a tantrum. From the very first day she moved to the seat in front of Cai Shichen, she had sensed his hostility. Several times, after sweeping the floor, the chair couldn't fit in, and she asked Cai Shichen to move the table. He either had a dark expression or ignored her, as if he looked down on her.
Lin Shih-ren didn't know what he had done to offend him, and even considered asking him at one point, but after overhearing him chatting with other boys, he gave up on the idea.
Cai Shichen is a representative of the angry young people at Huiwen Middle School. He believes that it is too cruel for the school to demote students from the key classes back to the regular classes. Several students who were demoted have become depressed. He always speaks with righteous indignation whenever this topic comes up.
In fact, to some extent, Lin Shiren agreed with his point of view, but he shouldn't be giving her attitude all the time, as if she was the one who caused this situation.
Dong Rui couldn't control her emotions at that moment and retorted directly: "The boys were much louder when they came back from playing basketball yesterday at noon, why didn't you get angry? You're just a bully who picks on the weak and fears the strong!"
Cai Shichen looked like someone had hit a sore spot, his eyes widened fiercely. Just as he was about to speak, another loud crash came from the back door. Li Pengfei's Coke bottle fell to the ground. Everyone who had been listening intently turned to look. Li Pengfei smiled and apologized.
Dong Rui's lips curled into a slight sneer: "Why are some people so quiet now? Weren't they so angry just now?"
After she finished cursing, she turned and went back to her seat, not paying attention to that venomous gaze. Lin Shiren watched carefully the whole time and felt a vague unease in his heart.
Half a month passed in the blink of an eye, and the second monthly exam for senior high school students arrived in the blink of an eye.
For two days in a row, the school was shrouded in the atmosphere of exams, with hushed discussions and sighs of disappointment from those who failed the exams rising and falling.
Lin Shiren was in a good mood. She had done quite well in the previous exams and was now walking lightly toward Class 5 to take her last exam, physics.
In the third classroom on the left of the corridor, the proctor was dismantling the exam papers. In the corner of the last row, Cai Shichen sat with a large pack of tissues in front of him. She found her exam number in the seat in front of him, and as she sat down, she heard the sound of someone blowing their nose and taking out a tissue.
The exam bell rang sharply, and the atmosphere instantly became tense. Lin Shih-jen took a breath and began to answer the questions.
The difficulty of this monthly exam was reduced, and she answered it smoothly. While she was thinking, she suddenly felt a pain on her scalp. She covered the back of her head and looked back. Cai Shichen looked at her innocently.
Lin Shih-ren lowered his voice restrainedly: "Why are you pulling my hair?"
Cai Shichen spread his hands in a mock manner and mouthed, "I don't like you."
The proctor was still pacing in the aisle, unaware of their commotion. Lin Shiren ignored him and continued working on the questions.
A few minutes later, she was poked in the back by the pen tip again. She suppressed her emotions, adjusted her posture, and moved the chair forward a little more.
Lin Shih-ren could roughly guess Tsai Shih-chen's intentions: to use such childish tricks to influence her mindset, so that if she failed the exam, it would prove that she was not worthy of being in the top class.
Perhaps because he was in an unfamiliar environment and had no one he knew around him, he was unusually bold. During an exam, he endured having his hair pulled twice and being poked by a pen tip three times.
Just as she was about to hand in her paper, she was attacked from behind again. This time, she didn't know what tool Cai Shichen used, or if Lin Shiren was just unlucky, but she heard the sound of her bra strap coming undone.
I felt so ashamed and angry at that moment, and tears almost welled up in my eyes.
The examination room was tense yet quiet when Lin Shiren suddenly turned around with a loud commotion: "What are you doing?"
People around looked over in twos and threes, and even the proctor was startled. He squinted and looked over: "What's all the noise about? It's an exam."
Lin Shih-jen remained silent, only looking at Tsai Shih-chen with a calm yet defiant gaze, and directly questioned, "Why did you poke me with a pen?"
When the proctor came over, Cai Shichen chickened out and put on a fake apology: "I dropped my pen and wanted you to pick it up for me."
As if deliberately provoking her, his ballpoint pen made a soft "click" sound at his fingertips.
"You're lying."
"I don't."
Lin Shiren grabbed a pen from the table and threw it in his face: "You deliberately interfered with my exam."
Cai Shichen was hit and jumped up with a bang: "Are you crazy?!"
Seeing that things were not going to end peacefully, the proctor cleared his throat and reminded the onlookers: "You can hand in your paper if you've finished answering, or continue answering if you haven't."
When his gaze returned to Lin Shih-jen and Tsai Shih-chen, he asked, "Which class are you two in?"
Class One.
Class One.
The two voices overlapped, and the proctor breathed a slight sigh of relief: "Okay, you're all in the same class, that makes things easier. Don't leave after the exam, I'll report this to Teacher Chen Mo. You can take the exam first."
Lin Shih-jen's eyes were very red, but in the end he did not say anything shameful. His eyes were filled with tears, and he continued to answer questions in an emotional breakdown.
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Author's note: 50 red envelopes~
What?! My wife was bullied?! I need to get back to school right now!
It's getting colder, babies please keep warm.
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