Chapter 8
The last class.
Jiang Li raised his hand and went to the restroom in the last few minutes.
Guan Nan glanced at him, gripped her pen tightly, and grabbed her schoolbag the moment the bell rang, following the teacher out of the classroom.
Pretend to forget that brief conversation.
Stairwell, Huangjue Road, the large playground, and Jinbu Bridge.
As the distance between them grew further and further, Guan Nan secretly breathed a sigh of relief and slowly walked towards the school gate.
Even now, she hasn't figured out how to face Jiang Li tomorrow.
As soon as I stepped out of the school gate, a familiar voice came from directly in front of me.
"Squad leader."
Guan Nan froze and looked up.
The person who casually stands at the school gate, holding a bicycle, one hand in his pocket, raising his eyebrows with a half-smile.
Unrestrained and flamboyant.
Who else could this be but Jiang Li?
Guan Nan felt guilty and walked very slowly, dawdling and hesitant to move forward.
"Jiang Li!" Mr. Xu, who was on duty today, saw this and assumed Jiang Li was bullying a female student. "What are you doing!"
Jiang Li said lazily, "Wait for my classmate, teacher."
"Why are you calling out to your classmate when you're waiting for him?" President Xu walked up to him and looked at him.
Because Mr. Xu is too talkative, and when he gets impatient he'll call on the parents, all the students he's called on are afraid of him.
Jiang Li wasn't afraid, but he found it annoying. "What can I do? Ask about homework, of course."
Clearly, Mr. Xu didn't believe it. "You ask about homework? Do you think people are that afraid of you just because you ask about homework?"
Jiang Li raised an eyebrow. "Who said she's afraid of me?"
“If I’m not afraid of you, what am I afraid of?” President Xu said bluntly, pointing at Guan Nan, “You’ve scared her so much she doesn’t dare to move!”
Jiang Li curled her lips and said slowly, "She's shy and has a thin skin."
Guan Nan: "..."
After hearing this, President Xu glared at him, walked over and patted Guan Nan on the shoulder, "If you have something to say, talk to the teacher. Don't spoil these bad boys."
Guan Nan shook her head: "I'm fine, thank you, teacher."
“Okay,” Mr. Xu said, “then you go ahead, I’ll stay here, don’t worry about him.”
Guan Nan glanced at Jiang Li, feeling somewhat nervous and embarrassed. She wanted to explain, but there were people coming and going at the school gate.
That hard-won courage crumbled and shattered completely in that instant.
She lowered her head and walked silently toward the bus stop.
He didn't dare to look up or meet Jiang Li's gaze for even a second.
She was timid, disliked being noticed, and always stayed in a corner. So transparent, so inconspicuous, so unpopular.
In contrast, Jiang Li was famous, arrogant, and full of vigor; he was the kind of person who was born to be seen. Guan Nan was afraid of getting too close to him, and even more afraid of being in his spotlight.
However, when she turned around, she saw Jiang Li still being criticized.
Guan Nan gripped the strap of her schoolbag tightly, unable to describe the feeling, but a dull ache in her heart.
He hung his head, revealing no emotion, his arrogance tinged with dejection as he bent over.
Such a good person, suddenly became in a bad mood.
She kept her head down, queuing to board the bus, not having the courage to look at him again.
In the following days, the two sat at the same table but did not exchange a single word.
But Chen Aimei came to see Guan Nan even more frequently. Guan Nan's focus was not on him, so he naturally didn't know what had upset him this time.
That day, when Guan Nan returned from the restroom, the desks that were close together formed a clear boundary.
The Chu River and Han Border are clearly visible.
Jiang Li leaned against the desk behind him, playing games with his head down, occasionally exchanging words with Yu Shu.
After a moment of silence, Guan Nan pushed the desk a little further away.
The next second, Jiang Li pulled out his desk, taking up half of the left side of the corridor.
The commotion drew the attention of all forty-odd students in the class, creating a surprised and strange atmosphere.
Guan Nan paused for two seconds, then pulled the desk a little closer to him. When she tried to pull it closer, the desk didn't budge. Looking down, she saw that his feet were braced against the horizontal bar.
"River--"
Jiang Li stood up. "Yu Shu, the convenience store."
"You're here." Yu Shu glanced at her, his gaze anything but friendly.
A moment later, Chen Mengjie from the third group turned around and spoke up, even though she had never interacted with Guan Nan before.
Chen Mengjie's first words were a question: "Guan Nan, what did you do to offend him?"
Guan Nan opened her mouth: "I..."
“Don’t tell me you didn’t. I know him. If you really didn’t,” Chen Mengjie paused, and the classmate next to her looked over carefully and said bluntly, “He wouldn’t be so smug.”
"I didn't." Guan Nan didn't know how to explain, and her voice was a little weak.
Chen Aimei came over and stood next to her desk, pointing to the two separate desks. "What's wrong with you two?"
Guan Nan shook her head again, indicating that she did not know.
“Jiangli wasn’t like this before the classes were divided,” said a former classmate. “How come it’s like this now? It’s ridiculous.”
Someone sneered and chimed in, "That's right, Jiang Li is in trouble now."
Chen Mengjie paused for a second before asking a pointed question: "Are you two very close friends?"
Think for a second; seeing something before is like recognizing it, but it doesn't mean you know it.
Friends? I doubt it even counts.
So Guan Nan replied, "I don't know him."
"Why is that so strange?"
Chen Aimei's eyes also underwent a subtle change.
The atmosphere froze for a few seconds.
“Guan Nan,” Chen Mengjie said with a serious expression, “Although I don’t know why he’s angry, it’s very likely because of you. When he comes, apologize to him.”
Someone chimed in, "He's very easy to talk to."
"Just apologize to him."
In that instant, it seemed as if everyone tacitly sided with Jiang Li, even those who didn't know the inside story or the reasons believed that she was the one in the wrong.
Everyone thought she should apologize to Jiang Li.
Guan Nan was at a loss.
She looked up, wanting to ask her friend, but found that Chen Aimei was also trying to persuade her.
"How about it? Class One's something else, right?" Yu Shu excitedly put his arm around a boy's shoulder. "Every single one of them's a top student, compared to trash like you—"
A dense crowd of people crowded around Guan Nan's spot, surrounding her in the center, creating a scene resembling a disturbance.
The boy joked, "What's going on? Are you guys in Class One fighting?"
"Lin Rui, you..."
Jiang Li ignored them, strode over, kicked aside the stool blocking his way, and said coolly, "Make way."
Seeing this, Lin Rui whistled.
"Why should she apologize?" Seeing Guan Nan isolated and helpless, the girl who sat in front of her couldn't stand it anymore. She stood up, ready to confront everyone, her face full of sarcasm. "What did she do wrong? Is this how your Class 3 plays?"
"Wow," Lin Rui joked, "a hero saving a damsel in distress, this is going to be interesting."
Just a moment ago they were good buddies, but now Yu Shu has turned on him and is about to push him out, saying, "What are you looking at? Go back to your class."
Lin Rui was utterly incredulous. This guy drank his beverage and then chased him away: "Yu Shu, you motherfucker—"
Yu Shucai ignored him, pushed the man out, and quickly disappeared into the crowd.
"You fucking dog!" Lin Rui pushed open the window and yelled.
A classmate called out to him, "Luo Haoyu, this has nothing to do with you, mind your own business."
"It has nothing to do with me. I just can't stand seeing so many of you bullying a girl. Is it fun to gang up on a girl?" Luo Haoyu looked righteous and spoke without hesitation. "Then let me tell you, I'm going to get involved in this."
After saying that, he called out to a few people: "Zhang Yang, Guo Yuhang, are you two going to take care of this?"
Liu Yang, in a booming voice: "I'll take care of it!"
"Nonsense," Guo Yuhang rolled up his sleeves, and a few of them crowded around, pushing aside the male and female classmates who were huddled together trying to persuade Guan Nan to apologize. "You think you can bully our class monitor just because she's easy to talk to, huh?"
There were two groups of people on the scene, clearly divided into Class One and Class Three, and the atmosphere was tense.
From the very beginning, the words and actions of Class 3 made the members of Class 1 very unhappy. Whether before or after the class merger, they were always full of sarcastic remarks.
Amidst various verbal provocations, they had long since grown to dislike each other.
The front and back doors were blocked off, and since other people couldn't break up the fight, they simply stopped trying.
The atmosphere grew increasingly tense, and with no one making way for him, Jiang Li grew impatient: "Make way, can't you hear me?"
"You're blind—" One second she was still angry, but the next second she deflated when she saw the person's face. "Jiang Li. You've come at the right time. Just have her apologize to you and that'll be fine."
Jiang Li's can of cola was still steaming, and his whole demeanor was icy cold: "What apology?"
"I'm just curious, why did she have to apologize?" Guo Yuhang faced Jiang Li directly, his gentlemanly demeanor both upright and gentle.
One of the boys from Class 3 said defiantly, "If you're not going to apologize, then move aside and let someone else sit..."
“I’m asking you,” Jiang Li looked away from the boy, cutting him off, “what apology?”
Seeing that the atmosphere was getting tense, Chen Mengjie stepped in to smooth things over.
“Jiang Li, it’s like this,” Chen Mengjie said, acting as a peacemaker. “We all know that Guan Nan upset you, so we wanted her to apologize to you and let it go.”
Jiang Li: "Did I mention her?"
"It's her," someone said confidently, pointing at Guan Nan.
"Point it again!" Luo Haoyu slammed the book down, still with an air of righteous indignation. "No manners, huh?"
From this point on, it seemed that only a single, hair-thin fuse was needed to ignite the situation, and things quickly spiraled out of control.
A brawl broke out between Class 1 and Class 3. Others were unable to stop the fight and stood by anxiously. Those who were hit and knocked down also had a reason to get involved and began to beat up people they didn't like.
For some reason, Guan Nan was squeezed from the middle to the corner, standing next to Jiang Li.
Jiang Li pulled her back just now, otherwise she would have bumped into the messy desk.
"Thank you," Guan Nan said hesitantly.
Jiang Li had his head down, seemingly texting someone, when he glanced at her and said, "You're welcome."
His tone remained as lazy as ever, but it sounded strange and he didn't seem to want to talk to anyone.
A book came flying, brushing past Guan Nan's forehead and leaving a noticeable scratch.
Guan Nan instinctively covered the painful area.
It seems they didn't expect that people outside the venue would also be injured.
The next second, Jiang Li frowned and pressed the unopened Sprite onto the back of her hand. "Take it."
Sprite was still cold, his hand covered with a fine ring of water droplets, and the warm back of his hand was damp with the cold air from his fingertips.
Before she could say thank you, Jiang Li squeezed through the crowd and grabbed the boy who was facing off against Luo Haoyu.
"What? My business?" Jiang Li coldly glanced at the people around him after they stopped, and scoffed, "When did I ever need you to get involved?"
In an instant, those few from Class 3 who were harboring mischief and want to cause trouble stood frozen in place.
Jiang Li said coldly, "If you want to cause trouble, don't use my name. If you're so capable, go and fight him yourselves."
Several people whose thoughts had been exposed by him looked somewhat aggrieved.
"Jiang Li, we meant well—"
He tried to reason with Jiang Li, but Jiang Li was unmoved. "Why would I need you?"
It was at this moment that the English teacher, wearing high heels, led the grade director, Lao Jiang, to the door and pushed open the glass window.
Unable to open the front and back doors, they could only shout from outside the corridor.
English teacher: "Jiang Li! Have someone open the door for me!"
"And all of you troublemakers, bring them out here, every single one of you!"
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