Chapter 18 His Achilles' heel: He probably didn't like her.
The last class before school ended was noisy. Ye Yuying had just finished packing her textbooks when Li Ying stood at the end of the corridor and gestured with her chin: "Ye Yuying, come with us after school, we'll show you a 'good show'."
She sighed. Sure enough, what was bound to happen had happened.
The last time she was harassed was because Ge Jie invited her to "watch the show," which she ignored, and this time it happened again.
She didn't know what "watching a good show" meant, but it must be an activity that could drag people into a quagmire.
Li Ying is Ge Jie's "confidante." Through Ye Yuying's observations over the past few days, she has discovered that there are different levels within the "sisterhood," and everyone's status is not static. Whoever has the best relationship with Ge Jie has the highest status, and saying the wrong thing will lead to being ostracized by Ge Jie.
Years later, when Ye Yuying recalled this period as an adult, she was always amazed that a group of young junior high school students had spontaneously established such a complete and strict hierarchical relationship.
Many people see the increasing prevalence of school bullying among younger children and wonder how children of the age who watch "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" could possibly have such deep scheming and malice.
But the truth is, the person in front of me, at such a young age, not only knows how to control others and sow discord, but also knows how to use "favors" and "status" to solidify his position—it's like a childish yet cruel power game.
In such an environment where everyone hates her, she had no choice.
She zipped up her school uniform, slowly slung her bag over her shoulder, and followed Li Ying out of the teaching building.
She didn't speak or show any fear the whole way, but she couldn't suppress her unease and secretly observed Li Ying's expression—she had a feeling that what was about to happen today was not a good thing.
I wouldn't specifically ask her to go see something good.
The sky was overcast, as if covered with a layer of lead gray. There were few people around the playground, and the wind made your ears feel cold.
No one spoke along the way, until they entered a corner near the back gate where there were no security cameras. There, several of Ge Jie's "sisters" were already waiting, half-surrounding a girl with her hair in a bun.
The girl surrounded in the middle had a fair complexion, her head hanging down, trembling with fear, and was almost crying.
"The show is about to begin," Ge Jie said slowly, her usual smile masking her ill intentions.
Ye Yuying glanced at the girl; she looked somewhat familiar, from another class. She stood still, unsure why Ge Jie would make things difficult for a girl from another class.
Ge Jie leaned against the railing, waving a cell phone, which was strictly prohibited from being brought into the school.
She said to Ye Yuying, "Go and slap her."
She was stunned.
"Why?" Her voice was low, filled with incomprehension and disappointment at humanity—they had no grudge against each other, so why did she slap her?
"Just slap me when I tell you to, don't talk nonsense." Ge Jie's tone was light and casual, with a hint of warning.
Ye Yuying stood rooted to the spot, hesitant to move forward. "What did she do wrong?"
“She’ll know what she did wrong after she slapped herself,” Ge Jie said with a smile, as if she were a lowly behind-the-scenes boss in a TV drama, delivering dramatic lines.
But everyone believed the whole farce.
Ye Yuying didn't move. The blood rushing through her body was desperately questioning her heart: what should she do?
Someone nudged the girl with the bun hairstyle: "Hey, do you know why I hit you?" The girl with the bun hairstyle looked confused, her voice trembling and on the verge of tears: "I don't know."
Li Ying raised her foot from behind and kicked her leg. The kick wasn't hard, but it left a clear footprint on a pair of nice light-colored jeans, visible in the sandy soil of the playground.
"Didn't I give you a chance before to stop wearing those eyesores of pants? You insisted on wearing them to school, but you ignored me, didn't you?"
Li Ying scolded, her tone somewhat like that of an annoying headmaster.
The girl with the bun cried even harder, her lips trembling, but she didn't beg for mercy.
Ge Jie, as if she had gotten tired of playing, raised her eyelids and said, "Ye Yuying, what are you still standing there for? Go on, didn't you want to submit? Prove it to me."
"Go slap her, or... you'll be the one getting slapped." This was the ultimatum.
All eyes immediately fell on her, some with excitement, some with mockery, and some with the thrill of watching a show—they wanted to see her compromise, just as they had all been tamed back then.
Ye Yuying took a slow breath.
She knew this was a watershed moment.
If she submits, she will truly become one of them, and there will be no way to cleanse herself of her past. She will no longer be herself, but a "dog" in Ge Jie's hands.
But if she didn't comply—she dared not think of the consequences.
At that moment, her mind was in turmoil. She thought of scenes from her childhood, and how she had always been a "bad student" with consistently poor grades...
What if she were to decay and decay...?
But she ultimately didn't make a move; perhaps she wanted to struggle one more time.
Her gaze fell on the girl's tears, and she said, word by word, "What pants she wears is none of your business."
The air froze for a moment, like the shock of the emperor's new clothes being revealed in an instant.
In fact, everyone knows that if we really examine the logic of this matter, Ge Jie is definitely in the wrong, so no one dares to delve into the root of the problem.
Ge Jie was clearly surprised, and narrowed her eyes: "Say it again?"
"I said, what she wears is her own business." Ye Yuying stared at Ge Jie, her tone unusually calm. "You're scolding her because of her pants, it's not because...you're jealous of her looks, is it?"
The moment the words fell, it was like a boulder crashing down a cliff, creating waves as sharp as shattered blades.
The atmosphere completely changed.
Ge Jie's face darkened instantly, a hint of unease appearing on her face, and a flash of anger and embarrassment in her eyes.
"Are you crazy, Ye Yuying?" Her voice suddenly rose a notch, sharp and uncontrollable, but she never directly addressed the word "jealousy."
Ye Yuying spoke in a flat tone, staring steadily at Ge Jie. There was no anger in her eyes, only a clear-headedness that was impossible to ignore. "She has no grudge against you, is from another class, and is good-looking. I can't help but suspect that this is jealousy."
She emphasized the word "jealousy" again clearly.
The expressions of the "sisterhood" watching began to soften.
Some people unconsciously looked away, some swallowed hard, and others secretly glanced at Ge Jie's face, which was on the verge of collapse.
Everyone knows the cause of the matter, but no one dares to say it out loud.
The word "jealousy" is too heavy, too accurate, and too embarrassing to use here.
"Looks like I really believed your lies. It hasn't been long since that beating, and you're already acting all high and mighty again?" Ge Jie's lips twitched, as if she was trying to force a smile, but the smile couldn't hide the anger on her face.
She suddenly waved her hand: "Release that little bitch."
Li Ying was taken aback for a moment, but immediately complied, releasing the girl with the bun hairstyle from her arm as if completing some kind of routine instruction.
"Let's go, I'm going to teach my dog a lesson. If you dare to leak a word about what happened today, you'll be sorry." Ge Jie gave her a cold glance.
The girl stood there, looking at Ge Jie with fear in her eyes, then at Ye Yuying, with some worry and hesitation, as if she had already anticipated what Ye Yuying would encounter.
Ye Yuying said to her, "Why don't you run away quickly, or do you want to be caught and beaten?"
The girl bit her lip, as if she had finally realized something, and turned and ran away in a panic.
At this moment, Ge Jie withdrew her gaze and slowly approached Ye Yuying.
"You didn't want to hit anyone? Fine, then you take it." She pointed a finger at Ye Yuying's face. "Take it properly, don't block it. If you dare to pretend to be righteous, you'll have to pay the price."
Ye Yuying originally wanted to run away, to run for her life like in her dream, leaving these people far behind, but in reality, someone had already blocked her way and brought her back.
The air was eerily still, as if it had been vacuumed.
At that moment, the world seemed to turn into a black and white silent film. She resisted, punching and kicking, like someone struggling in a silent film. Because she lost her voice, all her movements seemed pale and powerless, weakening the sense of tragedy.
Finally, her struggles were in vain, and several people grabbed her limbs and pinned her to the spot.
She knew this slap was inevitable; it was the price she paid for disobeying.
She was puzzled for a moment. She had already lived in such a state, whether at school or in the Cheng family, she was like a pitiful worm. Perhaps joining these people was the place she should be in—but she still didn't know what she was clinging to.
Ge Jie came up to her.
She was prepared: to be beaten, to have her face swollen and red, to have tinnitus, to be humiliated... to wash her face with cold water in the toilet, and then to endure it...
But just as Ge Jie raised her hand—
"Are kids these days so arrogant?" A clear male voice, clearly past puberty, rang out.
The boy had appeared by the wall at some point. The sunset glow, softened by the floating clouds, shone on the upturned collar of his school uniform, giving him an enigmatic calmness, like a pure bystander.
"Why aren't you going home after school? What are you up to now?" he asked lazily.
The presence of older students always seems to possess a magical ability to stabilize the situation.
In particular, when Ge Jie saw the boy's face clearly, she was unusually stunned for a moment, her aura instantly crumbled into dust, and her expression was quite interesting as her arrogance quickly faded.
She immediately withdrew her hand, forced a smile, and said in a weak voice, "It's nothing, just kidding."
As soon as she finished speaking, Ge Jie blushed under Lin Zhiyan's gaze.
Lin Zhiyan was very tall, standing out prominently among the group of junior high school girls. His gaze swept around the room and finally landed on Ye Yuying—that one glance was unwavering.
Lin Zhiyan narrowed her eyes and said in a deep voice to the person behind her, "Let go."
Li Ying relaxed as if by reflex.
A sense of unease and restlessness filled the air for a moment, and no one dared to speak again.
Ye Yuying moved her wrist, lowered her head to straighten her sleeves, and said nothing, only silently observing Ge Jie's reaction out of the corner of her eye.
I was quite surprised that Ge Jie would react like that to a strange boy; it was quite interesting.
Ge Jie, it turns out, also has weaknesses.
For the first time, Ye Yuying had a vague idea.
But at that moment, she began to realize that Ge Jie was not invincible either; she also had weaknesses—like the person in front of her.
He was wearing a dark school uniform, carrying a backpack over one shoulder. He had clean features, a nonchalant expression, and a calm and wise gaze that was beyond his years.
Later, Ye Yuying learned that this was Lin Zhiyan, a prominent figure at Rongcheng No. 1 High School.
He is also Ge Jie's secret crush.
So, Ye Yuying quietly kept this information to herself.
*
That night, the strong winds in Chengdu occasionally subsided. Ye Yuying lay in bed reviewing the day's events and pondering how to deal with tomorrow's situation.
Above her was a sloping attic with an old wooden ladder leading up, but the lights were broken, and it was pitch black when she opened the partition.
She temporarily abandoned her idea of exploring the attic, but often heard the occasional sound of pigeons resting near the attic, their clawed feet making a squeaking sound as they rubbed against the hard tiles.
But today, she heard footsteps in the attic, which startled her so much that she sat up instantly.
The thought of the endless darkness of the attic filled her with terrifying speculation.
She immediately sat up, walked to the door, opened it a crack, and looked towards the wooden stairs. She saw that the upper partition had been opened, and someone was coming down from the attic with a flashlight.
She held her breath, seeing everything clearly through the crack in the door—
That figure was Cheng Mingdu.
He was wearing dark loungewear, carrying a flashlight in one hand and an old cardboard box in the other. His eyes were downcast, and the contours of his eyes always made people want to look at them more, and they had the urge to create a model of his face.
Ye Yuying stood motionless, her hand still gripping the doorknob, maintaining a barrier through the crack in the door.
Like someone burying their head in the sand, they boldly observed his eyes and eyebrows.
Unexpectedly, Cheng Mingdu seemed to sense something, slightly raised his eyes, and accurately noticed the dark eyes behind the crack in the door.
"I just came to pick up something." Cheng Mingdu's voice wasn't loud, but it reached her ears clearly, somewhat like the chimes of a church bell on the hour.
Ye Yuying paused for a moment, instinctively wanting to close the door, because she had an instinctive fear of Cheng Mingdu. She knew he didn't like Jiang Xinxue, and probably didn't like her either.
But at this moment, as if seeing the dawn, she turned and opened the door, stood barefoot inside, staring at him without blinking.
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Author's Note: 50 red envelopes! [Cat emoji]
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