Chapter 151: Words are like knives that draw blood
The girls screamed and retreated, the boys began to make strange noises and jeers, and some immediately ran outside to find the teacher.
After Zhu Yingning stood firm, he found that Zhang Jiacheng was completely suppressed by Zheng Zekai. He was obviously not familiar with this kind of fighting. It is possible that he had never fought with anyone before. Facing the big guy Zheng Zekai, he had no power to fight back.
She shouted a few times, then seeing Zheng Zekai unmoved, she simply tried to break up the fight. But Zheng Zekai's arms were too thick, and the ones exposed outside his short-sleeved school uniform were slippery with sweat, like giant loaches. She tried several times but couldn't hold on. She could only signal his subordinates to come help, and then she stood in front of Zhang Jiacheng, one hand protecting him, the other slanted across her chest and face to protect herself from the wrath of Zheng Zekai.
"Enough!" she yelled back.
Her behavior set an example for others who wanted to separate the fight but did not dare to step forward. Everyone rushed forward, one person grabbed an arm, and someone else held Zheng Zekai's waist, and finally pulled him up from the ground.
He was panting like a bull, like a mad bull demon king, and tried to move forward several times. The others could only hold him tightly and try to stop him:
"Okay, okay, no need!"
"Not to the extent that—"
"We are all classmates, don't hurt the relationship."
By this time, Zou Hao and a few other girls had already called Hong Qingyang over. He was furious and anxious, his face flushed. "What are you doing?! Fighting?! Are you trying to rebel?"
After he shouted at him, Zheng Zekai stopped rushing forward, but he was still breathing heavily, staring at Zhang Jiacheng fiercely as if he was staring at the murderer of his father, with his head slightly lowered and his chin retracted, revealing the whites of his lower eyes.
"Who started the fight?! Everyone, come to the office! You, and you!" Hong Qingyang called out to Zheng Zekai and Zhang Jiacheng like a rooster. "Class monitor, come here too. Everyone else, disperse. Didn't you hear the bell? Go back to your seats! Why are you joining in the fun?"
"Disperse, disperse." Someone followed Hong Qingyang's words and shouted, and everyone dispersed sparsely and returned to their seats to wait for class.
Zhu Yingning and others whose names were called by Hong Qingyang followed him to the office.
**
Fighting between students is not a big deal, but it is not a small matter either. It is normal for young people with full blood to have conflicts and fight occasionally. However, since it concerns the performance of the class teacher, after asking Zhu Yingning about the whole story, Hong Qingyang still rubbed his brows and lectured the two of them earnestly for a whole class, asking them to apologize to each other and submit a self-criticism afterwards.
Zheng Zekai refused to apologize, and Zhang Jiacheng also pursed his lips tightly.
Hong Qingyang was so angry that he almost had high blood pressure. He had to unscrew the thermos and drink a few sips of wolfberry water to calm himself down. "Okay, you don't want to apologize, and you don't think you did anything wrong, right? Then you two can just stand here. Whoever comes to their senses first and apologizes first will be released."
It was the fourth class in the morning. The parties involved were more stubborn than each other. One stood crookedly against the wall, while the other stood straight at the desk. Neither of them said a word. They just endured from the fourth class to the fifth class, and then waited until everyone went to the cafeteria for lunch.
Hong Qingyang couldn't stand them, so he had to ask Zhu Yingning, who had just returned from lunch, to come and help watch over them. He went to the teachers' cafeteria first to replenish some carbohydrates.
Zhu Yingning sat awkwardly in Hong Qingyang's seat, silently looking at the two people in front of him.
In her heart, she did not think that Zhang Jiacheng was wrong in the fight. Firstly, he did not take action - although the fundamental reason was that he did not have time to punch. Secondly, his reason for refusing to do homework for Zheng Zekai was legitimate and sufficient. If he was really wrong, it was that he accidentally kicked Zheng Zekai and did not deal with it in time to satisfy Zheng Zekai.
Logically, she knew Zheng Zekai was a difficult, narrow-minded, and troubled teenager. His personality was already set, difficult to change, and there was no way to expect love and tenderness to change him—if it could be changed, he wouldn't have been causing trouble so often. If this matter completely favored Zhang Jiacheng, he would definitely bear a grudge against him. With his senior year approaching, if he harbored resentment and resorted to bullying, it would be a devastating blow to Zhang Jiacheng.
She sighed sadly in her heart.
It was not until she heard herself sigh clearly that she realized that she had accidentally sighed out loud.
"Where's your mother?" Zheng Zekai suddenly asked.
Zhu Yingning was stunned by his scolding. When she realized what was going on, she was about to scold him when she saw Zhang Jiacheng turn around and face Zheng Zekai, saying abruptly, "I'm sorry."
Zheng Zekai was stunned by his sorry.
Zhang Jiacheng turned to the equally stunned Zhu Yingning and said, "I've already apologized to him. Can I leave now?"
"Ah...okay." She was still dazed and nodded slowly.
Seeing that Zhang Jiacheng had indeed left, Zheng Zekai immediately became annoyed and yelled at his back: "Hey! Stop right there!" Zhang Jiacheng did not stop, and Zheng Zekai cursed and mumbled "I'm sorry" in a very fast voice. After that, he looked at Zhu Yingning and said, "I apologized to him too. I want to leave too."
“…Alright.”
Before she finished speaking, Zheng Zekai couldn't wait to leave, pounding his thighs as he walked, which were sore from standing.
Zhu Yingning had nothing to do, so she simply went back to the classroom. When she saw Hong Qingyang passing by the classroom and heading towards the office after lunch, she went over to report to him and told him that they both had apologized.
"Okay, thank you for your hard work." Hong Qingyang shook his head helplessly, "Remind them to submit their self-criticisms tomorrow morning."
"good."
When she told this to Zheng Zekai, she was met with contempt and curses from him. Zhu Yingning automatically blocked out these dirty words, returned to her seat, and repeated the same thing to Zhang Jiacheng.
He raised his head and listened carefully to her story, then nodded to show he understood. When she was about to turn around, he stopped her, looked into her eyes, and said sincerely, "Thank you."
Zhu Yingning unconsciously replied, "You're welcome." When she turned back to her seat, she realized that he was thanking her for protecting him during a fight in the morning.
She suddenly thought of a possibility. Could it be that the reason he apologized to Zheng Zekai so suddenly was because he misunderstood her sigh as a sign of impatience in watching them? So he thought that apologizing as soon as possible would allow her to be freed this morning?
This guess was too narcissistic. Zhu Yingning quickly shook his head, dispelled these messy thoughts, started his homework, and studied seriously.
**
By the afternoon, the news of the fight between Zhang Jiacheng and Zheng Zekai spread like wildfire on campus. Through word of mouth, the story had been distorted into an outrageous version.
When Wu Bo recounted the version of events she had gathered to Zhu Yingning, she was nearly shocked to death: "What do you mean I fought with Zheng Zekai over Zhang Jiacheng...?"
"I'm puzzled too." Wu Bo suppressed a laugh and patted her shoulder. "Anyway, you've become the heroine of this version of 'A Rage for a Man'."
Although the version was outrageous, Zhu Yingning did not take it seriously. After all, if she took all the rumors on campus seriously, she would be exhausted from clarifying them every day, not to mention finding time to study.
After school, she packed her schoolbag as usual and waited for Xu Sirui to come down to see her.
However, I waited for a long, long time today, but he didn't show up.
She went to their class upstairs to check on him, but was told by his classmates that he had left as soon as school was over.
The plot seemed familiar. Zhu Yingning naturally thought that Xu Sirui had a stomachache again like last time. She carried her schoolbag to the male teacher's bathroom on the first floor, stood in a position where she could not smell the bathroom odor but could see people coming in and out, and waited quietly for him to come out.
In the blink of an eye, another half an hour passed.
She was getting impatient waiting, not knowing what was happening in there and worried that something might happen, so she simply asked a male teacher who was about to go into the bathroom to help see if there were any students inside.
"Students?" The male teacher walked in, looked around, and then walked out confused. "No, there's no one inside."
"No one?" She was stunned.
"There's no one here." The male teacher nodded affirmatively. "I opened all the cubicles and checked. There's definitely no one there. Who are you looking for?" At this point, his eyes gradually became suspicious, and his face showed "Are you secretly having a premature love affair?"
Zhu Yingning could only deal with it vaguely, saying that she was not looking for anyone, and then slipped away before the male teacher caught her and questioned her.
If it wasn't in the teachers' restroom, where else could it be? She was worried about his safety, so after much deliberation, she decided to try her luck at the school gate. Luckily, she happened to see Zou Hao waiting for his parents to pick him up. Because his parents sometimes had to work overtime, and they needed to inform Zou Hao in advance that they would be late, Zou Hao was one of those people who would sneak his phone into school every day.
She walked over and borrowed his cell phone and called Xu Sirui's number.
Instead of a beep sound, a cold female voice came from the phone: "Sorry, the number you dialed is turned off. Sorry..."
"What happened?" Zou Hao asked from the side, "Xu Sirui is missing?"
"I don't know...it shouldn't be that serious, right?" She hung up the phone and called twice more, but the phone was turned off every time. She had no choice but to return the phone to Zou Hao and forced a smile at him, which seemed particularly absent-minded. "Maybe he went home first. I'll go back and look for him..."
"Okay, call me if you need anything."
"Well, thank you."
After saying goodbye to Zou Hao, Zhu Yingning went straight home.
She ran so fast that the stationery in her bag made a rattling sound as she ran. To shorten her journey home, she didn't even take the subway. She reluctantly took a few dozen yuan from her bag to take a taxi, asking the driver to go as fast as possible.
There was a bit of traffic on the road, but it was generally faster than taking the subway. More than half an hour later, she rushed back to the downstairs of the community. She even forgot to take the change and rushed into the elevator in a hurry.
As she took the elevator up, her only wish was to pray that he was at home, and alone, not missing, or that Xu Zhengkang came with Xu Siyang and his mother - this would be the worst case scenario.
However, even though she prayed like that in her heart, when she anxiously opened the door and saw Xu Sirui leisurely pouring water in the kitchen alone, the anxiety that had been swirling all the way suddenly turned into a raging anger that spread like wildfire.
She widened her eyes, watching him in disbelief as he raised his water cup to drink as if nothing had happened. She was so angry that her hands and feet were shaking. She took two deep breaths and began to question: "Why didn't you tell me before you came back? Do you know how long I have been looking for you in school?! I thought something happened to you..." Only after she opened her mouth did she realize how hoarse her voice had become due to the long-term tension.
Xu Sirui put down the water cup and glanced at Zhu Yingning nonchalantly with a look that made her even more furious. He said coldly, "Why should I tell you?"
"...What?" She couldn't believe her ears.
"Why don't you just go home with Zhang Jiacheng?"
“???”
When people are extremely angry, they will laugh without saying anything. She couldn't help but laugh. Of course, it wasn't a joke, she just thought he was crazy. "How could you say such nonsense, Xu Sirui? Is it because of those false rumors you heard at school?"
She was so angry that she started to talk without thinking. She felt that she had been considerate of his feelings from the beginning to the end - he hated Zhang Jiacheng, so she went against her character and asked Zhang Jiacheng not to come again. He was in a bad mood, so she tried to make him happy. Why did she do so much, but in the end, when he heard such stupid words that were obviously rumors, his first reaction was not to believe her?
It would be fine if he didn't believe her, but why did he feel comfortable resorting to the silent treatment when others were worried sick about him? Why did he handle things so childishly and extreme?
As if he still couldn't piss her off enough, Xu Sirui sneered, "Fictitious? I think you're about to start a relationship with him. You still have the nerve to say you don't fall in love prematurely? Are you treating me like a fool?"
"Who am I talking to? What are we talking about…?" She was so disbelieving that her lips were trembling, and the words that came out of her lips were hoarse. "Xu Sirui, can you please think before you speak? I think you have a mental problem!"
He seemed to be irritated by her words, his eyes reddened. He pushed the water glass on the table and sneered with a trembling voice, "Yes... I'm fucking sick! Then what kind of good thing are you? You pretend to be a good person every day, being nice to this and that. Aren't you tired of maintaining your saintly persona?"
"...Have you said enough?"
"Are you hoping to make everyone like you in this way, Zhu Yingning? Can't you see that you're so cheap? You want everyone to like you, but even your own family doesn't love you. Sometimes I feel so sorry for you..."
She took a few steps forward, not even changing her shoes. Her outdoor shoes left a trail of black marks on the clean tiles, but no one cared about that at the moment. She reached out and grabbed his collar tightly, yanking him down. Her eyes were wide open, as dark as the thick night, but her pupils had shrunk to a sharp slit.
She said to him with a harshness that she herself couldn't believe: "I asked you if you had enough? You forced me to say that your father cheated on you, so you deserve it, right?"
Words are like knives. When people are angry, even the closest people know how to hurt each other with words. The horizontal and vertical lines of Chinese characters are like sharp thorns that spin into the heart and bring out blood.
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The author has something to say: Actually, some readers in the comments section have already noticed that the protagonist is indeed somewhat depressed. Depression is the state of being unable to control one's emotions, but no one, including himself, realizes that he is ill. Depression has only gained widespread scientific awareness and attention in recent years; before that, it was even less well-known. Of course, I'm not excusing him by saying this, but simply explaining why this is the case.
The causes of depression are very complex and often compound. Xu Sirui himself is indeed a highly sensitive and high-need person who needs a stable and healthy growth environment and lots of love. Unfortunately, his guardian was seriously derelict in his duty in this process and even became the perpetrator, adding fuel to the fire.
And don't scold Ningning, although I'm not sure if anyone will scold her... Anyway, let's explain it to her first. She's a very stable person, but no matter how stable someone is, they're still human. As long as they are human, they will have mood swings and say the wrong thing sometimes. If the person in front of her was someone she didn't care about, like Zheng Zekai, she wouldn't lose control of her emotions to this extent. It's precisely because the person in front of her is Xu Sirui that his words can easily hurt her and force her to speak without thinking.
This story tells us to think twice before arguing...
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