Extra Chapter: Three Days of Winter
One year, in Nanjing, in the dead of winter.
After class, Sang Qi followed the flow of people leaving the school and headed alone towards the bus stop.
Someone deliberately bumped into her from behind, causing Sang Qi to stumble forward a few steps and collide with the tall man in front of her, causing him to drop his milk tea and spill it all over the ground.
The incident happened so suddenly that Sang Qi's mind went blank. He instinctively shrank back and bowed his head, apologizing repeatedly.
The man in front suddenly turned around, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, and cursed, "Can't you watch where you're going?"
The man's voice was loud and deep. Sang Qi didn't dare to look up and continued to apologize humbly.
The boys who had deliberately bumped into Sang Qi were secretly laughing, their laughter somewhat grating.
The man glanced at the group of boys a few times and understood what was going on.
"Are you guys even men? Making fun of a girl!"
The boys blushed instantly and ran away in shame.
The man shouted at their retreating figures, "If you're a man, stop bullying girls! You're fucking spineless!"
Sang Qi's heart skipped a beat, and she couldn't help but secretly lift her eyelids to peek at the man.
From where she was standing, she could only see the man's profile.
The winter sunset cast its light on his face, softening the hard, masculine lines of his profile, creating a hazy, yet beautiful, scene reminiscent of an art film.
When the man turned around, Sang Qi instinctively lowered her gaze and stopped looking at him, silently walking forward as if nothing had happened, but Sang Qi could feel that the man was still staring at her.
Sang Qi got a window seat on the bus.
As the car started moving, she involuntarily turned her head to look out the window and inadvertently caught a glimpse of the man's figure.
She still caught a glimpse of the man's profile, but he was smiling, his lips slightly parted, and his smile held a hint of the wildness of a mature man.
He was talking to a middle-aged, refined man carrying a bag of oranges. As the car passed by, Sang Qi vaguely heard the refined man call out "Amin" to the other man.
And Ah Min called that man "Brother Hua".
………
Sang Qi returned home to find his mother gone.
This is a very unusual thing.
Usually when I get home from school, my mother is home, and she has prepared and set the meal on the table, but today there is nothing.
Sang Qi looked around the house and was about to take out her phone to call her mother when she heard the sound of a key being inserted to open the door.
Then, Sang's mother returned with a bag of oranges, beaming with joy.
"Mom, where did you go?" Sang Qi asked.
Sang's mother placed the oranges on the dining table and said, "I went out to buy some fruit. The oranges are especially fresh today, sweet and juicy. Don't you like them? Eat a few more. I bought them especially for you."
Sang Qi glanced at the oranges on the table and suddenly remembered what had happened at the school gate not long ago.
"Xiao Qi, won't you have one?" Sang's mother asked, noticing that Sang Qi was lost in thought.
Sang Qi shook her head: "I don't want to eat. I'm hungry and want to eat."
Sang's mother smiled and said, "Mom will take you out to eat, to have a good meal."
"Did you win the lottery?" Sang Qi asked.
"I got a bonus, so I don't feel like cooking."
Sang Qi rarely saw her mother so happy, and seeing her mother smile, she couldn't help but smile along.
………
That evening, Sang's mother took Sang Qi to a luxurious and elegant restaurant for dinner, in a private room.
Sang Qi didn't say anything, only assuming that her mother's career had reached new heights.
During the meal, Sang Qi went to the restroom.
In the corridor outside the private room, Sang Qi saw a man's back that looked somewhat familiar.
He looks somewhat like the man at the school gate this afternoon.
Sang Qi unconsciously quickened her pace, wanting to pass the man and see what he looked like.
However, the man in front of her was tall and had long legs, and he took big strides. He walked into the men's restroom in no time, and Sang Qi never got to see his face.
As Sang Qi emerged from the restroom, she could see the man's back already at the end of the corridor.
Sang Qi sighed, somewhat disappointed.
However, she suspected that the man she had just seen was the same one who had been at the school gate that afternoon.
Because not only did they have the same figure and back view, but they also wore the same clothes.
Sang Qi sighed, realizing that she and that stranger really had a special connection.
Back in the private room, Sang Qi discovered that her mother was not there.
Mother Sang didn't return for quite a while.
Sang Qi asked, "Where did Mom go?"
Sang's mother said, "I went to pay the bill just now and ran into a colleague. We chatted for a bit."
"Okay." Sang Qi didn't think much of it and continued eating.
………
The next day after school, Sang Qi went to the bus stop from the school gate as usual.
Sang Qi was deliberately bumped into again.
This time, Sang Qi didn't bump into the person in front of him, but instead stumbled into a big tree on the side, hitting his forehead on the trunk.
The boys burst into laughter.
Sang Qi covered her forehead, glaring at them fiercely: "Are you ever going to stop? You're in high school already, why are you still doing such childish things? Just because I don't have a father, does that mean I can be bullied like this?"
The boy in the lead laughed and said, "We didn't do it on purpose, why are you so anxious?"
Sang Qi gritted his teeth and clenched his fist secretly.
The next second, Sang Qi rushed forward and shoved the boy in the lead aside without saying a word. He crashed into the roadside guardrail and fell backward onto the side of the road.
"I didn't mean to."
Enraged, the boy stood up from the ground and violently shoved Sang Qi to the ground.
Sang Qi's shoulder was slammed by a powerful force, and as he stumbled backward, he bumped into someone.
Sang Qi turned around and saw that a middle-aged man was supporting her arm.
For a moment, Sang Qi felt like she had seen this middle-aged man before...
He seems somewhat similar to that refined middle-aged man carrying a bag of oranges from yesterday.
The middle-aged man roared, "Why are you kids bullying your classmates? What did your teachers teach you? If I see you bullying your classmates again, I'll make you regret it!"
The middle-aged man had a refined and dignified appearance, but his words exuded an imposing aura that frightened the boys into running away.
Sang Qi said thank you and was about to leave when the middle-aged man asked, "Why did they bully you?"
Sang Qi walked forward with her head down, saying without any sadness or joy, "Because I don't have a father..."
The middle-aged man paused, his voice trembling with hesitation, "Does your mother know you're being bullied?"
"I don't want her to worry..."
Middle-aged man: "If you do this, your mother will worry even more. You should talk to your mother about anything."
Sang Qi smiled slightly, stopped, turned around and looked at him, saying, "Thank you for today, Uncle. I'm going home now."
Just then, the bus arrived at the stop, and Sang Qi boarded.
Standing under the bus stop sign, the middle-aged man quietly watched the bus drive away.
It took the middle-aged man a while to look away.
He took out his phone and made a call.
The person on the other end of the phone called out to him, "Brother Hua."
The middle-aged man said in a cold tone, "Amin, help me teach a lesson to those arrogant brats from Haihua Middle School."
………
The following afternoon, Sang Qi was blocked on her way home from school by several boys who often bullied her.
Sang Qi looked up at the boys blocking her way; they all had bruises and swollen faces.
Before Sang Qi could react, the boys apologized to her and vowed never to bully her again.
Sang Qi couldn't understand what the boys were doing, and frowned slightly in disgust: "Don't bother me again, and everything will be fine."
Seeing that Sang Qi had relented, the boys smiled and unanimously assured her that it would not happen again.
After sending the boys away, Sang Qi couldn't help but feel confused.
How come those bullying boys had bruises on their faces and were still humbly apologizing to her? Did they get a beating and then have a change of heart?
Just as Sang Qi was puzzled, a figure flashed past at the alley entrance.
Sang Qi's pupils constricted as the face of that young man from that day flashed into her mind.
Is that man smoking at the alley entrance him?
Sang Qi stepped forward and got a clear look at him.
However, it's still a profile view.
He was smoking, the smoke swirling around his profile, giving him a slightly hazy look.
The bus arrived at the station and the doors opened.
Sang Qi didn't look at him again and silently got into the car.
She deliberately sat by the window, her gaze uncontrollably drawn to the man's seat outside.
The person has disappeared...
A sense of loss welled up inside me.
In the blink of an eye, the person disappeared.
Sang Qi stared listlessly out the car window as a cold wind rushed in and hit her face. At that moment, she felt a pang of regret.
She seemed to have a special connection with that man, running into him three days in a row.
But it seemed like they had no connection at all, because three times in a row, she never saw his face directly, only his profile.
She had never even seen his face.
...
After that incident, Sang Qi discovered that people at school were saying she had powerful connections.
Everyone said that she knew very few people involved in organized crime outside, and they would all turn away when they saw her, while those who couldn't leave did so with great respect.
At first, Sang Qi found it strange and wondered who had spread the rumor. But when she realized that no one dared to bully her or speak ill of her anymore, she changed her mind and gave up on clarifying the rumor.
However, Sang's mother somehow found out that she had been bullied at school. She grabbed her and cried for a long time, repeatedly apologizing to her.
Sang Qi was a little confused and couldn't help but ask, "Where did you hear that from?"
Mother Sang wiped away her tears: "What do you care where I heard that? Does anyone still bully you?"
Sang Qi shook his head: "No, they don't dare to anymore."
Sang's mother blinked, not surprised, and said, "You must tell your mother if anything happens in the future."
"good."
Sang's mother gazed at her daughter, sighed, and felt a pang of sadness in her eyes.
…………
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