Lin Zhexia forced herself to remain calm, pretending nothing was wrong, acting as if she hadn’t noticed anything unusual. Then she took out her phone from her pocket and, without any thought, opened her chat with Chi Yao.
But her slightly trembling fingertips betrayed her current emotional state. When typing on the alphabetic keyboard, she made several errors:
“I’m now at
At Schkol, outside two streets away, the bus route 9 station is here-
There are former hooligans”
Lin Zhexia couldn’t make her movements too obvious. She was about to correct the misspelled “school” and “a group” to prevent Chi Yao from misunderstanding.
Just then, the people in the alley immediately made their move.
The red-haired leader dropped his cigarette, pointed in their direction, and the others understood, following together.
Lin Zhexia immediately grabbed Chen Lin’s hand and sprinted back toward school: “Run!”
For those people to reach them, they needed to cross the road in between, which gave the girls some time, but not much. The two were cut off at the end of the road, just one street away from the busy area.
“Why are you running?” the red-haired man spoke with a mouth full of cigarette smell. “Which one of you is Chen Lin?”
Lin Zhexia squeezed Chen Lin’s hand: “Who are you? I don’t know you.”
Red-hair: “Who cares who I am. Quickly tell me, which one is Chen Lin, who argued with my sister online? If you don’t say, I’ll beat both of you.”
At this point, the red-haired man’s gaze lingered on Lin Zhexia’s face for a few seconds.
“The little girl is quite pretty,” Red-hair said. “If I’m not careful with my hands, it would be a shame for that face.”
Lin Zhexia wanted to buy more time, so she said: “I don’t know any Chen Lin. You’ve got the wrong people.”
Seeing these two wouldn’t cooperate, Red-hair smiled, spat on the ground, and was about to raise his hand to grab Lin Zhexia’s hair, intending to pull her toward himself—just then, a hand extended from his side. Only then did he realize someone was standing behind him.
That person was taller than him, slightly bent forward, wearing a No. 2 High School uniform.
Standing behind him, the person extended an arm around him, resting it on his shoulder, pressing back the hand he had half-extended, in a buddy-like embrace.
From a distance, it looked as if they were together.
Lin Zhexia had instinctively closed her eyes out of fear. Opening them, this was the scene she saw.
“Brother,” the person had very light-colored eyes, and turned to look at Red-hair. “Blocking people’s way?”
Red-hair was confused by this move, unable to immediately determine friend or foe.
But he thought this might be someone like him; otherwise, he wouldn’t have approached with such familiarity: “Who are you? Also here for a fight?”
Chi Yao’s expression remained unchanged, his chin slightly raised, drawling his reply: “Ah, yes, I’m from No. 2 High School, often fight on this street.”
Red-hair was about to say “Never heard of such a tough character in Cheng’an,” when the next second—
The young man’s hand had already gripped the back of his head firmly, pulling his hair backward, forcibly dragging him back. His movements were clean and swift, his hand strength substantial. Several fingers tightened, then he kicked hard at Red-hair’s lower leg.
“Me,” Chi Yao said, “I just like to wander this street when I have nothing to do, beating up whoever I don’t like the look of.”