Their conversation paused at those two question marks.
Because the head teacher and Teacher Zhou interrupted the English teacher, and there were several boys following behind them.
It was those who had been bullying Jih Cheng in the small garden earlier.
“Jih Cheng, could you please step outside for a moment?” Teacher Zhou called out with a stern face.
Jih Cheng frowned slightly, was about to stand up when someone tugged at the hem of his shirt, “Give me the knife.”
Like everyone else, the girl was looking at the doorway, not at him. If not for her hand on his shirt, Jih Cheng would have thought he had imagined it.
Jih Cheng’s hand, already in his pocket, was clutching the knife.
Hearing Chuzheng’s voice, he hesitated before handing over the knife to her.
Along with it came a cigarette and a lighter.
He had just arrived at this school and didn’t want to cause too much trouble.
As he handed over the items, his fingertips brushed against the palm of Chuzheng’s hand, Jih Cheng felt as if something had struck him, a strange feeling spreading from his fingertips.
He withdrew his hand quickly, almost without any curve, shoving it back into his pocket.
Chuzheng: “…”
The Good Person Card is still a treasure of a boy, huh!
Under the watchful eyes of the entire class, Jih Cheng walked out of the classroom.
The head of discipline had the students behind him enter and search Jih Cheng’s desk, but obviously found nothing.
A few minutes later, Jih Cheng came back, intact and unhindered.
Those students stood outside, receiving a good scolding from the head of discipline.
The English teacher continued with the lesson.
— Give it back to me.
Jih Cheng pushed over the note from earlier.
Chuzheng glanced at it, then indifferently pushed it back and seriously continued writing her reflection.
Jih Cheng: “…”
Jih Cheng did not write another message.
The bell signaling the end of class rang, and after the English teacher announced the dismissal, the quiet classroom suddenly became noisy.
Everyone started expressing their opinions about Jih Cheng being called out of the classroom earlier.
Yet Jih Cheng turned his head to look at Chuzheng, who was earnestly writing her reflection.
“My things, give them back,” he said beneath the table, reaching out to Chuzheng.
“Say I’m a good person, and I’ll give them back to you,” Chuzheng replied without lifting her head.
Jih Cheng glanced at the note.
— If I keep your secret, would you think I’m a good person?
Is this girl sick or what?
“You’re a good person, now the items,” he said very quickly and with a tone that was utterly perfunctory.
Chuzheng’s face was tense, her heart filled with indignation.
Little liar!
I help you out big time, and you still don’t think I’m a good person!
[…]What misunderstanding does Miss have about being a good person!
When it’s time to be a good person, you don’t listen!
“Give me my things back,” Jih Cheng said, by now clearly impatient.
Chuzheng remained unresponsive, ignoring Jih Cheng even as the class began.
Jih Cheng had thought she truly wanted to help him, but now she was refusing to return his things.
It didn’t matter if he couldn’t get the cigarette back.
But that knife…
After evening self-study, Jih Cheng followed Chuzheng all the way out of the school.
“Why are you following me?”
“Give me my things back,” Jih Cheng stood under the streetlight, radiating an aura of gloom.
Chuzheng returned his things to him.
Here, take them, take them.
Who cares about them?
If it weren’t for the fear of those people coming back for revenge, would I have bothered to keep them for you for so long?
Jih Cheng hadn’t expected it to be that easy.
Doubts and wariness surged within him.
What does she mean by this?
Before she was stubbornly refusing to give them back, and now she handed them over so easily?
Chuzheng hung there for a long moment, and Jih Cheng did not take them, causing her to become somewhat impatient: “Don’t you want them?”
The girl’s indifferent voice cut through the Black Night, reaching Jih Cheng’s ears.
Jih Cheng reached out to take them, eyeing the girl in front of him with a measure of curiosity.
Chuzheng turned and walked away without a second thought.
Her departure was as cool and suave as could be.
She stood out in a crowd with just one glance.
Jih Cheng pulled out a cigarette, placed it in his mouth, and with many students coming and going around, he lit it without care, taking a drag.
The smoke blurred the features of the young man’s face.
The gloom that had hung over him was now diminished, replaced with a vague sense of languid decadence.