“Fine then, hurry up and change your surname to Lu. No one’s stopping you.”
“Lu Xixiao, what right do you have to talk down to me like this?” Jiang Yan’s eyes burned as he glared fiercely at him. “Remember, if we’re going to talk about it, you’re the illegitimate child.”
Illegitimate child.
Zhou Wan’s mind went blank.
The next second, Lu Xixiao rushed forward and knocked Jiang Yan to the ground.
He grabbed Jiang Yan’s collar and slammed his fist into his face.
The glass frame broke, and his nose immediately swelled red.
“Lu Xixiao!” Zhou Wan snapped back to reality and rushed to break up the fight.
His wound reopened with the violent movement, fresh blood soaking through the bandage and running down his skin, but he seemed completely numb to the pain. His eyes were bloodshot as he landed punch after punch on Jiang Yan’s face.
Zhou Wan tried to pull his arm back but was pushed away by the force, falling to the side.
Dark clouds quickly covered the cold moon.
Even the last ray of light was withdrawn.
Zhou Wan had no time to tend to her palm’s bloody scrape before grabbing Lu Xixiao’s hand again.
“Stop fighting!” She used all her strength to hold his arm. “Stop it, Lu Xixiao!”
Lu Xixiao finally stopped, lowering his eyes to the blood and dirt on Zhou Wan’s snow-white palm, his rationality slowly returning.
He took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing his anger and violence as he stood up.
He watched Zhou Wan help up Jiang Yan, whose face was covered in purple bruises. With his severe nearsightedness of 400-500 degrees and broken glasses, everything was a blur. Zhou Wan supported him as he struggled to sit up: “Jiang Yan, are you okay?”
Lu Xixiao’s eyes were cold enough to kill.
“Jiang Yan, if you dare talk nonsense again, I’ll kill you for sure.” His narrow eyes contracted, radiating sharp murderous intent. “Get out.”
Lu Xixiao turned and went inside, grabbed Zhou Wan’s backpack, and threw it in front of her. “You get out too.”
*
After the downpour, heavy fog shrouded the entire city early in the morning, dampness bringing an invasion of cold.
Autumn rain brings winter’s chill.
“Wan Wan.” Gu Meng turned around, leaning on Zhou Wan’s desk to ask quietly, “What happened to Jiang Yan? Did he get in a fight?”
Zhou Wan recalled yesterday’s argument.
Illegitimate child, and such things.
She shook her head to indicate she didn’t know, saying nothing.
Jiang Yan was the school’s most valued top student, not just destined for Tsinghua or Peking University, but even a potential candidate for direct admission.
When he came to school today with a beaten face, he was immediately called to the office by the homeroom teacher to explain.
He only returned just before math class was about to start.
The math teacher walked in right after, tapping the desk: “Alright, everyone back to your seats. Take out yesterday’s test papers.”
Zhou Wan took out her test paper and asked softly: “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Jiang Yan replied, then after a while asked, “Zhou Wan, how do you know Lu Xixiao?”
“Met him at the arcade I work at.”
Jiang Yan wasn’t so easily fooled. He frowned: “Then why were you at his house? Did you go straight there after getting back yesterday?”
Zhou Wan paused, then said: “Once before when my grandmother wasn’t feeling well at night, he helped accompany me to the hospital. Yesterday his friend said he was hurt, so I went to check on him.”
“He helped?” Jiang Yan asked incredulously, with contempt. “It’s good enough if he’s not causing trouble.”
Jiang Yan’s attitude made Zhou Wan inexplicably uncomfortable. She insisted: “It’s true.”
“Are you close with him?”
Zhou Wan remembered his final “You get out too,” his cold face and eyes, looking at her with extreme disgust.
Zhou Wan shook her head: “No.”
“Stay away from him. He’s not a good person.”
“Then you and him…” Zhou Wan paused, then asked, “Jiang Yan, what’s your relationship with him?”
Jiang Yan was silent for a while.
Just as Zhou Wan felt she had touched on his privacy and was about to apologize, Jiang Yan spoke: “My birthday is in March, his is in November. I’m older.”
“So when you said yesterday he was…”
Illegitimate child.
Zhou Wan couldn’t say the three words “illegitimate child” out loud—it felt like too heavy a label.
Jiang Yan: “Yes, we share the same father but different mothers. His mother was the mistress who stole everything that should have belonged to my mother and me.”
Zhou Wan remained silent.