Chapter 12
There were too many questions. So many that there was no way to make sense of them.
Su Linye could only stand in the stands and watch.
Meng Tao’s attacks were vicious. With a force that crushed everything in her path, with a madness that seemed to have no way back, every move went straight for her opponent’s vital points. Every time she moved, the spotlight hit her hair, and beads of sweat scattered wildly.
When she was occasionally struck, blood spattered. Meng Tao merely wiped it away with a cold face and struck back with an even more desperate ferocity.
On the stage was a life-or-death battle. Below the stage was a roaring tidal wave of cheers.
The entire space had turned into a violent, bloody feast.
Even after the match ended, Su Linye was still immersed in the shock of, Damn, Meng Tao is actually this kind of person?
After writing goodbye to her partner, Su Linye carried her wildly pounding heart and her backpack back to school.
Until she returned from her training, she would not go back to that rental room again. She would definitely find out who exactly wanted to beat her up.
It was still the weekend, and there was no one at school.
Su Linye returned to the dorm, rummaged out medicine, and applied it while grimacing in pain.
But no matter how she applied it, there was no way she could recover completely in just two short days.
When the people in the dorm returned on Sunday and saw the injuries on Su Linye’s face, each of them was more shocked than the last.
Gu Feng directly dropped the snacks and local specialties she had brought, incredulous. “Desk mate, what happened to your face? Who hit you? Is there still any justice in this world? In a society ruled by law, this kind of thing can still happen?”
She wanted to touch her, but was afraid of hurting her, so her hand hesitated in midair.
Su Linye grabbed her hand and patted it, saying in a voice that was no longer quite so hoarse, “I’m fine. It’s already much better.”
Lin Xiaoxiao’s features were all scrunched together, the worry in her eyes clear at a glance. “Did you see a doctor?”
Su Linye smiled, but it tugged at the injury at the corner of her mouth. She sucked in a breath and loosely covered the wound, saying in a muffled voice, “I did.”
Gu Feng wanted to laugh but did not dare, the corners of her mouth twitching. “Linye, maybe you should keep a blank face for now.”
Su Linye felt that the atmosphere was too heavy, so she teased herself to lighten it. “This also lets me climb onto the cold-and-aloof character setting.”
Chen Qinglang was steadier than the other two. “Did you call the police?”
It was Su Linye’s first time hearing her speak modern Chinese, so she stared at her curiously, feeling as if the barrier between the two of them had suddenly thinned a lot. “I did, but those bastards ran too fast. They weren’t caught.”
Lin Xiaoxiao asked, “What about surveillance cameras?”
Su Linye shook her head.
Gu Feng looked troubled. “Those people sure know how to pick a place. Repeat offenders, maybe?”
Su Linye said, “I think so too. But they’re all in Jinjiang’s old district. I’ll run into them sooner or later.” She revealed a fierce expression. “When that happens, I’ll tear them into pieces!”
Chen Qinglang pushed up her glasses, and a cold glint flashed across them. “With your bare hands?”
Su Linye said, “I already signed up for a crash course in fighting.”
Seeing that she was not in serious trouble, Gu Feng had already bigheartedly opened a bag of snacks and started eating. Curious, she asked, “Crash course? How crash?”
Su Linye modestly showed off. “One month.”
Gu Feng let out a deeply inexperienced sound. “Wow, that fast?”
“After practicing for one month, can you beat anyone?” Lin Xiaoxiao reached into Gu Feng’s bag of chips, took one, and stuffed it into her mouth. Her eyes widened in delight. “This is good.”
Gu Feng was smug. “Right? It’s my favorite.”
Su Linye also very much wanted to taste what “favorite” tasted like, but the three of them stopped her, so she could only regretfully give up.
On Monday morning, Su Linye entered the classroom beneath the blazing morning sun.
“Damn it, homework, hurry, hurry! Let me copy your homework!”
“Who has physics?!! Will pay heavily!”
“Fuck, who the hell tore my homework?! I’m going to kill them!!”
Su Linye swept her gaze around the room and was inspired by her classmates’ high spirits. Her whole body filled with strength.
When her gaze touched the back of the room, it met that of a skinny boy wearing thick glasses. He sat beside the trash can. Usually, he kept his head lowered at his seat, doing who knew what, with an extremely weak presence.
The boy raised his book, revealing only the eyes behind his lenses. Damp, sticky, and sinister. A moment later, after seeing something, he excitedly slammed the book down and smiled with a twisted, fanatical expression.
He was like a rotten snake in a sewer, stinking all over, leaving a winding trail of slime wherever he crawled.
All the hairs on Su Linye’s body stood up, but she did not avoid his gaze. She looked back at him without hiding it at all, her brows furrowing slightly.
Seeing that she did not look away, the boy’s smile widened. Excitedly, he pointed at the corner of his own mouth.
Su Linye’s eyes sharpened.
It was him!!!
The boy was still provoking her. As if reenacting the scene, he clenched his right hand into a fist and punched his own face, showing an expression of pain, then silently pulled the corner of his mouth into a grin.
A clownishly crude trick.
Yet it stirred up certain sealed memories inside Su Linye.
The helplessness of passively taking beatings in childhood, the embarrassment of being utterly battered, the confusion of having nowhere to go—all of it rose up like waves, swallowing her whole, as if she had returned to that dusk more than ten years ago.
Endless disgust and anger surged in Su Linye’s heart. Her nails dug tightly into her palms.
She could not see anyone else. She could not hear any sound. At the end of her vision, only the abuser remained.
“Linye? Linye?”
The surrounding noise had not stopped. The windows were open, bright sunlight illuminating the entire space. A gentle breeze arrived, lifting the pale-blue curtains. Everything was so beautiful.
Su Linye pulled herself out from the surging emotions. Seeing Gu Feng’s worried face, she finally realized that the hand gripping the corner of the desk had gone white from force, the veins standing out, and her entire body was trembling faintly.
She released her hand and worked hard to control her shaking. “I’m fine.”
The warning bell rang. Gu Feng pulled Su Linye back to their seats.
Su Linye took several deep breaths, calmed her emotions, and stared blankly at the desktop in front of her.
Why had Mu Xin targeted her? Was it related to the original owner?
Maybe Little Potato Chip would know.
As long as she did not think of the past, she was still that carefree Su Linye. But Gu Feng, on the other hand, no longer even played with her phone in class. She kept secretly studying Su Linye in what she believed was a very hidden way.
As if she were judging whether Su Linye might burst into tears in the next second, so she could immediately go up and comfort her.
Su Linye did not know whether to laugh or cry. “I’m fine.”
Gu Feng was half-convinced, half-doubtful.
Su Linye said, “Right, what’s the name of that boy in our class who sits beside the trash can? Why does he sit there alone?”
Gu Feng turned back and looked. After searching for ages, she finally noticed the person in the corner, her face full of surprise. “If you hadn’t said that, I wouldn’t even have known there was someone sitting in the corner.”
Su Linye: “…………”
Gu Feng tried hard to remember. “I think his surname is Mu. I forgot what his given name is. I remember he requested it himself. He wanted to sit alone.”
“If you want to know, there’s a seating chart on the podium. You can look during break.”
Su Linye nodded thoughtfully.
After class, she learned the other person’s name.
Mu Xin.
A name that sounded very fresh and clean, yet its owner had grown into such a damp, sinister personality. What a waste of a good name.
Before Su Linye could go looking for him, he came looking for her first.
At the time, Su Linye had just come out of the bathroom. Because she was in a gloomy mood, she turned into the little platform beside it to bask in the sun.
She had not even been in the sun for two minutes when heavy footsteps came from behind.
Su Linye could identify people by sound. She immediately turned back alertly.
Mu Xin stood only two meters away from her.
His overly long hair covered his eyes, and his venomous gaze could faintly be seen through the gaps.
The moment Su Linye saw him, anger rose. She was afraid that hitting someone at school would get her a disciplinary mark and affect her compensation and part-time jobs, so she worked hard to suppress her temper and lifted her foot to leave.
Mu Xin blocked her way.
Su Linye said irritably, “A good dog doesn’t block the road. Move.”
Mu Xin spoke. His voice was gloomy. “Dog? If I’m a dog, aren’t you one even more? A stray dog? Or a dead dog whose legs were broken and thrown into the sewer?”
Su Linye: ??
She endured and endured, but still could not stop herself from mocking him. “Still better than you, clinging to life like a ghost that won’t scatter.”
Mu Xin seemed to have been struck in a sore spot. His expression twisted as he clenched his teeth, looking as if he hated her to the extreme. “I’m clinging to life? Those people still haven’t gone to hell. Why shouldn’t I be alive?!”
Su Linye felt that he was truly sick. She took a deep breath and suppressed her anger. “Whoever provoked you, go find them. I’ll say it again. Get lost!”
After spitting out that stretch of words, Mu Xin seemed to recover a bit of reason. He returned to that cold, gloomy appearance and reached up to smooth his hair. “Su Linye, don’t you think you’ve wronged me terribly?”
“What kind of onion do you think you are? Why would I need to be fair to you?”
Mu Xin’s emotions swung back and forth, extremely unstable. He paced around alone, agitated. “You have wronged me!! I’ve been watching you. Always watching you! Watching you laughing and chatting with others. How can you be so happy? What right do you have to be so happy?!!”
He suddenly turned around, his eyes fixed firmly on her. “Originally, we were all maggots in the gutter. Why did you crawl up? Wouldn’t it have been better to rot together?”
If just now Su Linye had still been forcing down her anger, now she was completely certain that the other party was insane. She would sooner or later return that beating to him. There was no need to waste words here.
Su Linye did not plan to leave him any room and raised a hand to slap his arm aside.
But Mu Xin suddenly grinned hideously. “You were beaten pretty badly that night, weren’t you?”
Su Linye’s fist smashed down hard.
Mu Xin’s arm shook, and he forcefully swallowed the cry of pain. Facing her back, he enunciated each word. “You managed to crawl up only because of those so-called friends, didn’t you? If I beat them one by one, how long do you think it would take?”
His voice lowered, gentle and chilling. “One day? Two days? A week? If another car came along, would the effect be even better?”
“If they were all gone…” Mu Xin’s face was covered in cold sweat, his eyes bloodshot red, yet a ferocious smile hung on his face. “Would that be enough to drag you back down?”
Su Linye abruptly turned back. In a few strides, she rushed over, grabbed his collar, and used all her strength to punch him.
Ignoring the blood streaming down his face, she stared him down without moving her eyes, grinding out in a low voice through clenched teeth, “If you dare, I’ll first let you experience what it feels like to not even be able to cling to life!”
Faced with Su Linye’s extreme anger, Mu Xin laughed. A wild, satisfied laugh.
“Su Linye, this is how you should be. You should be just like that night, like a defeated dog, a cockroach crawling out of a gutter, a toad leaking air, stepped on by every passing person.”
Then he suddenly became tender again, as if flames were burning in his eyes. “We’re both people like this. We’re the same kind.”
Su Linye was so disgusted she could hardly stand it and shoved him away.
Mu Xin was thrown to the ground and began coughing rapidly.
After venting her anger with one punch, Su Linye was no longer as overwhelmed by emotion as before.
She looked down at him from above as if looking at garbage. “A person like you thinks you deserve a companion? Finding somewhere to rot alone would already be doing the world a favor. I’ll say this one last time: stay away from me.”
She turned and left, not seeing the gloomy expression of the person behind her.
It was a madness that would not end until one of them was dead.
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