At noon, Chen Mo first went to the dorm supervisor’s office to collect his key.
The dorm supervisor on duty that day was a woman in her forties. As she handed him the key, she looked him over twice and said, “Room 613. It’s a mixed dorm. Don’t go to the wrong room.”
“Okay.” Chen Mo took the key and turned to leave.
“Wait a moment.” The dorm supervisor called out to him again.
Chen Mo turned around and saw her lean out through the window. Frowning, she said, “If there’s anything unpleasant going on in the dorm, try not to get into a conflict with anyone. Just come and tell us dorm supervisors.”
Chen Mo raised an eyebrow. Dormitory management at most high schools was relatively strict. Electrical appliances were prohibited, beds had to be made, and so on. That was why the word “try” in her warning seemed rather unusual.
He didn’t understand until he pushed open the dormitory door.
The sound effects of a video game battle mixed with all kinds of profanity came rushing at him. The six-person dorm room currently had at least a dozen people crammed inside, some sitting and others standing.
As Chen Mo pushed the door open, an empty Coke bottle rolled right up to the tip of his shoe. Two meters away, the trash can lay overturned on the floor, with garbage scattered everywhere. Things were hanging from every bunk bed, too—plastic shopping bags, dirty basketball jerseys, and Chen Mo even spotted something that looked suspiciously like a pair of underwear.
What made things especially clear was seeing Li Rui playing a game while leaning against a desk.
Chen Mo immediately understood why Room 613 stood out among so many dormitories. It was because someone living there existed entirely outside the school’s rules and regulations.
Considering this was the school bully’s territory, Chen Mo wasn’t surprised that it was in such a state.
Just because there were so many people in the dorm didn’t mean they all lived there.
Someone near the door noticed Chen Mo and curiously asked, “Who are you looking for?”
“I’m not looking for anyone.” As he replied, Chen Mo pushed the door open wider and walked inside.
Most of the people who had cornered him in the internet cafe last Friday were there. The moment they realized who had entered, they immediately tensed up.
The atmosphere was on the verge of erupting.
They all assumed he’d come to settle the score.
That was until he walked in, found an empty bed near the balcony, and opened his suitcase.
Completely ignoring everyone around him, he began placing his belongings on the bed.
Clothes, bedding, toiletries, and even something that looked like stomach-soothing red tea…
Before long, a foot stepped onto the edge of his open suitcase. The sound of plastic cracking sent a jolt through everyone’s nerves.
Li Rui’s eyes were filled with hostility.
“I haven’t even gone looking for you yet, and you’ve already come knocking on my door. Who gave you permission to stay here?”
Last Friday, he’d been out of his mind to let Chen Mo threaten him with just a few words so easily. In reality, whether it was that mess with his family or Chen Mo having guessed his sexual orientation, all he had to do was casually get himself a girlfriend. Naturally, no one would believe Chen Mo.
Besides, it was common knowledge among the influential families in Suicheng that Chen Mo wasn’t favored by the Yang family. Would the Yang family really stand up for him?
“Move it.” Chen Mo lowered his eyes to look at the foot.
Li Rui sneered and pressed down harder with his foot.
“Either get on your knees and apologize, or get out. I’ll pretend nothing happened last week.”
Chen Mo raised his eyes. “I said, move it.”
“Move your fucking ass!”
Li Rui gave the suitcase one final, forceful stomp, completely ruining it.
At the same time, the suitcase Chen Mo had lifted suddenly slammed shut. The other half of it seemed to contain books. As the lid came down, Li Rui let out a cry of pain and exploded in anger.
“Fuck your ancestors!”
“Sure. I’ll get you another bed, then.”
As Chen Mo spoke, he drove his knee upward. In a state of near-madness that he himself didn’t seem to realize, he met the inevitable confrontation head-on.
…
Meanwhile, at the basketball court, it was halftime.
Students had gathered in several layers around the court. The boys were discussing the intense first-half match, while the girls, having finally calmed down from their excitement, were quietly debating who had looked the most handsome just now.
Sun Xiaoya, the learning representative of the experimental class, had her hair tied in a ponytail. She was handing out water to the boys who had just come off the court.
A boy from another class wiped away his sweat and joked, “Sister Ya, this isn’t even an official match. Why are you personally going to all this trouble today?”
Sun Xiaoya lifted her chin toward someone who was currently tilting his head back to drink water.
“Can’t be helped. You saw it yourself. If I don’t sacrifice myself, someone might get devoured alive by the girls at our school. What can I do? That’s just the kind of childhood friend I have.”
The boys who had played together all burst out laughing.
“That’s why we always like having Brother Yan on our team whenever we play. The moment they hear the girls screaming, everyone gets the illusion that they’re devastatingly handsome. They run around the court faster than dogs.”
“Get lost. You’re the only dog here.”
“Right. I’m not admitting to that either.”
“You’re obviously just drooling over Xi Siyen’s skills. Why bother talking nonsense?”
Xi Siyen sat on the stone steps, not joining in the banter. His white basketball jersey made his skin look exceptionally fair. Even with sweat dampening his hair and neck, he didn’t look disheveled. Instead, he had an added touch of carefree, wild charm.
Another boy jokingly asked, “Isn’t Yang Shule from the experimental class also a childhood friend who grew up with you guys? I heard he came back to school. He never used to miss these games. Why isn’t he here today?”
Sun Xiaoya glanced at Xi Siyen before answering, “Not just anyone can be called a childhood friend, okay? Anyway, I’m not close to him.”
“She’s at it again.”
Qi Lin plopped down beside Xi Siyen, tugged at his collar, and fanned himself.
“She really can’t stand Yang Shule. Every time his name comes up, she looks thoroughly annoyed.”
Actually, if they were being precise about it, he, Xi Siyen, Sun Xiaoya, along with Liao Tingting from No. 3 High School and Zeng Yucai from Class Eight, were the ones who had truly grown up together.
Their families weren’t quite as influential as the Xi family, but they were still well-off. They also lived nearby, and their families visited one another during holidays and festivals.
Strictly speaking, Yang Shule was only particularly close to Xi Siyen. The relationship between the Yang and Xi families could be traced back to their grandfathers’ generation. They had once been very close, but by the time the parents’ generation came along, their relationship was no longer as intimate as before.
Qi Lin wasn’t particularly interested in matters between adults, but he knew that the Yang family’s new head was not exactly an admirable person. Especially with the family now caught up in such a melodramatic mess involving mistaken biological parentage, the way it had been handled was an absolute disaster.
Sun Xiaoya’s dislike of Yang Shule had nothing to do with the fact that he wasn’t biologically related to the Yang family.
Speaking of this, Qi Lin was still quite interested in the matter. He draped an arm over Xi Siyen’s shoulder and asked with a grin, “Liao Tingting confessed to you after the high school entrance exams, right? You really didn’t like her? I also heard Yang Shule rejected her on your behalf behind your back. He interfered and drove our Sister Ya’s best friend to transfer to No. 3 High School. Naturally, she hasn’t had a good impression of him since. If you regret it, we can all get together sometime.”
Xi Siyen twisted the cap back onto his bottle and glanced at him.
“Are you very free?”
“Not at all. I’m swamped.”
“Then shut up.”
Xi Siyen placed his water bottle on the step behind him.
Just as the whistle blew and the second half was about to begin, a boy came running over, panting. He stopped among several boys from the experimental class and asked, “That Chen Mo is in your class, right?”
Gou Yiyang happened to be there. He answered with a grin, “Yeah. Didn’t he go to move into his dorm? I offered to help, but he wouldn’t let me.”
“He’s fighting.”
“What?”
“Chen Mo’s fighting someone. More than ten people against one. It’s terrifying!”
“Fuck!”
Gou Yiyang jumped to his feet on the spot.
“I’m going to take a look!”
Xi Siyen turned his head and listened to the report. As he frowned and stood up, Qi Lin spoke beside him.
“We’d better notify Old Xiang about this. Want me to go?”
“Go ahead.” Xi Siyen pulled his jacket off the basketball net and draped it over his arm. He added a reminder, “Check whether anyone else is in the office. If this can be settled quietly, don’t let it blow up.”
“Got it.”
By the time several boys from the experimental class reached the sixth floor, Xi Siyen was at the front.
The atmosphere in the corridor was unusually quiet.
It was nothing like the brutal group beating they had imagined. Only students from a few neighboring dormitories were peeking out, and none of them had stepped outside their rooms.
Room 613’s door was closed.
There wasn’t a sound coming from inside.
Gou Yiyang was getting anxious.
“Fuck! Don’t tell me someone got killed!”
Xi Siyen’s brows knitted tightly. He shifted his jacket from his right hand to his left, raised his hand, and pounded on the door.
“Open up.”
There was still no response from inside.
At that moment, Gou Yiyang rushed into the neighboring dormitory and grabbed a boy.
“What happened? Who was involved in the fight?”
“It… it was Li Rui and his group,” the bespectacled boy answered quietly.
Gou Yiyang immediately kicked the wall.
He walked back, his tone serious.
“It was Li Rui and his group. They cornered Chen Mo at the Blue Spider internet cafe last week, too.”
Xi Siyen’s gaze turned sharp.
“Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
“What was I supposed to say?” Gou Yiyang replied helplessly. “Nothing came of what happened last week. For some reason, Li Rui’s group just slunk away. That’s why Chen Mo ended up running into them today.”
Xi Siyen said nothing more. He took two steps back, then delivered a powerful kick with his long leg.
BANG!
The dormitory door slammed against the wall before bouncing violently back. Dust shook loose from the wall and fell in a shower.
The people standing at the entrance fell silent when they saw the scene inside.
There weren’t many people in the dormitory.
Three or five, perhaps, if they counted the person sitting backward on a chair, a cigarette pinched between his fingers.
Chen Mo rested his elbow on the back of the chair. When he raised his eyes toward the doorway, his gaze flickered faintly through the smoke, carrying a cold indifference.
That coldness extended even to the few people sitting on the floor with their heads drooping, bound together in a bundle with bedsheets.
He looked at the newcomers as though they were strangers, too.
The moment Xi Siyen pushed the door open and stepped into the dormitory, it was as if he had finally broken through that isolated world. He stepped over the overturned chairs and the various belongings scattered across the floor, then walked up to the person sitting there.
He said nothing. He simply gripped Chen Mo’s chin and turned his face to the side, inspecting the scrape on his cheekbone and the dark bloodstain at the corner of his mouth.
“Are you hurt anywhere else?”
Chen Mo tilted his head back to avoid his touch. “No.”
His voice was hoarse.
Xi Siyen let go. His gaze lowered to Chen Mo’s arm, which seemed somewhat limp, and he remarked matter-of-factly, “Fighting isn’t enough. You’re smoking, too. You’ve got quite some nerve.”
Chen Mo took another drag and exhaled. “Then go report me.”
For reasons unknown, Xi Siyen did not interfere any further.
Chen Mo, meanwhile, looked at Gou Yiyang and the other boys. Some of them had barely even spoken to him before. He asked, “Why did you guys come?”
“Of course we had to come.”
“They’re picking on someone from our experimental class. We can’t just stand by and watch, can we?”
Only then did the others seem to snap out of it. Gou Yiyang even rolled up his sleeves, ready to teach the troublemakers a lesson. But after walking around and getting a clear look at the condition of the people on the floor, he immediately fell silent.
They were… in terrible shape.
Some had blood streaming from both nostrils, while others had eyes swollen and blackened.
Li Rui, in particular, who usually strutted around school like a swaggering baboon, had half his face swollen. It was hard to tell whether his teeth had been knocked out. Combined with the injury on his head from last week that hadn’t yet healed, he looked truly gruesome.
For the school’s notorious bully to get beaten up this badly, no wonder they hadn’t wanted to answer the door when someone knocked just now.
Aside from Gou Yiyang, the others couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of respect.
The Chen Mo they remembered was the one who had only recently been sent over by the Yang family. Before anyone had had a chance to get to know him, all they knew was that he was some neglected pearl from a wealthy family, someone who devoted himself entirely to studying the sages’ texts. He looked like a pretty skinny guy. Who would’ve thought he could fight so well?
At that moment, with a cigarette suppressing the violent impulses in his blood, he looked perfectly composed and utterly untouchable to the others.
“Chen Mo.” Li Rui still refused to give up. He issued a threat: “What does it prove if you’re tougher than us? There’s someone even more ruthless than you. You’re finished!”
Chen Mo shot him a glance, got up from the chair with the cigarette butt between his teeth, and casually picked up a small fruit knife from the table. It had clearly been deliberately placed there.
But before he could take more than two steps, someone grabbed him.
Xi Siyen caught his wrist and took the knife away. His gaze turned hostile as he looked at Chen Mo. “You’re even keeping a weapon hidden? Want to add another charge to your record?”
“I wasn’t hiding it.” Chen Mo raised his chin toward the people on the floor. “I confiscated it from them.”
Xi Siyen’s eyes turned cold. He raised his hand and tossed the knife back onto the table.
He took the chair Chen Mo had just been sitting on, carried it over to Li Rui, and positioned its legs to pin Li Rui’s legs beneath it before sitting down himself.
Li Rui froze. “Xi Siyen. What business is this of yours?”
“Not my business?” Xi Siyen said. “Everyone in the experimental class is under my supervision. He’s no exception. What do you think?”
“Ha!” Li Rui struggled incessantly, his teeth clenched in fury. “You’re nothing but a bully hiding behind your family’s power. Without the Xi family, you’re nothing!”
As soon as he finished speaking, his face suddenly twisted, and he cried out in pain.
One of the chair legs Xi Siyen was sitting on had somehow come down on Li Rui’s leg.
Its sharp edge dug deeply into his flesh. Xi Siyen seemed completely unaware of it. Sitting casually, he continued applying pressure while asking with a smile, “How about I teach you? Teach you what it really means to bully someone by throwing your weight around.”