Chapter 23: Pity

Fang Chuning: “From now on, he will be under my protection…”

The girl who had a drink thrown in her face paused, somewhat incredulous. “You…”

Su Qi took two steps back, his brow showing a faint apology. “Please don’t come to bother me again in the future. You’re very nice, but I’m not worthy of you. You’ll definitely find someone more suitable for you in the future.”

Why does this sentence sound so familiar? Do all boys use the same rhetoric when rejecting someone?

The girl didn’t think so. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Everything about the boy seemed good to her. Even his rejection was so gentle that it made her like him even more. “How can you be unworthy of me? You’re the one I like, no one is more suitable for me than you!”

Su Qi was getting impatient with her persistence, but he couldn’t show it. He lowered his gaze to the young girl’s back and called out helplessly, “Ningniang jiejie…”

Only then did the girl notice the person sitting beside them eating. As if she had just noticed the littered environment around them, she frowned. “What kind of place is this? It’s really dirty.”

“Qiqi, do you live in a place like this?”

Su Qi lowered his eyes. “Yes, that’s why I’m not worthy of you. Don’t come looking for me anymore.”

“But, but I don’t mind!” The girl tried her best to be nice. “If you’re not comfortable living here, my family has several houses in Z city. You can live in one of them!”

Su Qi’s heart stirred slightly, but he still refused. “I’m very comfortable living here. I don’t need you to give me a place to live.”

As the two continued their entanglement, Fang Chuning stood up and walked to another stall. Seeing this, Su Qi became a bit anxious and hurriedly followed her. “Ningniang jiejie, wait for me.”

The girl wanted to follow, but was frozen in place by the boy’s annoyed look. “If you follow me again, I’ll never speak to you again.”

With that, Su Qi turned and followed the young girl without looking back.

Fang Chuning found it strange. If he was done with the girl, why was he following her now? And with the boy’s nervous expression, he looked exactly like someone caught cheating and anxiously trying to explain to his girlfriend.

“Ningniang jiejie…” Su Qi’s big eyes were filled with grievance, his fingers lightly tugging at her school uniform. “Why aren’t you paying attention to me…”

That pitiful look made it seem like she had done something wrong.

Fang Chuning couldn’t help but sigh. Boys these days, young as they are, have such complicated thoughts. They know exactly what women fall for and use it to their fullest advantage.

She stood at a stall eating beef tripe with radish. Su Qi followed behind her silently like a child who had done something wrong. His eyes were still red, giving passersby the impression of a pitiful and obedient little boyfriend following his girlfriend to apologize after making a mistake.

The boy’s appearance was delicate and lovely. The way he looked at the girl eating with longing eyes made people feel sorry for him.

“Hey, young lady, how can you just eat by yourself and let your boyfriend watch from the side?” The stall owner couldn’t help but say.

Fang Chuning frowned. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Ah?” The owner looked at the school uniforms they were wearing, which indeed seemed to be from different schools. “Sorry about that, I misunderstood.”

After finishing a portion of beef tripe, Fang Chuning didn’t want to eat anymore. She turned to the boy and said, “Weren’t you going home? Why are you following me?”

Su Qi fidgeted with his fingers for a moment before looking up with hopeful eyes. “Ningniang jiejie, can you walk me home? That road is very dark. Usually, I’m already home by this time, but today…”

“Alright, let’s go.”

Fang Chuning let him lead the way.

Su Qi hadn’t expected her to agree so readily. After a moment of surprise, he smiled happily. “Thank you, Ningniang jiejie!”

Fang Chuning just didn’t want to get entangled with him too much. The road to his home was indeed dark, not only dark but also remote, without even a street light along the way, relying only on the thin moonlight for illumination.

Upon arrival, she found it was a very dilapidated neighborhood, even worse than the old apartment district near the night market.

“Isn’t it dangerous for you to walk alone on such roads at night?”

Su Qi looked at her, his mouth moving slightly: “We don’t go out at night.”

Indeed, for boys living in such a place, if something happened when going out at night, there wouldn’t even be any surveillance cameras.

Fang Chuning took out her phone and looked at it. “Well, you can go back now. I’ll be leaving.”

As she said this, she started to return the way she came while looking at her phone. After just two steps, the boy called out from behind: “Ningniang jiejie, do you want to come up and sit for a while?”

“No need.”

The young girl didn’t even turn her head. Su Qi’s gaze dimmed, and he turned to walk into the neighborhood. The pitch-black stairwell had only a faint light, not enough for one to see the way clearly.

Su Qi was already used to it. He went up to the third floor and used his key to open the iron door covered with small advertisements. The light inside was slightly brighter than in the stairwell, with only a newly bought desk among the shabby furnishings catching the eye.

A haggard-looking man came out of the kitchen. “Qiqi, why are you back so late today?”

Su Qi put his things on the desk, his voice colder than usual, lacking its usual timidity. “The teacher kept us late.”

“I see. Next time you should tell the teacher that it’s not safe to come back so late.”

“I know, Dad.”

The man returned to the kitchen, raising his voice slightly, “Dinner’s ready. Qiqi, clear the table and bring out the dishes.”

Su Qi responded, but didn’t immediately go over. He turned on the desk lamp and opened an exercise book, taking out a sketch from between its pages.

He stared expressionlessly at the young girl in the sketch for a while, then put it in the desk drawer.

…

It had been several days since changing seats. Fang Chuning found that Xu Muzhou was actually quite easy to get along with. Maybe he had changed his opinion of her during the spring outing. Anyway, he no longer ignored her, but instead often took the initiative to discuss study-related issues with her.

“Fang classmate, why don’t we go to the library during lunch break?” Xu Muzhou looked at her intently, the corners of his peach-red lips slightly upturned.

Fang Chuning nodded, agreeing happily: “Sure.”

The young man’s smile grew even brighter. The two were very close, their school uniforms occasionally touching and then shyly separating. This subtle intimacy was addictive to Xu Muzhou. Sometimes he could hardly restrain himself from wanting to get closer, but fearing she might find him lacking in restraint, he forcefully held back.

“Fang classmate, why don’t we have lunch together later?”

Fang Chuning hesitated a bit at this. “But I promised to eat with Gao Qiong.”

“It’s okay, I think… Gao classmate probably won’t mind if I join.”

“Of course I don’t mind!” Gao Qiong suddenly jumped out from behind them, smiling. “I’d be more than happy to have lunch with the vice president, how could I mind?”

The three decided to eat at the school restaurant. Unlike the cafeteria, it had higher quality ingredients, no worse than a five-star restaurant outside. It was prepared for when the school’s shareholders occasionally visited, and usually only people like Fang Chuning and Gao Qiong, as well as some higher-ranking teachers, would go there.

“You two go first, I need to use the restroom.”

Fang Chuning had been feeling a bit of stomach pain since class ended.

“Then we’ll wait for you and go together.”

The young man said.

“No need, you go ahead and order. I’ll be there by the time you’re done ordering.” Fang Chuning said as she hurriedly walked out of the classroom.

After the girl’s figure disappeared, Xu Muzhou’s eyes darkened. He turned back and said to Gao Qiong with a gentle smile: “Why don’t you go first, Gao classmate? I just remembered I have a problem I haven’t solved yet. I’ll come over after I finish it.”

The young man’s attitude was equally kind to everyone, and it was hard to notice the differences without careful observation. Gao Qiong rubbed her chin, staring at him for a while. “Vice President, you actually like our Ningning, don’t you?”

Xu Muzhou looked at her, still smiling. “Is it that obvious?”

“Not really,” Gao Qiong crossed her arms. “Someone who doesn’t interact with you often probably wouldn’t notice.”

“But don’t worry, I won’t tell her.”

The young man tilted his head slightly, his excessively beautiful face revealing a hint of bewitching charm. “But I hope you can tell her.”

…

Fang Chuning, who had just finished using the restroom, finally felt comfortable. She wiped the water off her hands and took out her phone, walking leisurely towards the restaurant. After walking for a while, she almost bumped into someone coming around the corner.

Fang Chuning quickly dodged to the side, about to apologize when she realized it was Jiang Luoyu.

She hadn’t spoken to him since returning from the spring outing. No, to be precise, he hadn’t actively approached her, and on the rare occasions when he saw her, he avoided her like the plague, leaving her puzzled.

“Jiang classmate, aren’t you going to eat?”

Jiang Luoyu kept his head down, wiped his face, and was about to turn away to avoid her as usual.

“Hey,” Fang Chuning pulled him back. “What’s wrong with you? Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost when you see me? Am I that scary?”

Being pulled like this, the boy started hiccupping uncontrollably with tears. He looked up at her with teary eyes. “Why, why do you still care about me!”

Only then did Fang Chuning notice the handprint on his face. It wasn’t too obvious, but it could be seen at a glance. Her face darkened. “Who did this?”

The boy bit his lip and cried, refusing to say.

“School violence is illegal. If you tell me, I can immediately expel the person responsible.”

Jiang Luoyu lowered his eyes. “You don’t believe me anyway, so what’s the use of telling you…”

“When did I not believe you? The handprint on your face is evidence. You can tell me boldly.”

Jiang Luoyu hesitated for a moment, then slowly looked up at her. “Then do you also believe that I didn’t take Xu classmate’s medicine last time?”

Fang Chuning was stunned. After a while, she looked away and said faintly, “I know it wasn’t you who took it.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the boy suddenly moved closer to her, resting his forehead on her shoulder. “I thought, I thought you believed what he said.”

In fact, Fang Chuning had believed it before. She didn’t want to say more about this matter. She grabbed his arm and pulled him away a bit. “Now can you tell me who hit your face?”

But Jiang Luoyu didn’t speak. He reached out and wrapped his arms around the young girl’s slender waist, ignoring the resistance from her arms and burying his face in the crook of her neck. He said in a muffled voice, “They all hate me. I have no friends.”

The boy was so pitiful that it moved people. Fang Chuning rarely softened her heart and didn’t immediately push him away, letting him lean on her for quite a while before pulling him away. “If you don’t say it now, someone might dare to do this again in the future.”

Jiang Luoyu blushed and shook his head slightly.

Since he wouldn’t say, Fang Chuning had no choice but to let it go.

However, Fang Chuning never imagined that there were “paparazzi” in every corner of the school. The scene of her hugging Jiang Luoyu was photographed and posted on the student forum within two hours. The sarcastic comments never stopped, all targeting the boy.

Fang Chuning had issued a warning at school, prohibiting campus violence. But you never know how twisted people’s jealousy can become. Just as Jiang Luoyu was about to get into his car after leaving the school gate, he was dragged into an alley and bullied.

This was reported to her by a classmate who couldn’t bear to watch anymore.

When Fang Chuning arrived, there was only Jiang Luoyu curled up in a corner crying, his school uniform in a mess, looking like a poor creature abandoned by the world.

Fang Chuning stood in front of him for a long time without speaking. After barely calming herself, she reached out her hand to him. “Get up.”

The boy remained curled up in the corner without moving.

“I said, get up.” Her voice was filled with barely contained anger.