chapter 5

chapter 5

“Who gave you the nerve to touch someone who belongs to me?”

The uniformed boy planted himself in front of me, his handsome face arrogant and furious.

When Song Hansheng saw the wound on my forehead, a flash of distress crossed his eyes.

“Don’t be afraid. I’ll take care of—”

Before he could finish, I walked around him.

I pulled out several tissues and wiped the blood running toward my eye. Then I bent down, picked up the heavy dictionary, and hurled it back into the corner.

“Ah!”

The culprit cried out, clapped a hand over his face, and staggered back. A streak of blood slipped between his fingers.

Song Hansheng’s shoulders stiffened. He frowned as he studied me, unable to reconcile the brazen person before him with the pretty little toy who had once humbled herself at his feet.

“Didn’t I say I would protect you?”

I smiled politely and put more distance between us.

“Thank you, but I don’t think we know each other very well.”

He arched a brow and leaned close, displeasure thick in his voice. Yet his appraising gaze clung to my face, wandering over it as though he approved of what he saw.

“We don’t know each other? You’ve spent my family’s money on school for years, and you say we don’t know each other?

“The Song Corporation stops supporting you today. But if you’re willing to become my little follower, I can keep paying your way.”

The classroom fell strangely silent. Everyone watched us with suggestive, knowing looks.

This was the romantic scene those readers had been waiting for: the domineering male lead showering the heroine with money.

But was this salvation?

No. It was charity.

He stood above me and gazed down at my hardship as though I were a cheap possession, an amusing new toy.

I remembered the polished leather shoe that had once pressed lightly on my hand.

“I am grateful to Mr. Song for sponsoring me, but I don’t need your money.”

Song Hansheng was handsome, wealthy, and worshiped wherever he went. No girl had ever rejected him.

Far from chastening him, my refusal only made his new plaything more interesting. He wanted to tease me even more.

“Fine. If you have so much pride, why don’t you pay back every cent my family spent on you?”

He spoke as though it were a joke, but the words were cruel and arrogant.

Under everyone’s gaze, I nodded solemnly and took a bank card from an inside pocket.

That thin card held the weight of my dignity. I placed it in Song Hansheng’s hand.

“You don’t need to worry. I saved money every year to repay Mr. Song.

“This is the final amount I owe your family. I intended to give it to your father in person tomorrow, but giving it to you is the same.

“Thank you, truly, for everything the Song family has done.”

I bowed sincerely, then returned to my seat beneath the class’s astonished stares.

I cleaned my desk, opened my physics workbook, and began solving problems.

Left standing at the center of everyone’s attention, Song Hansheng gave a scornful laugh. He could no longer suppress his mocking temper.

“What a performance.

“My father doesn’t care about that pittance. It isn’t even a month’s allowance for me.”

He pinched the card between two fingers, strode to Su Miaomiao’s desk, and tapped one knuckle against its corner.

She raised a crumpled face. Her nose was red from crying, and she looked as fragile and pitiful as a wounded animal.

This was what Song Hansheng had imagined the little beggar would look like when she grew up. Too bad Su Miaomiao was not pretty enough.

“I heard you tried to take her scholarship and failed. Consider this a gift from me. From now on, you’re my little follower.”

The card landed in front of her. At a loss, she flushed bright red and cast me a timid, cautious glance.

The final bell rang. Song Hansheng kicked over the trash can beside my desk, then dragged her away with proprietary force.