Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I’m very satisfied with the current situation.

Finally, no one dares to mess with me, and I can study in peace.

But my comfort didn’t last long. A few days later, I was cornered at the school gate by several girls a grade above me.

“So you’re the Deadly Poison Rose?”

I pushed up my glasses, which had slipped down my oily nose, and nodded.

“Yeah, that’s me. What’s up?” I said.

The girl who asked sneered, “Someone like you, a poison rose? What, you think you’ll be the Big Sister of X High from now on?”

I said blankly, “Doesn’t the principal go on about how we’re a prestigious high school? I thought our school didn’t have such tacky things as a Big Sister.”

Everyone: “…”

Students passing by burst out laughing and pointed fingers at them.

Their momentum instantly deflated. They threw a few harsh words at me, basically telling me not to be cocky and to keep a low profile from now on.

Then, under everyone’s gaze, they left in a very dispirited manner.

That evening, after finishing my practice exams, I was starving and thought I’d go downstairs to the night market to buy some stir-fried rice noodles.

Today I was really hungry, so to save time I took a shortcut through a little alley I rarely used.

Unexpectedly, I ran into Big Sister and her group.

Not only them, but also a few punks with bleached hair, and three motorcycles parked nearby.

They all looked a bit drunk.

My heart tightened, and I turned to run.

But I was a step too late; someone grabbed me by the collar and pulled me back, clamping a hand over my mouth.

“Xu Jiajia, weren’t you acting all tough this afternoon? Scared now?”

Big Sister stood in front of me, tapping my shoulder with a can of Snow beer.

The punks exchanged glances, and the one with the sleaziest grin came over to yank at my jacket.

A chill ran down my spine. I struggled hard, and my arm scraped against someone’s zipper, slicing a long gash.

At the sight of blood, they sobered up a little.

A girl with a high ponytail who hadn’t spoken up till then whispered, “Maybe… maybe we should let her go. We’re all from the same school…”

Big Sister turned and slapped her, cursing, “Shut up!”

She cursed as she tugged at my clothes and pulled out her phone to take pictures.

“I’ll teach you to act all high and mighty, you little bitch. Such a big attitude at your age, putting on airs in front of me… Once I post your nude photos online, we’ll see how tough you still are!”

“Don’t be rash!” I said quickly. “This is illegal. If this blows up, the school will definitely expel you!”

I added, “And Lin Xiyan certainly won’t let you off either. Think it over.”

Hearing this, Big Sister stopped the punk who was about to make another move.

She cared a lot about face and was pissed that I had embarrassed her that afternoon.

With the alcohol kicking in, she wanted to do something big but didn’t want to bear the consequences.

She looked at me, thought of something, and suddenly smiled.

“I won’t do it, but someone else will. Xu Jiajia, you’re done for. Bet you didn’t know I have Li Yuwei’s number.”

With that, she signaled a punk to cover my mouth and dialed a number.

“Hello, is this Li Yuwei? Never mind… *hic* Never mind who I am. I’m in an alley off Liberation Road. Xu Jiajia is here too. A few of us want to have some fun with her, pop her cherry. You interested in coming to watch, take some pictures? Hello? Hello?”

She looked at her phone. “She hung up?”

The ponytail girl asked cautiously, “Big Sister, what did Li Yuwei say?”

Big Sister said, “Seems like… she said she’ll be right here? Haha, so she can’t wait? Xu Jiajia, you really pissed off Li Yuwei good.”

The punks came over again to take advantage of me, but Big Sister shouted “Hey!” and raised a hand to signal them to hold off.

“Just hold on a little longer. When Li Yuwei gets here, you can do whatever you want. If the sky falls, there’ll be someone tall to hold it up. Her family is so rich, she’ll definitely make this go away.”

I forced myself to stay calm, but a chill ran down to my teeth.

These emotionally immature teenagers are the worst-their worldview is hopelessly skewed, they act on every whim, and they don’t know how to hold back.

I bet even if Li Yuwei hadn’t come today, they wouldn’t have let me off later anyway.

Just as I was so tense I felt lightheaded, I suddenly heard Li Yuwei’s voice.

“Bestie, I’m here! Aaaaah!!!”

She was holding a baseball bat, sprinting and roaring into her phone,

“Lin, where the hell are you?! You said you’d get here before me!”

She charged in like a little cannonball and whacked the blond guy on the head with the bat,

like Sakura striking a Clow Card with her magic wand.

The blond punk’s face twisted, and he raised a fist to hit her, but someone kicked him hard in the lower back, sending him flying two meters.

“Tied my shoelace. Half a minute late, sorry.”

Lin Xiyan said breathlessly, “You two stay back.”

Lin Xiyan was a good fighter, but the other side had numbers and were drunk, so things got out of hand fast.

Li Yuwei anxiously rushed in to join the fray, while I quickly took out my phone to call the police. Then I rolled up my sleeves, grabbed Big Sister, and slapped her hard across the face.

When the police arrived, everyone was battered.

Lin Xiyan was the worst off-his left arm was either dislocated or fractured, and he couldn’t move it at all.

Li Yuwei looked awful too, her hair a tangled mess, limping along.

The blond guys and the delinquent girls weren’t much better off, looking just as disheveled.

We were taken to give statements, then whisked off to the hospital for treatment.

Lin Xiyan’s parents arrived first, and Li Yuwei’s mom showed up soon after.

I couldn’t bring myself to meet her eyes.

This whole mess was because of me; I’d gotten her precious daughter hurt. Even if she was reasonable, she had to be furious.

Sure enough, when Li Yuwei was bandaged and tried to walk over to me, her mother stopped her.

Her mom spoke to her very sternly, and Li Yuwei stared back with wide eyes, stomping her foot in frustration.

She didn’t get a chance to say a single word to me alone before her mom dragged her away.

Instead, Lin Xiyan, with his arm in a cast, came over and said, “Come on, I’ll take you home. It’s late, not safe for you to go alone.”

I glanced at his parents standing behind him and quickly shook my head, saying it was fine. Lin Xiyan just went, “Hey.”

“The pest told me to. If I don’t, she’ll give me hell when she finds out.”

I had no choice but to get into the Bentley he always rode in, with just me and his family of three.

The atmosphere was heavy.

I didn’t dare breathe too loudly, and when the car pulled up, I thanked them stiffly and ran inside.

The next day, neither Li Yuwei nor Lin Xiyan came to school, and the injuries on my face drew some stares.

My phone stayed silent; Li Yuwei hadn’t replied to any of my messages.

I figured her mom had taken her phone away so she could rest and recover.

There was no word from Lin Xiyan either.

After the first morning class, my deskmate took out her phone and scrolled for a bit, then suddenly gasped, covered her mouth, and turned to look at me.

I asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, nothing.”

She shook her head, but it was obvious she was hiding something.

I glanced at her phone screen and saw it was Tieba, so I took out my own phone and logged onto the school’s Tieba.

Then I saw a post that had just been posted that morning but already had a lot of views.

I clicked in and saw a photo of me, disheveled, with a grinning blond guy standing next to me, pinned at the top.

Below were comments full of filthy words.

Some even said they had a video, selling it for just one yuan.

[You know what I mean.]