LWDC Chapter 74

Chapter 74 – The Car at the School Gate

Chapter 74 – The Car at the School Gate

Chapter 74 – The Car at the School Gate

That night, Lin Shengjia couldn’t fall asleep for a long time after returning home. Ning Fei, on the other hand, took a shower and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, sleeping soundly until morning.

In the morning, it was still Lin’s father who knocked on the door, and Ning Fei woke up slowly.

At that moment, he had just slapped off the alarm clock on his bedside table.

Ning Fei raked his fingers through his hair and then casually touched the wound on his face. The knife wound last night wasn’t deep; the doctor gave Ning Fei five stitches, confidently stating while stitching, “It will definitely be smooth, and it should be easy to remove the scar in the future.” Ning Fei didn’t care whether the body would have a scar or not. After showering last night, he didn’t even re-bandage the wound. At first glance, it looked quite ferocious.

Ning Fei staggered to the door and opened it. Lin’s father, seeing the wound on his face at first glance, was stunned for a moment before he came back to his senses and said, “Teacher Ning, Director Duan is looking for you… oh no, he’s looking for you on the phone.”

Since acquiring a mobile phone, the landline in Ning Fei’s house had been disconnected. Once his mobile phone “sacrificed itself gloriously,” the fastest way for Duan Yunhong, who was far away in Shenzhen, to find him was to call the Lin family next door.

“So early in the morning…” Ning Fei swallowed the swear word, and went to the Lin family next door, without even changing out of his oversized pajama T-shirt and loose shorts. As soon as he entered, he discovered that Luo Chenghong was actually sitting upright on the sofa. Ning Fei immediately realized that Duan Yunhong’s phone call might be related to this guy?

Despite his thoughts, Ning Fei was too lazy to ask Luo Chenghong, and didn’t even greet him. While Ning Fei went straight for the telephone, Luo Chenghong’s gaze roamed wantonly over his face, body, and legs.

Ning Fei picked up the receiver on the table, his voice still carrying a bit of morning hoarseness: “Hello?”

“Hello.” Duan Yunhong, who was clearly the one looking for someone early in the morning, sounded quite cold, “I heard you were beaten?”

“If you have to say it, it was a mutual beating. Oh no, I have to say, it was an act of bravery.” Ning Fei subconsciously touched the wound on his face again, replying casually, “You called me to the neighbor’s so early in the morning just to ask about this?”

“You don’t reply to texts, and your phone is unreachable,” Duan Yunhong said coldly, “If Xie Baolin hadn’t been nosy, when were you planning to tell me? Were you going to wait until I went back on the weekend and remembered to ask you, ‘Where’s your phone?'”

“I got home at past one o’clock last night, no, early this morning, and I don’t even have a landline at home. Where am I supposed to report to you?” Ning Fei replied lazily, “I was originally planning to buy a new phone today and tell you then. Oh right, I also have to buy a new pair of glasses. I don’t know where they fell when I was being a hero last night.”

Actually, he had other things to say, but this was the Lin’s house, and Luo Chenghong was still staring, so Ning Fei was too lazy to say them.

Duan Yunhong asked again, “What exactly happened?”

Ning Fei replied, “How would I know? The police haven’t given a result yet.”

Duan Yunhong questioned, “You don’t even remember the part you experienced yourself?”

Ning Fei replied blandly, “You wouldn’t want me to tell you a story over the phone, would you?”

“Why are you so grumpy?” Duan Yunhong’s tone almost made Ning Fei “see” him frowning, “Isn’t it already the time you usually get up?”

“I don’t want to waste time talking nonsense with you now. I need to go back and get ready to go to school,” Ning Fei glanced at Luo Chenghong, who was staring unreservedly, and said goodbye decisively, “Hanging up, we’ll talk about other things later.”

“Wait, you…!”

Before Duan Yunhong could finish speaking, Ning Fei decisively hung up the phone. Turning around, Ning Fei stared at Luo Chenghong: “Keep looking, and you’ll be charged.”

Luo Chenghong replied with interest, “Oh? How will you charge?”

Ning Fei didn’t answer, but raised his hand and pointed his index and middle fingers at his eyes, then dug them out towards Luo Chenghong—meaning “I’ll dig out your eyeballs to pay the bill.”

Luo Chenghong wasn’t afraid, but rather amused: “Hahaha! You’re too interesting, no wonder…”

Ning Fei didn’t want to be another man’s chat companion early in the morning, so he turned around and left. Although Lin’s father witnessed everything, he only thought it was a sign of the two men’s “good relationship” and didn’t think much about it. It wasn’t until Ning Fei was about to leave that Lin’s father quickly said, “Teacher Ning, come over for breakfast later!”

If Luo Chenghong wasn’t here, Ning Fei would really have been willing to stay and eat a bit. But with Luo Chenghong here, Ning Fei didn’t want to be bothered by him, so he waved his hand and refused, “No need, I’ll take care of it myself.”

Lin’s father added, “Does the teacher have a first-aid kit at home? Let’s bandage it up at our house!”

Ning Fei didn’t reply whether he had one or not, only continued to refuse indifferently, “Also no need.”

Luo Chenghong interjected from behind: “Then how are you going to school? Didn’t the police car take your bicycle to the police station and haven’t returned it to you yet? Let me give you a ride?”

“Thanks for the invitation, but no thanks.” Ning Fei twisted open the door of the Lin’s house, turned back to glance at him, and pointed to the ferocious wound on his face, “I can’t stand the wind right now. I can’t ride your motorcycle. I’ll just take a taxi myself.”

After saying that, Ning Fei decisively opened the door and went back. Lin’s father watched the door slam shut and wondered, “Teacher Ning is injured so badly?! He can’t even stand the wind. Is it okay for him to go to school to teach class like that? There won’t be a problem, will there!”

“Don’t worry, he’s fine.” Luo Chenghong leaned back on the sofa, his eyes drooping, not knowing what he was laughing at, “He’s very well… just joking with me.”

*

Ning Fei at least put on a bandage before going to work at the school.

Although he didn’t care himself, the exposed wound would probably cause a lot of trouble, so Ning Fei simply bandaged it up neatly. Even so, the “no glasses + battle-damaged” version of Ning Fei still attracted a lot of attention. Teachers and students asked him all sorts of questions, but Ning Fei didn’t want to bother telling them the story, so he succinctly said that he had encountered an accident.

With Ning Fei “drawing fire,” Lin Shengjia, who only had a band-aid on the corner of his mouth, was ignored by many people. Of course, there were also people who curiously asked him, and Lin Shengjia only said that he accidentally fell while riding his bike, without saying more.

Ning Fei went to work with his injury for the whole day. The slight pain when speaking, pulling on the wound, didn’t make Ning Fei say a single word less. He even had the leisure to secretly observe the movements of Ji Xingzhe’s group of childhood friends, or rather, whether any of them had strange behavior towards Lin Shengjia. However, it was impossible for Ning Fei to stay by Lin Shengjia’s side all day, so he quietly instructed Lin Shengjia to pay attention to any strange movements around him.

However, Lin Shengjia was useless, observing nothing, not even as good as Ning Fei. At least Ning Fei could see that Zhu Yueting had nothing to do with this matter. Her reaction to Lin Shengjia was no different from that of the other students in the class.

–Assuming that Ji Xingzhe is really manipulating things behind the scenes, and he can’t use Zhu Yueting, who is the easiest to incite this time, who will he look for…?

Ning Fei pondered this question, not easily coming to a conclusion.

After school in the afternoon, he walked out of the campus. He didn’t need to be there for evening self-study tonight, so he could go grab a meal first, and then replace his mobile phone. Not having a mobile phone and no landline at home was really inconvenient.

Then, not far from the school gate, Ning Fei saw a familiar face.

–The young policeman from yesterday was standing by the road in plainclothes, with an old gray car parked next to him.

Ning Fei walked over, and the policeman saw him too, immediately waving his hand in a low gesture. Ning Fei smiled, took out a cigarette from his pocket as he walked over: “It’s okay, I understand. Want one?”

“No, I’m working.” The young policeman, seeing Ning Fei’s calm demeanor, also relaxed, “Off work?”

“Yeah. I don’t need to teach tonight, so I’m off work directly.” Ning Fei wasn’t convenient to smoke in front of the students either, so he put the cigarette away, “Right, comrade, my bicycle…”

“It’s at the station. I didn’t remember to bring it to you when I left,” the young policeman replied, “It’s only one street away from your house. Go to the station directly to pick it up when you have time.”

“Alright.” Ning Fei nodded, then glanced at the dark car window next to him and asked in a low voice, “What are you doing here…?”

“We brought the one who took the money to the school gate to try our luck,” the young policeman raised his chin, indicating, “Like you said, they admitted that someone paid them to beat up that little classmate. However, they don’t know what that person’s name is, or what grade and class they’re in specifically, only that they should be from this school. So we’re having him sit in the car and look at the students coming out of the school gate to see if he can recognize them.”

“It really was a student who instigated it? Lin Shengjia is just an ordinary student who didn’t do anything. How could he be bullied like this? It’s too much! First, it was being framed for cheating, and now it’s escalated to being beaten…” Ning Fei frowned, saying things that were very in line with the identity of a teacher, “The end of the semester is coming up soon. If I hadn’t happened to pass by, wouldn’t Lin Shengjia have been beaten and injured, causing him to miss the exam?”

The young policeman seemed to hear something else in his words and asked, “Lin Shengjia has been framed before? Who framed him?”

Ning Fei did know who it was, but theoretically he shouldn’t know, and this time it was likely not Zhu Yueting who did it. So Ning Fei’s answer was, “I’m not too sure. The school kept it confidential from me. You can ask the school.”

The young policeman nodded and asked, “Do you know if Lin Shengjia has any conflicts with those classmates?”

Ning Fei could indeed give a list of suspicious people, but why he suspected them was hard to say. He could only say, “I told your colleagues yesterday as well. I’m not too sure who Lin Shengjia has conflicts with. He doesn’t interact much with his classmates usually, and he’s relatively quiet.”

The young policeman sighed, “He himself also said that he can’t think of who it could be… Never mind, we’ll investigate. Anyway, there’s always a way.”

Ning Fei nodded: “Then I won’t bother you with your work. Have you guys had dinner yet? Should I buy a few box lunches for you?”

“No need, we’ll take care of it ourselves later.” The young policeman declined, then remembered something, “Oh right, the injury assessment is out. Neither you nor that Lin classmate has any major problems. One of those guys has a minor injury. You stabbed him in the stomach pretty hard. He was in so much pain today that he almost couldn’t get out of bed. He was also yelling that he’s going to sue you!”

The “minor injury” in the injury assessment wasn’t just a scratch or some bleeding like ordinary people imagined. Sometimes, people have large and deep cuts on their bodies, with a lot of bleeding, but the assessment still comes back as “minor injury.” Ning Fei was ruthless when he hit, but he actually had a good idea of what he was doing.

“Let him sue if he has the guts. Am I afraid of these hooligans? I was protecting my student, and I haven’t even said that I want them to pay for my phone, my glasses, and my medical expenses yet.” Ning Fei chuckled, “I’m still hoping that after you guys find out the truth, I can apply for a ‘Bravery Award’.”

“We’ll find out the truth as soon as possible, and we’ll tell you the results after we finish the investigation. I don’t think they’ll necessarily sue you, but they might retaliate. You’ll have to be more alert when you go to and from work in the future,” the young policeman said, “Go get something to eat. Oh right, remember to keep the receipts for treatment. You’ll need them if you really want to file a civil suit in the future.”

“Got it, thanks.” Ning Fei smiled, and as he was about to turn away, he casually tossed out one last sentence, “Ah, the student who can pay people to do this should have a pretty rich family. How about looking more closely at the students who get into cars as soon as they leave school?”

“Yeah, we’ll pay attention.”

After the young policeman replied, Ning Fei didn’t say anything more and really walked away. Buying a mobile phone required going to the city center. Ning Fei prepared to walk to a street with more taxis, hail a taxi to buy a mobile phone, and have dinner by the way.

However, before he could walk a few steps, he heard a short, loud honk, as if to specifically attract people’s attention. Ning Fei followed the sound and saw a black sedan quietly parked by the road not far diagonally across from him.

The license plate number was the one Ning Fei was most familiar with.