TSIBAMS Chapter 5

Chapter 5

“My dear little Xiaoyun, who is it this time that doesn’t have eyes and provoked you?” Qi Guang jumped off the steps and landed in front of Shuai Xiaoyun.

Shuai Xiaoyun at school was noticeably less flamboyant than she was on weekends. Her curly hair was tied up, and she wore a light bean-paste-colored lipstick. Although she wasn’t wearing makeup, her fair skin seemed to glow under the sunlight. Even in her school uniform, she stood out among all the other female students.

Shuai Xiaoyun walked while speaking, “It’s about what I told you yesterday. That girl sent me a message saying that if I didn’t show up, she would go to my family’s shop to make trouble. It’s not that I’m afraid of her, but I don’t want to involve my family, so I arranged to meet her today to sort things out.”

“Sort out what? How are you going to sort it out?” Qi Guang asked.

Qi Guang remembered that Shuai Xiaoyun had complained yesterday about receiving a call from an unknown number. The caller immediately started cursing her, calling her a slut for seducing her boyfriend, and then went on to harass her family.

“Who knows,” Shuai Xiaoyun shrugged, “I don’t even know who her boyfriend is.”

“How can I help you?”

“You don’t need to get involved. Just wait behind me. If she really wants to resolve things, then we’ll resolve it properly. Anyway, I haven’t done anything wrong, so I’m not worried. But,” she paused, “from her thug-like tone, she’s probably not someone who will reason with us. If she’s here to cause trouble, then you can come out.”

Qi Fei was best at fighting, but it wasn’t appropriate to step in if the opponents were all girls.

So, he needed to appear before they started fighting.

“Okay.”

When they arrived at the designated place, Qi Guang found a spot across the street and sat down to play on his phone.

Fifteen minutes later, he received a message from Shuai Xiaoyun on WeChat: “They’re here.”

He looked up.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Five girls dressed like thugs were approaching Shuai Xiaoyun. With that many people, it was obvious they were there to cause trouble.

Five against one, weren’t they afraid of losing face?

Qi Guang stood up and put his phone back in his pocket.

There were still ten seconds before the light turned green. The law-abiding Qi Guang watched the situation unfold on the opposite side of the street while waiting.

The girls quickly surrounded Shuai Xiaoyun. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he saw one of them grab Shuai Xiaoyun’s hair. In the next second, Shuai Xiaoyun was sitting on the ground, not even having had time to react.

Damn it! Did she want to lose her hand?

Qi Guang rushed across the street like a gust of wind, grabbed the girl’s hand, and twisted it backward. The girl immediately let go and screamed in pain.

He didn’t use his full strength, but it was enough to make her unable to withstand it.

“Touch her again, and I’ll break your hand!” After saying that, he shook her hand off. The girl staggered and almost fell.

Qi Guang helped Shuai Xiaoyun up. “Are you okay?”

Shuai Xiaoyun shook her head.

“Oh, a slut is always a slut,” the leading girl said. “She seduced my boyfriend and is now flirting with another handsome guy!”

This girl had dyed red hair, big earrings, fake eyelashes, and the standard look of rural non-mainstream style. Her boyfriend probably had the same look. Where did she get the confidence to think Shuai Xiaoyun would be interested in her boyfriend?

The red-haired girl continued relentlessly, “Handsome, you just met her, right? Let me give you some advice, don’t be fooled by her looks. This bitch has seduced so many people with her looks that if you’re with her, you’ll be cheated on so badly that your own mother won’t recognize you!”

Hearing the words “own mother,” Qi Guang’s hand instinctively clenched. Shuai Xiaoyun reached out and grabbed his hand, pointing her other finger at the red-haired girl’s nose and shouting loudly, “You shut your damn mouth!”

Seeing this, the red-haired girl sneered, “What? Are you afraid your little boyfriend will run away?”

Qi Guang couldn’t fight with women, and he was too lazy to talk nonsense with her. “First, I’m not Shuai Xiaoyun’s boyfriend. Second, if you can’t speak properly, then shut your mouth! If you want to fight, find someone who can handle me! Third, we don’t know who your boyfriend is and we aren’t interested in him. But a man who wants to flirt with other girls but won’t deal with the mess, leaving a bunch of women to confront each other while he hides is trash. It’s just you who treats him like a treasure, thinking everyone covets him.”

The red-haired girl could only curse and couldn’t refute him. She pointed at him, enraged, “You just wait!”

“No problem, I’m waiting. By the way, next time, come directly to me. Qi Guang, Class 28 of Chen Town High School. One more reminder: you’re welcome to have a group fight or a one-on-one, but don’t be a group of girls. I can’t be bothered to fight. Tell your boyfriend to come.” Qi Guang finished speaking and pulled Shuai Xiaoyun away. He didn’t want to hear another word from the people behind him. It was all mental pollution.

Of course, the thing he couldn’t stand the most was people mentioning his mother.

Qi Guang didn’t speak along the way. Shuai Xiaoyun knew that Qi Guang was like a ticking bomb at this moment, so she silently followed behind him without disturbing him.

Qi Guang’s back view was either lost or cold, making it difficult to approach.

They didn’t stop at the restaurant, walking straight to the entrance of his apartment building. Qi Guang opened his mouth, his tone indifferent, “I’m tired, going home to sleep.”

Then, without looking back, he went upstairs.

Shuai Xiaoyun sighed and turned away.

Qi Guang returned to his room.

He opened the drawer beside his bed. Inside, there were only a few boxes of medicine. All the medicine had the same packaging, and the name written on it was “Agomelatine tablets.”

Qi Guang swallowed a pill with plain water, drew the curtains closed, and lay down on the bed.

The curtains blocked out the light well, and the room plunged into darkness. Qi Guang felt like he was falling into the ocean.

He was descending in a whirlwind. He couldn’t resist, he could only close his eyes. Closing his eyes was like an ostrich burying its head in its wings. Even if he was going to die, it wouldn’t be that scary.

Such afternoons were so familiar. They would arrive unannounced, like a typhoon passing by. Even though he would just lie there quietly all afternoon, there was no physical pain, just an empty feeling in his body, numbness in his limbs, with only his mind being clear, coldly experiencing everything.

Psychology master Freud believed that a person’s every behavior is influenced by their childhood experiences.

His childhood was obviously very happy.

But that was just his happiest time.

Qi Guang was born and raised here, almost being spoiled by his grandfather. He would get anything he liked, and whatever he wanted to eat, even if it wasn’t healthy, his grandfather would hesitate but still buy it for him.

This small, rundown town held so many beautiful memories for him: going up mountains and down rivers with his friends, stealing bird eggs, catching fish, raising tadpoles, and watching them slowly grow legs and turn into frogs.

It wasn’t until he was ten that his parents took him with them.

Before that, his parents, who were busy with work, would only come to see him once a year. He barely remembered what they looked like, and he would hide in the corner, not daring to acknowledge them. When he came to the big city, he lived in a big house, there was a nanny who took care of everything, but Qi Guang did not like it there at all.

His grandfather didn’t move with them. The old man always wanted to stay in the familiar place and didn’t want to be troubled anymore.

Qi Guang couldn’t understand it and sulked for several years.

From age ten to now at eighteen, too many things had happened. Now, he was all alone.

Maybe the medicine had taken effect, or maybe he was too tired. He couldn’t think anymore and soon fell asleep.

Ye Xing woke up early as usual the next day. After buying buns and soy milk at the school gate, he secretly put them in his backpack and brought them into the school. After passing Class 18, he placed the breakfast in the same spot as yesterday.

Qi Guang also surprisingly wasn’t late. When he saw the familiar buns and soy milk on his desk, he hesitated for a moment and then put down his backpack and walked out.

He walked to the first floor of the third-year building. From the door, he could see that Shuai Xiaoyun had not yet arrived, but her desk was definitely the one with the most breakfast. Sure enough, the girl with glasses who often brought him breakfast was sitting next to it. Qi Guang greeted her and carefully chose a different bread and yogurt from the ones he usually had and took them away.

Back in the classroom, he put the bread and yogurt on Zhou Tian’s desk and then took a bite of the bun with a clear conscience.

Hmm, it really was pork and cabbage.

Zhou Tian arrived ten minutes into the morning self-study. Lu Yueyang, their English teacher and the homeroom teacher of the next class, was sitting on the podium.

Zhou Tian smiled and said “Reporting in.”

Lu Yueyang glanced at him and then lowered her head to continue preparing her lesson. She wasn’t one to preach, nor did she like to yell. She was already used to Zhou Tian’s lateness.

Zhou Tian calmly walked to his desk. When he saw the breakfast on his desk, his eyes lit up. He whispered to his deskmate, “Thank you, Brother Qi, for guarding my breakfast. Mwah.”

Qi Guang looked disgusted. “Mwah, your ass.”

“Hey, where did you go yesterday afternoon? You dare skip Old Lin’s class,” Zhou Tian asked, unwrapping his bread.

“Sleeping.” Qi Guang twisted his neck, and his bones cracked.

“Oh, sounds like you slept well,” Zhou Tian sucked his milk, “Old Lin wants you to go to his office today.”

“Got it.” Qi Guang responded indifferently.

Zhou Tian seemed to remember something and added, “He also said that if you keep ignoring the rules, you won’t be allowed in the classroom.”

“Detention? It’s not like I haven’t had it before.”

“No, his exact words were, ‘This brat skips class every other day, coming and going as he pleases. Does he think the classroom is a market? He should just stop coming to school!’” Zhou Tian recalled seriously.

“Got it,” Qi Guang said.

After the first class, Qi Guang reported to Old Lin’s office.

Old Lin had just finished making a cup of tea. Seeing Qi Guang arrive, he put the tea on the table, leaned back in his chair to find a comfortable position, and said, “Tell me, how many times have you skipped class now?”

Qi Guang and Old Lin had never gotten along, but he didn’t want to argue with him, so he admitted his mistake directly, “Teacher, I was wrong.”

“You always just say you know you were wrong, but you never change. What did you go do yesterday?”

Old Lin had a “you’re hopeless” expression on his face.

“I had something to deal with.”

“What was it?” Old Lin pressed.

Qi Guang didn’t speak.

Old Lin sighed, “I know a bit about your family situation, but that’s not an excuse for you to skip class every now and then. Look at what your grades are like now. Do you even want to go to university? You entered our school with the highest score in the entire school in the high school entrance examination. Everyone had high expectations for you. We haven’t given up on you, so you shouldn’t give up on yourself!”

Of course you don’t want to give up on me, Qi Guang snorted in his heart.

Old Lin had always been in charge of the top classes. When Qi Guang entered Chen Town High School with the highest score in the entire school, it was only natural that he went to Old Lin’s class. Old Lin was also eager to cultivate Qi Guang.

Of course, based on the school’s reward system for teachers of graduating classes, Qi Guang was undoubtedly the one who could bring Old Lin the most bonuses.

But Old Lin quickly realized that Qi Guang, whom he had had high hopes for, smoked, fought, and skipped class, doing everything wrong.

The key was that his test scores were getting worse every time.

He even suspected that Qi Guang had cheated to get the first place.

After firmly believing that Qi Guang had cheated in the high school entrance examination, Old Lin began to frequently visit the grade level office, trying to convince the grade level director to transfer Qi Guang to another class. In the old-fashioned way of thinking of a homeroom teacher of his age, a student like Qi Guang would only damage his reputation as the homeroom teacher of the top class.

Moreover, he occupied a spot that could have brought bonuses.

Qi Guang also lived up to expectations, becoming increasingly unwilling to go to school, so Old Lin had more reasons to condemn him in front of the grade level director.

Anyway, neither of them could stand each other.

Before Old Lin could continue talking, Qi Guang quickly ended the topic, “I really need to pee, I can’t hold it anymore, gotta go.”

He disappeared like a gust of wind through the door.