Dazzling

The streets at night were sparsely dotted with pedestrians. Moths fluttered their wings incessantly, bumping into the crooked street lamps along the roadside. Occasionally, a cool breeze swept by, making the weather seem a bit more pleasant than when Qing Ye first arrived here. Even the oppressive dust particles in the air had dissipated slightly.

She turned around to stare at Xing Wu behind her. He still had his hands in his pockets, looking as nonchalant as ever.

"Where’s your self-balancing scooter?"

Xing Wu looked at her. "In the guardhouse."

Seeing that Qing Ye showed no intention of leaving, he raised an eyebrow. "Want to learn now?"

Qing Ye gazed at him quietly. Xing Wu teased, "Not going back to study?"

"I’ll ride back and study."

While Xing Wu went back to fetch the scooter, Qing Ye stood by the roadside wearing earphones, listening to oral practice exercises as she waited.

About five minutes later, two beams of LED lights suddenly shone from the other end of the street. Qing Ye turned her head to see Xing Wu riding a Ninebot, his tall figure slicing through the night like a phantom. His serpentine maneuvers perfectly demonstrated that he was the coolest guy on the entire street. He then effortlessly stopped in front of Qing Ye and stepped off, saying to her, "Hop on."

Qing Ye felt like spraying him in the face. Hop on, my foot! Don’t you know this is my first time?

Xing Wu glanced at her and asked, "Do you know how to control it?"

Qing Ye stepped one foot onto the scooter. "Haven’t I seen pigs run even if I haven’t eaten pork?"

"..." Are you sure you’re not insulting someone?

Qing Ye suddenly chuckled and said, "Where did you get this? In your county, this counts as high-tech, right?"

Hearing her teasing remark, Xing Wu shot her a sidelong glance. "Don’t you know about Jack Ma?"

Qing Ye expressed genuine admiration for Xing Wu’s ability to buy a self-balancing scooter online. "You’re definitely the trendiest country bumpkin in the entire county."

"..."

Then she said to him, "Help me up."

Xing Wu looked at her disdainfully with a cold gaze. "No way. Holding hands on the street? What would people think?"

Qing Ye completely ignored him and had already extended her hand. Xing Wu lowered his gaze to look at the small hand stretched out before him, paused for a moment, and then raised his own hand. But just as he was about to grasp hers, Qing Ye directly grabbed his arm and stepped onto the scooter. Xing Wu ended up clutching empty air. His eyes flickered slightly, narrowing into slits.

When Qing Ye first got on, she wobbled a bit, looking nervous as she tightly gripped both of Xing Wu’s arms. Xing Wu raised an eyebrow and asked with a smile, "Can you handle it?"

Qing Ye replied with great pride, "Give me a few minutes. There’s nothing I can’t learn."

Xing Wu had originally planned to quietly watch her boast, but a few minutes later, he was proven wrong. Qing Ye actually let go and began trying to control the scooter on her own. At first, she moved quite slowly. Perhaps because there were few vehicles around, her courage grew, and she gradually picked up speed, racing ahead of Xing Wu, who followed leisurely behind her.

Once Qing Ye mastered the method of controlling the self-balancing scooter, she found the sensation of gliding swiftly on it increasingly exhilarating. Since childhood, her father had loved taking her to experience all sorts of novel things, so Qing Ye had always been bold when it came to trying out new gadgets.The streetlights elongated her silhouette, making her appear slender and tall. Her high-waisted flared jeans accentuated her long, straight legs. With a backpack slung over her shoulders and headphones on, she looked effortlessly cool. She breezed past the stunted withered trees, past the electrical boxes plastered with ads, past the storefronts piled high with cardboard boxes. It was as if the tangled web of power lines in the distance had vanished entirely. This dilapidated street, which Xing Wu had walked countless times, suddenly seemed to brighten all at once. He watched the figure so close yet seemingly ready to fly away at any moment, the light in his eyes gradually converging until the scenery along the street disappeared completely. His eyes held only that beam of light, slowly condensing into a tiny dot, growing farther and more blurred... Just then, the sputtering sound of a three-wheeled vehicle suddenly emerged at the intersection. Xing Wu’s pupils contracted sharply, and he roared at Qing Ye, "Get back!"

For a few seconds, Xing Wu felt as if his heart had stopped. He didn’t know what that feeling was—only that when the three-wheeler shot out, he was already sprinting toward Qing Ye, pulling her tightly into his arms. A warm breeze swept by, the street fell silent under a clear sky dotted with stars, and the sound of the three-wheeler faded into the distance.

Xing Wu’s arms held Qing Ye firmly. Her face was buried against his chest, and she could feel his powerful heartbeat so clearly, right where his heart was closest.

Qing Ye didn’t move, her voice tinged with uncertain surprise. "Why are you hugging me?"

Xing Wu froze abruptly, quickly releasing her and stepping back. His dark, bright eyes still seemed to hold a flicker of lingering emotion. "Wasn’t I afraid you’d get hit by the vehicle?"

Qing Ye’s gaze held a faint scrutiny as she stared at him for a few seconds. Suddenly, she laughed and sidestepped. "From that far away, did you think the driver was blind? Or did you think I was blind?"

Only then did Xing Wu realize that Qing Ye had already changed direction when the three-wheeler turned. His expression shifted abruptly, and he turned away, coldly tossing out, "Let’s go."

Watching his suddenly aloof figure, Qing Ye gave a slight tug at the corner of her mouth. Soon, she glided up beside him on her hoverboard, tilting her head to look at him. "Hey, why did you block me?"

Xing Wu remained expressionless, his gaze fixed straight ahead, exuding an unapproachable distance. Qing Ye deliberately slapped his back hard before swiftly riding ahead. Turning a corner, she raised her voice and asked again, "Why did you block me?"

Xing Wu stopped walking. A distance stretched between them. He pulled out a cigarette, lit it with his head lowered, and smoke curled from his fingertips. His eyes half-lidded, his voice neither loud nor soft, carried over. "You were pretty quick to take his money. But with me, you’re so clear-cut. Is my money not as good as his?"

Standing on her hoverboard, Qing Ye stared at him blankly, her large eyes blinking in confusion. After more than ten seconds, it suddenly dawned on her. She turned her head and burst out laughing. The hoverboard spun in a circle on the spot, her laughter growing clearer and brighter, like the crisp sound of raindrops tapping on bamboo shoots, rippling with waves.

Then the hoverboard slowly came to a stop, and her smile faded somewhat. She looked at Xing Wu and said, "That was my dad’s money. Money he lent to someone before he went inside. Of course, I had to get it back. What did you think?"

Xing Wu took a drag from his cigarette and didn’t answer her.Dazzle Island was right behind them not far away, the three-colored light pillars still glowing and rotating incessantly. The smile on Qing Ye's face completely vanished, replaced once again by that expression of looking down on the world as she said lightly, "Hey, although I'm quite good-looking and excel in every aspect, making it really hard for people not to be attracted, you'd better not fall for me, because... I'm the daddy you can never have!"

After saying this, she spun around on the spot and turned back to make a funny face at Xing Wu. Xing Wu was slightly taken aback, for the first time feeling an impulse to knead her into a ball and reshape her.

Qing Ye returned to the shop and went straight upstairs to study. Xing Wu didn't disturb her upstairs, staying on the first floor playing games the whole time. By the time Qing Ye finished studying and came down to shower, it was already quite late. He was still sitting in the barbershop with his legs crossed. Not long after she showered and returned to her room, she heard Little Angel's voice outside - he had left.

Qing Ye turned off the light, lay on the bed, took out her phone, and saw a friend request waiting in WeChat. She snorted, locked her phone, and ignored him.

After tossing and turning for ten minutes, she unlocked her phone again and accepted the request. Soon after, Xing Wu sent a sticker of someone wearing sunglasses with a cigarette in their mouth. Qing Ye replied with a bomb emoji, then turned off her phone and went to sleep.

Just as everyone had expected, early the next morning, the vice principal personally brought the dean of academics along with Lao Yang to Class 2's door looking for Qing Ye. Thus, under everyone's watchful eyes, Qing Ye was invited to the dean's office.

In less than ten minutes, the news had spread throughout An High School. Almost all the sophomore and junior students had witnessed the incident yesterday afternoon when a large group from An Vocational School came to confront Qing Ye. Later, Qing Ye had claimed that Xing Wu - whom every teacher and student at An High School found troublesome - was her underling. Even more bizarre was that despite her bold declaration, Xing Wu hadn't laid a hand on her and had actually dealt with the vocational school students for her. This had caused quite a stir during evening self-study sessions in every class, with various speculations circulating.

Qing Ye's academic performance had already spread among the school administrators since the start of the semester. An High School hadn't produced the county's top college entrance exam scorer for several years, with the top county rankings in recent years all taken by Jinlong High School. Jinlong High was the county's only private high school, while An High was the only public high school. The two schools had been in constant competition, from teaching resources to college admission rates. The school administrators naturally wanted to regain their pride. They had privately discussed that if Qing Ye could maintain her current level throughout the year and push a bit further, she might not only become the county's top scorer but even had a good chance of becoming the city's top scorer. Therefore, though Qing Ye herself was unaware, within just one week she had been classified as a key protected student.

Thus, yesterday afternoon's incident immediately received the school's serious attention, and they invited Qing Ye first thing in the morning to understand the situation.

Cao Fan had brought a group of people to stand in the corridor watching the spectacle. Even without considering the matter with students from other schools, just the fact that Qing Ye had openly associated with Xing Wu and his group yesterday was certainly enough to warrant a serious warning.

However, not long after, everyone saw the dean of academics and Lao Yang personally escort Qing Ye back to her classroom, chatting and laughing pleasantly along the way, showing no signs of her having been reprimanded.After being escorted to Class 2, the discipline director and Lao Yang entered the classroom simultaneously. Xing Wu finally sauntered in through the back door, swinging his arms leisurely. Morning self-study sessions had never been part of his routine—making it to class by the second period already counted as diligent effort for him. While downstairs, Xing Wu had heard that Qing Ye had been summoned for a talk with the school administrators early in the morning. He just hadn’t expected her to be done by the time he went upstairs. Even Director Gu, with his prominent buckteeth, was standing at the front of the classroom.

Xing Wu glanced sideways at Qing Ye, who was standing to the side, as he made his way to the back row. Director Gu scanned the room and finally spotted him, calling out, "Xing Wu, you’re here quite early today."

Xing Wu hadn’t expected to be called out. Slouching with his hands in his pockets, he walked to his seat and replied, "No hardship, no fatigue—just another flavor of senior year."

A wave of low laughter rippled through the class. With the discipline director present, everyone kept their heads down, stifling their amusement.

Director Gu adjusted his glasses and shot him a disdainful look. "You’re certainly ‘tired’ enough—barely finding time for school between sleeping and gaming."

Xing Wu found this quite reasonable and nodded earnestly. The surrounding students buried their faces in their desks, laughing silently.

Director Gu cleared his throat and announced, "Starting today, the school is assigning you a task: protect Qing Ye’s personal safety and ensure her study environment remains undisturbed. If students from other schools come to cause trouble, try to resolve it without conflict. If you can’t handle it, notify the school administration immediately."

Instantly, everyone sat up straight, turning around in surprise to stare at Xing Wu.

Xing Wu himself was baffled. "I’m not a security guard. Why should I protect her?"

Director Gu, well-versed in dealing with troublemakers, understood Xing Wu’s influence at Anzhong High all too well. He said meaningfully, "Consider it a case of ‘the able should do more.’ The school plans to appoint you as a ‘Safety Model.’ If you perform well, the demerit from last semester may be reconsidered."

"..." What the hell was a "Safety Model"?

In all his years of schooling, Xing Wu had never heard of such a position.

His eyes swept over to Qing Ye, who stood nearby looking completely unruffled. He noticed a faint, almost mocking smile playing on her lips as she watched him. He really wanted to rush over and ask what she’d told the school administrators that morning.

Xing Wu averted his gaze, running a hand over his short buzz cut in annoyance. "So... does this ‘Safety Model’ rank at the same level as student council presidents or ministers?"

The entire class could no longer contain their laughter, erupting in uproar. Even the teacher nicknamed "Pig Manure," who was preparing to start the lesson, chuckled. Director Gu pointed at Xing Wu and retorted sarcastically, "You might as well be on the same level as the principal!"

He then turned to Pang Hu. "Fan Tong, Huang Zhiming, Sun Dongcheng—you guys should cooperate with Xing Wu. Your class has only one academically outstanding student. If you don’t protect your own classmates and let outsiders bully her, do you want the whole class to fail?"

The students Director Gu named were usually the unruly boys in Class 2. None of them objected. After giving his instructions, Director Gu left with Lao Yang.

Qing Ye casually returned to her seat. The moment she sat down, Xing Wu sent her a WeChat message: What did you tell those old fogies?

Qing Ye replied with a few words: I said you’re my cousin.