Dazzling

When Qing Ye followed the group rushing to the alley entrance Huang Zhiming had mentioned, coincidentally, Da Cao also arrived with his crew, and they came face to face.

The last time Qing Ye saw Da Cao was because of Du Qiyan. Today, Da Cao wasn’t wearing slippers but was bundled up in a thick black down jacket, looking quite warm, and surprisingly, he even had on a pair of extremely cozy snow boots? What a novel style.

However, his expression remained as casual and unreadable as ever—it was impossible to tell whether he was smiling or angry. Honestly, Qing Ye really disliked dealing with this kind of person, with their sinister look that made them hard to figure out.

He walked up to Pang Hu, who was clearly a size wider than him, yet Da Cao’s presence was in no way weaker. With a mocking tone, he said, “You’re pretty fast for a chubby kid. Why’d you stop running? The trophy’s waiting for you.”

Pang Hu clenched his fists at his sides, glaring at him with heavy breaths.

Xing Wu called out from the alley, “Pang Hu.”

Pang Hu gritted his teeth tightly, the fat on his face trembling with anger. Only when Xing Wu clicked his lighter impatiently did Pang Hu reluctantly loosen his fists. Da Cao smirked, raised his hand, and slapped Pang Hu’s quivering cheeks twice, sneering as he cursed, “Damn lackey.”

Originally, from running so hard in the cold, Pang Hu’s pores had instantly dilated, leaving his face flushed red. Now, being humiliated by Da Cao in front of so many people, his entire face turned as red as if it had been boiled.

Da Cao strode into the alley, and only then did Qing Ye crane her neck to see Xiao Ling Tong with a bit of blood at the corner of his mouth. At least he was still standing beside Xing Wu. The worst off was the guy lying on the ground, not wearing a school uniform, with a huge cross necklace hanging on his chest—probably picked up for a few bucks. His flashy Scenester style clearly marked him as a loser from An Vocational School.

Xing Wu glanced expressionlessly at Pang Hu’s flushed face, then lifted his foot and stepped on the cross-wearing guy’s wrist, twisting his sole. The cross-wearing guy let out a piercing scream. It seemed this was the one who had attacked Xiao Ling Tong. Judging by Xing Wu’s rolled-up sleeves, he had likely already taught him a lesson.

Da Cao’s face instantly turned cold. He spat out at Xing Wu, “I’ve been giving you face, and you dare lay a hand on my guy? Get your foot off.”

Xing Wu, hands still tucked in his school uniform pockets, remained unmoved, his foot firmly on the cross-wearing guy’s wrist. He grabbed Xiao Ling Tong and yanked him toward Da Cao, his eyes icy. “Giving me face means letting your guy beat up my brother like this? Over a lousy trophy? Can’t handle losing?”

Da Cao spat again, his expression dark and cold. “I’ll say it one more time—get your foot off.”

Qing Ye squeezed forward and saw Pang Hu grinding his teeth so hard that his fleshy cheeks were tensed up, like the Hulk about to explode.

She then looked at Xing Wu, who gave a cold laugh, raised his head arrogantly, and stared down Da Cao as he said coldly, “What are you gonna do if I don’t?”

But just then, Qing Ye suddenly noticed a guy from An Vocational School standing slightly behind Xing Wu signaling to Da Cao with his eyes. The next second, Da Cao suddenly swung a punch at Xing Wu. Almost simultaneously, Qing Ye saw the guy from the side reach into his jeans pocket and pull out something. She didn’t even have time to see what it was—only a flash of cold light—before she shouted instinctively, “Xing Wu!”Xing Wu sidestepped to avoid Da Cao's punch, but upon hearing Qing Ye's frantic scream, he instinctively sensed danger. Raising his arm to block on reflex, he intercepted what would have been a stab to his torso—the blade instead slashed his forearm, sending blood splattering. Everyone froze. In that moment, Qing Ye felt her head buzz violently, her vision flooding crimson.

Ignoring his exposed injury, Xing Wu swung his leg and delivered a brutal kick to Da Cao, who crashed backward onto the ground. Instantly, the entire Anzhi crew stood stupefied!

Xing Wu whipped around, glaring ferociously at the knife-wielding guy, who cowardly retreated. But just as Da Cao struggled to rise, Pang Hu—previously standing beside Qing Ye—seemed to lose his mind. With a Tarzan-like roar, he bellowed, "I'll fuck your Overlord's entire eighteen generations!" and charged at Da Cao, seizing his neck and leg to hoist the lanky figure clean off the ground.

A 1.8-meter-tall heavyweight lifting a 1.8-meter-tall beanpole created such a staggering spectacle that the air itself seemed to solidify.

Qing Ye suddenly believed Xing Wu's past remark: when enraged, Pang Hu truly stopped stuttering—even his curses flowed smoothly.

No one understood his intentions, not even Xing Wu, who stared bewildered. The next second, Pang Hu slammed Da Cao onto the pavement like a dumbbell. The impact reverberated through the ground, and Qing Ye swore she saw Da Cao bounce upon impact, dust pluming around him.

A row of crows might as well have flown overhead—everyone gaped in stunned silence. With a clatter, the knife-wielding guy dropped his blade, staring at Pang Hu as if he were a monster, utterly terrified.

Qing Ye could scarcely believe her eyes. Having known Pang Hu for so long, she’d only ever seen him as gentle and slow to anger, never reacting to teasing. This was her first witness of his eruption—a primal, Tarzan-esque outburst of sheer destructive power.

The silence lasted two heartbeats before a megaphone blared behind them. Teachers with red armbands swarmed the scene, led by Old Zhu, who boomed, "Break it up! Is anyone injured?" Spotting Da Cao on the ground, he crouched to ask, "Can you move, student?"

Da Cao slapped Old Zhu’s hand away, snarling, "Piss off, baldy," before stumbling upright against the wall.

Despite decades in education and occasional student disputes, Old Zhu had never been insulted so brazenly. He raised his megaphone and shrieked in raw dialect, "You worthless brat! Your arrogance spins you in circles—your mother’s efforts wasted! You disgrace your father!"

The outburst stunned not only those in the alley but also the growing crowd of onlookers. The whole street fell into awed silence. Qing Ye never imagined Old Zhu’s fury would unleash such a dialect tirade. Though she understood none of it, his tone left no doubt—he was cursing with every fiber of his being.Da Cao had always swaggered through Anzhi Vocational School with impunity, even disregarding the school administrators. So when a bald teacher from Anzhong High suddenly pointed at his nose and scolded him, his temper flared instantly. Clutching his waist, he charged at Old Zhu. Without a word, Old Zhu raised his megaphone and slammed it down, his voice cracking as he shouted, "You rebelling?"

Teachers from Anzhi Vocational also stepped in to mediate, quickly separating the two groups. Old Zhu turned back and roared, "Is anyone from Anzhong injured?"

Everyone looked at Xing Wu. Old Zhu strode over to him, glanced at the small knife on the ground, and said urgently, "Go get that treated. Who’s going with Xing Wu?"

"I’ll go!"

Qing Ye squeezed through the crowd of boys. Seeing it was her, Old Zhu solemnly instructed, "Alright, you go with Xing Wu to get his wound treated. Ask the doctor if he needs a tetanus shot."

"Okay, I understand."

Qing Ye promptly supported Xing Wu’s injured arm as if assisting an elderly empress, adding solicitously, "Let’s go now, take it slow."

Xing Wu glanced down at her exaggeratedly concerned expression, a string of mental ellipses running through his mind.

Just as they exited the alley, Pang Hu and the others called out, "Mr. Zhu, we’ll go to the hospital with Xing Wu too!"

Old Zhu barked through his megaphone, "He’s the one injured. None of you are going anywhere! Everyone—Anzhong and Anzhi students alike—come back to the school with me for investigation."

…

To be fair, Qing Ye’s concern in front of Old Zhu hadn’t been entirely fake. But the moment they left the alley, she immediately lifted his arm and asked, "Does it hurt?"

Xing Wu said helplessly, "Lift it a bit higher and it’ll hurt even more."

"..." Qing Ye quickly lowered his arm carefully, afraid to touch it again.

She moved to his other side and kept urging him, "Hurry up, will you?"

His arm was still bleeding, yet he remained composed. In contrast, Qing Ye was as frantic as an ant on a hot pan. Though she was supposed to be taking him to the hospital, she had no idea where to go and basically followed Xing Wu as he cut through narrow alleys and shortcuts. Walking ahead, his tall frame almost completely blocked the light ahead, filling her vision with nothing but him.

Suddenly, Xing Wu felt Qing Ye tug at him from behind. He turned to see her uneasy, flickering gaze. She didn’t say anything, just looked up at him silently, but Xing Wu knew she was scared. It was the first time he’d seen such fear in Qing Ye’s eyes. Remembering how she’d screamed his name uncontrollably when the knife was pulled out earlier, his heart clenched tightly. He turned and pulled her into his arms, wrapping one arm around her firmly yet gently. "I’ll be fine," he said domineeringly. "I’ve been in fights like this since I was a kid. Haven’t you heard? The troublemakers live the longest."

Qing Ye buried her face in his chest. Sensing her distress, Xing Wu released her and lifted her chin. "Worried?"

With a complicated look in her eyes, Qing Ye said, "Next time, can’t you find another way to resolve things? I just… feel uneasy."

Xing Wu suddenly laughed. "What other way? Have a heart-to-heart talk? Who do you think would listen?"Seeing Qing Ye's grave expression, Xing Wu furrowed his brow and looked at her seriously. "When everyone around me solves problems this way, if I don't use the same method, I'd end up like Xiao Ling Tong—standing there getting beaten. Do you think I'd let anyone lay a hand on me?"

Qing Ye understood the logic perfectly. She knew very well that Xing Wu's ability to hold sway in the Zhazha Pavilion area meant he'd definitely been in plenty of fights like today's. But ever since she witnessed someone stabbing a knife toward Xing Wu, she felt her heart stop. It had been a long time since she'd felt such fear—the last time was when she watched the doctor cover her mother with a white sheet.

Suddenly overwhelmed, Qing Ye clutched Xing Wu's clothes desperately, like a drowning person gripping a life-saving piece of driftwood. She never realized how terrified she was of something happening to him. Though he stood perfectly fine before her now, the lingering fear threatened to drown her.

Xing Wu smoothed her hair and said with forced lightness, "Hey, can you let me stop the bleeding first? I'm about to bleed out here."

Actually, the bleeding from his wound had mostly stopped, but his words immediately made Qing Ye anxious. She straightened up instantly. "Hurry up then."

Xing Wu led her directly through an alley to Dr. Zhuang's clinic—the same clinic he'd carried her to when she first arrived here after falling down the stairs at his house.

The old doctor looked at Xing Wu's injury as if it were routine, had him sit down, then disinfected and stopped the bleeding. Meanwhile, Qing Ye kept anxiously asking, "Shouldn't he get a tetanus shot?"

"Doctor, aren't you going to give him a tetanus shot?"

"He needs the shot, right?"

Finally, Dr. Zhuang glanced at Xing Wu, who sighed and rubbed his forehead. The doctor sat down and wrote out a prescription. "For a wound of this severity after treatment, it's not necessary. But if you insist..."

"He needs it," Qing Ye immediately interjected.

So Xing Wu was sent for the injection. He rolled up his entire sleeve and offered his arm to the nurse, then looked up at Qing Ye, who had leaned so close she was almost touching the needle. A slight smile touched his lips. "Are you doing this on purpose to make me get jabbed? If you..."

Before he could finish, Qing Ye suddenly reached out both hands, cradled his head, and pressed it against her abdomen. "Don't be scared, be good," she told him.

"..."

Meanwhile, the needle went in, but Xing Wu didn't notice at all—his face was buried against her lower abdomen, his senses filled with her fresh, sweet scent. Blood rushed through him so fiercely he thought his wound might reopen.

After the injection, when Qing Ye released him, the male nurse was staring at him with a look that clearly said "pervert." Xing Wu grimly pressed the cotton ball to his arm and turned around to see Qing Ye standing by the corridor, hands in her school uniform pockets, looking completely innocent as she smiled at him. With her clear eyes and slightly swaying ponytail, she truly resembled a mischievous little girl.

So Xing Wu stood up and strode toward her with a dark expression. Qing Ye's smile instantly vanished. His tall figure loomed over her with an irresistible presence, and when he wasn't smiling, he could indeed be quite intimidating. Qing Ye stood frozen as he grabbed her hand and marched her out of the hospital.

"Hey, you should keep pressing on that cotton ball longer!" Qing Ye protested.As Xing Wu passed by the trash can, he casually tossed the cotton away. Qing Ye knew that once he discarded the cotton, he would come to retaliate against her, so she quickly dashed forward. Sunlight slipped through the sky into the narrow alley, casting beams that danced brilliantly on her ponytail, shimmering with a dazzling gold as it swayed. Xing Wu followed leisurely behind her and called out, "I won't mess with you, stop running."

Qing Ye turned around, walking backward while keeping a considerable distance from him, and said warily, "Then promise me first—no revenge, okay?"

Her cheeks were flushed with a faint rosy hue under the sunlight, and the zipper of her school uniform was pulled all the way up to her collar. Her fair, delicate features were strikingly vivid and charming.

Beneath his thick brows, Xing Wu's eyes gleamed with a soft light as he smiled and said, "No revenge."

Qing Ye looked at him somewhat skeptically but stopped running. Xing Wu strode toward her with his long legs, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. Suddenly, Qing Ye sensed an aggressive aura. Just as she was about to bolt again, Xing Wu's long arm reached out, wrapped around her waist, pulled her into his embrace, and he leaned down to directly capture her lips. Qing Ye's heart leaped into her throat, and any thought of escape completely melted away under his domineering kiss.

The warm winter sun cast a gentle glow over them. Xing Wu's tender tongue explored every corner of her mouth, lingering and affectionate, as if treasuring a beloved possession. He kept his eyes open, the gentle light in them gradually melting Qing Ye. She softened against him, her body trembling slightly as his large hand stroked her waist. Her reaction made Xing Wu's breathing grow increasingly heated, shifting from gentle to fervent. Suddenly, he pressed Qing Ye against the wall behind her, deepening the kiss and seizing her breath. Just as their passion peaked, they heard hurried footsteps, followed by a loud "clang." They abruptly pulled apart and turned their heads simultaneously to see Huang Mao, who was completely stunned and frozen in place.

...

As for where Huang Mao had been during this time? We have to rewind more than an hour earlier. When Qing Ye ran back to find Pang Hu and the others, Huang Mao happened to have a stomachache and went to find a restroom. After Huang Mao dealt with his stomach issue and returned to look for Pang Hu and the group, he heard that someone from Anzhi had targeted a guy from Class Two, and Pang Hu and the others had gone to confront them.

Huang Mao couldn't stand the idea of missing out on such a heroic moment—how could Hao Chenggong's talents go unused? Without a second thought, he sprinted off to find Xing Wu and Pang Hu.

Little did he know that the situation was chaotic at the time; neither Xing Wu nor Pang Hu answered his calls. On the way, he randomly asked someone if they had seen Xing Wu and the others, but the person gave unclear directions. As a result, Huang Mao kept running frantically. He should have turned at two intersections ahead to meet up with Pang Hu and the group, but he ran so fast that he overshot the spot entirely.

In the latter part of the route, fewer and fewer people were around because everyone had crowded into the alley to watch the clash between the two school bullies. Huang Mao found it strange that he hadn't encountered anyone along the way when he spotted a red line on the ground ahead and dashed straight across it. The Anzhong school officials collectively erupted, and then the trophy was inexplicably handed to him. Principal Zhong enthusiastically grabbed his hand for a commemorative photo and told him to smile.

Heaven knows how bewildered Huang Mao felt as he held that first-place trophy and forced himself to flash eight teeth in a grin.The student council had originally arranged for a young reporter from the broadcasting station to interview him and get his award acceptance speech or something, but how could Huang Mao be in the mood for an acceptance speech? Facing the camera, he simply dropped four big words: "All by strength."

Then he ran back again. Pang Hu and the others, all covered in dust and looking disheveled, had been dragged off to the school. From a distance, they waved at Huang Mao, signaling him not to come over. What would be the point of getting inexplicably implicated and landing a disciplinary record for no reason? That would just be foolish, wouldn't it?

So Huang Mao had no choice but to go find Xing Wu. On top of that, he’d heard Xing Wu was injured. Rushing anxiously to the clinic, Old Zhuang Doctor told him the person had just left. Huang Mao, still holding the trophy, then skillfully retraced his steps to find them.

And so, that "clang" was the sound of the trophy hitting the ground.