One dау in Maу, the seсоnd-уеаr high sсhool studеnts performed cheеrlеading rоutines tо еnсоuragе thе sеniоrs аbout tо take the соllegе entrancе exаms. Everуоnе аgrееd it mаde them lооk foоlish, but thеrе was nо chоiсe—it was а Мei Zhоng tradition.
Thе summer uniforms werе quitе niсe: whitе blouses and blасk skirts, rеminiscеnt оf оld Таiwаnesе sсhoоl uniforms, with thе schoоl namе, сlаss, and studеnt ID еmbrоidеred on the сhest—a string of numbers. Thе senior boуs loved wаtching thе сheеrleading, checking which class had girls with long legs or fair skin—just the usual preoccupations of teenage boys.
Of course, the first-year students also liked crowding around to join the excitement.
The students from the advanced classes always aimed to be a cut above, so few went to watch, most staying in their classrooms doing whatever they needed to do. The whole school seemed chaotic that day, the air thick with restless hormones.
Jiang Du was flipping through a popular science book borrowed from the library. Since childhood, she had been interested in all sorts of random things—like how to raise rabbits, or why stars in the sky twinkled, as if blinking.
She remembered once watching an animal documentary with Wang Jingjing. It mentioned that after mating, the male rabbit would faint. Wang Jingjing had loudly asked the teacher in class what mating was and why the male rabbit fainted afterward. The teacher was furious, calling both of them to the office and scolding them harshly, accusing them of watching inappropriate content at such a young age. The two were too scared to utter a word.
Thinking back, it was funny but also sad. Jiang Du hadn’t seen Wang Jingjing for a while. Teenage girls often treated such ordinary drifting apart as a major event, unaware that looking back as adults, it would mean nothing—people come and go, it’s just the way things are.
That day seemed perfectly ordinary too.
Only later would those involved realize that this was the turning point, the watershed moment of their entire youth.
A classmate came in and told her someone was looking for her downstairs. Jiang Du asked who it was, but the classmate didn’t know.
Full of suspicion, she went downstairs. Because of the school event, the teaching building felt much emptier. At the entrance on the first floor stood a man. At first glance, Jiang Du didn’t recognize him—he was dressed neatly, as if he had just gotten a haircut, his hair very short. But when their eyes met, the man stared intently at her and asked:
“Jiang Du? Is your surname Jiang?”
Her heart pounded nervously. Cautiously, she retorted, “I don’t think I know…” Before she could finish, her expression changed. Jiang Du had recognized him—that pervert. He had cleaned himself up and could easily fool people.
As if driven by instinct, Jiang Du turned and ran. She felt her legs moving, but unfortunately, the man behind her was like a hungry eagle swooping on its prey, grabbing her as if she were a chick.
“I knew it was you at first glance. You look exactly like your mother, both beauties,” the man said with a sinister, falsely gentle smile. “I’m your father, here to pick you up. Come with me.”
Jiang Du’s face turned pale as she struggled desperately to break free from his grip, her eyes filled with terror. “I don’t know you! What are you doing?”
With a sharp smack, a heavy slap landed on her face, bringing a wave of intense ringing in her ears. Dizzy and disoriented, Jiang Du was flung from his grasp and fell to the ground. Before she could react, the man had already grabbed her again, yanking her hair so hard it felt like her scalp was tearing.Jiang Du was instantly brought to tears by the pain, half of her face burning fiercely. Before she could even speak, the man grabbed her hair tightly, yanking her head back, and began slapping her face with both hands.
"You little bitch, no matter what day it is, you'll always be my spawn. How dare you deny it? What, ashamed of your own father? Just like your mother, that filthy whore, both of you stink the same, acting all coy when you're nothing but sluts!" The man cursed furiously, almost beating Jiang Du to death.
The entire world rapidly distorted, losing all sense of gravity.
Students passing by were terrified by the scene. Some quickly ran off to find a teacher, while students from the first-floor classrooms rushed out to see what was happening.
Wei Qingyue was on the third floor. Under normal circumstances, students in the science experimental class were highly disciplined; no matter how much commotion occurred at school, some of them never bothered with such disturbances.
The screams from the first floor were particularly piercing, and some of the onlooking girls were so frightened they burst into tears.
The students on the third floor could clearly hear someone shouting the name "Jiang Du." Wei Qingyue heard it too. Sitting by the window, he immediately stood up, stepped onto the windowsill, and leaped out.
After just a glance, Wei Qingyue sprinted downstairs.
Jiang Du had already fainted, lying unconscious on the ground. The man was dragging her, her black skirt covered in footprints, half of it lifted to reveal the white lace of her safety shorts.
The students were stunned. Some boys hesitated, wanting to step forward and intervene, but were shouted back by the man: "Who dares? I'm disciplining my daughter—who dares interfere?"
"Uncle, please stop hitting her. Even if you're her father, you can't beat her like this," a girl's sobbing voice came from the crowd.
"I'm beating this slut, just like her mother! Wearing a skirt—isn't it just to seduce men? Sluts like her deserve to die!" The man sneered sinisterly at the female students in the crowd. "All of you wearing skirts—who are you trying to seduce?"
Suddenly, the crowd was roughly pushed aside. Before anyone could see what was happening, a figure lunged forward.
Wei Qingyue leaped from behind the man, stomping him down. Caught off guard, the man stumbled and fell to his knees.
Only one thought filled Wei Qingyue's mind: I'm going to kill him. I must kill him.
In almost a second, Wei Qingyue yanked the belt from the man's waist, coldly and swiftly wrapping it around his neck. Gritting his teeth, a low, guttural growl escaped his throat. His face, strained to the limit, flushed crimson, veins bulging.
He felt as if his teeth were about to shatter.
The man was still a man, after all, while Wei Qingyue was just a slightly slender teenager. The man clawed desperately at the belt, his eyes bulging as if about to pop out.
Just as Wei Qingyue felt his strength waning, he suddenly released his grip. Seizing the moment when the man clutched his throat, coughing violently, Wei Qingyue lifted his foot and delivered a series of fierce kicks to the groin. The man finally let out a piercing scream.
Like a madman, Wei Qingyue clenched his jaw, hauled the man up again, and aimed punch after punch at his nose bridge.
The entire world seemed to vanish. There was nothing—only the sound of his own heavy, ragged breaths. Wei Qingyue didn't know who finally pulled him away. Several male teachers restrained him, but he continued to struggle, his eyes almost dripping with blood. His relentless, murderous determination was etched deeply into the pupils of every onlooker.Wei Qingyue felt that in a certain moment, he wanted to destroy the entire world. That kind of despair, that kind of hatred, pierced through him instantly. Why? Why could adults always so wantonly inflict bloody violence upon them? Why couldn't they fight back? Why did they have to endure? Why did they have to bear all of this?
Sweat covered his forehead, his clothes were wrinkled, and his entire body trembled uncontrollably. His face was flushed yet deathly pale. The teacher beside him said something, but Wei Qingyue didn’t hear a single word.
He only saw a teacher carrying Jiang Du on their back. The crowd parted, and her skirt had already been smoothed down by some girl, covering what should have been covered.
The chaos gradually subsided.
The students at the scene began to disperse. Some kept staring at him, whispering and discussing him. Wei Qingyue didn’t care about anything. He was exhausted, staggering backward a few steps, his face expressionless.
Beside him, Zhang Xiaoqiang, who had arrived at some point, slowly walked forward and called out to him, "Wei Qingyue."
He looked up blankly at his old classmate but said nothing.
Zhang Xiaoqiang took out a tissue and stuffed it into his hand. "Wipe your face." She had seen a lot, and her expression was equally grim.
Wei Qingyue didn’t move. The homeroom teacher of Class 1, Science Track, approached with a stern face and told him to come to the office.
With such a serious incident occurring at the school, the first question was how the security guards had allowed the man in. If parents demanded an explanation, how should the school respond? If the incident spread to society and caused negative public opinion, what kind of explanation should be given? This set of procedures was something the school leadership needed to deliberate on. The homeroom teacher called Wei Qingyue over and asked if he knew the man.
"I don’t know him, but it’s not the first time I’ve seen him," he answered absentmindedly.
The homeroom teacher spoke earnestly, "If you don’t know him, why did you go so far? It’s commendable that you stood up to protect your classmates, but I can’t approve of your actions today. Wei Qingyue, your grades have always been excellent. No one in the school doesn’t know you, Wei Qingyue, but it’s also well-known that you have a violent streak. Everyone still remembers how you made a stunning impression at last year’s opening ceremony."
Wei Qingyue remained silent. He looked indifferently at the homeroom teacher, unmoved.
"Before achieving success, one must first learn to be a decent person. The world won’t change just because of you." Seeing his attitude, the homeroom teacher suppressed his anger. "What kind of look is that?"
The tone was familiar. Whenever Wei Zhendong felt he wasn’t as obedient as a lamb, he would ask the same question.
"What does the world have to do with me? Whether it changes or not has nothing to do with me. Teacher, you don’t need to misunderstand me to this extent. I’ve never been arrogant enough to think I could change the world." Wei Qingyue’s tone was sharp. He rarely spoke disrespectfully to teachers.
"What do you think I’m angry about? Wei Qingyue, do you think the teacher misunderstands you deeply? Does the whole world not understand you anymore? What I’m angry about is that you’re so outstanding, yet you don’t know how to cherish yourself. If you don’t rein in this violent streak, sooner or later, it will harm you! If you had killed someone, even if you were in the right, you’d become in the wrong. Do you know how you looked just now? All the teachers were watching you. Several grown men couldn’t hold you back. You made us feel like strangers. Is this our top-performing student? None of us teachers want you to cause a disaster in a moment of impulsiveness!"The homeroom teacher spoke with resounding force, each word brimming with emotion.
Yet Wei Qingyue couldn’t feel any resonance at all. He was exhausted, and lonely—so damn lonely it felt suffocating. His rationality seemed to detach from his body, floating like a ghost in midair, watching the version of himself standing there and saying: The teacher is right, he’s doing this for your own good.
While doing what’s best for you, there’s always the hope of changing you.
He remained calm, looking at the homeroom teacher: “I can’t just stand by and watch. All I know is that Jiang Du was about to be beaten to death. I couldn’t bear to see a beast kill my classmate. May I leave now?”
The teacher’s brows knitted tightly into a deep frown: “After all I’ve said, you still don’t understand my point. Violence isn’t the only way to solve problems. In any case, I don’t approve of my students acting so recklessly without considering the consequences. I hope you’ll think carefully—you’re a child with a bright future ahead. To act so impulsively over a female classmate…”
“I’m simpler than you adults.” For the first time, Wei Qingyue rudely interrupted the teacher mid-sentence. The homeroom teacher stared at him in surprise. “What do you mean?”
He knew what the teacher was misunderstanding—that he must like Jiang Du, or that they were secretly dating early. He also knew what his classmates would think.
Wei Qingyue didn’t want to argue with the homeroom teacher anymore. He surrendered, saying, “Teacher, I understand your good intentions. I’ll remember them. I won’t act like this again.” He replied like a model top student, and finally had the chance to leave the office.
At the small flower bed near the office building entrance, Zhang Xiaoqiang was still waiting for him. Seeing him come out, she hurried over and tentatively asked, “Did the homeroom teacher scold you?”
Wei Qingyue shook his head. His hair was disheveled, his clothes dirty and wrinkled, and the laces of his navy-blue sneakers were untied.
“Shall we go see Jiang Du together?” Zhang Xiaoqiang subtly observed his expression. “I just asked—the teacher took Jiang Du to the nearby military hospital. Do you want to go see her?”
Both prepared to skip class and take a taxi to the hospital.
Jiang Du had suffered a concussion from the beating. Her face was swollen, her eyelids puffy, and her body covered in scrapes and bruises. Though conscious, she was in a state of severe shock, lying there with her eyes unfocused.
When the two arrived, the room was crowded with teachers, the class monitor from the humanities track, and her Grandpa and Grandma. Grandma had long since cried herself into a tearful mess.
The teacher noticed Wei Qingyue and gently told the elderly couple that this was the male classmate who had helped—he had fought with the assailant and nearly strangled him with a belt.
Jiang Du’s gaze shifted slightly toward the door, her head throbbing painfully.
Meeting Wei Qingyue’s eyes as he stood at the doorway looking in, she was almost unrecognizable to him.
Tears slowly trickled from the corners of Jiang Du’s eyes. She blinked at him, then glanced at Grandma beside her, her lips parting slightly. Grandma quickly leaned down to hear what she was saying.
Time seemed to stretch on endlessly before the old woman finally straightened up, her eyes blurred with tears: “Good child, come over here. Jiang Du wants to thank you.”
Wei Qingyue was slightly taken aback. He slowly walked over and sat on the stool beside the hospital bed. Jiang Du struggled to open her mouth, and after hesitating for a few seconds, he leaned his ear close to her lips.
“You got into a fight…” the girl whispered weakly, “If your dad finds out, it’ll be terrible. He’ll hit you.” Scenes from summer vacation flashed repeatedly in her mind. Jiang Du closed her eyes in pain, tears streaming down, her consciousness hazy. “Your dad will hit you, Wei Qingyue. You should run, run away. It hurts so much, it really hurts so much.”
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