Episode 5

For a whole week, the solar term of Frost Descent have passed along with the warmth in the air. Coldness has completely taken the capital city, yet the memory of the farce at that night was still lingering in Ye Qin's mind.

Nothing happened in the school to his relief, he didn't hear anybody getting disciplined or receiving a new bad record these days. But on second thought he found himself being stupid. Why was he worrying about Cheng Feichi getting punished and being held in custody? Wasn't that what he wanted?

His Dad Ye Jinxiang returned from his business trip with a Patek Philippe sport watch for him. The watch constantly reminded Ye Qin of the farce that day. so he took it off after a short, while pouting rather unhappily.

Ye Jinxiang assumed that he wasn't pleased with its design and told him to choose another one himself on the official website.

Ye Qin rolled his eyes, "Why would I need this? I can't wear it at school."

It seemed that his father was in a good mood -- he didn't get angry as usual but patiently explained, "A watch reflects the wearer's status and taste, especially for men. You'II know it when you grow older."

Ye Qin wasn't interested. His only thought was that his father was deeply trapped in vanity, just like how he had been during the past decade. Before Ye Qin's grandfather died. Ye Jinxiang had already started imitating the way he dressed and behaved, trying so eagerly to squeeze himself into the upper class. His ugly desperation was so obvious even in his kid's eyes. The gentleness and humility were no more than a decent disguise on him. If it was not for his handsome face, how could he have Luo Qiuling by his side all along without complaint?

Speaking of handsomeness...Ye Qin took another look at his father. Ye Jinxiang had a manly face with clear-cut features, just like that lad.

Ye Qin became more and more convinced that the boy was really a bastard son of Ye Jinxiang. Two days ago, he pedaled to the Yulin Compound again and went upstairs. When standing in the doorway of Room 304, he heard some noise from behind the door and immediately decided to go to the next floor so that he could hide himself while secretly observing the mistress.

She was a skinny, feeble woman who coughed hard every two steps. Though her home was merely ten some meters away from the rubbish bin downstairs, it still took her over 30 minutes to get there. Ye Qin once imagined the woman to be a sick beauty, but he was disappointed after she turned around—she didn't seem pretty event as Ye Qin tried his best to shake off all the possible bias. She was merely a middle-aged woman without a tiny bit of allure.

Therefore, Cheng Feichi had to be Ye Jinxiang's bastard son. Otherwise, why would he frequent this place without realizing that he had already been exposed?

After Ye Jinxiang left. Ye Qin thrust the watch forcefully into a drawer.

He was the only son. He had never conceal his self-important and hypercritical nature, and didn't need to do that as well. He always went for the best quality and the highest price-even that fatherly love he didn't cherish, he was loath to share with anyone else.

During the break before a P.E. class on Friday, Sun Yiran wasn't putting on her makeup as usual. But bent over her desk, crying so hard.

Zhou Feng was trying his best to console her by making silly faces and telling jokes, but all his efforts were in vain. Her girlfriend told Ye Qin that she asked Cheng Feichi to attend her birthday party at the beginning of the next month, not only to be rejected, but also witnessing him flirting with a girl from a different school.

“That girl...was in the school uniform of the Affiliated High School. She was on his arm, and asked him to show her around. None of them was taking me seriously." Sun Yiran was still crying through broken sentences, "He just left with her without saying anything to me!”

Zhou Feng was always the one most excited by such stories. He whipped the coat off on his desk, shouting, "Fuck! How dare he treat our Yiran like this! Looks like he didn't learn anything last time!"

The hubbub gave Ye Qin a headache, and he dragged Zhou Feng out to take the P.E. class. Sun Yiran held back her tears and ran after them with her workout clothes in hands, "Did you guys go after him? What did you do to him? Why did you do that? If anything bad happens to him, I'II never forgive you guys!"

Though feeling so wronged, Zhou Feng had to contain his anger in front of Sun Yiran. When they were asked to warm up, he could only run two more laps around the track than everyone else to give vent to his feelings. He nearly rolled up his sleeves to pick a fight with Cheng Feichi while passing the meeting point of No.l class. But Liao Yifang, who had been keeping his eyes open for any signs of discontent on him, immediately held him back, "Zhou, don't waste your energy! We're going to take the fitness test!"

For these high school students with more energy than needed, P.E. classes were the most direct way to consume their energy and the only classes that they would never want to skip.

However, it was not the case for Ye Qin. He hated P.E. classes because he had always hated sweating. And this hatred was amplified now by someone.

The teacher seemed to be intentionally making life difficult for him-he asked them to assemble at the east side of the playground to take the test with students from the No.1 class.

Sit-ups were for female students while pull-ups were for males. Having already known how much they were going to suffer, the students roared sadly and tried to avoid the test by pretending that they were not feeling well.

In the blink of an eye, more than one third of the male students in No.2 Class left, for which the P.E. teacher called them good-for-nothings. They were not as good as the model students from the No.1 Class, both academically and physically.

The No.2 Class was always deprecated like this, so no one looked offended, not in the slightest— except for Zhou Feng. With outrage still written all over his face, his nostrils flaring, he gave Cheng Feichi a very fierce glare. Ye Qin was standing at the end of the queue. He glanced at the other queue, and found that Cheng Feichi was also at the end-half a head taller than the boy in front of him, he was too tall to be overlooked.

Two horizontal bars were set next to each other. Students in each queue headed for the one in front of them, from the shortest to the tallest. This was the time when the sense of collective honor was unconsciously evoked. Students were all rooting for their classmates. Even if someone couldn't manage to finish one pull-up. his classmates would be shouting, “Keep it up!"

When it was Zhou Feng's turn, he turned his face to the other queue, rubbed his nose once with the thumb and then jumped up to grab the bar.

Yet he let himself down barely finishing the third pull-up.

The P.E. teacher laughed, arms akimbo, “Some students are not so strong, but they were willing and bald enough to have a good try! This is way much better than pretending to be sick."

Feeling like being praised. Zhou Feng confidently went for Sun Yiran to ask her if she had saw his brilliant performance.

Sun Yiran didn't pay any attention to him. her red eyes fixed on someone from the No.1 Class.

Zhou Feng turned his head, only to find that she was still looking at that stupid straight-A student! What the fuck!

When Ye Qin was up, Cheng Feichi happened to have his turn at the same time. Seeing that his greatest enemy was right under the nose of his best buddy, Zhou Feng was overly thrilled that he spared no effort in encouraging the latter to perform better, so that the No.2 Class could recover from this Waterloo.

However, Ye Qin barely had a chance to build muscles. How could he succeed in this fitness test? He did two pull-ups before his shoulder and back began to hurt badly. His arm felt about to be dislocated while his sight began to blur.

When Zhou Feng was still shouting “hang on Qin" and "one more try" , Ye Qin was half away through the third pull-up. An overwhelmingly sharp pain in the side of his chest suddenly made him lose his grip on the bar and fell.

Zhou Feng was still furious about what happened in this P.E. class in next Monday's morning selfstudy session. He proclaimed that he would gather people to go after Cheng Feichi again.

“What a jerk! He was just trying to show off in front of all these girls. So stupid!" Zhou Feng banged on the table, “Plus, why must he catch our Qin beneath the bar? It's not a big deal falling down after all. He was just pretending to be nice and helpful. Such an asshole!"

Too disturbed by Zhou Feng's loud curse to get any more sleep. Ye Qin stuffed a piece of bread into Zhou's mouth. "Piss off."

Zhou Feng was extremely upset. After the self-study session, he followed Ye Qin into the men's room and kept harping on the necessity of fighting back at Cheng Feichi by the side of urinals. "Qin, aren't you upset about this? He's absolutely recognized us! This is him retaliating against us for what we did to him. He will only go even further if we don't fight back this time!"

Ye Qin did not wish to recall what happened at last week's P.E. class at all. but Zhou Feng was bringing it up again and again. He kept having flashbacks of Cheng Feichi catching him when he fell from the bar, which somehow made him feel ashamed like crazy.

What was that guy trying to do? I was not even half a meter from the ground. I wouldn't get hurt even if I had been sent sprawling. Why would I need him to catch me?

Ye Qin was afraid of getting hurt, so at that moment when he fell, he fell with his eyes closed. He was ready for lying on the ground with arms and legs in air, and for completely losing face. But when he actually hit the ground, he didn't feel any pain. Turning his head, he saw Cheng Feichi sitting very close to him and looking at him. His face was emotionless, and the accident didn't stir up any emotion in his eyes either. He looked as calm as when he was framed in the convenience store that night.

With Zhou Feng standing right there next to him. Ye Qin couldn't believe that Cheng Feichi failed to recognize him. He was even preparing himself lest Cheng Feichi picked a fight, but Cheng Feichi only gave him a frosty look and a shove, signaling him to get up quickly, and then he himself got up from the ground before dusting his pants off and returning to his queue.

Ye Qin suddenly began to fret over what happened. He didn't want Cheng Feichi to treat him like a total stranger, but at the same time he grew flustered that he should have such feelings. What was wrong about acting like strangers? Surely they weren't supposed to hug each other and tell everyone that they were...brothers, were they?

Think of this. Ye Qin's agitation finally arrived, and so he changed his mind and accepted Zhou Feng's proposal.

They didn't have night sessions on Fridays, but their teachers just never ended the class when it should be over. Therefore, when Zhao Yue and Liu Yangfan had crossed half of the city to meet them. Ye Qin's class was just over.

Zhou Feng leaned on the window frame to make sure that Cheng Feichi's class had not yet been dismissed, and whistled as he headed for the back gate with his buddies.

Dragged by Zhou Feng, Ye Qin frowned, “Why are we going to the back gate? If s more crowded than the front gate now."

Most of the students in their school were day students, and it was the time when students headed to the back gate in droves in order to get their bikes. At this time of the day, the back gate was even more packed than the front gate. Ye Qin was certain that Zhou Feng's plan involved something lawless. Why would Zhou Feng want such a large audience? Did he mean to be reported?

Zhou Feng patted his chest with a smug grin, "Relax. I've planned the whole thing out with

Zhao Yue this afternoon. Nothing could possibly go wrong."

Still doubting. Ye Qin regretted having accepted such a stupid proposal and followed all the way here. He started to look around, "What the hell is your plan? Don't go too far. You could be punished for wrongdoings."

Zhao Yue tapped him on the shoulder and laughed, “Our Qin has always been such a brave boy. Why are you afraid this time?"

Ye Qin thought he must look quite afraid now, but he refused to admit it. Pulling a long face, he retorted. "Nonsense. If anyone should be afraid, that must be you."

To prove that he was not nervous at all. Ye Qin offered to watch over them.

“Hey! Take this for me." Before they got started, Zhou Feng gave Ye Qin a paring knife.

Ye Qin's eyes widened, "Don't tell me you're gonna kill him!”

“No way." Zhao Yue showed Ye Qin the large iron nail-seven to eight centimeters in length— and said, "Just gonna puncture the tire of his bike, to make him cry and walk all the way back home. If the nail doesn't work, we'II use that knife."

Ye Qin was relieved before he found this plan as stupid as that of pupils. He complained, “Finish it ASAP. It's freezing!"

The boys had a dear division of tasks, and they thought they were being so smart. But they forgot that the teaching building where the No.1 Class was in was right behind them.

Cheng Feichi had finished the exam paper 15 minutes ago, but the teacher wouldn't let him leave early. His seat was near the window, so now he was killing time by looking outside -- from up here, he could clearly see those boys conducting their sneaky plan.

When the exam was over, he didn't hurry to leave as usual. He took his time locking the door and going downstairs, even taking a detour to give the boys enough time to finish their plot.

When he finally reached the parking area for the No.1 Class, the three boys seemed to be long gone. Yet the one who was supposed to watch over them was still struggling in the cold wind. He was probably in a daze or dozing.

Cheng Feichi first went to check his bike. The two tires were already fiat and the saddle was scratched and covered with paint stains -- maybe they found the saddle too fixed to take down. However, one could not easily find out what they did to the bike, for it hadn't been washed for years and therefore was covered with heavy dust.

The night was falling. Cheng Feichi wheeled his bicycle to the entry of the parking area. The lookout boy was still there in the cold wind—he not only didn't notice that his accomplices had left but also didn't realize that the victim was already so close to him. A sudden gust of wind made him shudder, making him jump up and down to warm up a little bit. His hands stuffed in his sleeves, he wrapped his arms around himself and kept rubbing them.

Cheng Feichi parked the bike and patted him on the shoulder.

“What took you so long? I'm frozen to the bone..." Ye Qin turned back, shivering. But when he saw who was standing in front of him, he was suddenly and nervously silenced with a burst of hiccuping.

Pointing at his bike, Cheng Feichi questioned, "You did this?"

Ye Qin covered his mouth by his hand, feeling awkward as hell. He wanted to say no and run away, but he thought by doing so, he was being a coward and would be a laughing stock for his friends.

But it was the first time that Ye Qin came face-to-face with Cheng Feichi. And it was the first time that he realized that Cheng Feichi was more than half a head taller than him. He held his head high and glared at Cheng Feichi to maintain his dignity, "That's correct. So what?"

Cheng Feichi glanced at the knife in his hand. "With this?"

Well, there was no way going back anymore. Ye Qin couldn't cower at this point so he simply looked Cheng Feichi in his eyes, "Of course. Your poor bike wasn't damaged enough? Are you asking for more?"

Quite surprisingly. Ye Qin saw a small, almost unnoticeable smile on Cheng Feichi's face.

It all happened too fast. Before Ye Qin even realized it the wrist of his hand has already been squeezed hard by Cheng Feichi, and the tip of the knife was pointed at Cheng Feichi's stomach- only a few centimeters away from stabbing right into him.

Ye Qin's eyes widened at this horrible sight. He stuttered, "What...what are you doing?"

Cheng Feichi was way stronger than him. Ye Qin froze, extremely afraid that he would actually stab him.

Perhaps most males were obsessed with absolute power over other creatures, and Cheng Feichi was not different. He gripped Ye Qin's much thinner wrist and felt how it was shaking like a leaf. A few moments later, he suddenly tightened his grip and the knife fell onto the ground with a clang.

Ye Qin was already white with fear. When Cheng Feichi dragged him forward, he didn't resist.

It was when they were walking along the sidewalk just outside the school and stamped on a few ginkgo leaves that Ye Qin finally managed to speak, “Where are you taking me?"

Cheng Feichi was holding the stupid boy with one hand and pushing the bike with the other. He answered with a voice no warmer than the wind blowing cross them, “The police station."

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