Hurt
When Lin Qing and a few others arrived, it only took about ten minutes.
They split up into two groups. Mi Yi went to find the teacher, while Lin Qing and two other boys went to the gym to find Qiao Yu. When they arrived at the gym, they saw the door was slightly ajar. They rushed in and immediately heard Li Hua shouting.
“Let go of me Qiao Yu, save me, Qiao Yu!”
“You f*cking behave yourself—”
Li Hua was grabbed from behind by Bear One near the entrance of the gym, it seemed he tried to escape and was caught by him.
His body couldn’t even twist around Bear One? Although they were unsure why Li Hua was also there, they didn’t just stand by and watch. Lu Yao and Cong Ye rushed over to separate Bear One, while Lin Qing anxiously looked around and didn’t see Qiao Yu, so she hurried towards the warehouse.
Just as she reached the door, she heard a muffled groan from inside. Her heart raced, and she ran faster into the room, calling out, “Qiao Yu!”
Thankfully, Qiao Yu was standing there intact, with only her school uniform a bit disheveled and no obvious injuries. Bear Two was on the other side, bent over and clutching his abdomen. The groan just now was from him, obviously not faring well under Qiao Yu’s hands.
Lin Qing’s sudden appearance took both of them by surprise. Qiao Yu glanced over with a hint of sternness in her eyes, and when she saw that it was only her, her heart skipped a beat.
Before she could speak and let Lin Qing leave first, Bear Two bellowed fiercely, “You called for backup?! I f*cking swear I’m going to—”.
He suddenly rushed towards Lin Qing.
Everything happened too quickly. Lin Qing’s full attention was on Qiao Yu at the time, and she didn’t have time to see how the man, his eyes red with pain and anger, was charging towards her. When she came to her senses, she had already been knocked down to the ground by Qiao Yu, who had charged at her from the side.
The direction in which she was knocked down was a small cart filled with tennis balls, and as the cart overturned, tennis balls spilled out everywhere. Qiao Yu, in her panic, had a poor stance and before she could steady herself, she also fell to the ground, let out a low groan.
The man was in a mess from the fall, but when he realized that his opponent had also fallen, he naturally wouldn’t let this opportunity slip by.
He straightened up and lunged towards Qiao Yu, giving her a slap across the face.
Qiao Yu avoided the front and shook her head, using her tongue to feel the injured side. She grabbed the fist that he still wanted to swing at her without any expression and fiercely retaliated with a blow.
The two struggled together, and Lin Qing knew that she could only hinder Qiao Yu here and couldn’t help her, so she went out to call the two boys who were still entangled with Bear One. Soon, three more people rushed into the small warehouse, and Li Hua crouched outside the warehouse, trembling and holding his head.
Lin Qing’s mind was in a mess, constantly replaying the scene of Qiao Yu being hit just now.
Fortunately, at this time, Mi Yi and the teacher arrived in time, and the lights in the gym were turned on. Their class teacher and a few PE teachers rushed in and separated the struggling students.
Seeing the teacher’s intervention, the two from Yizhong also knew that the situation was over, but still clung to a glimmer of hope and argued cunningly, “Your school’s students trapped us here and started the fight! Aren’t you being unreasonable!”
“Fart.”
Qiao Yu whispered, took out her phone from the wrinkled and dirty school uniform pocket, the screen cracked a little in the fall just now, but luckily it can still be used. She played that recording publicly.
Upon hearing their names mentioned in the recording, Cong Ye and Lin Qing looked at each other, and they suddenly understood why Qiao Yu acted. Bear One and Two’s faces turned paler as the recording played, they stopped making excuses, and Bear One still muttered, “… You even recorded it, you little-“
Before he could finish the sentence, he was glared at, and Cong Ye, filled with indignation, rushed up and kicked him, while the PE teacher quickly held him back. Qiao Yu just smiled lightly.
“Stop barking, you make it sound like I’m here to catch an affair.”
She was rummaging in the pockets of her pants, leaning against the wall, exhausted. Then she was quietly encircled by Lin Qing, who exerted strength to make Qiao Yu lean against her.
Qiao Yu’s body stiffened, and she couldn’t speak very fluently.
“Well, the situation is just like this. For more specifics, you can ask the parties involved.”
The party involved, Li Hua, was huddled in the corner of the warehouse. When everyone’s gaze turned towards him, he shuddered violently.
Despite his teeth chattering violently, he stumbled through telling the truth about the situation.
When it comes to Qiao Yu’s appearance, Li Hua paused for a moment and said softly, “Originally, originally we didn’t have to fight…”
As soon as he said this, the atmosphere in the warehouse changed. Qiao Yu tilted his head and gestured for him to continue.
“Because at that time, Qiao Yu…”
Indeed, it may have been possible to avoid the current situation.
When Qiao Yu suddenly encountered Bear One and Bear Two, they were frightened, but when they saw that she was alone, they immediately had the thought of threatening Qiao Yu together.
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However, Bear One was cautious and considered Qiao Yu’s family background. He knew that they had already revealed their identities, and he was unsure what would happen after they took action. Therefore, he muttered to Bear Two to forget it and pretend that today’s incident never happened.
After thinking for a while, Bear Two looked at Qiao Yu fiercely and said,
“Do you think, looking at her, that we will be spared if we stop now?”
Qiao Yu calmly rolled up her sleeves, clapped her hands, and laughed innocently.
“Looks like you’re a little smarter than the person next to you, aren’t you?”
If she could have lied and deceived them a little, maybe she could have successfully avoided the situation escalating and waited for the teacher to handle it.
Their homeroom teacher is a middle-aged man, currently experiencing a terrible headache. He turned to Qiao Yu with a pained expression and asked, “Is what he said true?”
Qiao Yu nodded.
“Why didn’t you try to calm them down first, and then wait for us to come—”
“Because I am an honest person.”
The homeroom teacher couldn’t respond to her honesty and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
But his heart still leaned towards his own class of students. He glanced at Qiao Yu’s reddened and swollen face, and quickly waved his hand, saying, “This matter involves the students of Yizhong. I need to contact their teachers first to decide how to resolve it. Qiao Yu, go to the medical room first, and the two of you as well, hurry up.”
He was referring to Cong Ye and Lu Yao, not mentioning the two most miserable bears, Bear One and Bear Two. The three of them nodded and followed Mi Yi Lin out confidently.
When they passed by Li Hua, Lin Qing stopped, and the arm linked with Qiao Yu was pulled, looking at her in confusion.
“Li Hua.”
Lin Qing, who hadn’t spoken since the teacher arrived, spoke softly.
“Do you think Qiao Yu is the one who caused trouble for you?”
Li Hua’s face, which had just brightened in anticipation of Lin Qing’s concern, froze at her words, and he began to blush, avoiding eye contact and unable to say a word.
“It’s such a shame that Qiao Yu’s trouble has kept you from being locked up here for the night.”
Without even looking at him, Lin Qing finished speaking emotionlessly and walked out the door. The three people following behind her all walked past Li Hua with their heads held high, and Cong Ye even let out a disdainful snort, brushing off his clothes.
As for Qiao Yu, the one who got beaten up, she didn’t actually care too much about the situation. After all, she didn’t pick a fight for Li Hua’s sake, and it didn’t matter to her what he thought.
The feeling of being protected wasn’t bad.
She secretly curled up the corners of her lips, as if she couldn’t even feel the pain anymore.
A line of people grandly made their way to the medical office. The school doctor, just about to get off work, got a shock upon seeing them and hurriedly put down her bag to check on their condition.
Cong Ye and Lu Yao were both still fine, with nothing more than a few bruises at most. But Qiao Yu had not only been hit hard on the face, but her hands also had scrapes from the fall.
The school doctor furrowed her brows as she applied medicine to her, while lecturing, “What kind of fighting is a girl like you getting into? Look at yourself. Such a nice pair of hands, and now they’re all swollen.”
The hand that had never thrown a punch was now swollen and red at the knuckles after this ordeal, looking quite frightening, but fortunately, the bones weren’t damaged.
Qiao Yu hissed in pain, and Cong Ye jumped in to speak for her: “You don’t know, school nurse sister, she is amazing, she won the fight!”
He spoke with great excitement, but he was quietly nudged by Lu Yao.
Cong Ye, not understanding, looked over and saw Lu Yao desperately squeezing his eyes, glancing to the side. He followed Lu Yao’s gaze.
… Wow, he had never seen Lin Qing with such a terrible complexion.
Cong Ye obediently clamped his mouth shut, not even daring to breathe heavily, silently praying for his good friend Qiao Yu as he watched her, still unaware of the situation.
Oh God, please, considering Qiao Yu was bold in speaking up for us today, don’t let her suffer too harsh a lesson from Lin Qing.
Qiao Yu was completely oblivious, quietly letting the school nurse apply the medicine without a whimper of pain, just a bit curious as to why everyone was so silent. She tried to look up to assess the situation but the nurse, who was dabbing medicine on her face, adjusted her head back to facing forward.
“Does it hurt?”
“Not at all—not at all—hiss.”
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The school nurse couldn’t help but be amused by her contradictory words and actions, becoming gentler with her movements. Cong Ye muttered under his breath about Qiao Yu’s stubbornness, “Why are you toughing it out? Just cry out if it hurts, idiot,” but he didn’t dare to speak out loud when he caught a glimpse of Lin Qing’s unpleased expression.
Eventually, even the school nurse sensed that something was amiss under the intense gaze from behind. Qiao Yu’s hands, which were supposed to just have ointment applied, ended up being wrapped with two layers of bandages.
When they left the infirmary, Qiao Yu looked at her bandaged hands, her eyes shining brightly.
“Looks pretty cool, doesn’t it?”
She turned to ask Cong Ye, who, seeing her sparkling eyes, suppressed the urge to enthusiastically agree and calmly nodded in affirmation.
But it really does look cool! He wanted one too! It’s like—yes, a badge of honor from battle!
Cong Ye felt a twinge of envy as he looked at his uninjured hands, considering whether he should wrap one up himself just for the look.
Clearly, on this matter, the thoughts of boys and girls were drastically different.
Lin Qing was in a terrible mood.
So bad that she couldn’t even hide it well. She knew that others must have noticed too, but she was too preoccupied to apologize to her friends who were affected by her mood.
Seeing Qiao Yu’s wounds, her heart was full of distress and guilt.
The images of the fight flashed quickly; she couldn’t make out much, but the moment Qiao Yu was hit, it played in her mind like a slow-motion scene, cutting through Lin Qing’s heart like a knife.
…It was all her fault. If she hadn’t disturbed Qiao Yu, perhaps she wouldn’t have—
At that moment, her tightly clenched fist was enveloped by another hand. The hand that reached out was somewhat clumsy because of the bandages wrapped around it, unable to bend properly, and could only rest lightly on hers.
Lin Qing lifted her head and saw Qiao Yu’s helpless eyes.
“Did I… scare you just now?”
There was a hint of panic and guilt in her eyes, making Lin Qing’s heart melt, almost instantly bringing a sour taste to her throat.
What are you even saying? It’s not like that at all.
You should be blaming me, the injury on your face could have been avoided. Even your decision to fight was because—
The one who should be careful, the one who should feel guilty is me, Qiao Yu.
“Ah—ah, I just remembered, there seems to be something I haven’t taken from the stands. Can Cong Ye and Lu Yao go with me to get it?”
“Eh? Is it something you can’t carry yourself?”
Ignoring the boys’ questions, Mi Yi decisively dragged them away, leaving a helpless Qiao Yu and Lin Qing standing alone in the deserted corridor.
Qiao Yu stared dumbfounded at the quickly departing backs of her friends, then turned her gaze back to the silent Lin Qing, finding the situation quite awkward.
…What’s happening? Did I really scare her? Yes, of course, which girl wouldn’t be frightened by such a fighting scene! Should I not have sent that message in the group chat with the four of us…!
To be honest, she hadn’t sent the message without consideration. Her gut instinct told her that doing so might lead to some serious consequences, so she chose to send it to a group chat that included five people.
Now, she was filled with regret, deep regret.
Qiao Yu still felt a chill when she thought about that moment of the pounce.
What if she hadn’t made it in time? What if Lin Qing had been caught by Bear Two?
A cold feeling rose in her heart, and she quickly closed her eyes to shake it away.
…The incident had passed, and what she needed to think about was to be more cautious next time—if there was ever going to be a next time. The best scenario would be for there to be no next time at all.
Qiao Yu frowned and carefully tried to gauge Lin Qing’s expression, only to see that her eyes were rimmed with red.
This is bad! Really bad!
Qiao Yu felt her heart might stop beating, panicking and fumbling in her pockets: “You—you don’t cry, I won’t dare anymore, I’ll never get into a fight again, it was not intentional—I don’t know why I didn’t bring any tissues…”
She didn’t find a tissue, but she did pull out the bracelet she had taken off before the fight started.
Right after the fight in the gym, she had felt for it to make sure it was undamaged before she could calm down. Now in her frantic search, she found it, and Qiao Yu, struck by inspiration, carefully presented the bracelet in front of Lin Qing.
“Qingqing, can you help me put this on…?”
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As she spoke, she showed her bandaged hands to indicate that she couldn’t do it herself, her heart racing nervously—was this method of diverting attention too abrupt? What if Lin Qing got scared by her sudden action and refused to help her put the bracelet on?
The mere thought of that scenario caused Qiao Yu such heartache that she felt her nose tingle, thinking that she would start to cry if it really happened.
Fortunately, the world wasn’t that cruel to her. Lin Qing showed some reaction and slowly took the bracelet from her hand, took her hand, and put the bracelet on for her.
Qiao Yu let out a huge sigh of relief and was just thinking about what topic to bring up to improve Lin Qing’s mood a bit when she saw a droplet of water land ‘plop’ onto the bandage on the hand that Lin Qing was holding.
“…”
She was speechless, staring blankly at that droplet of water. Lin Qing quickly wiped it away, but Qiao Yu couldn’t come back to her senses for a long while.
“…Qiao Yu, does it hurt…?”
Lin Qing asked with her head lowered, a slight nasal twang in her voice that suggested she might be choking up.
“It hurts.”
Qiao Yu didn’t look up to see Lin Qing’s expression at that moment. She just kept her gaze down, staring at the part of the bandage that hadn’t yet been soaked through, when words unconsciously spilled out of her mouth.
“…It really hurts.”
It was as if the injury she sustained in the gym had decided to erupt at that moment, its effects magnifying a hundredfold, a thousandfold. Qiao Yu felt a pain she had never experienced before; even breathing felt sharp and stabbing.
The battle just now hadn’t knocked her down, but at this moment, Qiao Yu felt defeated by Lin Qing.
