He Ao, male, eighteen years old, unmarried, good-natured, honest and simple, not good with words, a good person.
Life goal: Make money.
Click—
A falling ballpoint pen landed next to He Ao's seat, interrupting his thoughts. He glanced at the pen, pressed one hand on the desktop and reached down with the other, bending over.
In an instant, the noisy environment around him halted for a moment, until his slender hand picked up the black ballpoint pen from the ground and handed it to its owner who had rushed over to stand up.
"Thank... thank you."
He Ao seemed to hear a deep intake of breath and a heart beating rapidly.
"No need," He Ao said as he passed the ballpoint pen to the pale trembling hand, showing a smile to the girl in front of him wearing a loose long dress, "after all, I am a law-abiding good person."
"Good...," the girl gripped the ballpoint pen tightly, took a deep breath to calm her nerves, "thank you… you."
Then, without waiting for He Ao to reply, she scurried to the front row and sat down.
He Ao straightened up slightly, his gaze sweeping over the people around him who had been watching him. In an instant, everyone turned their heads away, and the awkward noise started up again. They didn't know what to talk about, but as long as they avoided He Ao's gaze, it was fine.
He Ao smiled faintly, opened his book, and continued to ponder his life goal. This was the corner of the classroom near the windows at the back row, a spot usually most popular among college students. However, a large vacuum space had formed around He Ao.
Everyone only dared to look at him from a distance.
—
After class, on the streets outside school.
"Nannan, did you hear that He Ao from Class 2 helped you pick up your pen during class?"
A short-haired girl excitedly crossed the street and ran over, hugging the girl's waist in an instant.
"Mm."
Liu Nan shook off her hand.
"How did it feel?"
The short-haired girl immediately followed up with a question.
"Very strange, a bit scared, but also a bit excited... My mind went blank," Liu Nan pondered for a moment, then hoisted her shoulder bag up, "but now that I think about it, he doesn't seem as scary as the rumors say."
"Really?" The short-haired girl leaned in, sticking her head out, "But I heard... Let me tell you, I just overheard from over there... "
The short-haired girl moved closer in a secretive manner, signaling Liu Nan to lower her head, and then whispered into Liu Nan's ear, "He might have... before... "
She surreptitiously made a throat-slitting gesture.
"What?!" Liu Nan was startled, her voice rising significantly, then she laughed in resignation, "Where did you hear such gossip? It's clearly a case of rumors getting distorted."
"I'm just gossiping a bit,"
The short-haired girl pouted her lips.
"You..."
While Liu Nan was distracted talking to the short-haired girl, she suddenly felt a strong pull on her shoulder. Before she could react, the shoulder bag was yanked away by a tremendous force.
A man brushed past her, snatched her bag with a fierce tug, and ran off into the distance.
"Robbery! There's a robbery!"
The short-haired girl snapped to attention and shouted loudly, but as she turned around, she realized that Liu Nan had already taken off in pursuit, so she hastily followed suit.
The streets were sparsely populated at this moment, allowing the bag-snatching culprit to run madly ahead unimpeded.
Liu Nan was closely trailing behind him, while the short-haired girl, some distance back, took out her phone and began to call the police as she ran.
But a distracted person can easily slow down, and by the time she had finished her call, Liu Nan had turned so many corners that she was out of sight.
She was taken aback and exclaimed, "Damn it!"
----
Chasing into a deserted alley, Liu Nan too started to sense that something was amiss. The thief she was pursuing could definitely have widened the gap between them, but instead, he seemed to maintain just enough speed to keep her at bay, luring her deeper into the alley.
Behind her were only two 'good Samaritans' who had come to help, and just as she was about to turn around and cry for help, she suddenly realized that both of these 'good Samaritans' were adult men who had yet to overtake her, lagging far behind.
Her pace gradually slowed, and as the thief ahead and the 'good Samaritans' behind also began slowing, a sudden panic rose in her mind when she noticed that both her escape routes were now blocked, and people from both sides were slowly closing in on her.
This wasn't robbery—it was kidnapping!
These people had plenty of experience, effectively cutting off all her escape paths.
As the people from both sides drew closer, countless thoughts raced through her mind, and just as she prepared to seize a gap and desperately try to break through the encirclement, a youth wearing black clothes and long hair, sporting plain glasses and a large black backpack, suddenly turned into the alley from the other end.
"He Ao... Brother He?"
The two 'good Samaritans' behind Liu Nan quivered and shouted out as they saw the youth appear, then turned to run.
"What the hell, Brother He—these guys are just so unreliable."
The ringleader who had stolen the bag saw his two accomplices flee and knew someone had come from behind; he cursed as he slowly pulled out a folding knife from his pocket, waiting for the footsteps drawing near from behind to approach.
"Watch out!"
Liu Nan instinctively shouted a warning.
By now, the youth had reached the thief's rear, seemingly not hearing Liu Nan's warning and calmly continuing towards the thief.
The thief heard Liu Nan's shout, using the moment she raised her voice to wield his knife, spinning around to stab.
People tend to get distracted when someone calls out to them, and he was banking on that moment of distraction.
However, the youth behind wasn't distracted by Liu Nan's voice and deftly dodged the thrust of the knife, countering with a slap to the side of the thief's face.
With a loud smack, the man went limp and fell to the ground, knocked out.
Everything unfolded so swiftly that Liu Nan hadn't even had the chance to react.
"You just... you knocked him out?"
"The area below the earlobe is close to the medulla oblongata's respiratory center. A heavy blow to this spot can cause the respiratory center to be suppressed, leading to temporary unconsciousness," the young man calmly explained as he crouched down, turning the unconscious man over and speaking in a soothing tone. "However, I wouldn't recommend you try this move. Someone untrained is likely to misjudge the force needed, and if you don't knock your opponent out right away, you might end up getting caught.
My advice is to run to a crowded place and call the police if you find yourself in a similar situation in the future."
After flipping the man over, the youth then leisurely took out a pink pair of handcuffs from the backpack behind him and lifted the man's hands, cuffing them behind his back.
"Ah, okay," Liu Nan watched his somewhat familiar face, at a loss for words momentarily, so she looked at the small handcuffs and tentatively sought a topic. "He Ao... are you a cop?"
"No," He Ao shook his head as he secured the handcuffs, "I bought these handcuffs from the adult store near the north gate of our school. They've got good quality there."
Liu Nan: "Huh?"