After school, a group of people gathered at the billiard hall at the back of the school to play cards.
Wang Lu'an leaned back in the chair, his head drooping back, "An exam as soon as school starts. Fangqin must be crazy."
"Do the results get reported to the parents after every exam for your class?"
"Don't mention it. My dad's going to beat me up again with his baseball bat." Wang Lu'an looked gratefully at the person next to him, "Fortunately with you here, I won't ever be last place."
Yu Fan ignored him. He threw out a card.
Zhang Xianjing was the only girl in this group. She drank her milk tea with her legs crossed, "Isn't your deskmate a disciplinary committee member?
You didn't copy him?"
"Copy, my ass. I can't believe he's a disciplinary committee member." Wang Lu'an was angry at the thought of it, "His writing is comparable to Yu Fan's. I was almost about to develop a squint from trying to decipher it —— Fucking hell! I just put out a three and you threw out a joker??"
"Because you're annoying." Yu Fan said.
"....."
Zhang Xianjing laughed out loud, "But Yu Fan, it's only the beginning of the semester and you handed in a blank paper - you didn't even try and guess the multiple choice questions. Do you really plan on angering Fangqin to death?"
On the topic of the exam, Yu Fan thought of a certain someone. His act of throwing out a card became a little more forceful.
He asked, "Can I get 90 by guessing the multiple choice questions?"
Zhang Xianjing raised a brow, "The number of multiple choice questions don't even add up to 90."
That's why.
If he couldn't get more than 90, it didn't matter whether or not he did it.
Itching for a smoke, Yu Fan reached into his pocket to get a cigarette.
But when his fingers brushed against the rough surface belonging to a sheet of paper, he cursed inside and quickly pulled his hand out again.
It was the scratch paper Chen Jingshen had given him.
He originally wanted to crumple it up and throw it out but Zhuang Fangqin had just happened to pass by the back door and called out to him so he reflexively shoved it into his pocket.
Yu Fan felt that he might become allergic to any paper that comes from Chen Jingshen.
"What's so good about doing it? I've never written on any of them." With a cigarette in his mouth, Zuo Kuan tried to show off, "Even the teachers don't dare say anything to me."
Wang Lu'an, "Your teacher just doesn't care about you."
Zuo Kuan, "Isn't that pretty good? Your homeroom teacher sounds really annoying. If she was my homeroom teacher, I would've already——-" Slap. Yu Fan threw his last card onto the table.
"Less nonsense." Yu Fan said, "Bring your face closer."
Zuo Kuan, "..." Half a minute later, Zuo Kuan had the words 'bastard' written on his face.
"Fuck. Once more…" After saying that, the person next to him suddenly elbowed him. Zuo Kwan frowned, "What?"
"Brother Kuan, look over there. That girl out there, isn't she the one who pursued you before?"
"Who?" Wang Lu'an looked out.
"Oh, her." Zuo Kuan raised a brow when he saw the girl hurry away from the billiard hall, "It's nothing, just a girl in class three. She has been pursuing me for two months, bringing me water and snacks everyday, it's extremely annoying. And she is ugly too. It took me a lot of effort to get rid of her."
"Is that girl blind?" Zhang Xianjing asked cooly as she busily played on her phone.
"Bullshit. With me this handsome, there are lots of people who like me, okay?" Zuo Kuan looked at the cards, "You know what's most disgusting? You know about class three right? They all say that it's practically a liberal arts class. That girl would write me a letter a week and it would be filled with ancient poems and classical literature. I don't even fucking underst———" Yu Fan, "How did you get rid of her?"
Hearing the person who hadn't spoken until now suddenly speak, Zuo Kuan froze for a moment, "What?"
"I said," Yu Fan repeated, "How did you get rid of her?"
"It's easy." Zuo Kuan said, "I scribbled over my name on her letters and then put them up on the blackboard in her class."
Zhang Xianjing rolled her eyes at him, "You're the worst."
"Huh? Who told her to pester me nonstop?" Zuo Kuan said, "Yu Fan, why are you asking this? Is a girl pursuing you?"
"What do you think? You think there wouldn't be any girls pursuing this brother of mine?" Wang Lu'an raised his brows triumphantly, looking as if he was the one with many pursuers, "Yu Fan just received a love lette——- Fuck Yu Fan, you're doing that again?! I'm on the same team as you! I'm also a farmer!"
Yu Fan, "You're noisy."
Zhang Xianjing put down her phone and leaned towards their table with a look of curiosity, "Is that true? Yu Fan, who gave you the love letter?"
Yu Fan, "No one."
"Tell me." Zhang Xianjian pestered, "First or second year? Do they look good? Do I know them? Could it be———-Chen Jingshen?"
Yu Fan directly threw all his cards out.
He subconsciously wanted to refute but he then heard Zheng Xianjing say, "Isn't that Chen Jingshen?"
Yu Fan stopped when he heard that. He turned his head and looked out the billiard hall.
With his back to them, Chen Jingshen stood not far from the back gates with his bag on one shoulder and his two hands hanging naturally by his sides.
He didn't move. Three sloppily dressed men stood in front of him.
"It's really him." Wang Lu'an leaned closer to the window, "And those people in front of him….Aren't they from the neighbouring school? What are they doing?"
"Why else would those people from that school come here?" Zhang Xianjing said, "To extort money, of course."
Yu Fan rested his elbow against the sofa behind him and lazily watched on.
There was a technical college near their school that was a little messy. The people there would often come here to cause trouble and Hu Pang even began to patrol the area every three or so days for a period of time but, because school had just started and he was busy, this matter had been put off.
The three people standing in front of Chen Jingshen had all sorts of strange and colourful hair and their clothes were similarly very bright and flamboyant. They looked like they could start working immediately if they entered any barber shop around here.
It conversely made Chen Jingshen appear even more prim and proper in contrast.
Zuo Kuan took in his expression and asked tentatively, "Yu Fan, you're not going to do anything? Isn't he from your class?"
Yu Fan ignored him. He continued to watch on.
Do something, my ass. With so many people getting extorted every month, how could he deal with it all? Would Fat Tiger pay him for this?
Moreover.
Although Chen Jingshen is a nerd, his body had developed well. His shoulders were almost twice as wide as those idiots standing in front of him and he was also about half a head taller. If not for his overly goody-goody demeanour making him look weak, who would believe that these monkeys would try and extort him? As long as Chen Jingshen has some backbone and fights back, those three wouldn't hesitate to scamper back home—-In the distance, the tall figure paused for a moment before lowering his head and pulling out his wallet.
Yu Fan, "?"
-The three delinquents were actually not too confident when it came to the person standing before them.
In fact, they typically only targeted students in the lower years or girls but this person…..The sneakers he wore were too eye-catching. According to one of them, it was worth close to five figures.
Coupled with his good student appearance, the three of them decided to give it a gamble! With no fear, a bike can become a motorbike!
"Hey…..Did you hear me?" The person standing at the front summoned up his courage and held up his WeChat QR code, "If you don't transfer me five hundred, we'll have to invite you to another place with us for a nice chat."
Chen Jingshen lowered his eyes. His eyes swept across their faces.
They only now realised that this person's good student appearance was completely due to his neat school uniform.
The young man's eyes were thin and monolidded and his facial features were sharp and defined – His looks were in fact very cold. When he looked down at them, it made the others uncontrollably tense up.
For a moment, they regretted their decision.
Chen Jingshen thought for a few seconds before reaching into his pocket.
Perhaps it was because of that look earlier, they subconsciously thought Chen Jingshen was about to take out a weapon or a phone to call the police.
The one at the front hurriedly took a few steps back, "What are you doing?
Take your hand out or we——" His words came to a stop when he saw Chen Jingshen take money out.
They stared dumbfounded at the person in front of them who had begun to count the number of notes before handing it over.
"I don't have WeChat, only cash." The student finally spoke up. Those were the first words he said to them.
The delinquents were in shock for a moment.
Why did they feel like beggars who had been given some change?
And also.
What was with high school students these days? How could they have that much money on them??
"No WeChat? I'm not possibly going to believe that nonsense. You don't normally chat with others? Play games? Date?"
When he said that last word, the delinquent paused for a moment. He felt that this person might actually not know how to date.
He received the five hundred, his eyes still staring greedily at the rest in Chen Jingshen's hand, "Forget it. How much do you have there? Give it all….."
An empty card box flew over, hitting that person square on his face.
The box fell onto the ground with a clatter.
The person who was hit was stunned for a moment. He held his head and turned to look at the culprit behind him, "Who fucking dar——-" When he saw who it was, he immediately shut his mouth.
The people at their school had said that going to the high school next door to extort some money was fine but when you see someone fierce-looking with two moles on their face, you should hurry and leave.
Isn't that this person standing before them?
Chen Jingshen looked over and saw his new deskmate standing there.
At this very moment, the expression on his deskmate's face was just as poor as that time when he refused to let him copy from him.
Yu Fan didn't look at him.
"Give the money back to him." He said to the three delinquents, "And then get lost."
The expressions of the three of them instantly changed. The one standing in the middle raised his chin, "Who the fuck are you?"
"Goodness me, you don't recognise him?" Wang Lu'an who had come over put his hand on that person's shoulder and grinned, "He had just taught that buzzcut guy from your school a lesson not long ago, haven't you heard about it?"
"....."
"Are they attending school these days? I saw that they were hurt pretty badly that day."
"...."
Ten seconds later, that person could only stiffly give the money to Yu Fan.
Yu Fan didn't receive it, "Is it my money?"
That person paused and then turned his hand around and held it out in front of Chen Jingshen.
....
After those people left, Zhang Xianjing came out from the billiards hall, "Leaving already? Cowards."
"They were originally no one special…." Wang Lu'an's words came to a stop when he looked over and saw Zhang Xianjing suddenly wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses.
"That's true." Zhang Xianjing pushed up her glasses and then looked over at the boy with faked concern, "Classmate Chen, you didn't receive too much of a shock, did you?"
Chen Jingshen put his money back in his pocket, "No."
Zhang Xianjing smiled gently, "That's good. The back of our school can be quite dangerous, you should be careful in the future."
Her tone made Wang Lu'an feel extremely uncomfortable. He pursed his lips and asked, "Top Student, why did you just give them the money? The security guard for the back gate is still there. You could've just called out to him or fought back. They wouldn't dare make too much of a commotion."
Chen Jingshen, "Too troublesome."
His expression was calm and his tone was indifferent, as if the person who just had money extorted from wasn't him.
Wang Lu'an, "...."
"How about this, classmate Chen?" Zhang Xianjing bent her eyes into a crescent, "Why don't we add each other on WeChat? If you run into any danger in the future, you can come and find me. I'll bring people over to save you as soon as I can!"
After saying that, she paused for a moment, "Oh, but you don't have WeChat, right? Then a phone number will do."
Chen Jingshen was silent for two seconds. He then recited a string of numbers.
Zhang Xianjing hadn't expected him to give it to her so easily. She was surprised for a moment before she took out her phone, "Wait, wait, wait. Say it again but slowly."
Yu Fan began regretting his decision the moment he stepped in. He internally cursed himself out and then turned to leave with one hand in his pocket.
Just as he took a step, someone suddenly grabbed his sleeve.
The others were stunned.
Yu Fan subconsciously lowered his head. He saw a familiar, well-defined hand holding onto his clothes.
With some force, he tried to pull his clothes out of that person's grip.
But it was to no avail.
And so, he could only frown and raise his eyes, "What do you want….."
"Can I add you on WeChat?" Chen Jingshen asked.
Yu Fan, "...…" Zhang Xianting who was still entering the number into her phone, "?"