"Teacher Li, you must be here to check if we cleaned properly, right?"
Li Dabao stared at Luo Hongli's tear-streaked face in a drowse, completely forgetting why he had even come in the first place.
"Stop changing the subject! Out with it, did you bully Classmate Luo?"
Chen Ye spread his hands. "I really didn't. If you don't believe me, ask her."
With that, he shot her a look that clearly said: *If you dare not cover for me, you're dead.*
Luo Hongli raised her arm to wipe her face. As terrifying as Chen Ye's threat was, she was even more terrified of the teacher finding out that all the missing chloroform from the school had been stolen by her.
"T-Teacher, no, he didn't bully me."
Li Dabao shoved Chen Ye aside with a frown, his tone instantly shifting into the gentlest register imaginable.
"Classmate Luo, don't be scared. Teacher's got your back, tell me the absolute truth."
"If he bullied you, tomorrow—no, from now on, he is not allowed to come to school ever again! Speak up!"
Seeing that Luo Hongli had been driven into a corner, Chen Ye cursed her silently for a fool. *Why are you hesitating like you've got a secret? You look like you're telling the truth—don't you even know how to lie?*
"Teacher Li, she's just a girl, she's easily embarrassed. A bug just landed on her, and I was helping her get it off. That's why she was scared to tears, right, Classmate Luo?"
"Shut the hell up! Did I tell you to open your mouth? Let her speak for herself." Li Dabao snapped, turning back to glare at him.
Luo Hongli wiped her nose and nodded. "Teacher, what Chen Ye said is true."
Li Dabao's brain short-circuited. For someone born and raised in Shancheng, a single little bug was enough to scare someone into crying like this?
Sigh, she's the top student in the class, I'll let it slide!
"What are you grinning your big teeth at? You couldn't even protect a girl—don't you dare call yourself a Shancheng man!"
Chen Ye protested, "Come on, Lao Li, you're being a bit unreasonable here. Was I the one who made the bug scare her?"
Li Dabao was about to wave a hand and say something else to ease the awkward atmosphere when he suddenly spotted a bottle of chloroform in Chen Ye's hand.
Aha! So it really was you little idiot who stole it!
Expulsion! He had to expel him!
He would not allow this kind of deadweight student in his Sprint Class!
Get him out of here to learn a trade!
"What's that in your hand? Hand it over!"
"It's empty?"
Chen Ye immediately waved his hands. "I didn't drink it, I swear."
Li Dabao was thoroughly amused. "You absolute idiot, can you even drink this stuff? How is it empty? I clearly took all the empty bottles you guys finished using during class when I left, and I locked five—no, six bottles in the cabinet."
As the cabinet was unlocked, Li Dabao counted multiple times until he was certain there were five.
At that moment, Chen Ye chimed in, "Lao Li, a person's first impression is always the most accurate. Don't try to pin this on me, you only put five bottles in there to begin with!"
Li Dabao was starting to doubt his own sanity. Today he had rushed out of the school in a panic because his wife was threatening to divorce him.
Could he really have misremembered?
He had set this whole trap specifically for Chen Ye; there shouldn't have been any slip-ups.
"Shut up, let me think this through. I have a habit—I always put six bottles of every reagent in the cabinet, except for chloroform, which is five. How do you explain that?"
Chen Ye countered, "Wait, you're asking me? Don't tell me I put them there?"
Seeing Li Dabao refuse to let Chen Ye off the hook, Luo Hongli grew anxious.
If Chen Ye got expelled because of her, she would never have peace of mind for the rest of her life.
"Teacher, this empty bottle really was under the experimental workbench. I found it when I was mopping."
Li Dabao scratched his completely bald head. "Did I remember wrong? Tsk, whatever. You guys take the trash out, I'm locking up."
"Hold on!"
"Lao Li, I really didn't drink it."
"Don't play games with me. You walk Classmate Luo home safely. If she loses a single hair, I'm calling your old man to the school!"
Chen Ye replied, "Mission guaranteed. Lao Li, you're looking kind of handsome today."
Watching them leave, Li Dabao smoothed down his glossy bald pate, thinking to himself: *My wife is about to divorce me, being handsome isn't going to stop her from leaving.*
Outside No. 8 Middle School.
The sky had already grown dark, and Luo Hongli didn't even have a bicycle?
They walked side by side under the streetlights in complete silence.
Chen Ye pushed his bicycle along and gave a light cough. "Get on."
Luo Hongli shook her head. "That's the 34th time you've looked at my chest! Stop suspecting me, I really don't have anything else hidden in my clothes. If you don't believe me, see for yourself!"
*Zip.*
As the zipper was pulled down.
A phrase instantly popped into Chen Ye's head: *As quiet as a virgin, as quick as a frightened hare.*
Perfect. Truly perfect.
*Hoo-ha~*
"You're the one who insisted on showing me, I didn't say I actually wanted to look."
"You!"
Luo Hongli's face flushed bright red with fury. Seeing that Chen Ye was still standing there staring unblinkingly, she quickly zipped her jacket back up.
"You."
"Me."
"You speak first."
"You... first..."
Luo Hongli lowered her head, twisting the straps of her backpack in her hands, and whispered, "Thank you... again."
Chen Ye was still thinking that since she wouldn't get on the bike, he would just walk her home instead, and completely missed her expression of gratitude.
"What did you say?"
Luo Hongli took a deep breath and turned her head away. "Nothing at all. I can walk home by myself."
Chen Ye suddenly let out a weird yelp. "Holy crap, you just dropped a hair!"
Luo Hongli muttered, "It's windy."
Chen Ye suddenly stopped, kicked down his kickstand, and stepped right in front of her. "Did you forget what Teacher Li said? Because of you, I'm going to have to call my parents now."
"H-He doesn't even know, and you—Chen Ye, you're standing way too close..."
"Classmate Luo, why are you blushing? I just helped you out, and now you repay my kindness by dropping a hair? Tell me, how are you going to compensate me?"
"Huh? Compensation? You?!"
"What? Do you want tomorrow's flag-raising ceremony to—wait, why are you crying again..."
Before Chen Ye could finish his threatening remarks, Luo Hongli must have thought of something, because the tears started streaming down her face like they were free.
"Chen Ye, would you please stop bullying me?"
She looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes, her tender lips unconsciously pursed.
That single sentence nearly shattered Chen Ye's heart.
He wanted to slap himself across the face.
Too bad he didn't have a heart.
"Stop crying, or I'll knock you out and sell you off to some remote mountain village."
Having lived a second life, was he really going to let a seventeen-year-old girl intimidate him?
Economic criminals, death-row inmates in prison—what kind of people hadn't he seen?
Sure enough, Luo Hongli was properly frightened. "Oh."
*Rumble~*
"Hungry?"
Remembering that he still had some snacks and bread in his schoolbag, Chen Ye hauled them all out in one go.
"Eat."
"If you can't finish it, take it home."
Luo Hongli swallowed hard. "I—I'll just go home and eat. I—I don't want it."
"You don't want it? Then I'm afraid you won't be going home tonight. You must know about my peerless reputation at school, right?"
"Steps in front. Sit down and eat."
Unable to argue with him, Luo Hongli had no choice but to obey; after all, he still had dirt on her.
For some reason, as Chen Ye watched her sniffle and take tiny bites of the bread, a strange sense of peace washed over him.
Datou's words kept echoing in his mind.
In this lifetime, he wanted to protect this girl well, or at least keep her from committing suicide again. The rest could be figured out slowly.
Luo Hongli nibbled on the sweet, soft bread, then accepted the carton of milk Chen Ye handed her. It had been so, so long since she last ate something like this. Why was it so good it made her want to cry?
No, she couldn't cry anymore, or this bad guy would yell at her.
The next second, a piece of paper suddenly landed by her feet.
*"Luo Hongli owes Chen Ye an immensely huge favor? Priceless?"*
*"Luo Hongli owes Chen Ye one bread, one box of milk, and several snacks? Let's call it ten yuan?"*
She had thought Chen Ye was taking care of her because he felt sorry for her crying. Turns out she was expected to write an IOU?
"Yuck, yuck, yuck! I'm not eating it, I'm spitting it out. I don't have money, I have no money."
Chen Ye drawled lazily, "Let's add another item: wasting food. That's another hundred."
Luo Hongli protested, "You're bullying me! I said I didn't want to eat, you forced me to eat, and I..."
The next second, the sweet solitude of the two of them was abruptly shattered.
"Chen Ye? Why are you two sitting over here?"
Chen Ye looked up toward the steps behind them. Su Lili?
His gaze instantly turned ice cold.