The smell of human hustle and bustle and savory food blanketed the long street.
This street was located right on the edge of Qucheng's college district, famous as a haven for dining and entertainment. Food stalls lined both sides of the road, and skewers sizzled as they were flipped over the charcoal flames, their aroma making mouths water uncontrollably.
Above, numerous neon signs in various sizes bore the names of foot bath parlors, massage centers, and video arcades, hanging unevenly and flashing in a riot of colors.
At that moment, Lin Xialing, who had sneaked out of school, adjusted her baseball cap as she walked down the narrow street, scanning the crowds of students in uniform. Finally, she spotted a familiar uniform in a corner.
Seeing the girl look left and right with guarded wariness, Lin Xialing hurriedly darted to the side, using the sign of a cold noodles stall to continue her observation.
Before long, that girl made eye contact with a vocational school boy, and the two of them walked one after the other into an inconspicuous, dim alley. Lin Xialing peered into the depths of the alley; it was pitch black inside.
Lin Xialing immediately quickened her pace to follow, weaving through tables of noisy, drunken customers, and arrived at the entrance of the dark alley.
Most people here lacked basic hygiene. When drunk and struck by the call of nature, they couldn't be bothered to find a public restroom, preferring to use this dark alley for convenience. The moment Lin Xialing stepped closer, she almost gagged.
She turned her head to take a deep breath of fresh air, endured her nausea, and slipped inside.
"Don't you care what this is! It's her personal hair tie. Take a sniff—isn't there a hint of pomelo scent? Doesn't it smell good? Can this possibly be the same as her old homework notebooks? Let me ask you, what's popular right now? Isn't it wearing your girlfriend's hair tie on your wrist? By extension, isn't Luo Yilan your girlfriend now?" Seeing that the boy was still hesitating, the girl rolled her eyes. "Forget it, if you don't want it, there are plenty of people who do."
"Then throw in something else for me. I'm one of your regular customers, after all." The boy barged into bargaining with her.
"I'll throw in a tissue she's used. Not a single thing more."
The girl expertly pulled a sealed bag out of her pocket containing what was obviously a crumpled, used tissue.
"Are these really my goddess's things? Don't try to rip me off!"
"Of course they are. I've always dealt fairly with young and old alike in my business."
Hearing this, Lin Xialing could no longer suppress the anger burning in her heart. She felt as though her very hair was about to catch fire, and forgetting all about the stench of urine, she bent down to pick up the thickest wooden stick from the ground. Weighing it in her hand, she called out in a full, resonant voice: "Jiang Meiyi!"
The two figures standing with their backs to Lin Xialing froze visibly. Jiang Meiyi stiffly turned around and, recognizing Lin Xialing, instantly turned extremely awkward: "Lin... Lin Xialing, why are you here?"
Lin Xialing lifted the brim of her duck-bill cap, revealing a pair of beautiful eyes filled with fury, and walked slowly toward the two of them while weighing the wooden stick in her hand: "I've thought you were acting suspicious for a long time. You come to see Luoluo every day, and every time you leave, something goes missing from Luoluo's desk. So you've been pulling off such a disgusting scam."
"Who the hell are you—" The vocational school hoodlum interrupted himself the moment he spoke, cut off by Lin Xialing: "Shut up. You look even more disgusting, you total pervert."
The hoodlum looked at the wooden stick hovering right at the tip of his nose and swallowed hard.
Jiang Meiyi looked at the aggressive Lin Xialing and brought her hands together in a pleading gesture.
"Lin Xialing, can you please not tell Luo Yilan about this? I only... did it a few times... Lin Xialing, I'm begging you."
Jiang Meiyi was terrified. Knowing Luo Yilan as she did, even if Lin Xialing falsely accused her of murder, Luo Yilan would call the police immediately.
"First hand over her things." Lin Xialing pulled a small notebook out of her pocket and handed it over. "Then write down the names and contact numbers of all your customers, and get every single item back for me!"
"How is that even possible? So many of them have already been sold." Jiang Meiyi regretted the words the moment they left her mouth. Realizing she had slipped up, she tugged aggrievedly at Lin Xialing's sleeve. "A lot of it was just trash that Luo Yilan threw away anyway."
Hearing this, the hoodlum grew indignant: "How can this be trash? This hair tie is in great condition."
He made to stash it away in his pocket like a precious treasure, but Lin Xialing snatched it right out of his hand.
"If you don't hand them over, we'll see each other at the police station."
Dropping those words, Lin Xialing turned on her heel to leave.
"Who the hell do you think you are? Do you even know who the chief of police is? He's my uncle!"
The hoodlum swelled with arrogance at that, his face practically plastered with the words: What can you possibly do to me?
Hearing the hoodlum say this, Jiang Meiyi unconsciously straightened her back as well and began negotiating terms with Lin Xialing: "Lin Xialing, why don't you just name your price?"
Lin Xialing watched the two of them hurling threats one after another, casting nothing more than a fleeting, weightless glance their way. Yet even that single look was heavy with supreme contempt.
"Damn it!" The hoodlum lunged forward, grabbed Lin Xialing's arm, and clamped a hand around her neck. "Don't toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit!"
Lin Xialing didn't hold back either. She jammed her wooden stick straight into the hoodlum's stomach, driving the blow home so hard that he instantly doubled over, twisted around, and retched, vomiting up the mutton skewers he had just eaten onto the ground.
Seeing that the situation was turning south, Jiang Meiyi grabbed a large shard of glass from the side and hurled it at Lin Xialing, only for Lin Xialing to shatter it with a single strike of her wooden stick. A crisp crash echoed through the dark alley, and flying glass shards sprayed onto the unprepared hoodlum, forcing a harsh curse from his lips.
The hoodlum pointed angrily at Lin Xialing: "You're the one asking for trouble."
Lin Xialing dismissively pointed her wooden stick at the two partners in crime standing before her: "Just the two of you? Please."
The hoodlum laughed: "Who said it's just the two of us?"
He shouted out a name, and turning her head, Lin Xialing saw four or five figures swaggering into the entrance of the dark alley.
Two fists could hardly match four hands, after all.
"Teacher Louis Cha, grant me strength."
Muttering those words, Lin Xialing suddenly raised her hand as if to strike the hoodlum. The lackeys at the mouth of the alley panicked and rushed forward to protect their boss, but instead of swinging, Lin Xialing hurled her stick right into the crowd and bolted.
"Idiots! She's running!" Jiang Meiyi stamped her feet in frustration as she looked at the useless bunch.
Focusing his eyes, the hoodlum kicked one of his lackeys right in the knee pit: "After her!"
The figures behind pursued her relentlessly. By now, Lin Xialing had broken out in a sweat—she needed to think of something fast.
And as if on cue, a solution appeared. Lin Xialing caught sight of a round table ahead packed with students having a gathering. The school uniforms they wore clearly bore the name Huilin High School.
Huilin High School—this was Qucheng's most prestigious private academy. The students inside were either ridiculously wealthy or influential scions who loved nothing more than crushing people with money.
To hell with it!
Changing direction on the fly, Lin Xialing sprinted over, hooked her arm around a boy right in the middle of the table, and without another word, planted a loud kiss right on his cheek.
The round table fell silent. The pursuing hoodlum and his gang fell silent, too.
"Well? If you have anything to say, take it up with my boyfriend." Panting heavily from her run, Lin Xialing refused to lose face, arching an eyebrow at the hoodlum with all her swagger intact.
The noisy street was filled with the clinking of glasses, interspersed from time to time with the boisterous boasts of middle-aged men tossing around words like Porsche, western cuisine, and red wine—even though the reality was an old bicycle parked beside them, cheap draft beer in one hand and mutton skewers in the other.
By that logic, the mutton skewers were the most expensive things around.
Yet in the middle of such a bustling street, one particular corner was eerie in its silence.
The people from Huilin never imagined that their notorious school tyrant would one day be ambushed and kissed.
Coming to their senses, they dug their nails into their own thighs, wanting nothing more than to slap themselves twice just to suppress their laughter.
For a moment, not a single person made a sound.
The vocational school crowd was equally intimidated by the Huilin pack, but above all, they were terrified of the person Lin Xialing had just kissed.
Stammering, the hoodlum blurted out: "Zhu... Zhu Huaining?"
Only then did Zhu Huaining let his dark eyes shift, glancing at Lin Xialing, who was casually draped over his arm.
A low, indifferent nasal hum escaped him: "Hmm?"