"Are your eyes just for decoration, what the hell? Can't you even watch where you're walking? Didn't you see such a huge corner?"
"I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to."
"Who the hell knows if you meant it! Maybe you did it on purpose? You just can't stand seeing anyone else do well, can you?"
"Looking like such a poor, pathetic loser, and you still have the nerve to show your face out here! Aren't you afraid of humiliating your parents?"
......
As those contemptuous remarks fell one after another, a circle of onlookers gradually gathered around to watch the commotion.
After apologizing yet again, Yao Na'er remained silent. Listening to the girl's rapid-fire barrage of insults, she clenched her fists tightly and said nothing.
Finally, the girl probably grew tired of yelling, or simply ran out of things to say, and offered her solution: "If you want this matter settled, it's not impossible. And if you don't want to pay for the damage, that's not impossible either. Here's what we'll do—you eat this cake off the floor, and I'll pretend nothing ever happened."
She pointed at the ruined, unrecognizable cake on the ground, wearing a condescending expression that made everyone's blood boil.
The people around her were stunned into silence for a few seconds by that remark, and then an uproar broke out.
"No way! She's playing hardball!"
"This girl is going way too far!"
"Oh my god! Does she think she's starring in some TV drama? What is she, some spoiled princess?"
......
Hearing those words, Yao Na'er clenched her fists tightly and took deep breath after deep breath, constantly telling herself in her heart: *Calm down! Calm down! You can't be impulsive, you can't get angry, you can't start a fight. Endure! Endure! Endure!*
Only, she could endure it, but the two big bosses standing behind her certainly couldn't!
Xiao Ye narrowed her eyes, a trace of anger flashing in her obsidian-like eyes. She stepped forward two paces, pulling Yao Na'er behind her. Staring intently at the other girl, she laughed instead of getting angry: "Classmate, isn't that going a bit too far?"
"It was our fault for ruining your shoes, but isn't that demand a little inappropriate?"
At the same time, Huang Li stepped in front of Yao Na'er, folded her arms across her chest, and smiled as she said: "That's right, classmate! After all, we go to the same school, so there's no need to make things so ugly, is there?"
"Hmph! Who said I wanted to go to the same school as you?" came the same arrogant tone. "If you don't want to eat it, fine, then pay for it!"
"Pay for it?" Xiao Ye tilted her head slightly, her delicate brows knitted in a frown, genuinely unable to figure out: Just what on earth made her so sure we couldn't afford to pay? Could it simply be because of the school uniforms we're wearing?
"Alright!" Xiao Ye said with a continuing smile. "It's only eight hundred yuan, right? We'll pay."
"However, we don't have that much cash on us right now. How about this—when the break comes, you can come find us to collect it."
"But before that, you need to apologize to my friend."
"Apologize? What for!?"
"For your foul mouth!" Huang Li said sternly.
The girl looked at the three of them with utter contempt: "Ha! You probably can't afford to pay, so you're just using this cheap trick to stall for time, aren't you?"
Xiao Ye continued smiling: "You're worrying over nothing. With so many people here as witnesses, we couldn't back out even if we wanted to!"
"Hmph! Once you give me the money, I'll apologize!" The girl still wore that condescending expression, reeking of blatant disdain.
Xiao Ye considered this for a moment: "Well... alright then. I hope you remember your own words when the time comes. It doesn't matter even if you forget, after all, there are plenty of people here helping you remember."
"Oh, by the way! I am Xiao Ye from Class 1157."
"Huang Li, Class 1157," Huang Li chimed in domineeringly.
"And, uh, I'm Yao Na'er, Class 1157," Yao Na'er added weakly from behind the other two.
The girl looked at the three of them, pointed her right index finger at them, and said angrily, "I'll remember you!"
Remember away, then! As if that would get you a prize! Huang Li rolled her eyes without the slightest bit of concealment.
"Let's go!"
With that, she turned and left with her entourage. The onlookers gradually dispersed now that one of the main characters had exited the stage.
Yao Na'er looked at Xiao Ye, then at Huang Li, and asked weakly, "What do we do now?"
Xiao Ye let out a soft breath: "What else can we do? Let's take care of this mess first!" She pointed at the thoroughly ruined cake on the ground with a helpless look.
Huang Li casually threw an arm around Yao Na'er's shoulder: "We already talked a big game, there's no backing down now! Come on, let's go get a broom."
"What about me?" Xiao Ye pointed at herself.
"Hold down the fort!"
"Okay!" Her face was full of utter docility, as if the person who had just smiled so devilishly was merely an illusion.