novelraw Chapter 32
Chapter 32
Chapter 32 [Second Update]Qin Qing originally planned to return Wen Yufeng’s school jacket directly to his house, but no matter how hard she knocked on his door that afternoon, no one answered.
With no other choice, she put the jacket into a paper bag and brought it back to school.
The first thing she did when she got to the classroom was prepare to move her things to the desk at the back of the room.
She had just started packing when she heard Fang Xiaojing, who was sitting next to her, speak in a tone that was a bit sarcastic, “Are you feeling particularly proud of yourself right now?”
Qin Qing froze, then stood up and looked at Fang Xiaojing.
The girl who would soon become her former deskmate also smiled at her, but there was clearly no goodwill in that smile.
Qin Qing pressed her lips together and remembered Zhuo Anke’s words.
…So, there really are a lot of people who like him.
“Do you like Wen Yufeng?”
“…”
Fang Xiaojing’s smile froze. She widened her eyes and stared at Qin Qing, taking a few seconds to confirm that this question really came from her quiet deskmate.
Once she realized it, Fang Xiaojing’s face turned extremely unpleasant, interpreting it as a taunt from someone who had won at the expense of someone who had lost.
She sneered, “I do well in school, so why would I like someone who’s always at the bottom of the class and skips school to fight?”
As soon as she said it, Fang Xiaojing regretted her words.
It wasn’t because of anything else but the fear that if Qin Qing told Wen Yufeng what she had said, she would be in serious trouble.
Hearing her words, Qin Qing felt, for the first time, a surge of anger burst from every cell in her body, gathering in her mind within an instant.
The girl standing there let her gaze cool.
—
At that moment, Qin Qing didn’t yet realize that she was the kind of person who became colder and more detached the angrier she got.
Qin Qing’s expression didn’t change. She just looked at Fang Xiaojing and slightly tilted her head.
In another context, this gesture might have looked cute.
But the words that came out of her mouth and the look in her eyes that Fang Xiaojing had never seen before were anything but cute—
“I’ve realized just how wrong I was before… It turns out that being good at academics has nothing to do with being a decent person.”
Qin Qing’s voice was soft, but her pace was slow.
It was as if she wanted to make sure Fang Xiaojing heard her clearly, as she spoke each word with precision: “Someone like you, who can’t even admit to your own feelings and instead finds satisfaction in belittling others, no matter how good your grades are—what use are they?”
With Fang Xiaojing glaring at her, Qin Qing calmly packed the rest of her things into her bag. Her slender, fair hands gently fastened the strap.
Then she looked up, her clear black-and-white eyes cold and pure. “Goodbye.”
After that, Qin Qing didn’t give Fang Xiaojing another glance. She picked up her bag, walked around the classroom, and sat down at the desk in the back.
After setting down her bag, she laid her head on the desk.
—
Mom, that scary person just now, that wasn’t really me, right?
Trying to reassure herself, it took a while for Qin Qing to calm down, finally sitting up slowly.
By then, the students of Class 6, Grade 11, had started trickling into the classroom. Almost without exception, each one would look at where Qin Qing used to sit, and after confirming it was empty, they’d glance toward the back of the room.
Once they saw the petite girl sitting behind the last desk, the students of Class 6 exchanged glances.
Qin Qing wasn’t oblivious to these looks, nor was she surprised by them.
In fact, when Zhuo Anke mentioned that the news had spread among the first-year students, she had already expected this scene.
What she hadn’t expected was that on her first day as Wen Yufeng’s deskmate, he would ditch her for the entire afternoon.
Even though Wen Yufeng hadn’t shown up, his troublesome admirers had.
—
After grabbing dinner at the cafeteria and returning to the classroom, Qin Qing found a piece of paper on her desk.
It had four large, menacing red characters scrawled across it: “STAY AWAY FROM HIM.”
Qin Qing frowned slightly at the paper, hesitated for a moment, and then picked it up, folded it neatly, and walked over to the trash can to throw it away.
With a stern expression, she returned to her desk and began her evening self-study session without a word.
She needed to think about how to deal with someone who had just promised to improve but had skipped school on the very first day.
To everyone’s surprise, halfway through the first evening self-study session, Wen Yufeng returned.
—
The front door of the classroom was suddenly pushed open, and many of the students, startled, looked up to see the boy, dressed in a black hoodie and faded blue jeans, walk in from outside.
Bringing with him the coolness of a late summer evening, Wen Yufeng strode toward the last desk in the room, his breathing a bit unsteady.
His face was expressionless, but his deep black eyes seemed to sparkle like a starry sky.
He focused intently on the girl sitting at the desk, and the weight that had been on his mind all afternoon finally lifted.
He was genuinely worried that his absence might push the girl even further away from him.
Wen Yufeng stopped when he reached his seat, taking a moment to steady his breathing before leaning down.
“…I’m sorry.”
His voice was low and magnetic, and it startled Qin Qing, who had been absorbed in her studies. Her wide, beautiful almond-shaped eyes blinked in surprise as she looked up innocently at the person beside her.
When she recognized who it was, Qin Qing finally snapped out of her initial shock.
Her small face tightened again, but since it was during evening self-study, she didn’t say anything, only giving Wen Yufeng a light glare before turning her head away.
“…”
Wen Yufeng’s thin lips curled into a smile, brightening his mood, which had been gloomy all afternoon.
However, before he could say anything else, Qin Qing, who had lowered her head again, suddenly looked up, her eyes filled with curiosity.
She looked Wen Yufeng up and down with serious scrutiny, finally spotting what had seemed off to her.
—
In all the time she had known him, this was the first time she had seen Wen Yufeng at school without his uniform.
He was dressed in a simple outfit, just casual clothes, but with his naturally broad shoulders, narrow waist, and long legs, he made the black hoodie and faded blue jeans look like something out of a high-end fashion campaign.
And whether it was due to the classroom lighting or the contrast with the black hoodie, Wen Yufeng, who she had always thought was paler than most boys, now appeared even more striking—like a large piece of white jade.
And not just any jade, but the kind crafted by a master artist.
As Qin Qing thought this, she kept her small face serious and whispered, “Why aren’t you wearing your uniform tonight?”
As soon as she asked, Qin Qing paused, feeling a bit guilty.
…Could it be because I wore his school jacket?
Wearing just a thin white uniform shirt on a chilly night like this would indeed be rather cold.
Meanwhile, Wen Yufeng had already sat down beside her, placing the gray cushion from his desk to the side.
He spoke casually, with a hint of a smile in his voice, “I accidentally got it dirty.”
As if recalling something, a dark emotion flickered in his eyes, hidden from Qin Qing’s view.
“It looks like you’ll have to see me in different clothes for a few days.”
“…”
Although his words seemed innocent enough, the tone of his voice, half playful and half serious, made Qin Qing’s face flush with warmth for no reason.
Trying to cover up her embarrassment, Qin Qing reached over to the bookstand and pulled out two math worksheets.
“One of these is classwork, and the other is tonight’s homework—you skipped class, so you need to catch up… Don’t go home until you finish it.”
At the end of her words, there was a small, unintentional hint of resentment.
Wen Yufeng caught that emotion clearly. He sighed softly, his lips still holding a trace of a smile as he turned slightly toward her.
“Sweetie, I really didn’t miss class on purpose.”
His voice was low and slightly hoarse, but it wasn’t so quiet that others couldn’t hear it. As soon as he spoke, the two students sitting in front of them stiffened noticeably.
Qin Qing, on the other hand, was momentarily stunned.
—
She never expected him to call her by that nickname so openly, in the classroom, of all places.
When she snapped back to reality, her cheeks were already as red as apples.
Sensing that pushing further might make the little “bunny” explode, Wen Yufeng didn’t say anything more, turning back to his own desk with a slight smile.
Then, as he looked at the two worksheets, Wen Yufeng lifted his right hand, which had been hanging by his side, and grasped the pen that Qin Qing had also handed him.
Unconsciously, his sharp brows furrowed slightly.
As the corner grew quiet again, the glances that had been sneaking their way toward them from other parts of the classroom gradually disappeared.
The classroom returned to its usual silence.
—Until Li Xiang and Zhao Ziru burst into the room with nearly the force of a battering ram.
Outside the classroom, a group of students from other classes, who usually hung out with them, were waiting, looking upset and angry.
The entire class was startled, without exception, and the two culprits were already halfway to the back of the room.
Wen Yufeng looked up, his expression cold as he stared at the pair.
Zhao Ziru, catching Wen Yufeng’s warning glance, pressed his lips together, suppressing the words he had been about to say.
Li Xiang, though, was still charging ahead like an airhead. Even though Zhao Ziru tugged at him when they reached the desk, and Wen Yufeng’s sharp gaze pierced him, he couldn’t help but exclaim when he saw Wen Yufeng holding a pen—
“Yu-ge, how can you be doing homework right now!?”
The one who had assigned the homework, Qin Qing, looked up in confusion, not understanding Li Xiang’s words.
Li Xiang didn’t need to think to know that this was Qin Qing’s request, and he was about to say something when Wen Yufeng’s cold voice cut him off.
“Shut up, talk outside.”
With that, he set the pen down and was the first to get up and walk out of the classroom.
Li Xiang glared fiercely at Qin Qing before being dragged out by Zhao Ziru.
Left behind, Qin Qing furrowed her brows in bewilderment.
Just as she was trying to make sense of it all, her phone vibrated gently in her pocket.
After a moment of hesitation, Qin Qing took out her phone and looked down at the new message notification.
It was from Zhuo Anke.
—
“Qin Qing, I heard that Wen Yufeng got cornered by a gang of delinquents from Third Middle School this afternoon, and someone ambushed him and cut him with a knife. He needed a lot of stitches. Is he okay??”
“…”
With a clatter, Qin Qing’s phone slipped from her hand and fell to the floor.
The noise attracted several curious glances from her classmates.
But the girl noticed nothing. She simply stared blankly at the half-completed worksheets on the desk beside her.
It was only now that the pieces fell into place—Wen Yufeng’s sudden change of clothes to the black hoodie, his pale complexion under the classroom lights, and the slightly hurried sound of his breathing, which she had never noticed before.
Realizing the truth behind it all, Qin Qing didn’t even bother to pick up her phone. She jumped up and ran out of the classroom in a panic.