novelraw Chapter 42
Chapter 42
Chapter 42 Blue Cardboard From the Class Next Door“Is this good enough, little teacher?”
The boy’s slightly raspy voice was close, his dark eyes glancing sideways at the girl beside him without blinking.
Qin Qing’s cheeks flushed slightly at the subtle upward lilt in his tone. She looked somewhat conflicted at the tall boy who had walked over to stand beside her.
“Why… did you come here?”
Wen Yufeng turned his face slightly and chuckled, his eyes soft as he looked at her. “Didn’t you say that maintaining the class’s cleanliness is everyone’s responsibility? So I specifically came to check on the cleaning area.”
Before he finished speaking, the smile in his eyes suddenly turned cold, as if the bright sun had abruptly shifted into the harshness of winter.
“And you three…” His gaze slowly shifted to the three girls who had frozen halfway through their escape, and he let out a faint smile that carried no warmth at all.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
The three girls, who had been hoping to make a quick escape, exchanged nervous glances and froze in place.
Seeing that they were only a few steps away from the stairs, they thought if they could just speed up, they might make it out, and then Wen Yufeng wouldn’t know which class they belonged to… They could just avoid him in the future…
But as the three girls were exchanging looks and calculating their options, the boy standing at the bottom of the stairs seemed to have already figured out their plan.
That usually laid-back, handsome face now wore an unmistakable smile, but no matter how you looked at it, it radiated a chilling fierceness that sent shivers down their spines.
“My temper isn’t great. So if anyone makes me go to the trouble of looking up their personal details…”
His cold, dark eyes locked onto the three girls as he continued smiling, “I guarantee you won’t like the consequences.”
Hearing this, the three girls no longer dared to entertain any other thoughts. They stood in a row, their faces as pale as a sheet.
Qin Qing, standing beside Wen Yufeng, watched in amazement.
She had been so angry earlier that she was only thinking of involving the school authorities; but even if Sun Xing himself had confronted these students, they wouldn’t have been as terrified as they were now, as if facing a natural enemy.
So, it really does take a “bad person to deal with bad people”… But for someone to make the entire school fear him like a mouse fears a cat, just how many terrifying things must he have done in the past?
Qin Qing reflected on this with mixed feelings. When she realized she had unconsciously muttered to herself, she quickly raised a hand to cover her mouth.
Her beautiful almond-shaped eyes looked up, blinking as she gazed at the boy standing slightly in front of her.
Fortunately, after a while, he still hadn’t turned around, and Qin Qing relaxed, figuring that Wen Yufeng hadn’t heard her.
Just as Qin Qing breathed a sigh of relief, she heard Wen Yufeng speak again.
His gaze was fixed on the girl who seemed to be the leader, and he slowly walked over to her—
“I heard you say just now that you had already warned her?”
The girl’s fearful demeanor had completely lost the intimidating air she had when confronting Qin Qing earlier. She seemed as if she wanted to bite off her own tongue, her shoulders beginning to tremble.
Wen Yufeng stopped about half a meter away from her.
The cold smile on his face finally disappeared entirely, leaving only two sharp, star-like eyes.
His voice was quieter than before, “I’m curious—what exactly did you warn her about? Come on, tell me.”
“We… we…”
The girl’s voice shook as she spoke, her body trembling more and more until uncontrollable tears finally streamed down her face.
“S-sorry—I’m sorry—I won’t dare do it again, I promise… Yu Ge, please, just let me go this time…”
Crying, the girl bowed deeply in apology, her body trembling violently, clearly terrified out of her wits.
Seeing this, the other two girls, who also began to tear up, followed suit and started bowing as well. Qin Qing noticed that even the girl from her class who had been cleaning with her was pale with fear, her gaze towards Wen Yufeng as if she were looking at some kind of terrifying beast.
“…”
Qin Qing’s fingertips curled into her palm, her eyes reflecting a hint of compassion.
But it wasn’t for the three girls; it was for the boy standing there alone, perhaps seen by most of the teachers and students as a monster or an outcast.
But in truth… he was very gentle.
He could be at a loss in front of an unfamiliar elderly neighbor, be as cautious as a child, and after getting drunk, he could lean close and whisper softly in her ear…
He wasn’t a monster.
Qin Qing stood there for a few seconds before she couldn’t suppress her feelings anymore. She walked over to him.
Wen Yufeng was just about to speak again when he felt someone lightly tug on the hem of his hoodie.
He turned around.
The petite girl stood behind him, looking up at him with her little face raised.
“Wen Yufeng, that’s enough.”
Her expression was serious. “If you keep going, the whole school will hear by tomorrow that you made three girls cry.”
Before Wen Yufeng could respond, Qin Qing turned her gaze to the girl’s chest—the name tag hidden under her school jacket had been exposed by her earlier bow.
Qin Qing slowly read it aloud: “Song Yan.” Then she looked up at the girl whose face was now streaked with tears, her own expression calm and collected.
“I remember your name now. For the rest of the two years in high school, as long as nothing happens to me, fine. But if anything happens to me, even the slightest thing, my parents and the school teachers will come to you first… I promise.”
The emphasis on the word “promise” made Wen Yufeng pause. When he realized she was mimicking what he had said earlier, a faint smile touched his eyes.
Unable to resist, he gently ruffled the girl’s hair.
Then, Wen Yufeng turned his gaze to the three girls—
“On her behalf, I’ll let this slide today.”
He lifted his arm and pointed at the three piles of trash. “But if there’s even a bit left… you three better not show up at school tomorrow.”
After that, Wen Yufeng lowered his bandaged right hand and naturally took the broom from Qin Qing’s hand. Then he took her hand with his left and led her away.
The three of them returned to the classroom with just ten minutes left before the start of the first afternoon class.
At that time, the teacher for the first class hadn’t arrived yet, but most of the students were already in the classroom.
There was the usual pre-class chatter, but the moment everyone saw their notorious class bully, Wen Yufeng, walk into the classroom with a broom in hand, the entire room fell silent.
After a few seconds of dead silence, the first person to react was the class hygiene officer.
He grabbed his deskmate’s sleeve and started shaking it frantically—
“What the heck—what’s going on?? I definitely didn’t assign Yufeng any cleaning duties… Who’s trying to get me killed?!”
Before his deskmate could say anything to calm him down, they both noticed a shadow looming over them.
The deskmate stayed silent for two seconds before, in a gesture of self-preservation, he removed the hygiene officer’s hand from his sleeve and scooted his chair away—clearly marking his desire to distance himself from the situation.
Wen Yufeng, who had unknowingly been the subject of their internal struggle, was completely unaware of their panic. With a hoarse voice, he said,”Starting next week, assign me to the same cleaning group as Qin Qing.”
Hearing the subtle trace of amusement in Wen Yufeng’s voice, the hygiene officer froze for a moment, then instinctively asked, “Yufeng, why did you suddenly want to do cleaning duty?”
As soon as he finished asking, the hygiene officer regretted it—had he lost his mind?
How could he dare to ask a question that was basically challenging Yufeng?
Fortunately, Yufeng seemed to be in a very good mood.
Instead of being annoyed by the question, Yufeng just squinted slightly, the corners of his lips curling into a smile—
“Someone taught me that ‘maintaining class hygiene is everyone’s responsibility.’ I think she made a very good point.”
In the now-quiet classroom, there was an unspoken understanding among the students about who “she” referred to.
“……”
Qin Qing, walking back to her seat, acted as though she didn’t notice the glances being thrown her way.
……
Wen Yufeng had applied to switch seats with the excuse of having Qin Qing tutor him, but deep down, he hadn’t been all that serious about studying.
That was until something happened that afternoon that completely changed his attitude.
It was a weekend when they were required to study at school. Wen Yufeng didn’t arrive exactly on time but only missed one self-study period.
When he entered the classroom, his instincts drew his eyes toward the back of the room.
The smirk on his face froze in place.
A few seconds later, Li Xiang, who was lying on his desk playing on his phone, suddenly felt a chill crawl up his spine.
He instinctively straightened up and stood.
Sure enough, when he looked up, there stood Wen Yufeng in front of him.
“Yufeng.”
Li Xiang didn’t know why Yufeng looked upset, but he knew that surrendering immediately was the best choice in these situations.
Wen Yufeng’s expression was unreadable: “Where is she?”
“……”
Li Xiang was stunned for only a second before he understood.
“About two minutes before the last self-study session ended, a student from Class 7 handed the new student a piece of paper. I saw her looking at it during the self-study period and writing for a long time. As soon as class was over, she ran out with the paper she had written on, probably to find—Ow…”
Before Li Xiang could finish, he yelped as Zhao Zirui, sitting to his right, gave him a vicious pinch.
Li Xiang glared at Zhao Zirui, who responded with a look that said, “You’re on your own.”
Only then did Li Xiang realize what he had just said.
“……”
Cold sweat immediately started forming on his forehead.
Wen Yufeng had listened to the whole thing, then glanced at both of them expressionlessly before turning his gaze away.
His eyes slowly fell on their desk.
Perhaps Qin Qing had left in a hurry because there was an unfolded blue card lying right in the middle of the desk.
On it, neat black handwriting could be vaguely seen.
… A blue card.
Wen Yufeng inwardly sneered.
In fact, since last week, he had noticed that this Lin Wentao from Class 7 seemed to be frequently sending notes to Qin Qing.
It wasn’t frequent enough to be daily, but it was at least every two or three days.
—But he had no idea that his little girl had been going out of her way to respond each time?
“……”
As that thought crossed his mind, Wen Yufeng’s eyes darkened.
—He hadn’t even exchanged letters with her yet, and here they were already writing to each other??
Radiating a low-pressure aura that made Li Xiang gulp in fear, Wen Yufeng sat back down in his seat with a blank expression.
He sat there, upright and rigid, for three minutes, but Qin Qing still hadn’t returned.
After three minutes, having gone through countless internal struggles, Wen Yufeng’s gaze finally began to shift down toward the blue card on the desk in front of him.
… Just one look.
Wen Yufeng told himself this.
Then he looked for a minute.
A minute later, Wen Yufeng turned back around with an even blanker expression.
——
He couldn’t understand a word.