At Monday's flag raising ceremony, Zhou Rui had to get on stage to read out his letter of self-criticism.
Zhou Rui's original letter of self-criticism was quite perfunctory, but he deliberately revised it before going on stage.
Recently, Chai Meicen had been feeling very depressed, and her whole person lacked energy.
Chai Meicen was someone who wore her emotions on her sleeve. When she was happy, she was exuberant; when she was angry, she was fierce; and when she was down, she was really quiet.
Zhou Rui felt the pressure in the air around him drop. Every day he was timid to a fault, afraid of doing anything that might provoke Chai Meicen.
That day, when he went on stage holding the mic to read his letter of self-criticism, he hesitated as he looked at the words. Finally, with great reluctance, he forced a smile and continued, "From now on, I will study hard and make progress every day, and become a scientist in the future."
This was what Chai Meicen had told him to write.
Looking to the future while stating his resolve at the same time.
Unexpectedly, after he said this, the students below burst into laughter, taking Zhou Rui's words as a joke.
There were fewer girls in Class 3 of the international program, so their line was different from the other classes. There were only six girls in the girls' row, followed by a long line of boys.
Despite not being very tall, this meant that Chai Meicen was standing in the third row.
She looked left and right at the laughing students around her, and heard someone from her class say, "Bro Zhou is awesome, he can still joke around in this kind of situation."
She suddenly felt even more downcast.
Zhou Rui had made his declaration sincerely, but people had taken it as a joke to mock him.
Still on stage, Zhou Rui continued, "This incident has made the people who care about me very sad, and I also feel bad about it. In the future... I will try my best to avoid these kinds of incidents. If I cause trouble again this semester, I will publicly dance the chicken dance."
Immediately after, cheers and clamoring rose from the student crowd.
Chai Meicen craned her neck and asked Zhuo Wenqian, "What is the chicken dance?"
"It's dancing in a silly and exaggerated way," Zhuo Wenqian replied. After turning around, she twisted her body a few times at Chai Meicen, making Chai frown.
"Sigh," Chai Meicen sighed and felt even more down.
She didn't have an outburst when she was in a bad mood, she just went silent.
The others could see she was feeling down. Zhuo Wenqian quickly added, "It's not as flashy when guys dance it. Guys move their arms more, like this..."
She demonstrated again.
Chai Meicen watched and didn't feel much better.
As they walked back in line, Zhou Rui ran back to join the class line, standing behind Chai Meicen and asking, "Want bubble tea?"
"Don't have an appetite," Chai Meicen listlessly replied.
"Then I'm going to buy a milk tea and a hot chocolate," Zhou Rui said.
"Then add an extra topping of red beans," Chai Meicen told him.
"Sure." Zhou Rui replied and pulled Yang Ming along to go buy the drinks.
Chai Meicen looked back and noticed that Zhou Rui never had to line up when he went over. People automatically made way for him.
It was as if they were afraid of him.
*
The dorm environment for staff was better than the dorms for other students.
There was only one bed in the room, as well as a TV, separate bookshelves and desk, and a private shower.
She heard that single rooms were a big perk at Jiahua, and you could decorate it yourself, but Chai Meicen hadn't let Zhou Rui live in a single room. He still lived in a four-person dorm and had never complained about it.
Chai Meicen was sitting in her room doing homework when someone knocked on her door.
She got up to open it and saw a familiar face.
It was the round-faced girl who had lingered outside the international class.
"Hello, I'm Tian Yueyi," the girl introduced herself.
"Oh... Hello, I'm Chai Meicen," Chai Meicen greeted her in surprise and let her into the room.
Tian Yueyi was a little nervous after coming in. Chai Meicen had an enthusiastic auntie personality, and immediately welcomed Tian Yueyi in warmly and invited her to sit.
After Tian Yueyi sat down on the chair, she looked at Chai Meicen hesitantly.
She seemed to have just washed up, with her hair draped over her shoulders and still a bit wet, dampening the shoulders of her clothes slightly. Her hands were on her knees, clenched and then relaxed. Finally she looked up at Chai Meicen straightforwardly.
"I heard about what happened between you and Zhou Rui."
Chai Meicen awkwardly asked, "You mean the rumors?"
"I know you're Zhou Rui's relative! I'm talking about you being targeted by Zhao Bingqing!" Tian Yueyi quickly clarified.
"Don't be nervous. Did you have something to tell me?" Chai Meicen didn't know how to host her guest, so she took a bottle of mineral water out of the cabinet and placed it next to Tian Yueyi.
"Zhou Rui got into that fight because of me," Tian Yueyi said seriously.
Chai Meicen paused in surprise, then calmly looked at her after sitting down and said, "Can you tell me about it?"
Tian Yueyi nodded forcefully. Looking at Chai Meicen, she was still a little apprehensive.
After deliberating for a while, she still felt that she should explain the whole story clearly to Chai Meicen:
"Zhou Rui and I grew up together since we were little. We went to Jiahua together from kindergarten all the way to high school. I'm not bad at studying, so I'm in the gifted class now.
Chai Meicen started thinking to herself: What a good kid, she looks really well-behaved too.
In parents' eyes, good grades were basically equivalent to being a good kid.
"What happened next?" Chai Meicen asked.
"The boy Zhou Rui fought was someone pursuing me, a student from ordinary class 2. That boy always went overboard in pursuing me, following me every day. Whenever I talked to another boy, he would go threaten that boy. So I thought of Zhou Rui..."
Chai Meicen could guess what happened next.
That boy must have selectively threatened people. With Zhou Rui being so domineering, probably many boys at school didn't dare provoke him.
"That's why he got into the fight?"
Tian Yueyi shook her head. "I didn't dare ask Zhou Rui for help. I just went to talk to him because I was puzzled. I thought that boy would be scared off this time. But I didn't expect him to do something even more extreme."
As she spoke, Tian Yueyi's voice grew fainter and fainter: "Girls' dorms often have missing clothes. I've had underwear go missing too. Later I found out he had stolen them. He cut his own hand and smeared the blood on my underwear, then mailed them to me with a note that said: If you remain unfaithful, this place will be filled with your blood instead."
"What?!" Chai Meicen was shocked when she heard this. How disgusting!
Tian Yueyi's eyes turned slightly red, and she nodded as she continued:
"Mm, I felt very scared. By coincidence, because I had looked for Zhou Rui before, he felt puzzled and came to find me. Seeing I was not okay, he asked what happened. So I told him. He wanted to beat up that boy, but I refused."
"That wasn't the final reason he got into the fight?" Chai Meicen asked, forcing herself to stay calm.
"Mm, I thought maybe that boy wouldn't go too far, just threaten me at most. It wasn't until one time after I attended a makeup class and was walking home by myself, he suddenly jumped out, covered my mouth, and dragged me to a secluded area. He tore open my collar, reached his phone inside, and even turned on the flash to take very clear photos...then he sent them to me afterwards."
At this point, Tian Yueyi finally couldn't help crying.
As another woman, Chai Meicen could imagine how awful that must have felt. She was also a mother, and seeing such a young girl go through this, she immediately felt heartbroken.
She hugged Tian Yueyi and gently patted her back to comfort her.
Merely listening to this made her heart ache so much that her eyes also reddened.
"I didn't know what to do... so I asked Zhou Rui for help. Zhou Rui was afraid it would spread and others would gossip about me, so he went to find that boy alone. But who knew, it was like that boy had expected it. He spent money to hire some people from society, several people ganged up and beat Zhou Rui alone. Luckily Zhou Rui is capable, he could take on several people himself, and still beat that boy half to death. It was as if he could've died, scaring his helpers away."
"I see, you were the one wronged." Chai Meicen continued comforting her.
Tian Yueyi kept sobbing as she went on: "After that, that boy's family made a scene at school. Zhou Rui had always had a bad reputation, so the school assumed it was Zhou Rui causing trouble. Plus, to protect me, Zhou Rui refused to say anything, so the school confirmed it."
Not just the school... even Chai Meicen had misunderstood Zhou Rui.
Chai Meicen felt very bad inside.
"I know you're Zhou Rui's relative. I hope you can tell Zhou Rui's mom that Zhou Rui is not a bad person, he is very kind. I don't want you to misunderstand him. He doesn't only cause trouble, he is a boy who really knows how to take care of people. Any classmate who grew up with him will look for him when they have problems, because he gives a sense of security. We all know he is very good, you can ask others if you don't believe me."
"Alright, I will pass that along," Chai Meicen replied again.
Zhou Rui's mother already knew.
"I've felt really guilty these days. Everyone is talking about him, but only I know the reason, and I'm the one who caused it..."
"No!" Chai Meicen immediately interrupted Tian Yueyi's words, "You did nothing wrong. The one in the wrong is that perverted boy. I already know about this matter now, and I understand everything that happened later too. Don't worry!"
"Okay! Even if you really need me to testify later, that's no problem. It was just a photo, didn't even show my face, so whatever."
Chai Meicen helped wipe Tian Yueyi's tears, still comforting her: "It'll be alright. We will definitely come up with the best solution."
"Mm."
*
After Tian Yueyi left, Chai Meicen didn't immediately go find Zhou Rui. Instead, she contacted Yang Ming on WeChat and asked him to meet her at the sports field to chat.
When Yang Ming came, he unexpectedly also brought Li Xiaonan, which surprised Chai Meicen.
"Sis Mei, you don't know our school likes to spread gossip. If we chat one-on-one, they'll definitely make assumptions. I brought him along so the three of us chatting looks better," Yang Ming explained.
Ever since Chai Meicen beat up Zhao Bingqing, Yang Ming had started calling Chai Meicen "Sis Mei", putting her on equal standing with Zhou Rui.
"Alright then." Chai Meicen sat on a chair and asked the two of them, "Should I treat you to ice pops?"
"No need, don't be so polite with us. Just ask what you want to ask."
"I just want to ask, why did you say Zhou Rui is a good person last time?" Chai Meicen had been wondering about this statement.
Yang Ming was quite surprised to hear this. He laughed as he sat not far from Chai Meicen.
Zhou Rui leaned back in his chair and looked at Chai Meicen in the night. She was still wearing pajamas inside, with a school uniform jacket on the outside, which looked unexpectedly good.
"It's a long story," Yang Ming suddenly felt emotional. "Actually, Brother Zhou didn't want to be the school bully at the beginning, and he never intended to be one all along, but he just became one."
