Are you scared? Are you serious?
He's the one who should be scared, right?
"Classmate, calm down!"
The policeman's words were meant for both Yan Xi and Qi Yili. Heaven knows his body couldn't help but tremble three times when the girl grabbed his shirt hem.
"He seems to be a patient's family member, the victim's son. I just called him," the nurse quickly added, seeing the frantic boy.
"He...he seems to think I'm the criminal suspect, Officer, say something!" Yan Xi said obsequiously.
"..."
Young man, please don't speak like that, okay?
And who's to blame for this? Isn't it your own fault for carrying that baseball bat and letting people see it?
"Let go...of me!" The boy choked out, struggling violently.
"There's been a misunderstanding, classmate. It was this young lady who took your mother to the hospital, not her who attacked her. It was the loan shark who came after your family." Seeing the boy about to lose control, the policeman quickly explained.
Wha...what?
Loan shark?
The boy's struggle was abruptly suspended when he heard this, as if paused by a rest mark in music.
The boy's eyes turned red, as if realizing something.
He suddenly looked up at the girl.
"It...wasn't you?"
It wasn't you who did it?
My mother is lying in the hospital hovering between life and death, and it wasn't you?
"I was the one who helped her~ How rude, to treat your mother's savior so violently?" The girl looked at her, her exquisite eyebrows and charming eyes were extremely moving, but the strangulation marks on her neck clearly accused him of his violent acts.
"It was this classmate who took your mother to the hospital. The blood on the baseball bat was your mother's, but the young lady got it on her when she carried your mother on her back."
...
"We've already contacted the department to investigate the person who attacked your mother. We'll have results soon."
Qi Yili lowered his head, his fingers tightly intertwined, a storm in his eyes.
He admitted he had gone mad.
Today, when he was forced to drop out, when he was completely giving up, when he was going to take his mother away.
He thought coming here was an opportunity. His family did everything to support him going to high school. He thought coming to Qingteng was the happy beginning, but it turned out to be the source of nightmares.
He shouldn't have been so greedy.
He shouldn't have demanded his mother support him attending such an elite provincial key high school. Like a madman, he wanted to come to the big city and make something of himself.
But it was impossible. He was assigned to the West District.
He was born in an ordinary small county town. He was the top student in junior high. His classmates around him envied him for getting into Qingteng through independent enrollment. His mother was also extremely proud that he tested into Qingteng.
But he was wrong. Qingteng wasn't what he should have imagined at all.
Not only was he spellbound by the prosperity of the big city, his father was no exception. His father's betrayal of the family, his mother's downfall, the daily violence and verbal abuse, humiliation and torment, Qingteng Affiliated High School's expensive tuition, and the huge debt they owed from his mother's medical treatment, all crashed down on him like a heavy iron hammer while he and his mother hid from place to place. It broke his spine day after day and extinguished the pride he'd had when he first arrived at Qingteng.
Can you imagine the despair when a suspect wielding a club smiles brightly at you while your mother lies in the operating room fighting for her life?
He only knew his world had collapsed.
There it was again, two sharply divided worlds! Trampling on others' flesh and blood, enjoying coffee and marijuana.
Madness, madness!
All his endurance was an utter joke.
So why should he continue to endure?
He had no more happiness.
So why couldn't he destroy someone else's?
The string in his mind that held him together finally snapped completely when he saw Yan Xi.
"I want to go see my mother. Let me go." Like a deflated balloon, the fight went out of the boy in an instant.
————
"Due to the attack, your mother has extremely severe cerebral hemorrhage. The chances of her waking up are very slim. She will most likely be paralyzed and bedridden long-term, with severely degraded bodily functions. She should have come to the hospital for treatment long ago."
The middle-aged woman who had just undergone emergency surgery lay in the hospital room with her head wrapped in thick bandages, tubes sticking out of her everywhere.
"The fees for subsequent treatment and surgery still need to be paid. Call your other guardian to come pay."
Money, money, money!
He could practically smell the poverty on himself, darkness and despair spreading through him.
He had no money.
"I don't have any other guardians."
"What about your father?"
"He's dead." The boy was numb and cold.
The girl didn't say anything, just stood quietly watching, observing the boy's powerlessness and breakdown, just as she had watched him get bullied before.
"I'm sorry. And...thank you."
He was apologizing for his actions, and thanking her for saving his mother.
"Why not take advantage? Qi Yili, you're clearly not someone who can't see the situation clearly. I can help pay your mother's medical fees."
It wasn't unwillingness, but inability to discern her motives.
"Worried about my motives?"
"Don't worry, I'm no different than you." Yan Xi looked at him sincerely.
"I also have a mother who loves me very much. She loved me as much as your mother loves you. But unfortunately...she died."
"Liar." The boy stared into her eyes.
He wasn't an idiot. He wouldn't underestimate his opponent when he clearly knew she was approaching him with an agenda.
Your file shows both your parents are alive and well.
"...You read my file too?" The girl smiled. The West District's database really had no confidentiality at all.
How clever.
It looked like a fair exchange was required to gain trust.
"I'm not lying."
She still had the strangulation marks on her neck from him. Qi Yili turned his head in shame.
"Let me tell you a secret, okay?"
"I'm not 'Yan Xi.' My identity is fake..."
"I'm going to die soon, really." The girl gave a feeble smile.
"I'm not some rich girl. 'Yan Xi' is my good friend. I came to this school using her identity, to experience the last of my life. The reasons and methods are confidential."
"Being bullied, insulted, trampled...I've experienced it all, alone."
"So I'm the same as you."
"You understand, right?" The girl glanced at him lightly.
Looking at her bewitching beautiful face, Qi Yili understood something in that dizzying instant.
Was this noble suffering?
"So it's not pity, but wanting a companion. Classmate Qi Yili, can you trust me?"
"It's fine if you can't. I think you really need money now~"
"So, you can take advantage of me."
Yan Xi held her hand out to him again. This time, there was only gentleness in her eyes.
Like a cruel blessing, it foretold his hopeless situation.
Was there no other way?
He looked at that pretty hand, seemingly his only hope under the heavy pressure.
"What do you want me to do?" He accepted, he was grateful, but he also wanted to preserve his dignity.
So it had to be a fair exchange.
In his dizzying bewilderment, Qi Yili felt a nearly frightening vagueness.
"Come to my house today and I'll tell you."
