16

Lin Tiao felt a bit short of breath and almost lost her breath. Her fingers quickly tapped the screen, typing out a flurry of messages, "Self-defense!? Are you sure it wasn't the other way around??"

Given Jiang Yan's fighting stance, Tang Yushi might not have even gotten close before he could have already pinned her to the ground.

Jiang Yan took half a minute to reply, "I didn't hit her. Stop making things up."

"..."

It was unclear whether the situation was really as Jiang Yan described or if he was unwilling to tell the whole story. No matter how much Lin Tiao pressed, he insisted it was self-defense.

After exchanging a few more disjointed messages, Lin Tiao went out to get some water. While doing so, she glanced at the clock on the wall and saw it was almost eleven o'clock.

Considering that she had Mr. Yu's math class early the next morning, she thought of a reason to smoothly end the conversation with Jiang Yan while returning from the living room to her room.

However, when she sat back down at her computer, Jiang Yan's QQ avatar had already gone dark, and there was a message from him sent a minute ago.

"Going to sleep. See you tomorrow, Lin Tiao."

Lin Tiao looked at his dim avatar while holding her water cup and clicked her tongue. Just as she was about to log off, a small icon flashed in the bottom right corner of her screen.

It was a message from Meng Xin.

Meng Xin: "OMG!!! Do you know!!! Jiang Yan actually hit Tang Yushi!!! Right at our school's basketball court! Lots of people saw it!"

Lin Tiao immediately forwarded her chat history with Jiang Yan to Meng Xin.

Meng Xin, having just heard the gossip from class, saw the first-hand news Lin Tiao sent. After glancing at the heated discussion in the class group chat, she hesitated and replied, "No way... Does Tang Yushi have that much fighting power??"

To be honest, Lin Tiao also doubted Jiang Yan's story. However, with the situation being so chaotic and the stories so varied, there were several different versions just within Class 18, let alone other classes' hearsay.

Lin Tiao yawned, her fingers on the keyboard, and typed, "Honestly, I'm starting to suspect Jiang Yan might have turned Tang Yushi into a vegetable…"

Meng Xin: "…"

Early Monday morning, Lin Tiao skipped breakfast at home and hurriedly left, catching a cab at the neighborhood entrance to rush to school.

A few minutes later, the taxi stopped at the entrance of No. 10 High School. Lin Tiao pushed open the car door, stepped out, and then realized she hadn't paid yet. She quickly leaned back into the car and tapped the driver's seat, "How much is it, driver?"

The driver glanced at the meter and cheerfully replied, "Eleven dollars and thirty cents. Just give me eleven."

Lin Tiao fished out a ten-dollar bill and two fifty-cent coins from her bag and handed them over, "Thank you, driver!"

As she finished speaking, she was already pushing the car door open and running away.

When Lin Tiao burst into the classroom, Jiang Yan's seat was still empty, and the seats behind it were also vacant.

She didn't think much of it. After dropping off her bag, she tapped the shoulder of the girl sitting in front, Xu Huanhuan, "Huanhuan, is it true that Jiang Yan hit Tang Yushi yesterday, like they said in the class group chat?"

Xu Huanhuan, clearly bursting with gossip, brightened up at Lin Tiao's question, "Of course it's true! I have a classmate who was there and saw Tang Yushi's face all covered in blood!"

"..."

Lin Tiao felt like she might have a heart attack.

Xu Huanhuan, all animated and speaking quickly, continued, "You wouldn't believe how serious it was; even the ambulance came."

"..."

As Xu Huanhuan kept talking, Lin Tiao could no longer handle it. She felt like her breath was stuck, so she raised her hand to grab Xu Huanhuan's arm and rested her head on the desk, "Hold on, hold on, I need a moment. I'm about to collapse."

While the two girls were chatting, Jiang Yan walked in from the front of the classroom carrying breakfast. He happened to hear the last part of their conversation and asked casually, "Who's about to collapse?"

Upon hearing Jiang Yan's voice, Xu Huanhuan's smile froze, and despite her body tensing up, she quickly turned around.

"..." Jiang Yan didn't notice, and his gaze shifted to his desk mate. He asked gently, "What's wrong?"

Lin Tiao looked up and met Jiang Yan's questioning gaze. She took a deep breath and said with utmost seriousness, "Jiang Yan."

"Hmm?"

He responded, and as he placed a cup of soy milk on her desk and walked to his seat, he heard his desk mate speak heavily, "You should turn yourself in."

Jiang Yan "..."

"You made Tang Yushi's injuries so severe, and her family is particularly rich and influential. If you turn yourself in now, you might get a lenient treatment," Lin Tiao sighed. "I know you're doing this to avenge me, and I'll have my dad find a lawyer to speak favorably for you in court."

Jiang Yan didn't say anything. Lin Tiao continued, "I really didn't realize that our brief time as desk mates meant so much to you."

"Jiang Yan, I'm sorry. If I had known you cared so much—" Lin Tiao hadn't finished her sentence when suddenly a sharp knock landed on her forehead.

Jiang Yan had used a bit of force, and the spot he knocked quickly turned red. Lin Tiao instinctively rubbed it and asked, "Why did you hit me?"

"Because you're not thinking straight," Jiang Yan withdrew his hand, unwrapped the straw, and inserted it into the soy milk cup. He patiently explained, "Didn't I tell you I didn't hit her?"

"Do you think your words are credible?" Lin Tiao gave him a sidelong glance and recounted the scenes described by Meng Xin last night and Xu Huanhuan this morning.

Jiang Yan bit the straw as he listened, his lips slightly pursed. He took a sip, and the milky liquid traveled up the transparent straw until it disappeared between his lips.

He rolled his Adam's apple and when he let go of the straw, the soy milk left a faint mark on his flushed lips. As he spoke, the mark blended with his lips, giving them a moist, enticing glow.

For a moment, Lin Tiao was stunned, unable to say a word.

When she came back to her senses, the tight nerve in her head snapped, and the frozen adrenaline surged, making her blood boil. She felt like she had been put in a steamer, her whole body ablaze with heat.

Jiang Yan stared at her for a few seconds. Perhaps thinking of something, he reached out and tapped her on the head, his expression a mix of amusement and seriousness. "Lin Tiao, what are you thinking about?"

His fingertip was warm and soft, and although his nail was bare, the touch didn't really register. But Lin Tiao felt like the spot he tapped was even hotter.

"..." Lin Tiao snapped out of it, stepped back slightly, and muttered, "The Analects says 'Food and sex are part of human nature; an elegant gentleman and a refined lady make a good match…'"

Realizing something was off, she started reciting the Heart Sutra, "The Buddha says that when the mind moves, things move; when the mind is still, things are still. The Buddha says humans are not grass or wood; who can be without feelings…"

Jiang Yan "..."

Lin Tiao had learned about the incident after the morning study session from Hu Hanghang.

It turned out that last Sunday, which was yesterday evening, the four of them were playing basketball at the school court. Tang Yushi, having somehow found out about their game, came with her friends and waited with water.

When the game ended, Tang Yushi walked over to Jiang Yan with a bottle of water, trying to explain that she didn't mean to hit Lin Tiao with the ball and hoped he wouldn't mind.

It was already late evening, and the sky was getting dark. The weekend court had only one big light on, so it was dim.

Jiang Yan stood over Tang Yushi from a high vantage point, his expression indifferent. "You hit me with the ball?"

Tang Yushi was stunned and instinctively shook her head, "... No."

"Then what's the point of apologizing to me?" Jiang Yan looked down at her, walked past her, picked up his coat from the chair, and took out his phone from his pocket.

After hesitating for a few seconds, Tang Yushi followed him, her voice tinged with a sob, "I really didn't mean to."

The girl's plaintive and delicate tone might have made most people soft-hearted, but Jiang Yan wasn't just anyone.

He was a school bully and had seen more girls like Tang Yushi than tears she had shed.

Jiang Yan put his phone in his pocket and looked at Tang Yushi expressionlessly, "You didn't mean to? "

He looked up with a mocking smile, "If you didn't mean to, did the ball grow eyes? There were so many people on the court, and yet it hit my desk mate?"

Tang Yushi was frightened to tears by his tone.

Seeing her crying, Jiang Yan became somewhat impatient, "Stop crying in front of me. My desk mate got seriously injured and didn't cry, so why are you crying?"

He bent down to pick up the backpack from the ground, "Apologizing to me is pointless."

"..." Just as Tang Yushi was about to speak, a basketball suddenly flew over from somewhere and landed right by her feet.

Startled, she nearly fell into his arms, and Jiang Yan, reacting instinctively, pushed her into a pile of clothes beside him.

Tang Yushi's friends, seeing him push her down, came rushing over and said forcefully, "Jiang Yan, how dare you hit a girl?"

There were many people playing basketball around, and many were with their girlfriends.

Just that one sentence, passed around and embellished, became a highly exaggerated story by the time it reached different classes.

Hu Hanghang felt quite proud, "That's how it was. For the sake of his own reputation, Brother Yan didn't let Tang Shiyu even touch him."

Lin Tiao pursed her lips, "Well... her name is Tang Yushi, not Tang Shiyu."

Nearby, Song Yuan, who had been listening to the story, raised his head with a puzzled expression, "Isn't her name Song Ciyu?"

Lin Tiao "..."

Jiang Yan, still engrossed in his drama, didn't even glance up.

Lin Tiao hesitated for a long time, unsure how to start. Eventually, she realized that Jiang Yan was unresponsive and turned to look at him, "What's wrong?"

Lin Tiao continued, looking up at him and then lowering her head, "At first, when I heard them say you hurt Tang Yushi, I was really worried about you."

She paused, bit her lip, hesitated, and then spoke again, "But thank you anyway. How about I treat you to lunch?"

The sunlight streamed in through the window, and the breeze carried a familiar scent.

Jiang Yan turned to look at her, momentarily unsure of what to say.

Lin Tiao tapped his arm again, "What are you thinking about? I'm treating you to lunch"

Before she could finish, another voice suddenly cut through the classroom, "The two at the back of the first row, what are you whispering about so closely?"

Mr. Yu's voice rang out, and everyone in the classroom turned to look at them with curious eyes.

Lin Tiao "..."

Jiang Yan "..."

Mr. Yu stood by the lectern, holding a half-used chalk in his hand. "Lin Tiao, tell me, what were you and Jiang Yan talking about just now?"

Lin Tiao fought the urge to curse inwardly, slowly stood up, and pressed her fingers against the edge of the desk. After making a decision in her mind, she looked up at Mr. Yu, cleared her throat, and spoke clearly.

"Jiang Yan was playing on his phone during class. I was just reminding him that class time should be focused on learning and not wasted."

Jiang Yan "...?"

All the flirtatious thoughts he had dissipated completely.