“Ah!!! help!”
A girl’s cry for help completely dissolved into the wind.
Pei Chongxi’s expression changed instantly. She turned, shut all the doors and windows, and sprinted down the dormitory stairs with rapid steps.
The dorm manager had fallen sound asleep in her small booth, her loud snores echoing through the air, completely undisturbed even as Pei Chongxi ran past.
Following the direction of the cry from her memory, Pei Chongxi ran to the small grove next to the school wall.
She saw a group of teenage boys who had climbed over a gap in the wall, cornering An Rong against the wall.
One of the thugs had a piece of light colored fabric sticking out of his pocket. One look was all it took for Pei Chongxi to recognize it as An Rong’s undergarment.
Absolute scumbags.
Pei Chongxi lightened her steps and carefully took in the situation by the wall.
One punk held a flashlight, driving An Rong into a corner.
“Hey, why won’t you date my bro? What are you acting so high and mighty for? What’s wrong with him? What, you think you’re too good for him?”
The leader of the group took a step forward and grabbed An Rong’s arm. “Don’t you work outside just to make money? Come with my bro and you’ll be living the good life.”
“Get off me!” An Rong glared at the thug and raised her free hand, slapping him hard across the face.
With a crisp crack, the surrounding punks closed in even tighter.
“Let me tell you, don’t act like a saint here. You really think you’re going to pass the college entrance exam and make big money in the future? Though, looking at your face, you do look pretty good.”
Several boys pinned An Rong against the wall.
The punk who had just been slapped didn’t get angry. Instead, he rubbed the burning red mark on his cheek, his eyes glinting with dirty lust as he scanned An Rong’s face. He reached out and pinched her chin tightly.
“I reckon you’re pretty cute. None of the girls at the KTV I go to look as fresh as you.”
“Why don’t you come work with us instead? We’ll give you three thousand yuan a month, with free room and board. If you hit it off with a rich guy, you can just marry into wealth and enjoy life.”
Amidst a wave of lewd laughter, An Rong’s face flushed red with rage.
She had encountered one of these guys at the shop where she worked part time. Without a word, he had demanded she be his girlfriend. How could An Rong ever agree to that?
As a result, she was fiercely threatened.
After that, every time she went to work, she would see that skinny, monkey like guy with streaks of green dyed hair. He didn’t look like an honest person by any stretch of the imagination.
Yesterday, that guy with the green dyed hair had brought An Rong a bouquet of flowers, which she immediately threw into the main street.
An Rong had shouted in desperation, “Stop following me! I will never be your girlfriend!”
The school emphasized every single day that romance was strictly forbidden. An Rong had neither the heart nor the impulse for it anyway.
She was used to being with Pei Chongxi every day and didn’t want to get involved with anyone else.
In response, the guy with green streaks had stared at her coldly for a long time before turning and walking away.
When she went out to work today, she hadn’t run into him, so An Rong thought he had finally let it go.
She never expected that after returning to school, she would suddenly be lured to the grove by a student she didn’t even know.
This gang had expertly climbed over the wall, taking advantage of the indifferent security guard and the loud night wind.
Pinned against the freezing cold wall, An Rong trembled all over, desperately trying to break free but unable to move.
She knew that some people in society feared nothing and no one. She also knew her own grades weren’t great, and since she spent all her time working, she might not even get a good score on the college entrance exams.
She and Pei Chongxi were different.
Pei Chongxi was born to be favored by fate. She would get into a top university, have a respectable and stable job, marry into a good family in the future, live in a big house, and have incredibly cute children.
That was An Rong’s sole vision of a beautiful life.
She and Pei Chongxi had always belonged to two different worlds.
Yet, emotionally, An Rong refused to accept that she and Pei Chongxi would inevitably drift apart.
She wanted to be with Pei Chongxi forever, without anyone else coming between them.
She wouldn’t hang out with anyone else, and Pei Chongxi wouldn’t either.
An Rong’s pupils dilated.
The punk in front of her pinched her chin so hard it hurt.
When a bundle of soft fabric was dangled in front of her face, the terror in her eyes deepened.
“What… what are you scumbags doing?!”
It was her undergarment. An Rong only had three sets to rotate, every single one washed until the color had faded to pale white.
Now, being held by that filthy hand, goosebumps broke out all over her body.
Disgusting, it was so revolting that a overwhelming sense of despair washed over her.
Just as the punk was about to raise the soft bundle of fabric to his nose to sniff it, a dark shadow suddenly appeared behind him. Accompanied by a sharp, agonizing scream, the grip on An Rong’s chin instantly snapped open.
“Ah!!!”
A metallic scent of blood drifted into the freezing night wind.
A heavy thud sounded, followed by the surrounding gang scattering and fleeing in panic.
An Rong sat dazed on the ground. Her school uniform jacket was disheveled, and her ponytail was tangled with dead grass.
In the pitch black woods, An Rong saw a familiar figure.
Pei Chongxi picked up another rock from the ground, one the size of a fist. Squinting to take aim, she threw it with a sharp bang, hitting the back of the neck of a thug trying to scramble over the wall.
Her movements were swift, precise, and ruthless, without a shred of hesitation.
The first thug who had been hit clutched his bleeding head and tried to stand up, but a wave of dizzying vertigo sent him crashing back to the ground.
You couldn’t reason with these people, you could only teach them a physical lesson that made them feel real fear.
Pei Chongxi bent down, pulled the soft bundle of clothes from the thug’s hand, and stuffed it into her own pocket.
The school wasn’t as strict about electronic devices as it would be ten years later, so Pei Chongxi carried a phone with her that had never been confiscated.
She helped An Rong up, patted the grass leaves and dust off her clothes, and decisively dialed the police.
Pei Chongxi didn’t bother chasing the other thugs who had already run far away.
Before long, the blaring sirens of a police car echoed in the distance.
An Rong stood in place, completely out of it. It wasn’t until she saw the police officers arrive that she suddenly threw herself into Pei Chongxi’s arms.
“I was so scared…”
An Rong sobbed softly, her body trembling violently from fear.
Her brain hadn’t been able to process what was happening earlier, and only now did she fully realize the danger she had just been in.
If Pei Chongxi hadn’t come, heaven only knew what would have happened to her.
The incident alarmed the school leadership, sending the entire campus into a state of commotion.
Students were locked inside their classrooms and forbidden from leaving, while the teachers wore grim expressions.
Even the principal was shaken. Pale faced, he stood before the police officers, sweat dripping from his forehead as he tried to explain…
A gang of thugs had climbed over the wall, yet as the principal, he had known nothing about it.
An Rong wept piteously.
Sobbing, she looked at Pei Chongxi with terrified eyes.
“There’s so much blood on the ground… You have blood on you too. Are you… are you going to jail?”
Pei Chongxi wiped the blood stains on her hands against her uniform trousers and said softly, “No, I won’t. I was acting in self-defense and stopping a crime.”
An Rong was still shaking uncontrollably.
Her lips trembled as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, no words came out, only a stifled sob.
“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry, Sister Pei… I dragged you into this…”
Pei Chongxi was destined for great things in the future, how could she go to prison because of this?
She wrapped her arms tightly around Pei Chongxi’s neck, her scalding tears falling onto Pei Chongxi’s collarbone.
Pei Chongxi kept her hand tucked in her pocket, tightly clutching the bundle of fabric.