Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Xue Ling was startled the first time she met Wen Jiuzhe.

She was 20 years old at the time, a sophomore at Yushi Normal University.

During her occasional breaks, she would help out at the bakery her cousin owned.

That night, it was already past ten o'clock when her cousin left due to some urgent matter, leaving Xue Ling alone at the bakery. Bored, she stared blankly at the cake models on the shelves.

The street where the bakery was located had low foot traffic, and by this time, very few people came in. For a while, no one entered the shop.

As Xue Ling zoned out, lost in thought, a bell chimed as the door swung open. A tall man quickly grabbed a bread from the shelf and approached the counter.

"Welcome—" Xue Ling rose slowly, only to have her voice catch in her throat as she got a clear look at him.

The customer was tall, and his head was covered in blood.

The bright red liquid trickled down his cheeks, staining his neck and soaking into his black T-shirt, dampening the shoulder area.

His exposed, muscular arm was also smeared with dried blood.

At this hour, seeing a tall man covered in blood, Xue Ling's first instinct was to call the police or an ambulance. Her hand instinctively reached for her phone on the counter.

Just as she touched her phone, the man pressed a finger on her screen, stopping her.

He casually wiped the blood about to drip from his chin and said with a grin, "Don't be afraid. Don't call the police. It's not real blood; I'm just in cosplay."

Xue Ling, smelling the blood, thought: Am I that easy to fool? Do I look like an idiot?

"I just came to buy some bread. Could you check me out?" He took out his phone to pay.

Xue Ling saw the cracked phone covered in blood and dirt. He pressed it a couple of times, but it wouldn't turn on.

The man hesitated for a moment, sighed softly, and put his phone away. He didn't take the bread from the counter and, after apologizing, left the shop.

"Hey! Take the bread. It's on me," Xue Ling called out to him.

The strange man with blood all over his head took the bread, tore open the packaging, and took a big bite as soon as he stepped outside.

One bite was like ten of hers. He could probably finish the bread in three bites.

Xue Ling saw blood from his chin drip onto the bread, which he swallowed without any concern. He looked extremely hungry, as if he hadn't eaten for days.

The man entered like the wind and left just as quickly, leaving behind only a faint smell of blood and a bloody fingerprint on her phone screen.

For a long time after that, Xue Ling thought he was some street thug who might have been injured in a fight.

Until she met him again.

Xue Ling went with her friends from the student council to Yushi University to meet someone. In a secluded corner, they stumbled upon a fight.

Or rather, it was a one-sided beating.

The man who had bought bread covered in blood was the one being beaten this time.

Though tall and muscular, seemingly capable of fighting, he didn't retaliate as a shorter man with a stick struck him. He only raised his arm to block when the stick was swung viciously at his head.

He looked indifferent, one hand still in his pocket, as if he wasn't the one being hit, but the injuries on his arm and neck were shocking.

Coincidentally, the man wielding the stick with a ferocious expression was someone Xue Ling knew.

Wen Xuan, a member of the Yushi University student council, was a senior she had met before.

Xue Ling was a member of the External Relations Department at Yushi Normal University. The head of her department was in a relationship with the chairperson of the Yushi University student council, and the two student councils had held a joint gathering before, where Xue Ling met Wen Xuan.

At that time, Wen Xuan had tried to strike up conversations with her, and their department head had even jokingly tried to set them up.

But Xue Ling didn't feel they were close and didn't engage much, so it was left at that.

She didn't expect to witness this scene. Wen Xuan seemed to be beating the other man mercilessly, his ferocity sending chills down her spine. It was a stark contrast from the gentle and refined demeanor he had shown before.

Startled by the scene, Xue Ling hesitated for a moment, wondering whether she should intervene.

Just as Wen Xuan's stick smashed onto the other man's shoulder, breaking it, and still showing no sign of stopping, Xue Ling's eyelid twitched. She couldn't help but call out, "Wen Xuan, what are you doing?"

Hearing her and seeing the strange, horrified looks of Xue Ling and her two friends, Wen Xuan froze, managing a forced, stammered response.

The man who had been beaten glanced at them, rotated his injured shoulder, and left the place indifferently.

The next day, Wen Xuan actually came to her university to find her and said some incoherent things.

"The man from yesterday is my cousin, Wen Jiuzhe. He's an illegitimate child. His mother, seeing that our family is wealthy, latched onto my uncle..."

"I didn't really want to hit him. I usually don't bother with him. But he was only recognized by my grandfather at the age of twelve and had lived outside before that, picking up all sorts of bad habits. He liked to fight, steal, and bully others at school. As his older cousin, I couldn't just stand by and do nothing..."

During a public lecture, as Xue Ling listened to him talk, she wanted to escape but couldn't.

Why is he telling me this? We're not close at all.

Her smile must have been very stiff, but Wen Xuan didn't seem to notice. He first complained about his unruly cousin, justifying his actions, and then began to subtly boast about his family background.

"Families like mine are different from ordinary households. We have a legacy, and our family is strictly governed... Since we were young, my cousins and I had to learn all sorts of things. Do you know the six arts of the ancient gentleman?"

Xue Ling was forced to listen to these words and almost lost it.

Are we living in the same world? What era is this, and yet they’re still stuck on this master and young master, legitimate and illegitimate business?

She had heard that Wen Xuan came from a fairly wealthy family in Anxi City, a well-known prominent family, in fact.

It was said that their ancestors made their fortune through grave robbing, and a few hundred years ago, they “cleaned up” their act and started dealing in cultural relics. Wen Xuan’s grandfather was apparently a renowned expert in cultural relics.

During the mixer, apart from showing off his expensive watch, Wen Xuan bragged about how his grandfather was usually held in high esteem and how famous people would visit him during the New Year.

At the time, Xue Ling just thought the guy was too showy and wanted to keep her distance, but now she realized he was truly a product of his family’s deep-rooted traditions, with a smell that seemed freshly dug out of the ground.

After clearing up the misunderstanding and washing away the negative impression of himself, Wen Xuan, in a burst of enthusiasm, offered to buy her lunch. Xue Ling forced a dry laugh and declined, and the moment the class ended, she quickly packed her things and ran off.

Students from other schools were disrupting public lectures at their university, and no one was doing anything about it!

She hadn’t liked Wen Xuan to begin with, and after that, she made sure to avoid him. But thanks to Wen Xuan, she learned that the tall cousin he had beaten up was named Wen Jiuzhe, also a student at Yuzhou University.

Wen Jiuzhe was a freshman majoring in Chinese Language and Literature, only 19 years old, actually a year younger than her.

Xue Ling thought, "Everything about him is a contrast."

He’s so tall, but he’s not really a man yet, just a boy.

Due to her activities in the External Relations Department, Xue Ling often had to run errands to Yuzhou University and had encountered Wen Jiuzhe a few times.

Contrary to the image painted by his cousin Wen Xuan—of someone arrogant, hot-tempered, fond of fighting, and bullying classmates—each time Xue Ling saw Wen Jiuzhe, he was always keeping his distance from people, staying alone in a corner.

He didn’t bully anyone, and in fact, he didn’t interact with anyone at all. There was always a sense of listlessness about him, as if he wasn’t interested in anything.

Actually, his aura was quite unique, and he was exceptionally good-looking. Many people paid attention to him intentionally or unintentionally. Xue Ling had even seen a pretty girl approach him with a bottle of water, trying to strike up a conversation.

The girl was quite attractive, but Wen Jiuzhe, sitting with his long legs stretched out, acted as if he were deaf and completely ignored her, leaving the girl flustered and red-faced as she walked away.

Xue Ling found herself stopping to watch for a moment. She thought he looked a bit like a cat lazily basking in the sun, not fond of interacting with people.

Cats have their own world, different from humans.

She and Wen Jiuzhe were completely different people, and Xue Ling thought they wouldn’t have any more interaction.

Not long after, Xue Ling was confessed to.

The guy, surnamed Wu, was also a member of their student council and had crossed paths with her a few times for work.

Xue Ling had no idea why he would confess to her, and he made such a big spectacle out of it.

Wu had arranged hundreds of candles in a heart shape below Xue Ling’s dormitory, with a circle of flowers surrounding them, and stood in the middle, strumming a guitar and singing love songs while shouting her name.

Xue Ling had just finished drying her hair in her dorm when she was informed of this. Seeing the growing crowd below, she felt a wave of darkness wash over her.

Her roommates were joking and teasing, "Look at all the admirers Lingling has!"

"Lingling is so lovable! Quick, don’t keep him waiting too long!"

"Hurry, hurry, change your clothes and go down! We’ll go with you!"

Listening to the loud shouts from below and under pressure from her roommates and onlookers, Xue Ling painfully changed out of her pajamas and was pushed to face the guy.

A guy she barely remembered was pouring out his heart, playing a fairly smooth love song on his guitar.

"Xue Ling! I’ve thought about this for a long time, and you are the one I want to marry. So today, I ask you to be my girlfriend and let us take the first step of our lives together!"

"Your gentleness, patience, and understanding make you so special to me. I remember when I made mistakes at work after just joining the student council; you were the one who helped me. I believe you are special to me too, or you wouldn’t have always taken care of me and paid attention to me..."

The guy went on and on, his face flushed red amidst the cheers of the crowd. Xue Ling felt like she was being roasted over a fire, her toes curling in embarrassment as this semi-stranger confidently poured out his heart. She had come to reject him but couldn’t bring herself to interrupt his self-indulgent speech and trip down memory lane.

As the crowd chanted, "Say yes! Say yes!" Xue Ling felt even more awkward and overwhelmed.

Amid this chaotic scene, Xue Ling suddenly caught sight of Wen Jiuzhe.

He was standing in the crowd, hands in his pockets, watching like he was enjoying the show. Xue Ling thought his smile seemed a little schadenfreude.

Wen Jiuzhe noticed her gaze too, and their eyes met across the crowd.

Xue Ling wasn’t sure if he saw any hint of a plea for help in her eyes.

He seemed to raise an eyebrow, then took two steps back, away from the crowd. In one swift move, he delivered a spinning kick, sending a half-cup of milk tea sitting on top of a trash bin flying.

The half-cup of milk tea sailed over the heads of the onlookers and landed with precision, smacking Wu on the back of his head, bursting open with a splat.

Silence fell over the crowd. The guy, drenched in sticky milk tea, flushed with anger, turned around and shouted, "Who! Who threw that at me?"

Wen Jiuzhe, still standing in the crowd with his hands in his pockets, wore the same smug smile, not the least bit guilty.

Xue Ling couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

Feeling his dignity was wounded, the guy with a dark face and his friends quickly left, not even bothering to clean up the candles and flowers on the ground.

Xue Ling had no choice but to borrow a broom and shovel, clearing everything up and stuffing it all into the trash bin.

Wen Jiuzhe didn’t leave with the rest of the onlookers. As Xue Ling cleaned up, he sat on the railing across the street, watching her.