Chapter 396: Bullying

I stood there for a moment, missing the deeper meaning behind Huang Xue's words, and simply nodded. "It is a bit special."

When I left the Jingying Sanatorium that evening, I sent Xia Qingzhi a text, but she didn't reply. I figured high schoolers would still be in evening self-study, so I didn't think much of it.

I went to Xia Qingzhi's high school and wandered down the snack street next to it. It wasn't until nearly nine o'clock that students started coming out of the school.

Standing at the street corner, I used my Judging Eye and quickly spotted Xia Qingzhi in the crowd. She wore her school uniform with tight jeans—a clean, innocent look—but her face, which should have been full of life, was clouded with gloom, as if something was weighing on her mind.

She was pushing her bicycle and didn't spot me. She seemed to be deliberately avoiding someone, hurrying along and glancing left and right every so often.

'Very suspicious,' I thought. With the sharp eye I'd developed from years of tailing cheating spouses, I could tell Xia Qingzhi was in trouble.

Staying out of sight, I quietly trailed behind her.

Once clear of the crowd, Xia Qingzhi hopped on her bike and rode off. Not far behind, a few girls in the same school uniform went after her.

These girls didn't look like delinquents. Dressed in their uniforms, they seemed like ordinary students—laughing, chatting, and politely greeting their teachers as they passed.

If they hadn't kept glancing at Xia Qingzhi's back from time to time, I wouldn't have noticed anything unusual about them.

I hailed a cab and followed behind. Nothing happened along the way until Xia Qingzhi was nearly home and passing a night market stall, when two thugs sitting by the street got up and walked over to the curb.

One of them was on his phone. The other seemed drunk, sitting on the sidewalk with a liquor bottle in his hand.

As Xia Qingzhi rode past them, the drunk man suddenly lurched to his feet, clutching his bottle, and barged straight into her bicycle.

It happened so fast that no one saw it coming. Startled and unable to swerve in time, Xia Qingzhi crashed to the ground along with her bike.

Her pale arm was scraped raw. Before she could even get up, the drunk man turned the blame on her first, smashing his bottle on the ground and glaring at her viciously. "You fucking dare hit me?"

Xia Qingzhi trembled, her eyes darting away. She picked up her bike and whispered, "You ran into me yourself."

"Bullshit!" The other man finished his call and walked over, crouching beside his buddy. "Xiangming, can you get up?"

"Hit the bone. This chick doesn't even watch where she's riding." He sat on the ground playing the victim, gripping her wheel with one hand and refusing to let Xia Qingzhi leave.

"Either apologize, or cough up a thousand bucks, and we'll let this slide." The other man pointed his phone at Xia Qingzhi, refusing to let it go. There weren't many pedestrians around, and the night market stall owner seemed to recognize the two thugs. Too afraid to speak up, the owner went in and out a few times, pretending not to see anything.

No one stepped up to say a word in her defense. Xia Qingzhi picked up her backpack and kept her head down as she pulled out her phone, seemingly trying to call someone for help. But before she could find the number, the thug snatched it from her hands.

"Give it back!"

Agitated, Xia Qingzhi looked up and yelled.

Her delicate, innocent face made the thug who had snatched her phone swallow hard. "Whoa, not bad-looking at all."

Right as he said that, the group of girls who had been following from a distance rode up on their bikes. I thought since they were from the same school, they might stand up for her. After all, they looked like completely ordinary students.

"Isn't this our little class beauty?"

"You slutty fox, learned to behave now? Stopped running to the Adult Shop?"

"How could you say that about her? Careful, or she'll get her guy friend to beat you up."

"Oh, I'm so scared."

The lead girl's voice sounded familiar. Looking closer, I realized she was the same student who had cornered Xia Qingzhi at the entrance of the Adult Shop before. Back then, she'd had dyed hair and piercings.

'She's changed her look quite a bit, but a leopard never changes its spots,' I thought. I had the driver pull over across the street. After getting out, I stepped into a store instead of rushing straight over to help Xia Qingzhi out.

Emotionally speaking, holding back was definitely wrong, but a trace of doubt lingered in my mind. I had texted her earlier, and she hadn't replied. It was possible she already knew I was coming.

Last time outside the Adult Shop, she had bolted without her backpack. When I chased after her to return it, I happened to stumble upon her being bullied by thugs. Now a similar situation was playing out again, which made it hard not to be suspicious.

I lit a cigarette and watched through the smoke. Two of the schoolgirls stayed out of it and rode off in a hurry, while the remaining three surrounded Xia Qingzhi.

"Juanzi, I heard you got beat up by this slut's husband last time?"

"It's all that guy Chen's fault. He kept talking a big game in front of me, so I thought he was actually tough. Instead, he got the shit beaten out of him and didn't even dare squeak!"

"Then how do you still have the guts to mess with her? I can't stand this slutty fox either, but guys love her type. Even the teachers protect her."

"The more the teachers protect her, the more I want to ruin her. So what if she's pretty? Running to the Adult Shop every day—we all know exactly what kind of trash she is." The girl called Juanzi winked at the two thugs, dropping her voice to a fawning tone. "Besides, Brother Xiang and Brother Yu aren't useless like that loser Chen. They're brothers with Jiang Long, the big boss of Jiangbei."

"Juanzi, didn't you get that wrong? I think I saw on TV that Jiang Long got killed," the shortest girl whispered to her.

"Whatever, Brother Xiang and Brother Yu have major backing. Ordinary people can't afford to cross them. Besides, I'm not even the one coming after her this time—Brother Xiang's buddies specifically asked to mess this slut up." Juanzi gave a secretive smile. Then she looked at Xia Qingzhi's flawless, delicate face, and her mood suddenly soured. Her voice turned harsh. "It's all because of you! My parents grounded me, I had to dye my hair back, and I can't even go to my usual hangouts anymore. Aren't you something, Xia Qingzhi!"

"I didn't do anything. Get out of my way."

"Get out of the way? We're just going to forget that you hit me?"

Under the pressure of the two thugs, Xia Qingzhi had no choice but to bow her head. "I'm sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going."

"Good that you know you're wrong. Now we'll help you fix it!" The two thugs didn't lift a finger as the three female students grabbed Xia Qingzhi and shoved her into the back alley.

Compared to those reckless students who feared nothing, the two thugs were much more experienced. They whistled at the night market stall owner, then wheeled the girls' bicycles over to the mouth of the alley.

The two exchanged a smirk, lewd expressions plastered across their faces, before walking into the alley themselves.

I stubbed out my cigarette, knowing I couldn't wait any longer. Stepping out of the store, I activated my Judging Eye, keeping most of my focus on the alley.

Juanzi shoved Xia Qingzhi into a corner and ordered the shortest girl to pull out her phone and take pictures. Then she pointed at Xia Qingzhi and cursed her out, venting a month's worth of pent-up resentment.

Hearing all sorts of filth and vulgarities spewing from a student's mouth was especially jarring.

Even after all the verbal abuse, Juanzi wasn't satisfied. She began punching and kicking Xia Qingzhi. This time she was smart about it, aiming only for her lower body so no visible injuries would show on the outside.

'How can a person be this cruel to someone innocent?' I thought. By the time I crossed the street, everyone except the girl recording had laid hands on Xia Qingzhi to some degree.

The hem of her school uniform was torn, and her jeans were covered in shoeprints. Xia Qingzhi kept her hands pressed against her thighs, her head bowed slightly.

The girl holding the phone shoved it right next to her face, screaming at her to look up. She grabbed Xia Qingzhi's hair and jerked her chin up, forcing her to show her face to the camera.

They laughed shamelessly, while the two thugs let their eyes roam all over Xia Qingzhi's body. Compared to the three schoolgirls, Xia Qingzhi was a rare stunner.

She offered no resistance. Like anyone being bullied, Xia Qingzhi swallowed her pain and disgust. That sense of humiliation would slice through her nerves like a knife, piercing deep into her mind to leave a wound that would never heal.

She gritted her teeth, waiting for her tormentors to be satisfied and leave. But that video on the phone would likely become an inescapable nightmare. Her last shred of dignity would be ground to dust. No one likes to admit their own weakness, and for a victim, the most agonizing thing of all is having their humiliation exposed to the world.

Her eyes slowly reddened. Suddenly, she remembered something. Out of the corner of her eye, she looked at the phone they had snatched from her—she hadn't managed to make that call in time.