Chapter 304: I Don

In Jiang Nian's imagined scene, he was Zhao Zilong breaking through thousands of troops.

Leading his followers in wild charges, utterly socially dominant.

The students at the barbecue stall sat like quails.

They must have been terrified by his aura, scrambling to get out of the way.

In reality, the students at the barbecue stall were indeed frightened—but only by the sight of a lunatic, all of them shoving their stools inward.

Xu Qianqian and Song Xiuyun sat with their backs to the barbecue stall, so they didn't see Zhang Xiaofan.

Just then, Jiang Nian suddenly stood up and dropped a line.

"Wait a sec, I ran into a classmate."

"Hey, where are you going?" Xu Qianqian turned her head, trying to call him back.

But he was already gone.

Song Xiuyun turned around too and saw Jiang Nian slinging an arm around a boy as they walked away—looking like best buddies—leaving her momentarily stunned.

"He… what's he doing?"

Xu Qianqian spotted it instantly: Jiang Nian wasn't meeting a classmate—he was sneaking off to fight again. She snapped, "The nice guy went to fetch a corpse."

Song Xiuyun turned to her, expression blank with disbelief.

Song Xiyun turned her head to look at her, an expression of disgust and intimidation on her face.

"Aaaah!! Lighter! Lighter!"

"Wrong! Wrong, bro!"

Under the streetlamp, Zhang Xiaofan and Cao Yang grimaced in agony, begging for mercy. They felt the hand gripping their necks like a hydraulic clamp.

Intense pain and suffocation made them feel like they were dying and reborn in agony—they had no doubt that if Jiang Nian squeezed any harder, their necks would snap.

The intense pain and suffocating sensation made them hurt so badly they felt like they were dying and ascending to immortality. They didn't doubt at all that if Jiang Nian exerted a little more force, their own neck would break.

"Where'd you go wrong?" Jiang Nian smiled without humor—he hated these troublemakers most of all. "Don't be scared, breathe deep. A little dizziness's normal."

"Cough… I shouldn't have caused trouble, bro!" Zhang Xiaofan, weakest of them all, was nearly blacking out from the pressure, frantically begging.

Jiang Nian turned to the other big guy—his grip on this one was even tighter.

Jiang Nian turned his head to look at the other burly man; in fact, this hand was exerting even more force.

Cao Yang felt he was about to die—his chest burned, his skull throbbed with pressure, his breaths came like a bellows.

"Bro… I… I was wrong too. I should've paid for you."

"Don't need you to pay. I'm not short on cash." Jiang Nian tightened his grip, smiling. "Don't tense up. Breathe deep. You'll sleep it off."

Cao Yang's soul nearly fled his body—he was big, not a brute.

"Bro… I… cough… I really know I was wrong."

Judging it was enough, Jiang Nian suddenly released them.

Estimating that it was about enough, Jiang Nian suddenly let go.

The two, already starved of oxygen, collapsed dizzily to the ground, coughing violently. They gasped for air, slowly regaining breath.

Cao Yang was broken—he'd met the Grim Reaper twice tonight.

Once with the ghostly head-turn, once with the neck-squeeze.

He'd never hanged himself in his life—but now he'd felt what hanging felt like. He swore he'd live well from now on, never again think of suicide.

Zhang Xiaofan was worse—he swore he'd avoid Jiang Nian entirely from now on.

He'd nearly seen his great-grandmother tonight.

In junior high he couldn't beat him—how'd he turn into a strength monster in high school? What the hell did this guy eat? Could you really grow this strong just by eating? Jiang Nian stood by the roadside, playing on his phone, one hand hanging loosely at his thigh.

Under the soft yellow light, the two men coughed, crawled, and scrambled to their feet—like they'd seen a ghost, fleeing without looking back.

A few Gao San students at the roadside stall had been completely stunned.

"Teacher Ma, what just happened?"

They'd seen that handsome guy suddenly grab the necks of two aggressive boys and drag them away, then…

After saying a few words, they collapsed, crawled, and ran off.

It didn't match any movie scene—shouldn't he have smashed tables? Grabbed plastic stools? Or folding tables? Shouldn't there have been a full brawl on the street?

And this was it?

After dealing with Zhang Xiaofan's outburst, Jiang Nian returned to the barbecue stall.

He gestured to the two girls with his head, speaking casually.

"Let's go."

"Jiang Nian, I'll tell Li Yi you were fighting!" Xu Qianqian shot him a glare—though as for him getting beaten… she'd only worried about that in junior high.

That time, Old Xu had been there too, smoking as he sighed.

"This kid needs to walk the right path."

The incident got so big it even drew Jiang Nian's uncle over. She didn't know the full reason, but in the end, little money was paid out.

She couldn't remember much after that—things weren't good between them then.

"Damn it, don't make stuff up. Which eye did you see me fighting? I said I ran into a classmate—we just chatted and that was it."

"Both eyes."

"If your vision's bad, don't blab nonsense." Jiang Nian picked up his bag, then casually grabbed Song Xiuyun's bag and handed it to her.

Song Xiuyun was taken aback, murmuring hesitantly, "Ah."

"Thank you."

She took the bag with both hands, slung it over her shoulder, listening to the bickering beside her. Amid the noise, they walked out of the night stall, her fingers tightening slightly on her pant leg.

For some reason, she felt Jiang Nian had changed—just a little.

His attitude toward her had changed...

He wasn't as shameless as before, and he wasn't bullying her either. If this were in the past, he probably would have snatched her bag away to play with.

She didn't know if it was an illusion, but she felt his gaze toward her had grown a touch gentler?

It was probably... an illusion.

Walking under the streetlight, her heart thumped twice, and Song Xiyun felt the ground sway a little.

A person shouldn't, at least couldn't...

The three of them ducked into an alley, and after twisting and turning, they arrived downstairs. Entering the spacious, clean courtyard, Song Xiyun followed them upstairs.

Jiang Nian parted ways with the two girls at the door, waving his hand.

"Bye-bye."

Xu Qianqian faced him, her face full of displeasure, and flipped him the middle finger. Bang bang, two doors closed.

Jiang Nian let out a breath of relief, but the moment he thought about Xu Qianqian and Song Xiyun living across the hall, he felt something strange inside — they were actually living together.

What if he went over right now?

Anyway, he could figure out with his toes that Uncle Xu hadn't come home tonight either.

Three people to a room — should he sleep on the living room sofa or the floor? Thinking this, he tossed his schoolbag aside and walked into the bathroom humming a tune to wash up.

Sleep... the hard plank bed of a detention center.

Buzz buzz buzz!

In the bathroom, Jiang Nian blew his hair dry facing the fogged-up mirror.

His damp finger hovered over the phone screen, paused by a water droplet, for a while. Finally, he pressed play. "Your Hair Like Snow" — he was used to listening to music while showering, and nearly a third of his playlist was Jay Chou's songs.

Sometimes when the mood struck, he'd occasionally sing along. Unfortunately, his untrained voice was tone-deaf and not presentable, so he could only entertain himself in the bathroom.

With a buzz, he glanced sidelong at his phone.

The hair dryer's sound paused along with it. He didn't bother with his not-yet-fully-dried hair, shook his damp hand, and picked up the phone.

Sure enough, it was a message from the class president, still starting with a single message.

"Are you there?"

Hehe, the class president is so cute.

He wiped his hand on his clothes and typed rapidly.

"What's up?"

The bathroom door was pushed open, and Jiang Nian headed back to the bedroom. He placed the unfinished biology test paper in the upper-left corner, picked one up, and prepared to continue writing.

Biology conquest progress: fifty percent.

He estimated that at tomorrow's coming-of-age ceremony, he might also have to bring a test paper to write. After all, there was still a leader's speech segment — absurdly long. Buzz, his phone buzzed again.

Li Qingrong: "For tomorrow's coming-of-age ceremony, what clothes are you wearing?"

Jiang Nian was working on a problem and answered honestly without thinking.

"Wearing a trench coat together with Li Hua and the others."

Then, out of habit, he typed a counter-question.

"What about you?"

With a buzz, Li Qingrong replied.

"Don't know."

Sometimes, Jiang Nian also felt the class president was rather ditzy.

"How about a skirt?"

After a while, the reply from the other side was a single word.

"Cold."

Suddenly, Jiang Nian couldn't help but laugh, and also felt the class president didn't seem that ditzy after all.

"Don't girls all have those bare-leg warmers?"

After a while, Li Qingrong took half a day to reply.

"I don't have leg hair."

Jiang Nian was amused and had no mind left for the problems. He typed back,

"It's not for shaving leg hair — it's a pair of warm tights worn on the legs. In the dead of winter, at a glance it looks like you're not wearing anything, but you actually are."

This time the reply took even longer, not coming until eleven-thirty.

"【Image】 Horse-face skirt, is that okay?"