Thirteen Wonders (ShíSānYāo) : Chapter 7 - Discard the Red Dragon.
Chapter 7: Discard the Red Dragon.
“Deng Jiayu got expelled?”
“Serves her right! About time!”
“......”
There’s no such thing as an impenetrable wall, especially when someone like Deng Jiayu causes trouble so openly. She was close with Liu Hao and his group, and with him as her backer, she stirred up countless problems, bullying fellow students without restraint.
When the police caught Liu Hao’s gang stealing and reselling motorcycles at the abandoned rice factory, Deng Jiayu just happened to be there. Though she managed to escape, shortly afterward, a whistleblowing letter appeared in the education department's complaint inbox. Attached to the email was a record of most of the bad things Deng Jiayu had done since her second year of middle school.
It was hard to describe what happened next—maybe Deng Jiayu had too much faith in her family’s influence. In the past, no matter how big of a mess she caused, her parents always smoothed things over for her.
Because of this, she never hid her actions. For example, she once dragged a younger girl she didn’t like into the bathroom, slapped her until her nose bled, and then, along with her posse, gleefully took pictures and uploaded them to social media.
She also loved targeting those seemingly obedient, defenseless model students—the kind who were teachers' favorites. Her group couldn’t stand them.
Whenever teachers weren’t around to watch these ‘teacher's pets,’ Deng Jiayu and her gang would corner them in the bathroom, beat them, and slap them repeatedly. One would record the whole thing on camera while the others laughed.
The violent, bloody scenes would include the victim’s cries for mercy, drowned out by the gang’s delighted laughter.
If not for Chen Xuze’s presence, they might have tried this with Zhou Yao. Unfortunately for them, she was always with Chen Xuze and rarely alone, so they had to give up on her as a target.
Jiang Jiashu talked about this at home with his father. Among the school board members, many were his father’s old acquaintances, who often tattled on him when he acted out. He’d been punished plenty because of them.
Now, discussing Deng Jiayu, Jiang Jiashu felt puzzled. “Isn’t her family super powerful? They seem rich and influential. She’s caused so much trouble before and never got punished—”
His father scolded him sharply, “What kind of nonsense are you spouting at your age? Stop talking like that! You’re not learning anything good! Do you want to become like their rotten family?”
“I’m just saying what’s true. She really never got caught before…”
His father sighed and calmed down. “Your Uncle Zhang next door said his aunt was in charge of welcoming the inspection team. This school was their first stop, and they received a major complaint about such a violent incident. Of course, they had to handle it seriously. The government has been cracking down on campus bullying this year. Two similar cases from other schools in the province led to juvenile convictions. You all just happened to be next on their radar. Based on how they’re treating this, that student from your school is likely facing severe consequences.”
Jiang Jiashu thought for a moment and asked, “So, who wrote the complaint letter?”
“Who knows?” his father replied. “Didn’t that girl post tons of photos and videos of her bullying on social media? All the evidence was handed to them on a platter. No need for anyone to dig.”
His father, clearly disgusted by such behavior, shook his head as he sipped his tea and walked to his room. Over his shoulder, he warned, “You better behave yourself, or I’ll peel your skin…”
……
The photos and videos Deng Jiayu posted on social media became the final straw that sealed her fate. Within two days, her father made seven or eight trips to the school, all to no avail. He left each time with a dark expression.
The school decided to take a hard stance—expulsion, no room for negotiation.
The girls in the class gleefully gossiped about it, glancing at Zhou Yao, who sat calmly at her desk doing homework. One of them wanted to ask, “Hey, Zhou Yao, what do you think…”
But halfway through, she stopped. The girl had thought Zhou Yao might have strong feelings about this, especially since Deng Jiayu had spread the news about her limp all over campus, making her the center of attention. Students were constantly watching her, waiting for her to falter.
Surely Zhou Yao bore a grudge against Deng Jiayu. But looking at her calm demeanor, as if nothing in the outside world concerned her, they hesitated. They couldn’t figure out how she really felt about Deng Jiayu.
“Forget it. Look at her—does she seem like she’d care about this kind of thing?”
Another girl chimed in, stopping the questioner. “Exactly. Her nose is always buried in her books. Even when Deng Jiayu was picking on her, she stayed so calm. I honestly admire her.”
The gossip about Zhou Yao’s limp paled in comparison to the bombshell news of Deng Jiayu’s expulsion.
……
Jiang Jiashu leaned against the desk in front of Chen Xuze, turned sideways to face him. “Hey, you notice? Everyone who’s messed with us has been getting what they deserve lately. Don’t you think it’s fate?”
Chen Xuze circled the correct answers on his worksheet with a pencil, ignoring him.
Jiang Jiashu tried again. “So, what do you think about Liu Hao?”
Chen Xuze stood up. “I’m going to the bathroom.” As he walked away, he added, “Stop asking pointless questions.”
Left alone, Jiang Jiashu went off to find his other buddies. While chatting with them, they ended up discussing the same question Chen Xuze hadn’t answered.
“I think Xuze is great at everything, but his personality’s too cold. Makes him an easy target for bullies.”
“Bullies? Are you kidding? Who’d dare bully him?”
“He’s so indifferent to everything, like air. Wouldn’t people think he’s easy to mess with?”
A few friends felt that Jiang Jiashu’s description of Chen Xuze was completely different from how they knew him. One of them couldn’t help but say, “You’re overthinking it. Chen Xuze is the type who won’t bother you if you don’t bother him. But if you do, it depends on his mood—if he’s in a bad one, you’re screwed.”
Before Jiang Jiashu could speak, another chimed in, “Yeah, but what if someone messed with Zhou Yao?”
Since Zhou Yao’s transfer, it was clear she meant something different to Chen Xuze.
The group fell silent for a few seconds.
Even Jiang Jiashu, after some thought, couldn’t come up with a clear answer.
He suddenly sneered, “Who knows! What kind of dumbass question is that?”
……
During the break, Zhou Yao went to the convenience store to buy water. She had just finished a lab class and hadn’t returned to the classroom yet. She held her pencil case in her hand—a light blue fabric case with a cute white polar bear design, making it look especially adorable.
As she was walking, a group of girls who were chasing and playing around suddenly bumped into her.
Zhou Yao nearly stumbled. After steadying herself, she looked up. The girl who had bumped into her wasn’t wearing a school uniform. She had a light layer of foundation on her face. When their eyes met, there was a brief flash of surprise in the girl’s gaze, but in the next moment, whatever fleeting trace of apology had been there quickly faded away.
“Be careful,” Zhou Yao lowered her head slightly and said softly. She patted her shoulder where she had been bumped—it only hurt a little.
Because of that small gesture, the girl’s expression instantly changed. Her gaze sharpened, filled with a strange, indescribable meaning.
“Oh, so it’s the new transfer student.”
Zhou Yao didn’t want to engage. She lifted her foot to leave, but the girl stepped in front of her. “Hey, I heard you have some kind of problem with your leg. Is that true? Do you not take PE classes? I was thinking of getting to know you better—want to go hiking with us this weekend?”
Zhou Yao wasn’t stupid; she could hear the malice in the girl’s words. She ignored her and tried to walk around.
Suddenly, the girl snatched the blue pencil case from her hand and ran back several steps. “Don’t be so boring! Come play!”
She waved the pencil case in her hand. “Catch me, and I’ll give it back to you. Come on!”
The other girls in the group all watched with amused smiles. No one stopped her. No one spoke up.
What seemed like playful teasing was, in reality, full of cruelty.
More and more students passed by. The girl stood not far away and loudly called out to Zhou Yao, “It’s fine! So what if your leg’s bad? It’s not like you’re a cripple who can’t walk! You look pretty steady to me—come on, run over here!”
Under all the gazes, Zhou Yao stood there in silence.
Curious looks. Malicious words. Judgmental stares. She had experienced all of this before. Human malice often came from nowhere—two people who didn’t know each other and had no connection at all, yet someone could still unleash their inner beast over the most trivial of reasons.
Zhou Yao took a deep breath and suddenly sprinted forward. Before the girl could react, Zhou Yao snatched her blue pencil case back from her hands.
The girl froze. Because the grip was too tight, the little cartoon keychain attached to the case ripped off, remaining in her hand.
Zhou Yao’s dark eyes fixed on her. “Give it back.”
She was referring to the keychain.
The girl snapped out of her daze, took a step back, and smirked. “Oh, I didn’t see clearly before. So you can run? How about you do it again? If you catch me, I’ll give it back to you.”
Zhou Yao gave her a cold look and said expressionlessly, “I don’t want it anymore.” Then she turned and walked toward the small convenience store at the edge of the sports field.
Step by step, slow but firm.
The girl was stunned for a second, then scoffed. “Acting all high and mighty!” With that, she tossed the little keychain into a nearby trash can.
They laughed and ran off, playing and joking like nothing had happened—like that whole scene was nothing more than a minor, unimportant episode.
Zhou Yao quietly walked toward the convenience store. Instead of going to the counter to buy something, she went to a stone bench behind the store and sat down in silence.
In the distance, people were playing basketball, running across the court, drenched in sweat. The entire school was filled with noise—laughter, whispers, arguments.
Pure and dark—this was youth.
……
When Chen Xuze returned to the classroom, a boy he wasn’t very familiar with hesitated before finally mustering the courage to approach him. “Um… Chen Xuze… I think I saw Zhou Yao arguing with some girls from Class 4 downstairs.”
Chen Xuze, who had been calmly flipping through his book, suddenly looked up. His brows furrowed slightly, almost imperceptibly.
The boy continued, “I was walking by and saw a girl from Class 4 snatch Zhou Yao’s stuff and make her run after it.”
Jiang Jiashu’s expression changed immediately. “And then?!”
“Then Zhou Yao ran to get it back, but the keychain on her pencil case got torn off. The girl told her to run again if she wanted it back, but Zhou Yao said she didn’t want it anymore and just walked away.”
“Where did she go?”
“The convenience store…”
Before the words had even finished, Chen Xuze was already out the door. The bell rang for the next class. Jiang Jiashu and the others hesitated, then ultimately decided not to chase after him.
……
When Chen Xuze found Zhou Yao, she was sitting on the stone bench, staring blankly at the sports field. He walked over slowly. She looked up, saw him, and called his name.
“Chen Xuze.”
“Mm.”
He stopped in front of her, casting a shadow over her. She called out again, “Shisan.”
The sunlight refracted in her clear eyes, making them seem like a transparent lake—deep, still, and endless. Just a single drop was enough to drown him.
Zhou Yao didn’t cry. She didn’t like crying, and it had been a long time since she last shed tears.
Chen Xuze looked at the strands of her hair lifted by the wind. The sun had been shining down on her for so long before setting—he thought, it must be burning hot.
Slowly, he crouched down in front of her. On the other side of the field, a class was in the middle of P.E., but they were far away. This little corner, blocked by the convenience store, was empty and silent, as if completely detached from the outside world.
He took off her right shoe, then peeled off the short white cotton sock that barely reached her ankle, and gently, ever so lightly, massaged the sole of her foot with his palm.
Zhou Yao suddenly asked, “Did I do something wrong?”
He said, “No.”
“Then why are they like this?”
“This is their problem.” At that moment, Chen Xuze looked up, meeting her gaze, and said seriously, “Shallow and stupid people don’t even realize how disgusting they are. This is their problem.”
Jiang Jiashu knew, and everyone who knew Chen Xuze knew—he had an obsession with cleanliness. He wouldn’t eat anything others had touched, whether it was food or water. Once, Jiang Jiashu borrowed a pair of sneakers from him. After wearing them, he cleaned them thoroughly—scrubbed them at least twenty times until they looked brand new. He brought them back, feeling quite pleased with himself, only for Chen Xuze to say, “They're yours now.”
Yet now, the same Chen Xuze, who wouldn’t tolerate a speck of dirt, held Zhou Yao’s shoe, his palm pressed against its dust-covered sole, completely unbothered. With his other hand, he gently massaged her bare foot, kneading it over and over.
“It doesn’t hurt—”
“It doesn’t hurt anymore—”
Like a mantra, he repeated the words over and over.
The two of them, in a place untouched by the golden sunlight, felt the faint, scattered rays filtering through the cracks.
Just that little bit of light was already enough to feel warm.
……
As soon as class ended, Jiang Jiashu and his group rushed to find Chen Xuze. They didn’t go to the field or near the convenience store; instead, they headed straight for Class 4’s door.
A huge crowd had already gathered there, buzzing with excitement. Students from nearby classrooms had poured out into the hallway, some worried that things might spiral out of control and had run to get a teacher.
The girl who had snatched Zhou Yao’s blue pencil case and made her chase after it, who later tossed the pendant from it into the trash, was now pinned against the wall by her throat.
Chen Xuze, usually calm and indifferent, had a look of pure fury in his eyes. His grip was tight, causing the girl's face to flush red.
His cold, distant gaze held no trace of emotion toward her pain—just as she had shown none toward Zhou Yao. The girl flailed her arms, struggling, while the onlookers tried to intervene. But no matter how many boys joined in to pry him away, they couldn’t loosen his grip.
The commotion at the classroom door grew louder, the tension thick enough to suffocate.
At last, Chen Xuze spoke, his voice chillingly calm, uttering just two sentences.
“Apologize to her—!”
“Go pick it up from the trash—!”
Tears welled up in the girl's eyes as she desperately nodded in pain. Only then did Chen Xuze let go.
She collapsed to the floor, gasping for air, then burst into loud, wailing sobs.
The crowd around them stood frozen, too shocked to say a word. Chen Xuze, from beginning to end, remained expressionless.
Jiang Jiashu was stunned. From the moment he arrived at Class 4’s door, he had even forgotten to step in and break up the fight. At that instant, looking at Chen Xuze’s face, he suddenly recalled a conversation he had with some friends earlier.
It seemed like he had found the answer.
Chen Xuze was the kind of person—
If you didn’t provoke him, he wouldn’t care about you.
If you did, whether or not he responded depended on his mood.
But if you dared to mess with Zhou Yao—
He would take your life.
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