Thirteen Wonders (ShíSānYāo) : Chapter 9 - Clauses Seven, Eight, Nine
Chapter 9: Clauses Seven, Eight, Nine
When the evening class began, Chen Xuze’s punishment finally came to an end. Back in the classroom, many students were still unsettled by his actions at Class 4’s door, but he acted as if nothing had happened.
As the bell rang and evening self-study started, Jiang Jiashu turned around and spoke to Chen Xuze. “Did Zhou Yao get all her things back?”
Chen Xuze nodded, his expression not particularly pleasant.
“She took back her pencil case herself. What about the keychain? The one that got thrown into the trash—did that girl go and retrieve it?”
“She did.” Chen Xuze’s response was brief and to the point. It was obvious that this matter did not sit well with him.
At this, Jiang Jiashu became curious. “That keychain looked pretty dirty. Why didn’t Zhou Yao just throw it away and buy a new one? Since it ended up in the trash, it must have picked up a smell.”
Chen Xuze grabbed a book from his drawer with one hand and tossed it onto the desk. “Don’t ask.” He paused and added, “And don’t bring it up in front of her.”
Jiang Jiashu’s curiosity only grew. “Is there a story behind it?”
Chen Xuze shot him a look. Jiang Jiashu let out an awkward chuckle and quickly raised his hands in surrender. “Alright, alright, I won’t ask! Not asking!”
……
After the incident at Class 4’s door, fewer people dared to joke about Zhou Yao’s foot as gossip. High school seniors rarely had PE classes, and since she walked normally, anyone who wasn’t intentionally scrutinizing her wouldn’t notice anything different.
Some people harbor malice and like to poke at others’ pain points, but even that depends on the situation. If Zhou Yao had been an easy target, the teasing might have never ended. However, she often carried a stern face, and when silent, she exuded an intimidating arrogance.
With Chen Xuze as her backing—someone who didn’t hesitate to grab another student by the throat—who would still dare to mess with her?
For a while, things were peaceful, and all the nonsense died down.
The first monthly exam arrived, and Zhou Yao performed as usual. The next day, the results were posted on the red ranking board.
Zhou Yao wasn’t concerned about most things, but she did care about her grades. Jiang Jiashu and the others also joined the crowd at the ranking board. Chen Xuze’s name was in third place.
Jiang Jiashu teased him, “Third place again! Xuze, you’re turning into a permanent number three!”
Looking up at the top of the list, they noticed that two names were tied for first place.
Someone gasped. “A tie?”
Indeed, the two names were listed on the same row, arranged alphabetically.
The first row read:
First Place
Ying Nian — followed by a few empty spaces, then another name — Zhou Yao.
“Ying Nian is back? Wasn’t she away for a competition?”
Recognizing the familiar name, students started discussing it.
Zhou Yao approached and stood beside Chen Xuze and the others. “Who is Ying Nian?” she asked.
Chen Xuze did not react. He wasn’t familiar with Ying Nian and had no interest in answering.
Jiang Jiashu, on the other hand, smacked his forehead as if he wanted to die. “That idiot is back?! Couldn’t she stay at that competition for ten years or something? My god—”
Zhou Yao looked at him curiously. Jiang Jiashu sighed, glared at the ranking board, and admitted begrudgingly.
“That idiot Ying Nian… is my cousin.”
……
After first encountering Ying Nian’s name on the ranking board, Zhou Yao met her for the first time in the school auditorium. Zhou Yao preferred quiet and sat in the back row. Before long, someone scooted closer, seat by seat, until they were right beside her.
Turning her head, Zhou Yao was met with a dazzling smile. The girl had striking features, but her demeanor was warm and approachable, without any edge. Her wide grin even carried a bit of silly charm.
Zhou Yao was puzzled.
“Hello! I’m Ying Nian!” Ying Nian leaned in as if to shake hands but, unsure where to place her hand, ended up lightly tugging the corner of Zhou Yao’s book page instead.
Then, she pushed a test paper toward Zhou Yao, turned to face her, and stared at her face as if she were admiring a masterpiece, unable to look away.
Being scrutinized so intently made Zhou Yao a little uncomfortable.
Lowering her head slightly, she asked in a soft voice, “You’re Jiang Jiashu’s cousin?”
“Yep! You’ve heard of me?”
“A little.”
“What a coincidence! I’ve heard of you too!” Ying Nian’s brows lifted excitedly. “While I was away for the competition, I heard there was a super pretty new student at school. I just knew it had to be you! You’re gorgeous!”
It was the first time Zhou Yao had been so openly complimented on her looks by another girl. Even with her usual composure, she felt a slight blush creep up.
“You were looking for me…”
“Ah, yes!” Ying Nian’s tone was so exaggeratedly sweet it could make anyone cringe. “Zhou Yao, you’re really smart, aren’t you? I admire you so much! I heard you got first place on this exam, so I came to ask for your guidance. Please, teach me these problems!”
She flicked her hair and propped her face up with one hand, and though she spoke of studying, her eyes were still glued to Zhou Yao’s face.
“But…”
“There's no ‘but’ about it, come on!”
Zhou Yao: “We're ranked the same. You and I have the same score.”
Ying Nian: “...”
She cleared her throat, straightened up slightly, and said with conviction, “We made mistakes in different places! Come on, come on, teach me, teach me, teach me!” Her tone made it sound like she was eagerly waiting to be tortured.
Unable to resist Ying Nian's playful persistence, Zhou Yao had no choice but to agree.
In the afternoon, the school auditorium was filled with the teacher's lecture on school discipline.
In the back row, tucked into a corner, Zhou Yao softly and patiently explained the questions to Ying Nian—questions that she wasn't even sure if Ying Nian really needed help with. Throughout the entire session, Ying Nian's gaze remained fixed on Zhou Yao’s face—her fair skin, the faint veins beneath it, and the way her eyelashes quivered slightly. Watching her like this, Ying Nian felt half of her heart melt away.
Too. Cute. To. Handle. Absolutely deadly!
After the lecture, Zhou Yao had something to do and returned to her class first. Ying Nian stood by the back door, replaying everything in her head with a satisfied sigh. By chance, Jiang Jiashu happened to pass by, saw her, and immediately gave her a hard knock on the head.
“To hell with you, Jiang Jiashu!”
“What the hell are you doing here, idiot? Sightseeing?”
Ying Nian rolled her eyes at him before turning back to look at Zhou Yao’s retreating figure. Jiang Jiashu followed her gaze, squinting as he recognized Zhou Yao. “Isn't that Zhou Yao? What did you do? I'm warning you, you better not mess with her—Chen Xuze will kill you.”
But Ying Nian wasn’t listening anymore. Watching that silhouette, she curved her lips into a smile, shook her head slightly, and raised a finger, nodding with emphasis as she declared:
“—This beauty? I want her.”
……
Ying Nian wasn’t just saying it for fun—after that first meeting in the auditorium, whether she was free or not, she would always come looking for Zhou Yao. Talking to her, studying together, linking arms as they went to buy water after class, and even dragging Zhou Yao to the field for a walk during break time.
Zhou Yao had trouble with one of her legs, making running difficult, and sometimes even walking could be painful when it acted up.
Ying Nian knew this, but she acted as if she didn’t. She never treated Zhou Yao like she was fragile, nor did she go out of her way to take special care of her. She simply treated her like any other normal friend.
Compared to Chen Xuze, Ying Nian’s reputation was just as notorious—maybe even more so. Although she had always looked down on Chen Xuze, thinking he was just a guy with a perpetually deadpan face and nothing appealing about him, when it came to Zhou Yao, the two of them were unexpectedly alike—both absolutely ruthless.
The girls from Class 4, after being warned by Chen Xuze, no longer dared to openly provoke Zhou Yao, but that didn’t stop them from whispering behind her back. Of course, they wouldn’t dare say anything to her face, but as luck would have it, Ying Nian happened to overhear them.
Bang—
With a sharp sound, a water bottle Ying Nian threw flew past a girl’s cheek, narrowly missing her face. It wasn't aimed directly at her—Ying Nian had deliberately thrown it to land just beside her. The bottle, still a third full, crashed against the wall behind them, making a loud noise that startled the entire group.
Just a second ago, they had been gossiping—calling her a ‘cripple,’ mocking ‘what's so special about that limping girl’—but now, every single one of them stood frozen, staring wide-eyed at Ying Nian, who was giving them a cold, disdainful glare.
“If you're going to talk shit about someone,” Ying Nian sneered, lips curling, “you better be careful.” She let out a short laugh. “Because when I throw a punch, I don't care if you're a guy or a girl.”
She’d beat them up all the same.
Ying Nian was gorgeous, smart, and came from an even better family than Jiang Jiashu, whose background was already impressive.
But most importantly, she was absolutely wild. Once, when she got into a fight with another girl, that girl started crying when the teacher showed up, acting all pitiful. Who knew that, in the next second, Ying Nian would start bawling even harder—tears streaming down like a flood, crying so dramatically that she outdid the other girl completely.
Another time, someone tried to gang up on her outside the school gates. Without hesitation, Ying Nian grabbed an old, discarded desk from the sports field and smashed it over the leader’s head, sending them crying for their parents.
Of course, she’d had her setbacks, too—like the time she almost got cornered in an alley. But no one expected her to suddenly leap up like a monkey, sprint up a wall, and flip over it, disappearing in an instant.
No one could fight her, and no one could catch her. Who at No. 7 High School would dare mess with her?
Her kind of recklessness was completely different from Chen Xuze’s ruthlessness.
And yet, as fate would have it, the two of them ended up protecting the same person—Zhou Yao.
……
Zhou Yao had almost no reaction to Ying Nian’s constant attention. No matter what Ying Nian invited her to do, she would go, but she never showed much enthusiasm.
Ying Nian didn’t get mad, nor did she ever blame her or think it was unfair.
Some connections between people just couldn’t be explained. She had liked Zhou Yao from the first moment she saw her, and she just kept liking her.
By the second week of Ying Nian hanging around Zhou Yao, during the afternoon’s second class, Zhou Yao was called to the teacher’s office to collect some forms for the class.
The cicadas had quieted down, their buzzing nearly gone. The sunlight filtering through the gaps in the leaves had lost its summer heat.
Autumn was coming.
Holding a thin stack of forms, Zhou Yao passed by a small pavilion near the faculty building. She hadn’t even reached it when she overheard voices from inside. The dense branches of an unknown plant swayed in the wind, partially obscuring her figure.
If one didn’t look closely, they wouldn’t even notice her there.
“Hey, Niannian, I don’t get it—why are you always hanging around that Zhou Yao? She doesn’t even respond to you, and yet you keep chasing after her. If I were you, I’d have given up already!”
“Yeah! You haven’t hung out with us in forever. You even eat with her now.”
“That Zhou Yao is a cripple! What if she trips while running or something? Wouldn’t that be embarrassing? I mean, I would never—”
Voices drifted from the pavilion. They were unfamiliar to Zhou Yao, but the name they mentioned was one she knew all too well.
Her grip on the papers tightened slightly. She lowered her head, her lips curling into a faint, unreadable smile, and was about to take a detour down a side path to leave.
But before she could move, a familiar voice rang out from inside the pavilion—
“Watch your words, all of you.”
“Listen up—Zhou Yao is my friend. If I hear you talking bad about her again, I won’t be this polite next time.”
It was Ying Nian’s voice. Her tone, slightly sharper than usual, carried a hint of anger. Zhou Yao had heard her like this a few times before—just like now.
“Talking behind people’s backs is a really nasty thing to do. I’ll only say this once.”
“And besides, whatever is going on with Zhou Yao’s leg has nothing to do with anyone else. That’s her business.”
“What, you think you’re so great just because you can run? Go on then, let me see you sprint 800 meters! If you can’t win first place, you’re just a useless sack of potatoes to me!”
The pavilion fell into dead silence. The group seemed stunned by Ying Nian’s scolding. Then, with a sudden burst of movement, Ying Nian shot up from her seat, no longer willing to waste words—
“My Zhou Yao, she’s beautiful, kind, gentle, and smart—she comes first in every exam, and she never badmouths anyone behind their back. She’s amazing. And what right do you have to mock her?”
For the sake of old times, Ying Nian didn’t say anything nastier. She simply rolled her eyes at them, walked down the steps of the pavilion, and strode off without looking back.
……
Chen Xuze and his friends had originally planned to head to the sports field. The route passed by the Teachers’ Building, near the pavilion, and just like Zhou Yao, they happened to overhear the conversation.
No one spoke the entire time. It was only after the group had scattered that Jiang Jiashu dramatically wiped at the corner of his eye. “Damn, my idiot cousin can actually be cute sometimes! My heart is so comforted, so comforted!”
Beside him, Chen Xuze had remained quiet the entire time. After Jiang Jiashu finished his act, he curiously nudged his elbow. “What’s up with you? Are you mad? Hey, don’t let what those people say get to you. They’re just a bunch of idiots—”
“No,” Chen Xuze said. “I was just thinking about something.”
“Thinking about what?”
Jiang Jiashu asked casually, not expecting an answer. But surprisingly, Chen Xuze spoke. “Do you remember when you asked me about the cartoon keychain on Zhou Yao’s pencil bag?”
“Oh, that thing? It’s so old and dirty. If you throw it in the trash, it’ll just get even filthier. When is she finally going to replace it?”
“It was a gift from her friend in elementary school.”
“Friend?”
Chen Xuze nodded. “She only had that one friend.”
Jiang Jiashu was momentarily stunned.
Chen Xuze continued, “Back then, Zhou Yao was still a kid. She hadn’t been injured for long and was just learning how to walk normally again. Since she wasn’t used to it, she often moved in awkward ways. A lot of kids laughed at her, but that girl—she was the only one who didn’t care. She always played with Zhou Yao. They made paper crafts together, and bought popsicles after school. Zhou Yao liked her a lot.”
“What happened after that?”
“After that…”
Chen Xuze’s eyes darkened, as if a thick fog had gathered within them, suffocating something in its grasp.
“One day, Zhou Yao found out that the girl had been laughing at her behind her back with the others. Because she liked her so much, she brought her home, and even practiced walking in front of her in front of a mirror. It was an ugly sight—clumsy and awkward. And that girl, in front of everyone, laughed and said—‘Let me tell you, this is how Zhou Yao practices walking at home. Like this, just like this—doesn’t it look stupid?’”
Jiang Jiashu’s eyes widened. “Holy shit, that’s messed up!”
“We were just kids back then. Everyone was in elementary school. Their sense of right and wrong was blurry, and empathy was even rarer,” Chen Xuze said, glancing at him. “Even now, how many people do you think really understand these things?”
Jiang Jiashu fell silent.
“The cartoon keychain was a gift from that girl. After that day, they never spoke again. The girl never apologized or explained. They simply became strangers, as if by unspoken agreement.”
Chen Xuze continued, “Zhou Yao never threw it away. She’s always kept it somewhere visible—on her keychain, or attached to her pencil bag.”
“Why? She should just toss it!”
“Maybe—” Chen Xuze said, “so she won’t forget.”
……
After Ying Nian left, the people in the pavilion didn’t dare say another word. Even though she was gone, they were still shaken. After sitting for a few seconds, they scattered.
Zhou Yao stood behind the leafy branches for a long time, clutching the stack of papers so tightly that they became creased. Then, slowly, she loosened her grip and smoothed out the wrinkles.
Every time they ate together, Ying Nian would always say: “Smile, Yaoyao, smile! You look so pretty when you smile! I just love girls with beautiful smiles!”
She would always just tug at the corners of her lips, a token reaction to appease Ying Nian.
That afternoon, on her way back to the classroom from the Teachers’ Building, Zhou Yao stood alone in the shade of the garden and, inexplicably, smiled for a long time.
Just as Ying Nian had said—
When she smiled, she was truly beautiful.
The author has something to say:
Our Yaoyao has finally made a good friend! So happy!
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