Thirteen Wonders (ShíSānYāo) : Chapter 28 - One Tiao Nine Tiao
Chapter 28: One Tiao Nine Tiao
In the evening, each class was assigned different tasks for the evening garbage cleanup. Some of the dirtier, more tiring jobs were ones that nobody wanted to do, but they always ended up falling on certain people.
For example, cleaning out the trash near the drainage ditch by hand—this week, it was Class Six's turn, the class next door to Class Seven. There was a boy in Class Six whom Zhou Yao remembered clearly. He always kept his head down. Once, he accidentally bumped into her arm, and before she could say anything, he had already apologized repeatedly in a panic.
—”I’m sorry, I didn't mean to get your clothes dirty…”
That one sentence had left her momentarily stunned, and the memory remained vivid.
Later, she learned that the boy's name was Huang Xin, the poorest student in Class Six. If he had been at the top of his class, maybe he could have earned the teachers’ favor and the respect of his peers. But his academic performance was average, often hovering in the lower-middle range.
Before Cheng Yuan’s incident, no one paid much attention to this sort of thing. But looking back now, it seemed that every class had students like him.
The high achievers and the struggling ones, the privileged and the underprivileged. Like the two ends of a scale—completely unbalanced, yet placed together in the same group.
Whether they could get along, no one knew.
There was no wind that day. Zhou Yao sat on a bench, basking in the sun, watching Huang Xin walk along the drainage ditch. With every step, he crouched down to dig out the trash stuck in the corners with his gloved hands. He carried a metal bucket in his other hand, already half-filled with filth.
It was a common sight. Others had done this task before. But for some reason, watching Huang Xin—his face sallow and dark, expressionless as he repeated the same action over and over—Zhou Yao suddenly found herself unable to look away.
As she watched, a well-dressed girl walked over. She looked well-dressed because the winter jacket over her school uniform was of high-quality material, expensive just at a glance.
The girl stopped beside Huang Xin. “Have you paid for the workbook yet? Why are you the only one left?”
Huang Xin glanced up at her, then lowered his head again. “Not yet.” After a pause, he calmly added, “Sorry.”
The girl seemed like she wanted to scold him but held back, stomping her foot before walking away.
Zhou Yao remained seated, not wanting to move. She quietly watched in that direction. Soon, a group of boys approached together, one of them spinning a basketball on his fingertip.
He had a fair complexion, sharp features, and spoke in a strong local dialect—clear and pleasant to the ear.
They seemed to notice Huang Xin and slowed their pace. “Yo, it's the ditch guy again,” one of them jeered. “Still not done digging all that out?”
Huang Xin ignored them.
“I'm talking to you!” The boy flicked the ball at his back. “This morning, I asked to borrow your homework, and you acted all high and mighty. What’s with the attitude?”
One of the other boys, sensing things were going too far, tried to intervene. “Hey, cut it out—”
“I’m not even doing anything,” the boy with the ball scoffed.
Just as someone was about to speak again, a sharp voice interrupted. “Hey—! You guys!”
They turned to see the same girl from earlier, the one who had asked Huang Xin for the workbook money. She was carrying a stack of assignments, marching over from the teaching building, glaring at them. “What are you doing?” She glanced at Huang Xin, then shot the boys a wary look. “You better not go too far! Do you think bullying people makes you cool? You better watch yourselves, or I’ll tell Teacher Zeng!”
“Tch, always tattling to the teacher…”
The girl strode forward and kicked the ball-holding boy hard in the shin. “Not only will I tell the teacher, but I’ll also beat you up myself! What, want to fight me? I'm a third-rank street fighter!”
“All you do is bully classmates. You think that makes you impressive? You think you're doing something badass?”
The boy, humiliated, retorted, “And who do you think you are? Playing hero, trying to stand out?”
“At least I'm better than you idiots!” she shouted, voice full of energy. “You better watch yourselves! One Guan Xiaoxiao wasn’t enough, huh? Look in the mirror—how are you any different from her?”
At that name, everyone's expression changed. A case of school bullying had led to the loss of two young lives. From the moment it happened, it became a wound that never healed at Class Seven.
The boys seemed to realize something—or maybe they were just afraid. They hesitated, their lips moving but forming no words, before turning to leave. The girl stopped them. “Hold it—!”
They turned back with furrowed brows. “What now?”
“Apologize.” She glared at them. “I saw you throw the ball at Huang Xin. Apologize to him, or this isn’t over!”
The boy's face twisted. But in the end, under her unyielding gaze, he gave a slight, barely noticeable bow. “Sorry.”
Then, he quickly left, the others hurrying after him.
Only the girl and Huang Xin remained. From start to finish, the boy named Huang Xin never spoke a word. He simply kept digging the filth out of the drainage ditch, never even looking up at her.
“Next time they mess with you, speak up,” the girl said firmly. “Don't think I'm being harsh, but so what if you're poor? You don't owe them anything! If something happens, I'll handle it. Got it?”
Huang Xin said nothing, only continuing his task in silence. The girl sighed and walked off toward the teaching building, hugging her assignments.
Zhou Yao sat on the bench, watching the quiet, frail boy as his fingers kept scraping at the muck in the ditch. After a long, long time, she thought she saw his lips move slightly. It looked like he was saying—
“I got it.”
Zhou Yao sat for a long time, until Ying Nian came looking for her. “What are you doing here?”
There was no one else around. Zhou Yao replied, “Sunbathing.”
“You can do that anywhere. Why here? When the wind picks up, it’ll be freezing with the trees swaying!”
Zhou Yao closed her eyes and tilted her face toward the sunlight, smiling faintly. “I just feel like…the sun is especially warm here today.”
……
That night, Zhou Yao and Chen Xuze walked home together after their evening class. Since she had a book to give him, she asked him to wait a moment before leaving. Chen Xuze simply followed her into her room.
As she was holding the book, a knock came at the door. “Sister Yaoyao? Are you home?”
It was a girl from the neighborhood. Zhou Yao and Chen Xuze went out to see her standing at the door, her face trying—and failing—to hide her nervousness.
“Sister Yaoyao…”
“What’s wrong, Jiaojiao?”
The girl, Ding Jiao, hesitated at the doorway, looking at Chen Xuze as if she wanted to say something but was holding back.
Chen Xuze saw her unease and said to Zhou Yao, “I’ll head home first. You can give me the book tomorrow.”
Zhou Yao nodded.
After Chen Xuze left, Zhou Yao brought Ding Jiao into her room. Ding Jiao insisted that she lock the door, and only after they sat cross-legged on the floor did she stammer out what had happened.
“What did you say?!”
Zhou Yao looked utterly shocked, grabbing Ding Jiao’s hand. “You… How could you…” She tightened her grip, forcing herself to stay calm. “Did you take any medicine?”
Ding Jiao had a tearful expression. “I don’t know… I don’t even know when… What time it was… I don’t know if I missed the window…”
Ding Jiao took two empty packs of birth control pills out of her pocket. There was nothing left in them. One pack alone would have been enough for a single dose. “You took this much?” Zhou Yao asked.
“I don’t know…” Ding Jiao’s eyes turned red, tears falling as she spoke. “I was afraid it wasn’t enough, so I took more later…”
If the time window had passed, taking more wouldn’t help. Zhou Yao exhaled deeply, her shoulders sinking.
“What about the guy?”
“I… I told him, but he doesn’t know what to do either…”
Ding Jiao was only a year younger than Zhou Yao, but she was carefree and reckless, nothing like Zhou Yao, who was well-behaved, mature, and good at school. Everyone thought the gap between them was huge—one was already a young woman, while the other was still just a playful little girl.
And yet, who would have thought the little girl would get herself into such a situation?
“This was at the end of last month,” Ding Jiao said, pointing to the empty pill packs. The next words came with two streams of tears. “And I still haven’t gotten my period this month…”
Zhou Yao was completely speechless.
“Sister Yaoyao, I don’t know what to do, I’m so scared, I…”
“Did you take a test?” Zhou Yao asked.
“I bought a plastic test stick last night and used it this morning. I think… I think it…”
“What? Just say it.”
“…Two lines.”
Zhou Yao had no words.
Thinking for a long while, she realized this was too big for Ding Jiao to handle alone. She asked, “What do you plan to do?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I came to ask you…”
“Did you tell your parents?”
At this, Ding Jiao panicked. “No! I can’t tell them! If I tell them, they’ll kill me! I can’t… My dad would beat me for sure!”
“If you don’t tell your family, how are you going to deal with this? Huh? The guy you mentioned clearly has no ability to handle this! If you rely only on yourself, what’s your plan?”
Ding Jiao clutched Zhou Yao’s hand like a lifeline. “But I have you, don’t I? Sister Yaoyao, you’re so smart. You’ll definitely have a way to help me, right? Please, I really…”
“If something goes wrong with this, it’s a lifelong problem,” Zhou Yao said, gripping her wrist tightly, her voice carrying anger now. “Say what you want, but your parents have always loved you. They give you everything you ask for, never saying no. Maybe I wouldn’t vouch for other families, but your parents? They love you so much, and you know that!”
“And now, at such a crucial time, instead of trusting the people who love you most in this world, you’re trusting some random guy? Ding Jiao, have you lost your mind?!”
Ding Jiao was stunned by the scolding, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. Before she could respond, a sudden knock on the door interrupted them.
“Yaoyao? Why is the door locked? I need to grab something.”
It was Zhou Yao’s mother.
The two girls panicked, scrambling to stand up. Zhou Yao quickly dusted herself off, fixed Ding Jiao’s clothes, and patted her cheeks. “Calm down. Don’t be scared. It’s fine.”
Then she opened the door. “Jiaojiao came over to chat. I must’ve locked the door without thinking.”
“Oh, Jiao Jiao.” Zhou Yao’s mother didn’t think much of it. She walked past them, retrieved what she needed, and left without another word.
Zhou Yao walked Ding Jiao out, repeating instructions along the way. “Wipe your tears. When you go home, wash your face with the water from the basin so your parents won’t see you’ve been crying. Think carefully tonight about what I said…”
Ding Jiao couldn’t speak, only gripping Zhou Yao’s hand, nodding over and over. Zhou Yao walked her to her door, coaxing her multiple times before she finally went inside.
Looking at the dark alley, where the dim yellow streetlight couldn’t reach the corners, Zhou Yao let out a silent sigh. She turned and walked back home step by step. As soon as she stepped through the door and looked up, she saw her mother standing in the living room, eyes burning with fury.
“You—! You—!”
“What is this?!”
The empty birth control pill packs, which had been swept out from under her desk, were thrown straight at her face. The next second, her mother raised her hand and slapped her hard across the face. A sharp ‘smack’ echoed through the room.
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