Thirteen Wonders (ShíSānYāo) : Chapter 33 - One Tiao Nine Tiao
Chapter 33: One Tiao Nine Tiao
Ever since some point in time, Gu Yujun had been appearing near No. 7 High School more and more often. The chances of Zhou Yao and her friends seeing him had greatly increased. At first, they all found it strange, and Ying Nian was worried. “He’s not here to cause trouble, is he?”
Jiang Jiashu, still holding a grudge from last time, said, “If he dares to pick a fight, I’ll make sure he regrets it!”
Then, Ying Nian started to fret again, looking at Zhou Yao with a serious face. “Oh no.”
“What?”
Ying Nian said, “What if he’s here to ask you to buy him another pancake?”
Zhou Yao: “…”
Jiang Jiashu smacked her on the head, and the two of them moved to the side to ‘fight.’
Since he kept showing up so often, it was hard to keep pretending not to see him—especially when he was clearly heading toward their group, standing nearby as if waiting. Ignoring him completely wasn’t really an option.
So, Zhou Yao greeted him once. “Hey.”
Gu Yujun looked a bit embarrassed, but he forced himself to respond nonchalantly. “…Hey.”
“What hey?!” Jiang Jiashu stepped between them, glaring at him. “What are you doing here?”
“Is No. 7 High your private property? I can't come?”
“You…”
Before Jiang Jiashu could say more, Gu Yujun glanced at their group, scanning them quickly before lowering his head and walking away.
The whole thing was baffling, leaving everyone confused.
That was just the beginning. From then on, Gu Yujun showed up even more often. When there weren’t many people around, he’d exchange a few words with Zhou Yao—nothing deep, nothing with any particular emotion. When the group was larger, he would stand a little further away, watching for a bit before leaving without saying anything.
Jiang Jiashu privately complained, “That Gu Yujun… could he actually like Zhou Yao?”
Everyone else thought the same thing.
But then, Zhou Yao happened to overhear and said, “No, he doesn’t. When he looks at me, his eyes don’t have that kind of emotion. He just talks to me calmly, and he never stands too close.”
Everyone jumped in surprise, but after collecting themselves, they still found it odd.
Before they could figure anything out, on Wednesday night after school, they took a different route home because of road construction. Unfortunately, they stumbled upon a group of people beating someone up in a corner.
Faced with this situation and not knowing who the people were, Jiang Jiashu and the others hesitated about whether to intervene. Then, Ying Nian suddenly blurted out, “Gu Yujun?!”
…Damn it.
Jiang Jiashu silently rolled his eyes. Now they had no choice but to step in. That annoying familiar face—even if they disliked him, they at least knew him. Letting him get beaten up here without doing anything would feel wrong.
“Hey—!”
With a commanding shout, Jiang Jiashu charged forward. The attackers saw that Gu Yujun had backup and didn’t even bother putting up a fight—they just turned and ran.
Only Gu Yujun was left behind, his face covered in bruises, clothes dirty, slumped against the wall.
He must have been in a lot of pain. Through the dim light, he vaguely recognized them—Jiang Jiashu and the other guys standing in front of him, while a little further back stood Ying Nian, Zhou Yao, and Chen Xuze.
They stood there, so clean, completely different from him.
Gu Yujun raised an arm to cover half of his face, turning his head away, as if he'd rather collapse onto the ground.
“…Go away.”
“What did he say?” Jiang Jiashu didn’t catch it, so he leaned in to listen again. When he finally understood, he nearly kicked him in frustration.
“Damn it! We come here to help you, and you tell us to get lost? You little—”
Da Xiong tugged on Jiang Jiashu’s sleeve. “He said ‘go away,’ not ‘get lost.’”
Jiang Jiashu immediately calmed down. “…Oh.”
He turned to look at Chen Xuze and the others, silently asking how they should handle this. Zhou Yao pulled Chen Xuze forward a few steps, then let go of his hand and crouched down in front of Gu Yujun.
“Why did they beat you?”
For some reason, in that moment, Gu Yujun suddenly felt like crying.
He covered his face with his arm and stayed silent.
“You know, if you don’t answer, I’ll take more extreme measures—like having them drag you up, or maybe…”
Under her half-joking threat, he finally muttered reluctantly, “I was… just walking through here… accidentally bumped into them…”
And then they got aggressive, and outnumbered, he was knocked to the ground and beaten.
“You really are…” Jiang Jiashu didn’t even know what to say.
Zhou Yao turned to Ying Nian. “Niannian, do you have wet wipes and bandages?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah.” Girls always carried these things, and considering Ying Nian had made plenty of enemies before, she naturally kept bandages on hand.
She handed the supplies to Zhou Yao. Chen Xuze, who had been silent the entire time, quietly watched Zhou Yao’s movements.
“Sit up,” she said.
Still covering his face, Gu Yujun remained lying on the ground. “…What?”
“Sit up. Lean against the wall.”
He didn’t respond for a long time.
Zhou Yao’s voice lowered slightly. “I don’t want to repeat myself.”
Just when everyone thought he wouldn't react, Gu Yu-jun actually listened. He placed his palm on the ground and slowly sat up, resting against the wall.
Being stared at by so many people while in such a beaten-up state, his expression turned sullen.
Zhou Yao didn’t say anything. She gestured for Ying Nian to help. Ying Nian wiped his face with a wet wipe. Gu Yujun instinctively flinched and hissed in pain, and Zhou Yao said, “Don’t move.” Like a scolded child, he stopped moving.
After Ying Nian cleaned his face, Zhou Yao tore open the bandage packets and applied them, covering his wounds one by one.
Zhou Yao and Ying Nian were too gentle. Gu Yujun felt both awkward and uncomfortable. With Jiang Jiashu and the others staring at him, his mischievous streak acted up. He couldn’t help but blurt out, laughing even as it tugged at his bruised mouth, “You’re so nice to me—buying me food, treating my wounds… hey, do you like me or something? Ah—!”
Gu Yujun let out a pained yell, glaring at Chen Xuze. The moment he finished that sentence, Chen Xuze, who had been standing silently nearby the whole time, suddenly kicked him hard in the thigh.
“Watch your mouth.”
Chen Xuze lowered his eyes slightly, his face expressionless, his gaze devoid of any emotion.
Gu Yujun took a deep breath, wanting to lash out, but in the end, he held back.
…Who told him to run his mouth? Besides, looking at Zhou Yao’s delicate face, she was actually a pretty good person. Maybe he really had gone too far.
After tending to his wound, Gu Yujun stood up, needing to lean against the wall to keep his balance.
Zhou Yao asked, “Do you never go home?”
“Home? I don’t have a home.” Gu Yujun looked down at his shoes, wiggling them slightly without lifting his head.
“Where do you stay?”
“Wherever. Internet cafés, convenience stores, under bridges…” He let out a short laugh. “You guys have never slept under a bridge, have you?” He made a ‘cool’ gesture, giving himself a slanted thumbs-up. “Super awesome.”
Everyone felt uncomfortable hearing this.
Zhou Yao asked again, “What do you eat every day?”
“You think I can't get money?” Gu Yujun scoffed as if he had heard a joke. “There are plenty of ways to make money.” He patted the dust off his clothes, once again looking like that tall, carefree boy.
“You know the manhole covers in the East District, right? Go there after 2 AM. I pried one open once—not hard at all. But the boss was a scammer. Saw I was new and young, only gave me a few hundred. Screw him!”
Zhou Yao’s face instantly turned serious, staring at him intently. “Do you know that's illegal?”
Gu Yujun was momentarily stunned by her change in expression, then tilted his head back indifferently. “So what?”
Suddenly, Zhou Yao grabbed him by the collar, an action completely out of character for her. “You know it’s illegal and still do it? Are you stupid or just brain-dead?”
Zhou Yao rarely cursed, and she had never acted like this before. All their friends were shocked.
Gu Yujun locked eyes with her for a moment before violently shaking off her hand.
“Just because you helped me a few times, you think you can lecture me? What does any of this have to do with you?! Who are you to control me, Miss Goody-Two-Shoes?” He glared at Zhou Yao, his voice hoarse. “Whether I steal or not is my own business—none of your damn concern!”
Jiang Jiashu's expression darkened, and he rushed forward to hit him, but Zhou Yao stopped him.
Zhou Yao stood still, staring at Gu Yujun for a long time. Then suddenly, she smiled and turned to Chen Xuze.
“Let’s go.”
The group gave Gu Yujun a few last glances, then walked away without another word, leaving him behind.
In the dimly lit corner, only he remained. Gu Yujun leaned against the wall for a long time until the rain suddenly started falling. He stood under the eaves, unmoving.
……
A week passed after that unpleasant fallout with Gu Yujun.
hou Yao finished her evening class early. Chen Xuze’s teacher was in the middle of passionately explaining a problem, with two more still to go. So, she left the school first and waited for him at a small shop outside.
After eating a red bean bun, she noticed Gu Yujun again on the opposite side of the street. He saw her too. Seeing that she had noticed him, he started pacing back and forth along the sidewalk, occasionally glancing toward the shop.
Zhou Yao sighed in exasperation. After a while, she lightly waved her hand.
Like an excited husky, he immediately bolted across the street.
He skidded to a stop in front of her, entered the shop, and stood there without saying a word. Other students came and went, brushing past him as they bought things. He was jostled here and there, but still remained silent.
Zhou Yao had no choice but to speak first. “Why are you here?”
Gu Yujun tilted his head stubbornly. “I can't be here? It’s not like you own this school.”
“Oh. Then suit yourself.” Zhou Yao turned away, losing interest in him.
Gu Yujun stood still, staring at her. His gaze was so persistent that passersby started giving him strange looks. After a long while, he finally said, “I'm sorry.”
Zhou Yao looked up. “You shouldn’t be apologizing to me.”
Gu Yujun frowned. “Then why were you so mad that day?!”
Zhou Yao stared at him for a few seconds, then stood up. “Come with me.” She led him outside to the nearest manhole cover. “Imagine if this manhole cover was missing,” she said. “It’s night, the streetlights are dim after school.”
‘Look at me.” She lifted one foot. “Did you know? This foot of mine is crippled—”
Gu Yujun froze.
“Most of the time, it’s fine. But when it acts up, it hurts a lot, and I can’t react in time. If I were walking like this and didn’t see the hole, I could fall straight in, hit my head, or something else. I might even die.”
She looked at him and asked, “For a few hundred yuan, is it worth risking someone’s life? Do you really think what you did was right?”
“I… I…” Gu Yujun’s face turned red, and he stammered, “I didn’t know about your foot…”
“This isn’t about my foot. Even if someone else had stepped on an open manhole and fallen in, it still shouldn’t have happened. No one should get hurt because of something like this. Do you understand?”
After a long silence, Gu Yujun finally nodded.
Zhou Yao saw the guilt on his face and said, “The bakery on Seventh Street is hiring temporary workers. You can earn a few hundred yuan in a week. If you truly understand, earn back what you took and leave it in the police station’s mailbox. Just don’t let them see you. What you took was worth much less than that manhole cover.”
Gu Yujun looked at her, still speechless. Zhou Yao continued, “If you do it, next time I see you, I’ll treat you to a big, round red bean bun from that shop. It’s really sweet.”
With that, she turned back into the shop, no longer paying attention to him.
When Chen Xuze finished class and came out, he saw Gu Yujun standing outside the shop. He was slightly surprised but didn’t react much. Zhou Yao beamed the moment she saw Chen Xuze. They walked side by side, heading home.
Gu Yujun stood in place for a long time before suddenly shouting, “I’ll do it! I’ll come back in a week!”
On the way home, Zhou Yao told Chen Xuze about it. He replied indifferently, “Why do you care about him?”
Zhou Yao chuckled. “You care too, don’t you?”
Chen Xuze scoffed. “No.”
“Yeah, right. You think you can fool me?” She poked his arm. “I can tell exactly what you’re thinking just from your expression. Last time, Jiang Jiashu even said he admired me for it!”
She lifted her chin smugly, feeling very proud of herself for knowing him so well.
In the darkness, Chen Xuze’s lips curved slightly. His voice, softer than he realized, carried a hint of warmth. “Oh, really?”
“Of course!”
“Then guess what I’m thinking right now.”
“Hey, you can’t just test me on the spot! And it’s so dark, I can’t even see your expression…”
The road home was long. The night was dark and cold, the wind biting, yet somehow, it felt warmer than all the glowing lights they passed along the way.
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