Chapter 10: I Hate Apologies After the Fact

Bai Zhinuo was staring at her, tears still flowing down her face, but those deep purple eyes were unbelievably bright.

They looked like sparks frozen beneath ice, with a crack suddenly pried open.

Bai Zhinuo’s feelings at that moment were more tangled than they had ever been.

When she was small, her mother used to read her bedtime stories.

In those stories, princesses trapped in trouble always waited for a prince or a knight to arrive.

To rescue them.

She had naively asked her mother, “Will a prince or a knight really come?”

Her mother had smiled gently in reply.

“There will be. But before they come, our little Nuonuo princess has to work hard and keep going.”

Now that she was older, she no longer believed those stories meant to coax children.

But today…

Shen Qingci’s appearance really was like a knight sent by heaven to save her from despair.

She had pulled her out of hopelessness.

Shen Qingci was not a prince.

But she was definitely a very good knight!

The knight had actually appeared!

Bai Zhinuo looked at Shen Qingci and suddenly felt that this person wasn’t as scary as she had imagined.

Rather…

She was gentle.

Shen Qingci took a few seconds to look at her, then turned to face the remaining two people.

The baseball bat in her hand gave a light tap on the concrete floor.

Clang!

She smiled.

Under her eyes was a playful look, like a grudge was about to be settled.

“Next.”

Her voice was as cold as ice shards, but Bai Zhinuo, huddled in the corner, suddenly stopped trembling when she heard it.

That dull clang of the bat against the concrete was like some kind of signal.

Zhao Min lay limp in the corner.

The bruise on the back of her head was swelling visibly, pain darkening her vision and spinning the world around her.

She opened her mouth halfway, wanting to curse, but a thick fear clogged her throat and no sound would come out.

The other two girls.

The one with the cigarette and the one holding her phone stood frozen beside the doorframe, as if nailed in place.

The phone was still up, its screen light washing over their pale faces.

The holder’s finger was frozen on the record button, trembling so hard it nearly slipped from her hand.

“You… you fu…”

Zhang Rui, the one with the cigarette, was usually the loudest.

But now the cigarette dropped from her mouth, and the hot ember burned her shoe without her even noticing.

She watched Shen Qingci stand amid the shattered wood.

The hem of her school uniform skirt stirred slightly in the night breeze, and the handprint on her left cheek glowed red and fierce.

A few hours ago, this was the same girl who never fought back and never talked back, an ATM and a human punching bag.

But with her standing there now, the pressure around her was like a blade just drawn from its sheath.

“Shen Qingci, you’ve lost your mind… you…”

Shen Qingci tilted her head.

Those wine-red eyes moved away from Zhao Min and onto Zhang Rui.

“Me, lost my mind?”

She repeated those words, her voice lifting a little at the end, sounding pleased.

She raised the bat from the ground.

The iron head scraped across the floor, letting out a sharp, piercing sound.

“You’re right. I have lost my mind.”

She took a step toward Zhang Rui, unhurried, as if she were out for a stroll.

But Zhang Rui kept backing away as she came closer, until her spine hit the half-broken doorframe.

Wood splinters jabbed into her shoulder blade, and she could not even muster a cry of pain.

“Don’t come over! Don’t come over!”

Zhang Rui screamed, turning to run, but Shen Qingci was far too fast.

The bat swept in from the side and hit the back of Zhang Rui’s knee with perfect precision.

The strength behind that swing was just right.

Hard enough to buckle Zhang Rui’s leg and drop her to the floor with a heavy thud, but nothing more.

Her knees landed on the wood chips.

Fragments stabbed into her skin.

Zhang Rui finally let out a hoarse scream.

“Ah!”

Shen Qingci did not stop.

She backhanded her across the face, knocking the scream right back down her throat.

First the leg, then the mouth.

Every move she made had a method.

She looked down at Zhang Rui kneeling in front of her, turned her wrist, and pressed the bat vertically against Zhang Rui’s shoulder.

The iron head settled right into the hollow above her collarbone, pushing down with a bit of weight.

“You hit her too, didn’t you?”

Shen Qingci’s voice was light, the tone casual, as if she did not really care.

Zhang Rui trembled.

Tears and snot ran down her face as she shook her head wildly.

“No! I didn’t! It was Zhao Min who did it! I only stood by and watched…”

“Stood by and watched? My god, how is that different from hitting her?”

“Today you dare to stand by and watch. Tomorrow, are you going to dare to hit me too?”

Shen Qingci laughed with contempt.

She looked very kind and friendly.

But that smile, caught in the moonlight, was cold and merciless.

She drew the bat back, then raised her foot and stepped onto the back of Zhang Rui’s hand.

The sole of her shoe ground slowly across those fingers.

The crack and pop of dislocating joints was especially clear in the midst of the crying.

“Think it over again?”

Zhang Rui was in so much pain she curled up like a shrimp.

Her scream turned into a broken, raspy wheeze, and she squeezed out a few words.

“I… I’m sorry… I’m sorry, Shen Qingci…”

“You’re sorry?”

Shen Qingci lifted her foot.

Her gaze at Zhang Rui was the look one gives a piece of garbage.

“Too late.”

With that, she sent Zhang Rui sprawling to the ground with a heavy kick.

The third girl had stopped holding up her phone long ago.

The expensive phone lay on the floor, its screen shattered into a brand-new spiderweb.

She shrank into a ball against the wall.

She was terrified out of her wits.

Her hands covered her head, and she repeated over and over, “Don’t hit me, don’t hit me.”

Shen Qingci ignored her.

She walked past Zhang Rui and crouched in front of the girl curled in the corner.

“What’s your name?”

The girl was shaking so hard she could barely get the words out.

“Liu… Liu Jia…”

“Liu Jia.”

Shen Qingci repeated the name.

Then she glanced toward Zhao Min, who was still slumped in the corner.

“What were you doing this afternoon?”

“I… I was filming a video…”

“Filming a video. Tsk, fine. This young lady is merciful. I’ll let you live a little longer.”

A deeper smile crept over Shen Qingci’s face.

She raised a hand and rubbed her temple.

Then she stood up and walked toward Zhao Min.

Zhao Min was slumped in the corner.

The lump on the back of her head throbbed so painfully that her vision blurred.

But the moment she saw Shen Qingci coming toward her, she instinctively pressed herself deeper into the wall.

Her lips trembled hard.

“Shen Qingci… can I apologize? I’m sorry, I apologize…”

“Apologize? Now? Why? From what I remember, you had a great time whipping this young lady like a top this afternoon.”

Shen Qingci stopped in front of her.

She rested the bat on the ground, stacked her hands over the handle, and propped her chin on them, all lazy ease.

“You didn’t apologize to her when you slapped her, did you?”

Zhao Min’s pupils shrank.

Her lips moved, but for a long while, no words came out.

“You didn’t. Because she could not reason with you the way I am doing now.”

Shen Qingci answered for her.

Then she crouched down and looked levelly at Zhao Min’s makeup-smudged face.

Her wine-red eyes shimmered with a dark light in the moonlight.

“Zhao Min, do you know what I hate the most?”

Zhao Min shook her head, desperately.

“I hate other people touching my things. And I hate after-the-fact apologies!”

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