Chapter 9: A Lesson

Bai Zhinuo’s lips trembled as tears finally spilled over.

Why did bad things keep coming one after another?

Why was she always the unlucky one?

She buried her face in her knees, curling herself into a small ball behind the door. Resting her head in her arms, her shoulders shook with uncontrollable sobs.

She didn’t know what to do.

She had nowhere else to go; this wooden door was her only barrier.

She could only pray that the door was sturdy enough and that the people outside wouldn’t be able to open it.

Yet the door was far too thin.

It was just a single layer of wood; she could feel the vibration of Zhao Min’s fist hitting the other side, and she could even hear the three girls outside speaking in hushed voices.

“Min-jie, what do we do if she won’t open up?”

“Won’t open up?” Zhao Min’s voice turned cold. “Then we smash it. Hold this.”

There was a rustling sound, followed by the dull clatter of metal.

Bai Zhinuo couldn’t tell what it was, but her gut instinct told her it was nothing good.

She pressed herself even harder against the door, tears streaming down her face.

“Bai Zhinuo,” Zhao Min’s voice came from outside, deliberately lowered as if coaxing a child. “I’ll give you one last chance. Open the door, and we can talk nicely. We’re all adults here. You open up and give us your word that you didn’t see anything today. Tomorrow, you go to class, you eat your meals, and we’ll stay out of each other’s way. At least show us you have the right attitude. But if you don’t open it…”

She paused, and a cold sneer seeped through the crack of the door.

“Do you think there’ll still be a place for you in Chengnan Academy, this little dump of yours, or even the whole of City A?”

Bai Zhinuo froze as if struck by lightning.

Those words hit her right where it hurt.

She truly cared about this—being able to stay in City A was the key to achieving her goal.

Just as she began to hesitate over whether to open the door, the voices outside began to drift away.

“Whatever, forget it,” Zhao Min seemed to sigh. “Boring. Let’s go. We’ll deal with her tomorrow.”

Footsteps moved toward the far end of the corridor, growing fainter and fainter.

Bai Zhinuo slowly raised her head, tear marks still wet on her face, and pressed her ear against the wooden door to listen.

Silence.

They were gone…

Bai Zhinuo let out a slow breath. Her knees went weak, and she slid to the floor.

It was fine now…

At least for tonight, she was safe.

What about tomorrow?

She didn’t know…

She buried her face in her hands and sniffed.

Just as she was about to breathe a sigh of relief—

“BANG!”

A loud crash shook the entire wooden door violently. The powerful force hit right at the center of the panel.

Bai Zhinuo’s relaxed body was thrown forward by the impact, her forehead slamming into the floor so hard her vision went dark.

Before she could react, a second hit landed.

“BANG!!”

Splinters flew everywhere as a large hole was smashed straight through the middle of the door.

Through the hole, the dim light of the corridor revealed a hand holding a metal baseball bat.

Bai Zhinuo scrambled backward on her hands and knees, tears gushing uncontrollably.

“BANG! BANG! BANG!”

Then came the third, fourth, and fifth strikes. The entire door was smashed to pieces like it was made of paper. Wood splinters scattered everywhere, and the iron latch, along with the strike plate, was torn clean off the frame, hitting the floor with a loud clang.

Smashed along with the wooden door was the tiny shred of security Bai Zhinuo had left in her heart—the safety of coming home for a moment’s rest.

Zhao Min’s face peered in through the ruined doorway, her heavily made-up face twisted in a sinister grin.

“Run now…”

She stepped over the shattered remains of the door, thumping the baseball bat onto the floor. The metal tip hit the concrete ground with a sharp ring.

“Weren’t you pretty good at running?”

The two girls behind her squeezed in after her—one dangling a cigarette from her mouth, the other holding up a phone.

The lens was pointed straight at Bai Zhinuo, who was trembling in the corner. The bright glow of the phone screen clearly illuminated her small face, covered in tears and dust.

Bai Zhinuo pressed her back tightly into the corner, arms covering her head, curling into a tiny ball.

She couldn’t even scream anymore; only muffled whimmers slipped from her throat, looking like a young animal being choked by the neck.

Zhao Min leaned down, grabbed a fistful of Bai Zhinuo’s hair, and dragged her face out from her arms.

Her scalp stung with sharp pain. Bai Zhinuo was forced to tilt her head up, her tear-blurred eyes taking in Zhao Min’s approaching face.

“Ngh…”

“Let me ask you,” Zhao Min’s voice buzzed near her ear, carrying a pungent stench of stale smoke mixed with heavy perfume. “Did you blab to anyone about what happened at the bike shed this afternoon?”

Bai Zhinuo shook her head frantically. Her tears flew outward, splashing onto the back of Zhao Min’s hand.

“N-No… I didn’t say anything… I really didn’t…”

SLAP!

A sharp slap landed across her face, spinning Bai Zhinuo’s head to the side. Her ears rang, and half of her face burned with fierce heat.

“Lying b*tch.”

Zhao Min yanked her hair to pull her head straight again. She slapped her cheek lightly with her other hand, not bothering to hide the humiliation.

“When you go to school tomorrow, if I hear even a whisper…”

She let go of Bai Zhinuo’s hair and stepped back. Raising the baseball bat, she pointed the iron tip at Bai Zhinuo’s thin, bony shoulder cowering in the corner.

“I only planned to give you a small lesson tonight. But now? Tsk, tsk. Turned out to have such a fierce temper?”

“Then we’ll just have to teach you a lesson you won’t forget. Let’s break one of your arms first.”

Bai Zhinuo watched the baseball bat rise, her pupils shrinking to tiny pinpricks. Her entire body shook violently like chaff in the wind.

No…

She didn’t want this…

She had finally eaten a full meal, finally felt like she could survive…

She closed her eyes and buried her face in her arms, helplessly waiting for the blow to fall.

Yet the bat never came down.

The expected agony didn’t arrive; instead, a scream shattered the air.

It was Zhao Min’s scream—sharp, ear-piercing, filled with sheer terror and shock.

Bai Zhinuo snapped her eyes open.

Framed by the doorway’s shattered wooden ruins, a slender, dark figure stepped inside beneath the moonlight.

The hem of her school skirt fluttered in the night wind, and her long hair blew backward, revealing a profile as cold as carved frost.

The swollen handprint from that afternoon still marked her left cheek dark red, but her wine-red eyes surged with a violent fury so dense it felt almost tangible.

With a single hand, Shen Qingci gripped the descending metal baseball bat midair. Her knuckles stood out pale white as her palm held the steel shaft firm.

Zhao Min’s wrist was twisted to the point of near-dislocation by that force. She was forced halfway to her knees, her mouth wide open in a scream.

Shen Qingci didn’t even look at her.

Her gaze swept right over Zhao Min’s shoulder, landing straight on the tiny thing huddled into a ball in the corner.

Bai Zhinuo stared back, tears still pouring down her face. What was Shen Qingci doing here?

She watched as Shen Qingci raised her arm, effortlessly tearing the baseball bat from Zhao Min’s grip. Flipping the shaft, she pressed the iron tip right under Zhao Min’s chin, forcing her head up.

Shen Qingci looked down at her, her icy face utterly devoid of warmth.

“Zhao Min, did you touch her?”

“I—I, I…”

Zhao Min’s pupils contracted wildly, her lips working, unable to piece together a coherent sentence.

Catching a full-force blow from a solid metal baseball bat single-handedly without even blinking—anyone’s mind would crash in shock.

Shen Qingci had no patience to wait for an answer.

She let go of the bat, raised her empty hand, and grabbed Zhao Min by the hair from behind.

It was the exact same motion Zhao Min had just used on Bai Zhinuo, but with far greater force. She dragged the girl up off the floor by her backwards-tilted head and slammed her straight into the wall behind them.

THUD.

A dull crash echoed.

Zhao Min’s scream died in her throat as she slid down against the wall to the floor.

Shen Qingci stood among the debris of shattered wood, a layer of dust settling on her school skirt. In the moonlight, the bruise on her left cheek cast a dark red shadow.

Her back was straight as a die.

She turned her head to look back at the small ball huddled in the corner.

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