Chapter 48

Chapter 48: That Guy A-Xu Has Been Scheming After You for a Long Time He Wenwen was a quiet, delicate girl, and at the time, she was so scared that she hid behind Chu Tang. The moment Liang Yuda saw that Ruan Chutang was far prettier than He Wenwen, he pestered her and wouldn't let her leave, demanding that Chu Tang add him on her contacts and date him. He even made crude jokes and said all sorts of shameless, filthy things. Chu Tang remembered that she had been terrified too. So many students were coming and going at the school gate, yet not a single person came to help them. Back then, she hadn't learned self-defense yet and didn't dare to fight Liang Yuda. She was like a drowning person grasping at straws. Summoning her courage, she bluffed to Liang Yuda that she had a big brother in the underworld, and if he dared to bully her, her brother wouldn't let him get away with it. If she remembered correctly, she really did seem to have called Jiang Shixu that time. "Brother, didn't you say last time that if anyone dared to bully me, you'd break their legs? Mm-hmm, yeah, someone's bullying me, come quick." "They have a lot of people. Me and my classmate are just two girls, we're no match for them." "Where? Oh, oh, at Jiangcheng No. 7 Experimental Middle School." After hanging up, Chu Tang did her best to brag about how formidable this underworld brother of hers was. "Let me tell you, my brother has over a hundred underlings under him, and every single one of them is a trained fighter—way tougher than your little lackeys. They've never lost a fight. D-don't come any closer. If you dare lay a finger on me, my brother won't let you get away with it!" Liang Yuda stepped forward two paces, closing in on Chu Tang with a sloppy, cocky demeanor. "Oh? Is that so? Then call your brother over. Let's see if he's really all that, or just all talk." "You—" Chu Tang puffed out her cheeks in anger and glared at him. "You're the one who's all talk!" Jiang Shixu was already in university by then. Jiangcheng University was over twenty kilometers from He Wenwen's school, so even if Jiang Shixu rushed over the moment he got the call, he wouldn't have made it in time. Chu Tang hadn't actually expected him to come save her at all. She'd only made the call to scare Liang Yuda. But just a few minutes after that call, the vice principal and the dean of students from He Wenwen's school came rushing over in a panic and took Liang Yuda and his group away. Later, Chu Tang heard from He Wenwen that after that day, she never saw Liang Yuda at school again. It was also from then on that she started learning self-defense skills. Coming back to the present, Chu Tang took a sip of her fruit wine and turned to ask Jiang Shixu, "Did you send the vice principal and dean that day?" The man's eyes, dark as splashed ink, held no emotion. "Mm." Chu Tang asked again, "And later, did you beat up Liang Yuda?" Qin Yan perked up, his brows dancing with excitement. "Yeah, yeah, he did. That time A-Xu really went all out. You should've seen it—Liang Yuda nearly died on the spot. But that bastard had it coming. Who told him to go looking for death? I was there too, and the filthy things he said definitely deserved a beating." Qin Yan carefully recalled what happened that day. That day, when Jiang Shixu got Chu Tang's call, he'd been playing basketball with Qin Yan. After hanging up, Jiang Shixu looked tense. Without a word, he dropped the basketball and left. Qin Yan chased after him, asked what was going on, and then followed Jiang Shixu as they drove over twenty kilometers to find Liang Yuda. Liang Yuda didn't know Jiang Shixu's background. His attitude was extremely arrogant, and he even provoked Jiang Shixu to his face: "That chick is really my type—skin so soft you could squeeze water out of it, waist so thin she looks like she knows how to move. One of these days I'll have her twisting for me in bed... ah—" Liang Yuda's unfinished words were cut off by his abrupt scream, and the rest of his obscenities, along with all his filthy fantasies, were beaten back down his throat by Jiang Shixu. Jiang Shixu was like a furious lion, striking only at vital points, fast and vicious. Liang Yuda resisted for a while before it became a complete one-sided beating. No one knew how long it went on, but Liang Yuda's screams gradually grew weaker, and he lay on the ground, motionless. At this point in the story, Qin Yan patted his chest. "That scene really scared me. I couldn't pull him off, and I almost got caught in the crossfire. After he was done, A-Xu's fists were covered in blood, and there was blood on his face too—he looked like a ghost. Later, Liang Yuda was rushed to the emergency room, and I heard he lay in the hospital for several months before getting out." "After he was discharged, he was expelled from school. The Liang family company was also affected by the incident and went bankrupt not long after. The whole family slunk away and moved out of Jiangcheng." "Uh, at the time, A-Xu even got thrown in the police station. The old man was furious and specifically ordered him locked up for a few days. But the old lady doted on him—she went crying to the old man every day until he got so annoyed that he had A-Xu brought back out. The Jiang family also paid the Liang family a sky-high settlement to get their forgiveness. For that, A-Xu got a beating from the old man too." After finishing, Qin Yan looked at Chu Tang meaningfully. "Little sister, back then I was blind as a bat and didn't realize A-Xu beat that guy up because he liked you. I just thought he was an older brother getting revenge for his bullied little sister. It wasn't until recently that I found out that guy A-Xu had been scheming after you for a long time." After hearing this, Chu Tang's emotions were complicated, her fingers gripping the wine glass turning white at the knuckles. She hadn't expected Jiang Shixu to have fought someone for her, nearly beating the man to death. A wave of fear washed over her. She was afraid of becoming a burden to him. Jiang Shixu had always been the good child in his parents' eyes, the exemplary student in his teachers' eyes, and the unreachable golden boy in the eyes of his peers. His future was bright. If he were to bear the weight of a man's life for her sake, she would never forgive herself for the rest of her life. Chu Tang blinked, her nose stinging with emotion. ... It was already past midnight when they returned to Mingjia Court. The night wind was cold and biting, the moonlight desolate. After getting out of the car, Chu Tang walked ahead in silence, her head lowered. Jiang Shixu followed behind her into the residential complex. "Tangtang, don't be angry." Chu Tang still said nothing. When they reached the apartment, Chu Tang moved to close the door, but Jiang Shixu squeezed his way in sideways, his expression wounded. "Tangtang, are you... afraid of me now?" He explained in a flustered tone: "Don't be afraid of me. I don't have violent tendencies, and I'd never be abusive at home. That day I just... he said those things that provoked me. I couldn't stand hearing anyone talk about you that way..." Chu Tang looked up at him and let out a helpless sigh. "Shixu-gege, I'm not afraid of you, and it's not about being afraid of domestic abuse. I'm just worried about you..." Jiang Shixu pressed his lips together lightly, then reached out and gently pulled her into his arms. "It's fine now. It's all over." Chu Tang leaned against his chest, her eyes stinging, her voice slightly choked. "Don't be so impulsive in the future. What if you really did kill someone? Your whole life would be ruined... It's not worth it. It's not worth doing this for me..." Jiang Shixu softened his voice. "Well, he didn't die, did he?" Chu Tang pounded his chest with her fist in frustration. "Don't say that!" Jiang Shixu's warm, broad palm stroked Chu Tang's back gently, over and over, like soothing a child. "Alright, alright, I know. I won't do it again." Chu Tang asked in a muffled voice, "How many days were you locked up?" "Not many." Chu Tang's voice was thick with tears, her nose stuffy. "Did you suffer in there? I heard that in the detention center, it's just pickled vegetables, plain congee, and steamed buns every day. How could you stomach that?" Jiang Shixu let out a soft laugh. "I couldn't stomach it, so I treated it as a diet." Hearing this, Chu Tang's tears turned into laughter, and she couldn't help but hit him again. "You're not even fat. What are you dieting for? Are you trying to annoy me on purpose?" "Alright, let's not talk about this anymore, okay?" Chu Tang looked up at him with reddened eyes. "Shixu-gege, why didn't you tell me?" "I didn't want you to carry any psychological burden. Everything I did was voluntary. It had nothing to do with you." Chu Tang's nose stung again, crystalline tears gathering on her lashes before slowly sliding down. Jiang Shixu cupped her face in his hands, his thumb gently wiping away her tears. "Why are you crying?" "Don't cry. When you cry, it hurts me too." With that, Jiang Shixu lowered his head, and his warm, soft lips kissed away the girl's glistening tears.