Chapter One

A narrow, cramped alley.

The walls on both sides were mottled, with half-torn ads for 'rich reward for a child' plastered on them. Sounds echoed from inside the alley, mixed with the thud of fists hitting flesh and the occasional heavy curse.

Just as Wang Luan'an arrived, a heart-wrenching, miserable whimper came from inside. His heart jolted. He raised the baseball bat he'd just stolen from home, charged into the alley, and shouted, 'Fucking sneaky bastards, messing with my bro! None of you are getting away today! Yu Fan, hang on, I'm coming—'

When he saw the scene in the alley, Wang Luan'an stopped dead in his tracks, swallowing the rest of his words.

He saw several people lying twisted on the ground, all clutching their injuries and gasping for air. The most disheveled one, a guy with a crew cut, was letting out faint, pained hisses.

Standing next to the crew-cut guy was a person.

The guy was tall and lean, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing a pale, slender forearm.

Yu Fan wiped the corner of his mouth, brushed the dust off his clothes, then slowly crouched down, looking at the guy on the ground.

He was holding a closed folding knife. He tapped the crew-cut guy's face with it and asked in a low voice, 'Gonna beat me every time you see me from now on?'

The crew-cut guy, who'd been all bluster earlier, now lay with his eyes shut, looking peaceful. 'No... that's not what I said back then...'

Yu Fan said, 'Bring more people next time.'

'...'

Twenty minutes ago, Wang Luan'an had called Yu Fan to ask him to go to an internet cafe, but they'd barely exchanged a few words when things went wrong on the other end—Yu Fan had been cornered, and from the sounds of it, the other side had several people.

Yu Fan had quickly said 'Talk later' and hung up, which made Wang Luan'an frantic. Luckily, he'd asked where Yu Fan was beforehand, so he immediately hailed a cab and rushed over.

Wang Luan'an awkwardly lowered the baseball bat. He counted—five guys lying on the ground, all of them big and tall.

Yu Fan stood up, casually tossed the folding knife into his pocket, and as he passed Wang Luan'an, said, 'Let's go.'

It wasn't until Yu Fan had walked a bit that Wang Luan'an snapped out of it, grabbed his bat, and hurried after him.

A few hundred meters out of the alley was a familiar street, and a few steps to the right was their school gate.

Since school hadn't started yet, the area around the school was quiet and deserted.

The two of them went into the bubble tea shop they usually went to.

After greeting the owner, Wang Luan'an looked at the familiar shop and the passing crowd, finally letting out the breath he'd been holding. 'Damn, I was fucking scared! Why didn't you wait for me to jump in together?'

Yu Fan bought a pack of tissues, picked a bench the shop had set outside, and sat down. 'Wait for you? At your speed, you'd only make it in time to cover me with a white sheet.'

'Pfft, pfft, pfft!' Wang Luan'an said. 'I wasn't asking you to just stand there. Couldn't you have run? There were so many of them. What if you hadn't won?'

'Too tired. Didn't feel like running.'

Wang Luan'an nodded. Yeah, that was definitely more tiring than taking on five guys by yourself.

Yu Fan had two bruises on his face, a bit of blood at the corner of his mouth, and his clothes were filthy. A few passersby couldn't help but glance at him.

He pulled out a tissue and wiped at himself half-heartedly. 'Where'd you say we were going for the internet cafe?'

'You're like this and you're still going? Forget it.' Wang Luan'an picked up his Mobile Phone and pressed the voice key. 'Hey, don't come over, all of you. Yu Fan took them all down by himself. Don't come, don't come.'

'You called people?'

'Of course, otherwise it'd be two against five—way too unfair! Hey, I even stole my dad's baseball bat...' Wang Luan'an suddenly thought of something and glanced at his pocket. 'By the way, why are you carrying a knife when you go out?'

'It's not mine. It's theirs.'

'They cornered you alone and brought a knife?!' Wang Luan'an sucked in a sharp breath and immediately looked him over. 'I'd heard the guys from the school next door had no standards, but I didn't think they'd be this scummy!'

Yu Fan didn't say anything. He pulled out his phone from his pocket.

Good, it wasn't broken.

The phone screen showed over twenty WeChat message notifications. He guessed it was from the group chat Wang Luan'an had started. He couldn't be bothered to look.

Wang Luan'an, on the other hand, was chatting enthusiastically. He pressed the voice message button again and said with a sneer, 'Who else? Those guys from the school next door. Remember last time when two of them came to our school to extort money? They tried to shake us down, so we fought them. Turns out they were lackeys of that crew-cut boss from next door. When he found out, he said he'd beat us every time he saw us. Man, you should've seen how pathetic he was just now—Yu Fan beat him so bad he didn't dare make a sound.'

Wang Luan'an put down his phone and turned to see Yu Fan pressing a tissue against the wound at the corner of his mouth.

He winced. 'Shit—tsk...'

Yu Fan stopped. 'Did it get on your face?'

'It hurts just watching.' Wang Luan'an thought for a moment, then stood up. 'Maybe we should go to the hospital?'

'Sure, you call a car,' Yu Fan said, tilting his chin. 'Any later and it'll heal in two minutes.'

'...' Wang Luan'an sat back down. 'Why'd it have to be your face? School starts tomorrow. When Fangqin sees your face, she's definitely gonna chew you out.'

Fangqin was their homeroom teacher, last name Zhuang. The class liked to call her by her first name behind her back.

At the mention of school starting, Yu Fan instinctively glanced toward the school.

'Why's the school gate open?' Yu Fan raised an eyebrow.

'The seniors are having class in there. They started school half a month early.' Wang Luan'an took a sip of his bubble tea. 'There are some in our grade who started early too. Seems like the school picked out a few dozen top students and formed some kind of winter break class. Sucks to be a top student.'

Yu Fan looked away and gave a faint 'Oh.'

Around dismissal time, the barbecue stall across the street started business. The smell of charred meat coated in cumin drifted across the road.

Wang Luan'an had left in such a hurry he hadn't had dinner. He sniffed the air, unable to sit still. 'You must be tired after all that fighting. Come on, let's get something to eat and recharge.'

'I'm not eating. You go ahead.' Yu Fan waved him off.

'Fine, wait for me. I'll get takeout.'

The phone in his pocket kept buzzing, the constant pinging annoying him. Yu Fan opened the group chat and glanced at it. Wang Luan'an had already managed to brag in the group chat to 99+ messages just from buying barbecue.

He turned on mute for the chat. When he stuffed the phone back into his pocket, he touched the metal object inside.

Yu Fan paused for two seconds, then took out the black folding military knife again.

-

At dismissal time, students in school uniforms trickled out of the school gate.

Two girls walked out arm in arm, chatting and laughing.

'How'd you do on the pop quiz?'

'Don't even mention it. It was so hard. I just guessed on the last big question. You?'

'Me? Probably last place again. Ugh, how did I even get into the winter break intensive class? I'm not even in the same world as you geniuses!' She stretched her arms wide. 'Whatever, once school officially starts tomorrow, I'll go back to my regular class and be a slacker again. I want to buy a hot bubble tea. Want to come?'

The other girl nodded in agreement. She'd just turned and taken two steps toward the bubble tea shop when the person beside her suddenly grabbed her clothes and yanked her back.

'What's wrong?' The girl was startled.

'Forget it, let's not go...' Her companion stared intently at the bubble tea shop and lowered her voice. 'Look who's sitting there!'

She followed her companion's gaze toward the bubble tea shop.

This bubble tea shop had been open next to the school for years. The drinks were good and cheap, so every day after school, the tables and chairs were almost always full.

But right now, although there were still customers ordering at the shop, they all took their drinks and left. Only one person was sitting outside.

That person sat in a relaxed posture, his long legs stretched out casually. The stray hair on his forehead was so long it almost touched his eyelashes. Because his skin was so pale, the bruises on his face stood out sharply, and there was blood at the corner of his mouth.

Everyone around was wearing the regulation winter school uniform. Only he was in a filthy white hoodie.

He was looking down, playing with a folding military knife. He flicked the blade out and pressed it against the back of his other hand, casually tracing it as if testing how sharp it was.

The girl didn't recognize him, but she instinctively took a step back. 'Who is he...'

'Yu Fan!' her companion said. 'The one from Class Seven!'

'He looks like he has injuries on his face?'

'Normal. He definitely just got into a fight.' Her companion couldn't believe it. 'You've never heard of Yu Fan?'

'No,' the girl shook her head, then thought for a moment. 'But I think I've heard his name in the criticism announcements during the flag-raising ceremony a lot.'

Her companion pretended to be browsing the items at the convenience store, still sneaking glances. 'I have a friend in his class. I heard that... when he first entered high school, he got into a fight with a senior and actually made the senior cry. He either sleeps in class or just skips it entirely. And he has a terrible temper! Someone just looked at him a little too long in the cafeteria, and he threw his whole tray of food at them. Oh, and I think he even hit a teacher... Anyway, he's a total troublemaker!'

That scary?

The girl listened dumbly and was about to say maybe they shouldn't get bubble tea after all, when the guy in the distance suddenly moved.

Maybe he lost control of his strength—the blade dug into the back of his hand, instantly leaving a thin, dense wound that oozed beads of blood.

The girl gasped! Before she could react, she saw Yu Fan throw the knife aside, frown, and press a tissue against the wound. Then he lifted his eyes—and looked in their direction.

When he raised his head, the girl finally got a clear look at Yu Fan's face—she'd seen him at the flag-raising ceremony before, but never this clearly.

Yu Fan's eyes were long and narrow. There was a tiny mole at the outer corner of his right eye, and another one lower on his cheek. His eyelids were thin, and with the injuries on his face, when he looked over like that, the girl felt a chill in her heart—

It's over.

He's going to throw bubble tea at me.

But soon, she realized something was off.

Yu Fan seemed... not to be looking at them?

The girl was stunned for two seconds. She turned around and discovered there was a guy standing behind them.

The guy was very tall, standing in the crowd like a straight pine tree. He carried his bag over one shoulder, and his school uniform was neat and clean, without even a few wrinkles.

She also caught a faint scent of soap.

At that moment, his gaze, like theirs just now, was fixed on the bubble tea shop.

The girl's eyes widened slightly—she didn't know Yu Fan, but this one she remembered vividly.

After all, every time there was a major exam that determined seating by grades, this guy always sat in the first seat of the first row in Class One.

Yu Fan had noticed someone staring at him from the side a while ago.

But he hadn't expected that when he looked over, the other person would still meet his gaze openly and expressionlessly. A few seconds later, maybe because he saw the injuries on Yu Fan's face, the guy even frowned as if in disgust.

That made Yu Fan inexplicably angry.

After a moment, sure that the guy was indeed blatantly checking him out, Yu Fan put the knife away, tapped the seat next to him, and said to that person, 'If you like looking so much, why don't you sit closer and take a better look?'