The fact that Jiang Yan is Tao Jia's savior goes back to last semester. It was the last day of final exams.
After finishing their meal, Jiang Yan and his three friends did not return to the classroom. Instead, they played a couple of rounds of games at a small internet café outside the school. On their way back, they encountered some Li Kun's students conducting a security check at the school gate.
The four of them took a detour to the old gate on the west side, planning to climb over the dilapidated wall next to it. Unexpectedly, they ran into a few boys from the vocational school next door.
A few of them were pulling on a young girl, and there weren’t many people on the street at that moment. The girl was being dragged into an alley right in broad daylight.
There were a few cries for help mixed in.
Jiang Yan initially didn’t want to interfere, since the people from the vocational school weren’t exactly known for their clean behavior. Getting involved could lead to future trouble.
However, just ignoring it didn’t seem right either.
Seeing that they were about to take the girl into the alley, Jiang Yan raised his arm and threw a drink bottle at one of the boys.
Hu Hanghang followed up by shouting, “What are you doing? Pay attention in public!”
The boys at the entrance of the alley turned to look at them. One of them, with dyed yellow hair, impatiently said, “Stay out of it, got it?”
Jiang Yan raised an eyebrow, picked up a stick from a nearby pile of debris, and knocked it against the wall a few times. “Sorry, but I’m taking care of this today.”
It was clear he was looking for trouble. The vocational school boys had seen all sorts of fights and immediately got riled up, raising their fists to throw punches at Jiang Yan.
Jiang Yan reacted quickly, dodging to the side while swinging the stick at one of their backs, landing a heavy hit.
Xu Yichuan and the others quickly joined the fray; the four-man team’s long-standing fighting skills meant that the vocational boys didn’t gain any advantage.
When they realized they couldn’t win openly, they thought of using underhanded tactics.
The one with dyed yellow hair seized the moment when Jiang Yan was distracted, raising a baseball bat he had found from somewhere and swinging it down toward Jiang Yan’s head.
“Yan’er! Behind you!” Xu Yichuan shouted.
Jiang Yan turned just in time to dodge, but his shoulder still took a hard hit. Song Yuan, standing close, seemed to hear the sound of bone breaking from the impact.
“Damn it!” Hu Hanghang, who was stocky, slammed his fist into the yellow-haired guy's nose, then grabbed his collar and smashed his head against his knee.
The yellow-haired guy was left bloodied.
Xu Yichuan and Song Yuan quickly came over and kicked him a few times.
It turned into a mutual destruction fight.
Jiang Yan was urgently sent to the hospital, while the yellow-haired boys were taken away by the police who arrived later. The girl they had saved was also taken to the police station.
Later, the girl testified that Jiang Yan and his friends had acted heroically, and the matter ended with the yellow-haired boys being detained.
The girl who was saved was Tao Jia, who had been in the same exam room as Lin Tiao and Jiang Yan at the time.
—
The story of their heroic deeds was something Lin Tiao heard from Hu Hanghang, who exaggerated and embellished himself along the way. “... It happened so quickly! I used a perfect Wing Chun technique to take down the bad guy, and then I executed the ‘No Shadow Kick’ from Foshan to completely defeat the enemy. I…”
“……” Lin Tiao rolled her eyes at him. “You’re dead.”
“Pfft.” Hu Hanghang couldn’t help but laugh. “Sister, Hey can’t you take me seriously and listen to the whole thing?”
“With that time, I might as well use it to study properly.” Lin Tiao put aside her interest in gossip and pulled out her exam papers from her bag to spread on the desk.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yan, who was quietly watching a drama and keeping a low profile, glanced at her and said meaningfully, “The early bird catches the worm; diligence can make up for a lack of talent, even a lame duck can travel a thousand miles.”
Lin Tiao immediately snapped back, “You’re the lame duck!”
“……” As expected, she definitely wouldn’t understand such things coming from a poor student.
---
Tuesday was a sunny day, but after a rain shower, the temperature dropped noticeably, and the wind carried a hint of chill.
Lin Tiao arrived at class quite early, and only half of the students had shown up.
As class was about to start, Jiang Yan and his group burst in from outside, most of them carrying breakfast and chewing on soy milk and yogurt.
Jiang Yan sat down at his desk and tossed a bag of soy milk onto Lin Tiao's table. “A cup of soy milk in the morning helps wake you up and boost your brain for the whole day.”
“……”
Somehow, Lin Tiao felt that after getting familiar with this person, he always treated her like she was an idiot.
She didn’t know where he got the illusion that she needed a brain boost; clearly, he was the one who needed it.
Of course, she couldn’t say that out loud.
Under someone else's roof, she had to lower her head. Lin Tiao picked up the warm soy milk from her desk and thanked him sincerely, “Thank you.”
Jiang Yan: “……”
The bell rang for morning study.
The class’s hygiene committee member, Li Jiang, walked over with the duty roster. “Hey, Xu Huanhuan, today is your group's turn for duties. You’ll need to assign tasks since Lin Tiao has an arm injury, so she won’t be doing duties for now.”
“Okay, got it.” Xu Huanhuan took the list from Li Jiang, glanced at Jiang Yan's name written below hers, and her hand trembled slightly while holding the list.
Assign tasks?
Did she dare assign anything to the big boss?
So, as soon as morning study ended, Xu Huanhuan grabbed Lin Tiao for help. “You know we’re all doing duties together today, right?”
“Hmm? What’s up?”
“Jiang Yan is with us too.” Xu Huanhuan leaned over her desk. “So, could you help me—”
“Help him with his work?!” Lin Tiao interrupted her without waiting for her to finish. “Don’t even think about it; he has hands, doesn’t he?”
Hearing the noise, Jiang Yan peered in through the window, confused.
“……” Seriously, girl, is your family aware of how explosive you are?
Xu Huanhuan was almost in tears. “No, I’m asking you to help me assign some tasks to Jiang Yan. We can’t all be sweeping the classroom, and since your arm is injured, Li Jiang said you don’t have to work.”
“Fine, then let him take out the trash.”
“Ah… is that okay?”
Lin Tiao rubbed her forehead. “Why not? Everyone else can do it; he can too. Don’t worry, I’ll talk to him after school.”
Xu Huanhuan was so moved she was about to cry.
—
After school at noon, those responsible for cleaning had to stay in the classroom to tidy up. Lin Tiao remembered Xu Huanhuan's request and told Jiang Yan about it as soon as class was over.
“We’re doing duties together today, and you’re in charge of taking out the trash.”
As soon as Jiang Yan heard this, he laughed. “What? Duties? When have you ever seen me do duties at No. 10 High School?”
“Not before, but I’m planning for you to see it today.” Lin Tiao knew that for someone like him, taking out the trash was beneath him, so she pulled out a pair of disposable gloves from her bag, left over from takeout. “Here, I got you gloves in case you’re not used to it.”
“Not happening.” Jiang Yan leaned against the wall, his messy bangs hanging down as he looked at her with dark eyes, smirking. “With so many people doing duties, why do you have to make me take out the trash?”
“Because you’re the only one without anything to do.”
Lin Tiao wasn’t lying; among the seven people doing duties, Xu Huanhuan and her desk mate, along with Song Yuan and Hu Hanghang, each had a small area to clean.
The only other person left was Tao Jia, who was erasing the blackboard.
So it was just the two of them standing there with nothing to do.
Hmm?
Jiang Yan suddenly realized, “Aren’t you also free?”
Lin Tiao raised her arm. “I’m injured.”
“I’m injured too; I just had my cast removed a bit early.”
Watching him fuss and whine, Lin Tiao coldly quipped, “Weakling.”
“……?” Now Jiang Yan truly laughed, tapping his cheek with his tongue and then releasing it. “Wait, how did taking out the trash become a personal attack?”
“Right? It’s just taking out the trash, yet you can whine about it for ages. I really don’t know what you’ll do in the future without whining.”
“……” Jiang Yan raised an eyebrow, looking at her meaningfully. “I don’t know what I’ll do in the future without whining, but there’s one thing I definitely won’t whine about.”
“?”
Suddenly, his impending off-color joke couldn’t be spoken; it felt wrong to say such things to her.
“Forget it, I won’t say it.” Jiang Yan straightened up, his warm, dry hand ruffled her hair gently. “Move aside, I’ll take out the trash.”
Lin Tiao only realized after Jiang Yan left the classroom that she had just been patted on the head.
Damn it.
Did he think that petting someone on the head would make her grow taller?
---
After the seven of them finished cleaning the classroom, it was already past twelve. Xu Huanhuan and her desk mate planned to grab a quick bite at the cafeteria, while Lin Tiao was still in the bathroom and hadn’t returned.
Only Tao Jia was left standing with the four boys. “Where are you guys planning to eat? Let’s go together.”
Xu Yichuan had his arm draped over Hu Hanghang’s shoulder. “Sure, we’ll go eat at Uncle Chen’s place. The food there is delicious.”
Tao Jia checked the time. “It’s almost twelve-thirty; we should hurry. At this time, there might not be any seats left.”
“Right, right! Fatty, hurry up!” Xu Yichuan pushed Hu Hanghang a little, and Song Yuan squeezed over as well, leaving Tao Jia behind.
After walking a few steps, she noticed Jiang Yan was still standing back, not moving. She smiled and said, “Jiang Yan, why aren’t you coming?”
Xu Yichuan jumped in to speak first. “He’s waiting for his desk mate.”
Hearing this, Jiang Yan looked up. “Yeah, you guys go ahead; I’ll wait for her.”
Tao Jia nodded. “Okay, then come quickly when she arrives.”
Jiang Yan didn’t respond. Hu Hanghang urged Tao Jia to hurry, and she smiled as she caught up with them. “You seem pretty familiar with Lin Tiao; were you in the same class before?”
“No, we were only assigned to the same class this semester.”
“Then Jiang…” Tao Jia wanted to ask something, but Hu Hanghang casually interrupted, “Song Yuan, why don’t you call Uncle Chen first? Otherwise, it’ll be awkward if we go back and there are no seats left.”
“Got it.”
The topic was abruptly cut off.
Tao Jia relaxed her shoulders slightly, turning back to glance at the spot where Jiang Yan had just been. The corners of her lips turned down a bit.
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