Chapter 11

"Look, you've really messed me up." Xia Hou Zhongying said to Zheng Xiuyan beside him, his eyes brimming with tears: "It was none of my business, but now I'm implicated because of you."

"Still talking? Do you believe I'll kick you to death?" Zheng Xiuyan felt humiliated enough just by appearing in front of the whole school with a sign, and now this guy was nagging her, which naturally made her furious.

"Hey, Zheng Xiuyan, don't be so aggressive, okay? You know I'm implicated because of you. Not only do you not feel guilty, but you're also taking it out on me?" Xia Hou Zhongying was speechless.

"What do you want then?" Zheng Xiuyan glanced at Xia Hou Zhongying with a sidelong look and asked.

"At least show some remorse," Xia Hou Zhongying thought for a while, not knowing exactly what he wanted from Zheng Xiuyan. He scratched his head and finally managed to say this.

"Aren't you my brother?" Zheng Xiuyan suddenly asked.

"Ah!" Xia Hou Zhongying was suddenly surprised. This girl had never acknowledged him as her brother before, and now she suddenly brought it up, leaving him full of doubts.

"Isn't it natural for a brother to help his sister take the blame?" Zheng Xiuyan suppressed her laughter and said solemnly, "And when we left home this morning, Mom specifically entrusted you to take care of me."

"Ah!" Xia Hou Zhongying was speechless, and after a few seconds, he reacted, saying angrily, "Taking care of you doesn't mean helping you take the blame."

"Also, Uncle and Aunt are in the country, why did you lie?" Xia Hou Zhongying said indignantly, "If we get caught, we're dead. Not being expelled from school would be a miracle."

"That's why I need your help," Zheng Xiuyan said confidently, "If you don't want to be expelled, it's best to help me come up with a way to get through this."

"What does this have to do with me? Why should I come up with a plan?" Xia Hou Zhongying was so angry he wanted to kick Zheng Xiuyan to the sky, out of sight. This girl was too shameless.

"Because you're my brother," Zheng Xiuyan said matter-of-factly.

When she didn't need him, he was a bastard, but when she needed him, he became her brother. Zheng Xiuyan used this trick so skillfully that Xia Hou Zhongying, who had always been the one to benefit and never suffer in the country, was left speechless and had no way to deal with her.

"Women!" Xia Hou Zhongying finally realized.

In the country, apart from interacting more with some aunts and elders, Xia Hou Zhongying had not had much interaction with other girls. Even with the girls in his class, he only knew them by name. At that time, he was young and naive, so he didn't actively seek out or try to please girls.

Zheng Xiuyan and her sister Zheng Xiujing were the girls Xia Hou Zhongying had interacted with the most in his life. From the events of the past few days, he suddenly felt an instinctive fear of girls, finding them too troublesome.

Xia Hou Zhongying suddenly thought about why his father had never wanted to remarry. Was it also because of this? Remembering his father's concern that a stepmother might not treat him well, he became indignant.

There's a song that goes, "Women are tigers," which is the wisdom of a worldly old monk. Xia Hou Zhongying felt a sense of melancholy, shook his head helplessly, and sighed, even though he was young, he could sigh with a sense of沧桑 (cang桑, meaning沧桑, which can be translated as '沧桑' or 'weathered').

Xia Hou Zhongying's sudden silence made Zheng Xiuyan suspicious. She wondered why this guy, who always argued with her, suddenly fell silent. She turned her head slightly, and her peripheral vision caught Xia Hou Zhongying, who was looking up at a 45-degree angle with a mature and weathered expression, gazing into the distance.

His clear face, but an expression that didn't match his age, and the fact that Xia Hou Zhongying looked like he had seen through the world, made Zheng Xiuyan feel a bit disoriented, finding it strange and out of place.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Zheng Xiuyan couldn't help but ask.

"Nothing, I just suddenly realized something," Xia Hou Zhongying lowered his head, thought for a moment, then looked up at Zheng Xiuyan seriously and said.

"Hey, don't scare me, are you going crazy?" Zheng Xiuyan was immediately nervous. The difference in Xia Hou Zhongying's behavior before and after was too great, scaring her.

"You're the one who's crazy," Xia Hou Zhongying was full of black lines, feeling extremely depressed. The mature and weathered look instantly disappeared, and the sunny and lively side of his age returned to him.

Zheng Xiuyan sighed in relief. That's right, this is the Xia Hou Zhongying she knew. But she was still puzzled, why did he look like a different person just now?

During the break, students from the teaching building walked out of their classrooms and stood on the corridor, where they saw Zheng Xiuyan and the school's recent celebrity, Mr. 100%, standing on the playground with a small blackboard hanging from their chests, talking to each other. The students were immediately delighted and ran down the stairs to see what was written on the blackboards.

Seeing the large group of students rushing towards her, Zheng Xiuyan blushed with shame, feeling too embarrassed to face anyone, and quickly lowered her head, almost burying her head in her chest.

Xia Hou Zhongying wasn't much better. Although he was often punished, he had never been so openly ridiculed. Before, being punished usually meant standing in the corridor, which was a common occurrence in the school, and he wasn't alone.

This time, however, he was being gawked at like a national treasure, and he had a sense of shame.

The crowd grew larger, and even some teachers couldn't resist their curiosity and came to gawk, pointing and commenting on the two.

"These two students, sigh, they are truly a disgrace to our school," one teacher shook his head and sighed.

"Who says not? One fights and skips class, the other often skips class. I don't understand how the school would admit such students," another teacher chimed in.

"Students like this should be expelled to avoid tarnishing our school's reputation," another teacher added.

"..."

Various comments abounded, and the surrounding students also pointed and laughed, making the two feel humiliated and wishing the ground would open up and swallow them.

Jin Baojing and Huang Meiyi from Zheng Xiuyan's company also came, staring at the two with wide eyes, their expressions strange, wanting to laugh but not daring to. This made Zheng Xiuyan feel like crying, knowing that her situation would likely spread throughout the company by tomorrow, making it hard for her to face her colleagues and juniors who admired her.

It wasn't until the bell rang and the surrounding teachers and students dispersed that the two breathed a sigh of relief.

They looked up and saw a few students still laughing at them, making Zheng Xiuyan even more angry. She glared at them and said, "What are you looking at? Have you never seen a beautiful girl?"

"Ha ha..." The students burst into laughter, one of them saying, "We've never seen a beautiful girl with a blackboard."

Xia Hou Zhongying recognized these students as the seniors he had beaten up and sent to the hospital. His face darkened. He already had no good feelings towards them, and now he was even angrier. He looked at them coldly and said, "You can look, but don't laugh."

Xia Hou Zhongying's arrogant words made the students pause, their laughter stopping. After a few seconds, they became furious, one of them saying, "What did you say, kid?"

"I said you can look, but don't laugh," Xia Hou Zhongying repeated his words seriously.

"What can you do if we laugh?" Threatened by Xia Hou Zhongying, the seniors felt very embarrassed. If they were intimidated by a junior and couldn't speak up, how could they continue to collect protection fees from other students? If this spread, no one would fear them anymore.

"You, what do you want to do? We're in school, aren't you afraid of being expelled?" One of the students said, trying to sound threatening.

"Try laughing again," Xia Hou Zhongying lowered his head, not even looking at them.

The students looked at each other, not daring to respond. Five of them looked at their leader, hoping he would make a decision.

The leader was terrified, cursing his subordinates in his heart. This was forcing him to take the lead. If he didn't, their small gang would surely disband. A leader without authority couldn't command respect, and he would lose face in front of other gang leaders. If the group lost its cohesion, it would be hard to manage.

The leader's mind raced, and he made a decision. For the sake of the small gang, he gritted his teeth, thinking that even if he got beaten again, he couldn't be seen as weak by his subordinates. He put on a fierce look and stood in front of Xia Hou Zhongying, saying, "I'll laugh, what can you do?"

He poked Xia Hou Zhongying's chest and laughed, "Ha, ha, ha..."

Although the leader tried to look fearless, he couldn't hide the tremor in his voice. After laughing, he looked at Xia Hou Zhongying nervously, ready to jump away at any moment.

Xia Hou Zhongying glanced at the leader and slightly lowered his head.

The leader saw every detail of Xia Hou Zhongying's actions and couldn't help but relax, feeling relieved. It seemed that this provocation was not dangerous.

Just as the leader thought Xia Hou Zhongying was afraid of being expelled and wouldn't act, he suddenly felt a heavy blow to his chest, causing intense pain. He let out a cry and felt his body flying backward, the scenery receding. Then he felt his back scraping the ground, the pain intense, and he could hear the sound of his clothes rubbing against the ground.

As the leader's body slid backward on the ground, he looked up and saw Xia Hou Zhongying standing coldly, one foot on the ground and the other in the air, at the same height as his chest.

"Leader, leader," the leader heard his subordinates shouting and running towards him, and couldn't help but cry. It was too unfair, such a powerful expert still cheated, paralyzing him and making him lower his guard before attacking.

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