Chapter 20: Ambushed

Xia Zhinian was surprised. "Huh?"

Yan Ci asked with a frown, "Those guys, do they often extort you?"

Xia Zhinian looked back at him with a puzzled glance.

Did the protagonist shou find out so quickly?

He had just remembered it himself.

He had the original owner's memories, but most of the time they were like watching long videos. Sometimes he needed to encounter related people or things to recall which part it was.

When he bought a gift for Yan Ci before, and when he asked someone to copy the original owner's  handwriting for a self-criticism yesterday, he felt something was wrong with his bank balance.

The Xia family was a wealthy household, and they wouldn't skimp on their children's pocket money. But the original owner's cards only had a little over five hundred.

He didn't understand until he met those thugs today.

The original owner had been extorted by this group of people since he was in the orphanage. When he returned to the Xia family and had more money, these people became even more unscrupulous.

The original owner had the guts to trouble Yan Ci, but not the guts to call the police.

He always gave them the money.

"Ouch, it hurts." Xia Zhinian felt a pain in his waist and shivered involuntarily. His waist tensed up. "Can I do it myself?"

Yan Ci pressed him down, his voice cold. "Don't move. Now you know how to hide. Why didn't you hide when they hit you?"

Xia Zhinian hummed. "If I could have avoided them, I would have."

Yan Ci saw that he was still in high spirits and pulled his mouth into a smile. His smile had a bit of chill as he returned his words. "If you could reach it, you would have done it yourself just now."

Xia Zhinian: "..."

The boy had porcelain-white skin, and the horrible bruises on it were even more eye-catching. Yan Ci's displeasure in his heart also grew.

His special medicine, his rice cake ball.

He was careful to touch him himself, but he was hit by someone else.

Yan Ci's movements were still gentle, but his eyes darkened. The smile on his lips disappeared, and his face was expressionless. His whole body exuded a cold chill.

Xia Zhinian sensed that Yan Ci was unhappy and looked back at him cautiously. He felt a bit inexplicable, but he still kept quiet and didn't provoke the protagonist shou.

Xia Zhinian returned to the classroom and put the self-criticism on Lao Qin's desk. He also found Zhao Jinxin and asked her not to tell anyone that she had met him today.

"Xia Zhinian" was a villain, and how could a villain save people?

But...

Zhao Jinxin was stunned for a moment, hesitated for a while, and whispered, "But when I came here, I met Teacher Qin. He saw that I was distracted and asked me if I had any trouble. I told him."

"Except for Teacher Qin, I didn't tell anyone else."

Xia Zhinian: "..."

"Knock knock."

Speaking of Cao Cao, Cao Cao arrived. The classroom door was knocked, and someone shouted at the door, "Xia Zhinian, Lao Qin is looking for you."

T/N: A better translation is “Speak of the devil and he appears”. This is a Chinese proverb that means when you are talking about someone, and he or she appears immediately. The origin of the phrase is related to Cao Cao, a Chinese warlord and politician during the Eastern Han dynasty, who saved someone from dying once they spoke his name.

He pursed his lips and entered the teacher's office again.

Lao Qin had just sat down, and there was a slender and gentle figure standing next to his desk, looking down at something.

Yan Ci looked up at the round-eyed boy, whose expression had returned to normal. He smiled gently at him. "Classmate Xia, you handed in your self-criticism, but you still didn't hand in your homework. It seems that I'm not doing my best. It's my fault."

Xia Zhinian: "..."

He was speechless. He decisively turned to Lao Qin and pleaded earnestly. "Teacher, I think it's a waste of time for Yan Ci to tutor me--"

"Xiao Xia, let's not talk about studying for now."

Lao Qin stood up and looked at him with concern, scanning him up and down, showing worry. "The three thugs across the street, did you get hurt when you saved someone? The school hospital has limited equipment. Why don't you take a leave and go to the hospital?"

Xia Zhinian shook his head, his eyes catching a glimpse of a big bag of candy on the teacher's desk. He paused for two seconds. "Thank you, teacher. I'm fine."

Yan Ci's smile faded a bit, and his ink-colored eyes watched him with an unclear meaning.

Lao Qin followed Xia Zhinian's gaze and saw the candy. His round face smiled, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Do you want some candy? If you still remember to eat at this time, you should be fine."

He reached out and grabbed a handful for each of them. Xia Zhinian's apricot eyes curved, and his lips couldn't help but curl up. "Thank you, teacher."

Lao Qin instructed him a few words, not to be rash when encountering such situations, and also said that if he felt uncomfortable, he should go to the hospital as soon as possible. He caught a little time before the bell rang and smiled kindly. "It's okay now. You can go back."

Xia Zhinian still held the candy in his hands and didn't move. "Teacher Qin, I want to cancel the tutoring with Yan Ci--"

"Ding Ling Ling!"

The class bell suddenly rang. Lao Qin smiled cheerfully. "Okay, Xiao Xia. I'll consider it. You go back to class first. Don't worry."

Xiao Xia: "..."

Yan Ci chuckled lightly, seeing Xiao Xia's hair on his head wilted. He felt a tickle in his heart and unconsciously rubbed it.

Xia Zhinian's eyes widened, and he subconsciously backed away. "Don't touch--"

His arm was suddenly pulled, and he paused.

He still held the candy in his hands, both hands together, unable to move. Yan Ci easily pulled him and poured his own candy into his palm, making a small pile of candy.

Yan Ci's cold fingertips flattened the little tip that bulged up. He saw his apricot eyes wide open, looking both obedient and soft, and a bit silly. His lips hooked.

"I've already touched you. This is a compensation. They're all yours now."

"..." Xia Zhinian blinked, his curled eyelashes drooping. His eyes fell on the colorful fruit candy in his palm. He was strangely silent for a while, keeping a straight face and not saying a word.

...It seemed like he didn't lose out.

Lao Qin watched them leave with a smile.

The unsuspecting students of second grade, first class were shocked again. Their beloved and dear class leader came late with Xia, the crazy kid, and even held the door for him to come in.

And the usually gloomy Xia Zhinian, he actually held a bunch of colorful candy in his hand?

His soft hair draped over his forehead, his apricot eyes staring intently. His lips were slightly pursed, and he looked indescribably well-behaved.

Xia Zhinian put a piece of candy in his mouth, happily playing with his phone under the desk.

A slight vibration sounded, and a text message from a stranger popped up at the top.

He opened it, and the content was a few short lines--

[Xia Zhinian, if you don't want to die, bring the money to the abandoned building at the southeast corner of the school tonight!

We were injured by you. If you pay for our medical expenses, we can talk. Otherwise, you're fucking dead!]

Xia Zhinian rubbed his left thumb against his index finger joint, bit it and let go, and tilted his head.

The original text didn't write this part. As the villain in the sweet story, the original owner's role was only to promote the protagonists' feelings. There was not much detail about other aspects. But the original owner's memory did show that he had been extorted for a long time.

He remembered Yan Ci's question about whether he wanted him to take revenge for him. He paused for a while, then threw it to the back of his mind. He typed back a word: OK.

After school, Xia Zhinian stood in front of the abandoned building and looked up. This place was originally supposed to be a residential building with a school district, but the developer ran away with the money halfway through. The building had been deserted ever since.

He stepped in, and the empty corridor was covered with messy footprints. The echo was clear, and the windows without glass were breezy.

It looked like a good place for illegal transactions.

Xia Zhinian looked around, touched the thing in his pocket, and went up to the third floor.

The extortion had never been exposed, which meant that the original owner always gave money when asked. Since he had to follow the original owner's plot, he naturally had to do the same. But he had hit someone in the morning, and this matter probably wouldn't end well.

Xia Zhinian found the designated empty room, pursed his lips, and stood by the door, peeking in cautiously.

"Is anyone there?"

...Why was it so quiet?

There was silence behind him, no wind at all. He felt a thud in his heart, hesitated for a moment, and took half a step back. But suddenly...

"Bang!" A loud noise.

The door was slammed shut, and a terrifying force pressed down behind him, grabbing his shoulders and pushing him hard against the wall.