Tong Yan grabbed hold of her chin so she could not turn away from him. He raised her head upwards. “I’m telling you, Xu Xinduo. Half of your body is mine. If you get wronged, that means I have been wronged too. Do you think I’d let it pass and tolerate being wronged?”
“It’s not…” Xu Xinduo scrunched up her face into a pout, as she spoke, only muffled sounds could be heard. Her attempt to speak looked funny and amused Tong Yan.
“Just tell me how you were wronged and let this Big Brother here take care of it.” Tong Yan whispered.
Tong Yan looked at Xu Xinduo with a gaze as soft as a pool of scented honey.
He was generally not a gentle man. He had a fussy and irritable character but he only treated one person kindly — Xu Xinduo.
After finding out Xu Xinduo was being persecuted, he could guess that she was not in a good mood right now. Although it looked like Xu Xinduo was being scolded, he was actually just trying to comfort her in his own way.
Xu Xinduo lifted her gaze to look at him as Tong Yan was looking back at her. There was only about an arm’s length of distance between them.
In the confined space, they could hear the chattering of students outside as they occasionally passed by the storage room.
She looked at him and hesitated for a while before saying, “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“I hate it when you say that.”
“I mean it. After all, I have you. Don’t you agree?” Xu Xinduo raised an eyebrow.
Tong Yan looked at her stunned, as Xu Xinduo cheerfully walked out of the storage room. He did not know that he was so easy to please, getting done in with just one sentence.
As soon as he walked out, he ran into Wei Lan who had just arrived at school.
Wei Lan saw Xu Xinduo walking out of the storage room and was about to say hello but when he saw Tong Yan also walking out of it, he stopped.
Su Wei was also loitering nearby and happened to meet up with Wei Lan. The two of them looked at Xu Xinduo and then Tong Yan.
Finally, Wei Lan could not hold back from speaking, “Miss Duo, let’s… pat the dust off your back. Our school uniform’s sweater is so impractical that the dust gets stuck on it so easily. Please have mercy on it!”
Su Wei also followed up and said, “That’s right. Next time, don’t lean against the wall. The wall is so dirty.”
Xu Xinduo knew the two of them were just teasing her so she patted the back of her sweater and ran back into the classroom.
Wei Lan said with a sigh, “Brother Yan, I really can’t stand this kind of stimulation. Can you please be considerate of me as a lonely bachelor?”
Following suit, Su Wei also added, “That’s right. You’re too inconsiderate. Can’t you just hold it in? The atmosphere in the storage room isn’t very conducive as well.”
Tong Yan presented a “gentle” smile to his two friends as he said, “Are you looking for death?”
The two instantly dispersed.
As Tong Yan returned to the classroom and sat down, Xu Xinduo immediately showed Tong Yan a poster. “Look, the school is holding a tennis competition. First place gets rewarded with five thousand RMB.”
“Five thousand isn’t even enough for me to refuel my motorcycle.”
Xu Xinduo took out another flyer next and continued speaking enthusiastically, “This one’s a youth piano competition. First place gets 100,000 as a cash prize.”
“What do you want to do with that kind of money?”
Xu Xinduo glanced at Tong Yan. Ignoring him, she then took out her cell phone and filled in the application forms according to the format written on the flyer. Eventually she came across a problem. “This says it requires a scanned copy of one’s piano certificate of merit to be eligible. I don’t have one.”
