Chapter 42: Coward

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Chapter 42: Coward

Bai Li’s hair was pulled so hard that her scalp burned. Clutching the heavy liquor bottle in her arms, she sighed. Once again, she had been caught by this man.

She knew that falling into the hands of this stepbrother meant she would never come to a good end. He was a high-achieving psychopath who had never let go of his hatred for her, the latecomer who had intruded into his family, not even after all these years.

Bai Li drew a deep breath. Her entire body was flung against the bluestone wall, scraping painfully against it through the thin fabric of her school uniform. She did not cry. She merely lifted her eyes to Su Ming.

“What did I do to upset you this time?”

Whenever this stepbrother bullied her, he always found some lofty, righteous excuse. No matter how carefully she acted, she could never avoid him.

A contemptuous smile curved Su Ming’s earnest, youthful face. He himself did not know exactly what he felt toward his stepsister. Hatred, perhaps—hatred for that slut of a mother who had seduced his father and torn his family apart.

Yet this stepsister had always been obedient. When she was little, she had even cautiously tried to please him.

But he had disliked her intensely. Like mother, like daughter. He firmly believed that Bai Li was a little slut too.

So he had never treated his stepsister as a person.

The impulses of adolescence made him decide to try a different game. Baring a row of white teeth, he said darkly, “You left me standing outside the door for so long during summer vacation. How are you planning to make it up to me?”

Bai Li lowered her eyes. “What do you want?”

She did not believe there was anything about her that her stepbrother might desire. Yet she had clearly sensed that ever since she had grown up, he was always touching her inappropriately.

Thus, when Su Ming placed his hands on her shoulders, the fear and grievance she had suppressed for so long finally erupted.

“Don’t touch me!”

She smashed the bottle against Su Ming. Several bottles of liquor fell under their own weight, and the sharp crash of breaking glass rang out. The pungent smell of spirits flooded her nose.

Su Ming was unconcerned. He felt no pain. But being resisted by someone weaker made him feel humiliated, and the smile vanished from his face as he clenched his teeth viciously.

He was just raising his hand to strike Bai Li when a man came striding through the deserted, shadowed alley, frowning.

With one hand, he pulled Bai Li up and shoved her into a corner. Then he seized Su Ming’s arm and flipped him effortlessly onto the ground.

At that moment, Bai Li had only one thought: run.

But when she saw the silver earring on the man’s ear, her feet came to a halt.

“Brother, what are you doing here?”

Fang Ye’s eyes were dark as ink, his brows and gaze brimming with ferocity. But the instant he saw the terror on the girl’s face, his expression softened. Ignoring the man behind him, he quietly studied her for a long while, then reached out and smoothed her disheveled school uniform.

“You said no one was bullying you.”

It was only a brief sentence.

It sounded like a reproach, yet even more like a helpless murmur.

Bai Li opened her mouth, but her voice caught in her throat.

So this was what it felt like to be protected.

At last, Bai Li broke down. Hot tears kept spilling from the corners of her eyes. All the grievances she could not put into words seemed to have found somewhere to rest. Unable to say anything, she simply bowed her head and wept soundlessly.

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Su Ming silently climbed to his feet. Looking at the man half a head taller than himself, he seemed somewhat surprised.

“Bai Li, does Auntie Hu know you found someone to beat up your brother?”

Bai Li trembled all over, but before she could speak, Fang Ye crouched down and retied her loose shoelaces. His voice was as cool and light as the dew of an early-spring morning.

“If you have something to say, say it to me. What kind of skill is it to frighten a young girl?”

Su Ming lifted his head with a sinister expression and deliberately tugged at Bai Li’s shoulder strap.

“Come on. Go home with your brother.”

The disrespectful gesture—

and the way he had called himself “brother”—

made Fang Ye’s expression turn cold. In one swift motion, he grabbed Su Ming by the back of the neck.

“Come on. Let’s find somewhere to talk.”

Bai Li’s heart gave a heavy jolt. His tone was terrifying no matter how she heard it.

She knew that this stepbrother was no good. In front of other people, he always played the part of a well-behaved student. However, before she could make a sound, a beam of flashlight swept toward them.

Two uniformed local police officers came over, shouting angrily, “What are you doing? Don’t move!”

It was an autumn night in October, and the air was so dry it made one uneasy. Su Ming’s previously vicious face instantly changed. He became refined and meek, looking exactly like a well-behaved student who had been bullied.

He began shouting, “It hurts! Help!”

The officers hurried into the alley.

Fang Ye laughed. He slowly released his grip and said with an indifferent smile, “What a coward.”

The officers questioned Su Ming about what had happened. When they heard him crying out in grievance and pain, they took both men to the police station without further ado.

Bai Li went with them as well.

But no matter how she explained, it was useless. All the police knew was that Fang Ye had hit someone.

One phone call brought Mrs. Hu and Su Changjin to the station.

Neither of them paid any attention to Bai Li, who stood to one side.

Mrs. Hu took Su Ming by the hand and anxiously asked about his condition. The maternal affection on her face was so abundant that one would think they were mother and son by blood.

Su Changjin found the station chief and slipped him a cigarette, speaking endlessly of the great injustice his son had suffered.

Everyone was blaming Fang Ye.

Bai Li could not accept it.

She abruptly raised her head, her eyes red with anger.

“He wasn’t hurt! He was pretending!”

The moment she finished speaking, Mrs. Hu dragged her aside. A sharp glare descended upon her, and Mrs. Hu clenched her teeth.

“Don’t say another word.”

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Bai Li ignored her. She opened her mouth, ready to tell them everything that had happened.

Suddenly, Fang Ye coughed once. He cast a brief glance at Ye Mian and smiled.

“Yes. I hit him.”

Bai Li’s eyes widened in shock. No one paid any further attention to what she was saying.

…

That night was especially cold.

Once he admitted it, the matter was settled.

To the very end, Mrs. Hu did not even recognize who the person standing before her was. The resolution was that Su Ming would go to the hospital for treatment, while Fang Ye would pay the medical expenses. If the injury assessment proved serious, he might even face detention.

Bai Li was frantic. She desperately tried to explain that it had not happened that way.

Fang Ye found a moment to bend slightly toward her and spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear.

“Go home. Be good. I can handle this.”

Something suddenly pierced Bai Li’s heart.

She understood what Fang Ye intended.

He was protecting her.

Otherwise, if the police had truly listened to her and reprimanded Su Ming, her life in that household would have become even more painful and unbearable afterward.

Fang Ye followed the officers at an unhurried pace to sign the paperwork.

In a daze, Bai Li was dragged into the car by Mrs. Hu and taken home. She cried the entire way, and no one cared what she thought.

After that day, Bai Li never saw Fang Ye again. She sent him several messages asking about him.

Fang Ye replied with only one sentence:

“Live well, study hard, and don’t think too much.”

Mrs. Hu said that Su Changjin had gone to Jiang University.

Bai Li also noticed that, for some unknown reason, Su Ming went out the next day and, after returning home, suddenly began avoiding her. He stopped speaking to her, never bullied her again, and did not take revenge afterward.

The situation had suddenly turned upside down in a strange way.

Though Bai Li was puzzled, she knew it might have something to do with Fang Ye.

Holding the pear-shaped stuffed toy Fang Ye had given her, she finally understood the meaning of those words:

“If no one else will look after you, your brother will.”

End of Chapter