Chapter 252: Immaturity ①
“Then I’ll go back to my classroom first. I’ll come find you after class,” Ye Haifei said, scratching the back of his head and smiling at Nie Qiu. “Wait for me in the classroom after class.” After speaking, he didn’t even glance at the people watching in Class 10 and turned to walk back to his own classroom.
The classmates in Class 10 glanced at Nie Qiu, then at Li Kai standing behind her, and returned to their seats, looking with significant gossip at Li Kai and Nie Qiu standing at the doorway.
Zhang Haiyang was a little worried. Ye Haifei had just neutralized Li Kai’s move. In his opinion, Li Kai and Ye Haifei were equally matched. However, Nie Qiu was standing in front of Li Kai. To others, this would look like Nie Qiu was protecting Li Kai, meaning… others would think Li Kai was inferior to Ye Haifei.
Actually, Nie Qiu hadn’t thought of anything. She had just heard from Huang Yan that Ye Haifei’s brother-in-law was involved in organized crime. This was local slang, meaning he was from the underworld, or a real-life version of the movie 《Young and Dangerous》. And people like that usually avoided them if possible. She wasn’t protecting Li Kai, but rather trying to de-escalate the situation.
Li Kai looked at Nie Qiu standing in front of him, took a deep breath, turned, and walked into the classroom, returning to his seat.
Huang Yan pulled Nie Qiu along and also entered the classroom. The teacher hadn’t arrived yet, but was probably coming soon. Luo Xu and Zhang Haiyang exchanged glances, seeing worry in each other’s eyes. To be honest, three years of interaction was significant; they understood Li Kai better than his parents and older sister.
Friends, brothers, best friends – these terms, while seemingly diluted in many people’s eyes, had changed. For example, friends weren’t about mutual support, but about borrowing money; brothers weren’t about loyalty, but about backstabbing; best friends were no longer best friends, but hidden love rivals. However, these notions generally didn’t apply to their current age group. They were brothers, and in their eyes, brothers were brothers. They should be like the Heroes of Liangshan, going through fire and water for each other, sharing blessings and hardships. After three years together, they naturally knew that Li Kai wasn’t someone to be trifled with, and they knew that Li Kai was unhappy and upset about this matter.
The two of them returned to their seats with their own thoughts, and the subject teacher walked into the classroom with books shortly after.
He never expected to be protected by the girl he liked. Li Kai listened to the teacher’s lecture from the lectern, looking at Nie Qiu sitting beside him. He felt uneasy. From Ye Haifei’s words, was he going to pursue Nie Qiu? Nie Qiu was his girlfriend, so how could Ye Haifei?
He frowned and took out his mobile phone from his purse. This was the first time he had taken out his phone during class since the start of the semester.
Zhang Haiyang frowned, feeling the vibration of his mobile phone in his purse. He took out his mobile phone. The light from the screen made Zhang Haiyang’s face look pale. Seeing the message, he gave Li Kai an ‘OK’ gesture.
Luo Xu heard a buzzing sound from his desk and knew someone had sent a message. He thought for a moment, put down the pen he was using to take notes, took out his mobile phone from his desk, saw the message, and nodded at Li Kai.
Ma Xin and Wang Chao Lei received the messages at the same time. They looked at Li Kai with surprise. Ma Xin lowered his head and replied to the message. Wang Chao Lei grinned widely and wrote a large ‘OK’ with a marker pen in his notebook, holding it up for Li Kai to see.
Seeing the reactions of Zhang Haiyang and the others, Li Kai nodded and put his mobile phone back into his purse.
Nie Qiu looked at the blackboard, taking notes, and said, “Li Kai, can you not play with your mobile phone during class?”
Li Kai was silent for a moment, picked up the pen on his desk, and while copying notes, looked at Nie Qiu, “Nie Qiu, do you think I’m useless?”
She paused for a moment and looked at Li Kai, “No! What’s wrong?”
“Nothing…” Li Kai didn’t say anything else and looked back at the blackboard.
Nie Qiu found it inexplicable but didn’t pay it any mind, turning her attention back to the blackboard.
After class, Li Kai pulled Nie Qiu to the small store to buy drinks. Huang Yan, with the virtue of not missing out on freebies, followed them to the small store. When Ye Haifei arrived at Class 10, he didn’t see Nie Qiu or Li Kai. He raised an eyebrow. Zhang Haiyang and Luo Xu put down what they were doing and exchanged glances before walking over.
“Li Kai asked me to tell you to wait after school this afternoon,” Zhang Haiyang said. He was slightly shorter than the average male his age, while Ye Haifei was much taller than the average male his age. Zhang Haiyang lacked some presence when he said this.
Luo Xu shook his head helplessly. What Zhang Haiyang said was not much different from the plot of most youth dramas. He looked at Ye Haifei and said calmly, “Ye Haifei, we need to talk.”
Ye Haifei smiled, “Sure! I’ll wait for you guys on the street behind the school in Maple Leaf Residential Area after school.” He then turned to leave. When he reached the classroom doorway, he turned back, gestured up and down at Zhang Haiyang’s stomach, and walked away laughing heartily.
Seeing this, Zhang Haiyang’s eyes widened, and he almost choked. When he recovered, he was about to chase after him. Luo Xu quickly grabbed him, “We’ll talk after school.” He knew that Ye Haifei had clearly been targeting Zhang Haiyang’s height and was openly mocking him.
“Fuck him!” Zhang Haiyang kicked the leg of his desk forcefully, his face full of indignation. He returned to his seat, picked up a book, and read for a while, but couldn’t concentrate. He put down the book, took out his mobile phone from his purse, pressed it furiously for a while, and then let out a sigh.
Li Kai carried a plastic bag containing several bottles of water. Nie Qiu and Huang Yan, following behind Li Kai, each held a bottle of their favorite drink. Back in the classroom, Huang Yan pulled Nie Qiu to her seat and took out her workbook, starting to do problems with Nie Qiu.
Li Kai placed the plastic bag on Zhang Haiyang’s desk. Zhang Haiyang understood and stood up, taking a bottle of water from the plastic bag. “Ah Xu,” he said, throwing a bottle of water towards Luo Xu.
Luo Xu caught it without looking back, “Thanks.”
“Ma Xin, Xiao Lei.” Zhang Haiyang called out. Without needing to throw, Ma Xin and Wang Chao Lei put down their pens and walked over. They took their favorite beverages from the bag and drank them down.
Zhang Haiyang threw away the bag, held one of the remaining two bottles in his hand, and handed the other to Li Kai. “He came by earlier.”
“Did he say anything?” Li Kai asked calmly, taking a sip of his drink.
“Yes, he said he’s waiting for us over on Maple Leaf Street.”
Li Kai nodded upon hearing this. “Okay, I know.” He then turned and returned to his seat.
