Zhang Chen vomited until his heart and lungs felt torn apart, until his liver and bowels felt ripped to shreds, vomiting up even the breakfast he had eaten the day before yesterday.
First he bent over, then dropped to one knee on the ground. Once there was truly nothing left to bring up, his body went limp, and he sprawled face-down on the floor.
Every ounce of strength had been drained from him. At that moment, he was no better than a cripple.
Mucus streamed from Zhang Chen's nose, and liquid still clung to the corners of his mouth. He looked utterly wretched.
"You—you're all right, aren't you?" Li Sinian asked, her face full of worry, her eyes reddening as though she might burst into tears. "How did this happen? I put so much care into simmering that soup. Was it really that awful?"
Zhang Chen raised his head and looked at Little Bok Choy, who stood before him. He wanted to give her a reassuring smile, but his smile looked worse than crying. In a hoarse, feeble voice, he asked, "What—what exactly did you put in that soup?"
"What did I put in it?" Li Sinian looked utterly innocent. She thought seriously for a moment before saying, "Pork Ribs, Angelica Sinensis, Chinese Yam, Sophora Root, Houttuynia Cordata, Night Shining Sand, Five Spirit Fat—"
"Five Spirit Fat?" Zhang Chen's stomach convulsed again. Clutching his throat, he dry-heaved repeatedly before angrily saying, "That—that's the dried feces of a Flying Squirrel! You actually put—put feces in the soup?"
"Five Spirit Fat is also a traditional Chinese medicine. It can be used for internal blood stasis, bleeding caused by blood failing to follow its proper channels—for example, excessive uterine bleeding in women, with purplish blood and many clots, along with stabbing pain in the lower abdomen—You like playing ball, so it's inevitable that you get bumped and bruised now and then. I used Five Spirit Fat to invigorate your blood and dispel stasis. What's wrong with that?"
"You—you—"
Zhang Chen pointed at Li Sinian with trembling fingers, but he could not get another word out.
Seeing their idol reduced to such a state, the other cheerleaders gathered around.
"Little Chen Chen, are you all right? My heart aches for you."
"Zhang Chen, what happened? Are you sick?"
"Hey, who are you? What did you give our Zhang Chen to drink?"
These supporters had already been jealous of Li Sinian's beauty. That lively, alluring air radiating from within her was irresistible.
Seeing Zhang Chen give her special treatment—and refuse the tea they offered—had already left them deeply displeased. Now that he had drunk her soup and started vomiting nonstop, they naturally had to step forward and deliver a righteous denunciation.
"I'm just—" Li Sinian looked timid, then suddenly raised her voice and said, "I only gave him a cup of feces soup."
"What did you say?" The girls were enraged and prepared to rush forward and attack.
Li Sinian flicked her toe, and the soup bowl Zhang Chen had thrown onto the ground flew back into her hand.
She looked regretfully at the bits of grass stuck to it and sighed. "This is my favorite soup bowl. What a pity it was wasted by a pig."
Her fingers tightened sharply around the bowl. With a crisp crack, the bronze soup bowl shattered into countless fragments.
Clatter, clatter—
The girls who had just surrounded them retreated like a receding tide.
Li Sinian tossed the bowl fragments onto Zhang Chen, then pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and carefully wiped the soup stains from her hands.
The handkerchief was very white. Her hands were whiter still.
Then, beneath the gaze of everyone present, Li Sinian lifted her little chin and walked outside.
When she reached the entrance to the gymnasium, Li Sinian suddenly turned around. With a sweet smile and a coquettish, tender voice, she said, "Be a good boy. Don't bully my brother again."
"Who's your brother?" someone asked.
"Li Mu Yang."
"..."
Bang!
Zhang Chen slammed his palm onto the desk and shouted angrily, "Li Mu Yang, get up!"
Li Mu Yang remained sound asleep, completely unresponsive.
Knowing Li Mu Yang's habits, Zhang Chen struck the desk even harder.
Bang, bang, bang—
It was the midday break. When everyone saw Zhang Chen leading a group of people over to Li Mu Yang, every gaze in the classroom gathered around them.
Cui Xiaoxin was engrossed in reading a work called Western Wind Reform. Hearing the loud pounding on the desk, she raised her head and glanced toward the source of the noise, lifting her brows slightly.
It was not that she wanted to stand up for Li Mu Yang. She simply disliked having her peace disturbed by such noise.
Amid the anticipation of the entire class, Li Mu Yang finally woke up. He lifted his head from behind the pile of books and looked at Zhang Chen standing before him. "You're here to bully me again?"
"..." Zhang Chen's eyes reddened, and he nearly burst into tears on the spot.
Who exactly is bullying whom here? If I'd come to bully you—do I look like someone who came to bully another person right now?
He struggled to suppress the fire in his heart, glaring fiercely at Li Mu Yang as he demanded, "Li Mu Yang, how can you be so despicable?"
"Despicable?" Li Mu Yang scratched at his sleep-tousled hair, trying to make it lie down a little. But that lock of hair stood out like an army breaking ranks, brimming with personality. No matter how hard Li Mu Yang tried, it held its head high and refused to bow.
Li Mu Yang had no choice but to press it down with one hand. Given enough time, it would naturally flatten. Tilting his head back in a ridiculous pose, he said, "Every day, I'm either sleeping or preparing to sleep. Apart from the occasional entertainment value I provide when you people bully me, I have no presence whatsoever. How can you have the nerve to use a word like that to describe me?"
"Li Mu Yang, you despicable wretch! You're two-faced! You're a wolf in sheep's clothing, a pig pretending to be weak while devouring tigers—" The angrier Zhang Chen became, the more his stomach churned violently, and he felt as though he was about to go mad. "You're clearly a master of extraordinary skills, yet you insist on pretending to be weak and frail. If you really were like that, how could you have thrown that punch—when we were boating on the lake? Your punch was unbelievably powerful. What's even more hateful is that you had your younger sister—had your younger sister trick me into drinking that soup—"
"Li Sinian?" Li Mu Yang's brows drew tightly together, and he fixed Zhang Chen with a sharp gaze. "What did you do to her?"
Although the little girl had been shouting that she would protect him ever since she was young, and was a hundred times stronger than him in every respect, she was still a girl, and his younger sister. If Zhang Chen dared use some underhanded trick against her, Li Mu Yang would definitely charge forward and fight him to the death.
"What did I do to her? Why don't you ask what she did to me?" Zhang Chen flew into a rage. Before his body could even leave the ground, he hurriedly clutched his stomach and squatted back down.
"Pfft—"
Only after a loud blast of gas escaped from below did his stomach finally feel somewhat better.
But while his stomach felt better, he himself felt far worse.
Seeing the entire class staring at him with their eyes wide, some of them covering their noses and fanning the air, Zhang Chen felt an overwhelming urge to crawl into a crack in the ground.
He had grown up surrounded by flowers and praise. When had he ever suffered such humiliation?
"Brothers, beat him up!" Zhang Chen roared angrily.
The few cuju players following Zhang Chen immediately closed in, preparing to teach Li Mu Yang a good lesson and vent their captain's anger.
Li Mu Yang extended one fist and waved it in the air. Looking at Zhang Chen, he said, "I sent you flying with one punch."
"..."
The players who had witnessed Li Mu Yang blasting Zhang Chen away with one punch immediately retreated. Those who had not seen it saw the others retreating and followed suit.
If everyone else was retreating, then it must have been something terrifyingly powerful.
Thus, with the exception of Zhang Chen, who still stood beside Li Mu Yang, everyone else fled far away.
Li Mu Yang pinched his nose with one hand and pulled out his textbook with the other to fan the air. In great irritation, he said to Zhang Chen, "I smell Houttuynia Cordata, Night Shining Sand, and Five Spirit Fat—a poisonous fart hiding its venom. Let everyone judge: between the two of us, who exactly is despicable?"
Zhang Chen's nose stung, and large tears rolled down his cheeks.
He cried.
Before you continue