Ignoring whatever Lu Kaiwen and the others were thinking, Su Yuan returned to her previous spot with a restless heart after being caught entering the women's restroom for the first time.
Lan Qiuzhu happened to be playing with Su Yuan's water bottle. Seeing her return, she smiled and handed it over.
"Thanks!"
Su Yuan said politely. She took the bottle and prepared to leave.
Lan Qiuzhu smiled gracefully. There was no way someone she'd set her sights on could leave so easily. She stood up and blocked Su Yuan's path.
"Hm?" Su Yuan was puzzled to find her way blocked and looked at the girl in confusion.
Lan Qiuzhu was quite tall, standing around 170 centimeters—two or three centimeters taller than Su Yuan. That was one of Su Yuan's misfortunes. Fortunately, she was a girl now; if she were still a boy, her height would have been enough to make her miserable.
Of course, Lan Qiuzhu's domineering attempt to block her path was rather abrupt. Anyone who didn't know the situation might have thought a schoolyard queen was picking on a helpless student.
With a sidelong glance, Su Yuan naturally assumed that the "senior" in front of her was planning to bully her.
The way she'd smiled and handed over the water bottle earlier seemed more and more like the act of a schoolyard queen!
Her expression didn't change, but she was already marveling inwardly. She hadn't expected Binhe University of Science and Technology to have a schoolyard queen—and here she was, Su Yuan, lucky enough to be bullied by one.
This was too much to put up with. It was something Su Yuan, who had once been a boy, simply couldn't accept.
She quietly placed the water bottle and books on the table. In the space between one breath and the next, Su Yuan had decided to fight fire with fire.
Lan Qiuzhu noticed the change in her junior's bearing. Before, she'd seemed like a delicate, timid girl, but now there was a particular air of heroism about her.
Nice! she thought.
But before she could react, the junior suddenly reached for her, going straight for her right arm. One hand seized her elbow while the other clamped around her wrist and twisted it outward. Then one hand let go, and the other clenched into a fist and swung hard at her temple.
The entire sequence was remarkably fluid.
A flash of smugness crossed Su Yuan's cool expression. She'd assumed that turning into a girl would weaken her physically, but after that series of moves, she was surprised to find herself even more agile than before. Her strength had declined, but her speed had improved considerably.
Lan Qiuzhu broke into a cold sweat and hurriedly stepped back. She gave Su Yuan an immediate assessment: this junior was ruthless!
If that punch had landed, she would definitely have been knocked down.
But she wasn't too worried. Instead, her eyes gleamed with excitement. Su Yuan had no idea that Lan Qiuzhu, a beautiful senior who looked so refined, was far more experienced at fighting than a half-baked fighter like her.
Lan Qiuzhu turned slightly in the direction Su Yuan's arm was being bent. Su Yuan's body suddenly pitched forward. Seizing the chance, Lan Qiuzhu stepped forward with her left foot and caught Su Yuan's heel. Then she abruptly reversed the motion and lifted her left leg at the same time. Su Yuan went flying, losing control of her body as she toppled backward.
Smack! She landed flat on her back, her bottom hitting the hard marble floor with a solid thud.
"How could this happen?" Su Yuan sat dazed on the floor, her mind blank. How had her tried-and-true fighting techniques failed against a busty delinquent?
Most people didn't know Su Yuan's past and were fooled by her delicate appearance. They had no idea that before college, from elementary school through middle and high school, Su Yuan had been the toughest kid in her school—a local student thug's star pupil!
When it came to fighting, she'd taught plenty of school bullies a harsh lesson. Afterward, she'd taken full advantage of her "honest and harmless" appearance. The parents and teachers all thought she was the one being bullied and gave the people she'd beaten a thorough scolding instead. Then, in her senior year of high school, Su Yuan suddenly changed her ways. She'd said she wanted to leave her past behind and become a good student, and that she'd never fight again.
The last time Lin Jun had tried to teach her a lesson, if she hadn't wanted to avoid trouble, it was anyone's guess whether he could have managed it.
But this time, facing Lan Qiuzhu, she'd been knocked down.
Nearly 170 centimeters tall and caught completely off guard, she'd landed flat on her back, her bottom crashing hard against the marble floor. The pain was like a silver vase shattering, as though her bones had broken. It was awful!
She sat there in a daze, in so much pain that tears nearly welled in her eyes. For a while, she couldn't even get up.
The commotion quickly drew the attention of everyone in the library. Seeing one girl trip another, the people nearby began whispering among themselves.
Girls bullying girls was more common in high schools and younger grades, but at Binhe University of Science and Technology, it was practically unheard of. They were all well-mannered adults. How could someone be so inconsiderate of where they were?
Lan Qiuzhu, the one responsible, grew flustered when she saw people pointing at her. She hadn't expected the junior to fall so hard. Seeing her eyes reddened with pain and looking on the verge of tears, Lan Qiuzhu's heart clenched, and she hurried over to help her up.
Su Yuan had wanted to slap Lan Qiuzhu's helping hand away, but then she realized that the commotion had attracted a lot of attention. It wouldn't be good if people recognized her.
Besides, petulantly swatting away someone who was trying to help seemed like something only girls did, so she let Lan Qiuzhu assist her.
"Let's get out of here first."
Lan Qiuzhu leaned close to her ear and whispered, sounding somewhat apologetic.
Su Yuan knew they shouldn't linger there either, so she nodded and picked up the water bottle and books from the table. With Lan Qiuzhu supporting her, she headed outside.
But the next moment, she regretted it.
Lan Qiuzhu was supporting her toward the women's restroom.
Of all places, this was the last one she wanted to go!
* Sigh! * Seeing this, quite a few students sighed deeply. If they hadn't witnessed what happened today, these high-achieving students would never have imagined that the prestigious Binhe University of Science and Technology could have a schoolyard queen.
They'd just seen the schoolyard queen shove a junior to the floor, then help her up and whisper something in her ear before "escorting" her outside.
Quite a few justice-loving boys had wanted to step forward and rescue the junior, but they'd gone dumbstruck when they saw where the two were headed.
The women's restroom! How could they go in there?
* Sigh! * They had no idea what kind of bullying the junior would suffer inside.
Some of the boys hated their own weakness. It was only a women's restroom, yet they didn't have the courage to cross even that invisible, low wall. All they could do was watch helplessly as the cute junior was cruelly bullied by the schoolyard queen.
They had clearly seen the junior's reluctant "struggle" before entering the women's restroom. The longing look she cast back outside only deepened their guilt and their self-reproach for being so useless—by at least a factor of two.
Before you continue