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After Chen Zhu said, "I'm going to lie down now," his body slumped gently against the convenience store shelves as though he had taken a sleeping pill.
"Hey, hey, what's wrong with you...?"
Zhang Chao stared at his palm in bewilderment, wondering if he had somehow mastered a secret martial art that let him injure someone just by grabbing their collar.
Ignoring his reaction, Chen Zhu told Huang Bohan, "Call the police."
Huang Bohan had never experienced anything like this before and stood frozen, but Zhao Yuanyuan had already pattered over and grabbed the phone. "Hello, is this the police? Someone's causing trouble here. The address is..."
She really does come from a police family.
Chen Zhu suddenly felt that none of those snacks had gone to waste.
There were plenty of officers stationed around Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street. Whenever something happened, they could usually arrive within minutes.
While they waited for the police, Chen Zhu beckoned Huang Bohan and Zhao Yuanyuan closer.
Both obediently crouched beside him, their bottoms sticking out.
Only Yu Xian remained by the register. Her normally charming figure now looked stubborn and lonely.
Chen Zhu shook his head and called to her, "You come over too!"
"Me?"
Yu Xian pressed her thin lips together, seemingly unused to being ordered around like this.
In the end, however, she came over and crouched down too. Her graphite-blue jeans hugged her waist and hips in an elegant curve.
By comparison, all Zhao Yuanyuan's squatting pose lacked was a toilet underneath her.
"Give it to me."
Chen Zhu suddenly spoke to Yu Xian.
"What?"
Yu Xian blinked, not quite understanding.
Without answering, Chen Zhu tried to take the ballpoint pen from her hand.
He had seen everything earlier.
Yu Xian had picked up the pen to defend herself, but its pointed tip could easily hurt her too.
What he had not expected was how tightly she was gripping it.
Chen Zhu tugged, but it did not budge.
He pulled a little harder, yet still could not get the pen free.
Chen Zhu gave her a puzzled look. After a moment of silence, Yu Xian slowly opened her hand.
The ordinary pen she used for keeping accounts was slick with sweat from her palm.
Something jolted in Chen Zhu's chest. When Zhang Chao had gone berserk earlier, this girl who looked so fierce and beautiful must have been nervous and frightened too.
But she had no one to lean on, so she could only pick up a pen to protect herself.
"It's all right now."
Chen Zhu smiled. "The police will be here soon. Besides..."
He paused briefly. "I'm here too."
Once Chen Zhu had the pen, he casually set it aside. It was hardly anything important, after all.
Yet Yu Xian felt strangely unsettled, as though that pen were the thorns she had kept wrapped around herself for protection all these years.
And now someone had simply, gently stripped them away?
Yu Xian could not help looking up. The tall, slim boy wore his school uniform, and the lingering sunset streamed inside. Golden light seemed to drift through the convenience store, falling across Chen Zhu's face and making him look even gentler and calmer.
Something called a sense of security suddenly slipped into Yu Xian's heart, building a stronger fortress around the feelings that had just lost their protective shell.
Yu Xian's heart gave a fierce thump, and she slowly lowered her head again.
Chen Zhu did not notice that subtle change. He was busy instructing Huang Bohan and Zhao Yuanyuan. "When the police get here, don't say anything careless. Just leave the rest to me."
"Got it."
Huang Bohan's reply was muffled. Having to deal with the police made him nervous.
"Got it, Chen Zhu~"
Zhao Yuanyuan was probably the least affected. Her father was a police officer, so she was already used to peaked caps and police badges.
Seeing that Huang Bohan and Zhao Yuanyuan understood, Chen Zhu relaxed a little. But what was going on with Yu Xian? She seemed distracted.
"Hey!"
Chen Zhu could not help reminding her, "Did you hear what I said?"
Normally, anyone who spoke to Yu Xian in that tone would get an eye roll at the very least.
This time, however, she merely nodded without saying anything.
Ten minutes later, a third-class police inspector arrived with two auxiliary officers.
They had expected a serious brawl, but the school uniforms revealed that both parties were merely high school students. The middle-aged inspector suddenly felt that he had come all this way for nothing.
After getting a brief account of the situation, he told Chen Zhu and Zhang Chao:
"The way I see it, both of you were partly at fault here..."
"You're both about to take the Gaokao. That's a major event in your lives..."
"Your name is Chen Zhu, right? We'll look into the details first and get back to you within three working days..."
Chen Zhu was dumbfounded. Well, well. What goes around comes around, huh? Now the "three-step solution" is being used on me.
But he had not gone to the trouble of lying down just to receive a lecture. Chen Zhu abruptly sat up straight and clearly stated his demands.
"First, Zhang Chao initially intended to hurt the convenience store's female cashier. When my classmate and I stepped in to stop him, he attacked me instead."
"Second, the store has surveillance cameras that can verify everything I've said. I never fought back at any point."
"Third, the cashier and my two friends can all corroborate my account."
"Fourth, I think the back of my head was struck. I'm feeling dizzy and nauseated now, and I need an injury assessment."
"Fifth, please give me a receipt confirming my police report."
Chen Zhu finished in one breath, and the inspector immediately realized he had encountered an "expert."
He had not fought back, there was surveillance footage, he wanted an injury assessment, and most importantly, he even knew to request a police report receipt. The inspector could not help taking another look at Chen Zhu.
Right! A young "veteran." Perhaps an older relative was a police officer, which would explain why he knew the procedures so well.
Since he could no longer deal with this casually, the middle-aged inspector told Chen Zhu and Zhang Chao, "Take out your ID cards."
Asking for their national IDs rather than their student IDs meant that he was opening formal proceedings.
Neither Chen Zhu nor Zhang Chao had brought his ID, so they could only recite their ID numbers. After checking, the police confirmed that both were indeed high school students, but Zhang Chao was nineteen while Chen Zhu was only seventeen.
At nineteen, he was already an adult. Even if he were still in elementary school, he would have to bear civil and criminal liability for breaking the law.
Without another word, the inspector went to check the store's surveillance footage.
Even now, Zhang Chao had not realized how serious things were. He raised a fist at Chen Zhu. "Man, you scared me when you went down earlier. Since you were faking it, we'll have a proper talk once we're back at school."
Chen Zhu grinned. "Whether you get to go back to school actually depends on my mood."
"What a load of bullshit!"
Zhang Chao did not believe him at all. Your fucking mood? Who do you think you are?
Soon, the inspector finished watching the footage and came back out. His attitude had visibly changed. First, he asked Chen Zhu, "Do you need to contact your parents? We'll be going to the hospital for an injury examination."
"No."
Chen Zhu did not want to worry his parents. "I can handle it myself."
The inspector then turned to Zhang Chao. His tone was no longer friendly; he spoke as though addressing a public troublemaker. "Get your parents here! He says you hit him in the head and made him dizzy. He's requesting an injury examination."
"Huh?"
Zhang Chao looked stunned. "I didn't hit his head, officer. Didn't you watch the footage?"
"There are blind spots the cameras don't cover."
The inspector answered without expression.
While Zhang Chao was still staring blankly, a police car pulled up with its lights flashing.
"We're going back to the station to take statements."
The inspector motioned for Zhang Chao to get into the police car.
Only then did he finally sense that something was wrong.
What's going on?
I just came over to show off and flex a little, and maybe get Yu Xian to date me.
But with Yu Xian's temper, who could force her to do anything she didn't want to do?
And that Chen Zhu from the honors class-I really didn't hit him. I only put him in a chokehold. Everything else was just to scare him.
How did going through all these procedures end with me having to give a statement at the police station?
In those days, ordinary people still regarded police cars with a certain fear and awe. Simply getting into one made it seem as though you had committed some offense.
For a high school student like Zhang Chao, who had neither real-world experience nor any understanding of the law, it was even more intimidating. The instant he was pushed into the police car, his face turned deathly pale.
Chen Zhu soon got in too, with an auxiliary officer sitting between him and Zhang Chao.
Just as the door was about to close, Yu Xian suddenly jogged over. "I'm going too!"
The inspector shook his head. "There's no room."
"I can squeeze in!"
Yu Xian stubbornly gripped the car door with both hands.
"Enough of this nonsense!"
The inspector was genuinely getting angry. "This is a police car! Do you think we're playing house? You can't just squeeze in!"
With that, the inspector slammed the door shut, stepped on the accelerator, and drove toward the nearby hospital.
Watching the police car recede, Yu Xian bit her lip hard until a trace of blood slowly appeared. Then she suddenly turned to Huang Bohan. "Watch the store for me. I'm going to find Chen Zhu."
"Wait... hey... hey... I don't know how!"
Huang Bohan stood there helplessly.
"It's all right, Bohan."
Zhao Yuanyuan walked behind the register and tapped away expertly at the checkout system. Then she said sweetly, "My mom runs a store. I know how."
(Reporting in: the 8 p.m. special-forces update has one more chapter.)
(End of chapter)
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