Taking liberties

Tu Gang held an unlit cigarette at the corner of his mouth and eyed Qin An sideways...

"Kid, you played me... Li Xinlan doesn't have a younger brother..." Tu Gang's expression darkened, and he threw away the cigarette...

"Yeah, so what?" Qin An raised his foot and ground Tu Gang's cigarette under it, paying no attention to his expression...

"You've got some nerve! Not many people in Qingshan Town dare talk to me like that..." Tu Gang narrowed his eyes, but instead began to smile...

Qin An smiled too...

"You think you're Chan Ho-nam, smiling like that... Smile, my ass. What, you admire me now? Qingshan Town is your turf? Even with Zhu Hongzhi locked up, you're not next in line!" Qin An fired off a string of aggressive questions. He truly loathed Tu Gang, and spared him no mercy with his words...

Qin An remembered an incident at his father's private school. A boy considered a good student by teachers and parents had a female classmate who was his childhood sweetheart. A young thug from outside school took a fancy to the girl and harassed her every few days. At first, the good student simply swallowed his anger, not wanting to get too entangled with those people. Over time, those young thugs even began bullying him, beating him black and blue, until he could no longer stand it. He snatched the dagger from one of the thugs and stabbed him to death...

Some little things, some seemingly minor acts of evil, could accumulate enough to change a person's life...

If Qin An did nothing about Tu Gang's harassment of Li Xinlan, it could very well leave the fragile, innocent girl depressed and unable to focus on her studies, sending her grades plummeting. The worst outcome would be her finally falling into Tu Gang's clutches...

Tu Gang's face froze. He really had never heard anyone dare speak to him like this, humiliating him so mercilessly...

News had spread the previous night that Zhu Hongzhi had been arrested and transferred to the county public security bureau. Apparently, he had been caught at the home of a widowed mistress of his in the countryside, with police station chief Wu Dehua personally leading the team...

As the news spread, some people even set off strings of firecrackers to celebrate. Qin An reckoned that some families who had suffered badly at Zhu Hongzhi's hands over the years might even present Wu Dehua with commendation banners. The town's young thugs and hooligans would have to lie low for a while...

For Tu Gang to dare stir up trouble at a time like this, he clearly had not understood what Zhu Hongzhi's arrest would mean for him...

While Tu Gang stood stunned, Qin An took a fountain pen out of his schoolbag and drove it hard into the tire of Tu Gang's mountain bike...

"Hiss!"

The tire instantly went flat. Qin An called for Li Xinlan to get on the rear rack, then shot off on the bicycle with a whoosh...

"Look at Tu Gang, like a wild dog off its leash..."

Qin An glanced back. Tu Gang took off after them, but stopped after a few strides and hesitantly turned back to pick up his mountain bike. It had not been cheap. He had gone to a great deal of trouble begging his father to buy it in the county town, originally intending to show it off to Li Xinlan...

If he chased after them now and left the mountain bike there, it was sure to disappear. Bicycle thieves ran rampant these days, and they would not give him any special consideration...

Li Xinlan could not help bursting into laughter, and much of her fear of Tu Gang actually vanished. But as Qin An rode over the uneven road, he really was like a runaway horse, frightening her so badly that her pretty face paled and she cried out again and again, "Qin An, slow down!"

Qin An found a moment to turn his head and look at Li Xinlan. The wind tossed her hair into disarray, revealing her delicate, pretty face. The little freckles on her nose scrunched together adorably. Pale with fright, her clear eyes flickered like those of a startled fawn. Even now, one hand clung tightly to the seat while the other carefully held down her skirt...

"Watch out, I'm speeding up! Hold on tight to me..." Qin An shouted, pedaling with even greater enthusiasm...

Almost instinctively, Li Xinlan wrapped her arms around Qin An's waist, pressed herself against his back, and simply squeezed her eyes shut...

Qingshan Town had no dark movie theaters and no horror films. The simplest way to take liberties with a girl was to trick her into sitting on a bicycle's rear rack, then do what Qin An was doing...

How many boys with girls sitting behind them had not done this? Qin An could not smell the faint fragrance of the girl's body, but he could feel the warmth coming through her soft figure. Her full breasts pressed against him, squeezing against his back with varying pressure as they jolted along, making his thoughts wander despite himself. A young girl's breasts, soft as water yet gathered into rounded mounds, were especially enticing...

Though reluctant to give up the sensation, Qin An still gradually slowed down. Taking a few little liberties was sweet and a little tantalizing, but if he really went too fast and accidentally threw Li Xinlan off, that would be brutally hurting a delicate beauty...

Only after a long while, when she felt the ride grow less bumpy, did Li Xinlan secretly open her eyes. She hurriedly released Qin An's waist, blushing all the way to her ears. He had slowed down ages ago, yet I was still clinging to him so tightly. How embarrassing!

Li Xinlan was still far from the stage of appreciating the physical pleasure of contact with the opposite sex. The racing heartbeat she experienced around boys came more from psychological and emotional stimulation. She felt secretly annoyed. Looks like all boys are like this. Could Qin An really not have thought about taking liberties with me just now?

Still, she really did not dislike Qin An much. Li Xinlan shyly discovered that this feeling of racing along as though fleeing for her life did not seem so bad...

Once they entered County No. 2 Middle School, Qin An returned the bicycle to Li Xinlan. Looking at her evasive eyes, he smiled and said, "Wait for me after school. I'll take you home..."

"No... I don't want you taking me home..." Li Xinlan hurried away, pushing her bicycle...

By the time Qin An ran to school, panting, morning reading was already over and the first exam was about to begin. He hurried to find his seat and happened to catch Li Hao's malicious smile...

To Li Hao, Qin An naturally looked rather bedraggled in this state. It made him feel certain that Qin An would look even more wretched when the results came out two days later...

Since the exams would determine rankings across the grade, affecting the teachers' bonuses and pride, the seating arrangements were strictly formal: students sat individually, with students from three classes mixed together...

Qin An was pleasantly surprised to discover that Ye Zhulan was sitting right in front of him. Did that not mean that, for these two days, they could relive how things used to feel... being all lovey-dovey at school, together both during and between classes...

"How's your preparation?" The exam had not officially begun yet. Ye Zhulan turned around and leaned over his desk to talk to him...

Qin An leaned down too, their heads almost touching. The sight of their intimacy made their former Class 68 classmates green with envy...

Ye Zhulan was not as pretty as Sun Sun, nor as well known, but because her antics with Qin An often disturbed the entire classroom building, she was especially noticeable too. Many boys in Class 68 were quite fond of her...

Zhao Weiguo was one of those boys. He and Ye Zhulan had been classmates in elementary school. He had served as class monitor for six years, and she had been the study representative for six years. He considered their relationship close enough to count as childhood sweethearts. Who could have known that once they entered middle school, a Qin An would suddenly barge in and become so close to Ye Zhulan? Now, in their third year, Zhao Weiguo had been rejoicing over Qin An's transfer to another class. He had never expected to witness a scene like this today. Qin An and Ye Zhulan's relationship seemed to have progressed even further...