Chapter 36: Open the Door

The top floor of the teaching building was reserved for the senior year of high school. The art students from the senior year had already left the school. The classrooms and corridor lights at the end of the hallway were all turned off, and there was basically no one around. Xu Yannuo sat by the windowsill, quietly gazing out the window.

After sitting for a while, the quiet corridor was filled with the sound of approaching footsteps, as if from three or four people. There was no conversation, only the sound of footsteps.

But at this time, no one should be coming over. Who could it be?

Xu Yannuo turned her head to look. It was four girls. The four of them were staring at her with unfriendly gazes. Clearly, they were here for her. However, she didn’t know these girls; they weren’t even familiar to her.

Xu Yannuo frowned. Then, under her gaze, the girls walked step by step toward her. The girl at the front was wearing the kind of black eyeliner that was explicitly banned by the school, with a non-mainstream fringe covering both sides of her face, leaving only the middle part exposed. The three girls behind her, though with different styles, had similar kinds of outfits.

Before Xu Yannuo could speak, the girl with black eyeliner asked her first, “Are you Xu Yannuo, Chen Ci’s deskmate?”

Before Xu Yannuo could answer, the girl crossed her arms in front of her chest, tilted her head back, and looked at Xu Yannuo sitting on the windowsill with a disdainful sidelong glance. “That girl on the forum—that’s you, right?”

Although it was clear these people were here to pick a fight, what was this about a girl on the forum?

The girl with heavy eyeliner seemed annoyed at having to look up at Xu Yannuo. She grabbed Xu Yannuo by the collar of her school uniform and yanked her down from the windowsill. After Xu Yannuo stumbled, she pushed her again, shoving her against the edge of the windowsill.

Then, as if to prove her “fairness” and let Xu Yannuo know exactly why she was in trouble, the girl with heavy eyeliner reached behind her. One of the girls behind her tapped on her phone and handed it over. The girl with heavy eyeliner took the phone and held it up in front of Xu Yannuo’s face.

In the dark hallway, the light from the phone screen was somewhat glaring yet exceptionally clear. Xu Yannuo could clearly see the photo on the forum—it was a sneak shot of her and Chen Ciyi in the library that day. The angle of the photo was tricky: it showed Chen Ciyi placing a book on the top shelf while she stood in front of him. From this perspective, it looked as though Chen Ciyi was standing behind her, reaching up to grab a book she couldn’t reach. What had actually been a fierce competition for the book appeared in the photo as the two of them cuddled together, surrounded by a bubble of pink romance!

Who the hell took this?

Before Xu Yannuo could explain, the girl with heavy eyeliner yanked her aside and whispered a warning, “My dad is the principal. If you dare scream, I’ll make sure you get expelled.” With that, under the cover of the other three girls, they dragged Xu Yannuo into the dark stairwell nearby. Inside the stairwell was a small storage room—one on every floor—used to store mops and other miscellaneous items. Though small, it was spacious enough, about five or six square meters. After shoving Xu Yannuo inside, they locked the door, leaving one girl to stand guard outside.

The storage room was dimly lit, and no one would come by now. The girl with heavy eyeliner roughly pushed Xu Yannuo into the corner. “Who do you think you are? How dare you get close to Chen Ciyi? I wrote him a love letter, and he threw it straight into the trash without even looking. I brought him breakfast, and he refused it—all because of you? That morning, so many girls in the school were calling out to him from the windows, and he ignored every single one. But then he looked up—and it was you he was looking at, wasn’t it?” As she spoke, the girl grabbed Xu Yannuo’s hair, and punches and kicks began to rain down.

Xu Yannuo curled up into a ball, shielding her head with her hands. She couldn’t fight back—she didn’t want to cause trouble at school. Besides, what good would fighting back do?

The teacher wanted to speak with the parents, but Cheng Yun had just been beaten up. The dark bruises around her eyes were still clearly visible, so she took leave to rest at home. She didn’t want to be seen by others or go out—right now, she simply couldn’t leave the house.

As waves of pain coursed through her body, Cheng Yun’s thoughts drifted back to her own middle school days—the first time she had been bullied. Back then, she had mustered the courage to tell her mother about it. But what had Cheng Yun said? With a stern expression and a tone of grave concern, she had asked, “Have you considered whether there might be something wrong with you? Why do they only bully you and not others?” Moreover, Cheng Yun had dismissed it as nothing more than childish squabbles, not a serious issue. In the end, she had brushed it off and done nothing. Since even the parents of the bullied child hadn’t stepped forward, the teacher naturally preferred to sweep the matter under the rug. Besides, it was only the first year of middle school—word getting out would reflect poorly on the entire grade.

And she had no one to tell.

She didn’t dare tell anyone either.

Because speaking up wouldn’t help—it would only get her beaten up again by those girls who bullied her.

Unaware of how far her thoughts had wandered, Xu Yannuo only felt the stinging pain on her body gradually turning numb, and her ears seemed to be playing tricks on her.

She seemed to hear Chen Ciyi’s voice. Xu Yannuo smiled helplessly—he really had been hovering around her too much lately, sitting beside her during class and after, whether there was a reason or not. Now she was even hallucinating his voice.

But then, the pain on her body vanished. Everyone stopped their assault. Xu Yannuo furrowed her brows—it seemed she wasn’t hallucinating after all. Considering the current situation, the voice at the door really was Chen Ciyi’s.

“Open the door!” Chen Ciyi’s voice was cold, yet firm.

“There’s no one inside, why should I open it?” The girl at the door replied timidly, her voice noticeably shaky from lying.

“If there’s no one, why are you standing here? Xu Yannuo is inside, isn’t she?”

Hearing Chen Ciyi mention Xu Yannuo—and coming specifically for her—the girl clearly panicked, as if defending Black Eyeliner. “So those photos were real after all?” The girl at the door grew agitated. Her tone suggested she also liked Chen Ciyi but either didn’t dare compete with Black Eyeliner or genuinely admired her. Yet, she viciously tore into Xu Yannuo’s wounds. “Do you even know her? How can you defend her? You know nothing—you’ve been fooled by her. I should’ve told the whole school what kind of person she is long ago. She can’t even compare to Miaomiao. Everyone likes Miaomiao—she’s popular. But Xu Yannuo? Don’t be fooled by how she acts now. Back in middle school, who didn’t avoid her? Who didn’t despise her? My cousin was in her class—Xu Yannuo literally begged on her knees like a dog for people to play with her, and they still ignored her. Think about it—why did everyone bully her and no one else?”