At that, the girl’s little sidekick asked in a low voice, “Yu Wanting, isn’t this going too far?”
“What are you afraid of? Nobody’s here. Even the janitors have gone home. By tomorrow morning, the water’ll be dry, and no one will find out.”
As she spoke, Yu Wanting called toward the stalls, “If anyone’s in there, make a noise. Otherwise, I’m sending the water in~”
With that, she dumped another basin of water into the stall next to Chen Qinyao’s.
A lot of it seeped through the gap and ran to Chen Qinyao’s feet.
As she listened to the faucet turn on and water pour into the bucket for soaking the mop, Chen Qinyao only clutched the hem of her clothes tighter.
Hearing the water pouring outside, Chen Qinyao wanted to rush out and punch the three people bullying her as hard as she could.
But then what? Would she just go back and get beaten again?
She didn’t want to apologize to them.
That would feel worse than dying.
Besides, she’d heard the other girl’s family might work at the Public Security Bureau.
Even if her sister had changed and was willing to care for her now, what would that matter?
Sue them?
The courts belonged to people like them.
There was no way to “win.”
All she could do was endure it.
Still, looking on the bright side, at least if she endured it, it would eventually be over.
Once she graduated, she’d never have to see them again.
The water kept rising until it was hard to breathe.
She could only clutch her sleeve tightly.
She counted down the school days on her fingers, one by one, calculating how much longer she had to endure before she could escape this hell.
But it felt as if the end would never come.
“—SPLASH!!”
Cold water that smelled of tap water and an old mop poured over Chen Qinyao.
Her wet clothes clung to her body, and only then did she realize how cold the wind blowing in through the window was.
“Ah, looks like nobody really was in there. Let’s go. This is boring.”
When there was no response at all from the stall and it was nearly time for the dismissal roll call, Yu Wanting and the other two decided to leave.
“Come to think of it, is her sister dead? I’ve never seen her at a parent meeting.”
“Who knows? Maybe she just doesn’t want her. Haha, born to a mother, raised without one.”
The three of them traded remarks and laughed as they headed out.
A bitterly cold draft blew in from somewhere, making the girl shiver.
She thought of her sister again.
She hated the sister she used to have.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to leave; she just had no way to.
Local businesses wouldn’t hire child workers.
The only job she’d managed to get was in a restaurant kitchen, doing odd jobs.
They’d only agreed to keep her after she pleaded with them, and even then, they paid her less.
Until she became an adult and found a proper job, she couldn’t leave her legal guardian, even though her sister often abused her.
She didn’t want to go back to the orphanage, to that place where they were always giving her shots and the pain made her want to die.
The girl counted down not only the days until graduation, but also the days until she grew up.
But no matter how she endured, it felt like the end would never come.
Until the day before yesterday.
Her sister had changed.
She was nothing like her old sister.
That person cooked for her, though the food was average.
That person washed her clothes for her, though she hung them in the wrong place, so they were still damp when she wore them.
She seemed clumsy, but… the girl couldn’t bring herself to hate this sister anymore.
“I saw her get into a fight last time, too. Her sister shoved her head down and made her apologize. Haha, her sister doesn’t care about her at all. She probably doesn’t even want to deal with her.”
“She’s just a piece of trash nobody wants, same as her useless sister. They’re both unwanted. I bet she’ll dump her before long.”
At the sidekick’s words, something roared in Chen Qinyao’s head.
It was like a gun had gone off in her chest.
It was so cold, and outside, it had started pouring at some point, but the fire inside her only grew stronger.
Not even a storm across the whole world could put it out.
Maybe she wouldn’t have cared about those words before, but now she cared very much.
She didn’t want to go back to how things were.
“Bang!”
The stall door was kicked open from inside.
It slammed against the wall with a loud crash, making all three of them turn around.
What Yu Wanting saw at the front was Chen Qinyao, soaked from head to toe, water still dripping from her hair.
“Ah, so you were in there. I knew you were. Why didn’t you say anything before?”
Used to picking on people, she was certain Chen Qinyao wouldn’t fight back.
She sauntered right up to Chen Qinyao, though she didn’t get too close because the girl smelled awful.
When she saw Chen Qinyao glaring at her, Yu Wanting wasn’t afraid.
She deliberately put on a whiny voice and said, “Oh, oh, are you about to cry? Go ahead and cry, crybaby. Telling the teacher won’t help, either. It’s not like your family can even get a parent to come in.”
At that, the three of them laughed again.
Go ahead and laugh.
Those three were always laughing.
They’d been laughing ever since they came in, laughing because she had no parents, laughing because she had no one to stand up for her, laughing because she was ugly and poor.
Their laughter made the fire of her rage burn hotter and hotter.
Chen Qinyao looked at Yu Wanting in front of her.
She was wearing a school uniform, too, but the shoes beneath it were this year’s latest style.
Chen Qinyao had seen them online.
The hair clip on her head also seemed to be limited-edition merchandise from some anime.
‘Don’t do anything irrational,’ her rational side screamed.
But her emotions roared back.
The fire was so maddening that she couldn’t even hear the rain outside anymore.
All she could hear was its crackling roar.
“I hate your face. I’ve always hated it.”
“What are you talking about?”
Yu Wanting looked at Chen Qinyao, who was gritting her teeth, and found it funny.
But soon, she stopped laughing.
She watched Chen Qinyao stride toward her, step by step, both hands clenched into fists.
A sense of dread welled up inside her.
There was only one of Chen Qinyao, and three of them.
Besides, her father was a senior executive at a corporation.
How dare she?
“Who said you could talk about my sister? You don’t get to decide whether my sister cares about me!!”
The girl’s voice still sounded as fragile as ever.
But perhaps there was such a thing as presence.
The other girl charged toward her like a furious, bristling lion, making Yu Wanting instinctively step back.
Her unease peaked, and while she hesitated, the girl was already in front of her.
Chen Qinyao punched Yu Wanting square in her unguarded face.
She didn’t give Yu Wanting a chance to fight back.
The second punch came, then the third, then the fourth!
The sudden brawl left Yu Wanting’s two sidekicks frozen in place.
Who could have expected a rabbit to bite when pushed too far?
Only when Chen Qinyao had Yu Wanting pinned beneath her, landing punch after punch on her face, and blood from Yu Wanting’s nose had splattered on the ground, did her two sidekicks finally react.
They yanked at Chen Qinyao’s hair and pulled at her arms.
Maybe it was because she’d drawn blood, or because she’d been frightened the night before, but all the grievances she’d kept bottled up inside erupted at once.
Chen Qinyao seemed not to feel any pain.
She punched one and kicked the other, and all four of them grappled on the floor.