#47: All My Time Is Spent with Si Tingyan

Si Huiru talked with Wei Xiangdong in the reception room for a whole class period.

When Cheng Mi arrived, Si Huiru came out, and Wei Xiangdong was collecting the paper cups from the coffee table into the trash can.

Si Huiru didn’t tell her what she had talked about with their homeroom teacher, Wei Xiangdong, during the class period. She still had her usual gentle demeanor and said: “Let’s go home. Auntie will cook a delicious meal for you tonight.”

“Okay.”

“Xiaoyan doesn’t have any competition classes to attend today.”

Cheng Mi then asked: “Should I go upstairs and get him?”

Although they had just bumped into each other on the stairs, they didn’t say a word to each other.

Si Huiru said there was no need: “We can just pick him up at the school gate and go home together.”

As they walked to the school gate, Cheng Mi and Si Huiru saw an ambulance parked outside the school.

The sound of the gurney’s wheels went from a distance to a close one. The medical staff in their white coats rushed past in a hurry.

There was a long trail of blood drops on the ground, along with the wailing of a boy.

Through the moving figures, Zheng Hongkai’s face on the gurney was twisted and in pain.

Before Zheng Hongkai was put into the ambulance, Cheng Mi saw it clearly. The hand that was injured was his right hand.

This was the same hand that had touched her today.

Si Tingyan came out of the school and passed by them: “Let’s go.”

His voice was low, cold, and pure, without any impurities, making him feel distant and unreachable.

Everyone nearby was watching the show, but Si Tingyan didn’t even glance at the ambulance.

Cheng Mi’s gaze had also left the chaotic scene and landed on his back.

Si Huiru saw Si Tingyan walking away and called out to Cheng Mi: “Let’s go home.”

Cheng Mi followed.

Si Tingyan walked to the side of the street and hailed a taxi. He sat in the front passenger seat. Cheng Mi and Si Huiru opened the car door and sat in the back.

After seeing Zheng Hongkai at the school gate, Si Huiru was still thinking about calling the police. She said to Cheng Mi: “Your teacher just gave me a USB flash drive. He said it has the classroom surveillance footage that he copied this morning.”

Cheng Mi said okay. She subconsciously wanted to ask for it, thinking she could go to the police station herself after dinner.

But Si Huiru didn’t give it to her: “We’ll have a good dinner at home, and then Auntie will take you.”

Si Huiru’s expression was sincere and gentle. The words on Cheng Mi’s lips went back. In the end, she just nodded: “Thank you, Auntie.”

Si Huiru shook her head and said it was nothing.

After getting out of the car downstairs at home, Si Tingyan walked in front, and Cheng Mi and Si Huiru were behind him.

As soon as they entered the house, Si Huiru went to the kitchen to get busy. Si Tingyan and Cheng Mi were in the hallway.

The living room lights weren’t on, only the hallway and kitchen lights were on.

Neither of them said anything.

Si Tingyan was changing his shoes, his eyelids drooping a little wearily. The light shone down, and his eyelashes cast a shadow on his fair skin.

In this stark light and shadow, some things that one might not notice at first glance became obvious.

Cheng Mi was originally going to ask Si Tingyan about the Zheng Hongkai incident, but her attention was first drawn to something else.

There was a small spot of blood on the back of Si Tingyan’s school uniform. It wasn’t very obvious.

It didn’t look like it had been splashed on. Instead, it looked like it was seeping through his clothes.

Cheng Mi’s gaze was fixed on the side of his face. She called out to him: “Si Tingyan.”

Si Tingyan looked up at her.

Cheng Mi was leaning against the door, staring at his eyes: “What happened to your back?”

Perhaps it was her subconscious belief that he was injured. Cheng Mi felt that Si Tingyan’s somewhat handsome face was a little paler than usual.

But his personality didn’t weaken one bit because of this paleness.

After she asked him that, Si Tingyan didn’t panic or try to cover it up, but he didn’t admit it either.

This attitude made Cheng Mi, who had just thought he was injured, feel a little uncertain, as if she was being overly suspicious.

Just then, Si Huiru came out of the kitchen with a glass of water and poured a cup for each of them.

Cheng Mi took it and thanked her.

Si Tingyan took the cup and went straight back to his room.

Cheng Mi glanced at him.

________________________________________

The police gave Zheng Hongkai an administrative penalty, and he was to be detained for five days.

The school issued a notice that Zheng Hongkai was placed on probation, and Cheng Mi was to read a self-criticism at the flag-raising ceremony next Monday.

This incident became a big deal at school. Zheng Hongkai’s reputation was already bad, and now it was even worse. He was burdened with all sorts of contempt and the nickname “perverted hand.”

After the incident that day, Zheng Hongkai never returned to school. No one knew where the news came from, but they said that three of his tendons in that “perverted hand” were severed by the broken bottle.

Everyone said that bad people get what they deserve.

It was because the bottle was so strange that they couldn’t find the culprit.

No one knew if it was a deliberate plot or if Zheng Hongkai was just unlucky because he had done too many bad things.

Cheng Mi completely cut off contact with Cheng Yao’s group. Since Zheng Hongkai didn’t come to school, those few days were very peaceful for her.

She didn’t go back to the same quiet bar that Deng Zi had found for her. She found another one where she could make some money for her living expenses and practice her singing at the same time.

The new quiet bar wasn’t as crowded as the previous one. It was much quieter and closed at a little past eleven.

It was the weekend today. The streets were a little more lively than usual. When she got home, Si Huiru was surprisingly still awake, on the sofa on the phone.

Cheng Mi said hello.

Si Huiru asked her: “Cheng Mi, can you contact Li Chu?”

“What’s wrong?”

Si Huiru was wearing her pajamas, and she was anxiously clutching her phone: “I asked Li Chu if she wanted to come home this week, and she said yes, but it’s so late and she’s not back yet. I can’t get through to her on her phone.”

Cheng Mi could see that Si Huiru was genuinely worried.

But Si Huiru had to go to work tomorrow. She had taken a day off this month. To get her full attendance bonus, she had negotiated with her boss to make it up this weekend. She had already worked all day today.

Cheng Mi’s bag was on her shoulder. She let it slide down to her forearm and said to Si Huiru: “She probably has her phone on silent. You should go to bed. Don’t worry. I’ll give her a call, and if she’s coming back, I’ll go pick her up.”

Si Huiru was still a little worried. Cheng Mi said again: “I’ll call you if anything happens.”

Only then did Si Huiru feel a little relieved. After she gave Cheng Mi a few more instructions, Cheng Mi went back to her room.

There was no light under Si Tingyan’s door. He was already asleep.

Cheng Mi pushed the door open and went into her room, taking out her phone and dialing Li Chu’s number.

Naturally, the situation was the same as Si Huiru’s. After a long wait, the call was automatically hung up.

She tried calling several times, but Li Chu didn’t answer.

Li Chu hadn’t come back since she left with Chen Zhaochi last time.

Cheng Mi had sent her a lot of messages these past few days. Although she knew that Li Chu had never gotten over the hurdle between them, she shouldn’t have been so wishful as to think that Li Chu was sacrificing herself for her.

But even if there was a slight possibility that Li Chu was seeking revenge on Chen Zhaochi for her and Jiang Xunzhi, Cheng Mi would not let that possibility happen.

But Li Chu never replied to any of the text messages she sent.

Some of Li Chu’s things were still in the room. She should be able to find some clues as to where she and Chen Zhaochi had been hanging out.

Cheng Mi walked to her desk and used her fingertip to pry open a lighter that Li Chu had left on the table.

The metal lighter flipped open with a click. It had a detailed pattern on it and no names of any places.

The phone rang again. Cheng Mi took the phone away from her ear and slid it back onto the table.

She rummaged through her things for a while, but there was nothing that revealed any information.

It was the weekend today. Li Chu wouldn’t be at school. She would definitely be in Fengxun to find Chen Zhaochi.

Chen Zhaochi’s nightlife was limited to a few places. The more chaotic and noisy the places were, the more he loved them. At this time, he was most likely at a bar.

There were many bars in Fengxun, but only a few were popular. It would take some time to go to all of them.

Cheng Mi decided to go out. She walked to the wardrobe and grabbed a jacket.

When she took it out, she accidentally bumped into a jacket of Li Chu’s that was hanging next to it. The jacket fell off the hanger with a thud and landed at Cheng Mi’s feet.

Cheng Mi bent down to pick it up, wanting to hang it back in the wardrobe for Li Chu. Suddenly, her sharp eyes caught a glimpse of a white tissue on the floor.

She paused for a moment and then reached out to pick it up.

It was a square tissue. The texture was a little hard. A phone number was written on it with a black ballpoint pen.

There was a prominent logo under the phone number.

It was the name of a bar in English letters. The tissue was a custom-made one from that bar, and someone had used it to write down a phone number to flirt.

Cheng Mi remembered this bar. She had been there with Li Zhiyu and his friends when she first came to Fengxun. It was quite crowded. It was probably a place that Chen Zhaochi frequented.

Cheng Mi hung Li Chu’s clothes back in the wardrobe, put on her jacket, and went out.

________________________________________

At an open-air barbecue stall on the street, Zheng Hongkai was passed out drunk on a foldable wooden table.

He wasn’t completely passed out. He was mumbling curses and foul language.

“Damn it! I was in a detention center, not a f*cking prison!”

The phone in his ear was hung up by another friend. Zheng Hongkai was spitting and yelling: “F*ck you, you a**holes. You look down on me, don’t you? I’ll get back at you all sooner or later!”

He had been released from the detention center at a little past ten this morning. He couldn’t go home, he couldn’t get anything to eat, and he had been calling people from morning to night, but no one answered. They were always so loyal before, but now that he needed some money, they all disappeared.

After a moment of silence, he started cursing again. This time, he wasn’t cursing his friends.

“Fck you, you btch Cheng Mi. I’m going to kill you this time.”

When Chen Zhaochi, Li Chu, and his group of friends came out of the barbecue restaurant, they heard this curse about Cheng Mi.

Zheng Hongkai was a bad drunk. He was making a scene and cursing, which made the people who came to eat late-night snacks at the barbecue stall look over at him frequently.

The boss couldn’t stand it. His face was full of impatience, and he wanted to walk over and drive them away.

But then he was stopped by Chen Zhaochi. He had a cigarette in his mouth and raised his chin toward him: “What’s wrong with that guy?”

The boss was bald and very short, two heads shorter than Chen Zhaochi.

He glanced at Zheng Hongkai: “What else could be wrong? He has no money, but he still wants to eat. I’ve tried to drive him away several times. That boy said he would call someone to come and pay. Look, he’s been calling until now, and not a single soul has shown up. From what he’s saying, he just got out of the station today.”

The boss said it was bad luck: “I’ll just consider this order tonight a loss. I need to get him to leave quickly. He’s affecting business, and the customers in my shop can’t even enjoy their barbecue.”

He was about to walk over but was pulled back by Chen Zhaochi, who then quickly handed him a hundred-yuan bill: “I’ll pay for this table.”

After Chen Zhaochi said that, he walked toward Zheng Hongkai’s table.

Li Chu was behind him. She glanced at him and then followed him a few seconds later.

After Chen Zhaochi walked over, he straddled a small wooden stool and sat down.

Zheng Hongkai was slumped on the table like a pile of mud. His right hand, which was holding a beer, was wrapped in a bandage.

The bandage looked like it hadn’t been changed for a long time. It was yellow, black, and a little bloody.

Chen Zhaochi clicked his tongue and patted Zheng Hongkai’s face, asking him: “Who did this to you?”

Zheng Hongkai’s mind was already dazed by the alcohol. He was completely drunk and passed out on the table, mumbling curses incoherently.

It was hard to hear what he was cursing about, but it was clear who he was cursing.

The name “Cheng Mi” was repeated in his curses.

Chen Zhaochi listened and smiled. He said to Li Chu behind him: “Aren’t you going to slap this guy? He’s cursing your little sister.”

Li Chu gave him a cold look and was about to leave.

Chen Zhaochi seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. He reached out and grabbed her, pulling her to his side: “What’s wrong? You’re so easily triggered?”

“Li Chu, I’m not going to coddle you.”

Just after he said that, Zheng Hongkai’s injured right hand slapped the table. The pain made his spine reflexively tense, and he was cursing Cheng Mi.

Chen Zhaochi watched with a cold eye and sneered: “Worthless.”

“He doesn’t even know who got him.”

________________________________________

It was hard to get a taxi after midnight. Cheng Mi stood downstairs for a while before she hailed a taxi. When she got to the bar, it was still very lively. The electronic music was pounding on Cheng Mi’s eardrums.

Cheng Mi realized that it had been a while since she had been to a bar. She was even a little unaccustomed to the smoky smell that was going up her nose.

It seemed that all her time was spent with Si Tingyan.

She walked around the bar and couldn’t find anyone. Cheng Mi asked a waiter.

She didn’t ask about Li Chu; she asked about Chen Zhaochi.

She didn’t ask the wrong person. Cheng Mi said Chen Zhaochi’s name once in the loud music, and the waiter immediately understood. The waiter told Cheng Mi that Chen Zhaochi wasn’t here. He had gone out to get a barbecue with his friends.

“Which barbecue stall?” Cheng Mi asked.

“Just the one nearby. You’ll see it if you walk around a bit. They usually eat there.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Cheng Mi came out of the bar. The damp air from the river was rushing toward her. A drunkard was holding on to a lamppost and vomiting.

At the end of the road was the street. The lights were overly bright in the dark night. Cheng Mi walked straight in that direction.

There were many late-night food stalls on the street, selling fried, grilled, and steamed food. The aroma of the food was just a few steps away from the bar. From a distance, Cheng Mi could hear the incoherent babbling of a drunk person.

But before she got to the source of the sound, she saw Li Chu first.

Li Chu was standing at the entrance of the barbecue restaurant. Her long-standing ash-gray hair was gone. It had been dyed black.

But Cheng Mi still recognized her at a glance.

Li Chu’s black hair wasn’t long. It was tied up in a high ponytail. She still had a strand of hair on the side of her face. At some point, she had gotten another piercing in her ear cartilage. The faint light was a little dazzling in the dark night.

When Cheng Mi saw her, Li Chu seemed to have noticed her as well and looked over.

In the past, with her ash-gray hair, Li Chu was already fair. Now that she had dyed it black, her skin looked even fairer.

Cheng Mi was just as fair as her. Her curly hair was loose behind her, and she met Li Chu’s gaze.

Before Li Chu could look away, Chen Zhaochi also looked over. Besides the person slumped on the table, there were only the two of them at that table.

“Well, what a coincidence.”

Chen Zhaochi said: “Long time no see, Cheng Mi.”

Cheng Mi didn’t respond to him and didn’t stop in place. She walked straight toward them, intending to take Li Chu away.

She wasn’t hiding her intentions. Chen Zhaochi, of course, knew what she was there for.

Seeing her walk over, Chen Zhaochi’s chin gestured toward Zheng Hongkai at the table next to them: “Isn’t this a coincidence? We were just talking about you.”

It was indeed a coincidence. Just as he said that, Zheng Hongkai at the table started cursing again.

He was cursing Cheng Mi, telling Cheng Mi to wait for him.

It was only then that Cheng Mi noticed that the person at the table was Zheng Hongkai.

Chen Zhaochi smiled and asked her if she heard what Zheng Hongkai said: “Did you hear that?”

Cheng Mi paused for a moment and stopped in front of them: “I heard it.”

She smiled at Chen Zhaochi: “You should learn from him. Although his curses are ugly, he’s more upright than you.”

Chen Zhaochi wasn’t angered by her. He also smiled: “And then, just like him, get played with by you and your little boyfriend?”

Cheng Mi had already stopped paying attention to what he was saying. She reached out to pull Li Chu behind her, but her hand paused after Chen Zhaochi’s words.

She quickly reacted, and her eyes moved to Chen Zhaochi’s face.

The injury on Chen Zhaochi’s forehead from last time hadn’t healed yet. There was a blood scab in the bruise, which was on top of the scar.

“Ah,” he said slowly, “I forgot to tell you. The one I’m talking about isn’t Li Yeheng. His name is—”

Chen Zhaochi looked into her eyes and said, one word at a time: “Si Tingyan.”

Cheng Mi was stunned. Li Chu next to her didn’t seem to know either and looked at Chen Zhaochi.

This was the second time Cheng Mi had shown such a serious emotional flaw in front of Chen Zhaochi.

This made Chen Zhaochi feel very pleased. After all, they had a grudge against each other.

Chen Zhaochi propped his hands on the table and stood up. The teasing look in his eyes started to change, becoming a mix of hatred and madness. He raised his hand and slightly circled it around Cheng Mi’s neck.

“Do you know how I got this injury on my head?”

Chen Zhaochi said: “It was your little boyfriend who smashed it.”

Cheng Mi had seen the injury on Chen Zhaochi’s forehead a little over a week ago when he went downstairs to her building to pick up Li Chu.

But at that time, Chen Zhaochi was still saying that she was seducing Si Tingyan to ruin his relationship with Li Yeheng.

Cheng Mi quickly regained her composure: “Chen Zhaochi, who told you he’s my boyfriend?”

Chen Zhaochi smiled: “You don’t believe me?”

He tilted his head and thought for a moment: “Then... go back and check if Si Tingyan has any injuries on his back?”

This sentence made Cheng Mi’s mind completely freeze.

She remembered the little bit of blood seeping from Si Tingyan’s clothes in the hallway tonight.

Chen Zhaochi said: “This time, it wasn’t me being a masochist. It was your little boyfriend who came looking for me himself.”

“He came looking for me the day after people at your school’s forum were cursing you.”

The day after the school forum cursed her was the anniversary of Jiang Xunzhi’s death. At that time, she and Li Chu were in Jiacheng, visiting Jiang Xunzhi at the cemetery.

That was when she and Si Tingyan started their cold war. After they came back, Si Tingyan stayed up all night, spending all his time trying to hack into the forum to make those people shut up.

“Isn’t that pretty early?” Chen Zhaochi’s hand on her neck gradually tightened. “Cheng Mi, how does it feel to be fooled by me?”

Cheng Mi gave him a cold look: “You’re a pervert.”

Chen Zhaochi raised an eyebrow: “That’s right, I am. But Si Tingyan is pretty much the same.”

After saying that, he moved closer to her and looked into her eyes.

“He’s also a pervert,” Chen Zhaochi said with a smile. “You better not fall for him.”