CH 4.2

A person can be reborn from broken bones and change completely...

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"Brother, there's no need." Zhi Qi naturally knew what he was doing this time and sighed lowly, "I know that Jiang Qi is acting now."

There was silence on the phone for three seconds.

When Zhi Yu spoke again, he gritted his teeth slightly, "Why do you surf the internet so much?"

Zhi Qi had long been accustomed to Zhi Yu's irritable temper and only smiled lightly, "I happened to get dragged by my roommate to watch a movie and I saw this one actor. Brother, four years have passed yet Jiang Qi is even more handsome?"

Her idiotic appearance made Zhi Yu have the urge to drop the phone on the other side.

"I don't f*cking care about that kid." Zhi Yu's voice became serious and warned her, "Let me clear your head, don't get together with Jiang Qi again... We don’t know what he has become today. Got it?"

Zhi Yu was three years older than Zhi Qi and he had been in charge of her since she was a child. After the kidnapping case eleven years ago, Zhiyu personally picked her up from school for nearly half a year. Even though their schedule didn't often match. The elder brother would take the initiative to find ways to make it work. Zhiyu naturally knew Jiang Qi and was as grateful to him as Zhi Minglin and Mei Ran. He also knew that his sister liked to cling to Jiang Qi. Oftentimes, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but he didn't object to their closeness.

The three years gap was not for nothing, although Zhiyu was still a teenager at that time, he could see inside people and distinguish between good and bad. He knew that the boy Jiang Qi was a little cold and weird, but he was a good person. Thus, he did not object to Zhi Qi's frequent contact with him and oftentimes walked around with Jiang Qi. Zhi Yu thought that regardless of everything if you just look closely at Jiang Qi, he was actually a cool boy.

It's just that these perceptions of Jiang Qi are limited to four years ago, before the age of seventeen.

And after seventeen...

They say prison is the darkest place in the world. Where all the ugly souls gather that can regenerate a person's broken bones and completely change one’s temperament. Therefore, Zhi Yu couldn’t imagine what Jiang Qi will be like after staying there for three years.

After all, they are separated by a layer of screen. His menacing coldness and wickedness had suffused his body and could make people shudder... Zhi Yu naturally couldn't feel assured that Zhi Qi still had nothing to do with Jiang Qi, at any rate, he knew better than anyone else about Zhi Qi's obsession with Jiang Qi.

Just like now.

"Brother, no matter what he became." Zhi Qi held the phone and said firmly, "He will remember me."

The girl's obsession made the back of Zhi Yu's hand that’s holding the phone burst into blue veins.

"What about you?" He hated that iron could not become steel and his tone was almost fierce, "Can that feed you?"1

"Maybe. After all, love can make water full.” Zhixi smiled and retorted softly, "Brother, don't worry. I won't go to him for now."

"But I know he likes me. No matter what Jiang Qi becomes, he only likes me."

She has extreme confidence in herself and Jiang Qi. She had never doubted it for a minute nor a second in the past four years. Zhi Qi knew that her man wouldn’t come to her now. He probably just didn't know how to face her. Nevertheless, she will wait for Jiang Qi obediently. Her phone number has never been changed because of the blood-stained agreement between them in the past.

After Zhi Qi finished speaking, she boldly hung up the phone, ignoring Zhi Yu's anger on the other side.  Perhaps she knows those who are favored are fearless. She knows that Zhiyu will not be angry at her.

The girl's dark pupils returned to the computer screen filled with Jiang Qi’s pictures. One of them is his side profile. His jet-black hair was blown up by the wind, but there was a small scar on his forehead about two centimeters long.  If you don’t look closely, you won’t be able to see it as it was covered by makeup.

Maybe Zhi Qi is the only one who knew where the scar came from.  Jiang Qi's forehead was cut by someone with sharp rubble. That was probably after two months of Zhi Qi knowing him.

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The little girl liked to pester Jiang Qi, so she went to play with him after class. At noon time she goes to eat with him and often asked Mei Ran to bring two servings of food during lunch.  Gradually, Jiang Qi got used to her existence a little bit and eventually lost his rigidness. She refused to let people separate them.

When Zhi Qi gave him something, he would eat it but would not accept more. He eventually began to play with Zhi Qi and most of the time he agreed silently in the face of the girl's naive and childish requests.

Jiang Qi couldn't express it with words, but he was not repulsed by Zhi Qi, the 'destroyer' who had forced her way into his empty world.

Even Jiang Qi's indifferent glazed eyes gradually began to smile. After all, girls are probably the cutest creatures in the world.

There were always students who were not pleasing to Jiang Qi, but such a beautiful and lovely little girl like Zhi Qi kept pestering him every day to be nice to her, which only made other people's unpleasantness even worse.

It’s not as if there was no malice in the world of elementary school students, in fact, it’s often more thriving.

One day after school, Zhi Qi ignored Cui Shuangshuang who was eager to go with her. She packed her schoolbag and left the classroom. Since the last time she believed the rumor and said that Jiang Qi would kill people, Zhi Qi didn't want to play with her anymore. Children's belief in good and evil is often as simple as that. And 'evil' has no reason in the eyes of black-hearted people.

Zhi Qi went to class three and didn't see Jiang Qi's figure, but she saw his schoolbag was still there. So, the little girl thought he went to the bathroom and waited for him by the wall outside the class.

After chatting about various things, the little girl simply stretched her schoolbag with her two little hands to play with. But soon all the students left and the classroom became empty. She saw the teacher who locked the door and turn off the lights. Zhi Qi had no choice but to take Jiang Qi's school bag out of the classroom and then continued to wait in confusion.

Jiang Qi... where did you go? He wouldn't go home without even taking his schoolbag, would he?

The brightly lit corridor fell into a deserted silence. Zhi Qi stood there and was hesitating whether she should leave as well when she vaguely heard a murmur from a classroom around the corner. Zhi Qi was stunned for a moment and subconsciously walked toward the source of the sound. It was an abandoned music classroom that was rarely used. It was so late... so how could anyone be there?

A sudden sixth sense made the little girl feel uneasy and her heart started pounding until she rubbed against the door of the classroom and saw the scene inside through the narrow glass window on the door, her large and dark pupils shrank suddenly—

Several senior boys surrounded Jiang Qi on the podium, acting fiercely and savagely. The boy who was being subdued had furrowed eyebrows. This became even more obvious on his pale face. The corners of his mouth were blue and purple. He was obviously enduring the pain after being beaten. The boy's eyes were cold and red like raw iron, it was wild and the light untamable.

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TN:

1. 當飯吃- this translates as “eaten as a meal” which figuratively means livelihood; to pay the bills. Often connotes criticism. To fit the context, I used “feed” instead.