The teacher supervising the class was the first to run out of the classroom. The mischievous boys from every class also couldn't hold back, rushing into the hallway to find the source of the sound. In less than half a minute, as the strange shouts grew louder and louder, almost all the students in the entire Science Building ran out to watch.

Zhuang Fanxin's knee hurt, so he was supported out of the classroom by Qi Nan on his left and the Class Monitor on his right. Squeezed by a window in the hallway, he looked outside. Qi Nan clung to the window frame and guessed boldly: "Don't tell me some thugs broke into the school?"

The Class Monitor said: "The local police station is right next door, what would thugs be after?"

With the incessant chattering in his ear, Zhuang Fanxin, sandwiched between them, said nothing. He craned his neck to see and noticed that some students who had run out from the first floor to watch the commotion had all headed toward the west side of the academic building.

He pointed. "Is the sound coming from the west?"

"I think so," Qi Nan agreed, then suddenly felt something wasn't right. "Uh, the west side couldn't be..."

The three of them exchanged a look. The little corner was on the west side. Could it be that some hero was seeking revenge on the basketball team? The Class Monitor was so scared he quickly did a headcount, and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming all the boys in the class were present.

"Wow! Look!" Qi Nan pointed into the distance. Four or five school security guards were rushing to the scene, led by the dean of discipline, Old Feng. Zhuang Fanxin's mouth hung open. Even the school security was mobilized, what on earth had happened?

In that nook, Gu Zhuoyan had his back to the exit, cornering the five of them. Three were down so far. It was too dark to see their specific injuries. Two were left, and their faces were also bruised and cut.

Seeing that they were at a disadvantage, one of them gasped for breath: "The school guards are coming..."

Gu Zhuoyan said: "Then let's make it quick."

"Fuck..." The person slightly raised his hands in a gesture of concession and surrender. "Once the dean gets here, no fucking one can escape... we'll all get demerits then..."

Gu Zhuoyan said: "I have no problem with that."

As he spoke, he closed the distance and threw a right punch, his movements indeed getting faster. He then seized the other's arm, twisting it back, and struck him three times in a row with his palm two inches below the neck. The person let out a couple of howls, then his body went limp and he collapsed, unable to move.

Gu Zhuoyan's moves were methodical and practiced, as if he had trained before. If he hadn't, he wouldn't have dared to corner several people for a solo fight. The last person was still standing stiffly at the base of the wall, terrified, hugging the wall in the darkness, not knowing what to do. Gu Zhuoyan's hand was sore. He shook his wrist and walked over, asking: "What's posted on the wall?"

The person answered: "Smoking is harmful to your health..."

Gu Zhuoyan said: "Then why do you still smoke? Not afraid of getting lung cancer?" Recalling something Zhuang Xianyang once said—that everyone has the right to control their own body—he continued, "Smoking is your own business, but littering, damaging the environment, and hitting people—do you think that's appropriate?"

The person hurriedly said: "We didn't hit that little idiot, we were just messing around..."

Gu Zhuoyan tore the sign down and slapped it against the other person's chest. "You're not allowed to mess with him."

As his last word fell, Gu Zhuoyan, however, didn't go for a swift and decisive victory with punches that landed hard like before. Instead, he grabbed the other's shoulder and started grappling with him. The other person mistakenly thought he had run out of stamina and couldn't fight anymore, and his expression instantly changed as he lunged forward with all his might.

Gu Zhuoyan didn't dodge at all. He tilted his head slightly, offering his left cheek. When the punch landed on his cheekbone, half of his face went numb with pain.

"That'll do," he said. After speaking, he fiercely struck the inside of the other's elbow while simultaneously kicking his shin. As the person fell, he followed up with a hook to his back.

All five of them were taken care of. In the pitch-black darkness, you couldn't see what state they were in. Gu Zhuoyan walked over to the stairs and pocketed his wallet and phone. This area grew quiet, but it was still noisy outside.

The dean of discipline arrived with several school guards, followed by some students who had come to watch the excitement. Head Teacher Feng roared: "What's going on! What classes are you all from?!"

The beam of a flashlight shone in, revealing five boys from Team One lying on the ground, bruised and swollen, while Gu Zhuoyan stood calmly to the side, leisurely fastening the buckle of his watch.

Everyone was inevitably stunned. Head Teacher Feng paused for three seconds before saying: "All of you, follow me to the office!"

Gu Zhuoyan walked out openly and poisedly, looking as if he were going to walk the dog or buy coffee—the one thing he didn't look like was a student caught for breaking the rules. He followed behind Head Teacher Feng, while the school guards and a few students helped the basketball players up from the ground. The group drew a great deal of attention as they passed the academic building.

Zhuang Fanxin was stunned when he saw that familiar figure. Qi Nan grabbed his shoulders and shook him, saying in disbelief: "Holy shit? Is that Gu Zhuoyan behind Old Feng?"

Zhuang Fanxin swallowed. "It's a hallucination, right..."

He stared intently at the figure, his mind a mess. Paying no attention to the heated discussions of others, he saw that Gu Zhuoyan was about to walk past, and leaning against the window, he shouted: "—Gu Zhuoyan!"

Gu Zhuoyan followed the sound and looked up at the crowd of onlookers on the third floor. Amidst a sea of heads, he found Zhuang Fanxin's small, frantic face, and then he smiled and waved. Head Teacher Feng was furious. What the hell, being taken away for a disciplinary violation, yet he's acting like he's performed a great service and is on his way to an award ceremony!

The other students returned to the classroom, but Zhuang Fanxin remained leaning on the windowsill, watching, as if he had become a trinket hanging there. He gazed at Gu Zhuoyan's retreating, sesame seed-sized back. 'Why? Gu Zhuoyan said he'd come pick me up, but instead of coming to the classroom, he went to the little corner to fight.'

'But didn't Gu Zhuoyan advocate for settling things peacefully?'

'He seems to be injured. Is it serious? Fighting... will he be punished?'

In a small meeting room in the Office Building, six students and two class teachers sat down, ready to deal with the recent fight. Head Teacher Feng first looked at the basketball players on his left—black eyes, bloody noses, each covered in dust. Then he glanced at the transfer student behind them, who only had a purple bruise on his cheekbone and was otherwise spotless. At this moment, he was sitting in his chair with his legs crossed like a young master.

Head Teacher Feng was a bit bewildered. One against five, this shouldn't be the result. So he asked Gu Zhuoyan: "Are you injured anywhere on your body?"

Gu Zhuoyan said: "No."

Head Teacher Feng turned to the other side and asked: "What about you?"

"Head Teacher, I can't lift my arm." "I'm dizzy... I feel like I'm going to throw up." "The back of my neck really hurts, and I keep seeing stars..." "My leg's not doing so well..."

Head Teacher Feng said with annoyance: "Alright, alright, who threw the first punch?"

The five of them accused Gu Zhuoyan of starting it. If he had thrown the first punch, the nature of the incident would be different, and the punishment more severe. Gu Zhuoyan denied it: "There are no surveillance cameras there, so that can't be proven."

Head Teacher Feng asked again: "Then why did you fight?"

The five of them immediately wilted. Gu Zhuoyan said: "A classmate from our class discovered them smoking and littering cigarette butts. When he tried to stop them, he was injured. Today, I went to stop them. They wouldn't cooperate non-violently, so a fight broke out."

Upon hearing this, Head Teacher Feng said: "So it was you who were smoking?!" Only then did he realize that Zhuang Fanxin had been injured, and he blamed himself for his oversight. "Teacher Xia, how is student Zhuang Fanxin doing?"

Xia Wei said: "He's fine, but he was treated quite unfairly."

The whole story behind this incident was simple. After getting the facts, there was a lecture, followed by a discussion of the punishment. The five basketball players were guilty of two offenses, smoking and fighting, so they received demerits and a school-wide public criticism. As for Gu Zhuoyan, he was outnumbered, and there was no concrete evidence that he had initiated the provocation. He would not receive a demerit, but would get a public criticism and be required to write a 3,000-word self-criticism essay.

Gu Zhuoyan had no objections and took the initiative to ask: "Do I need to pay for their medical expenses?"

Head Teacher Feng's head was throbbing. "Got too much money, do you? Write your self-criticism first!"

Gu Zhuoyan said: "I'd like to pay out of my own pocket to have a surveillance camera and lighting installed in the little corner. Would that be alright?"

Head Teacher Feng was thoroughly annoyed. "You don't need to worry about that!"

The campus gradually returned to calm. Gu Zhuoyan was in Head Teacher Feng's office writing his self-criticism with a stack of lined paper and a carbon-ink pen. He lowered his head and wrote quickly.

Twenty minutes later, the bell rang, signaling the end of class. During the break, someone knocked on the door, sounding particularly anxious. Head Teacher Feng said: "Come in."

The door opened, and the visitor asked: "Head Teacher, I..."

Gu Zhuoyan turned his head at the sound and saw Zhuang Fanxin standing stiffly in the doorway, looking at him with a worried expression. He smiled, knowing why he was there, and said: "I'm writing my self-criticism. I'm fine."

Not daring to say anything else in front of the dean, Zhuang Fanxin nodded. "I'll come wait for you after school."

The door closed. Head Teacher Feng mulled it over and figured it out. "Were you getting revenge for him?"

Gu Zhuoyan said righteously: "This is called showing solidarity with a classmate."

He wrote his self-criticism in a cheerful mood, his thoughts flowing like a spring. He wrote line after line, almost without pausing. In the end, the only sound left in the office was the rustling of him turning the pages.

The break ended and the second evening self-study period began. When the final school bell rang, Gu Zhuoyan was just signing his name two lines below the end of the text. It was a full fourteen pages, with three hundred characters per page, exceeding the requirement by more than a thousand words.

Head Teacher Feng had read, if not a thousand, then at least eight hundred self-criticism essays. The most important thing about them wasn't anything else, but a sincere attitude. However, as he read it carefully, he found Gu Zhuoyan's self-criticism to be quite astonishing.

First, it was clearly organized into four main points. The first point was a statement on the basketball players' wrongdoings, totaling fifteen hundred words. The second was on the school's issues with inadequate supervision and handling of the matter, totaling another fifteen hundred words. Then came his own reflection on fighting, which totaled twenty words. The last point was on how to improve the environment in the little corner, totaling one thousand words.

The literary talent was outstanding, extremely skilled in narratives of faint praise and veiled criticism, and included allusions to the works of Russell and Wang Xiaobo. After reading it, Head Teacher Feng was stunned for a long time. He wanted to curse but couldn't get the words out, nearly choking to death from frustration at his desk.

After a long while, he said slowly: "You're quite the writer."

Gu Zhuoyan said: "I've won first prize in a city-level writing competition before."

"...I wasn't complimenting you!" Head Teacher Feng shouted, then deflated and waved his hand. "Alright, you can go now."

Gu Zhuoyan left the office briskly and saw Zhuang Fanxin standing against the wall in the hallway, looking all alone. He walked over, took Zhuang Fanxin's backpack off his shoulders to carry it for him, and asked: "Does your shoulder still hurt?"

"It doesn't hurt." Zhuang Fanxin handed him a pack of soda crackers. "I didn't get the ones with filling this time."

The two of them ate as they walked, all the way until they left the school gate and got into a taxi. Neither of them mentioned the fight. Every other time they'd taken a car, they would sit on opposite sides, but today they sat next to each other. The driver frequently glanced at them in the rearview mirror, probably wondering why both of them were bruised.

They got out at a small intersection. When they reached the gate of the Zhuang Family home, Gu Zhuoyan handed the backpack back to Zhuang Fanxin, said "Bye-bye," and started walking away. After a short distance, he turned back and saw Zhuang Fanxin hugging his backpack, following behind him.

He asked: "What are you doing?"

Zhuang Fanxin said: "I want to hang out at your place for a bit."

Gu Zhuoyan couldn't help but laugh. He took Zhuang Fanxin home and up to his room. The glass doors to the bedroom were wide open, and the lamp on the terrace had been changed, making it much brighter than usual. They stood before the railing, and without a word, Zhuang Fanxin began to pat down Gu Zhuoyan's arms, then his shoulders, chest, stomach, and sides, as if he were conducting a security check.

Gu Zhuoyan knew that Zhuang Fanxin was shameless once he got hands-on, but this was a bit too direct and stimulating. He suppressed the ticklish feeling and asked: "What are you doing?"

Zhuang Fanxin said: "I'm checking to see if you have any other injuries."

'All that stimulation for nothing.' Gu Zhuoyan grabbed Zhuang Fanxin's wrist. "I just took one punch to the face, really."

Having restrained himself until now, Zhuang Fanxin finally couldn't hold back any longer: "Why did you go to the little corner?"

Gu Zhuoyan said: "To catch them."

"Why?" Zhuang Fanxin grew agitated. "You told me not to provoke them, and I listened to you and didn't let everyone go. So why did you go looking for a fight with them yourself?"

The more people who went, the more serious the matter would become, and injuries would be unavoidable. Waiting for the dean to catch them was the safest option, but that meant Zhuang Fanxin would just have to swallow his grievance. That's why Gu Zhuoyan had given him those instructions, and then gone by himself.

He had no intention of explaining, so he said deliberately: "I did it to show off. If everyone went, how would I stand out?"

"What's there to show off about?!" Zhuang Fanxin didn't believe him for a second. "Never mind getting punched, you got a public criticism, and the dean made you write a three-thousand-word self-criticism!"

Gu Zhuoyan said softly: "I wasn't showing off for him."

Zhuang Fanxin stared blankly at him. 'What does he mean? Gu Zhuoyan was showing off for someone? Could it be for Qin Wei or Wang Churan?'

'But,' he couldn't help but think anxiously, 'I was the one who got hit first, and he was getting revenge for me. So is there a small chance he was showing off for me?'

Afraid he was just being presumptuous, he asked: "Who..."

Gu Zhuoyan furrowed his brows and smiled, a look of complete helplessness on his face. "Those guys weren't wrong in what they called you." He took half a step closer, looked down at Zhuang Fanxin, and asked in return, "What do you think, you little idiot?"

Zhuang Fanxin's face turned red. The fight was because of him, and Gu Zhuoyan had even wanted to show off for him—it was too embarrassing. He looked at the purple bruise on Gu Zhuoyan's cheekbone and asked apologetically: "Does it hurt?"

Gu Zhuoyan answered: "It hurts so much half my face is numb."

Zhuang Fanxin said in alarm: "Then what should we do?"

Gu Zhuoyan took in Zhuang Fanxin's guilty expression. Then, seizing this moment when the other's heart was at its softest, he said, slyly yet sincerely: "It's simple. Give me a hug."

Zhuang Fanxin hesitated before taking half a step closer. He couldn't raise his arms high, so he slowly wrapped them around Gu Zhuoyan's waist. Half of his face was hidden against Gu Zhuoyan's shoulder, and he caught sight of the stars in the night sky.

Gu Zhuoyan tightened his embrace. It would have been worth taking another punch for this.