Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I picked up this friend of mine, Xie Xu, back in high school.

Yes, that’s right. Picked him up off the side of the road.

Back then, he wasn’t called Xie Xu yet. He was Xie Yu.

Xie Yu had excellent grades and had skipped ahead into high school, so he was two years younger than everyone in his grade. Compared to someone like me, who had been held back, he was four or five years younger.

Things at home had gotten rather unpleasant, so he moved to another city to attend high school where a distant relative of his taught. That was how he became a temporary student at the same high school as me.

Xie Xu’s personality in high school was exactly like it is now: withdrawn, solitary, and unwilling to get close to people. But he was handsome and had good grades, making him the secret crush of many girls-and the thorn in the side of a bunch of punks who only knew how to solve problems with their fists.

More than once, I heard from other people that someone had stuffed his desk full of snakes, mice, and cockroaches, that his exam papers had been torn to shreds, and that hooligans had even targeted him on his way home.

And as luck would have it, I ran into that one day.

I’d just come back from a fight, and it hadn’t been satisfying enough. I was worrying over having nowhere to vent when I happened to see that gang of hooligans harassing Xie Xu like they were trying to seduce some respectable young lady.

There were bruises and cuts on Xie Xu’s delicate face. From the looks of it, they’d just beaten him into submission, which was why he stood there silently with his head lowered.

“This pretty boy’s even softer than a girl.”

“He’s a good student, right? Looks pretty rich. How about it? Hand over some cash?”

That bunch of hooligans loved picking on fair-skinned, tender-looking good students.

The boy in the lead shoved Xie Xu on the shoulder. With those skinny arms and legs of his, Xie Xu staggered back several steps.

Being bullied and not even saying a word-honestly… it made him look pitiful enough to break your heart.

As a “model student” who loved being brave, loved winning, and loved protecting my own, how could I tolerate something like that happening?

I swung my fist and knocked down the punk pestering him.

That gang of punks refused to back down, and I got into a brawl with them.

In the end, those bastards were the first to get tired.

Watching them flee in panic, I shouted to establish my authority, “If you bully my little brother again, I’ll beat you every single time I see you.”

With that, I turned back and whistled at Xie Xu.

“Don’t be scared, little brother. I’ll protect you.”

Xie Xu, who had been standing silently off to the side the whole time, slowly walked toward me. The moment he lifted his head, tears began streaming down uncontrollably.

“Why are you crying, little brother?”

I was afraid of girls crying, but I was even more afraid of boys so much younger than me crying.

When a girl cried, at least I knew to buy her something pretty to cheer her up. But when a boy cried, how was I supposed to comfort him?

I raised my hand and wiped Xie Xu’s tears. As a result, the dust and blood on my hand smeared all over his face.

“Uh…” I quickly pulled my hand back.

Back then, Xie Xu looked up at me with those damp eyes and asked, “Are you a punk too, just like them?”

At the time, this was how I answered him:

“Me? I’m the savior who came to rescue you!”

Yeah. Pretty cringe.