Chapter 5: I'm Here to Back Her Up

Su Ze tried a different approach. “Then let me buy you a milk tea. It won’t be a thank-you this time. We’ll just be making friends. How about it?”

Xia Zhiwei shook her head. “I don’t really like it.”

“You don’t even like milk tea? What do you usually drink, then?”

“Plain water.”

Su Ze fell silent.

The corner of his mouth twitched. Plain water. Of course.

That was a very Xia Zhiwei answer.

“You really don’t have to buy me anything,” she said earnestly. “I was repaying you in the first place. If you treat me again, won’t I owe you another favor?”

At this rate, the favors between them would never balance out. They would end up trapped in an endlessly recursive loop.

Su Ze gave up. “All right. No milk tea, then.”

“Mm,” she answered softly.

They stood facing each other, neither knowing what to say next.

After a moment of silence, Xia Zhiwei spoke first. She held the bouquet out toward him. “Do you want these back?”

Su Ze never took back a gift once he had given it. Rubbing his chin, he said, “If you like them, take them home and put them in water.”

“If you don’t want them, that’s fine too. Just find a bin by the road and throw them away.”

With a casual wave, he turned and left.

Alone in the shade of the trees, Xia Zhiwei lowered her eyes to the roses blooming in her arms and gently rubbed her fingertips over the wrapping paper.

This was the first time anyone had ever given her flowers.

Judging by the lovely petals and the elegant wrapping, they couldn’t have been cheap.

Throwing them straight in the bin would be such a waste.

She hesitated for a long time before deciding to take them back to her rented room off campus and keep them in water.

Carefully gathering her arms around the flowers to protect them, she set off toward the university gate.

The route from the teaching building to the gate took her along a relatively secluded, tree-lined path.

She walked slowly with her head down, thinking about how to keep the bouquet alive for a few more days.

So absorbed was she that she failed to notice three gaudily dressed girls approaching with ill intent.

Only when they reached her and blocked the middle of the path did she raise her head, bewildered.

Fear and unease immediately appeared in her eyes.

The girl at the front had dyed red hair and a slim cigarette between her fingers. She was inspecting Xia Zhiwei with open malice.

Her name was Chen Jing. She was Xia Zhiwei’s former roommate—and the one responsible for locking her in the equipment room cabinet that morning.

Chen Jing was the reason Xia Zhiwei had given up the university’s cheap dormitory accommodation and paid to rent a room off campus instead.

Her family’s money had allowed her to grow up spoiled and domineering. Whenever she took a dislike to someone, she would get her little clique to ostracize and bully them.

What she hated most was Xia Zhiwei’s cool, aloof manner, which somehow still drew men flocking around her. She had caused Xia Zhiwei no end of trouble at university.

Now, seeing that Xia Zhiwei had not only emerged from the equipment room in one piece but was carrying a huge, eye-catching bouquet of red roses, Chen Jing felt jealousy flare inside her.

“Well, if it isn’t our icy little genius, Xia Zhiwei. What have you got there?”

She blew a smoke ring and swaggered closer with her two followers.

Xia Zhiwei involuntarily shrank back and hurriedly tried to go around them.

Chen Jing gave her no chance. She stepped forward and blocked her way.

One of the followers immediately caught on and moved closer, deliberately raising her voice. “Look, Jing! Ninety-nine red roses. Did some rich businessman give her those?”

The other chimed in. “I bet she bought them herself to show off. Who’d be interested in a penniless little thing who goes around looking miserable all day?”

Chen Jing sneered, her gaze resting on the roses.

She had already heard that Su Ze had publicly given Xia Zhiwei flowers in the corridor that day. She hadn’t believed it at first. Now that she could see the proof, the thought of being outshone nearly drove her mad.

She couldn’t stand the idea of a pauper who couldn’t even afford food getting all that attention.

“What are you staring at? Give them here. Let me see if they’re even real!”

Ignoring Xia Zhiwei’s attempt to dodge, Chen Jing grabbed a corner of the wrapping paper and yanked hard.

Xia Zhiwei instinctively hugged the bouquet tighter. But years of poor nutrition had left her terribly weak. She couldn’t withstand such a rough pull.

After a few seconds of struggling, she stumbled and fell.

The flowers flew out of her arms and landed heavily on the dusty stone path.

Delicate petals scattered everywhere. The fine wrapping became grimy with dust, its elegance entirely gone.

Xia Zhiwei stared blankly at the ruined roses. The small light that had finally returned to her eyes slowly dimmed again.

Chen Jing felt no guilt at the wreckage. Instead, she lifted her foot and brought the pointed toe of her high heel down on one rose, grinding it back and forth.

Bright red juice stained the dusty ground, painfully vivid against the gray.

“Oh dear. Sorry. My foot slipped.”

Chen Jing covered her mouth in a show of surprise, then burst into unrestrained laughter.

Her two followers joined in, jeering at Xia Zhiwei.

Xia Zhiwei’s fingers tightened around the hem of her clothes. Her eyes reddened, but she bit her lip hard and said nothing.

Just as Chen Jing raised her foot to crush the remaining flowers, a lazy voice sounded behind them.

“I thought a septic tank on campus had exploded. Turns out it’s just three toilets that came to life, spewing shit everywhere.”

The girls’ laughter stopped short. They turned angrily.

Su Ze emerged from behind the trees, hands in his pockets, strolling toward them with an easy, unhurried grace.

He had been waiting for Wang Tao and the others to finish class so they could go out for a proper meal. Bored, he had decided to wander around campus in the meantime.

As he approached this path, he had heard several girls squawking away.

He hadn’t expected to find them cornering Xia Zhiwei.

Su Ze had barely encountered school bullying growing up. Today, he had stumbled across it twice in a row.

And both times, the victim had been the same person.

At the sight of him appearing like a god come to her rescue, Xia Zhiwei froze for a moment.

Then light gradually returned to her dulled eyes.

Chen Jing recognized Su Ze, and her expression shifted slightly.

She knew his family had some clout too. But she was used to throwing her weight around and didn’t take this simp seriously at all.

“Su Ze, why aren’t you running around after Lin Wan’er? What are you sticking your nose in here for?”

He walked straight to Xia Zhiwei and planted his tall frame in front of her.

His gaze lingered on the high heel pinning down the petals. Then a nasty smile spread across his face.

“Lady, did you forget to brush your teeth before you left home? You open your mouth and the air quality drops across the entire campus.”

“Looking like a half-evolved caveman is one thing. But did you leave your basic human decency in the womb too?”

His barbed insults instantly enraged Chen Jing. She pointed in his face and swore at him. “Who the hell do you think you are? You’re just Lin Wan’er’s dog. You’ve got the nerve to lecture me?”

Ignoring her fury, Su Ze kept his eyes on her shoe and continued, “That’s a pretty vintage design. Looks like the cloth my great-grandma used to bind her feet.”

“Nothing personal. I’m just saying your taste is shit. And you think you’re fit to play queen bee and bully people? Aren’t you embarrassed?”

One of her followers couldn’t take it any longer and started to answer back.

Su Ze turned his head and gave her a cool glance. “I’m normally in the ‘don’t hit women’ camp. Take one more step, and I won’t mind switching camps.”

The force of his presence frightened her into stopping dead. She didn’t dare move.

Chen Jing was beginning to feel intimidated too. Forcing down her anger, she pointed at the ruined bouquet and snorted. “It’s just a bunch of flowers. I knocked them down by accident, that’s all. I’ll give her a few hundred yuan. Happy?”

Su Ze gave a dismissive snort. “Compensation? Sure.”

He slowly took his phone from his trouser pocket, opened his photo album, and pulled up a screenshot of a payment. Then he held it right in front of her.

“Here. Take a good look at that number. These are premium roses I specially had someone fly in from overseas. The deposit alone cost me twenty-eight thousand.”

“Add shipping and all the other bits and pieces, and I’ll round it off for you. Pay me thirty thousand yuan, and we’ll call it settled.”

Chen Jing stared at the payment record, dumbstruck.

Her family had some money, but her monthly allowance was only a few thousand yuan. There was no way she could come up with thirty thousand to replace a bouquet.

Her two followers were just as frightened. They ducked behind her with their heads down, scarcely daring to breathe.

Neither wanted Su Ze deciding, on a whim, to saddle them with that astronomical bill instead.