"Hold this."
Chen Yiyang, for some reason, felt a surge of impulse. He shoved his bag hard into Zhou Shihui's arms.
"A Yang?"
"Chen Yiyang—Hey!"
Chen Yiyang didn't look back. He didn't even use the crosswalk.
The setting sun still hung in the sky, the sky clear and blue. The evening breeze near the school gate lifted the hem of the boy's uniform.
Chen Yiyang vaulted over the guardrail and sprinted across the road.
"Your grades are this bad, and you still dare to hang out with the top students? If I were you, I'd stay quiet. Your teacher Du even says you're always clinging to a boy with excellent grades. In the end, not only will you fail to get in, but you'll also drag him down—hurting yourself and others!"
Yun Mi retorted loudly: "I didn't! I'm not clinging to anyone, and I'm not dragging anyone down!"
The girl's voice trembled slightly, her eyes redder, but she still stubbornly lifted her head, refusing to show weakness.
Before Chen Yiyang could fully hear what they were arguing about, he dashed up to the tutor and grabbed his wrist. He demanded harshly: "What did you do to make her cry?!"
In that split second, Yun Mi's expression flickered with surprise. Under the yellow hornbeam tree on the sidewalk, amid the scuffle, she saw the boy's dark eyes.
Chen Yiyang had run over; his breathing was still uneven. His uniform jacket was unzipped, his chest heaving with rapid breaths.
The tutor, still fuming, retorted: "Who are you? I didn't make her cry!"
"You didn't?" Chen Yiyang suddenly pointed at Yun Mi, then noticed she hadn't actually shed tears—just looked wronged. He asked, "Then why are her eyes red?!"
"I'm just telling the truth! Did I say anything wrong? With grades like hers, she can't get into a good school!"
Chen Yiyang suddenly grabbed the man by the collar and shoved him, pressing: "Who said you could say that?!"
The tutor thought Chen Yiyang was crazy. Furious, he said, "You're being unreasonable!" He demanded, "Even her math teacher says so—can that be wrong? I'm tutoring her, and she talks back to me. Whether she can even graduate is questionable! I think she's just mud that can't be plastered on the wall—wasting her parents' money, wasting the school's resources, and dragging me down too..."
Before he could finish, Chen Yiyang grabbed him again. "Apologize."
The tutor's voice cracked: "Who are you to her? Classmate? Crush? Guardian? Can you take responsibility for her?"
Yun Mi hadn't even processed why Chen Yiyang was here or why he was defending her. She only heard Chen Yiyang repeat himself: "I'll say it one last time—apologize to her."
It was after school, and crowds were passing by, all looking over.
Chen Yiyang carried a rare sharpness and defiance. The boy's features were sharp and clean. His grip on the man's arm was unyielding. He said coldly, "I'm her brother."
Author's note:
Chen Yiyang turns around: She's not crying?
Turns his head back: Still not okay even if she's not crying.