014 Hey, You Could Just
The distance between them was less than ten centimeters—close enough for her to count his eyelashes and feel his warm breath on her cheek.
Suddenly, the phone rang, like a bucket of cold water pouring down.
Zeng Keqin snapped back to reality.
She quickly stepped back, putting distance between them, and fumbled for her phone.
It was her mother, Lyu Qian.
Guiltily, Zeng Keqin gripped the phone and glanced at Jiang Shiyu. His expression had already recovered from shock, his dark eyes fixed on her.
"I... I need to take this call."
She fled out of the room.
At the corner near the KTV entrance, she answered.
"Mom."
"Xiaoqin, why did it take you so long to pick up?"
"I was just taking a shower."
"How's the job search going?"
"I found one. Still on probation."
"Alright. Call home if anything comes up."
"Okay, I'm going to sleep now."
After hanging up, she didn't rush back. Instead, she pressed the phone to her chest.
Just now... she had almost kissed him.
Taking a deep breath, she prepared to return, but caught sight of someone squatting in the corner.
Buzzed hair, black T-shirt.
Zeng Keqin tested, "Zhang Kang?"
The person looked up.
It was him indeed.
His lip was split, and there was a large bruise on his cheekbone, as if he had just been beaten up.
"Are you okay?"
Zeng Keqin crouched down and pulled a tissue from her bag.
Zhang Kang took it and roughly wiped his mouth. "I'm fine."
He pushed himself up against the wall and turned to leave.
"Wait."
Zhang Kang stopped but didn't turn around.
"Jiang Shiyu is inside."
Zhang Kang's shoulders stiffened. "You want to speak for him?"
"No, I want to help you. That incident was five years ago. It's time to move on."
"He told you everything?"
Zeng Keqin bit her lip. "He said you were sentenced to three years for that gang fight."
Zhang Kang suddenly laughed—a bitter, trembling laugh that seemed ready to shatter.
"He really didn't dare to tell you the truth."
He turned around, the light casting a grim shadow over his wounds.
"Do you know who called the police five years ago?"
His voice was low, each word squeezed out between his teeth, carrying years of suppressed hatred.
"It was him—Jiang Shiyu. The police came and caught everyone. I saved him, but I got three years."
Zeng Keqin's heart tightened.
"Do you know why?"
Without waiting for her answer, Zhang Kang sneered, "Because he has a grandfather who's the president of the provincial high court, and a father who could donate a library to the school. So he got off scot-free—just wrote a self-criticism and went back to being a good student. Meanwhile, the rest of us? Some went to prison, some to juvenile detention, some dropped out. Do you think that's fair?"
Zeng Keqin bit her lip. So that's why Jiang Shiyu was reluctant to call the police.
"You said you went to prison for saving him. Can you tell me what happened?"
Zhang Kang paused, met her sincere gaze, and slowly began, "Five years ago, Jiang Shiyu, me, and three others were best friends. One day, Gao stirred up trouble outside and arranged a meeting at the abandoned dormitory behind the school. There were twelve of us. We were young, reckless, fearless, and didn't know our own strength."
"I saw someone raise a wooden stick at Jiang Shiyu, about to strike—so I picked up a brick from the ground and hit him on the back of the head. He tried to fight back, so I hit him again, until he lay motionless in a pool of blood."
"At the trial, the judge asked him whether I had hurt that person to save him. But to clear himself, he said he didn't know, that he hadn't seen anything. So I got three years and six months."