Around the second semester of her first year of high school, Yu Yao often climbed the wall into Mingde Private School. The environment there was much better, and the school was quieter and more pleasant compared to No. 16. Whether she wanted to skip class and find a peaceful spot or think about life, she would climb over the tall wall and hang out at Mingde.

One day, as she was skipping class and climbing into Mingde, she heard some commotion near the restrooms. Curious, she walked over and saw two boys pinning a skinny boy in the corner by the urinals. One of the boys was using a plastic bucket to pour water over the skinny boy’s head, drenching him completely. The skinny boy had his pants taken off and was crouched in the corner, silently enduring the bullying.

The two boys taunted him, saying, “So you’re good at exams? What’s the big deal about being first? Are you brave enough to report us to the teachers, huh?”

Yu Yao leaned against the restroom door, thinking that even in a school full of obedient students, there was bullying? She had thought such things only happened in her lousy school. As she thought about this, she stubbed out her cigarette and said with a half-smile, “So even obedient students bully others, huh?”

She was casually leaning against the men’s restroom door, swinging her legs, dressed in a rebellious manner with a complicated hair color, and holding a cigarette. To the two boys, who were at most in junior high school, she appeared like a real “socialite.” They were quite bold when bullying classmates, but they were startled to see Yu Yao, who was wearing No. 16 Middle School’s uniform.

Perhaps they had heard about the notorious reputation of No. 16 Middle School students and were too scared to look Yu Yao in the eye. They dropped the bucket and fled, leaving Yu Yao with the wet, skinny boy in the corner of the restroom.

The boy looked much younger than her, wearing glasses and with a silly bowl cut, seemingly paralyzed with fear. His skin was quite fair. Yu Yao watched his bare legs for a while, thinking that indeed, junior high students were more likely to be humiliated like this, stripped completely, unlike these boys who only took off part of his clothes.

“Aren’t you going to put your pants back on?” Yu Yao lifted her chin and addressed the boy.

The boy snapped back to reality, blushing furiously. He quickly picked up his pants, put them on, and kept his head down, shivering like a little chick.

Yu Yao thought he might be scared of her, the pest from the neighboring school, and found it rather boring. She turned and left.

The most astonishing part of this story was that the pitiful boy she quickly forgot about was actually Jiang Zhonglin, who was in the second year of junior high at Mingde at that time. Yu Yao only learned about this after she got married, from Jiang Zhonglin himself.

If Jiang Zhonglin hadn’t told her, she would never have guessed that the bullied boy was Jiang Zhonglin. She couldn’t even remember this incident if he hadn’t mentioned it. After all, she couldn’t connect the gentle and shy young man she knew with the pitiful, awkward boy from back then.

“When I think back, I felt like you were like a fairy, so beautiful,” Jiang Zhonglin told her, looking embarrassed. Yu Yao, now a respectable married woman, was stunned. She thought her young husband might have had poor taste when he was a teenager. With her own embarrassing appearance back then, how could she have ever been compared to a fairy?

……

Yu Yao was lost in thought when she suddenly heard Yang Jun sigh and say, “Yao Yao, you’re back. I’m so happy for Jiang Zhonglin.”

Yu Yao snapped out of her reverie, “What?”