Chapter 10: The School Bully (10)

At the basketball court in Willow Tree Park, a group of boys in sportswear were playing basketball.

The place was always lively on weekend evenings, with people playing basketball and skateboarding, while others played badminton further away. Beyond that were areas for elderly people’s exercise equipment, a corner where middle-aged women chatted, and a space where parents watched their children.

Through a small grove of trees, the sounds of children playing carried over to the basketball courts.

Two basketball courts stood side by side, separated by a railing over a meter high. Zai Ye and his friends were playing on the right court.

“Thump, thump, thump.” The sound of the basketball hitting the ground mixed with the boys’ shouts. “Stop him!”

“Damn, I can’t stop him! You’re all talk—why don’t you try stopping him yourself!”

A tall, dark-skinned boy cursed while chasing after Zai Ye, who was running at full speed. Zai Ye spun around while dribbling, passing by him like a gust of wind, and suddenly appeared beneath the hoop.

He lifted the ball with one hand, and just as someone jumped up to block him under the basket, Zai Ye flicked his wrist and passed to a tall, slender boy waiting nearby. The boy’s face lit up with a bright smile as he caught the ball, and with no one able to block him in time, scored with a resounding thud.

The ball bounced off the rim and hit the ground, where Zai Ye caught it and dribbled twice.

“That’s so sneaky! Why did you pass to Old Six? I thought you said you’d face us head-on!”

“You’re the sneaky ones, all ganging up on Brother Ye! Haven’t you heard of strategy?”

After running non-stop for an hour on the court, Zai Ye was drenched in sweat. He rolled up the hem of his T-shirt to wipe his face. He had an exceptionally handsome face—even the way sweat rolled down his nose was aesthetically pleasing. As he wiped away the sweat, his half-wet hair revealed his abs, causing two girls passing by the court to stop and stare.

“There’s a hottie!”

“He looks familiar. Isn’t he from our school?”

The two girls whispered between themselves.

Zai Ye glanced at them but paid them no attention, dribbling the ball as he moved to another spot.

Unlike her energetic father who was happily running free outside, Yu Qian sat comfortably in the air-conditioned living room, lounging on a soft sofa while watching TV. She wore her new pajamas and smelled sweetly fresh from her bath, with cut fruit arranged on the coffee table before her.

Her grandmother, Mrs. Wen, thinking Yu Qian was too thin, was still in the kitchen personally preparing yogurt snacks for her.

The TV was playing a popular campus idol drama about a transfer student who excelled in academics falling in love with the school bully. Mrs. Wen watched this probably because she thought the male lead resembled her son somewhat.

Yu Qian leaned back on the sofa, watching the school bully showing off his basketball skills on screen. As the female lead passed by the court, catching the bully’s attention, he deliberately bounced the basketball against the barrier net to attract her gaze.

“Hey, I’m thirsty. Buy me some water,” the bully commanded arrogantly.

The female lead blushed, whether from anger or embarrassment wasn’t clear: “W-Why should I buy you water?”

Behind her, the bully’s followers started teasing: “Hurry up and buy our boss some water! Why so shy?”

The female lead became so flustered her eyes turned red, while the school bully waited with a roguish smile. Finally, she turned and ran away, with him chasing after her, calling out her name.

Yu Qian began crawling around the sofa searching for the remote control.

System 65, visible only to Yu Qian, flickered beside her while also watching the TV screen, its tone exasperated:

「This was exactly the strategy route I wanted to suggest for you—a sweet romantic comedy between a school bully and a top student! I’ve referenced countless popular romance novels to create a guide of ’99 Things Bullies Must Do!’ And now it’s all useless.」

After squirming around for a while, Yu Qian finally found the remote control and randomly pressed buttons until she fortunately landed on an animated show—a classic cartoon produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio—which she began watching with genuine interest.

With its host having become so childish, System 65 grew bored and kept nagging: 「Why did you change it? Just watch that! You could learn from their experience—they’re about to start dating!」

Little Yu Qian didn’t want to watch two overly filtered faces chasing each other on screen and found the flickering light annoying. She got up and retrieved a fly swatter from under the cabinet, suddenly swinging it at System 65’s light dot.

System 65: 「Ah! Why are you hitting me?!」

It flickered while dodging Yu Qian’s swatter, while the young child seemed to suddenly find great enjoyment in this pursuit and became quite focused on trying to swat it down.

Mrs. Wen returned with the baked yogurt and saw her precious granddaughter standing on the sofa swatting at flies, showing a warm and loving smile.

“Is Xiao Qian catching bugs? Be careful not to fall—let Grandmother help you catch them.”

The system burst into tears.

*

“Hey beautiful, add my WeChat!” A basketball hit the barrier net, startling the two passing girls.

They had just walked past the right court where they’d seen the handsome player, still chatting happily about him, when suddenly the group playing on the left court called out to them.

A man who looked to be in his early twenties picked up the basketball and said with a sleazy smile, “Want to play together? Big brother can teach you basketball.”

One of the girls was quite timid and fell silent out of fear, while the other was much braver, shielding her friend behind her as she rolled her eyes without hesitation: “You’re sick!”

Unexpectedly, the man’s expression darkened instantly upon hearing this, his voice turning aggressive, “Playing hard to get, huh? I saw how happy you were checking out that pretty boy over there! Now you’re acting all high and mighty!”

“Damn, girls these days are all like this…”

The angry shouts and arguments caught Zai Ye’s group’s attention from the right court.

The tall, thin boy stopped and turned to look, seeing a crowd gathering. “What’s going on over there?”

“Looks like they’re harassing those girls,” the dark-skinned boy said, then suddenly hearing a girl’s scream, he took off running. “Damn it! They’re bullying people! Quick, let’s go!”

Zai Ye, still holding the basketball, frowned and ran toward the left court. Getting through the gate to the other court would require going around, so he glanced at the barrier net between the courts, took a running start, and with one powerful leap grabbed the top of the railing and flipped himself over.

Taking this shortcut, he arrived before his friend, just in time to see the man grabbing one of the girls’ clothes, about to get violent. Zai Ye picked up a basketball from the ground and threw it with perfect accuracy at the man’s head, knocking him down.

“Who the fuck did that?!”

“What’s going on here, bullying people?” the dark-skinned boy arrived with a thunderous shout. He was tall and powerfully built with a booming voice, and as the others arrived, Zai Ye’s group formed a protective barrier in front of the two pale-faced girls, confronting the thugs.

“I was just chatting them up—what’s it to you? Get lost!” the man who’d gotten up from the ground cursed.

Zai Ye said coldly: “Couldn’t you see they didn’t want to?”

He glanced at the two girls behind him—one had a round face that made her look very young, the other wore makeup but still appeared quite young. Something crossed his mind, and Zai Ye’s expression darkened further as he coldly stared at the group of men. “Don’t you have mothers or sisters? Won’t you have daughters in the future? Only brave enough to bully them—why not try fighting us instead?”

The man was furious with embarrassment. “Fine, I’ll fight you!” He swung his fist at Zai Ye’s face.

Zai Ye’s arm muscles tensed as he blocked the man’s punch, then immediately countered with a powerful strike to the man’s face, instantly drawing blood from his nose.

“Ah!” Someone let out a small scream.

Zai Ye clenched his fist: “If their fathers were here today and saw you harassing them, they’d beat you to death on the spot.”

This sudden statement made everyone pause, and the man wiping his bloody nose’s expression changed slightly. “You know their fathers?”

Zai Ye gave a cold laugh: “No, but I can understand that feeling.”

The man continued cursing and charged at him again. “Then what the hell are you talking about!”

Chaos erupted all at once.

Though still students, Zai Ye and his friends had been in plenty of fights before, and now facing a group of men a few years older than them, they held their ground firmly.

The other group was just a disorganized mob, and after taking a few hits, they became scared. They threw out some empty threats before running away.

“Just you wait, we’re here every week. Come back next week if you dare, and see if we don’t kill you!”

The group of boys got fired up hearing this and chased after them, driving them completely out of the basketball court.

After the thugs disappeared, the boys returned rubbing their bruised arms and shoulders.

“Pah! Trash, what losers!”

“Next week? We’d be idiots to come back.”

“No, we should come—but call the police first and catch them red-handed.”

“Lao Liu, you’re always the clever one.”

One of the two girls, who had been recording with her phone, still somewhat shaken, said, “Thank you all so much.”

“No problem, no problem,” everyone replied.

Zai Ye reminded them: “Go home through the right side of the park plaza, you probably won’t run into those guys that way.”

“Okay.” The girl with the phone hadn’t expected this cool-looking handsome guy to be so considerate, and feeling braver, curiously asked, “Why did you suddenly mention our fathers earlier?”

Zai Ye: “…”

Not only were the two girls curious, but the other boys were also wondering about this, all staring at him.

Zai Ye put on a stern face: “Go home early, don’t make your fathers worry.”

The girl pouted: “He wouldn’t worry, he comes home even later himself—how would he have time to worry about me?”

Zai Ye’s expression became somewhat grave, and he hesitantly asked, “Do girls also have bad relationships with their fathers because of rebellion when they grow up?”

The girl replied: “It’s not about rebellion, he’s just not a good father—we’ve never had a good relationship!”

Zai Ye’s face tensed up as he turned to the other girl who had been quiet all along.

That girl felt nervous and confused under his gaze, saying softly, “I… I don’t have a good relationship with my dad either, he’s quite fierce.”

…

After the two girls left, the group of boys wanted to continue playing basketball, but they noticed their Brother Ye seemed a bit strange. His brows were furrowed as if he’d encountered some difficult problem.

“Brother Ye, what’s wrong?”

Zai Ye bounced the basketball, trying to seek answers from his friends: “What if in the future your daughter has a bad relationship with you, and won’t tell you about things that happen to her—what would you do?”

“Huh? We don’t even have wives yet, where would daughters come from? It’s too early to think about this stuff—maybe talk about it in ten years.”

It’s not too early, it’s urgent.

Zai Ye thought to himself, in ten years, his daughter would almost be entering her rebellious phase!