Chapter Five: Hatred

  Back at the dormitory from the hospital, just about to rest, Du Yifei's phone call came, her voice was filled with helplessness: "Can you do me a favor?"

  I suddenly thought of Li Changyuan and asked very carefully: "What's up?"

  Du Yifei seemed to hesitate for a moment before saying, "I need to buy some daily necessities, but now Sister Zhou doesn't let me leave the hospital. If you have time, can you help me go buy them?"

  I thought about it and decided to help her out after all, she's a fellow hometown girl: "Alright then, what do you want to buy?"

  Du Yifei listed some daily necessities, I wrote them down one by one, went out of the dormitory again, bought those things at the store, and then sent them to Du Yifei in the hospital.

  When I arrived at the hospital, Du Yifei was already asleep. There was an IV tube connected to her arm, and it seemed that the hospital had decided to give her injections for treatment after all; I didn't know if she was afraid of needles at the time.

  I was just about to leave the ward when Zhou Hui led someone in. As soon as she saw me, she smiled: "So quickly come to visit your girlfriend again?"

  The person she led in immediately changed his face, with a look of indignation: "He is not Yifei's boyfriend, don't talk nonsense!"

  Zhou Hui was stunned and turned back to look at the person, saying in a puzzled tone: "Why isn't it? I think it is..."

  She hadn't finished speaking when I hastily interrupted her: "No, we're just fellow townspeople."

  Zhou Hui smiled strangely, but didn't say anything else. The person behind him took a step forward and loudly said to me: "Jin Cang, didn't you promise me that you wouldn't have any more contact with Yifei? Why are you in Yifei's room again?"

  This is Li Chang, otherwise he wouldn't be so excited to see me in Du Yifei's hospital room. I helplessly spread my hands: "Du Yifei was just injured, can I just ignore her?" Paused for a moment: "By the way, where did you go earlier? Du Yifei and another classmate were injured while setting up the competition venue, how come you, the person in charge, are only arriving at the hospital now?"

  Li Chang's eyes flashed with a hint of tension, and he hastily asked: "How is Yifei? Is she okay?"

  I'm too lazy to say anything more. Zhou Hui said: "It's nothing serious, I sprained my wrist and will probably need to rest for a while before it recovers."

  Li Chang let out a quiet sigh of relief: "That's good, I...I had something to attend to for a bit and didn't expect to hear that something happened when I got back, so I'm late."

  I no longer bother with him and said to Zhou Hui, "Sister Zhou, trouble you to wait until Du Yifei wakes up later and hand these things over to her. They are all what she wants to buy."

  "Didn't you come over last night to keep her company? She's your fellow townsman, after all. Alone in a hospital room, she must feel lonely..."

  I coughed and interrupted her: "This matter..."

  "It's okay." Before I could finish speaking, Li Chang hastily said: "With me here, it's enough. Jin Cang can go back now, there's nothing for him to do here."

  I suddenly felt very uncomfortable in my heart and wanted to retort a few words, but when I opened my mouth, I saw that Du Yifei had already woken up and was staring at me, so I hurriedly shut my mouth.

  "How can you talk like that?" Zhou Hui said indignantly, "If it weren't for Jin Cang, Du Yifei would still be in a precarious situation now. You... are a typical example of burning bridges and being ungrateful."

  Li Chang's face changed, and he was about to scold Zhou Hui, but Du Yifei hastily said: "Alright, Sister Zhou, you go ahead and take care of your business. Don't worry about things here."

  Zhou Hui turned around to see Du Yifei wake up, and smiled: "Your fellow villager has already bought all the things you wanted, and since he saw you sleeping, he specially entrusted me to hand them over to you."

  Du Yifei nodded: "Thank you, Sister Zhou. It's fine to put it here." After a pause: "Jin Cang, accompany me to dinner later, you're my fellow villager, should take good care of me, right?"

  I was speechless for a moment, fellow countryman, this title is very important, especially for those who are far away from their hometown. The term "fellow countryman" is equivalent to family members. There's a song lyric that says "Fellow countrymen meet, tears well up in both eyes", if one can shed tears in front of someone, it's enough to prove that this person is our own kin.

  So I nodded: "The school cafeteria is about to open for dinner, and I'll get a portion for you later. You'd better not go out too much, the weather is bad, getting rained on isn't good for your injury."

  Du Yifei was unusually serious, without a hint of a smile on his face, and said solemnly: "Jin Dacai, I want to go out for dinner, is that okay?"

  Zhou Hui had already walked to the door, but turned back with a smile: "It's better to go out and eat, the food in the cafeteria is not greasy, not nutritious, and not good for recovery."

  Li Chang also said on the side, "Exactly, the food in the cafeteria is really not edible, it's too hard to eat. Yifei, let's go to Ju Xiang Ge later, I'll treat you to a big meal, how about that?"

  Du Yifei, however, seemed to have not heard Li Chang's words and said to herself: "I've heard that a new fast food restaurant has opened outside the school, their braised pork is very distinctive, I've been wanting to try it..."

  Li Chang immediately said: "I'll go buy two copies right away, wait for me, Fei." He said as he ran out, his speed was surprisingly fast.

  Du Yifei watched Li Chang run far away, then turned back to me with a smile: "I've never eaten fatty meat, that fast food restaurant's twice-cooked pork is all fatty meat, too greasy, I don't dare eat it."

  "I'm surprised: 'But you just said you wanted to try...' "

  Du Yifei rolled her eyes and said with a smile: "If he doesn't leave, how can we go out to eat?" She paused for a moment, then continued with some disgust: "Do the three of us have to go together? I'm not eating with him."

  I couldn't help but laugh secretly, thinking: "So Du Yifei also has such a mischievous and cunning side, it's really unexpected..."

  Du Yifei glared at me, saying viciously: "What are you laughing at? Do you think I'm very bad? Let me tell you, don't dare laugh at me in your heart, or else you'll be sorry."

  I immediately shook my head solemnly: "No no, won't won't."

  Du Yifei was taken aback and burst out laughing: "Won't you? You're scared by this? Your courage is so small?"

  I felt my face turn red and I made excuses: "No way, I just... I just think you're hurt right now, I shouldn't make you unhappy..."

  Du Yifei uttered an "oh" and said: "Let's go eat first?"

  Then we walked out of the hospital together, braving the fine rain to a restaurant outside the school, ordered two dishes, added an egg for Du Yifei, and got her a cup of milk. She was injured and couldn't drink alcohol. Watching her eat with her left hand holding chopsticks very awkwardly, I had to get her another pair of chopstick holders.

  After dinner, I sent her back to the hospital. When we reached the entrance, I stopped: "Can you go in by yourself? I..."

  Du Yifei furrowed his brow: "Are you busy?"

  I secretly sighed: How did you know about Li Chang and my conversation? If I accompany you in again, this misunderstanding will be even harder to explain.

  "Why aren't you speaking?" Du Yifei said: "Is it because of Li Chang?"

  I know she can't hide it: "Li Chang is very good to you, if you don't...".

  "That's my business, mind your own!" Du Yifei suddenly burst out in a loud voice: "Whether Li Chang is good to me or not, what does it have to do with you? You're so enthusiastic, why don't you go be a matchmaker? You clearly know nothing, yet you're acting like a big shot..."

  I was speechless and stared blankly at Du Yifei, who was furious. After a long time, I whispered: "Can you keep your voice down? Many people are watching you."

  Du Yifei stopped her long speech, glanced at the onlookers around her, and said coldly: "What's so interesting? Haven't you seen someone being educated before? Do you want to be educated too?"

  The onlookers immediately dispersed in all directions, as if they had discovered something, and fled.

  Du Yifei laughed and said, "What kind of people are you? A bunch of cowards." Turning back to me, she continued to "educate" me: "How could I have a fellow townsman like you? If it weren't for this school having only you and me from Yichang, I wouldn't admit that you're my fellow townsman. Tell me, when did people from Yichang become so timid and afraid of trouble? It's just having dinner with an injured fellow townsman, what's the big deal? What is Li Chuan going to do to me? He's not even related to me, why should he interfere in my business?"

  I couldn't help but smile wryly and nod repeatedly: "People from Yichang are all as eloquent as you, then... it would be... really great, because no one would dare look down on us people from Yichang again."

  Du Yifei rolled her eyes and said in a bad temper: "If you dare to scold me for being rude, I'll...I'll tell all your old classmates about the embarrassing things you did in high school."

  I hastily shook my head: "No way, how could I scold you? No... won't."

  "You're always hiding from me whenever you see me. I thought it was because I was a bit too harsh with my words, so that's why you've been avoiding me."

  I kept saying the same thing in my heart "no wonder", but I could only say: "No, actually... actually it's because your reputation is too big, and I..."

  Du Yifei looked at me, who was stuttering, and interrupted my words: "What's with the big name? Nonsense." She paused for a moment: "In a while, our dormitory sisters will come to accompany me. If you really have something going on, go ahead and take care of it first."

  "I feel relieved: 'Okay, I'll go first.' After saying that, I quickly turned around and left in a hurry, afraid she might have something else to drag me along to do."

  In my hurry, I was going too fast and suddenly felt a blackness in front of me, as if I was about to crash into something. I hastily dodged to one side, but still reacted half a beat too late, bumping into the left shoulder of the person in front of me.

  "I hurriedly apologized: 'Sorry...'"

  When I looked up, the person I bumped into was Li Chang. Li Chang's face turned iron-green at this moment: "Sorry? I'm not sorry either." As he spoke, he suddenly took a step forward and knocked me to the ground with one swift motion.

  When I came to, I was already sitting on the damp and dirty ground. My clothes were all dirty, not to mention that my hands and chest hurt terribly. When I lifted my hands to look at them, I saw that they had been scraped raw in several places from subconsciously supporting myself on the ground, and fresh blood started flowing out immediately.

  Li Chang's punch was very powerful and sudden, and I didn't have any defense at all, so I immediately suffered some minor injuries.

  I couldn't care about the wounds on my body, I crawled up from the ground, involuntarily raised my fist and furiously shouted: "Li Chang, what are you doing?"

  Li Chang smiled gloomily and said coldly, "What did you say I was doing? Beating you up, what else can I do? You dare to try hitting me, see if I don't beat you into a pig's head..."

  "What are you doing?!" Du Yifei's voice interrupted Li Chang's words, she seemed to be very surprised: "Li Chang, how can you intentionally bump into someone?!"

  Li Chang turned his head and glanced at Du Yifei, his voice immediately becoming much softer: "It's nothing, I accidentally bumped into Jin Cang classmate, it wasn't intentional, really not intentional..." Then he turned his head again to say viciously to me: "You little brat, be more careful in the future. If I see you with Yifei one more time, I'll beat you up once."

  My anger was burning, and I could no longer control my sanity. The fist that had already been raised immediately swung towards Li Chong's face.

  I heard a loud "slap" sound, and my fist hit something, but it was absolutely not Li Chang's face.

  I was somewhat surprised, feeling that I wouldn't miss. I hastily looked and only then discovered that the person I hit was a stranger. This person had a huge hand, an enormous hand, almost one-third larger than mine. This huge hand was now tightly grasping my fist, and my fist began to ache almost as soon as it was grasped by this huge hand.

  It hurts so much that I can barely stand and almost fell down again.

  The master of the big hand slowly released my fist at this time and said coldly: "Fighting is not allowed in school, don't you know?"

  It wasn't until now that I got a clear look at this person, he's the security guard from our school, with the surname Lu, don't know what his full name is, usually everyone just calls him Teacher Lu.

  I feel very indignant, it was obviously Li Chang who found fault and deliberately bumped into me, how did it suddenly become a fight? I didn't hit Li Chang at all.

  But now with Mr. Lu's intervention, it is impossible for me to take revenge immediately.

  So I immediately decided that this grudge, this ugliness, I will remember in my heart, and wait for the next opportunity to return it to Li Chang.