Summer's Rose

Chapter 4: He’s Quite Fierce

When Zhou Nan returned to the classroom, Yong Ming was surprised. 'Bro, didn’t Mr. Ho pull you into his office for a chat? How did you come back so quickly?'

'Shut up, I'm sleepy.'

Yong Ming turned back, thinking to himself that Zhou Nan was as irritable as ever. He probably got annoyed after being scolded by Mr. Ho.

He silently sympathized with Zhou Nan for three seconds.

And it was only three seconds. Zhou Nan didn’t need his sympathy.

After the chemotherapy.

Wen, supported by Li Jun, went to the restroom and vomited for a long time.

Her lips were ghostly pale, and her fragile body seemed as if it could wither away at any moment.

Li Jun grasped her thin arm, her eyes reddened. Wen had always been slim, but after falling ill, she had become even more frail.

Wen lay on the hospital bed, feeling her eyelids grow heavy.

“Wen, maybe we should stop going to school anymore?”

“I want to go.”

After Wen fell asleep, Li Jun spoke with the doctor about her current condition.

The doctor, a woman, looked at the girl on the bed with a trace of regret in her eyes. “After this round of chemotherapy, she hasn’t had severe reactions, but I still recommend she takes a break from school. Her condition isn’t suitable for staying here.”

“I’ve already told her I wanted her to rest at home, but she insists on going. Otherwise, she says she’d regret it.”

The doctor sighed and patted Li Jun’s shoulder. “The next chemotherapy session is in two weeks.”

Li Jun stayed by Wen’s bedside, gently brushing her hair as she stared at her sleeping face.

Wen slept until the next morning. After every round of chemotherapy, she would vomit heavily and sleep until the following day. Two days later, on Sunday, Wen was discharged from the hospital.

Li Jun wanted her to stay in the hospital for a few more days, but Wen said she was fine and could handle it.

Even Loong, usually strict, didn’t argue. She let Wen do whatever she wanted, as long as it made her happy.

The two of them had originally thought that if they earned more money, they could make Wen’s life better. But now, they realized that some things couldn’t be bought with money.

They regretted not spending enough time with Wen, and it was their absence that caused her illness to reach its late stages before being discovered.

On Monday.

Wen looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her lips were very pale, and she looked weak. She applied some lip balm from her drawer, and finally, she looked a little better.

It was flag-raising day.

Wen stood in line wearing her school uniform. As she listened to the discipline teacher call out the names of students who had violated school rules the previous week, she heard her seatmate’s name. She looked up at him.

Zhou Nan wasn’t wearing his school uniform today. He had on a black T-shirt, which made his skin look even colder and paler. "He stood there with an aura of 'don’t approach me,' listening to the teacher’s reprimands, as if they had nothing to do with him."

“Zhou Nan, are you listening to me? This isn’t the first or second time you’ve broken the rules. Are you really living up to your parents’ expectations? They didn’t send you here to fight and skip classes. If you don’t study hard, how will you support yourself in the future?”

“Inheriting the family business?”

The teacher was so furious his face turned green, and the whole class burst into laughter.

Yong Ming clicked his tongue, “As expected of Brother Nan, even Mr.Ho is about to lose it.”

“Stop talking nonsense and write your self-reflection.”

Zhou Nan pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket, his voice flat: “I shouldn’t have hit Ah Bin just because I thought he deserved it. I should reflect on myself and become a better person, although… Ah Bing really did deserve it.”

The class burst into laughter again.

Mr.Ho pointed at him, “What’s this nonsense? I can tell you haven’t really reflected on yourself. Go back and rewrite it properly.”

Zhou Nan responded with an indifferent “Okay,” then left. As he passed by Wen, he glanced at her quickly and hurriedly walked past.

Wen suddenly remembered the first day she came to school. She didn’t have any books, and Zhou Nan had thrown his books on her desk before standing outside, defending her. There was also the time she caught him fighting, and he asked if she was scared.

He didn’t seem as fierce as he looked.

In the first class, Zhou Nan spent most of his time playing games and sleeping.

Wen stole a glance at him and was surprised to see that he was playing a boring game like Candy Crush.

In the second class, he finally woke up. Wen saw their English teacher, Ms.Christine, standing at the podium.

Despite Ms.Christine’s loud and passionate explanation, Zhou Nan still didn’t seem to be paying attention.

Ms.Christine pointed out a topic, “Zhou Nan, stand up and answer the question.”

Zhou Nan stood up, not even bothering to listen to what he had asked, and simply said, 'I don’t know.'

Ms.Christine frustrated, turned her gaze to the side where Wen was sitting: 'Let your seatmate answer for you.'

After Wen answered, Ms.Christine’s anger eased a bit. “Alright, sit down.”

Chinese class was the most chaotic class in the day. People were passing notes, chatting, and reading novels.

There were all sorts of things going on, except for studying.

This was partly because many people thought Chinese wasn’t essential—no matter whether you studied or not, the scores would be similar. It was also because the Chinese teacher from Class 3 wasn’t strict.

Mr.Toh glanced at the back, where some students were smoking. “Ah Wei, did you study so much that your brain has burned out?”

Ah Wei looked up from his book. “How did you know, sir?”

Mr. Toh snatched the book from his hands. “Go stand by the podium and eat. After you’re done, come back.”

Ah Wei sat at the podium eating self-heating hotpot, making slurping sounds as he sweated from the spiciness.

Mr. Toh handed him a piece of paper. “Spicy, huh?”

“Teacher, how did you know I desperately needed a piece of paper?”

“Go stand outside.”

Ah Wei wiped his mouth and shouted, “Alright, I’m going.”

After the class ended, the classroom erupted into chaos.

A water bottle suddenly flew over and hit Wen’s head with a sharp clang.

She picked up the bottle, placed it on the desk, and rubbed her head without making a big deal out of it.

The people in front continued to laugh and joke.

Suddenly, Zhou Nan kicked the desk and shouted, “Shut up! Don’t you know how to apologize when you hit someone? Are you guys blind or something?”

The class immediately quieted down, knowing that Zhou Nan was really angry, and no one dared to speak.

A boy ran over to Wen and apologized, “Sorry, new one. I didn’t mean to. We were just playing, and I didn’t know the bottle hit you. I’m really sorry.”

“It’s fine. You didn’t mean to,” she replied softly.

The boy went back to his seat and quietly muttered to his seatmate, “Wow, the new student is really gentle and so pretty. She looks even better up close. Zhou Nan is so fierce. When he looked at me just now, I didn’t dare say a word.”

His seatmate quickly agreed, “Yeah, he was so scary. I didn’t dare say anything.”

When Zhou Nan went back to sleeping with his head on the desk, the class began to whisper again.

Some speculated that Zhou Nan might like Wen. She clearly didn’t belong to their class, looked like the ideal student, and was overly well-behaved and sweet. Maybe Zhou Nan liked girls like that.

Others thought that Zhou Nan must have stood up for her because of the bottle incident.

Wen looked at the sleeping Zhou Nan and realized he wasn’t as fierce as he appeared.

He seemed pretty nice.

Just then, Zhou Nan suddenly sat up and shouted, “Yong Ming, if you keep talking, I’ll cut off your tongue.”

Yong Ming quickly covered his mouth.

Wen decided to keep her thoughts to herself.