Chapter 40: Sixteen

20TH MAR 2023~ VERALUCTL

An Jie sat on the chair of the milk tea store next to school. He had been waiting for a while. Mo Yu was on duty today and would be let out late; he had skipped the extra night-study sessions that third year students had just to accompany the two girls home. Mo Jin saw him from afar and sprinted at him cheerfully.

He nodded with a grin and said to the young cashier in the store, “Two hot chocolates please, not too hot.”

Mo Jin skipped over, rubbing her hands and stamping her feet, jumping up and down as she burned all of her energy, sniffing loudly. An Jie slapped her on the head as he passed over her drink. “So you do know how cold it is?”

“I, I, I, I’m a frozen beauty.” Mo Jin shook like a sieve, her two hands cupping the hot chocolate. She turned around and shouted, “Mo Yu! There aren’t any flies or ants around these days! Don’t worry, you won’t kill anything if you walk faster!”

Mo Yu didn’t seem interested and dawdled over slowly with her head down. She took her drink with a small thanks, then lowered her head again silently.

An Jie asked, “What happened?”

The young girl shook her head. Mo Jin started chattering, “She’s been like this since this morning, who knows what struck her… Didn’t do well in your monthly exam? No way? Then, it must be…” She suddenly stopped. She looked sideways to the other side of the road and pulled on Mo Yu. “Eh? Xiao Yu, why does that person look so familiar? He’s from your class, right?”

Mo Yu looked up in that direction. Across them was a young boy in a jacket with a pair of rimless glasses, surrounded by a group of rainbow-haired gangsters. He held his bag and stepped back, trying to dodge their tugging and pulling hands. Her face paled and she mumbled a response.

Mo Jin didn’t care and continued looking over with squinting eyes. “That looks like Xiao Hang. Why would he have something against students from our school? Tch, to think he’s bullying a good kid.” She blinked and smiled widely at An Jie. “An Jie-giege, there’s someone being bullied you know. Are you going to do anything?”

An Jie carried his bag on his back and was rather in the mood to watch some drama unfold. When he heard her, he was stunned at first before pointing at himself. “You’re asking me?”

Mo Jin rolled her eyes and waved her hands. “Oh whatever, you look like you’re the damsel-in-distress type with those thin arms and legs anyway. At least I know Xiao Hang; he’s a little stupid but he’s mostly a nice guy. Let me go take a look, what if he’s being used by some bad guy? There are so many people here; if any of them get bothered enough to call the police, I won’t be able to bail him out… Xiao Yu, why are you stopping me?”

Mo Yu grabbed her, her expression dark, and said thickly, “Why are you adding to the mess? Even An Jie-ge’s not going! They’re a bunch of thugs, you only know one of them; what happens if he turns his back on you and causes you trouble?”

An Jie nodded in understanding.

But Mo Jin was a little stunned. Her impression of her younger sister had always been someone soft-spoken and undermineable, standing silently still. She was rarely this forceful. Mo Jin touched her uneven fringe, at a loss for words. “Then I won’t go…” She took a small sip of the hot chocolate and slowly followed the two. After some thinking, she ended up asking, “But isn’t he from your class?”

“There are so many people in my class, can’t there be some rotten eggs as well? With so many people in my school, why are they stopping him of all people? Even if he gets beaten up, he deserves it, so what does it have to do with you? What does it have to do with me?” Mo Yu side-eyed her, her voice impatient. An Jie’s dense brain couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the young girl and so he didn’t say anything at all. There was a saying that men were better off keeping quiet when the women were fighting, so he continued to watch the drama calmly.

Mo Jin felt wronged, extremely wronged, and had no idea what she had said to anger this especially moody Xiao Yu. She muttered something under her breath, something like “he even gave you a love letter, and you’re turning your back on him”. An Jie arched his brows and glanced at Mo Yu in interest.

Mo Yu’s hackles rose instantly, her small face pale like paper – of course this time, it was from anger. She took in a deep breath and sneered, her expression a little twisted. “Who the hell is he? Who the hell does he think he is? Does he deserve to speak to me? Deserve to write letters to me? Even toads know how to use their piss as a mirror to see what they are! His existence is just a waste of food; cremation for him would be a waste of resources; scattering his ashes in the ocean would just be needless pollution! If I were his parents, I would be too ashamed to meet my ancestors, I might as well hang myself for giving birth to such thing, the stench… Who does he think he is!”

Mo Jin and An Jie watched her speak in awe. An Jie finally understood that times had changed and that girls these days were each scarier than the next. He trembled and asked, “Ahem… that, the student with glasses, did he offend you?”

Mo Yu pursed her lips without speaking.

Mo Jin tugged An Jie and whispered, “I heard recently, the little four-eyed in their class hasn’t been the best person. He looks a little bit pitiful but his family has some money… or he says that his family has some money; no one knows if it’s true. Anyways, he keeps sending love letters to girls, chasing after multiple at the same time, and he goes around saying he likes this one for the face, that one for the voice, another one for the legs… Anyway, a disgusting person in general.”

“Screw that, is that disgusting? That’s obscene, despicable! Toads don’t kill with their bites, they make people die from disgust.” Mo Yu didn’t read all those books for nothing; she even had more curses in her than anyone else.

An Jie understood. It turned out that this little brother was of bad character and the young girl thought that it was bad form to have someone like this write a love letter to her. He chuckled bitterly and patted Xiao Yu on the head. “Don’t worry about it, no need to get angry.”

“I’m not angry. Let’s see how long he can stay in school for.” Mo Yu drank the rest of her drink in one gulp, pushing the empty cup into the trash can. Her face that was innocent and good-looking suddenly took on a bit of the cold and mean look of her brother.

An Jie understood that something was wrong just from hearing that. He frowned and looked down slightly. “Xiao Yu, did you do something?”

“I…” Before Mo Yu had time to speak, she was interrupted by the sound of applause. An Jie turned around immediately, subconsciously pushing the two girls behind him.

A young man with black-framed glasses had appeared behind the three at some point and was walking slowly towards them. This person’s hair fell short on his shoulders, his chin sharp like an awl, his face deathly pale. He grinned at An Jie and held up his two hands.

“I’m not a bad guy,” he drawled. “Yin Hu-gege, don’t be nervous.”

An Jie spun the bag in his hand halfway and threw it at his feet as he inspected this person. “I’ve never heard of any good person appearing silently behind another. Someone like you – you’re either a thief or a demon. What are you? What’s your relationship with that yellow monkey from the other day?”

“You mean Fifteen? Don’t misunderstand, I have nothing to do with him.” Black Frames’ expression when he denied the allegation was extremely exaggerated as if his features were ready to fly off. He took a step back and waved his hands quickly. “Why would I have anything to do with an unevolved barbarian? I grew up listening to your stories…”

An Jie’s face twitched. “No wonder why I keep sneezing; the doctor thought it was sinusitis.”

Black Frames stared at him, then started laughing uncontrollably. Mo Jin tugged on An Jie carefully and whispered, “Ge, is he alright?”

An Jie looked sympathetically at Black Frames and retorted, “What do you think?”

Black Frames suddenly stopped laughing. His eyes glanced over Mo Jin before finally landing on Mo Yu. He bent over slightly, staring directly into Mo Yu’s eyes, and enunciated each word carefully. “Young girl, you are amazing.”

Mo Yu startled and shrank back behind An Jie. Black Frames sighed and shook his head. “Those that know you and those that don’t are both used by you as pawns; you never have to say a word, all you need to do is provide a little guidance and those dumb girls will say it for you, spread your rumors for you, stir up trouble for you… Tsk, how long has it been for you to have already forced that unfortunate lad to the brink of dropping out? And the funny thing is that no one knows it was you. So young yet so talented, you’ll be amazing when you’re older.”

Mo Yu looked at Black Frames, then back at her sister. “Is he speaking Martian Chinese? How come I understand each character but not the sentences?”

Black Frames ignored her and continued staring at Mo Yu. He sighed with approval. “What a smart girl, yet R calls Six a failure…” He shook his head. “To have such an amazing child, how could he be a failure? There are times where even R misreads. Isn’t that right, Yin Hu-gege?”

An Jie looked at him. “Li is still alive?”

Black Frames folded one hand behind his back and bowed elegantly. “I am Sixteen and I thank you for your kind regards on R’s behalf. R is not very well physically and he misses you terribly… Don’t look at me like that. He always says you were his best student and that he looks forward to meeting you…”

“What a coincidence, I also want to meet that old coot.” The swear made the two girls stare at him with widened eyes. “And greet that old bastard myself.”

“Ah… Yin Hu-gege is as interesting as the legends say. Beijing accents are always so funny to listen to, I can never quite get them right.” Black Frames adjusted his glasses. “But it’s not time for you to meet him yet. Oh, right, there’s something R wants to tell you. That little issue you got from being in that small space for so long? If you don’t fix it soon, you’ll never manage to keep your whereabouts secret.”

The smile on An Jie’s face immediately faded. Black Frames chuckled. “Another thing: he wants me to ask you – if in the end, you realized that everything you did was wrong, or… someone had controlled you to do it, what would you do?”

Saying that, he waved his hands. “Don’t be angry, how would I have the power to move you? See you later, Yin Hu-gege, mhm… and that amazing young girl.”

Saying that, he suddenly vanished into a small alleyway, so fast that his final words still hung in the air. An Jie stood silently for a while before turning around and smiling at the two girls. “Let’s go, don’t worry. You can find asylum escapees everywhere.”

But Mo Yu didn’t move. An Jie bent down. “Xiao Yu?”

“What he said… was true.” Mo Yu pursed her lips, her fist clenched tightly, and after a long while, finally raised her head. “What he said was true, I did it.”

Author’s Notes: Mhm, even though I’m not here, guys please don’t dine and dash~~