Chapter 154 The Night Before
Sometimes Zhang Yunqi really feels that there is not much difference between high school students and kindergarten children. The only difference is that kindergarten children like to discuss who brought what delicious food, while high school children like to gossip about who has taken a fancy to a good-looking girl.

In fact, Zhang Yunqi quite enjoyed hanging out in the high school campus. Sometimes he would follow Wang Xiaokai, Yang Wei and others to do childish things like skipping classes, climbing walls, and standing in the corridor to compare who had the bigger butt of two girls. He could also talk about his youth and offer some constructive suggestions based on years of practical experience, but when it came to the issue of relationships between men and women, he really could not have any common topics with this group of young fools.

Old men like to do things, not talk.

However, whether he liked it or not, Yu Renli's words quickly reached the ears of some classmates. In this situation, the reason for the conflict between Zhang Yunqi and Gao Ming seemed no longer important. What aroused everyone's gossip was that Zhang Yunqi liked Li Yufei and had a crush on Li Yufei.

Actually, this is bullshit.

The number of people in school who have a crush on Li Yufei is enough to supply the vegetable market for a year, so it is not uncommon to have a crush on any beautiful girl. The key is whether you have the courage to take this step.

Not to mention taking that step, Zhang Yunqi hasn't even lifted his feet since he met Li Yufei, so this is fucking bullshit.

In some aspects, he quite admired Li Yufei. She didn't have a strong personality like Ji Ling, nor was she as clear and delicate as she first saw, but she had her own characteristics and pride.

However, after this incident, sometimes when the two met in school, the atmosphere was quite strange. One time, on the way to the playground during the break, Zhang Yunqi met Li Yufei and a group of girls from her class in the stairwell. From a distance, the group of girls pointed at Zhang Yunqi and said with a smile: "Wow! This is that Zhang Yunqi, I won't bother you anymore!"

Then the group of girls left without a trace, leaving only Li Yufei and Zhang Yunqi with stunned faces. After a long while in the quiet atmosphere, her pretty, fair face turned red, and her eyelashes drooped slightly: "They... are so boring."

Zhang Yunqi could only smile.

Then I went to the playground with Li Yufei to do exercises during recess.

Life is full of drama, and campus life is even worse.

The days passed uneventfully. After school on the morning of May 15th, Zhang Yunqi and Chu Jian went back to their family's fish meal shop to have lunch as usual.

Recently, Chu Jian's attitude towards him seemed to have changed a little. On the afternoon of the day when he beat Gao Ming, he said to him seriously, which was unusual for him: "Don't fight in the future. You come to school to study. Don't make Aunt Zhang and Brother Yunfeng worry."

From then on, Chu Jian explained the difficult points of English to Zhang Yunqi during the morning break every day, and gave Zhang Yunqi various questions on various subjects to do in the afternoon. If Zhang Yunqi couldn't answer them, she would answer them patiently and carefully.

As a result, Zhang Yunqi's limited spare time was all occupied by Chu Jian, but most of the time he and her only talked about study. Only like now, on the way home from school could they talk about life other than study.

When the two arrived at the school gate, it was packed with students. School had just ended and everyone was out looking for food.

At first, Zhang Yunqi didn't care much.

It was not until he got closer that he felt something was wrong. He looked towards the center of the crowd and saw Lei Ming's parents, Lei Jinrong and Cai Lihua.

The couple knelt on the road in front of the gate of No. 1 Middle School. Lei Jinrong held a sign with eight big red characters written on it: My son is innocent, the murderer is smart!
Cai Lihua, who was standing next to her with disheveled hair and a haggard face, was also holding a large piece of cardboard with many crooked words densely written on it. The words detailed how her son Lei Ming had committed fraud in Zhangji, and how when the couple first went to the police station to see Lei Ming, Lei Ming told the police how Gao Ming had instructed him to do this.

This scene is unique in the city’s No. 1 Middle School.

Zhang Yunqi had seen this before quite often.

He remembered a particularly bizarre incident in 11, when he went to Yuelu Mountain for fun. When he was driving on the road in front of the gate of Xiangnan University, he encountered a serious traffic jam because the road had been blocked by a group of villagers all day.

Later, he asked the drivers who were also stuck on the road, and learned that a dean of Xiangnan University had killed a rural female student while driving under the influence. He used various connections to suppress the matter, but the parents of the female student refused to let it go. They called all the neighbors, relatives and friends in the village to the provincial capital, Lijin City, put on mourning clothes, held the portrait of the female college student, and held a grand memorial service in front of the gate of Xiangnan University with gongs, drums and firecrackers.

Zhang Yunqi didn't know how this matter was resolved. As many people as there are joys, there will be many sorrows. So he knew very clearly that to live, one must live above all other people, not to dominate others, but to not be dominated by others. Zhang Yunqi looked at the crowd of onlookers who filled the school gate like ants. They kept whispering to each other, saying things like "It turned out that Gao Ming did it" and "Gao Ming is such a bad guy". He knew that this incident would break the tranquility before the storm.

Zhang Yunqi looked away and saw Chu Jian staring at the poor couple kneeling at the gate in a daze. He reached out and pulled her, saying, "Let's eat."

The lunch was rich and delicious.

Steamed sea bass, steamed pork with rice flour, pan-fried tender tofu, and a plate of refreshing and delicious smashed cucumber.

Chu Jian's appetite didn't seem to be very good. She usually ate little, and today she didn't even take a few bites of the steamed sea bass, which was her favorite dish and was often made by Zhang's mother. She just helped out in the fish meal shop.

It was already past one o'clock at that time and there were not many customers in the store. Zhang Yunqi got a bottle of Lao Yanjing and drank it slowly with his elder brother Zhang Yunfeng. He seldom smoked or drank, but he would take a sip or two in certain occasions or when his emotions were up and down.

While eating, the whole family was silently paying attention to the situation at the school gate diagonally opposite. The students had already left in twos and threes, but Lei Jinrong and Cai Lihua were still kneeling in the middle of the school gate. The weather in mid-May was very hot, and the midday sun was high overhead. The couple's faces, rough and dark like old tree bark, did not sweat. They had not eaten or drunk water, and had been kneeling there like two wooden stakes.

From beginning to end, the school leaders never showed up. Several school security guards were very caring towards the couple. They tried to persuade them earnestly and tried to pull them away by brute force, but it was useless.

As soon as Cai Lihua was touched, she would cry and roll on the ground.

When Cai Lihua was persuaded, the woman in her 50s wearing a sanitation uniform said in an extremely resolute tone: "You ask the principal to come out and talk. It's useless to say anything else. If you try to stop me, I will hit my head against the stone pillar at the gate of No. 1 Middle School and die!"

Her voice was so passionate that even Zhang Yunqi, who was far away, could hear it.

Zhang Yunqi couldn't help but wonder what this couple had experienced during this period that made them run to the gate of the No. 1 Middle School in the city and do such a radical thing.

Some time ago, the couple came to the family's fish meal shop to visit their mother several times. Their mother told them her advice. They should have learned about their son Lei Ming's current situation through the free lawyers of the Jiangchuan Normal University Social Weak Rights Protection Center, and knew that Lei Ming had confessed, signed a confession, and taken all the responsibility.

The reason is self-evident, but how could the couple who knew the truth watch their son take the blame and bear more serious criminal responsibility? They went to the No. 1 Middle School to find the leader, went to the police station to find the police, went to the Municipal Government's Letters and Calls Bureau to appeal, and so on. They tried all the ways they could find to seek redress, but to no avail. They had no other options, so they did this.

Perhaps the couple's idea is very simple: if it is the responsibility of their son Lei Ming, they should accept it; if he was framed by others, they must seek justice.

But can this bring justice?

Zhang Yunqi really hopes so, but it seems like a joke.

He raised his hand and looked at the time. It was almost two o'clock and it was getting late, so he called Chu Jian to go to school.

Chu Jian stood up and nodded. After a pause, she pursed her lips and said to Zhang Yunqi: "Wait for me, I want to pack some food."

Zhang Yunqi was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said yes.

Chu Jian took out a lunch box and packed up some delicious dishes. Zhang Yunqi looked at this silly girl silently without saying anything. After she was done, they went to school together.

When passing by the school gate, Chu Jian stopped and carefully separated two portions of food, two pairs of chopsticks and two bottles of boiled water, and placed them in front of Lei Jinrong and Cai Lihua, saying, "Uncle and aunt, please have some food."

(End of this chapter)