Chapter 89: But You Are Not Who You Were Before, Are You?
Source: http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=5896087
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.
The pitch-black Maybach slowly stopped at the police station’s entrance, shrouded in night. The heavy atmosphere felt like a storm was about to hit, wind filling the whole building.
Bright lights illuminated the girl waiting at the door. Wei Qingyu looked at a woman in a suit and pencil skirt stepping down from the car with a serious expression. She nodded slightly. “Aunt Xu.”
“Qingyu, why are you out here waiting for me? Aren’t you cold?” The woman’s expression softened noticeably when she saw Wei Qingyu.
Her name was Xu Hui. She is Feng Yue’s wife and one of the top lawyers in City A and even nationally.
Wei Qingyu shook her head. “Let’s walk and talk.”
“Alright.” Xu Hui nodded, followed by an assistant and a bodyguard.
Their high heels clicked along the quiet corridor, but the four of them gave off the feeling of a small army.
The closer they got to the mediation meeting room, the louder the shouting became. Inside the door marked 201, it sounded like a chaotic duel was taking place.
“Look at what you did to my child! Teeth knocked out! He’s an Alpha! What are you going to do for him in the future?”
“My son’s in senior high this year! You see, because of the beating he had to take time to recover. What about our college plans?”
“I’m telling you, this can’t just end so simply! You have to pay our medical fees, mental damages, and…”
“Also our lost wages for taking care of our child!”
Wei Qingyu watched Xu Hui walk into the meeting room. She saw the three thugs’ parents in chaos but united, and Feng Yue standing beside a helpless-looking police officer.
The three thugs, who had been so arrogant earlier, were now sitting quietly and carelessly on one side of the large meeting room, wrapped in bandages, while their moms fought for them, arguing wildly.
Ji Xiao, as the center of the incident, sat expressionless in another meeting room nearby, letting Hao Hui clean and dress her wounds, while Liu Yue lectured her.
“Skipping class counts as one offense, fighting is another offense, releasing pheromones is yet another. Ji Xiao, all the things you didn’t do last year, you’re making up for them today, huh?”
“You’re seventeen, not a child anymore, you’ll be an adult soon. Do you know how much trouble you’ve brought on yourself this time?”
“Senior year. If the other parents insist on reporting to the school and holding you accountable, you won’t escape demerits. Do you know the rule? Demerits can’t be revoked in under a year. At this rate, your record will stay with you for life!”
.…
No matter how much Liu Yue scolded her, Ji Xiao never gave a response.
She kept her head down. A few dried drops of blood were still on her face that weren't fully cleaned. Her dim eyes looked like a dangerous wild beast that could lash out at any moment.
The light in the room wasn’t bright. It made the already heavy mood feel even darker.
Wei Qingyu stood at the door and looked at Ji Xiao like this. Her heart was full of pain.
She still remembered how she found Ji Xiao in the alley earlier. Her body and even her face were torn up. Blood mixed with the smell of brandy floated in the air. The dirty snow was filled with a ruined and self-destructive feeling.
And a cry for help.
“Aunt Liu Yue.”
Just as Liu Yue put her hands on her hips and was about to say more to the girl who wouldn’t respond no matter what, Wei Qingyu stepped over the doorway and cut her off.
“Qingyu?” Liu Yue eased her anger a bit. She turned to Wei Qingyu and asked, “Did Attorney Xu arrive?”
Wei Qingyu nodded lightly. “Mm. Teacher Feng said she needs you to go over there.”
“Alright. Help her apply the medicine.” Liu Yue put the blood-stained cotton swab into Wei Qingyu’s hand, picked up her bag, and walked next door.
Hao Hui looked at the suddenly quiet room and said to Ji Xiao, “She’s like that. When she gets anxious, she loses her temper easily. Don’t take it to heart.”
Ji Xiao still didn’t answer.
She looked at everyone on her side, both in this room and the one next door. From Liu Yue to Hao Hui, from Feng Yue to Xu Hui. Politics, business, education, medicine. Almost every part that today could touch was all here.
She looked at Wei Qingyu squatting in front of her, holding her hand and carefully applying medicine. A hoarse voice tore out of Ji Xiao’s throat. “Did you call them here?”
Wei Qingyu nodded softly.
The cotton swab moved carefully over the scrape on Ji Xiao’s knuckles. After finishing that spot, Wei Qingyu dipped the swab in alcohol again and explained, “I was chatting with Teacher Feng at a nearby cafe. I heard some students who came to buy coffee talk about it, so I asked her for help. I ran into Aunt Liu Yue on the road near the school gate, so I asked her to bring Doctor Hao too.”
Her voice was calm and plain, like she was talking about something small and unimportant.
But everyone knew how hard it was to think of all this so fast.
Ji Xiao looked at Wei Qingyu beside her and didn’t know what to say. She only said dryly, “Thank you.”
“No need.” Wei Qingyu shook her head. She gently held Ji Xiao’s scarred hand. Her voice wasn’t calm at all. “Does it hurt?”
Ji Xiao followed her words and looked at the scrape on her left hand.
She once thought Wei Qingyu’s ability to accept things without expression was impressive. Now that it was her turn, she finally understood that behind that strength was deep helplessness.
Under great loneliness, any pain loses its meaning.
If the feeling of alcohol wiping over the wound on her hand was called pain, then what was the hollow in her heart that was even harder to endure called?
“You were never someone who treated yourself this carelessly,” Wei Qingyu said again.
Ji Xiao knew Wei Qingyu meant to ask why she fought.
From the moment they rode in the police car to the station, Ji Xiao hadn’t said a word, and Wei Qingyu didn’t know she fought because of her.
Ji Xiao looked at the wound on the back of her hand, red with fresh blood. Her lowered wrist showed weak exhaustion.
She didn’t want to tell Wei Qingyu the truth, so she only answered the surface question. “I used to be.”
But Wei Qingyu didn’t fall silent like Ji Xiao hoped. She asked back, “But you are not who you were before, are you?”
As she spoke, the girl lifted Ji Xiao’s face. The light above made those turquoise eyes shine like gems.
Sincere. Serious.
So she still remembered what Ji Xiao said to her on Thanksgiving night.
Ji Xiao’s heart trembled slightly. She gave Wei Qingyu a soft, unclear reply. “Mm.”
“Isn’t our child aggrieved then? That vixen named Wei Qingyu, what kind of thing is she? Our kid only said a few words about her and got beaten like this?”
The moment Liu Yue opened the door to the next meeting room, the woman’s sharp shouting broke the calm between them.
Almost at the same time, Wei Qingyu felt the girl’s fingers in her palm tighten without thinking. She quietly looked up at Ji Xiao and saw that the eyes that had been dull earlier, now held a snake flicking its tongue, dark and cold, giving off danger she didn’t easily show.
Wei Qingyu felt the emptiness in her heart these days suddenly wrapped in something soft.
She thought she knew why Ji Xiao fought.
Hao Hui rolled her eyes in disgust and cursed, “Such small-minded trash. Qingyu, don’t take it to heart. People like them curse the worst. They can say any filthy thing.”
Wei Qingyu nodded, not caring. Then she lowered her head again and kept helping Ji Xiao apply the medicine. She softly reminded the girl in front of her, “Don’t do this again next time. I’m fine.”
Wei Qingyu’s voice trembled slightly, full of heartache.
The clock at the side ticked on. Ji Xiao looked at Wei Qingyu, who already knew the answer, and still didn’t reply.
She thought that even next time, even in the future, if Wei Qingyu really became Mrs. Jin, like what that man said, she would still do the same.
It was both laughable and powerless.
Her loss of control, her violence, and her lack of restraint were all handed to a button called Wei Qingyu. Whether it mattered or not was never up to her.
Ji Xiao raised her other bandaged hand and felt around in her pocket.
Sure enough, this body that still carried traces of the original owner had a few candies in the coat pocket.
She skillfully spread the colorful glass paper candies in her palm. Facing Hao Hui and Wei Qingyu, she said in the simplest words, “Candy.”
Those golden-orange eyes lifted from the messy broken bangs in front of Ji Xiao. They were blood red and watery, and they stared straight at Wei Qingyu.
Her body was covered in wounds, like a small beast that had just learned to fit into society and was trying to please the people around her.
The sharp smell of disinfectant filled this small space. Hao Hui picked two candies and kept tending to the wound on Ji Xiao’s forehead.
The moonlit night was quiet. Wei Qingyu remembered that a very long time ago, she, Ji Xiao, and Hao Hui had also been together like this. Back then, Ji Xiao also used a single piece of candy to replace her denial.
Thinking carefully, it was not that long ago. It happened last autumn.
In the warm room, steam rose. Wei Qingyu clenched the candy in her palm, yet it felt like she had grasped something important.
She suddenly realized that all the changes seemed to have started one year ago.
Maybe because she was trapped in the middle of it, she did not feel that the person had changed much. Now, looking back, she felt that every day after Ji Xiao came out of the little black room for the last time, Ji Xiao was Ji Xiao, yet Ji Xiao was not Ji Xiao.
And mango-flavored jealousy sprouted last autumn.
“Thank you for the trouble today.”
“It’s nothing.”
“Hey, hey, hey, don’t forget about the compensation money!”
….
The sound of a door opening came from next door, and mixed footsteps rang out.
With Xu Hui joining in, and with support from Feng Yue and Liu Yue, the mess quickly became clear. After the compensation was settled, the parents of the three children who had been beaten until they could not recognize themselves agreed right away. They signed the papers and took their sons to leave.
Except for the blond-haired boy’s mother.
She heard that the person who hit her son was next door, and that the cause of the trouble was also there. While the police and Liu Yue let down their guard, she turned around and pushed open the meeting room door where Ji Xiao was. Relying on the fact that she was an Alpha, she shouted arrogantly, “You two little vixen, little bastard. I’ll let you off today. From now on, when you see my son at school, stay far away from him. Or wait for me to report this to the school.”
As her voice fell, before anyone could react, Ji Xiao exploded in rage.
An S-level Alpha’s strength and speed were unmatched. Before the blond-haired boy’s mother could see what happened, her collar was yanked up hard.
The people around hurriedly shouted, “Ji Xiao, let go!”
But Ji Xiao was already seeing red. Her filthy words had touched Wei Qingyu again. How could she listen?
Seeing that the fat woman was about to be strangled by her collar and unable to breathe, Wei Qingyu quickly stepped forward and grabbed Ji Xiao’s hand.
“That’s enough. We don’t need to care about them.”
The bandage that had just been wrapped bled through, and the blood stained Wei Qingyu’s palm red.
The girl showed no disgust. She kept using her gentle hand, carrying the rare warmth of winter, letting it flow into Ji Xiao’s wild heart. Along with it came the mint scent, the only thing that could calm Ji Xiao.
Being valued by the one she valued, and being protected by the one she valued.
It was like someone deep in a swamp being pulled out a little, letting her long-suppressed heart ease and catch its breath.
Ji Xiao looked at Wei Qingyu beside her, blinked lightly, and slowly loosened her grip.
Then she was taken back by Wei Qingyu and Hao Hui to rebandage her wounds.
At this time, Liu Yue, who was standing to the side, looked at the shaken woman with a fake smile and said, “Huang Ming’s mother, you should know that student Huang Ming already has a major demerit on his record. If he gets through this semester safely, it can be removed from his file before college. If the family insists on holding the school responsible for this fight, I can guarantee that both sides will be punished. Because Huang Ming already has one demerit, there is a high chance he could be expelled. Are you sure you still want to think this way?”
At these words, Huang Ming’s mother’s face turned ugly.
Source: http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=5896087
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.
Her arrogance from before was gone. She quickly pulled her son and said, “Then… then there’s no need… sorry to trouble Teacher Liu to come all this way today.”
Liu Yue found it laughable, but still kept her manners and nodded slightly. “You’re welcome.”
The quiet night was dotted with a few stars. The follow-up records of the case ended at the deepest hour of dawn under the moonlight.
Ji Xiao walked out of the police station with her hands in her pockets, side by side with Wei Qingyu. Their two shadows brushed against each other faintly.
Liu Yue wanted to call out to Ji Xiao and Wei Qingyu ahead, but Feng Yue and Hao Hui stopped her.
Hao Hui said meaningfully to Liu Yue, “I think after today, the two of them must have something they want to say to each other. Let's not disturb them.”
