My Favorite Ship Became My Sister-in-Law - Chapter 7

Shi Yue was certainly no pushover. He tilted his head to dodge, and the two of them became locked in a scuffle.

Despite his usually harmless appearance, once Shi Yue became enraged, he was like a predatory beast—not someone to be trifled with at all.

Ji Zhiruo had never expected that the discomfort caused by her period would lead to such a mess. She was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, wanting to intervene but finding no opening to break them apart.

Seeing the situation, male students from both classes rushed over to pull them apart while shouting for the two physical education teachers.

The two teachers, who had been chatting under a tree, ran over quickly upon hearing the shouts. It took a tremendous effort to finally separate Shi Yue and Li Chao.

Shi Yue’s left cheek had been scratched by Li Chao’s fingernails, leaving a wound about two centimeters long that was now beading with blood.

Li Chao, however, proved to be a paper tiger. He had been beaten black and blue by Shi Yue.

Both were taken to the office for a lecture. This fight even alarmed the principal because Shi Yue was involved.

Fighting at school usually resulted in a demerit. Shi Yue was ranked first in his grade. If he won first prize in the provincial league in September and made the provincial team, he would participate in the national finals in November. He was a prime candidate for recommended university admission, which would be the best possible advertisement for the Attached High School. Furthermore, over the past two years, Shi Yue had consistently been a “Triple-A” student. His photos and the awards he had won representing the school were displayed all over the campus honor boards.

As for Li Chao, not only was he at the bottom of the grade, but being late, cutting class, and leaving early were routine for him. There was not a single merit to be found.

Given all of the above, Shi Yue absolutely could not receive a demerit.

Shi Yue’s homeroom teacher and Li Chao’s homeroom teacher both understood the gravity of the situation. After a brief investigation, they realized the facts were very unfavorable to Shi Yue. Consequently, the two teachers reached a tacit agreement to simply go through the motions, lecturing them briefly without mentioning a demerit at all.

Seeing the teachers blatantly protecting Shi Yue, Li Chao could not swallow his anger. After leaving the office and reaching the stairwell, Li Chao let out a cold laugh and said to Shi Yue, “Your grades are good, so the teachers pamper you. But I do not give a damn about you. Just wait, Shi Yue. I will make sure you pay the price you deserve.”

“Practice more if you are weak. It is more useful than just talking,” Shi Yue said indifferently. He walked down the stairs casually with his hands in his pockets and returned to the classroom.

Shi Yue’s nonchalant attitude made Li Chao so furious he felt like killing someone. He never turned in his phone as required. Gritting his teeth, he went to the rooftop and dialed a number. “Hello, Brother? I got beaten up by an idiot at school. I want to hit him back. I want to kill that idiot. Come pick me up after school and help me get revenge.”

After hanging up, Li Chao’s anger remained unquenched. He vented by kicking the wall several times and cursing before heading down from the rooftop in a huff.

“How was it? Shi Dayue, you did not get a demerit, did you?”

In the classroom, Ji Zhiruo rushed to meet Shi Yue the moment he arrived. She had wanted to wait for him outside the office, but her period was being far too “friendly.” Her stomach was cramping and her flow was heavy. She had to spend ten minutes in the restroom before coming back, only to find Shi Yue already there.

Shi Yue shook his head. “Probably not. Mr. Chen did not mention it.”

Mr. Chen was Shi Yue’s homeroom teacher.

Ji Zhiruo let out a massive sigh of relief. “That is good. Knowing Old Chen’s temper, if he did not mention it, he definitely is not recording it. If you really got a demerit, I do not know what your parents would do, but my parents would definitely kill me.”

Ji Zhiruo was exaggerating, so Shi Yue simply replied with a chuckle.

“Hey, seriously, Shi Dayue, I always thought you were very gentle. I did not expect you to be so manly. It is making me like you a little bit. What should we do?” Ji Zhiruo said with a giggle, her true feelings hard to read.

“Deal with it.” Regardless of whether she was serious, Shi Yue rejected her without hesitation.

There were only five minutes left until school was over. By the time they walked from the classroom to the school gate, it would be just about right.

Shi Yue slung his bag over one shoulder, took his phone from the storage cabinet next to the blackboard, and left the classroom. His parents and Ji Zhiruo’s parents loved trying to push them together. He did not know what Ji Zhiruo thought about it, but he knew he had zero interest in her. Ji Zhiruo was too loud and boisterous. She was not his type. He liked someone steady.

The only reason he had defended her was because of their families’ neighborly relationship and the care her parents had shown him over the years.

“Hey, Shi Dayue! Let us go back together after school today!” Seeing Shi Yue leave, Ji Zhiruo shouted while hurriedly packing her bag.

Shi Yue did not answer. Since starting high school, they never walked home together. In the morning, he liked to arrive at school an hour early, while she barely made it on time. After school, he consistently went to the Xinhua Bookstore to read, so they were never on the same path.

The first thing Shi Yue did upon getting his phone was open WeChat to see if Ji Chenchuan had replied. Seeing the screen with no new messages, he felt disappointed and muttered to himself, “Not replying to me, huh? Then I will just call you.”

“Hello.”

The phone rang for a long while before Ji Chenchuan answered. His voice sounded slightly low and raspy.

Hearing that voice, Shi Yue’s heart skipped a beat without his permission.

“Shi Yue? Why are you not speaking?”

“Oh,” Shi Yue snapped back to reality. “I just wanted to ask if you are very busy today, Brother Chenchuan?”

“A little.”

“Oh, no wonder you did not reply to my messages.”

“Brother, how many square meters?” Over the phone, Shi Yue could hear a lot of noise on Ji Chenchuan’s end. There was the sound of construction and hammering, as well as someone asking about square footage. Based on the question, he must be at a construction site.

Ji Chenchuan replied with a string of numbers. Shi Yue could not hear clearly, but he could sense how busy Ji Chenchuan was even through the screen. Then he heard Ji Chenchuan say, “Shi Yue, I am a bit busy right now. I have to hang up. I will call you back later. Go home early after school.”

Shi Yue was about to say “Okay,” but the other end had already hung up. He stared at the name “Ji Chenchuan” in his contacts for a moment. Confirming that Ji Chenchuan had not replied only because he was busy, Shi Yue’s disappointed mood instantly turned excellent.

He shoved his phone into his pants pocket, but then heard a crisp crack.

The phone had not actually made it into the pocket and had fallen to the ground. The screen was shattered like a spiderweb, and the device had shut off. It would not turn back on. Shi Yue really wanted to chop his own hands off. His good mood turned “emo” again.

However, remembering that his dad had bought him a new phone a month ago that he had not used yet, he figured he could just swap the SIM card when he got home. He felt a bit less depressed.

When he reached the school gate, the bell rang. The security guard opened the gate, and Shi Yue was the first one out.

There was a row of plane trees outside the campus that provided cool shade. Students parked their bicycles there. Sunlight dappled the rows of bikes through the large leaves. Shi Yue found his bike, unlocked it, and rode straight toward the Xinhua Bookstore about five hundred meters away.

Since tenth grade, Shi Yue had gone to the bookstore for an hour every school day before heading home.

Ji Zhiruo finished packing her bag and chased out of the classroom, but Shi Yue was long gone.

On the rare occasion she felt like going home with him, he had not even waited. Ji Zhiruo really wanted to curse.

“Zhiruo!”

Ding Nana ran over and took Ji Zhiruo’s arm. The two of them almost always walked together, as Ding Nana lived in the same neighborhood. Since Shi Yue was gone, Ji Zhiruo did not dwell on it. She walked down the stairs arm-in-arm with Ding Nana, chatting.

“Zhiruo, I want to explain what Li Chao said today. I do not hang out with you for the reason he said. Hehe, although there is a tiny bit of that, it is only a tiny bit!”

“So, you really like Shi Yue?”

Ding Nana smiled shyly, which was a silent admission.

“Then you should probably stop liking him. I do not want to be love rivals with you, hahaha!” Ji Zhiruo laughed.

Ding Nana stared at her in shock. “Are you serious? You said before that you were not interested in him.”

“I am serious now. I was blind before. Thinking about how he made Li Chao apologize to me makes my frozen heart spring back to life. It is pounding. So I have decided. I am going to pursue Shi Yue.” Ji Zhiruo’s eyes were shining. She did not look like she was joking.

Ding Nana wailed several times. The thing she and Ji Zhiruo did most often was tirelessly discuss all the handsome guys at the school, and ultimately, Shi Yue—her male god—was the most perfect of them all.

Seeing Ding Nana looking aggrieved as she was forced to give up her crush for the sake of friendship, Ji Zhiruo comforted her by promising to introduce someone even handsomer—a teenage girl’s dream man: her brother, Ji Chenchuan.

Upon hearing this, Ding Nana immediately brightened up. The two of them laughed and giggled as they left the school.

As they went to get their bikes, Ding Nana suddenly saw Li Chao squatting under the plane trees smoking. She suddenly remembered something. Grabbing Ji Zhiruo’s hand tightly, she led her back to the school security office. She urgently explained that after the fight, she had heard some boys who were friends with Li Chao say that he had called his older brother to “handle” Shi Yue. His brother was a gangster. Li Chao waiting there definitely meant he was waiting for his brother.

Ji Zhiruo panicked. She had not expected things to escalate this far. She hurriedly tried to call Shi Yue to tell him to go home, but she only heard the system prompt that the phone was turned off. She did not know his phone had broken.

“What should we do? Shi Yue’s phone is off. I cannot get through.”

“Maybe he already went home?”

“No, Shi Yue usually does not get home until around seven. I know that much.”

“I’ve got it! My brother will definitely know where he is. Shi Yue always clings to him. He tells my brother everywhere he goes. I will contact my brother and have him find a way to tell Shi Yue to go home.” With that, Ji Zhiruo quickly dialed Ji Chenchuan.

The moment he picked up, she said urgently, “Brother, something is wrong!” She truthfully explained the whole situation and added, “Now Shi Yue’s phone is off and I do not know where he is. If Li Chao’s brother corners him, it is over.”

On the phone, Ji Chenchuan calmed her down and told her to go home first. He said he would head over from the construction site immediately.

Since this whole thing started because of her, Ji Zhiruo felt she could not bear the responsibility if something happened to Shi Yue. She repeatedly asked her brother if they should tell their father. Her father was a veteran, after all. He would definitely be good in a fight.

“This is a society ruled by law. Fists are not the boss. Do not worry, I can handle it.” Ji Chenchuan comforted her again before hanging up. He immediately dialed Shi Yue’s number, but only received the power-off prompt.

Since he could not reach Shi Yue, Ji Chenchuan quickly searched his memories for their past conversations to figure out where he might be. One place Shi Yue frequently mentioned was a bookstore. The closest one to the school was the Xinhua Bookstore by the intersection. Shi Yue had to be there.

The construction site was an hour’s drive from the school, and there were still many things to handle. But Ji Chenchuan could not care about that now. He hurriedly apologized to the client and sped away.

Ji Chenchuan sped all the way toward the school, constantly redialing Shi Yue’s number.

He did not even know, why he was so worried.