The Vicious Female Supporting Character Goes Viral After Her Masks Drop During the Talent Show - Chapter 27

Eight years ago.

It was Yan Shi’s turn to be on cleaning duty. It was late autumn, and the ground was thick with fallen leaves. Usually, the cleaning areas were assigned to two students, but Yan Shi’s partner was a “study-holic” who spent every afternoon lingering in the teachers’ office to ask questions. Yan Shi never bothered waiting for him; he preferred to just do the work himself.

Before starting, Yan Shi ran to the convenience store across from the school.

The manager looked up, surprised. “You’re early. Didn’t you say you had duty today?”

Yan Shi found what he needed on the shelf and brought it to the counter. It was a tube of burn ointment.

“Did you get burned?” the manager asked.

“No,” Yan Shi replied briefly. He didn’t elaborate.

The manager saw the price—less than 10 yuan—and pushed the boy’s hand back, refusing the money. “Just take it. It’s on the house.”

The manager felt sorry for him. Yan Shi was only sixteen or seventeen, working at the store while attending school. He had no parents to look after him and no real home. Every night after his shift, he curled his six-foot-tall frame onto the narrow, tattered sofa in the store’s breakroom to sleep for a few hours. He didn’t live in the dorms because he couldn’t afford the fees; every cent he earned went toward his tuition.

Despite the manager’s kindness, Yan Shi left the money on the counter and hurried out. He didn’t like being a burden.

He grabbed a broom and dustpan from the tool shed and headed toward his assigned area—the space between the old gymnasium and the back hills. Since the new gym had been built, this area was mostly used for storing broken equipment. It was overgrown with weeds and rarely visited.

Yan Shi liked it there. It was quiet, filled only with inanimate objects, wild grass, and the sounds of insects and birds. It was the only place he felt at peace.

And, it was where his only friend lived: a stray cat.

He had found it while cleaning weeks ago. It was a tiny thing, barely weaned. He didn’t know why it was alone, but it didn’t matter—he understood what it felt like to be a wandering soul with no one to rely on. He began bringing it milk and food, playing with it for a few minutes each day. For Yan Shi, these were rare moments of happiness.

But today, the cat wasn’t waiting for him.

Yan Shi gripped the burn ointment, his heart sinking. He had bought it because yesterday he had noticed burn scars on the cat’s fur. When he had tried to inspect them, the usually friendly creature had fled in terror.

He began calling for it, “Meow… meow…”

Suddenly, he heard a scream—a sharp, agonized feline shriek coming from inside the old gym.

The back door of the gym was technically locked, but the lock was broken; a firm push would open it. Yan Shi thought he was the only one who knew this, but today the door was ajar. From inside came the sounds of laughter, jeering, a girl’s sobbing, and the cat’s desperate cries.

Yan Shi burst inside.

In the vast, dusty hall stood three boys and two girls. The boys wore the same third-year uniforms as Yan Shi; the girls were first-years.

The cat was tied by its limbs and suspended from a piece of old equipment, struggling fruitlessly. A girl stood beside it, trembling and weeping, whispering pleas for them to stop. The other four students surrounded them, pushing the girl and mocking her “justice seeker” attitude.

They were so loud they didn’t notice Yan Shi.

The leader of the group, a handsome boy with a cruel, “innocent” smile, blew a cloud of cigarette smoke into the crying girl’s face.

“I’m just playing with a cat, and you have to interfere? You’re going to tell the teacher?” He sneered. “Since you want to be a hero so bad, fine. I’ll stop playing with the cat. I’ll play with you instead. Happy?”

He grabbed the girl’s arm and turned the glowing cherry of his cigarette toward her pale skin. The girl shrieked and struggled, but two other boys held her still.

The leader laughed, put the cigarette back in his mouth, and shrugged. “See? You don’t like that either. Tell you what—I’m a fair guy. You choose.”

He pointed the cigarette at the girl, then at the cat. “Either I play with you, or I play with the cat. Let’s see if your ‘goodness’ is real or fake.”

He flicked ash onto her shoes. The girl recoiled, sobbing, “No… please… don’t burn me…”

“Oh? Not you? Then the cat it is! Guess your goodness is fake after all.” The leader laughed and shoved the cigarette into the girl’s hand. “Since you chose, you do it. Show the kitty your true face!”

The other boys roared with laughter. A pretty girl standing to the side, watching with her arms crossed, giggled as well.

The crying girl held the cigarette with a shaking hand, paralyzed.

“Do it! If you don’t burn the cat, we burn you!” The leader raised his foot to kick her toward the animal, but suddenly, something struck him hard in the back of the head.

“Ow! Dammit!” He spun around. A broom lay on the floor at his feet. “Who?! Who the hell hit me?!”

Yan Shi was already standing in front of them.

He ignored the boys, walked to the crying girl, and slapped the cigarette out of her hand. Then he went to the cat and carefully untied the ropes. The bullies were stunned by his sheer audacity. By the time they reacted, Yan Shi had the cat in his arms.

He turned to the crying girl, handed her the burn ointment, and said, “Go. Put this on its wounds.”

The girl nodded, clutching the cat, and bolted for the door.

The leader, the one they called “Brother Yu,” signaled to the pretty girl. “Jingyu! Grab them! Don’t let them leave!”

The pretty girl—Tian Jingyu—reached out to grab the fleeing student, but she froze when she met Yan Shi’s gaze. His eyes were like those of a wild wolf—a wolf whose blood had finally been stirred to violence.

Terrified, she hesitated, and the girl with the cat escaped.

“Dammit!” Brother Yu—Yu Junran—was livid. He glared at Yan Shi. “You’re dead today!”

He lunged forward, grabbing Yan Shi’s collar with one hand and swinging a fist at his face with the other.

Yan Shi’s reaction was lightning-fast. He caught Yu Junran’s wrist and twisted. There was a sickening crack of bone. Yu Junran let out a howl of pain.

The two lackeys charged. Yan Shi didn’t let go of Yu Junran; instead, he used his foot to hook the broom off the floor, caught it with his left hand, and swung the handle with a sharp whoosh, driving them back.

As they tried to rush him again, Yan Shi released Yu Junran’s wrist while simultaneously delivering a brutal kick to his groin. Yu Junran collapsed into one of the lackeys, and both went down in a heap.

Yan Shi swung the broom handle again, striking the third boy accurately in the kneecap. The boy fell to his knees, screaming.

The three bullies lay on the floor, groaning in agony. Tian Jingyu stood by the door, shrieking in terror.

Yan Shi rotated his wrist, his eyes cold as he looked down at the three “worms” struggling to crawl away.

“Actually,” Yan Shi said, his voice a low, freezing monotone, “you’re the ones who are dead today.”