CH 816

I was angry and wanted to chase the elementary school student who broke the streetlight, but I was stopped by Gong CaiCai’s cries.

“Eyes… my eyes!”

I was really scared when I saw Gong CaiCai rub her eyes because I thought she got some broken shards of glass in her eyes, but later realized it was just some dust.

The elementary school student with the red scarf who was hiding in the green belt knew they were in trouble once they saw Gong CaiCai bend over to cover her eyes. They immediately turned around and ran away.

“Damn elementary school student!” I waved my fist towards his back, “The next time I catch you, I’m going to kick you into a pile of shit!”

I would have already caught them if I didn’t have to keep an eye on Gong CaiCai. I was also careful and reminded myself I shouldn’t fall for the enemies’ attempt to lure me away.

“Again?” The old security guard on duty came running out with a flashlight when he saw the streetlight in front of the school go out.

“Stop, you slingshot brat, that’s already the third time this month!”

The old security guard was furious and chased the kid, but the kid was too fast and you couldn’t be absent from your post as a security guard for too long, so I doubt the kid would get caught.

I also took out my Swiss Army knife with the flashlight function from my bag and illuminated the surroundings that suddenly became dark because the streetlight went out.

“Does your eyes hurt?” I asked Gong CaiCai, “Is it serious?”

“No, no it’s not serious…” Gong CaiCai struggled to open her left eye, “I accidentally dropped my contact lenses when rubbing my eyes earlier. I found one of them, but I think the other one fell on the ground…”

I waved the flashlight around the ground, but didn’t see the contact lens. It’s easy to lose track of transparent contact lenses even in the daytime, let alone in the dark night where there’s an absence of streetlights.

Gong CaiCai’s luck wasn’t that bad, because she actually found it by squatting down and randomly feeling around the ground.

But in any case, those contact lenses were contaminated with sand and dirt. It was impossible to wear them until they get cleaned.

“Shoot, I didn’t bring any spare glasses today…”

After fumbling around in her bag for a while, Gong CaiCai’s expression made it look like something bad happened.

Gong CaiCai, who was severely nearsighted, had very poor vision, to the extent that people and dogs were indistinguishable to her from 50 meters away.

She didn’t have spare glasses and she couldn’t use her contact lenses, which meant that she had to go home without being able to see the road clearly.

Fortunately, her father was coming to pick her up, otherwise I wouldn’t have been comfortable letting her go home on her own.

“The streetlight is broken, so let’s move to a brighter place.” I suggested while reaching out to help Gong CaiCai who was half crouched on the ground.

Gong CaiCai subconsciously held my hand and stood up with my help, but she immediately shrank her hand back afterwards as if she was bitten by a snake.

“I’m sorry, it’s not that I hate you. I was afraid that Xiao Qin classmate would see us holding hands.” Gong CaiCai was afraid that I would misunderstand and explained in a panic, “It would also be bad to be seen by the class leader, actually it would be bad to be seen by anyone…”

Gong CaiCai’s ankle was already injured and she was distracted when explaining herself, so when she stood up, she lost balance and fell backward.

I reacted quickly and instantly grabbed Gong CaiCai’s forearm and stopped her from falling down, but it made her even more embarrassed.

“Hey, you can’t see the road clearly and you’re injured, just take my hand until we get to the next streetlight.”

I don’t think that we, the current generation, should comply to the old ideas of “men and women should not have physical contact”.

It was very normal for men and women to hold hands or something. Gong CaiCai was overthinking it and was way too conservative.

But after Gong CaiCai stood up properly, she still didn’t touch my hand. She looked at me timidly as she pulled her arm away.

“I guess there’s no other choice.” I took off my bag, “If you don’t want to hold my hands, you can grab onto one of the straps on my bag and I’ll lead the way.”

Gong CaiCai tried to move her injured right foot, but the stinging pain caused her to wince.

“Sorry, I might need to borrow some of your strength. If it is convenient, can I pull on the corner of your jacket.”

She begged as she looked at me with her Bambi-like eyes.

“What a nuisance.” I complained, but when I saw Gong CaiCai lower her head in fear and it looked like tears were about to come out of her eyes, I immediately realized that I was a bit harsh with my words.

A girly girl was hard to resist unlike tomboys like Winnie. Sometimes when I called Winnie an idiot, she would curse right back at me. If I called Gong CaiCai an idiot, I might cause her irreparable harm.

“Okay, okay, don’t cry at every little thing.” I said to Gong CaiCai, “If you want to pull on the corner of my clothes, then just pull the corner. Our school uniform is quite wide, so the corner should be easy to find.”

So, because of Gong CaiCai’s conservative idea that “men and women should not have physical contact”, the process of moving to another streetlight became very inefficient and hilarious.

I walked in front and led the way, while Gong CaiCai, who didn’t have her contact lenses, weakly reached out and grabbed the corner of my school uniform. She moved in unison with me as if I was the mother duck and she was the baby duck.

I intentionally slowed down my pace so that Gong CaiCai could keep up with my speed. She completely relied on me to offset the negative impacts of her foot injury.

Honestly, I wouldn’t have the patience to move slowly like this if this happened back then. I might have just picked up Gong CaiCai and transported her like how I carried the class leader to the infirmary.

However, that would be too much of a shock to Gong CaiCai. I also wanted to avoid putting more stress on my heart, so it was fine to act like a mother duck since no one was around to see it anyway.

It was less than 20 steps for me from the broken streetlight to the next working streetlight, but it would be at least 40 steps for the injured Gong CaiCai.

Due to the awkward atmosphere, the walk was unusually long. I held the Swiss Army Knife flashlight in front while Gong CaiCai was behind me and held onto my uniform. It kind of felt like I was taking my daughter to kindergarten.

“Ye Lin classmate is so tall…” Gong CaiCai murmured from behind, “I’m so short… I wish I could grow taller too…”

“Do you think you could grow taller by joining the Happy Science Church? Don’t be ridiculous.” I couldn’t help but spit out, “The Happy Science Church are all liars. They acquire personal information of their followers in order to pretend to be a god and appear to be all-knowing.”

I could feel Gong CaiCai gripping my clothes tighter as if she had to build up more confidence in order to retort.

“Um… Ye Lin classmate, the Happy Science Seminar isn’t a religion, also how did they get everyone’s personal information?”

I was left momentarily speechless. I couldn’t tell Gong CaiCai the secret that Fang Xin and Professor Bai was eavesdropping on them through their phones. If Gong CaiCai leaks it, then it would be detrimental to my plan to infiltrate the Happy Science Cult.

So I could only say: “Anyway, the Happy Science Seminar is a cult, you will find out about all their tricks in the future. Anyway, you’re not allowed to preach for them in school, aren’t you afraid of the class leader finding out?”

I noticed Gong CaiCai tremble a little through the hand that was pulling on the corner of my uniform.

“Don’t, don’t tell the class leader, or she’ll look at me with very disappointed eyes… I don’t want to see that kind of look from the class leader…”

“Huh, so you are self-aware. In that case, why not simply quit the Happy Science Cult.”

Gong CaiCai was unexpectedly stubborn when it came to the Happy Science Cult.

“But, but the class leader is different from me. She’s already very tall and doesn’t need to use the ‘law of attraction’ to change her figure. I can’t, I’ve tried so many height increasing methods and… always failed…”

Gong CaiCai probably didn’t say “breast reduction methods”. She always struggled with the fact that her breasts were too big just as she struggled with the fact that she was too short.

“By the way.” I was suddenly curious since we were talking about the class leader, so I asked, “Gong CaiCai, didn’t you confess to the class leader during summer vacation? Did she give you a response afterwards.”

Gong CaiCai blushed, probably recalling the time she was awakened by the class leader’s CPR and then in a daze, she said that she “wanted to marry the class leader in the future”.

“The class leader promised to be my best friend for life. She told me to not be influenced by Zhuang Ni and develop strange interests…”

Gong CaiCai seemed quite disappointed.

“Sometimes I think that it would have been better if the class leader was a boy, or if I was the class leader’s sister. Ever since I received help from the class leader, I feel like I have become dependent on her and can’t leave her anymore…”

Gong CaiCai spoke her mind to me, the person who was leading the way, in the middle of a silent and deserted street.

“Attending the Happy Science Seminar was because I wanted to become more cheerful. Otherwise, I don’t know how I’ll live if I’m separated from the class leader in the future…”

I really didn’t expect Happy Science to occupy such an important place in Gong CaiCai’s heart. It seems like we can’t be too rough when trying to make Gong CaiCai leave the cult, we have to move slowly.

Right as we walked under the working streetlight, a white sedan drove over and stopped at the side of the street.

“I think… it’s my dad’s car.” Gong CaiCai narrowed her eyes, “Ye Lin classmate, can you get on with me. I’ll ask my dad to take you home too, okay?”