After leaving the office, Lin Fan felt a bit lost. She gazed at the distant sky, feeling as if she had returned to her first year of junior high, but this time without her grandmother by her side.

She stood there for a long time, but couldn't come up with a solution.

Back in the classroom, as the exam results were announced, her classmates at the adjacent desks were chatting. When they saw Lin Fan approaching, they smirked sarcastically.

"I thought you did well? Seems like it was just because your previous school was low-tier."

"How high could the standards be in the countryside anyway?"

They laughed mockingly, their words piercing.

Lin Fan's performance in the exam was disappointing. As she reviewed her mistakes on the paper, she felt as though the eyes of the whole world were on her.

In the afternoon, Dong Miao didn't show up for class.

Lin Fan kept her head buried in her textbooks. She couldn't accept the fact that her grades were poor. From junior high to high school, she had always been one of the top students in her class.

Studying was her only strength. She had nothing else, just grasping onto her grades.

"Why did the teacher call you?" Lin Fan looked up to see Xu Zhou sitting across from her; there were no teachers left in the staff room.

"Dong Miao got badly burnt, it's serious," Lin Fan smiled, not wanting to reveal her embarrassment to outsiders. "I'm fine."

Xu Zhou placed a bag of sandwiches on Lin Fan's desk. "My dad runs a clinic. If you need medical help, I can help."

Lin Fan looked at his face and hesitated for a moment before saying, "Really?"

"I can waive the fee, but it has to be reasonable. Whether it's serious or not isn't determined by her, but by the doctor."

Lin Fan licked her lips, feeling like there might be a way out of her predicament. "How do I explain this to the teacher?"

"I'll talk to the teacher. We'll go to my dad's clinic, and I won't charge you," Xu Zhou said.

Lin Fan almost wanted to kneel down to him. She hadn't known Xu Zhou for long, but he had helped her a lot. The first time everyone on the bus mocked her, he stood up for her.

"I still have to pay for the medical expenses, thank you."

"I'll go talk to the homeroom teacher. Making a mistake in one exam isn't a big deal; don't take it to heart."

"I know, thank you."

Xu Zhou stood up, suddenly smiling at Lin Fan. He was wearing a shirt and sweater, with a simple jacket on top, looking quite handsome. "Keep going!"

Lin Fan's nose tingled. She stood up, and Xu Zhou pointed to the pancakes on the table. "Remember to eat; we still have classes tonight."

Lin Fan didn't know what Xu Zhou had said to the teacher, but the matter seemed to settle down. The next morning, Dong Miao came to class, and there was no further mention of compensation from Lin Fan.

At noon, Lin Fan wanted to treat Xu Zhou to a meal. Xu Zhou quickly finished the last question, put down his pen, and stood up. "Cafeteria?"

"Outside. What do you want to eat? My treat."

Xu Zhou raised his eyebrows. "Hmm... noodles?"

"I'll treat you to hotpot."

Xu Zhou hesitated for a moment before saying, "There's a spicy hotpot place near the school, similar to hotpot."

Mainly because it's cheaper.

As Lin Fan and Xu Zhou walked out of school, she asked, "What happened? How did she suddenly recover?"

Xuzhou tugged at the corner of his mouth, "Just to make things difficult for you. Can restaurant soup scald you? Jumping into it for a bath wouldn't hurt either."

Lin Fan, surprised to hear Xuzhou say so much, asked, "Then why didn't she come to class yesterday?"

Xuzhou, with one hand in his pocket, replied, "There can only be one first and one second in the grade. Why did she come to class today? If there's no ghost, she can continue extorting."

"Really?"

"I called her yesterday, told her my dad saw her case at the central hospital, and then she panicked."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Did your dad really see it?"

Xuzhou stopped in his tracks, scrutinizing Lin Fan for a moment. "Why are you so naive? It's a bluff!"

Lin Fan was speechless.

Xuzhou had OCD. He felt uncomfortable during the meal and started wiping the table and washing the dishes as soon as he entered. When the spicy hotpot arrived, he took a few bites and then put down his chopsticks.

"How about I treat you to something else?"

"I'm full."

Xuzhou got up to ask the boss for water. The boss handed him the water, and he took it with two fingers pinching the bottle cap.

Then there was the lengthy process of wiping the bottle and its cap. It looked tiring.

Lin Fan quickly finished eating and put down his chopsticks. "I'm done eating, let's go home."

Xuzhou almost fled the restaurant. The two of them walked, one in front and one behind, not even ten meters out.

Xuzhou suddenly stopped, swiftly blocking Lin Fan's path, and adjusted his glasses. "What are you guys doing?"

Lin Fan looked up to see six boys blocking their way. She recognized the leader, the guy who pushed her in the cafeteria, Dong Miao's boyfriend.

"This is the school gate." Xuzhou protected Lin Fan, stepping back, giving her a meaningful look.

Letting her go.

Gao Wei pushed Xuzhou aside, causing him to fall to the ground, his glasses falling off just as he reached for them. Gao Wei stepped on the glasses and raised a finger. "Get lost, I'm not here for you today, don't stir up trouble."

Xuzhou paused for a few seconds, then got up and punched Gao Wei. Gao Wei, tall and sturdy, raised his leg to kick, causing Xuzhou to fall again. Lin Fan's mind went blank. She turned and ran back to grab a beer bottle piled up by the shopkeeper at the door and sprinted back.

"Lin Fan?"

Lin Fan threw the beer bottle at Gao Wei's head with all her might. The bottle didn't break, but his head started bleeding.

Gao Wei was enraged, slapping Lin Fan across the face. Lin Fan dodged, then kicked Gao Wei's knee with all her strength, causing him to kneel down. She then swiftly punched him in the face. With a scream, Lin Fan threw the beer bottle away, grabbed the fallen Xuzhou, and ran towards the school.

"Chase them! Are you all idiots? What did I pay you for?"

"Stop! Don't run!"

The idiot stood still, while Lin Fan dashed away with a gust of wind under her feet, leaving Xuzhou stumbling behind.

A black jeep approached at high speed, screeching to a halt. Someone inside shouted, "Lin Fan?"

Lin Fan quickly stopped, while Xuzhou bent over, panting heavily. Lin Fan turned around to see Qin Feng pushing open the car door and stepping out with a baton, striding over. "What's going on?"

Lin Fan acted quickly, pulling Xuzhou behind Qin Feng. "They're assaulting people!"

"Don't stir up trouble, or you might get beaten up too!" Several thugs sneered, "Do you know what this little girl did?"

Qin Feng took out handcuffs. "Want to spend a few days in jail?"

The intimidating five instantly froze, then exchanged glances and quickly knelt down, holding their heads, their movements practiced. "It's all a misunderstanding. Gao Wei paid us just to have a chat with the girl, we didn't lay a hand on her."

"Misunderstanding my ass." Qin Feng threw the baton back into the car, his gaze falling on the person lying on the ground behind them, blood pooling around him. "Who did that?"

They all looked at Lin Fan. Lin Fan, catching her breath, said, "I acted in self-defense."

The atmosphere suddenly grew heavy.

Qin Feng swallowed back the words on the tip of his tongue, took out his phone, and dialed 120. "Someone is injured at Jiangcheng First High School, yes, at the entrance."

After hanging up, he looked at the boy next to Lin Fan, who quickly looked away and lowered his head.

In less than five minutes, officers from the nearby police station arrived and took the thugs away in a police car. Gao Wei was taken to the hospital by an ambulance. Qin Feng and the officers exchanged a few words before he walked over and extinguished the cigarette in his hand.

"Lin Fan."

Xuzhou instinctively tugged at Lin Fan's arm. Lin Fan turned around. "It's okay, why don't you go back to the classroom first?"

She sensed that Qin Feng had something to discuss, otherwise, he wouldn't have come looking for her.

"You acted in self-defense, you did nothing wrong." Xuzhou gritted his teeth, glaring at Qin Feng. "Who is he?"

"He's a cop."

Qin Feng raised his wristwatch. "Sorry for the delay of five minutes."

As the police car left, Xuzhou looked at Lin Fan for a moment before turning and running back to the campus.

"Officer Qin, what's up?" Lin Fan asked.

"What officer? I'm Qin Feng. Is he your boyfriend?" Qin Feng pulled out a piece of evidence bag from the car. "Ordinary classmates don't blush like that."

The wind was strong, blowing Lin Fan's hair all over her face.

Lin Fan rubbed her face hastily, unable to determine if she was blushing, and dared not look at the adjacent car window.

Opening the bag of powder, the wind blew the foul-smelling powder into their faces, and they quickly closed it.

Running to the other side and opening the door, Qin Feng glanced at the school gate, where that boy was still watching.

Getting into the car and closing the window.

"Is it the same?"

Lin Fan nodded and returned the bag, rubbing her nose. "It smells like a decaying corpse."

Qin Feng opened the bag and took a sniff but couldn't smell anything. However, it was indeed human remains.

"Have you smelled a decaying corpse before?"

Lin Fan choked, "I've smelled rotten things before." There were still remnants on Lin Fan's fingers, which she observed. "What exactly is this?"

"It's human remains, but after decay and then burned."

Lin Fan froze for a moment, then shook off the powder on her hands and wiped herself vigorously.

Qin Feng's eyebrows raised, feeling pleased.

"That's not right." Lin Fan turned to Qin Feng. "Cremated remains don't smell like this."

"It's a centuries-old wet corpse, been fermenting for quite some time." Qin Feng put the bag back. They found a Ming Dynasty tomb unearthed in the city center of Jiangcheng. The body had not decayed for a hundred years, but suddenly combusted on its way to the research center. These were the remains found at the scene. "It's not a fresh corpse."

Lin Fan shuddered, feeling sick to her stomach. Goosebumps covered her body as she opened the car door. "I'll leave first."

"What about the fight just now? What happened?"

Lin Fan hesitated for a moment, pursed her lips, and turned to Qin Feng. "If I said I'm innocent, would you believe me?"

"You were involved in a fight, how can you claim innocence?"

Lin Fan recounted the incident, saying, "That's what happened."

"What's the name of the classmate you were with just now?"

"Who?" Lin Fan didn't expect him to suddenly change the topic, but quickly adapted. "You mean Xuzhou?"

"Xuzhou?"

"Yes, his name is Xuzhou."

"Get off the car."

Qin Feng's phone rang, and Lin Fan pushed open the car door, turning back. "You're not going to make me pay, are you?"

Qin Feng raised his voice, "I'll handle it, go."

Lin Fan smiled, her eyes twinkling. "Thank you, Uncle Qin."

Qin Feng's hand holding the phone paused for a moment, almost kicking Lin Fan out of the car.