“That way’s XX Road. There’s a place that makes amazing grilled fish.”

“That way’s XX. Their coffee is amazing!”

As we walked, I pointed out all kinds of shops along the street to Liu Su. To be honest, for a proper shut-in like me, when I went out, food was pretty much the only thing I cared about. So I knew all the good restaurants around here like the back of my hand.

“Do you usually not cook at home?” Liu Su asked, seeing how familiar I was with the restaurants around here.

“Yeah. Mom and Dad are both away, and there’s not much point cooking just for myself.” I replied absentmindedly.

But then I noticed Liu Su looking at me strangely.

“Huh? What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?” Her stare had me completely confused. I felt my face, thinking maybe I’d gotten something on it. But there was nothing there, so I asked her, puzzled.

“No. I just think you look like you have a lot of money, but there are still things that make you unhappy.” Liu Su spoke up. “I’ll cook for you from now on. Eating out just isn’t as good as a home-cooked meal.”

“Please. I’m already living off someone else. The money for groceries came from Ji Ruoyan yesterday.” I complained helplessly. There was still a whole year until my next payment came in. And anyway, we were out shopping together, weren’t we? It’d be pretty awkward to say that eating out wasn’t good…

Come to think of it, I’d better make the remaining fifty thousand last. I shouldn’t ask Ji Ruoyan, that she-devil, for money again. Who knew what she’d make me do next?

“Keep going, and once we cross that street, there’s a supermarket. That’s where I usually shop.” I pointed toward the supermarket sign, just visible in the distance, and told Liu Su.

“What’s that?” Liu Su wasn’t looking at the supermarket. She was looking at the crowd gathered by the roadside.

“Where?” I turned to look.

A crowd had gathered on the neighboring street. I wasn’t much for joining a crowd, so I’d ignored it without a second thought. I only noticed when Liu Su pointed it out.

“Let’s not go over there.” As someone who hated crowded places, I was strongly opposed.

“Let’s take a look. Someone might need help.” Liu Su showed the kindness and good sense of a concerned citizen.

“But weren’t we going to buy groceries?” I didn’t want to get involved in other people’s business, so I tried to pull Liu Su away.

“Taking a look won’t take that long.” The crowd wasn’t too dense, and after some effort, we finally squeezed through. Inside, we found ten young men aiming guns that fired plastic BBs at a cat.

The ten had the cat surrounded. Wherever it tried to hide, the people on that side opened fire. Its belly was noticeably swollen, so it might have been pregnant, and it couldn’t get out. The ten of them formed a small circle and were having the time of their lives.

The cat’s cries grew more and more pitiful. Luckily, BB guns weren’t very powerful, so it hadn’t been seriously hurt yet.

Their hair was dyed all sorts of colors. They were the kind of young punks who thought they were free spirits, unbound by society. They were usually pretty bold and fancied themselves loyal friends. Yeah, the so-called “big brothers” some class bullies talked about were guys like these.

The onlookers scolded them, but not one person stepped in to stop them. The punks seemed to love the feeling of being condemned but untouchable, so they only enjoyed themselves even more.

At last, one BB hit the cat on the nose. For cats and dogs, the nose is an especially sensitive spot. The cat let out a scream, covered its nose with a paw, and collapsed on the ground, unable to move.

“Boss, let’s kill it.” One punk raised his gun and aimed at the cat’s eye. BBs weren’t very powerful, but if one hit its eye, it could still kill the cat—and make it lash out in desperation. Judging by what they were doing, this wasn’t the first time they’d pulled something like this.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” I shook my head. What rotten luck, running into this on my first time out with a girl.

Unlike me, standing there with my hands behind my back and sighing, Liu Su clenched her fists, worked up and ready to speak out against this behavior. “I’m going to stop them. This is too much.”

“Huh?!” I stared at the school beauty in surprise. Wow, I hadn’t expected you to have such a strong sense of justice—or to care this much about animals.

“But there are so many of them…” I said quietly, looking at the crowd.

“But…” Liu Su looked at the cat. “It’s suffering.”

“Uh…” I was actually pretty cold-hearted. I kind of wanted to leave. If trouble was too much to handle, the right thing to do was not get involved, wasn’t it?

“I can’t worry about that now!” Liu Su seemed to have made up her mind.

“Stop! What are you doing?” Don’t get the wrong idea: the one shouting those righteous words wasn’t me or Liu Su. It was a girl we didn’t know.

The girl fought her way through the crowd and charged into the circle of ten punks like a mother animal protecting her young. She scooped the cat into her arms. And then… nothing. It looked like she’d acted on a sudden burst of anger.

The cat had just been bullied. When someone suddenly picked it up, it clawed at her without caring whether she meant well or not, scratching the girl’s hand and leaving a long mark.

“Ow, that hurts!” The girl had been caught in the cat’s wild scratching, but she still didn’t let go. She hugged it close, and the sudden pressure only made the cat feel even less safe.

So it scratched her hand some more. What had been one mark turned into a whole stretch of her arm, with blood beginning to seep through. The scene was getting a little gruesome.

“It’s still just an animal. It can’t tell good from bad.”

“Yeah, look. It’s scratched that girl’s hand up.”

The bystanders turned to discussing completely irrelevant things, without giving a thought to the hostile looks the ten punks were giving the girl—or else they were deliberately ignoring the real problem.

“Hey, gorgeous, what are you doing? We’re trying to put down this stray that attacked you. Why are you stopping us?” one punk said with a cheeky grin.

“Exactly! We’re only trying to help, and you scared us. I nearly jumped out of my skin.” One of the punks, clearly the leader, spoke up.

“You just have to keep me company for a while, big bro, and we’ll call it even.” A guy with a mohawk leered at the girl’s ample chest. “Otherwise, I might die of fright.”

“Yeah, yeah!”

“I was pretty scared too. After you’ve kept my big bro company, you’ll have to comfort me as well.”

The punks chimed in one after another, making up this ridiculous story about the girl as if it were a done deal.

“You! You guys…” The girl had rushed in and grabbed the cat on a sudden burst of courage. Now that they were harassing her, she was scared and embarrassed, and could barely get the words out.

“Come on. Let’s hurry up and buy groceries,” I said to Liu Su, who was watching the scene, transfixed.

“You’re not going to help?” She looked at me in disbelief.

“Why should I help?” I looked at her in even greater disbelief. The cat had already been rescued. Were you planning to rescue the girl now too?

“I was wrong about you.” She grumbled and walked over.

I stood there, baffled. What was wrong with staying out of it and protecting myself? There was a whole gang of punks! Get mixed up in something like that, and you’d be stuck with trouble all over you!

While I stood there wondering what to do, Liu Su had already walked over and started yelling at the punks:

“What are you doing? What kind of men gang up on a girl?” She walked over, shoved one of the punks aside, and pulled the girl out of the circle.

The cat seemed to realize that these two were different from the people who’d been tormenting it. It stopped clawing wildly.

Liu Su looked at the girl’s hand with concern. “Does it hurt a lot? Are you okay…?”

Watching Liu Su from outside the circle, I was completely stunned. Was she seriously ignoring those ten punks?

Come on. You might ignore them, but they sure weren’t going to ignore you.

“What men? We’re still boys,” one punk said, trading a knowing look with the others before teasing her. “You wanna help us become men, big sis?” As he said “men,” he deliberately glanced at Liu Su’s chest.

“Don’t you have any manners?” Liu Su glared at them angrily. “Are you even men?”

“Why don’t you find out for yourself?” One of the punks came over and started pawing at Liu Su, as if he meant to drag her away.

“Let go!” Liu Su used one hand to shield the girl behind her and the other to push the punk’s hand away.

Then she turned to me and shouted, “Chu Turan, are you just going to stand there? Help me!”

“Uh…” I covered my forehead, speechless. Damn it. I thought you were going in there to play the hero because you could fight as well as Ji Ruoyan…

The punk looked over at me. “Hey, kid, is this your girl?” This was called striking first!

The other punks immediately started adding fuel to the fire.