Perhaps things reach their extreme and then reverse, because someone at the table burst into laughter, and then, like an avalanche, the whole group of teenagers laughed like a bunch of silly geese.
Sitting among a group of idiots laughing so hard they were practically slumped over, wishing they could bury their faces in their plates, Qin Chu's forehead was practically covered in question marks.
Sure enough, he could never figure out the logic behind these little brats' behavior.
Zhao Yuan sat next to him, propping his forehead with one hand, and kept laughing.
Qin Chu could tell very clearly that the first suppressed laugh came from beside him.
He glanced at Zhao Yuan and couldn't help but ask, "What are you laughing at?"
"I'm laughing at how cute you are." Zhao Yuan was incredibly bold, and although it didn't suit his usual style, he couldn't help but tease Qin Chu.
He had barely finished speaking when he saw Qin Chu stretch out his long leg and kick him.
"Hey, hey, stop!" Zhao Yuan quickly said. "This chair can't withstand your kicking. What if you break it?"
Qin Chu barely managed to stop himself from walking on the edge of the chair.
After the laughter subsided, the atmosphere became surprisingly relaxed. The class representative, who had been laughing so hard that tears were streaming down his face, immediately pulled up a pitcher of beer from under the table: "Hurry up and eat, eat, eat! Forget about being happy, eating is the important thing. This skewer will get cold if you don't eat it soon."
As he talked, he stuffed beer into the hands of the male classmates around him, having a good time without even looking who was who. When he pushed a beer can across the table and no one took it, he looked up and realized that he had almost shoved the can into Qin Chu's face.
The class monitor: "..." Sure enough, getting carried away with one's success is deadly; he's probably doomed.
Qin Chu stared at the can of beer for a while, then looked up and asked, "Drinking? Are you an adult?"
It was like being caught doing something wrong by the teacher. The academic representative looked around nervously, then slapped the sports representative next to him: "I'm asking you! Who told you to order the beer? Are you an adult?!"
The sports committee member, who was enjoying some skewers, almost plunged headfirst into the sauce. He looked up blankly and said, "I'm well over eighteen! Why are you asking my age? Do you want to see...?"
The class monitor was startled: "Damn it, there are girls here, what the hell are you talking about!"
Qin Chu stared at them for two seconds, then unexpectedly thought of the group of idiots under his command.
"Never mind." Qin Chu shook his head and didn't ask any more questions. He reached out and took the can of beer. But he didn't open it; he never touched anything that could be addictive.
"Tsk, why do you care whether other people drink or not?"
Zhao Yuan picked up the can of beer and looked at it. Instead of eating like the others, he propped his head up with one hand and looked at Qin Chu.
In terms of looks and demeanor alone, his deskmate resembled the standard disciplinary committee member in the teacher's eyes. He was serious and never smiled, wore his school uniform impeccably, and even his back was ramrod straight.
It is a very special posture and temperament, which at first glance seems to be the embodiment of rules.
But Zhao Yuan wouldn't think that way, because he had personally witnessed his deskmate stealing cars at the drop of a hat and using his phone as a brick to hit people.
These two images are somewhat contradictory, one being indifferent and restrained, and the other being unruly and arrogant.
"Hey deskmate, are you even an adult? If you're going to say that, does that mean you can't even drink beer?"
"Shut up, eat your food." Qin Chu glared at him.
Having played the role of a drama queen for so long, Zhao Yuan was now a little conflicted. He really wanted to tease his stern-faced deskmate with a drink. Driven by some inexplicable childishness, he even wanted to show off his drinking capacity.
But this is inconsistent with his usual image at school.
On one hand, he wanted to tease Qin Chu, and on the other hand, he wanted to maintain his image. These two thoughts collided, unexpectedly causing some ripples in Zhao Yuan's heart.
Soon Zhao Yuan will no longer have to worry about it.
His phone vibrated twice; it was a message from Yang Ge.
Never-Setting Sun: Boss! I see you guys! So close...
Not only did he type, but he also sent two pitiful emojis, which disgusted Zhao Yuan to death.
He glanced at Qin Chu beside him and felt that he needed to go out for some fresh air. Helping Brother Yang with some matters wouldn't be a big problem.
Although Qin Chu's main task today was to protect Zhou Sisi and Wang Peng, he still asked Zhao Yuan, "What are you going to do?" when he saw him sitting down.
"The restroom." Zhao Yuan took a couple of steps, still feeling a little uneasy. He took a couple more steps, then couldn't help but circle back, leaning behind Qin Chu and asking, "Hey, deskmate, wanna come with me?"
"roll."
After hearing Qin Chu curse, Zhao Yuan felt inexplicably relieved. He took his phone, strolled out of the barbecue stall, and headed towards the place he had arranged to meet Yang Ge.
There were many people at the table, and when they got into the mood for eating, they couldn't help but chat loudly.
The girls were alright; they chatted together, and even when they got excited, they knew to keep their voices down. But these teenagers were different. After drinking some beer, their voices were practically screaming to the heavens.
"I heard that outsiders have been coming over these past few days and have even gotten into fights with thugs from outside our school."
"So who won?"
"What's the point of winning? They only sent a couple of people here..."
“My brother said that the people outside are not on the same level as the thugs in our neighborhood. They are real gangsters.”
"I also heard that the guy outside our school, Meng Bo, seems to have connections with people outside."
Qin Chu barely touched the skewers in front of him, but he listened to a lot of different things.
The surrounding area was unsafe, and the students of No. 1 Middle School suffered from all kinds of hooligans, but they couldn't help but admire these seemingly cool and arrogant hooligans.
Qin Chu had already pieced together a fairly accurate picture of the distribution of these thugs' influence just by listening to their boasts these past few days.
Zhongjie refers to the street in front of the school, and the gang leader is Yang Ge, the one who stepped on his phone. Houjie is the street where he rescued Zhou Sisi; that land belongs to Meng Bo.
Most of these hooligans are children of local residents who dropped out of school and formed this group, engaging in petty escapades on a daily basis.
Meanwhile, the group outside the street who usually disdain to argue with students are causing the merchants on the street a lot of trouble.
While keeping a close eye on Zhou Sisi, Qin Chu was mentally simulating several "bandit suppression" plans.
After observing Qin Chu's thought process for a while, Noah couldn't help but remind him, "Beep beep, sir, you're a senior in high school now, and a top student at that."
Let's forget about fixing public order.
"You're making a mountain out of a molehill." Overall, these children are quite well-behaved.
Qin Chu glanced at the corner where Zhou Sisi was. The girl was flipping through a picture book with the girl next to her. They were laughing so hard that their eyes were almost closed when they talked about something they were happy with. They didn't seem like they were in a puppy love relationship at all.
What Qin Chu was more concerned about was Wang Peng. This kid was usually a loudmouth with a full charge, shouting at the top of his lungs after class and never forgetting to respond to the teacher during class.
But today he was unexpectedly silent, not chatting with the people around him, holding a beer can and glancing at Zhou Sisi from time to time.
He looked like he was tormented by love.
Noah sighed, "Is this the allure of love? Being unable to focus on another person seems to be human nature, something we artificial intelligence can never understand."
没跟他讨论什么爱情的魔力，秦楚看着汪鹏言简意赅：“就是欠揍了。”
Noah: "..."
It seems there's really something going on between Zhou Sisi and Wang Peng.
Wang Peng stared at Zhou Sisi without saying a word, but when Zhou Sisi glanced over unintentionally, he turned his head, stood up, and left the table under the pretext of getting juice.
There weren't many entertainment venues in the small streets and alleys, but a simple barbecue was enough to turn the lives of these high school seniors who were immersed in their exam questions upside down.
As people ate, drank, and had fun, dusk fell, and the inky blackness spread across the sky, making the dim lights of the barbecue stalls appear even brighter.
Qin Chu looked at the empty chair next to him, wondering why this guy was taking so long to go to the toilet, when he heard the sound of a wine bottle falling to the ground from the table behind him, followed by a slight commotion.
"Damn it, how are you walking? Didn't you see my bottle?"
"Damn it, what are you doing?"
Upon hearing the last sentence, Qin Chu frowned and turned to look.
It wasn't Zhao Yuan who came back; it was Wang Peng who got into trouble.
The barbecue stall was already crowded, and Wang Peng seemed to be in a bad mood today. When he came back with the juice, he seemed to have knocked over a bottle of wine from the next table.
Seeing this, Qin Chu's table fell silent. The class committee members hadn't expected this to happen, and they looked at each other, somewhat at a loss.
"What are you doing? My wine bottle was right here, and you just knocked it over without saying anything. Aren't you going to give me an explanation?"
The speaker was a fat man, quite muscular. He was fine when sitting, but now that he stood up, he could practically split Wang Peng in two. With a push from him, Wang Peng stumbled.
Wang Peng, that guy, was tough. He wasn't scared and retorted, "Bullshit! Your bottle was clearly empty!"
"Oh, you think it's empty just because you say so? Do you think I'm blind?"
As things escalated, the class committee members could no longer remain seated.
The people at the next table didn't look like good guys at all. They recognized several of the people there; they were clearly thugs who frequented the area around the school. And there were quite a few of them; they were also sharing a table, and a quick glance revealed at least a dozen people.
The class committee members stood up and discussed it. Zhou Sisi, as the class monitor, instinctively wanted to go over, but was stopped by the two boys, the academic representative and the sports representative.
"Class monitor, please sit down. How can you girls be involved in something like this?"
In the end, the class monitor and the sports monitor went over. The other boys in the class couldn't sit still any longer and followed them.
They were all young men who had just come of age. Although they were already aware of their responsibilities, they were still a little intimidated by this group of thugs. But there was a group of girls at the table behind them, and they couldn't just hide behind them like cowards.
Upon closer inspection, it became apparent that the fat man in the lead had tattoos on his body and did not appear to be their age.
The class monitor's legs couldn't help but tremble slightly.
He was afraid when facing Qin Chu. But that fear was more of a deep-seated feeling that this man's aura was incredibly powerful, rather than the sense of crisis he felt now.
For some reason, even if Qin Chu's face was cold, so cold it was like ice crystals were falling off, he was certain that Qin Chu wouldn't do anything to them, but he was completely different when facing these thugs.
Despite her fear, the class representative, as the organizer of the gathering, mustered her courage and said to the fat man, "Brother, our classmates accidentally spilled your drinks, it was our fault. How about this, I'll treat everyone to drinks, okay?"
The fat man chuckled when he saw the trembling students, revealing a mouthful of teeth blackened and yellowed by cigarette smoke: "Little brother, you're getting the hang of it! Why don't you treat us all to a meal?"
Upon hearing this, the class representative hesitated. The fat guy's table had eaten several times more than theirs, and barbecue was already expensive...
Before he could answer, a short man next to the fat man sneered and said, "Now you're admitting defeat? You were calling him Meng Bo so enthusiastically just now, weren't you?"
Upon hearing this, several boys in the class immediately turned pale.
Qin Chu, who had been watching closely, immediately understood that this had nothing to do with whether Wang Peng had knocked over the bottle. The people at this table had overheard their conversation and were deliberately causing trouble.
The fat man laughed too: "I see you guys are quite interested in us, why don't you join us for some fun?"
As he spoke, he stretched out his striped, patterned arm and reached out to put his arm around the class monitor's neck.
Zhou Sisi and a group of girls didn't hesitate. They huddled together and whispered, asking if anyone had a cell phone, clearly wanting to call the police. But having lived in this kind of environment for so long, they knew that calling the police wouldn't solve the immediate problem.
Just as Zhou Sisi was about to cry, she looked up and saw that the fat man's arm was not on the class monitor.
Just like the scene that appeared in front of her in the alley that day, an arm covered by a blue and white school uniform steadily supported the fat man's arm and pulled the class monitor back.