Chapter 14: Worth It
The boy spoke slowly and deliberately: “Because the girls like me a lot, the boys say I’m pretending to be cute and disgusting, so they used a blade to cut me…”
“Did you disinfect the wound? Get a shot?” Gu Qinghuan interrupted.
The boy was still smiling. “It was a freshly unwrapped ceramic blade, so it won’t cause tetanus — and besides, I hate injections.”
Gu Qinghuan wanted to pull him along, but was afraid she might touch the wound. “Come with me, I’ll take you to see the student council president.”
She walked quickly to the office building entrance and entered the door code — good, it hadn’t been changed. She gestured for the boy to follow her, took the elevator straight to the sixth floor, found the president’s office, and knocked on the door.
A voice inside said, “Come in.” Gu Qinghuan pushed the door open. “Hello, I’m Gu Qinghuan from Class 3, Year 1. A student has been bullied, and I brought him to report it to the student council.”
The boy followed her lead: “Hello, I’m Xia He from Class 1.”
Standing inside the office was the same boy who had walked ahead of Gu Qinghuan earlier. Now she finally saw his face clearly.
He wore black-rimmed glasses, his hair was neatly styled. Rather than looking cold, his expression was simply emotionless.
He was holding a stack of file folders, seemingly about to place them on a shelf. When he saw Gu Qinghuan and Xia He enter, his expression didn’t change, but he calmly looked at Xia He, who was hiding behind Gu Qinghuan. “You were bullied on campus?”
Xia He’s smile didn’t falter — he looked nothing like someone who had been bullied. “That’s right, it was me.”
To Gu Qinghuan’s surprise, after seeing Xia He, the president sighed heavily, a trace of impatience in his tone. “You again?”
Huh? Gu Qinghuan looked at Xia He in surprise. The latter blinked innocently.
The president pressed a hand to his forehead and said to Gu Qinghuan, “What grade do you think he’s in?”
“No way?” Gu Qinghuan’s lips twitched. “Don’t tell me… Year 2?”
“That’s right.” The president’s reply shattered her hope. “Since Year 1, he’s often claimed to have been bullied. Including you, seven students have been fooled by him.”
Gu Qinghuan covered her forehead with one hand, then dropped it and looked at Xia He. “Give me your hand.”
Xia He obediently extended his left arm.
Gu Qinghuan held his arm and carefully examined the scabs, trying to scrape at the edge with her nail.
A piece of transparent tape lifted up.
She slowly peeled off an extremely realistic scar sticker.
Pinching the sticker between two fingers, she looked at it with an expression that was hard to describe.
Xia He stuck out his tongue. “Oops.”
“What do you mean ‘oops’?!” Gu Qinghuan crumpled the sticker into a ball.
The president said, “You see, he’s not hurt at all — just pulling a prank…”
Before he finished, Gu Qinghuan had already grabbed Xia He’s other arm.
She lowered her head to inspect the scars, not noticing the president’s startled expression, nor the way Xia He’s smile shifted in an instant from innocent cuteness to the excited look of someone who’d just discovered something interesting.
This time, her nail didn’t lift any tape. Instead, it scraped off a bit of scab.
Gu Qinghuan was startled, but confirmed that the skin beneath had healed without bleeding. She softly muttered, “Sorry,” and then turned to the president.
“This is a real wound,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s from bullying or something like self-harm, but in either case, shouldn’t the student council intervene?”
The president was silent for a moment. “I’ll investigate. Gu Qinghuan, right? You can go for now. Xia He, you stay.”
When Gu Qinghuan walked out of the office building, she was unusually dazed.
Why had she come here? To ask how to join the student council, maybe find the president as a backer — so how had it turned into this?!
Wait, did this count as being kicked out? Did she leave a good impression on the president?
Rubbing her temples, she decided she’d better go find Qin Min for advice.
Up in the president’s office on the sixth floor, cheerful humming drifted through the air.
The “president” who had spoken with Gu Qinghuan now looked pained as he set the file folders on the desk and let out a deep sigh. “This is the first time…”
Still humming, Xia He walked to the desk and flopped into the comfortable chair.
Resting his arm on the armrest, his fingers tapped along to the tune like he was playing the piano. “Xiao Bai, you lost~” Xia He grinned brightly.
“My name is Bai Hanshan, please don’t call me Xiao Bai.” Bai Hanshan pushed up his glasses. “A bet’s a bet — I’ll honor it. When you don’t want to handle the president’s work, I’ll fill in for you.”
He glanced at Xia He’s right arm, covered in scars, hesitated to ask, but Xia He met his gaze, his smile stripped of warmth. “Xiao Bai, don’t stick your nose into my business.”
“…Got it.” Bai Hanshan looked away.
He’d always thought it was just a game Xia He played to test people’s hearts. He’d seen Xia He put scar stickers on his arm before — but thinking carefully, it was always the left arm.
What was even more surprising was that girl named Gu Qinghuan.
Even knowing she’d been tricked, suspecting the scars were fake and proving it, she still hadn’t given up — she’d gone to check his other arm.
From his pocket, Xia He took out his phone, humming as he messaged Qin Min.
Xia He: (o^^o)♪
Qin Min: Met her?
Xia He: I like her! Super like!
Qin Min: She’s not a toy.
Xia He: （｀Δ´）！I found her! She’s mine!
Xia He: Once she joins the student council, you won’t be able to stop me!
Qin Min rubbed his temples. Sure, he’d expected Gu Qinghuan to win Xia He’s favor — but this seemed beyond his predictions.
Qin Min: What did she do to make you like her so much?
Xia He: ɿ(｡･ɜ･)ɾ Not telling you!
Unwilling to argue with this childish guy, Qin Min turned to Gu Qinghuan’s messages. Since she had a lot to say, she’d sent several long voice notes.
As he listened, Qin Min almost wanted to hold his head.
In the past, Xia He had fooled plenty of people with his deceptively harmless appearance. And now he was playing the same game on Gu Qinghuan — it was only because she was an outsider that she fell for it.
But when she mentioned discovering that the scars on Xia He’s other arm were real, Qin Min froze.
He still hadn’t broken his self-harming habit?
Qin Min opened Xia He’s chat box, wanting to type something, but gave up.
From her account, the wounds were just scratches now — far better than a few years ago. Best to leave that to a psychologist.
He switched back to Gu Qinghuan’s chat and reassured her: [I asked, and he’s very satisfied with you. He should contact you soon.]
Gu Qinghuan: [Really? I found a backer? That easy?]
Qin Min: [Yes. Have confidence in yourself.]
Still a bit incredulous, Gu Qinghuan poked her system: [System, you didn’t take more of my future luck again, did you?]
The system, looking at Xia He’s data in the background, replied with mixed feelings: [No.]
It had underestimated its host — no, mainly her unusual way of thinking, which most people simply didn’t have.
System: [Why did you check Xia He’s other arm after finding the sticker?]
Gu Qinghuan: [Because he only showed me one arm, but when he first told me he’d been bullied, he’d shown both. I thought he was deliberately avoiding it.]
System: [Just for that?]
Gu Qinghuan: [Yeah. If I have a suspicion, I’ll check — it doesn’t take long.]
If it’s fake, that’s great. But if it’s real? I don’t want to miss that possibility.
If spending just a few minutes might change someone’s fate, there’s nothing more worth it.
