When Wenhao went to his class the teacher was already writing something on the board and she turned around when he walked in and her eyes were sharp but she didn't say anything because Wenhao was a Liang and everyone in the school knew what that meant.
Wenhao scanned the room for his seat and that was when he saw her.
Ruifen.
She was sitting in the back corner near the window and she was wearing a new school uniform that fit her properly and her hair was brushed nicely and she looked like she belonged there except for the way her hands were folded on the desk like she was trying to make herself very small.
Wenhao's face changed from tired to cold in less than a second and he walked to his seat without looking at her and sat down and opened his book even though he wasn't going to read it.
Ruifen looked at him and her mouth opened a little like she wanted to say something but then she saw his face and she closed her mouth and looked down at her desk and her shoulders dropped.
The teacher started the lesson and Wenhao stared at the board but he didn't see anything because his brain was full of angry thoughts about his father and secret sisters and why no one ever told him anything.
The whole class passed like that with Wenhao not looking at Ruifen and Ruifen sneaking looks at Wenhao when she thought he wasn't paying attention.
When the break bell rang Wenhao stood up so fast his chair almost fell over and he walked out of the classroom without saying a word to anyone.
He walked down the hallway to Shen Wei's classroom because he wanted to complain about Ruifen and eat the leftover pudding that was still in his bag.
But when he got to the door he saw something that made his blood turn hot.
Three boys had Shen Wei pushed against the back wall near the windows and one of them had his hand on Shen Wei's collar and Shen Wei's glasses were crooked again and his face was pale and he looked exactly like he did on the first day they met.
"Where's your boyfriend now," one of the boys said with a nasty smile. "The rich kid. He's not here to save you now is he."
Shen Wei didn't say anything. He just looked at the floor and waited for them to finish.
The second boy laughed. "He's so weird. Look at his face. Look at his clothes. Why do you even come to school. No one wants you here."
Wenhao stood in the doorway and his hands curled into fists and his jaw tightened and he felt something dark and protective rise up in his chest.
He walked into the room quietly and closed the door behind him and locked it.
The click of the lock made all three boys turn around and when they saw Wenhao their faces went from confident to scared in less than a second.
"Liang," the first boy said and his voice cracked. "We were just.....We were just talking."
Wenhao walked toward them slowly and his footsteps were quiet but every step felt heavy like a warning. "Talking? Is that what you call it?"
The second boy let go of Shen Wei's collar and stepped back. "It was nothing. Just playing around. We're friends right? Me and Shen Wei are friends."
Shen Wei looked up at the boy and his eyes were empty and tired like he had heard that lie a thousand times before.
Wenhao stopped in front of the three boys and he was shorter than two of them but somehow he looked bigger because of the way he stood and the look in his eyes and the cold smile that was growing on his face.
"Friends," Wenhao said slowly like he was tasting the word and finding it rotten. "That's interesting...I have recordings of all of you. I know about the money you took from the first year students last month. I know about the test answers you paid for. I know about the fight behind the gym where you broke that kid's nose."
The boys went very still.
The third boy swallowed hard. "You don't have recordings of that. You're lying."
Wenhao pulled out his phone and held it up and smiled and it was not a nice smile. "Do you want to find out? Should I play them here or should I send them to the principal first? I can do both. I have time."
Shen Wei looked at Wenhao with wide eyes because he knew Wenhao was lying. Wenhao didn't have any recordings. Wenhao barely knew how to use his phone for anything other than ordering food and sending stickers in chat.
But the boys didn't know that.
The first boy's face went gray. "What do you want? Money? I have money. I can pay you."
Wenhao put his phone back in his pocket and crossed his arms. "I don't want your money. I have more money than you."
"Then what do you want?"
Wenhao looked at Shen Wei who was still standing against the wall with his broken glasses and his tired eyes and his scared face that was trying very hard not to look scared.
Wenhao pointed at Shen Wei. "You're going to apologize to him. And you're going to mean it. And then you're going to beg him to forgive you. And if he doesn't forgive you then we stay here all break until he does."
The boys looked at each other and then at Shen Wei and then at Wenhao.
"Beg?" the second boy said like the word was poison in his mouth. "You want us to beg?"
Wenhao pulled out his phone again and held it up. "I want you to beg or I want you to explain to your fathers why you got expelled. Your choice. I'm not hungry so I can wait."
The first boy took a step toward Shen Wei and his face was red with shame and anger but he looked at Wenhao's phone and then at Wenhao's cold eyes and he made his choice.
He bowed his head slightly. "Shen Wei. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have... I shouldn't have said those things."
Shen Wei blinked because he had never heard this boy say sorry in all the years they had been in the same school.
The second boy pushed the first boy aside and bowed lower. "I'm sorry too. I was wrong. You didn't do anything to me. I was just bored and mean and I'm sorry."
The third boy was the one who had his hand on Shen Wei's collar and his voice was shaking when he spoke. "Shen Wei. Please forgive me. I won't touch you again. I won't look at you again. I'll cross the street if I see you coming. Just please don't let him send those recordings."
Wenhao looked at Shen Wei and raised one eyebrow. "Weiwei. What do you think. Should we forgive them."
Shen Wei looked at the three boys who had made his life miserable for so long and they looked small now with their heads bowed and their voices shaking and their hands trembling at their sides.
He thought about all the times he went home with bruises and all the times he ate lunch alone in the bathroom and all the times he wished someone would help him.
And now someone had helped him.
Shen Wei took a deep breath. "I forgive you."
Wenhao's eyes went wide. "Weiwei? You're forgiving them just like that? Make them suffer a little more at least."
Shen Wei shook his head. "I don't want to be like them. I don't want to make people beg. I just want them to leave me alone."
Wenhao looked at Shen Wei for a long moment and then he sighed and put his phone away. "You're too nice Weiwei. It's annoying."
He turned to the three boys and pointed at the door. "You heard him. He forgave you. That's more than you deserve. Now get out of my sight before I change my mind and send the recordings anyway."
The boys ran to the door but the door was locked and they fumbled with the lock for five seconds before Wenhao laughed and walked over and unlocked it for them.
They ran out like their pants were on fire and the door swung shut behind them.
The classroom was quiet now and it was just Wenhao and Shen Wei standing in the empty room with the afternoon sun coming through the windows.
Shen Wei looked at Wenhao and his eyes were wet but he wasn't crying. "You don't have recordings."
Wenhao shrugged. "They don't know that."
"They could have called your bluff. They could have asked to see the recordings."
"But they didn't," Wenhao said with a small smile. "Because people like that are cowards. They hurt people who can't fight back. But when someone bigger comes they fold like paper."
Shen Wei sat down on top of a desk because his legs felt weak and he put his head in his hands. "You locked the door. What if they had attacked you."
Wenhao sat down on the desk next to Shen Wei and their shoulders were almost touching. "Then I would have fought back. And I would have won. And then I would have called my father and he would have ruined their families. So really they should be thanking me for not letting it get that far."
Shen Wei laughed a little even though his heart was still beating too fast. "You're crazy."
"Maybe," Wenhao said and he reached into his bag and pulled out the half cup of leftover pudding. "btw I have pudding. Do you want some."
Shen Wei looked at the pudding and then at Wenhao's face and he laughed again and this time it was real.
"Yes," Shen Wei said. "I want some."
They shared the pudding with one spoon and Wenhao talked about how annoying Ruifen was and Shen Wei listened and ate and didn't say much and the break bell rang again and they still had half the school day left.
But somehow the rest of the day didn't feel so hard anymore.
The last bell rang and Wenhao was already walking toward the front gate with his bag slung over one shoulder and his headphones around his neck and his mind already planning to go straight to Shen Wei's apartment because he had leftover snacks there and he wanted to eat them while lying on Shen Wei's bed and annoying Shen Wei while he did his homework.
But when he walked out of the school gate he saw the black car waiting and he saw Ruifen standing near it with her hands clasped in front of her like she didn't know what to do with them and he was about to turn around and leave through the back gate when he saw someone else.
Xinyi was leaning against the car with her arms crossed and her eyes already looking at him and she had that look on her face that made Wenhao's stomach drop because he knew that look better than anyone.
It was the look that said don't even try.
Wenhao stopped walking and his shoulders dropped because he could ignore his father and he could ignore Ruifen and he could ignore the bodyguards and the servants and everyone else in the world but he could not ignore Xinyi.
No one could ignore Xinyi.
she was the only person in the world that Wenhao was actually scared of.
Not scared like scared of a teacher or scared of getting in trouble. Scared like he would rather eat a thousand terrible eggs than make Xinyi disappointed in him.
"Wenhao," Xinyi said and her voice was calm and sweet and dangerous all at the same time. "Get in the car."
Wenhao looked at the car and then at the back gate and then at Xinyi's face and he knew he had already lost. "Xinyi. I was going to go to Weiwei's apartment."
"I know," Xinyi said and she didn't move from her spot against the car. "But you're not. You're coming home. And you're going to behave like the brother I know you can be."
Wenhao's jaw tightened and he felt the anger bubbling up in his chest again. "You don't understand. Everyone kept secrets from me. You kept secrets from me."
Xinyi pushed herself off the car and walked toward him and her heels clicked on the ground and every click sounded like a warning.
She stopped right in front of him and looked down at his face because she was taller than him and she used that fact whenever she needed to make a point.
"I found out about Ruifen yesterday," Xinyi said and her voice was low and serious. "The same day you did. Father told me right before dinner. I didn't have time to tell you because I was still trying to understand it myself. So don't put me in the same box as him. I am not the enemy here Wenhao."
Wenhao looked at her face and he could tell she was telling the truth because Xinyi had never lied to him not once not ever and he felt some of the anger drain out of his shoulders but not all of it.
"You could have called me," he said and his voice was smaller now. "You could have sent a message."
Xinyi reached out and fixed his collar because it was crooked and the gesture was so familiar and so gentle that Wenhao almost forgot to be mad. "You weren't answering your phone. I called three times. I sent five messages."
"Oh."
"Yes. Oh." Xinyi stepped back and crossed her arms again. "Now get in the car. You can be mad at father all you want. You can be mad at the situation. You can even be mad at me if it makes you feel better. But you will come home and you will eat dinner and you will not make Ruifen feel like garbage because she didn't ask for any of this either."
Wenhao looked past Xinyi at Ruifen who was standing by the car with her head down and her hands still clasped together and she looked so small and so scared and so much like someone who had been rejected her whole life that Wenhao felt a tiny crack in the wall of his anger.
But he didn't want to feel that crack so he looked away and shoved his hands in his pockets.
"Fine," he said quietly. "I'll come. But I'm not talking to her."
Xinyi smiled a little and it was not a happy smile it was the smile of someone who had won a battle and was already planning the next one. "That's fine. You don't have to talk to her. You just have to sit at the same table and breathe the same air. Can you manage that?"
Wenhao glared at her but Xinyi just raised one eyebrow and waited and Wenhao looked away first because he always looked away first with Xinyi.
"Fine," he said again and he walked to the car and got in and sat as far away from Ruifen as possible which meant he was pressed against the left door and she was pressed against the right door and there was a whole empty seat between them.
Ruifen looked at him and opened her mouth like she wanted to say something but then she closed it again because Wenhao had put his headphones on even though there was no music playing and his eyes were fixed on the window.
Xinyi got into the front seat next to the driver and looked at them through the rearview mirror and sighed.
The car started moving and the drive was quiet except for the sound of the engine and the sound of Ruifen breathing very carefully like she was trying not to take up too much space.
After five minutes Wenhao couldn't take the silence anymore because silence with someone you're ignoring is louder than any noise.
He turned his head slightly toward Ruifen but he didn't look at her face. He looked at her hands. They were still clasped together and her knuckles were white.
"Xinyi said you didn't know either," Wenhao said and his voice was cold but it was something at least.
Ruifen looked at him with surprised eyes because she didn't expect him to speak at all. "What."
"About being father's daughter. About being brought here. You didn't know either right. Before your mother died."
Ruifen shook her head slowly. "No. I knew I had a father. My mother told me about him. But I never met him until the end. I didn't know about any of you. I didn't know I had a sister or brothers. I was alone."
Wenhao looked at her for a second and then looked back out the window.
Ruifen's hands unclasped a little and she relaxed into her seat. "I'm sorry..."
Wenhao didn't say anything for a long time and the car kept driving and the city passed by outside the window and Xinyi watched them through the rearview mirror with a small secret smile on her face.