After Being Reborn, I Had A Bad Ending With My First Love. - Chapter 17

When Yan Sui came out of the alley, she had already forced herself to calm down.

She kept silently repeating in her mind the purpose of her return.

She walked in the direction of the school, with Yu Shuli following behind her. He didn’t ask where she was going—he just followed her. They entered the campus again, walked through the school corridors, and arrived at the office of the senior-year head teacher.

At this time, the office lights were still on. Yan Sui knocked on the door and heard a voice from inside say, “Please come in.”

She opened the door and stepped inside. “Teacher, my classmate and I were surrounded by some senior students after school.”

The sudden statement made the head teacher adjust his glasses and say seriously, “Could you explain it more clearly, please?”

Yan Sui recounted everything that had happened in the area she was responsible for, including today’s incident, and mentioned that she had already reported the matter to her homeroom teacher on the day it occurred.

After finishing, she let Yu Shuli step forward to add some details.

But actually, there was no need for Yu Shuli to say much—the head teacher could already guess the sequence of events just by seeing the various injuries on his body.

He took note of their class and names and assured them that the matter would be properly handled.

He said, “The school is your strong backing. I am glad you dared to speak up instead of keeping it inside. Don’t worry; I will make sure you get justice.”

But Yan Sui took words like “backing” as left ear in, right ear out.

The reason she brought Yu Shuli to see the head teacher was twofold: first, to leave a record of Yu Shuli at the teacher’s office, so that if any trouble came later, old and new incidents could be addressed together; second, to draw out the person she was after.

Thinking of this, Yan Sui’s expression darkened.

She hadn’t intended to jump straight into her mission, but Yu Shuli’s confession gave her a sudden sense of uncertainty.

Plus, with the system unreachable at the moment, Yu Shuli’s change left her feeling a trace of panic.

After leaving the school, Yan Sui prepared to get a taxi at the intersection ahead. Yu Shuli walked beside her, saying he wanted to make sure she got on the car safely before leaving.

Because of the day’s events, Yan Sui’s thoughts were tangled, and she forgot to refuse.

Walking beside her, Yu Shuli asked about the boy from earlier: “Why did he back down just because of a photo?”

Yan Sui instinctively replied, “Because of pride.”

Yu Shuli looked surprised.

Yan Sui glanced at him and explained calmly, “He came looking for trouble because of a previous incident in the area we were responsible for. He couldn’t let it go. He came alone, without any companions, which makes me think he’s someone who values face, not wanting others to know he’s holding a grudge.”

“But these are just my guesses at the moment, so I used a photo to threaten him. I didn’t expect it to work.”

She was confident that if the photo didn’t work, she had another way to resolve the issue.

“I see,” Yu Shuli said. Then he asked, “By the way, how did you learn boxing? Did you practice it when you were a kid?”

Hearing this, Yan Sui’s thoughts stalled.

Boxing was something she had learned in her previous life after breaking up with Yu Shuli.

At that time, she had just started an internship at a company. One day after work, she noticed a boxing gym offering a free trial class. On a whim, she walked in.

A single class to release stress gave her a venting she had never experienced before.

From her father’s affair in her sophomore year of high school, leaving them with huge debts, to her mother’s suicide, and later her breakup with Yu Shuli—she had been on this path continuously, unable to stop, bottling up all her emotions inside, afraid that expressing them would make her stagnate.

After the breakup with Yu Shuli, she had cried in her dorm room with the joy of receiving an offer to study abroad.

But that emotional release could not hide the grief—afterward came endless internal strife and regret, and she could feel her body slowly reaching overload.

That trial Muay Thai class allowed her to release her emotions without any restraint.

No tears, no internal struggle, no worries about affecting others—every punch she threw relieved a little of the pressure she carried.

It was the first time since sophomore year that Yan Sui had spent money on herself rather than others.

She got a membership and went three times a week for three years straight.

At first, she just swung wildly based on her emotions, without any technique.

Later, she met a Muay Thai instructor there. Once familiar, the instructor offered to teach her basic Muay Thai techniques and self-defense.

Her mother had told her since she was young that the world was unfair to girls. When you couldn’t change the world’s rules, you could only change yourself.

Her mother had taught her self-defense so that she would have the courage to resist danger.

So from childhood, she had protected herself carefully.

As she grew older, seeing the rules of the world unchanged, she developed the idea of helping others learn self-defense.

Every time she met a new friend, she would teach them a set of self-defense techniques.

Yan Sui was already the thirty-ninth friend she had taught.

After learning this self-defense set, a thought came to her mind—one she had never considered before.

If she ever met Yan Zhaoting again, she would hit him.

This sudden thought made Yan Sui realize that she still hated Yan Zhaoting deep down.

No matter how relaxed she appeared in front of others all these years, in her heart, she was unwilling, full of hatred.

Yan Sui didn’t answer Yu Shuli’s question and responded with silence.

Seeing that she didn’t answer, Yu Shuli didn’t press further.

The two walked along the street for a while until they reached an intersection. Yan Sui turned and said, “You should go back. I’ll get a taxi here.”

“I’ll wait with you until you get in the car,” he said.

Yan Sui said nothing, turning her head to watch for taxis.

But for some reason, not a single taxi appeared on the street today. Occasionally, one appeared, but it already had passengers.

Waiting for a long time without a taxi, Yan Sui began to feel agitated.

Her gaze flicked from the road to the sidewalk, then from buildings to people.

When she noticed Yu Shuli’s third touch near the corner of her eye wound, she sighed inwardly.

She thought to herself: this is the last time.

After all, she was about to start her mission of targeting someone else.

She scanned the surroundings and noticed a pharmacy nearby. Turning back, she instructed Yu Shuli to stay put, then ran toward the pharmacy.

Once inside, the smell of disinfectant hit her.

The shop owner came up and asked, “Miss, do you need anything?”

Yan Sui’s eyes scanned the store. “Do you have iodine and band-aids? Also, ointments for cuts and bruises?”

“Yes, over here.”

After buying these items, just before leaving the pharmacy, the image of twenty-two-year-old Yu Shuli suddenly appeared in her mind.

His skin was flawless, without a single blemish or pockmark from adolescence. At the time, people often commented on how perfect his skin was.

He had even been invited to shoot promotional photos for a cosmetics ad.

The payment for that ad was two thousand yuan, which Yu Shuli immediately gave to Yan Sui.

He said, “You can use this money on yourself or your family, whichever you like.”

At that time, two thousand yuan was a large sum for them. With that money, Yan Sui could live for two months without hardship.

But Yan Sui didn’t accept the money.

She had been dating Yu Shuli since high school and knew about his family situation.

Yu Shuli’s parents divorced when he was one year old. Neither wanted him, so they left him with his older brother, who was fifteen years older. He grew up with his brother and sister-in-law, who treated him like their own child, until Yu Shuli entered middle school and they had their own child.

Previously, his brother and sister-in-law, afraid he would overspend, lied to his parents about money being sent.

It wasn’t until he graduated high school that Yu Shuli discovered his parents had never sent any money—he had been responsible for his own living expenses.

He was both unfortunate and fortunate. After high school and college, he never asked his parents for money and worked part-time to support himself.

The money he saved went mostly back to his family, with a portion left for Yan Sui to buy things.

He never thought about buying anything for himself. His T-shirts were worn and faded, the collars stretched out—he never bought himself new clothes.

So Yan Sui had wanted him to use that money to buy something for himself.

But in the end, Yu Shuli didn’t do that. Instead, he secretly deposited the money into her mother’s account to pay for her medical bills.

Yan Sui only found out two weeks later when she went to the payment office. She wanted to return the money to him, but he refused.

She could only remember the money, planning to repay it in the future.

After that incident, she bought Yu Shuli a few new clothes.

He accepted them and, using that as an excuse, also bought her a few new clothes after he received his part-time salary the next month.

At that time, both of them were putting all their effort into taking care of each other, unwilling to let the other suffer even a little in the relationship.

As Yan Sui’s thoughts wandered to memories of Yu Shuli in her previous life, she paused before leaving the pharmacy and asked, “Do you have any ointment for scars?”