Chapter 11: (Moments of rejection).
Xiao Yanran rushed into the school's restroom immediately dipping her hair into the sink, turning on the tap as the water poured on her hair and she dug her hands into her hair washing and scrubbing it.
She had been in class trying to sketch Lei Zhang's picture on a sheet of paper. She had been the only one in class, other students had gone to the cafeteria for lunch. Li Wen wasn't in school, she and her parents had gone to Central Shanghai to visit her aunt.
She was scared to go to the cafeteria afraid of getting bullied so she sat in class bored and decided to draw a picture of Lei Zhang smiling. She had never seen him smile and wanted to know how he'd look.
She was good at drawing although not completely perfect. She drew his face perfectly shading and getting his platinum blonde hair although instead of looking realistic it looked more like an anime. She was almost finishing it up when she suddenly felt a liquid being poured on her hair.
She jolted up only to see those three annoying girls again.
'Yu Han' 'Rou Xu' and 'Shu Ying'.
She didn't know what exactly they had poured on her but it felt sticky and smelt like rotten fish. That's how she ended up in the school's restroom scrubbing her hair.
She washed for almost an hour but the smell was still there and all through school she reeked of rotten fish. The moment the bells rang for dismissal, she grabbed her bag pack and dashed out of school.
Arriving back home, she rushed to the bathroom looking for a hair wash or soap but there was none. She ruffled her hair feeling frustrated as she ran to Xiao Wan's room.
"Xiao Wan",
she said opening the door and walking in.
"Can't you knock?",
Xiao Wan who was laying on the bed busy on her phone yelled.
"I'm sorry, uhm I didn't see any hair wash or soap in the bathroom", Xiao Yanran said.
"That's because I've used them all dummy", Xiao Wan said.
"Why, I need some",
Xiao Yanran said and Xiao Wan rolled her eyes.
"Get lost ",
she said and Xiao Yanran felt her blood boil.
"You know what, you're just a wicked and desperate piece of shit carrying yourself around like you're special but you're ... "
Xiao Yanran was immediately slapped by Xiao Wan who had long dropped her phone and gotten of the bed.
"You want to wash your hair so bad huh, then let me help",
Xiao Wan said dragging Xiao Yanran by the hair back into the bathroom ignoring her whinces of pain. Xiao Wan pushed her into the filled up up bathtub pressing her down with her hands to stop her from raising her head as Xiao Yanran struggled to breath.
It wasn't until she saw red beginning to form on the water did she let go and Xiao Yanran immediately got out of the bathtub falling to the floor as she coughed heavily trying to catch her breath.
Her head was bleeding due to the way Xiao Wan pushed her into the bathtub making her head hit the iron tap that had been attached to the tub.
Their parents hearing the chaos immediately hurried into the bathroom but ignored Xiao Yanran who was on the floor drenched and bleeding going straight to Xiao Wan.
"Are you alright?",
they both asked and she nodded pointing at Xiao Yanran.
"She barged into my room annoyed I used all the hair wash and began insulting me, she called me a piece of sh*t saying I was desperate and wasn't special. I still followed her here to be sure if they was any hair wash left but she immediately picked a fight with me ",
Xiao Wan lied and her parents immediately glared at Xiao Yanran.
"How dare you?", her father said grabbing her by the arm, forcefully pulling her up and her mother landed a slap on her face.
"Do you even think you're half as special as her, even if they were five of you, you'd still never be up to her. She's smart and beautiful unlike you. You're a complete dummy and it's only because you're my daughter i haven't thrown you out, yet you dare to pick on Xiao Wan!", her mother yelled.
"Really?, that's it?, you're just going to judge me on what Xiao Wan said. What did I ever do to all of you, why can't I ever get a motherly or fatherly affection from the both of you. Despite your financial struggles you two still sacrifice so much for Xiao Wan and leave me to work for my own things, just what on earth did I ever do!",
Xiao Yanran yelled in tears but ended up receiving another slap, from her father this time.
"You want us to love you like Xiao Wan. Could you even compare yourself to her, we struggle financially yes, but she makes our struggles worth it unlike you. You should be grateful and you're complaining. Every time you finish a grade, we receive insults just to get you into another grade. We never had to do that when Xiao Wan was in school and you dare to compare yourself to her. Do you even know who's grace you're living on. Xiao Wan was a student of that school and won so many awards for the school before she graduated due to her amazing intelligence. Because of the awards she won, being her younger sister, they've let you into new classes even though your grades aren't worth it. So clearly you're indebted to Xiao Wan. If the school wasn't trying to show appreciation to Xiao Wan cause you're her younger sister you wouldn't even be in your senior year right now and you're still ungrateful, you're still wanting more, aren't you the selfish one!",
her father yelled and Xiao Yanran felt crushed. More tears welled in her eyes, her heart getting heavier then she dashed out of the bathroom, straight to the living room and out of the yard.
Li Wen was at Central Shanghai, Mr Chen always worked late at the farm every Thursday and Hao Ran was working night shift that day, she couldn't think of were to go at the moment.
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Lei Zhang sat in his comfortable living room at Fengxian operating his laptop. He looked at the wall clock wondering why Xiao Yanran wasn't there yet.
He sighed closing his laptop and bringing out his phone about to call her when he heard a knock on the door. Dropping his phone and walking to the door, he whined it open and finally there she was but just not the way he had expected her to appear.
She was drenched from head to toe and smelt like rotten fish but what got his heart skipping was the line of blood that trickled down from her head.
"What happened",
he asked and she rubbed her palms nervously as she sniffled.
"Don't be angry but, c c c c, can I just use your bathroom, I'll be qui.....",
she couldn't complete her words cause she was suddenly pulled inside by Lei Zhang as he closed the door. She was speechless, she definitely hadn't expected him to react that way.
He sat her down on the couch then walked into the passage later coming back with a first aid box and sat down right beside her. She watched him bring out a cotton wool deeping it into the isopropyl alcohol before raising it up to her head to clean the blood but she immediately caught his hand mid air.
"You can't attend to my wounds right now, I smell really bad, doesn't it make you uncomfortable",
she said but he didn't say anything and just used his other hand to gently remove her hands and began cleaning the blood of her face.
In the next few minutes, he was done with her wounds and he left to drop the box. She watched him disappear then came back sitting beside her again but she immediately shifted, giving space between them not wanting to be too close to him.
"What happened to you?",
he asked and she rubbed her palms.
"Just some bullies at school", she said.
She wasn't lieing though, it was the bullies that had her smelling like rotten fish but she didn't want to include the part of her family.
Lei Zhang exhaled as he rubbed his temples. He didn't know Xiao Yanran was being bullied at school. But what was he expecting though, someone like Xiao Yanran would definitely be very easy to pick on.
"I guess we're skipping tutoring for today ",
Lei Zhang said but Xiao Yanran shook her head.
"No, we're not skipping today's lesson, I really need to pass my senior year, I'm not missing one day ", she said.
She knew just as her parents had said. The school had been letting her results slide because of Xiao Wan's achievements but they had warned her they wouldn't do it for her senior year. If she failed, she would repeat but her parents were going to end her schooling instead.
Lei Zhang seeing how serious she was didn't protest.
"Alright", he said.
"I still need to wash my hair",
she said and he realized she was still on her wet uniform.
"Take off your clothes",
he said about standing up when her eyes widened.
"W.w.w what do you want to see",
she said wrapping her arms around herself and Lei Zhang rolled his eyes as he stood up.
"I didn't mean right here, go to the bathroom and shower, I'll get you dry clothes",
he said and she immediately felt embarrassed at her earlier reaction as she scratched her nape.
"Oh, uhm, okay ", she said. T.B.C.