DFLB – Chapter 20

When Lu Xun said this, his hands were still leisurely in his pockets, as if he did not take the other man seriously at all. His attitude really infuriated the other man.

“If you say I have no right to touch her, do you think that means I can’t touch her?” The man who jumped the queue raised his arm looked like he wanted to swing at Qian Wei.

Lu Xun was calm and relaxed. He seemed well prepared for the other party’s action. He quickly cut in from the side and grabbed the other man’s wrist. Before Qian Wei had time to react, she saw Lu Xun’s body flex and pull. It was a beautiful shoulder throw that instantly pressed the other man to the ground. The other party was clearly a strong-looking man but Lu Xun handled him as easily as if he were throwing a sack of grain. It was really worth it for him to practice Sanda ever since he was a teenager. Now he had such neat and straightforward fighting moves, without any superfluous motion.

“Ah!” The man was pressed to the ground by Lu Xun and groaned because of the pain.

Lu Xun’s eyes were fierce: “Apologize to her.”

“Why should I apologize? Are you really so brave that you can hit people in public? Aren’t you afraid of going to jail?”

“Of course I’m not afraid.” Lu Xun smiled, “Causing more than a minor injury constitutes the crime of intentional injury. But what I’m doing to you does not fall within the scope of the Criminal Law at all. It’s merely a violation of the Regulations and Administrative Penalties for Public Security. These kinds of circumstances are so minor that the courts will only use mediation to deal with them. They won’t even fine me.” Lu Xun’s voice was very arrogant, “Instead of cutting in line you should try reading more, after all, ignorance is a terrible thing.”

Qian Wei listened blankly and wanted to clap her hands for Lu Xun on the spot. A high achiever was really a high achiever. He could learn the knowledge and then use it practically in real life. He was sure enough about his knowledge of the laws regarding public security that he was not afraid to fight at all.

Probably because Lu Xun showed up, the timid people behind Qian Wei who previously dared not to speak out about the queue jumpers finally came forward.

“Those two cut in line first! We all saw it!”

“Their moral character is really poor, they really have no shame.”

Probably because people felt braver in a group, more and more people stood up and spoke for Qian Wei. The two queue jumpers quickly began to wilt. The man was still being pressed to the ground by Lu Xun and couldn’t escape no matter how hard he struggled. He had been defeated both physically and psychologically.

Finally, the man muttered, “I’m sorry…”

However, Lu Xun was obviously not satisfied with this. “Louder.” he instructed coldly.

The man’s face turned very ugly. He hesitated for a while before finally gritting his teeth and shouting, “I’m sorry!”

With that Lu Xun let him go. Despite feeling very humiliated the man quietly tucked away his arrogance and, without saying a word, grabbed his girlfriend and disappeared gloomily into the crowd.

As soon as the couple left the queue became orderly. However, because of Lu Xun by her side, Qian Wei was suddenly being watched by countless eyes. She could only silently accept the scorching gazes being sent by random women from all directions. There were many tangled emotions crackling in the air, envy, longing, jealousy, serious contemplation… to name a few. They were so obvious that it was difficult for Qian Wei to even raise her head.

“Aren’t you going back to your own line to order?” Qian Wei saw Lu Xun was empty-handed. He had obviously come over to help her before he was able to order his own food. Qian Wei looked at him and said embarrassedly, “Thank you just now. If I had known that things would turn out like this I wouldn’t have bothered with those two. Now you had to come and help me and your waiting before ended up being in vain.”

“The law exists to resolve conflicts. Why are you afraid of conflicts if you are a law student?” Obviously, he had come to help Qian Wei but sadly Lu Xun always been the type to look down on everyone else and speak coldly. Still, Qian Wei had to admit that when she saw his super handsome face she always felt that she could forgive him for anything. He had a bad temper, but that could be called personality; his mouth was poisonous, but that could be called confidence. Lu Xun had a kind of strong momentum that radiated from deep within his body and beneath his handsome face there was something sharp, like a sword that could control life and death, which he would not take out of its scabbard easily, but as soon as he did bring it out, it was bound to make blood rain in all directions. His cold and noble brand of arrogance seemed almost justified in Qian Wei’s eyes. Sometimes when Lu Xun said nothing and just stood there coldly with his handsome face Qian Wei wanted to kneel down in front of him and just be grateful to bask in his light. In moments like these she would almost be overpowered by a desire to tell him, ‘You really worked hard to descend down here to Earth!’

“I’m not going back.” Lu Xun said succinctly, “I’ll line up here too.”

“But I thought you don’t eat junk food? You can only buy pizza in this line…” Qian Wei said confusedly. 

Lu Xun raised an eyebrow and said with an ugly face: “I suddenly feel like eating junk food. Do you have a problem with that?”

“I don’t have a problem!” Qian Wei’s eyes gleamed, “But let me take this chance to buy you a meal.”

Lu Xun looked proudly down at Qian Wei but didn’t reply. Qian Wei regarded that as silent agreement.

Ever since ancient times, junk food had always been more popular than healthy food. Because of that, the line was very long and Qian Wei had to stand and wait with Lu Xun for a while. Lu Xun obviously had no intention to talk to Qian Wei any further. He put in his headphones and began listening to music, so Qian Wei had no choice but to wait alone. She was looking around boredly, only to spot a familiar face.

The couple who had jumped the queue just now had unexpectedly returned with several other people in tow and they were staring directly at Qian Wei. Qian Wei felt very alarmed in her heart! Then she remembered that the couple had said they wanted to order eight pizzas, so she could infer that they had friends with them.

“Lu Xun…” Qian Wei subconsciously pulled Lu Xun’s sleeve.

Lu Xun, this great god, was very calm. He slowly put away his headphones and then rolled up his sleeves. He began gently rotating his wrist, it was completely the posture of someone getting ready to fight.

The man who jumped the queue and had been suppressed by Lu Xun just now, seemed surprised to see Lu Xun was still there. He suddenly paused his steps. He knew that he was not Lu Xun’s opponent so he could only stare daggers at Qian Wei before gloomily leaving again.

It was only then that Qian Wei realized that Lu Xun had waited in line with her, not because he suddenly changed his tastes and wanted to eat junk food, but because he was afraid that the couple would come back and retaliate. The group of thugs had suffered losses in Lu Xun’s hands so they would obviously want revenge. And although Qian Wei and Lu Xun were wearing matching T-shirts, there were many people walking around wearing the same T-shirts since they were sold here in the park. Because they hadn’t been queued together the thugs probably guessed that Lu Xun was just a good samaritan who would leave after the trouble was settled so they were ready to come back and find Qian Wei again. After all, the man who jumped the queue was humiliated in front of his girlfriend so he would absolutely want to regain his image and self-confidence by teaching her a lesson.

Although Lu Xun always seemed like he was very arrogant and looking down on people, he was actually very thoughtful and considerate at critical moments. Qian Wei said sincerely, “Thank you, Lu Xun.”

“Don’t think too much.” But Lu Xun didn’t acknowledge his good deed at all and his tone was as indifferent as ever. “I just suddenly wanted to eat pizza.” However, even though he tried to make his usual expression of disdain at Qian Wei, the tips of his ears that turned slightly red revealed his mood.

Qian Wei looked at Lu Xun’s profile and her mind was boiling with thoughts. Just look at this Lu Xun. He was really not honest with his feelings at all. He was this way just from hearing someone saying thanks. So it was easy to imagine how he was like when he was trying to show his love for Mo Zixin. The more he liked her, the more he would deny it. Qian Wei really wanted to help Lu Xun help himself today, so that he could find his future happiness.

Facing Lu Xun’s back, she secretly clenched her fist and murmured, “Lu Xun, the happiness of the rest of your life! Just leave it to me!”

Unfortunately, Qian Wei’s ambition was soon extinguished by reality. Qian Wei kept looking around but she did not see Qian Chuan or Mo Zixin, she suddenly felt that she had completely lost track of her target and felt very depressed.

“What are we going to do now? Qian Chuan is going to spend the whole day alone with Mo Zixin, it’s all over!”

But even though Qian Wei was so anxious for him Lu Xun was very calm. In fact, he just made sarcastic remarks from the side: “Do you think Mo Zixin will get together with Qian Chuan if they spend one day alone?”

“If you don’t do anything, it’s really hard to say! I understand Qian Chuan very well. He is a guy who is always chasing girls so he is very good at flattering them and acting like a considerate gentleman. For example, maybe just now in the haunted house, when Mo Zixin was feeling afraid he, the gallant flower protector, might have stepped forward to hold her small hand or something. Then because the haunted house was so dark Mo Zixin might have been so scared that her heart was pounding wildly, she might have desperately clutched his hand until finally, she couldn’t tell if the pounding was coming from her heart or his. If things really went like that, they could easily end up together!”

“You don’t have to worry about them being together alone for one day. After all, no matter how long some people spend together, they may not be able to become lovers.” Lu Xun smiled faintly and seemed unconcerned.

Qian Wei sighed: “I really advise you to not be so blindly optimistic. When hormones between men and women really start to stir anything can happen. You should not be overconfident and belittle the enemy…”

Lu Xun raised an eyebrow: “So if the two of us spend a day together alone like this, will we become lovers?”

“That… that’s different. ” Qian Wei choked, “For two people to get together after being alone, there is a prerequisite, and that is, at least one of those two people has to have intentions on the other. But I swear I have absolutely no intentions on you!” 

“Then how do you know I don’t have any intentions on you?”

“That… that’s impossible. ” Qian Wei stammered for a moment. “I’ve heard of toads that want to eat swan meat, but I’ve never heard of a swan that rushed to eat toad meat.”*

There was a hint of a laughing smirk at the corner of Lu Xun’s mouth and Qian Wei realized that he was just joking, so she breathed a sigh of relief.

“Hey, Lu Xun, don’t joke like that. It really puts too much pressure on me.”

Hearing that, Lu Xun was not happy: “What? Are you not happy if I like you? It’s too much pressure? You feel very dissatisfied?”

“No!” Qian explained foolishly, “it would be an honor to be liked by you! But the problem is that you are a swan and I am a toad. Just think about it, we are not of the same class. Swans like you should go out and date other swans. If you really had a crush on a toad like me, doesn’t that put me under a lot of pressure? Even if you were really blind now, what if one day your blindness was suddenly cured and you gracefully swam away back to your swan flock and found another swan in a minute. That would leave me as an abandoned toad and I would be very miserable, after all, after eating swan meat would I even be able to look at other toads in the future? After being abandoned by a swan, I’m afraid I would be alone for the rest of my life! 

And another thing, there are only a few swans with qualifications like you, but now one of them is being occupied by me, a toad. Wouldn’t this be dealing great damage to the swan dating market? Wouldn’t I be squeezed to death by all the other swans who are eyeing you? And as a toad, if I found a swan instead of the short and poor toad I deserve, won’t that make me very unpopular in the toad community? After all, people can accept it when other people are doing worse than themselves but they absolutely can’t accept a sudden rise from a person who was initially at their own level. Can’t you see, in the end, things wouldn’t go anywhere and we would just both be worse off for it? What’s more, from a biological point of view, there won’t be any good result between toads and swans.”

“Qian Wei, you are very eloquent when you are making your crooked arguments.” Lu Xun smiled. “But you don’t have to belittle yourself. You are definitely not a toad.”

Hearing Lu Xun, who had always had a very fierce mouth, say such a thing really made Qian Wei’s heart feel moved. It seemed that in Lu Xun’s heart, she was also a talented person. Maybe he didn’t see her as a toad at all but a swan, like him!

Unfortunately, before Qian Wei could bask in that moment of happiness, she heard Lu Xun continue: “I think your skin is very clear and smooth but a toad’s skin is bumpy. So you are definitely not a toad, at the very least, you are a frog.”

“…”

Thank you so much for your praise Lu Xun!

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*a ‘toad who wants to eat swan meat’ is an idiom talking about a person who wants to find a romantic partner who is much better (socially or financially or whatever) than them. Hence the whole extended swan-toad metaphor in the next few paragraphs after this.