"Jiang Chen, these past few days, haven’t seen Li Shuru come looking for you? Are you guys having a quarrel?"
The basketball court.
Roaming across the court in a sheen of sweat, Luo Peng and Jiang Chen sat down to rest.
Although Li Shuru had only asked for three days off, she had actually been absent for almost a week now.
Jiang Chen was unwilling to say more.
Just as Liang Zhenlun had said, birth, aging, sickness, and death are beyond human control. Miracles are precious precisely because they are rare.
This time, a miracle did not descend upon Li Shuru’s father.
Despite the hospital’s utmost efforts, without a suitable heart for transplant, they ultimately couldn’t save the life of Li Shuru’s father. This man, not yet fifty, couldn’t survive the doctor’s final notice and departed from this world on the third day.
As the only daughter, Li Shuru naturally had to go home to attend to her father’s affairs.
About all this, Luo Peng and others were unaware. Jiang Chen would not flaunt someone else’s hardships, and the whole school knew about it only through Zheng Jingjing, Xu Siyi, and a few others.
A basketball flew fiercely and hit Jiang Chen’s knee.
"Ruan Guang, what the hell are you doing?"
Luo Peng jumped up, glowering in anger.
"Sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose."
The young man was tall and burly, around one meter eighty-five, looking down at the seated and resting Jiang Chen. Although he immediately apologized, there wasn’t a hint of apology on his face, with the corners of his mouth slightly upturned, even revealing a hint of provocation and mockery.
Unlike most students at East Sea, this guy was a local, hence he carried the typical East Sea trait. He had an inexplicable sense of superiority towards those from outside his city, thinking himself above them.
And this guy’s spirit was not exactly generous. Infamous for playing dirty in basketball, relying on his muscles, he often domineered the court, and once even sent a student with whom he had a personal feud into the hospital with a fracture, laying there for two or three months.
Since it was a basketball accident, nobody could really do anything to him afterward, and he only symbolically compensated a bit for the medical expenses.
People like Ruan Guang naturally looked down on someone like Jiang Chen, dubbed a "licker". Previously on the court, he even unabashedly referred to Jiang Chen as a ’licker’, even when Jiang Chen was present.
Fortunately, Jiang Chen was easygoing and would usually just laugh off such provocations, not taking them to heart. But some people, the more you tolerate them, the more unrelenting they become.
Originally, if Jiang Chen had just humbly remained a lowly ’licker’, that would have been it. But, the situation had suddenly changed recently. Somehow, he had become close with the art academy’s beauty, Li Shuru. They were often seen together, stirring up a storm across the school.
For a talent with both beauty and brains like Li Shuru, Ruan Guang was, of course, itching inside. However, he had the self-awareness to know that she probably wouldn’t give him a second look, so he didn’t embarrass himself. But who could have expected that the ’licker’ he looked down upon would seize the opportunity before him, how could that sit right with him?
The rumors of Li Shuru and Jiang Chen had been buzzing around the school for some time now, with all kinds of stories being told. And he was a bona fide gossipmonger, always quick to hurl insults at Jiang Chen whenever the topic arose, even dragging Li Shuru into it.
That basketball from before, he had thrown it on purpose. He would have loved for Jiang Chen to lose it and come up to fight him. Then he could have a good reason to beat him up and vent his frustrations. But to his disappointment, the other guy remained as timid as ever, sitting still without moving an inch.
Has Li Shuru gone mad?
How could she fancy such a wimp?
Disdain filled Ruan Guang’s eyes even more. He snorted derisively, walking toward the basketball that had rolled to the edge of the court. On his way, he passed by the area where personal items were placed.
The afternoon’s bright light spilled unobstructed across the court. Suddenly, a blinding reflection forced Ruan Guang to squint.
His gaze instinctively followed the glare to find an exquisitely luxurious wristwatch lying amongst a pile of personal possessions.
That was naturally the Vacheron Constantin that Li Shuru had given to Jiang Chen, and ever since he detected Li Shuru’s displeasure, Jiang Chen had been wearing it all the time.
Fortunately, the horizons of college students are ultimately limited, and, moreover, he had deliberately instructed Luo Peng and a few others not to broadcast it everywhere, so after wearing it for a few days, no one recognized the real value of the watch.
Not everyone is so ignorant. In a vast university like East Sea University, there are always a few who know their goods, and as a local from East Sea, Ruan Guang was naturally one of them.
When Jiang Chen first came to the basketball court, he had noticed the watch on the other’s wrist but didn’t pay much attention. Now, taking a careful look at the logo on the dial.
It was actually a Vacheron Constantin!
Although he didn’t know which specific model it was, the name Vacheron Constantin signified high-end luxury.
Almost instantly, Ruan Guang was certain it had to be a counterfeit, just like many losers who buy fake Adidas or Nike to show off and hoodwink others. Jiang Chen, that bootlicker, must have bought it for pretense.
And really, the knockoff looked quite authentic.
It’s one thing to buy a fake Longines; that might just pass muster, but buying a fake Vacheron Constantin to pass as real?
Such watches, without a net worth of tens of millions, who are you trying to kid?
Look in the mirror and see what you are!
Ruan laughed coldly in his heart. Intending only to retrieve the ball, he suddenly changed direction, lifted his foot, and stepped towards a pile of personal items — as luck would have it, stepping over a bunch of phones and keys, he precisely trod on the understated luxury of the "replica wristwatch."
The more expensive something is, the more fragile it tends to be.
All the more so for Ruan Guang, a burly man standing over one meter eighty-five tall and weighing one hundred eighty pounds.
Under deliberate force, the delicate watch could not withstand his trampling, and a "crack" was heard.
"Ah, I am really sorry, whose watch is this?"
He ground his foot down harder before unhurriedly lifting it.
The watch face was already shattered, and even the hands inside had become deformed.
This watch was completely wrecked.
Jiang Chen quickly rose to his feet, looked at the pitiful wristwatch, narrowed his eyes slightly, his face expressionless while a surge of uncontrollable rage welled up within him.
Luo Peng’s face darkened.
He knew very well the value of the watch and was even more aware that it was a gift from Li Shuru to his good buddy.
It had been worn for just a few days before being smashed; how could he explain this to Li Shuru?
"Jiang Chen, is this watch yours?"
Ruan Guang continued to feign innocence.
Luo Peng, who could clearly see that the other party did it on purpose, was furiously ready to charge at him.
Jiang Chen reached out to stop him.
"I am really sorry. How much is the watch? I’ll pay for it."
Ruan Guang feigned concern with a smirk, his white teeth particularly striking in the sunlight.