Chapter Seventy-Nine: The Beast Among Beasts!

Chapter Seventy-Nine: The Beast Among Beasts!

“How dare you yell at me?” Jiao Nanxin shouted in fury. Never in her life had anyone dared speak to her like this. Yet this man’s attitude was so crude.

“If you move again, I’ll spank you,” Tang Zhong threatened.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

Smack—

Tang Zhong slapped her on the bottom. One arm supported her upper body, the other her lower half; the position made the motion awkward, so he couldn’t use much force.

“Do it again!” Jiao Nanxin hadn’t expected him to actually strike. The blow landed where she was most sensitive, sending tingles through her, part excitement, mostly humiliation. She was so angry she could have killed him.

Smack—

“You—”

Smack—

“This time I didn’t even give you permission and you still hit me, you perverted scoundrel, you bastard—” Jiao Nanxin was nearly beside herself with rage. Her twisted ankle made it hard to move, so she wrapped her arms around Tang Zhong’s neck and bit hard into his shoulder.

“Don’t you think it’s salty?” Tang Zhong chuckled. “I wore this shirt yesterday and forgot to wash it—”

After hearing this, Jiao Nanxin tasted the saltiness in her mouth, but stubbornly bit down once more before finally letting go.

“Your dorm or mine?” Tang Zhong asked.

Jiao Nanxin thought the question sounded odd. It reminded her of those sultry dramas on TV where the lovers, after a night out drinking, would ask whose place to go to—especially as they were still tangled together in such an intimate pose.

After considering, she said, “Yours.”

She would have preferred her own, but being carried back by Tang Zhong a second time—how could she possibly explain that? Besides, her roommates were notorious for sleeping in. If she went back now, she’d probably catch them in all their morning disarray. To have them exposed, bare-faced and disheveled, before a man—they’d hate her for life.

The boys’ dorm, she thought, had fewer taboos.

Tang Zhong agreed it was better to take her to his room. At this hour, the girls’ dorm was full of sleepyheads. As a proper gentleman, he really didn’t want to see all those bare thighs and pajamas riding up to reveal bare bellies and navels—sometimes even underwear worn too small, exposing more than intended—

Li Yu hurried over, asking if they needed help.

“Keep up your training. I’ll take her back and help her with her ankle,” Tang Zhong said.

Li Yu nodded and jogged past them.

When Tang Zhong reached the bottom of the boys’ dorm, cradling Jiao Nanxin, the gatekeeper was practicing tai chi in the corner garden.

He’d seen Tang Zhong leave earlier, but when he saw him return with a girl in his arms, he was shocked. “What’s going on? Who’s this girl?”

“Sir, she’s my classmate. We were out running, but she twisted her ankle. I’m taking her upstairs to help with it.”

The old man waved a hand. “Go on, then. The sooner the better. Don’t want it getting worse.”

There was an unspoken rule at the school: girls could freely enter the boys’ dorms, and the gatekeeper wouldn’t interfere. But boys were strictly barred from the girls’ dorm—those gatekeeper aunties kept their eyes peeled.

Perhaps they believed no harm would come from a girl entering the boys’ dorm, but boys entering the girls’—that could spell trouble for many respectable families.

When Tang Zhong kicked open the dorm room door, Huaming happened to be coming out of the bathroom. He stood there in his briefs, bare-chested, bleary-eyed, staring in confusion at the scene by the door.

“Whoa, Second Brother, did you just bring home a girl?” was his first reaction.

Tang Zhong had no time to wonder what he was thinking. He placed Jiao Nanxin on his bed, grabbed a sheet, and wrapped it around Huaming, pushing him back to his own bed.

“I’m going to get some ice,” Tang Zhong said.

With sprains or bruises, the tissue’s capillaries rupture, blood quickly seeps out, forming bruises. If you massage with medicated wine or use heat, it’ll only dilate the vessels, increase the bleeding, and worsen swelling and pain. Forceful massage can tear more tissue, break more capillaries, and deepen the injury.

That’s why the best treatment is a cold compress with ice—which was why Tang Zhong bothered to run out for ice, not just to impress Jiao Nanxin.

“Hey—”

Jiao Nanxin had barely started to protest when Tang Zhong had already shut the door and dashed out, leaving her with no chance to say, “It’s not necessary.”

The campus market had just opened, and sold no ice. Tang Zhong bought two bottles of ice-cold mineral water instead.

He went to the bathroom, poured boiling water into his own basin, tossed in a towel to disinfect it, then dumped out the hot water. He soaked the towel again with the cold mineral water and brought the basin over.

Jiao Nanxin was wearing athletic shorts; half her thigh and her entire calf were exposed. Tang Zhong simply took off her white sneakers, then folded the chilled towel into a square and gently applied it to her bruised ankle.

“Hiss—” Jiao Nanxin sucked in a sharp breath. The injured spot was both cold and painful, a sensation hard to endure.

“Bear with it—it’ll help,” Tang Zhong said comfortingly. “Your last ankle injury didn’t fully heal. You should rest a bit longer, or you’ll risk a chronic injury.”

“I thought it was fine…” Jiao Nanxin said, aggrieved.

The last injury had kept her resting for over half a month, missing the entire month of military training.

When she finally felt healed, she just wanted to resume her morning runs—a habit she’d kept for years. Giving up was easy; starting again required immense willpower.

But this morning, on her run, she’d accidentally kicked a water pipe jutting from the field, lost her balance, and fell.

Luckily, her reflexes were sharp, and she twisted herself onto the grass as she fell—otherwise, her knees and face would have been scraped raw.

“Now do you believe you’re not fully healed?” Tang Zhong said. He re-warmed the towel, wrung it out, and applied it again.

Each time the cold towel touched her skin, Jiao Nanxin hissed in pain.

After a few rounds, Tang Zhong washed the towel and went to the bathroom. He took out a tube of Yunnan White Medicine from his desk drawer, pulled up a stool, and sat across from Jiao Nanxin, placing her calf on his leg. He applied the ointment and began to massage gently.

Having a man hold and rub her small foot was, for Jiao Nanxin, even more embarrassing than being spanked. But she knew he was treating her injury, so she couldn’t object. Besides, he looked so earnest—it didn’t seem like he was taking advantage.

“You have nice feet,” Tang Zhong said with a smile.

“Hmph.” Jiao Nanxin could only snort; she had no idea how to respond.

“Just a bit too many calluses.”

“Go to hell.” Jiao Nanxin kicked at him with her uninjured foot.

“Don’t move,” Tang Zhong said, grabbing her other ankle. “Be careful not to strain it.”

A cool sensation seeped in, making her ankle feel much better. The clotted blood began to disperse under his hands.

After a few minutes, Tang Zhong put away the ointment, washed his hands, and asked, “Are you hungry?”

Jiao Nanxin nodded.

“Sit here awhile. I’ll get you breakfast,” Tang Zhong said.

He took his bowl to the canteen and returned with a big bowl of millet porridge, plus enough fried pancakes for five or six people.

He served Jiao Nanxin a bowl first. “Eat.”

She glanced at him, then accepted without ceremony and began to drink. She even ordered him to fetch her pancakes. She truly was hungry.

After all, he was her grandfather’s disciple, which made him her junior brother—so it was only natural for a junior to wait on his senior. With that thought, her appetite grew.

Tang Zhong also ate some porridge and pancakes. When she finished breakfast, he went over, picked her up, and started to leave.

“What are you doing?” Jiao Nanxin exclaimed in alarm.

“Taking you back,” Tang Zhong replied.

“Put me down. I can walk.”

“You can’t.” He didn’t let go, only quickened his pace.

“Why are you so domineering?”

“If you looked at it differently, you might think I’m being gentle.”

“You—” Jiao Nanxin wanted to retort, but her throat seemed blocked, and she couldn’t utter a word.

Bang—

As soon as the door closed, Huaming and Liang Tao, who had been pretending to sleep, leapt from their beds.

“Boss, was that girl just now Jiao Nanxin? Was it?” Liang Tao asked anxiously.

“Who else could it be?” Huaming wailed dramatically. “Heavens, what have I done to deserve this? All the beauties go to Second Brother! Why make me so outstanding if you’re just going to slap me in the face?”

“Didn’t you say last time that Second Brother and Jiao Nanxin didn’t get along, that they almost fought in class?” Liang Tao asked, puzzled.

“That’s the truth,” Huaming replied. “We’ve been duped. All of us. That was just a cover—they’ve been together all along. Third Brother, you sleep above me, so you didn’t see it. The two of them just now—so intimate! Massaging feet, flirting, exchanging glances—and then he carried her out in a princess hold. Isn’t Second Brother a beast? We all pretended to be asleep, and he still didn’t just settle things right here in the dorm?”

“…”

Liang Tao thought, You’re the real beast here—a beast among beasts.