Struggling to rise from the ground, Lin Lan, who had already lost all hope, still felt somewhat dazed at the moment.
Qian Bing arranged to meet her, and she simply couldn't refuse.
Her father fell ill, but the medical level of the local clinic in town was so poor. After a few days in the clinic, not only did his condition not improve, it actually got worse.
She wanted to transfer him to the County People's Hospital, but without any connections, they had all sorts of excuses not to admit him.
Qian Bing, she knew exactly what he was like.
But his family had connections, people in the county.
If she hadn't been so desperate, Lin Lan would not have sought his help.
The hospitalization fees, every penny, were paid by her family.
Qian Bing talked about helping her father transfer hospitals, pulling strings and giving out many red envelopes. Lin Lan didn't know if it was true or not!
He asked her to go out for a late-night snack after self-study, and although Lin Lan was reluctant, thinking about the favor she owed him, she ultimately did not refuse.
But who knew, that guy kept delaying her with various excuses, causing her to miss the time when the school gates closed?
The area behind the hill was always quite remote.
Had Qian Bing not deceived her by saying they could climb over the fence to sneak back into the campus, she wouldn't have come with him.
Just now, she was truly frightened by Qian Bing, completely at a loss.
As she tripped and fell over a tree root, she only heard a scream.
By the time she got up, she only saw, under the dim moonlight, Qian Bing seemed to have gone mad, hopping around and sprinting down the hill.
To this, she felt somewhat baffled.
Watching Qian Bing's figure disappear into the distance, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
At this moment, she dared not linger here any longer. Straightening her clothes, she gritted her teeth and quickly made her way downhill.
Lin Lan was also worried that Qian Bing would come back. In the middle of the night, staying alone on this desolate mountain, she truly didn't have the courage.
In fact, her worries were completely unnecessary. After this scare, Qian Bing only wanted to stay as far away from the mountain as possible. He definitely wouldn't have the courage to come back!
"Qian Bing, this bastard, still thinks he's all that? In front of Master Chen, he still has to kneel!"
Seeing Lin Lan leaving and not noticing himself just a few meters away under the bushes, Chen Hai also let go of his worries.
Having scared off Qian Bing, his divine soul had returned to his body.
As a wealthy and influential bully at Wuyang Town Middle School, Qian Bing was well-known.
If it were before, Chen Hai wouldn't have dared to confront Qian Bing.
But now, having gained some skills, his courage had grown.
Emerging from the bushes where he had been hiding, Lin Lan, who had run ahead, had already disappeared.
With his Taoist skills taking shape and scaring the overbearing Qian Bing to the point of desperation, Chen Hai felt even more spirited than before.
However, their disturbance had also ruined his interest in continuing his cultivation.
"Forget it, I might as well just go back to the dorm!" Thinking this, he walked leisurely toward the small hill slope that bordered the school's rear wall.
When he was about thirty to forty meters away from the school wall, he paused, stopping in his tracks.
Under the faint moonlight within his sight, a slim figure paced back and forth near the school wall in a bewildered manner.
If that silhouette wasn't Lin Lan, then who could it be?
It seemed like she wanted to climb over the fence to get into the school but had no idea how to scale the over two-meter-high wall.
She kept lingering, pacing back and forth. With Chen Hai being such a big figure, if he wanted to get back into the school, he certainly couldn't escape her notice.
"Lin Lan..." After hesitating for a while, Chen Hai finally decided not to hide his intentions any longer. He walked over to Lin Lan openly and greeted her.
"Ah..." Lin Lan screamed in surprise.
Perhaps she mistook Chen Hai, who suddenly appeared, for Qian Bing, which would explain her reaction.
"What's with the 'ah'? I'm Chen Hai. We were desk mates for a few days, remember? Don't you recognize me anymore?"
"You, a girl, what are you wandering around here for in the middle of the night?"
"You didn't go to the arcade to play like us boys, did you?"
Chen Hai rolled his eyes at Lin Lan and explained.
"I... went out for some food and accidentally missed the time they locked the school gates, so I got locked out."
"I heard that you could climb over the wall at the back of the school."
"But when I got here, I realized the wall is too high; I couldn't climb it at all."
Bowing her head, Lin Lan stammered her explanation.
Seeing that it was Chen Hai, although she felt a bit relieved, she was worried he might notice something was off.
"Thinking of climbing the wall to get inside the school?"
"That's easy, just follow me."
"The courtyard wall behind the school has a few places that are quite low. It's normal not to find them if you have no experience!"
Chen Hai said with a smile, calling her over.
Lin Lan's thoughts, he could somewhat guess, but he didn't bother to call her out on them.
"Okay!" After pondering for a while, Lin Lan nodded and responded.
They say once bitten, twice shy, but she was fairly familiar with Chen Hai.
She didn't know where to climb the wall herself, so at this moment, if she couldn't trust Chen Hai, who else could she trust?
Wuyang Town Middle School is just a very ordinary rural middle school.
Last year, out of more than two hundred students in four classes who took the college entrance examination, the number who got into university, including those admitted to vocational colleges, didn't even exceed ten.
From this miserable college admission rate, one could see what the management of the school was like!
For seniors like Chen Hai and Lin Lan, most just aimed to scrape through to graduation.
The idea of attending university was merely a pipe dream for them.
According to the rules, boarding students like Chen Hai, unless it was the weekend, couldn't leave the school and had to stay in the dormitories.
However, rules are rules, and whether people actually followed them was another story!
Anyway, among the eight people in Chen Hai's dormitory, nearly every night, two or three wouldn't return to the dorm.
Since Chen Hai had started boarding, he had never seen a teacher check the dorms.
He had heard about the possibility of climbing over the back wall of the school during a casual conversation among his roommates.
"Lin Lan, this way..."
After walking along the wall for just five or six minutes, Chen Hai had already spotted a spot that was suitable for climbing.
Below that part of the wall, there was a dilapidated wooden rack.
It was apparent that people frequently climbed over, as Chen Hai noticed clear trampled marks on the grass under the rack.
The two-meter high wall, with the addition of standing on the wooden rack, only left about one and a half meters.
Such a small height should be easy to climb over for anyone with functioning limbs!