Chapter 41 Vandalism

Su Qingtang stared at her locker in silence. Su Rui looked at his sister quietly. Her face betrayed nothing. No sadness, no anger. Just blank as she looked at the messy red characters painted on in red. He wasn't sure how he should comfort his sister so he just kept silent hoping his presence would be enough to show his support.

After mutely reading the messy words Su Rui wordlessly clenched his fist and turned away. Afraid that he would get even angrier if he looked at it even longer. He wasn't worried about his anger. He was worried about his sister's reaction.

After a while Su Qingtang sighed a long and loud sigh. Her entire body heaving in… disappointment? Su Rui wasn't sure. He watched his sister wordlessly, afraid that even a word would break the peace.

Su Qingtang closed her eyes for a brief moment. When she reopened them a very big smile graced her face and she turned away from her locker and spotted her little brother's dark face.

"Look at the bright side," Su Qingtang reached out and rubbed Su Rui's hair. "Its not like I really use my locker anyway." Su Qingtang chuckled and added with a hint of sarcasm. "It's a wonder how anyone knows it belongs to me hehe."

Su Rui frowned. He wanted to say something but in the end decided against it. Silently he allowed his sister to rub his head. She seemed to like doing that. Su Rui was gradually coming to accept that styling his hair in the morning was a waste of time.

Su Qingtang bid Su Rui farewell shoving the reluctant boy in the direction of his classroom, before she turned and walked to her classroom. As she entered, eyes turned and stared at her, in silence. Conversations faded out as the classroom of eyes stared at her. Anyone in her place would have felt awkward with so many eyes following her every move.

With her standard easy-going and bright smile, Su Qingtang walked to her seat as if she didn't see the gazes and had no clue what was going on.

"You…" Seeing Su Qingtang, Wen Xingshen attempted to say something comforting but in the end, he didn't quite know what to say. Wen Xingshen was a quiet guy that didn't really have much interactions with other people. Not to mention girls his age. "…You… Are you alright?"

Su Qingtang nodded nonchalantly as she slid into her seat. "Yeah, I am. Why?"

Thinking that Su Qingtang was oblivious to the situation Wen Xingshen attempted to explain. "Some girls trashed your locker. Sprayed curses on it in bright red. A lot of people are talking about it."

Su Qingtang blinked in confusion for a moment, before understanding. "Oh. That? I saw."

"You saw? And your totally fine… with that?"

Wen Xingshen shifted uncomfortably. It was evident he was trying to comfort her but with her nonchalance he wasn't quite sure what to say. Comfort her? She looked absolutely fine like she didn't care at all. It didn't seem like the right thing to do. Ignoring the problem also wasn't a viable option. Su Qingtang was his friend. Aren't friends supposed to support each other in situations like these.

Seeing him shifting and picking up on his discomfort Su Qingtang smiled as she spoke. She didn't really like explaining herself, but in the face of genuine concern she relented.

"I'm not exactly 'ok' with it. No one would be totally okay with someone trashing their lockers for no reason, but the thing is that I have no clue who did it. Its not like they were dumb enough to kindly leave a note politely stating who they were. All I can do is inform a teacher about the situation and maybe at lunch-time, I can scrub it clean. With this in mind, I have a temporary solution to the matter, until the culprit is found. Before that why should I waste my time on tears or feeling sad for myself? It's obvious the person did it to be seen and I won't give them the satisfaction of ruining my day."

Wen Xingshen goes silent. Mulling a bit over her words as if confirming that she wasn't lying. Seeing no hint of guilt on her face he smoothly changed the topic to something less touchy. "I didn't think you were one to be so emotionally intelligent and rational. Normally in situations like these girls would break down crying."

"Thank you." Su Qingtang offers a small smile and the conversation descends into silence. In truth. They didn't have much to talk about that didn't revolve around "Shade of the Night". Now that it was over they didn't really have much to talk about, and with Wen Xingshen being the busy bee he was they didn't even see each other as often anymore.

The system had watched the situation quietly. With a bit of worry it tentatively asked. "You're truly not upset?" It didn't take its host as such an… easygoing person. I mean, who could sit by and quietly watch someone target them without any feeling of indignance and just smoothly move on. Not to mention its host who…

"Of course I'm upset. I'm livid even, but what will that change? I just have to wait until the mastermind shows themselves. Its obvious that this was done on purpose. I just don't know what I did to offend anyone to get a shot out of the blue like this." Su Qingtang frowned lightly. She didn't like the fact that she was being schemed against when she hadn't done anything wrong. Her presence was also quite low in the school.

Seeing its Host's confidence the system felt like she knew something it didn't. Curiosity kicking in it asked. "Who do you think did this?"

"Not sure." Su Qingtang opens her schoolbag and searches for her pencil case. "I do have some suspects though."

Although, Wen Xingshen didn't say it. It was quite obvious that he had his own doubts as well.