The Downfall of Zhan Zheng Xi

Chapter Thirty Two - Resilience

Jian Yi had three weeks off school, in the mean time he had attended counselling, the police had informed him that the three boys had been charged and had stood up in court. They had all been expelled from school. Jian Yi couldn't care less what happened to them as long as he never had to see them again. The principal attended Jian Yi's house and informed his mother that at a morning assembly the announcement was made that the three boys had been expelled due to conduct unbefitting for their high school (namely assaulting a fellow student), they were being charged with assault and faced time in jail. Apparently this was said for the benefit of the asshole's mysterious employers, that if any further action was taken then those mysterious people would face jail time as well.

The principal said he hoped that this was enough of a scare tactic that any further plans to set upon Jian Yi would be cancelled. Jian Yi would believe it when he could walk around freely in school again.

Although his ribs were still painful, his other injuries were healing nicely, the stitches were gone from his lip which was now just an itchy scab, his balls had gone through a wild spectrum of colourful bruises and he sent a picture almost every two or three days to Zhan Zheng Xi to share their progress! The bite on his chest was similar in that the bruising was quite horrific, who knew a bite would be so painful. The doctors said the bite pressure had gone right the way down to the deep skin tissues, so the bruises when they came were vivid in colour. His ass probably healed the quickest and was the least painful of all of his injuries, once the discomfort had gone he was back to normal within about 10 days.

His mother had kept true to her words, she had been absent from her work for almost three weeks now, and Jian Yi was so sick of being stuck in the apartment, sore ribs and all, he wanted to return to school and get back to some semblance of normalcy. He had seen Xi most days, but they had been heavily chaperoned by his well meaning mother. So they had not even managed to kiss each other! Three whole weeks, he wanted to pounce on his boyfriend so badly.

They had texted each other a lot, flirted madly until things often turned hot and heavy and both boys resorted to jacking off in the privacy of their dark bedrooms, so far away from each other. He feared the 'innocent sleepover' days were well and truly over now their parents knew what they could possibly be doing under their noses.

Jian Yi felt so frustrated he was going to die!

When Monday morning came around he pulled his uniform on, shouted goodbye to his mother and walked to school. He saw Zhan Zheng Xi before Xi saw him, he bit his lip at the sight of his boyfriend standing there all moody, had he had a haircut?! Amazing, it made Xi look so grown up, like he was ready to join the world of being a University student.

"Xixi!" He went to run towards Zhan Xixi and stopped dead when his ribs throbbed in protest, fuck he had forgotten for a moment there!

He could see Xi rolls his eyes from where he was standing, and he mimed "You idiot, slow down!" at Jian Yi.

Jian Yi approached him at a more sedate pace, when they reached each other Jian Yi stood and stared at Xi like he hadn't seen him in months.

"Morning Xixi." His smile was so wide he felt like his face was going to split open.

"Morning......Yi." The last bit was whispered for his benefit. Zhan Xi grinned at a blushing Jian Yi and indicated that they should walk into school together.

"How are you this morning?" Typical Xi always thinking of him first.

"Ribs are still sore, evidently, I'm just so glad to see you in a setting that's not my house or have my mother bursting in on us every 5 seconds! But.......I feel like if I don't get to touch you in some way, I'm going to lose my mind!" Xi looked happy at this bit of information and lowered his voice as they walked into school.

"Me too, I want to touch you and kiss you so badly I ache, but I don't want to set you back or make you feel anything you're not ready to feel yet, shouldn't we wait? Don't you need to make sure you're even a little bit ready for more passionate kissing and touching?" Jian Yi's heart was beating insanely fast, they had talked about this over the last three weeks numerous times and Yi just felt like he was ready to kick that sick fuck from his mind and get back to his original obsession, Zhan Zheng Xi! Even his therapist said that he needed to face his feelings for Xi head on.

Jian Yi stopped and looked at his best friend. "Xixi can't we at least try?"

"Who am I to say no to my idiot Yi?" Zhan Xi rolled his eyes when Jian Yi cheered raising his arms up only to drop them with a wince. "You're in no way ready for anything physically taxing, but maybe we can say we need to visit the toilet at the same time...? I'm sure I can think of something we can do." Zhan Xi's smile was wicked and he waved at Jian Yi as he walked to his own class.

He suddenly felt momentarily alone, he swung around and saw Xixi's back retreating down the corridor and he had the stupidest urge to chase after him and ask Xi to take him home. Thankfully his classmates got their eye on him and dragged him gently into their classroom.

"Jian Yi! We missed you!", "Jian Yi your face....", "Are you back for good?", "I had no help to clean the blackboards on our cleaning duty, I'm pleased I don't have to ask Zen Ji anymore!", "Hey!" They're voices fell around him in a torrent of babble and gossip, barging they all vied to wish him well. He didn't remember being so well liked by his class mates, he was famous now because of what happened, apparently they missed him who knew.

Then one voice came across the noise.

"Hey give me space to get through." He Tian walked towards him, like Moses parting a sea of gasping, blushing girls.

"He Tian! Good morning!" They all fawned over him until his male classmates rolled their eyes, they grew bored and went back to their seats.

"Morning, I would just like to give Jian Yi the last bit of homework I was instructed to give him, so can we have a minute please?" He Tian's fake smile was firmly in place. When the girls wandered off reluctantly whispering about how considerate He Tian was, Jian Yi scoffed and rolled his eyes at all the fake pleasantries. Little do these girls know that He Tian was aggressively gay for a certain red headed delinquent.

"Morning Tian, if you give me any more homework I'm going to throw it in the river!" He Tian sat on his desk.

"So bitchy. No that was a ploy to get the masses away, how does it feel being back in school?" He Tian pretended to give him some papers.

"Good, weirdly terrifying, but good." Jian Yi had an insane urge to tell He Tian about that feeling he had about want to go home and hide.

"Momo and I have bets on when you're going to "disappear" for an hour with Zhan Zheng Xi."

"Fuck off!"

"It's going to be the easiest bet I've ever won, Momo has to give me a forfeit." Jian Yi was certain he could see horns pointing through He Tian's black hair. "Mo thinks you two will make it to lunchtime, me? I think you won't even make it past 10am break." He Tian got up and grinned at him. "Don't disappoint me." He then left Jian Yi's classroom to go to his own. Lucky He Tian got to see Zhan Xixi everyday!

Jian Yi feared that He Tian was going to win his bet.