Author Archives: Thandar

Lin Wu thought about it all night and only fell asleep around three in the morning. The next day at school, there were dark circles under his eyes.

His deskmate, Li Jing, was also a top student. The two of them rarely spoke outside of studying. She had been absent the day before, and when she saw his condition today, she was startled. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I’m fine…” Lin Wu tried not to think about the messages from the future, but during class his mind kept drifting back. He ended up writing three sets of numbers in his notebook: 11.19, 12.15, 12.17.

Based on his own personality, after learning about the two “car accidents” on September 9, whether he believed it or not, he would definitely remind Wang Jiahui on November 19, just in case. If Wang Jiahui really died, then he would believe the messages, and on December 15 he would stay by Luo Xiaorong’s side the entire time. She would avoid the car accident, only to be killed two days later…

The logic was perfectly consistent, but only if the messages were real.

He absentmindedly clicked his pen. Aside from the absurdity of “his future self” and “messages across time,” he couldn’t find any flaws for now. According to the theory that “2004 influences 2024,” since he already knew Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong would be killed, did that mean there would be new changes twenty years later?

Seventeen-year-old Lin Wu didn’t yet have the maturity of his thirty-seven-year-old self, but many of their thinking patterns were the same. He spiraled deeper into thought until his deskmate nudged him lightly with the corner of her book.

“What is it?” Lin Wu looked confused.

“The teacher’s calling on you,” she whispered.

It was chemistry class. Only then did Lin Wu realize the teacher had asked him to solve a problem, and he had been unresponsive. Several classmates were already looking his way. Translated on Hololo novels. He had previewed this type of question before. Steadying himself, he went up and solved it quickly. The day passed in a daze.

That evening, after returning home, Lin Wu went downstairs to wash some clothes, then sat in the corridor, his mood complicated.

According to the prediction, Wang Manshan would win a rice cooker in a supermarket lottery today, and at ten o’clock that night, he would bring over five jin of autumn pears…

It felt unscientific, until footsteps echoed in the stairwell—

Tap, tap, tap.

Then—

Knock, knock.

Someone was at the door.

Lin Wu stiffly opened it. Outside, Wang Manshan was about to knock again. When he saw Lin Wu, he looked surprised. “That was quick.” He was holding a red plastic bag, his expression full of joy.

“Uncle Wang, what brings you here?” Lin Wu asked.

“Haha, I won a five-liter rice cooker in the supermarket lottery tonight! I’ve been in a great mood. Then I saw someone selling autumn pears outside, and your Aunt Hao mentioned this morning we should get some to moisten the lungs. Perfect timing! I bought a bunch and brought some for you.” Wang Manshan spoke as he pushed the bag of pears into Lin Wu’s hands.

Looking at the pears, Lin Wu said in a daze, “That’s some luck…”

“Right? It’s all thanks to your mom changing jobs!” Wang Manshan had been happy about the prize all evening. The cooker sold for 370 yuan.

“Uncle Wang, how did you win the lottery?” Lin Wu asked.

“Same as usual. There’s a big box at the service desk. Spend over 68 yuan and you can draw. Mine was first prize. They said there were only three. I just reached in and grabbed one.” Worried about delaying Lin Wu’s rest, Wang Manshan checked the time. “Your Aunt Hao is waiting at home, I’ll head back now!”

“Be careful on your way.”

“Got it. You go back in too!”

Humming a tune, Wang Manshan went downstairs.

Lin Wu stood there, staring blankly at the pears in his arms.

Winning the prize was uncontrollable. Buying the pears was also uncontrollable. That meant everything the unknown number said was true… The other side really was him from twenty years in the future.

In a daze, he looked at the clock on the wall. 22:12.

If what the other side said was true… then the memories of his future self had already refreshed.

…

Waking up, eating, answering a chemistry question…

At the Xuhu hotel in 2024, Lin Wu refreshed his 2004 memories exactly at 22:12. He clearly saw himself distracted in class, then going home, washing clothes, waiting for Wang Manshan to arrive. The moment Wang Manshan appeared with the pears, he knew that his younger self had believed the “unknown number.”

It was like a new starting point. After that, the memories flashed rapidly like slides. He couldn’t see anything involving his thirty-seven-year-old self, because those events hadn’t happened yet. What he saw instead was a new outcome branching from September 17—

On November 19, he got up early, found Wang Jiahui, and warned her to be careful. Then he waited outside Lide High to walk home with her. He stayed downstairs at Wang Manshan’s place until midnight. Only after the day passed safely did he leave.

Wang Jiahui was not killed. She continued her normal life, going to school like any other high school girl.

Her fate had changed.

He planned to guard Luo Xiaorong on both December 15 and December 17, just as he had done for Wang Jiahui. But before December 15 even arrived, on the evening of December 2, both Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong disappeared.

One was a minor, the other mentally impaired. The police immediately opened a case. The next morning, they were found by an abandoned artificial lake in the suburbs—

Both had been murdered.

“There’s no surveillance here. Based on the victims’ characteristics and fatal wounds, the perpetrator is likely the same as in the previous cases…” the police said heavily after their preliminary conclusion.

Wang Manshan and Hao Shuqin cried until they were inconsolable. After that, everything followed the same path: Lin Wu got into university, and the couple later took their own lives.

Looking at this new ending, Lin Wu felt as if his heart was being crushed.

He thought of those words from the first change in outcome:

“A new path, and also an old one. Everything is changing. It may become better, or worse. Once a move is made, it cannot be undone.”

He began writing and calculating in his notebook. If the original ending was Outcome 1, then now there were:

Outcome 1: Wang Jiahui becomes vegetative, Luo Xiaorong dies in a car accident. (11.19, 12.15)
9.9 (Outcome 2): Wang Jiahui is murdered, Luo Xiaorong is murdered. (11.19, 12.17)
9.17 (Outcome 3): Both are murdered on the same day. (12.2)

…

These three outcomes were each worse than the last.

Lin Wu went back to the washroom. After the change leading to Outcome 3, he was still wearing the dark gray sleepwear, and his profession and life experiences remained unchanged.

He recalled the details after Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong were killed—

According to the police investigation, the killer who murdered them was the same person as in the first two cases. After this, the perpetrator committed additional crimes in 2005 and 2007, with the victims unchanged. Translated on Hololo novels. The police concluded that this was a series of random killings targeting high school girls. Luo Xiaorong had only been implicated because she was with Wang Jiahui. The case remained unsolved to this day.

Lin Wu wrote four words in his notebook:

“Not random…”

If there hadn’t been the first two outcomes, he would also have believed it was random. But with those as reference, even though the time and location changed, the ending remained the same, which meant the killer had targeted both of them long before.

If it was intentional murder, it could involve someone they knew. He ran through every possibility in his mind, but found no leads.

Unconsciously biting his lip, Lin Wu thought: today is September 17. There is still time.

Before his seventeen-year-old self contacts him, he must find a method that guarantees both of their safety.

He had already refreshed today’s memories. He was certain that his younger self would reach out.

…

2004, September 18.

Lin Wu arrived at school again with dark circles under his eyes.

“Are you okay?” Li Jing couldn’t help asking when she saw that he looked even worse than yesterday.

“I’m fine.” He had only fallen asleep at three the night before. After two consecutive nights like that, plus the pressure of studying during the day, he was mentally drained.

“Senior year is stressful, but you don’t have to push yourself this hard.” Li Jing tried to reassure him, inwardly marveling that he could still rank first despite this level of pressure.

“Thanks.” Lin Wu gave a small smile and took out his workbook to start doing problems.

At noon, he managed to nap for an hour. During the break before the second class in the afternoon, he went to the senior-year office.

His goal was simple: to request leave from one evening study session.

“You just took leave last week. Why are you asking again?” The homeroom teacher, a woman in her fifties, frowned.

“There’s something at home…” He had already asked around that morning. Evening study at Lide High also ran from seven to eight thirty. He planned to skip one session, go there, find the tall boy, and then contact his future self.

“Do you really have to take leave?” The teacher clearly disliked high-performing students skipping class.

“Yes.” Lin Wu nodded firmly.

“It’s your final year. Your focus should be on studying…” After a brief lecture, she sighed. “Go write a leave slip. Don’t let it happen again.”

“Thank you, teacher.” Lin Wu let out a breath of relief.

At six in the evening, school ended on time. It would take at most twenty minutes to get to Lide High. Their senior students also finished at six, with evening study starting at seven. He could go between six and seven, but since his goal was the ten o’clock messages, going too early would be pointless and might disrupt their study session. After thinking it through, he decided to wait until after their evening study ended.

He bought a stone-baked flatbread and a serving of millet porridge from a roadside stall, eating slowly until it was 6:40. He briefly thought he should attend half of his own evening study session, but since he had already taken leave, going back now felt awkward.

Standing by the roadside, he debated whether to find a well-lit place to review vocabulary when two girls passed by in front of him. They were holding milk tea, which looked very tempting.

Lin Wu was naturally cautious. He was now 99% certain the unknown number was his future self, but until he was completely sure, there was still that 1% of doubt.

That doubt came from his instinct to guard against the unknown. After all, within two days, he was being asked to accept that the world was not governed by normal rules, and that his closest loved one would die within three months… He needed time to process it.

So he needed a second confirmation. Before that, he could not fully trust that the boy had no ill intent.

This mindset might not be particularly easygoing, but he had no intention of changing it. He needed that caution to protect himself and Luo Xiaorong.

After standing there for a moment, Lin Wu turned and walked toward a milk tea shop ahead. It was in the opposite direction of Lide High. He lined up and bought a cup of milk tea, then went next door to a bakery and bought a slice of chocolate cake and a box of cream puffs.

His reasoning was simple:

No matter whether this was a prank or not, his relationship with the boy had already softened on the surface. Borrowing someone’s phone without any real connection required basic courtesy.

And if it turned out to be a prank in the end… then this would simply be a lesson he deserved to learn.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

【Is this Lin Wu.】

At the Xuhu hotel in 2024, after sending that message, Lin Wu stared at his phone. In his mind was the seventeen-year-old version of himself he had “seen” today.

From what he had figured out, every night at 22:12, his memories from age seventeen would refresh, covering everything from “last night” at 22:12 up to the present 22:12, like watching a documentary that had just happened.

Today, he saw himself going to school as usual, eating at a Sichuan restaurant with Wang Manshan’s family, even picking out Luo Xiaorong’s favorite blueberry yam for her… Everything was vivid, even sitting downstairs with the tall boy felt as fresh as if it had just happened.

Three seconds after sending the message, the reply came:

【Who are you?】

He had just “seen” his seventeen-year-old self sitting downstairs with the phone, but he wasn’t sure if anything had changed in those few seconds. After thinking for a moment, he asked:

【What did you eat this morning?】

Seventeen-year-old Lin Wu: ???

He found the question strange, but still replied:

【Millet porridge, tea eggs, and two vegetable buns.】

【Chive and egg?】

【Fennel and egg.】

【Are you the only one looking at the phone?】

Lin Wu was now certain the person holding the phone was himself.

【Yes.】

The younger Lin Wu didn’t want to keep answering meaningless questions and was about to ask something back when a new message appeared—

【I am you, twenty years from now.】

…

Downstairs in the 2004 residential compound, Qin Weidong and Lin Wu sat three meters apart, listening to the constant stream of message notifications. Lin Wu kept his head down, typing. His phone had a color screen, and from Qin Weidong’s angle, the glow made Lin Wu’s face look smaller.

“Still not done?” Qin Weidong didn’t have a phone to check the time, but it felt like ten minutes had passed.

“Almost…” Lin Wu pressed his lips together, typing seriously.

Qin Weidong grew irritated again when Lin Wu ignored him. “What time is it?”

“22:22.”

Lin Wu looked calm, but his mind was already a mess.

Ten minutes earlier, when the other side claimed to be his future self, his first reaction had been disbelief. But the other side seemed to understand his thought patterns perfectly and, before he could question anything, listed a series of private details only he would know. Childhood hiding spots during fights, his least favorite vegetables, even his habits when solving problems. Every single thing was correct.

“On my side, it’s September 16, 2024. Every night at 22:12, I refresh your memories from 2004,” the unknown number said.

“What did I write in my notebook during third-period math today?” Lin Wu asked.

“You drew a circle with a compass, then felt it wasn’t right to daydream in class, so you crossed it out. About twenty seconds between drawing and erasing.”

“What did I eat for lunch?”

“Tomato and egg, two liang of rice. You brought 7.2 yuan today. The meal cost 1.5.”

“You…”

“You’re wondering how I know so clearly, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“I told you. I am you, twenty years from now.”

Lin Wu found it all too unbelievable. But he couldn’t explain how the unknown number knew everything so precisely.

His thoughts spiraled. At 22:25, a long message came through—

【Lin Wu, you must remember this:
On November 19, 2004, at 8 p.m., Wang Jiahui is killed.
On December 15, Luo Xiaorong is in a car accident.

This was the original timeline. On the night of September 9, after the tall boy told you the information, you tried to stop it, and the outcome changed:
November 19, Wang Jiahui is killed.
You prevented the accident, but on December 17, Luo Xiaorong is killed.

This is my mistake. I didn’t say Wang Jiahui was murdered, which led you to believe she only needed to watch traffic… Now both have become random murders. You must pay attention to these two times.】

【Tomorrow, September 17, 2004, Uncle Wang will win a rice cooker in a supermarket lottery. At 10 p.m., he will bring you five jin of autumn pears.】

【All of this is real. You must pay attention to these two times!】

…

In 2024, after sending all that, Lin Wu collapsed back into his chair, exhausted.

The memory for September 17 hadn’t refreshed yet, but in both timelines, “Luo Xiaorong changing jobs and celebrating a week later at a Sichuan restaurant” had not changed. He clearly remembered Wang Manshan winning the rice cooker the next day and insisting it was thanks to the “good fortune” of Luo Xiaorong’s new job.

Lin Wu knew that wasn’t true, but it had been one of his few happy memories in senior year, so it stayed vivid.

He checked the time. 22:28. The messages had stopped.

…

Back downstairs in the residential compound, Qin Weidong hadn’t heard any notification sounds for a while. He looked over.

“Still not done?”

Lin Wu stood up at that moment and handed the phone back. “Done.”

“Let me see.” Qin Weidong took it, wanting to read the chat, only to find everything had been deleted. Not just the chat, even the recycle bin was wiped clean.

“Deleted that thoroughly, huh…” Qin Weidong muttered.

He was about to joke when he noticed Lin Wu’s face was deathly pale, completely drained of color.

“What’s wrong with you?!” Qin Weidong startled. Then a thought struck him. “Did he threaten you?”

He remembered Lin Wu had been bullied before. Maybe the unknown number was one of those people.

“Who is this guy?!” Qin Weidong grew angry, feeling like he had helped the wrong person.

“No one threatened me.” Lin Wu tried to steady himself, then looked at him. “What’s your name?”

“Qin Weidong. Wei as in guarding the country, Dong as in east, west, south, north.”

“My name is Lin Wu.”

“I know.”

“You’re a high school student?”

“Yeah. Lide High, Class 2, senior year.” Qin Weidong hesitated, still worried. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine…” Lin Wu felt he should say thank you, but his thoughts were too tangled. He couldn’t even trust himself right now, let alone Qin Weidong. The words wouldn’t come out.

“It’s late. You should head back and rest.” Qin Weidong wanted to ask more about the unknown number, but seeing Lin Wu’s condition, he decided to drop it for now.

“I’ll walk you out,” Lin Wu said, putting away the cushion and stool.

“Just go home already! I’ll grab a taxi.” Qin Weidong seemed almost afraid of being seen off. He tightened his jacket and quickly left.

Lin Wu tried to follow, but Qin Weidong walked too fast. Translated on Hololo novels. Soon, only a red silhouette disappeared into the night.

Lin Wu stood there for a while, then picked up the stool and cushion, his mind still in chaos, and went home.

Inside, Luo Xiaorong was lying on the bed drawing. She looked up happily when she saw him. “Wuwu’s back?”

“I’m back.” Lin Wu changed into lighter clothes and sat beside her. She was drawing flowers with colored pens, something she loved to do.

Still restless, Lin Wu gathered her dirty clothes into the laundry basket and returned to his room.

He replayed the conversation in his mind, then thought of the final message—

【I don’t know why this connection between times appeared, or whether it will disappear. I will wait for you to believe me. The connection opens from 22:12 to 22:27. I’ll wait for you to contact me.】

He went over every detail again and again. Finding no flaws, a strange thought flickered through him—

Had he really just contacted himself from twenty years in the future?

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

Previous

Qin Weidong wore a white hoodie today with a red jacket over it. The outfit wasn’t thin, but after waiting downstairs at Lin Wu’s place for two hours, with the cool breeze blowing, he was starting to feel cold.

He felt like he was looking for trouble. He had already decided to ignore the messages, but there were too many things about the unknown number that didn’t make sense. After thinking it over again and again, he decided to make one last attempt.

It was Sunday. No. 1 High School let out at three.

He made up his mind at five in the afternoon while playing basketball with Hu Wei and the others. Once he decided, he grabbed his jacket and left like a gust of wind. Translated on Hololo novels. He first took a taxi to Lin Wu’s home, but no one was there. After waiting a while, he went to the bookstore from last week, but it was empty too.

With no other choice, he returned downstairs to Lin Wu’s building and waited. From seven to eight, then nine. He cleared level after level on his Tetris game, while Lin Wu’s apartment remained dark.

“Damn it!” Qin Weidong was getting cold. He wanted to leave, but after waiting so long, it felt frustrating to go now.

After hesitating, he decided to keep waiting. Just then, his phone rang.

“Yeah?” It was Hu Wei. Qin Weidong answered casually.

“Brother Qin, we’re back at school. Why haven’t we seen you? When are you coming back?” Hu Wei and the others had just finished hot pot and were now lying comfortably on their dorm beds.

Hearing the relaxed tone on the other end, Qin Weidong replied faintly, “Probably around eleven.” It was seven kilometers back to school. He planned to wait another hour. If no one showed up by ten-thirty, he’d head back.

“That late?” Hu Wei sat up, curious. “Where did you go?” Qin Weidong had been acting mysterious lately, and he felt something was being hidden from him.

“Just some personal stuff. Why do you care so much?” Qin Weidong snapped back. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to tell Hu Wei, but he hadn’t figured things out himself. No point making it more confusing.

“I was just curious…” Hu Wei quickly backed off.

They chatted a bit more. Hu Wei mentioned going to the store and asked if Qin Weidong wanted anything. On the other end, Qin Weidong seemed to jump off the steps and suddenly said, “I’ve got something to do. Hanging up.” Then he ended the call immediately.

Hu Wei: ???

He just hung up like that?

…

“Go back and get some rest. You’ve got school tomorrow.” On a small path in the steel factory residential compound, Lin Wu walked with Wang Manshan’s family.

Today was the sixth day since Luo Xiaorong changed jobs. Over the past few days, Wang Manshan had quietly checked in on the second cafeteria. There were twenty employees there. They weren’t particularly warm to Luo Xiaorong, but no one bullied her behind her back either. She worked diligently, and the manager treated her well.

“Uncle Wang, thank you for everything. I get off early on Sundays. I was thinking we could find a place and have both families get together sometime…” Lin Wu didn’t seem sociable, but he understood basic courtesy. Wang Manshan had helped them a lot recently, and Lin Wu wanted to return the favor.

“Let’s just pick somewhere nearby. No need to go far,” Wang Manshan said, understanding Lin Wu’s temperament. In the end, they chose a modest Sichuan restaurant. The prices were low, the portions generous. After eating their fill, they headed back.

“Huihui’s monthly test is coming up. If she doesn’t understand anything, she can always ask me,” Lin Wu said as they neared home, holding Luo Xiaorong’s hand.

“We just started school and already have exams. It’s too early…” Wang Jiahui was lively and sensible, but the mention of exams made her slump.

“You’re just getting started. For the next three years, you’ll be taking tests constantly,” Hao Shuqin said, teasing her.

“Ahhh!” Wang Jiahui groaned dramatically.

Laughing and chatting, they arrived downstairs at Lin Wu’s building. Just as Lin Wu was about to say goodbye, he looked up and saw the tall boy by the flowerbed.

At first, Qin Weidong had been standing. Then he sat on the edge of the flowerbed. His backside got cold, so he switched to squatting. After half an hour of squatting, when he suddenly stood up, both legs went numb.

He ignored it, rubbing his legs while looking at the group, finally fixing his gaze on Lin Wu. Casually, he said, “Back already?”

“Why are you here?” Lin Wu pulled Luo Xiaorong slightly behind him, looking at Qin Weidong with caution.

“I had a math problem I couldn’t solve. Just happened to pass by your place, so I thought I’d ask you,” Qin Weidong said, making up an excuse on the spot.

“Do you know each other?” Wang Manshan asked suspiciously. He knew Lin Wu had been bullied before. Seeing this tall boy, he worried there might be trouble.

“Uncle, Auntie, I’m Lin Wu’s friend. We’re not from the same school, but we’re pretty close. I often ask him for help with studying,” Qin Weidong answered first. Though he was a troublemaker, his sunny demeanor and dimples made him seem sincere and polite.

“Your friend?” Wang Manshan looked at Lin Wu.

“…Yes,” Lin Wu said after a brief pause.

He was furious. This felt worse than being followed before. It felt like his territory was being invaded. Translated on Hololo novels. He wanted to confront Qin Weidong and ask why he kept pestering him. But with Wang Manshan’s family and Luo Xiaorong present, it wasn’t the time to escalate things.

“Uncle, Auntie, I came in a hurry tonight and didn’t bring anything. Next time, I’ll definitely make it up,” Qin Weidong continued, fully committing to the act. In his upbringing, visiting elders meant bringing gifts.

“Oh, you don’t need to bring anything. If we’d known you were here, we would’ve invited you to dinner,” Wang Manshan said quickly, charmed by his politeness.

“It’s alright. There’ll be plenty of chances in the future,” Qin Weidong replied easily.

Lin Wu couldn’t stand it anymore. “Uncle Wang, Auntie Hao, I’ll take my mom upstairs first. It’s cold outside. You should head home too.”

“Alright. Don’t stay up too late studying,” Wang Manshan said. Seeing that Qin Weidong wasn’t there to cause trouble, the three of them left with peace of mind. Before leaving, Wang Jiahui glanced at Qin Weidong a couple of times, feeling that he looked somewhat familiar.

Three minutes later, Lin Wu brought Luo Xiaorong home. Once inside, he actually didn’t want to go back down, but he worried the other person might do something inappropriate, like coming upstairs and knocking on the door. After thinking it over, he peeked through the curtain and saw the boy was still downstairs. In the end, he told Luo Xiaorong and went down.

When Lin Wu came downstairs, he was still seething, but by the time he stepped out of the building, he had already suppressed all his emotions.

“Hello. Do you need something?” Lin Wu asked politely.

“Got a few math problems I can’t solve. Thought I’d ask you,” Qin Weidong continued his nonsense.

Lin Wu stared at him in silence, then asked, “Which problem?”

Qin Weidong spread his hands. “Ah, forgot to bring them.”

“If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going.” Lin Wu turned to leave.

“Hey, hey, hey, do you really have no sense of humor at all?” Qin Weidong quickly stopped him, dropping the act as he pulled out his phone. “These are the chat records I had with that person. I didn’t lie to you. Those two car accidents before, he told me to pass them on to you.”

He had been scrolling through the messages just now. First it was two car accidents, then suddenly two murders. It sounded ridiculous even to him. Rather than struggling to explain, it was better to let Lin Wu see for himself.

“Start from the sixth,” Qin Weidong said, handing over the phone.

Lin Wu found it strange, but curiosity made him take it.

The message screen was already set to September 6. Lin Wu read—

【Then how did you know the time of the fire?】

【Since I told you about the fire, please go to Class 5, Grade 3 of Xuhu No. 1 High School and find Lin Wu…】

【Please make sure to tell him! Thank you.】

…

That was from September 6. Then came September 7 to 14. During those days, all the messages were from the other side, mostly things like “Hello, please reply” and just a “.”.

Lin Wu scrolled quickly. Then came last night—

【I can tell you why I know, on the condition that you go tomorrow to Class 5, Grade 3 of Xuhu No. 1 High School and find Lin Wu…】

【Tomorrow night between 22:12 and 22:27, hand the phone to Lin Wu…】

【Please make sure to help! Thank you!】

…

“Let me explain first! I’m not crazy. This number is a blank number. I thought it was strange, so I followed the message instructions to find you…”

Qin Weidong explained why he had followed him, then pulled out the receipt for his new phone and yesterday’s repair invoice. “Look at the dates. My phone was broken before and only got fixed yesterday. I didn’t receive any messages during that time. I think it’s pretty bizarre. Enough for a three-part documentary.”

He felt incredibly proud. Chat history, phone receipt, repair invoice. Everything was there. Surely that proved he wasn’t playing a prank. And even if it was a prank, it definitely wasn’t him!

While Qin Weidong kept rambling, Lin Wu felt his thoughts in chaos. His instinct said it was a prank, but he had no money or influence. Why would anyone target him? And even if it was a setup, what was the point?

After thinking in circles, he asked, “You really don’t know?”

“I really don’t! I’m helping someone out of the goodness of my heart!” Qin Weidong emphasized his noble character.

Five minutes later, Qin Weidong sat on the stone where Lin Wu usually washed clothes, a cushion placed underneath. Lin Wu sat about three meters away on a plastic stool he had brought down. After discussing, they decided to wait together until 22:12. If it was a prank, they could figure it out through the conversation.

“This is my phone. There’s no need to stop me from looking, right?” Qin Weidong was annoyed. After their discussion, Lin Wu had taken his phone and didn’t want him to see it.

“The message said he wants to talk to me alone,” Lin Wu replied.

He knew it sounded a bit unreasonable, but his reasoning was simple.

If this was a prank involving the boy and someone else, then it didn’t matter whether Qin Weidong looked or not. The other side would know the conversation anyway. But if it wasn’t a prank, and the unknown number kept insisting on contacting him, then the content might involve something personal. Until he understood the other party’s intent, he didn’t want a third person involved.

Seeing Qin Weidong still unhappy, Lin Wu added, “I’ll check what he says first. If it’s nothing important, I’ll let you see it, alright?” When he said “alright,” there was clear apology in his tone.

He was cautious, but not unreasonable. If Qin Weidong really had been trying to help, then Lin Wu’s earlier attitude hadn’t been fair.

Qin Weidong softened immediately. He was the type who responded better to softness than force. With a snort, he said, “It’s not like I’m dying to read someone else’s messages anyway. Just don’t scroll through my other messages or click any weird links.”

“I won’t,” Lin Wu nodded.

Under the faint warm light, the two sat three meters apart, waiting for 22:12.

At 22:12, as if triggered by some signal, the message screen lit up in Lin Wu’s hand.

Then he saw a new message:

【Is this Lin Wu.】

It was phrased like a question, yet ended with a period, as if the sender already knew the person holding the phone was Lin Wu.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

Next

【Who exactly are you?！！！】

If this had been a week earlier, once Lin Wu confirmed that the other person was upright and well-meaning and wouldn’t interfere with his goal, he wouldn’t have minded saying that his name was Lin Wu, that he came from twenty years in the future. But that had a condition: it must not affect his objective. And now…

Lin Wu recalled 2004. They had only met twice. The first time, the other had followed him, and the first impression had not been pleasant. The second time, although they hadn’t directly clashed, his seventeen-year-old self clearly didn’t believe him.

He couldn’t interfere with his seventeen-year-old self, nor did he know whether revealing his identity would make things even more chaotic. Countless possibilities flashed through his mind. In the end, he replied:

【I am a prophet.】

“!!!” In the 2004 student dormitory, Qin Weidong was opening a can of cola. When he saw the reply, he nearly spilled it.

He finished the cola, tossed the can into the trash below, steadied himself, and then asked, “What am I doing right now?”

Lin Wu: …

“I don’t know.” That wasn’t something a “prophet” could answer.

“What am I having for breakfast tomorrow? What color suit will the female anchor on Xuhu Evening News wear tomorrow night? What advertisement will play on Channel 3 at 20:27?” Qin Weidong fired off a string of questions.

“A blue suit.” Lin Wu could only look up the second question. He couldn’t answer the others.

“The Evening News anchor often wears blue suits. That doesn’t count.” Qin Weidong spoke as if he had seen through everything. From the start, he hadn’t believed the claim about a prophet. It was completely unscientific.

“Then how did you know about the fire?” Even though he didn’t believe it, he was still fixated on that.

It was now 22:12. Lin Wu didn’t want to waste time proving his identity. He quickly replied:

【I can tell you why I knew, on one condition: tomorrow, go to Class 5, Grade 12 at Xuhu No. 1 High, find Lin Wu, and tell him that Xiao Hulu will be murdered on the night of November 19. The killer is a random murderer. Luo Xiaorong will have a car accident on the night of December 15. If the accident is prevented, she will be murdered on the night of December 17, also by a random killer. So he must stop both of these deaths!】

【Tomorrow night between 22:12 and 22:27, please hand the phone to Lin Wu. I need to speak with him directly.】

【Please make sure to help. Thank you!】

……

After sending the message, Lin Wu felt as if he had expended immense energy. If he wanted to rewrite the tragedy of 2004, the only tool he had was this phone.

During their first exchange, he didn’t know the other person’s identity, so he had concealed some key details, such as describing Wang Jiahui’s death as a car accident.

Now, after two encounters with his seventeen-year-old self, he knew more. Translated on Hololo novels. The other person appeared to be around seventeen, tall, good-looking. From the fact that he faithfully passed on the message, he seemed to have a sense of responsibility. This did not match the suspect profile from the police investigation.

Lin Wu believed the other person was not the killer. Still, to be cautious, he went back to the internet café over the past few days and contacted its original owner.

“Hengxing Internet café? I invested 1.2 million back then. One fire, and it was all gone.”

“Details? I remember! Before the fire, there was a high school student walking around upstairs and downstairs. He was tall and good-looking. He was the first to notice the fire. The evacuation was timely, or a lot of people would’ve died.”

“That student even saved a middle schooler while escaping. Otherwise, given the situation, that kid would’ve been done for…”

“The next day, that student reported to the police, saying he suspected arson. I went to the station too. The surveillance footage was all preserved. It was a natural fire.”

…

The former owner now ran a hardware store. His income was decent compared to ordinary people, but for someone who had managed to raise over a million yuan back in 2004, his life hadn’t gone well.

“Do you still have the footage from back then?” Lin Wu caught the key point.

“What do you want it for?” the owner immediately became wary.

“I’m a physics professor at Jianghe University. I’m currently working on a research project about life trajectories…” Lin Wu introduced himself. At times like this, being a university professor lent him credibility.

Seeing that Lin Wu genuinely needed the footage, they arranged a time and place to meet.

The owner had been forty-two at the time of the incident and was now sixty-two, with hair half gone gray. After exchanging pleasantries, he searched Lin Wu’s information on his phone. Lin Wu was indeed a physics professor at Jianghe University, with numerous research projects and interviews online.

“This is the footage from that fire. I thought it had some memorial value, so I kept it.” After confirming Lin Wu’s identity, he took out a USB drive.

“Thank you.” Lin Wu checked it on his laptop and put it away.

“I’ve been thinking over the years… if our fire safety awareness had been stronger back then, my life would probably be better now. But then again, if no one had discovered the fire, everyone in that café would’ve died. In a way, I was lucky…” Opening the café had been the peak of his life. Now, with Lin Wu listening, he found himself talking more than usual.

“It was a kind of luck,” Lin Wu said.

He thought of the owner’s original fate. As the legal representative of the café, he had been sentenced to seven years. Before going to prison, he had compensated the victims’ families until he was broke. After release, he continued working while paying more compensation. He could never escape the burden of guilt.

The last impression Lin Wu had was a news report: the man, already in his sixties, living like an ascetic, praying for the victims. Translated on Hololo novels. In the original outcome, both the owner and all the victims had been part of a tragedy. Now, the outcome had changed. The fire still occurred, but compared to before, everyone lived to see a new day.

They talked for an entire afternoon. Before parting, the owner asked expectantly, “Will your research project be published in newspapers or journals?” He had looked it up. Professors of Lin Wu’s level usually published in academic outlets.

“This is an internal university project. I can’t guarantee that yet…” Lin Wu pressed his lips together. He didn’t want to use the project as an excuse to take the USB drive, but he didn’t know how else to explain.

“It’s fine. This isn’t any kind of confidential file. I have plenty of backups at home. The police probably have archived copies too. Honestly, I just wanted someone to talk to. It’s been a long time since anyone asked me about the café.”

As if sensing Lin Wu’s discomfort, the owner added that. Just as he said, it wasn’t anything secret. He had agreed to meet simply because he wanted to revisit the past. If the conversation felt right, even if Lin Wu hadn’t been a professor, he would still have been willing to give him the footage.

“Thank you!” Lin Wu said sincerely.

“It’s nothing.” After chatting, the two went their separate ways.

Lin Wu returned to the hotel and immediately opened the USB drive. The footage began recording from 10 p.m. that night. He saw the “unknown number” walk into the internet café with a thin boy. The “unknown number” was replying to messages, likely texting him at the time.

After sending the messages, the unknown number carefully checked the power supply. As the time of the fire approached, he sent his companion away, then continued checking. When he discovered the fire, he ran, evacuating people and rescuing them…

A good person.

That was Lin Wu’s first reaction after watching. From the way the boy deliberately sent his companion away as the fire approached, it was clear he cared about the timing of the fire. Yet he didn’t leave. Instead, he searched again and again for the source, and in the end saved everyone, never once thinking of escaping alone.

After watching, Lin Wu instinctively felt the boy couldn’t be the serial killer. Still, to be certain, he copied the video and sent it to a psychology professor at Jianghe University.

“You want me to judge whether he has homicidal or antisocial tendencies?” The professor was surprised by Lin Wu’s request.

“Yes. Please help me determine whether those possibilities exist.” Lin Wu’s goal was to change the past tragedy. The unknown number was his only bridge, so he had to be absolutely sure the other person was safe.

“Alright, I’ll take a look now.” The professor, over seventy and one of the country’s top experts, had assisted police in solving many serious cases. As he spoke, he began analyzing the footage, jotting notes in a notebook.

“Thank you,” Lin Wu said sincerely.

A day later, Lin Wu received the psychological assessment.

Based on the tall boy’s body language and micro-expressions, he was upright and kind, with a healthy upbringing and mental state. He showed no signs of antisocial behavior. He was a sunny, open, psychologically stable young man.

“When he was checking the area, his brows were tightly furrowed, which shows he was anxious. When he rescued people, he hesitated for half a second, but his body leaned forward, and once he committed, his movements were decisive. That means he had already judged the danger, yet still chose to save others. That takes more courage than acting on instinct,” the professor said with clear approval. “If someone like him had homicidal or antisocial tendencies, then all of us would be potential killers.”

People aren’t unchanging, but everyone has a core nature. This boy’s micro-expressions and choices under danger showed integrity and kindness. He belonged to the type least likely to become antisocial. The probability of him being a killer was extremely low.

“There is one point of doubt in this video. When he checked the power source, it seemed like he already expected a fire to happen here…” The footage was simple. That was the only anomaly.

“Where did you get this?” the professor asked.

“I came across it by chance. I’ve been wanting to learn some psychology, so I thought I’d study it,” Lin Wu replied with a prepared explanation.

“Haha, if you want to study psychology, just come to me. When are you coming back to Jianghe? We should all get together,” the professor laughed.

“I still have some things to take care of at home. I’ll come back after this period,” Lin Wu replied with a polite smile.

That call had taken place earlier that day. Afterward, Lin Wu continued gathering information on the Xuhu serial murder case until night, when he received Qin Weidong’s message.

…

“You said they were car accidents before. Why are they suddenly random murders now? Even the timing has changed!” In the Lide High School dorm, Qin Weidong rapidly typed out a message and hit send.

Three seconds later: failed.

“Damn!” Qin Weidong muttered, rarely swearing.

“What’s wrong, Brother Qin?” The others were playing cards and were startled.

“Nothing.” Qin Weidong forced himself to calm down, then checked the time. 22:28. One minute past the latest time the other person had mentioned.

He lay back on the bed with his arms behind his head. Three seconds later, a cold smile tugged at his lips.

Last week it was two car accidents. Now it’s two murders. Is this some kind of joke?

He had already made a fool of himself once. Why would the other person think he’d do it again?

He looked at the second-to-last message:

【Tomorrow night between 22:12 and 22:27, hand the phone to Lin Wu…】

Oh really. It’s his phone. Since when did the other person get to make demands?

These days there were all kinds of phone viruses and trojans. What if he handed it over and all his credit got drained?

He’d already been foolish once. If he did it again, he’d be a complete idiot.

Qin Weidong spent the whole night thinking in circles and decided to put away his curiosity and stop caring about it. And then…

At 9 p.m. the next evening, “complete idiot” Qin Weidong was squatting downstairs outside Lin Wu’s building.

He looked up at Lin Wu’s window.

It was dark.

He had been waiting from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and no one had come home.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

The next day was September 15, a Saturday. The academic atmosphere at Lide wasn’t as intense as at No. 1 High, but the senior year curriculum was tight. Students still had classes on Saturdays and only got Sunday off.

After entering his senior year, Qin Weidong had specifically asked Qin Jianzhang to speak with the school. As long as he didn’t cause trouble, he wanted the school to be more relaxed about his studies. Qin Weidong was already set on going abroad, and Qin Jianzhang didn’t want his son to suffer, so he half-reluctantly agreed.

Since the parents had said as much, the teachers naturally turned a blind eye. After waking up, Qin Weidong sent a leave message to his homeroom teacher and, very practiced, threw on a jacket and headed out.

“Brother Qin, you’re up early?”

Just as he stepped out, he saw Hu Wei, still half-asleep, carrying a washbasin toward the washroom.

“Yeah. Go early, come back early.” He had mentioned fixing his phone to Hu Wei the day before.

“Want to wait for me? I can go with you tomorrow?” Hu Wei wanted to tag along, but after writing that self-criticism last time, he didn’t dare skip major classes again.

“It’s fine, I’ll go myself.” Qin Weidong had been thinking about fixing the phone since last night. After saying that, he didn’t wait for Hu Wei to say more and went downstairs in a light, easy stride.

Hu Wei scratched his head behind him. No need to be this rushed, right…

…

At nine in the morning, Qin Weidong arrived at the mobile mall. There weren’t many customers yet, just sales clerks behind counters and cleaning staff mopping the floors. The mall had three floors. After walking around, he stopped in front of a repair shop.

“Both your screen and motherboard are damaged. They’ll need to be replaced. Three thousand two,” the shop owner said after checking the phone, clearly quoting high after sizing up Qin Weidong’s clothes and demeanor.

Qin Weidong had money, but he wasn’t stupid. The price was obviously inflated. He took back his phone, asked around at other shops, and finally chose one with the same repair plan for fifteen hundred.

“How long will it take?” Qin Weidong asked, sitting on a high stool in the shop.

The round-faced owner looked friendly. “This is a new model. I’ll need to find parts in storage. All told, about three to four hours.”

“Alright.” Qin Weidong agreed after a moment’s thought.

He stayed from ten in the morning until two in the afternoon. During that time, he went out for a bowl of noodles and came back. The owner worked carefully, and at 2:10, after pressing the power button, he handed the phone back. “It’s fixed. Put in your SIM and try it.”

Qin Weidong first checked the messages. Translated on Hololo novels. All the previous message and call logs were still there. He removed the SIM card from his new phone and inserted it into the old one.

“I’m careful and affordable here. If any of your classmates need repairs, send them my way,” the owner said, trying to build future business.

“Sure, I’ll spread the word when I get back,” Qin Weidong replied smoothly.

He inserted the SIM card. Three seconds later, the phone picked up a signal.

“I…” the owner was about to say more when Qin Weidong’s phone suddenly started ringing.

Beep—

Beep beep—

Beep beep beep—

The crisp message alerts came one after another, rapid and urgent like a 7 a.m. alarm. Both Qin Weidong and the shop owner froze.

Twenty seconds later, it stopped.

Qin Weidong checked. There were fifty-two unread messages.

“Your phone wasn’t working before?” the owner asked, confused. From removing the SIM to inserting it, only about twenty seconds had passed. There shouldn’t be this many messages.

“It worked.” Qin Weidong opened them and saw they were all from the unknown number.

【Are you there? I hope you can reply.】
The first message was from the evening of September 7 at 22:12. That day had the most messages, concentrated between 22:12 and 22:27, about one every two minutes. Most of them said things like “Are you there? I hope you can reply,” or “Hello, can you see this?”

The wording was very polite, but he could sense the urgency behind them.

Qin Weidong thought back. On September 7, he had been hospitalized at the central hospital. During the day, he broke his phone. That night, he used his new phone to message the other party, but all his messages failed to send.

He scrolled down.

September 8: 【Hello, I hope you can reply.】

September 9: 【Hello, messages can be sent successfully on my end between 22:12 and 22:27. I’m not sure what’s happening on your side. Please reply.】

September 10: 【Hello, please reply.】

September 11: 【Hello, please reply.】

…

These messages continued from the 7th through the 14th. At first they were frequent, but later they appeared only at 22:12 and 22:27. The period at 22:27 felt like it was simply testing something.

“Shouldn’t these messages have shown up on the new phone?” the repair shop owner asked after glancing through them. The messages weren’t sent all at once, so logically they should have appeared on the new phone instead of all piling into the old one.

“Maybe it’s a delay from the carrier…” Qin Weidong’s mind was a mess. The number felt abnormal in every possible way.

He had no mood for small talk. After paying for the repair, he left in frustration.

An hour later, instead of waiting for Lin Wu, he returned to the dormitory. On the way back, he tried texting the number with the old phone. The message failed to send. He pulled up the message from September 9: 【Hello, messages can be sent successfully on my end between 22:12 and 22:27…】

Qin Weidong now had three questions.

First, why did the other party say “on my end”? Where exactly was “my end”? Overseas? But a Xuhu SIM card wouldn’t work abroad, so that didn’t make sense.

Second, why could messages only be sent between 22:12 and 22:27? His SIM card had been in the new phone before, so why hadn’t it received anything?

Third, the police had already confirmed this was an inactive number. How could it send and receive messages at all?

In seventeen years of life, Qin Weidong had never encountered something so incomprehensible. Translated on Hololo novels. He felt like he had burned through a good portion of his brain cells.

At nine that evening, Hu Wei came to Qin Weidong’s dorm carrying a box of fried rice. Qin Weidong lay limp on the bed.

“Brother Qin, time to eat!” Hu Wei nudged him. He had asked earlier if Qin Weidong wanted food, but Qin Weidong had declined, sounding low-energy.

Qin Weidong glanced at him, then stared lifelessly at the ceiling. “Not hungry. Don’t feel like eating.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Hu Wei felt something had been off since last night.

“Nothing. I’m waiting for a time.” Qin Weidong spoke weakly.

“What time?”

“22:12.”

“What happens at 22:12?”

“At 22:12, messages can be sent.”

Hu Wei: ???

Hu Wei looked at the still-steaming food in his hands and asked again, “You really not eating?”

“Not hungry. No appetite at all.”

“Alright then…” Hu Wei could only take the food and leave, completely confused.

After Hu Wei left, Qin Weidong continued staring at the ceiling. Just as he had said, he had spent the entire day waiting for that time. There were too many things he couldn’t figure out. He wanted to see if messages could be sent at 22:12. If they could, he was determined to get answers.

He stared at the fluorescent light overhead, feeling as if time had never moved so slowly.

An hour later, his alarm went off. It was now 22:11. He shot upright and sent a message to the unknown number: 【There?】

Failed to send.

At 22:12, he timed it exactly and sent again: 【There?】

The sending circle spun once, and this time it went through.

………

In 2024, at the Xuhu hotel, Lin Wu had a desk covered in documents. These were materials he had gathered about the Xuhu murder cases from newspapers and online sources. During this time, aside from sending messages to the unknown number every night, all his energy had gone into researching the case. He had even taken an extra month off from work for it.

After September 9, when the new outcome appeared, the number of cases in the Xuhu serial murders had increased from five to six.

The first four occurred in 2004, the fifth in 2005, and the sixth in 2007. Based on the testimony of the second victim and police investigation, the suspect was likely over thirty, of average height. Translated on Hololo novels. All six crimes were random. Aside from Luo Xiaorong, the other five victims were all high school girls.

Lin Wu rubbed his temples. The simplest solution would have been to identify the killer in 2024 and tell the unknown number in 2004, so the killer could be brought to justice then. But the problem was that the case remained unsolved. Aside from what the police had uncovered, there were no decisive clues.

Lin Wu looked at his phone.

Now, every night, his memories from 2004 refreshed. Yesterday, he had already seen that the unknown number had contacted his younger self again, asking about the phone number. At that time in 2004, it was still an inactive number, and his seventeen-year-old self didn’t recognize it.

The fates of Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong had not changed. One still died on November 19, the other on December 17.

Although Lin Wu could refresh his memories from age seventeen, it was like watching a movie in a theater. Since September 6, he had been unable to make contact with 2004 or intervene in any way.

He felt increasingly restless.

At 22:12, his memory refreshed to September 15, 2004. Nothing had happened.

Lin Wu picked up his phone, preparing to send his usual nightly “check-in” message. At that moment, the message screen lit up.

【There?】

Lin Wu stared at the long-awaited message, his breathing quickening for a moment. It was the unknown number from 2004. Since September 6, they had finally reconnected.

He immediately picked up his phone to reply, but then a second message came through:

【Who exactly are you?！！！】

The single question mark followed by three exclamation points fully conveyed the frustration on the other end of the phone.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

“Lin Wu is seventeen, goes to No. 1 High, and gets pretty good grades…” Luo Liang had no idea why Qin Weidong was asking about Lin Wu. He assumed the two had some sort of conflict, so he began recounting everything in painstaking detail.

At the entrance to Piaoxiang Pavilion, Qin Weidong found a step off to the side and sat down, listening carefully.

Half an hour later, he had a basic understanding of Lin Wu’s circumstances: his father was disabled, his mother had an intellectual disability, his father died when he was in his first year of high school, and now he lived with his mother. His mother made buns in the canteen and earned nine hundred yuan a month. Lin Wu did well in school and had always been a top student…

“This guy is usually gloomy and doesn’t fit in. In his first year of high school, he almost killed someone…” Luo Liang grew more and more animated as he talked.

“Killed someone?” Qin Weidong caught that immediately.

“It was during winter break in his first year. He got into an argument with someone from the compound. By the time we got there, Lin Wu was holding a knife, and the other guy was already on the ground.”

“Was there blood?”

“No. The guy fell down from fright.”

Qin Weidong was a little surprised. After calculating Lin Wu’s age at the time, he asked, “Did he get sent to juvenile detention?” Based on Luo Liang’s description, even if Lin Wu hadn’t actually killed anyone, that still counted as threats and intimidation, which should have resulted in detention.

“No. He came out after giving a statement at the police station.”

“Why?”

“The knife wasn’t Lin Wu’s. The other guy brought it.”

Qin Weidong understood at once. The other person had brought the knife intending to threaten Lin Wu and ended up getting the tables turned on him.

“He didn’t kill anyone, so why are you saying he did?”

“When we got there, Lin Wu’s expression was terrifying. Not crazy or twisted, just this cold, blank calm, like one of those psychopathic killers in movies. His family was already abnormal to begin with, so we all thought he’d inherited it from his mom and was some kind of potential mental case…”

Qin Weidong frowned. “Isn’t his mom intellectually disabled?”

“It’s all the same.”

“An intellectual disability is an intellectual disability. Mental illness is mental illness. And anyway, mental illness isn’t necessarily hereditary,” Qin Weidong corrected him.

“…Oh.” Luo Liang sounded a little dazed by that. Then he asked, “Brother Qin, should we find some people and beat him up?”

“You used to beat him up a lot?”

“We had some conflicts when we were kids, but he fought back pretty hard, so he didn’t exactly lose out. Later, once we got older, we mostly stayed out of each other’s way.”

“What kinds of conflicts?”

“Do I really have to say?” Luo Liang didn’t understand why Qin Weidong wanted to know all this.

“Yeah. Tell me everything.” Qin Weidong shifted position.

“Actually, at the start it was all small stuff…”

Luo Liang himself had no direct conflict with Lin Wu. It was more that their group as a whole had issues with him. The reason, more or less, was that Lin Wu’s father was lame and his mother had an intellectual disability. Translated on Hololo novels. Their family had neither power nor influence in the steel factory, so a lot of kids looked down on them. They liked to imitate the way Lin Haiming walked. Lin Haiming was meek and could only make shooing gestures, which made everyone laugh.

Later, simply mocking the way he walked stopped being fun enough. They started throwing stones at Luo Xiaorong, or dragging her out to the road to make a fool of her, or tricking her into eating spicy snack strips picked up off the ground…

Luo Xiaorong couldn’t really express herself, and they kept getting worse and worse, until Lin Wu found out.

Lin Wu didn’t back down. He went straight to hitting people. He fought in a very underhanded way, aiming only at places outsiders couldn’t see, never leaving obvious wounds. When the kids who got beaten told their parents, the parents knew their own children had been bullying someone and beat them again. After enough of these incidents, the conflict shifted from being between them and Lin Wu’s parents to being between them and Lin Wu himself. It went back and forth like that until junior high, when things finally eased up a little.

“We didn’t really have any contact after junior high. It’s just that Zhao Qi liked to mess with him now and then when he was bored…” Zhao Qi was the one who had pulled the knife on Lin Wu. Not long after that incident, his family moved away for work.

“You people really are trash.” Qin Weidong might have been a troublemaker, but he looked down on this kind of bullying cruelty.

“They’re not, I am. No, that’s not right, I can’t exactly say I’m trash either. I mostly just followed them around and watched the fun.” Luo Liang got increasingly tangled up in his own words, then finished with, “Did he piss you off? I can get some people to beat him back for you.”

“Get lost. Who said I wanted to beat anyone up?” Qin Weidong frowned. “I’m just asking you about some things. Don’t go starting trouble for me. My business is not yours to interfere with, and don’t go looking to beat anyone up.”

Seeing how serious he was, Luo Liang hurriedly promised, “I absolutely won’t interfere!”

“Mm.” Qin Weidong had lost interest in talking. After a couple more words, he hung up.

It was now 9:10. Just as Qin Weidong stood up, Hu Wei came out of the restaurant.

“Brother Qin, why aren’t you inside? I tried calling you but couldn’t get through.”

“I was on another call. I’m coming in now.”

Qin Weidong brushed the dust off his clothes and went upstairs with Hu Wei to sing. The group played from nine until eleven that night. Qin Weidong slipped the gate guard two packs of cigarettes, then took Hu Wei back to the dormitory in secret.

That night Gao Mingming had gone home for something, so after saying a word to him, Hu Wei took his bed. Qin Weidong and Gao Mingming usually had the upper and lower bunk arrangement, but now it was Qin Weidong above and Hu Wei below. The other two roommates were in the next dorm playing cards, so only the two of them were in the room.

“Monkey.” Lying in bed, Qin Weidong suddenly called Hu Wei by his nickname.

“What?” Hu Wei was playing Sokoban and looked up when he heard him.

“Say there’s someone who’s been bullied his whole life, and these people bully both him and his parents. Then some stranger shows up and tells him, ‘Your mom’s going to die in three months’… would that count as provocation?” Qin Weidong asked after thinking through how to phrase it.

“Of course.” Hu Wei answered without hesitation.

“And what if that stranger doesn’t know anything about the family? He’s just passing on a message for someone.”

“Who passes on a message saying somebody’s parents are going to die? If anyone said that about my dad, I’d be the first one to beat the hell out of them.” Hu Wei got smacked around by his own father often enough, but he loved him, and his father loved him. He would never allow someone to attack him like that.

“This stranger doesn’t know that. He thinks he’s helping someone.”

“What kind of helping is it to tell someone their parents are going to die?” Hu Wei sounded scornful. “That person is either brain-dead or a complete idiot. There’s no third possibility.”

After Hu Wei said that, the upper bunk went silent.

“Brother Qin?” Hu Wei called out.

“Heh.” Qin Weidong let out a cold laugh, then said icily, “Go to sleep!”

Hu Wei: Why did it suddenly get so cold?

Going to school, leaving school, and taking Luo Xiaorong home.

Lin Wu’s life in high school was extremely simple. After Luo Xiaorong changed jobs, he no longer had to pick her up or drop her off. His days were reduced to just school and home, back and forth, and he was very satisfied with this routine. He didn’t want any changes.

But the next day after school, the moment he stepped out of the school gate, he felt like someone was following him. It was 8:35 in the evening, and the entrance was crowded with graduating seniors. He took a couple of steps, then suddenly turned around—

About five meters behind him, a tall boy was trailing him lazily. The weather was a bit cool today. Translated on Hololo novels. The boy wore a red jacket, light blue jeans, and a white baseball cap. With broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and long limbs, he stood out sharply among the sea of school uniforms.

Lin Wu recognized him. It was the person from the alley a few days ago.

He walked forward, and the other followed. He stopped, and the other stopped. When Lin Wu looked over, the boy made no effort to hide and simply smiled at him.

Lin Wu: …

Lin Wu very much wanted to ask why he was being followed, but this wasn’t his private road. If he asked, it would make him seem self-important.

Suppressing his discomfort, Lin Wu walked as usual to the bus stop. The other followed him there.

Lin Wu got on the bus. The other got on.

Lin Wu got off. The other got off.

Lin Wu walked into the residential compound. The other followed behind. After about a hundred meters, Lin Wu finally couldn’t hold back anymore and turned around. “Are you following me?”

“You just noticed?” Qin Weidong sounded genuinely surprised, as if it were strange Lin Wu had only just realized.

“Do you need something?” Lin Wu frowned.

“Yes.” Qin Weidong took out his phone without hesitation.

He had thought it through the day before. His original goal was to figure out the identity of the unknown number. Now the only lead was Lin Wu. There was no reason to abandon it just because of one unpleasant interaction.

“Do you recognize this number?” Qin Weidong quickly pulled up the unknown number. He had switched phones, so the previous message history was still in the old one. Only the saved contact remained on the SIM card.

“I don’t,” Lin Wu said after a glance.

“Look again carefully!” Qin Weidong was very dissatisfied with the perfunctory answer.

“I really don’t know it.” Lin Wu’s social circle was extremely small. Aside from Wang Manshan and Hao Shuqin, he didn’t recognize other numbers. This one had nothing special about it except that it matched his birthdate.

“Think again.” Qin Weidong stared intently at his expression.

“I don’t know it,” Lin Wu said firmly.

“A few days ago, this number sent me messages and told me to pass something on to you,” Qin Weidong said, bringing up what happened in the alley.

Lin Wu looked at him in slight surprise. “Thank you. I understand now.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.” After their previous unpleasant encounter, Lin Wu instinctively kept his distance. He didn’t care who had said those words, whether it was this boy or someone else. It didn’t matter. He didn’t want to waste energy on meaningless things. Of course, if the other kept pushing and harassing him, he wouldn’t hesitate to push back.

“I’m going home now. Do you have anything else?” Lin Wu asked.

“No…”

“Goodbye.” Lin Wu turned and left without another word.

Qin Weidong watched his back and felt that something was off. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly realized what it was.

He had followed him all the way here to prove his noble, helpful nature. But just now, the other had been brushing him off the entire time. He was being dismissed.

“Damn!” Qin Weidong felt this couldn’t just end like that. He couldn’t let himself be misunderstood. He was being helpful, a model citizen with upright character!

He immediately followed again.

Lin Wu didn’t notice. At Building 26, just as he reached downstairs, he saw Luo Xiaorong sitting on the steps. When she saw him, she happily ran up. “Wuwu!”

“Mom, why did you come downstairs? It’s cold.”

Luo Xiaorong was wearing winter pajamas. Lin Wu’s first instinct was to pull her collar tighter.

“It’s not cold.” She breathed out warm air as she spoke. She used to go home with him, but now that she stayed alone, she wasn’t used to it. She liked waiting for him downstairs.

“I’ll set an alarm for you. Come down when it rings.” Lin Wu knew she could be stubborn sometimes, so he didn’t argue further. After a couple more words, he took her hand and led her upstairs.

When Qin Weidong arrived, this was the scene he saw: Lin Wu adjusting Luo Xiaorong’s clothes and leading her upstairs.

He looked up at the windows of the old apartment building. Not long after, a light came on in a third-floor unit.

He wanted to explain things, but he didn’t have the habit of knocking on someone’s door out of the blue. If he did, he’d basically look like a stalker.

He found a spot sheltered from the wind, took out his phone, and was about to call Hu Wei to see where he was.

Just as he was about to dial, footsteps came from the corridor of Building 12. Qin Weidong turned around.

In the steel factory residential area, about ninety percent of the residents were factory workers. When the buildings were constructed, each one had a row of water pipes downstairs so residents could wash vegetables and clothes. The factory covered the water cost as part of employee benefits.

When Qin Weidong turned, he saw Lin Wu again, now in pajamas, carrying a large basin of clothes.

Lin Wu came down, took a washboard from beside a flowerbed, filled the basin with water, and sat by the pipe on a stone to start washing. The clothes included his own long underwear and Luo Xiaorong’s jackets and pants.

He wore rubber gloves and moved with practiced ease.

Qin Weidong watched from the shadows for a while. This wasn’t the right moment to explain anything. Even if he insisted again and again that he was telling the truth, it would be too hard for anyone to believe.

He walked to the entrance of the compound just as Hu Wei’s call came in.

“Brother Qin, I’m at Whirlwind Billiards Hall right now. Where are you? Haven’t seen you all night. You coming over?” Hu Wei’s side was noisy; he had to shout.

“Had something to deal with earlier. I’m not coming.” Qin Weidong replied casually, then asked, “Can they repair phones at the mobile mall?”

“Your phone’s broken?!” Hu Wei moved somewhere quieter, sounding shocked. Qin Weidong had just bought a new phone a week ago.

“It’s not broken. I want to fix the old one as a backup.” He hadn’t planned to repair it before, but just now he suddenly thought of it. The old phone still had the message history with the unknown number. If he fixed it, at least he could prove he was telling the truth.

Right now, he not only looked like someone pulling a prank, but the more he tried to explain, the worse it sounded. He needed to clear his name.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

In 2004, early the next morning, Lin Wu heated a basin of warm water to wash Luo Xiaorong’s hair, then dried it and blew it dry. She had always worn her hair cut to ear length, and once all that was done and she had changed into clean clothes, she looked much fresher and tidier.

“Not… going to school?” Luo Xiaorong asked. It was already nine o’clock, and Lin Wu usually left at seven.

“Not today. We’re going to the new canteen so you can try out the environment there first.” He had already spoken to the administrative director yesterday. Luo Xiaorong was to go over today and get familiar with the place, and if everything was fine, she would formally start work the day after tomorrow.

“Okay!” Luo Xiaorong clapped her hands.

People with intellectual disabilities often have difficulty adapting to a new environment, but Luo Xiaorong wanted to work so badly that although she only vaguely understood what Lin Wu meant by the staff canteen, she did not resist it.

There were no longer any shuttle buses from the residential area to the steel factory. Translated on Hololo novels. After going out, Lin Wu brought Luo Xiaorong to wait at the bus stop, and then they boarded together. This was a short-distance bus mainly serving the outskirts. The conditions inside were even more cramped than the buses in the city, so Lin Wu opened the window for air. He could feel Luo Xiaorong’s body tensed tight, a sign of unease.

“It’s alright.” Lin Wu held her hand.

“Mm!” Luo Xiaorong was very quiet on the bus.

The steelworkers’ family compound was only 5.2 kilometers in a straight line from Xuhu Steel Factory, not far, but the road conditions were poor and there were many heavy trucks, so the bus jolted and bounced the whole way. At 9:50, they arrived at the factory.

Xuhu Steel Factory covered five square kilometers, had net assets of more than thirty billion yuan, and employed thirty thousand workers. Inside it were seven staff canteens. The one the administrative director had mentioned yesterday was the Second Canteen. Lin Wu brought Luo Xiaorong over and explained why they had come, then found the place with directions from the gate guard.

The canteen was next to the administration building. It did not look very large. When they arrived, a middle-aged woman in chef’s clothes was pouring water outside. She froze for a moment upon seeing them, then asked, “Luo Xiaorong?”

“Yes. Director Kong asked us to come.” Lin Wu explained who they were.

“Come in. Director Kong held a meeting with us this morning.” The woman propped up the door curtain with a mop, motioning for them to enter.

Lin Wu and Luo Xiaorong went inside.

“There are twenty of us here. We mainly steam buns and mantou, then send them off to the other canteens. If the leadership gets hungry, we also make meals for them. It’s cleaner here than other places, and the work is simpler.” The woman’s name was Qiu Yan’e, the manager of the Second Canteen. As she spoke, she showed them around.

The Second Canteen covered five hundred square meters and was divided into a front hall and a back hall. Compared to the other canteens it was not big, but just as Qiu Yan’e said, it looked very clean and bright.

“You worked at the market canteen before?” she asked after finishing the tour.

“Yes.” Lin Wu explained Luo Xiaorong’s past duties.

“We have surveillance cameras in both the front hall and the kitchen. If you ever want to check, you can do so anytime.” The people at the Second Canteen had already heard from Director Kong why Luo Xiaorong was coming. All of this had been approved from above.

“Thank you.” Qiu Yan’e was brisk and straightforward, and she looked much kinder than the people at the market canteen.

“You two get familiar with the place first. If there’s anything you don’t understand, just ask.” With that, she left.

Lin Wu led Luo Xiaorong around to familiarize her with the environment. After staring curiously at the two of them for a while, the other workers returned to focusing on their own tasks.

At noon, Lin Wu took Luo Xiaorong to eat at another canteen. Afterward, he carefully explained the route from the shuttle stop to the Second Canteen. Since it was close to the administration building, the stop was only seventy meters away. Lin Wu walked the route with Luo Xiaorong twice, then had her walk it twice on her own. She remembered it.

At three in the afternoon, Luo Xiaorong tried making buns in the canteen. Her mind was slow, but she made the buns quickly and neatly, round and full. The others, who had initially worried she might be a burden, all relaxed when they saw this.

At six o’clock, while the two of them were waiting at the stop, they ran into Wang Manshan.

“How did it go?” Wang Manshan had just gotten off work, still wearing his steel factory uniform and carrying his work bag, looking dusty and tired.

“Good!” Luo Xiaorong laughed happily. In her eyes, as long as she was allowed to work, it was good.

“It was alright?” Wang Manshan looked to Lin Wu.

“It was good. Better than the market side. They told her to come in tomorrow and start working.”

“My workshop isn’t far from here. From now on I’ll be waiting for the bus at this stop too.” After saying that, Wang Manshan thought for a moment, then added, “You’re in your senior year now. Don’t ask for leave unless you really have to. If anything comes up, just ask me or Aunt Hao.”

Yesterday he had wanted to take leave himself to bring Luo Xiaorong over and help her get used to the place, but Lin Wu had been too worried and taken the day off instead.

“It won’t affect my studies,” Lin Wu said.

“That still doesn’t mean you can slack off.” Lin Wu’s grades had always been steady, and since entering high school he had ranked first in his year, but senior year was a critical period, and Wang Manshan worried any relaxation might affect him.

“I know.” Lin Wu nodded seriously. He was always diligent when it came to studying.

Three minutes later, the factory shuttle arrived. It went directly to the residential compound, and the three of them boarded together.

……

“Brother Qin, going to the internet café later?” At the same time Lin Wu and the others were heading home, back at Lide High, after afternoon classes, Hu Wei found Qin Weidong with obvious excitement.

Qin Weidong was slumped over his desk, idly spinning a pen. After hearing him, he asked weakly, “Staying all night?”

“No, just skipping evening study hall and going out to play for three hours.” Hu Wei actually wanted to stay all night, but he had only just finished writing his self-criticism and did not dare push too far.

“Not going.” Qin Weidong pointed to the sling on his arm.

“How many more days?” Hu Wei remembered then that Qin Weidong was still technically an injured patient.

“I have a follow-up the day after tomorrow. If everything’s fine, they’ll take it off.”

Qin Weidong only had a mild soft tissue injury. Strictly speaking, he did not need to keep his arm in a sling, but Qin Jianzhang had been worried about possible aftereffects and had specifically told the hospital to be extra careful. He had now been stuck with it for five days, and it was very inconvenient.

Looking at his arm, Qin Weidong thought of the fire five days ago, and then of the conversation yesterday. Translated on Hololo novels. He felt like he had lost his mind to endure motion sickness while following someone around all day, only to get looked down on in the end. It was infuriating. The more he thought about it, the more stifled he felt.

“Tell Wang Ming and the others I’m treating everyone at Piaoxiang Pavilion the day after tomorrow. We’ll all get together.” Qin Weidong felt he had had bad luck lately and urgently needed some lively company to dispel the gloom.

“Got it!” Since Qin Weidong often treated people to meals, Hu Wei eagerly accepted the task.

Over the next two days, Qin Weidong returned to his usual carefree life of half-listening in class and eating and drinking as he pleased.

Two days later, the group met for dinner at Piaoxiang Pavilion. It was a restaurant on Southeast Road with very good atmosphere and service.

“Everyone eat and drink as much as you want. Afterward we’re heading upstairs for karaoke!” Qin Weidong had his sling removed that afternoon after his follow-up. He was in high spirits, and his mood had improved considerably.

“Brother Qin made it out of the fire alive. From now on everything will go smoothly for him.”

“Brother Qin even saved a middle school kid while escaping. Impressive!”

“Mighty!”

……

More than a dozen people came to the gathering. Everyone got along well, and they had even pooled their money to buy Qin Weidong a game console to celebrate his recovery. No matter how much each person contributed, it was the thought that counted.

“Like I said, eat well and drink well!” Since he had only just recovered, Qin Weidong could not drink alcohol, so he used soda in place of it. The mood in the private room became lively at once.

Upstairs from the restaurant was a large KTV. After dinner, everyone went upstairs to sing. Qin Weidong had done a lot of socializing just now and felt a little stifled, so after settling everyone in, he went downstairs to the entrance of the restaurant for some air. It was now 8:40. A light breeze was blowing, and the road outside was full of students from No. 1 High riding their bikes home.

Piaoxiang Pavilion was near No. 1 High. Qin Weidong checked the time and realized it was indeed the hour when school there got out.

He stood at the entrance for a while, preparing to go back upstairs and sing, when he suddenly looked up and saw a slender figure across the street. The figure was wearing the blue-and-white school uniform, carrying a denim schoolbag, and had just walked over from the direction of No. 1 High. He stood quietly at the bus stop across the road.

The two of them faced one another, separated by a road full of passing cars and cyclists. Qin Weidong looked at him. The other person lifted his head slightly. Qin Weidong could not tell whether he had seen him.

At that moment, Route 22 arrived. The boy boarded with the crowd, and before long disappeared at the end of the road.

Qin Weidong: !!!

The memory of the alley hit him again. He could clearly recall that warning look in the other boy’s eyes, the one tinged with contempt. Perhaps because it was nighttime and his mind felt clearer, that look seemed even sharper now than it had in the alley.

Qin Weidong was furious. He felt he had done a good deed. Even if someone was going to look down on someone, it should have been the strange number who asked him to deliver the message, not him. Why was he the one being looked down on?

He had been helping someone!

He thought the matter had already passed, but the more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He forced himself to calm down, then suddenly seemed to remember something and opened his phone contacts.

He scrolled down and finally found a number. Then he called it.

In an apartment building in the steelworkers’ residential compound, Luo Liang was sprawled on the sofa eating a banana. When he saw the incoming call, he jolted upright and fumbled to answer it.

“Brother Qin?”

After they had met last time, he had called Qin Weidong once and sent him two text messages. Translated on Hololo novels. They had only said things like whether he had time to eat together. Qin Weidong had brushed him off by saying it was inconvenient lately. Luo Liang understood what that meant and did not dare make himself seem like a clingy nuisance.

He had planned to wait a while before trying to contact him again. He never expected Qin Weidong to call him first. It was a complete and delightful surprise.

“Brother Qin, what’s up? Just say the word!” Luo Liang assumed he needed more people for a fight and excitedly prepared to change his shoes.

“It’s nothing major.” Standing at the restaurant entrance, Qin Weidong asked into the breeze, “Do you know Lin Wu?”

“Lin Wu from the alley?” Luo Liang immediately thought of the two of them standing face to face the other day.

“Yeah.”

“I know him. We’re from the same residential compound.”

“Tell me about him. The more detail, the better.” Qin Weidong still had a fire burning inside him. He felt he could not just let this go. At the very least, he had to get the other guy out somewhere and glare right back at him.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

Thandar: I was a little bit confused with this chapter. I thought I made a mistake translating so I went back to the raws, and there was no mistake. The author wrote it in this way transitioning from chapter 10 to chapter 11.

Previous

He looked up at the title at the top and confirmed he hadn’t opened the wrong thread. Then he carefully looked at the photo of himself in the original post. Honestly, it was a pretty good shot—handsome, even. Shao Ye couldn’t help but long-press to save it. While he was at it, he even gave a like to the guy in the first comment who said he wasn’t small, but actually quite big.

Good eye.

“Little boyfriend?”

What part of him was little?

The world was getting ridiculous. Maybe later he should call his parents and ask if he had a long-lost twin brother.

Taking a deep breath, Shao Ye scrolled down. He thought maybe the comments would all be roasting the original poster.

But reality didn’t quite match his expectations. Aside from a few clueless anonymous students asking if it was true, most people were actually providing “evidence” to support the claim.

One student replied: “Every time he went to pick a fight with Si Xu, he said he was the president’s person. I thought he was just a lackey—turns out he’s the boyfriend? What a twist.”

: Si Xu: I didn’t know either! He never told me!

: When he brought the medal to the president yesterday, didn’t you see how the president was smiling? Like a blooming flower.

: I’m in the student council. Once he came looking for the president, but the president had gone to a meeting with the principal. I deliberately told him the president was in the cafeteria. Now I’m kind of scared—am I going to get kicked out of the student council tomorrow just because I stepped into the president’s office with my left foot first?!

Damn! No wonder he couldn’t find the president after circling the cafeteria three times that day—he’d gotten so mad he ended up eating three servings of mango pudding. He was definitely going to tell the president about this tonight!

Wait…

Was something off here? Whatever, forget it!

Shao Ye scrolled through a few more pages. There was no reversal—if anything, more and more people were convinced he was the president’s boyfriend.

He slowly lowered his phone, sinking into a strange, hollow state. He felt like he should say something, but had no idea where to start.

His desk mate made a fist like a microphone and held it in front of Shao Ye’s mouth. “Student Shao Ye, do you have anything to say? Everything you say may be used as evidence in court.”

After thinking for a long time, Shao Ye looked up and asked, “Why are they slandering my innocence?”

His desk mate blinked, nearly failing to process it. “So… is what the post says true?”

Shao Ye thought back and nodded. “Yeah, probably. But that’s not the important part.”

Then what is the important part?

His desk mate stared at him suspiciously. “So… are you… innocent?”

Shao Ye: “…”

Under that stare, he felt a bit unsure himself. “More or less?”

Well then—what else was there to say? Might as well skip straight to wishing them a long and happy relationship.

“This is a setup. It has to be a setup.” Shao Ye muttered, swiping through the screen. “They’re jealous that the president values me, so they’re trying to make him distance himself from me with this kind of rumor.”

He sighed. “Has human nature really become this sinister? When I get back, I’ll have the president ban them all.”

His desk mate gave him a complicated look, lips twitching like he wanted to say something but held back.

Shao Ye paused mid-typing and asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

His desk mate quietly took a few steps back to maintain a safe distance before answering, “Do you know what you look like right now?”

“Like what?”

“Like a scheming consort whispering in the emperor’s ear.”

Shao Ye: “…You’ve been corrupted by them.”

In the end, Shao Ye didn’t send the post to Xi Guanming—but he refused to admit it had anything to do with what his desk mate said.

After rehearsal, the class monitor came up to him and warned, “If you mess up during tomorrow’s performance at the arts festival, I’m reporting you to Xi Guanming—telling him you’ve been playing with the feelings of multiple girls in our class.”

Shao Ye: “?”

He asked, “When did I ever do that? And why report me to the president?!”

“We have high expectations for you. If you mess up, that’s basically playing with our feelings. And as for reporting to the president—stop pretending.”

Shao Ye went blank. He already knew where this was going.

“Didn’t expect it,” the class monitor said, standing on tiptoe to pat his shoulder and give him a thumbs-up. “You really can’t judge a book by its cover, Brother Ye. Put in a good word for us in front of the president—our class is definitely getting the honor flag this semester.”

Shao Ye: “……”

He had a mountain of curses he wanted to unleash, but there were too many, all stuck in his throat. In the end, they condensed into one long, bitter sigh.

The goal he had always wanted to achieve… seemed to have been reached in a very strange way. So did that count as success or not?

Sigh.

Those people in the thread were saying they’d have to be careful not to offend him in the future, that he’d definitely go crying to the president. Seriously—how could they say something like that about him?

The arts rep walked over, glanced at Shao Ye—whose grin was practically stretching to his ears—and whispered to the class monitor, “Why is Brother Ye smiling like that?”

The class monitor shook her head. “I don’t want to know. It feels like petty villain energy. My fists are itching.”

Even on the way back to the dorm, Shao Ye was still thinking about it. So many people believed he was the president’s boyfriend—but he wasn’t. Sooner or later, the truth would come out.

If people joked about it in front of the president… Shao Ye had a bad feeling it wouldn’t end well for him.

But what if he really became the president’s boyfriend…

Shao Ye quickly shut that thought down and internally scolded himself. Shao Ye, you’re not human. How could you even think that?

The student council was checking safety conditions for the arts festival venue, so Xi Guanming came back late. Shao Ye was lying on the bed playing on his phone, completely absorbed, not noticing his return.

Xi Guanming walked over silently and looked down at him. Shao Ye’s feet dangled off the edge of the bed, his toes curling and uncurling. Xi Guanming’s gaze traveled upward from his calves to his thighs, then to his rounded, lifted hips.

He walked over, picked up the glass on the table, deliberately making a slight noise to get Shao Ye’s attention, and then asked, “What happened? You look so happy.”

Hearing his voice, Shao Ye immediately put down his phone and sat up, shaking his head like a rattle drum. “N-no, nothing.”

So clueless—his face was already that red, and he still said nothing was wrong. Who would believe that?

But Xi Guanming didn’t expose him. He just smiled and said, “Go to bed early tonight. Do well at the arts festival tomorrow.”

“Got it.” Shao Ye glanced at his phone one last time before reluctantly setting it aside.

Just now, he had been fiercely arguing with people anonymously on the forum, posting under the trending thread that Shao Ye was currently only the president’s subordinate, and asking everyone to respect the person involved and stop spreading rumors.

The fellow students hadn’t expected that after more than twenty pages of discussion, someone could still come out and spout nonsense with a straight face. If this was how Xi Guanming treated his “underlings,” then they would all be willing to become his underlings.

As soon as that was said, Shao Ye didn’t dare say another word. Not only had he failed to control the public opinion, he’d even gained a bunch of competitors. It was terrifying.

Shao Ye backed off, but the others refused to let it go. They kept throwing out all kinds of “evidence,” trying to prove that Shao Ye was definitely the president’s boyfriend. Some of them even wished they could drag Xi Guanming out to livestream and give Shao Ye an official title.

Shao Ye knew he should be angry at their nonsense, but looking at all their so-called evidence and analysis, the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but lift. Did he and the president really look that convincing together? It was kind of embarrassing.

Realizing he was about to laugh out loud, Shao Ye quickly took a deep breath and adjusted his expression. This was anger. It had to be anger.

He secretly brainwashed himself, telling himself he’d just lost control of his expression because he was mad.

Still, those students were really good at shipping. They even knew he and Xi Guanming were living in the same dorm. Luckily, they didn’t know they were now sleeping in the same bed. If they did, who knew what outrageous things they’d say.

When he went to the bathroom to wash up, Shao Ye glanced at the still-collapsed bed and wondered why the school maintenance department had become so inefficient. Was fixing a bed really that hard? He’d have to mention it to the president.

But as soon as he came out of the bathroom, he forgot all about it. It takes three days to form a habit, and now he could naturally climb into Xi Guanming’s bed after washing up.

Maybe it was because the forum calling him the president’s “little boyfriend” had hit him too hard, plus he’d napped too long in the afternoon and had a cup of milk tea at night. For once, Shao Ye, who usually fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow, experienced insomnia.

More than half an hour after lights out, his brain was still unusually active. He lay there counting sheep, from one sheep to two hundred seventeen, then somehow back to one hundred nine.

Suddenly, Xi Guanming’s voice came from beside him: “Why aren’t you asleep yet?”

“Probably drank too much milk tea,” Shao Ye sighed. His deskmate had said it worked better than coffee. He hadn’t believed it, but now he had to.

Xi Guanming turned onto his side and asked softly, “Do you need help?”

Help how? Was the president going to tell him a bedtime story?

Before Shao Ye could answer, Xi Guanming’s hand had already slipped under his blanket.

Shao Ye’s body stiffened. Now he understood how Xi Guanming planned to “help” him.

Time seemed to stretch endlessly. His body tensed slightly, fingers gripping the bedsheet tightly as he struggled to suppress any sound.

When it was over, Xi Guanming got up and turned on the light. Shao Ye lay on the bed, the blanket having been pulled aside during everything. The dim, warm yellow light fell over him, as if coating his skin in a layer of honey.

Shao Ye stared blankly at the wall lamp above, suddenly recalling how he had been arguing fiercely with people on the forum not long ago, and felt a bit guilty.

“Can you sleep now?” Xi Guanming sat beside him, his gaze openly tracing every line of muscle on his body.

Shao Ye pressed his lips together, his throat moving slightly. He didn’t dare say that after a brief moment of calm, he now felt awake again.

He felt like he’d let down the president’s goodwill. He didn’t dare meet Xi Guanming’s eyes, his gaze drifting elsewhere… only to land on Xi Guanming’s lower body, which startled him.

It looked like the president wasn’t exactly sleepy either.

His mouth fell open, making him look even more foolish. Noticing his expression, Xi Guanming, who had been wiping his hands, looked up and asked, “Still can’t sleep?”

Seeing Xi Guanming pause, as if about to “help” him again, Shao Ye hurriedly said, “No more, really, no more.”

It wasn’t that he lacked stamina. He had to perform on stage tomorrow. If something went wrong, the class monitor would definitely go complain to the president and ruin his reputation. He should’ve let the class monitor play the thirteenth dark wizard back then.

“Alright,” Xi Guanming said, sounding rather regretful.

Rationally, Shao Ye knew he should go to sleep. But his eyes kept drifting toward Xi Guanming.

The boss was in trouble. How could a subordinate just ignore it? What kind of future would that subordinate have?

After struggling internally, Shao Ye finally gathered the courage to ask, “President… do you need help?”

“Hm?” Xi Guanming looked up at him.

“Well… that.” Shao Ye blinked at him.

Xi Guanming understood and smiled. “If you’re willing.”

Shao Ye quickly got up on his knees beside him. Xi Guanming leaned back against the pillow, one leg slightly bent, watching Shao Ye’s every move with a calm expression.

Shao Ye pressed his lips together, not daring to use much force with his hands. His expression was serious and proper, lips drawn into a straight line, like a devout believer facing a sacred object.

How could he be this cute? He should just pin him down and— Xi Guanming ran his tongue over his teeth again and again, suppressing the surge of wild thoughts in his mind.

After trying for a while with little effect, Shao Ye frowned and asked in frustration, “President, am I just bad at this?”

Xi Guanming smiled. “A little.”

Shao Ye looked even more defeated. He couldn’t believe he was worse than the president even at this.

“Is it too late for me to learn now?” he asked sincerely.

“It’s not too late,” Xi Guanming said, sitting up straighter and adjusting his posture slightly. “But there’s an easier way.”

“What way?” Shao Ye asked innocently.

“Take off your clothes, turn around, and lie on the bed.”

Shao Ye did as he was told. But as soon as he lay down, he realized this scene felt familiar, like something that had just happened not long ago.

He wasn’t about to get spanked again, was he? That didn’t make sense. He’d been behaving well lately and hadn’t interfered with Jiang Yan anymore. Could it be that the president knew about the forum?

“Put your legs together,” Xi Guanming’s voice came from behind him.

Shao Ye obediently brought his legs together. A flicker of something dark passed through Xi Guanming’s eyes. His palm itched, and in the end, he couldn’t resist—he brought it down in a smack.

He really did get hit again.

“President, why did you hit me again?” Shao Ye asked, full of confusion. He didn’t dare admit that it had actually felt a little… good.

“Sorry, couldn’t help myself,” Xi Guanming replied with a smile.

Shao Ye opened his mouth to say something else, but in the next moment he completely forgot what he wanted to say.

He clutched the pillow under his head tightly with both arms, not daring to relax his legs at all. Even when they were forced apart, he immediately pressed them back together.

Xi Guanming noticed his reaction. His gaze deepened as it trailed down from the back of Shao Ye’s neck. His spine was straight, his shoulders broad, his waist narrow. A thin sheen of sweat covered his skin, glistening under the light. There was a small red mole on his left trapezius. Xi Guanming fixed his eyes on it, suppressing the strong urge to bite down on it.

Not yet.

But soon.

No need to rush.

Food that’s been waited on for a long time always tastes better.

Lying face down on the bed, Shao Ye gradually regained his scattered thoughts. In a daze, he felt like the president’s “method” didn’t seem that effective after all. So much time had passed, and the results weren’t exactly obvious.

After who knew how long, Xi Guanming finally let go of his waist. With a satisfied tone, he said, “Thank you, Shao Ye.”

What was he supposed to say?

After thinking for a moment, Shao Ye replied, “Y-you’re welcome?”

A low, magnetic laugh sounded behind him. Xi Guanming took two wet wipes from the bedside table and carefully cleaned the cream from the mango pudding.

From the moment he realized how Xi Guanming planned to help him “fall asleep,” Shao Ye had already suspected he wouldn’t be able to sleep at all—and he was right. The inside of his thighs felt strange, a little itchy. There was no way he’d dare let the president help him like that again. He shut his eyes tightly and pretended to sleep.

Xi Guanming, having at least gotten a small “appetizer” tonight, knew he was faking and didn’t tease him further.

Shao Ye kept up the act all the way until the next morning. Early on, he went with his classmates to the auditorium to watch performances. By the time it was their class’s turn, it was already afternoon. A large group of them rushed backstage, changed into costumes, and went on stage.

After delivering all his lines, Shao Ye was “cursed” and fell backward with a thud onto a small cart padded with soft cushions. Then he lay there silently, waiting for the “grass” on his head to sprout so he could make his honorable exit.

Soon enough, the poor wizard—who couldn’t be awakened by true love’s kiss, who had fallen into eternal sleep, and now even had grass growing on his head—was pushed, cart and all, into a cluttered storage room backstage.

Shao Ye thought the little cart was actually pretty comfortable. He hadn’t slept at all the previous night, and his nerves had been tense the whole time—especially to avoid the class monitor reporting him for “playing with girls’ feelings.” Now that his part was over, he finally relaxed, and exhaustion hit him like a flood.

A classmate called for him to get up, but he shook his head and told them to go ahead. He wanted to nap on the cart for a while.

The play on stage continued, the princess and prince’s dialogue drifting into the small storage room.

He heard the princess sobbing:
“I crossed mountains and deserts to break his curse, traveled through endless barren sands and the cold, dark depths of the sea. I risked my life countless times and finally found a way to open the black castle.

“But now, I can no longer give him a true love’s kiss. No one in this world will ever love him again. He is doomed to sleep forever in that dark castle.”

“Oh, my dear princess,” the prince replied, “do not be sad. Your tears are the sharpest weapon in the world, piercing my heart with ease.

“You need not feel guilty or pity him. He fell asleep carrying your most precious love with him. He will never wake, and so the love he once received will last forever. My princess, do not blame yourself—this is fate.”

Half-asleep, Shao Ye listened to the overly dramatic lines and, for a moment, vaguely felt as though he had truly been cursed—doomed to sleep forever in this storage room.

The door opened, then closed again. Footsteps approached, stopping beside his cart. A long shadow fell across his face, and then a hand covered his eyes.

Was someone trying to play a “guess who I am” game with him?

How childish, Shao Ye thought, and actually started thinking seriously about who it could be.

The footsteps sounded familiar. It should be—

Before he could figure it out, a pair of soft lips pressed briefly against his.

It was a very light kiss, gone as quickly as it came.

Shao Ye froze. His muddled mind felt like someone had suddenly set off a string of firecrackers inside it, crackling wildly.

He heard the owner of that shadow say, “Wizard, you can wake up now.”

He snapped fully awake, eyes flying open—only to see darkness.

“President?” He stopped halfway through sitting up and called out instinctively.

Xi Guanming removed the hand covering his eyes. Light flooded back in. At first everything was blurry, but after a blink, his vision cleared—and there was Xi Guanming, smiling.

Shao Ye stared at him blankly, recalling what had just happened.

“Why didn’t you go back to the dorm to sleep? Weren’t you afraid you’d get locked in here?” Xi Guanming asked.

It was as if Shao Ye hadn’t even heard the question. Carefully, he asked, “President… you just kissed me, right?”

“Yes,” Xi Guanming answered, without the slightest attempt to hide it.

“Why?” Shao Ye asked instinctively.

Xi Guanming let out a soft laugh, lowered his head, and asked in return, “Didn’t they say only a true love’s kiss could wake you?”

“Yes, but that was—”

Before he could finish, Xi Guanming cut in, “Seems like it really works.”

Shao Ye blinked, feeling like his brain had been overloaded. He tried to piece together what had just happened.

But it had been too brief—there wasn’t much to piece together.

A true love’s kiss…

You don’t hear of any story where a boss gives his subordinate a “true love’s kiss.”

—The president definitely likes him. I swear on the three remaining hairs on our homeroom teacher’s head.

At that moment, the comments from the forum suddenly flooded into Shao Ye’s confused mind. It felt like everything clicked into place all at once.

Without thinking, he blurted out, “President, do you mean… I can actually be your boyfriend?”

Xi Guanming paused slightly. Before coming here, he had imagined many possible reactions from Shao Ye, but never that he would jump straight to this conclusion. It seemed that confession wasn’t the trumpet of a charge, but the flag of victory.

He rolled the words over in his mind and asked, “Boy…friend?”

That didn’t quite sound right.

Shao Ye didn’t catch the teasing tone in his voice and continued, “President, didn’t you see the posts on the forum?”

“What posts?” Xi Guanming asked. He had been busy lately and hadn’t paid much attention to the school forum, though he could guess the kind of gossip they posted.

“It’s nothing,” Shao Ye said, shaking his head.

Xi Guanming took out his phone, opened the forum, and saw several trending posts pinned at the top. He tapped into the one with the most replies. His gaze lingered on the photo in the first post for a couple of seconds before he saved it and continued scrolling.

“They’re all talking nonsense,” Shao Ye said. “It has nothing to do with me.”

Xi Guanming skimmed quickly. Without paying too much attention, he used his permissions to privately message the person who claimed to have secretly taken many photos of him and Shao Ye, asking for the originals. At the same time, he asked, “Really nothing to do with you?”

How was he supposed to answer that?

Yes… or no?

Staying in the president’s dorm had been his own idea. He had broken the bed. He was the one who hung the medal around the president’s neck.

If he said it had nothing to do with him, that didn’t seem very convincing.

But if he said it did… that would be unfair!

Xi Guanming didn’t seem to need an answer anyway. After casually skimming a few more posts, he put his phone away and asked, “So, Shao Ye… do you want to be my boyfriend?”

Shao Ye felt like his heart was about to leap out of his chest. This wasn’t just butterflies anymore—it was like a dozen bulls tap dancing inside him.

His mind was a complete mess, unable to find a single coherent thread. When he finally opened his mouth, the first thing he asked was, “President… are you gay?”

The moment he said it, even he realized how stupid the question sounded.

Xi Guanming: “…”

“What do you think?” he asked.

Shao Ye coughed, rubbed his nose, and, at the thought that the president might like him, felt ridiculously pleased. If he had a tail, it would already be sticking straight up.

The president had asked if he wanted to be his boyfriend… Shao Ye couldn’t help putting on airs and asked, “President, what are the benefits of being your boyfriend?”

Xi Guanming found it amusing—so adorable. He really ought to pin him down and give him a spanking first, then keep him busy for three days and nights, until his voice turned hoarse, his eyes filled with tears, and his body was covered in marks… that would definitely look nice.

Dark thoughts circled through Xi Guanming’s mind, but on the surface, he remained calm. Smiling, he said, “If you’re not my boyfriend, then you don’t even get to be my subordinate.”

Shao Ye: “…”

What kind of deal was that?! Not sincere at all!

“Have you decided?” Xi Guanming asked again.

“…Then I’ll be your boyfriend,” Shao Ye said, sounding reluctant, though the corners of his mouth had already lifted high.

Xi Guanming extended his hand. “Alright, boyfriend. Get up. Let’s go back to the dorm and sleep.”

Shao Ye responded with an “oh,” took his hand, and quickly climbed off the cart with a bit of leverage. Though honestly, he didn’t think he’d be able to sleep anymore.

Boyfriend… hehe!

After leaving the storage room, they walked into the brightly lit hallway, where students occasionally passed by. Shao Ye kept holding Xi Guanming’s hand, letting out a small laugh every now and then.

To be honest, that laugh didn’t exactly sound like it belonged to a decent person.

Xi Guanming glanced at him and couldn’t help smiling too. He walked him to the entrance of the auditorium and said, “There’s still some work to handle on the student council side. You go back to the dorm first. I’ll come later.”

Shao Ye lingered, reluctant to leave. “President, can I stay with you?”

“Not sleepy anymore?” Xi Guanming asked.

Shao Ye shook his head. With his heart in this state, how could he possibly sleep?

Xi Guanming nodded. “Alright, then come with me.”

The arts festival was going smoothly. Most of the student council members had finished their tasks and were chatting in the backstage lounge. When they saw Xi Guanming walk in holding hands with Shao Ye, who was dressed in a black wizard robe, they immediately exchanged knowing looks.

They had guessed right—this really was the president’s partner. Later, they’d have to secretly take a photo and slap it on the forum to shut up those stubborn deniers.

As soon as Shao Ye entered, someone quickly offered him a seat. Another handed him a cup of water and said, “Ma—uh, classmate, have some water.”

It was Shao Ye’s first time receiving this kind of treatment at Golden Laburnum, and he felt a bit awkward. Over a dozen pairs of eyes were fixed on him, like he was some kind of national treasure.

When he didn’t drink, someone else asked, “Classmate, want some snacks? Some fruit?”

“Is there fruit?” Shao Ye asked. He had already scanned the room—there were only two bags of sunflower seeds.

“Not right now, but I can go buy some. What would you like?”

Shao Ye didn’t hold back at all. “Then get a bit of everything.”

Leaning back in his chair, he sighed inwardly. So being the president’s boyfriend felt this good?

Xi Guanming watched him bask in borrowed authority without saying anything.

But these student council members were all sharp. After warming up to him, they began asking questions about their relationship with clear ulterior motives. Shao Ye, when he got going, was liable to say anything, so Xi Guanming finally had to interrupt:

“Stop teasing him. Go check how many performances are left. It’s about time to wrap up—finalize the awards and hand them out so the students can go home early.”

“Oh? The president’s being protective?” someone nearby joked.

Xi Guanming gave a soft “mm” and didn’t deny it.

Shao Ye lifted his chin. If he wasn’t protecting him, was he supposed to protect those others instead?

The student council members had nothing to say and could only go back to what they were doing.

The arts festival ended successfully. Shao Ye’s class play was especially innovative and ended up winning a gold award. It wasn’t particularly useful, but at least it would add a line to a résumé.

Shao Ye and Xi Guanming walked back toward the dorms. On the way, they ran into Zong Xingze, who had just delivered a small gift to Jiang Yan and was about to head home. Seeing Xi Guanming, he immediately said, “President, I heard something pretty funny. People are saying you and your little follower here are together.”

Zong Xingze had really wanted to see Xi Guanming’s expression change dramatically upon hearing this. But after he spoke, he realized that not only did Xi Guanming not react, even Shao Ye beside him looked calm.

Silence. Complete silence. Only the rustling leaves overhead, oblivious to the atmosphere.

Zong Xingze felt so awkward his toes curled. He forced a stiff smile and asked, “That joke wasn’t funny?”

Xi Guanming extended his hand. With a smack, Shao Ye immediately placed his own hand into it, their fingers interlocking. Zong Xingze froze, suddenly feeling even more like a clown.

Recovering, he shouted in shock, “Wait, Xi Guanming, are you crazy? You’re really with him? You’d actually go for someone like him?!”

For Zong Xingze, the idea that Xi Guanming liked men should have been good news, since it meant one less strong rival in pursuing Jiang Yan. But at that moment, his only thought was that something must be wrong with Xi Guanming’s brain.

Shao Ye wasn’t happy. What kind of way was that to talk?

He nudged Xi Guanming’s shoulder and said, “President, don’t talk to him anymore.”

Xi Guanming nodded. “Alright, I’ll listen to you.”

Zong Xingze: “…”

That was some unbearably sweet PDA. Ugh!

No one cared about how Zong Xingze, suddenly force-fed such a huge amount of sweetness, would cope. He was left standing alone in the chilly evening breeze, quietly falling apart.

As soon as they entered the dorm, scenes from the previous night replayed in Shao Ye’s mind. The president had been secretly taking advantage of him, hadn’t he?

Who would’ve thought the upright and reliable president was actually this kind of person!

Xi Guanming, however, acted as usual. He took off his coat and glanced back, noticing Shao Ye staring at him with a strange look. He didn’t mind and let him stare, asking, “Are you going home for the break?”

Shao Ye snapped back, shook his head quickly. “No.”

His parents were rarely home, so home and school made little difference to him. Actually, school was better since it had mango pudding.

Xi Guanming continued, “Then how about coming home with me?”

Shao Ye froze. Go home with the president?

Go home… to do what?

Having been a “lackey” for so long, he wasn’t quite used to his new role.

“Hm? Why aren’t you saying anything?” Xi Guanming asked.

Shao Ye turned in place a couple of times, muttering, “Isn’t this too fast? It’s my first time, I’m a bit nervous. Shouldn’t we go to the supermarket first and prepare properly?”

Xi Guanming looked at him in surprise. “You even know that?”

“Of course!” Shao Ye puffed up his chest proudly. “This kind of thing is important. You have to be careful. Maybe we should look up what to buy online so we don’t miss anything.”

Xi Guanming had thought that before he made things clear, Shao Ye would have zero awareness of this kind of thing, even though Shao Ye wasn’t exactly straight.

And yet he even knew to prepare in advance. Had he been secretly researching this behind his back? Was he really that eager?

Xi Guanming felt an overwhelming sense of fondness, the delight showing in his eyes and brows. He asked, “Where did you learn that?”

“From my dad,” Shao Ye answered.

At that moment, a faint crack finally appeared in the usually composed Xi Guanming’s expression. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. He cautiously asked, “…Your dad?”

Shao Ye nodded. “Yeah. The first time my dad went to my grandpa’s house, he bought two boxes of apples, but the ones at the bottom were all rotten. My grandpa has been laughing at him for over twenty years.”

Xi Guanming covered his forehead, silently laughing. It was hard to say which of them was more eager. One had just confirmed the relationship and was already thinking about meeting the parents, while the other was thinking about… something else.

He pressed his lips together and said, “It’s just me at home. No one else.”

“Oh…” Shao Ye stopped overthinking.

Xi Guanming asked, “So, are you coming or not?”

“I’m coming!” Shao Ye agreed immediately, going to the bedside to pack some clothes. After a moment, he asked, “But I want to grab a mango pudding from the cafeteria to bring along. President, do you want one too?”

Standing behind him, Xi Guanming’s gaze slid slowly down Shao Ye’s back. With a faint smile, he said, “I already have my mango pudding. Bring a bottle of red wine instead.”

---

Author’s note:

[According to my rigorous statistics, after the president and No. 6 got together, 17 people need to eat… something upside down, 39 need to livestream eating keyboards, 87 need to crawl on the ground barking like dogs, 211 need to spin while washing their hair, and 56,211 need to enjoy lifelong prosperity with balanced meals]

: Something weird slipped into that last one…

: Who would’ve thought the president would actually confess to No. 6! Anyone who says he was just playing around, I’ll pour boiling water on their money tree

: A thousand years later, a young man enters a dark castle and falls in love at first sight with a sleeping wizard, offering a belated kiss of true love… destined fate! So shippable!

: During those thirty seconds when No. 6 said he’d go to the supermarket, President, were you thinking about which size to use or what flavor?

: Didn’t expect you to be like this, President

: The president personally confessed and proved it. What does the “Qingming Sect” think now?

: What do we think? We celebrate too!

: The neighboring thread is full of CP fans now. Even if moderators ban a batch, some will slip through

: True

: Wait, this is such big news for No. 6, but the stream data seems to be dropping. Aren’t people coming to celebrate?

: It exploded

: ?

: No need to be that dramatic just because you’re not celebrating

: What exploded?

: The auditorium exploded

: Which one?

: Auditorium 125 exploded

: ?????

: What about 34?

: 34 was eliminated earlier

: Is this really something I get to watch for free in a campus drama?

: Incredible, truly incredible. I apologize for ever saying the official storyline was cliché

: Official: we didn’t expect this either

: That “official” accent sounds suspicious

: It’s official alright, whether it’s serious is another question. Someone stamp it

: “Xi-Wang Field tonight do stamp.jpg”

≽^•⩊•^≼

Thandar: Damn this author so good at avoiding censorship lol

Next

Shao Ye wasn’t sure whether Xi Guanming was joking with him again. He stood there, looking at him without saying anything.

For once, Xi Guanming felt a trace of guilt, but it was quickly drowned by a wave of pleasure. He looked up at Shao Ye and said, “This time I’m not lying to you. Really.”

“Then… then I don’t want it,” Shao Ye said, lacking confidence.

“Really?” Xi Guanming asked. His gaze, almost tangible, slowly slid down from Shao Ye’s chest and paused lower.

Startled, Shao Ye panicked a little. There was no way he was that perverted, right? Just a few words and he’d react like that? He instinctively looked down.

Nothing.

Xi Guanming took in the entire reaction. By the time Shao Ye looked back up, his gaze had already withdrawn. Smiling, he said, “I’m not teasing you anymore. You trained pretty hard today, right? Get a good rest tonight.”

Without thinking, Shao Ye replied, “It wasn’t that tiring. About the same as my usual workouts.”

Xi Guanming nodded, his eyes sweeping over Shao Ye’s body with a hint of meaning. “Got it.”

That night, Shao Ye lay on Xi Guanming’s bed as usual. He wrapped himself tightly in his blanket and silently swore that he absolutely would not crawl into the president’s blanket again.

After showering, Xi Guanming got into bed. He carried the same scent as Shao Ye and suddenly asked, “Have you thought about your future? Any plans?”

“Plans?” Shao Ye tilted his head and thought seriously. “Does sticking with you count as a plan?”

Xi Guanming smiled. “Sticking with me? To do what?”

“To be your subordinate!” Shao Ye patted his chest through the blanket. “Anything dirty or tiring, you can leave it to me!”

“Why are you so set on being someone’s subordinate?” Xi Guanming couldn’t quite understand. He had seen many people, but Shao Ye was the only one who treated being a subordinate as a goal. Most others, even when working as assistants, still wanted to become leaders someday.

Shao Ye adopted a solemn posture, like he was about to give a speech under the national flag. “The first time I saw you, President, I was completely impressed by your work ability and personal charisma. Being able to work by your side is the fortune of three lifetimes.”

“Tell the truth,” Xi Guanming said, flipping over and pressing down above him. He supported himself on his elbows, keeping some distance, but his deep gaze locked onto Shao Ye’s eyes as if he could see through him completely.

“It is the truth,” Shao Ye said, though under that gaze he felt inexplicably uneasy. His voice grew quieter until he finally admitted in a small voice, “It’s just that… if I go out and say I’m your person, everyone has to behave themselves. And the school won’t force me to apologize to idiots anymore.”

Xi Guanming nodded, unsurprised, then asked, “There should be plenty of people in this school who could give you that, right? Why choose me?”

For example, Si Xu or Zong Xingze. In some ways, their presence among students was even more prominent. If Shao Ye said he belonged to them, the effect would be similar.

Shao Ye replied without thinking, “There aren’t plenty. There’s only you.”

Clearly pleased, Xi Guanming let out a low laugh, the vibration in his chest almost echoing in Shao Ye’s ears.

He lowered his head, lifted a hand, and lightly flicked Shao Ye’s forehead. “If you want to be mine, being a subordinate isn’t the only way.”

He was too close—so close it almost felt suffocating. Shao Ye could hear his own heartbeat pounding in his chest. Avoiding Xi Guanming’s gaze, he asked stiffly, “Then what else is there?”

Xi Guanming smiled but didn’t answer. “You’ll have to figure that out yourself.”

Figure it out himself?

Wasn’t that asking too much of him?

---

Up until the day the sports meet began, Shao Ye still hadn’t figured it out.

Golden Laburnum Academy didn’t have that many students, and the competitions were split between middle and high school divisions, so it shouldn’t have been too grand—but the school had money. The atmosphere was loud and festive, with drums, banners, and cheering crowds… well, as many people as there were.

Amid the roaring cheers, Shao Ye sprinted across the finish line. Grabbing the red ribbon tied around his waist, he waved it toward the crowd. When he turned his head, he saw Xi Guanming walking toward him from a short distance away, holding a water bottle.

The cool autumn breeze brushed past his face, yet his heartbeat, which should have been calming down, began pounding wildly again like a drum.

The awards were still presented by that same old man from the school. The moment Shao Ye received his medal, he ran straight toward Xi Guanming.

Back in spring, he hadn’t had the chance to properly show off the medal that symbolized his strength. Now, he could directly hang it around the president’s neck.

How inspiring.

Shao Ye felt a bittersweet tear well up inside.

Then, a moment later, he realized there wasn’t really anything bittersweet about it.

When he handed the medal over, Xi Guanming was organizing the afternoon events with other student council members below the podium. With both hands occupied by documents and a pen, he couldn’t take it, so he pressed his lips into a smile and lowered his head slightly.

Shao Ye immediately understood and hung the medal around his neck.

The surrounding student council members stared wide-eyed. “Ehh—”

Shao Ye thought they were acting weird. Honestly, the president must get tired dealing with them every day. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to comfort him now—he still had another event to attend. He waved goodbye and dashed off.

The “Ehh—” from the student council members grew even louder.

The sports meet lasted a day and a half. The remaining half day was for preparing for the arts festival.

The class monitor told everyone to go eat well, get a good rest, and recharge. That night, they would meet at the gym to rehearse their short play one last time before performing the next day.

Shao Ye slept until past six in the evening. After being woken by a phone call, he threw on his wizard robe and sprinted toward the gym like a black whirlwind.

Inside the gym, everyone was already in costume and in position. Shao Ye went up, delivered his domineering curse speech, then went offstage and sat on a small cart by the wall, waiting for his next entrance.

At that moment, his desk mate quietly crept over and whispered, “Brother Ye… do you actually like Xi Guanming?”

“What?” Shao Ye didn’t hear clearly.

His deskmate repeated, “You like Xi Guanming?”

This time Shao Ye heard it loud and clear. He was so startled he practically sprang off his stool, blurting out, “What the hell! Don’t talk nonsense!”

His deskmate crouched there, staring at him blankly, confused. “No, why are you reacting so strongly? I was just asking casually.”

“How did your ‘casual question’ turn into asking if I—I—I like Xi Guanming?” Shao Ye started stuttering again. “Why don’t you ask if I like Si Xu instead!”

Deskmate: “…”

Everyone in school probably knew about Shao Ye offending Si Xu. The deskmate twitched his mouth and said, “That would certainly be… unconventional.”

After saying that, he couldn’t help but seriously consider whether, for Si Xu, this counted as a “man, you’ve successfully provoked me” moment.

Shao Ye narrowed his eyes and looked at him dangerously. “Don’t change the subject. Why are you suddenly asking this? Is there some kind of conspiracy? Villain, prepare to die!”

His deskmate quickly cleared himself. “It’s not just me saying it. The whole school forum is talking about it.”

“The whole forum? Talking about what?” Shao Ye was full of question marks.

His deskmate asked, “You haven’t checked the school forum?”

Shao Ye looked disgusted. “I never look at that stuff.”

Actually, when he first enrolled, he did check it occasionally. But the front page was always full of anonymous posts complaining about terrible roommates. Complaining alone was pointless. Just reading it made him annoyed. A real man would deal with it directly.

His deskmate didn’t know what to say. The forum was practically exploding with shipping discussions, and yet the person involved had no idea.

“Why don’t you take a look now?” he suggested carefully.

“Sure.” Shao Ye glanced at the front of the classroom. It didn’t look like he’d be needed anytime soon, so he took out his phone and logged into the forum.

As soon as he entered, he saw a trending post pinned at the top with dozens of pages of replies:

【Putting everything else aside, the president’s little boyfriend really runs fast. I chased with all my strength and still couldn’t catch up】

The president’s little boyfriend?

Little boyfriend?!

He followed the president around all day, eating and sleeping together. Where did this boyfriend come from?!

Shao Ye’s brows instantly furrowed. Who was shameless enough to ruin the president’s reputation on the forum? If he found them, he’d definitely make them regret it.

With the mindset of delivering justice, he opened the post with a serious expression.

Three seconds later, the main post loaded—and it was a snapshot of himself crossing the finish line at the sports meet.

Below the photo, the original poster had written: “This little boyfriend’s chest muscles look pretty big.”

Shao Ye: “?”

---

Author’s note:

[Qingming (CP name of two leads) thread: Am I the only one who thinks No. 6 is really manipulative?]

Not only manipulative, but also pretending to be innocent. How did the president get fooled by someone like that?

: Uh…

: This is the first time I’ve heard this take. My brain just short-circuited

: It’s true though. In front of so many people, he hung the medal around the president’s neck. Wasn’t that just claiming him, telling everyone they have a special relationship? And now the whole school thinks they’re involved. Yet when he sees people calling him the president’s boyfriend on the forum, he looks shocked. What’s he shocked about?

: Be honest, OP, are you secretly a CP fan in disguise?

: Don’t insult my integrity

: When you put it like that, it does sound kind of manipulative. When the president asked why he chose him out of so many people who could back him up, he immediately said “only you.” If I were the president, I wouldn’t be able to resist either

: And I suspect his earlier friendship with Jiang Yan had ulterior motives too. If Jiang Yan knew he liked the president, given her personality, she’d never accept the president’s pursuit

: Also the dorm bed—No. 6 definitely didn’t report it for repairs. Otherwise it wouldn’t still be broken. He probably told the president he reported it just to make him ignore it, so he could keep occupying the president’s bed

: And before, he “accidentally” exposed himself in front of the president several times. Wasn’t that just to attract attention?

: I’m starting to be convinced by OP, someone help

: Does the president know he’s this scheming?

: Definitely not. The president just trusts people too easily, that’s why he’s being played by No. 6

: stunned.jpg

: Pure, upright, naive top × scheming, manipulative, big-chested bottom?

: Are we even talking about the same president and No. 6?

: This is more out-of-character than Si Xu and Zong Xingze suddenly being a couple

: Not gonna lie, it’s kind of shippable… I’m getting ideas

: ?????

: Did I enter the wrong thread? checks title nope

: OP claiming not to be a CP fan sounds pretty weak

: And yet the shipping angle is very… creative

: She’s not a CP fan, she’s just objectively describing facts

: “Objectively”

: Explain to me what “objective” means!

: Didn’t the moderators just ban a batch of CP fans? What’s going on in this thread?!

: They’ll keep coming endlessly

: @moderator time to boost your stats

≽^•⩊•^≼

Shao Ye felt completely numb, as if his brain and body had both been hollowed out by Xi Guanming just now. He dressed mechanically, got out of bed to wash up, didn’t say a word to Xi Guanming, and pushed the door open to leave the dorm.

His steps felt light and unsteady as he drifted into the classroom like he was sleepwalking, arriving right as the bell rang.

He lay face-down on his desk, propping his textbook up to hide his head. He didn’t hear a single word the teacher said at the front of the room—but that wasn’t unusual. He rarely paid attention in class anyway.

The images replayed uncontrollably in his mind. What he could see hadn’t actually been excessive—what crossed the line had all happened under the blanket. He remembered the feeling clearly: Xi Guanming’s slightly cool fingers slowly tightening, far more pleasurable than anything he’d ever done himself.

Wait, wait, wait—he couldn’t keep thinking about this!

But…

How could the president act so calm about it? Could it be that this wasn’t his first time doing something like that?

Impossible. Absolutely impossible!

Before he knew it, the class had ended. Usually, even during the short ten-minute break, Shao Ye would run downstairs to get some fresh air. But today, he stayed glued to his seat.

His desk mate gave him a strange look and asked, “Why is your face so red? Are you sick? Got a fever?”

Shao Ye lifted his head. Facing his desk mate, he opened his mouth as if to say something—but after a long pause, he only let out a sigh.

His desk mate reached out to feel his forehead, but Shao Ye dodged him. The desk mate pulled his hand back and asked again, “What’s wrong with you?”

Shao Ye cleared his throat and said, “If… a guy did something to you… would that be normal?”

“Did what to me?” his desk mate asked, completely confused.

Seriously, could you not leave out the key part of the question?

“Did what to me”—give me a million dollars, or give me a slap? That’s a pretty big difference.

“Did to you…”

Shao Ye opened his mouth, but the rest of the sentence wouldn’t come out. In the end, he waved his hand. “Forget it. It’s nothing.”

Looks like he’d have to figure this out on his own.

His desk mate was speechless. He’d been left hanging with curiosity and got nothing in return.

“You sure you don’t have a fever?” he asked again, still uneasy. Shao Ye was definitely acting strange today.

Shao Ye waved him off. “No, no. Go do your thing.”

“If you’re not sick, then go downstairs and train! Everyone in our class is waiting for you!” his desk mate urged.

Shao Ye: “…”

Right—he’d forgotten. They had relay practice today.

The school was worried about rain, so they had swapped the schedule: the sports meet would be held first, followed by the arts festival. Translated on Hololo novels. After that, students would get a long break.

With the fun days approaching, most students at Golden Laburnum had no interest in studying. They were either preparing to shine at the sports meet or planning something flashy for the arts festival.

Since the sports meet had been moved up by three days, training became more intense. Shao Ye ran during the day, rehearsed the play at night, and had far less free time than before. Even when Jiang Yan started attracting a swarm of admirers again, he had no time to deal with it—and honestly, no desire to.

Because whenever he had even a moment of free time, those scenes from that morning would flash through his mind again.

He couldn’t make sense of it. What exactly did the president mean by it? Was it some kind of reward for doing a good job as a subordinate?

But… had he really done that well?

Was it something just for him, or did everyone get treated like this?

The more he thought, the more confused he became. His mind wouldn’t stop spinning. During rehearsal that night, he forgot his lines several times.

The class monitor sighed heavily from below the stage, rolling up her script and tapping it loudly on the table. “Brother Ye, my dear brother, you don’t want to end up as a mute witch, do you?”

The arts rep chimed in, “Mute might be too much for him. In his current state, he can barely play a vegetable.”

Shao Ye apologized repeatedly, saying he had something on his mind.

“What are you thinking about? Fell in love?” the class monitor asked eagerly.

The arts rep shot that down immediately. “When would he have time to fall in love? The moment he has free time, he runs to the student union.”

The class monitor rolled her eyes. “Then maybe he’s in love with the president?”

The arts rep thought about it seriously. “That… actually seems possible. So the president is like… a maid?”

The class monitor said thoughtfully, “Given our school’s situation, probably a male servant.”

The arts rep corrected her, “Wrong. With our school’s situation, he’d at least be a nobleman.”

They were laughing among themselves, but when they looked up again, they saw Shao Ye’s face had turned as red as if he were about to boil.

Unable to endure the girls’ interrogation, Shao Ye bolted before rehearsal even ended.

On the way back to the dorm, he kept thinking about what he should say when he saw the president. Should he ask about what happened that morning, or pretend nothing had happened?

Before he figured it out, he was already standing outside the dorm room. He lingered in the hallway for a long time, working himself up mentally, until he received a message from Xi Guanming: “How long are you going to stand outside?”

Only then did he have no choice but to push the door open.

Inside, Xi Guanming was sitting in a chair, head lowered, reading a document. He didn’t look up when Shao Ye entered.

Shao Ye wanted to act just as indifferent, but his body betrayed him. The moment he stepped inside, his eyes drifted uncontrollably to Xi Guanming’s right hand holding the papers.

Those fingers were pale and slender, like a perfect work of art. Before this, Shao Ye had never imagined those hands could do something like that to him. Just thinking about it now made his spine tingle.

He swallowed hard and forced himself to look away—only to notice that the bed he had broken last night was still collapsed.

Shao Ye walked around it, confirming he wasn’t mistaken. Translated on Hololo novels. When Xi Guanming finally put down his papers, Shao Ye pointed at the bed and asked, “President, didn’t the school send someone to fix it?”

Xi Guanming followed his gesture and said, “No. Did you call someone?”

Shao Ye scratched the back of his head, puzzled. “Yeah, I did. They said they’d come today.”

“Maybe something came up and they forgot,” Xi Guanming said.

Shao Ye nodded, not suspecting anything. “I’ll remind them tomorrow. I’ll sleep on the floor tonight.”

Xi Guanming raised an eyebrow and asked, “What? Do you dislike it?”

“No, no,” Shao Ye quickly denied. If he got saddled with that accusation, his career as a lackey would be over on the spot.

“Then why do you want to sleep on the floor?”

“I just… well… I was worried I might crowd you, President.” Shao Ye widened his eyes, trying to make his sincerity look more convincing.

His acting skills probably only worked when playing a plant or a corpse. Xi Guanming found it amusing and couldn’t help but laugh. “No. I think this bed is just right for two people.”

“Oh, okay.” After saying that, Shao Ye pressed his lips together and asked quietly, “President, about this morning…”

Xi Guanming didn’t play dumb. He asked directly, “What about this morning? Were you uncomfortable?”

Shao Ye was a bit stunned. How could the president be this calm about it?

Well… no wonder he could be president.

“…It felt good, but why did you do that?” Shao Ye had held this question in all day and finally asked it.

Xi Guanming apologized, “Sorry. You were too cute at the time. I couldn’t hold back.”

“Huh?” Shao Ye stood there, not quite understanding.

This wasn’t the first time Xi Guanming had called him cute, but Shao Ye had never felt that word had anything to do with him.

What part of him was cute?

“Like you are right now,” Xi Guanming said.

There he went again!

Shao Ye’s face burned red. His hands clenched into fists, not knowing where to put them.

Xi Guanming continued, “Even cuter.”

Shao Ye didn’t understand why he kept saying that. His eyes darted everywhere, not daring to look at him.

Xi Guanming leaned back slightly against the chair, relaxed, one hand resting on the cabinet beside him, fingers tapping lightly as he asked, “So, do you mind?”

Mind what?

Shao Ye felt like his brain was overheating. Should he say he minded or not?

If he said he minded, would the president get angry? Would that count as lying?

If he said he didn’t mind… well, that didn’t seem like a problem. It seemed like they both enjoyed it. Even if he didn’t quite know what exactly the president enjoyed, it could still be considered a win-win.

Using his not-so-sharp brain, Shao Ye weighed the pros and cons. He vaguely sensed something was off about this situation, but couldn’t figure out what or why.

A man helping another man with this kind of thing was a bit strange, but not outrageously so. Maybe the president just had this preference? As someone striving to be a top-tier subordinate, he should be understanding and willing to make sacrifices.

And… it actually felt pretty good.

Shao Ye hesitated, “I don’t mind… I guess.”

“Then come here and let me help you again?” Xi Guanming beckoned him over with a smile.

Shao Ye’s expression froze. He hadn’t expected that after “sacrificing” himself once in the morning, he’d have to do it again at night. Fortunately, his body was strong enough to handle it. Though he said, “That’s not a good idea,” his body still walked stiffly toward Xi Guanming.

Xi Guanming lowered his hand, leaning on the cabinet as he laughed uncontrollably. After laughing, he said, “I was joking.”

Shao Ye: “?”

He stopped abruptly, looking at Xi Guanming with clear accusation for the first time, mixed with a bit of grievance.

Seeing this, Xi Guanming wiped the smile from his lips, sat upright, and said in a tempting tone, “But if you want it now, that’s not impossible either.”

---

Author’s note:

[What exactly did the president do to No. 6? It’s bad enough they won’t show it, now we can’t even hear it?]

: Chilling. True chilling isn’t loud arguing… I forgot the rest

: Go read some fanfiction. A big creator just posted fan art of No. 6 in a qipao, super spicy

: It really is spicy, I want to send it to the president

: If the president wants to see it, he can just make No. 6 wear it. No. 6 definitely wouldn’t refuse

: Why do creators always write tragic endings? It makes my heart go cold

: Any completed recs?

: Growing Pains, Stockholm, Gone Love, Dangerous Parasite, Inferior Love

: I like Dangerous Parasite

: Is that the one where No. 6 returns to reality and finds all his appliances acting weird?

: Yes! Love the android chapter

: Someone even drew illustrations for it

: extremely abstract rough sketch of a robot dog pulling a cart.jpg

: Stop! Friendly fire! Don’t post that!

: My eyes!!!

: Offering money for a pair of eyes that haven’t seen this

: Does that artist take commissions? I’ll pay 3000… and then report it

: I read a 600k-word explicit fic last week. The whole story was about No. 6 going home with the president and getting bullied by the president’s family. Kneeling punishment by the grandfather during the day, by the president at night, enduring everything silently, then losing a child after being pushed down the stairs, only for the president to find out at the end. One satisfying chapter and it ended. I couldn’t relate at all. If it were really No. 6, he’d punch the guy to the underworld and then complain to the president

: There’s even a child?!

: It’s that kind of trope

: And you still finished it? Respect

: The smut was well-written though…

: Too out-of-character, I can’t handle it

: Breaking characterization is a dealbreaker

: +1

: +2

: +10086

: You guys are ridiculous. You all say it’s unacceptable, but when I checked my DMs, I had 999+ people asking me for links

≽^•⩊•^≼

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