The school nurse remembered clearly that three people had been sent for wound treatment.

One was Li Xiu, who only had a mouth wound, one was Fang Qian’an, who had slight cuts, and the other was a tall boy with a slash on his face.

Actually, in principle, she should have dealt with the tall boy first—the wound must have been serious with all the blood on his head.

However, the look the dean gave her before he left suggested that the nurse should give priority to Fang Qian’an’s injury.

Fortunately, when she went to get the alcohol wipes, the nurse saw that the boy standing behind that other one with the mouth wound seemed to be whispering into his ear.

If he was fooling around like this, there should be no problem with him.

That was what the nurse thought at the time.

In fact, just as the school nurse was pulling up Fang Qian’an’s sleeve, she could still catch a glimpse of the tall boy in her peripheral vision.

When had the other party left? Why hadn’t she noticed at all?

The school nurse was somewhat confused.

What confused her even more was Fang Qian’an’s cold, abrupt answer.

“……Li Xiu and I were the only ones injured in the copy room.”

“There were only two people, not a third.”

The school nurse was struck dumb.

“B-but…..”

“Teacher, you must have seen wrong, isn’t that so?” Fang Qian’an responded to her with little patience.

The nurse’s words inexplicably gave him a sense of anxiety.

But at this time, Fang Qian’an didn’t take the nurse’s words to heart.

After putting his school uniform on again, Fang Qian’an immediately walked out of the infirmary. The school nurse sat there, her face pale with surprise and her head full of confusion.

After a good while, the nurse murmured in confusion as she arranged the medical kit in her hands: “Could it be that…..I actually saw it wrong?”

Once she sent Fang Qian’an away, that prince who could be coaxed but never scolded, the nurse felt that her entire person was much more relaxed.

She tidied up the infirmary and went to the window to open it and get some fresh air.

As soon as she lowered her head, she happened to see Fang Qian’an walking out of the building.

With a height of 1.9 meters and an outstanding physique, even when viewed from the back, Fang Qian’an was very eye-catching. It was impossible to mistake him.

She watched as Fang Qian’an gradually left down the stairs, and after staring blankly for a moment, she cursed without any anger: “Damn, today’s young people, ah…..is it fun to tell silly jokes like that these days?”

He had said she was wrong, and that only two students were injured, but it was just a lie meant to scare her.

Look, wasn’t the tall boy she saw before still following Fang Qian’an right now?

*

“Hiss…..so cold.”

On the way back to class from the infirmary, Li Xiu shivered.

He realized belatedly that he should have asked the nurse for some fever-reducing medicine while he was in the infirmary.

With his whole body feeling cold and dizzy, he feared that afternoon classes would be a bit difficult to endure without taking medicine. It wasn’t that he didn’t consider going back again for medicine, but Li Xiu had originally missed a class today because of Fang Qian’an, and if he went back for medicine, he would be late for the next one.

Besides, the next class was Ouyang’s.

The man’s smiling face flashed through his mind again. A shadow passed across Li Xiu’s face, and he gave up the idea of turning around.

He lowered his head and walked quickly toward the teaching building.

Qiming Secondary School had done a good job greening the environment up. The infirmary was in the main building complex, which was separated from the teaching building by a small forest grove.

It was while walking through the grove that Li Xiu happened to see two familiar figures among the lush trees.

It was Song Cheng and Amazi.

Li Xiu’s heart tensed. He stopped at once and lowered his figure.

Fortunately, the two were facing away from him at the moment and didn’t notice Li Xiu’s presence. When he realized this, Li Xiu breathed a sigh of relief and walked away hastily without looking for too long.

He didn’t want to attract the attention of these two guys. After all, compared to a young master like Fang Qian’an, trash fish like Song Cheng and Amazi were even shitter and more difficult to deal with. He had already wasted a lot of time doing nothing this morning, and didn’t want to cause any more trouble.

However, as he was turning to leave, Li Xiu instinctively felt it was a little strange. The place Song Cheng and Amazi were standing was among the shrubbery. Few people stepped there, and the ground was probably covered with mud and fallen leaves. Both of their backs were straight and their hands…..their hands seemed to be hanging at their sides.

At a glance, Li Xiu could see the bulging cheeks of the two, as if they were chewing on something.

He had a feeling that this wasn’t the posture of someone smoking.

This thought passed through his mind fleetingly. He didn’t think too much about it, because something else suddenly occupied his attention. 

When he arrived at the classroom out of breath, there were still five minutes left.

“What are you doing here? I heard the teacher say you weren’t feeling well and asked for leave?”

The female desk mate was a bit surprised to see Li Xiu appear in the classroom.

Li Xiu thought for a moment and guessed that Fang Qian’an was the cause, lightly brushing off his absence from the previous class. 

The young master actually thought about him so considerately? 

Was his brain broken, or was it that he had a trick up his sleeve?

Li Xiu thought of the young master’s strange behavior today and was at a loss for a while.

But in reality, Li Xiu’s eyelashes fluttered as he replied in a muffled voice with no further explanation: “I’m feeling a little better, so I still came to class.”

He sat down in his seat and was about to take out his class textbook.

His school bag had been tampered with.

After experiencing several pranks, Li Xiu was now very sensitive toward the things he placed in the classroom. The moment he discovered that his school bag was open on the wrong side, he felt nervous.

Holding his breath, he carefully pulled his school bag out.

I thought someone would have maliciously put thumbtacks or trash inside, or maybe his textbook had been torn to pieces or something. However, after checking again and again, he was surprised to find that all the important things were fine, other than the leftover uncooked rice from his gege.

Li Xiu’s fingertips holding his schoolbag suddenly turned white.

The female deskmate had actually been looking at Li Xiu, consciously or not. Seeing that his expression wasn’t good, she promptly drew closer and asked: “Li Xiu, are you okay?”

Li Xiu took a deep breath and forced himself to smile. “I’m fine.”

It was just a bag of uncooked rice that was about to be thrown away…..

Even if it disappeared, nothing should happen, right?

But who would come and steal a bag of rice mixed with incense ashes?

*

In the grove—

“Hey, you two, what are you doing?!”

When he saw Song Cheng and Amazi, the grade supervisor who was doing inspections thought the same thing as Li Xiu, that the two boys were hiding in the woods to smoke.

This made him furiously angry.

“What kind of place is this? If you want to smoke, is this the place to do it? You’re not afraid of starting a fire—”

He hastily rushed over and grabbed the two boys’ shoulders.

However, when he turned them around, the grade supervisor found no cigarette butts at all.

“Cough, cough…..”

“Cough…..”

On the contrary, the two boys he had caught coughed violently.

As they coughed, many small white particles mixed with saliva sprayed out of their mouths.

After a good while, the two boys seemed to have awoken from a dream, and looked at the grade supervisor in a panic while covering their mouths.

“What are you doing?!” the grade supervisor asked again.

“W-we don’t…..I don’t know…..”

“I just….just…..”

The confusion and bewilderment on the boys’ faces seemed genuine.

Their speech was still muddled, and some white things could still be seen in their mouths when they spoke.

When the grade supervisor thought of those small particles, he was full of suspicion, and was about to tell them to spit out what was in their mouths. Then he saw their faces suddenly distort, and they covered their mouths while bending over.

“It hurts…..”

“Ugh…..”

With pained groans, the two of them vomited all over the ground.

The grade supervisor was not spared either. His shoes and trousers were stained with warm, sour, smelly liquid. He screamed and staggered two steps back, almost stumbling over the bushes behind him.

Because of this, it took the grade supervisor a while to realize that something was wrong.

Why were so many dense white spots moving around in the vomit on his feet?

---

Consider donating via Kofi here.

Chapter 8 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 10