The person knocking on the door was a student. When the door opened, the student glanced inside and his gaze landed on Li Xiu.

He said: “Teacher Ouyang, the grade supervisor told me to call Li Xiu to his office. He says he has something to ask him.”

What could the grade supervisor ask Li Xiu about?

Normally, Ouyang would express the natural consideration of a good teacher and ask more questions out of concern for Li Xiu. But Ouyang was very uneasy at the moment and naturally didn’t have the energy to put on a performance.

“Since someone is looking for you, you can leave,” Ouyang said with an ashen face.

But just as Li Xiu was about to step out of the office, the man suddenly called out: “Li Xiu—”

Li Xiu paused, turning back to look at Ouyang.

“Did you see anything just now?”

Ouyang thought he could pretend to be calm, but the hoarseness of his voice when he spoke shocked even him. After asking that impulsive question, he trained his eyes unblinkingly on Li Xiu, not daring to miss even the slightest expression on the latter’s face.

“Ah?”

Li Xiu’s brow furrowed, his face full of confusion. It didn’t seem fake.

A chill instantly shot from the heels of Ouyang’s feet to the top of his head. 

“…..It’s nothing. You go on,” Ouyang said.

After Li Xiu left, Ouyang staggered back to his desk and sat down.

It was just that he had been under so much pressure lately, and that was why his vision was hazy.

The man continuously repeated this to himself. But when he picked up the cup to drink some water, some of it splashed on the back of his hand……his hand was shaking.

He couldn’t help thinking about what he had just seen.

Cold, ashen hands, suffused with death.

The chill of fear enveloped him, giving him a deep understanding of what it meant to be put in an icy cave.

“What a joke,” the young teacher muttered.

“It’s been so many fucking years. If it was a ghost, it wouldn’t have taken this long…..”

Therefore, his vision must have been bad. Otherwise, that little thing Li Xiu must have heard the rumors from back then and used some novel means to prank him. Although he had already tested him, who knew whether the other party’s acting skills were good enough to deceive him? 

Ouyang’s mind was in terrible disarray. There was a severe pain in his temples, as if many invisible needles were pricking him. 

Knock knock knock.

At this time, there was another knock on the door.

“I’m busy, we can talk later.”

Thinking that another student had sought him out, Ouyang didn’t care enough to maintain his image as a good teacher and shouted at the door very harshly.

However, the person outside the door was still unwilling to leave him alone after hearing his words, and continued to steadily knock on the door. 

Knock knock knock.

Knock knock knock.

The mechanical knocks on the door continued to sound, the noise giving Ouyang a splitting headache.

Ouyang couldn’t take it anymore. He jumped up and rushed to the office door, opening it aggressively: “Didn’t you hear me?! I told you I’m busy, so why are you knock—”

His voice suddenly got stuck.

Because at this moment, there was no one outside the door. Only a thick, heavy photo album lying silently on the floor.

As soon as he saw the familiar wrapping method on the album, the color drained from Ouyang’s face.

“How could this—”

Hadn’t he put this thing away? How could it have been left outside? Wait, did someone know something and steal his special collection from the bookshelf…..

Rustle.

Suddenly, there was the clear sound of pages being turned in the hallway.

Ouyang gasped in fright, watching in disbelief as the photo album on the floor opened by itself with no one touching it. One after another, ugly, wicked photos scattered from the transparent film.

The difference was that in his memory of the photos, there were only the tender bodies of underaged children. But now, Ouyang’s own image appeared with extreme clarity, completely blocking out those “souvenirs.”

“Who—who is playing this stupid prank?!”

Ouyang could no longer control his emotions. As he admonished, he threw himself to the floor on his hands and knees, desperately trying to gather up the photos.

What he didn’t expect was that the moment he touched the album, all of the “Ouyangs” in the photos turned turned their heads simultaneously to look toward the panic-stricken man outside.

They all had similarly swollen and bruised faces, as if they had been dead for a long time and had been left to rot in a desolate corner for several days.

They all grinned at Ouyang, purple-black tongues hanging out as pus and black blood dripped down.

[Teacher Ouyang.]

Ouyang heard “his own” voice ringing in his ears.

[Be a good boy, and Teacher will will like you then]

There was a fishy sweetness in Ouyang’s throat, as if his heart was beating so fast that it had crushed his organs bloody.

“It’s a hallucination—no, no, this is a nightmare. I must be having a nightmare—”

All of this creepiness frightened Ouyang out of his mind. He talked to himself continuously, trying to wake himself up.

Then, his shoulder suddenly sank.

A floating blue-gray hand stretched out and clamped down on him as firmly as an iron band.

*

When he arrived at the Academic Affairs Office, Li Xiu heard a familiar voice before he even opened the door.

“Song Cheng? Huan Xiaodong? God knows who they are. Oh, they hang out with that guy named Wang or something, I’m not familiar with them.”

The grade supervisor breathed a sigh of relief when Li Xiu appeared, his feelings clearly evident.

“Classmate Li Xiu is here.”

The slightly balding middle-aged man wiped his forehead.

“Well, Classmate Fang, since Classmate Li is here, I won’t disturb your studies. As for the school, we actually just want to understand the situation more comprehensively. We didn’t know you’re unfamiliar with those two classmates. You may return to class now.”

The grade supervisor spoke very kindly to the tall boy who was reclining on the sofa in front of him with an impatient expression.

There was a smile on the grade supervisor’s face, and only he was aware of his wild internal cursing.

Seriously. He didn’t know which idiot lost his mind and didn’t know who to ask questions to, and actually invited this prince here!

After just going through the motions with Young Master Fang and posing a few questions, the grade supervisor felt that his life had been shortened by ten years.

No teacher would want to deal with such a difficult-to-handle student.

And when it was this particular young master, who could not be beaten or scolded, and could only be coaxed and supported by any means possible, the level of stress increased exponentially.

Fortunately, Li Xiu’s appearance instantly alleviated the terrifying pressure much like that of a deep ocean in the Academic Affairs Office.

“Classmate Li, are you aware that Song Cheng and Huang Xiaodong had a serious accident at school?”

The grade supervisor didn’t dare misstep with Fang Qian’an, but when facing Li Xiu, he regained his strength in an instant.

“I….didn’t know.”

In fact, Li Xiu had heard something on the way from the classmate who led him here. He also knew that the matter may be related to Song Cheng and the great Amazi. But to be honest, Li Xiu didn’t know what kind of serious accident could happen to Song Cheng, who was still alive and kicking that morning, and Amazi, whose real name was Huang Xiaodong.

According to the student’s words, the two were directly taken away by ambulance, and before that, the grade supervisor was scared to the point of fainting.

“Well, they encountered a very serious poisoning…..” After a pause, the grade supervisor added quickly, “Food poisoning. They are still being treated at the hospital and are not out of danger. Do you know anything about this?”

Narrowing his eyes, the grade supervisor leveled Li Xiu with an extremely stern look.

Li Xiu shook his head.

“You really don’t know? But other students said that when they went to find you this morning, they were still fine. And it is said that they seemed to have taken something from your school bag today. Classmate Li Xiu, what did you bring to school today?”

“I didn’t bring anything that was against school rules,” Li Xiu replied, hearing the hidden meaning in the bald man’s words.

He looked up at the other party, his face devoid of expression.

They took something from his school bag? Li Xiu thought of what he had noticed after leaving the copy room today. Considering the scattered uncooked rice in his school bag, it should have been done by Song Cheng and Amazi.

But what could this have to do with poisoning?

Li Xiu pursed his lips.

He could sense what the grade supervisor was hinting at.

Perhaps he wanted to use him as a punching bag…..or as a scapegoat.

Although Song Cheng and Amazi were only at the bottom of the clique, no matter the case, they were still students of Qiming. Those who could attend this school, other than special circumstances like Li Xiu, all had some status in the city.

But now, students had been poisoned so badly on campus that they almost croaked. If the school admitted that there were safety risks here, not only the parents of those two, but the parents of other students would also peel a layer of skin off the school’s top brass.

In this situation, an ordinary student like Li Xiu with no background and an obvious conflict with Song Cheng and Huang Xiaodong seemed the best candidate to take the blame.

Li Xiu’s heart sank little by little.

He was not the sort of innocent boy who had grown up in a honeypot, and similar things happened all the time when he was with his grandmother. However, knowledge was knowledge, and when this kind of thing actually happened to him, only then did Li Xiu realize to his shock that there was nothing he could do.

Just like when he faced the torment of the school bullies, he had no choice but to endure it in silence.

“Classmate Li, haven’t I heard that your relationship with Song Cheng and Huang Xiaodong is not very good? Of course, those two have exhibited some bad behavior at school. Rest assured that you can tell a teacher, and they will certainly deal with this matter later. However, Classmate Li, having encountered so many unfriendly things before, have you ever thought about taking revenge on the other parties…..”

The grade supervisor looked at the pale face of the young man before him with satisfaction. Just as he was about to continue applying pressure, there was a sudden loud noise from the side.

Fang Qian’an had kicked the coffee table.

The coffee table in the Academics Affairs Office was made of solid mahogany, and was so heavy that even several people couldn’t lift it. But when Fang Qian’an kicked it, it actually made the 1.5 meter mahogany coffee table move.

“Classmate Fang?!”

The grade supervisor had thought that Fang Qian’an was just watching the entertainment, but as a result, the eldest young master became angry and almost gave him a heart attack.

“Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention when I stretched my legs.”

As he spoke, Fang Qian’an stood up and gave a shameless shrug.

The tall, well-developed young man went directly to the grade supervisor, bringing great pressure to the latter. 

Immediately after, Fang Qian’an reached out and promptly put an arm around Li Xiu.

 Fang Qian’an lowered his eyes and said mildly: “This guy was with me during first period, and we went to the infirmary together after. Teacher, do you still remember?”

“Ah…..ah, that’s what happened.”

There was sweat on the grade supervisor’s forehead, and he answered slowly after a moment’s delay.

His eyes moved back and forth between Fang Qian’an and Li Xiu, and the confusion on his face practically overflowed.

Fang Qian’an and Li Xiu?

As sly as he was, he couldn’t figure out the relationship between these two very different people for the moment.

“I was with him almost all morning. There’s no way he could’ve done something to those Song and Huang people under my nose. And I think that for someone like him, whoever that Song is wouldn’t covet Li Xiu’s things.”

The high school boy’s arm was heavy and hot where it pressed firmly against Li Xiu. Fang Qian’an’s scorching body temperature soaked into Li Xiu’s body bit by bit, making this solitary person very uncomfortable.

The words Fang Qian’an said caused him to freeze in place.

Although no one could tell from the outside, Li Xiu was actually just as confused as the grade supervisor in front of him.

“Oh. Yes. That too.” The grade supervisor blankly echoed Fang Qian’an.

Fang Qian’an nodded his head, and with a strong movement of his arm on Li Xiu’s shoulders, he practically pulled the young man directly into his arms.

“So this has nothing to do with him,” Fang Qian’an said calmly.

“Since there’s nothing more to ask, I’ll take him away.”

*

Li Xiu was unable to think as he left the Academic Affairs office.

He still recalled the face of the grade supervisor going red before the door closed. With Fang Qian’an here, even if the grade supervisor was upset, he wouldn’t continue to cause trouble for Li Xiu.

At this thought, Li Xiu’s feelings became extremely complicated.

Naturally, he felt relieved at not having to take the blame. 

But Fang Qian’an’s behavior was truly strange, so strange that his mind was a mess and he couldn’t figure out what this guy was up to.

This couldn’t be a new method of school bullying, could it?

“That…..why?” Before he realized, Li Xiu had opened his mouth to ask.

“Why what?”

Fang Qian’an still looked unconcerned about anything.

“Why did you help me?” Li Xiu asked in a low voice.

As a special existence in the school, Fang Qian’an had no need to open his mouth and exonerate someone like Li Xiu. And what’s more, Li Xiu had noticed before that Fang Qian’an didn’t like him.

Fang Qian’an was silent for a moment.

“Oh. That, ah…..” The tall boy, who was many times bigger than the boy next to him, spoke in a drawl.

Who the hell knew? Why would he help an insignificant cripple who was the kind of fraudster he disliked the most?

At last, Fang Qian’an replied: “When the old man came to see me today, he walked into the classroom with his right foot first.”

Li Xiu: “Ha?”

Fang Qian’an hummed softly: “I hate people who enter the classroom with their right foot. Okay, so I just don’t like him. What’s wrong with that?”

Li Xiu withdrew his gaze: “Nothing.”

After a moment, a whisper as soft as a mosquito’s buzz escaped from the boy’s lips:

“Thanks.”

Different from any time before, although the boy’s voice was small this time, the gentle tone made him seem softer. 

Looking at him from Fang Qian’an’s perspective, a small section of Li Xiu’s snow-white neck could be seen outside his school uniform, as well as small white earlobes under dark hair.

For some reason, Fang Qian’an subconsciously licked his canines.

“That’s it?” The vile school bully raised his voice slightly, “That’s not right. Little cripple, I’ve done you such a big favor, so shouldn’t you show some actual gratitude?”

The moment he finished speaking, he felt Li Xiu’s shoulders tremble, and the frail young man stopped to look at him speechlessly.

“I have nothing to offer,” said Li Xiu.

Fang Qian’an didn’t know what was going on in Li Xiu’s mind at that moment. In any case, it wasn’t anything good. That snow-white face inexplicably made Fang Qian’an think of that kind of, well, that kind of little widow who had nobody to rely on after her husband died, especially weak and bullyable. 

……What the fuck was he thinking?

Fang Qian’an returned to his senses and was momentarily stunned.

However, his vigilance did not do away with the strange feeling in his chest, which felt like it was being scratched by many small paws.

“What do you think I want?” Fang Qian’an asked mildly, in an attempt to suppress the strangeness inside him.

Hearing these words, Li Xiu lowered his head and remained silent.

Fang Qian’an finally discovered that when Li Xiu encountered something that upset him, he would deliberately look away from others. But no one must have told him that because of his delicate, feminine appearance, the more he lowered his eyes and kept a straight face, the more it made a person want…..to tease him.

Fang Qian’an: “As the old saying goes, if you can’t pay back a debt, shouldn’t you repay it with your body, ah?”

Li Xiu turned and looked Fang Qian’an up and down.

“Sorry, I’m not gay. I can’t do that.”

“Cough, cough—”

Fang Qian’an almost choked on his own saliva.

“I’m not gay either!” he shouted. “It was just a joke!”

It really was just a joke.

But Li Xiu’s reaction was so proper that Fang Qian’an’s face felt unreasonably warm.

Fuck.

Li Xiu glanced sideways at Fang Qian’an and continued: “But I can help you with tutoring.”

“I remember that your grades are very poor.”

In fact, he was last in the entire grade.

Fang-doesn’t even take exams-Qian’an was really blushing now.

“My grades…..they aren’t…..who would want this kind of thank-you gift? Are you sincere, ah!”

Once again, Fang Qian’an reached out and placed a heavy arm around Li Xiu.

The scorching body temperature dissipated the chill caused by his low-grade fever, leaving Li Xiu dazed for a moment.

[A-Xiu]

At that same time, a low, hoarse call sounded from far down the hallway.

A chill ran down Li Xiu’s back, and when he turned abruptly, there happened to be a person standing in the corner with their head bowed.

“Classmate Li Xiu.” The person repeated the call.

The building complex where the Academics Affairs Office was located was very big. When it was originally designed, the person hired was an internationally known architect.

As a result, the shape of the building was very avant-garde, but in usefulness, it was rather difficult to describe. The location of each office was very strange, all of them connected by hallways that were also designed intricately enough to be called a maze. In addition, so many of the hallways had no windows and relied entirely on artificial light sources.

Once a certain light broke, that area would appear particularly dark.

And presently, above that corner, the light seemed to have malfunctioned.

Strange. Was that light broken when they passed by just now?

Zizi—zizi—

Even from such a distance, Li Xiu could still hear the intermittent buzz of electricity.

With the light flickering on and off, that figure also seemed a bit difficult to identify.

“…..Teacher Ouyang?”

Li Xiu squinted his eyes for a good moment before he could just barely recognize that person’s identity.

---

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Chapter 10 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 12