Trust Me

Confronted with the "sonic attack," Xiao Xiao could not help reaching up to rub his temples.

A soprano and all that... He really could not take it.

Especially one so hoarse and shrill, like silk being torn apart.

Even though he had been prepared, Xiao Xiao was still stunned for a moment.

He instinctively turned his head to glance at the monster.

Only to meet those ghostly, baleful eyes.

His expression stiffened.

He gave the monster's expression a brief look... but it was impossible to make out anything from that abstract face.

Xiao Xiao suddenly felt that he had acted like an idiot.

"Cough, cough." Xiao Xiao rubbed his cheeks and pondered how to get Lin Zhenzhen to calm down.

Xiao Xiao did not know that, objectively speaking, his conduct was rather vile. Even if it had not been his intention, what he was doing now looked as though he were cold-bloodedly allowing Lin Zhenzhen to throw a hysterical fit alone while he stood quietly to one side, uninvolved and merely watching.

Lin Zhenzhen screamed for a while, but when she realized that Xiao Xiao showed no reaction—neither comforting her nor leaving—she found him staring at her as though he were watching a show, his dark gaze carrying a hint of scrutiny.

Xiao Xiao felt terribly wronged by this.

He simply had no idea what to do for the moment, so he could only stand there foolishly, racking his brains for a solution.

Perhaps she had been too physically and mentally exhausted lately. After screaming for a while, Lin Zhenzhen was already panting heavily and unable to keep going.

Looking at Xiao Xiao's quiet, almost indifferent features, Lin Zhenzhen became so furious that she could not catch her breath and began coughing violently.

"Cough, cough."

Lin Zhenzhen coughed so violently it seemed to shake the heavens and earth. The corners of her only exposed eyes were red, and the bloodshot whites, washed by tears, looked even more horrifying beneath the tangled veins.

The sudden coughing startled Xiao Xiao. He hurried forward and reached out to help Lin Zhenzhen up, only for her to slap his hand away viciously.

"Smack!"

The crisp sound echoed through the room, accompanied by the relentless, desperate sound of her coughing.

Xiao Xiao rubbed the back of his hand, which had reddened slightly, but did not take it to heart.

Seeing that Lin Zhenzhen did not want him near her, he did not force the matter. He merely poured her a glass of water and held it out.

When he saw Lin Zhenzhen try to knock the glass away again, he swiftly dodged.

"You're coughing terribly. Have some water."

"Don't make things harder for yourself."

"I mean you no harm."

Although he did not know when he had become so detestable, Xiao Xiao deliberately softened his voice to soothe the irritable, somewhat neurotic girl.

Lin Zhenzhen seemed to have been soothed, or perhaps she simply felt too miserable from coughing. In the end, she accepted the glass of water.

It had only been a few days, yet Lin Zhenzhen seemed to have lost a great deal of weight.

The hand she reached out was pale and thin, and the section of wrist exposed with it was impossibly slender, making the entire sleeve look empty.

The hospital room finally quieted down. Occasionally, a few coughs broke the silence, along with the sound of her swallowing water.

Scattered, fragmented sounds. A spacious, dim hospital room. A pale, frail, bandaged girl. And a monster in the corner.

There was something eerie about it, yet it also carried a trace of loneliness.

Watching the girl finally calm down and silently drink her water, Xiao Xiao somehow sensed her utter despair, even though the bandages concealed her entire face.

Where was there any trace left of the gentle, charming girl in his memories?

Although they were not close, they were classmates after all. Xiao Xiao remembered seeing Lin Zhenzhen chatting and laughing with her friends. Back then, her smile had been radiant, and she had been brimming with energy.

Now, she was like an old woman on the verge of death.

Seeing Lin Zhenzhen like this, Xiao Xiao's mood inevitably grew gloomy and heavy as well.

"I'll get straight to the point." He had already wasted quite a lot of time. He should get to the matter at hand quickly. Xiao Xiao straightened his expression, his deep, composed eyes looking directly into the depths of Lin Zhenzhen's eyes.

"I may know why your face became like this."

"So I hope you'll answer a few questions carefully."

Lin Zhenzhen appeared quiet and obedient as she drank her water, but her mind had long since wandered somewhere else.

Taking an occasional sip was merely an automatic action.

However, Xiao Xiao's words were too shocking. They pierced through the layers of fog surrounding Lin Zhenzhen and exploded beside her ears.

After sluggishly processing the information, Lin Zhenzhen abruptly raised her head and looked toward Xiao Xiao, her eyes astonishingly bright.

The violent movement made a little water splash from the glass in her hand. Ripples spread across its surface, just like the storm raging through her heart at that moment.

For the first time, Xiao Xiao's reflection appeared in the girl's eyes.

Her eyes, filled with blood vessels and carrying a hint of ferocity, suddenly widened. The corners seemed stretched to their limit, giving her eyeballs the illusion that they were about to fall out.

Combined with Lin Zhenzhen's current appearance, it was even more terrifying, for goodness' sake!

Xiao Xiao subtly twitched his brows and eyes.

He reached out to stop Lin Zhenzhen from asking questions.

"Listen to me."

"You answer."

"When did these things start growing on your face?"

"Before they appeared, did you touch anything strange or eat anything strange?"

"...Or see anything strange?"

Lin Zhenzhen answered these questions almost without thinking. She had truly been asked them countless times. When alone late at night, she had repeatedly gone over them herself, chewing over and tearing apart everything that had happened during that period until her head throbbed and she was utterly exhausted, only then barely managing to fall asleep.

So when faced with questions from Xiao Xiao that were largely the same, the hope that had just risen in her heart sank again, and she immediately lost interest.

She answered with weariness, numbness, and even a trace of resentment.

What was there to ask? They had asked the same questions over and over. Had they discovered anything?

No. Nothing at all!

She did not understand. Why her? Why had she been the one to encounter something like this?

Although she had cried so many times that she even thought she had no tears left, what was it that kept flowing from the corners of her eyes now?

The bandages became damp and clung sticky against her face, intensifying the suffocating, restless sensation that made her feel as though she were about to explode.

Xiao Xiao frowned. He wanted to help, but the person involved had to cooperate first.

He was somewhat displeased by Lin Zhenzhen's perfunctory answers. Just as he was about to say something, his throat suddenly seemed to be blocked by something. His mouth opened and closed several times, yet he did not know what to say.

Lin Zhenzhen was crying.

Her sobs were suppressed, quiet, and nearly soundless. Large tears rolled from the corners of her eyes, hopeless and grief-stricken.

Xiao Xiao finally let out a soft sigh and said slowly, word by word, "Trust me. I really can do something about your face."

This was not an empty claim. Combining it with what Lin Zhenzhen had said earlier, Xiao Xiao had roughly formed an idea.

But he still needed to confirm it.

So he said, "Sorry for the trouble, but please undo the bandages and let me look at your face." His tone was gentle, but his words allowed no argument.

It had already been many days since these things had erupted. Xiao Xiao did not know what they were or what had caused them, but the longer they were left untreated, the worse it would be.

Moreover, according to Lin Zhenzhen, her face had clearly not been this severe at first. It had even shown signs of improvement after she applied the ointment prescribed by the hospital. Who could have expected it to rebound, growing increasingly fierce?

Worse still, none of the medicines had worked.