"It's such a shame! We lost by just one point! One point!" Zhuge Yun had been muttering about it ever since the game ended, all the way to their return trip to campus.
"Yeah." Zhao Luzheng couldn't help agreeing. "We lost by just one point!"
It was so frustrating!
Xiao Xiao didn't join the two of them in their complaints. His thoughts were elsewhere. When the final whistle had blown, Polytechnic University had naturally erupted into cheers, while a few players from the basketball team had let out excited roars.
Amid all the commotion, Yang Yi's gaze shot straight toward Xiao Xiao before he could prepare himself. Xiao Xiao raised his brows and returned his look without a change in expression, then calmly turned away. They weren't close, thank you very much. Besides, Yang Yi wasn't a beauty. Xiao Xiao had no interest in exchanging meaningful looks with another man.
Xiao Xiao had a feeling Yang Yi had wanted to come over and talk to him, but one of his excited teammates had happened to grab him. Xiao Xiao took the opportunity to hurry off with Zhuge Yun and Zhao Luzheng. As for Eldest Brother, he was naturally with the basketball team and wasn't going with them.
"Third Brother, Third Brother!"
"Third Brother!"
"Hmm? What is it?" Xiao Xiao sidestepped and took a few steps back, moving away from Zhuge Yun, who had crowded too close.
"I should be asking you that. What are you spacing out for?"
"Don't tell me you've got your eye on some girl?"
"No." Xiao Xiao flatly denied it, though to anyone looking for signs, his denial only made him seem more suspicious.
"Don't be shy. Come on, tell me. Your second brother will help you figure it out."
As they joked around, Xiao Xiao let the matter of Yang Yi slip from his mind.
They were strangers, after all.
With the Gou Diao dead, that was the end of their connection.
To be honest, Xiao Xiao had initially been a little dissatisfied that he hadn't taught Yang Yi a lesson. The guy had actually helped a monster hunt humans! It was outrageous!
But thinking it over, Yang Yi had learned his lesson in his own way. Besides, the culprit who had eaten people had already been brought to justice. Xiao Xiao wasn't some self-righteous crusader bent on punishing evil and upholding justice, and as long as Yang Yi didn't do something stupid and bring about his own death again, Xiao Xiao had no desire to get involved with him.
The whole affair should have been over by then.
That day, Beijing welcomed its first snowfall of the year.
Everyone who woke early pulled back their curtains and was caught off guard by a grand sight—a world blanketed in silver.
It must have snowed during the night. By morning, a thick layer had built up.
Beneath the unusually clear, bright sky lay pure white snow, imbued with the reserved, elegant beauty characteristic of medieval poetry.
A bone-chilling cold hung in the air, contrasting charmingly with the snow's soft, fluffy appearance.
Unable to resist, many people grabbed a handful of snow. It felt soft, but their hands soon turned red from the cold. Even so, their enthusiasm for playing in the snow—and their joy at seeing the first snowfall—was undiminished.
Early that morning, Zhang Bo's loud, excited shouting dragged Xiao Xiao from the arms of the Duke of Zhou.
"It's snowing!"
Clutching his head, Xiao Xiao slowly rolled over, bundled up in his quilt like a silkworm. His head didn't hurt at all anymore; the Monster Compendium had done its job, especially after Ling Yao ate the Gou Diao. The energy that flowed back into the Monster Compendium had then flowed into him, and the pleasant warmth coursing through his whole body had been downright addictive.
But even when both body and mind had been soothed and he didn't feel tired, there was still such a thing as morning grumpiness.
And Xiao Xiao happened to have a pretty bad case of it.
Before, the others in the dorm had all gotten up later than he did. When he'd been looking unwell and hadn't gotten up early for class, they'd been considerate enough not to make any noise and wake him. But now Xiao Xiao looked fine again, so they didn't feel the need to hold back.
It normally didn't matter that Zhang Bo and the others were late risers. But that morning, after Zhang Bo had gone to the bathroom, he'd suddenly had a brainwave and pulled back the curtains. And so the "tragedy" began.
Xiao Xiao was usually even-tempered. Even when he was seething inside from being woken up, he remained as calm and expressionless as ever. Only his tightly pressed lips made him seem sterner and colder than usual.
A heavy gloom spread around him. Even Zhang Bo, who was as thick-skinned as they came, felt the danger and clammed up—not to mention Zhuge Yun and Zhao Luzheng.
Uh, Zhuge Yun glanced at Xiao Xiao, whose expression didn't seem off at all, then rubbed the goose bumps rising on his arms and silently swallowed the rest of what he'd been saying.
Zhao Luzheng awkwardly swallowed a few times. He'd had some inkling that Xiao Xiao got grumpy in the morning, but he hadn't expected it to be this bad. He decided that from now on, he absolutely wouldn't get up before Third Brother. And even if he did, he absolutely wouldn't make a sound.
Yan University's campus was always known for its scenery, and after a snowfall, it was beautiful enough to take one's breath away.
Unfortunately, Zhang Bo and the others were in no mood to admire it.
Xiao Xiao's gloomy aura was still hanging over them.
Zhuge Yun noticed Zhang Bo and Zhao Luzheng repeatedly signaling him. He couldn't help grumbling to himself: What's wrong with your eyes? And why should he be the one to do it?
But when he thought about it, he was the only one who could. Eldest Brother? Forget it. He'd be lucky not to make things worse. As for Fourth Brother, from the look of him, Zhuge Yun doubted he could even speak properly.
Fine. As Buddha said: If I don't go to hell, who will?
With an expression of solemn resolve, Zhuge Yun chose his words carefully. "Third Brother, it's snowing."
Zhang Bo and Zhao Luzheng: ...
Xiao Xiao glanced at Zhuge Yun without expression. A flicker of amusement passed through his eyes. It was kind of entertaining to see Eldest Brother and the others acting like this.
He wasn't as angry as they thought. His morning grumpiness had simply been building up, leaving him with no desire to say anything.
Besides, the quiet beauty of the snow-covered campus was better appreciated in silence.
The crunch of their footsteps on the snow put him in a brighter mood, as crisp and clear as the sound itself.
Xiao Xiao narrowed his eyes as he looked at the classroom buildings nestled behind row upon row of trees. White, icy mist drifted in and out of view, lending the scene a quiet, ancient charm.
Suddenly, a glint of silver flashed in the corner of his eye. Xiao Xiao stopped. The glimmer was hard to make out against the bright snow, but he recognized it at once.
Silver-gray fur, always appearing and disappearing around campus—wasn't that the Ear Mouse?
Xiao Xiao had a good impression of the little monster. Though he often saw it on campus, he'd never heard of it hurting anyone. What's more, it had once protected him. Even if the Monster Compendium had forced it to do so, he was still grateful.
He suddenly remembered that just before Lin Zhenzhen's troubles began, he'd seen the Ear Mouse through the classroom window. Then one thing had followed another, and he'd gradually forgotten about seeing it.
Now, just as he was about to forget it again, the little monster had appeared before him once more.
Though Xiao Xiao didn't have a bad impression of the Ear Mouse, he always felt that whenever he saw it, something unpleasant was bound to happen. Both the Qin Yuan incident and the Ban Zhen incident had taken place after he'd seen the Ear Mouse, even though it hadn't had the slightest connection to either of them.
Maybe he was overthinking it. It was all just coincidence.
Even as he told himself that, faint furrows appeared between Xiao Xiao's brows. He wasn't sure if it was all in his head, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen.
To borrow a famous line from a certain trio of Rocket grunts: "I've got a bad feeling about this!"
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