In the school infirmary, in an empty room, Wu Yuwei sat alone and forlorn beside a hospital bed, staring at the door.
Just a few minutes earlier, Ye Jiu had scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the infirmary. On the way, she'd thought she'd succeeded.
She'd thought Ye Jiu had chosen her, giving up Liu Qi without a second thought.
She hadn't expected...
Ye Jiu had only brought her to the infirmary. Then he'd hurriedly turned around and started to leave.
"Where are you going?" Wu Yuwei had called after him, asking in confusion.
"Back to the field. I'm going to find Qiqi."
Qiqi...
At his answer, the lips that had been curling upward in triumph instantly stiffened.
"You... You didn't choose me? Why are you still going to look for her?"
"I think you've misunderstood, Xiao Wei. I only brought you here because you scraped your leg when you fell. It didn't mean anything else."
"...What do you mean? But I confessed to you. I said I liked you. Didn't you hear me?"
"I did. Thank you for liking me, but I'm sorry. I can't accept your feelings."
It was as if a bolt of lightning had struck her out of a clear sky. Wu Yuwei stood frozen beside the bed, unable to move.
Ye Jiu... had actually rejected her confession?
Th-this couldn't be possible!
No! It absolutely couldn't be!
She was the school belle, the unattainable dream girl countless boys thought about day and night!
In the past, all she had to do was hint at the slightest interest in a boy—"Wow, you're amazing! Your dunk looks so cool!" "Class monitor, you're incredible. You get first place every time. Teach me sometime?" "This game is so hard. I always get stuck on the first level. How did you beat it so fast? Could you help me, big brother?"...
All it took was a couple of casual remarks, paired with her beautiful face, and the boys would fall for her at once, pursuing her with an obsession they couldn't escape.
She'd never entered a relationship, yet she was already a legend in the game of love.
Over the years, she'd toyed with so many men's hearts, always effortlessly staying one step ahead and never once losing.
How could she have known that the first time she fell for someone, she'd hit a wall with Ye Jiu?
This was the first time she'd ever truly fallen for someone, the first time she'd confessed of her own accord! She'd even given him her first kiss just now!
Ye Jiu—how could he reject her?!
Now, sitting alone beside the hospital bed and staring blankly in the direction Ye Jiu had disappeared, Wu Yuwei's face drained from red to white, then darkened.
"Why... Why didn't he choose me...? How could he not choose me...?"
Anger, resentment, hurt, shock... All kinds of emotions tangled together, knotting in her chest before finally turning into tears that poured out of her eyes.
Thick, inky-black tears, snot, and saliva ran down her face and dripped onto the floor, pooling into a puddle.
A sharp, fishy stench rose from the black puddle, filling the entire infirmary.
Black mist seeped out through the door and windows, spreading rapidly into the sky above the campus until it soon shrouded the entire school.
Outside the school gates, a girl in a sporty miniskirt with a racket slung over her shoulder strode onto campus on a pair of long, toned legs.
Seventh High School was a provincial key high school with a closed-campus policy. She was a student at the neighboring sports school and wasn't allowed inside, so she'd had to wait outside the gates.
But just now, a girl in a Seventh High School uniform had suddenly appeared. She wore thick glasses and a high ponytail, and after exchanging a few words with the elderly gatekeeper, she'd helped the sports school girl sneak in.
"Thanks, classmate!"
The sports school girl thanked the bespectacled girl warmly. She was just about to ask her name when a strong, pungent odor hit her.
The instant the black mist entered her nostrils, a layer of scarlet spread across the sports school girl's pupils.
She no longer had time to chat with the girl in glasses. Turning around, she followed her instincts and sprinted toward the field—the place where her target was.
On the field, after Wen Nan had returned her feelings, Qiqi, who was crying her eyes out, wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly.
It should have been a beautiful, heartfelt embrace beneath the night sky. Somehow, though, as the black mist spread around them, the scene began to take a turn for the bizarre.
The arms wrapped tightly around Wen Nan's neck squeezed harder and harder, like the tightening curse on Sun Wukong's headband. She was squeezing the breath right out of him.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Wen Nan lifted a hand and tugged at Qiqi's arm, hoping to get her to loosen her grip a little, but he couldn't.
"Cough... Qiqi... cough... I can't breathe... cough... Are you trying to murder your husband... cough...?"
But Qiqi acted as if she couldn't hear a word he said, and the strength of her arms only grew.
What was happening?
Was she... angry again?
Wen Nan gently stroked her hair, trying to soothe her. But when his palm touched the back of her head, a clump of hair matted with blood came away in his hand.
[Has she turned into a ghost?]
[Did Qiqi become visible again?]
[But wasn't the big shot Jiu Cilang immune to Qiqi? They'd just been hugging and kissing, and he hadn't felt any fear or suspicion at all. How could he be giving Qiqi away now?]
[That's how scary a female ghost is when she's in a frenzy.]
[Once a female ghost enters a frenzy, the trigger for her to become visible grows a hundred times more sensitive. Even the slightest negative emotion, which normally wouldn't be enough to make her appear, can easily trigger it then.]
[So they're like souped-up TNT now? Touch them and they blow up?]
[Pretty much.]
[We're screwed.]
[It's over.]
With a handful of hair in his hand, Wen Nan slowly began to feel himself suffocating.
He couldn't let this go on. He had to find a way to break free.
With that thought, Wen Nan called out to the system in his mind: [9527.]
9527: [I'm here.]
Bang—!
Just then, something hard came flying out of the darkness and struck Qiqi right in the back of the head.
Qiqi let out a muffled groan and finally released Wen Nan's neck.
Wen Nan gasped for breath, struggling to fill his lungs with fresh air, but all he could breathe in was the irritating mist.
Qiqi turned around, clutching the back of her head where she'd been hit, and glared angrily at the ground.
A badminton racket lay there, its metal frame bent out of shape from the impact.
It had been the racket that hit Qiqi on the head. The blow had been so hard, it seemed as if it might crack her skull open.
"Who are you?!" Qiqi shouted into the darkness.
A figure in a sporty miniskirt strode out of the darkness on long legs.
She ignored Qiqi's question and walked straight up to Wen Nan. Fixing her scarlet eyes on him, she roared in a hoarse, saw-like voice, "Why didn't you reply to my messages?!"
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