Chapter 31

When they changed seats in the classroom, everything was a mess. Books fell all over the floor and got trampled underfoot, but Gu Wang still managed to recognize the sheet of scrap paper He Qinghuan had used. He picked it up and hid it away himself.

"Class monitor, someone's outside looking for you." Only after the last afternoon class ended did Yang Yu wake He Qinghuan. Coming to his senses, he glanced outside the window. It was Yue Feng.

He leisurely tucked the scrap paper Gu Wang had given him into a book before leaving through the back door.

The two stood in wordless silence for a long time before Yue Feng let out an exasperated "Fuck!" "He Qinghuan, what are you doing? Why do I feel like you want to skin someone alive?"

"You're imagining things."

Yue Feng knew He Qinghuan's temperament well. He glanced into the classroom. "Didn't you say Gu Wang was your deskmate before? Not anymore?"

"You're not going to-because of this-you, you, you, calm down." Yue Feng stumbled over his words.

He Qinghuan leaned against the wall, his tone utterly casual. "I'm perfectly calm."

Honestly, even if He Qinghuan charged inside right now, took Gu Wang away, and locked him up at home, Yue Feng wouldn't have been surprised. But as He Qinghuan's childhood friend, he didn't want him to reach that point. He would get Gu Wang killed and destroy himself too.

Yue Feng thought for a while, then said, "He Qinghuan, I've never dated anyone, but even I know that if you like someone, you have to let him know. I think Gu Wang's pretty scared of you. How does what you're doing count as liking him?"

This was downright coercion.

A faint weariness tinged even the corners of He Qinghuan's eyes. He spoke softly, admitting it. "Yue Feng, I don't know how."

Yue Feng was speechless. He turned his head away, feeling stifled.

He had never encountered anything like this, where the person who liked you suddenly stopped liking you. Objectively speaking, He Qinghuan had indeed brought it upon himself, but as his friend, Yue Feng couldn't bear to blame him.

He Qinghuan had never yielded or bowed his head. Yue Feng was baffled too. Gu Wang hadn't even done anything, so how had he fallen for him?

Several times, he started to speak and stopped. "Don't force him. Take it slowly."

He was afraid He Qinghuan's desire for control and possessiveness would get the upper hand. As a child, He Qinghuan had kept a Maine Coon. The cat was gorgeous, and he treated it very well. Its food, drinks, and toys were all imported, and he even bathed it himself. Once, it got carried away playing and didn't come home until the next day. He Qinghuan locked it up for two weeks, giving it only food and water. When it came out, it was incredibly obedient.

He wanted this cat to belong completely and exclusively to him.

But people were different from cats.

And this was Gu Wang. Yue Feng could see his pride. Although he sometimes acted obedient in front of He Qinghuan, a person's eyes and demeanor couldn't lie.

What he wanted definitely wasn't to be He Qinghuan's dependent vine.

But when had He Qinghuan ever yielded?

But what the fuck is the point of yielding in front of me?

Shen Zhao happened to be returning from the restroom. Wearing someone's little angel headband, he walked straight past them without a sideways glance. Yue Feng grabbed his collar and hauled him back.

"What are you doing? Let go, let go!" Dragged in front of them, Shen Zhao wasn't afraid of Yue Feng, but the moment he met He Qinghuan's eyes, his whole body went numb.

Yue Feng nudged He Qinghuan. "He Qinghuan, ask him!"

He Qinghuan turned his face aside and lowered his eyes. Shen Zhao had no idea what they were planning. He backed away two steps. "If there's nothing else, I'm leaving. I'm really busy. My equations..."

"Shen Zhao, what does Gu Wang like?"

If Yue Feng had asked that question, Shen Zhao wouldn't have found it strange. His Wangwang was just that popular. Even newcomers liked him.

But now it was He Qinghuan asking.

He was asking Shen Zhao what Gu Wang liked.

Why was he asking that?

Yue Feng slung an arm around Shen Zhao's neck. "Help us out, cutie. Our He Qinghuan wants to pursue your Wangwang."

Shen Zhao's eyes widened. "Pursue my Wangwang?!!!!"

Shen Zhao didn't think that much about it. He wasn't Gu Wang. He only cared about the present; he would enjoy saying his piece first and worry about the rest later. He sneered right in their faces. "In your dreams. Ptooey!"

With that, he took off running. Yue Feng couldn't even catch him.

He Qinghuan showed no emotion, which made people uneasy. Yue Feng wanted to comfort him, but he spoke first. "Yue Feng, I know what to do."

"As long... as long as you know. Make sure you don't go too far."

He Qinghuan didn't answer. His eyes were darker and more lightless than usual.

Shen Zhao returned to the classroom, his heart pounding. He startled his deskmate, who took the headband off his head. "Why are you wearing my stuff? You're a boy."

Shen Zhao snatched it back. "It looks better on me than on you. I'll wear it today, and you can wear it tomorrow."

His deskmate: "?????" You've certainly got the schedule for my things worked out.

Shen Zhao had no time to keep arguing with his deskmate. He opened WeChat and tapped into his three-person group with Gu Wang and Song Zhiyan.

[Shen Zhao: Oh my god, help, Wang!!!!!!!]

It was break time, and the two replied one after the other.

[Song Zhiyan: Are you sick?]

[Gu Wang: Which problem can't you solve?]

[Shen Zhao: ...I have something to tell you. Get ready, and don't be too shocked.]

[Song Zhiyan: Is your mental illness terminal?]

[Gu Wang: Can you solve all the problems now?]

Shen Zhao sent a smiling face first.

[Shen Zhao: He Qinghuan wants to pursue you.]

[Song Zhiyan: Pursue me?]

[Shen Zhao: Aaaaah, Song Zhiyan, interrupt me one more fucking time and I'll strangle you tonight! He wants to pursue Wangwang! He just stopped me and asked what Wangwang likes!]

[Song Zhiyan: Figured.]

[Gu Wang: I know.]

[Shen Zhao: ????? When did you find out? You owe me a hundred lollipops for this!]

After he finished yelling in the group, neither Gu Wang nor Song Zhiyan replied again. Shen Zhao stuck his head out the window and happened to see the dean of students strolling into their classroom with his hands behind his back. Before he had even pulled his head back in, his hand had already tossed his phone into his desk. It was pure bodily instinct.

In Gu Wang's classroom.

The dean stood at the lectern, squinting, the flesh on his face squeezing his eyes into two narrow slits. But small eyes focused sharply. His gaze was keen, as though fitted with hooks that could fish people's phones right out of their desks.

He went to Gu Wang's desk first and knocked on it. "Hand it over."

Gu Wang froze, looking somewhat incredulous. Wen Ting secretly shook her head at him. Gu Wang nodded and placed his phone in the dean, Zhou Hu's, hand.

Pleased, Zhou Hu patted Gu Wang's shoulder and moved on to the other students' seats.

Only then did Wen Ting dare speak. "I was telling you not to take it out. Why did you?"

Gu Wang was puzzled. "Weren't you telling me not to try bluffing my way through?"

"..." Wen Ting was helpless. "Did you forget? Paper Tiger loves doing this. He has no idea who has a phone. He just tries his luck with whoever he comes across."

Gu Wang looked back at the other students. Sure enough, every one of them shook their heads with innocent expressions. Gu Wang's was the first phone Zhou Hu had confiscated all month.

After circling the classroom, Zhou Hu returned to Gu Wang's side and said earnestly, "A prodigal son returning to the fold. I'm very pleased."

Gu Wang: "..."

He went up to the lectern and said, "Tomorrow's Monday. Your class is responsible for hosting the flag-raising ceremony and providing the Flag Raiser. Do it properly. Don't be like last week's class, with the flag getting stuck halfway up."

He left with his hands behind his back again, heading to other classrooms to try his luck and see if there were any more little fools.

Once he left, everyone in class turned to Gu Wang, their eyes full of pity and sympathy.

But Gu Wang's mind wasn't on this. He gave Wen Ting a couple of perfunctory replies. There was no teacher supervising evening study, so he said he wanted to sleep for a while and told her not to wake him.

By the time he woke, most of evening study had passed.

Gu Wang had a dream that scared him into a cold sweat. He dreamed of the Original Host answering a call in his car at the very end.

The Original Host shouted into the phone, "I'll say it one more time! I didn't drug him! I'm not that fucking low!"

"It wasn't me! I don't have proof! I'm fucking innocent-prove my fucking innocence, my ass! Doesn't He Qinghuan know what kind of person I am? If I was going to drug him, I'd have done it ages ago!"

"Come on, then! I'm not scared of you!"

The moment the Original Host finished speaking, a large truck burst out of the darkness to the left of his car. The screech of brakes made his eardrums go numb. The truck's front slammed violently into the car's side, crushing the delicate sports car's body out of shape. Sparks sprayed from somewhere, and black smoke rose from the point of impact.

"I know you didn't, but I don't want to see you pestering him anymore. Your family's business has been having problems lately, hasn't it? That was me..."

The Original Host still held his phone. He hung up on that person and, with his last shred of awareness, dialed the first contact in his address book.

A Old Gu.

Gu Dazhi answered. "Wang, what's wrong?"

His voice broke with tears. "Old Gu, Dad, I'm sorry."

He lost consciousness to Gu Dazhi's panicked cries of "Wangwang."

The ambulance approached from the distance, its red and blue lights dazzling. Onlookers gathered, passersby held up phones to film, and police officers shouted through megaphones not to disturb the scene. A stretcher slid out of the ambulance, and several doctors and nurses pulled the Original Host out of the car.

The CPR never stopped. They kept doing compressions all the way to the emergency room, switching people several times along the way. The young woman holding the IV set beside them was probably an intern. It was her first emergency call with her supervising doctor. While her supervisor worked to resuscitate him, she cried alongside them. "You're so good-looking. Please don't die!"

Gu Wang jolted awake in fright. The Original Host's thigh had been completely broken, his femur twisted out of shape. Several ribs had broken too, along with countless other injuries. The primary cause of death was blood loss—excessive blood loss.

Gu Wang's pale face, covered in tears, startled Wen Ting too. "Wangwang, what's wrong?"

Gu Wang smiled and wiped the tears off his face. "I had a nightmare. I'm fine."

Wen Ting nodded and handed him a tissue. What kind of nightmare had made him cry like that?

Reading words and seeing something with your own eyes felt different after all. When reading the novel, the scenes Gu Wang imagined had stayed within what he could handle. No matter how tragic they were, they were still bearable.

Seeing it with his own eyes, with the novel's plot recreated in full, sent feelings and emotions rushing straight at Gu Wang, leaving him unable to withstand them.

Gu Wang acted as though nothing had happened. Just as he finished the homework assigned during the day, evening study ended.

He wasn't the Original Host, but he would give the Original Host a splendid future full of prosperity, one unrelated to He Qinghuan. What had killed the Original Host was Jiang Chi, and his own blind fixation on the wrong person.

He slowly finished packing his schoolbag, not noticing that most of the class had already left. Shen Zhao leaned on the windowsill. "Wangwang, Song Zhiyan and I are leaving first! We'll have a good talk when we get home, okay? And don't forget my hundred lollipops!"

"Okay." Shen Zhao's appearance lightened Gu Wang's heart considerably. He answered, then saw Song Zhiyan grab his bag and climb straight out the window.

Gu Wang: "..."

The corridor was packed. The ceiling lights overhead did little good; it still felt dim.

With his schoolbag on his back, Gu Wang had barely stepped out of the classroom when someone caught his wrist.

Everyone around them was surging toward the stairs, laughing, fooling around, chatting, and shoving. Who would notice which two people were secretly holding hands?

Gu Wang turned to look. He Qinghuan's face was indistinct beneath the lights, and he couldn't make out his expression. He tugged once but couldn't pull free.

He Qinghuan led him forward. There was no sign at all that the two were holding hands where no one could see.

"Wangwang." He Qinghuan's voice was very low. His pitch-black eyes reflected faint pinpoints of light as he looked at Gu Wang, with only Gu Wang in his eyes. "Will you give me a chance?"

He had humbled himself to a degree Gu Wang had never expected. He Qinghuan's arrogance showed in every aspect of him, lofty and superior. It wasn't that he looked down on you; he simply didn't regard you at all.

Yue Feng wasn't there. Had he been, He Qinghuan's ability to bend and yield would probably have shocked him into fainting. You call this "I don't know how"? You look pretty good at it to me. You know both the hard approach and the soft one.

People had an ugly streak. When someone showed complete tolerance and patience toward you, you became much more unrestrained.

When one person lowered himself, the other rose.

More than that, there was the dream he had during evening study. It seemed to be reminding Gu Wang: If you go soft, the Original Host will end up on the same path as in the book.

You'll make the Original Host let down his family, Shen Zhao, and Song Zhiyan all over again.

"I already gave you a chance." Gu Wang's voice was very calm, just as it was when he spoke to any other classmate.