Chapter 48

He was shaking a little, partly because he had not run long-distance in ages, and partly because his nerves had been stretched taut the whole way. After that final sprint, the unsteadiness beneath his feet had only gradually faded once He Qinghuan caught him.

Only after crossing half the Sports Field did Gu Wang slowly recover. When he came to his senses, he realized he had been leaning against He Qinghuan as they walked the entire time. Their bodies were pressed together; with a turn of his head, he could see He Qinghuan's profile and Adam's apple.

He Qinghuan handed him the glucose drink. As Gu Wang took it, he straightened up too. "Thanks."

As he tipped his head back to drink, he lifted his collar with his other hand and fanned himself. That tiny breeze did nothing to cool Gu Wang's flushed face.

Fortunately, he had just finished running, so nothing looked unusual. Other people would only think his face was red from the run.

Gu Wang sat under the canopy, resting with his head on the table. Shen Zhao came racing across the entire Sports Field. "Wang, first place!"

Gu Wang lazily straightened up and propped his chin on his hand. "Yeah, what about it?"

His tone was utterly matter-of-fact. He all but had "Wasn't that only to be expected?" written across his face. For some reason, seeing Gu Wang like this reminded Shen Zhao of how he used to be. Wangwang had become much quieter since he started studying. How long had it been since he had acted this cocky?

Gu Wang had not intended it. He was too tired, had no energy to talk, and wanted to rest for a while, so his tone naturally carried a little carelessness. Coupled with his strikingly bold face, he did look a little like what Shen Zhao was imagining.

Very punchable.

He Qinghuan had gone to the Podium. After disappearing for a while, Song Zhiyan jumped out of the flower bed behind the canopy. He dragged over a stool and sat beside Gu Wang, looking mysterious. "Guess what I just went to do?"

Gu Wang lay on the table and turned his face the other way to look at Song Zhiyan, obligingly asking, "What?"

Song Zhiyan had long since been bursting to tell him. Thrilled and excited, he said, "Jiang Chi fractured his leg! His leg's broken!"

Shen Zhao abruptly looked up in disbelief. "He only fell once. How did he break his leg?"

"You know what this is called? What goes around comes around! The way he tripped Wangwang last time-now it's his turn. Serves him right!" Song Zhiyan said indignantly. He could not stand Jiang Chi's insufferably arrogant attitude, as though everyone else were some low-IQ creature. His air of superiority was revolting.

Mainly, though, it was because he targeted Gu Wang in every way. He seemed to spend several times as much time making trouble for Gu Wang as he spent trying to please He Qinghuan.

A complete nutcase.

Shen Zhao still found it unbelievable. "That's some terrible luck. How much bad karma must he have built up?"

The expression on Shen Zhao's face made Gu Wang want to laugh. He raised his head and ruffled Shen Zhao's hair. "He had bad luck."

Accidents happened in the Stadium every day, varying in severity from person to person. Sometimes it really did come down to luck. There had previously been a college entrance exam candidate who fell in a panic during a high jump because the coach blew the whistle too early. The bone at his ankle broke and pierced straight through his skin. Whether it would leave him disabled was another matter; taking the college entrance exam was certainly out of the question.

But Jiang Chi's case had not been a matter of luck.

He had been too eager to stop Gu Wang. When he stuck out a leg to trip him, Gu Wang dodged it. Losing his balance, he panicked as he toppled, tripped over his own feet, and went flying.

Song Zhiyan snorted. "Why couldn't he just end up a cripple?"

Gu Wang's expression froze, complicated emotions surfacing in his eyes.

He kept feeling that everything happening now was quietly connected to the book's original plot. Even if things had initially been under Gu Wang's control, by this point, many events were still unfolding in orderly succession, only for Gu Wang to avoid them one by one and change their intended outcomes.

End up a cripple...

At the end of the book, in those hidden parts of the story Gu Wang knew nothing about, the Original Host had indeed become disabled. He could barely walk, and only for a few steps. In the end, the Original Host simply stopped trying. It was pointless anyway.

Shen Zhao and Song Zhiyan took turns complaining in Gu Wang's ears about Jiang Chi's past misdeeds.

"He stole Wangwang's breakfast."

"He stole Wangwang's homework and got him made to stand as punishment."

"He actually called in ten people from outside school to fight Wangwang!"

"Pah, shameless!"

"Damn cripple!"

Gu Wang lay on the table, drifting toward sleep. Half the afternoon sunlight fell on the track, half on his face. His eyes were closed, but he was not deeply asleep; he could hear everything the people around him said.

-The Original Host and He Qinghuan had the fiercest argument since they got together. More accurately, the Original Host was venting his frustration alone, while He Qinghuan merely watched calmly from the side.

This was nothing like what he had imagined!

He had thought they were dating, that once his legs healed and he could stand again, he could stand beside He Qinghuan as an equal and do what he wanted. Instead, He Qinghuan told him he would never stand again. Not only that, He Qinghuan had effectively imprisoned him.

He was not an idiot. He had only been deceiving himself because he liked He Qinghuan.

"I'm calling Old Gu."

He Qinghuan had remained silent, quietly watching the Original Host make a scene. Only when the Original Host picked up his phone to dial did he walk over and crouch in front of him. Gently drawing the phone from his hand, he looked up at the Original Host with a faint smile.

"I told them you died. They've already left this place. You probably won't be able to get through to them."

The Original Host froze. No wonder all the messages he had sent, including on WeChat, had vanished without a trace for so long, without a single reply.

So he was already "dead."

He Qinghuan stood, bent down to kiss the Original Host's eyes, and lightly licked his eyelashes. Since he had already been found out, there was no need to pretend anymore.

"Wangwang, being with me was your own choice."

"Just stay with me like this forever, all right?"

In reality, He Qinghuan was not asking for the Original Host's opinion.

The Original Host remained silent for a long time, not avoiding He Qinghuan's kisses. Only when a bite to his collarbone hurt did he slowly speak, asking falteringly, "My legs... I could have stood again, couldn't I?"

He Qinghuan smiled. "You like chocolate. I'll get you some, all right?"

"I don't like chocolate. I don't like it anymore. I hate chocolate more than anything!" The Original Host enunciated every word with perfect clarity. His eyes were red, like a puppy about to bite.

Unfortunately, he had not grown his teeth yet. Unfortunately, the person he faced was He Qinghuan.

He Qinghuan's smile gradually disappeared, his eyes darkening as he said flatly, "You don't have a choice."

Not only had the Original Host never seen He Qinghuan like this, it was Gu Wang's first time witnessing it firsthand too.

"Wangwang, Wangwang." Shen Zhao's voice sounded beside his ear. Gu Wang lifted his head, his gaze blank. He had not fully come back to himself and was still a little dazed.

"Want to go eat?" Shen Zhao asked.

It was dinnertime.

"I'm not going. Bring me some bread." Gu Wang had no appetite and felt a little weighed down inside.

Shen Zhao hopped off the table. "Okaaay. Do you want Caterpillar Bread or pork floss bread?"

Song Zhiyan smacked the back of Shen Zhao's head. "So much fuss. Just buy both!"

Gu Wang was the only one left under the canopy. He looked toward the Podium, where Yue Feng stood beside He Qinghuan as He Qinghuan sorted the things on the table.

Gu Wang slowly withdrew his gaze again.

Gu Wang himself rarely ate chocolate because he disliked it, but he had tried it. It tasted good and was the sort of food that made him happy when he ate it, but he did not like it.

He disliked it intensely, and always had. Even though it tasted good, Gu Wang hated chocolate as a food.

When his former roommate learned this about him, he had found it utterly baffling. "You think it tastes good, but you don't like it? What kind of weird quirk is that?" It made no sense.

Now it did.

The final hidden piece of the story Gu Wang had dreamed of before Shen Zhao woke him—later, He Qinghuan would force the Original Host to eat chocolate every day, all kinds of chocolate. He would only let him off when the Original Host begged for mercy and said he liked it, that he would like it for the rest of his life.

He might, perhaps, possibly, be Gu Wang.

Upon realizing this, Gu Wang did not feel a storm raging inside him, but a jumble of emotions. How had he managed to end up so miserable? Even getting locked up?

But then he reconsidered.

It was not entirely certain. Perhaps he merely had some slight connection to the Original Host.

"Didn't go eat?"

He Qinghuan's voice suddenly sounded beside his ear. Lost in thought, Gu Wang had not noticed him approaching. Startled, he instinctively turned his head away from the hand He Qinghuan reached out to ruffle his hair.

"No, I asked Shen Zhao to bring me some bread." Gu Wang thought nothing of his own movement. Looking perfectly natural, he shifted a little to the side and tilted his face up toward He Qinghuan. "What about you?"

"No." He Qinghuan withdrew his hand, rubbing his fingertips together a few times. His lashes lowered, hiding his increasingly gloomy eyes.

Gu Wang took a sip of water. "Then I'll give you one of my bread rolls when they get here."

He Qinghuan said softly, "Okay."

Gu Wang unlocked his phone, distracted. The He Qinghuan before him clearly had not yet become the gloomy, obsessive He Qinghuan from the book's ending. He did not know what had driven He Qinghuan to become so extreme.

Was it because the Original Host had wanted to leave him?

But the Original Host had only wanted to go out for a walk... Was even that forbidden? Gu Wang stole a look at He Qinghuan. The boy's features were sharply defined, his expression merely a little cold.

The current He Qinghuan was still a very good person.

Thinking of everything He Qinghuan had done for him recently, Gu Wang simply could not connect the He Qinghuan before him with that obsessive, extreme person whose need for control was off the charts.

I'm avoiding all the original tragic plotlines anyway. Being imprisoned by He Qinghuan is just one more, Gu Wang thought very optimistically.

Besides, wasn't He Qinghuan perfectly fine right now?

Shen Zhao and the others returned quickly. They had not eaten in the cafeteria either, instead buying a huge pile of food from the supermarket and carrying it straight to the canopy.

Wen Ting was doing homework nearby. She stretched, reached over to snatch a fifty-cent packet of crunchy snack noodles from Shen Zhao, and asked, "Are you staying at school to study?"

Shen Zhao was just about to say, "How could we? Do we look like people who'd stay at school to study?"

Then he saw his Wangwang nod, and even speak. "Same as usual. Go home at nine thirty."

Shen Zhao: "..."

Song Zhiyan: "..."

Suddenly, even the snacks and drinks had lost their appeal!

Yue Feng pulled over a chair, sat down, and leaned over its back. "I'm not staying. I'll leave when it's time. I've got something going on at home."

There was nothing going on at home. He simply disliked staying at school. It felt stifling.

"He Qinghuan, what about you? Want to head back with me?" Yue Feng looked at He Qinghuan.

He Qinghuan's expression was indifferent. "I still have test papers to do."

Yue Feng: "..." Do you really think I believe that?

He had grown up with He Qinghuan, who was the most hardworking of their little group. When they were still memorizing their multiplication tables, He Qinghuan could already solve equations on his own. Back then, He Qinghuan had practically seemed to glow in their eyes. After all, they were still stuck at the stage of saying three times seven was twenty-four.

Unfortunately, they had not known how to say "holy shit" back then.

He Qinghuan disliked procrastination and had a strong sense of time. That habit showed in matters big and small; homework was only one of them.

So when he said he still had test papers unfinished, Yue Feng thought he was lying. He just wanted to get with Gu Wang-no, he just wanted romance.

Shen Zhao dug two bread rolls out from under the pile of snacks, one Caterpillar Bread and one Spicy Pork Floss. Holding both, Gu Wang agonized for a while.

He rather wanted to eat both.

After hesitating, he gave the Spicy Pork Floss to He Qinghuan.

Yue Feng's eyes widened. After receiving a knife-sharp look from He Qinghuan, he swallowed his words. Haven't you already eaten?

Earlier at the Podium, Zhou Hu had bought food for everyone there out of his own pocket, also bread, plus a bottle of milk. Why was He Qinghuan here scamming food and drink out of Gu Wang again?

The way he took it so completely for granted was simply shameless!

Yue Feng really wanted to know whether the person who had stood in the hallway outside the classroom not long ago, dejectedly saying "I don't know how," had actually been He Qinghuan.

You seem pretty good at it to me.

The broadcast announced that all the day's events had ended and called for people to carry back the used equipment and the tables, chairs, and stools from the Podium. Zhou Hu happened to be wandering past their class's canopy.

Sight