Xie Xishu wanted to tell Qi Wu: “Please, stop staring at me.”
But he didn’t dare.
Because he felt that Qi Wu… seemed to have gone mad.
====
The first time Xie Xishu had any interaction with Qi Wu was on a day when A City had issued a high-temperature warning. That afternoon, during the second period, Class 1 of the third year at Nanming No. 3 High School had Physical Education.
If Xie Xishu were attending a normal school—a school that cared even a tiny bit about college entrance rates—a senior year P.E. class might be substituted for Chinese, Math, or English. In short, it would never be taught by an actual P.E. teacher.
However, Xie Xishu attended Nanming No. 3.
It was widely recognized as the worst public high school in A City, famously known as a cradle for the unemployed or factory workers. You could even say that the learning environment at even a decent vocational school far exceeded that of Nanming No. 3.
Therefore, no teacher would be foolish enough to try to occupy a P.E. class to teach the students anything—the P.E. teacher included.
This meant that for the students of the third school, P.E. was equivalent to legal, sanctioned free time to wander around on or off campus. However, the temperature that day was so terrifyingly high that the vast majority of students decided to stay in the classroom to gossip, play cards, and mess around on their phones instead of wandering outside.
Even when teachers were present, very few of these students, who had long since given up on themselves, would actually listen. But without any teachers to suppress them, the noise level of Class 1 immediately approached that of a wet market.
Xie Xishu sat in the classroom, his brows knitting tighter and tighter.
It’s too loud.
He pressed his lips together, trying hard to focus on the test paper in his hand. Before he could even finish a single question, someone bumped into his desk. At the same time, the cola in that person’s hand spilled across Xie Xishu’s desk, staining his test paper and reference books in a wet, brown mess.
Xie Xishu’s desk was instantly a disaster, but the culprit seemed entirely indifferent. He continued to laugh and shout with his companions for a few moments before glancing toward Xie Xishu as if he had just noticed him.
The boy in the seat was hanging his head, wiping the desk with a tissue. Even facing such an unexpected “calamity,” his expression remained cold and indifferent.
As the only person in the entire class wearing a school uniform, Xie Xishu was buttoned up perfectly from collar to cuff. His wrists, exposed outside the sleeves, were white and thin, marked by calluses from long-term pen usage. Although he was just sitting there silently, his desk was the only one in the classroom displaying test papers and textbooks. It had to be said—the way the youth hung his head and studied earnestly amidst the deafening noise made him stand out so much that it was almost eyesore-worthy.
“Oops, did I disturb our class ‘Top Scholar’ from studying?”
The boy met Xie Xishu’s expressionless face, paused, and then curled his lips into a careless grin.
“With that kind of drive, why did you end up at our school, ‘Top Scholar’? Isn’t it tiring to keep up this pretense here?”
As the boy’s words fell, Xie Xishu’s pupils contracted slightly, and the knuckles of the hand gripping his pen turned white from the excessive force.
“You—”
Just then, a muffled murmur came from Xie Xishu’s side.
“Chen Bie, why are you making so much noise bumping into people’s desks? You even woke me up. It’s already noisy enough, and I finally managed to fall asleep. Seriously, get lost, will you?”
Xie Xishu’s desk mate, who had been sleeping on the desk, yawned and muttered a complaint that was half-joke, half-grumble, directed at the boy.
“Tsk, Cheng An, why don’t you just go book a room at a hotel to sleep instead? Every day, all I see is you sleeping here…”
Xie Xishu’s desk mate, Cheng An, was also an anomaly at Nanming No. 3.
It was said that Cheng An’s family had significant wealth and influence; theoretically, he shouldn’t have ended up in a place like Nanming No. 3. But rumors held that Cheng An had once cracked someone’s head open at an international school, and because the other party also had some connections, he had been transferred here in a hurry to avoid the limelight.
Perhaps because of his different background, Cheng An rarely interacted with others in school, and the thing he did most was sleep on his desk. The teachers noticed this, which is why they made Cheng An Xie Xishu’s permanent desk mate.
However, even though Cheng An didn’t usually hang out with the others at Nanming, the boys in the class had more or less heard the rumors, so they gave him some face.
The boy surnamed Chen was no exception. He gave Xie Xishu a sinister glare, muttered a few things, and finally turned and walked away.
Xie Xishu looked silently at his departing back, then turned his gaze back to the desk.
The wet tissues were piled into a small mountain of paper in the corner. The desk itself had been wiped clean, but the soaked reference books and test papers were clearly beyond saving.
Xie Xishu pressed his lips tightly, tossed the sodden reference books into his drawer with a thud, and laid out a fresh test paper on the desk, but he didn’t pick up his pen for a long time.
Cheng An yawned again and leaned toward Xie Xishu: “Don’t mind that guy. He’s just got a twisted, annoying mouth. Just pretend he’s farting. But he likes to stick to Qi Wu’s crowd when he has nothing better to do. If you clash with him and end up provoking Qi Wu, things will get messy… By the way, did you finish your homework? Lend it to me to copy.”
Xie Xishu gave a soft “Mm,” handed his homework to Cheng An, and stood up to pack his things.
“Huh? Top Scholar, where are you going?!”
Cheng An was startled by Xie Xishu’s movement and asked subconsciously.
Xie Xishu turned back, looking at the only person in the class he could talk to, and responded calmly: “It’s too noisy here; I have a headache. I’m going out for a walk.”
Xie Xishu wasn’t making excuses to Cheng An.
He really did have a headache. Recently, an influenza outbreak had been sweeping through A City, and Xie Xishu didn’t doubt that he had probably caught it. For the past two days, his temperature had been hovering at a low fever. Fortunately, Xie Xishu had long since grown accustomed to the discomfort of fever over the years, so he hadn’t let it show at school. But today, the noise was excessive, and adding the trouble caused by Chen Bie, Xie Xishu could no longer suppress the restlessness in his chest. He simply left the classroom to get some air.
Passing the empty desks in the back row, Xie Xishu couldn’t help but take an extra look.
The entire Class 1 was a chaotic mess, with desks and chairs scattered everywhere to make it easier for them to play cards and games. Only those few unoccupied desks were placed unusually neatly; even the floor was clean, without a single sunflower seed shell.
It was as if an invisible barrier existed there, making it look strangely eerie.
Oh, right. That’s Qi Wu’s seat. Xie Xishu realized immediately after a brief moment of daze.
Qi Wu’s seat was always in the last row of the classroom.
On one hand, the boy was truly tall and sturdy. At seventeen or eighteen, he was already over 1.9 meters tall, and not the thin, bamboo-pole kind of tall, but a robust, muscular build. Sitting anywhere else would make him as conspicuous as a wall.
On the other hand, Qi Wu himself was a famous troublemaker in the school—no, in the entire A City area. Placing him in the back of the classroom meant that whatever he did, he wouldn’t make the teachers too anxious.
Some people later whispered that Qi Wu’s family tree had been crooked for generations; for three generations of men in his family, few had walked the straight and narrow. Later, relying on a ruthless heart and the madness in their bones, they carved out a significant business. They were a group that could “summon wind and rain” in A City.
“Whatever you do, that guy looks like someone who will end up in prison sooner or later. As a good student, you must remember not to get involved with that kind of person…”
Seeing Xie Xishu in the same class as Qi Wu, someone had cautioned him carefully.
Xie Xishu had agreed at the time, but he hadn’t taken it to heart.
After all, Qi Wu spent far more days acting as a thug outside than coming to school. Even when he did come to school, he was surrounded by a bunch of yes-men, busy fighting and brawling.
As for Xie Xishu, he had ended up in a place like Nanming No. 3 purely because of his wretched constitution.
He was easily nervous.
Of course, a better way to put it was that his pressure-resistance was poor. Whenever he encountered something slightly significant—like, say, the high school entrance exam—Xie Xishu would run a high fever.
Because of this, he had to repeat the year twice, and the results of his exams were still a disaster.
Unfortunately, Xie Xishu’s parents were highly educated, working in prestigious research institutions. They were the proudest two people imaginable, yet they were saddled with Xie Xishu’s entrance exam scores. From then on, neither could ever hold their heads up high in front of friends and relatives again.
The consequence of becoming his parents’ biggest shame was that when Xie Xishu ended up at Nanming No. 3 due to a small error in his records, his parents didn’t make any move to rescue him from this dilapidated school. Basically, they let him fend for himself, adopting a “see no evil” approach.
But as long as Xie Xishu wasn’t facing a major exam, his daily grades were actually very good—so good that even in a place like Nanming No. 3, Xie Xishu still enjoyed a certain invisible but particularly obvious preferential treatment.
Moreover, Xie Xishu wasn’t the type to show off. Although his daily earnest studying made him as incompatible with the class as oil in water, after transferring for so long, he hadn’t encountered any major trouble.
At most, he would be picked on by small thugs like Chen Bie.
That was all.
Cheng An’s reminder was actually somewhat redundant for Xie Xishu. From the beginning, Xie Xishu had no intention of bothering with those people who went with the flow—in the end, Xie Xishu simply wasn’t from the same world as them.
Since they weren’t from the same world, he wouldn’t invest any energy into caring about them.
After leaving the classroom, Xie Xishu braved the white-hot sun and aimlessly wandered around the school.
He realized with a bit of helplessness that although the campus was quiet due to the sun, the shade in every corner was occupied.
But at this moment, Xie Xishu didn’t want to return to that messy classroom no matter what. He had to keep looking. Fortunately, his luck was decent that day; he found a rare quiet spot in a small garden near the school library.
With the library building behind it, century-old trees transplanted by the school at great expense on both sides, dense vines growing above his head, and a large patch of lush rose bushes in front, the stone bench in the garden was exceptionally cool and shaded. Xie Xishu sat down without hesitation.
He had originally planned to read a book in peace. However, perhaps because he was already running a low fever and had walked back and forth in the midday sun, Xie Xishu felt his head becoming heavier and his thoughts more chaotic shortly after sitting on the bench.
In his groggy state, he gathered the last of his strength to take off his school uniform jacket and spread it on the cold stone bench, then curled up on the bench and fell asleep.
Xie Xishu had a dream.
It was hard to say if it was a nightmare because, from start to finish, there were no monsters or demons in the traditional sense.
He only dreamed of a door.
A door at the end of the hallway in his house—his parents’ bedroom.
Because of his parents’ jobs, they both lived overseas long-term, so Xie Xishu hadn’t opened that door for a long, long time. In the dream, the door was still tightly closed, the room dim as if it were evening. Xie Xishu stood at the door with a stiff spine, his hand slowly resting on the doorknob.
…
It felt like stepping into a void. In the next second, Xie Xishu gasped, waking up from his violent heartbeat. As he opened his eyes, he came face-to-face with a familiar-looking face.
“Fuck—”
While Xie Xishu was so startled his heart nearly stopped, the person was clearly also scared half to death by Xie Xishu’s sudden awakening. He let out a scream, stumbled backward, and nearly fell.
“Hahahahaha…”
The person’s clumsiness immediately triggered a burst of mocking laughter from the several people behind him.
“Xiao Wu, are you okay?”
“Scared like this by Xie Xishu? If this gets out, people will laugh themselves to death!”
“For the sake of your reputation, you owe us a barbecue as hush money!”
…
Amidst the rakish teasing of the boys, Xie Xishu slowly regained his senses and discovered that several people had surrounded him at some point. As it happened, those people were his classmates—the very unfamiliar kind.
They were a few small thugs who often hung out with Qi Wu.
A gaze like a tangible weight landed on Xie Xishu. He couldn’t help but shiver. He looked up, his gaze passing over the few boys who were laughing and goofing off, and found himself dizzily meeting Qi Wu’s eyes.
Qi Wu was standing at the very back of the group, arms crossed, expressionless. But there was no denying that no matter how many people stood in front of him, no one could ignore his presence.
In terms of facial features, Qi Wu could actually be called handsome, but his overly sharp lines allowed his handsomeness to be supplanted by a sort of neurotic fierceness. Anyone with a normal brain could detect the ruthlessness and volatility in this tall boy after just one glance.
And Xie Xishu’s brain was not only normal, but quite sharp.
Sensing that Qi Wu was staring at him with a gaze that was hard to fathom, Xie Xishu’s throat tightened involuntarily.
At this time, Qi Wu’s entourage also turned their attention back to Xie Xishu.
“Yo, isn’t this our Nanming ‘Top Scholar’? What’s up? Do people with good grades also have pretty big guts?”
“Do you know whose territory this is? You actually dared to sleep here—”
“Are you trying to experience the full Nanming lifestyle, ‘Top Scholar’?”
Xie Xishu cursed inwardly.
Now, he finally realized belatedly: every nook and cranny of the school was crowded with people, but only this place, with its flowers and plants and incomparable comfort, was completely empty. It wasn’t that Xie Xishu was lucky enough to find this place; it was because this bench in the garden was, by default, someone’s territory.
In the entire school, Xie Xishu was probably the only one who didn’t know this.
“Sorry, I didn’t know anyone was here. I just… wasn’t feeling very well…”
Xie Xishu’s face was pale. Without any hesitation, he apologized in a low voice.
Fortunately, he was usually silent and quiet as a quail, and Qi Wu himself looked like he had long since moved beyond the petty scuffles of school, and his yes-men also thought highly of themselves. Xie Xishu could see that for these people, he was just a kid in school; as long as he was polite, they wouldn’t bother with him.
The events played out exactly as Xie Xishu had expected. The group surrounded him, said a few more irrelevant things, and after some shoving, the boy called Xiao Wu gave Xie Xishu a hard push and sneered, “Get lost, ‘Top Scholar.’ Don’t go spreading your bookworm stench to us.”
Xie Xishu lowered his eyes and walked rapidly out of the small garden.
However, just as he was passing Qi Wu, who had remained silent on the outermost edge, preparing to leave, he suddenly felt a pull on his back collar.
Cough, cough, cough—
Taken by surprise, Xie Xishu was choked by his throat and started coughing violently.
After finally settling his breath, Xie Xishu turned his head and came face-to-face with Qi Wu.
“You…”
He didn’t know if it was because he was too nervous, but for that moment, Xie Xishu felt that Qi Wu’s expression toward him was exceptionally strange.
“I, I really didn’t know this place belonged to you.”
Xie Xishu’s internal alarm bells were ringing. Not knowing how he had offended this vicious deity, he could only lower his stance as much as possible and repeat the previous explanation. However, he soon realized that Qi Wu seemed…
He didn’t seem to be listening at all.
The boy was staring straight at him with a gaze that was pitch-black and so intense that it reminded Xie Xishu of a reptile.
Then Qi Wu spoke, his voice unusually hoarse and low.
“What perfume are you wearing?”
What surprised everyone was that Qi Wu would ask such a question.
A question that could be described as unthinkable.
“Huh?”
Xie Xishu had to admit that even he was stunned to hear it, and it took a while for him to regain his senses.
“Per, perfume? What perfume?”
Until this moment, Qi Wu’s hand was still firmly locked onto his collar.
Therefore, the distance between Xie Xishu and Qi Wu was actually very close.
Close enough that Xie Xishu could see Qi Wu seemed to be struggling to hold his breath. The boy’s nostrils were twitching strangely, like some kind of wild animal, to the point where even his expression looked exceptionally ferocious.
After hesitating for a moment, Xie Xishu tried his best to remain calm and explained: “I haven’t used any perfume. School rules don’t allow it… but maybe my body wash has a scent…”
He stuttered through his explanation for a long time, but Qi Wu never gave any of the expected responses.
In a daze, Xie Xishu felt Qi Wu’s rough knuckles rubbing slowly against the back of his neck.
Cold sweat soaked Xie Xishu’s back.
A breeze blew by. Despite the sweltering summer, Xie Xishu felt a chill run through his entire body.
Just then, he saw Qi Wu’s pupils constrict suddenly.
“That’s enough. Get lost.”
Qi Wu let go abruptly and gave Xie Xishu a forceful shove.
The boy’s voice was cold, his tone tightened abnormally.
The man’s restlessness had come so inexplicably that Xie Xishu didn’t bother to investigate.
He didn’t look back in Qi Wu’s direction at all, seized this precious opportunity, and scrambled away as fast as he could.
It wasn’t until he had walked a long distance, panting, that Xie Xishu remembered his school jacket was still laid out in the corner on the steps, and he hadn’t managed to retrieve it. However, since Qi Wu’s gang was probably still there, Xie Xishu didn’t think about charging back to get it. When he went to look at the small garden after school, the bench was indeed empty and had been cleared clean.
Thank you for the translation.