Part 3
“I…”
“You still need to live a normal university life. Eat, drink, go out and play. If you’re busy with Student Council matters all day, won’t you turn into Zhou Xie?”
Zhou Xie took a stray bullet for no reason and glared over.
Leon didn’t give him a single glance and continued, “I’ve already bought the tickets. I’ll go back and change clothes in a bit, and we’ll go together.”
Wen Rong: “Okay.”
Okay?!
Zhou Xie didn’t know why he was being used as a negative example, but he suddenly lost his appetite. Putting down his chopsticks, he asked, “What movie? I want to see it too.”
Leon: “You wouldn’t be interested.”
“How do you know I’m not interested? If I’m not interested, would Shi Ye be interested?”
Leon insisted on speaking only to Wen Rong: “Let’s just go, the two of us. It’s not like primary school students going to the toilet; we don’t need to hold hands and go as a group.”
Wen Rong: “Alright.”
Zhou Xie: “…”
Wen Rong went to the movies with Leon.
Zhou Xie, who had quit smoking for a while, couldn’t resist starting again.
Nicotine couldn’t soothe his surging thoughts. He smoked it down to the filter, nearly burning his hand.
He thought that after spending this time together, Wen Rong had accepted him, or at least considered him a friend.
But the facts were right in front of him. He and Wen Rong were different in every way. Even their fundamental concepts had huge divergences. Any deep communication would trigger a landmine.
For the first time, Zhou Xie doubted his ability to cater to others.
In the night, the sparks of the cigarette faded. The light from his phone screen reflected on his rimless glasses.
Zhou Xie sent a message to Shi Ye.
[Wen Rong went out to a movie with Leon and hasn’t come back yet.]
The stubborn reply came: [I know. Wen Rong invited me.]
Then another: [Didn’t he invite you?]
Zhou Xie refused to show weakness: [They talked about it right in front of me. What do you think?]
Shi Ye: [Then why didn’t you come?]
Shi Ye: [Image]
In the photo, Wen Rong was squeezed between Shi Ye and Leon, his two hands raising V-signs in a flustered manner.
The three of them were clearly in the cinema. Shi Ye knew exactly how to piss him off, specifically marking the time the photo was taken—just ten seconds before he replied.
When Zhou Xie realized that Shi Ye wasn’t pretending to be strong, but was genuinely asking “Didn’t he invite you?”, he closed his phone in utter shame.
The three of them were watching a movie together.
That meant Wen Rong had called Shi Ye after leaving with Leon.
Wen Rong had clearly rejected him, yet he invited Shi Ye.
Zhou Xie placed his phone on the table and fished out another cigarette. He bit down on it, but couldn’t flick the lighter for a long time because his hands were shaking so badly.
Finally, he threw the lighter onto the ground in frustration. With a bang, he squeezed his eyes shut.
Immediately after, he threw the cigarette on the ground too, grabbed his car keys, and walked out.
He needed to see Wen Rong right now.
The cramping pain in his heart made breathing difficult. His chest heaved violently. The moment Zhou Xie sat in the car, he instinctively slammed the accelerator to the floor.
He had been abandoned.
He had tried so hard to fit in, yet he was still abandoned. Even for a movie, he was excluded.
An unprecedented loneliness flooded his body like a tide, clogging every cell. Zhou Xie felt a lack of oxygen and a splitting headache, feeling like he could die at any moment.
Since his father died, he had never felt as terrible as he did right now.
His friends, the person he liked—none of them ever considered him “one of their own.”
Thinking of this, Zhou Xie’s vision blurred, and his nose stung intensely.
“You were terrible before.”
The conversation from earlier in the day unexpectedly pierced his brain.
Zhou Xie’s eyes widened abruptly. Suddenly, finally, he understood the meaning of those words.
He was terrible.
He realized, belatedly, what Wen Rong’s silence meant.
When he stood by Shi Jing’s side, when he rigged things to protect Zhao Zeyang, when he deliberately made things difficult for Wen Rong even knowing Leon was protecting him—Shi Ye and Leon’s feelings back then were exactly the same as his were right now.
Skrrrt—
The wheels locked, carving a trail of sparks on the ground.
Zhou Xie’s body slammed forward, only to be yanked back by the seatbelt.
The back of his head hit the headrest. The pain brought back a shred of rationality.
Zhou Xie gripped the steering wheel tightly, both arms trembling violently.
Through the watery blur that he wouldn’t let anyone discover, he saw the streetlights smear from single points into vast halos.
The vintage car, modified by Shi Ye, sat enveloped in this light, unmoving for a long time.
It wasn’t until a high beam flashed in his rearview mirror that Zhou Xie woke from his dream. He took a deep breath. This time, he stepped on the brake slowly and drove out of the academy steadily.
He wanted to do something. Immediately.
A paranoid voice in his heart insisted that in this moment of realization, he must see Wen Rong to complete the final step.
Wen Rong held the milk teas that Shi Ye and Senior Leon had bought for him, sitting quietly at the entrance of the restroom waiting for them.
Since leaving the school, the two of them had been somewhat at odds. Maybe it was because he agreed to see a movie alone with the Senior but accidentally ran into Shi Ye at the dorm door, or maybe because he declined Shi Ye’s tour invitation but ended up coming out alone with the Senior.
In any case, Wen Rong, who wasn’t a fool, realized there was gunpowder sparking between the two, and he needed to hide in the restroom to let it explode separately.
Fortunately, he was wearing a mask and hadn’t been recognized by others yet. Sitting quietly, he could occasionally hear the laughter of children from the first floor.
When people have nothing to do, their brains go blank and they zone out, so he didn’t notice the person approaching him with rapid steps.
The moment his hand was suddenly grabbed, he jumped in fright. Instinctively, he tried to shake it off, only to look up and see Zhou Xie’s gloomy face.
He was still wearing the Floriman Academy uniform—too formal and too conspicuous, drawing the attention of quite a few people around them.
“Why are you here?”
How did he come? Shi Ye and Senior Leon didn’t say they invited him.
Zhou Xie didn’t say a word, forcibly dragging him away from the spot.
His pace was fast; Wen Rong almost couldn’t keep up. They reached the elevator area on the other side of the mall. Luckily, the elevator opened and people went in, not paying attention to the two of them.
Zhou Xie opened the emergency exit door directly and pulled Wen Rong inside.
In the empty stairwell, even the sound of breathing echoed.
Seeing Zhou Xie’s terrible expression, Wen Rong asked curiously, “What’s wrong with you?”
Zhou Xie looked down at him, opened his mouth, but couldn’t make a sound.
“How did you know we were here?” Wen Rong asked, then looked him up and down. “Did you come straight from school? Why are you still wearing your uniform?”
“…”
Wen Rong handed the milk tea to him. “Hold this for me. I’ll send a message to Senior Leon so they don’t come out and can’t find me.”
Zhou Xie frowned, and suddenly reached out to snatch Wen Rong’s phone.
“You—”
Zhou Xie interrupted him. “You guys went to a movie, why didn’t you take me?”
“I—”
Zhou Xie interrupted Wen Rong again. “You don’t like me at all. You don’t even want to stay in the same space as me. Usually at school, you only go to and from class with me because you’re forced to, right?”
Saying this out loud felt completely different from thinking it. Reason told Zhou Xie that Wen Rong indeed didn’t like him, and had even hated him before. But he had changed. He cooked for Wen Rong. He… he thought that after so long, Wen Rong trusted him at least a little, liked him a little.
Otherwise, why would he want to make him happy when he was drunk that day?
Wen Rong cared about whether he was happy.
Zhou Xie’s nose stung again. “Why can you watch a movie with Leon and Shi Ye, but exclude only me? If even you don’t want me, where should I go during the holidays?”
“What holidays?”
“I don’t have parents anymore, and neither do you, right? During the holidays, when others are having family reunions, only you and I are left behind. We—” He took a deep breath to clear the lump in his throat. “We should be huddling together for warmth.”
Wen Rong seemed to understand what he meant. After a brief thought, he looked up calmly. “I’m sorry, I don’t have any plans like that.”
“You don’t have… plans like that.”
Zhou Xie’s heart ached violently. He turned his face away, his emotions suddenly exploding, and he smashed everything in his hands onto the ground.
With a loud bang, milk tea splattered everywhere, and the phone tumbled down to the floor below.
“What are you doing!”
Wen Rong was startled, freezing for a few seconds before anger appeared on his face. “In the past, you couldn’t stand me, and I actually didn’t like you much either. I only treated you as a schoolmate because of Senior Leon and Shi Ye. If our similar situations made you misunderstand something, I apologize to you, but I really never thought about spending holidays with you. We aren’t close enough for that.”
After speaking, he walked down the stairs to pick up his phone. Seeing the screen split down the middle and refusing to wake up, his handsome features twisted into a knot, ready to explode with rage.
However, when he looked up, he saw half of Zhou Xie’s face buried in shadow, his expression unclear. He looked thoroughly broken. His shoulders trembled slightly, his back was hunched, and rapid, sharp inhales could be heard.
Wen Rong was startled. In a trance, he seemed to see President Zhou. He couldn’t help but reflect on whether his words had been too harsh.
Although he hadn’t thought about holidays, Zhou Xie’s words just now reminded him—their situations were exactly the same. In times of family reunion, they were indeed the only ones who could logically piece themselves together to fake a reunion dinner.
“Um…”
He hesitated, then walked slowly up the stairs, pulled open the emergency door, and whispered, “I spoke too harshly just now, I’m sorry. Are you in a bad mood? Senior Leon and Shi Ye are still over there, I’ll go call them over.”
A hand suddenly brushed past Wen Rong’s face and slammed dead against the door, forcing Wen Rong to lurch forward as the door was yanked.
“Not close enough—in your eyes, is there no difference between me and Lin Jinghang, is that it?”
Zhou Xie asked through gritted teeth. His eyes laid bare his killing intent. If Wen Rong actually answered “yes,” he thought he might lose control and kill him.
Don’t like you.
Treat as a schoolmate.
Never thought about it.
Not a single sentence was what he wanted to hear.
“I don’t feel that way,” Wen Rong answered in a small voice.
Zhou Xie’s expression softened slightly.
“I know you’re already trying hard to cater to me, but our thoughts are completely different. There’s no need to be the kind of friends who have heart-to-hearts; that will only create more and more disagreements. Just ordinary schoolmates, or colleagues…”
Zhou Xie didn’t want to listen anymore. One hand grabbed the back of Wen Rong’s neck, forcibly wrenching his face around, and he bit down on that detestable mouth.
He bit him savagely. It was less about lust and more about venting anger.
Loneliness and grievance were all vented through the forceful teeth and tongue. Bright red blood seeped from the bitten corner of the lip, the metallic taste making his throat gag, every breath accompanied by a violent churning in his stomach.
So this is what it feels like!
When Shi Ye and Leon kissed him, it was this satisfying!
Zhou Xie grabbed the struggling hands, pressing the tip of his nose against Wen Rong’s face, forcing him to tilt his head back as he gnawed with all his might.
As time passed, his glasses hung askew on his face. Through the distorted vision of the lenses, Zhou Xie caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye through the clear glass—Shi Ye’s furious face.
He froze for a split second and let go of Wen Rong.
“Cough, cough.” Wen Rong bent over, choking as if on a mix of blood and saliva, coughing violently.
The door was pushed open a crack, and Shi Ye squeezed through.
A black shadow flashed before his eyes. Crack—Zhou Xie’s glasses went flying, and his body was smashed against the wall by Shi Ye’s fist.
In his blurred vision, Leon reached out to support Wen Rong, wiping the blood from his mouth with his sleeve, asking gently, “Are you okay?”
“Cough, cough.” Wen Rong was still coughing violently, coughing until he dry-heaved. His head dipped, and he almost fell down the stairs, luckily caught by Leon just in time.
Leon’s expression changed instantly. He grabbed Wen Rong by the shoulders with both hands and forcibly picked him up. “Senior will take you to the restroom to handle this.”
“Cough, cough—”
The sound of coughing slowly faded out of hearing range.
Zhou Xie slid to the floor, staring blankly at the mess on the ground.
He had said what he needed to say, got his answer, and even forced a kiss, but the wrenching pain in his heart was even more distinct than on the way here.
He prided himself on being mature and rational, but now his mind was a chaotic mess.
Zhou Xie slammed his hand against his head, then despairingly lifted his wrist to wipe the blood from his mouth. His lip stung—it was cut in the chaos just now, or maybe bitten. Anyway…
Anyway…
Shi Ye’s furious face was right in front of him.
He only threw that one punch. Only that one.
Actually, given Shi Ye’s nature, if someone touched his things, he would kill them.
Zhou Xie moved his gaze away from Shi Ye’s face. Finally, a myriad of emotions dissolved into two words.
“I’m sorry.”
📖 Advance Access: Complete Novel
- Option 1: Note your email on PayPal/Ko-fi.
- Option 2: Email proof to beezzzreads@gmail.com.
- Option 3: Comment below.
Recommended Reads
