Chapter 72: The Campus Sixteen Years Ago
Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
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“Do you want to kill him?”
In the darkness, a voice spoke.
“You want to kill him, don’t you?”
In the darkness, a cold knife was handed to him—
“Do, Re, Mi, Fa…”
A thread of melody drifted from the darkness.
In the next scene, Xie Shiyu found himself sitting on the piano stool.
Chu Feng sat beside him, his slender fingers wandering among the black and white keys, playing.
Xie Shiyu reached out, wanting to touch Chu Feng’s hand as he played, his long fingers—
Drip, drip.
A drop of bright red splattered onto the black and white keys, glaringly vivid.
Xie Shiyu tried to stop Chu Feng, but Chu Feng, already playing, noticed something amiss and turned his head:
“Xie Shiyu… You!!”
Xie Shiyu lowered his head, seeing his hands, already washed clean, now covered in blood again, the bright red blood continuously flowing from between his fingers, dripping onto Chu Feng’s pristine piano.
“No, I… ” Thirteen-year-old Xie Shiyu hastily grabbed Chu Feng, who was trying to escape.
His hands, covered in blood, grabbed onto Chu Feng’s shoulder, leaving a bloody handprint on his snow-white shirt.
“Let go of me—Ah—”
The person in front of him screamed in fear, “You lunatic, murderer, devil!! Help—”
“Wait, Chu Feng, listen to me—”
Xie Shiyu tried to grab him, but only smeared more blood from his hands onto his clean shirt. Chu Feng struggled desperately, appearing much smaller and weaker than him, unable to escape no matter how hard he struggled.
—He looked terrified. Xie Shiyu thought.
He was no longer the childhood companion he knew, but more like a demon.
He tightly held onto Chu Feng’s hand, pausing for a moment.
Chu Feng immediately broke free from his grip, breaking free from the darkness and running towards the light.
“Help… Help!… I’m in the garden community now…”
Thirteen-year-old Xie Shiyu stood there, hearing Chu Feng pick up the phone nearby, dialing 110.
“Chu Feng, Chu Feng! Listen to me… Don’t be afraid… That person is my father, it’s because he always… that I…”
“Don’t come any closer!!”
Chu Feng held onto the 110 phone in his hand, clinging to it like a drowning person grasping at the last straw.
In the darkness, thirteen-year-old Little Shiyu stood still, dumbfounded.
He looked up at Chu Feng’s house: a two-story duplex, respectable parents, a snow-white piano…
Chu Feng grew up excellently, happily, and normally, his hands experiencing piano keys, perfect test papers, countless awards…
Not knives for murder and dismemberment.
He and Chu Feng stood together, utterly incompatible, like people from two different worlds.
He no longer remembered what he said to Chu Feng when they used to dig for “treasure” together:
[Let’s grow up together]
Xie Shiyu looked at Chu Feng in front of him, once so close to him, now only finding him terrifying, wanting the police to arrest him, wanting to send him to prison quickly…
Wanting to forever rid himself of him.
Thirteen-year-old Xie Shiyu stood alone in the darkness, in endless darkness, a voice saying:
[Do you want to kill him?]
***
“Chu Feng… Chu Feng…”
“Classmate Xie Shiyu!”
A chalk head hit his head, and Xie Shiyu opened his eyes.
The classroom was bright and clean, the eight o’clock sun streaming in from outside.
The sleeves of the school uniform draped over his body dangled from the edge of the desk. The dark green blackboard was covered with incomprehensible formulas. The junior high math teacher stood at the podium, pushing his glasses up, the glare blinding:
“Xie Shiyu, if you’re not going to listen in class, keep your muttering to yourself!”
The surrounding students immediately burst into laughter.
Xie Shiyu called out a name and the teacher at the podium might not have heard clearly, but they heard it loud and clear. The boy in the front desk turned around and teased in a low voice: “So sweet, still calling each other’s names in your dreams?”
Xie Shiyu ignored him, quietly turned his head to look beside him. Chu Feng was sitting to his right, earnestly studying the formulas in the math book, looking like a good student who was studying seriously.
—Except for his slightly red ears.
“…Let go.”
Chu Feng said softly.
Xie Shiyu lowered his head and realized that he was tightly holding Chu Feng’s hand.
“Tsk tsk tsk.” The boy behind joked, “I’m going to report to the teacher that you two are secretly holding hands during class.”
Xie Shiyu gave him a disdainful look, raising an eyebrow as he chuckled, “Go ahead then.”
He knew his classmates were just joking, and they didn’t really think there was anything between him and Chu Feng. Chu Feng probably didn’t have that kind of intention towards him either. If he took these jokes too seriously, it might make Chufeng feel uncomfortable…
On the other side
Thirteen-year-old Chu Feng wished he could dive into the math book and become an inconspicuous symbol. He controlled his gaze, avoiding looking at Xie Shiyu, and focused only on the math textbook, trying to appear as a decent and diligent student.
Only he knew that holding hands wasn’t entirely Xie Shiyu’s fault; he was the one who initiated it.
At that moment, the teacher was explaining how to combine like terms in equations, a concept Chu Feng had heard hundreds of times before in his cram school, finding it somewhat boring.
“…Chu Feng…”
It seemed like someone was calling his name, softly but urgently.
Chu Feng turned his head and found his deskmate Xie Shiyu lying on the table, motionless, murmuring his name.
—This guy…
Chu Feng felt his cheeks heat up. It was one thing for him to sleep in class, but why was he sleep-talking and continuously mentioning his name?
Xie Shiyu was asleep, his relaxed arm hanging down from the desk, hidden from the teacher’s view behind the drawer.
Out of some inexplicable curiosity, Chu Feng held his textbook with one hand, appearing focused, while the other hand discreetly reached out and touched Xie Shiyu’s sleeping fingers.
Whoosh.
Xie Shiyu almost immediately grabbed his hand.
Chu Feng’s heart skipped a beat, thinking he had been caught in the act. He glanced sideways, but Xie Shiyu was still sleeping, just unconsciously grabbing him.
—Like a baby’s reflexive grip, kind of cute. Chu Feng smiled to himself, discreetly touching Xie Shiyu’s palm again, which resulted in an even tighter grip.
The math teacher continued lecturing on the podium.
Chu Feng, with his hand involuntarily held, stared at the textbook, pretending to be the most diligent student in class, as if nothing had happened.
—
“Xie Shiyu, come on, get up and answer this question.”
Just awakened Xie Shiyu, just grasping the situation.
He scratched his head, the chalk that hit him landing beside the desk, and he was about to stand up…
But he realized he hadn’t let go of Chu Feng’s hand yet.
“…Quick, let go.” Chu Feng reminded him softly again.
“Oh.”
Xie Shiyu didn’t suspect anything. He thought he was still affected by a nightmare, causing him to tightly hold onto Chu Feng, disrupting his class and study.
Everything from the dream flashed through Xie Shiyu’s mind, and he seemed to remember something. He didn’t reach out to grab Chu Feng like in the dream, staining his clean shirt with blood; instead, he immediately let go of Chu Feng, even with a bit of force, directly flinging Chu Feng’s hand away.
Clatter—
Xie Shiyu pushed his chair back and stood up as if nothing had happened.
Chu Feng, who had been pushed away, was momentarily stunned.
He immediately lowered his head, hiding his expression behind the textbook, and Xie Shiyu didn’t notice anything unusual.
“How much is the answer to this question?”
On the podium, the math teacher mercilessly questioned Xie Shiyu.
Xie Shiyu didn’t really care. He glanced at the formula, utterly baffled, unable to comprehend it, and was about to loudly answer the teacher: “I don’t know—”
Suddenly, under the table, there was a warm sensation in his palm.
Xie Shiyu was startled.
He felt Chu Feng reaching out to hold his hand, secretly writing the answer in his palm:
√2
After finishing, almost as if in retaliation, Chu Feng forcefully flung Xie Shiyu’s hand away, then continued to casually look at the math textbook as if studying.
Xie Shiyu chuckled inwardly and confidently answered the teacher, “The square root of two.”
The math teacher was about to scold Xie Shiyu for his nonsensical answer and kick him out of the class…
But as the words were about to spill out, he suddenly realized:
The square root of 2, isn’t that the correct answer?
He lowered his head to check the answer sheet, and indeed, the answer to this question was: √2.
Absolutely correct.
The math teacher swallowed back his words, feeling a bit embarrassed, and reluctantly said, “…Sit down.”
This question was quite difficult, something Xie Shiyu wouldn’t have been able to solve, and the square root of 2, it was highly unlikely he guessed it right.
The math teacher shifted his gaze to Chu Feng.
Chu Feng was a good student, a role model teachers held up for other students to emulate. The teacher didn’t want to criticize the role model he had set himself, and besides, he hadn’t seen how Chu Feng had reminded Xie Shiyu.
The math teacher cleared his throat and said mildly, “Some students should focus on their own studies instead of sleeping in class and bothering others. Other students shouldn’t be influenced by them. Let’s move on to the next question…”
This sentence seemed to be scolding Xie Shiyu, but it also indirectly targeted Chu Feng.
Chu Feng stared at his textbook, completely absorbed, pretending not to hear anything.
—
Ding ding, ding ding—class was over.
“Are you upset?”
Xie Shiyu pounced over, embracing Chu Feng like a good buddy.
“Not really.”
Chu Feng didn’t make Xie Shiyu let go of him, allowing himself to be embraced. He calmly put away the math textbook and took out his English dictation book for the next class.
“Why were you calling my name while sleeping?”
Xie Shiyu: “Uh. I dreamed that you failed the exam and cried loudly in the classroom, and I was trying to comfort you.”
Chu Feng, ranked third in their grade: “…”
The boy in front turned around with a smirk, “So how did you comfort him?”
Xie Shiyu grinned, “Guess?”
Chu Feng, who was studying English words, was actually a little curious, “So, how did you comfort me?”
“Well… like this.” Xie Shiyu turned sideways, hugged Chu Feng, and gently patted his back as if soothing a baby, “There, there, be good, don’t cry, try harder next time.”
The surrounding students shivered with goosebumps, laughing uproariously.
“Let… go… of… me.”
Chu Feng, being treated as if he failed the exam, voiced his dissatisfaction from within Xie Shiyu’s embrace.
“Oh.”
Xie Shiyu let go of his hand, and Chu Feng sat back down, using the break time to review the English words he had memorized the night before.
Xie Shiyu didn’t go anywhere, just sat there, watching Chu Feng intently as he studied English words in the sunlight.
The sounds of laughter and playfulness echoed around the campus.
The bright and beautiful life of a middle school campus. Xie Shiyu sat in his seat, gently spreading his hand, allowing the light to filter through his fingers.
His hands were as clean as any other middle school boy’s, holding a pen, writing endless homework, and after school, clutching a basketball he wasn’t very good at playing, jumping around the playground.
—These hands were as clean as if they had never held a knife and dismembered thirty-seven pieces.
—
“At six o’clock this morning, Mr. Liu discovered an unidentified body part in the suburbs of our city. Currently, the police are investigating…”
While the campus bathed in the morning light, a pair of clean hands rested on an English dictation book, as Xie Shiyu absentmindedly spelled out the words he hadn’t memorized.
Meanwhile, outside the campus, the morning news was urgently reporting a criminal case…
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