After listening to Su Zhiwei’s proposal, Ruan Qing paused for
a moment and then spoke expressionlessly, “I think you’re right. I am indeed
far behind Xiao Shiyi.”
“I’m ready to study hard from now on and strive to get into a
good university, so as not to embarrass the Su family.”
Su Zhiwei glanced at Ruan Qing, seemingly not understanding
the connection between his words and what he’s saying here.
Ruan Qing continued slowly, “So, I’ve decided to move to the
school dormitory starting today.”
Su Zhiwei looked at the teenager, who spoke seriously,
claiming to study hard just to avoid living with him, and instead burst into a
light laugh, seemingly quite pleased.
Before the teenager could get angry, Su Zhiwei pushed the hot
milk on the table towards him and spoke gently, “Your grades are indeed very
poor. How about I give you some extra tutoring?”
“After all, I was fairly decent in my studies back then, so
tutoring you shouldn’t be a problem.”
“No need. I’ll ask Xiao Shiyi to help me. It’s easier to
communicate with someone of the same age, and it might be more beneficial for
my learning,” Ruan Qing directly refused. Only a crazy person would let Su
Zhiwei tutor him. Was tutoring a form of death?
When Su Zhiwei heard the phrase “someone of the same age,”
his smile paused, and he casually said, “Do you think... I’m old?”
Ruan Qing, looking somewhat surprised, turned to Su Zhiwei
and said, “You’re already thirty-three. Isn’t that old?”
Su Zhiwei: “...”
Su Zhiwei’s smile faded, and then he casually said with an
indifferent expression, “Is that so? A man at thirty is still in his prime. It
just means he’s more mature and stable.”
Su Zhiwei paused for a moment and then added casually,
“Besides, I look like I’m in my early twenties, not much different from you
guys.”
People in this instance start studying a bit later; they
enter high school when they’re seventeen or eighteen.
Ruan Qing looked at Su Zhiwei and asked in response, “So,
you’re still thirty-three, but you just look young.”
Su Zhiwei glanced at the teenager and said, “So you mean,
little ancestor, you’re finding fault with me for being old?”
Ruan Qing paused and slowly replied, “I never said that.”
Su Zhiwei smiled and said, “I suppose so. After all, my older
brother and sister-in-law are much older than me.”
When Su Zhiwei said this, his tone was no different from
before, still gentle and soothing, but it was clearly a threat to Ruan Qing.
Ruan Qing’s expression instantly changed. He glared fiercely
at Su Zhiwei and was about to get up and leave.
However, Su Zhiwei called him back and pushed the hot milk on
the table again. “It’s already heated. If you don’t drink it, I’ll feel sad.”
Ruan Qing hesitated, took the milk without looking, and took
a sip. As the milk touched his lips, his brows furrowed tightly.
He didn’t finish drinking it. After a few sips, he forcefully
placed the glass on the dining table and walked upstairs without looking back.
To say he placed it down would be an understatement; it was
more like he slammed it down. The glass made a harsh sound as it hit the table,
seemingly expressing resistance towards Su Zhiwei.
However, it was too weak, lacking any trace of vigor, and
instead made people want to be more audacious.
Su Zhiwei watched the teenager’s back as he went upstairs,
and he lightly touched his own lips that the teenager had brushed against
earlier.
Even after so many hours had passed, the soft and warm
sensation from back then still felt as if it were there, making one feel a bit
itchy.
The teenager seemed arrogant and haughty on the surface but
was actually just a young cub relying on borrowed power. Once you found his
weak spot, he became timid and cowardly.
Even if he was severely bullied, the most he could do was
angrily stare at him. His resistance was feeble, but even his angry expression
looked pleasing, without any intimidation.
No, perhaps he wouldn’t even dare to express direct
resistance to him.
Su Zhiwei picked up the hot milk that the teenager had
rejected from the table and drank it all in one gulp. Then he elegantly wiped
his mouth with a napkin and left the living room.
After the living room was empty, Mo Ran walked out from a
dark corner.
With a gloomy expression, he walked up to the untidy dining
table and looked at the glass that both of them had drank from.
The next moment, the sound of the glass shattering echoed in
the empty living room, sounding especially loud in the night.
The nanny who was about to tidy up was startled by the sound
and immediately ran to the living room to see what had happened.
Standing in the living room was a familiar teenager, a
classmate of the young master. To those working here, he was an esteemed guest.
The nanny approached nervously and asked, “Are you alright?
Did you get hurt?”
“I’m fine,” Mo Ran shook his head and then looked nervously
at the broken glass on the floor. “I just accidentally knocked over the glass.”
The nanny breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at Mo Ran,
saying, “Don’t worry too much. You can go rest. I’ll take care of it.”
The nanny started to clean up the broken glass on the floor.
Halfway through, she suddenly remembered something and turned to look at Mo
Ran, who was sitting on the other side of the sofa. She hesitated before
speaking. “Um... Have you had dinner yet?”
After seeing Mo Ran shake his head, she politely offered,
“What would you like to eat? I can make you something. Maybe Mr. Su forgot to
call for dinner.”
“Anything will do.”
Mo Ran sneered inwardly. Forgot? He never even considered
calling him.
A scumbag who harbored vile intentions towards his own nephew
was worse than an animal.
Mo Ran remembered that the teenager never liked drinking
milk. Why did he drink it just now?
The teenager never gave face to anyone, not even Su Zhiwei,
that old thing. The teenager had never cared about that guy before.
Was he... threatened?
With what?
Su Qing cared about only two things: identity and parents.
Su Zhiwei just mentioned Su Qing’s parents. Did he use that
to threaten him?
Mo Ran pondered as he bit his thumbnail.
***
Ruan Qing returned to his own room and realized that Xiao
Shiyi had sent him a message.
A student with the surname Song, skipping a grade?
“A student... who skipped grades.”
Ruan Qing frowned and typed directly to ask.
[Do you know how much older this transfer student is?]
Xiao Shiyi replied quickly, [I don’t know, I don’t know his
age or name, but everyone is guessing it might be Song Yu.]
After seeing the name Song Yu, Ruan Qing paused. The image of
Song Yu sitting amidst broken pieces of a mirror in the bathroom flashed through
his mind.
If the monster was him, was there a need to break the mirror?
Put on a show for him? After all, Ruan Qing did encounter the
monster in the bathroom shortly after Song Yu left, which was indeed quite
coincidental.
One could say that Song Yu had the highest suspicion now.
The fact that the only clue before the former faculty member
died was the character ‘Song,’ combined with Song Yu’s pale face and his
appearance of frequently experiencing campus violence, made it seem as if he
was the monster.
But precisely because of this, Ruan Qing felt that it
actually ruled out his suspicion.
He was certain that Song Yu was not the monster.
Because the curse was too clever. They died right after
uttering the character ‘Song.’ Remember, when Xia Baiyi died, she couldn’t even
say a single keyword.
The curse probably didn’t allow them to disclose any crucial
information, and yet the former faculty member managed to say the character
‘Song’ before dying. Was it an attempt to mislead them?
Or perhaps it was an attempt to manipulate them... to deal
with Song Yu?
But did they really need to manipulate others to deal with
Song Yu, who looked like he was on the verge of death at any moment?
The image of Song Yu smashing the mirror once again appeared
in Ruan Qing’s mind.
Speculation was just speculation; true knowledge came from
practice.
Ruan Qing walked directly to the bathroom, looked at the
full-length mirror, clenched his fist, exerted all his strength, and without
blinking, smashed it with all his might.
“Uh...” Ruan Qing groaned in pain, his eyes instantly misting
over.
He looked down at his hand, which had been smashed and had a
trace of blood. Even a light touch was painful.
But the mirror in front of him showed no signs of damage,
indicating that his hand was not capable of easily breaking the mirror by just
hitting it.
Breaking the mirror with just his hand would require a
tremendous amount of force.
And Song Yu, with his frail appearance, seemed even weaker
than him. Ruan Qing couldn’t smash the mirror with a single punch, so
naturally, Song Yu shouldn’t be able to easily break it either.
Unless... Song Yu wasn’t weak at all.
But that’s not right. Song Yu’s body seemed to be severely
anemic, and that anemia was obviously not fake.
Wait, there’s a difference between anemia and blood loss.
If Song Yu wasn’t anemic at all, but... was suffering from
blood loss?
If a large amount of blood was drawn from the body in a short
period of time, it would undoubtedly cause blood loss, resulting in a pale face
and an unstable gait.
Did he draw his own blood? Or has someone bullied him to such
an extreme extent?
Ruan Qing was unsure, and even all of this was just his
speculation. After all, although all the clues in this instance pointed to Song
Yu, the other didn’t have a strong presence.
Hardly anyone knew him well.
Ruan Qing first sent his confirmed guesses to Xiao Shiyi:
[Song Yu shouldn’t be a monster.]
After sending the message, he suddenly felt a strong gaze on
him. He stiffly raised his head and looked.
The ‘him’ in the mirror was no longer in sync with him, but
staring straight at him.
When Ruan Qing looked over, ‘he’ curled up the corners of his
mouth, revealing a stiff and eerie smile, sending chills down one’s spine.
Ruan Qing’s pupils contracted, his eyes widened, and he
instinctively took a few steps back. He even lost his balance and fell to the
ground.
“He” in the mirror reached out his hand upon seeing the
situation, leaning forward as if trying to come out, but he was stopped and
crashed directly into the mirror.
He couldn’t... come out?
Ruan Qing’s expression of panic and fear hesitated slightly,
and his mind became slightly calmer.
The “person” in the mirror turned gloomy upon realizing he
couldn’t come out, and black mist started swirling around. Under the influence
of the black mist, his figure seemed to fade, but his gaze fixed on Ruan Qing
became even more terrifying, making one feel creepy.
Ruan Qing covered his rapidly beating heart, lowered his head
to avoid the gaze of the person in the mirror, and tried to calm his heartbeat,
so that the deep hypnosis wouldn’t be lifted at this moment.
It took about half a minute for Ruan Qing to finally calm his
heartbeat, but the gaze upon him did not disappear.
Xiao Shiyi’s words were indeed incorrect. The monster could
leave the school, but its power seemed to be greatly reduced, unable to even
come out of the mirror.
The mirror... couldn’t come out...
An audacious thought flashed through Ruan Qing’s mind. He
swallowed hard, then slowly raised his head to look at the monster in the
mirror.
The “person” in the mirror was also looking at him, with a
chilling and horrifying gaze that seemed like it would burst out and tear Ruan
Qing apart in the next second.
However, “he” just stared straight at Ruan Qing without any
movement.
Ruan Qing took a deep breath, then slowly stood up and
cautiously approached the standing mirror. Every step was taken with great
care, and he kept his eyes on the “person” in the mirror, as if he would stop
and quickly move away if “he” made any move.
Fortunately, the “person” in the mirror seemed to be only
staring at Ruan Qing without any other action, not even blinking.
Ruan Qing was now very close to the standing mirror, close
enough to touch it with his outstretched hand.
He stopped directly and then slowly extended his hand towards
the mirror, as if trying to touch it.
The “person” in the mirror finally reacted upon seeing this
and blinked his eyes, imitating Ruan Qing’s action by reaching out his hand.
