Hell High School (11): He couldn’t bear

Tan Xiao pulled Wen Yi away, and he didn’t look back, so naturally, he didn’t see the lake water churning behind them.

A mass of ghostly energy enveloped the lake’s surface, and before long, several corpses were forcibly dragged up from the mud at the bottom of the lake, lying stiffly on the surface.

As the core of the school’s instance, Wen Yi actually didn’t like meddling too much, but he had seen from a distance that the tree roots were stirring, trying to capture Tan Xiao, his prime prey.

The failure of the capture was not due to a change of heart but because the more refined and powerful ghostly energy rebounded.

Wen Yi was not a magnanimous person; after becoming an evil spirit, his heart was even smaller than a needlepoint.

Of course, he wouldn’t let go of a water ghost trying to touch his lover so easily.

However, when dealing with the water ghost, that mass of black energy kindly provided soundproofing to prevent the water ghost’s screams from disturbing Tan Xiao.

On the second night after school started, Wen Yi once again tried to collect the fee for protecting Tan Xiao, and as expected, he succeeded.

For Tan Xiao, today was still quite a crazy night, but it was much better than the first day.

At least before one o’clock, Tan Xiao could take a normal shower and go to bed. Before falling asleep, he successfully made a deal with Wen Yi: “You must go to bed before twelve. You can stay up a bit later during the holidays, but not every day!”

After all, he was a human, not a perpetual motion machine, and he needed rest. Although this kind of exercise could replace working out and help relax tense nerves, he needed sleep!

He had to study for so many hours during the day, and if he stayed up all night causing trouble, his sleep would be reduced to three or four hours!

The workload in the third year of high school is already heavy. Without a strong physique, he might just collapse in front of everyone one day.

If he really kept up this nonsense with Wen Yi, Tan Xiao had no doubt that he would be quickly drained by the other party. In less than a year, he would be suffering from kidney deficiency at such a young age.

Even though his energy was indeed more abundant than that of ordinary people, using up a few boxes every day, even an iron pestle would be ground into a needle.

Tan Xiao tightly hugged Wen Yi with his strong and powerful arms: “A day or two is fine, but if we keep this up every day, we will both die from exhaustion.”

Sleep at night is very important; even a midday nap can’t make up for it.

Wen Yi was embraced by him, his face buried in Tan Xiao’s delicate neck. He originally wanted to bite Tan Xiao, but upon hearing this, he restrained his strength and only lightly licked with his tongue, the motion as gentle as a little kitten.

His voice was a bit hoarse, but unlike the previous broken gong-like voice, it was now a sultry, raspy sound that had been worn out: “You won’t die.”

Although turning Tan Xiao into a ghostly being would allow the two of them to be together for a long time, Wen Yi couldn’t bear it when the warmth of his young and vigorous lover continuously reached him.

He was attached to the warmth of the other person, liked that vibrant and positive energy. Just thinking about Tan Xiao becoming a cold corpse, losing that vigorous life force, made Wen Yi’s heart ache.

Moreover, he was afraid of seeing Tan Xiao angry and resentful, and also afraid of the other person becoming unrecognizable.

So even though Tan Xiao had never sought his protection, Wen Yi still wouldn’t allow him to suffer even the slightest harm.

“You can’t die.”

Tan Xiao sensed Wen Yi’s low spirits and gently patted his back, saying, “Alright, alright, I won’t die. We’ll be together for a long time.”

Fortunately, Wen Yi knew when to hold back. After being told not to, he didn’t move around anymore, just hanging onto Tan Xiao like a koala clinging to a eucalyptus tree, unwilling to let go easily.

Hug, hug, hugging on such a cold day feels quite warm. One could only say that Tan Xiao really couldn’t do anything about Wen Yi; he was soft-spoken and soft-hearted, and there was only one place in his entire being where he wasn’t soft towards Wen Yi.

“Goodnight, baby.” Tan Xiao kissed his boyfriend and quickly fell into a sweet dream.

The third morning when he walked out of the dormitory, Tan Xiao subconsciously looked at the door of room 520. The situation of two people being neighbors but ultimately only using one room seemed to have happened in his memory before.

But Tan Xiao was very sure that he didn’t attend Yuying Middle School in his previous life, so it must just be a dream.

However, it is said that about 2/3 of people have experienced similar flashback illusions: always feeling that the scene in front of them is familiar. Tan Xiao remembered that psychologists called this the hippocampus effect.

His footsteps paused slightly, then he walked back to the elevator at the end of the corridor: it’s not a big deal, no need to fuss over it.

It might be that repeated exposure led to desensitization. Yesterday, Tan Xiao was still apprehensive, but today his attitude was quite calm. Since things had already turned out this way, he couldn’t possibly regain the purity he lost. Just stay composed.

On the bright side, both he and Wen Yi were boys. Men couldn’t get pregnant, and even if they indulged in forbidden fruit at this age, nothing irreparable would happen.

When he arrived at the classroom, Tan Xiao found a box of milk on his desk. It was the kind of heated milk sold in the cafeteria, with a pink strawberry-flavored package.

Underneath the milk carton, there was a note: “Thank you so much for last night, Xia Yizhen.”

Tan Xiao discovered that there was also writing on the back of the note, in a different handwriting: “If a plague breaks out, the hospital is the most dangerous place for infection.”

If Tan Xiao were a player, he would definitely be a big shot.

Xia Yizhen was still shaken from last night, and after going back, she suddenly remembered something: the S-rank player who had the system issue three announcements and had the top privilege, was called Tan Xiao.

She got up early today and ran to school to find Tan Xiao’s textbook. She saw the name written on the title page.

Tan Xiao’s Tan, Tan Xiao’s Xiao. There were many people with the same name in the world, but this name was not common.

Moreover, the monsters in the dungeon didn’t have that kind of kindness. The NPC residents were fine, but the monsters were full of malice towards everyone! This meant that her classmate Tan Xiao was very likely a player, and a top-tier one who had cleared the instance with an S-rank.

She wanted to test him but didn’t dare to reveal her player identity in front of the ghost. In a moment of inspiration, she wrote down the name of the dungeon that the big boss had cleared.

If it were the ghost, it would definitely not understand, but Tan Xiao, being a player, would surely see through it at a glance!

In fact, Tan Xiao didn’t understand at all. How could someone who didn’t even know they were a player know the name of the instance? He glanced at the note, then at Xia Yizhen, his expression showing no change.

He accepted the unopened strawberry milk, glanced at the thank-you note side, casually crumpled it into a ball, and then tossed it into the trash can.

Showing it to Wen Yi was just to let him know the milk could be accepted, after all, it was a token of gratitude, and throwing away the note was to draw a line.

It was just a reminder, he didn’t think he had done anything particularly worthy of thanks. Besides, a box of milk wasn’t a precious item, so accepting it was just closing the chapter.

He now had a boyfriend, so he definitely needed to keep his distance from the opposite sex and also be careful around attractive people of the same sex.

He didn’t plan to drink the strawberry milk himself and directly gave it to Wen Yi.

Seeing this scene, Xia Yizhen felt a genuine sense of disappointment, but she still leaned towards the idea that the boss was a player who just didn’t want to bother with her.

This was quite normal; everyone wanted to hitch a ride on a big leg, but the big leg obviously didn’t want to have a bunch of leg ornaments hanging off it.

It’s normal for high-level players to be indifferent to her; if they were overly enthusiastic and reacted strongly, then Xia Yizhen would have to be wary of their ulterior motives.

She didn’t look bad; without makeup, she was a pretty girl, and with a bit of dressing up, she could reach a seven out of ten. However, high school students were generally not allowed to wear makeup, and Xia Yizhen didn’t want to violate school rules.

Moreover… even if she dressed up, her looks would still be far inferior to Tan Xiao’s. His face was completely flawless from every angle.

Relying on looks was obviously not a viable option; she needed to showcase her other values. But what value did she have? Strength like an ox? Offering props?

Xia Yizhen hesitated and struggled. Compared to relying on a big shot to carry her, she would rather keep the score props. It was better to rely on herself than on others.

Tan Xiao didn’t know that he had made a stranger player so conflicted. Even if he knew, he wouldn’t care. After all, who would consider the idea of a trinket while being a big shot?

Moreover, he wasn’t the kind of powerful big shot that Xia Yizhen had imagined; he was just someone who simply found a ghostly wife who wouldn’t let any danger appear in front of him.

The bell for the morning self-study session rang, and the homeroom teacher, Ms Xu, stood on the podium with a serious expression.

Her tone was very heavy: “Today, the remains of classmate Zhen Xiaohong were found in our school’s artificial lake! This matter is extremely heartbreaking!”

The students immediately started chattering below, discussing and joking. As a transfer student, he naturally didn’t know who Zhen Xiaohong was, but he had ears and could hear the gossip around him clearly.

“Zhen Xiaohong, isn’t she the missing junior? I heard she started dating in her first year of high school…”

“Weren’t they saying she dropped out because she was pregnant? How could she be found in the artificial lake?”

“What do you mean, pregnant and dropping out? This morning, I saw a banner being put up. There were two bodies, one male and one female. The male seems to be Zhen Xiaohong’s rumored boyfriend. I heard they committed suicide out of love! Wow, the bodies were all decomposed, it was really disgusting!”

Ms. Xu’s expression was very grim: “I’ve told you many times, don’t go near the artificial lake at night! Don’t fall in love too early! This is the consequence of early love.”

These two sentences clearly confirmed the authenticity of the gossip. Ms. Xu was very agitated, and her words were harsh.

Most students didn’t take it seriously: the teachers’ insistence on not allowing early romantic relationships was an old story, but as long as they didn’t fall behind in their studies, didn’t indulge in forbidden pleasures, and didn’t cause any major issues, it was not as exaggerated as Ms. Xu said.

It’s one thing for middle school students, but many high school students feel they are mature enough to make their own decisions and are already adults.

It’s just that Yuying Middle School had strict rules; some schools don’t manage these matters as closely. Instead of enforcing strict prohibitions, it’s better to guide them normally. After all, young love is a beautiful thing.

Adults are like that; they have one set of rules now, and in a few years, it’ll be another. Those with older siblings have seen the terrifying side of adults pushing for marriage.

Tan Xiao lowered his head in a bit of shame, as if Teacher Xu was pointing at him.

After all, he had secretly fallen in love early, and it was with his own deskmate.

Not far away, Xia Yizhen and a few other players received a system notification. She had successfully collected a piece of the storyline fragment: [The Water Ghost in the Artificial Lake].

In the high school horror genre, the related story elements are usually just a few: [Young Love], [Rumors], [School Bullying].

Was the dungeon storyline of Hell High just about young love?

Just as she thought of this, the main mission was updated.

[The Seven Great Legends of Hell High: The Artificial Lake].

The players’ faces turned green: The water ghost in the artificial lake was only one-seventh of the storyline! To collect the entire storyline, they might as well endure for another eight days.