Hell High School (9): Eat a lot

High school students get hungry quickly. During dinner, the two of them went to the cafeteria and had large portions of braised chicken. But after evening study, Tan Xiao was so hungry that the first thing he did when he got back to the dorm was to find something to eat.

Wen Yi got into bed without making a sound, only to see Tan Xiao below, opening the packaging of instant noodles.

The boy in the school uniform, with dark eyes, stared at his young lover, thinking that the other person was deliberately stalling: “What are you doing?”

“Making instant noodles. Studying is very mentally exhausting, and I’m hungry. I’m not eating much, just a bowl of noodles.”

On the way upstairs, he conveniently brought a hot water bottle, just right for making instant noodles.

After two minutes, Tan Xiao couldn’t wait any longer and lifted the lid. The aroma of the braised beef noodles immediately filled the entire dormitory. He took a bite, and his stomach, which had been gnawing at him with hunger, finally felt relieved: “You can’t eat this every day, but having it once in a while is really nice.”

Anyway, these two were already close enough to exchange saliva, so Tan Xiao didn’t care about cleanliness anymore. He took a bite himself, stood up, held the bowl of instant noodles, and handed a fork towards Wen Yi’s mouth: “Here, have a bite.”

The latter obediently opened his mouth and took a bite of the noodles. His tongue licked the off-white plastic fork, the action somewhat ambiguous, making Tan Xiao blush unconsciously.

“Delicious, right?” Tan Xiao successfully fed him again and continued to do so for several more bites. Seeing Wen Yi shake his head, indicating he had enough, he buried his head and finished the remaining noodles.

He didn’t eat the soup, quickly cleaned up the trash, and opened the window to air it out.

Instant noodles are delicious, but they leave a strong seasoning taste in your mouth after eating.

During lunch, Tan Xiao casually bought some fruits. Winter fruits are abundant; apples, pears, and oranges are all in season, with thin skins and plenty of juice.

He was too lazy to run errands every day, so he bought five or six kinds at once. Anyway, winter fruits last long, and you can eat them for seven or eight days after buying them once.

Tan Xiao sifted through a pile of fruit and picked out a large, golden pear. He skillfully peeled it with a fruit knife, the white pear flesh emitting a sweet fragrance.

“Wen Yi, do you want a pear?”

The latter nodded, “Yes.”

Wen Yi didn’t really want to eat it; he just wanted to eat what Tan Xiao was eating.

Tan Xiao handed the peeled pear to Wen Yi: “Here, eat it. You have to finish the whole thing.”

He started peeling a second pear.

Wen Yi’s expression darkened: “Are you rejecting me? You don’t even want to share the same pear with me?”

“Of course not. In our family, we can’t share pears with family members, but we can with friends.”

There is no banquet that does not end, friends gather briefly but would eventually part ways, and strangers were indifferent.

Family and lovers were different. Tan Xiao raised his head and smiled brightly at Wen Yi, who was sitting on the edge of the bed: “Because I want to be with you for a long time and become a family, so we can’t share the pear.”

“Snap.” Wen Yi suddenly leaned forward and bit Tan Xiao’s cheek.

“Why did you bite me?”

“Liars, saying we can’t be separated, but you’re still leaving me!”

Wen Yi was extremely annoyed. In his memory, there seemed to be a scene where Tan Xiao had just promised him a lifetime together, but in an instant, he disappeared from his side, no matter how hard he tried to grasp him.

He looked angrily at his young lover: “Damn Tan Xiao, this guy is just a smooth-talking emotional scammer!”

Tan Xiao, covering his face where he had been bitten, felt very wronged: “Where did I deceive you? When did I ever say I wanted to leave you? We work hard to get into the same university and work in the same city, and then we won’t have to be apart anymore!”

He raised his hands and swore: “Heaven can see, I am completely sincere to you!”

Being inexplicably accused of being a deceiver, no one could be happy. The purest and most sincere feelings of the boy were denied, and naturally, he felt very wronged: “They say trust is the most important thing in a relationship.”

If he had known earlier, he wouldn’t have let Wen Yi kiss him. After saying this angrily, Tan Xiao should have retaliated even more fiercely, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Out of anger, the smell of spices from his stomach rose up his throat, making him feel inexplicably nauseous.

Tan Xiao’s sharp teeth bit into the snow-white pear flesh, and the juice was indeed as sweet as he had imagined. He crunched on the pear, trying to suppress that anger.

Seeing Tan Xiao fuming, Wen Yi also calmed down at this moment. He let his legs dangle off the edge of the bed, leaning his upper body forward, his flexible waist forming an incredible arc.

He poked Tan Xiao with his finger, “Tan Xiao, are you angry? I’m sorry, can you not be mad at me anymore?”

“Don’t sit like that, aren’t you afraid of falling?”

After saying this, Tan Xiao turned away and ignored him.

He turned his back to Wen Yi, maintaining a cold expression as he continued to crunch on the pear. He ate quickly, and before long, only the core was left.

When Tan Xiao got up to throw away the trash, Wen Yi, taking advantage of his momentary distraction, opened his mouth wide and directly tossed a whole large pear into it, spitting out a perfectly shaped core in an instant.

Although he was still angry with Wen Yi, Tan Xiao had no intention of kicking him out.

He planned to quietly throw the trash into the big bin downstairs himself. After all, there was an elevator, so it was just a matter of walking a few more steps on flat ground.

Actually, it would have been fine to throw it out on the way to school the next morning, but Tan Xiao took the opportunity to enjoy the cool night breeze and let him calm down a bit.

“Wait a minute!”

Just as Tan Xiao was about to pack up the trash, Wen Yi finally decided to come down from the ladder. Tan Xiao stood there watching him.

Then, right in front of Tan Xiao, Wen Yi threw a very beautiful pear core into the trash can in front of him, hitting the bullseye.

Tan Xiao: …!

He was so angry for no reason, just because he was stopping himself from throwing away the pear core!

What could Tan Xiao do? He couldn’t break up over such a trivial matter, so he continued to pack the trash with a cold face.

However, his hand was stopped by Wen Yi: “Wait a moment, there’s still the orange peel.”

Wen Yi peeled an orange on the spot. Although it had green skin, the orange was actually very sweet, and its fragrance was quite overpowering.

Wen Yi peeled the orange completely, carefully tearing off the membranes, ate a segment, and then blocked Tan Xiao’s mouth.

He mumbled, “I ate it all, didn’t want to share the pear… sorry.”

The last word was spoken very softly, but he still managed to say it.

With his mouth full of orange juice, Tan Xiao inexplicably understood Wen Yi’s meaning.

The pear was painstakingly peeled by him, so Wen Yi had to eat the whole pear properly.

But Wen Yi really wanted to kiss himself, and since both of them had pear juice in their mouths, exchanging saliva could also be considered sharing a pear.

To seek a good omen, Wen Yi specially peeled an orange and kissed again.

Tan Xiao felt that the orange in his mouth was particularly sweet, sweeter than the pear he had just eaten. His mood came and went quickly, and at this moment, he couldn’t muster any anger.

Maybe that’s what being in love is like, sweet and sour like an orange. However, after finishing the orange, he still barely managed to recall his principles: “Forget it, I’m magnanimous, I’ll forgive you. But next time, don’t slander me like that!”

If they were talking about a scammer, he thought Wen Yi was the real scammer, pretending to be all sweet and innocent, but actually very fierce.

However, Tan Xiao asked himself, even if he knew the other person wasn’t what he thought, he still liked Wen Yi.

The bag of trash that was packed up still didn’t make it downstairs because Tan Xiao only opened the door a crack and was pulled back by Wen Yi.

The latter pinned him against the dormitory door and kissed him eagerly.

Sticky, dense kisses made Tan Xiao dizzy, moving from the door panel to the ladder.

Wen Yi’s actions were like a beast; for a fierce ghost, instant noodles, pears, or oranges could never fill his stomach.

They were like appetizers before a big meal, only whetting his strong appetite.

Noticing Wen Yi becoming increasingly bold, Tan Xiao finally restrained his hand: “No!”

Today, they only kissed, and Wen Yi scolded him. If he really got him into bed, that would be a whole different story.

Tan Xiao also knew that he couldn’t let the other person take advantage of him so easily. Thinking of this, the fire that had been ignited in him was doused a bit by this disappointing thought: “We have class tomorrow, let’s take a shower and get some rest.”

Tan Xiao forcefully pushed the other person’s hand away. He hadn’t planned on taking a shower, but he still went into the bathroom and took a lukewarm shower. As the water flowed over him, he gradually calmed down.

He didn’t see it, but through the bathroom door, Wen Yi’s gaze clearly wrote a few big characters: “Tonight, he will stop at nothing.”

Building 13 was a very special building. On this floor, Wen Yi had already given a heads-up, so no players would be brought up here. Room 521 was very quiet, quiet enough to hear the sound of running water.

After he finished showering, Wen Yi also entered the bathroom. Hearing the sounds coming from the bathroom, Tan Xiao sighed in relief and covered his face with a blanket.

His self-control wasn’t as good as he thought; it took a lot of effort to refuse. It seemed that Wen Yi had really given up.

The sound of water in the bathroom stopped, the lights in the dormitory went out, and Wen Yi climbed up the ladder…

Tan Xiao tried hard to slow down his breathing, closed his eyes pretending to sleep, and then the guy who crawled into the quilt didn’t lie next to him like before, but instead slept on top of him!

He shouldn’t be sleeping on his back; he should be sleeping on his side today!

Wen Yi was becoming more and more excessive, and Tan Xiao’s body was becoming more and more tense. Even though he couldn’t see anything with his eyes closed, he realized one thing: after taking a shower, Wen Yi didn’t even seem to wear pajamas!

In the darkness, all sensory stimuli are infinitely amplified. The boy’s arches unconsciously tensed, and his thigh muscles felt as hard as stone.

Clearly, he should have intervened at the beginning, but he missed the opportunity, and now, no matter how he spoke up, it felt inappropriate.

Just as he decided to stop pretending to be asleep and was about to speak up to stop it.

Tan Xiao seemed to see the image of clouds rising from the textbook, and a disorienting flash of white light exploded in his mind.

Wen Yi… Wen Yi actually!

Tonight was destined to be a memorable day for Tan Xiao. On this day, the dream of becoming a great wizard at thirty was crushed by Wen Yi, and a pure young man lost the innocence he had protected for eighteen years during the night.

Naturally, he retaliated fiercely, causing the iron-framed bed to creak for most of the night.

Someone was also forced to get up early in the morning to throw the sheets and duvet cover into the washing machine to destroy the evidence.

Hell High School (8): Collecting Remuneration

When he stepped out of the small dark room, he glanced at himself in the camera, and the redness on his face had faded significantly, leaving only a slight blush.

He blinked his eyes, trying to adjust the rippling state of his gaze as much as possible. Only the eyes and expression could change; the ambiguous wound on his lips couldn’t heal instantly.

His lips were swollen and red from being bitten by Wen Yi, and the originally thin lips now looked plump. Moreover, because they were moistened with blood and had been licked, they appeared shiny and glistening, as red as if he had applied bright cherry-colored lip gloss. He really couldn’t face anyone.

This season, the weather was cold, and there wasn’t a single mosquito around. Even if he wanted to blame it on the bugs, he couldn’t. If they walked out like this, anyone with eyes could see something was off.

Tan Xiao couldn’t help but sigh, but to say he regretted it, he didn’t really regret it much. After all, it was his own love life, and they were using their break time, so it didn’t affect their studies.

Fortunately, there were still black cotton masks in his pocket. Tan Xiao rummaged through his pocket and successfully pulled out two. He put one on himself, perfectly covering most of his face.

Another one was handed to Wen Yi, and seeing the other person put it on, he insisted on using his fingers to help comb the hair a bit: “That’s better. If anyone asks, just say you caught a bad cold from me.”

His voice, while joking, was slightly hoarse, but not unpleasant at all. It had a bit more sexiness than his usual clear, youthful tone.

Speaking of voices, he always felt that today Wen Yi’s voice seemed a bit different from usual: “Wen Yi, has your voice improved?”

After school started, Wen Yi’s voice suddenly changed, becoming completely different from that broken gong-like voice. It was now deep, warm, and pleasant, like the crisp sound of jade.

However, for some reason, Tan Xiao didn’t find anything strange about the voice. More accurately, in his mind, this was the voice that Wen Yi should have.

Wen Yi lightly responded, looking somewhat distracted, as if still savoring that soul-stirring kiss: “Hmm.”

Back in the classroom, Tan Xiao was indeed questioned by the teacher during the lesson: “Tan Xiao, why are you suddenly wearing a mask?”

Tan Xiao lowered his voice and repeated the excuse he had given to the other students: “Sorry, teacher, I’m worried I might have a severe cold and don’t want to infect everyone.”

Having a cold and fever was indeed a good excuse, and blushing could be attributed to the fever.

Sitting together in class, wearing masks for contagious diseases was quite normal. Someone as caring as him wouldn’t shamelessly infect others, of course he should take proper precautions.

When he said this, he was indeed a bit guilty. When they were hiding in the small dark room, it was exciting and thrilling, but once he came out and felt the cold wind, he calmed down. His head hung low, not daring to look at the teacher, and his voice was faint and wavering.

The teacher, seeing this, showed no suspicion and said with a concerned expression, “If you’re really not feeling well, go to the school clinic. Your health is important, remember to rest well.”

Tan Xiao nodded, “It’s nothing, teacher, I can hold on.”

During the day, the NPC teachers appeared very normal. Unless their taboos were touched, they looked no different from ordinary humans.

Wearing a mask didn’t really affect attending classes, and this very legitimate reason was understood by both the teacher and classmates.

As for Wen Yi, no one even asked him why he was wearing the same mask as Tan Xiao, as if everyone couldn’t see Wen Yi at all.

During the day on the first day, he indeed couldn’t be seen; everyone even forgot about the existence of the 14th.

Just like how Tan Xiao, upon returning, also forgot about the existence of those five strange classmates.

This person actually didn’t like to meddle in others’ affairs that much. If the other students didn’t make a fuss, he wouldn’t say anything either.

It was probably because these few people looked particularly old. If they were really older and still studying, it showed they were determined. He should show respect to those who love learning, not point fingers at them.

Night Fell, and it got dark, the NPCs’ memories recovered, their combat power rose sharply, and they could also see Wen Yi as a vengeful spirit.

But even if they saw him, you wouldn’t dare to ask: Number 14 wore a mask for a reason.

Small Freckles looked at Tan Xiao, who was wearing the same mask, and then at Wen Yi, who was wearing a black mask.

At night, they would retain the memories of the day, so if outsiders offended them, they would face incredibly brutal revenge at night.

Whether it was the transfer student or No. 14, wearing a black mask somehow made them look cool!

They were already good-looking, but the black mask covering most of their face, revealing only a pair of beautiful eyes, added an inexplicable sense of mystery to their features. Tan Xiao’s eyes, like his name, naturally carried a smile, giving people a very warm feeling.

Wen Yi, however, was just the opposite. His slender eyes should have been gentle, but the pitch-black pupils exuded a chilling cruelty. The mask covered his deceptively weak and pitiful face, enhancing his cold demeanor.

If Small Freckles wore a black mask, would he instantly become a handsome guy? However, Small Freckles dismissed the idea of copying them. If everyone wore the same mask at the same time, it would be called following the trend. If he were the first to do so, Number 14 would definitely see it as a challenge to his authority.

When the sun set, Wen Yi said to Tan Xiao, “I have something to discuss with the teacher, wait for me outside for a moment.”

Tan Xiao nodded and watched Wen Yi enter the classroom office. Five minutes later, Wen Yi came out, looking gently at his lover, “Let’s go, let’s have dinner at the cafeteria.”

The evening was originally the time for the game to torment the players. There was no evening self-study at night; instead, it was the time for the ghost teacher and ghost students to torment the players for fun.

They would use various means to intimidate the players during this time, making them make mistakes and violate school rules, and then punish them.

But Class 8 of the senior year was very different today.

Every student was sitting quietly in their seats, and the teacher wasn’t lecturing. Like a normal high school, evening self-study was just self-study, with the homeroom teacher sitting on the podium, waiting for other students to ask questions.

As for the other students in the class, each of them had a transparent puppet string attached to them. Anyone who tried to leave their seat and do something out of line would be yanked back to their seat by the puppet string.

After a couple more times, the classmates in the class should know what it meant. Everyone spent a quiet, overly normal evening self-study session amidst the sounds of flipping pages and writing.

Speaking of normal, it wasn’t that great either. The students, using their books as cover, each flipped through novels and magazines, and many were secretly playing games on their phones, of course, on silent mode.

If they couldn’t bully the players, then be a bad student who secretly did little mischief! Every evening self-study session, they were forced to cooperate with the ghost teacher’s class. If they couldn’t answer the questions, they faced brutal punishments. These ghost students had it tough too, you know.

It was rare to have a normal, peaceful evening self-study session, and many students showed a strange sense of nostalgia on their faces.

Tan Xiao, because of the kissing incident, was afraid it would affect his studies, so he diligently did exercises and asked Wen Yi for help where he didn’t understand. He resolutely corrected his attitude towards studying, determined not to let romance lead to a decline in his academic performance.

Tackling difficult problems, writing one test paper after another, the achievements from studying were not any less joyful than those from romance in some aspects. He quickly got into the zone, and until the end of evening self-study, Tan Xiao didn’t even notice the presence of others around him.

Xia Yizhen was one of the five players assigned to Class 8 of the senior year. Like Tan Xiao, she almost immediately noticed the presence of the other four players.

She felt particularly unlucky; on the first day of class, she inexplicably received a debuff that reduced all her attributes by 10%.

Fortunately, the boy wearing a black mask, who was exceptionally handsome, went out and then came back, causing the debuff to disappear.

This made her even more convinced that Tan Xiao was an NPC, and perhaps even a boss-level character in this scenario.

The few players who were intimidated, although eager to find clues, inadvertently dared not approach and chat easily.

Xia Yizhen spent a whole day and an evening self-study session in fear, feeling that although she was somewhat lost during the classes today, the danger level didn’t seem too high.

However, perhaps the first day of this survival instance might be a safe day, she didn’t let her guard down because of that.

It wasn’t until after the evening self-study session ended at nine o’clock that she had free time to interact with those who were obviously players, only to find that she seemed to have struck gold!

Only Class 8 of the senior year had a normal evening self-study session! The students from other classes looked as if they had been through a disaster; having injuries was considered being in good condition, and some were missing arms and legs.

Some unfortunate players were even killed directly by monsters due to poor performance!

Compared to other players, she was as lucky as winning a lottery, so was Class 8 of the senior year special? But why?

The reason that kept Class 8 of the senior year calm immediately returned to the student dormitory.

Other couples were forced to meet in small woods or on the playground because neither the boys nor the girls could go to each other’s dormitories.

But Tan Xiao and Wen Yi were different; they were both boys, and there were no other people in the dormitory, so they didn’t have to worry about being reported. The dormitory was the best place for them to meet.

Wen Yi’s blanket was already dry, but he had no intention of going back to 520.

The two entered the dormitory building, and as soon as they entered 521, Tan Xiao locked the door and saw Wen Yi skillfully climb onto his soft and warm bed.

Today, “convincing” the teacher and classmates to maintain the night’s peace took quite a bit of effort for Wen Yi. Controlling puppets was also a painstaking task that consumed a lot of energy.

Although human love should be unconditional, Wen Yi was not human; he was a demon.

Whatever a demon does, it comes at a price, even if he was not asked to do so during casual conversation.

During the day, he could control his emotions well, but at night, he only wanted to do what he deeply desired.

Tonight, Wen Yi was going to collect his reward; he was going to “devour” his lover.

Hell High School (7): Still like it

As a powerful entity supporting the core of the instance, Wen Yi was certainly not comparable to those ordinary ghosts and monsters. He could always remain clear-headed, was well-versed in the instance’s plot, and could control every corner of Yuying High School.

But one thing was that, like the other teachers and students in the school, he also hated these foreign players.

Tan Xiao was originally an outsider too, but he appeared before the script began, and he had an aura that Wen Yi found very familiar. So, he thought the other person was an NPC disguised as a human, just like himself.

But now that he thought about it, Tan Xiao was clearly a genuine human being, and the only outsiders could be game players.

There were many questions worth pondering here, such as why Tan Xiao was able to enter the school a few days early. It must be because of a special item.

A player who possessed such a special item must be one of the top players among human players.

On the first day they met, Tan Xiao easily agreed to stay at the school. It was very likely that he couldn’t leave on his own, so he used the item to deliberately provoke his own thoughts, prompting him to ask the other party to let him stay.

This way, the other teachers and students in the school would have no doubts about Tan Xiao’s identity.

As for his feelings towards Tanxiao, it was also quite understandable. It was inherently strange to be so fond of a stranger you’ve only met once. If this human used a special favorability item and was influenced by it, that would make more sense.

If that was the case, what could that special item be? Was it the Möbius ring platinum ring that Tan Xia wore around his neck with a red rope? It seemed very likely.

Once a person falls into conspiracy theories, they naturally become biased and their guesses become more and more absurd, as they will find all the details to validate their so-called speculations.

Realizing that Tan Xiao was a player and that the feelings between them were likely a deception under the influence of a prop, Wen Yi suddenly exuded an extremely terrifying aura.

Not to mention the other students sitting in the classroom, even the head teacher, Ms. Xu, standing at the podium, felt his legs go weak.

Due to the suppression of status, the teachers were stronger than most ordinary students, and the head teacher was even stronger than ordinary teachers. But at this moment, Ms. Xu, the head teacher, had to grip the podium tightly to barely maintain her composure.

Teacher Xu instinctively looked at seat 14 in the middle of the classroom. On the first day of the copy, in her eyes, seat 14 should have been empty.

But now, next to that chair sat a strikingly handsome transfer student, and on the empty seat 14, it seemed as if a humanoid flame of darkness was sitting.

Without any plot memory, she felt an instinctive, overwhelming fear during the day, when she was quite restricted.

The Small Freckles boy behind them, being so close, almost wished he could stuff himself directly into the narrow drawer: he needed a safe place to hide!

The NPC students were trembling, and the five newly joined players were no better off; their system panels displayed a Dread buff.

Under this buff, all their basic attributes were suppressed to 10% of their original values, and their sanity points were slowly declining.

Losing sanity in an instance was a very dangerous thing. Especially in this kind of supernatural instance, going insane in an environment full of ghosts and monsters would only turn them into fodder for the creatures.

Among the group of people, only the “culprit” Tan Xiao was blissfully unaware. After all, if the eerie ghostly energy were to wrap around Tan Xiao, regardless of what its master was thinking, the actual reaction of this ghostly energy would be to cling to its beloved.

These terrifying ghostly energies would only tenderly entwine with Tan Xiao, rather than torturing the despicable deceiver as he had imagined, forcing the other party to reveal the truth in agony.

Tan Xiao felt fine physically, and his vision was relatively normal. He noticed that the other students in the class seemed to be reacting strangely, and the homeroom teacher, Ms. Xu, was sweating profusely while holding onto the podium, her face as pale as a sheet, looking as if she had suddenly fallen ill.

The good student Tan Xiao suddenly stood up from his chair: “Ms. Xu, are you okay? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

His words broke the terrifying atmosphere, and some of the oppressive fear surrounding Ms. Xu dissipated.

Teacher Xu wiped the sweat from her forehead: “I’m feeling a bit unwell, thank you for your concern, Tan Xiao. I’ll go back to the office for a bit, you all self-study for now.”

The atmosphere here was too oppressive. Tan Xiao gave her an excuse, and Teacher Xu immediately took the opportunity to leave, her steps hurried as if there were demons chasing her from behind.

Tan Xiao suddenly stood up, instantly attracting the attention of several other players.

They glanced at the boy in the school uniform and noticed that although it was the same uniform, on some people it looked loose, big, and bulky, but on Tan Xiao, it looked liked he was a movie star. Compared to the other students around him, he was on a completely different level.

Even many male stars under skin-smoothing and beautifying filters couldn’t look like this. At a glance, it was clear he was an NPC, and not just any NPC, but one with a name and significant role in the storyline.

They felt that Tan Xiao couldn’t possibly be a player for many reasons. What normal player would take the initiative to care about whether an NPC teacher was feeling well? Even if he were a player, he wouldn’t receive friendly treatment from the NPC teacher.

Of course, one reason was that Tan Xiao had a very strong student vibe. There were many textbooks piled up in front of his desk, and after the teacher left, he focused on studying, unlike the players who couldn’t help but look around.

Moreover, although that face was extremely handsome, from the contours and skin condition, it also revealed the youthful innocence typical of this age, making him look like a high school student who was seriously studying.

In a place where the players couldn’t see, Tan Xiao sat back down as soon as the teacher left.

His seat was to the left of Wen Yi, with his right hand resting against Wen Yi’s left hand.

It was currently the morning reading session, and the books on the desk were open. Wen Yi’s hands were naturally placed on the desk, with his left hand holding the book and his right hand turning the pages.

When Tan Xiao sat down, he naturally placed his hand on the back of Wen Yi’s hand that was resting on the desk.

He didn’t have any messy thoughts; he just felt that his boyfriend’s hands were too cold and wanted to warm them up with his own body heat.

Taking advantage of the reading voice in the classroom, Tan Xiao lowered his voice and said, “Your hands are too cold. Let me warm them up for you, so your fingers don’t stiffen up while writing, making it hard to write.”

He looked completely serious, as if he weren’t the one secretly doing such things.

The benefit of being a desk mate was right here; both of them were boys, so just placing their hands together was enough. As long as they acted natural and didn’t hug or kiss in front of everyone, no one would think they were in a relationship.

Wen Yi was in a state of self-doubt, seriously questioning Tan Xiao’s actions, but Tan Xiao ignored the coldness emanating from him and chose to get closer.

Clearly filled with rage, but when Tan Xiao’s warm hand covered his, he found himself unable to pull away. His body seemed completely out of control, and his hand naturally intertwined with Tan Xiao’s pinky finger, then held on tightly.

If it were just a prop, would Tan Xiao go to such lengths to get the details right? Wen Yi had seen other people in love before.

In fact, this school had many secret couples. The small grove behind the school was known as the students’ rendezvous spot.

Sometimes, teachers would even use flashlights to catch couples sneaking dates on the playground.

Just in their senior class 8, there were four or five couples dating privately.

Wen Yi didn’t care about how others dated before, but he knew that Tan Xiao was really good for him.

What kind of high-level item could have such an amazing effect? If there were such an incredible item, Tan Xiao wouldn’t be able to use it all the time.

Perhaps Tan Xiao didn’t use any item on him at all; he just had an innate charm that made him likable.

Because there were other people in the class, Wen Yi couldn’t ask Tan Xiao if he was a player. Even though he could protect Tan Xiao, that question would still cause trouble for him.

He hardened his heart, forcibly straightened his pinky finger that was intertwined with Tan Xiao’s, and then suddenly pulled his left hand away from Tan Xiao’s.

After all, Tan Xiao had only lightly placed his hand on the back of Wen Yi’s hand, without intertwining their fingers, so Wen Yi didn’t need to exert much effort to pull away.

This was a small action that looked very natural, but only Wen Yi knew that he really had to exert a lot of effort to resist his body’s instincts.

Tan Xiao didn’t feel anything was wrong, after all, they were in the classroom, and Wen Yi might just be looking for something or flipping through a book with his left hand.

He naturally moved his right hand back and flipped through the textbook in front of him.

He had received his new school uniform and textbooks yesterday, but these textbooks were all brand new and blank.

There was no need to redo the notes; Tan Xiao just planned to see what the differences were between the two sets of textbooks and learn some different knowledge.

The textbooks spread out on his desk now had many neatly written notes, clearly organized and distinct. Of course, these were from Wen Yi. Tan Xiao’s blank new textbooks were on Wen Yi’s desk.

His dear boyfriend was the top student in the whole school. You have to make full use of resources, whether it’s test papers, textbooks, or notes. Tan Xiao just borrowed Wen Yi’s directly.

After the morning self-study session, Wen Yi suddenly wrote a note for Tan Xiao.

“Come out for a moment, I need to talk to you.”

Tan Xiao nodded and followed Wen Yi, who then pulled him into the supply closet in the hallway.

This small, narrow supply closet was the cleaning lady’s break room. Inside were cleaning tools, some discarded junk, and waste materials like cardboard and plastic bottles that the cleaning lady had collected.

He didn’t choose the men’s restroom, even though the school restrooms had doors and stalls, the smell was just too unbearable.

The storage room door was closed, and inside, there was only a dim yellow light bulb on the ceiling, making the space small and dark.

Wen Yi pressed Tan Xiao against the wall; he had too many questions to ask, so he couldn’t wait until noon when school ended and eagerly pulled Tan Xiao inside.

Tan Xiao’s face turned red, and he unconsciously looked shy: “Wen Yi… we’re still at school, this… this isn’t very appropriate.”

Although it was thrilling, there were still students and teachers passing by outside the storage room, and the diligent cleaning lady could come back at any moment.

Wen Yizhi stared at Tan Xiao with slightly bloodshot eyes and directly asked, “Tan Xiao, are you a player?”

If Tan Xiao could hear the system sound, he would see the panel continuously reporting errors, with the system issuing a stern warning.

[Warning! Warning! Player identity has been detected!]

But Tan Xiao couldn’t hear it, so he looked confused and asked, “What player?”

“XX Valley? Or are you a LAL player?” He had no idea that Wen Yi pulling him into the small dark room wasn’t for any bad intentions, but just to ask such a strange question.

What was wrong with asking such things in class? Although everyone was a high school student, they still played games and read novels in private.

In Tan Xiao’s clear eyes, Wen Yi saw no trace of lies.

He suddenly stepped forward, fiercely biting Tan Xiao’s lips, and instantly felt the completely different body temperature of another human.

Tan Xiao was clearly lying, yet he was so calm about it, making such poor choices in the details. Whether it was only eating human food, being very particular about temperature details, or other things, it all showed he was a flesh-and-blood human.

Tan Xiao was momentarily stunned by Wen Yi’s actions. He knew it! Wen Yi had pulled him into the little black room, clearly up to no good!

However, his lips were bitten painfully, and his tongue tasted a faint metallic rust flavor, the taste of his lip being bitten and bleeding.

Wen Yi was really too clumsy, not even knowing how to kiss. Although this was his first kiss, Tan Xiao was very confident in himself.

Watching more TV dramas; people kiss tenderly, not like a puppy biting someone. He thought that if he took the lead, he would definitely be better than Wen Yi.

Wen Yi endured for a while, and Tan Xiao gradually became moved.

The instinct of a male creature made him subconsciously choose to retaliate. He clasped Wen Yi’s head with both hands, pried open his teeth with his tongue, and then deepened the kiss.

In this dim little black room, it took only a few breaths for him to go from gently teaching like licking candy to losing control and sinking deeper.

The strong, broad-shouldered, long-legged high school boy displayed a beast-like aggression, almost wanting to swallow his lover whole.

With his legs turning to jelly and his whole body tingling from the kisses, Wen Yi declared his complete surrender: even though he was a despicable player who lied through his teeth and deceived himself, he still liked him.

Hell High School (6): He is a player

Because the quilt got wet from the sudden downpour, Tan Xiao and Wen Yi naturally squeezed onto the same bed tonight during their rest time.

After confirming their relationship, the two of them didn’t engage in any more intimate actions at this time. On the contrary, the atmosphere between them seemed even more innocent than before.

Tan Xiao lay flat on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Due to his overly tense emotions, he felt very stiff all over.

However, he was the first to break the silence: “School starts tomorrow, we have to get up early. I’ll turn off the light first.”

Wen Yi responded softly, “Mm.”

With the click of the switch, the room’s light dimmed instantly.

Tan Xiao still felt a bit unreal: “Wen Yi, are we really dating?”

He always felt like everything that happened today was like a dream. When his vision became blurry, he couldn’t help but overthink and really needed to confirm everything again.

Wen Yi’s voice rose by eight points: “No turning back.”

He obviously thought Tan Xiao was having regrets.

“No turning back, I definitely won’t regret it!”

Where do you see couples breaking up right after they start dating? Even if Wen Yi wanted to backtrack, Tan Xiao wouldn’t agree. After saying this loudly, the dormitory fell silent again. He quietly reached out his hand; since they were close enough, he could sense that Wen Yi’s hands were obediently resting by his side, probably touching his thigh.

Tan Xiao realized this and, the thigh that was touching his, tensed up unconsciously. He took a deep breath and then gently held Wen Yi’s right hand.

Wen Yi immediately turned around and tightly clasped Tan Xiao’s hand, their fingers interlocked, creating a highly ambiguous atmosphere. In the darkness, the two remained silent, quiet enough to hear each other’s breathing and heartbeat, feeling the warmth from Tan Xiao’s fingertips. Wen Yi’s face turned as red as a ripe tomato.

Of course, Tan Xiao wasn’t any better off; his handsome face was equally flushed and hot. Perhaps because the darkness amplified emotions, when their hands were intertwined, his heart raced particularly fast, and it took a long time for him to calm down.

The corners of his lips were lifted high, and his voice was very gentle: “Good night, Wen Yi, sweet dreams.”

“Good night, Tan Xiao.” The voice was still somewhat hoarse, but the tone was almost as gentle as Wen Yi could manage.

Perhaps because of Wen Yi’s sincere blessing, that night, although it took Tan Xiao nearly half an hour to fall asleep, he slept soundly and dreamlessly.

And on the day when the time reached midnight, players successively appeared in the instances of various games.

After finishing the game, players could analyze a lot of content through discussions on the forum.

There were many types of game instances, but generally speaking, they were mainly divided into supernatural and non-supernatural instances.

A supernatural game involved ghosts, requiring unconventional methods to solve problems. Games without supernatural elements usually involved natural disaster survival or physical means to deal with monsters, like vampire or zombie crises. Overall, beginner-level simple games were not too difficult to complete.

This was Xia Yizhen’s second time entering a game instance22. Her first beginner instance was the Harvest Farm. The beginner instance was simple level, with the task of working on the farm for seven days, and the game ended after seven days.

Every player entering the farm was a temporary worker. Everyone used their own bodies, with tasks like feeding poultry and livestock, and harvesting crops.

Because it was a simple level, as long as you worked diligently, strictly adhere to the farm rules, and didn’t have too much bad luck, you could pass smoothly.

The animals and crops in the game were several times larger than those in real life and looked quite similar. Although the animals had a bit of a temper, they didn’t eat people.

Only if you steal farm products, slack off… violating the farm management rules that were torn off by others, would you be fired, and the game would end immediately. In severe cases, you might even be executed on the spot by the manager and turned into feed for the crops.

For Xia Yizhen, who had been working in the countryside since childhood, she was strong, had rich experience in farming and animal husbandry, and even drew the “Strength of an Ox” talent when she started the game. The farm instance was really not difficult for her.

After finishing the instance, she received a B-grade novice evaluation for her outstanding performance and also obtained a lot of farm produce.

In a large-scale instance like “Plague Infection,” the basic rewards were mineral water and bread.

Xia Yizhen obtained a large amount of milk, eggs, wool, flour, and fresh fruits from the farm instance.

Also because of the abundant resources in the game, she didn’t hesitate and firmly chose not to give up her player identity, continuing to participate in the game. Only by obtaining more resources could she become stronger. After all, the god game still had an opportunity to exit, but the props needed to exit the game were extremely expensive, possibly requiring participation in hundreds of instances.

After spending seven days of feasting in reality, Xia Yizhen was once again pulled into the game world by the system.

However, Xia Yizhen’s good luck in the beginner’s instance seemed to have run out; this time, she entered a game instance that was clearly of higher difficulty, a supernatural-themed one.

[instance Name: Hell High School]

[instance Introduction: Yuying High School is an excellent high school with a high level of faculty. Until one day, Yuying High School disappeared in a sea of flames. After returning from hell, it re-entered the human world. Every student in the hellish high school is a demon tormented by intense flames.]

[instance Difficulty: Normal Level (Players who perform exceptionally should participate in higher difficulty instances, of course, you will also receive more abundant rewards.)]

[Main Mission: Survive for ten days in the instance (Try your best to survive in the school, a friendly reminder, never let them discover that you are human.)]

[Failure Penalty: None]

There were no novice players participating in this instance, so naturally, there was no novice protection. If the mission failed, there was no need for additional punishment; after all, if you die in the game this time, you will die in real life as well.

Seeing the content of the instance, Xia Yizhen’s face turned as white as a ghost. Her talent was being as strong as an ox, but being strong as an ox was of no use against ghosts.

Even the other players who had participated in supernatural instances as novices had unsightly expressions.

In many supernatural-themed games, there were only one or two ghosts, but the Hell High School game was actually a normal-level supernatural game, which meant that conventional violent methods to clear the game were useless.

All the students were ghosts, thousands or even tens of thousands in a high school. Surviving for ten days in an environment full of vengeful spirits, no wonder the system had low requirements for them; just staying alive was enough. For players, these ten days felt as long as ten years.

This was not a normal level; it should be a hell-level difficulty game, just like the title of the game suggests.

The game still kindly gave players one night as a buffer time.

At six o’clock the next morning, the school bell rang on time. Since it was the beginning of a new semester, there was no scene of parents sending their children to school. The students had already entered the school from the dormitory buildings or the main gate.

“Hell High School” was just a high school, and the number of participants in the instance was not the same as in a mega city like City S.

In the instance, the three hundred players were evenly distributed across the 60 classes of the three grades in the high school department. After all, having five or six extra people in a class is quite normal, but suddenly having fifty or sixty more would make the classroom very crowded.

When Xia Yizhen woke up, she was wearing a school uniform. In the four-person girls’ dormitory, the other three people were not breathing. Clearly, she was the only living person in the dormitory.

She was quite brave, not afraid of bugs or mice, but she was scared of ghosts, so she stayed up all night with her eyes wide open.

Fortunately, although her dormmates didn’t breathe, they didn’t come out and expose her outsider status.

The system had clearly blurred the NPCs’ perception, allowing them to accept the players’ presence.

Without needing to ask, Xia Yizhen followed her dormmates into the classroom, easily finding her kind among the crowd.

Although they were all wearing high school uniforms, each player used their own appearance in the game, sporting a face that bore the marks of a weary society.

The God Game provided protection for minors, with the age set at 16 according to global standards. Therefore, players entering the game would not be children, but the game loved the young and did not respect the old, allowing eighty-year-old grandpas to enter the game as well.

However, for elderly grandpas who were shaky or disabled people with mobility issues or even blindness, the game ensured that they had the most basic mobility and vision after entering, although their attributes would be slightly lower than those of healthy ordinary people.

Walking from the dormitory building to the dorm room, one could clearly see people in the crowd wearing school uniforms, some of whom were elderly men leaning on canes. This sight really reminded Xia Yi of her grandmother in the countryside.

After the fog descended, most public transportation was affected, and many base stations were destroyed, leading to regional disconnection. However, in the countryside, there was food and drink, so her grandmother shouldn’t end up like her, almost starving to death.

Being able to achieve a B-grade or higher in the last mission, the old woman might be even more capable than her.

Unlike Xia Yizhen and the other players who were trying to form a group, Tan Xiao and Wen Yi left very early. By the time the other players were up, he had already washed up and left with Wen Yi to go to the school cafeteria for breakfast.

“I want to eat mixed noodles today.”

Yuying High School had subsidies, so a serving of mixed noodles in the cafeteria cost only 1.5 spirit coins. If you wanted a fried egg, it cost an extra 0.5 spirit coins.

They established their relationship, but now they didn’t dare to hold hands openly like before. After all, they agreed not to let the teachers find out, so they have to keep a bit of distance in front of others to avoid suspicion.

But it didn’t make sense that they could hold hands before, and now that they were in love, they couldn’t. So they simply wake up a bit earlier, taking advantage of the fact that there were only two or three students in the school, to secretly hold hands.

They didn’t go to the classroom because they could still feed each other during breakfast in a lovey-dovey manner.

Wen Yi wanted something like what Tan Xiao had, but he only liked eating egg whites, not the yolks.

After he finished eating the edges of the fried egg, Tan Xiao naturally picked up the yolk and swallowed it in one bite.

Compared to the fried egg, Tan Xiao preferred peanuts, the crispy and fragrant kind that perfectly complemented the mixed noodles. So when he ordered, he specifically told the vendor, “Uncle, please add more peanuts for me.”

The vendor gave him another scoop, as they had come too early and needed to reserve enough for other students.

Tan Xiao alternated between bites of noodles and peanuts, praising, “Mixed noodles without peanuts have no soul.”

However, halfway through the noodles, the peanuts were gone.

Seeing this, Wen Yi picked up his chopsticks and took all the peanuts from his bowl, placing them one by one into Tan Xiao’s bowl: “I don’t like peanuts, you eat them.”

Tan Xiao made a heart shape with his fingers: “Love you.”

Although it was just a free side dish that came with the noodles, not something valuable, Tan Xiao felt that the peanuts Wen Yi gave him tasted especially good.

His dear wife was so good to him! He should also be good to Wen Yi.

After finishing the noodles, Tan Xiao went to the window and got two big cups of hot soy milk, one for himself and one for Wen Yi: on such a chilly day, one should drink something warm.

They were almost the first to arrive at the classroom, with only a few students in the class, all of whom were class leaders: the class monitor, the deputy monitor, and the study committee member.

The school’s morning self-study session is free reading time; you can recite any subject you want.

There was no fixed teacher for the morning self-study session, but the homeroom teacher would randomly appear at the podium, behind the classroom, by the desks, or by the windows.

If a student who was chatting, playing on their phone, or doing small tricks suddenly turned their head, they might just come face to face with the homeroom teacher’s somewhat distorted and fierce face sticking to the window.

Even if they hadn’t done anything wrong, suddenly facing such a face could scare half their life out of them. After all, fearing the homeroom teacher was basically an instinct ingrained in students’ bones.

But today, on the first day of school, Tan Xiao wasn’t startled by the sudden appearance of the homeroom teacher at the classroom door; instead, he was taken aback by the few extra people in the class.

There were suddenly five more people in their class—three boys and two girls. One of the girls was okay; although she looked a bit haggard and had heavy dark circles under her eyes, it was normal for a senior year student.

Most senior year students, as soon as school starts, exude a faint aura of despair.

But another girl looked just like the cafeteria lady, not just old, but really old. And the three boys—one was a rebellious troublemaker, one was a construction worker, and one was even an old man with a face full of wrinkles!

If they weren’t wearing the same school uniform, Tan Xiao would have guessed they were teachers attending an open class.

Tan Xiao secretly wrote a note to Wen Yi: “Wen Yi, Wen Yi, have you noticed that there are a few more people in our class? They are so strange, and there’s even an old man with a face full of wrinkles!”

He was so old, you couldn’t use the excuse of looking old to convince him anymore!

Wen Yi’s expression changed: For ordinary NPCs, everyone knew that players were added to the script, but they would ignore the players because once the script started, ordinary NPCs would lose their memories and during the day, they would think of themselves as normal high school students.

Of course, at night, they would regain their memories as ghosts.

However, as time goes by, players will become unavoidable.

Tan Xiao’s ability to notice the player’s unusual appearance on the first day only indicated one thing: he, like those outsiders who were killed and toyed with, was also a human player.

Hell High School (5): I like you

Tan Xiao felt that the atmosphere in the classroom today was a bit strange. Whether it was the teacher or the classmates, they all seemed to be stealing glances at him from time to time. The reason it was called stealing glances was that whenever Tan Xiao looked back, these people would immediately turn their heads away, their gazes wandering. They would either pretend to look at their textbooks or pretend to talk to their friends, refusing to look him in the eye.

The Small Freckles sitting behind him yesterday, who couldn’t hide his jealousy, also became very obvious. He held her chin high, and his expression was easy to read: There is only one truth, and I see through everything.

What truth? What had he seen through? Tan Xiao was completely puzzled, only feeling that the students in the new school seemed like riddles. However, after observing for a while, He found that the classmates in the class did not mock Wen Yi.

They didn’t throw bugs or mice into his drawer, nor did they use verbal mockery, exclusion, or humiliating tactics like locking him in the restroom. They simply kept their distance from him, which made him finally breathe a sigh of relief.

After all, everyone in the senior year was busy studying, so they shouldn’t go that far.

Tan Xiao was unwilling to be the so-called savior, even though the identity of a savior is easier to gain trust and reliance. Because that means the person being saved might have suffered mental and physical harm, he hoped that before he arrived, Wen Yi could also live happily and be treated well by the whole world.

Not to mention, the teachers at this school had a high level of teaching, and Tan Xiao, who had been away from high school for a while, was quickly pulled back into the tense atmosphere of senior year. Moreover, some of the problems that had troubled him became clear under the teacher’s explanation.

He was fully immersed in his studies, spending a somewhat subtle but generally peaceful morning.

If Tan Xiao could receive game system notifications, he would hear: NPC Math Teacher’s favorability towards you +10, NPC Language Teacher’s favorability towards you +5, +5…

Basically, the teachers who came to class today all increased their favorability towards Tan Xiao to some extent. It wasn’t that Tan Xiao had given them any benefits; they simply liked a good student who loved learning.

The reason the teacher’s class could be so excellent was because they had taught it so many times. The other students in the class had heard it too many times, so naturally, they had no interest in learning.

After all, this was a high school that had come back from the dead. For them, learning had no meaning. Even if they learnt well, they couldn’t leave this place.

Feeling the long-lost, enthusiastic gaze of eager learners, the teachers suddenly felt a refreshing stream injected into their numb teaching careers. With enough positive and excellent audience, they finally have the motivation to teach.

The head of the senior year class was the chemistry teacher of Tan Xiao’s class. After finishing today’s teaching in Class 8, he praised Teacher Xu, who helped with the transfer procedures: “Teacher Xu, you did a great job this time. If possible, shouldn’t we find a way to recruit more transfer students like Tan Xiao?”

Teachers didn’t just teach in one class all day. If they recruited more transfer students, everyone would be more motivated in their work.

Teacher Xu shook her head: “There’s nothing I can do about it. You know how it is, Tan Xiao just fell from the sky. Don’t be fooled by how enthusiastic he seems now; after spending some time here, he might just become numb.”

She made a gesture as if praying to the heavens: “The instance starts tomorrow, so let’s hope there are more good students among the players this time.”

During the lunch break, as previously mentioned, Tan Xiao took Wen Yi to the cafeteria to eat together.

Not to mention, this school’s cafeteria was quite creative. One side was a very normal cafeteria, while the other side served some really bizarre dishes: like the “Stargazing Pie.”

It was basically a piece of pie topped with a bunch of eyeballs, but the eyeballs were made of pudding, so they were chewy and bouncy, looking very realistic.

Tan Xiao had no intention of torturing his stomach; he was having the very popular chicken cutlet rice, which cost 8 spirit coins per serving. It came with meat and three side dishes, a free soup, and unlimited rice. If he felt the meat wasn’t enough, just adding two more pieces would get him a generous portion. Even a guy with a big appetite could eat until full.

However, when Tan Xiao was in line to pay, the cafeteria lady serving the rice didn’t shake her hand at all. She piled his meat and vegetables high, almost overflowing.

Tan Xiao was the kind of guy who could eat a lot, but by the end, it felt like one serving was enough for both him and Wen Yi, because there were so many dishes and refills were free.

Chicken chop rice was considered an expensive set meal, costing 5 spirit coins, while a serving of rice is 6 spirit coins, and a portion of vegetables and noodles that two guys can finish only costs 4 spirit coins.

Breakfast was even cheaper, with a wide variety of options and all sorts of dishes. The steamed buns and dumplings were as big as his palm, and you could basically get full for just 3 spiritCoins. In other words, spending twenty spirit Coins a day could cover three meals.

With such favorable prices at the cafeteria, he was a bit worried: there were still three months left in this semester, and he had already spent a thousand spirit Coins on various daily necessities at the supermarket, leaving him with 9,000 spirit Coins. On average, he would need to spend 100 spirit Coins a day.

It was said that the school’s meal cards were non-refundable, and even if he were a pig, he couldn’t eat that much.

Tan Xiao whispered to Wen Yi, “Wen Yi, my mom charged too much on my meal card. I can’t finish it by myself. How about you and I use my card together, and then when you get your scholarship, you can give me cash in return?”

The two of them ate together, bought some fruits, yogurt, drinks, snacks, and added some notebooks and pens, and by the end of the semester, it was just about enough.

This was the main plan; he could also take the opportunity to give Wen Yi more delicious food. Wen Yi was too thin, there was hardly any meat on him, and he wanted to fatten him up a bit.

Wen Yi nodded, “Okay.”

He originally planned to go to the supermarket to buy some things, but he heard the teacher say that school officially started tomorrow, so there was no evening study session tonight.

Considering the limited lunch break, the two of them finished their meal and returned to the dormitory, where Tan Xiao gave Wen Yi a haircut. He searched for photos on his phone to show Wen Yi, choosing a clean and neat slightly layered cut, which looked like a very obedient student hairstyle.

Tan Xiao was particularly meticulous while cutting. Wen Yi, wearing the waterproof apron from cleaning yesterday, felt the boy’s slender fingers weaving through his hair, with tiny strands of hair falling around. His ears, hidden under his hair, gradually turned redder.

When the job was done, Tan Xiao proudly showed the mirror to Wen Yi, hands on his hips: “See, I cut it perfectly, right? With my exceptional skills, I could be a director-level stylist at a barbershop! From now on, I’ll take care of your bangs.”

In front of his peers, Tan Xiao easily came across as a typical immature high school boy.

But this wasn’t just boasting; the new hairstyle really did highlight Wen Yi’s features, revealing his eyes and eyebrows, making it look particularly suitable for him.

Wen Yi looked at the handsome, youthful face of Tan Xiao in the mirror and nodded seriously, “Very good-looking.”

He asked Tan Xiao, “Do you only cut my hair, or do you cut other classmates’ hair too?”

“Besides myself, you’re the only one I’ve cut.”

Tan Xiao said, “You’re the first and the only one.”

He was willing to serve Wen Yi because he liked him, not because he liked doing it.

He glanced at the weather outside; today was a brilliantly sunny day.

“Wen Yi, do you want to hang your wet quilt outside? With such strong sunlight, it should dry by tonight.”

Wen Yi looked out the window. If the quilt dried, he wouldn’t be able to sleep with Tan Xiao, but he had no reason to refuse Tan Xiao.

“Yeah, I will.”

In the afternoon, Wen Yi’s new hairstyle shocked the entire Class 8 of the third year, but no one dared to ask No. 14, no matter how curious they were.

Only Small Freckles saw through everything: how could a puppeteer be willing to let a stranger mess with their hair? A boy’s hair is as precious as a wife, a forbidden zone that cannot be touched.

Look at those matching clothes and similar hairstyles; Tan Xiao was indeed No. 14’s new puppet!

The cunning No. 14 must be planning to use the new puppet to infiltrate the players’ ranks and then give those foolish players a severe blow!

During the second period in the afternoon, the clear sky suddenly turned into a stormy one, and then it started pouring rain.

Tan Xiao suddenly remembered that Wen Yi’s quilt was still outside drying, so he quickly poked his little desk mate with his finger: “Did you put the quilt out to dry today?”

Wen Yi nodded: “I put it on the rooftop.”

His face was full of: I’ll do anything you say, looking very obedient and well-behaved.

Tan Xiao suddenly raised his hand: “Report, teacher, I put the quilt out to dry today. I request to go back now to rescue the quilt!”

He didn’t mention that it was Wen Yi who put out the quilt, taking the blame upon himself. This way, even if the teacher was unhappy, it would be directed at him.

The art teacher who taught them in the afternoon, during the second semester of their senior year, had reduced the students’ art, music, and physical education classes from two sessions a week to one session.

However, the art teacher didn’t actually teach during art class; she played movies for the senior students using her own laptop.

Art class was also the most peaceful class for the students, and everyone liked the art teacher very much.

Today’s movie was a campus romance, but set in a university. The male lead was young, tall, and handsome, while the female lead was beautiful and gentle, like a blooming gardenia.

However, the students had seen this movie at least 100 times, so they were all bored and playing games.

This game referred to drawing X’s and O’s on a piece of paper to play tic-tac-toe, or secretly playing jump rope under the cover of the desk. After all, the school had its rules, and even in art class, they couldn’t talk during class.

Seeing Tan Xiao raise his hand and behave politely, the art teacher smiled and nodded at him, “Go ahead, but be careful next time!”

Tan Xiao didn’t bring an umbrella and ran out into the rain.

Wen Yi also stood up and followed him out.

At this moment, the video on the multimedia projection screen was also filled with thunder and lightning. The female protagonist, without an umbrella, hesitated for a long time and finally used her notebook to shield her head and ventured out.

Just as she was about to get drenched, a blue-and-white checkered umbrella opened above her head. The naive male protagonist revealed a set of neat white teeth, then put his own coat over his head and rushed into the heavy rain.

This was the most classic scene in the film, and also the moment when the male and female protagonists fell in love.

The girl sitting by the window, Yu Xiaoyu, glanced at the screen, then looked out the window again, unable to help but mutter to her deskmate, “Those two look like they’re in a movie.”

Heavy rain poured down, and the handsome boy and beautiful girl in school uniforms dashed through the torrential downpour. This picturesque scene really looked like a high-quality film, the kind that was particularly artistic and beautiful, like a romantic movie.

Yu Xiaoyu thought that the boy with the new haircut and the handsome transfer student looked even better than the protagonists in the movie.

Yu Xiaoyu’s deskmate was a girl with glasses, also the study monitor of Class 8, Grade 3, named Wang Wei. She had strong calculation skills and a good memory.

Wang Wei glanced at the sky, then at her open notebook: “January 17th, sunny.”

The day before the start of the instance should be a very sunny day, with hot weather, as hot as summer, hot enough to melt them, who were like ashes in the fire.

No matter how many times it repeated, it had never rained on this day; it had always been a clear day.

She adjusted her glasses and said meaningfully, “It shouldn’t rain today.”

In the game, only Number 14 had the ability to change the weather, which meant the transfer student shouldn’t have been drenched. Number 14 did it on purpose.

In other words, the dependence shown by Number 14 was completely insincere; otherwise, how could he possibly have deliberately drenched the transfer student in the freezing winter?

The cool, powerful, and mysterious transfer student Tan Xiao, perhaps possessed the strength to rival Number 14.

She wrote a line on a blank page in her diary: “Plan to recruit the transfer student.”

They were going to unite with the transfer student to unveil Number 14’s facade. Perhaps the transfer student was also a hypocritical villain, but if he succeeded in taking over and replaced Number 14 as the core of the copy, at least it would bring a bit of change to their monotonous lives, wouldn’t it?

In some ways, Wang Wei’s deduction wasn’t wrong; the sudden downpour indeed came under Wen Yi’s influence.

But the information she received at the beginning was wrong: the thick quilt that had been dried in the sun and then drenched was not Tan Xiao’s, but Wen Yi’s.

Who would have thought that the transfer student rushed out in the rain to save Wen Yi’s quilt, and the reason Wen Yi drenched the quilt was just so they could squeeze together on that small single bed in the dormitory with Tan Xiao at night.

After all, Wen Yi had already caused a small accident last night by accidentally spilling water on the quilt, so he couldn’t keep spilling water. To avoid seeming too deliberate, he could only let the weather be uncooperative.

Later, Wang Wei recalled this scene and just wanted to tell his past self: What kind of nonsense defection plan are you writing? This is clearly just a little trick played by a scheming couple!

Tan Xiao and Wen Yi braved the rain back to the rooftop. The sudden rain soon stopped, but it came so quickly and heavily that even though they ran back to the dormitory as fast as they could, the thick quilt absorbed a lot of rainwater.

Frowning, he lifted the quilt: “Wen Yi, you lift the other side, and we’ll wring this quilt out together.”

This was the kind of thick comforter that, if stuffed into the washing machine, would jam the drum and make it impossible to operate. It could only be manually wrung out to some extent.

He wiped the rainwater dripping from his hair and frowned slightly, his handsome features showing concern. “No, it’s still early today. How about I go to the supermarket and buy you a new comforter?”

Anyway, a winter quilt didn’t cost more than 200. He still had plenty of money left, and the quilt he had been using for three years had become dirty from the rain. Even if he dried it out, it won’t be as soft and warm as a new quilt.

After all, rainwater is very dirty. The best case scenario would be to wash the entire quilt with clean water, but that would take at least several days to dry it.

This time, Wen Yi didn’t want to agree to Tan Xiao’s suggestion: “No.”

He did all this not to get a new quilt paid for by Tan Xiao.

The boy, with an innocent face and excessively dark eyes, stared intently at Tan Xiao: “Sleeping with you is very warm.”

Wen Yi could actually speak fluent long sentences, but now his voice was very unpleasant, rough like rubbing sandpaper on a plate, so he spoke as little as possible, uttering only two or three words at a time.

“I like… sleeping with you.”

Tan Xiao suddenly let go, allowing the blanket in his hand to fall onto the rope he had set up yesterday.

His back was straight, like a pine tree that remains green throughout the seasons.

The curly-haired youth’s eyes were youthful yet sharp, his gaze pinning Wen Yi firmly to the ground, making the latter feel a sense of helplessness as if being targeted by a top predator.

“Do you just like sleeping with me? Are you addicted to my warm body? No other thoughts?”

Three consecutive questions left Wen Yi momentarily at a loss for words.

“Not…”

“Not what, not like me?”

Before Wen Yi could respond, Tan Xiao said, “You felt it this morning, right? I’m a normally developed and mature boy, with normal physiological reactions.”

Tan Xiao said, “Actually, I’m very happy to be able to sleep with you, but we can’t squeeze into the bed like this every day.”

“Wen Yi.”

Tan Xiao suddenly called out the other person’s name. Despite looking quite disheveled from being drenched in the heavy rain, he inexplicably wanted to express his true feelings in this disheveled state.

Because he wouldn’t always be the glamorous transfer student; he would also have his own shortcomings, disheveled, lost, and pitiful sides. He hoped his lover would like his outstanding and exceptional side, but also accept his bad, imperfect side.

“Wen Yi, actually, the first time I saw you, I fell in love with you at first sight. Being nice to you was because I wanted to pursue you, I wanted to be your boyfriend.”

He had a slightly troubled pout: “Originally, when you asked me to stay yesterday, I should have refused you, but I lost my mind and chose to stay at school. It’s not that I don’t want us to sleep together, it’s quite the opposite. I like you too much, so I’m afraid I can’t control myself.”

Tan Xiao grabbed the other person’s hand and placed it on his chest, where his heart was pounding like a drum: “Can you hear it? It’s beating really fast because of you.”

The dangerous 14th became a bit of a stutterer: “I… I can hear it.”

It was beating much faster than when Tan Xiao was sleeping yesterday: “Thump thump thump… thump thump thump.”

“Wen Yi, I know I like you, but being close to you makes me doubt my self-control.” He continued, “We are seniors, and we have about 100 days until the college entrance exam. We can put off matters of the heart for now; we absolutely cannot delay our studies.”

Wen Yi clearly only heard the part “I like you.” He shyly replied, “Me too, I like you.”

“That’s not the point. The point is we need to study and ensure we get good grades!”

Wen Yi suddenly said, “I’m first.”

Tan Xiao: “?”

Wen Yi continued, “Always number one.”

He looked at Tan Xiao with hopeful eyes: “Dating doesn’t affect it, I’m number one.”

Tan Xiao felt his heart race faster, damn it, what should he do if he was a little moved?

No early romance, indeed, was to avoid affecting studies. After all, this was the second half of senior year, the most important stage of life. There was no rush for this moment.

Wen Yi looked at Tan Xiao and for the first time spoke a long sentence: “Don’t worry, I won’t let your grades drop. I can help you be first.”

Tan Xiao instinctively retorted: “I don’t want to be first.”

He was surprised that Wen Yi was even better than he had imagined, and he was willing to admit his own shortcomings: “And I’m not that great either. In my previous school, I usually ranked in the top ten.”

He listened to the test papers all day and tried to do them himself. His score was roughly in the top five of his class, but Class 8 was one of the best classes, so his score was currently in the top twenty of the entire grade.

For him, the first place was too difficult. Even if Wen Yi gave up the top spot, he still couldn’t make it into the top ten.

Wen Yi shook his head, indicating that Tan Xiao had misunderstood his intentions: “If I tutor you, we’ll both be tied for first place.”

With the conversation reaching this point, the timid little dear took the initiative to extend a tentacle. How could Tan Xiao bear to watch him retreat into his shell with a disappointed look?

Tan Xiao finally made up his mind: “Since I like you and you like me, let’s start dating from now on!”

Who hadn’t longed for a sweet, innocent first love during their school years? Perhaps returning to senior year was all for this kind of relationship.

Tan Xiao was young and full of vigor, and he was brave enough not to want to regret it when he got older.

He extended his pinky finger: “You said it, we absolutely can’t let it affect our grades, and we can’t let the teachers find out. If it affects our grades, we’ll temporarily break up. We can only be officially together after we get into a top university!”

Tan Xiao emphasized that it must be a top university, firmly insisting that Wen Yi shouldn’t let his grades drop because of a relationship.

Some people fall in love and their grades plummet because their minds are filled with love, but there are also some special cases where falling in love actually improves their academic performance.

The school prioritized grades; as long as the grades were excellent enough, even the teachers would turn a blind eye.

Tan Xiao felt that as a responsible adult, he absolutely would not allow such a situation to happen to the two of them.

He extended his pinky finger: “Pinky swear, a hundred years, no change.”

Wen Yi’s pinky intertwined with his, lingering and affectionate: “No change.”

He didn’t say a hundred years because a hundred years was too short for him; Wen Yi wanted his love to last forever, without a deadline.

Hell High School (4): Only you

After yelling, Tan Xiao calmed down. He reached out with both hands and firmly pressed Wen Yi’s shoulders: “Wen Yi, don’t move, look at me.”

This action made Wen Yi stop his mind from wandering. He instinctively followed the other person’s words and looked up at Tan Xiao.

The two people’s eyes met, and the air seemed to crackle with electricity.

Tan Xiao’s expression and voice were quite serious. He opened his mouth, appearing somewhat hesitant to speak.

This young and handsome face, alternating between green and pale, with the complexion changing back and forth, finally prepared himself mentally to speak.

Tan Xiao’s gaze, like a laser, pierced through Wen Yi’s face, not letting go of even the slightest change in his expression. He emphasized his tone, “Wen Yi, tell me honestly, did someone else ask you to do that kind of mutual help just now?”

Wen Yi, who was immersed in his own delusions of being a stand-in, was stunned and a bit taken aback.

Tan Xiao saw Wen Yi’s silence and took it as an acknowledgment of his words. With a heart full of concern, he said, “Wen Yi, do you know that boys need to protect themselves well when they’re out? You can’t just help with these kinds of things casually. If someone asks you to do this, they’re not a normal person; that’s harassment, do you understand?!”

In Tan Xiao’s view, Wen Yi was just a poor kid who let others bully and isolate him. The child was young, usually just buried in books, had never seen much of the world, and was easily deceived by those with ulterior motives. He could be sold and still count the money for others.

Tan Xiao naturally had its reasons for thinking this way. It was only the first day he met Wen Yi, and after just a little display of kindness, without doing anything special, Wen Yi immediately became a hardworking and loyal little follower.

Not only did he muster the courage to persuade him to stay, but he also followed him step by step, like a little tail, showing a considerable dependence on him.

What did this mean? It meant that Wen Yi was particularly easy to deceive and very simple and lacking in love!

If he were a black-hearted, rotten person, Wen Yi would have been tricked into losing even his underwear by now.

But Tan Xiao was a genuinely serious person. He liked Wen Yi and wanted to establish a healthy, long-lasting relationship with him, one where they could grow together, rather than just being attracted to his youthful and delicate body.

Wen Yi finally realized that Tan Xiao had misunderstood something. Looking at the mix of anger and concern in his eyes, combined with Tan Xiao’s indignant tone, he understood that the new transfer student was not rejecting him but was simply thinking of him.

He instantly concluded an important piece of information: Tan Xiao was clearly a genuinely upright and good student, a person of solid character, and would never treat him as a substitute!

However, the more it was like this, the harder Wen Yi found it to let go of Tan Xiao.

To be precise, he never wanted to be a substitute; he just wanted Tan Xiao to fall in love with him!

Perhaps this was a bit despicable, but that so-called Dr. Wen was just an old man who had been through the grind of society, completely unsuitable for Tan Xiao!

He raised his head, the corners of his eyes slightly reddened: “No one else, only you.”

He had to say, the hairstyle he helped Wen Yi with yesterday looked really good. When the other person looked at him with such a pitiful expression, his heart raced wildly, feeling like his heart was soaking in a lemon water with a lot of honey added to it. It was a bit sour, but more sweet and refreshing.

Everyone has a bit of vanity, and Tan Xiao was no exception. When he heard that he was the only one, he felt a peculiar joy as if he had won a grand prize.

The boy with curly hair instinctively licked his lips, feeling his throat was somewhat dry: “Wen Yi, what did you mean by what you just said? What do you mean by ‘only me’?”

Wen Yi shot him an angry glare: “I just want to help you.”

He looked at Tan Xiao with a reproachful gaze, his eyes, starkly black and white, clearly conveying everything: he wouldn’t help anyone else with such things; other people’s stuff, to him, were just disgusting, filthy things.

Wen Yi emphasized again: “No one dares.”

He made a snapping gesture with his index and middle fingers, indicating that if anyone dared to do that, he would castrate them.

Although he had thought about pretending to be pitiful and selling his misery, Wen Yi would never lie about such matters.

Tan Xiao watched as Wen Yi showed a fierce expression, like a soft little kitten extending its paw, then sharp claws popping out from the pads, the cuteness directly striking his heart!

He naturally believed what Wen Yi said, and after confirming that the other person’s expression showed no signs of trouble, he breathed a sigh of relief: “It’s my fault, I overthought things. As long as there are no bad people trying to deceive you.”

Tan Xiao naturally hoped that it was just his misunderstanding, and that nothing truly terrible had happened to Wen Yi.

However, even though he was happy about his specialness, there were some things he had to say.

He joked, “Even if it’s me, you can’t help like this. I just transferred to the school yesterday, and we’ve only been desk mates for a day. It’s not even been 24 hours yet. There might be other people who will be your desk mates in the future, so are you going to offer this so-called help to other classmates too?”

Although he had fallen for Wen Yi at first sight, this pace was a bit too fast.

In his mind, he was already a competent adult, but back in the second semester of senior year, he was still three months away from turning 18.

And Wen Yi looked even younger than him, so he should still be a minor, probably only 16 years old.

If he were to have an intimate relationship with his sixteen-year-old boyfriend, there would be a subtle sense of guilt in Tan Xiao.

The early love he imagined involved tight hugs, maybe sneaking kisses in a dimly lit grove behind the teacher’s back, but definitely not this kind of special “mutual help.” Even if they didn’t go all the way, this was just too wild.

Besides, they weren’t even boyfriends yet; they were just classmates who had known each other for less than twenty-four hours.

“There won’t be anyone else!”

From this sentence, Tan Xiao sensed Wen Yi’s feelings. He thought that he wasn’t the only one with a crush; it was very likely that his new deskmate had also fallen for him at first sight. It was just that the other person’s introverted nature made his feelings less obvious.

In a few days, he would pick a suitable day to confess to Wen Yi! After all, he believed that a confession shouldn’t be too hasty; it needed to be prepared with a truly romantic gesture.

However, before that, he felt that Wen Yi had some misconceptions that needed to be corrected promptly.

Tan Xiao earnestly advised his future boyfriend, “We’re still young, we can’t do things like this before we’re of age!”

Wen Yi blurted out, “I’m already of age!”

He had been trapped here for so many years, and even if he was a child, he would have been of age for a long time.

Tan Xiao looked at him with skepticism, “Really? If you’re of age, do you have an ID?”

He still had three months until he turned 18. If Wen Yi was older than him, wouldn’t he have to call the other person “brother”? For some reason, Tan Xiao felt inexplicably annoyed.

Fortunately, he remembered that the campus card had detailed personal information: “Show me your campus card!”

To be fair, Tan Xiao took out his campus card from his down jacket first.

“Look, my birthday is March 25, and I’ll be an adult in just over two months. You look much younger than me.”

Wen Yi took out a campus card that showed he was exactly two months older than Tan Xiao. Although he hadn’t turned eighteen yet, today is January 16th, which meant Wen Yi will be an adult in nine days.

Tan Xiao found it hard to believe: why wasn’t he two months older than Wen Yi? That way, he could confidently have Wen Yi call him “Brother Tan Xiao.”

But since the two were only two months apart, he would never take the initiative to call Wen Yi “Brother.” After all, they were the same age, so it was better to just call each other by their names.

Wen Yi said, “I’ll be an adult in nine days. Can I help you in nine days?”

He quickly changed the subject, “Alright, let’s not talk about this anymore. It’s not about being an adult or not. Hurry back to room 521 and change your clothes. We still have morning self-study today.”

Tan Xiao had always been a good student during his time studying. Since he had just transferred, he should leave a good impression on the teachers and not be late or leave early.

Wen Yi looked down at the blanket and hesitantly asked, “Do you really not need my help?”

Tan Xiao’s ears turned completely red. He repeatedly emphasized, “No need to help, this is a normal physiological phenomenon, it will subside on its own!”

He was not an animal, and besides, if it was too much, he could always take a cold shower to calm down.

Forget it, winter was still too cold, a slightly warm shower would do.

Wen Yi couldn’t help but ask, “So, will you let that Dr. Wen help?”

Tan Xiao paused for a moment: “What Dr. Wen?”

The dream began to blur. He didn’t associate Dr. Wen mentioned by Wen Yi with the dream, after all, it was just Wen Yi. He thought he had just had a rather romantic spring dream.

“Why would I let a doctor do such a thing for me? They said it’s a normal reaction, not a disease!”

He bashfully and angrily urged Wen Yi to leave: “Alright, if we don’t go out soon, we’ll be late.”

The annoyance in his words was noticed by Wen Yi, who took it as Tan Xiao defending that shameless, deceitful person.

Wen Yi, exuding a sense of frustration, floated back to his room with a cold face. If he ever caught that doctor Wen, he would definitely turn him into a puppet!

Thanks to his strong self-control, Tan Xiao managed to calm himself down after Wen Yi left.

Fortunately, Wen Yi simply sat on his own bed without twisting and rubbing against him; otherwise, he might have really had to take a cold shower.

When they were leaving, Tan Xiao couldn’t help but frown again, “Why are you wearing such a thin school uniform jacket?”

Yuying High School was also a public school, so the uniforms were  not fashionable or beautiful. They were designed for convenience and uniformity, with loose-fitting sportswear for both boys and girls.

Yesterday, he hadn’t noticed this and thought Wen Yi was wearing a lot of clothes under the uniform. But then he found out that Wen Yi could take a cold shower in the middle of winter, and Tan Xiao seriously doubted Wen Yi’s ability to take care of himself.

“Wait a minute.” Tan Xiao directly unzipped his school uniform, and then saw that Wen Yi was only wearing a thin white shirt under his school uniform jacket.

To be honest, the thin shirt looked great on Wen Yi. Paired with his clean and obedient face, he was like a heartthrob, the perfect school prince. This was definitely not just Tan Xiao’s lover’s filter.

In his eyes, he, the transfer student, was the most handsome person in the class, and Wen Yi was the second most handsome, only slightly less so than him.

Of course, Wen Yi’s features weren’t particularly outstanding, unlike Tan Xiao’s strikingly bold features. He gave off the impression of a black-and-white landscape painting, with an aura that adds extra points, belonging to the type of handsome guy who becomes more attractive the more you look at him.

“Even if the white shirt looks good, you can’t prioritize style over warmth on a day like this!”

At this moment, Tan Xiao showed his domineering side: “Let me check your closet. Don’t you have a single thick piece of clothing?”

When he entered room 521, he realized that Wen Yi’s personal belongings were pitifully few. There were only three sets of clothes in the closet: two sets for summer, two sets of school uniforms for autumn, and then there was a white shirt.

Actually, this was quite normal. When Wen Yi died, he was wearing a white shirt, and after his death, his clothes wouldn’t have changed at all. The dormitory he lived in had been dealt with by someone, and all the belongings left behind in room 404 were burned along with his body.

If it weren’t for Tan Xiao’s sudden appearance, Wen Yi wouldn’t even consider the issue of changing clothes.

Tan Xiao looked quite angry: “Wen Yi, where are your parents? How can they not even give you clothes! Are they even human?”

Although his mom suddenly became a bit disdainful of him, she didn’t skimp on the material conditions she provided.

With just this little, Wen Yi could survive in winter, which shows his tenacity! No wonder the other person was so frail and had such a gloomy personality; he must have been through a lot of hardship.

Wen Yi blinked: “They’re gone.”

He had been dead for so many years, of course his parents were gone.

Tan Xiao’s conscience immediately ached, he really should be dead! His voice suddenly carried a deep sense of guilt, and he sincerely and straightforwardly apologized: “I’m sorry, I didn’t know, I didn’t mean to offend them.”

“It’s okay.” Wen Yi generously forgave Tan Xiao, since he didn’t have any feelings for his so-called parents anyway.

Tan Xiao cautiously asked, “So what about your tuition and living expenses?”

Wen Yi paused for a moment, “I can earn bonuses from exams, and if I rank in the top few, I can get a waiver on tuition and fees.”

Tan Xiao regarded Wen Yi as a special admit, but he controlled his emotions well and didn’t show any so-called sympathy.

He knew that special enrollment students like this often had very proud personalities. They had excellent grades, and their self-esteem was stronger than most people’s.

The fact that Wen Yi could smoothly attend the third year of high school at this school indicated that he must have always been at the top of his class. He didn’t need anyone’s sympathy or pity.

But Tan Xiao couldn’t just sit by and do nothing knowing that Wen Yi was struggling.

He opened his wardrobe; there were many sets of clothes delivered yesterday, covering all seasons—spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Some had been organized and hung up, while many others were still unpacked.

Tan Xiao took out a set of thermal underwear and then grabbed a cashmere sweater. “You can wear this first.”

He said, “This sweater is too small; the neckline feels a bit tight on me. I think it’s a waste to throw it away.”

After saying this, he carefully observed Wen Yi’s expression, making sure he hadn’t hurt the other’s self-esteem.

Wen Yi was not the sensitive and fragile little bunny that Tan Xiao thought he was. He looked at the other set of clothes in Tan Xiao’s closet: “I want this dark gray one.”

Tan Xiao had given him a navy blue one, which was different from the one he was wearing now.

If he wanted to win over that Dr. Wen, he should start subtly by wearing couple outfits together.

“Then I’ll give you both sets together.” Tan Xiao planned to wait until he returned at noon today; he still needed to organize more things for Wen Yi.

It would be even better if he was willing to accept them openly. Tan Xiao didn’t think there was anything wrong with his new deskmate; on the contrary, he found the straightforwardness of the other person quite genuine and endearing.

If Small Freckles knew about his mental activity, he would definitely scold the transfer student for having a problem with his eyes: “Where is 14 cute? You must be wearing an 800-meter filter to say such disgusting things!”

The two walked side by side to the classroom, chatting and greeting people enthusiastically. However, for some reason, as soon as many of them looked up, they acted as if they had seen a plague god, directly pretending not to see them and quickly running away.

Of course, Tan Xiao didn’t think this was his problem. Just yesterday, these classmates could still communicate normally. The only change was that today, he had an extra Wen Yi by his side.

He was very angry: he was right, Wen Yi was being ostracized and isolated in this school!

Not only the students, but even the teachers were like this; Tan Xiao didn’t expect to rely on the teachers to solve this problem.

Feeling like a mature adult, Tan Xiao said, “It’s okay, it’s just a few months. By then, we will definitely live better and be more outstanding than them. There’s no need to care about these insignificant people.”

As a transfer student, he naturally didn’t have much of a bond with these new classmates. Wen Yi was his deskmate, his friend, and his crush. In the future, he would become his boyfriend, and even his lifelong partner. Of course, he would unhesitatingly choose to stand by Wen Yi’s side.

However, as long as the classmates didn’t do anything excessively humiliating with their words, Tan Xiao didn’t intend to do anything to them.

He took the initiative to grab Wen Yi’s hand: “Let’s go to the classroom together.”

This was a statement to everyone that no one was willing to deal with Wen Yi, but Tan Xiao was.

—The transfer student was really crazy!!! He actually dared to hold Number 14’s hand today!

When the classmates in the classroom saw the two people walking in, they couldn’t help but cast admiring glances at the transfer student: the transfer student was a true warrior, indeed with a strong background, seriously holding Number 14’s hand, without any issue.

Only the Small Freckles sitting at the back of the two people felt that something was off: the collar of 14 was usually a white shirt, but today it was replaced with a dark gray cashmere sweater.

The thin cashmere sweater was very warm, and its fluffy texture softened the slightly cold aura around Wen Yi.

The Small Freckles’s eyes suddenly became sharp: this new piece of clothing on Wen Yi was exactly the same as the transfer student!

Could it be that the transfer student who supposedly appeared out of nowhere didn’t exist at all? The new handsome transfer student was just a new trick concocted by 14, a puppet made by the other party!

Hell High School (3): Substitute Literature

Tan Xiao held Wen Yi’s hand and walked back to the neighboring 521 dormitory. He noticed that Wen Yi hadn’t changed his clothes. “Haven’t you taken a shower?”

Wen Yi shook his head. “Not yet.”

He wasn’t actually complaining about Wen Yi. “You’ve been cleaning for so long, your clothes and hair are all dusty. How can you sleep like this? Go wash your hair and take a shower in your own dormitory first. I’ll come over and tidy up the blankets.”

Wen Yi looked down at Tan Xiao as he let go of his hand, feeling a bit unhappy inside, but he didn’t show it and obediently walked next door.

This city was in the south, and the school didn’t provide central heating. By the time Wen Yi returned to his own dormitory to take a shower, Tan Xiao had closed the doors and windows, turned on the air conditioner, and set the temperature to 30 degrees.

The air conditioner started running with a hum, but it seemed to have a very poor heating effect; after a few minutes, the air blowing out was still cold.

Tan Xiao looked somewhat awkwardly at the two beds in the dormitory; his quilt was big enough, but the beds were obviously not big enough.

The beds in the school dormitory were fixed to the ground, and even if he had great strength, it would be difficult to drag the two beds over and push them together.

In the dormitory, the two beds were there; his bed was on the left, a bit farther from the door, with about one and a half meters of space between the two beds.

The bed on the right was piled high with various cardboard boxes. He was already exhausted from cleaning up, and a lot of clutter was piled on top of the right side.

Moving things to the table below would only take a few minutes, but the problem was he didn’t have an extra blanket. It was almost eleven o’clock now, and it wouldn’t be appropriate to disturb other classmates with such matters.

He bought a big comforter, not one of those super large blankets. A comforter could stretch from this bed to the other side.

Tan Xiao counted the clothes he owned; various thick garments sent from home filled the wardrobe. Besides the new quilt he bought from school, the only bedding he had was a woolen blanket his “mom” sent over.

This white cashmere blanket was a carpet, meant to be laid on the floor. It could barely serve as a mat, but it couldn’t be used to cover oneself.

Tan Xiao only bought a bed sheet, which hadn’t been through the washing machine yet, so he used a cashmere blanket as a mattress, laying it on the 1.2-meter-wide dormitory bed. The size was just right, and with a fluffy thick quilt on top, it perfectly filled the gaps on both sides of the bed, making the cold winter nights very warm.

He had planned everything well, but unexpectedly, Wen Yi accidentally spilled a thermos cup on the quilt.

After taking a shower, Tan Xiao crawled in and felt the quilt; it was very thick and, just as he had imagined, warm and comfortable.

The blanket was just too big, so the space on the bed was compressed even smaller. He was already tall and not of a slender build, so sleeping alone was just about right, but it always felt like two people would be very cramped.

However, he had promised Wen Yi, and it would be too disheartening to go back on his word.

After working hard for a few hours and taking a shower, lying in the warm bed was incredibly comfortable. Just as Tan Xiao was starting to doze off, the door opened.

It was Wen Yi who just came back from washing his hair and taking a shower.

Wen Yi walked in with his hair still wet, wearing a cotton pajama set.

His pajamas were a summer style, very simple and made of pure cotton, short sleeves and short pants, exposing his arms and calves. The blue plastic slippers he wore made his feet look very white.

Tan Xiao instantly sobered up and immediately rolled out of bed.

His tone turned fierce: “Don’t you have any winter pajamas? Why are you dressed like this? Aren’t you afraid of getting sick?”

It was so cold outside, the phone said it was only five degrees! Winter in the south was like a magic attack; sometimes it was colder indoors than outdoors. Even with the air conditioning on, the heating effect was so poor that the indoor temperature didn’t exceed ten degrees.

Yuying High School was a school that vanished in flames, and the students of Hell High were not afraid of the cold.

As the core of this scenario, Wen Yi only felt heat. They turned to ashes in the flames and were reborn from the fire. How could the vengeful spirits who died in the fire fear the cold?

Tan Xiao first pulled the person inside, touched his icy hand, and suddenly asked, “Did you just take a cold shower or a hot shower?”

If he just took a hot shower, he’d still have some warmth coming off his body, but Wen Yi was as cold as an ice cellar, shivering a bit from the chill.

Tan Xiao stared into his new deskmate’s eyes, not allowing him to play dumb: “Look me in the eye and tell me the truth, no lying!”

Wen Yi answered with a hint of guilt: “Cold shower.”

He didn’t lie; he just felt like he had done something wrong, so he was feeling weak.

“Oh my gosh! Taking a cold shower in the middle of winter and wearing so little, are you trying to get sick on purpose?”

Tan Xiao was extremely angry. Unable to hold back, he took action, controlling his strength, and gave Wen Yi’s butt a light but firm smack!

It seemed that spanking was a tradition for educating disobedient children. Tan Xiao was mischievous in his childhood and had also been spanked by his own mother.

Because the buttocks have more flesh and are not exposed, being hit there doesn’t hurt as much, unlike being slapped on the face, which is humiliating. But tools can’t be used; it must be done with a hand, so the force is mutual, allowing for better control of the strength.

Wen Yi’s eyes widened, like a startled rabbit, his lips slightly parted, clearly not understanding why Tan Xiao suddenly hit him… hit him on the butt!

Could it be that the previous time he spilled water on the quilt, the evidence was too obvious, and Tan Xiao found out?

Although he was angry, he couldn’t ignore Wen Yi: “Next time, don’t wear so little!”

Tan Xiao was wearing a set of coral fleece pajamas, with a dark gray thermal underwear underneath. As he spoke, he quickly unbuttoned his top and wrapped his pajamas around Wen Yi.

He helped zip it up and urged his new desk mate, who didn’t care at all about taking care of himself, to hurry up and get into bed.

If it weren’t for the dormitory beds being in a lofted configuration with a desk underneath, requiring a ladder to climb up, Tan Xiao would have already picked him up and put him on the bed: “Hurry up and get under the covers, what are you looking at? Climb the ladder, why are you just standing there like an idiot? You’ve lived in this dorm for several years, you can’t possibly have been sleeping on the floor the whole time, right?”

Under Tan Xiao’s urging, Wen Yi got into bed, his face hanging with displeasure. What was wrong with taking a cold shower? How could he casually hit someone in such a sensitive area?

Although Tan Xiao’s strength was not great, and it was more like a friendly pat than a hit, he was too fierce.

Wen Yi felt deceived by the transfer student. The kindness he showed on the first day was just a facade to trick him, to coax him, to give him a little bit of kindness, and then reveal a ferocious face.

He exuded a gloomy aura, causing the temperature in the dormitory to plummet.

Tan Xiao sneezed from the cold: he had just said that the air conditioning’s heating function was useless, and now that he had taken off a jacket, he could feel the chill.

Clearly, he had not noticed that the source of the cold air was his own bed.

When Wen Yi climbed up, Tan Xiao found a down jacket from the closet and put it on, then dug out the hairdryer he bought at the supermarket and crawled onto the narrow little bed.

Seeing him come up, Wen Yi’s accumulated anger was interrupted, and he looked over with some curiosity.

Tan Xiao burrowed into the quilt, and immediately felt much warmer. He sighed comfortably, “I told you, it’s warm under the quilt. How can you be so clueless about cold and hot?”

When Wen Yi arrived, he had already dried his hair, and there were no more drips, but it was obviously still damp.

“Sit still, I’ll help you dry it. Don’t move around, short hair dries quickly.”

The hairdryer was very powerful, and soon it was blowing out scorching hot air. Tan Xiao carefully grabbed Wen Yi’s damp hair and quickly dried it.

While bragging, he said, “Let me tell you, I used to have straight hair just like yours, super straight. Then I had a dream where the TV was leaking electricity, and when I woke up, my hair had turned curly. This dream is really amazing, don’t you think?”

Wen Yi nodded, it really did sound quite amazing.

The warm breeze brushed against Wen Yi’s head, and the hand holding his hair moved very gently. The scent of mint mixed with lemon from the boy was even more intense.

The sound of Tan Xiao had a hypnotic effect that was comparable to soft music. Wen Yi felt as if he were soaking in a hot spring, warm and particularly comfortable.

He suddenly stopped being angry with Tan Xiao: the other party was just too concerned about him and acted out of desperation. Besides, the blow wasn’t that painful. Considering Tan Xiao’s good intentions, Wen Yi decided to generously forgive him.

The sound of the hairdryer abruptly stopped. Tan Xiao looked at his hair, which he had just dried, with satisfaction. He examined his handiwork: “You must dry your hair before sleeping, otherwise, when you get older, you might easily get migraines. Look how fluffy and dry it is now, it’s great.”

Wen Yi obediently nodded and Tan Xiao continued, “Your bangs are a bit too long, they cover your eyes and affect your vision. Tomorrow during lunch break, let’s go back to the dorm together, and I’ll help you trim them. Then we can wash your hair.”

Wen Yi responded slowly, his expression looking somewhat reluctant, “Oh.”

The male high school student was clearly dissatisfied with his response, “Oh what oh, my skills are very good, I won’t mess up your hair.”

He took out his phone from the small blue iron frame on the bedside and opened the front camera: “Look, look, I styled your hair so well, you have to trust my taste!”

Influenced by his family upbringing, Tan Xiao still payed a lot of attention to his personal image. After all, according to his dad, it was because he looked good back then that his biological mom was able to take a liking to him.

No matter how handsome a man is, if he has a bowl haircut and doesn’t pay attention to his clothing and grooming, even a beautiful man will blend in with the crowd.

Wen Yi looked at the blurry ghostly face on the camera, his eyes flashing a crimson hue. The image in the camera instantly distorted like ripples on water, then returned to the appearance visible to the naked eye, where Tan Xiao was.

He agreed, “Okay.”

Tan Xiao yawned; he had just been full of energy, but after staying under the blanket for a while, fatigue overwhelmed his entire body.

“I can’t take it anymore, I’m so sleepy, I really need to sleep.”

He bent down, tossed the hairdryer onto the table below, pulled the remote light switch left by the previous senior on the wall, which was just a wire connected to a stick, and with a tug, he could turn off the lights in the dormitory entrance.

The white light instantly went out, and Tan Xiao burrowed his entire body under the blanket. He originally thought the blanket would be very warm, but in reality, it wasn’t.

Wen Yi might have taken a cold shower earlier and then stood in the cold wind for a while wearing thin pajamas. Now, although his body wasn’t as cold as before, it wasn’t warm enough either.

Tan Xiao used his body heat to warm up the blanket. Fortunately, he was young, and his body was like a constantly burning furnace. The slightly cold blanket quickly became warm.

Tan Xiao couldn’t help but mumble, “Your hands and feet are icy in the middle of winter; you have a cold constitution. Tomorrow, go to the supermarket and buy two hot water bottles. Put them in your bed before you sleep, and you won’t be cold anymore.”

Wen Yi responded, but then heard Tan Xiao’s breathing become very shallow. Clearly, after saying that, the other person had already fallen asleep successfully.

While Tan Xiao, without any chaotic thoughts, could fall asleep in seconds, Wen Yi couldn’t quite manage to sleep.

This 1.2-meter single bed was too narrow. The right side was against the wall, and the left side had a metal railing. He slept against the wall, while Tan Xiao slept on the left. The thick blankets on both sides made them almost completely pressed against each other.

Wen Yi slept on his own pillow. In the darkness, his vision was no different from during the day. Turning his face, he could see the fine hairs on the boy’s cheeks very clearly, the small fuzz on his fair face.

When he was asleep, the dimples on Tan Xiao’s face were not very noticeable. Wen Yi extended a finger and gently poked that spot. Upon touching the warm sensation, he quickly retracted his hand as if electrocuted.

“Thump, thump, thump.” In the quiet dormitory, one could hear the sound of breathing and the heartbeat, but only Tan Xiao’s heartbeat.

Wen Yi pressed his face against Tan Xiao’s chest, listening to the other’s heartbeat, while placing his other hand on his own chest, letting the simulated heartbeat gradually synchronize with Tan Xiao’s heartbeat.

Because he was wearing tight thermal underwear, the muscle lines on Tan Xiao’s upper body were very obvious to Wen Yi, who had excellent night vision.

On both sides, there were slightly raised arcs, not very distinct contours, but in the middle, there was also a raised area, which was a round circle.

Wen Yi was very curious; only male cats had multiple nipples. Could it be that Tan Xiao was not human but a transformed spirit?

He couldn’t help but poke the central circle with his finger, and then realized it was hard there; he had misunderstood. It seemed to be a ring.

Only then did Wen Yi notice the thin red string around Tan Xiao’s neck. He carefully pulled it out and discovered it was a very special ring—a platinum ring in the shape of a Möbius strip.

On the inner side of the ring, three inconspicuous letters were hidden: WLT.

After all, this was a coming-of-age gift that Wen Yi bought for himself, and at first, it only had the letter W.

But the moment he decided to give it to Tan Xiao, he engraved two more letters on it, meaning “Wen Yi loves Tan Xiao.”

This ring was not like giving Li Li a hard slap in the face to deal with Wen Yi. It was originally something he gave away, and sensing the familiar aura, how could it possibly reject its former owner?

But Wen Yi just thought the ring looked somewhat familiar, played with it for a while, and then handed it back to Tan Xiao.

He lay back down next to Tan Xiao, and even though he didn’t need to sleep, he still quietly closed his eyes.

About two hours later, Tan Xiao fell into a deep sleep, and in his dreams, he murmured, “Wen Yi, don’t mess around… Baby.”

In his dream, Tan Xiao dreamed of Wen Yi as Dr. Wen. Men always have a particularly vivid memory of their first time. Perhaps it was because Wen Yi was wet today, combined with keywords like “shower,” that triggered the memory. In his dream, he saw a somewhat blurry image of his first time.

Although Tan Xiao was in a deep sleep, he habitually turned to his side and hugged Wen Yi, who was next to him.

The latter immediately stiffened, but when he heard his name, he tried hard to relax his body.

But the next moment, he heard Tan Xiao murmuring, “Dr. Wen…”

Wen Yi’s mind seemed to have a tsunami; Dr. Wen? Which Dr. Wen?!

Wen Yi knew that the Möbius strip symbolizes infinity and endless cycles, but making it into a ring added another layer of ambiguous meaning: eternal, unending love.

If that ring was given to the transfer student by Dr. Wen, then this Dr. Wen was very likely to be Tan Xiao’s lover. Tan Xiao’s voice was tender, filled with deep desire.

Although Wen Yi had no experience in this area, he could tell from the expression on the other person’s face that Tan Xiao was probably dreaming a dream called spring.

The explosive jealousy gnawed at Wen Yi’s soul like countless ants. He looked at the ring with immense resentment, wanting to crush it into dust.

But seeing the happy smile on Tan Xiao’s face, he eventually put his hand down.

A person who could become a doctor must be a socialite, a cunning adult man. Tan Xiao was still a student, a high school student who was innocent and easy to deceive, definitely someone who had been tricked by an older man both physically and mentally.

But what if Tan Xiao wasn’t that good at all? If he had someone he loved in his heart but fell in love with him at first sight, it meant Tan Xiao was a big jerk.

There was also a possibility that he looked very much like that Dr. Wen, so Tan Xiao’s kindness towards him was just a simple case of transference.

Wen Yi’s fingertips dug deeply into his palm, using immense self-control to calm his boiling emotions.

It was hard to come across someone who could make his heart flutter, and he absolutely would not give up so easily, handing him over to someone else.

It was okay, Dr. Wen was just a thing of the past; he could be the stand-in for Dr. Wen.

They would spend day and night together, and sooner or later, the stand-in would be able to replace the original!

Tan Xiao slept very soundly, and it wasn’t until the campus broadcast rang out at 6 o’clock that he woke up.

He opened his eyes and found someone sitting on him.

That familiar face inexplicably overlapped with the dream from last night. In that moment, Tan Xiao thought he had traveled a few years into the future, with Wen Yi, full of charm, sitting on him and waking him up with special services.

This overlapping scene made Tan Xiao unable to suppress his excitement. After all, last night’s erotic dream was a bit too stimulating for him.

Although the Wen Yi in the dream seemed more mature and sexy, his face was not as youthful as the Wen Yi from high school.

When the two of them were together, Tan Xiao felt completely like a naive young kid, with his body and emotions completely under the other’s control.

But it was a dream, so it was normal for there to be discrepancies between dreams and reality.

High school boys have many advantages, such as fast metabolism, strong recovery ability, and good physical fitness, but the disadvantages are also very obvious, like having difficulty controlling their normal physiological responses, making them easily impulsive.

But soon, Tan Xiao realized that there was still a thick winter quilt between him and Wen Yi.

Wen Yi had slept inside last night, and was carefully trying to pull himself away, probably just wanting to step over him to reach the ladder at the end of the bed.

Tan Xiao’s face suddenly turned bright red, but his heart calmed down.

This time, it wasn’t the shy reaction from a dream, but the shame of his own shameless and lewd reaction: where was the promised pure love warrior? They were still just friends, and yet he couldn’t stop thinking about those things all day long. How shameless!

The blanket was very soft, but Wen Yi was very sensitive. Even through the blanket, he could keenly sense something.

His hair was a bit messy, but the well-behaved black-haired boy lowered his head and calmly asked with a smile, “Need any help?”

His tone was so casual and ordinary, as if he wanted to lift the blanket and crawl in.

Tan Xiao realized what Wen Yi meant, and it felt like being struck by lightning. He tightly clutched the blanket on him, letting out a sharp, explosive sound like a kettle boiling: “No way!”

Wen Yi’s face instantly darkened. The speculation from last night was confirmed at this moment: Tan Xiao didn’t like him at all; he had someone else in his heart. So, what Dr. Wen could do, he couldn’t.

A cold, twisted voice seemed to mock him in his mind, making him, who was already not very positive or sunny, even more dark and twisted: “He’s the real deal; you’re just a substitute!”

Hell High School (2): You sleep with me

Tan Xiao looked at his new deskmate with difficulty: “No way, I’m a day student. I have to go home after school.”

The new deskmate looked at him stubbornly and repeated, “Stay in the dorm.”

Huh? Stay in the dorm? Tan Xiao instinctively took Wen Yi’s words as an invitation: “Are you asking me to stay in the dorm with you? That’s not very appropriate, the dorm beds are too narrow.”

Although he fell in love at first sight with his new deskmate, sharing a bed right away seemed a bit too fast.

The key was that he didn’t really trust his self-control. He was a high school boy with a fully developed body, and all the normal physiological reactions come with it.

If they ended up sharing a narrow dorm bed, and he couldn’t control his physiological reactions, he’ll definitely be seen as a pervert.

He dumped out some of the adult rated nonsense that popped into his mind, and with a stern face, shook his head at Wen Yi: “No, I should go home and stay there, otherwise it would be too much trouble for you.”

Even if Wen Yi fell in love with him at first sight, Tan Xiao still felt it was not quite appropriate.

Wen Yi said two words: “Empty dormitory.”

When Tan Xiao heard this word, he knew he had misunderstood, but he didn’t blush or feel embarrassed. He tentatively asked, “Are you saying I should stay in the empty dorm? Stay and live on campus with you?”

Wen Yi nodded, “Friends… together.”

Tan Xiao remembered the little note he had written, which indeed said he wanted to be friends with Wen Yi. Of course, he didn’t want to be just a simple friend, but a boyfriend.

He still hesitated a bit: “I’ve never lived in a dorm before, so I might not get used to it.”

Wen Yi shook his head, then nodded: “With me.”

“Are you saying that with you around, I don’t have to worry about not getting used to it?” Tan Xiao tried to continue translating his new desk mate’s words. This time, the latter nodded, a faint smile appearing at the corner of his lips.

Tan Xiao felt like he must have gone crazy. He had never stayed in a dormitory from kindergarten to high school. He was used to the freedom of commuting and had no intention of living in a shared dormitory with others.

But, but! But he found that he couldn’t refuse the request made by his new deskmate.

Wen Yi just wanted to stay by himself. He was so silent and pitiful, probably because he had been bullied too much at school, so he gradually became afraid to speak.

Maybe he had never accepted anyone’s kindness before, which was why he treated the new transfer student on his first day at school as a lifeline.

Just imagining Wen Yi being bullied made Tan Xiao feel his anger rising to the top of his head, and his brain completely stopped functioning normally.

This sudden intense impulse took over his mind. He looked at the young and beautiful urban lady in the passenger seat and blurted out, “Dear mom, how about I don’t go home anymore? Can you help me with the school accommodation procedures?”

“Ah?”

The beautiful woman in the passenger seat was momentarily stunned, seemingly unable to comprehend what Tan Xiao was saying.

This was quite normal, after all. He had always chosen to commute rather than stay in the dorms whenever possible. The school cafeteria could never compare to home-cooked meals, and the living conditions in the dorms were definitely far inferior.

With a smile, he immediately found an excuse for his unusual behavior: “It’s the last semester of senior year, saving commuting time is beneficial for studying.”

As a student, the most important thing was studying. As long as the reason was convincing, Mom shouldn’t suspect any ulterior motives.

Yuying High School looked like one of those elite private schools. The school was built very upscale, and the design of the teaching buildings resembled old aristocratic castles, with a strong sense of architectural aesthetics. In such a grand school, the dormitory conditions should not be too bad.

When Tan Xiao was in high school, some of his middle school classmates went to private schools with good conditions, and their accommodations were not bad either.

If students were willing to pay extra, they could stay in double or even single rooms. Besides the absence of TVs, which might affect their studies, the dorms were equipped with all kinds of household appliances like air conditioners, washing machines, and refrigerators.

However, Tan Xiao actually didn’t really want to live with unfamiliar classmates. He immediately came up with a compromise: “First, let’s go check the dormitory conditions. If the environment is good, I’ll live on campus. If there’s no suitable dormitory, I can rent a place near the school!”

He originally came up with many reasons to persuade his mother, but the young woman who looked no older than a few years of banter seemed afraid he might change his mind: “Living at school is good. Third-year high school students should live at school. You’re right, I’ll go find your homeroom teacher to handle the paperwork now.”

The senior class homeroom teacher had a ton of work to do after class, but the students didn’t get off that early. Plus, with the current situation, even if Ms. Xu wanted to leave, she couldn’t.

Tan Xiao’s “mother” was very efficient; she quickly arranged a single dorm room for Tan Xiao.

It didn’t matter if the school didn’t have a suitable single room; living in a double or quadruple room alone made no difference from a single room.

The fiery woman directly shoved the dormitory key into Tan Xiao’s hand: “Here, the single dormitory you wanted. All the utilities are paid. There’s nothing else, so don’t come back for now.”

Tan Xiao was a bit dazed, looking at the key in his hand. Seeing the woman turn to leave, he quickly called out to her, “Mom, wait a minute, you haven’t given me my living expenses yet!”

Living at home, there wasn’t much to spend on, but living on campus was different.

“All the living expenses have been loaded onto your campus card. I loaded ten thousand. Is that enough?”

Besides the cafeteria, there were also supermarkets and fruit shops on campus. Although the prices were a bit high, they had everything you needed.

Tan Xiao subconsciously nodded, “That’s enough, that’s enough.”

As for bedding and the like, he could buy ready-made ones at school.

“Wait a minute, what about the clothes I left at home?”

The woman in high heels stumbled, almost twisting her ankle. She was barely able to maintain her gentle facade and hurriedly said with a smile, “I’ll have the driver bring your clothes over later! It’s getting dark, I have to go.”

Her time was very precious, and she couldn’t stay in the Hell High School instance scene forever.

This time, Tan Xiao didn’t say anything more. She finally got into the car smoothly. Afraid that someone might suddenly stop the car, she hurriedly urged the driver in the front seat, “Hurry up and drive, finally getting this little brat to school.”

When Tan Xiao came in, the first scene didn’t actually take place in the school, but in her home.

As soon as the woman saw the young, handsome face, she recognized Tan Xiao.

Wasn’t this the cheap son who had contacted her back then? At that time, she had just casually done a side job for a dungeon, put up the name of a cheap mom, and was coaxed into a daze, transferring 100,000 yuan out.

As a result, the “Plague Infection” dungeon she was working part-time on was temporarily closed for maintenance due to losing its core! 100,000 went down the drain. For a black-hearted capitalist who excelled at exploitation, 100,000 wasn’t much, but doing a loss-making business always left Li Li feeling uneasy.

Although she didn’t know how the other party suddenly appeared, smelling the rich aroma of blood and flesh, the woman felt that giving out this money wasn’t a loss.

Tan Xiao was even more handsome in person than in the photos. With his eyes closed, he looked like a sleeping angel. The only odd thing was his hairstyle; instead of the previous straight black short hair, he now had a somewhat stylish little perm.

That hundred thousand should be considered the price for this cunning little human brat’s life. This level of flesh and blood was high-end and expensive, worth the price.

Just as she was about to bite Tan Xiao’s fair face, a terrifying black mist suddenly emerged from the ring on the little human brat’s chest, and then he gave her a hard slap!

She, Li Li, on the surface, was an ordinary ruthless company president, but in reality, she was a special NPC with awakened consciousness in a high-level instance, with permissions comparable to the core of the instance!

Elegant and noble, ruthless and notorious, she was unexpectedly slapped by a little brat who fell from the sky!

And this detestable little brat, blissfully unaware, was lying on her beloved pure white long cashmere carpet, sleeping comfortably in her home, completely oblivious to how much that slap would hurt her.

Before long, the game system found Tan Xiao and promptly sent her a notification: [The game channel had a minor malfunction, and the person was sent to the wrong place. Quickly send him to the Hell High School dungeon!]

Li Li was very frustrated, but as a special NPC, she wanted to live a comfortable life and couldn’t pretend to be deaf to the system’s words.

Who knew why a single elite white-collar woman, both in life and death, had to become the mother of a human little ghost who was parachuted in? Was this heaven’s punishment for her being a heartless capitalist?

Tan Xiao, too, not only had a poor memory at a young age, but his eyesight wasn’t good either. Although she was in her thirties when she was alive, who knew how many more years she lived after death. But looking at her young and beautiful face, she really didn’t seem like a middle-aged woman who could have given birth to an eighteen-year-old son!

Perhaps sensing her resentment, the system sent Li Li a photo, which was a picture of Tan Xiao and her real-life mother.

It turns out that time never defeats beauty. Tan Xiao looked five parts like his biological mother, and when the two stood together, they didn’t look like mother and son at all, but more like siblings. And Li Li, surprisingly, resembled him even more.

Although the simple and innocent appearance of the cheap and big son was very endearing, for Li Li, Tan Xiao was a trouble she couldn’t eat or touch, and it seemed he had a strong background!

So, realizing that she could completely offload Tan Xiao onto the school and become a hands-off manager, Li Li hurriedly passed this unexpected burden to Hell High School.

Giving away ten thousand wasn’t a big deal anyway; she had already given a hundred thousand before.

Watching the luxury car speed away, Tan Xiao looked down at the campus card and dormitory key in his hand, and couldn’t help but frown: “It seems like I’ve been rejected; it feels a bit subtle.”

Or was it that after being reborn into a parallel world, his relationship with his mom had worsened? And charging 10,000 to the meal card, wasn’t that a bit extravagant? It was just one semester; he was not a bottomless pit, so he didn’t need that much.

Tan Xiao instinctively pressed his forehead; he always felt that his memories seemed a bit chaotic. This chaos made him forget many important things, and he even began to doubt the authenticity of his own mother.

That pale, slender hand, which looked perfect for playing the piano, tugged at Tan Xiao’s coat.

The new deskmate appeared in front of Tan Xiao again, looking at him with eager anticipation: “Are you leaving?”

To be honest, that voice, like a broken gong, didn’t match at all with the new deskmate’s delicate features. But perhaps beauty is in the eye of the beholder; Tan Xiao found the voice unpleasant in a rational sense, but emotionally, he only felt a pang of sympathy. Moreover, as he listened, he found it oddly charming.

This kind of hoarse voice, which sounded like it had been scorched and rendered mute, would definitely add a lot of flavor to singing those story-rich folk songs or heart-wrenching love songs. If you savor it a bit more, a smoky voice can actually be quite sexy.

Tan Xiao decided to stop thinking about those unimportant questions: If she weren’t his biological mother, why would she randomly load ten thousand onto his meal card? Moreover, she also handled his enrollment procedures, and she was recognized as a parent by the school.

He shook his head, clearing out all those messy thoughts from his mind, and raised his campus card in his hand: “Not leaving. I’ll stay on campus with you from now on. Which dorm do you live in?”

Wen Yi looked at Tan Xiao, and this time he finally said a long enough sentence: “Let’s go to your dorm first.”

“Alright, let’s go see the single dorm my mom picked for me.”

The key had a label for the dormitory: Building 13, Room 521. Yuying High School truly lived up to its reputation as a prestigious high school; they even installed an elevator in a six-story dormitory building.

However, to save elevator capacity, you needed to swipe your campus card to use it.

“Beep.”

The elevator doors opened from both sides, and a strange red light was emanating from inside.

Tan Xiao stepped in first, instinctively pressing the door button and waiting for Wen Yi to come in. He looked up at the top of the elevator; the light was white, a very normal LED cool light. Maybe his eyes had just played tricks on him, and he had seen it wrong.

The elevator quickly stopped on the 5th floor, and Tan Xiao stepped out first, with Wen Yi almost following in sync.

From the dormitory door, you could tell that the environment shouldn’t be too bad, because the door was a high-quality metal security door, and judging by its shine, it must have been quite expensive.

He took out a classic-style brass key and smoothly opened the door to room 521.

“Cough cough cough…”

The dust in the dormitory was quite heavy, but after a careful look, Tan Xiao found the environment to be quite good.

There was a separate bathroom and shower room, and this was originally supposed to be a double room because there were two beds with desks underneath facing each other.

However, Ms. Li paid for two people’s dormitory fees, so now the entire dormitory was under Tan Xiao’s control.

On the bed, besides the bare wooden planks, there were a few old quilts and some crumpled paper trash, but overall it was quite clean.

After all, there was no strange odor, and the walls were a bright white, as if they had been freshly painted not long ago.

Tan Xiao turned on the air switch of the main circuit breaker, and the overhead light tube lit up immediately.

“The washing machine works, the fan works, the air conditioner works, and the hot water supply is normal…”

When the faucet in the sink was turned on, a bit of rusty yellow water flowed out of the pipe, but it quickly turned into clear, colorless, and transparent water.

The bathroom in the dormitory was connected to an electric water heater. After letting the cold water run for a while, it reached the normal temperature.

Tan Xiao commented, “The conditions are okay, I just need to clean up a bit more before I can move in.”

“I need to go to the school supermarket to buy some cleaning supplies and throw out this trash.”

Since he had just completed his enrollment procedures, he had nothing with him. Tan Xiao also didn’t have evening study today, so he took the opportunity to clean up in the evening; otherwise, he would have to sleep on the bare bed.

“By the way, you should know where the school supermarket is, right? You can take me there.”

Wen Yi nodded, obediently following Tan Xiao like a little tail.

As the two of them went downstairs, Tan Xiao said again, “You didn’t tell me where you live.”

Wen Yi moved his lips and uttered a word: “520.”

Tan Xiao was quite surprised: “520, isn’t that right next door to me? We must be fated to meet.”

Speaking of these two numbers, they were quite special—520 and 521, both meant ‘I love you.’¹

Wen Yi shyly smiled. Despite having the unlucky number 14, he actually lived in room 404 of building 13, the vanished 404.²

Who lived in 520 before didn’t matter; He just cleared out the original resident, and he became the new tenant of 520.

The two of them went to the supermarket, and of course, before checking out, they swiped their cards to ensure there was at least ten thousand yuan loaded onto them. Otherwise, if they bought a bunch of stuff and then found they didn’t have enough money to pay, it would be really embarrassing.

Yuying High School, which only had a high school department, had a total of 3,000 students across three grades. The supermarket on campus was definitely not as well-stocked as those off-campus, but at least the necessary daily necessities were available.

Tan Xiao bought a bucket and basin, as well as new brooms, mops, trash cans, and other cleaning tools.

He didn’t buy any snacks because after looking at the food in the supermarket, he felt that many snacks were past their production dates, especially the spicy strips, some of which had signs of being re-stamped.

The only relatively fresh items were instant noodles. Considering that there might be times when he gets hungry and doesn’t have time to eat, Tan Xiao stocked up a bit on instant noodles.

Blankets, water bottles, and other items he bought were all brand new, adding up to quite a lot.

He politely asked the supermarket owner, a middle-aged man who looked muscular, “Uncle, do you have a shopping cart? I bought a bit too much and would like to borrow one.”

The supermarket owner, who was in a monopoly business, didn’t have the best attitude. While he was chatting and picking out products, he was playing cards with someone on the computer.

Even when dealing with big customers, he had no patience if they interrupted his card game.

“Why borrow a little cart? What’s the point of buying so many things?”

Just as the grumbling words were on his lips, the supermarket owner suddenly felt a sharp pain in his hand. Invisible threads pierced through his thick palm, controlling his hand to lift high and deliver a hard slap.

The dazed supermarket owner finally noticed that, besides the new face, there was also someone standing behind the high pile of goods—Number 14, who was expressionless and staring at him coldly like a ghost.

Damn it, he lost track of time while playing cards, messed up, the new students would only start in two days, and he thought this unfamiliar face was one of those foreign human players!

After all, the school had so few people; you could remember a face after seeing it once a day.

The supermarket owner’s face turned into a clown’s, with a lot of loose flesh, and he tried very hard to squeeze out a somewhat comical smile: “What I mean is, with so many things, it would be too hard for you to carry them all. I don’t know which building you live in, but I can deliver them to you directly.”

Tan Xiao thought the supermarket owner was a bit eccentric; why did he suddenly slap himself so hard?

If it weren’t for the fact that the campus card could only be used within the school, he would have just put down his things and walked away.

However, he had bought too many things today, so he finally chose to politely thank the uncle: “Thank you, uncle. I live in Building 13, so please help me take them downstairs. I just transferred here today and need to use them urgently.”

“I’m coming to deliver them now.” The supermarket owner, as if his butt were on fire, quickly fetched a van from the supermarket’s storage and eagerly helped carry all the items onto it.

He looked at Tan Xiao and then at Wen Yi, trying to make amends by saying, “Classmate, I’m really sorry about earlier. I lost at cards and got a bit upset, so I took it out on you. Do you want to hop in? I’ll give you a ride.”

Tan Xiao shook his head, “No need, it’s just a short walk. I can go back by myself.”

The supermarket owner not only loved playing cards and had a bad temper, but he was also a heavy smoker. His robust body was permeated with the smell of cigarettes. He was unwilling to share a narrow, enclosed space with the other person, and even opening the van windows would do little to help with the stench of the cigarettes.

By the time the van reached the ground floor, the family’s driver had brought a large pile of clothes and the plush blanket that Tan Xiao had once slept on, which helped move all the accumulated goods from the ground floor upstairs.

When the driver left, it was almost time for evening self-study. Tan Xiao asked Wen Yi, “Aren’t you going to evening self-study?”

He was a transfer student, so he took a leave of absence, but Wen Yi was different.

The latter shook his head. In the evening, it was the students’ hunting phase. However, before the dungeon started, there were no outsiders in the school, so at night, everyone would fight, brawl, and go crazy, but they wouldn’t study properly.

“It’s okay.” He picked up a cloth, “I’ll help.”

Tan Xiao couldn’t help but smile: His new deskmate was indeed a gentle and kind person, who seemed cold on the outside but had a soft and passionate heart!

He had originally wanted to get closer to the other person, so he didn’t refuse Wen Yi’s kindness: “Then I’ll trouble you, but we need to get our gear first.”

Tan Xiao specifically bought eco-friendly gloves and masks. He quickly put them on and, seeing Wen Yi still struggling with the gloves, immediately stepped forward, “These gloves are a bit tight and hard to wear. Let me help you.”

The young man naturally held the other person’s hand. Unlike him, who was burning with heat, Wen Yi’s hand felt somewhat cold. It was the beginning of the second semester, and school wouldn’t officially start for a few more days.

It was early spring, and the chill of spring was more biting than the deep winter.

Tan Xiao couldn’t help but take a few deep breaths, his breath condensing into white mist in the air: “Your hands are so cold. You need to keep them warm in the spring. You can’t dress so lightly.”

In his eyes, Wen Yi was indeed dressed too lightly. On such a cold day, he was only wearing a fall school uniform jacket. Tan Xiao suddenly realized: he had said Wen Yi’s little face looked slightly pale, probably because he was frozen!

He immediately took off his own coat and draped it over Wen Yi, saying, “Hurry up and put this on, don’t freeze yourself. Senior year is very important, and a fever affects your brain.”

Wen Yi felt the faint minty scent and the warmth of his body, and his slightly pale face flushed with a light pink.

His eyelashes were long and thick, fluttering gently like butterfly wings, and he smiled shyly at Tan Xiao.

Housework seems easy at first glance, but once you start doing it, you realize there are many intricate tasks.

Every shelf and bed frame needed to be wiped down, and the rusty spots needed to be scrubbed. His obsessive-compulsive tendencies kicked in, and he meticulously cleaned any stains he saw.

Tan Xiao wore an apron and a cheap baseball cap bought from the supermarket, but he still ended up covered in dirt.

While Tan Xiao was busy, Wen Yi wasn’t idle either. The original Room 521 was piled with ghost, and they became even more active at night.

“I’m going to the bathroom.” Wen Yi walked into the shower room and locked the frosted glass door.

The person hiding in the corner, with a head like a ball, was dragged out without a change in expression and thrown directly downstairs. The water pipe was running, and besides the rusty and clear water, blood and a mass of hair were also flowing out.

Wen Yi grabbed a strand of hair and roughly pulled the ghost out of the water pipe, stuffing the hair into its mouth before it could scream.

This was the boys’ dormitory, and naturally, the ghost in the water pipes was a male ghost. Occasionally, he sneaks over to the girls’ dormitory, but once discovered, he gets beaten up by the female students.

He lightly tapped the water pipe three times: “Clean it up.”

The hair ghost diligently cleaned, and the rust stains in the bathroom, which were the hardest to deal with, became spotless. Thanks to the ghost’s hard work, the metal pipes regained their original shiny appearance.

Before throwing the other person into the sewer, Wen Yi said, “You’re not allowed to enter 521 again.”

The transfer student was too handsome, shining like an everlasting sun.

But the transfer student could also be very vulnerable at times; when taking a shower or using the toilet, he would be very vulnerable. Wen Yi couldn’t allow him to spy on Tan Xiao, even if no private parts were seen!

His fingers, connected to the transparent thread, made a strangulation gesture of threat.

The hair that the ghost was proud of was also a strangulation skill, but in front of No. 14, it was the difference between a child and a master craftsman.

The ghost whimpered in response, bruised and battered, disappearing into the dark sewer.

The glass door opened again, and the bathroom was completely transformed.

Tan Xiao couldn’t help but exclaim, “That’s amazing! You’ve cleaned it so well, it feels like the old grime has been wiped away!”

Wen Yi continued to smile shyly, “No.”

He wasn’t being modest; after all, the work was done by a ghost.

He had been hearing the bell for the evening self-study session ring repeatedly, and only now did Tan Xiao realize that three hours had passed without him noticing. He suddenly slumped down, sat on the bench, feeling like half of his waist had given out. He took a few deep breaths and said, “I can’t go on like this, I need to rest. We have morning reading tomorrow.”

“Classmate Wen Yi, thanks to your help today, please let me treat you to a meal tomorrow!”

After one meal, there would be a second, so they could naturally develop into long-term meal partners.

Wen Yi nodded in agreement: “Mm.”

He turned and went to the neighboring 520, because the two places were very close.

While helping Tan Xiao clean, Wen Yi’s puppet line directly opened the window from this side to the next window, demanding the guys in the dormitory to pack up their bedding and get lost.

Wen Yi went back to 520 and tidied up everything he had brought from 404. Looking at the neatly arranged quilt, he thought for a few seconds, then filled a thermos with tea, adjusted the angle, and “accidentally” spilled it on the quilt.

Tan Xiao first took a hot shower to tidy himself up a bit before knocking on the door of 520.

The door to the next room was slightly ajar; he just knocked, and the door creaked open by itself.

Then, Tan Xiao saw Wen Yi staring blankly at a soaking wet quilt. A thermos cup was still on the bed, and the water had spilled all over it.

Wen Yi thought for a moment, bent down, and took out the hidden hairdryer from the cupboard.

Because the dormitory had a power limit, the hairdryer’s wattage was quite limited.

Tan Xiao looked at it, the veins on his forehead bulging: “Stop blowing, with such a thick quilt, if you keep blowing like that, you won’t be able to sleep a wink all night.”

He took a look and found that Room 520 was similar to his own, also a single room. The other bed was completely bare, with only two pieces of spliced wood boards on it.

Tan Xiao frowned as he looked at the quilt, then turned and went to his room to get a roll of rope. He set up a clothesline between the two beds and spread the quilt on it.

“Let’s modify the air conditioning. If there’s a lot of sun tomorrow, we can air out the comforter, or go buy a new one from the supermarket.”

Wen Yi pursed his lips: “The supermarket is closed.”

Oh right, Tan Xiao glanced at the time; it was almost 11 o’clock now. Because the air conditioning was needed in summer and heating in winter, the high school dormitory didn’t cut off power, but one thing was that there was a curfew at the boys’ dormitory.

In this situation, it was quite normal for the supermarket that served students to close early.

In this situation, there was only one choice left. Tan Xiao didn’t hesitate any longer and forcefully grabbed Wen Yi’s hand: “Don’t worry about your wet bed sheets, just come over and squeeze in with me today.”

Notes:

1. I Love you
   Wǒ ài nǐ
   520
   Wǔ Èr Líng
   521
   Wǔ Èr Yī
   The pronunciations are similar.
   ↩︎
2. Four is considered an unlucky number as its pronunciation sounds similar to the word for death. 4 (Sì) Die (Sǐ). ↩︎

Hell High School (1): Self-guide

The new classmate seemed very shy, glanced at Tan Xiao, but didn’t respond, only lowering his head to look at the desk.

Tan Xiao pondered: It seems the new desk mate is introverted and doesn’t like to talk much.

This period happened to be Ms. Xu’s math class, but as a newly transferred student, Tan Xiao hadn’t received his own uniform and new textbooks yet.

He took the opportunity to ask, “I just arrived in class and don’t have a textbook yet. Can I share one with you during this period?”

The classmate sitting next to Tan Xiao could clearly hear his question and could already imagine the response from seat 14 without thinking.

Right behind seat 14 was a boy with small freckles on his face. The freckled boy looked at Tan Xiao with excitement, already imagining the tragic fate of this transfer student: seat 14 would definitely coldly use puppet strings to strangle the transfer student’s limbs and turn him into a beautiful puppet!

The next moment, Number 14 indeed remained silent, but he quietly pushed the open math textbook over, placing it right in the middle of the two closely arranged desks.

Tan Xiao instantly revealed a dazzling smile that made Small Freckles feel very dazzled: “You’re so nice, thank you.”

No, Small Freckles was so shocked that his eyes almost popped out: He couldn’t be seeing this wrong, could he? Number 14 actually gave up half of the math textbook?!

Because he was sitting at the back, Small Freckles could see Number 14’s earlobes hidden under his black hair even turning from white to red, as if he was shy from the praise of the new student.

The entire Hell High School had always been both fearful and in awe of Number 14, and Small Freckles was no exception. This was the first time he saw Number 14’s face and felt a flush from excitement.

Why was that? Was it just because the transfer student was a bit fairer, a bit taller, and had a more pleasant voice than him?!

Small Freckles couldn’t help but shout in his heart: “Number 14, what’s wrong with you? Number 14, wake up! Don’t be deceived by the outsider’s beauty!”

Tan Xiao didn’t notice the intense emotional fluctuations of the surrounding classmates; all his attention was focused on his new deskmate.

When the new deskmate pushed the textbook over, he saw the other person’s name: Wen Yi. Yi meant peace, which was indeed a nice name.

His mother said that when he was born, instead of crying, he smiled, so she didn’t have high expectations for him. She just hoped he would be healthy and always smile.

Both of them have two-character names, with rare surnames, and their names had similar meanings. Rounded up, their names were basically couple names!

Moreover, they were both in their senior year, both the same gender, and even sat at the same desk. What did this mean? It meant they were a match made in heaven, a gift from the heavens!

However, since it was their first meeting, no matter how much he felt a rush of emotions, he couldn’t be too reckless. Otherwise, not only would he be rude to the other person, but he might also come off as frivolous: it wouldn’t be good if he were mistaken for a playboy with a wandering heart!

Successfully executing his self-strategy, Tan Xiao suppressed his urge to confess and planned to take the slow and steady route to build goodwill. He tore off another piece of scrap paper and wrote a line to the new classmate: “Is your name Wen Yi? That’s a really nice name. Your handwriting is also very beautiful. I’m sure we’ll get along well in the next six months!”

Wen Yi still didn’t say anything, just silently pushed the note back.

Tan Xiao noticed an extra word on the paper, written in elegant handwriting: “Hmm.”

How could his new deskmate be so cute? Tan Xiao felt he liked Wen Yi even more than before!

But if his thoughts were known to the others in the class, they would definitely look at Tan Xiao with eyes saying, “Are you crazy?”

Outside the campus, the sign of Yuying High School was swaying precariously. The golden sign was gradually melting under the sunlight, revealing the three charred words: Hell High School.

The word “hell” evoked images of burning blood and fire, with faintly audible, mournful cries of souls being consumed in the flames.

During the day, everyone had to attend classes and must adhere to high school rules, so they could wear seemingly normal human skins, pretending to be the carefree high school students they once were in life.

The students around Tan Xiao were very lively, possibly NPCs from other school dungeons, after all, there were many ghost schools, but their Hell High School was particularly famous among them.

Small Freckles thought the transfer student was really a crazy person, actually saying that the ruthless 14th was really good.

He didn’t doubt that Tan Xiao was human, after all, the other party was personally brought in by Teacher Xu, with legal procedures for the transfer. This was different from the process for outsiders entering Hell High School.

Moreover, the plot hadn’t started yet, and those outsiders, who were the players, hadn’t entered yet. They still had to wait two more days.

More importantly, Tan Xiao had the aura of a fierce ghost on him. He must be one of them, definitely not a human player!

What Small Freckles sitting in the back seat didn’t see was that a red rope was faintly visible around Tan Xiao’s long swan-like neck. The NPC aura he thought he sensed was actually just the stuff tied with the red rope.

The school did not allow students to wear jewelry, such as rings or bracelets, and flashy headgear was also a violation of school rules and discipline.

However, there was one exception: gifts from elders, whether from grandparents or ancestral heirlooms, things that had been worn since childhood and never taken off were allowed.

Anklets locked on the ankle, jade Buddha or jade Guanyin hung around the neck for peace… as long as they were hidden well, the teacher would pretend not to see.

The red string hanging around Tan Xiao’s neck was obviously a similar token of love.

A simple red string threaded with a talisman was pinned to the chest, over the heart.

While handling the new student’s enrollment procedures, Teacher Xu inadvertently caught a glimpse of what was hanging from the red string: it was completely different from the Buddha statues or amulets she had imagined.

It was a somewhat plain-looking platinum ring, shaped like a Möbius strip, symbolizing infinite cycles and eternal life.

A small ring exuded a dense black aura, like a cold, dangerous snake-like creature, clinging to and entwining the young, vibrant body of the transfer student.

So even though she saw in the student records that Tan Xiao was human, she didn’t dare to have any improper thoughts about the sweet and delicious food.

This was clearly a human marked with a private seal by a higher being, something not meant for a ghost of her level to touch.

Thinking of this, Teacher Xu smiled kindly at the transfer student and picked a relatively simple math problem: “Tan Xiao, what is the answer to this question?”

After all, she was a teacher and needed to understand the actual learning level of the transfer student. A teacher’s preference was to call on good students to answer questions in class.

If a student could not answer the question she posed, according to the rules, they must accept her punishment.

Fortunately, Tan Xiao didn’t feel burdened at all. It had only been a short while since he finished his college entrance exams, and the knowledge was still firmly lodged in his mind, not yet returned to his high school teachers.

“Teacher, the answer is C, square root of 3.”

Ms. Xu’s face broke into a satisfied smile: “Correct, please take a seat.”

With a smile, he wrote a small note to his deskmate: “I’m from City A. My previous school was also a key high school, and my grades are quite good, especially in math. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me!”

Don’t be fooled by his words about wanting to date early; for high school students, academic performance always comes first. His brain was quite sharp, but he couldn’t just slack off during regular studies and still expect to easily get into a top university in the country during the college entrance exam.

A good relationship should be about helping each other, learning together, making progress together, and having a brighter and better future, rather than dragging each other down, both sliding into the abyss, and ending up blaming each other, living in a mess.

His deskmate remained quiet, wrote a reply on a small piece of paper, and slid it over: “Okay.”

Tan Xiao instantly perked up: It used to be just a simple hm, but now it was a more thoughtful response. This detail marked a significant step forward in their relationship!

On the first day at the new school, Tan Xiao had already left the old days behind. He adapted particularly well, smiling at everyone he met, and that smile was especially genuine, bright, and infectious, completely different from a soulless fake smile.

As the saying goes, “A boy who loves to laugh won’t have bad luck.” Tan Xiao was already good at his studies and good-looking, and with his pleasant personality, he quickly integrated into the new class within half a day, and it seemed like he was already the popular kid.

However, as time went on, Tan Xiao couldn’t laugh anymore. He looked at Wen Yi with a somewhat melancholic gaze: his deskmate didn’t speak even after class; was he a mute?

The other students in Class 3-8 secretly watched the transfer student: the new student looked super cool and melancholic, almost like a prince!

In the second semester of senior year, the courses that needed to be learned were basically finished, and the next few months were mostly about reviewing and consolidating knowledge, along with various exams, and then constantly going over test papers.

However, there were some differences in the textbook content between the two cities, so Tan Xiao had to pick up those different knowledge points. Having been reborn once, with richer experience and preparation, he couldn’t possibly do worse on the second attempt than the first.

Having drafted a study plan, Tan Xiao intended to focus on both academics and emotions, not letting either side lag behind.

“Dang dang dang dang dang dang dang…”

The beautiful music played, it was the school’s dismissal bell. High school coursework was busy, and time passed particularly quickly, as if in the blink of an eye, day turned to dusk.

Although Tan Xiao was delaying, he still had to leave because he was a day student.

The students of third year Class 8 looked at Tan Xiao with envious eyes: “The transfer student can actually leave the school!”

They had been trapped in Hell High School and couldn’t easily step out of that seemingly simple iron gate. Only when the plot began could the day students leave briefly.

“The car picking up Tan Xiao is a luxury car. It seems that Tan Xiao’s background is really impressive!”

The overly handsome transfer student suddenly gained an air of noble mystery.

As Tan Xiao was about to get into the car, a boy in a blue and white school uniform with a somewhat gloomy demeanor suddenly grabbed his white shirt.

Small Freckles suddenly got excited: Could it be that Number 14 had finally come to his senses and was going to teach the transfer student a lesson?! A rising star and a local tyrant, the new popularity king and the behind-the-scenes boss, who will prevail today?!

But the gloomy little mushroom just stubbornly stared at the transfer student, wrinkling the shirt that had a very nice drape.

Tan Xiao looked puzzled: “What’s wrong?”

Wen Yi moved his lips, his voice hoarse: “Don’t go, don’t go.”

Small Freckles swore in his mind: he even saw the words “pitiful” on the face of Number 14!

Tan Xiao had a thought in his mind: this time it was 4 words, what a great improvement! Also, it turned out the new deskmate wasn’t a little mute!

Plague (26): Successful proposal

On the 29th day of the month, at 8 PM, the public loudspeakers on every street and alley, as well as the local news radio station, were broadcasting the mayor’s powerful voice.

Tan Xiao, who had already returned home from the hospital, was using a floor scrubber to clean the room, while Wen Yi, wearing an apron, was washing the dishes.

To celebrate the conclusion of the matter, they had soft, green, sticky mugwort rice cakes for breakfast, and for lunch and dinner, they had tofu flower rice with a whole duck marinated with perilla and ginger slices.

The custom in Tan Xiao’s family was to eat tofu pudding rice after getting sick. The word for duck sounded like “press,” which was meant to ward off bad luck and calm the spirit. Tan Xiao made the rice, so Dr. Wen washed the dishes.

Today, a fresh pomelo leaf was floating in the dedicated water basin used for washing the floor at home, perfectly enhancing the ritual of warding off bad luck.

The mayor’s voice drowned out the soft music playing in the living room: “During this period, thanks to the hard work of our city’s medical staff and volunteers, and the active cooperation of all citizens, I hereby announce that at 19:35:18 today, the citizens of S City have achieved the ultimate goal of a 100% vaccination rate for the X12-T1 vaccine!”

After a round of enthusiastic applause on the broadcast, the mayor’s commendation for the meritorious individuals followed.

“In the face of this sudden disaster, under the leadership of Dr. Wen Yi, the chief physician of Huaxi Hospital, and with the joint assistance of medical personnel such as Professor Li Mingyue and Professor Zhu Qing, the T1 drug was developed and improved, saving the lives of the citizens of S City. It successfully defeated the X12 infectious disease that brought countless pains to S City. Let us take this opportunity to especially thank them for their tireless efforts day and night”

When Tan Xiao heard this, he had just finished mopping the living room and entered the kitchen. He gently poked his boyfriend’s back with his finger: “Your name is first, wow, my taste is really good, I found such an excellent boyfriend.”

In one sentence, he praised both of them. Wen Yi carefully dried the water off the dishes with a kitchen towel: “I’m the lucky one.”

The mayor suddenly raised his voice: “I announce that starting today, all lockdowns in the entire S city will be lifted, all production orders will be restored, and I wish everyone peace, health, and happiness! Be happy every day!”

His speech ended, and the loudspeaker fell silent, but immediately after, the sound of fireworks launching into the sky could be heard. In the playground of the park across from them, brilliant fireworks began to burst into the sky.

“Wen Yi, be happy every day!” Tan Xiao shouted, putting down the sweeper in his hand. “You can’t see much from the kitchen. Let’s go to the rooftop to watch the fireworks.”

Through the glass, only part of the fireworks could be seen, but from the open high ground, the full view could be enjoyed.

The two of them took the elevator up to watch the fireworks. Many citizens who had received the news in advance went to the park and riverside, but on the rooftop, it was just the two of them.

It was the hot summer season, but by night, the heat had dissipated a lot. The cool night breeze blew the ice silk pajamas on Tan Xiao, making them stick to his calves. The wind blowing against his body felt particularly comfortable.

The fireworks celebration lasted a long time, with countless dazzling fireworks lighting up the sky. Watching the fireworks, Tan Xiao was somewhat lost in thought.

Wen Yi noticed his distraction and waved his hand in front of his young lover: “Baby, do you think the fireworks are not beautiful? If you find it boring, we can go back.”

Fireworks are indeed beautiful, but for Wen Yi, the most important thing was having Tan Xiao by his side. Even without fireworks, as long as Tan Xiao was happy, he would find the scene beautiful even in the face of a raging storm, thunder, and lightning.

Tan Xiao shook his head, “Fireworks are indeed beautiful, but I was just thinking about how much it would cost to get such beautiful fireworks.”

He looked at Wen Yi and couldn’t help but sigh, “Proposing under such a beautiful fireworks display must be amazing.”

Unfortunately, he had donated those supplies, and his own savings were needed for tuition fees, so he really didn’t have the money to buy fireworks for Wen Yi.

Wen Yi successfully grasped the point: “Proposal?”

“Yeah, doesn’t Dr. Wen want to be with me for a lifetime?”

Tan Xiao pouted: “Although it’s only been forty days since we met and established an intimate relationship, in this short time, I’m very sure of one thing: I want to spend my life with this person by my side, with Wen Yi.”

Wen Yi didn’t answer immediately but suddenly knelt on one knee, holding a silver ring shaped like a Möbius strip in the palm of his hand: “Tan Xiao, I, Wen Yi, swear I will love you for a lifetime, our love will never fade. Will you marry me, and never part ways?”

Eh, eh, eh?!

Tan Xiao couldn’t help but pinch his thigh: “Why so sudden?”

It hurt so much, this wasn’t a dream. If he had known, he wouldn’t have pinched so hard.

Wen Yi raised his head and looked at him intently, his eyes like black jewels reflecting the fireworks blooming in the sky above: “This ring was a gift I bought when I came of age, but now I want to give it to you. Will you accept it?”

This gesture was indeed very sudden, but after hearing Tan Xiao’s natural love words just now, he wanted to do something to respond to his young lover.

He had nothing and always greedily asked Tan Xiao for more. But because of his deep love, he always felt indebted to Tan Xiao.

This ring was the first ring he ever owned in his life, and it was also his burial item. It was the most precious and meaningful ring that Wen Yi could present right now. Wen Yi wanted to give the best thing he had to Tan Xiao.

Tan Xiao stared blankly at Wen Yi, feeling a bit flustered and at a loss: “But I don’t seem to have reached the legal marriage age yet. Can I accept it now?”

Wen Yi couldn’t help but curl his lips: “For both of us, that thin piece of paper doesn’t matter. Would you stop liking me just because I haven’t reached the marriage age?”

“Of course not!” Tan Xiao immediately snatched the ring from Wen Yi’s hand. “Once you give it to me, you can’t regret it, dear fiancé.”

He lowered his head and kissed Wen Yi’s lips amidst the fireworks. Although this engagement ceremony was simple and sudden, with the starry sky and countless deities as witnesses, their love transcended life and death, unwavering until the end.

After a night of madness, the time came for the final day of the game world.

Unlike the exhausted and sleeping Tan Xiao, tonight, many people in this city couldn’t sleep.

Nie Cheng stayed awake all night with his eyes wide open, fearing that if he closed them, he would fall back into the endless nightmare.

But as dawn broke and the once quiet city became lively again, he nervously opened his window and saw bright, healthy smiles on the faces of people.

In that moment, Nie Cheng finally believed that everything before him was not a dream. The cycle had ended, and the city plagued by disease had finally regained its true health.

A calm day passed, and as the clock struck midnight on the 30th day, all the players heard the system notification sound.

They had never felt the system sound so pleasant like they do now.

[Congratulations to players Wang Mingming/Li Shengnan/Liu Yanyan…… for successfully completing the instance ‘Plague Infection’. We are now calculating your rewards for this instance.]

[Your performance in this instance was C/B/A……]

The player’s consciousness was extracted, and the suppressed NPCs regained their awareness.

And beside Wen Yi, the consciousness of Tan Xiao also withdrew.

The face remained the same, but the young man had completely fallen into a deep sleep, his body turning into a quiet shell.

The originally calm and gentle Dr. Wen transformed into black mist the moment he was taken away by an external force, and the black mist spread throughout the city, enveloping the sky above City S.

“Give him back, give him back, give my love back to me!”

The black mist grasped that wisp of white light, trying to force this power composed of data to return his lover.

The sleeping citizens trembled, their lost memories forcibly awakened, continuously supplying energy to the black mist through their pain, sorrow, fear, and hatred.

The white light composed of code struggled desperately, making a screeching sound: “He has already been teleported out, but he will enter the instance again. You can go to another place and wait for him there!”

After confirming the authenticity, Black Mist finally calmed down and left the instance without any hesitation.

After receiving the data, the system changed from a white orb to a red orb, indicating that it was in an emergency error state.

A bunch of garbled code appeared, and the white orb finally repaired itself successfully, conveying the notice issued by the game headquarters.

[Detected that the plague infection instance has lost its core, the plague infection instance rating has been downgraded to extremely easy, the instance is temporarily closed, and will be reopened after successful maintenance.]

Without the soul-infused core of the instance, the difficulty of the plague infection instance had significantly decreased. When it reopened, it would become a relatively easy benefit instance for new players.

All the players who were pulled into the game instance returned to reality. They were very surprised to find that while they couldn’t reveal their player identities in the game, there were no such obstacles in real life.

Moreover, after clearing the instance, the game also rewarded them with abundant survival supplies based on their performance.

Because City S was originally a resource-rich metropolis, even the lowest-rated F-level players received at least 30 bottles of clean drinking water and 30 bags of bread.

This was enough to sustain a person for a month. In the past, these items were not considered precious, but after the fog descended, clean drinking water became a lifesaving resource for some people.

For players with higher ratings, the resources they obtained in the novice instance would be even more abundant.

In addition to bread, there were also boxed meals, self-heating hot pots, and even hearty dishes like braised pork and sauerkraut with intestines. Of course, there were also weapons.

Apart from basic living supplies, the game also distributed game coins and points. Game coins could be used to shop at the coin shop, which sold various living supplies and weapons that could be used in game instances.

Points were even more precious; they could be used to purchase special abilities and artifacts, such as space backpacks, talismans for exercising ghosts, and the ability to communicate with animals, among other things.

Of course, for players who had completed an instance, the items sold in the points shop were worth a fortune.

Points could not be traded, but they could be inherited by other players after dying in an instance. Of course, this malicious rule that sowed discord among players would only be discovered by players much later.

The God Game was clearly a well-structured game with comprehensive measures. After players completed the beginner instance, they found themselves pulled into the forum and became officially registered members.

The forum was directly linked to the trading mall, where the transactions refered to the trading of special items obtained from system instances.

After a game, the number of players on the forum quickly surpassed 100,000, including those who failed the game for the first time.

Regardless of whether the game was a failure or not, novice players had the opportunity to choose whether to give up the game. The difference between players who succeed and failed in the game was: if a novice quest was successful, they could receive abundant game rewards, and the talents drawn in the novice instance would become permanent talents, following them into every instance.

However, if the players failed the game, they would have nothing but a forum identity.

The system would not give players any extra time; they needed to decide whether to quit the game within an hour. If they exceed the time limit, it would be assumed they wanted to continue participating in the game.

A post by a player who failed to clear an instance was floating high on the forum’s homepage: [This game is too dangerous. The supplies they give are practically useless. I’m choosing to quit and won’t be playing with you all anymore. Goodbye, everyone.]

Many players who didn’t want to take risks, after recalling the pain in the instance, successively quit the game. Most of them were players who failed in the game, but there were also a few who successfully cleared the instance.

After seeing those special items for sale in the forum, smart people should realize that after the fog, the world had already undergone tremendous changes.

Without powerful strength, many people would fall to the bottom of society. Being addicted to the game was both dangerous and an opportunity. After seeing what was for sale in the store, they were even more reluctant to give up this special opportunity.

Moreover, this time the game captured over a hundred thousand players, and next time it would capture even more. When everyone became a player, could ordinary people still maintain their previous status?

The number of players rose to a certain point and then quickly declined, finally stabilizing at 67,895 after the countdown ended in the last hour.

[Congratulations to all players, choosing to continue the game is one of the smartest decisions you have made. Next, the game will distribute leaderboard rewards.]

[Congratulations to player Shao Shan for completing the novice instance “Salt Lake” and achieving an A-grade score. You will receive a surprise big wheel opportunity once.]

[Congratulations to player Dong Hu for completing the novice instance “Green Mountain Hospital” and achieving an A-grade score. You will receive a surprise big wheel opportunity once.]

……

That’s right, from the forum, they could see that players who received an A rating or higher in the novice instance could get a chance to spin the surprise big wheel.

The surprise big wheel had a 100% chance of winning, with prizes including skills of different levels, a large amount of game coins, a large amount of game points, and high-level items.

No matter what game it was, excellent players were always favored. Players who achieved high scores in the novice stage for the first time would obviously progress faster and more steadily than others.

[Congratulations to the player Tan Xiao for clearing the beginner instance ‘Plague Infection’ and achieving an S-rank! You will receive three chances to spin the surprise grand prize wheel! Supreme member special badge! One month of post pinning privileges!]

[Congratulations to the player Tan Xiao for clearing the beginner instance…]

The exact same announcement was posted three times, giving the only S-rank player in the novice instance a lot of face.

The game forum allowed them to search for names to access player pages. All players’ real names were displayed on the forum, but other personal information about the players was hidden.

Names could be the same, but IDs were unique.

The remaining players all searched for Tan Xiao’s name, and then saw a dazzling, colorful, and cool page.

They all tried to send friend requests to the great god.

[Master Tan Xiao, you’re amazing! Can I cling to you?]

[Master, are you releasing game strategies?]

[What did you do to get such a high score?]

Besides clinging, there were also those trying to morally blackmail and freeload.

[Master, I’m starving, can you send me some supplies? S-rank supplies must be very generous.]

[Boss, can I borrow some supplies? I promise to return them double!]

[We humans are a community with a shared future, we should unite!]

Of course, there were also those who immediately formed small groups, trying to recruit Tan Xiao for a team.

But this god-like player seemed unusually aloof, not accepting any friend requests from players, nor making any comments on the forum.

Wang Mingming, who also participated in the plague infection instance, was particularly excited to see the name Tan Xiao.

Tan Xiao, wasn’t that the beautiful young man who worked at Xiao Zhao’s fruit store?! He even had a doctor boyfriend!

Wasn’t Tan Xiao the NPC who scared him on the first day of the game? How did he become an S-rank player?!

Wait, Wang Mingming suddenly remembered that the game had warned him at the time: [You are being watched by the unspeakable.]

At that time, it was indeed Tan Xiao who suspected, but there was another person watching him from the stairs, the genius doctor Wen Yi who developed the T1 vaccine!

The game didn’t say Tan Xiao was an NPC, which meant the unspeakable should be Wen Yi!

This instance was called “Plague Infection,” and “Wen Yi” sounded like “plague.” Wasn’t the system hinting at something? The special NPC Nie Cheng caused the instance difficulty to rise to hell level, but Doctor Wen easily took out a vaccine, forcibly lowering the instance’s difficulty to extremely easy!

What did this mean? It meant Wen Yi was very likely the true final boss behind the scenes of the instance!

Wow! The player’s banter was so impressive, no wonder he got an S-rank score.

He excitedly sent a request: “Boss, it’s me, Wang Mingming, the one from the fruit store, Aunt Zhao. Do you remember me? We entered the same beginner instance together…”

These messages, of course, were also silent. In fact, not only did the players’ messages fail to reach Tan Xiao in a timely manner, but even the system’s messages couldn’t get through.

In the vast fog, the building was filled with bones eroded by the fog’s power, and among them lay a sleeping beauty with an extraordinarily handsome face.

The young man was peacefully asleep, enveloped in a faint red glow.

The meteor shower had trapped him in the fog, but the red meteorite that struck the back of Tan Xiao’s head had saved his life, using its energy to maintain his basic life signs.

After clearing the game instance, a massive amount of energy surged into the beautiful meteorite, which looked like red agate, making its color even more vibrant.

Tan Xiao’s consciousness once again appeared in that familiar small space, a living room set in a void, with an old, familiar television in front of him.

Squatting in front of the television, Tan Xiao looked around ten years old because, in his subconscious, this familiar childhood environment made him feel very at ease.

[Player… reward… zzzz!]

Each player received different notifications, and Tan Xiao, who got an S-rank rating, had a ton of rewards. However, there was a malfunction in the information transmission channel.

The TV emitted strange, unidentifiable sounds again, and Tan Xiao, dissatisfied, looked at the chaotic snowy screen and slapped it hard again.

What? The TV was malfunctioning again.

He hit it too hard, and it seemed like the TV was leaking electricity.

With his hair frizzed up like little curls, Tan Xiao had only one thought: “The TV is broken; I can ask my parents to buy a new one!”

A flash of white light passed by, and he disappeared again from this virtual little space.

Moments later, Tan Xiao opened his eyes in an office that exuded the smell of ink.

Familiar school scenes, the sounds of teachers and parents exchanging words, the wind rustling the blinds.

Tan Xiao looked at the strange yet familiar scene in front of him with a somewhat dazed expression, straining to find corresponding memories in his mind.

He glanced at the calendar hanging on the wall: January 16, 2024.

Not long ago, due to work reasons, his parents brought him to this new city, making him a transfer student at Yuying High School.

Having read many novels, Tan Xiao quickly realized: he had been reborn, reborn in his senior year of high school.

A look of frustration appeared on Tan Xiao’s extremely handsome yet somewhat childish face: “Heavens! People usually get reborn to start a new life from their childhood. How come he was reborn and it was a year earlier?! No, it’s now the second semester of senior year, so it’s just a few months earlier.”

He did pretty well in the college entrance exam, right? Why did he have to repeat his senior year?

The boy with the trendy little curly hair couldn’t help but frown, vaguely remembering that when he passed out, he seemed to have said, “In 18 years of life, I never had a single relationship. If only I had been brave enough to date early!”

Could it be that God heard his wish and decided to give him a chance for an early romance?

Oh my God, he had made so many wishes, and he even wished to get rich. If he had known, he wouldn’t have made such silly wishes!

Tan Xiao’s mother paid the fee and stood up from her chair: “Alright, the procedures are done. Tan Xiao, go with your homeroom teacher.”

She introduced, “From now on, Teacher Xu will be your homeroom teacher. She is also the math teacher.”

Tan Xiao had always been a good student and obediently showed a bright smile: “Hello, Teacher Xu.”

Math teacher Mrs Xu loved good students the most. Although Tan Xiao was a transfer student who came in halfway, his past academic performance was excellent, and even after entering their school, he could still rank among the top.

Tan Xiao followed Mrs. Xu into the classroom of Class 8, Senior Year. Being new, he didn’t plan to be too high-profile and gave a standard self-introduction: “Hello everyone, I am Tan Xiao, Tan for talking about everything, and Xiao for smiling happily¹. I come from City A, and I hope to get along well with everyone in the next six months. Thank you.”

Because he was a transfer student, Tan Xiao didn’t wear the Yuying High School uniform. From his casual clothes, it was clear that the transfer student came from a well-off family, and his looks and demeanor were top-notch.

Facing his good-looking face, the students of Class 8 gave him a warm round of applause, especially the girls, who clapped especially hard.

However, some boys jealously booed, “Tch.”

So what if he was a pretty boy? They still didn’t know how good his grades were.

Teacher Xu had a very friendly attitude towards the academically excellent transfer student: “Tan Xiao, where would you like to sit?”

Tan Xiao looked around the classroom and immediately spotted a solitary seat.

All the desks in the classroom were paired up, except for the one where a student was sitting alone.

He asked the teacher, “Mrs. Xu, may I sit next to that student?”

As soon as Tan Xiao’s words fell, the once lively classroom suddenly fell into an eerie silence.

Someone with an extremely strong sense of insensitivity tilted his head and asked again, “Isn’t it okay, Teacher Xu? But I see that the only empty spot in the classroom is next to that desk.”

He looked over and saw that his future deskmate had their head lowered, but judging by the length of their hair, it should be a male classmate.

Early romance was impossible, so finding a male classmate to be his deskmate was the safest option. Moreover, in high school, students usually sit with someone of the same gender at their desks, and only in cases of being alone do they pair up with someone of the opposite gender.

“Hehehe…” Teacher Xu let out a strange, dry laugh, looking at the new transfer student with a speechless expression. “Sure, of course, you can sit there if you want.”

Although it was a bit unfortunate, since the transfer student seemed eager to die early, she didn’t plan to stop him.

Tan Xiao moved a set of empty desks and chairs from the back of the classroom, pushed the desk against his deskmate, cleaned it, and sat down.

He wrote a note to his new deskmate: “Hello, I’m Tan Xiao. What’s your name? Can we be friends?”

A deskmate is supposed to be closer than an average classmate, so it was best for him to get along well with his deskmate, especially since they would be together for half a year. The second semester of senior year was the most important half year.

His new deskmate looked up, allowing him to see the latter’s full appearance.

The new deskmate’s hair was a bit long, at an artistic length, long enough to tie into a small bun.

His complexion was excessively pale, giving him a gloomy aura.

A pink little arrow from Cupid suddenly struck Tan Xiao’s heart: he decided to take back what he said before, sorry mom, he couldn’t let down the divine arrangement of this rebirth, he wanted to fall in love early!

Notes

1. 談笑 (Tan Xiao), 談(Tan) means talk/chat, 笑 (Xiao) means laugh ↩︎