Chapter 54 – Devil Exchange

Translator: Yuzu

“Hey, is Luo Xiaoxiao hiding inside her dorm room, not daring to come out to meet anyone at all.” Girls this age just love to gossip.

“Haha, who knows,” another girl chimed in, “Maybe she’s hiding in her room crying.”

“By the way, who do you think wrote that post?” the girl lowered her voice deliberately.

They paused in silence for a second, and then the air seemed to come to a standstill.

Finally, the other one, cautiously, whispered, “I think that person is Jiang Ling.”

Luo Xiaoxiao buried her head in the pillow. Her body was shaking, her face devoid of color, even her breathing rate was slow. Like a puppet with a broken string, Luo Xiaoxiao had barely any life left in her.

She swallowed her saliva and buried her head even lower when she heard the small sounds of discussion outside the door.

Her cell phone, which she had left aside, was ringing continuously like it was infected with a virus, as if someone had been sending her messages.

With a cold face, Zhou Ming did not say anything and directly rushed to the girls’ dormitory. The dormitory aunt, who was guarding the door, could not help but stop him, “Eh eh eh, young man, this is the girls’ dormitory. Boys are not allowed to enter.”

Zhou Ming took one look at her and quickened his pace, unexpectedly rushing up without a word. Even the dormitory aunt urgently rushed up to pull him, but she couldn’t grab the other’s clothes.

Recently, several significant events have happened in the school, and everyone is on edge. Usually, if a boy enters the girls’ dormitory, she may turn a blind eye and let it pass, but now, in such an emergency, they have already had a meeting. They must take precautions, and the management must be rigorous. Even at night, they have to check the dormitory to make sure everyone is there.

Some students are not even bothered to stop him at this critical moment. The situation is simply very serious.

Thinking of this, the aunt hurriedly ran back to her room, intending to contact the security personnel.

Zhou Ming clenched his hands into fists and walked forward with a clear objective. All the girls who passed by looked at him with horrified faces, but he couldn’t care less now. He had to find Luo Xiaoxiao at the first opportunity.

Zhou Ming looked for Luo Xiaoxiao’s dorm room from memory and went off as if someone owed him eight million dollars.

“Bang bang.” Someone was knocking on the door.

Luo Xiaoxiao shuddered and buried her head deeper as if hypnotizing herself to not hear the sounds outside.

“Bang bang.” The knocking on the door grew louder and louder. The person knocking on the door didn’t stop his hand from knocking on the door even though no one answered the door.

Luo Xiaoxiao’s breathing was labored. She sat up and pulled the blanket over her head, frantically paralyzing herself.

Zhou Ming couldn’t wait any longer and shouted, “Xiaoxiao, I know you’re in there, open the door.”

Luo Xiaoxiao paused and stuck her head out.

The man continued, “I’m Zhou Ming, Xiaoxiao, open the door.”

Luo Xiaoxiao heard the words and moved out of the blanket. She was about to open the door when she remembered the content of that post that had gone viral in the school. For a moment, her movements stopped again, and she hesitated a bit.

But the sound of her turning over just now had been clearly heard by the man outside, and Zhou Ming continued to shout, “Xiaoxiao, don’t be afraid, I’ll help you!” He paused and swore earnestly, ” Trust me, okay.”

Luo Xiaoxiao still didn’t open the door.

She simply didn’t have the face to confront Zhou Ming, even if she knew that the post’s content was all fake. Even she, the person involved, felt ashamed when she read it, so who would believe her?

Zhou Ming looked like he still wanted to say something, but it was too late as the dormitory aunt had already rushed over with someone. Zhou Ming saw the situation and had no choice but to stop. He reluctantly continued, “Xiaoxiao, don’t be afraid, I’ll protect you! You wait for me! I’ll still come over to find you.”

With that said, Zhou Ming began to run away in the other direction to escape from the dormitory aunt.

Luo Xiaoxiao collapsed on the floor and began to sob silently.

–

Wang Yeze shook his head and held his phone to see the direction of the posting. As expected, Luo Xiaoxiao’s related posts have overshadowed even those of Wang Jingyi and Li Da. A whole bunch of them have even popped up, and the vast number of enthusiastic netizens have provided a lot of explosive materials.

He quirked his lips and chuckled.

When the time comes to check based on the ID address, it won’t even trace back to him.

All of this was done by a girl called Jiang Ling. Even if the time comes to clarify, the damage has already been done. As the saying goes, good things don’t go out, but bad things spread for a thousand miles. So even if someone comes out to dispel the rumors, Luo Xiaoxiao’s image has been deeply rooted in people’s hearts. Even if she didn’t do it, so what? People will still use it as a topic to talk about.

He just needed to find another time to hypnotize Luo Xiaoxiao and make her kill herself so everyone would point their fingers at the internet violence, at the person who had spoken up in the first place.

He just needs to go along with it, expose the truth, and blame it on Jiang Ling. Then, the next person to be subjected to violence will be her. At this point, Jiang Ling will also choose to commit suicide, which is both logical and reasonable.

Well, who would be blamed for this?

Everyone would be a murderer. Everyone is involved.

Who is nobler than who?

–

The boy sat at the foot of the tree. The wind was slowly blowing in and ruffling the corners of his coat.

He lifted his head and looked at the tree with his palm attached to the bark. Thinking of what Su Yan had told him, he couldn’t help but mutter, “Can trees really talk?”

“Hmm.”

The boy was surprised as if he had just heard something. He sat up and started looking to his left and right for the source of the noise, but he didn’t see it, so he sat back down, feeling a little strange.

He tried to touch the bark again and asked cautiously, “Was that you talking just now?”

“Hmm.”

The boy was wide-eyed in disbelief, “So trees really can talk.”

But this time, the tree didn’t reply to him again.

The boy was a little lost and continued to squat on the ground, staring at the window in front of him.

Su Yan was sick again today, and he couldn’t go play with him again.

–

Xiao Chen opened his eyes and subconsciously used his hand to block his eyes.

It was surprisingly dark, and he was even more unaware of when he had fallen asleep against the tree.

He squinted his eyes, somewhat unable to see the scene in front of him. He touched the trunk of the tree and then crawled up in a muddle.

So dark.

Where were his glasses? Where did the glasses go?

Xiao Chen touched the surroundings with his hand. He carefully squatted down, attached his hand to the soil, and began to feel around.

Xiao Chen felt his brain somewhat rising, and his heart even more so. He felt an unexplainable sense of loss.

Did he forget something again?

Without his glasses, Xiao Chen was like a blind man. Especially at night with no lights, he couldn’t see the scene around him. He gulped a bit nervously.

How come there were no lights here at night.

Before Xiao Chen could figure out how to get back, he suddenly felt what seemed like a pair of cold hands grabbing his right hand, and he shivered in fright.

“Don’t be afraid.” A faint voice sounded in his ears.

Xiao Chen froze. He didn’t feel afraid this time but instead had an inexplicable sense of familiarity. He would unconsciously relax his body.

Xiao Chen moved his mouth but didn’t speak.

The man took his hand. With half an arm around his waist, the man led him in an unknown direction.

Xiao Chen swallowed his saliva. For some reason, he subconsciously trusted the man very much, even knowing that he wouldn’t hurt himself at all.

Thinking of this, Xiao Chen chose to obey his heart and took the initiative to ask in a small voice, “You, are you my illusion?”

The man was stunned and then laughed out lightly, gripping Xiao Chen’s hand tighter, “No.”

Xiao Chen hesitated for a moment, and as if something flashed in his head, he asked somewhat weakly, “Then, are you Su Yan?”

The man paused, and Xiao Chen could even feel the other man stop in his tracks because of his words. There was some silence in the air, and finally, he heard the man say back, “You remember.”

Xiao Chen frowned and gently shook his head.

He only recalled a few vague fragments, but it wasn’t enough to piece together a complete memory. In his dream, the only thing he remembered most profoundly was the word Su Yan.

Xiao Chen lowered his eyes.

Su Yan was an existence that was beyond words to him.

Su Yan chuckled and attached his right hand to Xiao Chen’s head, with a bit of affection as if he was comforting his emotions. And this feeling of touching his head was very familiar to Xiao Chen, as if someone had done it to him countless times before.

Meanwhile, Xiao Chen blurted out and asked, “Your hand is fine.”

After that, both of them were stunned.

The little finger of Su Yan’s right hand moved, and Xiao Chen couldn’t see that there was actually a very obvious scar at his little finger’s location.

As a result, Su Yan’s voice was covered in a bit of complication and magnetic huskiness, “One day, you’ll remember.”

Su Yan held Xiao Chen’s waist and moved slowly in the silent night.

Xiao Chen felt that the surroundings were a little too quiet as he could even hear the sound of his heartbeat and breathing.

Su Yan was like a ghost, making no sound whatsoever. If it weren’t for the fact that he held on tightly to his hand, he would have almost wondered if Su Yan actually existed or not.

It was unknown how long he had been walking, but Xiao Chen faintly saw the light in the distance.

Su Yan stopped in his tracks and let go of Xiao Chen’s hand, but Xiao Chen subconsciously went to grab him.

Su Yan laughed and took the opportunity of Xiao Chen’s lack of attention to put something directly on Xiao Chen’s face.

It was his glasses.

Xiao Chen heard him softly say, “Next time, don’t lose them.”

And don’t lose me again.

Someday, you’ll remember.

It’s not just that part of the memory you lost.

There are also countless memories that we walked through together.

Su Yan raised his eyes and looked at Xiao Chen, who was still a little dazed. He brushed the other’s bangs with his hand. Underneath the bangs were a pair of amorous phoenix eyes, which shined like stars in the night.

Su Yan’s gaze rested on the pendant hanging from Xiao Chen.

He attached his hand to the pendant.

Wait a little longer. I will definitely, definitely take you away from this place.