Chapter 140

Before leaving the Stone Courtyard, Zhong Zeyong asked Mo Yin if he wanted to go see his father, but Mo Yin shook his head in refusal.

“Take your time to think about it. Don’t worry,” Zhong Zeyong patted Mo Yin’s shoulder. “Once you’ve decided, you can contact me through Jiaming.”

The bodyguard returned Mo Yin’s backpack. Mo Yin slung it over his shoulder and walked out of the gates of the Stone Courtyard, and down the hallway.

The bus stop at the entrance of the Stone Courtyard had long intervals between buses.

Mo Yin sat at the bus stop, quietly pondering and organizing information.

The secret filming must be real; otherwise, Li Xiu wouldn’t have disappeared so quietly for so long. Zhong Zeyong said Li Xiu was under house arrest, which seemed true as well.

Zhong Jiaming mentioned he grew up with Li Xiu. The grandeur of Zhong’s father today could also indirectly confirm the similarity between their families.

Zhong Zeyong had invited him here in such a roundabout way to avoid exposing their meeting, believing someone was watching him.

So who was watching him? Li Xiu’s family, or others with different motives through this incident?

Motives.

Zhong Zeyong implied that he wanted him to accuse Li Xiu of coercion…

Mo Yin suddenly chuckled.

He had silently cursed Li Xiu countless times in his mind, wishing him dead, but now someone else seemed even more determined.

As for motives, could it be that Zhong Zeyong wanted to relive his youth and beat Li Xiu to first place in the exam?

Thinking of this, Mo Yin smiled again.

The road outside the Stone Courtyard was rarely traveled, with dense wild vegetation rustling in the wind. Mo Yin heard his own laughter blending with the sound of the wind, a strangely harmonious feeling.

After laughing, Mo Yin’s expression returned to indifference, and he found his answer.

Li Xiu was just a sacrificial pawn, like him, merely chips used in a higher-level battle. Their relationship was just that.

Mo Yin looked up at the sky.

The trees were tall, blocking the sun so only their shadows, like jagged edges, cut through the sky.

The bus arrived, not too crowded inside. Mo Yin boarded and surveyed the people on the bus; everyone looked ordinary and indifferent. He wondered if any of them could be monitoring him?

Mo Yin didn’t go directly back to school. He got off near where he used to live, went upstairs to the rooftop. The rooftop offered a panoramic view, with a blazing sun and strong wind that puffed up his school uniform.

There was a rising sense of suffocation in his chest. Facing the wind and sun, his breathing gradually became rapid. He gripped the edge of the terrace with both hands, eyes stinging from staring at the sun for too long. He closed his eyes, feeling the heat of the sun in the darkness, then forcefully opened his eyes. They were red but tearless.

Back at school, Mo Yin borrowed the public phone in the dormitory from the housekeeper and dialed Li Xiu’s number, but it had been changed to an invalid number.

After hanging up, his phone immediately vibrated again.

It was from an unknown number, warning him not to try contacting Li Xiu.

Mo Yin glanced back at the small house where the housekeeper was, with surveillance cameras blinking above.

This was a world covered in cameras; if someone had the intention and capability, they could control every move of a person.

It was completely beyond his power now. Against such power, he felt as insignificant as an ant.

Mo Yin returned to the dormitory and sat at his desk.

After an unknown amount of time passed, he picked up his phone again and dialed Li Xiu’s number once more, only to hear the prompt that the number was invalid.

“Li Xiu,” he said. “I just liked you a little bit.”

So, I can’t give up such a good opportunity for just that little bit of liking.

Can you understand me, Li Xiu?

Can you?

If not, it’s okay.

Let’s pretend we never met.

He finished speaking but didn’t hang up the “phone.”

Mo Yin hesitated to put down his phone, as if an invisible force was holding up his arm.

“Li Xiu,” he said again. “Would you hate me?”

He saw Li Xiu silently looking at him, a smile appearing on his face that Mo Yin had once disliked but now understood.

Actually, Li Xiu was a weirdo. He seemed to have everything but was interested in nothing. He probably didn’t understand what “hate” meant.

But Li Xiu had said he liked him. Li Xiu understood liking, so how could he not understand what “hate” meant?

“Let Li Xiu hate him then, they were supposed to be archenemies anyway.”

A sudden intense stabbing pain shot through his forehead, causing Mo Yin to drop his phone from his hand. He groaned softly, slowly leaning on the desk, breathing heavily, his heart pounding rapidly, his chest-thumping.

What was happening to him?

Mo Yin lifted his hand to grasp his collar, breathing heavily in an attempt to relieve the suffocating pressure seemingly emanating from inside his body.

Something was definitely wrong.

Mo Yin kept his head down, waves of roaring in his mind, before slowly recovering from this bout.

It felt like something was controlling him, monitoring him, just like that unseen force trying to manipulate him toward their expected direction.

His forehead oozed beads of sweat, Mo Yin slowly straightened up.

The phone had fallen to the ground but appeared undamaged.

Mo Yin picked up his phone from the ground; the previous call had been disconnected due to an invalid number. However, when the phone fell, it must have hit something, as it stubbornly dialed Li Xiu’s number again.

Mo Yin held the phone to his ear and said, “Li Xiu, I’m coming to save you.”

Then, he would delete Li Xiu’s number and block him in front of Li Xiu, trampling on Li Xiu fiercely in every remaining exam.

He would surpass Li Xiu in his own way.

*

While Zhong Jiaming was talking to Liang Jianhao, Liang Jianhao widened his eyes, raised his eyebrows, and gestured with his chin for Zhong Jiaming to look behind him.

Zhong Jiaming turned around.

“Mo Yin?”

Zhong Jiaming suddenly stood up.

Mo Yin said, “Come out, I have something to say to you.”

The two went under the corridor in the school garden. Mo Yin said directly, “Give me your phone.”

“Okay, let me make a call first.”

As Zhong Jiaming spoke, he took out his phone, but before he could unlock it, Mo Yin snatched it away.

“What are you doing?”

Mo Yin turned away and hid Zhong Jiaming’s phone behind him, staring at Zhong Jiaming. “How much do you know?”

Zhong Jiaming looked puzzled.

Mo Yin pressed, “How much do you know?”

“I…,” Zhong Jiaming looked awkward, his gaze shifting slightly.

“You really hate Li Xiu,” Mo Yin suddenly said.

Zhong Jiaming looked at Mo Yin.

“Actually, I dislike Li Xiu a lot too,” Mo Yin said. “He has everything and looks down on others. Things that others struggle hard to achieve, he accomplishes effortlessly. What’s worse, he doesn’t even care about this success.”

Zhong Jiaming was stunned for a while. His expression slowly became calm and somewhat bitter. “But he’s still very likable. You don’t really hate him either. How you treat someone you hate should be like how you treat me, ignoring me completely.”

As Zhong Jiaming spoke, his eyes were fixed on Mo Yin, usually gentle and friendly, rarely staring at someone like this.

Mo Yin understood.

Zhong Jiaming wasn’t completely clueless.

He was pretending not to know.

“No,” Mo Yin shook his head. “I don’t hate you.”

Zhong Jiaming reached out. “Give me the phone back.”

“No, listen to me first,” Mo Yin insisted.

“I don’t hate you, nor do I like you. I don’t want you to come near me because you’re normal. Whenever a normal person comes near me, I feel uncomfortable and uneasy. Your kindness towards me scares me…”

Mo Yin also looked at Zhong Jiaming. Under his messy black hair, his pale skin had bloodshot eyes. His pupils were darker than his hair, giving him a pure appearance.

“Li Xiu is different. When I’m with him, I don’t feel any burden. But the more I’m with him, the more I feel abnormal.”

“I don’t want to be abnormal forever. I don’t want to become like my father… My mom is also mentally ill… The genetic probability of mental illness is very high…”

Mo Yin’s narration was calm, a result of strong restraint. He forced himself to speak like a normal person, not realizing that this coercion made him seem more awkward.

“So,” Zhong Jiaming’s tone softened, “do you want me to call my dad?”

Mo Yin shook his head again. “I don’t trust him.”

Zhong Jiaming said, “Adult matters won’t affect you much. Trust me, things will be over soon.”

“I don’t trust it,” Mo Yin said, lifting his head. “Unless you send me abroad first.”

Zhong Jiaming was extremely cautious; all he needed was a video clip and a statement from Mo Yin. With these, Mo Yin could obtain everything he wanted.

From this condition, Mo Yin deduced that Zhong Jiaming didn’t actually intend to take Li Xiu to court. He just needed something that, combined with the surveillance footage, would be very effective. Yesterday was the temptation; if Mo Yin didn’t agree, it could quickly escalate to coercion.

Li Xiu didn’t appear, nor did his family. Perhaps they were also in distress, or maybe they had other troubles to handle. Perhaps they didn’t even know that Zhong Jiaming had contacted him…

Zhong Jiaming said he and Li Xiu had grown up together, which was obviously true, indicating a good relationship between the two families.

However, judging by the current situation, this apparent harmony was clearly superficial.

People like Zhong Jiaming, double-faced individuals, often maintained good relations on the surface while secretly preparing a heavy blow against the Li family.

It had been calm for the past few days, indicating that something must have happened recently prompting Zhong Jiaming to decide to drop his pretense.

But Zhong Jiaming approached him in a roundabout way. What was he pretending to be?

Mo Yin thought of the part of the recording about Zhou Ren that Zhong Jiaming had played for him in the hospital.

They had found Zhou Ren.

That wasn’t surprising; if they wanted to, they could expose everything about him.

And then?

What would Li Xiu’s father think when he heard those words?

Would he think, “It’s over, Li Xiu has been deceived by such a worldly, cunning, greedy, vulgar boy”? Would he think that extortion like what Zhou Ren had done was already on its way?

Then Zhong Jiaming would say, “Forget it, don’t show up anymore, I’ll handle it,” making it even more troublesome for him to appear.

Li Xiu’s father agreed.

So Zhong Jiaming was likely playing a double game right now, using the gap in time and information to catch Li Xiu’s father off guard.

These speculations had kept Mo Yin awake all night yesterday, as if something extremely sensitive inside him was awakening, sniffing out malice like a beast.

“I need to go abroad first, right away.”

Mo Yin insisted, “After I go abroad, I can record the video.”

He handed the phone back to Zhong Jiaming. “You talk to your dad.”

People were more guarded against their relatives. If Mo Yin had said it, Zhong Jiaming might have thought more about it. Mo Yin tried to gain a little sympathy from Zhong Jiaming, who would help him. He had always wanted to feel the taste of being helped, right?

Zhong Jiaming hesitated for a moment and said, “Let me try.” He went aside to make a call. About five minutes later, Zhong Jiaming came back and said, “My dad agreed.”

In the last class in the afternoon, Zhong Jiaming told Mo Yin that his father had sent a car to pick him up, and they would discuss going abroad in detail tonight.

Mo Yin nodded restrainedly. “Good.”

“I’ll accompany you,” Zhong Jiaming said.

Mo Yin nodded lightly again. “Okay.”

The car stopped at the school gate, and Mo Yin and Zhong Jiaming got on together.

It was different from the meeting at the Shiyuan.

Obviously, this was an “aboveboard” meeting.

When talking to Zhong Jiaming and Zhong Jiaming at the Shiyuan, Zhong Jiaming could have directly cut to the chase, but he said a lot of things that seemed to care about him and Li Xiu very much. He didn’t need to do this in front of Mo Yin. The reason he did this was only one: because he was that kind of person.

After being two-faced for a long time, they had already become accustomed to their two faces.

They liked to package their malice like this, wrapping it up in beautiful ribbons and handing it to people outside. When people opened it with joy, they were bitten to bleeding inside, which made them feel satisfied.

So, Mo Yin speculated that if he proposed to go abroad first and would only agree to record the video afterwards, Zhong Jiaming would send a modified version to Li Xiu’s father, and Li Xiu’s father would definitely send it to Li Xiu.

Li Xiu

If you receive this, can you understand what I mean?

Mo Yin looked indifferent as he gazed at the scenery passing by outside the car window.

“He’s requesting to go abroad immediately?” Li Qing’s voice was hoarse. He had been working day and night, dealing with various crises. The video from Li Xiu’s hotel was just the tip of the iceberg; he faced many other problems, and the pressure was overwhelming.

“Alright, then arrange for him to go abroad,” Li Qing said. “The farther, the better!”

Li Qing hung up the phone. He was just a member of the entire team, and Li Xiu’s situation was an unexpected complication. While it didn’t have a huge impact on the overall team, handling it poorly could make it difficult for him personally, and for Li Xiu, for a long time to come.

Li Qing stood up, pushing open the bedroom door with his tired body.

Soft, melodious music played in the bedroom. Li Qing took a deep breath, his tone calm yet stern. “I’m officially informing you that your ‘love’ interest has requested to go abroad immediately. I will be responsible for all his expenses related to going abroad. This is how you’ll settle your ‘love’ affair and let him off the hook.”

The normally reserved person turned to look at the door, saying, “He wants to go abroad?”

“That’s right,” Li Qing said. “He requested it himself, to go abroad immediately. That’s all there is to it.”

Li Xiu stood up, facing his father directly. “No, he wouldn’t ask to go abroad. It’s not something he would say. If he said that, then he must have encountered some trouble.”

Li Qing was fed up with Li Xiu’s naivety and immaturity. He replied coldly, “Do you need a recording? Do you think I need to lie to you? I’m telling you, this trouble you’ve caused…”

Li Xiu walked out of the bedroom, heading straight for the front door of the living room. It was locked and required a key.

“Give me the key,” Li Xiu demanded.

“What good would it do to give you the key?” Li Qing retorted bluntly. “There are people everywhere out there. Where do you think you can go?!”

“He wouldn’t make such a request. It’s not like him. If he said that, then he must be in trouble,” Li Xiu insisted, gripping the door handle. Despite his face looking pale and harsh due to lack of rest, his eyes were unusually bright. “He hasn’t beaten me yet. He won’t leave.”