He was a few minutes late returning to class, but to Jian Xie’s surprise, there was no one on the podium.
He was originally worried that the other party would take the opportunity to deliberately make things difficult for him, like not letting him enter the classroom, but this was better than he had imagined.
As soon as Jian Xie walked into the classroom, the originally boiling air suddenly became quiet, and the sounds of conversation suddenly disappeared.
Everyone’s eyes were focused on him, but the person at the center of their attention seemed unaware. He just walked to his seat and sat down.
Jian Xie sat in the back row by the window, which was the only seat with only one table.
He transferred here in his senior year of high school, which made him an odd number in the class. He also didn’t have a deskmate, which was pretty good for someone who was committed to being an invisible person.
Afterwards, Jian Xie pulled out a notebook from the drawer and started reviewing knowledge points as if no one was around.
He subconsciously spun the pen in his hand. This was his habit when thinking. He had to hold something in his hand. If it weren’t for the fact that there were no coins in the pockets of his school uniform today, he would be more inclined to toss coins to occupy the space in his hand.
“Are you… okay?”
A tentative voice came from in front of Jian Xie. He looked up and found that the girl sitting in front of him was looking at him with concern.
Seeing that pair of cold eyes leave the notebook and look at her, she became afraid that the other party would misunderstand, so she hurriedly explained in a low voice, “W-we all believe that you didn’t kill anyone. It’s probably just a rumor. The police probably just misunderstood something… Anyway, I’m glad you’re okay.”
We?
A bag of biscuits and milk came from somewhere in the front row of the classroom. The girl in front gently took it and carefully placed it on the corner of Jian Xie’s clean desk.
After doing all this, her face was red. It seemed that even if she had mustered up the courage she could only say those short sentences to Jian Xie.
Jian Xie stared at the milk and biscuits, and suddenly his mind flashed through the words that the investigator named Cheng Li had inadvertently said to him earlier.
“You’re quite popular.”
Oh. He blinked.
“Thanks,” he said.
Several boys in the front row who saw everything looked at him with jealousy and kicked the table in anger, as if they were dissatisfied with how easily he won the favor of other girls.
However, this act of protest was directly ignored by Jian Xie, who was back to doing his homework with his head down, causing those students to be so angry that they almost vomited blood.
The English teacher was late, and it was not until almost time to leave school that the homeroom teacher appeared at the door, worryingly bringing them some bad news.
After the other party lost face in front of Jian Xie, slammed the office door and walked out, he wanted to go back to his office downstairs to rest for a while, but maybe because he didn’t look where he was going, he accidentally rolled down the stairs.
Although he luckily didn’t break his neck, it was certain that he would have to stay in the hospital for half a month.
Everyone was a senior high school student, so when they heard that their English teacher, who was extremely important for the exam, had to go to the hospital, they all panicked.
Even though he was not a good teacher, was generally annoying, and it was rumored that he got the job as a teacher in the school through a backdoor, it was still better to have him than not, right?
Fortunately, the homeroom teacher also brought good news.
They were going to change the English teacher, and this English teacher was a well-known good teacher in the school.
She had taken leave due to pregnancy and did not have the energy to teach, so she did not take on any classes. Unexpectedly, when she just came back from maternity leave, she happened to hear the homeroom teacher saying in the principal’s office that there was a shortage of teachers, so she immediately asked the principal to let her take over.
Hearing the quiet cheers from the class, Jian Xie contrarily didn’t feel anything. He just lowered his head thoughtfully.
…Tsk.
Something weird’s going on.
The school bell rang, indicating that today’s classes were over. The classroom suddenly became noisy, with students leaving their seats one after another and the place becoming a mess. It seemed they had forgotten that three students of the same grade might have died here.
Jian Xie guessed that it was because this matter involved the “monster” that Cheng Li mentioned.
Since he had never heard of any supernatural management department before, it meant that they could not announce it to the public. He guessed that they would handle the matter as a rumor and then claim that the three students had transferred to other schools.
However, how they do it specifically has nothing to do with Jian Xie. After all, he has been cleared of suspicion.
“It’s the weekend, is Jian Xie going home?” The girl in the front row asked him tentatively.
She seemed to find that Jian Xie was not as difficult to approach as they thought, so she couldn’t help but talk to him.
Hearing this, the boys who had been glaring at Jian Xie before seemed to have ears growing on their backs. With a “swish”, they turned around in their chairs and sneered at him. “Yeah, it looks like he can’t afford the accommodation fee here so why not go home?”
They were shouting loudly in a cheerful attitude. Even the girl who had spoken to him earlier looked like she was angry but dared not say anything.
But Jian Xie just looked at the group calmly, which made them shudder and subconsciously shut their mouths.
“…” After a while, Jian Xie retracted his gaze and responded to the girl in a distant manner, “I’m going home.”
This famous private high school in the city encourages free activities after school and does not require students to live on campus.
His home is not far from the school. After his parents passed away, they left him a house. In addition, because he had a part-time job at night, he did not choose to live in the school.
Jian Xie put his textbooks and notes neatly into the drawer, packed up the homework and pencil case, put them in his shoulder bag, zipped it up, put it on, walked past the classmates who were gathered together laughing and chatting, and walked out of the classroom with a cold expression.
The group of boys were sitting at the door, but no one dared to stop him.
On the way out of the classroom, even though there were many students who chose to go to school as a day student like him, most of them walked in groups of two or three, and only his lone figure was particularly conspicuous.
“Why don’t we go to the newly opened milk tea shop after class today and try it?”
“But I want to go shopping first…”
“We’re playing ball this weekend, come along!”
There were many parents at the school gate, all here to pick up their children.
Many people were driving cars, and at a glance, there were quite a few luxury cars. The students in this school actually came from well-off families.
Jian Xie’s pace gradually slowed down, until he stopped unconsciously, seeing pairs of parents taking over schoolbags with a smile and listening carefully to the trivial things their children encountered at school that day without any impatience on their faces.
He didn’t know how long he had been watching, but suddenly the cell phone in his school uniform pocket buzzed, interrupting his daze.
Jian Xie withdrew his gaze, took out his cell phone, and found that it was the alarm clock that rang.
He set it yesterday to remind himself that he has to go to his part-time tutoring job at 7 o’clock, but he forgot to set it off today.
Jian Xie turned off the alarm clock and was about to put his phone back into his pocket when he suddenly remembered something.
Actually, he originally wanted to ask Cheng Li this question, but he noticed that the investigator next to him looked pale and kept staring at his face in a trance as if he had seen a ghost, so out of some intuition, he did not ask his doubts.
Jian Xie unlocked his phone screen again, opened the browser search bar, and after careful consideration, typed a line of words: What is the reason for auditory hallucinations?
Director Dr. Li:
Greetings, in your case, auditory hallucination is a common symptom of mental patients. It could also be the abuse of psychiatric drugs which has led to irreversible brain nerve damage, or possibly a malignant tumor in the brain.
Our advice here is to actively seek treatment, cherish your life, and never give up on yourself.
Jian Xie: “…………”
Damn, he didn’t want to choose any of those three.
He scrolled down for a few more answers and found only two that were barely reliable, as they did not describe him as a terminally ill patient.
One is that he is under too much mental pressure, and the other is that he is not getting enough sleep.
Under a lot of mental stress? Not really, Jian Xie thinks he lives a pretty casual life.
As for lack of sleep?
He goes to bed on time at 10 o’clock every night and never stays up late. He is much better than his peers.
But……
Jian Xie frowned. The homeroom teacher seemed to have said that he looked really pale, as if he had not rested well, and he also sometimes did fall asleep in class.
Now that the supernatural management department, investigators, and B-level monsters have appeared, should he think in a paranormal direction?
Maybe when he was asleep, his body had a stronger sense of self-management and would go out to work and earn money to support his family.
Jian Xie: “….”
How humorous.
While searching on his phone, he had already walked some distance out of the school gate. Jian Xie had unknowingly arrived at the shared bicycle point. He took out his phone, scanned the QR code on the roadside, and unlocked the nearest bicycle.
His home was close to the school, and he could get there in 20 minutes by bike, which was quite a workout.
However, he still has to work part-time as a delivery man tonight, so he could only take a short break. Because the store manager was in a hurry, the other required him to arrive at 8 o’clock, and his salary would be deducted if he was late.
When closing the payment interface, it jumped back to the main page. Jian Xie only took a glance and was stunned for a moment.
A small message was displayed above, probably an automatic system push notification, saying happy birthday to the user.
It has surprisingly been a whole year already.
Jian Xie seldom told others that the day of the car accident happened to be his birthday.
It was also because of his birthday that his father, an engineer who usually worked overtime away from home, took leave to go home, and his mother, a medical worker, also returned home on time.
It was rare for their family of three to be at home at the same time without anything to do, so Jian Xie was very happy that night.
Now he just wished he hadn’t had such a perfect birthday.
But it was not out of regret, or because he felt that his parents’ death was his own fault, but because the car accident seemed to have taken away the passion in his body, making his emotional system extremely incomplete and making it impossible for him to become a normal person.
No sadness, no curiosity, no desire to win or lose.
However, he could feel the rich emotions in other people’s language even if it was malicious, which was very strange.
Jian Xie lowered his eyes, put his phone back, rode his bike into the traffic, and soon returned to the community, locking the shared bike in the designated area.
His home was on the 17th floor, but he couldn’t take the elevator because the dilapidated elevator was still under maintenance.
Jian Xie walked up the stairs, came to the door of his house and took out the door key from his pocket. As soon as he inserted it, he felt something was wrong.
He looked down at the carpet.
…Someone has been here.
Because he lived alone and the security in the neighborhood was not very good, Jian Xie would pay special attention to tilting the carpet in front of the door a little when locking the door. This way, if someone stays at his door for a long time, they would inadvertently rub the carpet.
Just like the carpet now.
Jian Xie frowned. He turned the door key cautiously and pushed the door tentatively. There was no sign of it being forced open, which made him feel a little relieved.
But as soon as he pushed open the door, his heart sank.
Jian Xie discovered that there were two boxes tied with ribbon bows on the living room table inside. They were placed right in the middle, as if afraid that he wouldn’t notice them. They were too blatant.
“……”
After hesitating for a moment, Jian Xie walked into the room, closed the door gently, and took the crowbar on the shelf in the corridor.
He did not touch the suspicious items on the table, but calmly checked the bedroom, study and bathroom one by one, even checking places such as cabinets and under the bed where people could hide.
What was confusing was that the windows were still locked, remaining exactly as they were when Jian Xie left.
It couldn’t be explained.
Jian Xie searched again but still found nothing, so he could only focus his attention on the only clue.
…Two beautifully packaged boxes.
If it wasn’t too suspicious, Jian Xie would even immediately regard it as a gift that was carefully thought out. After all, today was his birthday.
There was no time for him to check again, so he walked over to the table and simply opened the largest box first.
A card fell out of the box. Jian Xie didn’t look at it because his attention was already attracted by everything in the box. His mind was full of “You’re fucking kidding me.”
A cake.
It’s actually a cake…?
Jian Xie had worked in a cake shop before, so he could tell the price of this custom cake at a glance. He remembered it at first glance because the price was too expensive.
With a bad premonition, he opened the other smaller box and was completely stunned this time.
——It turned out to be a valuable watch.
The author has something to say:
The question is whether the relationship has been established unilaterally.
Jian Xie:?
Translator Xena’s other works: https://ko-fi.com/xenatl/gallery
– Just click the pictures and the link will show <3
