Chapter 12 Pouncing and Hugging

Chapter 12 Pouncing and Hugging

Lin Yao was promptly taken to the hospital by the arriving police.

It was unclear whether she was lucky or if her skull was just particularly hard, but after a thorough examination, it turned out that although she had bled quite a bit, the wound wasn't deep.

But the young girl was still traumatized and remained unconscious in the hospital.

During this time, she also ran a fever, murmuring incessantly.

Later, when she finally quieted down, she began to sob softly.

In her dreams, Lin Yao seemed to be suffering greatly. Her shoulders trembled involuntarily, her pale face scrunched up in weakness, and her fingertips curled tightly.

Until someone gently stroked her small face, wiping away her tears, and a long, slender hand held her icy fingers.

The frightened girl slowly, gradually calmed down and fell into a deep sleep.

She continued to have that strange, terrifying dream.

A voice in the dream told her that the world she was in was actually a novel.

The name of that novel was "The High-Cold School Tyrant's Runaway Sweetheart."

The male lead, cold and aloof, was Qi Yanye, the school tyrant at No. 3 Middle School.

And the runaway sweetheart was Shi Nian, the beloved female lead with an irresistible charm.

Lin Yao found it perplexing how Shi Nian, who seemed so cold and distant, could ever be associated with the term "sweetheart."

Moreover, Qi Yanye, as the school tyrant, shouldn't even be familiar with Shi Nian, who was a model student...

But Lin Yao didn't have the energy to think about it too much because, upon quickly flipping through the book, she discovered that she herself was the most important malicious green tea villainess in the early part of the story.

How terrifying... she was the malicious green tea villainess...

In the book, she relied on the friendship formed with Shi Nian since childhood, pretending to be a close friend.

Behind the scenes, however, she spread rumors about Shi Nian and did many things to deliberately harm her.

Not only that, she used her manipulative words to compete with Shi Nian for the male lead, Qi Yanye.

Lin Yao felt wronged; she had occasionally seen Qi Yanye at school, and he was intimidating and cold, the type who could make anyone cry with a single word.

Lin Yao would always take a detour, stick to the edges, and sneak away whenever she saw him.

There was no way she could like Qi Yanye...

But according to the novel, during several cold wars between Qi Yanye and Shi Nian, Lin Yao, the green tea friend, played a significant role.

In the end, she reaped what she sowed and was exposed publicly.

Not only did she lose all her friends and her reputation at school, but she also neglected her studies due to constantly trying to separate Qi Yanye and Shi Nian, causing her grades to plummet.

She failed her college entrance exams and ended up not getting into university.

Lin Yao couldn't believe it and hurriedly flipped to the end of the book. She didn't have time to read more details; she just wanted to find anything related to her, even a tiny detail.

Finally, at the end of the book, she found a brief mention—

Shi Nian finally accepted Qi Yanye's proposal, living happily ever after. The people around her also had their own happy endings.

Only her high school friend Lin Yao, driven by vanity, became a kept woman of some powerful figure.

When Lin Yao's father learned about this, he was furious and threatened to disown her.

Her mother fell ill and nearly didn't survive.

Lin Yao stared blankly at the page.

No, she couldn't fail to get into university, and she couldn't become someone's kept woman.

She didn't want her father to disown her or her mother to fall critically ill.

Thinking about her fate in the book, Lin Yao's eyes welled up with tears again.

She had worked so hard, studying day and night, how could she not get into university... how could she become someone's kept woman...

No... no...

Lin Yao cried and shook her head in her dream, and then she opened her eyes in a daze.

She saw the hospital ceiling and realized she had woken up from that terrible dream, with wet tears in the corners of her eyes.

It seemed to be midnight now, pitch black around her, with only the faint, cold white light from the corridor shining through the window.

Beep... beep...

The steady sound of medical equipment monitoring her condition echoed in her ears.

Thinking about the dream, Lin Yao's already dizzy head hurt even more.

Her mind was in turmoil and fear, wondering why she had such a strange dream.

After a moment of confusion, the pain in her head intensified, and Lin Yao remembered that she had been hit on the head with a brick by the bald man.

Just as she regained consciousness, her eyelids grew heavy again.

She was so tired.

But Lin Yao didn't dare to sleep.

She was afraid of seeing that strange book again...

Not being someone with a lot of courage, at this moment, she suddenly missed her parents very much. If her parents were here, she wouldn't be scared with them by her side.

Lin Yao suddenly felt regretful. Why did she have to meddle in other people's affairs? If she hadn't meddled, she wouldn't have been left alone like this.

Her head hurt, and she even dreamed about that strange book, yet she dared not even sleep.

Feeling lonely and abandoned in the ward, sad and wronged, Lin Yao pulled the blanket over herself and curled up on her side, wanting to hide and cry quietly.

Just as she turned over, a familiar black figure came into her line of sight.

The injured boy, his eyes closed, leaned against the chair beside the bed. His body slanted slightly, his face turned to one side, breathing evenly, seemingly having fallen asleep without realizing it.

The cold light from the corridor scattered around his feet, and the boy's angular face had a band-aid stuck on it. The scrape on his high nose had already been treated with medicine.

His soft black hair fell gently over his eyebrows, and the faint dark circles under his eyes stood out starkly against his pale skin. But the hand wrapped in bandages still held onto the corner of Lin Yao's blanket.

Lin Yao was stunned...

Was Shi Yu watching over her?

He was so badly injured, with no part of his body unscathed, and he was here watching over her?

The little girl who had just been feeling scared and panicky, barely keeping her eyelids open, suddenly felt a warm current in her heart.

He shouldn't be here...

He should go rest too...

Lin Yao wanted to call out to Shi Yu, but overwhelming drowsiness enveloped her, and she couldn't help closing her eyes.

It doesn't matter; that strange and absurd dream was fake.

Shi Nian and Shi Yu would never watch indifferently as she was abandoned and bullied... Everything in the dream was fake.

He was still watching over her.

With the drowsiness taking over, Lin Yao finally fell asleep peacefully.

In her ears, she could hear Shi Yu's low and steady breathing.

...

...

When Lin Yao opened her eyes again, it was already the next morning.

"Student, you're awake. How do you feel?" A policewoman in uniform, with a concerned expression, helped her sit up.

Lin Yao was still in a daze, looking around. The ward was quiet, with only her and the policewoman beside her, no other person in sight.

Lin Yao: "I..."

Policewoman: "We tried contacting your parents, but we couldn't get through."

Hearing that her parents couldn't be reached, Lin Yao felt relieved instead.

Thank goodness...

Policewoman: "By the way, when the police arrived at the scene yesterday, they saw you being attacked by the suspect, Zhang Qiang. Don't be afraid; the suspect is now under control. Your head injury has been treated by the doctor, fortunately it's not deep. After a check-up, if there are no issues, you can be discharged. Do you feel up to giving a statement to the police?"

Lin Yao nodded blankly: "Yes... But where are my friends? Where are they?"

Policewoman: "Are you talking about the two students who were with you, Shi Nian and Shi Yu?"

Lin Yao: "Yes, they were with me yesterday, and they should have come to the hospital later..."

Lin Yao still remembered seeing Shi Yu by her bedside last night, half-asleep.

Shi Nian had just recovered from a serious illness, and after such a big incident, she guessed that Shi Nian might also be weak and possibly in an adjacent ward.

The policewoman frowned slightly and hesitated before answering: "They gave their statements and went back. I haven't seen them in the hospital."

Lin Yao: "What?"

A fleeting look of disbelief crossed her face: "But I clearly saw him last night..."

The policewoman smiled: "Last night? I was here watching over you all night. I was here the whole time and didn't see those two students."

Lin Yao opened her mouth... but ultimately asked nothing.

It turned out that the policewoman had watched over her all night.

"Sorry, I must have been mistaken..."

The girl lowered her head, her heart weighed down by a heavy sense of disappointment, feeling dull.

It turned out everything was just a hallucination caused by her concussion, a dream.

Of course...

A hint of self-mockery flashed in Lin Yao's eyes.

He had told her not to meddle, how could he be watching over her bedside?

The policewoman couldn't bear to see Lin Yao's disappointed expression, looked away, and deliberately changed the subject: "Alright, let's start the statement."

*

The policewoman finished taking the statement, and then the doctor came to examine Lin Yao.

Her wound was healing well, but she needed to change the dressing every day and take medicine for a few more days.

Lin Yao thanked the doctor and went to settle the discharge procedures.

After she left, the policewoman who had taken her statement ran into another male colleague returning.

Seeing Lin Yao leave, the male officer asked curiously, "Why is the girl leaving alone? Where are those two siblings who stayed with her all night last night?"

"They left as soon as they saw me this morning."

As if remembering something, the policewoman shook her head and sighed.

"I don't know why, but they insisted I not tell Lin Yao that they were the ones who stayed up all night watching over her."

Thinking of the siblings, the policewoman felt a pang of sympathy.

Last night, when she was leaving, she saw the sister weakly waiting outside the ward, determined to stay with Lin Yao until she confirmed she was fine before returning to her own room.

Despite her pale face, the nurse gave her an IV while she kept asking about Lin Yao's condition.

And that boy named Shi Yu was even more stubborn, refusing to leave her side.

The doctor had no choice but to treat his wounds by her bedside.

His left arm was deeply cut by a sharp object, almost to the bone. While stitching him up, he just stared at the unconscious girl on the bed without uttering a single sound.

The male officer sighed, "Sigh, we've seen such things before. Those two siblings must have other concerns due to what happened at home..."

*

When Lin Yao returned to her neighborhood, the sky was already dark with clouds.

The security guard at the gate recognized her and immediately helped her swipe her card to open the door.

Pointing at the bandage on her forehead, he said, "Student, you're the one the police mentioned yesterday, the one hit by a brick, right?"

Lin Yao: "..."

She hadn't expected to become known for such an incident.

Lin Yao pursed her lips and looked around. "By the way, where are all those people who were here before? Why are they gone now?"

In the past few days, besides the bald group, there were other debt collectors who had been guarding the entrance of the building, preventing Shi Nian and Shi Yu from going out.

Today, there wasn't a single person in sight.

The security guard replied, "Of course, they were all taken away by the police for investigation. After such a big commotion, even if they weren't involved in the attack, they wouldn't dare come back. You can go in and out safely for the next few days, but it's tough for those two kids from the Shi family. They don't know how they'll manage in the future..."

Hearing him mention Shi Nian and Shi Yu, Lin Yao lowered her eyes slightly, feeling uneasy.

She pressed the elevator button and went upstairs. As soon as she stepped out of the elevator, she heard sounds coming from next door...

Lin Yao lifted her gaze.

She saw Shi Nian, who was carrying things out, looking down.

Lin Yao instinctively walked over. "Shi Nian, you're back. By the way, what happened to you guys yesterday..."

Before she could finish, Shi Nian turned around, her eyes cold.

Lin Yao froze, a sudden sense of unease flooding her heart.

Shi Nian's icy gaze overlapped with the terrifying words from the novel she had found in her dream last night.

In the original text, it read: "Shi Nian turned back, her eyes cold, revealing the ugliest side of her former friend. Amidst the surrounding insults, everyone despised Lin Yao for trying to secretly seduce Qi Yanye."

Lin Yao spoke timidly, "Shi Nian... what's wrong with you?"

Suddenly, she was afraid, very afraid.

Lin Yao thought she might have suffered a concussion, which led to her strange dream last night.

But now, Shi Nian made her feel like the dream was real.

Even though she used to dislike Shi Nian, Shi Nian had never looked at her with such coldness.

Shi Nian always smiled at her gently, always understanding her hidden sensitivities.

"Lin Yao."

Shi Nian frowned slightly, her expression colder, and spoke in a low, emotionless voice.

"Please, don't come to my house anymore. We... shouldn't interact anymore."

Her tone was calm, as if discussing something ordinary.

Lin Yao's heart ached fiercely. "Why... why are you telling me this..."

She couldn't believe it, stepping back instinctively.

Lin Yao: "Did I say something wrong?"

Her first instinct was to think about her own mistakes.

Yes, she disliked Shi Nian, but with Uncle Shi and Aunt Song gone, Lin Yao, despite her sensitivity and vulnerability, would never hold a grudge against Shi Nian at this moment.

Shi Nian was just a bit reserved, not like Shi Yu, who was difficult and strange.

Maybe... maybe I said something wrong that made Shi Nian overthink.

Lin Yao: "If I said something by accident, I apologize..."

Shi Nian: "No."

Shi Nian's gaze swept over the bandage on her forehead, her eyes darkening slightly, and she spoke in an even softer voice.

"Just because..." She delivered the line she had prepared: "You're really annoying. Don't come bother us anymore, Lin Yao."

Lin Yao: "Annoying..."

'You're really annoying.'

'Stop meddling in other people's affairs.'

Someone had told Shi Nian almost the same thing before.

Lin Yao's eyes turned slightly red, and she nodded in a daze, looking flustered.

"Right... you're right..."

"I shouldn't have..."

"Sorry..."

The same place, the same scene, and almost the same words of disdain.

Only this time, the one who coldly found her annoying was a girl instead of a boy.

But compared to last time, this time Shi Nian's words dealt a double blow to the young girl.

To still be found annoying by Shi Nian after what happened yesterday, she must truly be unbearable.

Lin Yao couldn't even speak coherently, not daring to look at Shi Nian, and ran back to her house.

The door slammed shut.

This time, there wasn't even a sound of crying.

Everything returned to normal.

Shi Nian stood by the door, watching the tightly closed door opposite for a moment before lowering her head.

"Sorry, Lin Youyou..."

She turned around, closed the door, and went back into the living room.

At that moment, Shi Yu was in the living room, packing things with a blank expression on his face.

The once luxuriously decorated living room now had only a few pieces of furniture left.

The Shi family owed too much debt, and they had to sell whatever valuable furniture they could.

After they came to terms with losing their parents, Shi Nian put everything they could sell online, while Shi Yu was responsible for packing.

Yesterday, when they went out, it was also to find a proper real estate agent to list their house, rather than having it sold cheaply by the gang led by the bald man.

But no one expected to run into Zhang Qiang and his group, leading to what happened...

Shi Nian walked up to Shi Yu, squatted down, and silently helped him pack.

After a while, Shi Nian spoke: "Lin Yao was discharged from the hospital. We met at the door just now."

Shi Yu's hand, which was pulling the tape, paused imperceptibly.

Shi Nian's voice was strained: "I said those words to her. It worked well... At least now we can be assured that we won't involve her again."

Not getting a response from Shi Yu, Shi Nian's voice sounded lost.

"Shi Yu, do you think... if this is all over, will Youyou never come near us again?"

Such a light sentence floated through the empty and messy living room.

It wasn't until much later that the young man's eyelids drooped slightly, and he gave a low 'Hmm' before continuing to pack the furniture as if nothing had happened.

Shi Nian glanced at him and continued her work.

...

Lin Yao covered her mouth and sobbed, clumsily throwing herself onto the bed.

The moment she landed on the bed, her injured forehead accidentally hit the pillow.

Pain made her turn sideways, curling into a ball.

So painful...

Her head hurts...

Her heart hurts too...

Lin Yao held her forehead, feeling as though a large invisible hole had opened in her chest despite the injury being on her head.

Just then, her phone suddenly rang.

Lin Yao jumped, trying to hold back her tears as she answered the call.

"Hello..."

The head teacher: "Lin Yao, what happened to you? Why didn't you come for the class placement exam yesterday and today?"

Lin Yao was taken aback, only now remembering the class placement exam.

Oh no, she had completely missed the exam!

Lin Yao anxiously said, "Teacher Zhou, I was injured and hospitalized yesterday, so I couldn't make it to the exam. Can I... take a makeup test?"

Head Teacher: "There's no makeup test."

Sighing on the other end of the phone, the head teacher continued, "This exam is crucial for reorganizing the entire grade, so the school is being very strict. No one can pull strings or take makeup tests. Since you missed both days of exams, you'll be marked with zeros. Lin Yao, when you recover, report directly to Class 13."

Class 13!?

Lin Yao's eyes widened in shock.

What flashed through her mind at that moment wasn't the disappointment of dropping from Class 1 to Class 13, but the fear of being hit by a string of words from her memory.

Class 13 of Grade 11...

It matched exactly with the plot she saw in the book in her dream.

The text from the novel read: "Lin Yao reaped what she sowed; her attempt to frame Shi Nian backfired, leading to her own exam failure and her drop from Class 1 of Grade 11 to Class 13 of Grade 11."

Lin Yao had never doubted that her post-concussion syndrome was the reason for dreaming about the plot of a novel.

She never imagined that one day she would suddenly fall from the top-ranked class to the bottom class.

That was why she had always dismissed everything in that dream as nonsense.

But now, this absurd plot was overlapping perfectly with the novel in her dream.

So... does that mean she won't get into college either? Will she become someone's kept woman? Will she lose her parents too?

After reminding her to attend school regularly, the head teacher hung up the phone.

Lin Yao sat on the bed in a daze.

She suddenly realized that if that vague dream was true, her fate would be terrifying.

Shi Yu and Shi Nian were the protagonists of the book; their story would remain unchanged whether she existed or not.

Their endings wouldn't change.

But she was different.

Her ending in the book... if it doesn't change... she's doomed...

She couldn't even bear to think about it...

Boom—

A bolt of lightning flashed outside the window.

Lin Yao turned sharply, seeing dark clouds rolling and the half-open glass window rattling in the storm.

The girl was almost scared out of her wits.

She was terrified of thunderstorms.

Especially now, being alone at home after such a bizarre experience.

Lin Yao instinctively tried to get out of bed to close the window and draw the curtains, but just as she approached the edge of the bed, another flash of purple light appeared in the distance.

Boom—

The loud thunder startled Lin Yao, causing her to quickly pull the curtains shut and jump onto the bed, hiding under the covers in the corner.

The window rattled even more loudly in the wind.

Lightning flashed, and thunder roared.

Lin Yao shivered, pulling the blanket over her head and desperately trying to fall asleep, to fall asleep.

If only she could sleep, it would be fine.

But every time she closed her eyes, chaotic fragments of the dream's plot appeared before her.

Shi Nian's cold gaze, the tragic outcome after offending the protagonist group, and even the ending where her beloved parents would cut ties with her.

Boom—

"Ahh!"

Unable to sleep, she threw off the blanket and ran.

She jumped off the bed, shuffled in her slippers, and ran out with a pillow.

"Shi Nian, Shi Nian, Shi Nian, open the door..."

The frightened girl frantically pressed the doorbell next door.

At that moment, in the Shi household.

Shi Nian, who had just taken some medicine and was preparing to sleep, heard the anxious and frantic voice outside and lightly frowned.

Is it Lin Yao?

Worried something might have happened to Lin Yao, she hesitated for a few seconds before putting on a robe and opening the bedroom door.

As soon as Shi Nian came out, she saw the door of the opposite bedroom open, and Shi Yu walked out.

Outside the door, Lin Yao's panicked knocking continued.

Worried that Shi Yu might stop her, Shi Nian thought of a reasonable excuse: "We should go take a look. Uncle Lin and Aunt Xia seem to be out. What if something happened to her..."

Shi Yu's expression was indifferent and cold, giving no indication of whether he agreed or not.

But he took a few steps ahead of Shi Nian and walked to the door.

He opened the door.

A small figure rushed in, panicking, and clung tightly to his waist with both hands.

"Shi Nian, Shi Nian, I'm so scared, there's thunder outside..."

Shi Yu was embraced by a warm little thing, and his muscles tensed up.

Only then did Lin Yao realize something was wrong.

She slowly lifted her head and met Shi Yu's deep, icy gaze.

Lin Yao bit her lip, suddenly remembering that Shi Yu had used this cold expression to drive her away not long ago.

Lin Yao pushed him away, "I don't want you, I want Shi Nian..."

The girl turned her head and saw Shi Nian standing behind the door. She immediately pouted and hugged her pillow, rushing over.

Lin Yao: "Shi Nian... there's thunder outside, I have nightmares when I close my eyes, I'm so scared, can I sleep with you tonight..."

Just like when she was a child and feared the thunder most, she held onto the person she trusted the most, inadvertently clinging to the only answer that could possibly change her fate.

Shi Nian: "..."

Shi Nian was taken aback, and her right hand uncontsciously raised to rub Lin Yao's head.

She didn't expect the red-eyed puppy who had just been scared away with harsh words to come back.

Beside them, Shi Yu, who had been angrily pushed aside by the pitiful puppy, moved his fingertips and lowered his eyes.