Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"That modeling competition project."

"Mm."

"Chen Wanhui took the results."

Chen Wanhui is the professor.

Yan Mei bluntly mentioned his name, without any regard for his role as a student.

"...Mm."

"..."

Upon hearing this, the person standing before him remained silent, just tilting his head slightly to the side, his dark eyes turning in the same direction, his gaze fixed on some distant point, as if he were lost in thought over the matter.

"What should I do?"

A few minutes ago, Ye Jishu had asked himself this.

But it was merely a fleeting thought during a moment of uncertainty.

Yet—

At this moment.

"What should I do."

Yan Mei stated flatly.

Ye Jishu paused.

Though the words were identical, the sentiment behind them... was entirely different.

It seemed as if...

There were countless ways to solve it, but bound by some constraint, striving to 'do nothing,' the decision was momentarily daunting.

"..."

"Why had I drawn such an odd parallel."

"As a student, feeling powerless against a professor is natural."

Ye Jishu's arms hung limply at his sides, his shoulders slumping.

He never anticipated any assistance from the other person, but when Yan Mei inquired, he simply answered truthfully.

"It was merely a fleeting doubt."

Though this line of thinking should have offered some solace.

Yet, his shoulder blades twitched, tugging at his nerves, and he fixed an intense, unwavering gaze on the person before him.

Condensation formed on the drink.

His palms grew clammy, the slickness unsettling his stomach.

Suddenly, Yan Mei held his gaze and smiled slightly at him, "I understand."

Ye Jishu was startled.

He opened his mouth, about to ask what that meant—

"Buzz, buzz, buzz."

Suddenly, something in his hand started vibrating.

His words were cut off.

"What's that?"

Ye Jishu shifted his gaze, instinctively looking towards the source of the sound.

It was his phone, locked but forgotten in his pocket...

Perhaps from recent use and its age, it was now burning hot in his hand.

The intense heat pressed against his palm, turning the skin red and swollen. Most would have felt unbearable itching and pain by now, but he hadn't noticed... Was he too captivated by Yan Mei's actions to notice?

Ye Jishu barely regained his composure and glanced at the screen.

Though locked, lifting it displayed the message's general content.

It was a push notification from last night's game.

Ye Jishu skimmed it.

It congratulated him on being the 23rd global player to clear the game, earning a special reward to claim promptly.

He rarely replayed cleared games, finding them boring once familiar. So, after seeing the message, he swiped right and deleted it. Looking up, he met Yan Mei's gaze.

Yan Mei had clearly seen his action.

After their eyes met, Yan Mei smiled slightly, but it didn't reach his eyes.

"Always watching release news, Jishu must really like this game. But once bored, you discard it so casually."

Ye Jishu: "..."

Was Yan Mei angry?

He seemed angry again. Why? Because he liked gaming?

Though puzzled and thinking he should make amends, Ye Jishu first felt relief.

Because—

This Yan Mei felt familiar.

That earlier expressionless demeanor... It was like a mask slipping off, revealing the raw, bloody truth beneath, chilling him.

Was it his own illusion, or a side effect of the game?

But now, looking back.

Throughout, Yan Mei's deep, dark eyes remained unchanged.

"It seemed like Yan Mei was saying something, but for some reason, the words didn’t register."

Ye Jishu stared at Yan Mei's thin lips moving.

Some people, even when angry, make it impossible to stay mad at them—just seeing their face makes all negative emotions vanish.

If it was anger, holding hands would’ve been enough.

According to their old agreement, as long as Ye Jishu reached out, Yan Mei would quickly snap back to normal.

But for some reason, Ye Jishu suddenly didn’t feel like doing that right now.

"...Jishu?"

As if noticing his distraction.

Yan Mei suddenly stopped speaking. "Why aren’t you saying anything? Still worried about that? I’ll take care of it."

Then, Yan Mei raised his hand.

Probably intending to take his hand, like always.

But reflexively, his thoughts a mess, Ye Jishu stepped back, avoiding the hand reaching for him.

"..."

The hand hung in the air, missed.

Ye Jishu snapped back to reality.

He stopped abruptly, not letting the distance between them grow any further.

They stayed half a meter apart.

Driven by instinct, Ye Jishu struggled to keep his usual blank expression, switching the drink to his other hand. The cold cup pressed against his phone-reddened skin, the contrasting temperatures making his hand feel numb, almost like he couldn’t feel his palm.

No words were spoken.

A heavy silence hung in the air.

"…Why did you pull away?"

"My hand hurts."

For some reason, Ye Jishu lied.

His heart raced.

Then, he looked up and reached out to Yan Mei, who stood frozen.

"It got burned," he explained. "I need to hold the drink, so..."

The rest of his words trailed off.

Yan Mei stared at him, expressionless and silent, his face shadowed by an almost inhuman gloom.

"One second, two seconds..."

Ye Jishu's heart raced faster and faster.

Suddenly, that face returned to normal, revealing a worried, sincere expression.

"Oh, I see—is it bad? Should you see a doctor?"

Ye Jishu replied, "...It's nothing, just need to ice it for a bit."

He switched the drink to his other hand, spread his palm, and showed it to Yan Mei earnestly, not wanting Yan Mei to truly worry.

It was just a minor injury, really.

After holding the cold drink against it for a bit, the redness and swelling had mostly gone down.

"See?" Ye Jishu said, "It's all good now!"

Yan Mei lowered his gaze, raised his hand, and traced the lines on the palm of Ye Jishu's hand with his knuckles.

This time, it felt like he was pressing a little harder.

The touched area felt slightly itchy, and the burned spot was as sensitive as new flesh, causing a tingling ache as Yan Mei pressed closer.

Three curved lines marked his palm.

The life line, the career line, and the love line.

He pressed each one in turn.

If he used a bit more force, it might bruise, but at this level, it made Ye Jishu's leg muscles tense and twitch, unable to ignore the sensation left on his hand.

Ye Jishu resisted the urge to pull his hand away.

"This feels so weird."

Only when Yan Mei withdrew his hand did Ye Jishu's tense body relax, realizing he had been holding his breath the entire time.

"Good. I just heard our number—it's time to go in... If you feel off, let me know, okay?"

Ye Jishu nodded quickly.

He couldn't deny he wanted to change the subject as fast as possible.

Once their number flashed on the screen, they just had to show their tickets and verify their IDs to get in.

Yan Mei handed both tickets to the ticket inspector, waiting for the crowd to move and enter the aquarium's glass entrance. Usually, Ye Jishu would pull out his phone to kill time in line, but not this time.

What had just happened kept him on edge.

Since he had decided to make the second date perfect, he wouldn't do something as oblivious as last time.

The onlookers thought they were subtle, but their gazes were like ripples on the aquarium's glass walls, shimmering under the lights and drawing constant attention to Yan Mei, filling the space around him.

If Ye Jishu hadn't been there, those people eyeing Yan Mei would've definitely tried to chat him up.

...At least some things never changed.

As he zoned out, Yan Mei suddenly asked, "Who just texted you?"

"Wen Yuhe."

"Yeah."

It sounded like a casual question.

But in a spot Ye Jishu didn’t notice, a chilling shadow crossed his faintly smiling face.

...

Lin Lin stood at the back of the queue, glancing ahead out of the corner of his eye. He took a bite of bread without even looking at it.

The dry bread stuck in his throat.

He nearly choked, quickly grabbing a nearby drink to wash it down.

"Cough, cough."

"That was close—almost died right there."

"But seriously, does the Bureau even pay for overnight overtime?"

Lin Lin was on a mission, after all.

After dropping off the two classmates linked to "Source of Infection 3301" at the nearest containment facility, he spent an hour filing the mission report with headquarters. Then he rushed back to the university and parked under Ye Jishu’s dorm.

Now—

His eyes landed on a spot not far away.

"Ye Jishu."

He was here because of him.

Lin Lin hadn’t slept a wink last night.

He’d only managed to sneak in a quick trip to the convenience store for breakfast during surveillance.

Ye Jishu was crucial.

They had to keep a constant eye on his movements.

Because "Source of Infection 3301" would definitely target Ye Jishu first.

Lin Lin was sure of this because "Source of Infection 3301" had transformed less than a day ago.

This was the "first stage" of the transformation.

It was relatively simple and easy to manage.

Since they’d just transformed, their minds were still chaotic, their thinking not yet back to normal.

"Source of Infection 3301" had called out Ye Jishu’s name—no doubt, that was its next move.

But this phase only lasted three days.

Either Ye Jishu would be killed, or the source of infection would regain its senses in three days and make a run for it.

"Either way, it’s unacceptable..."

Lin Lin couldn't help but glance down at the message again.

"In half an hour."

The chat box still showed only this one message from the other person.

But it had already been more than half an hour.

That damn guy with the sunglasses still hadn't shown up for work! It was supposed to be the two of them on field duty, yet he was late again!!

He stuffed his phone away angrily.

He was definitely going to report him to headquarters.

But for now, he had to handle the surveillance alone.

He just hoped he wouldn't run into the source of infection too quickly...

After all, as a second-level enforcer, he wasn't qualified enough to deal with that kind of creature.

Up ahead was the "Freshwater Ecological Zone."

As time passed, more tourists arrived, and the air grew thick, with reflections of the crowd piling up on the glass walls.

Lin Lin got pushed forward by the moving crowd.

His anger was cut short.

A sudden flash of light caught his attention, and he instinctively looked in that direction.

Then, he caught his own reflection in the glass wall.

His eyes looked blurry and faintly brown in the glass. The water ripples made them look different than usual.

Lin Lin stared blankly for a moment, when suddenly, he noticed a strange shadow blending into the crowd.

That was—

His eyebrow twitched, and his heart stopped.

At the same time, as if confirming his thoughts, the pen clipped to his coat suddenly started beeping.

Infection index spiking.

It was—

"Source of Infection 3301."

In Lin Lin's terrified gaze, it moved with the crowd, swaying unsteadily, its limbs jerking, heading in the direction where Ye Jishu had vanished.