Chapter 21

Chapter 21

As his roommate's voice trailed off.

"Drip."

"Drip."

……

Water continued to drip from the toilet.

An eerie, damp silence filled the dormitory that had fallen into darkness.

Ye Jishu turned his gaze to the door of the bathroom.

The washbasin was there, but the faucet was securely closed, with no signs of it being loose.

So, the dripping could only be coming from inside the bathroom.

He grabbed a disposable cup and took one out, then placed the plastic bag he was holding inside, watching the goldfish swim safely. Only then did he release his grip, shifting his attention elsewhere.

As the room fell silent, the faint sound of someone crying echoed through the dormitory.

"Jishu, you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

A viscous liquid seeped out from under the door, sliding along the floor's texture until it reached the center of the dormitory.

He made his way towards the bathroom.

His soles felt sticky, as if he was stepping in asphalt, and each step creaked.

Ye Jishu halted at the bathroom door.

His roommate immediately panicked, "Don't come in, just stay there, please!"

He didn't move forward.

"My head aches, it aches so much... My whole body hurts. Is my brain melting or something? I don't know..."

Ye Jishu: "Want to go to the hospital? I'll go with you."

Although the dormitory was probably locked by now, in this situation, the dorm manager should let them out.

However, his roommate immediately reacted strongly to his words.

"No, absolutely not—!"

He paused weakly, muttering, "My mind has become surprisingly clear, just by you being a little closer... just a little closer. Why... did you come back so late? My head is so dizzy, you, did you go on a date again?"

His roommate was still concerned about his dates with Yan Mei.

Not knowing what to say, Ye Jishu simply responded with a soft "Yeah."

……

However, as his voice fell, there was no sound from his roommate’s side anymore.

The air became dull and silent.

Ye Jishu: "Are you still awake?"

After some time.

A faint voice came from within.

"……Mhm."

"Don't fall asleep, okay?"

After speaking, Ye Jishu headed towards his bed.

Because he often stayed up late and had experienced insomnia and temple headaches after waking up, he had bought some painkillers.

Because they weren't prescription drugs, they weren't rare, and since they didn't have side effects, he could buy as many as he wanted.

Even if a normal person took them for the wrong symptoms, there probably wouldn't be any major issues.

Maybe it would help.

If not, he'd have to call the dorm supervisor.

Ye Jishu wasn't the kind of person to force someone to go to the hospital.

He had no experience caring for sick people.

Even when he'd been sick before, he'd been too lazy to do anything, just lying in bed waiting for symptoms to go away.

So if it was just body pain, maybe some painkillers would help.

He had some disposable cups.

But hot water was something he didn't have.

Luckily, there was a hot water room in the dorm building.

And since it was open 24 hours, he still had time.

"I'm going to get some water," Ye Jishu said.

Without waiting for his roommate to respond, he grabbed a long-unused thermos, opened the dorm door, and left.

Once outside, away from the stuffy room, the sound of pouring rain immediately hit his ears.

The wind blew across his cheeks through the cracks.

He looked back at the window down the corridor.

The downpour had started again.

The lights in the hallway were all off.

Only the emergency exit signs, low on the walls, glowed faint green.

Every dorm room door was unusually closed tight.

As Ye Jishu walked by carrying the thermos flask, he heard a "creak" from behind.

He turned sideways and glanced out of the corner of his eye.

A pair of eyes staring at him was visible through the gap.

"——"

Something seemed to be muttered from the mouth.

Though he couldn't make it out clearly, it didn’t seem like anything good, as if they were quietly talking about him.

Yet, despite this, they seemed too afraid to approach him.

Like this, they continued to stare at him through the door, not showing their bodies, but their faces clearly looked like those of ordinary people.

Ye Jishu recognized that face.

It was a classmate from his statistics class. Because of Yan Mei, the person would sometimes talk to him, but now they were staring at him as if they didn't know him.

"……"

"This feels… inexplicable."

He averted his gaze.

However, there were multiple dormitories along the corridor.

As he walked past, he heard more creaking as doors were pulled open.

Their eyes remained fixed on him.

As more doors opened, the whispering grew louder, blending with the sound of the rain, making the noise overwhelming.

They were definitely talking about and judging something.

Could this be because of Yan Mei?

It kind of made sense.

They had only gone to the arcade for a date, and when they came back, everyone found out.

It was the first time so many people had noticed Ye Jishu, and they were eager to talk to him, desperate to know Yan Mei’s preferences.

Normally, those people never interacted with him.

With this in mind, Ye Jishu ignored the gazes, a hint of irritation welling up inside him.

He turned the corner at the end and entered the hot water room.

It was narrow, with only a water boiler leaning next to three washing machines, a red light indicating it was running.

As he approached, his steps came to an abrupt halt.

There were two students standing facing each other.

Even though they maintained the posture of talking, no sound came from their mouths, as if they were posing for whispering.

He saw him approaching.

The two people slowly turned their heads, staring in his direction.

Ye Jishu walked past them.

Their eyes followed his movements, shifting from left to right, still not speaking, just staring at him.

“……”

God, how annoying.

Ye Jishu focused his attention on the water heater, once again ignoring the two people nearby who seemed to be watching him.

The lighting was dim.

With the rain outside the window and the shadows of the swaying trees, the floor was even more crisscrossed with shadows.

"I can't tell where the start button is."

Ye Jishu took his phone out of his pocket, accessed the flashlight function, and turned it on.

A faint light came from the front of the phone.

But perhaps it was because the device was old, the light flickered frequently, giving the impression of a short circuit.

He glanced at the instructions above.

The red button first.

It read "Start" in Chinese characters.

Ye Jishu placed the thermos bottle under the water outlet, swiped his student ID, and then finally pressed the red button.

The hot water flowed out steadily.

The phone's light dimmed and then instantly brightened again.

A message notification occupied the memory, weakening the flashlight function.

Ye Jishu swiped the screen to dismiss the message.

But before the message vanished from his view, he saw its full content.

"Have you considered it? The project is expected to be announced next Monday and carried out on Wednesday."

Wow, so soon?

The thought crossed his mind just as the message disappeared from the screen.

The phone's light instantly brightened again.

The thermos was nearly full.

Ye Jishu reached out and pressed the blue "stop" button, the water stopping just below the bottle opening, without spilling over.

He picked up the thermos and screwed the lid tight.

Now it was time to head back.

The bottle was a bit heavy and required both hands to hold steady, so Ye Jishu moved the phone towards the front of the cup.

Ye Jishu raised his head.

Suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, he found a face extremely close to his own.

It was —

His roommate’s face.

The other person had appeared at some point and was standing behind him silently, staring fixedly at his actions without blinking.

This was the first time Ye Jishu was seeing this face.

Delicate, frail, with extremely long hair.

Although he had never actually seen this person before, he immediately recognized him by his eyes.

There was something neurotic about him.

The roommate muttered in a low voice.

His eyes were wild, his teeth chattering, and his whole body shaking violently.

"Jishu, Jishu, do you see? I can't bear being alone. Those people are talking about me. It's terrifying, so scary—I don’t want to be seen like this. Even if I’m useless and can’t do anything, I don’t want them talking about me behind my back. I’m so scared—"

As he spoke, Ye Jishu noticed that the two students, who had been standing still earlier, had now shifted their gazes to the roommate.

The previously silent mouths suddenly let out mocking laughter.

"I heard his parents are both professors, how could he do so poorly on the final exams?"

"Haha, I guess that’s all the intelligence he has."

"I'm so jealous that if I had parents like that, I'd definitely be in a better school by now."

Just like the things he had fearfully and resistantly spoken of, the same eerie situation unfolded.

Aside from the voices of the two people talking, the entire building was completely silent.

However, the person in front of Ye Jishu suddenly raised his hands and clasped his head, as if his head were filled with countless voices.

"It's so noisy..."

"Can you see?"

"Everyone is looking at me, talking about me behind my back—"

In front of him, the roommate’s face glistened in the darkness, tears drenching his entire face.

"Do you know, Jishu? It's always been like this. That’s why I don’t want to go out. With a lot of effort, I wrote that paper—a paper that could have won the competition, a paper that would have made my parents proud. But I never got to see my name announced—because—"

Ye Jishu knew what the roommate was about to say.

"Because Professor Chen stole the credit for my paper."

Ye Jishu turned his head and coldly looked at the two boys who were still talking nonsense with strange mannerisms.

"Shut up."

Creak.

Their discussion suddenly stopped.

Even the branches outside the window seemed to freeze.

The roommate suddenly raised his head, his black eyes wide in disbelief on his face.

"He actually erased... my infection..."

It was a shocked whisper.

So, Ye Jishu didn’t hear it.

Right then.

Ye Jishu didn’t know how to comfort people.

So, under his gaze, he paused briefly and chose the most important thing to say.

"You're not a waste, just an ordinary person."

"An ordinary person..."

The roommate repeated the phrase.

The roommate's eyes were fixed on him.

For reasons unknown, his eyes gradually became moist, and tears began to flow down his cheeks once again.

In the dark, his lips twitched, as if he wanted to say something but held back.

His eyes only showed sorrow.

"If I had met Jishu sooner, things would’ve been better."

"Whether it was my parents or classmates, it didn’t matter. I... tried my best, but it wasn’t enough. I always just wanted someone to tell me that..."

The liquid dripping out seemed to turn into black slime.

Instinctively, Ye Jishu wanted to see what it was.

But the roommate suddenly stepped back, out of the phone's light, hiding in the shadows.

"Thank... you," he stammered. "We... we’re friends, right?"

"Mm."

"That’s good, being friends... I’ll respect what you choose. I’ll help you. If Jishu decides to stay an ordinary person, I’ll go to Professor Chen and stop him from doing this to you again—"

His voice fell eerily silent for a few seconds.

"Professor Chen should see me now."

"..." Ye Jishu.

"What on earth is he talking about? His mental state is already messed up."

"I can't let him leave and go find Professor Chen."

But before he could react, the other person vanished in an instant.

Ye Jishu wasn't able to stop him in time.

"What the hell is all this?"

"Thud."

Suddenly, a noise came from the dark.

He hesitated for a moment, then used his phone's flashlight to see.

It was the two students from the water room nearby, lying on the ground like puppets whose strings had been cut.

"They actually passed out suddenly."

Everything was eerily quiet.

All that could be heard was the rain tapping on the window.

The air was moist and stuffy.

At the same time, an indescribable, absurd feeling welled up in him.

Ye Jishu stood there, holding a thermos.

"Buzz buzz——"

His phone suddenly vibrated.

It was the forum, blowing up with new post notifications.

Ye Jishu had set it to only get notifications for posts about modeling competitions.

This meant that in just a few seconds, hundreds of related posts had popped up.

"Are people losing their minds..."