Chapter 24:

Chapter 24:

The door to the office was left slightly ajar.

Just walk forward and you could see the corner of the desk from that position.

"Still no sign of any conversation."

The silence was deafening.

It was as if the room was empty.

Ye Jishu paused for a moment.

But the next moment.

A warm sensation suddenly pressed against his back.

Yan Mei pressed closely against his back, his hand slipping through the gap between Ye Jishu's arm and his body. In a gesture of holding him, Yan Mei pushed the door open.

The office scene came into view.

Professor Chen was seated in his chair.

His face was twisted in anger, as if he were about to start yelling any second.

And on the other side of the room—

The roommate stood with his head lowered in front of the desk, his long black hair covering his eyes, making his expression impossible to read.

But as the door opened and Ye Jishu and Yan Mei entered, his fingers twitched slightly.

The two men remained completely silent.

It was as if they were characters in some eerie silent play.

Two puppets placed in a scene, only starting their performance when an audience arrived.

In this tense situation, no one made a move.

Suddenly, the roommate spoke.

"Professor, um..."

"Speak quickly if you have something to say!" Professor Chen didn't even look up, keeping his head down as he graded teaching plans. "I'm busy, I don't have time for students. If you're here about that math modeling competition again, get out!"

"But, professor..."

Professor Chen impatiently clicked his tongue and tossed the pen aside. "I already told you, you just didn't win, that's all!"

But the roommate didn't move.

His hand clenched the hem of his clothes for a moment before relaxing.

Then, his nervous voice trembled slightly. "Professor... I saw my paper in an elementary school competition, but my name wasn't on it... why—"

Before he could finish, Professor Chen had already stood up from behind the desk.

"Bang!"

The table was hit with a bang.

He pushed back the chair and walked quickly to his roommate, his eyes bulging as he glared at him.

"What do you mean?"

"..."

"Even if it is, so what?"

Ye Jishu saw the roommate clench his hand, his fingers digging into his palm, leaving marks of blood.

A sound like a mosquito's buzz escaped his throat.

This was something a person who no longer knew how to defend themselves was desperately trying to express.

"But, you can't use mine to cover for you..."

"Slap!"

Professor Chen slapped him.

The roommate stumbled backward.

"So what if I did!"

At your level, you'd only get second place in a grade school competition. What a waste of talent! I haven't even mentioned just how low your level is! You made sure my child couldn't even get extra points, don't waste my time!

"I..."

"Slap!"

Another slap.

"You're the worst student I've ever had. How dare you come and tell me these things? Want to accuse me?"

"Slap!"

"You're the son of my longtime friend. How can you be so useless?"

"Hah, what a waste of space."

"Can't even call me 'Uncle Chen,' how rude. Did you copy it from somewhere?"

"I should have disciplined you for your parents' sake."

With each slap that landed, more degrading words followed.

The roommate, who had tried to defend himself, now muttered, as if speaking to himself.

The slaps weren't particularly hard, but the humiliation was powerful.

His hand, raised instinctively, protected his face. His forearm reddened from the slaps.

Each time, his thin skin seemed to shrink back, trembling as if it might break. But still, he remained standing in place.

As if doing so could convey his stubbornness.

"I, I'm not useless..."

"That's my competition essay..."

The rain rumbled loudly.

His voice was swallowed by the darkness.

Ye Jishu had wanted to step in and stop it for a while.

However, Yan Mei didn't let go of his wrist, the gesture that had held him in place since he entered.

Yan Mei coldly watched for a moment.

Then, a smile spread across the corner of his mouth.

Ye Jishu couldn't take his eyes off his roommate.

The sound of quiet sobbing had disappeared from him at some point.

The air in the office was heavy with an unspeakable, eerie atmosphere, with only the sound of slapping echoing lifelessly.

"Enough! That's it."

With those words, Professor Chen finally lowered his hand, seemingly relieved, and exhaled a breath of stale air.

"Get out of my office! I need to grade your advanced algebra exams; I don't have time to waste on you!"

The roommate dropped his arm, and his eyes peered out from beneath his thick hair.

He stared blankly at the middle-aged man before him.

"Will you fail me?"

"Hehe, that depends on your performance. Your usual grades are just average; I won't be falsifying your scores."

The roommate paused.

Then, he dragged his heavy body towards Ye Jishu.

That was also the direction of the door.

Noticing his patience once again.

Along with the satisfaction of achieving his goal, a look of undisguised contempt for this kind of person appeared in Professor Chen's eyes.

Most people would only feel disgusted by this kind of cowardly, pitiful victim.

"Oh, and don't tell your parents; save them the trouble, especially since you're such a disappointment."

The roommate kept his head down, saying nothing.

He dragged his feet to Ye Jishu's side, about to pass by him.

"Smack!"

Ye Jishu suddenly raised his hand, twisted sideways out of Yan Mei's embrace, and grabbed the roommate's arm.

The move caught everyone off guard.

Startled, the roommate jerked his head up quickly.

In his line of sight, he saw a pained, sorrowful face.

Seeing Ye Jishu's expressionless face, the roommate found an outlet for his emotions, gurgling sounds escaping his mouth.

"I really hate myself like this… hate it."

"If I had the courage to speak out, or if I just posted it online, someone would help. If I had yelled back, I wouldn't have been slapped like that. If only I weren't so cowardly, so weak, unable to express myself, my parents wouldn't hate me..."

He knew it was foolish, that it made him hate himself.

But for some reason, he just couldn't take that step forward.

How do people who can fully express themselves, who can openly admit they're ordinary, how do they manage it?

He felt so envious.

So, so envious.

Really. So envious.

The roommate stared at Ye Jishu with tear-filled, loathsome eyes, not blinking.

"It's annoying, right? I didn't want you to see this. But the current me can only retaliate by recalling that humiliation and feeling self-loathing again. Because, in that elevator, something happened—"

"In the elevator, what happened?"

The next moment.

Over Ye Jishu's head, Yan Mei's voice, tinged with a smile, said: "You—"

The roommate immediately fell silent.

It was a light, fleeting sentence, softer even than the roommate's murmuring. On a stormy night like this, if you weren't listening closely, it could easily be mistaken for rain, but it had the desired effect.

Yan Mei said, "You've said too much."

"Is that how you usually talk to strangers?"

However, as soon as the words fell, the wrist that Ye Jishu had been holding was suddenly yanked away and hidden behind the roommate's back.

The roommate buried his face in his hands.

After that, he avoided any further physical contact.

Yan Mei, still expressionless, stared at the spot where their skin had touched, then suddenly smiled. "Why so tense? I'm just a regular guest here. Close your stuff and go back now."

"What do you mean, close my stuff?"

"No, um, that..."

The roommate turned his head and looked at Professor Chen, who was standing in place.

Ye Jishu's gaze instinctively followed along.

The middle-aged man who had just been ranting and spewing insults now had cloudy eyes, as if he couldn't figure out what was happening. After saying those words, he stood there dazed at his desk, not moving.

Yan Mei didn't look away, only smiled. "Is there a problem?"

The roommate's eyes widened in shock.

It was an instinctive reaction of extreme fear.

"I... I'll leave now..."

"..."

"Jishu, aren't you worried about him? Escort him back. I haven't finished handling things here, but I can manage on my own."

Ye Jishu halted his movements and glanced back at Yan Mei, who was still tightly holding onto him.

Yan Mei's expression remained unchanged, not appearing angry, but he had just said something—

Something that definitely didn't seem like him.

What exactly was going on...

"What's wrong, Jishu? Do you think I'm deliberately being sarcastic?"

Yan Mei lowered his head and looked at him.

His eyes held absolutely no hint of amusement.

Well, there was only one correct answer.

Ye Jishu replied, "It's not that."

However, Yan Mei looked at him with a blank expression.

"It is. I was being sarcastic."

"..."

Ye Jishu stared at him in silence.

Seeing his expression, Yan Mei extended his hand.

He cupped the other's face, his thumb rubbing hard enough to leave dark red marks.

The other let him continue.

Clearly still confused by the response.

He likely allowed the touch because he thought Yan Mei was angry and was simply humoring him.

How cute.

Yan Mei lowered his eyes and gazed for a moment.

Suddenly, a powerful, overwhelming emotion surged up from within, impossible to dispel.

What is that?

"Like."

The only thought in his mind was this.

He liked it.

Like right now, the way Ye Jishu was staring at him—

Even though the other person didn’t understand him, just that look was enough to stay in his mind for a long time.

But at that moment, those clear eyes looking at him only managed to slightly ease his irritation.

Even though he was in a terrible mood, filled with jealousy, anger, and even joy, Yan Mei didn’t want to scare the other person. As always, he put on that fake, smiling mask, the kind of face the other would like, just to help calm their racing heart.

He had stared long enough.

His dark eyes moved to his roommate, then landed on Professor Chen’s face nearby.

Yan Mei had endured for far too long.

Maybe it was the weather.

On rainy days, there were more mosquitoes, the cicadas chirped louder, and the rain was unexpectedly heavy.

Because of this provocation, the vermin had gotten bolder, crawling out of the sewers and wandering in front of him without hesitation.

As for the secrets of this world.

He absolutely wouldn’t let anyone talk about it and ruin the normal life he had built with Ye Jishu.

It had been four months, and things had been going smoothly...

Their relationship had deepened.

Slowly, from holding hands, to hugging, to kissing.

But then—

"You fool, who doesn’t know your place, you should’ve just kept pretending to be a roommate."

"I didn’t bother with him because he had touched Jishu. Now he’s even dared to open a space. Is he asking to die?"

Dealing with this trash, there’s no need to open a space. Tch.

This was the job Jishu had given him.

Other things just had to get involved, creating all this chaos. It made Jishu look at him with that slightly evasive expression.

Is Jishu scared of him?

Even though he’d been so obedient, so well-behaved.

He’s going to be scared.

He definitely will be.

Darn, darn.

His mood got even worse.

……

Yan Mei couldn’t help narrowing his eyes as he coldly said, "Xia Tian, it’s really disgusting."

What about Xia Tian…?

This is definitely just misplaced anger.

Ye Jishu stared at the person in front of him, completely unsure why he had suddenly brought up this topic.

"Wait, let’s head back together."

"……”

"Just bear with me a little longer."

After making this cryptic remark, Yan Mei softly added, "It'll be over soon."

"What are you planning to do?"

Seeing Ye Jishu’s confused look, Yan Mei paused for a moment before gently saying, "I just need a minute to talk to Professor Chen, then it should be over."

It was almost a coaxing tone.

"Then, we'll get back to our normal lives."

"If there’s any sign after this, I’ll put an end to it ahead of time."

He absolutely couldn’t let Jishu sense his true self and leave him.

Just the thought of such a future made him feel…

"Unforgivable."

He’d never let something like that happen.