Chapter 6: Capture

Chapter 6: Capture

“Lin Shenshi.”

Lu Yuan’s voice was icy, betraying no emotion.

Lin Shenshi stiffened for a moment, then quickly put on an obedient smile, turning to face him. “Teacher Lu, did you need me for something?”

The cold gaze fell upon him like an X-ray, making him wonder if every pretense had already been seen through by those profound, dark eyes behind the gold-rimmed glasses.

Lin Shenshi’s heart pounded: Did Lu Yuan stop him because he saw what he just did? But he hadn’t even turned around—did he have eyes in the back of his head?

No, don’t panic. Stay calm!

He couldn’t afford to lose his composure.

While mentally steeling himself, Lin Shenshi remained outwardly unmoving, quietly awaiting Lu Yuan’s reply.

Finally, as if Lu Yuan truly hadn’t found any flaw, he beckoned to Lin Shenshi:

“Come here.”

Lin Shenshi walked over, his heart in his throat.

A stack of papers was thrust into his arms: “Last class’s assignments. Go hand these out.”

Only when Lu Yuan turned and walked back into the classroom did Lin Shenshi finally breathe a sigh of relief.

He probably really hadn’t noticed anything.

Lin Shenshi followed closely behind Lu Yuan, and the moment he stepped into the classroom, he instinctively glanced toward the back door.

In the bright afternoon sunlight, Yu Lanzhao’s slender figure stood at the boundary between light and shadow, his dark eyes fixed on their direction.

It wasn’t until they had all entered the classroom that he turned alone and stepped through the back door.

Whether it was an illusion or not, Lin Shenshi thought he caught a glimpse of a chilling, unnatural coldness in those clear, deer-like eyes—something that didn’t belong to a youth.

But by the time they were all inside and the boy had taken his seat, when he looked again, it was completely gone.

Probably… just his imagination.

*

After handing out the assignments, Lin Shenshi avoided looking at Yu Lanzhao again. He sat in the front row, as far from him as possible, and deliberately ignored the pleading, resentful stare burning into his back.

At the podium, Lu Yuan had already opened the PowerPoint and begun his lecture.

In the original novel, campus life was merely a backdrop for the main characters’ sexual encounters, with little detail. But experiencing it firsthand today, Lin Shenshi realized that Lu Yuan wasn’t just a perverted, lust-driven machine.

Behind those gold-rimmed glasses, his gaze was focused. His explanations were professional and solid, well-structured, with clear, easy-to-understand examples, moving from specifics to broader concepts. Even Lin Shenshi, a complete novice who had never studied acting, could grasp a thing or two.

He really was a competent teacher.

Just as he was thinking this, the “good teacher,” twenty minutes into the class, shot his umpteenth glance toward the back row of the classroom.

There sat the novel’s main protagonist, the story’s bottom love interest—Yu Lanzhao.

Lin Shenshi: “……”

Good teacher, my ass!

What kind of good teacher preys on his own student? Pretending to kindly offer milk, only to lace it with something shady, then taking advantage of the student’s unconscious state to do whatever he wanted to him until he’s covered in his own concoction, all while recording the entire thing?

A wolf in sheep’s clothing really knows how to disguise himself!

Fuming, Lin Shenshi shot a disdainful glare toward the podium, only to find Lu Yuan looking right back at him. Their eyes met.

Before Lin Shenshi could even withdraw his gaze, he was singled out.

“Lin Shenshi, repeat what I just explained.”

“…………”

Damn it, he’d zoned out for just two minutes.

Lu Yuan was merciless: “Write it out 20 times. Hand it in with next week’s homework.”

“…Yes, Teacher Lu.”

Lin Shenshi obediently resigned himself and didn’t dare let his mind wander again.

An hour and a half of specialized class ended as the sun began to set in the west.

With the ring of the dismissal bell, students streamed out of the classroom in small groups.

“Come here for a moment.”

Just as Yu Lanzhao was pushing through the crowd, moving against the flow toward Lin Shenshi, Lu Yuan suddenly called out to him.

Lin Shenshi kept his head down, packing his textbooks, and vaguely sensed the boy’s gaze. Yu Lanzhao seemed to pause for two seconds before changing direction and heading toward the podium.

Hearing Yu Lanzhao’s footsteps fade into the distance, Lin Shenshi let out a sigh of relief, quickly stuffed his textbooks into his backpack, slung it over one shoulder, and quietly slipped out of the classroom.

He could feel eyes following him from behind but didn’t dare look back, breaking into a light jog to get away.

—Yu Lanzhao’s vulnerable gaze was just too lethal. Better not to look.

The early autumn evening still carried traces of summer’s residual heat. As Lin Shenshi walked along the campus’s flagstone path, he couldn’t help but recall the original novel’s plot.

The acting class assignments were always collected by Yu Lanzhao, who would then hand them in collectively at Lu Yuan’s office on Sunday evenings.

Before this, since Lu Yuan hadn’t yet been triggered by the “drunken roommate assault” incident, their relationship had appeared peaceful on the surface. But after last night, after Lu Yuan rescued the protagonist and indulged freely, his predatory instincts had been fully awakened. Just a few days without touching the protagonist left him craving more, already hooked on the thrill.

Coupled with the protagonist’s exceptionally sound sleep—remaining completely unconscious no matter how he was manhandled in his sleep, even waking up the first time clueless about who had violated him—Lu Yuan began to entertain some dark ideas.

How to satisfy his lust without exposing the dirty thoughts he harbored for his student beneath his teacher’s facade…

So, on that Sunday evening when the protagonist went to his office to submit the assignments, Lu Yuan handed him a cup of warm water laced with sleeping pills. The innocent, unsuspecting youth drank it without hesitation, falling into a deep slumber, completely unaware that he was once again being thoroughly enjoyed, inside and out, by his respected teacher.

When he woke up groggily, Lu Yuan had already cleaned up all traces and tricked him into believing he’d simply fallen asleep in the office.

The boy, none the wiser, even tearfully thanked the teacher for covering him with a blanket, never suspecting that the very person before him had stripped him bare from head to toe the night before, leaving his porcelain skin exposed as he lay sprawled across the crimson mahogany desk.

A sticky, greedy gaze swept over him like a blood-red snake’s tongue, soft waist caressed until it was covered in blotchy red marks, like endless plum blossoms in winter’s frost and snow… until dawn broke.

This time, without the influence of the “drunken roommate assault” incident, would Lu Yuan still make a move on Yu Lanzhao…?

Would this world change because of his interference…?

As Lin Shenshi was lost in thought, the sudden, urgent ring of a bicycle bell sounded behind him.

“Coming through! Coming through!”

Someone yelled.

On a remote wooded path, a bicycle came speeding over. Lin Shenshi turned to look—the wheels spun rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, it was just five meters away from him.

The extremely short distance and sudden situation left him no time to react, and he froze in place.

“Whoa!”

The bicycle charged straight toward him!

“Bang!”

Lin Shenshi's vision went dark, but the expected pain never came—someone had shielded him as they fell to the ground.

The bicycle wheels spun emptily in the air, emitting a crisp sound, while the young man's fresh scent filled his nostrils.

Lin Shenshi blinked, his mind slowly catching up.

A slender frame was half-propped beside him, the contents of a messenger bag scattered all over the ground. Its owner didn’t even glance at them, instead fixing his dark, ink-black eyes directly on Lin Shenshi, overflowing with worry and concern.

“Xiao Shi, are you hurt?”

Yu Lanzhao looked at him nervously, his clear voice quivering slightly. Lin Shenshi was carefully checked from head to toe, and only after repeated confirmation that there were no injuries did Yu Lanzhao finally let out a sigh of relief.

Blood trickled down his fair cheek.

Yet he seemed completely unaware.

As long as Lin Shenshi was safe and unharmed, it was as if he wouldn’t have cared about a thousand injuries.

Lin Shenshi stared blankly at that vivid red, his throat choked up as if blocked by something, unable to utter a single word.

The cyclist ran over, bowing apologetically. “I’m so sorry, the brakes gave out. Are you both alright?”

Yu Lanzhao waved it off cheerfully. “It’s fine, it’s fine. Luckily, I yanked him out of the way in time. You should go get your bike fixed—the handlebars are all bent.”

The student kept apologizing before finally pushing his crooked bicycle away.

It wasn’t until the figure had disappeared into the distance, just a fading silhouette, that Lin Shenshi finally snapped out of his daze.

His hand reached toward the youth’s cheek, sticky blood smearing on his fingertips, a glaring crimson.

“You’re hurt.”

Yu Lanzhao realized it belatedly, dismissed it casually. “It’s nothing, just a small cut. It’ll heal in a couple of days.”

“…”

Lin Shenshi's amber eyes lowered as fragments of the original story suddenly flooded his mind.

In the middle and later parts of this explicit harem novel, it was precisely Yu Lanzhao’s stunning, breathtaking beauty that allowed him to secure a place in the entertainment industry.

The main love interests who had once imposed their affection upon him had, to varying degrees, contributed to his success. Yet it was only when he stood on the highest podium that they truly began to see him as an equal partner.

Especially the second and third leads—compared to Lu Yuan’s gloomy, oppressive love, their feelings were more about possession and dominance.

In fact, when they first met, they had treated the protagonist as nothing more than a plaything for their whims...

If Yu Lanzhao were to lose his beauty, he would lose the only leverage he had to turn his life around. What awaited him would be a bleak future—forever unable to rise, even abandoned at any moment once others grew tired of him.

As an orphan, Yu Lanzhao had no safety net like others had. Behind him was a bottomless abyss; one misstep would lead to eternal ruin.

Even now, though Yu Lanzhao hadn’t yet experienced the heavy future described in the original book, as a student at the Performing Arts Academy, he should have known the importance of his face.

—It was his only means of making a living in the future.

But... Yu Lanzhao had disregarded it entirely to save him...

Lin Shenshi’s heart tightened, and he asked softly,

“Why did you save me? Weren’t you afraid your face would scar?”

Yu Lanzhao was taken aback for a moment. Sunlight spilled into his eyes, glittering like scattered starlight, before a smile bloomed on his lips, the stars dispersing into a dazzling brilliance.

“But Xiao Shi is my best friend.”

The youth gazed at him, his youthful face sincere and earnest, as if nothing in the world mattered more.

“Best friend?”

“Yes, best friends for life!”

Yu Lanzhao nodded solemnly, the certainty in his words like an eternal, unchangeable vow.

Lin Shenshi was momentarily stunned.

He, too, had had many good friends—in kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school... At every stage of life, various people had appeared by his side. They laughed, played, slung arms over each other’s shoulders, affirming their friendship.

But so what?

Lin Shenshi’s parents’ work required them to relocate every six months or year. As a child, he had to follow them across the country, changing schools again and again, with friends cycling in and out of his life.

At first, they would keep in touch by phone. But as time apart grew longer, the calls became less frequent, the topics fewer, until eventually, they fell out of touch completely.

Everyone was like that.

Without exception.

......

After enough disappointments, he stopped hoping.

“There’s no such thing as best friends for life…” Lin Shenshi murmured in rebuttal, his tone complex.

“There is!” Yu Lanzhao’s deer-like eyes shone with a dazzling light. “Xiao Shi is my best friend for life! Even if one day Xiao Shi leaves, I’ll chase after you, staying by your side forever and always!”

The youth’s voice was enthusiastic and passionate, like the unruly rising sun of spring, dispelling gloom, melting ice and snow, bringing warm, radiant springtime energy.

Melting snow gathered into streams, pure and untainted.

Lin Shenshi felt as if some barrier in his heart had cracked open, a huge fissure tearing through.

Sunlight seeped in, gently touching the most tender part hidden within.

Ah...

He knew it—he shouldn’t have gotten involved with Yu Lanzhao again.

The protagonist (the 'shou') truly lives up to the title; his ability to win over hearts is truly remarkable.

“Xiao Shi, what are you thinking about?”

Noticing his delayed response, Yu Lanzhao leaned in and asked.

The young man's face was very close to his. This time, Lin Shenshi did not retreat or push him away. Instead, he reached out and ruffled his fluffy hair, shaking his head helplessly. “It’s nothing. Let’s go back to the dorm room.”

Joy bloomed in the young man's eyes like the summer fireworks.

“Okay! Let’s go back to the dorm room together!”

Lin Shenshi stood up.

Since transmigrating into this story, he had asked himself again and again, never finding an answer. But at this moment, he might have found the reason.

In the real world, no one had ever firmly chosen him, but here, Yu Lanzhao stood by his side, heart pure and unwavering.

Perhaps... he should give in to softness one more time.

He would stay.

And then...

Save Yu Lanzhao.