Out in the corridor.
"I'm sorry, Qiye. I'm really, really sorry!" Li Yifei stood with his head bowed, apologizing over and over. "I was just so scared back then. I—I wasn't thinking at all, I just ran...
"I left you and Jiang Qian standing there, and because of me she...
"I don't expect you to forgive me. But we're classmates, and I at least wanted to apologize to you properly!
"I'm sorry!"
Li Yifei didn't dare meet Lin Qiye's eyes, but there was no mistaking the sincerity in his words.
Only when he'd finished did Lin Qiye speak, slowly.
"Running for your life when danger hits is human nature. There's nothing wrong with it." Lin Qiye patted his shoulder. "Besides, if it had been me back there, I'd only have run faster than you."
Li Yifei: ...
Li Yifei scratched his head, then seemed to remember something. "Right—did you sign that non-disclosure agreement too?"
Lin Qiye paused, hesitated a moment, and nodded.
So Zhao Kongcheng hadn't lied to him. They really didn't do anything to witnesses. Li Yifei had escaped the monsters that night; once the Night Watchmen found him, having him sign an NDA was only logical.
If he had to guess, that Liu Yuan had signed the same thing.
He himself hadn't actually signed yet—but it was only a matter of time, and telling Li Yifei that now would just be harder to explain.
"Honestly, even if they hadn't made me sign, I'd never breathe a word of it." Li Yifei sighed. "That scene... I don't want to remember it for the rest of my life...
"And now that I've signed, if I break it I'll rot in prison until the walls fall in. I'm not about to bury my own future with my own hands."
Li Yifei draped his arms over the corridor railing, gazing down at the lively campus below, a wistful light rising in his eyes.
"Truth is... I kind of wish I could join them."
Lin Qiye spoke, surprised. "You want to join them?"
"Yeah. I brought it up while I was signing the agreement—said I'd give up school to join. Too bad... they didn't want me."
"Why would you want in? Your grades are nothing special, sure, but aren't you about to get a special admission to the sports academy?"
"What's the fun in being a sports student? No—what's the fun in being an ordinary person at all?" Li Yifei's eyes brightened by degrees.
"Joining a mysterious, powerful organization. Quietly fighting the enemies hidden inside human society. Racking up countless unsung feats—and on the day it all finally comes to light, the whole world remembers my name!"
His fists slowly clenched, his voice thick with excitement. "That's the dream of every man alive. That is a life worth living!"
"You're dreaming too prettily." Lin Qiye punctured the fantasy without an ounce of mercy. "Maybe you die on your very first mission—chewed into eight pieces by a monster, buried nameless deep in some mountain. Your parents might never even learn you're dead. You'd leave this world completely alone."
Li Yifei: "..."
"Qiye, isn't your imagination a little too gory?"
"That's not imagination." Lin Qiye shook his head. "What you said just now—that was."
Li Yifei sighed in defeat. "Whatever. They don't want me anyway, so there's no point overthinking it. From here on I just carry the secret quietly into my coffin, and that's that."
"Mm." Lin Qiye checked the time. "We should head back. Class is about to start."
The two walked back to the classroom. Lin Qiye could feel it: compared to before, Li Yifei had visibly relaxed. His guilt toward Lin Qiye and Jiang Qian really had been crushing him.
They had both run that night—yet Li Yifei and Liu Yuan had made completely different choices afterward.
As for Liu Yuan, Lin Qiye had no interest in going out of his way to settle accounts. But if the chance ever presented itself... he wouldn't mind teaching him a lesson in passing.
When the day's classes ended, Lin Qiye shouldered his bag and headed home.
The deaths of Wang Shao and Jiang Qian had brought the school no end of trouble. Under the pressure, the school had scrapped evening self-study entirely and sent students home early.
What Lin Qiye hadn't quite expected was how far the Night Watchmen's authority truly reached. Normally, after two students died in a row, people like him and Li Yifei—who had been walking with the victims—would inevitably be questioned by the police.
But two days had passed, and no one had come for them.
Which meant the Night Watchmen had taken over the case completely, with authority enough to keep the entire local police force silent about it.
As he walked, the sky darkened, and a fine drizzle began to patter down.
It was barely past six, yet the light had already drained out of the day.
Lin Qiye frowned. He hadn't brought an umbrella; all he could do was lengthen his stride toward home.
The rain fell harder and harder. By the time Lin Qiye hurried through the door he was a drowned rat—but the moment the door opened, a rich aroma of cooking rolled over him and doused every trace of gloom in his chest.
"Aiya! Xiao Qi, you silly child, how did you get soaked like this?" Auntie, busy in the kitchen, rushed over the moment she saw him.
"It's coming down hard out there, and I didn't bring an umbrella today." Lin Qiye smiled.
"No umbrella? Then find somewhere to wait it out! Or call your auntie—I'd have come to get you. Walking home drenched like this—what if you catch a cold?" Auntie scolded with mock anger.
Lin Qiye grinned and scratched his head, saying nothing.
"Hurry and dry off. Oh—right, your teacher came by looking for you just now. I told him to wait in your room." Auntie seemed to suddenly remember.
"My teacher?" Lin Qiye blinked.
"Yes, your PE teacher. Said he had some business with you. Go on, don't keep the man waiting."
Lin Qiye toweled his hair, mystified.
What the hell? His PE teacher? He'd transferred barely days ago—he hadn't even had a PE class yet. What could the man want?
Unless...
A thought flashed through Lin Qiye's mind. He dropped the towel and hurried into his room.
There, tilted back in his chair with a cup of tea in hand, a familiar middle-aged man was smiling at him.
Lin Qiye's brow creased. "You? How did you find my home?"
Zhao Kongcheng smiled, picked the crest up off the desk, and waggled it. "After you ditched me that night, I got smart. Dropped this into your pocket yesterday—it has a tracker."
Lin Qiye locked the door, walked straight to the bed, and sat down. "I told you. I'm not joining."
"I know. That's not why I'm here."
"Then you're here for the NDA?"
"Not that either." Zhao Kongcheng shook his head. "I reported to the others that you'd gone missing. Since I've decided to let you walk away, I can't have you signing anything—otherwise they'd know you never disappeared, and they'd send someone else to your door to talk you around.
"And they... won't be as easy to brush off as I am."
Lin Qiye paused. "Then you're here to..."
Zhao Kongcheng drew a roll of kraft paper from his pocket, set it on Lin Qiye's desk, and slowly unrolled it...
"The Night Watchmen are paid far better than you'd think. I've worked a lot of years—I've put away a decent bit of savings." He nattered on as he unrolled the paper.
The instant it opened, Lin Qiye's gaze went hard.
Inside was a thick stack of money.