The infirmary was thick with the heavy scent of blood.
A tall figure wearing a white mask limped into the room using a pair of crutches. Had Xia Miao still been around, she would have instantly recognized him as the lead actor from the videotape earlier—the very same terrifying chainsaw-wielding maniac.
Shortly before, he had stepped out to use the restroom. Upon returning to the infirmary, he found that the man lying in the adjacent hospital bed had been beaten completely out of human shape.
Ding Renlu appeared to have suffered inhuman abuse and torture, lying bloody and mangled on the bed with barely a breath left in him. Coming to the infirmary to heal his wounds, only to end up getting beaten half to death instead, he was truly a rather pitiful sight.
Limping toward his own bed, the big man stepped right over a smashed phone on the floor without a second glance. Once he was lying back down, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a photograph.
It was a snapshot taken a few years earlier during a school anniversary celebration, featuring himself and a girl from the journalism club.
Beneath the mask, the big man’s eyes stared motionlessly at the girl in the picture. Given how severely injured he was, surely she would come to visit him?
Clutching onto that shred of anticipation, the big man waited from morning until night. Yet, even by the day his broken leg regenerated and he was fully healed, the girl of his unrequited crush never showed up.
Without even realizing it, that pair of “scoundrels,” Xia Miao and Lu Yan, truly managed to exhaust every wicked trick in the book.
Ruan Zhizhi hadn’t been dragged into the games for the past few nights, which she counted as a stroke of good luck. Yet, throughout this period, whenever she walked alongside Leng Yeting, her mind inevitably replayed that chilling moment when he had grabbed an innocent bystander to use as a human shield.
On one hand, Ruan Zhizhi found Leng Yeting powerful, dependable, and undeniably heart-fluttering; on the other hand, she couldn’t shake a subtle, lingering unease—always wondering if she might be the next person he grabbed to block a blade.
Late that night, as she walked along the path back to her dormitory, she abruptly noticed two figures up ahead. Catching sight of the bandaged boy—that terrifying murder ghost from the games—she scrambled in a panic to hide behind a tree, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs.
And the girl standing right face-to-face with the murder ghost was none other than Xia Miao!
Watching the murder ghost reach his hand out toward Xia Miao, Ruan Zhizhi felt her heart leap straight into her throat. Was he going to gouge out her eyes? Or pierce straight through her chest to rip out her heart?!
Instead, she watched the murder ghost’s outstretched hand grip Xia Miao’s arm, yanking her sharply toward him. Xia Miao crashed straight into his chest, her figure completely swallowed up by his shadow. Then, he bent his torso and lowered his head.
Ruan Zhizhi could only see Lu Yan’s back, but as an adult, their posture made their actions abundantly clear.
Covering her mouth tightly, Ruan Zhizhi stared with wide, disbelieving eyes.
Even stranger, Xia Miao showed no signs of struggling whatsoever. In fact, she actually reached out and stroked the murder ghost’s face!
“Try sneaking up on me again, I dare you!”
Xia Miao pulled back the fist she had just used to clobber him, looking fierce and imposing.
Covering his bruised left eye, Lu Yan darted his eyes away. Putting up a weak front, he let out a scoffing tsk.
“You’re allowed to kiss me, but I’m not allowed to kiss you?”
He muttered under his breath:
“That’s not fair.”
Xia Miao grabbed his hand, lifting her chin with a huff.
“Considering you helped my deskmate out, I’ll spare you from a point deduction today.”
Moments later, Lu Yan interlocked his fingers tightly with hers, a sudden spark of light illuminating his eyes.
“Oh.”
Having spent a long time with him, Xia Miao had discovered that he was actually quite clingy. Whenever they held hands, he either insisted on interlacing their fingers completely or entirely wrapping both of his hands around hers.
Perhaps because she had been in a relatively good mood lately and hadn’t docked his points much, his behavior had grown increasingly bold, leading to a sudden surge in surprise kisses like this one.
By now, having him walk her back to her dorm had turned into an established routine.
Stealing a sideways glance at him, Xia Miao caught him sneaking a look at her at the exact same moment. Their eyes collided, and like guilty thieves, they both swiftly snapped their gaze away—staring at the sky, studying the ground, anything to avoid looking at each other.
Just as Xia Miao had preached, romance was a battlefield; if you let the other person know you liked them more, you would end up being led around by the nose from then on.
That being said, their hands remained tightly interlaced throughout, neither of them harboring the slightest intention of letting go.
Suddenly, dark clouds gathered across the night sky, swallowing the moon from sight. A light drizzle quickly began to patter down, accompanied by a nocturnal breeze that brought a biting chill to the air.
Before Xia Miao could even say she was cold, the hem of the boy’s hoodie was yanked up, and she was stuffed straight inside his clothes.
Dazed for a split second, she immediately started to struggle. Because of her short stature, there was no way she could poke her head out from his collar while he stood ramrod straight.
Watching his hoodie bulge and twist as the girl thrashed around helplessly inside, unable to pop her head out no more matter how hard she tried, Lu Yan let out a cackling laugh. Far from being a helpful gentleman, he took absolute delight in mocking her plight.
Xia Miao’s delicate brows arched sharply as she brought her heel down hard on the top of his foot.
Lu Yan yelped, “Ow, that hurts!”
Just as she raised her other foot to stomp on him again, he hurriedly scooped her up into his arms, lifting her clean off the ground. With her feet dangling in the air, the top half of her face finally poked out from his collar. Her hair was a tousled mess, and her eyes held a deadpan, blank stare as she felt less like a person and more like a stuffed doll cradled inside his clothes.
Lu Yan seemed to realize this was an immensely entertaining game. Resting his chin against the top of her head, he glanced downward, blinking every now and then while pulling her a little higher into his arms, letting out a soft, mischievous chuckle: tee-hee.
“You short little—”
A swift punch landed squarely on his cheek, cutting off the rest of his sentence.
“Take me back,” Xia Miao ordered.
“Oh,” Lu Yan mumbled.
Crouched in the distance, Ruan Zhizhi didn’t dare draw any closer. Terror gripped her heart; she had never in her wildest dreams imagined that a butcher could actually hook up with a survivor. What on earth was going through Xia Miao’s head? Didn’t she realize how terrifying it was to sleep with the enemy? Wasn’t she afraid he’d just butcher her in her sleep?!
Come to think of it, every time Xia Miao appeared, she effortlessly commanded the obsessive gaze of numerous guys—even Leng Yeting had noticed her early on. In other words, Xia Miao undeniably possessed the kind of striking beauty that catered to mainstream aesthetic standards.
Yet, in an environment constantly threatened by death, wasn’t beauty just another weapon to be exploited?
Frowning, Ruan Zhizhi felt a sudden surge of instinctive aversion toward Xia Miao.
As a woman of principle and backbone, she despised shameless acts of selling one’s body like Xia Miao’s. Relying solely on men instead of striving to survive through one’s own grit—Xia Miao was an absolute disgrace to women!
Maintaining his posture of cradling a human doll inside his clothes, Lu Yan carried Xia Miao all the way to her dorm entrance. Because she had been shielded beneath his layers the entire way, she hadn’t gotten wet at all. He, however, was a total mess—his clothes drenched, his bandages soaked through.
Once Xia Miao was set back on her feet and had wriggled out from under his hoodie, she fished out her keys to unlock the door, then suddenly turned back to ask:
“It’s raining outside. Do you want to come into my room to rest?”
Lu Yan froze for a second. The next instant, billowing plumes of steam erupted from his entire body. He spun around, frantically shoving his hand straight into his chest to crush the heart that was threatening to leap right out of his ribs, before turning his face back toward her with ears glowing bright red.
After holding his breath for a long, agonizing moment, he finally squeezed out a single syllable:
“Yes.”