Whether it was because he was in too much of a hurry or his hands were trembling, the lock simply wouldn’t yield. He could hear the frantic scratching of the key card against the sensor.
His palms were slick with sweat; in fact, his entire forehead was drenched.
Damn lock, open up!
Lin Yuzhi was seconds away from kicking the door down when finally, the correct electronic chime rang out. The door was open!
At that exact moment, a zombie lunged toward him. Its blood-stained hands clawed at his body. He wasn’t wearing a jacket, though even if he were, it wouldn’t have offered much protection.
He swung his axe downward, a single heavy blow that severed the creature’s hand. Blood sprayed everywhere, leaving a massive crimson smear across the wall.
In the next instant, Lin Yuzhi shoved the door open and darted inside, locking it behind him with frantic speed.
As he burst into the room, the person sitting in the corner instinctively tightened his grip on a small fruit knife. His knuckles were so white that the veins beneath the skin were clearly visible.
After securing the door, Lin Yuzhi turned around and spotted the occupant in the corner. The man was dressed in a hospital gown, his frame appearing somewhat thin and fragile—likely due to his illness.
Yet, his face remained breathtakingly beautiful. He looked almost unreal.
Lin Yuzhi recognized him immediately. This was the person he had come for: Xu An.
The sickly Xu An had a certain “shattered” quality to him, appearing even more refined than he had back in school. He was, quite literally, Nuwa’s final masterpiece.
But there was a problem: why was he in a wheelchair?
Lin Yuzhi instinctively glanced at the wheelchair Xu An was sitting in and noticed that his feet were bare. He wasn’t wearing shoes. He couldn’t tell if Xu An was unable to wear them or simply chose not to.
Oh no! Lin Yuzhi screamed internally.
He now had two pieces of news to process. One good, one bad.
The good news: he had found Xu An, and he was alive.
The bad news: something seemed to be wrong with Xu An’s legs. He was confined to a wheelchair.
It was no wonder he hadn’t encountered any barricades upon entering. Normally, in a situation like this, anyone left inside would have pushed furniture against the door. But here, there was nothing.
Suddenly, a heavy thud against the door snapped him back to reality.
He spun around, knowing it was the zombies that had chased him. The door didn’t look particularly sturdy—at least not against the persistent hammering from the outside.
He hurriedly dragged the bedside cabinet over to block the entrance. It wasn’t enough, so he pushed the empty hospital bed over as well. Only after the door was thoroughly reinforced did he take two steps back.
The axe in his hand was still dripping. The smell of fresh blood mingled with a faint, putrid stench of decay, making the air revolting.
However, Lin Yuzhi’s attention wasn’t on the axe. He stared intently at the door.
As time passed, the banging on the door gradually weakened until it stopped altogether. Judging that the zombies had lost their target and moved on, he finally let out a long breath of relief.
But he quickly remembered Xu An in the corner and turned back.
The moment Lin Yuzhi turned, Xu An tightened his grip on the fruit knife once more. His beautiful eyes were fixed on Lin Yuzhi, but he remained silent.
Lin Yuzhi noticed the tension, and the atmosphere became incredibly awkward.
He instinctively went to scratch his head, but as he raised his hand, he saw the bloody axe. He set it aside before looking at Xu An again, his gaze lingering on the wheelchair.
Was the car accident that bad? Did he break his legs?
He soon remembered exactly why he had braved the hospital. He fished a test paper out of his pocket. It had been crumpled into a tight ball and looked wretchedly wrinkled when he pulled it out.
He tried to smooth it out with his hands, attempting to make it presentable.
It was a futile effort, so he eventually gave up and hurried over to Xu An. He pointed to a specific problem on the math section.
“Great Boss, how do you solve this problem?”
His tone was incredibly sincere, his eyes shining with a genuine thirst for knowledge.
Xu An clearly hadn’t expected that the first thing this person—who had just stormed into his room—would say was a math question. A flicker of confusion crossed his beautiful eyes.
He looked at Lin Yuzhi, seeing the earnestness in his gaze. It was as if the boy truly, desperately wanted to know the solution.
Utterly dazed, Xu An tilted his head slightly and let out a confused, “?”.
Just moments ago, he had heard the chaos and footsteps outside, assuming the things out there had found him and were about to break in. With nowhere to go—the furthest he could reach was the window—he had essentially been waiting for death.
He never expected that the person coming through the door wouldn’t be one of those monsters, but a boy dressed in summer clothes, covered in blood, carrying a heavy fire axe, and sporting a head of vibrant pink hair.
He had clearly seen the person’s expression shift to one of surprise upon seeing him—an expression that suggested recognition.
However, Xu An searched his memory and found no trace of this person. He had figured the expression might have just been shock at finding someone alive.
But then, this person ran over to ask a math question. Why? Why a math question?
He instinctively glanced at the paper in Lin Yuzhi’s hand. It was a high school test, but the problem he was pointing to actually involved middle school knowledge.
Unsure of what to make of this, Xu An hesitated for a long while before finally providing an answer.
“Select the second option.”
His voice was like a clear spring, as captivating as his appearance.
Lin Yuzhi’s attention was instantly captured by the answer. His pink hair seemed to fluff up with excitement.
“Holy crap! I knew it should have been the second one! I thought the second one looked right at the time, but then I felt like maybe it wasn’t, so I picked the third. If I’d known, I would’ve just gone with my gut. What a waste, what a waste!”
Lin Yuzhi was filled with regret. He should have trusted his first instinct. Why didn’t he? Now he had lost those points, and points could be traded for candy. This was a massive loss—practically a hundred-million-dollar mistake.
He pulled a pen out of his small chest bag and carefully wrote down the correct option next to the problem.
Immediately after, he pointed to the next question and looked at Xu An with a grin. “What about this one? Which one is it? Is it the fourth? My first reaction was the fourth.” He looked at Xu An expectantly.
Because Lin Yuzhi was half-squatting in front of him, that pink head of hair was almost within reach. It looked soft and fluffy.
It reminded Xu An of a stray cat he used to feed during school. It had been just as fluffy, but he hadn’t been very popular with cats, so he never got to pet it even after feeding it.
In fact, he thought Lin Yuzhi’s eyes looked a lot like that cat’s.
Though his confusion grew, seeing how expectant the boy was, Xu An helped him look at the question.
“The third one.”
“Ah! This one was the third? Another loss! I should have followed the international convention and picked C. I’m telling you, whenever I can’t figure it out, I usually pick C. Why didn’t I do it for this one?”
Lin Yuzhi began to lament again. Why had he broken his own rule for this specific question?
He couldn’t understand himself. These were free points! How could he have overthought it?
Frowning, he dutifully wrote down the answer, even though he had no idea why it was the correct one. To him, all the options looked the same, differing only in length.
He scratched his head so hard his brain cells felt like they were burning out, accidentally pulling out a few strands of pink hair that fell onto the test paper.
Seeing this, Lin Yuzhi quickly brushed them away.
Xu An watched him pull at his hair and saw the fallen pink strands. Under the hospital lights, they seemed to shimmer. Perhaps it was just the lighting.
Still… who was this person? Why was he asking math questions? He hadn’t said a word about the situation outside, acting as if he knew for a fact that Xu An could provide the answers.
Finally, Xu An spoke. “Do we know each other?”
“Huh?” Lin Yuzhi looked up from writing his answer, finding himself face-to-face with the other man.
At such close proximity, he realized that the “School Grass” of No. 5 High School was no joke. He looked stunning even in a hospital gown. No wonder everyone in school—and even the school dogs—had liked him.
He then realized he was leaning against the injured man’s legs while correcting his paper. That was just adding insult to injury.
He quickly pulled the paper away and symbolically smoothed out the fabric of Xu An’s trousers, as if brushing away dust.
“Great Boss, you probably don’t know me. I’m from Class 12. My name is Lin Yuzhi. Even though there were several classes between us, if you round it up, we were practically neighboring classes. Classmates!” He laughed, revealing a small snaggletooth.
Xu An noticed it. He realized that Lin Yuzhi’s mood seemed consistently high, despite the extreme danger outside.
Though Xu An hadn’t seen the outbreak with his own eyes, he had heard plenty and searched for information online. The commotion Lin Yuzhi had caused getting here must have been severe.
Yet, this person seemed largely unaffected. His biggest emotional outburst so far was over two math problems that made him pull his hair out.
As for Class 12… he knew of it, but he didn’t remember the name.
Then again, it made sense. He didn’t even remember many of his classmates in Class 1, let alone someone from Class 12.
So, this person had come all this way specifically to ask two math questions?
Thinking of this, he asked, “Did you come here just to ask about these two problems?”
“Of course not!” Lin Yuzhi blurted out. He then brought the papers back to Xu An. “Actually, I want to ask about every problem on this paper. And, if possible, I have a few other subjects I want to ask about too.” As he spoke, he fished out several more crumpled test papers.
They were equally wrinkled, but the subjects were still legible.
Xu An scanned them briefly and saw they were all high school level.
After a moment of thought, he seemed to understand Lin Yuzhi’s intent. “You want me to tutor you?”
“Yes, yes, yes! As expected of the Scholar God! Your brain works so fast, you understood exactly what I meant immediately. I was almost too embarrassed to say it.” Lin Yuzhi slapped Xu An’s shoulder playfully and gave a sheepish grin.
He hadn’t known how to ask the Scholar God for tutoring, but the man had understood instantly.
That was why he was the Scholar God of their year, the one who always held the number one rank. He was just brilliant.
Xu An was stunned by the sudden physical contact, taken aback by Lin Yuzhi’s over-familiarity.
But he recovered quickly. He was still puzzled. “But… why high school subjects?”
That was the part he didn’t get. What was he planning to test for?
Lin Yuzhi didn’t hide a thing. “Oh, it’s like this. I dropped out in my second year of high school and didn’t go to university. Before my mom passed away, she really wanted me to get a degree. Since I’m free this year, I wanted to retake the exams. Don’t look at me and think I’m too old at twenty-five; my thirst for knowledge is immense. I love learning! Learning loves me!” He pumped a fist in the air, looking like a true scholar.
Then, he gave another sheepish laugh. “I know you were the top scorer of our year. Your brain is special. I wanted to find you for some tutoring. If the Scholar God isn’t interested, that’s okay… but could I at least ask a question or two occasionally?” He held up two fingers pleadingly.
Asking Xu An for full tutoring did seem a bit far-fetched, especially since high school was long ago for them. But surely asking a couple of questions would be fine?
He could try to figure out the rest himself—though he doubted he’d get far. But if Xu An agreed to two questions now, maybe next time it would be three.
He truly loved learning. Very, very much.
The look in his eyes as he watched Xu An was filled with academic longing; he might as well have written “I LOVE STUDYING” across his forehead.
Xu An was still confused. In normal times, he wouldn’t think much of it.
But given the current situation outside, it was unlikely that the National College Entrance Exam would be restored anytime soon.
“But the Gaokao… it might not be back for a long time,” Xu An noted.
“What does that matter? How can learning be affected by the outside world? If it is, that just means my love for learning isn’t deep enough!” Lin Yuzhi replied instantly. “Learning is an ocean of knowledge. Through learning, I fulfill myself. Even if the sky falls or the seas run dry, I must study hard to serve the country and contribute to its future! You don’t know this, but before my mom died, her greatest wish was for me to pass the civil service exam and serve the nation. But my brain isn’t great—you understand. Scholar God, with a brain as good as yours, you must understand.”
He watched Xu An while internally marveling at his own eloquence. If he could write like this in his essays, he’d definitely get extra points.
Xu An saw that he couldn’t go three steps without mentioning serving the country or four sentences without mentioning his love for learning.
Despite the terrifying sounds still drifting from outside, he got the sense that Lin Yuzhi was genuinely unaffected by the exterior chaos. He really did love learning.
Such cheerfulness was almost inconceivable.
And yet, it was precisely because of this that the gloom that had hung over Xu An for days finally began to dissipate.
Looking at the pink head of hair in front of him, he couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.
“Is the dream too big?” Lin Yuzhi noticed the laugh and felt a bit awkward, thinking he might have exaggerated his ambitions too much.
Xu An shook his head. “It’s fine. If the country knew, it would be very proud.”
“That’s good! I was worried you thought I was bragging.” Lin Yuzhi laughed, finally relaxing.
With that relaxation, his messy pink hair seemed to regain its spirit, and a small, barely noticeable cowlick poked up from the top of his head. It had likely formed because he hadn’t brushed it during his frantic journey here.
Xu An saw it. Pink was a difficult color to pull off, especially as a hair dye.
But it suited Lin Yuzhi perfectly, making his skin look as fair as a pearl.
Xu An felt a sudden urge to touch it; his hand itched.
He tightened his grip on the fruit knife and ultimately didn’t reach out. He couldn’t go anywhere right now anyway, so helping out wouldn’t hurt.
“Those test papers of yours,” Xu An said. “I’ll take a look at them for you.”
Author’s Note:
Lin Xiaoyu: I love learning too much! How do I solve this?
Xu Kitty: ?