Lin Jiashu’s peach-blossom eyes had lost all trace of amusement. He turned back and looked down on the two of them. The corners of his red lips curled slightly, deliberately, like a king who despises the commoners yet is forced to face them entirely pretentious and hypocritical.
“Did I allow you to leave, classmates?”
Qi Bai paused in her step. These “group of elites” controlled ninety-nine percent of the world’s resources. A head-on confrontation, whether for her current self or the fledgling agency, would be devastating.
Chen Anlan, walking ahead, sensed her hesitation and understood her thoughts.
“What are you trying to say? This is explicitly off-limits according to the student handbook. Even if you’re Student, you have no right to force us to stay here!” Chen Anlan, shedding his usual timidness, boldly spoke up first.
A warm surge of reassurance flowed through Qi Bai. If Chen Anlan could raise his long-lowered head for a friend, why should she shrink back?
At worst, she could start over she had nothing left to lose!
Qi Bai calmly looked at Lin Jiashu, radiating a sense of ease and freedom.
Seeing their stance, Lin Jiashu’s expression grew colder, and he no longer bothered to mask the faint smile he usually showed.
“Do you think you even have a choice?” Lin Jiashu’s patience had run out. “This is indeed a forbidden area, but I happened to see you coming down while I was on my way to get some files. Do you really think you can continue studying at Imperial Capital University?”
This was a blatant threat. Qi Bai’s anger flared immediately.
But she understood that exposing herself to Lin Jiashu now would be nothing but a fleeting act of bravado, bringing no advantage.
She suppressed the urge for revenge and tested the waters: “You want to go to the rooftop, right?”
Lin Jiashu glanced at Qi Bai’s impassive face, tinged with a trace of annoyance, and his interest stirred.
“The rooftop? That’s not exactly my destination…” His words carried meaning. He suddenly countered, “You’ve been here for so long haven’t you encountered anything strange?”
Qi Bai was no naive fool. The intelligence she had painstakingly gathered would not be handed over to a future enemy.
Chen Anlan, clearly no saint, stood tightly by her side, playing the role of protector.
Seeing them feign ignorance, Lin Jiashu knew exactly what they were up to.
This was unusual. In his years at the school, few ever dared to refuse him. And now, he met two!
Yet today’s matter could not be publicized, so he could not be too forceful.
Moreover…
Lin Jiashu’s gaze swept over Qi Bai swiftly.
“Here’s what we’ll do: let’s play a game. I happen to know many secrets about this place. In exchange for your personal experiences, we’ll do a question-and-answer format. You can skip questions if you don’t want to answer. Deal?”
For someone of the Student, this was a significant concession.
Chen Anlan hesitated, glancing at Qi Bai.
She raised an eyebrow and quickly responded, “That’s perfectly fair. I have no reason to refuse.”
Besides, the proposal played directly into her curiosity. She had long wondered what exactly had happened in this cursed place. Unfortunately, the Student financiers had sealed off the detailed process, and the system’s responses were too formal, offering no real satisfaction for her curiosity or gossip instincts.
A tentative consensus was reached. Lin Jiashu’s peach-blossom eyes regained a fraction of their original smile. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, and in a gentlemanly manner, he said, “Since I proposed this, to show sincerity, you may ask the first question.”
Qi Bai didn’t hold back. “I want to know what exactly is upstairs that the school is so tense about, even setting up a monitoring room on the sixth floor?”
Lin Jiashu’s raised mouth stiffened slightly, and he was mildly puzzled.
“If I knew, why would I need to come here to check it out myself? Judging by how anxious the old men are, whatever happened back then was definitely not properly handled.”
His worried expression surprised Qi Bai, contradicting her prior impression of him. She scoffed inwardly.
For anyone unaware, it might seem like he cared about people’s lives. But he’s just a hypocrite!
Recalling the month of nightmares he had caused her, Qi Bai’s body tensed instinctively at the sight of his face.
Seeing Lin Jiashu unable to answer, she pressed on: “Do you know what the person who caused the accident at the ‘Campus Festival’ did? And what was the ultimate outcome?”
Hearing that, Lin Jiashu’s expression briefly stiffened, but he quickly returned to normal and shot Qi Bai a teasing glance. “Seems you know quite a bit. But technically, that’s two questions!”
Qi Bai remained expressionless, showing no reaction. Lin Jiashu found it uninteresting and continued.
“Let’s answer the first question. That person, in order to pass the Huiying Society’s assessment, brought the blood of the corrupt sacrilegious into the festival gathering without permission.
In reality, he believed he was doing something unprecedented, trying to draw the entire Imperial Capital University into the embrace of a so-called savior. But the result…”
Lin Jiashu stopped deliberately, observing Qi Bai’s efforts to suppress her curiosity.
Her delicate, expressive face, lips tightly pressed, eyes wide with unhidden curiosity, practically spelled “I want to know the outcome.”
“What do you want to ask?” Qi Bai asked cautiously. She was eager for answers but unwilling to satisfy him too easily.
Lin Jiashu’s peach-blossom eyes studied her for a moment, a peculiar gleam in them. Slowly, he posed his own question: “I’ve already stated my purpose for being here. And you? Surely you didn’t come just out of curiosity?”
Qi Bai frowned sharply. She wasn’t necessarily desperate to know every detail of the rooftop incident, but instinct told her it was closely tied to the other bloods.
“You’ve exhausted your sweet talk. We’re just ordinary civilians. Lucky to get into this university, curiosity is the only reason we’d waste time here, isn’t it?”
Qi Bai had considered using club activities as an excuse, but she didn’t want to reveal more personal information.
Even if this hypocrite’s family wielded immense power, delaying him was worth it. What she needed most now was time.
Seeing Qi Bai’s slight irritation, Lin Jiashu felt an unusual emotion rise within him. For some reason, from the moment he saw this girl, a strange thought had taken hold.
I cannot let her go!
The thought was sudden and inexplicable. Lin Jiashu wrestled with it, but he trusted his instincts they had never been wrong.