Ling Xiao jumped to his feet and his body gradually disappeared in front of Shen He. After he was completely disconnected, Shen He sneered at him disdainfully.
"He ran off so fast."
"Don't you think you were being too straightforward? What if you scared our little boy by any chance?" A figure appeared in the dark. Shen He seemed to not be bothered in the least by this method of dropping by or having his conversations being eavesdropped on.
"Compared to you, I'm also a little boy." Shen He lounged on the recliner, showing no sign of getting up to greet his guest.
"Don't you feel embarra.s.sed to say something like that in front a Nestling who just woke up?" Xing Lou laughed.
"You said I was too straightforward. Then may I ask if any of my words weren't true?" Shen He asked back.
Xing Lou thought for a moment, "There was one sentence that was not true."
"Which one?"
Xing Lou imitated his tone, "You will never know the reason for this fight because the real reason has already been completely erased by our predecessors."
"Oh?" It evoked Shen He's curiosity, "You know the truth behind it?"
Xing Lou replied with a smile, "Trust me, you don't want to know."
"You're underestimating an information personnel's desire for knowledge."
"When Yue Ying wakes up one day, maybe he'll be interested in telling you himself."
Yue Ying's wave pattern vibrated a few times on the wall as if it was echoing his words.
"All right then," Shen He shrugged his shoulders, "Then what's the purpose of you coming over at this time? Don't tell me that you came early in the morning just to collect rent."
"You're probably the richest Nestling in all of Tianxiu, it's impossible that you still care about this little amount of rent." Xing Lou teased him, "Don't forget, I have the surveillance authority over the entire network. I saw a friend in my contacts appear at your coordinate a moment ago, so I came for a look out of curiosity."
"Are you talking about Ling Xiao? You know him?"
"He was the person that guided me to my dorm during my first day at school."
"It seems like you two were brought together by fate…" Shen He suddenly lowered his voice, "Someone's coming."
Xing Lou disappeared back into the darkness, and the wall resumed its original appearance. Shen He got up from his recliner and changed his mask. Then he greeted this first-time customer with extreme courtesy.
"Good morning. Is there anything I can help you with?"
Zhu Yue looked around this completely empty store, then he asked the question that everyone would ask first.
"What are you selling here?"
"As you can see, anything."
"Is there anything that can make people who don't like you fall in love with you?"
"Hahahaha!" Shen He laughed till tears came out once again.
Zhu Yue's face turned dark, "Is it funny?"
"I'm sorry," Shen He tried his best to hold back his laughter, "This is the second funniest joke I've heard this morning."
"But I don't think there's anything funny about it. If you can't get ahold of it, then it means that the name of your shop is just a scam."
"What you said is very true." Shen He pointed towards the door generously, "Since you've stumped me so successfully, you can remove and take this signboard away."
"Why would I want your signboard? Not to mention, it's also virtual." Zhu Yue didn't care about it at all.
"Then," Shen He thought carefully for a moment, "Is there anything else you want the second most? I can give you 50% off."
"What if you don't have it either?"
"Why don't you tell me first and we'll see?"
Something he wanted the second most… What Zhu Yue wanted the most was Ying Feng, the second was Ying Feng, the third was still Ying Feng. If he had to come up with a wish that was not Ying Feng…
"I want to know why blood can flow by itself."
"Oh?"
"It may sound unimaginable, but I've seen it happen with my own eyes. The blood was clearly already on the ground. There was no gravitation or wind, but it could flow by itself. Why is that?"
"Only one person's blood?"
"No, " Zhu Yue paused for a second, "There's another person's too."
Shen He thought for a moment. "What perfect timing for you to ask this question! If you asked any earlier, I would not have been able to answer it. How should I put it? You're very lucky."
Zhu Yue took a step forward nervously, "You know the answer?"
"I just found out not long ago."
"Why is it?"
"This information is very expensive. It's not cheap even with a half price. Are you sure you want to buy it?"
Zhu Yue took out his card and threw it at him without even thinking about it, "You can take as much as you want! If it's not enough, I can write you an IOU and pay you in installments later."
Shen He took it over without any courtesy. "It seems like you're very persistent in knowing the answer to this question. All right, I'll tell you. There is a kind of magnetism in Tianxiu people's blood. Qizhu's blood will attract Qizi's."
"It's the same for everyone?" Zhu Yue questioned urgently.
"No, there are two premises: First, at least one of them has to be a Nestling. Second, it only happens under sunshine.
"Which means, if you have seen this phenomenon, it means one of them in his last life was the other person's Qizi, either in the latter's last life or this life. This is the only explanation."
Zhu Yue's eyes widened in shock, "How is it possible?"
"As a businessman, I have my professional integrity. Since I took your money, I won't lie to you."
Shen He looked up and down this overly-shocked kid in front of him with great interest. The person was still muttering to himself incessantly, "How is that possible? It's impossible. I can't let them find out, I absolutely can't."
Zhu Yue's figure gradually disappeared. It seemed like he went offline. Xing Lou replaced him and appeared at the same spot.
Yue Ying was the one who asked, "Who was that person just now?"
"A junior in our Inst.i.tute." As an ordinary person, the amount of data Shen He kept in his brain was astonishing. "Zhu Yue, a tenth-grader this year, a cla.s.smate of Ling Xiao. Why? Are you interested in him?"
"There are many things that are suspicious about him," Yue Ying's wave-form appeared to be a bit excited, "How come I've never noticed this person before?"
"By suspicious you mean…?" asked Xing Lou.
"I suspect he is…No, I need more evidence!"
Ling Xiao dashed straight towards the medical building as soon as he logged out. The two students who were with them yesterday were already there. Both of them looked extremely fl.u.s.tered when they saw Ling Xiao.
"You're the one who told Ling Xiao?"
"No way! How would I dare?" They whispered to each other, and then shut up simultaneously after Ling Xiao walked up.
Looking at their evasive eyes, the last bit of hope in Ling Xiao's heart vanished. A dark cloud overshadowed his face.
"Where are they?" His voice sounded especially cold.
The two cla.s.smates shoved each other for a while. In the end, they knew they couldn't hide it from Ling Xiao and they nervously pointed towards the emergency room.
Ling Xiao started to walk toward the emergency room, and each step felt heavier than the one before. However, he still underestimated how much he could take. When he saw Lan Sheng lying in there at the gate of death covered in blood, the anger that burst out of him almost shattered the gla.s.s of the emergency room.
The two cla.s.smates followed closely after him, worrying that he was going to do something extreme out of impulse. But the Ling Xiao right now, who stood there motionlessly, his face turning livid, made them even more scared.
Feeling restless, they exchanged glances. They just arrived upon notice a moment ago and they too were totally clueless about what was going on. No one had shown up with an explanation either. Lan Sheng's serious injury and their ignorance of the truth deepened the uneasiness at the bottom of their hearts.
"We don't know what happened either…" One person pushed the other a few times.
"Oh," The other one trembled slightly out of nervousness. "Right after we arrived, we saw them being pushed out from the bridal…from yesterday's room like this…"
Ling Xiao stared at the person on the other side of the gla.s.s without blinking, not saying a word.
"Your cla.s.smate… Is he alright?" A voice softly carried over.
The two students were also taken aback by the sight of the person, "Doctor, why did you come?"
The words were like a sharp blade cutting off the string which had been stretched taut inside Ling Xiao's head. Before anyone could react to it, Zhi Shang had already received a heavy punch on his face. He retreated several steps without putting on any defenses, even his gla.s.ses were crooked by it.
"Ling Xiao! Are you crazy?" The two cla.s.smates immediately stepped up and blocked Ling Xiao from both sides. "He's Dr. Zhi Shang! Dr. Yao's Qizi!"
Ling Xiao glared straight at the person in front of him. There was clear hatred in his eyes.
"Why did you lie?"
"Ling Xiao, what are you talking about?"
"Yeah, Ling Xiao. Aren't you worrying too much?" said another cla.s.smate.
Zhi Shang looked shocked at first, then he was dumbfounded. In the end, he bowed his head with extreme remorse.
"I'm sorry."
The two students never thought he would actually apologize. They were rendered speechless at once.
"You tell me the truth. Back then at the Adult Ceremony, did you attack Dr. Yao?"
After an even longer period of struggling, he admitted, "I did."
"What?" The two people on the side were stunned. "What's going on? Doctor, didn't you say you voluntarily offered Dr. Yao your heart-tip blood?"
"That's right. Voluntarily becoming Ah-Yao's Qizi was my initial thought, and this thought has never changed even till today." Ling Xiao's interrogation pulled Zhi Shang into a painful memory. "But on the day of the Adult Ceremony, the instant when Ah-Yao was going to take my blood, I suddenly felt worried, afraid, and terrified. The feeling was so strong to the point where I could hardly control it. I started to regret it. I didn't want to become someone else's Qizi like this. So I fought back."
The students were shocked. They could not imagine there was such a cruel truth hidden behind those words from Dr. Zhi Shang, the person who had been telling them how much he and Dr. Yao loved each other with tenderness written all over his face.
"Our battle was extremely intense. We were like two enemies who cared for nothing except killing the other person. Neither of us were willing to admit defeat. In the end, I lost to her. It wasn't because I let her off out of love, but because I was truly not her match.
"I lost. Ah-Yao was also seriously injured because of me. Thinking back on it carefully, neither of us showed the other person any mercy. Even though I was able to accept my ident.i.ty as Qizi peacefully afterwards, and I still love Ah-Yao very much, it still won't change the fact that on that day, we tried to kill each other like two crazy lunatics who had completely lost their minds."
Zhi Shang took off his gla.s.ses and looked up, his eyes full of grief, "I'm sorry. I only said that because I wished all of you could face your Adult Ceremony light-heartedly. It's just that I never thought…"
"This is not his fault." A woman's icy voice cut him off, "I commanded him to say so. He does not have the ability to refuse me."
"Ah-Yao…" Zhi Shang called with a complaining tone.
Everyone's attention was immediately drawn to Yao Tai who had just walked out of the emergency room. She took off her work clothes and threw it to the side. A nurse came up and caught it at once. The two of them quickly walked towards the other side of the hall.
"Has the other person woke up yet?"
"He just woke up." The nurse reported to her immediately.
"How is he?"
"There's no serious problems now. He has excellent fitness and is recovering quickly."
"Transfer the person inside to ICU."
The nursed hesitated, "Do you mean…"
Yao Tai's hand paused for a second on the door handle. "Chain him up."
The door of Ping Zong's ward was pushed open, and a group of people rushed in all at once. Hearing the sound, the person on the sickbed struggled to open his eyes into slits.
Yao Tai was the first to enter, next to her was a nurse in uniform. The next second, Ling Xiao squeezed himself to the front, his face filled with worry. Following him were two students whose expressions seemed rather odd.
Ping Zong glanced across the crowd over and over. He even saw Dr. Zhi Shang, who shouldn't have been here, standing at the back of the crowd, but he couldn't find his beloved one, the person he had been keeping in his mind the most.
"Ling Xiao, where's Lan Sheng?" He asked nervously.
"He's resting in another ward," Ling Xiao lied. "Are you all right?"
Ping Zong nodded, but then shook his head again. "I'm just worried about Lan Sheng. I don't know what was wrong with me at that time. Everything was fine at first, but suddenly I felt something was not right. I can't remember what happened afterwards, except that I fought back, there are some fragments in my head of us fighting… Is Lan Sheng really all right?"
"Really, he's fine. You can relax." Ling Xiao's eyes fell right on the other person's face.
Ping Zong sighed with relief, "That's good. I must have been crazy when I attacked him. If something were to happen to him, I would never forgive myself."
Knowing that Lan Sheng was fine, Ping Zong relaxed from head to toe. "A proud person like him, if he was injured by me, I'm sure he'll be very mad. He's probably angry now and doesn't want to see me, right?"
Ping Zong laughed. His eyes turned soft unconsciously as he mentioned his beloved one, "But luckily, the Adult Ceremony has finished. We can live a happy life together after…"
"Ping Zong," Ling Xiao couldn’t bear it anymore and interrupted him who had been talking non-stop.
"What's wrong?" Ping Zong looked at Ling Xiao in surprise. Ling Xiao was totally out of character, biting his tongue was not Ling Xiao's style at all.
"Ping Zong," Ling Xiao didn't know how to tell him the truth. Every word he said was extremely difficult for him. "You won."
Ping Zong's smile froze on his face, "What did you say?"
"You won," Ling Xiao looked into his pitch-black eyes with mixed feelings, "You're Lan Sheng's Qizhu now."