It had been quite a while since Gao Gusheng had seen Senior Wen.
Gao Gusheng looked at the person before him warily, shocked in his heart.
For some reason, he actually felt that the person in front of him was Wen Liang—the one who should already be doing prison labor—rather than Wen Yan, who had later appeared using Wen Liang’s identity.
Moreover, just now, the person before him had called him “A Sheng.”
Not “Gu Sheng” or “Xiao Sheng.”
Wen Liang had always called him “A Sheng” before, but Wen Yan, who appeared later, had never called him that.
It was as if he wanted to deliberately distinguish between “Wen Liang” and “Wen Yan” in front of him.
Wen Liang saw Gao Gusheng’s wary expression, and his smile turned somewhat bitter, “A Sheng, I have something I want to tell you.”
“I’ve always owed you an apology.”
“I never thought that my brother would use my identity to attend the party and take advantage of your trust in me to… do such things to you.”
Gao Gusheng smiled without warmth, “The things were done by Senior’s brother. What does it have to do with Senior?”
Wen Liang saw Gao Gusheng’s undisguised alienation. He clenched his hands into fists, then released them, “But A Sheng, I truly like you.”
“I noticed you the first time I saw you.”
“Do you remember? Behind the school, there was a large group of cats. Many people favored the prettier ones but always overlooked that somewhat ugly, lame cat.”
“Only you noticed it.”
…
On the campus of Beijing University, there were many small animals. These animals were very friendly to people, and kind students would often feed them.
In the grove behind the school, there were many beautiful cats, all fed until their coats were sleek and shiny by the students. There were pretty cats and some ordinary-looking, less appealing ones.
Among them was a cat that, before being rescued by Beijing University, had been abused by its previous owner. It was blind in one eye and had a broken leg. Its fur had been burned, leaving bare patches that made it look not just unappealing, but somewhat ugly and frightening.
There were many students who fed the cats at school. Most students wouldn’t actually ignore this somewhat ugly, lame kitten, but they inevitably favored the pretty cats with smooth coats more, giving them the good food first.
Therefore, while this lame kitten never went hungry, it had never been anyone’s favorite either.
That day was freshman orientation, and the school was bustling with activity.
Freshmen were busy preparing for enrollment, contacting upperclassmen, checking out clubs, and going to welcome dinners.
As for the upperclassmen, some had to guide new students, some had to prepare club activities.
That was the busiest time.
There were far fewer students feeding cats in the grove behind the school.
It was then that Wen Liang saw Gao Gusheng.
Right at sunset.
In the quiet backyard, a thin young man crouched on the ground, surrounded by a group of cats.
His hairstyle was heavy, and he wore huge black-framed glasses that obscured his features.
The young man seemed naturally loved by small animals. The cats surrounded him in the center, coquettishly showing their soft bellies. Even the most wary, least people-friendly alpha cat at school came over to nuzzle his hand.
The cats were scattered on the ground like a field of fluffy balls.
The young man took out lots of food and fed these spoiled darlings.
He watched the cats purring as they ate and noticed at the edge of the cat colony was a lame kitten licking the leftover cat food from other cats.
The young man walked over and gently petted the lame kitten’s head. The little cat flinched, then hesitantly took two steps forward.
During this time, the young man waited quietly for it.
The kitten sniffed his fingertips, then tentatively pressed its head into the young man’s palm.
It also wanted to be gently petted by children, but its beautiful fur had long been destroyed in its previous owner’s abuse, burned away to reveal twisted skin.
It had been a long time since anyone had petted it like this young man did.
His hands were gentle and warm, just like a mother cat gently licking it.
The young man opened a separate can of cat food for the lame kitten, watching it make satisfied purring sounds.
The orange-red glow of the setting sun fell on the young man’s back, on his smooth neck, as if draping him in holy light.
In that moment, Wen Liang thought of the angels in legends.
According to legend, angels were ugly in appearance but kind in heart—so fitting for the young man before him.
Later, the young man joined the student council. As student council president, Wen Liang used his position to learn this young man’s name: Gao Gusheng.
The more he got to know him, the more he discovered attractive aspects of Gao Gusheng. The young man was like a treasure, attracting his attention and making people anticipate what surprises they might see next.
Wen Liang watched from afar but never approached. He watched Gao Gusheng’s every move from the shadows, feeling a sense of satisfaction from controlling everything.
Gao Gusheng had an ugly face, with a heavy, unfashionable hairstyle and glasses that didn’t inspire any desire to investigate further. The thick lenses made his eyes look small and dim.
To make matters worse, once when the wind blew up his heavy bangs, Wen Liang saw the pair of eyebrows hidden beneath them. After returning to his dorm, Wen Liang questioned life for a long time.
And those thick sausage lips hidden under the mask were something that made people not want to look again after one glance.
Though Gao Gusheng’s appearance was so ugly that looking at him once made his eyes hurt, he couldn’t help but be amazed by Gao Gusheng.
Whether it was the young man’s fragile neck or his slender waist, there was a contradictory beauty that made people want both to protect and to destroy.
Actually, the world is quite tolerant of men’s appearances. Although the young man’s looks didn’t seem very good, Wen Liang could have easily given him honest advice to get a fresh haircut, take off those black-framed glasses, and shave off his eyebrows to get a normal eyebrow shape done.
This way, even if he still couldn’t be called handsome, he could at least be described as clean and refreshing.
But Wen Liang didn’t say anything.
The young man’s ugly appearance was like a safe containing treasure. His plain and ordinary exterior prevented people from paying too much attention, not realizing what precious jade lay within this rough stone.
As long as Gao Gusheng kept this disguise, he wouldn’t attract too much attention from others.
Then only he would know just how attractive the real young man was.
With this secret joy, until one day, a clumsy freshman from the publicity department carrying a bucket of dirty water from cleaning watercolor brushes stumbled past the office and knocked the entire bucket onto Gao Gusheng, soaking him completely.
That day, Gao Gusheng was wearing a simple white T-shirt without complex patterns, so after being soaked, his figure became particularly obvious.
The semi-transparent white T-shirt clung to his body, not only failing to provide any concealment but actually drawing attention like a soft filter, outlining his slender waist in perfect detail.
The freshman stared at Gao Gusheng on the floor, completely stunned, dizzied by his snow-white appearance.
Like someone bewitched, he stepped forward, then forward again, his hand almost about to touch his waist.
Wen Liang’s gaze darkened. He took off his jacket to cover Gao Gusheng and scolded the freshman.
The freshman was absent-minded, and even while being reprimanded, his gaze kept drifting toward Gao Gusheng.
After the freshman left, Gao Gusheng thanked him, but Wen Liang keenly noticed there seemed to be spots of red at the corners of Gao Gusheng’s lips, slightly blurred.
Was it watercolor?
No.
Countless questions flashed through Wen Liang’s mind.
He had never been as harmless as he appeared on the surface. He liked to spy on others’ secrets and enjoyed the sense of security that came from holding these secrets in his palm.
Especially regarding Gao Gusheng.
So when Gao Gusheng went to change clothes, he secretly followed.
He arrived a step too late and didn’t get to see the snow-white skin hidden under Gao Gusheng’s clothes, but he saw Gao Gusheng take something out of his bag, rub it in his palm, then spread it on his face.
His heart pounded like a drum, knowing something was about to happen.
A handful of clear water splashed on his face. Gao Gusheng lifted his heavy, dampened bangs and raised his head.
Wen Liang looked at Gao Gusheng’s face in the mirror, his consciousness going blank.
He had scored over 700 points to get into Beijing University, yet at this moment, he couldn’t think of any words to describe the face before him. All the poems and literary works throughout history seemed to fall into clichés when applied to him.
Wen Liang had never known that hidden beneath those black-framed glasses were eyes so bright and lively, like two stars plucked from the heavens.
Unable to move, unable to react, even his breathing seemed restrained.
Looking at him, you could only look at him.
You couldn’t think of anything, couldn’t do anything.
The young man stretched his waist. Now he seemed completely different from when he was outside, yet also, perhaps, no different at all.
This wasn’t a rough stone at all.
This was clearly a piece of beautiful jade that had disguised itself as a rough stone for some unknown reason.
It was a long time before the young man disguised his face back to its usual appearance. Only then did Wen Liang slowly come back to his senses. At this moment, countless thoughts surged in his heart, all finally converging into one sentence—
This couldn’t continue like this.
Discovering the young man’s other side filled him with indescribable satisfaction, but what came with it was a sense of crisis.
The young man’s appearance was too stunning. Someday his disguise would crack.
He had to have him.
Before all the uncertain factors arrived.
So Wen Liang’s previous secret observation and spying turned into open probing and contact. When Wen Liang wanted to befriend someone, that person would find it hard to refuse.
As he wished, he quickly became Gao Gusheng’s confidant senior, one of the people Gao Gusheng trusted most at this school.
But what happened later exceeded his expectations.
…
“After that incident, I never came to find you.”
“I was afraid that when you saw my face, you would recall that experience again. But I really couldn’t help myself.”
He smiled bitterly, the sadness and guilt in his eyes almost impossible to hide. If anyone else saw them, even a heart frozen in ice would melt from these eyes.
“A Sheng, I like you, very much.”
Beijing University’s undisputed campus heartthrob had just confessed to him like this.
On this tree-lined path paved with golden fallen leaves, under this azure sky, in this autumn wind full of autumn colors.
The white shirt’s hem was stirred by the wind. He was like the perfect senior stepped out of a manga, or the undisputed Prince Charming in every girl’s mind.
The confidence and determination that once existed between Wen Liang’s brows had been tainted with lingering melancholy. He looked at you intently, as if you were the only remedy for the troubles in his heart.
Almost no one could refuse such a confession.
Except Gao Gusheng.
Gao Gusheng’s heart was as cold as someone who had been killing fish at Da Run Fa for ten years, “Thank you for Senior’s affection, but I don’t like men.”
I’m directly cutting off this budding romance at the sexual orientation level!
Gao Gusheng nodded at him and asked, “Does Senior have anything else? If not, I’ll leave. I have class later.”
Goodbye to you!
Wen Liang wanted to speak but stopped, finally saying dejectedly, “Forget it, you go ahead.”
“…Can we still be friends in the future?”
But when Gao Gusheng heard his first sentence, he had already run far away, as if a pack of wolves were chasing him from behind. Naturally, he didn’t hear the latter sentence either.
Watching Gao Gusheng’s retreating figure, Wen Liang slowly put away the faint melancholy and dejection on his face, revealing a smile instead.
His smile had an indescribable eeriness and danger to it.
“Did you see? The one who spent day and night with him was ‘Wen Liang,’ was ‘Senior Wen.'”
“You’d better not get any other ideas. You should know how much he loathes ‘Wen Yan.'”
“Be honest and cooperate with me. After all, our goals are the same, aren’t they?”
“A Sheng will be ours sooner or later.”
***
Gao Gusheng felt something was off about today’s events. He always trusted his intuition, so he reported the matter to his father.
Gao Shi seemed to be busy and hurriedly replied to Gao Gusheng, telling someone to check Wen Liang’s whereabouts, then went silent.
Gao Gusheng wasn’t in a hurry. After all, he had three bodyguards secretly protecting him—what was there to fear?
That Wen Liang guy might look tall and imposing, but he couldn’t match even one punch from him. If he could knock him down once, he could knock him down a second time.
Gao Gusheng hurried toward the classroom. He wasn’t bluffing Wen Liang—he really did have class soon.
Having classes on the afternoon before National Day was truly inhumane.
Today’s class was political theory, which was taught as a large lecture in a big classroom.
As soon as he entered, he saw Yun Zhiyi waving at him. Sitting beside her were Mo Hua, Sun Jun, and Zhou Jing.
The economics and mathematics departments took political theory together, while the sports and art majors had theirs the next period.
Mo Hua and Sun Jun rarely had free time, so they simply came over directly.
They had been so busy recently that their five-person squad hadn’t properly gathered together even once.
Mo Hua moved aside to let Gao Gusheng sit inside. Now Gao Gusheng’s face had become a fixed attraction—as long as he sat in the front row, he could guarantee that all students’ gazes would look forward. Even though Gao Gusheng wore a mask, it couldn’t block everyone’s enthusiastic stares.
From initial restlessness to later composure, everyone had gotten used to being watched by crowds.
Especially Yun Zhiyi—with her terrifying social integration and leadership abilities, she had directly organized a “Gao Gusheng Protection Squad” for him.
According to Yun Zhiyi, protecting Gao Gusheng was like dealing with male celebrities in the entertainment industry. Rather than letting fans follow blindly without organization, it was better to have a few people step forward as fan leaders to guide fans’ actions. This way, they could properly guide fans while avoiding negative impacts from some fans’ extreme behaviors.
The other four non-fan gentlemen could only exclaim “amazing” at this.
Given this massive fan base, Yun Zhiyi’s already extensive information network became even broader.
When Gao Gusheng arrived, Yun Zhiyi was frowning as she talked about a girl on campus.
“That girl has been confirmed missing for a month now.”
“Missing for a month and only reporting to police now?”
Sun Jun asked incredulously.
“What disappearance?” asked Gao Gusheng, who had just arrived.
Yun Zhiyi explained, “Previously, there was a male student from the literature department who was dating a freshman. When they went on vacation together, this guy abandoned his girlfriend in City A and came back by himself.”
“This guy didn’t take the girl seriously at all. When she had no news, he didn’t ask either, thinking she was throwing a tantrum and deliberately not replying. When police came to his door, he was still telling his buddies that his girlfriend couldn’t live without him and would come crawling back after a while.”
This news had been suppressed. If not for Yun Zhiyi’s extensive information sources, she wouldn’t have known about it either.
Such disgusting guys were rare. After hearing Yun Zhiyi’s words, Gao Gusheng immediately remembered who it was, “I know him.”
“Previously, when I was bringing lollipops home to my dad, this person stopped me and asked if I was selling these lollipops. I was puzzled at the time—why would anyone buy second-hand lollipops? He told me he thought I was buying so many lollipops to confess to someone, saying that after confessing, generally no one would actually eat the candy anyway, so why not sell them to him at half price so he could give them to his girlfriend.”
Zhou Jing pushed his glasses incredulously, “This kind of guy can actually find a girlfriend?”
Zhou Jing, who had never been in a relationship and was the youngest among them, looked around at his friends in confusion. Unfortunately, these friends were a bunch of single dogs. Looking around, not one of the five of them had any romantic experience.
Yun Zhiyi shook her head with a dark expression, “This little girl has some family problems. Her parents are divorced, and now both have formed new families. They just send her money monthly but don’t ask about anything else or contact her much. She lives alone now and dated that guy probably looking for companionship.”
Girls who lacked love but not money were indeed easily targeted by ill-intentioned men.
“No wonder, no wonder it took so long for someone to discover she was missing.”
Gao Gusheng suddenly said, “Oh no! I remember there seemed to be serial disappearance cases in City A before. This girl happened to go to City A and then disappeared. There’s been no news until now—could she have gotten caught up in it?”
“Damn!”
“When that girl went with her boyfriend, it was right during the worst period of disappearances. Even so, that guy dared to abandon his girlfriend there and come back alone??”
The Gao family elders all had harmonious marriages. Even in their circle, the worst was just keeping mistresses—there really weren’t any beasts who would directly abandon someone in a dangerous place, caring only about their own emotions and disregarding their wife’s safety.
Yun Zhiyi angrily drank half a cup of water, “The news has been blocked, so I don’t know the specifics either. But the police have already intervened in the investigation. I hope that girl is okay.”
However, despite saying this, everyone actually knew that since this girl had been missing for a month before being discovered, she was probably already in grave danger.
What would happen to trafficked girls didn’t need to be said—everyone could guess.
The atmosphere became heavy.
Zhou Jing glanced at Yun Zhiyi and coughed lightly, “Yun Zhiyi, the movie king released new behind-the-scenes footage. Look, is this your cousin?”
At the mention of her cousin, Yun Zhiyi perked up. She quickly leaned over to watch the footage, her eyes brightening as she pointed to a gentle girl with a low ponytail, “This one! This is my cousin. How is she? Pretty, right?”
The cousin in the video was indeed beautiful. Unlike Yun Zhiyi’s bright and spirited look, hers was the typical gentle style of Jiangnan water towns.
Most striking were her hands—slender and beautiful, with a delicate, boneless beauty.
Zhou Jing glanced at the woman in the video, then at Yun Zhiyi, “Not bad.”
Yun Zhiyi snorted, “What do you mean ‘not bad’? You straight male robot.”
In the footage, Gao Gusheng also caught a glimpse of the internet celebrity Zhou You.
Gao Gusheng frowned. Honestly, he didn’t have a good impression of Xiao Yusheng, but he had no reason to say this. If he spoke up rashly, Yun Zhiyi would believe him, but her cousin certainly wouldn’t.
However, her cousin didn’t need his warning. After he was blacklisted online last time, Yun Zhiyi had completely removed her rose-colored glasses regarding Xiao Yusheng.
The usually quiet Mo Hua looked at the video and suddenly said, “This place looks quite remote.”
In the video, though not much was shown, you could still see thatched huts in the distance and randomly piled timber.
Looking carefully at the ground, it seemed to be pure dirt and mountain paths. These kinds of roads would become muddy pits with each step when it rained. If you were unlucky enough to step into muddy ground, your leg could get stuck for a long time.
National Day holiday was coming up, and everyone knew it rained frequently during National Day.
Looking at the scene in this video, if it really poured, this group might get trapped on the mountain.
Not knowing the terrain of this mountain, they weren’t afraid of much else, but they feared the film crew might encounter landslides.
But to avoid filming disruptions, the location was kept secret.
Sun Jun consoled, “Since they went to such a remote place to film, the crew should have prepared. Maybe they’ve already started evacuating this afternoon and won’t stay on the mountain.”
Hearing this, Yun Zhiyi relaxed her brow, “True, what we can think of, a more professional crew should be able to think of too.”
Mo Hua asked, “Do you know about the Wu family incident?”
Sun Jun picked up the conversation, “I know, it happened last night.”
Yun Zhiyi frowned, “I know too, it’s really…”
It seemed she wanted to say something but held back.
Yun Zhiyi had always disapproved of girls being lovesick. Previously, one of her subordinates was severely lovesick, living and dying for a scumbag. After Yun Zhiyi intervened, she forcibly transformed her into a career-focused strong woman who now served as president of a club and won scholarships every year.
According to Yun Zhiyi, “If you bloom, butterflies will come.”
Now that strong woman was being pursued by several male students and was progressing well with one of them. They’d probably hear good news this month.
Yun Zhiyi clearly disapproved of mistress number four’s behavior, but considering respect for the dead, she ultimately didn’t say anything.
Zhou Jing adjusted his glasses, “I also watched that video. I think there’s something wrong with it. Before Zhou Yun jumped, it was like someone was pulling her hands.”
The others were surprised, “You actually watched that video! Wasn’t it heavily censored? This time all resources and torrents were seized!”
Zhou Jing said, “Just lucky. A senior from computer science had just recovered the video, and I happened to be beside him when I saw it—though it was deleted again after recovery, and the cyber police warned him.”
Zhou Jing simply described the video content. He was severely partial in his studies with poor Chinese skills, but even his plain, straightforward narrative made everyone break out in cold sweats.
Zhou Jing said rationally, “…But I don’t think there’s anything supernatural about this. There might be some method we don’t know about. Now the police have sealed off the matter, so we don’t need to worry too much.”
Gao Gusheng agreed and nodded, “Don’t worry, everyone knows our city’s police response efficiency, right?”
Though he said this, he felt somewhat uneasy inside. Dad’s message had been so hurried—could he have gone to handle this matter?
Zhou Jing didn’t believe in ghosts and demons, but he did! He not only believed, he’d seen them, and not just once but several times.
Just then, the class bell rang.
The classroom stirred.
“Why hasn’t our teacher arrived yet? The class bell has already rung.”
Gao Gusheng looked around, “The class representative has already gone to find the teacher.”
He joked, “Maybe Old Zheng is also looking forward to National Day.”
Previously, for afternoon classes before small holidays like this, most people would have already asked for leave, leaving few students. This classroom was so full because of Gao Gusheng’s face holding them here.
Just as students were getting restless, the political theory teacher walked in from the doorway.
The teacher smiled kindly and joked, “Sorry, students. The teacher was stuck in terrible traffic and was two minutes late. No problem! I’ll make it up during break time!”
Students immediately wailed in despair.
Amid the laughter, Gao Gusheng stared fixedly at the political theory teacher.
He felt that something was strange about this teacher the moment he entered the door.
An indescribable feeling…
Was it his imagination?
***
![Fake Sweet Omega [BL]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/僞裝甜O.png "Fake Sweet Omega [BL]")
