Ever since it was labeled a criminal case, things kept getting worse for Xu Shengrung day by day.
The detectives had already come to the hospital a few times to take statements. As the victim, Lin Wangye laid everything out clearly—how Xu Shengrung had blackmailed him for over a hundred grand before all this. Every detail, he said it all.
And as for why he didn’t call the cops back then? Honestly, it made sense.
Lin Wangye was still just a high school kid.
In cases like this, it’s super common—young, inexperienced, scared out of their minds, too afraid to tell their parents or teachers, let alone report it to the police.
The security footage backed it all up. It clearly showed Lin Wangye had gone to the old part of town on the fourth day of the New Year. Not long after, he followed Xu Shengrung to the bank, looking totally out of it, and at the counter, he withdrew 140,000 in one go and handed it over.
There was no way Xu Shengrung was gonna weasel out of charges for picking fights and blackmail.
And when it came to what went down in the shopping street, Lin Wangye—being the one who got hurt—flat-out said it was attempted murder. If he hadn’t fought back in time, he would’ve been a goner.
That folding knife? Xu Shengrung brought it himself. Only his fingerprints were on it. It was just sitting there, plain as day, the smoking gun for assault. No matter how hard he tried to deny it, he was nailed.
The only tricky part was, there was no surveillance at the actual scene.
And yeah, the stab didn’t hit anything vital, and without hard proof or eyewitnesses showing he meant to kill, they couldn’t confirm it as attempted murder.
So in the end, it didn’t matter—charge him anyway, take it to court, fight it out head-on.
Lu Wei’s team of lawyers weren’t amateurs.
Even if the court ended up ruling that there wasn’t enough evidence for attempted murder, Xu Shengrung would still be screwed. Between picking fights, blackmail, and assault, stacking up all those charges would be enough to make his life hell.
And that’s not even counting the drugs.
Once the cops wrapped up the full investigation, the charges would pile up like crazy.
Meanwhile, ever since Lin Shen figured out that distracting Lin Wangye helped him deal with the post-surgery pain, he’d been doing everything he could to keep things interesting.
And since Lu Chengxuan had started it, there was no way he was letting the guy off easy.
Especially not when it came to the whole braid thing.
If he was gonna be the first one to step up, there was no way Lu Chengxuan was escaping.
Compared to Lu Chengxuan, who just tied a few little black rubber bands into a basic braid, Lin Shen had totally lost all restraint.
Right after school, he rushed to a jewelry shop and bought a whole pile of colorful hair clips and bands. Then, right there by the hospital bed, he started showing off all kinds of crazy styles he’d picked up online—using both himself and Lu Chengxuan as models.
It was a pretty simple move, really. Straightforward—and it worked.
Especially when it came to Lu Chengxuan, who never really showed any emotion. Seeing him sit there with his usual blank face while rocking tiny braids and butterfly hair clips all over his head… the contrast was just too much. He didn’t have to do a thing—just sitting there like that was enough to keep Lin Wangye glued to him, unable to look away.
Yeah, the wound still hurt—it was supposed to—but once your attention is pulled somewhere else, the pain doesn’t hit as hard. It kind of fades into the background.
And after a while, it wasn’t even the silly braids or the funny looks that got to Lin Wangye. What really hit him was watching Lin Shen and Lu Chengxuan team up—both of them putting in effort, working together for the same goal. That feeling… it really moved him.
Ever since he came to this time, he’d been trying to fix things between his dad and Lu Chengxuan. He didn’t want them to end up like they did in his last life—splitting apart, becoming total strangers.
But honestly? It wasn’t easy.
Those two were just way too stubborn.
One didn’t know how to talk properly, and the other didn’t talk at all.
Still, little by little, something between them had started to shift. It wasn’t obvious—you couldn’t see it or point it out—but the feeling was there, faint but real.
And because of that, Lin Wangye started to believe in the future a bit more.
At eighteen or nineteen, your body’s basically at its best, so even if you get hurt, you bounce back fast. Not long after the surgery, Lin Wangye was already able to get up and walk. Then after staying in bed for another couple of weeks, the wound had pretty much healed.
As he got better each day, Shi Yuan finally got to breathe a little easier. No more walking on eggshells.
The last few months before the college entrance exam were all about cramming and review. Not going to class wasn’t a huge deal. So once Lin Wangye was doing better, Shi Yuan started studying with him—going over questions he didn’t get and helping him review.
The mock exam results from the first day back came out quickly.
Lin Wangye’s score had dropped a little, just like he’d expected. But what he didn’t expect—at all—was that Shi Yuan’s score had dropped way more. Over forty points lower than his last mock test.
Shi Yuan used to be in the top five of the whole grade. At that level, everyone’s scores are neck and neck. So dropping over forty points? That kicked him straight out of the top twenty.
“What happened?” Lin Wangye frowned hard as he stared at the photo Lin Shen had snapped of the school’s bulletin board. He glanced carefully at Shi Yuan. “Did I mess up your studying…?”
But Shi Yuan didn’t look surprised at all. Like he’d expected it. When he heard what Lin Wangye said, his voice softened right away. “These are my scores. How could that possibly be your fault?”
“But your grades used to be so good,” Lin Wangye said, still clearly not comforted at all. His face was full of worry. “Ever since you met me, your scores have been dropping… you even switched classes. I must’ve affected you. You should really go back to school, stop hanging out at the hospital with me every day. I’m already fine, I’ll be discharged soon.”
“Okay okay okay—can we not with this drama?”
Lin Shen finally couldn’t take it anymore. He paused his game, rolled his eyes, and cut in, “He’s still ranking in the top twenty-something even with those ‘dropped’ grades, what’s the panic? I’m in the two-hundreds and I’m chill as hell. You two keep talking like this and I swear I’m losing brain cells just listening.”
Lin Wangye turned and looked at him, lips twitching. “You didn’t have many to begin with.”
Lin Shen laughed and cursed, “Screw you! You looking for a fight?”
The two started messing around, half joking, half arguing. While they were at it, Shi Yuan quietly passed over a neatly arranged fruit plate. Still worried Lin Wangye might overthink it, he explained gently, “That last test? I kind of just guessed on a few of the multiple choice questions. Wanted to see if Fu Xuexue could take the top spot so I’d get a shot at switching classes.”
Lin Wangye stared at him for a long moment, then suddenly smacked the blanket. “I knew it!”
“Easy, easy,” Shi Yuan quickly caught his wrist and held it down, gently checking the area around the wound. “That didn’t hurt, did it? You’ve gotta move slower, okay? Be good.”
“I’m fine!” Lin Wangye flexed like he was showing off muscles, raising his perfectly fine right hand high in the air. “I could run two kilometers right now without even getting winded!”
Lin Shen grabbed a piece of apple and popped it in his mouth, snorting.
“You sure talk a lot of crap without getting winded.”
“Hey! That’s my boyfriend’s apple—you don’t get to eat it!” Lin Wangye snatched the plate back and guarded it with both arms. “You want fruit? Go find yourself a man to cut it for you!”
Lin Shen stood up right then and rolled up his sleeves, reaching out to grab it.
“Oh I am eating this today—hand it over!”
“Nope!”
“Come on, just gimme it!”
“No way!”
“Ay, you two—can you not fight for five seconds?”
Lin Wangye and Lin Shen went back and forth, bickering and grabbing at each other. Shi Yuan was torn—he didn’t want Lin Wangye to get hurt from all the squirming, but he also knew forcing them to stop might backfire. It took a whole minute of panicked fumbling before he finally managed to press Lin Wangye back onto the bed and get him to sit still.
In the end, Lin Wangye gave in and handed the fruit plate to Lin Shen with a huff. Then he turned back to Shi Yuan with serious eyes.
“I wanna get discharged.”
Shi Yuan gently fixed his messy hair and said softly, “The stitches are out, yeah, but the doctor still wants to keep you here a bit longer, just to be safe. Let’s wait it out.”
Lin Wangye sighed. “Then you should go back to class.”
Seeing he was still hung up on that, Shi Yuan let out a helpless little laugh and explained patiently, “I didn’t study at all during the whole winter break. I was either working or doing design stuff, so my grades dropping was totally expected. Really—it had nothing to do with you.”
“Oh, okay. That’s good.”
Hearing that, Lin Wangye finally relaxed. He picked up a piece of orange with his fork, popped it into his mouth, and asked Lin Shen casually, “Where’s Brother Lu? Why didn’t he come today?”
Lin Shen, still staring at his game, replied without looking up.
“He said he had something to do. Didn’t say what, though.”
“Hmm, alright then.” Lin Wangye leaned back, scratching lightly at his palm through the bandages where it itched a little. As he thought aloud, he said, “Good thing my score didn’t drop too much. Once I’m back at school, I’ll catch up. I should be fine getting into Ningchang University’s Business School.”
“If I’m not even worried with my score barely scraping the cutoff, you definitely don’t have to stress,” Lin Shen said. “You did way better than me.”
Suddenly remembering something, Lin Wangye turned to Lin Shen and asked, “Is the Business School on the same campus as the Art School?”
“Yeah,” Lin Shen nodded. “Ningchang Uni only has two campuses. East Campus is for Aerospace, Mechanical Engineering, and Computer Science. Everything else is at South Campus.”
“Awesome!” Lin Wangye lit up and gave Shi Yuan a big, happy grin. “That means we won’t be separated!”
Shi Yuan looked down, then smiled as he fed him a piece of apple.
Lin Shen finally put down his game console and said, sounding serious for once, “I checked—Dorm C in the guys’ dorms is the best. It’s far from the lake, so fewer mosquitoes. I’ll find someone to pull a few strings, and the three of us can room together.”
“The three of us?” Lin Wangye blinked. “What about Brother Lu?”
Lin Shen paused for a moment. His expression didn’t really change, and his voice stayed the same.
“He… probably won’t be going to Ningchang.”
“Huh?” Lin Wangye blinked in surprise. “Why not? Ningchang’s Business program is one of the best in the country.”
Lin Shen shrugged. “His dad wants to send him overseas. I think he wants to go too—probably somewhere in Northern Europe.”
“Oh…” Lin Wangye let out a long sigh, clearly disappointed. “Well… I guess that makes sense. It’s a different world out there. Seeing more of it is good. Just sucks we probably won’t get to hang out for a long time.”
Lin Shen lowered his head again, unpaused the game, and kept playing.
“Told you already—he’s not really from the same world as us.”
Lin Wangye’s eyes spun a few times, then he leaned over, peering at Lin Shen’s face with curiosity. “Studying abroad takes years, you know. Are you gonna miss him?”
The buttons on Lin Shen’s console suddenly started going ‘click-clack-clack’ in a frantic burst. You could tell the guy was stressed and kind of annoyed. But none of that changed the inevitable outcome—the next second, the game let out a cheery ‘Game over!’
“Hey—don’t block my light. You’re messing me up,” Lin Shen complained, glancing up at him. “I finally made it to this level and now you ruined it.”
But Lin Wangye wasn’t buying the act. He stared at him, eyes wide and unblinking.
“So? Do you miss Brother Lu?”
“It’s your turn,” Lin Shen snapped, chucking the console onto the bed. He was obviously pissed, flames practically coming out of his ears. “Yes, yes, yes! I miss him so much I can’t eat, can’t sleep, is that what you wanna hear?!”
Lin Wangye looked like he’d just uncovered the meaning of life. He picked up the game console while nodding along, then glanced up with this smug little grin—flattering and mischievous at the same time.
“Brother Lu”
“Can you stop going on and on about Lu Chengxuan all day long? What did he do, put some kind of spell on—”
Halfway through the rant, Lin Shen suddenly froze.
The two people in front of him were both staring at something… behind him.
He turned around on instinct—and bam—made direct eye contact with Lu Chengxuan.
And just like that, all the words he’d just said came rushing back to him. Lin Shen went completely silent.
*
Author’s Note:
Lin Shen: I can explain. I didn’t mean it like that! (frantically gesturing.jpg)
Lu Chengxuan: Swear it. If you’re lying, you’ll never win another game for the rest of your life.
Lin Shen: …
Lin Wangye: Extra! Extra! Remember that guy who swore on his life to expose the concubine’s affair? Yeah, his whole family line died out.
Lin Shen: Don’t use my gaming career as a punchline!
Hello, everyone ヾ(＾∇＾). I hope you enjoyed the story! If you’re feeling generous, please buy me a coffee, share/comment on my translated works! Check out the link below for early chapters. (๑>ᴗ<๑)
Why I am not getting the chapter… It’s showing blank page… Is it for me?