Chapter 9

Wound

Because of the dark environment, and the fact that he drank a lot of alcohol while eating barbecue, when Lu Shen’s heavy punch hit Bian Shengjian in the face, he felt the pain explode right at the root of his ear before he could even react. Even the blue veins at his temple jumped violently.

“Damn you!” Bian Shengjian grabbed Lu Shen’s wrist with a backhand without thinking, and pushed him down with the force of a fierce punch to his abdomen, “You took the wrong medicine!”

Lu Shen gasped for two breaths and didn’t speak. The expression on his face was a little unpredictable. However, he didn’t even frown after the punch.

“Your abdomen’s firm?” Bian Shengjian sneered and patted Lu Shen’s lower abdomen twice, “How, been exercising?”

Lu Shen stared at him. His knee suddenly bent back and collided with Bian Shengjian’s calf joint. Taking advantage of the gap between Bian Shengjian’s bending, his upper body jumped up at a sensitive and cunning angle. He grabbed Bian Shengjian’s shoulder and rolled him to the ground. At the same time, as soon as his legs were closed, he jumped onto Bian Shengjian before he could grab him down and pressed him to the ground.

“Let go!” Bian Shengjian roared, raised his leg and bumped against Lu Shen’s back, obviously with a lot of strength, but he didn’t expect Lu Shen to still be able to stop him with one arm and said in a calm voice, “You can’t beat me.”

“Damn you for the second time!” Bian Shengjian took a deep breath, feeling that every cell in his body was burning at the moment, and the capillaries on his face were about to explode. “Don’t force me.”

“Third brother,” Lu Shen saw the blood stains on Bian Shengjian’s face. His eyes flickered and he hesitated, “I don’t want to fight you, but…”

Before Lu Shen finished speaking, he felt something and slowly lowered down his head. He noticed a small thin blade that flashed a sharp cold light against his throat. “…you want to kill..” Me?

“I won’t.” Bian Shengjian narrowed his eyes. His slender knuckles held the blade. “Be good. Let me up.”

Lu Shen didn’t move, and looked down at him while still sitting astride. His pupils seemed to shrink, but his gaze remained calm. “Let’s have a good chat.”

“Are you sure you want to do this with me?” Bian Shengjian exerted a little force on his hand, and that small piece of freezing blade would be embedded in Lu Shen’s fragile neck flesh in the next second, “Have a good chat?” 

There was no superfluous expression on Bian Shengjian’s face at the moment, but there was a ruthlessness in his gestures, as if he had just fought his way out of a group of people at the last second.

Lu Shen’s throat rolled, and he let go after sighing lightly.

Bian Shengjian irritably moved him to the side and quickly climbed up. He didn’t care to pat the grass clippings on his body and rushed up thumping Lu Shen’s chest, “Did you have fun? Huh?”

“Third brother, listen to me,” Lu Shen took two steps back, his face appearing pale under the moonlight, “I didn’t mean to scare you… but it’s really dangerous to come back so late. “

“Dangerous? Where is the danger?” Bian Shengjian sneered. At this point, there was no one near the school gate except for the two of them. In addition,  insects chirping once or twice could be heard around, making the environment appear attractive at the moment.

“Put the knife away.” Lu Shen was silent for a while, as if he had given up discussing this issue with him, and turned to stare at his clenched right hand. “Be careful with your hand.”

Bian Shengjian snorted and didn’t speak. He raised his other hand, wiped his face, and shook the blood on it in front of Lu Shen’s face. “I’ll remember this.”

“I…” Lu Shen hesitated for a moment and straightened his chest, “You hit me back.”

Bian Shengjian did not answer. He kept a few steps away from him and slid the blade back into his trouser pocket. “Lu Shen.”

Lu Shen raised his head.

“…What the hell are you?” Bian Shengjian’s voice was not loud, but there was a sense of oppression that could not be ignored, “Why are you always following me.”

Lu Shen looked at him in silence for a while, the corners of his mouth seemed to rise into a small arc. “First, I’m not a thing–”

“–Second,” Lu Shen paused for a while, his tone was very light, “If I said I was a ghost, would you believe it?”

Bian Shengjian frowned and didn’t speak. He remembered that he had said the same thing when he first met Lu Shen, but after getting along for the past two days, he had to rethink this absurd remark that can even make someone feel cold behind their backs. “Are you serious?” 

Just as they were staring at each other and the atmosphere somehow dropped to a freezing point, a giant beam of light from a strong flashlight suddenly swept from a distance, and it happened to meet Bian Shengjian’s eyes. “…Fuck!”

“Who’s there!” The light was followed by an imposing roar, “Who is it!”

Bian Shengjian was perplexed for a moment by the light of the flashlight. When his arm was suddenly grasped and at the same time, Lu Shen whispered in his ear, “Run!”

“What…” Bian Shengjian still had one hand covered around his eyes, his right hand was tightly clasped by Lu Shen while they ran forward. The light behind them kept swiping back and forth onto the two of them and the roaring voice just now was also quickly approaching. “Don’t run! I told you not to run!”

“Wouldn’t it be more strange if we don’t run?” Bian Shengjian heard Lu Shen laugh a little. He tightened his grip on his hand and ran all the way along the trail until Shenjian realized something and was suddenly stunned—- isn’t what they are doing like what a couple would do after being caught doing something on the lawn—

“Crap!” Bian Shengjian finally came to his senses after running a long way, panting and throwing Lu Shen’s hand away while asking angrily, “Are you fucking sick? Who the hell was that guy just now?”

“The school watchman.” Lu Shen gasped for breath and said with a smile, “those caught by him will be punished. Worse, the whole school will be notified.”

“You…” Bian Shengjian paused, then continued,  “Then the more reason we shouldn’t be caught. Don’t worry, I have long legs. “

He looked at his hands then wiped them on his trousers with some disgust, “Your hands were sweaty. “

Lu Shen laughed and walked forward slowly, “Third brother… I am really sorry just now, I was too anxious.”

“Why do I find you a bit of a schizophrenic?” Bian Shengjian snorted. “Didn’t you just say that you are a ghost? Are you really a human or a ghost?”

“Human.” Lu Shen paused for a moment and leaned closer to Shenjian. “I’m just afraid that if you come back late, the uncle just now will catch you. Don’t be angry.”

“Playing me for a fool?” Bian Shengjian stretched out a finger and poked Lu Shen’s shoulder, pushing him to the side with force, “You’re crazy. “

“I was wrong,” Lu Shen said with a smile on his face, “third brother, you almost scared me to death back there earlier…..Why are you carrying this thing with you?”

“Self-defense, I’m using it against people like you.” Bian Shengjian slid his hand inside his pocket and gently caressed it. There was a switchblade within. Although it was easy to cause suspicion when someone saw this kind of thing in him. But, after all, going out will make him feel uneasy if he doesn’t wear any form of self-defense on his body.

“What am I going to do? I won’t hurt you.” Lu Shen groaned deeply, “I’m just worried about you.”

Again, that awkward feeling. Bian Shengjian glanced at him silently without saying a word, then turned to stare at the lake not far away, where the waves shimmered slightly under the moonlight. How did they come here?

Bian Shengjian stared at the lake in the distance, the night was empty and silent, except for the somewhat unsightly warning sign standing beside the lake. At a glance, the lake water had been dyed silver by the moonlight. It has a peculiar attraction which makes people suddenly want to go to the lake and sit for a while– 

“We can only climb over a window to enter the dormitory building,” Lu Shen suddenly turned sideways and blocked his sight, “The door is locked.”

“Obviously because it is now late.” Bian Shengtong glanced at him and retracted his gaze, “It doesn’t matter anyway.”

“Are you… still angry?” Lu Shen looked at the small wound on the side of his face that was no longer bleeding. His tone became a little guilty. “Sorry, I punched you hard.”

“Shut up.” Bian Shengjian said.

Generally speaking, if he fights with someone, he will make sure to definitely return each hit the opponent landed on him. Earlier, he didn’t hold back when he punched Lu Shen on his abdomen. He was surprised he didn’t even throw up.

He thought about it and glanced at Lu Shen up and down, the two of them were clearly entangled and rolling on the ground, even the grass was flattened. Yet, while his face was covered in dirt, Lu Shen actually looked unscathed and was even walking very lightly. It made it hard for Bian Shengjian not to wonder if he was born with some magical anti-beating physique. 

When they managed to enter downstairs, the whole building was already dark. Only the safety exit sign next to the fire extinguisher placed on each floor was still glowing with pale green light. From a distance, it looked like a bunch of ghost fires floating in the darkness, which was weird and a little scary. 

Bian Shengjian and Lu Shen walked around to the other side of the dormitory with ease. When they climbed a window, the two cooperated very well. It didn’t even take much effort. They trotted up the stairs quietly, that not even a sound of their footsteps could be heard. 

“Aren’t there students doing self-study in the dormitory?” Bian Shengjian finally breathed a sigh of relief when they finally reached the fifth floor. He took out his mobile phone and glanced at the time. “It’s still a little after 9 o’clock, and everyone has already turned off the lights?” He felt astonished.

“Well, it’s lights-out once the clock strikes 9.” Lu Shen nodded.

“Even if the lights are turned off, there would be some movement, right?” Bian Shengjian frowned. Although he didn’t pay attention to the number of people living in the dormitory building, if it was his previous school, it would be impossible for the dormitory to be quiet before 11 o’clock in the evening. When a huge group of people decide to play cards and have a barbecue late at night, the entire structure can be shaken to pieces. To get everybody back to their rooms, you often have to depend on the staff to yell at the top of their lungs.

But when they went up the stairs just now, he didn’t hear any sound at all, whether it was chatting or laughing,  it was so eerily silent.

Was it because the sound insulation effect was too good, or do these people automatically fall into a coma after 9 o’clock? Bian Shengjian couldn’t help but hug his arms around himself after thinking about it.

“Go to bed early.”

Lu Shen opened the door next to Shenjian’s, paused for a while and then whispered, “Do you want a Band-Aid?”

“No need.” Bian Shengjian glanced at him, thinking about the inexplicable fight with Lu Shen a while ago, he began to feel a little irritated, but the atmosphere while standing in the corridor at the moment was too strange. “I’ll settle the account with you tomorrow.” Without saying anything more, he closed the door.

The dormitory was still a bit messy when he left at noon, but Bian Shengjian was not in the mood to clean up at the moment. He entered the balcony and looked at his face in the small mirror. He gritted and complained, “He really punched me hard.”

But in the past, when fighting with someone, he had no reservations about giving his all. It was quite easy to deal with such a small wound. Bian Shengjian took out a small medicine box from the cupboard. He disinfected the wound with alcohol and put a transparent Band-Aid over the wound. Fortunately, the wound left by Lu Shen was not too big. After a few days, it should scab and fall off.

After finishing the treatment, Bian Shengjian went into the bathroom to take a shower. He felt annoyed for a while before placing the changed clothing in a bag and putting them aside for the time being. When he  came back from going out, he noticed  a very inconspicuous small dry cleaning shop next to the school. Although he didn’t know how the service quality was, it was better than washing clothes in the sink on the broken balcony. He frowned at the thought in disgust.

“Let’s go to Lao Tan tomorrow to discuss whether the dormitory can be equipped with a washing machine.” Bian Shengjian sighed and lay down on the bed, grabbed the guitar that was leaning on the side and played a few notes, and hummed softly–

But even if he got a moment of relaxation at this moment, a bunch of things that happened tonight kept walking back and forth in Bian Shengjian’s mind:

–First, I went to the barbecue shop and met a freak. When I went back to school, I had a fight with Lu Shen. Then I was inexplicably driven back to the dormitory by an old man holding a strong flashlight waving it like a gangster…

Bian Shengjian sighed again, played a few tunes at random, and then got out of bed and turned off the light. His experience in this school alone was enough for him to write half a book of wonderful life memoirs. He still had to get a good night’s sleep first though.

What is so noisy?

He was about to turn around and ignore it, yet he suddenly stopped. He had only now noticed that his balcony was facing the mountain behind the school. After turning off the lights at night, it became hauntingly dark. When the wind blew, shadows of trees shook in his field of vision, adding to the dreadful setting.

“Fuck.” Bian Shengjian couldn’t help but curse and hurriedly cover himself with a blanket, but paused halfway through.

Wait, what’s that sound?

He frowned. He got up and slowly approached the balcony. He leaned sideways and listened carefully for a while–

Apart from some small noises, Bian Shengjian’s naturally sensitive hearing quickly caught some other sounds in the wind, as if they were slowly spreading from far to near–

This is… a bell tolling? 

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The temperature has cooled recently, remember to wrap up tightly. Will continue tomorrow.