CH 49

Chapter 49 Reprimand

The music continued, but Jian Chi felt briefly deaf for a few seconds.

He opened his lips, and what he wanted to say turned into an endless pounding heartbeat. He felt a mixture of malice and surprise on his back. All the movement around him seemed to be mixed with his name, maybe it was an illusion, maybe… ….

Jian Chi couldn’t think for a while.

“Shao Hang.”

Ji Huaisi still wore a calm smile, his tone changed to the drizzle of early spring mixed with cold air, and the gentleness was inextricably deep, “Don’t make this joke again, it will trouble Jian Chi. There is a school dance, people from both schools are here, and you don’t want some of the quarrels that happened just now to be passed on to Shao Changwei, right?”

“Are you threatening me?”

“No, I just hope you can restrain your temper. Before you entered the school, Shao Changwei had a chat with me. He asked me to discipline you more in school, to not care about his face.”

Shao Hang squinted his eyes, the dangerous aura was getting stronger and stronger, so strong that it was oppressive, even some students who were watching the fun scattered to the side, not daring to come out. Jian Chi listened to Ji Huaisi’s last words slowly, and vaguely understood why Shao Hang hated Ji Huaisi so much, but had to obey the orders of the student union. Just when Shao Hang was about to say something more frightening, there was a lukewarm shout from the revolving escalator.

“Have you made enough trouble?”

Jian Chi looked up, but he didn’t expect to meet Shen Shuting’s half-drooping cold gaze, his eyes were like expensive emeralds, without any emotion. Standing tall and straight on the escalator, he walked down calmly after a while. Jian Chi couldn’t help but shake his head, and everyone around him held his breath.

Zhang Yang’s sentence suddenly came to mind, ‘looks like a prince’.

“Shuting, why did you come down?” The curvature of the corners of Ji Huaisi’s lips softened, “Sorry, I will deal with the matter here soon, you go up first.”

“I heard it all.”

Shen Shuting swept over Shao Hang and Wen Chuan with a dark expression on his face. The quiet eyes finally stayed on Jian Chi’s face, his eyebrows twitched slightly, and two words with no temperature were spit out: “Come up.”

The moment the words fell, Shao Hang’s face changed the most obviously. He sneered, covering the flash of anger, and his lazy voice was mixed with imperceptible irritability: “The president is really generous, this trivial matter getting everyone involved, I was just joking just now.”

He was afraid no one would believe this sentence, and it even made Jian Chi want to laugh.

Shen Shuting didn’t give Shao Hang a look, and repeated the order he just issued.

“Come up.”

Jian Chi looked at Shen Shuting who turned to go upstairs after leaving these words. He hesitated for a moment, but Ji Huaisi by his side didn’t say a word. Jian Chi lowered his head, facing Shao Hang’s burning gaze, he quickly followed Shen Shuting’s pace.

No matter why Shen Shuting said this, as long as he was given a reason to leave here, he could briefly ignore the unpleasantness he once felt.

There were many eyes around him all the way, and Jian Chi walked up the rotating escalator with heavy steps. He had a hunch that it wouldn’t take long for what happened tonight to be spread around every corner of Saintston, including HS.

When he came to the second floor, he completely distanced myself from the dance music downstairs and Shao Hang’s eyes that were like torches. Jian Chi relaxed his tense body, and kept a distance of three steps away from Shen Shuting. Shen Shuting stopped, and so did he.

“You are indeed very capable,” Shen Shuting turned his head halfway, his eyes fixed on a certain point in the void. His gentle voice made Jian Chi see coldness from his bones, “It seems that you didn’t listen to my last warning.”

“I……”

“I only say those words once. It’s up to you whether you listen or not. No matter what happens later, don’t regret it. I don’t want to be involved with what happened just now, but I won’t allow you to destroy this dance and let people like you wantonly smear the image of the school, do you understand?”

Jian Chi hesitated, trying to explain these misunderstandings, but Shen Shuting’s misunderstanding of him was deeply ingrained. At this time, two to three sentences in this venue wouldn’t explain anything at all, and finally he could only say helplessly: “You misunderstood, I didn’t have this intent at all.”

Unexpectedly, this sentence caused Shen Shuting’s disgust. He turned around, and his eyes flashed a cold light in the dim and silent corridor. Jian Chi couldn’t help but increase his heart. Shen Shuting’s majesty and oppression over everything had overshadowed his usual calmness, he was almost better than Shao Hang.

“I hate people who lie the most.”

The voice fluctuated word by word. This was a rare moment when Shen Shuting revealed his true emotions. The disgust contained in it seemed not only to point to Jian Chi, but more like a cold accusation. However, after just a short while, this fluctuation was suppressed by him, and the inhuman and aloof Shen Shuting was once again restored. He glanced down at his watch, “You can stay here, or you can continue to walk forward, take the elevator to the lower floor and leave through the back door. Don’t go down, unless you want the scene to happen again. I won’t come out to stop it, of course, you know the consequences of doing so.”

Jian Chi couldn’t even put in words of refusal. Shen Shuting’s attitude made him very uncomfortable, but the meaning of the words was indeed correct, and he nodded silently, “I understand.”

“I hope you really do.”

When Shen Shuting left with his cold back, Jian Chi tasted the sarcasm mixed in the last sentence. He helplessly leaned against the wall of the corridor with a headache, and glanced at the time. The dance ended in the early hours of the morning, what could he do with the remaining hours? Something flashed in Jian Chi’s mind, he straightened up, and looked in the direction where Shen Shuting left just now.

Shen Shuting didn’t go back downstairs either.

Of course, Jian Chi couldn’t waste time here, so he left the auditorium through the back door according to the route that Shen Shuting said. Compared with the liveliness in the auditorium, the refreshing cold wind made Jian Chi turn over from a pool of turbid water, and the closed pores were relieved. He really was not suitable for entertaining scenes.

The campus road in the night was empty. Jian Chi likes cleanliness. Bathed in the shallow moonlight, he walked aimlessly towards the direction that he did not know where it would lead to.

Saintston was so big that even with nearly a whole semester, Jian Chi still didn’t thoroughly understand every path. All he was familiar with was the route to class every day, to the cafeteria and the library. It was probably because he was a little fed up just now, that this feeling of going in an unknown direction was not as bad as he thought, and his mind was still full of the invitation from Ji Huaisi just now.

Was it to help him out of the troublesome spot?

It should be, no, it can only be to help him out of the troublesome spot.

Jian Chi couldn’t think of any other possibility, and even if there was, he quickly and absurdly rejected it. While thinking about it, he found that the surrounding scene had become completely unfamiliar. There was a slight whimper in the silent night. He slowed down, and the voice gradually became clear. Jian Chi looked at the lonely back at the stone sculpture fountain not far away. 

“Bai Xiyu?”

Jian Chi called out his name subconsciously, realizing that it was too late when the sound was too obvious in a quiet environment. Bai Xiyu, who was wearing only a shirt on his upper body, turned his head, his face still filled with loneliness and confusion that did not dissipate. After seeing Jian Chen, he stood up abruptly, and after a while, he quickly hid the things in his hands behind him, trying to hide it.

Jian Chi had already seen the torn suit jacket in his hand.

“You, weren’t you in the auditorium?”

“I came out for some air.”

“Is that so,” Bai Xiyu was stunned, barely holding up a smile, “I also came out for some air.”

Jian Chi looked at the coat that couldn’t be hidden in his hands, understood something, and hesitated: “Your clothes…”

“It seems that I always meet you at the most embarrassing time.”

Bai Xiyu’s smile was mixed with self-deprecation, and there was some disappointment that Jian Chi didn’t understand. He lost his strength and sat back under the fountain, and put the coat on his knees in a resigned manner, his voice was very low and slow: “My brother can’t come to the dance, so he ruined my clothes. It doesn’t matter whether I participate or not, since I can’t dance, but, but why does he always target me like this…”

Because he was jealous that his healthy younger brother could attend the dance, he cut his clothes and prevented him from participating. It was indeed something that Bai Shuyun would do.

But Jian Chi felt a little strange, it seems that this paragraph was not described in the original book. The plot has been deviated for too long, maybe this was just a change brought about by the butterfly effect.

“It’s too cold outside, you’ll catch a cold sitting here,” Jian Chi looked at Bai Xiyu’s thin body with only a shirt on, and said, “You can’t go to the dance, you should go back to the dormitory to rest early. In a few days, it will be vacation time.”

“During the holidays, my brother will also be home.”

Jian Chi realized that he had said something wrong, and looked at the depressed Bai Xiyu and didn’t know how to comfort him. Every time they meet, Bai Xiyu always seems to be trapped or framed by others, which may be the negative impact of the protagonist’s halo.

“Anyways, don’t sit here anymore,” Jian Chi sighed in the bottom of his heart. He couldn’t tell whether it was helplessness or some other feeling. He reached out to Bai Xiyu, “It’s getting dark, I’ll accompany you back.”

Bai Xiyu raised his head, his clear eyes seemed a little dull in the night. He stared at Jian Chi for a long time, and said softly: “Will you say the same to them?”

“What?” Jian Chi thought he had heard it wrong.

“Nothing.”

Bai Xiyu seemed to have just woken up from a big dream. He raised the corner of his lips and showed a slightly panicked smile to Jian Chi. The dimples on both sides were deep. He grabbed the hand handed out by Jian Chi and stood up. With a voice of gratitude: “I want to go back alone, thank you for comforting me, I’m much better.”

“You are welcome.”

When Jian Chi turned around, Bai Xiyu had already walked a long way. He wondered if he heard those three words.

Stopped in place for a few seconds, Jian Chi continued to walk in the direction from which he started walking. In addition to Ji Huaisi, another Bai Xiyu was squeezed into his mind.

That strange look only stayed for a short moment, like an illusion in the night. But Jian Chi was sure that he was not mistaken, and in an instant, Bai Xiyu became a stranger with a similar face but a different soul, the words that were hastily interrupted also contained deep meanings that could not be explained.

‘They’, who are you referring to?

Jian Chi felt that his brain was so swollen that he couldn’t continue to think, so he stopped and couldn’t help but be startled when he looked up.

He didn’t know which corner of the campus he had come to. Everything around him was extremely unfamiliar. The brightly lit auditorium was already far behind him. He could only see a complicated wrought iron gate in front of him, surrounded by finely trimmed hedges that surrounded the entire garden. A few steps away, a strong fragrance of flowers could be smelled. Jian Chi glanced around and saw that there was no one there.

There was a small gap in the wrought iron door, Jian Chi didn’t go in, but looked inside through the hollow pattern.

The garden under the night sky was like entering a fantasy in a fairy tale book. The cobblestone path extended into the depths of the garden, and a corner of the wooden house was vaguely glimpsed. On both sides, there were clumps of flowers that cannot be named but still blooming in winter. Its owner must be a critical person. There was not a single extra branch and leaf in the huge flower mass, and there was even a cluster on the grass. The shadows of weeds could not be found, it was horribly neat.

Jian Chi sighed in his heart for a while, then suddenly, a fragment passed through his mind. Before he could confirm it, a scolding mixed with cold anger came from behind.

“What are you doing?”

Not far away, Shen Shuting’s face was almost dripping with ink. He changed his usual calmness and elegance, and walked straight in the direction of Jian Chi. Jian Chi was shocked by this call and Shen Shuting, who was getting closer and closer. The iron door opened with a creaking, and his back suddenly lost its support and fell into the garden.