Chapter 19

The next day in his elective class, Ji Su sat in a third-row seat, his eyelids fighting a losing battle.

The teacher at the podium noticed his head nodding forward by degrees and found it rather novel.

Ji Su was the model student — even in an elective he would listen attentively and take notes — so the teachers liked to engage with him in class. This was the first time any of them had caught him dozing off.

Qiao Jin noticed the teacher's gaze lingering on Ji Su and quietly reached out an arm to nudge the person beside him.

Dense black lashes lifted like startled butterflies taking flight, and Ji Su straightened his back in a flash, his expression dazed.

The teacher gave him a kindly smile and went on with the lecture.

For the rest of the class, Ji Su kept pinching the center of his palm to stay awake.

When the bell finally rang, Qiao Jin immediately leaned over. 'Susu, what were you up to last night? How are you this tired?'

'Don't even ask...' Ji Su packed his bag and answered quietly. 'Someone was chasing me to kill me all night in a dream.'

'Huh?' Qiao Jin's eyes rolled. 'The one chasing you to kill you wouldn't happen to be Gu Zhao, would it?'

Ji Su: 'Yes...'

In the dream, Gu Zhao had climbed out of the phone screen, pulled a gun from his coat without a word, and turned into a cold-faced assassin. The two of them had played cat and mouse until Ji Su was cornered at the edge of a cliff — and then he'd jolted awake.

For the rest of the night he couldn't fall back asleep; he lay with his eyes open until dawn, severely sleep-deprived.

'It's not that dramatic!' Qiao Jin tried to comfort him. 'Rule of law, rule of law — Gu the School Hunk is a top student in the Law Department. He wouldn't break the law.'

Ji Su sighed lightly. 'A person really shouldn't do anything that weighs on their conscience.'

On the way to the cafeteria, Qiao Jin suddenly remembered something important. 'Tomorrow's the start of break. Have you decided whether you're coming out with us?'

Ji Su refused. 'I think I'll pass. You all have fun.'

Qiao Jin saw straight through his hesitation. 'Don't worry, I checked with Zhou Yang — Gu Zhao won't be there.'

Ji Su: 'Really?'

'Really, would I do you dirty?' Qiao Jin thumped his chest in assurance. 'Staying on campus alone would just give you more to overthink. Better to get out and clear your head.'

Ji Su weighed it for a moment, then finally agreed. 'Okay.'

He didn't want to go home, and staying at School made it too easy to run into Gu Zhao. By every measure, a trip was the best option.

'Fantastic!' Qiao Jin jumped for joy. 'I'll message Zhou Yang right now and have him sort it out.'

Ji Su started to say something, then hesitated. 'Qiao...'

Qiao Jin: 'What?'

Ji Su shook his head. 'Never mind, it's nothing.'

He'd been about to ask Qiao Jin to sound out Gu Zhao's reaction through Zhou Yang, but last night Mengmeng had blocked him — so the other party's mood probably wasn't great either.

As the one who'd started all this, anything he did now would look like a cat weeping over the mouse — false mercy.

After dinner, Ji Su sat in the Dormitory drawing.

He didn't know how long had passed before the phone on the desk buzzed.

His first reflex was that G had messaged him again; it took him several seconds to remember he'd blocked the other party.

G wouldn't be sending Mengmeng any more messages, and he wouldn't be logging into that account again.

Ji Su picked up his phone and opened WeChat.

Ji Chen: [Gege gege, are you coming home tomorrow?]

Ji Su: [Not this time. I'm going out with some classmates.]

Ji Chen: [Ah? Not even for a day...]

Ji Chen: [Not even one day? It feels like it's been forever since I saw you, ge.]

Ji Su hesitated, then gave the same answer.

Ji Su: [Once your exams are over, you can come find me.]

Ji Chen: [Really?]

Ji Chen: [I can really come find you after the exams?]

Ji Su: [Mm.]

Ji Su: [Do your best.]

Ji Chen: [Ge, I'll definitely work hard! The moment my exams end I'll come to A University to find you!]

The chat finally wound down, and Ji Su was about to go back to his drawing when his phone rang again.

He frowned at the caller ID, walked out to the Balcony, and only then answered.

'Your brother says you're not coming home for the holiday?' Ji Zhenghai opened with an interrogation. 'Didn't I tell you to make time to come home? Is college really that busy?'

Ji Su explained softly. 'Sorry, Dad. I've already made plans with my classmates.'

Ji Zhenghai's tone was displeased. 'What plans?'

Ji Su answered honestly. 'We're going on a trip together.'

'So you'd rather go traveling with your classmates than come home and see us?' Ji Zhenghai's temper flared. 'You don't want to come home this badly — is there someone in this family who's wronged you? Tell me!'

Ji Su bit his lower lip and said nothing.

Qiao Jin poked his head out from behind the Balcony door and whispered, 'Who is it?'

Ji Su mouthed back: 'My dad.'

Qiao Jin's brows shot up; he strode over, snatched the phone, and greeted in a loud voice: 'Hello, Uncle!'

The scolding on the other end cut off short. Ji Zhenghai cleared his throat, a little awkward. 'Ahem... who is this?'

Qiao Jin rolled his eyes as he spoke. 'Uncle, it's Qiao Jin. Don't you remember me?'

Ji Zhenghai: 'Ah, yes, of course.'

'Here's the thing, Uncle — I'm the one who insisted on dragging Ji Su along on this trip.' The lies rolled off Qiao Jin's tongue. 'You know how unsafe things are out there now, Uncle. There are always those news stories about college students going missing on solo trips. Two people together is safer than one, right?'

Ji Zhenghai: 'But—'

'Also, Ji Chen's middle-school exams are coming up soon, so you and Auntie must be plenty busy looking after him. Wouldn't Ji Su coming home right now just be adding to your troubles?' Qiao Jin delivered the most passive-aggressive lines in the politest tone. 'You'd agree, wouldn't you, Uncle?'

He rattled all this off in one go, and Ji Zhenghai couldn't keep up; for the moment he didn't know what to say.

'Then that's settled, Uncle. Goodbye.' Having said his piece, Qiao Jin hung up with crisp efficiency.

Ji Su had listened to the whole thing, and there was an indescribable admiration in his eyes. 'Qiao, your way with words is incredible.'

'Oh, stop.' Qiao Jin flicked his bangs with a flourish, then added, 'Susu, you're not bad yourself. You just don't want to talk back to your dad, so you keep quiet around him out of habit.'

Ji Su tugged the corner of his mouth into a faint smile. 'Talking back doesn't do any good either.'

Ji Zhenghai never really listened to what he said, and didn't care what he actually felt — so why bother inviting the rebuff?

Let it be, then. Keep the waters calm. At least on the surface, he didn't look alone.

'Enough, enough — no more of this depressing stuff.' Qiao Jin handed the phone back. 'Come on, let's pack our clothes and get ready to have a great trip tomorrow!'

Ji Su pocketed his phone. 'Okay.'

The other two roommates had bought tickets home early, so only the two of them were left in the Dormitory.

Ji Su pulled clothes from the wardrobe, and rummaging through them, suddenly came upon the skirt Gu Zhao had bought him.

Qiao Jin spotted it too and teased, 'What, Susu, you still want to wear the little skirt?'

'No way!' Ji Su came back to himself and quickly shoved the skirt to the very back of the wardrobe.

'Don't say that — I actually kind of miss you in that skirt.' Qiao Jin smacked his lips, as if savoring something. 'Honestly you can't blame Gu Zhao. Anyone who saw those legs would be a goner.'

'Qiao, please...' Ji Su looked at him helplessly. 'Can we just let this go?'

'Fine, fine!' Qiao Jin knew when to stop. 'How many outfits are you bringing?'

Ji Su stuffed the clothes he'd picked into his bag. 'Two sets.'

Qiao Jin looked surprised. 'Susu, are you serious?'

Ji Su: 'Is there a problem?'

'Truly worthy of being a straight guy, not delicate at all!' Qiao Jin shook his finger. 'We're going to play for several days, bring more clothes, you can't wear the same clothes every day.'

Ji Su found the whole business a hassle. "It's fine. One wash, one change, that's all I need."

Qiao Jin issued a warning. "When you run out of clothes over there, don't come borrowing mine."

Their builds were similar, yes, but Ji Su stood a touch taller, and the two of them dressed in entirely different worlds — so close as they were, they had never once made a habit of swapping shirts.

Ji Su glanced at the riotously patterned clothes and laughed. "Relax. I won't steal your wardrobe."

*

A little past nine that evening, Gu Zhao sat in his chair staring at the WeChat conversation. His gaze had frozen into something that could have burned a hole through the phone.

"Gu-ge! Found them, found them!" Wang Mingzhe sprang to his feet, bracing one hand on the desk as he slid himself across.

Gu Zhao turned his head a fraction. "Show me."

'Among the freshmen in the Music Academy this year, there are only three girls whose names contain 'Meng': Li Shimeng, Zheng Yimeng, and Zhao Mengmeng.' Wang Mingzhe handed his phone over to him. 'These are their photos, Gu-ge, are you going to meet them one by one?'

Gu Zhao swept his eyes across the screen. His voice dropped into shadow. "None of them."

"That doesn't track, Gu-ge — you've never even seen Mengmeng's face, have you?" Zhou Yang couldn't help but find it strange. "How can you tell at a glance that none of them are her?"

Gu Zhao: "Look at the legs."

"Holy — you can tell from that?" Wang Mingzhe found it beyond belief. "What if every photo she sent you was photoshopped?"

Gu Zhao said it with certainty. "They weren't photoshopped."

No one knew that he was an extreme leg fetishist, with his own set of aesthetic standards for legs, so strict as to be almost pathological. For so long, only that pair of legs had precisely and perfectly struck every nerve of his.

Long and straight, as though a single hand could never find their end; skin white as jade, smooth and fine-grained, without a single flaw to be found. The proportion of thigh to calf was flawless, the lines of the leg elegant and fluid — slender, yet carrying exactly the right measure of softness, not an ounce more, not an ounce less. The knee joint was round and delicate, flushed the faintest pink; even that small mole on the inner thigh seemed to have grown there according to his private specifications.

He had to admit it: at the very start, it had been that leg photo that caught him.

"Hold on!" Wang Mingzhe slammed the table. "What if — what if the name Mengmeng is fake too?"

Gu Zhao had already thought of this possibility. His expression darkened, and he said nothing.

He had known from the beginning that the other party had come with some purpose of his own, and he hadn't minded the occasional harmless little lie. But a person who could play a piano piece like that — how could such a person be a fraud straight through to the marrow?

"Maybe the guy's a professional online scammer!" Zhou Yang finally couldn't hold it in any longer, his tone thick with self-reproach. "Ji Su said you might have run into a net swindler, and I didn't take it seriously at the time. I should've listened to him and warned you sooner!"

Wang Mingzhe's eyes went wide. "Gu-ge, did that Mengmeng scam you out of money?"

"No." Gu Zhao's voice was cold. "Not interested in my money."

Not only had the other party not scammed a cent out of him — he'd turned right around and sent him ten thousand yuan.

Which was why, try as he might, he could not puzzle it out: how could someone switch faces so cleanly, block him so cleanly, just like that?

Could it really be, as Mengmeng had said, that from the very beginning he'd taken Gu Zhao for someone else — that when Gu Zhao had needed it most, the piano had been played for him, the daily chats had been kept for him, the words about liking him, about being willing to love everything about him, had all been meant for another man…

The thought of it made Gu Zhao's face darken further — a storm gathering behind every feature, the wind already pressing against the walls.

"Didn't get your money?" Wang Mingzhe scratched the back of his head, thoroughly lost. "Then this — what exactly is this situation?"

"If it wasn't for money, then it must be for feelings." Zhou Yang hazarded a guess. "You know the type — those scummy guys and girls who get off on playing with other people's emotions?"

Gu Zhao was silent for several seconds. Then he lifted his gaze. "You just said — who was it that told you I might have run into a net swindler?"

"Huh? Oh! Ji Su." Zhou Yang explained. "The Ji Su from the Architecture Department — he came with Qiao Jin to my birthday that day. Do you remember him?"

Gu Zhao's dark eyes narrowed a fraction. "How did he know I'd run into a net swindler?"

"Well, that is…" Zhou Yang's conscience stirred, and he sidled a step to one side. "I just said it off the cuff — that you'd recently maybe gotten into an online relationship…"

Gu Zhao's brow furrowed. "You've been going around advertising my online romance?"

"No, no, no!" Zhou Yang waved both hands in frantic denial. "I didn't go around advertising it. Just the two of them."

Wang Mingzhe raised both hands as well. "This has nothing to do with me! I didn't say a single word!"

Gu Zhao's gaze fell back to the phone screen. The color of his eyes grew darker still, unreadable.

Wang Mingzhe thought for a moment, then offered another suggestion. "Why don't you stake out the Music Academy next door, Gu-ge? Check out the legs of every girl who walks past — you might just catch Mengmeng that way!"

Gu Zhao glanced at him. "You think I'm some kind of pervert?"

Wang Mingzhe sealed his own mouth with one hand. "Ok fine. Pretend I didn't say that."

The dormitory fell quiet. No one spoke.

"Gu-ge, tomorrow's the start of the May Day holiday. I figure this person isn't going to turn up in a hurry — why don't you come out and travel with us?" Zhou Yang broke the silence carefully. "Get out, clear your head. Maybe by the time we're back, you'll have forgotten the whole thing."

Gu Zhao tapped the desk once with his knuckle. "Last time you said — who's all going?"

"So far there's me, Lao Wang, and Qiao Jin. Ji Su said he wasn't going at first, but just now he changed his mind." Zhou Yang counted on his fingers. "And —"

Before he could finish counting, Gu Zhao cut in. "I'm going too."

*

Early Saturday morning, Qiao Jin bounced out of bed in a burst of excitement and threw himself into getting himself ready.

Ji Su waited until Qiao Jin was nearly done before he went to wash up — and still ended up waiting another ten minutes.

At seven fifty, the two of them walked together to the school gate.

'Qiao Jin, Ji Su!' Zhou Yang waved enthusiastically at them from afar. 'We're over here!'

Qiao Jin waved back. "Coming!"

When Ji Su drew closer, he noticed that beyond Zhou Yang and Wang Mingzhe with his crutch, there was also a tall guy whose face he didn't recognize.

"Ji Su." The boy opened his mouth to greet him. "I told you we'd meet again, didn't I?"

Ji Su's expression went faintly blank. "You are…"

"He Yi Ming!" He Yi Ming looked at him with expectation in his eyes. "Don't you remember me?"

Ji Su finally retrieved the boy's information from somewhere in his memory and tried to cover his awkwardness with a smile. "I remember. We met at Zhou Yang's birthday party."

"Yes, exactly!" Now that Ji Su had remembered him, He Yi Ming's eyes lit up. "We were about to add each other on WeChat back then, but your phone had died, so we never got to."

Ji Su: "…"

It's been so long, why does this person still persistently want to add him on WeChat?

"Oho? There's this little side-story too?" Wang Mingzhe caught the scent of something off in the air. "Lao He, what do you want to add Ji Su on WeChat for?"

He Yi Ming's face flushed red for no apparent reason. "I —"

"Oh!" Just then, Zhou Yang's sharp eyes caught sight of someone approaching from the opposite direction. "Gu-ge! Over here!"

Ji Su went rigid all over. He turned his head instinctively to confirm.

Gu Zhao was wearing a familiar black jacket, carrying a black hiking backpack over one shoulder, one hand in his pocket, walking expressionlessly in their direction.

"Holy —" Qiao Jin strangled the profanity in time, dropping his voice to a frantic hiss. "Zhou Yang, didn't you say Gu Zhao wasn't coming?"

Zhou Yang rubbed the back of his head. "Oh right — Gu-ge decided to come last minute last night. I forgot to tell you guys."

Wang Mingzhe piped up. "More people, more fun! I'm the type who loves a good crowd."

He Yi Ming mocked him: 'I can tell. Otherwise, you wouldn't be so determined despite your disability, using crutches and still wanting to travel.'

"You —" Wang Mingzhe raised his crutch to smack him, but the corner of his eye caught Gu Zhao's approaching figure, and he lowered it again.

Ji Su turned his face back around and exchanged a look with Qiao Jin.

Ji Su: Can I bail right now?

Qiao Jin: Doesn't look like it…

"Ji Su, let me carry your bag for you." He Yi Ming extended his right hand. "Looks kind of heavy."

Ji Su declined politely. "It's not heavy. I can carry it myself, thanks."

He Yi Ming didn't press the point. "Alright then."

"Good — everyone's here!" Zhou Yang clapped his hands together. "The car's parked right at the school gate. We can get ready to head out."

In front of him stood He Yi Ming, all sunshine and brightness; behind him stood Gu Zhao, his expression cold as ice.

Ji Su stood where he was, not the least bit willing to move his feet.

Was there any kind soul out there who could come kidnap him right now?