Wang Xiuya is actually a senior from the same school?!
Heyue felt that the mystery of the third question was now completely laid out before her eyes.
The fact that space-time had sent her back to the very first person she met at eighteen being Wang Xiuya must mean there was an intertwined web of connections hidden beneath it all.
All she had to do now was find the thread to unravel the mystery.
Heyue found it hard to imagine that a girl who could write such an outstanding composition with such gentle brushstrokes would end up a raving, emotionally unhinged lunatic in a hospital ward.
Right! The phone ringtone!
Was the trigger for Wang Xiuya's madness the phone ringtone, or... the person hidden behind it?
Heyue suddenly thought of what Jiang Shaoming had told her about Pavlov's experiments.
A dog hears the sound of a bell ringing and knows it's time to be fed, so what did Wang Xiuya associate the phone ringtone with?
A chill crept through Heyue's heart, and she unconsciously hugged herself tighter. But just as she was deep in thought, the light bulb overhead flickered due to a short circuit.
Startled by her own reflection in the glass, Heyue noticed that it was already past eleven o'clock.
She refocused and looked out the window. The nighttime campus was dead quiet, save for the evening breeze rustling through the treetop leaves.
Students had complained before about the streetlights always flickering—it truly took a collective strike to get anyone to pay attention.
She walked back to her desk to pack her things and leave quickly, but just as she zipped up her backpack, the light bulb overhead gave out completely, plunging the classroom into pitch darkness.
She looked up toward the window, only to see the streetlights along the long, winding path going out one by one, with only a few scattered lights still glowing in the distant dormitories.
What terrible luck today!
Heyue swung her backpack over her shoulders, closed her eyes, and sprinted outward at full speed. The sound of glass marbles bouncing between floors was distinctly audible, seemingly chasing at her heels.
By the time she bolted out of the teaching building, her eyes had gradually adjusted to the dark, and she found that the starlight made the scenery before her appear soft.
Just as Heyue was walking toward the dorms, she unexpectedly heard a muffled grunt of someone falling.
She instinctively turned her head and saw a figure clumsily sprawled across the lawn, groping around as he tried to stand up. After taking a few tentative steps, the person looked extremely annoyed, then cautiously squatted down. After a few moments of searching with slender fingers, he finally touched the step and safely maneuvered his way down.
Actually, the step wasn't high at all—merely a height difference of a few centimeters between the lawn and the path—yet he navigated it with extreme difficulty and caution.
From start to finish, Heyue stood frozen in place, both hands covering her mouth to stifle a gasp of surprise.
Because she recognized the person before her—perhaps every student at Yunlong recognized him—Yue Zhou!
Yue Zhou... was blind?
That couldn't be right. The past few times she had seen him standing with Luo Yilan, laughing and talking, how could he possibly...
Looking at the cold moonlight hanging in the sky, Heyue quickly realized: night blindness.
Heyue's gaze followed Yue Zhou as he struggled forward. If this was a secret to him, she should just pretend she hadn't seen anything and let the secret stay buried on this path forever.
Heyue stopped walking, intending to wait for Yue Zhou to leave, but who would have thought there was a sharp little turn just ahead, which Yue Zhou couldn't see either.
He staggered and looked as if he was about to fall. Without time to think, Heyue lunged forward in a single bound to catch him.
To her utter surprise, Yue Zhou managed to steady himself.
How awkward...
Although Yue Zhou hadn't fallen, Heyue had squarely wrapped her arms around his waist.
She could even feel the lines of Yue Zhou's waist and the fresh scent of mint radiating from the young man.
The distance was so intimately close that with her ear pressed against Yue Zhou's chest, she could hear his heartbeat, which momentarily drowned out the midsummer cicadas.
Right now, it didn't look like Heyue was helping him; it looked like she was giving him a bear hug.
Heyue froze, and Yue Zhou froze too.
He didn't know when the person in his arms had popped out of nowhere. He frowned, struggling to make out the appearance of the person in front of him, but he still couldn't see a thing.
Annoyance quickly replaced awkwardness. Yue Zhou instinctively pushed away the hands with which Heyue was holding him. Gone was his daytime elegance and gentlemanly charm as he asked her coldly,
"Have you hugged enough?"
Yue Zhou's crisp voice rang out above her, and Heyue snapped back to reality, realizing what she had been doing.
"I'm sorry." Heyue stepped back from Yue Zhou's embrace and apologized with a red face, "I just saw you looked like you were going to fall, so I... I didn't mean to."
Heyue rambled on, but Yue Zhou didn't respond. She raised her eyes to look at him, feeling embarrassed. Yue Zhou's unfocused gaze fell into the distance, his handsome brow and eyes veiled in a thin layer of anger.
Heyue's gaze dropped downward, and she noticed the cat treat clutched in Yue Zhou's hand. So the reason he hadn't left the school this late was to feed the cats.
A calico cat at the school had apparently given birth to a litter of kittens this morning. Lin Xialing had wondered earlier why stray cats looked so sleek and glossy, and now she knew it was because of Yue Zhou.
"Yue Zhou, I..."
The next second, Yue Zhou grabbed Heyue's wrist tightly: "What's your name?"
Heyue was once again forced close to him, and the moment she lifted her head, she watched her wind-blown hair gently brush against Yue Zhou's thin lips.
She had never heard Yue Zhou speak in such a low, deep tone. He was always standing beside Luo Yilan, smiling faintly and accommodatingly.
Getting no answer, Yue Zhou had no desire to entangle with her further and brushed Heyue's hand away.
"We haven't seen each other today." Yue Zhou's unfocused eyes were detached and distant. "If I hear any gossip around the school, the Yue Family will not let you go."
Even his threat was icy cold. The next second, Yue Zhou turned around with a dark expression and walked away.
Heyue stood rooted to the spot, watching Yue Zhou's stumbling back as he walked.
Heyue looked past Yue Zhou's shoulder and gazed ahead; there was still a fair distance to the school gate. The campus path was long and winding, paved with pebbles. Because the south received a lot of rain, some pebbles had come loose and were never cleared away, making it very easy to trip.
Thinking of this, Heyue trotted in small steps behind Yue Zhou, the two maintaining a distance that was neither too close nor too far.
"This is the right side of the library, lots of cypress trees are planted here," Heyue prompted. "The first tree is on your left now."
Yue Zhou was smart; how could he not know Heyue was finding landmarks for him? His knuckle-defined hand brushed against the cypress tree beside him. He remembered that after turning right at the third cypress tree and walking straight ahead, he would reach the school gate. The streetlights over there were still faithfully shining, and a few points of light could be vaguely made out in his field of vision.
Pressing his fingers hard into the rough bark of the cypress tree, his fingertips digging into the grain, Yue Zhou endured the humiliation of having his secret exposed. In a voice dripping with alienation and indifference, he said, "I don't need you meddling. Stay away from me."
Yue Zhou pricked up his ears to listen, but no sound of anyone leaving came from behind him: "I said, I don't need your help!"
Seeing that Heyue didn't speak, Yue Zhou deliberately strode forward.
Back when he gave speeches under the national flag, the high-spirited youth always stood with a straight back, but tonight he felt somewhat dejected.
"I'll keep it a secret."
Just as Yue Zhou was about to step into the light, Heyue promised him from the darkness.
Yue Zhou's pupils trembled slightly. He walked under the streetlamp, and until his vision slowly began to discern the outlines of things, he hesitated before turning around: "What's your name..."
The path behind him was already empty.