Chapter 24: If I Go Bald, Will You Still Love Me? (24)

Shen Ji had not slept for a very, very long time. For humans, sleep was essential, but for him, it was dispensable. Perhaps it was because he had finally attained something that satisfied him, that he actually drifted off while holding the girl in his arms.

In his dream, he seemed to return to the day Bai Yao bathed him. Her fingers traced over every part of his body, the tingling sensation almost reaching his soul, making it quiver in delight.

It was simply too comfortable; he had no desire at all to wake.

Bai Yao sat atop Shen Ji, covering his mouth and nose, but he didn’t awaken from suffocation. Losing patience, she bit down hard on his shoulder.

Shen Ji groggily opened his eyes just a sliver, woken in such a rude manner early in the morning, yet he wasn’t angry. Instead, he placed his hand gently on the back of Bai Yao’s head, offering his shoulder more fully to her mouth.

The way he let her bite him so freely made one wonder: if she wielded a knife and stabbed him, would he still think it was just playful flirtation?

He felt no pain and was about to drift back to sleep, but Bai Yao soon tired from biting.

She cupped his face in her hands. “Shen Ji, wake up!”

He blinked sleepily, his expression lost and bewildered, his voice thick with exhaustion. “Yao Yao, what’s wrong?”

Bai Yao asked, “When did you come here last night?”

He nuzzled her hand. “When Yao Yao fell asleep.”

Bai Yao thought to herself, so it really was as she suspected. Her face fell, and her beautiful eyes filled with mist, ready to spill tears any second.

Shen Ji panicked. He sat up, anxiously touching her cheeks, and hurriedly said, “Yao Yao, don’t cry. Did someone bully you? Did someone upset you? I’ll kill them!”

Bai Yao’s tears finally began to fall.

Shen Ji’s eyes reddened as well, tears blurring his vision. He wept with her, his watery gaze more innocent than a fawn’s, utterly pitiful.

Bai Yao said, “I’m crying for myself, why are you crying?”

Shen Ji rubbed his chest, pitifully saying, “Because my heart hurts.”

At such a moment, Bai Yao thought, even now he uses such melodramatic expressions. She pouted, crying, “I’m dying soon!”

Shen Ji exclaimed, “What?”

Shen Ji was then banished from the room. No matter how he knocked and called Bai Yao’s name outside the door, she did not soften her heart and open it.

Bai Yao lay alone in bed, searching through a zero-degree search engine on her phone, scrolling through questions.

“What does it mean if you can’t feel your heartbeat?”

“What should I do if I wake up unable to feel my heartbeat?”

“Will I die if I can’t feel my heartbeat?”

The answers were all over the place: obesity, low blood pressure, heart failure, myocardial infarction… In short, following the trail of information, it seemed she was terminally ill.

Bai Yao looked at the message she’d sent home not long ago: she’d said she felt like she was dying, wanted to leave school and get checked at a hospital, but her family only replied, “Study well, you are not allowed to leave school before graduation.”

Now she truly understood the feelings of those who once wished to take leave from school but weren’t permitted to. She curled up under the covers, burying her head in the pillow, the scent of the boy still lingering at her nose.

She couldn’t help but think of Shen Ji again. He was so silly, not clever at all; if something happened to her, there would be no one at school to protect him, and he would surely have a hard time.

Bai Yao emerged from the blankets, slipped on her slippers, and walked to the door. Opening it, she found him still there, just as expected.

Shen Ji sat on the floor, hugging his knees, leaning against the door. When he saw Bai Yao, he immediately lifted his head. His eyes were still red, his gaze moist and full of grievance, reminiscent of a big dog abandoned in a rubbish heap.

He blinked through the haze, wanting to reach out and tug her hand, but fearing her anger, he was completely at a loss, so pitiful it was heartbreaking.

Suddenly, Bai Yao felt she must be strong, at least until she left this world; she had to protect him.

She put on a stern face. “Get up.”

Shen Ji obediently stood, though he was tall and long-legged, Bai Yao barely reached his shoulder. Yet in terms of presence, he was truly weak and helpless.

Bai Yao stood with her hands on her hips, fierce as a demon. “Listen well, from today on, I’m increasing the intensity of your training.”

Shen Ji cautiously reached out to hook her finger, but she slapped his hand away, her expression grave. “Even if you act cute, it won’t work! I won’t go soft!”

Bai Yao took out pen and paper, and right then and there wrote Shen Ji a daily study schedule.

Up at six-thirty, breakfast at seven, into the classroom for self-study at seven-thirty… The schedule went all the way to ten o’clock at night, only then was he allowed to go to bed.

When Shen Ji got the schedule, he counted on his fingers. He barely had an hour to snack all day, and the schedule included math problems, writing reflections—enough to make his head spin.

He looked at Bai Yao, aggrieved. “Yao Yao…”

She raised her hand to cover his mouth. “Starting today, I won’t accept any objections.”

Shen Ji whimpered softly.

Since Bai Yao spent the whole morning arranging her “final affairs,” she didn’t make it to the classroom until after the second period. Though many students at this school skipped classes, Bai Yao missing class was a rare thing.

Lu Xiaoran noticed Bai Yao looked unwell, and genuinely asked, “Yao Yao, are you sick?”

Bai Yao lay across her desk, hands pressed to her chest, miserable. “It’s a heart sickness.”

Lu Xiaoran looked utterly bewildered.

In the old girls’ dormitory, the dim rooms had not seen sunlight for years. Ever since rumors spread about a girl hanging herself in room 402, no one had stepped foot in this building for ages.

But now, in the cold, damp room 503, a rope hung from the beam above the bathroom door. The figure suspended from it swayed gently, and any normal person witnessing such a scene would be scared half to death.

But this time, it was the ghosts who were frightened.

The ghost in red and the ghost in white huddled together in the corner, trembling. Water pooled ever more beneath the ghost in white, while the ghost in red clung to her nearly detached head. Both stared at the figure hanging from the rope.

The person hanging was softly sobbing.

“Why? Why is Yao Yao angry with me?” Shen Ji’s neck was looped in the rope, his feet dangling, tears pattering down. Unable to bear it any longer, he pressed his hand to his chest and sorrowfully said, “Does Yao Yao not love me anymore?”