Chapter 37: Yaoxing Academy 37 Part 2

Xun Ji’s gaze deepened, as if truly scrutinizing him for the first time.

“Lu Zhou, when did you start taking these medications?”

Lu Zhou thought for a moment. “Three years ago, not long after I left you. At first, I didn’t want to take them, but without the medicine, I sometimes couldn’t control my emotions. Other times, I couldn’t remember what I’d done.”

Xun Ji asked, “Did you take them this past month?”

Lu Zhou shook his head. “When I’m with you, I feel great. None of those old symptoms appear, so I didn’t take any.”

Lin Yule let out a low chuckle, coughing up a mouthful of bloody foam. He rasped, “He’s a lunatic… Brother, don’t save him. He’s already… urk!”

He didn’t finish. A foot slammed mercilessly into his chest. Lin Yule rolled several times, blood gushing from his mouth.

“Lu Zhou, stop!” Xun Ji barked coldly.

Lu Zhou turned back to him in bewilderment. “Xun Ji, why are you stopping me? Why are you helping him? He’s a bad person.”

Afraid Xun Ji hadn’t understood, he patiently explained, “I didn’t hit him just because he locked me in the lighthouse. Do you remember the Winter Sports Meet? I investigated it—the Ice Cellar Segment had been tampered with. Only the Lin Family, as sponsors, could have secretly modified the load-bearing pillars and dome without anyone noticing, nearly killing me inside. I just asked him, and he admitted it.”

Xun Ji said nothing, his amber eyes fixed quietly on him.

“Xun Ji, do you understand what I’m saying?” Lu Zhou grew anxious, like a little dog who had suffered an injustice outside and was eagerly complaining to its Master. “He’s a bad person. He wanted me dead. He might try to harm me again…”

No one responded.

Lu Zhou gradually fell silent. He met those eyes, and after a long moment, he asked, “Xun Ji, you knew all along, didn’t you?”

【Host, the Protagonist seems to have gone mad! If you want to save Lin Yule, don’t provoke him right now. Just deceive him casually…】

“Yes,” Xun Ji answered calmly.

Lu Zhou’s body swayed almost imperceptibly. He said, “You knew he wanted to harm me, yet you still protected him. You even hurt your own body to come save him… Xun Ji, is Lin Yule that important?”

Xun Ji knew the Lu Zhou before him was not normal, yet he answered earnestly—more earnestly than he ever had when facing Lu Zhou before.

“He’s important, Lu Zhou. He’s my younger brother.”

“Younger brother…” Lu Zhou chewed on the words, then suddenly burst into laughter. “Hahaha, younger brother…”

“Xun Ji, he’s important. Then what about me?” His voice turned hoarse and grating, somewhere between tears and laughter. “Between him and me, who’s more important?”

Xun Ji did not answer.

Sometimes, silence was an answer in itself.

Lu Zhou’s dark pupils grew abyssal, devoid of any light. He walked to Lin Yule’s side, grabbed him like a bag of trash, and dragged him out of the equipment room.

Outside, gale-force winds howled, and rain lashed down. Far below the towering lighthouse churned black waves like a raging beast, awaiting its meal.

Lin Yule’s limp body dangled half in the air. One slip of Lu Zhou’s grip, and he would plummet into the bottomless abyss.

Xun Ji’s expression shifted. He snapped sharply, “Lu Zhou, let him go!”

Lu Zhou gave a miserable smile and slowly shook his head. “Xun Ji, he’s right. You shouldn’t have saved me…”

“You shouldn’t have helped me over and over at Yaoxing Academy, making me fall for you. You shouldn’t have accepted my confession when I was in despair, letting me become your boyfriend…”

“Above all, you shouldn’t have let me know that, in your heart, someone matters more than me.”

He watched as Xun Ji struggled to his feet and staggered toward him.

“But it’s okay,” Lu Zhou said softly, his voice full of lingering affection. “We can just discard the excess between us.”

He let go.

The sound of a heavy object hitting the water was smothered by the pouring rain, barely audible.

A pair of hands seized Lu Zhou’s collar, slamming him against the rickety railing.

Xun Ji’s eyes were chillingly cold. He said word by word to Lu Zhou, “Have you forgotten what my punishment for you is?”

Icy raindrops pelted into Lu Zhou’s eyes, streaming down his reddened corners.

Lu Zhou didn’t struggle at all. He gazed dazedly at this Xun Ji he had never seen before. “That’s not punishment, Xun Ji… You’re rewarding me—letting me be your boyfriend… You said everything of mine no longer belongs to me. It can only be yours to command.”

Xun Ji released him and stepped back two paces, his gaze shifting to the roaring, raging deep sea.

“Then now, Lu Zhou, I command you,” he said. “Jump down there and bring him back up.”

The dilapidated lighthouse flickered in the storm. Gale winds whistled through the reef clusters like the wailing of myriad ghosts.

Lu Zhou bowed his head. A raindrop fell straight from the corner of his eye, vanishing silently into the ground.

“Xun Ji, you can barely walk right now. What makes you think I’ll obediently do as you say?” He laughed. “You don’t seriously think jumping into the sea and surviving is easy, do you?”

Xun Ji didn’t answer. He only counterasked, “You won’t obey me?”

Lu Zhou’s smile twisted hideously amid the countless raindrops blurring his face. He nodded. “I will.”

His hands gripped the lighthouse railing. With fluid motion, Lu Zhou vaulted over and leaped into the sea.

But a sudden pull yanked at his wrist. Xun Ji had grabbed him.

He gripped with all his might, his entire body trembling violently. Yet those amber eyes held unusual gentleness.

“If you can save him and come back alive,” Xun Ji said softly, “Lu Zhou, try to become the most important person to me.”

His fingers loosened. Lu Zhou plunged into the depths.