Chapter Eight

"You! Zhou Mo!"

Zhou Mo: "Why are you shouting so loudly? People can hear you very clearly."

The girl was so angry that her face turned red after being insulted by Zhou Mo without using any profanity. She glanced at Zhou Mo's roommates, who looked embarrassed, and finally chose to leave in silence.

Seeing this, Zhou Mo was not afraid. She picked up the table lamp and smashed the glass lampshade with force. The parts left on the lamp were oddly shaped, but they were all sharp.

No one expected Zhou Mo to pull something like this. The girl in the lead was a little at a loss. "Zhou Mo, what... what do you want to do?"

"I don't want to do anything, and you want to do something?" Zhou Mo calmly retorted. "You know me, right? I'm all alone now, I only have myself to worry about." She weighed the desk lamp in her hand and glanced at the girl. "What about you? Are you the same?"

"Are you crazy... We just wanted to play with you." Zhou Mo's aura was so intimidating that it made these people feel afraid for the first time. Some of them forced themselves to speak.

Zhou Mo smiled and said, "I just wanted to have some fun with you guys."

Treat them as they treat you.

Zhou Mo has a good personality, but she never likes to suffer losses. Her kindness to others is simply out of empathy.

She really couldn't bring herself to spoil these filthy creatures; sorry, she doesn't have that high a sense of morality.

Seeing that they were silent, Zhou Mo asked, "Do you want to continue playing?"

"If you're not going to play, then make up for what you did wrong. If I come back tomorrow and see this place still like this, I can't guarantee I won't get angry."

Zhou Mo threw the desk lamp into the trash can, brushed past the girl in the lead, and walked out of the dormitory.

Her roommates stood outside in the corridor and watched her walk out unharmed. They hesitated, wanting to say something, but in the end, they watched her leave the dormitory.

When I got downstairs, the dormitory supervisor wasn't there. I guess they asked someone to leave first so it would be easier for them to do things. That made things convenient for her, as she didn't have to go through the registration and wrangling.

The night sky was as black as ink, with only a few scattered stars hanging in it. They were almost invisible if you didn't look closely, but if you did, you would be captivated by their light and lost in the darkness. Zhou Mo looked up and stared for a long time without realizing it.

She only moved her neck around when it started to ache.

Zhou Mo wasn't in a hurry to go to the hotel to sleep. Since she had finally come out, she planned to get some fresh air first.

Sitting on the newly installed park bench, time, which had been filled with trivial matters, stood still for a moment. Endless fatigue and emptiness instantly swept over Zhou Mo's body and mind. She was so tired that she couldn't even lift a finger, and just lay there in a starfish position.

No matter how strong she appears on the outside, Zhou Mo is still just a girl who has just come of age. Her future is uncertain, and she has no one to answer her questions or point her in the right direction.

Her birthday this year passed by in a flash. On that day, she didn't even dare to stop herself. She did whatever she could—trivial, tiring, or difficult—as long as she forgot what day it was, as long as she forgot what that day was supposed to be like, that would be fine...

Can she really live well on her own?

"Mom, Dad, I miss you."

"Hey, wait a minute, you took my bed."

?

Zhou Mo was lost in her grief when a nonchalant voice suddenly rang out, instantly pulling her back to reality. She looked at the person who had entered, her eyes full of confusion, "It's you again?"

Yu Xi: "What kind of tone is that? What do you mean 'it's me again'? You've taken over my territory and you're questioning me."

Yu Xi was wearing an orange jacket, black cargo pants, and black shoes. If you didn't know Yu Xi, you would definitely think he was a very handsome guy at first glance.

"You're sleeping here tonight? Are you kidding me?"

Zhou Mo was once again certain that Yu Xi was mentally ill.

However, she still doesn't understand Yu Xi's thought process.

Yu Xi: "Yeah, I was just joking. Is it funny?"

Zhou Mo rolled her eyes rudely, determined to ignore Yu Xi, and silently made a vow in her heart: if she ever paid any attention to this lunatic Yu Xi again, she would be a dog.

"Isn't it funny? Why aren't you laughing?"

Yu Xi was buzzing around like a mosquito all weekend, which was extremely annoying.

Annoyed, Zhou Mo glared at him, her eyes clearly saying, "Stay away from me."

But Yu Xi was shameless and pretended not to see it, continuing to bother Zhou Mo by staying close to her.

Zhou Mo was so annoyed that she couldn't stand it anymore. If she couldn't afford to offend her, she could at least avoid her. She wasn't in the mood to be sad anymore, so she decided to go back to the hotel to sleep.

Zhou Mo didn't expect that Yu Xi would follow her like an auto-tracking device; he would follow her wherever she went, and he would stop whenever she stopped.

"Aren't you annoying, Yu Xi?"

"You finally spoke to me again."

"Don't you have any friends? Why did you have to come to me?" Zhou Mo suddenly turned around and glared fiercely at Yu Xi.

Yu Xi was more than half a head taller than Zhou Mo. He bent down slightly, and his slightly sharp eyebrows and eyes looked like two crescent moons when he smiled. "Aren't you my friend?"

Zhou Mo was taken aback.

“Last time next to the ambulance, you were in such a hurry that you told the nurse you were my friend, and I heard that.”

Zhou Mo argued, "Back then..." She seemed to remember something and retorted, "But you said it wasn't true, and I heard it too."

Yu Xi: "What I said is true, you're not that thug's friend, but I didn't deny that you're my friend."

Zhou Mo: "Language is profound and complex. I'm sorry, my understanding is not quite the same as yours. I am not your friend, so please don't bother me anymore, and don't suddenly decide to come to my school to find me." She spoke with absolute certainty and no room for negotiation. Anyone with a sense of shame would not continue to pester her.

However, Zhou Mo still underestimated Yu Xi's limits.

"Then you understand yours, and I understand mine. You don't consider yourself my friend, but I do."

"That's called harassment."

"Sorry, my Chinese isn't very good. How do you write these two characters?"

Yu Xi was completely unresponsive and pretended to be crazy. Zhou Mo had never seen anyone like this before. She suddenly felt that the few people in the dormitory who were causing trouble were actually quite 'cute'. At least they would back down after being threatened. But this method wouldn't work on Yu Xi.

"What exactly do you want?!"

Seeing Zhou Mo's helpless expression, Yu Xi smiled slightly, but the next second his smile vanished, and the gentleness in his eyes disappeared, leaving behind an unyielding sorrow.

Zhou Mo noticed Yu Xi's change; he looked rather pitiful, she thought to herself, "You..."

"I don't know, I don't know." Yu Xi repeated silently. He looked away from Zhou Mo, just as inexplicably as he had come, and his departure was equally elusive.

If Zhou Mo hadn't known that Yu Xi was a living person, she probably would have been frightened by his condition.

"He's really sick."

Zhou Mo stopped worrying about Yu Xi and returned to the hotel she had booked.

The hotel was much more comfortable than the dormitory, and the water was warmer. After taking a nice hot shower, she wrapped herself in the blanket. It was quiet all around her. Zhou Mo was actually a little afraid of this kind of quiet, because quiet makes people overthink.

But tonight, for some reason, my thoughts weren't so empty or chaotic. It felt like they had been smoothed out, leaving me in a very relaxed and comfortable state.

Just as Zhou Mo was drifting off to sleep, her phone, which was charging on the bedside table, suddenly rang. Zhou Mo reached out to pick it up and discovered that it was Zhang Xing, whom she hadn't contacted in a long time, calling.

They had exchanged phone numbers before, and Zhang Xing said that if she encountered any trouble in the future, she should call him. Zhou Mo agreed, but she didn't intend to bother him.

I didn't expect him to trouble her first.

After Zhou Mo finished the phone call, she felt terrible. She snuggled back into bed, tossing and turning, unable to find the sleepiness she had just felt. Frustrated, she threw off the covers and lay sprawled out on the bed.

Why does it have to be me?

Why does it have to be him?

"It's already hard enough to live your own life well, why bother interfering in other people's lives?" Zhou Mo racked her brains but couldn't figure it out. Actually, she could understand a little bit, but what did this have to do with her?

Getting close to Yu Xi and obtaining that document whose existence is uncertain sounds like a fantasy.

When Zhang Xing spoke, Zhou Mo could sense his difficulty.

So what if it's difficult? This shouldn't have fallen on her shoulders. Why didn't he make it more difficult and just refuse her outright?

Zhou Mo inevitably thought of Yu Xi again, and of Yu Xi's inexplicable expression and incongruous emotional reaction that evening.

Yu Xi is like a riddle; from the first time we met, this person was full of contradictions.

Instinct told Zhou Mo to stay as far away from Yu Xi as possible.

As Zhou Mo pondered, she drifted into a sleepy state. She reached out and retrieved the discarded blanket, and as warmth enveloped her, she fell into a dream.

Rarely, Zhou Mo had a dream.

But it wasn't a good dream.

In her dream, she turned into a dog and kept following someone. She tried desperately to see who it was, but she was always left behind just when she was about to catch up with that person. After a while, Zhou Mo realized that this person was playing a trick on her.

Playing tricks on a dog is really tasteless.

Finally, after her relentless efforts, she overtook the man. She struggled to lift her dog head and saw his face.

"ah!"

She was also awakened by a nightmare as the alarm clock rang.

Zhou Mo ran her hands through her hair, pressing her thumbs to her aching temples. "Why did I dream about Yu Xi? It was terrifying. He was actually laughing like that at a dog!"

"No, I called and refused today. I absolutely cannot have anything to do with this lunatic again! Absolutely not!"

Zhou Mo returned to school and the day passed peacefully. Perhaps the deterrent effect of yesterday had worked, and no one continued to cause her trouble. Just as she was waiting to call Zhang Xing after school to refuse that matter...

The "things don't go as planned" buff on her body lit up again.

Every time Yu Xi gets into trouble, she thinks of this day, and then she asks herself, "What was I thinking back then, inviting Yu Xi to be my family?"