Chapter 25 Numb.25 Seduction

Xu Wu let him stare intently at her ears. It was just an inconspicuous look, but she inexplicably felt that the places he had bitten and licked yesterday were all exposed under his gaze, and she even unconsciously straightened her body.

"The key." She held out her hand to Jie Ying, her fingers curling slightly.

It's a common gesture of asking for something, but when paired with the following actions, the fair and slender hand seems to be filled with some kind of unspeakable seduction.

Jieying lowered her eyes and stepped onto the stairs.

He walked slowly, step by step, towards her, gradually approaching and ascending until he stood completely on the lower steps in front of Xu Wu. His clear breath gently poked Xu Wu's earlobe, but she turned her head away just as he was about to kiss her.

His expression made it seem like he wanted to bite her neck.

Xu Wu watched as he took the key out of his pocket, placed it above her palm, and gently released it. The key landed heavily in her hand in those fleeting few seconds, leaving not even a trace of warmth.

"Thanks." Xu Wu held the key in her hand without changing her expression. Not wanting to linger any longer, she was about to walk past him down the steps when Jie Ying lightly grabbed her hem.

Xu Wu paused. He hadn't used much force; she could have easily broken free with just a little effort. However, he merely glanced at Jie Ying questioningly and asked, "Is there anything else?"

Upon hearing this, Jie Ying opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but after a moment of hesitation, he swallowed the words that were almost on his lips. In the end, he simply shook his head in silence, let go of her hand, turned to the side, and whispered, "No, it's nothing."

Xu Wu was puzzled, but she didn't press the matter further. After all, she was never curious about things that others didn't want to talk about, and it had nothing to do with her.

Strands of hair, swaying with her movements, brushed against Jieying's face and lips, the delicate fragrance shattering in the air before she could even catch a whiff.

He stood there watching Xu Wu's retreating figure, his gaze direct, intense, yet ambiguous, his hand hanging at his side unconsciously twitching.

The speed at which the traces disappeared irritated him.

It would be great if there was a way to save it permanently.

Ding-dong—

The preparatory bell rang, and with five minutes left before class, Xu Wu took the opportunity to go to Class Two to return the key to Fu Xi.

However, she looked around the classroom but couldn't find Fu Xi. She had no choice but to call Zheng Liangwen, who happened to be passing by, and ask him to pass on the message.

Zheng Liangwen nodded in agreement, turned and went into the classroom. Just as he was about to return to his seat, Shang Xu called out to him, "That was Xu Wu just now."

He returned to his seat: "Yes, let me give the key to Fu Xi."

What key?

"She was supposed to be on duty yesterday for the club's keys."

Shang Xu pondered for two seconds, then continued, "Are you familiar with her?"

Zheng Liangwen raised an eyebrow and then said with a smile, "How are we familiar? If Fu Xi hadn't dragged me to participate in the film, I wouldn't even know her."

Shang Xu noticed something interesting: "You don't want to participate."

"Ah... I really don't want to," Zheng Liangwen muttered under his breath. "This thing is too tiring."

"Then why didn't you refuse Fu Xi back then?"

"......"

Zheng Liangwen glanced at him: "You want to participate?"

"Well," Shang Xu smiled, "you can give me the role."

......

At Friday's parent-teacher meeting, the homeroom teacher asked us to prepare the classroom in advance. Because of this, the grade level announced that tonight's evening self-study session was canceled.

Apart from the few people who were specifically asked to stay and help, most of the others, including Xu Wu, simply packed their things and prepared to go back.

As she passed by Xia Ni's small group, she was not surprised to feel Liu Tan roll his eyes at her and snort a few times.

It didn't hurt at all, and Xu Wu didn't even bother to give it a glance, thinking to himself that those two buckets of water were too mild.

She ignored the people and went straight to the bus stop after leaving the school. When she got off the bus, she didn't rush back but walked while scrolling through her phone.

As winter sets in in Licheng, it gets dark faster and faster, often becoming quite dark by 5:30 p.m.

The wind blew Xu Wu's trouser legs and messed up her hair. To prevent sand from getting into her eyes, she had to walk with her head down.

The time on the phone screen was exactly six o'clock.

There's a small path leading from the station to the accommodation, and the streetlights are all on. Except for a few lights that flicker a few times and then go out completely, most of the lights are working properly, but the light is rather dim.

There are a few houses along this path, but they are quite far apart. Occasionally, you can see a few pedestrians on the road, and then there are stray cats running quickly across the rooftops, meowing every now and then.

"Meow."

A cat's meow rang out.

Xu Wu stopped and looked at the obedient tabby cat sitting on the ground. After it meowed, it licked its paws. It looked like a typical tabby cat, with a very standard appearance.

She found the kitten a couple of days ago; it had been blocking her way and meowing at her like this.

Xu Wu really liked cats. When he was a child, he begged Fang Rumei to raise one, but he threw it away after Fang Rumei became pregnant, without even consulting her. He never raised cats again after that.

Xu Wu couldn't explain why she squatted down as if possessed, reaching out to scratch the little tabby's chin. It felt so good that the tabby squinted its eyes, purred, and wagged its tail.

Xu Wu's expression remained unchanged, for her gaze was fixed on the little tabby's eyes—

A pair of beautiful green eyes.

In the following days, she would always encounter this kitten when she passed by this road. Unlike the larger stray cats in the area, the tabby cat was rather thin, and according to the age conversion of felines, it was probably a kitten.

"Meow." The little tabby cat saw her staring at it in a daze, so it meowed again.

Xu Wu snapped out of her daze, took a sausage out of her tote bag, bit open the packaging, bent down and placed it in front of the little tabby cat.

The little tabby cat wagged its tail, visibly happy.

Xu Wu thought for a moment, then raised her phone, turned off the flash, and quickly snapped a few photos of the little tabby cat looking up.

Then I opened WeChat and posted it to my Moments, specifically choosing the picture with green eyes, without any caption.

Her photography skills aren't great; she doesn't pay attention to professional techniques like lighting and composition, relying purely on angles and the subject's face.

Likes and comments quickly followed.

Fu Xi: What did the cat do wrong?

"Fu Xi: I want to submit my work to Ugly Cat Bot"

Xu Wu: "......"

They have absolutely no vision.

She ignored Fu Xi's righteous indignation, waited a while, and saw that a black cat avatar had been added to the list of liked messages.

The green eyes in the photos and the profile pictures in the like list are positioned one above the other, creating an eerie sense of incongruity.

After putting away her phone, Xu Wu patted the little tabby cat's head and said gently, "I'm leaving now. You can eat slowly."

The little tabby cat rubbed against her palm, but instead of continuing to eat as Xu Wu had instructed, it twitched its ears, arched its back and hissed warily in the direction behind her, its fur standing on end.

Xu Wu followed its gaze and looked back. Apart from the pitch-black road and the dim, half-broken streetlights, there was no one around.

Helpless, she patted the little tabby's head again to comfort it before supporting herself on her knees and getting up to walk forward.

A light appeared at the end of the alley, and Xu Wu walked around the stacked boxes as usual.

That 24-hour convenience store was closed today, and they even posted a notice on the door saying that the owner would be back at work tomorrow.

Xu Wu glanced at it but didn't pay any attention. However, just as she was about to go downstairs, her keen ears caught a very faint sound of footsteps coming from behind her.

Snap—

Snap—

Xu Wu's heart tightened; the voice was approaching from afar, almost directly towards her.

She couldn't help but tighten her grip on the strap of her tote bag and abruptly turned to look.

In the dim light, the streetlights cast a chilling white glow on the old, peeling walls, and the rusty smell of the security windows seemed to waft through the air. Not far away was a barbecue restaurant, where several middle-aged men sat around the entrance, chatting and laughing, the smoke drifting high and far, completely oblivious to the commotion.

The sky had completely darkened, the setting sun had long been replaced by a waning moon, and thick clouds drifted nimbly around the moon, blocking the already dim light source.

There was no one there, only the reflection of her shadow.

This scene inexplicably reminded Xu Wu of the chills she used to feel when watching horror movies. She was an atheist, but she couldn't help feeling afraid of these things.

For example, a female ghost with long, disheveled hair crawling on the ground;

Or perhaps it's the bound feet that suddenly appear at your doorstep.

etc.

Xu Wu comforted herself, telling herself not to scare herself, but then glanced at him again, still feeling uneasy. She pretended to be nonchalant, but in reality, she climbed the stairs three times faster than usual.

She was so nervous that her hands were shaking when she took the keys out of her bag, because she could clearly hear the footsteps already stepping up the stairs, just a dozen steps away from her.

Xu Wu's hands and feet were ice-cold, and her heart was pounding at an abnormal rate.

The moment the footsteps approached, she swiftly turned the doorknob, unlocked the door, went inside, and locked it again—all in one fluid motion.

The footsteps stopped in front of her door.

Xu Wuxin's heart was in her throat. Her emotions hadn't calmed down yet. After hesitating for a moment, she picked up her phone and opened the surveillance video outside the door.

He was a middle-aged man, or more precisely, the man on the bus who had a peculiar fetish and wanted her to scold him; he was also holding a bag in his hand.

The middle-aged man started knocking on the door: "Excuse me, classmate, I brought some things."

The knocking grew louder with each knock, and Xu Wu could even feel the door vibrating.

After calming down, she cursed under her breath, "Do they really think this is a mental hospital?"

The knocking on the door continued, so she went back inside to get pepper spray and a long, thick stick, calculating the probability of blowing his head open.

After all, it's not like she hasn't done this before.

Unexpectedly, when she returned to the entryway, the knocking stopped.

Xu Wu frowned and opened the phone monitoring again.

This time, I didn't see that middle-aged man because—

Her camera was blocked by another person.

The person turned around, his overly long hair and bangs almost completely obscuring the upper half of his face.

Seemingly sensing that someone was watching him from the other end of the surveillance camera, the corners of his mouth slowly turned up, forming a strange smile.

Even though she couldn't see his eyes, Xu Wu inexplicably felt that his gaze was almost blatant.

She gripped the edge of her phone tightly, her throat tightened, and the rapid pounding of her heart made her feel both calm and absurd—

Just being looked at like that suddenly made her feel at ease.

In the video, the person tilted their head back even more, their bangs were tousled by the movement, revealing a pair of eyes that were full of possessiveness and seemed poised to tear her apart.

It is Jieying.

Can-

Xu Wu paused, as if he were angry.

Author's note: So punctual! I'm almost moved by my own actions. [cat emoji]