Chapter 34 Numb.34 Torture

Only after entering the mall could you escape the howling cold wind outside. That's the downside of winter; even under the blazing sun, the chill in the air is impossible to block out.

While scrolling through her phone, Xia Ni told Xu Wu that the boys had arrived at the store and they could go to the restaurant on the fourth floor now.

The other two girls each took one of her arms, and Xu Wu tactfully followed at the back.

"Hey, are you treating us to dinner today?" The girl on the left teased, shaking her arm.

"First prize!" another girl nodded in agreement.

"Let me go bankrupt then," Shani joked with a laugh. "I'll see if I want more food later."

Unlike their harmonious interaction, Xu Wu glanced at the message and then lowered her head to unfollow it, intending to reply to some messages.

She thought the violent tremor was because Jie Ying was going crazy again, but what she found after clicking in was unexpected.

It is true that Jieying posted it, but it is gibberish and a series of nonsensical words, without any logic.

"Stalker: gsjjjjjjjjw"

"Stalker: Fog"

Xu Wu frowned in confusion, and before he could even send a question mark, Jie Ying's message popped up again.

"Stalker: Sorry, Mimi kept pressing the button."

"Stalker: Did I disturb the fog?"

"Stalker: I'm sorry"

It wouldn't be considered a disturbance. Xu Wu scrolled up and glanced at the photo he had posted of himself being scratched by the little tabby cat.

Xie Ying was an oddball who was good-looking in every way, a fact Xu Wu firmly believed. She didn't consider herself a hand fetishist, but people always like pretty things.

His hands were so pale it was as if a thin layer of human skin was draped over bare bones, bland and cold. The skin and flesh at the joints were pitifully little, making the bones encased in the skin at the joints appear pale pink. The gauntness could describe this ambiguous eroticism.

Surprisingly, the three bloody marks on the back of her hand did not detract from the beauty of the scene. Instead, in Xu Wu's eyes, they looked terrible, as if the hand had been abused.

Xu Wu only managed to tear his gaze away from his phone screen the moment Xia Ni and the other two stopped walking. When he looked up at the store name, his pounding heart finally dared to catch its breath.

Xia Ni was still talking to the receptionist, with two girls surrounding her.

Xu Wu watched quietly from a distance. Even though her phone was locked and she was holding it, she was still unconsciously rubbing the edges or the casing. Her fingertips felt itchy, as if ants were crawling and gnawing at them, which made her unconsciously tighten her grip, trying to relieve the itch with this action.

The image of that hand keeps replaying in my mind.

I've been touched by his hand more than once.

A few times, Xu Wu took the opportunity to glance silently at Jie Ying's lowered hand and compare it with his own when Jie Ying lowered his head.

It was almost a whole size bigger than mine, and unlike my hands, which were always slightly cold and never warm, his hands were warm.

Completely different from his cold and aloof appearance, every time Jie Ying touched her, she could feel a constant stream of warmth coming from his palms towards her.

Warm, and delicious.

“Xu Wu.” Xia Ni turned around.

Xu Wu snapped out of her daze: "What?"

"Come in, why are you spacing out?" Xia Ni waved her over.

"They're here." Xu Wu composed himself and followed.

This is a chain restaurant, with both a buffet area and private rooms where you can order à la carte.

The waiter led them to a private room on the second floor. After pushing open the door and entering, Xu Wu glanced around and noticed that besides Liu Tan, who was sitting in the center, there were two other people sitting there.

He was also in the class and looked very familiar, but Xu Wu couldn't recall his name.

She vaguely remembered the boy sitting to Liu Tan's left; he was the one Liu Tan had deliberately pushed out to apologize to her last time.

"Why are you so late? We're starving!" Liu Tan joked with Xia Ni, then took the menu from the waiter and asked if anyone had any dietary restrictions.

"I want beef with cilantro," Xia Ni said, leaning closer. Then she looked at the others and asked, "Does anyone not eat cilantro?"

Neither of the girls had any objections.

Xu Wu frowned almost imperceptibly, but seeing that Xia Ni didn't seem inclined to ask any further questions, she remained silent.

In the end, we ordered two dishes with cilantro: beef with cilantro and cilantro with onions.

Xu Wu didn't give him a single glance throughout the meal. She could hardly swallow it. Just listening to Liu Tan boasting about his plans to get into a prestigious 985 university was enough to make her laugh. She treated the meal like a comedy sketch.

“I looked at the cutoff score for Lijiang last year, and the lowest was 580.”

As Liu Tan spoke, he took out his phone and passed it around to them, even thoughtfully pointing out the score ranges.

"Prices will definitely go up this year, not to mention next year," the boy sitting next to him said.

“Indeed, 600 points is possible,” Shani said.

Xu Wu picked up her water glass and took a sip of cool water, listening to the conversation while moistening her throat. She had no intention of forcibly interrupting their conversation.

"Speaking of which, what about Xu Wu?"

She had just put down her cup when Xia Ni looked over, and the others followed suit.

Xu Wu didn't understand what was going on.

“We’re talking about school. Everyone has a goal, except you haven’t mentioned it yet,” Xia Ni reminded her.

It was indeed a very boring topic, and they kept talking about it even during dinner.

Xu Wu thought this to herself, but her face showed a smile that was completely different from her thoughts. She shook her head and said, "I haven't decided yet. I might stay in Lijiang."

The universities in Lijiang City are actually quite good, with a high reputation within the city, especially in terms of several popular majors. Plus, they are close to home.

"Isn't that the same as one of Liu Tan's targets?" Xia Ni smiled, seemingly unaware of the fleeting frown on Xu Wu's face when she heard this.

"Is that so?" Xu Wu smiled.

That's really bad luck; Li Da is really unlucky.

"To be honest, I didn't dare to talk to Xu Wu when I first met her." Xia Ni rested her chin on her hands and looked at Xu Wu sitting opposite her.

Cold and unapproachable—that was her first impression of Xu Wu when she first saw him at the beginning of her first year of high school.

The opening ceremony was crowded and chaotic. Xia Ni was standing in front of the bulletin board, looking up at the class assignment list, searching for her name line by line. It was hot in the summer, and the inability to find her name made her even more irritable as she sweated.

The next second, a figure stopped behind her, and then a cool fragrance gradually spread over, unexpectedly relieving some of the heat on Xia Ni's body.

This fragrance isn't the strong, pungent scent of perfume; it's more like a natural body odor, like wisps of cool mist.

"Xu Wu's expression when she's not smiling really makes people afraid to speak." Xia Ni said this jokingly after the recollection ended.

“Indeed, a cool and aloof goddess.” Liu Tan raised an eyebrow at her, seemingly affirming Xia Ni’s description, but his expression and provocative gaze made him particularly unpleasant to look at.

"After all, I don't have the habit of trying to build relationships with everyone and be overly familiar with them all the time." Xu Wu slowly took out a tissue to wipe the water that had accidentally gotten on her fingers from the cup.

This is no longer a veiled implication; it's blatantly stated, practically calling someone out by name.

Those people clearly realized it too, especially Liu Tan, whose face was visibly grim, while Xu Wu felt much better.

She really didn't understand these people. They weren't particularly close to her, but they kept pestering her to come over, calling it a dinner party.

"Right? I told you so, Xu Wu's expression when she's not smiling makes you afraid to even breathe," Xia Ni said, breaking the tense atmosphere with a joke.

"Indeed, it's terrifying," Liu Tan replied with a forced smile.

Xu Wu gave a perfunctory "hmm," ignoring their expressions, and scrolled through her WeChat Moments for a while. When she saw Fu Xi's post, she casually gave it a like.

Then her message popped up from the top of the screen.

Fu Xi: We're finalizing the performance costumes next week. Could you tell me your height and weight?

"Five: 172/50"

Fu Xi: Women who control their diet are terrifying.

Then he added a meme of someone biting a handkerchief and crying.

It's not surprising that Fu Xi felt this way. It's mainly because Xu Wu's behavior of controlling her diet is incredibly disciplined in her eyes. Since junior high school, her weight has remained at around 50kg without any change.

Fu Xi: Also, could you ask Jie Ying for me? I need to compile some statistics.

Five: Okay

Xu Wu said he was going to ask, but before he could send the message he had typed in the "stalker" chat interface, he paused when he heard Jie Ying's name coming from the other side of the conversation.

I don't know how many topics they went on in such a short time, but whatever it was, talking about gossip about people they both knew was the best way to get closer to each other.

"He was like that in his first year of high school. I think I heard his homeroom teacher talking to him about spirit or something when I passed by the office once."

"What do you mean? He has a mental illness?"

“I guess so,” Liu Tan scoffed. “Otherwise, who would be so gloomy all the time, like they’re covered in germs?”

"That's not a good way to put it," one girl said hesitantly. "Maybe he just doesn't like to talk."

"No, I just think there's something wrong with him," Liu Tan denied without hesitation. "He's rubbish, don't you think?"

Xu Wu's index finger, which was unconsciously tapping the screen, did not stop when she heard this sentence. Instead, she watched as Liu Tan's temperature dropped sharply.

After a long while, she suddenly laughed with a hint of sarcasm, raised her chin in Liu Tan's direction, and said coldly, "Hey."

Liu Tan stopped his incessant chatter, and several people turned to look at him at the same time.

"Then wouldn't you be even more useless if you couldn't pass the germ test?" Xu Wu raised an eyebrow, completely ignoring Liu Tan's frozen reaction when she said those words.

She checked the rankings for this monthly exam. Jie Ying's grades were average with no major changes, but she consistently kept Liu Tan firmly below her.

"Hey—" Shani tried to smooth things over, "Alright, alright—"

"I have to go now, I have something to do." Xu Wu stood up. "I'll pay you for the meal later, don't call me next time."

After saying that, he ignored the various expressions on everyone's faces, put away his phone, and pushed open the door of the private room to leave.

As I stepped out of the store and onto the escalator to go downstairs, the pent-up frustration in my heart hadn't dissipated much.

Xu Wu couldn't pinpoint the source of this emotion; she was just very annoyed when she heard Liu Tan making fun of Jie Ying, so annoyed that she wanted to blow him up.

Even if Jie Ying is disgusting and weird, she's still better than him.

The escalator reached the first floor.

Xu Wu hesitated for a moment between whether to leave or not, but after two seconds she turned and walked toward the pharmacy next to the entrance of the underground supermarket.

I don't know how much force the little tabby used to grab him, but it wouldn't look good if those hands were scarred.

That's all.

Xu Wu tried to comfort himself.

She had only taken two steps when a shadow pressed against her from behind, getting closer and closer.

Xu Wu's back tensed involuntarily, and when she turned around, she met a pair of smiling eyes.

Author's Note: There's also [yellow heart].

Will they even respond if I ask for nutrient solution? [pity][pity]