Lu had just handed the test paper item to Cen Mingming for safekeeping at the station, and was preparing to try to find a way to remove the item in the game. He was going to enter the game in the next two days, and when he came back he heard about what happened to Bai Liu. It's no exaggeration to say that his brain was buzzing.

"Bai Liu ran away?" Lu Yizhan sat on the sofa in Fang Dian's house in a daze. Opposite him sat Fang Dian. "...How could he run away?"

"I went to the welfare home to ask, but he didn't go back." Fang Dian lowered her head, her hands pressed tightly against the tea table, her voice a little hoarse, "...I looked for him, but he wasn't around the school."

"Bai Liu didn't go back to the orphanage, didn't go back to school, and didn't come back here." Lu Yizhan's expression was almost blank. He looked at Fang Dian and asked softly, as if he was asking Fang Dian or himself, "These are the only places he can go."

"Where else could he go?"

Yes, Lu Yizhan realized it late, because of his interference, there are only three places left in this world that can accommodate Bai Liu. Now, two places - the school and the orphanage can no longer accommodate him, and the only place that can accommodate him is here.

But here are two people who pushed him to this point.

Then...where else can Bai Liu go?

He needs food, shelter, transportation and rest, all of which require money. Where does he get the money from?

Lu Yizhan slowly lowered his head, buried his face in his palms, and exhaled deeply.

There is abundant rainfall in summer. Usually, after a thunderous roar, it will not last more than a few seconds before heavy rain begins to fall.

It's a weekday now, and the college entrance examination and the high school entrance examination are approaching. There are fewer students and children going out to play. The owner of the video game arcade on the commercial street saw that it was raining heavily and pedestrians were avoiding it, and the customer flow decreased again. He couldn't help but sigh and thought about closing early today.

He had just turned off the large display screen on the street outside and was about to pull down the roller shutter when a hand, whitened by the rain, grabbed the lowered roller shutter.

The boss was stunned and he pulled open the roller shutter.

The heavy rain created a thick fog on the street, and the bustling streets became a blurred silhouette in the rain and fog. Bai Liu, wearing a wet school uniform, stood quietly in front of such a background. There was a strange sense of detachment, as if he did not belong to this world.

Bai Liu raised his eyes, and looked at the boss calmly with his dark eyes: "Are you still open today?"

"...Open." The boss wanted to say it was closed, but when he saw Bai Liu's soaked school uniform, he changed his tone and said, "Come in and take shelter from the rain first."

Bai Liu walked in and turned his head to look at the boss: "Can the first place prize in the shooting game be exchanged for money?"

"Of course you can. You can exchange it for 500 yuan." The boss looked at Bai Liu's school uniform and couldn't help but persuade her, "I remember you are already a senior in high school, right? Come over to play after you graduate. There's no need to skip classes to come over to play. The college entrance examination is more important."

Bai Liu was silent for a moment, and he said in a light tone: "I can't study anymore. I was expelled from school."

The boss was shocked: "How could you be expelled? You are already a senior in high school! Wouldn't your parents be upset if you were expelled at this time?"

"I don't have any parents." Bai Liu said calmly, "Can I turn on the machine?"

The boss was stunned. He wanted to ask something else, but he couldn't open his mouth. He just sighed with a complicated expression and turned on the machine for Bai Liu.

"You play."

Bai Liu nodded politely: "Thank you, boss."

He opened the curtain and went in. Soon the sound of double-player gunfire could be heard. The boss outside sighed with his hands in his pockets, feeling mixed emotions.

...He had seen the slogan of this kid passing the imperial examination on the Ferris wheel before, how could he...

And this kid is really energetic. He dropped out of school, got caught in the rain, and still played in two-player mode.

The boss looked at the two player names registered on the machine with some curiosity, one was Spade and the other was White Willow, and couldn't help shaking his head in amusement - as expected, he was only a teenager and had given himself a symmetrical game nickname.

Bai Liu held up his gun and stared intently at the two characters jumping on the game screen. The game character Spade next to him followed behind him all the way to protect him. The corners of his mouth curled slightly.

Suddenly, a very soft voice came from outside the curtain:

"Hello, have you met this student?"

Bai Liu's pupils shrank when he heard the voice. On the screen, the character of Spade suddenly froze. Bai Liu turned his head sharply to look at Spade next to him - the monster who had just played games with him with a gun was gone.

Outside the curtain, the soft female voice was still asking politely, her voice full of sincerity and pleading: "I am Fang Dian, the older sister of the student in the photo. He has run away from home. If you have seen him, can you tell me? We will definitely reward you."

The boss paused awkwardly, and finally said, "...I haven't seen it."

"Here's our phone number. If you've seen him, please give us a call." Fang Dian quickly wrote down his phone number on a piece of paper. "Thank you in advance."

"He likes playing horror games. Maybe he'll come to your place."

Bai Liu leaned silently on the game machine, his head tilted back, his hair covering his eyes so his expression could not be seen. One could only hear his light breathing and the sound of water dripping from his hair and clothes.

Two characters in a horror game fall out of a plane and are eaten alive by zombies that come flying at them.

When Fang Dian left, Bai Liu opened the curtain and walked out. The boss immediately complained to him, "How can you say you don't have parents? Your sister came to see you in the heavy rain."

Bai Liu said calmly, "Thank you for not telling anyone about me."

The boss paused and sighed again: "Many parents of students here come to visit their children. It is basic professional ethics not to sell out students. But your sister doesn't look like that kind of parent. She is worried about you."

"Her eyes were red, and she looked like she had cried several times."

Bai Liu paused again: "I didn't get the first prize."

"Let me see..." The boss opened the curtain and walked in. "Second prize, not bad. Do you want to exchange it for money? Two hundred yuan."

Bai Liu nodded: "Yes."

The boss gave Bai Liu some money. He paused, then said with a sigh, "You're a student, it's going to be hard out there. You should go back as soon as possible."

Bai Liu took the money and turned around to leave. When he heard the boss's words, he paused for a moment and said, "I'm not alone."

"Someone is with me."

The boss asked, “Who is it?”

Bai Liu replied calmly, "Spades."

The boss was stunned. Bai Liu had already walked away in the rain and mist.

The boss turned around in confusion. He looked at the name "Spades" on the dead game character lying on the ground on the game console, and couldn't help but mutter to himself in confusion: "But Spades..."

"Isn't he an NPC player who only exists in the game?"

"It's been four days." Lu Yizhan's dark circles were so dark that they seemed to fall onto his cheeks. He said with a weak breath, "Where is Bai Liu?"

At this point, Lu Yizhan even began to regret not asking Cen Mingming, who had gone there originally, to send a few people to follow Bai Liu.

He now spends one third of his time worrying about Bai Liu getting into trouble, another third of his time worrying about Bai Liu causing trouble for other people, and the remaining third of his time dealing with college entrance examination papers, games, the orphanage, and school matters. He wishes he could be broken into sixty-four pieces.

We cannot use Cen Mingming’s people. If they really track down Bai Liu, and if Bai Liu does something, Cen Mingming will definitely shoot Bai Liu to death.

You can't report the case either. Right now, Bai Liu has a fraudulent item on him that hasn't been verified yet. If you report it, he will be sent directly to prison. You can't mobilize heretics and game props to track down Bai Liu. Every heretic is related to Bai Liu. If they really track him down, Bai Liu can definitely influence Bai Liu through the heretics.

Bai Liu is the most special child in the world. Lu Yizhan, a "parent" with countless ways at his disposal, can only helplessly adopt the most common and painful method of searching for this runaway child - that is, he and Fang Dian conduct a manual search.

But he and Fang Dian were almost going crazy, but still couldn't find Bai Liu.

Bai Liu was very smart. If this person really didn't want to be discovered, it would be difficult for Lu Yizhan to find him even if he used all the methods mentioned above.

After searching the Lu Post for days and nights, on the afternoon of who knows how many days, Fang Dian finally brought back a piece of good news and a piece of bad news:

"I found Bai Liu in the Internet cafe in the next district," Fang Dian said, "but he didn't want to come back."

It took Lu Yizhan only a second for his eyes to light up and his heart to turn into despair. He collapsed on the sofa and almost cried out: "Why?"

"Everything is resolved!"

They took great pains to find the surveillance that was deliberately concealed by the principal, proving that it was Bao Kangle who forced Bai Liu to gamble, and they also found Hou Tong as a witness to testify. With both human and material evidence, they successfully cleared Bai Liu of suspicion.

Later, when Bao Kangle was asked why he turned against Bai Liu, he was hesitant and couldn't explain clearly. However, when interrogating Xu Wei, he couldn't hold back and blurted out some of the things that the principal did secretly to the students.

This caused a big incident. The whole school underwent a strict investigation, and the principal and Xu Wei, two bastards who were not worthy of being teachers, were sent to jail on the spot.

As a result, Bao Kangle was expelled from school and given a serious warning.

Cen was confused, but Lu Yizhang also found the solution to [Incorrect College Entrance Examination Paper] in the game, and successfully sealed the paper as heresy. Lu Yizhang had also removed the influence of the heresy on the girl before, and used props to blur part of her memory. Now the girl thought that what she saw when she fell was an illusion.

Lu Yizhan originally wanted to eliminate the influence of Bao Kangle, but this person is in a very bad mental state now, and it is not known whether the elimination will be effective.

The entire Qiaomu Private High School was cleaned up from top to bottom. The College Entrance Examination Lake on the mountain was filled in, and the area for outstanding students on the mountain was disbanded. The person who is now in charge of Qiaomu Private High School is an old and respected senior teacher. The person who took over Bai Liu's class is a young English teacher. It is said that he is the old teacher's last disciple. He is very capable and has a good character. As soon as he took office, he immediately came to Lu Yizhan and others to inquire about Bai Liu's situation, and also helped to look for Bai Liu for several days.

Everything is getting better.

In addition to them, there are many people who are looking forward to Bai Liu's return, Hou Tong, other teammates of Fangdian volleyball team, and the new English teacher.

Now Bai Liu will no longer be alone in Qiaomu High School like before.

But Bai Liu was unwilling to come back.

"I talked to Bai Liu." Fang Dian held up her face. She seemed to be in deep thought or in a daze, with a somewhat scattered gaze. "He told me that he wanted to live alone."

"He thought there was nothing wrong with dropping out of school and living alone."

"He has no expectations for high school or college, and he doesn't have too many expectations for so-called ordinary people or living with ordinary people. But if he is left alone in the future, he will get used to this kind of life and look forward to it."

Fang Dian's eyes suddenly became clear: "I think he really meant it, but I don't think he really wants someone.

"What do you mean?" Lu Yizhan asked with a frown.

Fang Dian took a deep breath and said, "I feel like... there's something I can't see."

"To be with him when he's alone."

In the quiet rental house, Bai Liu was lying alone on the wooden bed.

He had been living in the Internet cafe before. After Fang Dian came, he had already left, but they came back and told him that he could not come back, but he could not stay in the Internet cafe. They rented a small house for him on the spot and moved him in.

Bai Liu was lying on the wooden bed, his eyes fixed on the bunch of keys on the small table opposite him - those were the keys that Fang Dian had found left for him in the Internet cafe.

Next to the bunch of keys, there was a Spade lying on the table, also looking at him.

The room was very quiet and dark. Bai Liu could clearly see Hei Tao's black eyes gradually turning into a strange silver-blue color. He could also clearly see Hei Tao's body gradually turning translucent.

"I'm leaving," he heard Spade say.

"Why?" Bai Liu asked, "I am still alone, why can you leave?"

Spade blinked slowly: "But you won't be soon."

Bai Liu said coldly: "I don't need you to decide what I am like."

Heitao said softly, "Because I don't want you to be alone, Bai Liu."

He slowly stood up, walked over, and pulled Bai Liuyong, who was lying on the wooden bed, into his arms. He said softly and quietly:

"You will be surrounded by many people in the future. I know you will be very happy. I hope that happy you will come soon."

"So I don't want you to be alone for too long."

Heitao hugged Bailiu tightly and said, "Let's go back."

"We made a deal. I promise you that I will come to you in the future, see you at first sight, follow you forever, and never disappear again."

Bai Liu grabbed Hei Tao's shoulders tightly, but his gaze gradually faded.

He looked over Heitao's shoulder at the bunch of keys on the table. He was silent for a long time, then Bai Liu closed his eyes. He put his arms around Heitao's shoulders and hummed softly.

Bai Liu is back.

The return of this influential figure caused turmoil in the lives of everyone at Qiaomu Private High School for a while, but his own life was calm and uneventful.

It can't be said that he was calm and collected, he became the focus of attention.

After the teaching buildings on the mountain were cancelled, Lu Yizhang and Fang Dian went to study at the foot of the mountain. Whenever they had nothing to do, they would run to Class 17 and ask Bai Liu to eat, attend classes, play ball, and do homework. Hou Tong, who had been trying to spend more time with Bai Liu before leaving school, was so angry that she almost gritted her teeth when she saw that Bai Liu was taken away by Fang Dian every time after class.

The new teacher in the class paid a lot of attention to Bai Liu. She was very friendly to Bai Liu, but not overly prominent. She would just mark some comments on Bai Liu's test paper that she thought were helpful.

The welfare home approved a midnight snack subsidy for Bai Liu, eight yuan per night, just enough for a bowl of beef noodles.

Lu Yi Zhan and Fang Dian would add money to order an egg for him, so in the last fifty days, Bailiu actually grew taller visibly to the naked eye.

He no longer has time to be alone, or rather, he no longer has the opportunity to be alone. There are too many people around him, and he rarely has time to be alone.

Sometimes Ye Bailiu would stay alone in the flowerbed downstairs, holding two popsicles in his hands, but he usually didn't eat the other one, and he didn't know who ate it. However, such time alone was usually rare.

Soon, the time for the college entrance examination came.

The summer is hot and the sun is shining brightly. Today is a sunny day.

Fang Dian and Lu Yizhang woke up early in the morning to have breakfast with Bai Liu. Lu Yizhang's face turned pale with nervousness. Before sending Bai Liu to the examination room, he kept reminding her, "Remember to fill in the answer sheet! Check the answer sheet twice!"

After giving Bai Liu the instructions, Lu Yizhang subconsciously walked out of the school and went to the parent-teacher area outside to wait for Bai Liu to finish the college entrance examination.

Fang Dian didn't know whether to laugh or cry as he grabbed Lu Yizhan, who was so nervous that his mind went blank and was walking out hand in hand, "Stop right there!"

"Today, not only Bai Liu is taking the college entrance examination, but you are also taking the college entrance examination. Why are you waiting in the parents' area?"

"Oh!" Lu Yizhan suddenly realized something and slapped his forehead, "I forgot that I also have to take the college entrance examination. I only remembered that today is the day of Bai Liu's college entrance examination."

Bai Liu: “…”

In the end, Bai Liu sent the student from Lu Yi Station, who was extremely nervous about his college entrance examination, into the examination room, and earnestly told him: "Don't forget to fill in your answer sheet, Xiao Lu."

"You too!" Lu Yizhan grabbed Bai Liu's hand with tears in his eyes, "The college entrance examination will go smoothly!"

Fang Dian also grabbed the hands of the two people. She smiled brightly: "Of course, our Bai Liu will definitely have smooth sailing in the college entrance examination!"

Bai Liu watched Fang Dian and Lu Yizhang wave goodbye to him and enter the examination room. He did not turn around immediately, but stood there for a while, looking at the backs of the two people.

As the two figures gradually moved away, a black figure suddenly appeared beside him.

Hei Tao held Bai Liu's hand, and Bai Liu slowly shook it back.

In the crowded college entrance examination room, Bai Liu stood alone, his hands empty, holding something. People kept passing by him and greeting him with a smile:

"Good luck on Bai Liu's college entrance exam!"

"Bai Liu, charge!"

"Hold on, Bai Liu, you can do it!"

Whenever someone greeted Bai Liu with a smile and wished him a happy birthday, the spades around Bai Liu would disappear for a moment, but soon after the person who greeted him left, the spades would come back and continue to hold Bai Liu's hand.

Thus, in the crowd, the spade held by Bai Liu was like an old picture that kept flashing in an old film. His outline became blurred, appearing and disappearing in the sunlight, like a silhouette of a man-made monster, appearing silently next to the protagonist of a fairy tale.

Hold his hand tightly when he is alone, and let go silently when he is surrounded by people.

Bai Liu walked into the last English examination room. This monster stared at Bai Liu from the window as she was writing the test paper with her head down. It was as if he would look at her less and less, and he kept looking at Bai Liu without moving his eyes.

The moment the bell rang indicating the end of the college entrance examination, Bai Liu subconsciously turned his head to look at the monster outside the window.

He is missing.

Bai Liu's brain reacted slowly for a while, and he suddenly remembered that he had told Hei Tao before that they would definitely come to find him for the last exam, and asked him to wait under the ping-pong table and not outside the classroom.

It should be the ping-pong table, Bai Liu thought.

As expected, Fang Dian came to see him. She excitedly asked Bai Liu how she did in the exam. Bai Liu said she did normally. Then Fang Dian cheered and said that they would go buy something to celebrate. Lu Yizhan was so happy that she cried.

Soon Lu Yizhang and Fang Dian were taken away by their classmates. Bai Liu got his free time. He returned to his seat in the classroom, paused for a moment, and took out a roll of wooden sticks from under the classroom.

There were ten in total, which were the sticks he had saved, just enough to exchange for two Coquettes.

The people in the classroom were discussing enthusiastically, and many were hiding in various places to confess their love. Bai Liu had no expression on his face. He walked past these people without even looking at them and went under the flowerbed.

He went to the canteen and traded ten "one more" sticks for two strawberry-flavored Coquetos, then waited by the ping-pong table in the hot sun.

The ping-pong table is a very secret little corner, so it is a date spot for many couples to avoid the detection of the dean of studies. But now that the college entrance examination is over, all the secret romances can be brought to the table and discussed openly, and there will be no teachers or parents to interfere anymore. So this usually popular date spot for couples is now empty.

The playground was full of boys and girls chasing each other and laughing happily. In the shade of the trees under the ping-pong table, there was an eighteen-year-old boy hiding with two ice creams waiting for people to come. He had been on this ping-pong table in the heavy rain, calmly thinking about how to kill people. He had also hugged a non-existent monster here tightly, avoiding the flashlight sweeping from afar.

And now, he was holding the strawberry-flavored Coke that the monster wanted the most, waiting here calmly, waiting for the monster to come out and finish eating it, and then telling him.

Tell him I like you.

Just like what any eighteen-year-old boy would say to his lover - I like you, please stay with me for a while before you leave.

I said things you like and brought you food you like, so could you please walk a little slower since I'm alone now?

White clouds and birds were flying in the blue sky. Under the green shade, the boy in a white shirt was waiting. He waited from the scorching sun to dusk, and from dusk to sunset. Even when the ice cream in his hand had completely melted, the monster still didn't come.

Did it just leave like that without hearing the words it liked, without eating the ice cream it liked, and without even saying goodbye?

When he sees it in the future, if he can see it, he will definitely not forgive it so easily.

Bai Liu slowly lowered his hand that was holding the ice cream. He looked into the distance with a calm expression and said:

"I like you, Spade."