What is true?
Being stared at by Guan Shanyue, Xiao Wu was frightened and lost his mind. Looking at Shao Zizhuo's back, he stammered: "Yu...Yu Yang, what, what's wrong?"
This sentence completely sentenced Guan Shanyue to death, as if a huge rock was crashing down like a mountain, making it impossible to breathe.
Guan Shanyue opened his mouth, but the voice was stuck in his throat and he didn't know where to start to defend himself.
What are they saying? Are they saying that I'm not the same Guan Shanyue as before, and that I was taken to the hospital as a mental patient? Or are they saying that it was all just a misunderstanding by my classmates, and that "Guan Shanyue" never liked Yu Yang.
But how do we explain why a classmate who hadn't seen him for many years recognized "Guan Shanyue" and called Shao Zizhuo "Yu Yang"?
What would Shao Zizhuo think? Would he be sad? Would he be upset? Would he cut off all ties with her and become a stranger who would never recognize each other?
Guan Shanyue closed his eyes in despair. No, it’s not like this. It shouldn’t be like this...
My mind was a mess, but I had to keep it going. As I kept stirring it, it became like dough, porous and leaky, making it impossible to think.
Amidst the three people's silence, Shao Zizhuo's voice suddenly rang out: "My name is not Yu Yang, I am Shao Zizhuo from Qinglian Group."
Guan Shanyue stared blankly at Shao Zizhuo's back. The tip of his shoe turned, and his face turned halfway, with an unfathomable expression: "Xiao Wu, is it? See you some other day when you have time."
Guan Shanyue's brain ran away from home, like an AI model without human emotions. He stared blankly at Xiao Wu, who nodded stupidly, then turned mechanically to Shao Zizhuo.
It was hard to tell whether Shao Zizhuo was happy or angry in his tone: "Let's go, Guan Shanyue."
The old bicycle chain, which had been in disrepair for a long time, was greased and began to turn slowly. Guan Shanyue's mind returned to normal: "Hmm? Good."
They walked out of the venue one after another. Guan Shanyue's ill-fitting high heels made pits of varying depths on the red carpet, and she was as nervous as she was.
In the inexplicable atmosphere along the way, Shao Zizhuo opened the car door and sat in the driver's seat. Guan Shanyue paused while stretching his hand towards the back seat, then moved to the passenger seat, opened the door, and sat down.
She didn't know what to say, so she lowered her head to fasten her seat belt. The car rushed out of the garage like an arrow. The inertia of the backward movement was too strong, and Guan Shanyue's back suddenly hit the car seat.
The sound of the accelerator rang in his ears. The lights were green all the way, the car speeded up, and the surrounding scenery passed by his eyes quickly. Guan Shanyue held the seat belt tightly with one hand in a panic, and stretched out the other hand to tightly hold the handle beside him.
Are they going to perish together? Guan Shanyue closed his eyes in resignation.
Suddenly, the car braked at high speed, and Guan Shanyue was thrown forward by inertia. The seatbelt stretched to its limit, holding her in place. She slowly opened her eyes and saw a large gate before her. A national flag fluttered in the distance. Inscribed on the gate were several powerful characters. Guan Shanyue read them one by one: "International Department of the Third Middle School."
What was this for? She was full of doubts, but she didn't dare to say it or ask.
After a while, Shao Zizhuo said, "Have you been here before?"
Guan Shanyue didn't know if she should have been here before, but she really didn't know how to solve the dilemma at hand, so she could only tell the truth: "No. Even if I have been here, I don't remember it now."
Guan Shanyue turned her head and met Shao Zizhuo's probing eyes. She was helpless and at a loss: "Really not."
Shao Zizhuo chuckled, his eyes shifted towards the school in front of him, his hand on the steering wheel: "I graduated from the Third Middle School. If I remember correctly, you are from the International Department of the Third Middle School."
So, this is the high school the heroine attended. However, Guan Shanyue has no such experiences or memories, and the book never mentions the heroine's school days, so it is difficult for her to be emotionally attached to it.
Guan Shanyue thought about it and finally decided to lower her head. Her hair fell naturally due to gravity, covering her face and blocking Shao Zizhuo's sight. She didn't know what expression to put on, so she just acted like a coward.
But Shao Zizhuo didn't want to let her go: "You told me before that I helped you in the first year of high school. Do you remember what it was?"
Guan Shanyue closed her eyes with a fearless attitude. When she made up this lie, she had not thought about having any emotional exchange with Shao Zizhuo. Naturally, she had never considered how to cover up this lie if Shao Zizhuo investigated it in detail.
If it was normal, it would be fine. I could always get away with it by acting cute and silly, but now it's like this...
Guan Shanyue hooked the hair behind her ear and caught a glimpse of Shao Zizhuo, also with his head down, lost in thought. She suddenly felt discouraged. Should she just forget about it? She should tell him everything about the book she was traveling through, the system, the direction of the book, and her intentions, and put an end to all this absurdity.
She was about to speak when Shao Zizhuo buried his head in the steering wheel, his voice muffled: "I thought about it for a long time, but I really couldn't remember what I did in high school. Then one day I passed by here and suddenly realized that I had been here before. Finally, I remembered our first meeting."
The beheading guillotine hung high above his neck, refusing to fall. Guan Shanyue's heart suddenly jumped up in shock, rising to his throat.
Shao Zizhuo's voice didn't stop. "You don't actually remember it, do you?" He chuckled softly, like fireworks exploding next to Guan Shanyue's ear. "But I remember now. That year, I came here as a representative of the headquarters to exchange experiences. I accidentally got separated from the main group and walked to the entrance of a rooftop."
"I was about to turn back, but I heard suppressed crying and playful laughter and scolding coming from the rooftop. As expected, someone was being bullied. I don't know what I was thinking, but I actually walked in. It was a group of men and women bullying a girl. The girl was holding a book and crying miserably."
"I don't remember any other details. I vaguely remember that after I went in, someone recognized me and the crowd dispersed. The girl wiped her tears, said thank you to me, and then ran away in a hurry."
Shao Zizhuo let out a long sigh: "If I'm not mistaken, that girl is you, right?"
Guan Shanyue twisted her hands, her heart in agony. She didn't want to deceive Shao Zizhuo with her fabricated past anymore, but she didn't dare to gamble. If Shao Zizhuo knew that their real first meeting was all a lie, would he regard everything they had experienced as a dream?
She bit her lip, almost biting the corner of her lip to bleed: "I don't remember, I forgot everything."
Shao Zizhuo seemed relieved when he didn't get her affirmative answer. He tapped the car logo on the steering wheel twice with his fingers. The air he had just relaxed gathered again. He paused and asked unsurely, "What about Yu Yang? Do you still remember..."
Guan Shanyue raised four fingers together and swore to the sky, "I swear, I really don't know him now, and I don't like him at all. If Xiao Wu hadn't suddenly appeared today, I wouldn't have known such a person existed."
She faced Shao Zizhuo solemnly. Shao Zizhuo looked at her gently and calmly. Her heart was filled with turmoil. She made up her mind and revealed all the conflicts. She exposed her heart completely under the sun: "I can't promise you that nothing happened between Yu Yang and me. I don't know whether I did what Xiao Wu said or not."
She looked away, not daring to meet Shao Zizhuo's gaze. "I don't know if I ever fell in love with any of you when I was a student. Now, I don't know what Yu Yang looks like or what his personality is like, so I don't dare to make any hasty judgments about whether I used any of you as a substitute for the other when I was a student."
"I don't remember anything before that. I don't remember anything."
Guan Shanyue stopped and the car was eerily silent. Shao Zizhuo remained silent, and Guan Shanyue lowered his head, not daring to accept his judgment.
Shao Zizhuo curled his lips and smiled, suddenly feeling the irony: "So when you told me you loved me for many years, was that also a lie?"
Guan Shanyue lowered his head and remained silent.
Shao Zizhuo understood the metaphor, and a surge of resentment and anger rose in his chest. He pounded the steering wheel, as if to vent all his anger. He took a deep breath, calming himself and controlling his emotions. "Well, I agreed to let you stay not because you liked me, but because you would be a good chess piece."
Guan Shanyue's tear glands were stimulated by something, and they felt itchy and as if she was about to cry. She bit the tip of her tongue, trying to force back the tears, but a layer of mist had already covered her eyes. She unbuckled her seat belt in an awkward manner and wanted to get out of the car and escape. She didn't want to see their relationship fall apart.
The sound of the car door being locked rang out. Like a wall of iron and copper, the two of them were locked in a small space, isolated from all the unbearable noise of the world.
"When we first met, everyone had bad intentions. No one was clean. Now we're even. If that's the case, then let's just pretend that Yu and the others don't exist."
Shao Zizhuo's voice drifted into Guan Shanyue's ears. She looked up in disbelief, her tears half retreating. "Huh? What did you say? Say it again."
The low pressure that had been lingering around Shao Zizhuo suddenly dissipated, like the clouds parting and the rain stopping. However, his face remained expressionless, but his tone was not as cold as before: "I say, pretend Yu Yang doesn't exist."
Guan Shanyue blinked, tears streaming down her face. She couldn't believe it. "So you're just going to let it go just like that?"
Shao Zizhuo tapped the steering wheel. "I understand how you felt. It's hard for someone thrown into the ocean not to look for driftwood. If they find any, they'll naturally do everything they can to grab it. If it were me, I'd do the same."
He held Guan Shanyue's shoulders and turned her around, his eyes filled with emotions that Guan Shanyue couldn't understand. "What about you? Do you mind that I kept you here in the beginning just to use you?"
Guan Shanyue shook her head. At that time, she didn't care why Shao Zizhuo kept her. She just wanted to follow the plot. If Shao Zizhuo didn't keep her, she would be in trouble.
Guan Shanyue mustered up the courage to ask him, "Let's just write it off, huh?"
Shao Zizhuo inched closer, the hot breath from his nose clearly perceptible, leaving a slight itch on his face: "But, I want a little compensation."
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