Chapter 67.2 – Guardian (2/2)

Translator: Xena

“……”

Even so, Wei Chenxu didn’t dare to look at Jian Xie. He just twitched the corner of his mouth and put on a very impatient look.

“Get out of here.” He retorted irritably, “You have no right to tell me what to do.” 

“Don’t you usually like to speak up at times like this? Why are you pretending to be uninvolved now?”

Everyone knew that the English class representative hated Jian Xie the most. Several times, he has been the one to provoke Jian Xie, while everyone else just watched the show. Now, his sudden act was very unexpected and made everyone even more flustered, not knowing what this meant.

The Wei family has always been snobbish and opportunistic, could it be that…

Has there really been a mistake? Did that car really belong to Jian Xie?

But they haven’t seen anyone show up at any of the previous parent-teacher meetings.

“……”

An awkward silence fell over the room; no one dared to speak first, and everyone felt uneasy.

“Boring.” The English class representative suddenly said coldly, standing up from his seat, “Don’t let Zhou Cheyun use you as a pawn and make you feel that you’re enjoying it.” 

After saying this, he noticed Jian Xie’s gaze and couldn’t help but tremble slightly, but he forced himself not to show it.

Almost instantly, Wei Chenxu’s mind flashed back to everything that had happened at the auction…

Those terrifying and grotesque monsters, and disgusting, extremely bloody scenes.

Although his vision suddenly went dark and he could see nothing, the sense of horror that lingered in his heart did not disappear, but instead intensified.

Wei Chenxu could only hear faint noises and, finally, catch a glimpse of Jian Xie’s slender figure as he walked out of the private room.

Precisely because it had never left his mind, the moment he heard the elevator start up and the subsequent screams of the monster followed, the other person’s name immediately came to mind.

He actually did all of that…

In other words, those insects were not a hallucination as claimed by the man posing as a police officer.

Jian Xie actually saved him twice, yet he was still so arrogant, unaware that Jian Xie simply didn’t take him seriously.

Recalling how he had personally witnessed the floor he went to back then, and connecting it to the car that had come for the parent-teacher conference now, Wei Chenxu’s expression grew intensely complex.

Once the gap became too large, his despicable acts of jealousy vanished in an instant.

All that remained was powerlessness.

“……”

Jing Chen frowned and couldn’t help but mutter to himself, “How come this guy has changed so much after just one weekend…” 

He stole a glance at Jian Xie, only to find that his expression hadn’t changed at all.

How indifferent.

The change in English class monitor seemed to have nothing to do with him; he was merely an indifferent bystander, so he felt no curiosity.

I really wonder if someone like him, who always kept his distance, has anyone who truly cared about him deep down…

Unaware of Jing Chen’s thoughts, Jian Xie remained expressionless as he took his homework out of his bag and put it away.

Qin Zhuo hadn’t uttered a sound since entering the school.

He could sense that It was not in his body or shadow. Although it was only a brief separation, it left him with a feeling of emptiness.

He didn’t know what It was doing…

It was just a parent-teacher meeting, not a wedding like in the old days when the couple had to be separated and couldn’t meet beforehand.

To be honest, Jian Xie couldn’t imagine Qin Zhuo sitting alongside those parents, listening to the homeroom teacher talk about effective learning methods.

The scene was just too incongruous. If any monster saw it, it might think it had arrived in hell ahead of time.

Jian Xie’s gaze drifted to the window. The parent-teacher meeting would begin soon.

His seat was in a good position, offering a view of the scenery outside the teaching building, where students were gradually arriving at school.

They all need to go to the field later to attend a mobilization meeting, where leaders and representatives would give speeches.

Just then, Zhou Cheyun walked towards him from the corridor with a joyful expression. As he passed by the English class representative, he unexpectedly heard him sneer at him.

“……”

Zhou Cheyun’s mind was filled with the praise his parents had given him last night for his upcoming speech as an outstanding student. He was very satisfied and felt superior to Jian Xie, so he couldn’t help but feel smug and unable to contain his joy.

It seemed those rumors were quite effective, and the monster I traded with was also pretty good.

Otherwise, why would Jian Xie miss this opportunity to show off?

However……

Why did Wei Chenxu suddenly make that expression? Zhou Cheyun couldn’t help but cast a puzzled look into the classroom, hoping to find the answer.

Little did he expect to be met with the rather menacing questioning stares of the remaining few.

This left him speechless, and he lost some of the joy in his heart.

One has to pick the softest persimmon to squeeze. Zhou Cheyun didn’t dare to ask them the reason directly, so he looked at Jian Xie in the back row of the classroom, raised an eyebrow and said to him, “Good morning, Jian Xie, we meet again. How did you get here today? Still riding your bike?”   

It was obvious he was asking a question he already knew the answer to.

Zhou Cheyun’s family background wasn’t bad. Although it was a little worse than Wei Chenxu and others, it was definitely considered well-off based on the school’s standards.

Today, his parents took a day off to drive him here so they could attend the parent-teacher conference.

Unlike some people who not only lived in a dilapidated house but also had to scan shared bikes to get to school, which was truly laughable.

Therefore, people may be alike, but may have different fates.

As soon as he finished speaking, he expected the people in the classroom to show their usual mocking expressions and laugh in response to his words. But what answered him was an even more terrifying silence than before. The group of people just stared at him silently, as if he had just said something extremely stupid.

A few classmates, though not taking sides, listened to the whole thing and couldn’t help but let out a few sarcastic laughs.

What exactly is this person doing here? Didn’t anyone tell him what everyone already knew? This person has really bad interpersonal relationships. 

Zhou Cheyun: “…”

He was about to lose his temper, but when he met Jian Xie’s gaze, he instantly stopped breathing, and his arrogant arrogance was extinguished by a bucket of cold water poured over his head.

Indifferent.

The other party… seemed to only notice his arrival at this moment, and probably didn’t even hear his first question clearly, just like yesterday.

This person didn’t take him seriously at all!

His lips trembled as he felt increasingly embarrassed, especially when he had no idea why those people were laughing.

“In that case, I won’t waste my time with you.  Zhou Cheyun sneered, forcing a smile, and said, “I still need to prepare my speech for being the top student in the grade. You’d better listen carefully to my study methods and stop cutting corners.”

Even if it really was Jian Xie who took the exam himself, so what? After all, he’s the one who’ll be up on stage giving a speech in front of the entire grade later.

Rumors always spread, and eventually the whole school would be talking about his grades.

It was easy to ignore him now, but wait a few days and let’s see how he could still ignore people from other classes and maintain this infuriatingly calm demeanor in front of him.

Once Jian Xie’s mentality collapsed, his grades would likely suffer, which would give him even more reason to accuse him of falsifying his grades.

As soon as he finished speaking, he noticed that Jian Xie finally raised his head and looked in his direction.

Zhou Cheyun smiled smugly, thinking he had won back some ground in front of him. The awkward expression on his face dissipated considerably, and he returned to his supposedly indifferent demeanor.

“……”

But soon, he realized something was wrong.

Because Jian Xie’s gaze didn’t linger on him, but instead went past his shoulder and landed behind him.

Not only him, but Zhou Cheyun noticed that many girls in the class had their eyes light up, and even some boys couldn’t help but look in the same direction.

Could it be…?

A tremendous sense of oppression came from behind him, nearly shattering his self-respect and compelling him to kneel where he stood.

At the same time, that sinister aura swept over him without any attempt to conceal itself.

Whether it was a hallucination or not, Zhou Cheyun even vaguely heard the pendant he was wearing around his neck emit a shrill scream.

Merely drawing near to the other seemed to subject one to the merciless torment of karmic flames, burning them almost to ashes.

Even Zhou Cheyun himself vaguely felt waves of pain coming from his exposed skin. He thought he had blisters, but he glanced at his arm in the throes of unbearable agony, only to find that everything appeared perfectly normal.

…Was it a hallucination?

He staggered and turned around, tripping over the door frame, and finally saw the full figure of the person behind him.

The other person was wearing a well-tailored suit. Although it was a classic style and didn’t seem particularly special at first glance, it was strikingly impressive on him. Combined with his extraordinary and detached temperament, he was unforgettable.

On that exquisitely beautiful face, which seemed almost unreal, a slightly mocking smile played at the corners of his mouth.

At the same time, a faint, inhuman crimson hue appeared in those bottomless, pitch-black eyes, sending a chill down one’s spine.

It was as if the pain that almost tore their skin apart was just a prank he played on a whim.

Zhou Cheyun couldn’t help but widen his eyes.

—He had just seen this face yesterday!

At that time, the other party was shrouded in black mist, and his specific figure could not be seen. The only thing he noticed was that face that was too delicate compared to a human and the focused gaze he gave Jian Xie as he lowered his head slightly—like a ferocious beast that had been tamed and had willingly put away its claws and teeth.

He foolishly mistook this for his true self, overlooking who had made him willingly don the shackles.

Apart from Jian Xie, no one else was covered by this exemption.

Therefore, everything was just an appearance.

This cruel side of him—eager to witness others’ suffering and take pleasure in it—is the true nature he would never show to Jian Xie.

“Good morning, Xiao Xie,” Qin Zhuo said, his eyes reflecting only Jian Xie’s figure under everyone’s gaze, completely ignoring Zhou Cheyun who stood in front of him with a look of fear on his face. He simply smiled slightly and said in a cheerful mood, “I’ve already spoken with your homeroom teacher.”

Jian Xie: “…”

For a moment, he didn’t know whether he should focus on the new nickname “Xiao Xie” or pay attention to Qin Zhuo’s statement that he had talked to the homeroom teacher.

…Was It in the office this whole time?

Beside Jian Xie, Jing Chen subconsciously widened his eyes, revealing surprise.

Wait a minute, what exactly is the relationship between this man and Jian Xie? Why do you look so unusually familiar with this?!

He had never seen Jian Xie show such an expression to anyone else.

Although he didn’t say a word to the man, the atmosphere between them was so intense that no one could penetrate it.

He believed that the others shared his thoughts, as everyone’s eyes were shifting back and forth between Jian Xie and this man who appeared out of nowhere. Their doubts were overflowing, but they couldn’t expect to get answers from Jian Xie.

If he were a parent, the age difference wouldn’t seem like it…

An elder brother?

But the aggressive look in the other person’s eyes when they looked at Jian Xie seemed to be saying that the relationship between the two was not like that at all.

“You don’t want to speak as the top student representative in the grade, of course, that’s perfectly fine,” Qin Zhuo said lazily. Then, he raised an eyebrow, his tone quite arrogant, “However, as your guardian, I just agreed to the homeroom teacher’s suggestion—”

“That I should be given the opportunity to speak before the entire grade about how I managed to raise you to be so outstanding.”

Author’s Note:

Jian Xie: …