Chapter 51: Threat

Just after class finished, before Yu Xi had even stepped out of the classroom, he received a new message.

His friends had memorized his class schedule perfectly, always managing to time their arrivals down to the exact minute.

Zhang Xingkuo asked him if he wanted to go skiing together, Lin Shuhuai invited him to visit an art exhibition, and Meng Shen wanted to grab a meal with him.

Yu Xi lowered his dark eyes, typing sluggishly with his pale pink fingertips.

【No, thanks. Things are really busy during the exam period.】

He sent the exact same message to all three men, turning them down.

He ought to have used a softer tone to reply, but this time he truly lacked the emotional energy.

Tucking his phone into his pocket, Yu Xi stepped out of the classroom. He glanced up at the overcast, gloomy sky outside, breathing out a puff of white mist as he shrank his chin a little further into his collar.

…So cold.

He bought a bun at a shop downstairs to casually make do for lunch, eating it as he walked toward the back gate to head to work at the cat café.

This was his very last day of part-time work at the café. The shop’s primary consumer base consisted of university students; since the students were on vacation, there was no foot traffic, so the owner planned to close up and rest the shop early.

As he neared the back gate, Yu Xi’s feet felt as though they were filled with lead, dragging slower and slower.

He stared at the back gate, which was bustling as usual, his nerves taut like a wire on the verge of snapping at any moment as he walked out step-by-step.

Squeezing the half-eaten bun in his hand, he cautiously peered around his surroundings. Discovering no sign of the man who repeatedly appeared in his nightmares, his nerves relaxed slightly. However, he forgot to pay attention to the vehicles and was deafened by the piercing blare of a car horn.

His vision swam for a moment, and he was caught into a warm, broad embrace.

By the time he snapped out of it, he had been brought back to the safety of the sidewalk. His chilled cheeks were cradled, and his eyes met a pair of dark eyes whose alarm had yet to dissipate.

He could only see the other party’s lips moving but couldn’t hear any sound through the ringing in his ears. It took a good while for his soul to slowly return to his body.

“Xixi?” Gu Chuanzhou called out, his brow furrowed tightly, the depths of his gaze revealing anxiety as he looked over.

“…I’m fine.” Yu Xi turned his face away, evading the palms cradling his cheeks, and reached out to push against Gu Chuanzhou’s arms. Failing to budge him after a push, he lifted his eyes to look at Gu Chuanzhou. “You can let go of me now.”

Gu Chuanzhou paused. Only after confirming that Yu Xi could stand firmly on his own did he loosen his grip. “Crossing the street is very dangerous, you need to be careful.”

“Mm,” Yu Xi responded in a low murmur.

Gu Chuanzhou looked at the bun that had fallen onto the ground. “You’re eating this for lunch?”

“No… this is just a snack.” Yu Xi didn’t want to be dragged off to eat by Gu Chuanzhou again, so he told a small lie.

But he forgot just how terrible he was at lying. The moment he lied, his gaze shifted guiltily and his voice grew faint—and he also forgot just how well Gu Chuanzhou knew him.

Gu Chuanzhou knit his brows deeply. “Did something happen?”

Yu Xi was astonished by Gu Chuanzhou’s sharpness, and a wave of panic instantly rushed through his heart. “N-no. I have to go to work at the cat café… Goodbye.”

He completely forgot to ask Gu Chuanzhou why he had appeared here. Looking around, he departed in a flurried rush.

Behind him, Gu Chuanzhou’s gaze followed him for a very long time.

“The moment I saw the header for today’s exam, my scalp went completely numb. What kind of celestial beings came up with these questions?”

Inside the dormitory, Liu Heng grumbled with a miserable face.

Zhou Anhe said, “You definitely didn’t look closely at the core points Xiao Xi shared in the group chat.”

“Ah?” Liu Heng immediately went to check, and then slapped his thigh in sheer regret. “I missed the file entirely!”

Zhou Anhe looked at him wailing and mocked him without a shred of sympathy.

“Alright, it’s no big deal. I’ll treat you guys to a good meal tonight.” Xiao Yang turned his chair around, looking toward Yu Xi’s desk. “Xiao Xi, what do you want to eat?”

Liu Heng and Zhou Anhe turned their gazes over together, only to find the youth sitting in his chair with his head lowered. He was staring at a crumpled slip of paper held tightly in his hand; his usually brilliant eyes were vacant at this moment, completely dull and grey.

Liu Heng poked his head in front of Yu Xi’s face. “Why do you look like this? Did you bomb the exam too?”

Yu Xi snapped out of it, rapidly clenching the slip of paper inside his palm, and let out a small smile. “What were you guys just saying?”

“Xiao Yang is treating us to dinner, he’s asking what you want to eat.”

Yu Xi hesitated for two seconds. “Let’s just eat inside the university. I’m afraid of the cold and don’t really want to go out, is that okay?”

The food inside the university was naturally not as delicious as the food outside, but hearing him say he didn’t want to go out, the three of them raised no objections.

“Eating inside the university is fine too, we can finish early and come back early to review. Um… Xiao Xi, could you guide me through the material one more time?” Liu Heng begged, rubbing his hands together.

Yu Xi nodded. “Sure.”

Zhou Anhe hastily chimed in, “Count me in, count me in!”

Only Xiao Yang remained lazy. He didn’t chase high scores; as long as he stayed above the passing line, he was satisfied.

…

For seven consecutive days, Yu Xi was fully occupied with his exams.

The exams were spaced out widely, but every single subject required him to be strictly on guard. Yu Xi wanted to secure the scholarship, so he worked harder than the average student. During the day, he buried his head in the sea of learning until he was utterly exhausted, but at night, he couldn’t sleep well.

The moment his mental defenses relaxed, the panic and unease suppressed deep in his heart would surge up alongside the cold, quiet night. It felt pitch-black and heavy, like a massive boulder pressing down on his chest, making it hard for him to breathe.

In the dead of night, he would curl up on his bed, pressing his hand against his aching stomach, completely drenched in cold sweat. He bought medication, but it didn’t do any good.

Even so, he didn’t underperform during his exams. The moment he began solving questions, his mind was no longer chaotic or groggy; instead, it became incomparably clear—just like during the National College Entrance Examination back then, forced by reality and yearning for the future, he gritted his teeth and endured until the very last moment.

The worse things got, the more he had to persevere. All kinds of anxiety and pressure transformed into motivation; he wouldn’t allow himself to make a mistake.

Fortunately, Yu Xuelin’s five-day deadline had already passed, yet he hadn’t come to cause him trouble.

But Yu Xi didn’t believe that Yu Xuelin had shown mercy or temporarily softened his heart to let him off the hook, so he still kept his heart in his throat, deeply anxious and uneasy.

He didn’t dare to relax, right up until the day of his very last exam.

When he saw the figure appearing on the street across from the back gate, the first emotion to well up within his heart was unexpectedly not fear or panic, but a thought of ‘it’s finally here.’ Furthermore, he thought somewhat optimistically that it was fortunate he had left the school gates ahead of schedule; the car from the Pei family sent to pick him up was stuck in traffic, so he still had time to deal with him.

He walked over calmly, not forgetting to drag his suitcase along.

Though they hadn’t met for a few days, the man looked even more wretched than last time. He had degenerated from being unkempt to being utterly filthy from head to toe. The military overcoat he wore was either picked up from who-knows-where or rolled in God-knows-what; it was so stained that it had formed a thick patina, and his entire body radiated a foul stench.

“You little brat, you dared not to come find me—”

“Let’s change locations to talk,” Yu Xi interrupted him, gesturing meaningfully toward his suitcase. “There are too many people on the street, it’s not convenient to give you cash.”

Yu Xuelin instinctively misinterpreted that his suitcase was filled with money. Raising no objections, he followed behind Yu Xi.

“If you had just come to the address to find me long ago, everything would have been fine. You just had to make me come here; do you have any idea how difficult it is for me to step out… Tsk.”

Yu Xi walked out in front, not uttering a single word.

The commercial street behind the university was bustling, but further inside, there was also a bar street. Most students had already finished their exams and left campus, and since it was daytime, the bars were all tightly shut, making the street exceptionally quiet and desolate.

The air here was permeated with an unwashable stench of alcohol, and the roadsides were littered with empty liquor bottles and dried vomit. The only sign of life was a stray cat rummaging through a trash can for scraps.

Yu Xi had only been here once, exactly five days ago.

Yu Xuelin said impatiently, “Just how long are we going to walk? Your old man doesn’t have time to waste with you.”

Yu Xi merely said, “We’re almost there.”

He slowly led Yu Xuelin to the location he had scouted long ago—an alleyway deep within the bar street where no one would come, and where there was no surveillance.

Click.

The suitcase stopped along with his footsteps.

The moment he stopped, the suitcase was violently snatched away by Yu Xuelin’s quick hands and sharp eyes. He watched as Yu Xuelin, unable to conceal his excitement, laid the suitcase flat and began to fiddle with the combination lock.

Without even asking Yu Xi what the password was, Yu Xuelin succeeded on his first try. As the latch popped open successfully, Yu Xuelin even let out a smug chuckle: “You still like to use your mother’s birthday as the password for everything.”

Yu Xi’s lips were pursed so hard they lost all color.

Two years ago, Yu Xuelin had secretly unlocked his phone while he was asleep and transferred away three months’ worth of part-time wages accumulated in his account. He had saved that money because he wanted to buy a set of high-end hand cream as a birthday gift for his mother, whose hands were cracked from working day and night. Ultimately, that money was completely squandered by Yu Xuelin in a single night.

He watched as Yu Xuelin rubbed his hands together, opening the suitcase in a state of wild ecstasy. Quietly, Yu Xi slid his hand into his coat pocket, gripping the object he had been carrying on his person the entire time.

But just as he was about to pull it out, a hand reached out from behind and gripped his wrist.

In the instant he froze, he caught the scent of mint and wood. His body reacted to this familiar scent a step faster than his brain, and his rigid joints reflexively relaxed their guard.

“Where’s the money?!” Yu Xuelin, who hadn’t found a single banknote or valuable item after turning the suitcase completely upside down, turned his head in a fit of humiliation and rage. He froze for a moment at the sudden appearance of the man, but his eyes darted around, and he quickly bared his teeth in a wide grin. “I know you, kid from the Gu family. Are you here to show filial respect to me on behalf of my son?”

Gu Chuanzhou stood behind Yu Xi, maintaining a posture that half-enfolded him. His icy gaze fell upon Yu Xuelin as though he were looking at trash on the roadside, not even deigning to open his mouth to speak.

Such a gaze instantly enraged Yu Xuelin: “What kind of look is that? Is the thing raised by the Gu family so uneducated?”

Perhaps because Gu Chuanzhou’s aura was too powerful, Yu Xuelin only hurled such an innocuous curse before turning his spearhead back toward Yu Xi. “Did you call him over to deliver money, or to play the hero saving the beauty? Playing tricks with me… Heh, you certainly are capable. You put on a harmless act of being both dense and stupid, turning a bunch of rich second-generation heirs with more money than brains completely around your finger. But they don’t know what kind of things you’ve done in the past, do they?”

Yu Xi’s wooden expression cracked, and a slight tremor appeared in his fingertips. He held his breath, waiting for Yu Xuelin to drop the guillotine, and waiting for Gu Chuanzhou’s reaction.

He heard Gu Chuanzhou’s voice travel down from above his head: “Is that so?”

Yu Xuelin revealed a sinister grin, saying to Yu Xi, “Do you need me to have a good talk with him? My good son.”

Yu Xi merely remained silent, silently tightening his grip once more on the only thing in his pocket that could bring him a sense of security.

“If you don’t show some sincerity, Dad really won’t help you keep it a secret anymore. Won’t it matter to you if you are loathed by them when the time comes?” Yu Xuelin hypocritically used a tone of concern. Seeing that Yu Xi remained entirely unmoved, he turned toward Gu Chuanzhou once more. “Kid from the Gu family, you’re very curious, aren’t you?”

Gu Chuanzhou let out a soft laugh: “I am indeed very curious.”

Thump, thump. His heartbeat transformed into some kind of countdown to the end. Yu Xi’s entire body felt freezing cold, as if he had plunged to the bottom of a well.

Following that, he heard Gu Chuanzhou say, “But now is not a good time. How about I have someone take you to a hotel to settle you in properly first? When we have time later, I’ll come find you for a heart-to-heart talk to properly discuss matters concerning Xixi.”

Following that, Gu Chuanzhou waved his hand. Two or three burly men in suits appeared at the entrance of the alley, stepping forward and immediately pinning Yu Xuelin down.

Yu Xi froze in astonishment at the sudden turn of events before his eyes.

A wave of warmth enveloped his ears as Gu Chuanzhou’s hands covered them, driving away the cold for him, and also blocking out Yu Xuelin’s shouting and cursing.

When Gu Chuanzhou’s gentle voice rang out, Yu Xuelin’s curses vanished entirely.

“It’s too dirty here, Xixi.”

“Let’s go, I’ll take you home.”

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