Chapter 54 - Ghost School (8) (2/2)

Su Ling lowered his head and worked on his homework. His messy hair half covered his eyes and you could only see him biting his lower lip tightly. The hand holding the pen was shaking violently and the words written were twisted and distorted.

Cheng Zhi Chu went over to his side and wanted to pat his thin back, but his hands just passed through Su Ling’s body. He couldn’t even bring him a slightest bit of comfort.

He could only quietly watch Su Ling. When it was very late, Su Ling’s mother finally returned home from work.

When he saw Su Ling’s mother, Cheng Shi Chu understood why Su Ling was so good looking. His mother was a beauty.

Even if her hair was slightly white, and her face had signs of fatigue and sorrow, you could still tell that she was beautiful. The plain dress that she wore couldn’t hide her elegant temperament. He voice was soft and gentle, and she happily chatted with her family.

“Look Xiao Ling, mum brought you a present.”

His mum took out an almost new smartphone from her back and handed it to Su Ling. She said: “Young people nowadays use smartphones. You have never had it, so it must’ve been very inconvenient. Mum bought you one but its second hand. Wait until mum has money and she’ll buy you a new one………….”

“Thank………thank you.”

Su Ling tightened his lips and fell silent for a while. He suddenly moved forward to hug his mother and he thanked her again: “Really……..Thank you so much. I really like it. To me, this is the best gift.”

The mother’s eyes also reddened, and she hugged her son while showing a happy smile.

…………

The next day, Su Ling brought the phone to school.

The school didn’t prohibit students from having phones. Many students would use their phones to take pictures of the slides in order to organise their notes better. Su Ling’s performance had always been good, but his notes were always simple and even a little messy because the teachers would change slides too quickly.

With a smartphone, he could take a photo of the slides but the reason for him bringing the phone wasn’t just because of this. More importantly it was because———-

The pale finger pressed onto the camera button at the bottom of the screen. Between class, Su Ling leaned against the wall in the classroom closest to the corridor and appeared to be browsing something on his phone but in fact he was looking at a teenager’s photo.

The teenager in the photo had a warm and gentle appearance. He had a bright smile and, when covered in the golden sunrays, he looked like he was born from the light.

Even in Su Ling’s heart, he was purer and warmer than any light.

The teenager was the first person who was nice to him apart from his parents.

Su Ling looked at the teenager on the screen. His eyes were lowered, and his lips unconsciously formed a small smile.

He had placed the teenager’s photo and his family photo that he had taken last night into a password protected photo album. He didn’t dare let others know that there were photos of the teenager in his phone, particularly Bai Yi and them. If they found out about this, he would be in trouble.

He didn’t dare think about what Bai Yi would do to the teenager.

……..Maybe he should delete the photo.

Su Ling’s finger hovered over the delete button and he hesitated for a long time. In the end, he couldn’t do it.

He probably wouldn’t ever be able to reveal his feelings, but he didn’t want to unable to even have a photo of his beloved.

He looked at the photo quietly for a moment and finally decided not to delete. Just as he was turning off the screen, he suddenly heard a girl’s voice ring in the corridor.

“Senior Lu Jie, I have brought over the things you asked for. But senior seemed to be mistaken. I’m from class 6, why are you standing in front of class 7?”

Su Ling’s face immediately went pale.

He slowly turned around and saw Lu Jie standing outside the window behind him and smiling at him.

“Secretly taking photos of other people?”

“Let me guess why you would do that.”

“Do you like him?”

“Clatter.” Su Ling dropped the phone in his hand. The girl’s eyes curved happily as she spoke with a sweet and gentle voice:

“Looks like I was right.”

“I see……So you like him.”

She didn’t say anything and proceeded to turn around and leave. Su Ling’s entire body trembled, and he desperately rushed out of the classroom. He clutched onto her wrist in front of all the passing students and said: “Don’t go!”

“…….Junior brother?”

The girl turned back and pretended to be surprised. She tried to withdraw her arm and said: “Please don’t be like this.”

“Senior…….Please.”

Su Ling lowered his head. His face was pale, and his fingers were trembling. There was a pleading tone in his cold voice.

“Please………Don’t say it. Don’t tell Bai Yi.”

Bai Yi had once said that he would destroy everything that he liked.

He didn’t care about himself, but he was afraid…………afraid that Bai Yi would destroy that boy.

“Don’t tell him?” Lu Jie suddenly lowered her voice to a volume that could only be heard by the two of them. “Okay then, beg me. Do it the way I told you to.”

She was referring to Su Ling kneeling down.

The four of them had bullied Su Ling for a long time and, in fact, Bai Yi wouldn’t be present most of the time and they had done it spontaneously. Over the past few years, they have used Su Ling as their punching bag. Every time things didn’t go their way, they would vent by beating Su Ling.

Lu Jie rarely did anything and only stood by and watched. Every time Bai Yi wasn’t there, she would always say the same things.

“Do you want us to let you go? Then kneel down and beg us.”

Su Ling had never begged for mercy.

Every time, he would choose to silently endure it.

But this time———-

“My god………..”

Under the surprised gasps from the other students, Su Ling slowly knelt down. He clenched his hands into fists to the point that his knuckles went white. There was the sound of something breaking and even his shoulders were trembling violently.

“………….I beg you, senior.”

The girl revealed a look of surprise. Some of it was because she couldn’t believe that Su Ling wound really beg her. She had always known about how proud Su Ling was. Even if his body was immersed in filth, he would always look up at the stars in the sky.

Unlike her, even though her appearance may be pure, her inner self had long since rotted.

So, now that he had finally put down his pride and begged her for mercy for the sake of the person that he likes, she didn’t feel any sympathy towards him.

She just wanted to drag him down into the same abyss.

Lu Jie’s eyes swept over the faces of the surprised teenagers standing around them and suddenly took a step back. She helplessly waved her hand and said: “Junior brother, hurry and stand up. I’m sorry I still can’t accept you but thank you for your feelings. I still don’t want to think about love right now……”

Su Ling’s eyes widened, and he looked up in shock. What he was met with was the girls ridiculing smile.

“It turned out that Su Ling likes Lu Jie. He even knelt down to beg her to accept him. That’s so lame……..”

“He’s aiming for the impossible. How could he even dare think about the school goddess?”

“………..”

Ridicules, teasing, curses…….It all poured onto Su Ling like a bucket of ice water.

The scene before his eyes was like an old slow-moving movie. Everything had lost its colour and sound. The girl turned around with her hair forming a beautiful arc in the air. At the very end, she gave him a deep look with deep maliciousness concealed in her eyes.

No.

He doesn’t like Lu Jie. How could he like Lu Jie?

No No No No——–

Su Ling rushed over and clung tightly onto Lu Jie’s shoulder. He shouted out uncontrollably:

“I don’t like you! I don’t like you! Why do you have to say that?!”

“Because I know you like him.”

The girl felt some pain on her shoulder, but she continued to smile gently. Her pearly lips opened slightly, and she spat out a short sentence.

“Look back.”

“…………”

Su Lung slowly turned back and saw the teenager looking over at him with a look of concern.

——– It’s not what you think it is……

——–The person that I like……..is you……..

He weakly fell to the ground and he buried his face in his arms. His shoulders trembled as his fingers gripped tightly onto the fabric of the school uniform.

“Well them, I have to go back. Goodbye Junior Su Ling.”

Lu Jie smiled and said: “Don’t worry, I’ll do as I have promised, and I won’t tell Brother Bai that you like him.”

After she said this, she no longer cared whether or not Su Ling heard her and headed back to her classroom.

Sitting in her seat, she looked down at a picture in her phone. It was a photo of Su Ling taking a photo of the teenager while revealing a pure and innocent smile.

But……….Whether or not Brother Bai would “accidentally” see this photo would be something outside of her control.

****

Bai Yi’s Diary (Part 54)

(He had listed a few pages of things that he wanted to do under the pretence of being lovers in this instance.)