Chapitre 39: Chapter 39
Since Yan Su had a bit of red wine, Zhen Ai drove on the way back.
Throughout the journey, neither of them spoke.
Although they had passed the dinner without much turbulence, the atmosphere afterward remained awkward and uncomfortable, lingering heavily.
Zhen Ai felt frustrated; her only consolation was Yan Su's protection.
Thinking back on their days in New York, Yan Su had always been subtly warm towards her in little ways. Yet, considering his personality, she couldn't grasp what he was really thinking. She was eager to understand, but also uncertain about what she wanted to clarify.
This wedding was a total mess.
Jasmine's questions and Yan Su's attitude had stirred her previously calm heart into chaos. She had resolved to leave after the wedding, but why did he harshly target Jasmine at the dinner table, yet firmly defend her?
What was he thinking?
As the car sped down the dimly lit road, Zhen Ai recalled the question she had asked him at the wedding and finally mustered the courage to speak up, "With your personality, you probably wouldn't date, right?"
At that moment, Yan Su had been resting his eyes. Upon hearing her, he slowly opened his eyes, his gaze deep. He looked at her reflection in the rearview mirror, unblinking, and asked, "What kind of personality do I have?"
In the small mirror, her expression remained unchanged, still focused on the road ahead, but her voice lost its confidence: "I don't know."
He shifted his gaze back to the darkness ahead, speaking indifferently, "So your question itself is problematic. If you don't know what kind of personality I have, how can you ask if someone like me wouldn't date...?"
Zhen Ai was a bit flustered by his seriousness and interrupted him impatiently, "Everything should be analyzed from a rational perspective, rejecting any emotional factors. Not expressing or having emotions. High intelligence but low emotional understanding, never considering human relationships. Proud and rational."
Yan Su remained silent for a long time before slowly saying, "Except for the last sentence, everything you said earlier doesn't belong to the category of 'personality.'"
"…"
Zhen Ai suddenly turned to look at him, a hint of fierceness in her gaze: "So you want to discuss logic and definitions with me now?"
Yan Su paused, then replied matter-of-factly, "Not discussing it now is fine."
After a brief silence, seeing Zhen Ai still silent, he hesitantly added:
"I don't know how you inferred that I wouldn't have feelings with 'this kind of personality.' Is it because I seem cold and indifferent at work? Should one always be concerned about emotional matters at work? Is that how you are? Bringing emotions to class and work? Just because I don't let emotions dictate my actions, does that mean I have no feelings? That's completely unreasonable…"
"You're rambling on, and I haven't heard a word," Zhen Ai thought, feeling tangled, while he remained composed and carefree, which only frustrated her further.
For the first time, she felt rebellious and cut him off, "Aha? Are you talking? Why do I hear buzzing in my ears?"
Yan Su fell silent, watching her quietly. The dappled lights from outside flowed over his handsome face, obscuring his emotions.
The car fell into an unexpectedly dark silence, and Zhen Ai's heart momentarily stalled.
He looked at her, suddenly unbuckling his seatbelt and leaning closer. Zhen Ai caught a glimpse of him approaching and jumped in surprise, wanting to move but having nowhere to go.
The next second, his warm breath hit her face, hot and intoxicating, with a faint hint of red wine, rare and enticing.
His lips were almost touching her delicate ear, and his voice was low, "Can you hear better now?"
"Who told you I'm emotionless?"
At that, Zhen Ai's mind truly buzzed, her face suddenly burning, and her thoughts went blank.
The car sped around a corner, and ahead, a police officer was conducting a temporary road inspection. Her heart raced; coming back to her senses, she hurriedly pressed the brake, only to hit the accelerator instead…
The car slammed into the police car, and in an instant, the siren blared loudly.
Yan Su remained calm, sitting comfortably.
Zhen Ai felt embarrassed and frustrated, leaning over the steering wheel without looking up. When the police came to knock on the window, she finally got out of the car obediently.
The final judgment resulted in points deducted and a fine, along with compensation for the police car's repair costs.
Zhen Ai fell silent, glancing at Yan Su, who still stood tall in the night, calmly observing. The corners of his thin lips curled into a faint smile, as if he had achieved something, with a hint of schadenfreude in his deep eyes.
Zhen Ai gritted her teeth in anger, feeling her blood rush to her head. She turned to the officer writing the ticket and said something along the lines of having connections.
Upon hearing this, the officer stared at her in silence for a moment, then put away the ticket and pulled out handcuffs. It was an insult to disrespect a police officer, and he sternly ordered, "Turn around."
Zhen Ai held her head high, defiantly refusing to turn.
The situation escalated unexpectedly; even Yan Su was taken aback. Just as he was about to approach, the officer had already seized Zhen Ai's shoulder, pushing her down onto the police car, and swiftly cuffed her hands behind her back.
Yan Su halted, quietly watching her.
The bright red police lights flickered on her pale face as she slightly lifted her chin, cold and unafraid. Her dark eyes locked onto his, clearly filled with defiance and disdain.
It seemed that after knowing her for so long, this was the moment she was most genuine—without restraint, without self-control, without disguise, and without hesitation.
Yan Su remained silent for a long time before stepping back, indicating a boundary. Then, unexpectedly, he said calmly, "It's none of my business; I'll be leaving first."
Zhen Ai: "..."
Her gaze shifted slightly, only to see him casually and nonchalantly get into his car as if nothing had happened.
In that instant, Zhen Ai felt as if twenty years of indifference had collapsed; she wanted nothing more than to curse him! Yet, despite racking her brain, she couldn't come up with a single word.
The tires screeched against the pavement, quickly pulling away from the previously crashed police car.
Zhen Ai's eyes turned red with anger, realizing that all the kindness he had shown her in recent days was merely a whim. Now that the tide had receded, he couldn't be bothered to care about her anymore. But her heart had already drowned, damn it!
However, the car didn't turn.
Zhen Ai was taken aback, her eyes widening as she watched the reversing car dart toward another pristine police car like an arrow.
Though the car slammed on the brakes at the last moment, it couldn't stop the nearby police car from immediately blaring its siren.
The police and his partners were stunned.
Yan Su calmly stepped out of the car, walking through the vast darkness and flashing red lights, coming to Zhen Ai's side. To her surprise, he grinned widely, like a mischievous child.
After laughing, he slowly but elegantly turned to face the police, remembering to obediently place his hands behind his back. He glanced back at the dumbfounded officers with a look that seemed to say, "Is that so?"
Half an hour later...
Behind the iron bars of the temporary holding room at the police station, Yan Su stood straight, hands in his trench coat pockets, leaning against the wall in silence.
His expression was calm, occasionally glancing down at Zhen Ai, who was squatting on the floor drawing circles.
In the same room were several cheerful teenagers sitting on the ground happily singing, whether from too much alcohol or marijuana was unclear.
The noise was so loud that Zhen Ai actually found it quite enjoyable; she knew Yan Su had no patience for noise.
She mischievously looked up at him, but he remained calm and indifferent, his gaze drifting down.
Zhen Ai turned away coolly.
A police officer approached, tapping the iron bars with a baton, impatiently shouting, "You guys keep it down!"
The teenagers quickly fell silent, but as soon as the officer left, they started whispering again.
One of them turned to see Yan Su and, with a lisp, asked, "Hey, buddy, did you get caught for lifting a girl's skirt and touching her thigh too?"
Zhen Ai couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Yan Su's handsome face paled slightly, and he suddenly regretted his inexplicable and illogical act of crashing the police car.
Seeing him coldly ignore him, the teenager lost interest and turned his attention to Zhen Ai, nodding knowingly, "So you got caught for soliciting."
This time, it was Yan Su's turn to faintly smile.
Zhen Ai: ...
With her serious demeanor, she didn't look like someone who was on the street.
The teenagers resumed their joyful singing.
Zhen Ai squatted on the ground, poking the floor with her fingers.
Yan Su watched her, noticing she didn't seem very happy. After a moment, he tried to make conversation:
"This holding room has at least dozens of people coming in and out every day. Usually, those held here are minors or from the lower social strata. Their shoes have averaged about 50,000 to 60,000 meters of travel before a clean-up. All the mud, garbage, and bacteria from the road stick to the soles of their shoes. So when you poke the ground now, it's like touching all the places they've walked."
...
The nearby teenagers listened, horrified. Dude, is this really how you flirt?
Of course, it was problematic!
Zhen Ai poked the ground harder, almost as if she was jabbing at his head.
After saying that, without anyone needing to remind him, Yan Su slowly realized that the atmosphere had become even more awkward.
He rubbed his head and muttered, "What I meant was, don't poke it anymore; you might hurt your hand..."
After saying this, he felt it was illogical and pretentious, awkwardly rubbing his nose before continuing, "Cough, hands don't really get hurt that easily, but you might break a nail. Yeah, a nail."
He leaned in to take a look, "Um, you never grow your nails..."
"Pfft!" Zhen Ai held back laughter for a while before bursting out, her voice tightening again, "Cut it out! Don't bother trying to find something to say; you're really not good at it."
Yan Su was momentarily taken aback but then smiled slightly, falling silent.
After a while, he gazed at the pale light across the iron bars and slowly said, "Let's go watch a movie later!"
Zhen Ai turned to look at him, a bit surprised.
He checked his watch: "The Imin Theater plays classic movies after ten on weekends. Today," he paused slightly; Zhen Ai knew he was recalling the movie flyer he had seen, "it's a Charlie Chaplin comedy."
Zhen Ai nodded.
Before long, Eva arrived to bail them out. The police issued a summons; they were to appear in court next week.
#
Half an hour later, Zhen Ai sat in the empty theater at night, watching the little artist on the screen quietly perform a series of hilarious acts.
In the black-and-white cinema, there was a sense of tranquility as she smiled quietly.
At one moment, she turned to look at Yan Su beside her.
He was focused on the screen, his bright eyes seeming to hold twinkling starlight, his profile handsome and striking. A faint smile played on his lips as the black-and-white film's light illuminated his face, casting it in and out of shadow.
Zhen Ai felt a stir in her heart, quickly looking back at the delightful screen, gradually falling silent within.
Suddenly, Yan Su's gaze dropped, slowly landing on her fair and serene face, a flicker of faint amusement flashing in his deep eyes before he returned his gaze to the screen.
Silence enveloped them.
#
About halfway through, Yan Su's phone in his pocket began to vibrate. He took it out to check; it was Jasmine. Without hesitation, he hung up. A few seconds later, it vibrated again.
This time it was a text message—
"Fatal case, the executor's child."
#
Two days ago, at ten o'clock at night.
The athletic field at NT University was particularly empty, the students who had been exercising had long since dispersed.
"FUCK!" Kerry crumpled the letter in his hand and threw it to the ground, then kicked the grass hard, "After two years, how is that person still haunting us?"
The remaining people looked pale.
Tony clutched the letter, which had a pentagram drawn on it with the same message: "you are my medicine." He was also a bit anxious, "Why has he re-emerged after two years of silence? What does he want?"
"He wants to kill us!" Anna screamed, clutching her own copy of the letter, nearly in tears, "Two years ago, there were two signals, and then Lola and Parker were killed. But that's not enough; God, that demon thinks it's still not enough!"
Qi Mo looked especially horrified, his face as pale as a ghost, his voice trembling as if it were floating from hell: "I told you, Lin Xing's avenger will never let us go. It's impossible for us to escape..."
Before he could finish speaking, Kerry kicked him aside: "You coward, shut up!" He then threw his cigarette butt to the ground and crushed it. "There are five of us left. Is he going to kill us one by one? Come on!"
Suddenly, he screamed into the dark corner of the playground, "Are you enjoying watching us panic? Are you satisfied, you freak? Come on! Come kill..."
"Shut up!" Anna shouted, terrified, as she rushed over to cover his mouth.
Qi Mo stood frozen, asking vacantly, "You call me a coward, so guess who among us will be the next to die?"
The more he spoke, the more he trembled. "Aren't you afraid of death? Then tell me, who will be the next one to be stripped and hanged?"
His question left everyone breathless.
On the playground shrouded in night, the empty wind howled, chilling everyone's hearts like falling into an ice cellar. Fear crept in like fog, slowly infiltrating their very being.
Daisy covered her face, tears streaming down: "Let's call the police! Let's tell them what happened back then! I can't take it anymore, I really can't. If this goes on, I'll break. Call the police..."
The others shouted in unison, "You dare!"
Kerry's eyes reddened: "Daisy, we agreed. If anyone speaks out, the rest will ruin her! I just started my own company; if you mess this up, I'll kill you."
Tony's face was serious: "Daisy, think about it. Don't you want a future?"
Anna cried, "Daisy, you can't do this. I finally got into Wharton, and I'm going to the World Youth Leaders Camp this summer. You can't ruin me. You can't ruin yourself."
Two years had passed, and they were no longer the playful high school kids; each had their own bright future.
Daisy looked at her former companions, tears falling like rain. The sorrow and panic inside her mixed with self-reproach and guilt, amplified infinitely.
It was just a prank—how had it escalated to this point?
They were all good kids; why had they all turned into demons?
Who could save them?
Kerry pulled out a lighter, picked up the crumpled paper, and set it on fire. The flames quickly leaped up, and he glanced around at the others; they all instinctively held out their letters to the fire.
The flames devoured the letters hungrily.
The fire cast a red glow on the young faces, like blood; then, with a flicker, the light extinguished, leaving them all submerged in darkness.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone