Chapter 28: Zhou Bin, Please Send the Link, Thank You |
"President, guess what good news I have?"
Wednesday noon, in the Student Council Office. Yabashi Ki suddenly pushed the door open, prompting Yan Huan, who was sitting on the "Student Council President" throne, to look up.
Yan Huan was alone in the office. Sakuramiya Hitomi had gone home at noon today; it seemed she had checked the surveillance footage on her mobile phone and noticed that her little cat, Mitsuki, was not acting normal.
Sakuramiya Hitomi''s house was not far from the school anyway.
At this moment, Yan Huan was organizing documents to form the Study Group requested by the Principal.
Of course, his main focus was figuring out how to properly educate those two Modifier hosts.
Unfortunately, he had made little progress. That girl Bai Yi never came to school. Heaven only knew if she was using her Modifier to cause trouble outside.
As for Spencer, Yan Huan had originally planned to wait for her to make a demand so he could counter it as needed.
Two days had passed, and he had not seen a single trace of her.
Therefore, Yan Huan planned to take the initiative, especially since she was one of the people forced to join the Study Group.
Before he could send her an email, his train of thought was derailed by Yabashi Ki''s sudden intrusion.
He raised his eyes and glanced at Yabashi Ki, noticing an irrepressible excitement on his face. Yet, he spoke with an air of mystery, insisting on making him guess.
Playing along, Yan Huan boredly offered a reasonable deduction,
"Zhou Bin converted to all three major religions and became a devout, friendly, mixed-faith believer?"
"Uh, I suppose that would be good news, but no. Guess again, President!"
Yan Huan sighed speechlessly and continued,
"Either you were possessed by the European Emperor and scored a one shot to the soul in a gacha pull, or the collectible figure you pre-ordered finally shipped?"
Yabashi Ki shook his head. Adjusting his glasses, he slapped two tickets down in front of Yan Huan with a sharp smack.
Looking down, Yan Huan saw the text printed on them:
"Linmen Jinghe Game Expo — Admission Ticket Package."
Reading the words clearly, Yan Huan raised an eyebrow,
"And?"
"And what?! President, do you have any idea how huge this event is? Look at it, all the world-famous game manufacturers are going to be there! Do you know how many famous guests they invited? I went through a lot of trouble to get these two tickets!"
"I think you are purely going for Shijo Ai."
Yan Huan glanced at the guest list on the back of the ticket and, sure enough, spotted an extremely prominent name in the Anime/Manga Section.
Thus, Yan Huan pointed it out in a rather speechless tone.
Shijo Ai was the voice actress who voiced the loli heroine in Encountering a Loli After 8:30 PM Work, the 18+ galgame that Yabashi Ki revered as a masterpiece.
It was one of her earlier works from the adult entertainment industry and contained a lot of restricted content.
However, the current Shijo Ai had long since transitioned to a legitimate career and was extremely famous within the voice acting industry.
Basically, you could often hear her iconic, youthful loli voice in the anime series aired in Linmen.
"Am I that kind of person, President?"
Yabashi Ki looked perfectly solemn, but Yan Huan did not know what to say to that.
"Heh."
Yabashi Ki once accomplished a spectacular feat.
During the class field trip last semester, this legend set a voice clip of Shijo Ai as his mobile phone alarm and forgot to change it.
Consequently, when morning broke the next day, that tsundere loli voice thoroughly berated every single boy in Class B.
When he groggily woke up to turn off the alarm, he accidentally shoved the phone into the crack of his bed. He could not fish it out for ages, leading the ringtone to moan and squeak right into the explicit climax of the galgame.
Just like that, Yabashi Ki delivered a healthy dose of otaku shock to the successively awakening boys of Class B.
From then on, he became famous overnight.
No wonder Park Seo-moon and her clique from Class C could pinpoint Yabashi Ki''s weakness so accurately; his reputation had long preceded him.
"If you want to go, just go. Why did you get two tickets? To drag me along?"
"Exactly."
Yabashi Ki nodded honestly and explained,
"I bought them from a scalper, and they were bundled together. All the other channels were sold out, so I had no choice but to buy them both. Since I have an extra ticket anyway, you might as well come with me, President."
"I will think about it."
Despite saying that, Yan Huan genuinely had no desire to go.
He was already busy enough. Juggling the Modifiers and all his other responsibilities left him utterly exhausted. Rather than squeezing through crowds at such a popular event over the weekend, sleeping in at home sounded far more enjoyable.
"More importantly, is there any news on what I asked you to do regarding getting Bai Yi from your class to join the Study Group? The Student Council sent her an email, but she never replied."
Yabashi Ki was in the same class as Bai Yi, but even he rarely saw her attend school.
At the mention of this, Yabashi Ki clapped his hands together and explained the situation to Yan Huan,
"I cannot reach her. She practically never comes to school. Forget me, even our class advisor probably cannot get a hold of her. I think cornering her at the venue backstage this weekend has a much higher chance of success."
"Venue backstage?"
Hearing this, Yan Huan picked up the ticket Yabashi Ki had placed on the desk with a look of surprise.
Sweeping his gaze over it, he indeed found Bai Yi''s name at the end of the VIP section list.
The guests appearing alongside her were all high-traffic beauty influencers from domestic and international circles. It seemed they had categorized her into the Beauty Influencer Section as well.
''Did she take on a commercial gig?''
Yan Huan''s interest was immediately piqued. He rubbed his chin and fell into thought.
Yabashi Ki leaned in, seemingly remembering something out of the blue, and added,
"Speaking of which, President, Bai Yi''s mother apparently came to the school today."
"You actually recognize her mother?"
Faced with Yan Huan''s confusion, Yabashi Ki spread his hands and explained,
"Everyone in our class knows her. People have seen her picking Bai Yi up from school before, mainly because Bai Yi draws too much attention. Bai Yi is usually quite friendly and does not put on any idol airs. Her mother, on the other hand, comes across as a pretty fierce person."
Yabashi Ki shook his head as he spoke, sitting down on the office sofa and muttering,
"But seeing her mother so frantic and anxious this morning, I wonder what happened."
''Hmm...''
''Although I do not know what the situation is, it is a fact that Bai Yi rarely shows up at school. Heaven knows what level her Modifier has grown to by now.''
''If I leave her be, will it be exaggerated to an absurd degree the next time we meet?''
At this thought, Yan Huan reached out and grabbed the game expo ticket Yabashi Ki had offered, saying,
"I will go check it out with you this weekend. We can confirm our meeting time on Plane."
Hearing this, Yabashi Ki''s eyes lit up.
He actually suffered from social anxiety. Going to meet his idol with a trusted friend by his side gave him much more confidence.
The main issue was that Yan Huan did not know if Yabashi Ki planned to read aloud the love letter he had written to the loli heroine in the galgame right in front of Shijo Ai.
If he did read it, one could only say it would require a tremendous amount of courage.
"Alright, President. I will contact you then, and we can—"
"Knock, knock, knock!"
Just as Yabashi Ki was eagerly anticipating the joyful weekend ahead, someone suddenly knocked on the main door of the Student Council.
Yan Huan looked toward the door and called out,
"Come in!"
The person who pushed the door open was a girl from his class, one who was always chattering like a sparrow.
"President, this is bad! Something... something happened to your desk!"
"How could something happen to my desk? What is going on, tell me."
"Ah, I cannot explain it clearly. Just come back to the classroom with me and you will see."
"?"
Yan Huan and Yabashi Ki exchanged a glance before slowly getting to their feet...
"Are you saying that you went to get some water, and when you came back, my desk turned into this?"
Inside the Class A classroom, the girl who had been chattering like a sparrow looked around nervously.
At that moment, only Yan Huan, Yabashi Ki, and she were in the entire Class A room.
Whatever had just happened had clearly left her feeling extremely insecure.
Yan Huan''s desk was splattered with a mixture of several colors of paint. Even his chair was stained with the splattered mess, filling the entire classroom with a pungent odor.
Furthermore, scrawled across the desk in illegible scribbles were the words:
"Drop dead!" and "Disgusting!"
These were blatant personal attacks. Staring at the paint marks on the desk, Yabashi Ki clicked his tongue in amazement and said to Yan Huan,
"President, did you offend someone? But that should not be possible, especially here in the school..."
"President, you... you must have offended a ghost!"
The girl''s outburst from behind almost made Yan Huan break character.
He turned around to look at her, only to see her covering her mouth while acting in earnest as she said,
"I came back to grab my water cup to get water from the dispenser outside. There were no marks here when I grabbed it, but in less than a minute, by the time I returned, the desk was covered in all this writing. It is exactly like Mr. Zhou''s situation. President, you are absolutely being haunted by a ghost, just like him!"
Yabashi Ki rubbed his chin, pondered for a second, and then mused,
"President, do you think there is a chance this ghost is a big-chested girl who needs you to purify her lingering attachments at night so she can move on?"
Yan Huan shot a glance at Yabashi Ki beside him with a look that clearly screamed, ''You are completely beyond saving.''
In truth, he did not need his female classmate''s reminder. Just hearing her describe the phenomenon allowed Yan Huan to roughly link it to Zhou Bin''s tragedy from last Friday.
The culprit could only be the person he and Yabashi Ki had just been discussing:
Bai Yi.
However, the confused expression on his face was completely genuine. He truly had no idea how he had offended Bai Yi.
''Counting every single instance, have I even seen her more than three times since school started?''
''What did I ever do to her to make her hate me this much?''
Yan Huan was entirely baffled. Yet, right at that moment, a crisp tapping sound echoed against the window beside him.
"Tink!"
Yan Huan turned his head, just in time to see a tiny pebble rolling down the surface of the glass.
"..."
"Ah! The ghost is here! This is definitely a supernatural event!"
The girl hid behind Yan Huan, crying out loudly.
''Throwing pebbles at people?''
''How old are you, and are you not embarrassed?''
''Are you also trying to increase the dosage like Ye Shiyu?''
But looking outside, the exterior of the first-floor classroom was a greenbelt that separated it from the road, and there was absolutely no one in sight.
It was as if an invisible ghost were genuinely targeting Yan Huan from the outside.
''Where is Bai Yi?''
''I do not see her either.''
''Is she either exceptionally good at playing hide-and-seek, or has the level of her Modifier increased while I was not looking, weakening my resistance effect and making it impossible to detect her?''
''It cannot actually be a supernatural event, right?''
''Zhou Bin, are you there?''
''Could you send the link for those trinkets you carry around? It is an emergency.''
"Tink!"
Several more pebbles hit the window. This time, even Yabashi Ki could not hold back.
He grabbed Yan Huan in a tight hug, looking utterly terrified,
"Pre-President, protect me!"
''Please stop hugging me, Yabashi. This is genuinely going to turn into an overflowing incident.''
Regardless, Yan Huan first activated his Perfect Expression Management skill.
He took a deep breath, looking surprised by the pebbles being thrown from the empty road outside. However, he forced himself to stay calm, took a few steps back, and instructed,
"You two exit the classroom first; I am going outside to take a look. Stay away from me. It feels like whatever that is, it is coming for me."
"Tink!"
As Yan Huan spoke, his peripheral vision suddenly caught a glimpse of faintly translucent black hair in the bushes to the right of the window.
He took a deep breath, abruptly threw the window open, and peered outside.
He spotted a semi-transparent girl crouching beneath a tree. She was wearing a bucket hat and a pair of sunglasses, and her hand was clutching a small pebble.
There were actually larger rocks scattered about, but they seemed too big for her to throw that far, so she simply abandoned them.
''It is Bai Yi!''
Looking at Bai Yi squatting under the tree like a village girl, Yan Huan felt exasperated but swiftly adjusted his facial expression.
He furrowed his brows, putting on a confused look as he shouted to the outside,
"Do not move!!"
With that, he vaulted directly over the first-floor windowsill and dashed outside.
"President!"
Behind him, Yabashi Ki instinctively tried to follow, but his otaku body was like a rusted wooden puppet.
Even lifting his legs was a struggle, let alone pulling off a graceful maneuver like quickly vaulting over a windowsill.
Therefore, he had to give up and turned to exit through the corridor outside the classroom instead.
Bai Yi, gripping the stone, was just about to throw another one when she looked up and suddenly saw Yan Huan leaping out of the window with a cold expression.
She jumped in fright and plopped hard onto the ground, only to suddenly remember that she still had the effect of Indifference active.
As a result, she remained seated exactly where she was, staring motionlessly as Yan Huan chased after her and stopped a short distance away.
''Yan Huan...''
''As expected, no matter how many times I see your face, I still find it so completely detestable.''
Bai Yi pursed her lips, her gaze growing increasingly furious as she looked at Yan Huan standing nearby.
Staring at his face, a dirty thought suddenly surged into her mind.
It was a thought so foul that even she, the one using the Modifier, found it despicable.
She looked Yan Huan up and down, completely unaware that Yan Huan—who was pretending to search his surroundings in confusion—was also secretly sizing her up.
He was assessing the anger on her face, a fury that even her sunglasses could not conceal.
Yan Huan genuinely did not know how he had offended her to warrant such behavior.
''Ye Shiyu is actually understandable, as her motives can at least be analyzed. But Bai Yi, you...''
''Could she be the type who just goes crazy at random?''
The very next second, the semi-transparent Bai Yi suddenly stood up with a frosty expression.
She pursed her lips and astonishingly began to walk toward Yan Huan, step by step.
Yan Huan did not know what she was planning to do, but his intuition warned him that it was best to keep his distance from her current state.
However, just as he was about to feign a fruitless search and turn to leave, the wail of police sirens abruptly echoed from the school gate.
Both Yan Huan and Bai Yi froze simultaneously, turning their heads toward the direction of the gate.
They saw a tearful middle-aged woman clutching a mobile phone step out of a police car, accompanied by several police officers.
"Officers, please help me! My child went out last night, and we have no idea where she is. We checked the surveillance cameras but did not see a trace of her at all. I am so worried... I am so worried about her..."
"Do not panic, ma''am. Let''s take this slowly..."
''Police?''
''Did Bai Yi...''
''...run away from home?''
Yan Huan blinked. Just as he was about to use his peripheral vision to locate Bai Yi behind him, he realized she had vanished without a trace, disappearing to parts unknown.
In the corridor, the sprinting Yabashi Ki was just about to turn toward the exit of the Teaching Building when he nearly collided head-on with a girl who was walking with her head down, highly conscious of her chest.
"Watch out!"
He hastily dodged out of the way, preparing to brush past her, but unexpectedly, she stepped right in front of him again.
Yabashi Ki paused slightly, looking at the girl before him whose pale face was obscured by thick black hair.
"Miss, you..."
Just as he was about to ask what was wrong, the girl before him seemed to summon an enormous amount of courage, holding out a plain white, completely unadorned letter toward him.
"Um... Excuse me... Yabashi..."
Her voice was as muffled and timid as a small animal''s. Consequently, Yabashi Ki could only look down at the letter she was handing him.
On it was written,
"To Xiao Huan,"
"From An Le."
''Another request for me to deliver a love letter to the President?''
Under normal circumstances, Yabashi Ki might genuinely not know how to reject a girl, even one who looked more gripped by social anxiety and far more timid than he was.
But the current situation was an emergency; he had no time to deal with this.
Thus, he gently pushed the offered letter back and, under her anxious gaze, hurriedly sprinted outside.
"President, wait for me!!"
"..."
An Le stood with her mouth slightly open, mumbling for a long time without managing to form a single word. She could only stare pitifully at the unsent letter in her hand.
''Was the timing wrong?''
An Le felt a bit discouraged, but that discouragement was swiftly overshadowed by the deep, burning desire in her heart to reconnect with her Xiao Huan.
''In that case...''
''...I will try to deliver it again later.''
Gathering her courage, An Le made a firm resolution in her heart.
However, when she turned her head to head back to class, An Le suddenly noticed several girls standing in the corridor, their arms crossed as they scrutinized her.
Leading the group, wearing a cold sneer on her face, was her classmate, Park Seo-moon.
Comments 1