Chapter 508: Qiao Mu Private High School

Lu Yizhan had just handed the exam paper prop to Cen Buming to be sealed, and was going to try to find the prop to unlock it from the game, and was going to enter the game in the next two days, when he came back and heard that Bai Liu had had this incident.

" Bai Liu ran away?" Lu Yizhan sat in a trance on the sofa at Fang Dian's house, across from him sat Fang Dian, "...... How did Bai Liu run away."

"I went to the orphanage and asked, he didn't go back." Fang Dian lowered her head, her hand dead against the coffee table, her voice a little hoarse, "...... I've looked, and there's nothing around the school."

"Bai Liu didn't go back to the orphanage, he didn't go back to school, and he didn't go back here." Lu Yizhan's expression is almost blank as he looks at Fang Dian and asks very softly, as if asking Fang Dian or himself, "That's all he could have gone to."

"Where else could he have gone?"

Yes, Lu Yizhan realises in hindsight that because of his interference, there are only three places left in the world that can accommodate Bai Liu, but now there are two places - the school and the orphanage - that can't accommodate him, and the only place that can accommodate him is here.

But here are the two people who have pushed him to this point.

So where else can ...... Bai Liu go?

He needs money for food, shelter, transport and rest, and where does he get it?

Lu Yizhan slowly lowers his head, he buries his face in his palm and exhales deeply.

Summer rains are plentiful, usually when thunder strikes, rumbles no more than twice, and soon it is raining heavily.

The owner of the arcade on Commercial Street saw that it was raining heavily and pedestrians were taking shelter, so the customer flow was reduced by one, so he couldn't help but sigh and think about closing early today.

He had just switched off the large display screen on the outer street and raised his hand to pull the roller shutter down when a hand, drenched white with rain, gripped the descending shutter.

The owner froze as he pulled the roller shutter door upwards.

The heavy rain can create a dense mist on the street, turning the busy streets into a blur of backs in the mist, and Bai Liu, in his soaking wet school uniform, stands quietly in front of this backdrop, with a strange sense of withdrawal, as if he does not belong to this world.

Bai Liu raised his eyes, his dark eyes calmly looking at the owner, "Are you still open today?"

"...... is open for business." The owner was about to say it wasn't open, but looking at Bai Liu's soaked school uniform, he changed his tune, "Come in first to get out of the rain."

Bai Liu walked in and he looked sideways at the Old Xiang board, "That shooting game earlier, can the first place prize be redeemed for money?"

"Yes, it's fine, you can exchange it for five hundred." The boss looked at Bai Liu's school uniform and couldn't help but advise, "I remember you're already in your senior year, right? There's no need to skip classes to come and play, the entrance exams are important."

Bai Liu was quiet for a moment and his tone was light: "I can't study anymore, I've been withdrawn."

The boss was shocked: "How did you get dropped from school? You're in your senior year of high school! Won't your parents make a fuss if you get dropped at this juncture?"

"I don't have a parent." Bai Liu said blandly, "Can you turn on the machine yet?"

The owner was stunned, he wanted to ask something else but couldn't open his mouth, he just sighed with a complicated look and turned on the machine for Bai Liu.

"You play."

Bai Liu nodded politely, "Thank you Old Xie board."

He lifted the curtain and went in, and soon the sound of gunfire in a double pattern stretched out, and the boss sighed with mixed feelings as he tucked his hands outside.

...... He had seen the boy's golden banner on the Ferris wheel before, how could it be just a few days ......

And what a lot of energy this kid has, dropping out of school and getting wet, and playing in duo mode.

The boss looked somewhat surprised at the two more player names logged onto the machine, one Spades and one Bai Liu, and shook his head in amusement - he was really only a teenager and had given himself a symmetrical game alias.

Bai Liu looks intently at the two characters jumping around the game screen with his gun in the air, his mouth curling very shallowly as the game character Spades follows behind him, escorting him along the way.

Beyond the curtain, a very soft voice suddenly sounded.

"Hello, have you seen this student?"

Bai Liu's pupils fluttered at the sound of the voice, and the Spades character on the screen froze for a moment, Bai Liu jerked his head to look at the Spades next to him - the monster he had just been playing the game with was gone.

Beyond the curtain, the soft female voice was still asking politely, her voice full of sincerity and supplication: "I am Fang Dian, the sister of this student in the photo, who is now away from home, if you have seen him, can you tell me? We will be very grateful."

There was a bit of an awkward pause in the owner's voice as he finally said, "...... haven't seen it."

"Then here is our phone number, if you have seen it you must give us a call." Fang Dian swiped a pen and paper and wrote down her phone number, "Thank you in advance."

"He loves playing horror games and might come to you."

Bai Liu leans silently against his gaming machine, his head tilted back, his forehead hair hiding his eyes from view, and all that can be heard is his very shallow breathing and the sound of water dripping from the ends of his hair and his clothes.

Both characters in the horror game crash and they are gnawed to death by the zombies that pounce on them.

When Fang Dian left and Bai Liu lifted the curtain and came out, this boss immediately complained about him, "How can you say you don't have parents? Your sister came to look for you in the pouring rain."

Bai Liu said in a very light tone, "Thank you for not telling on me."

This boss gave a beat and sighed again, "I have many parents of students here who come to look for students, and it is basic professional ethics not to give them away, but your sister doesn't look like that kind of parent, and she is quite worried about you."

"Her eyes were red and she looked like she'd cried several times."

Bai Liu paused again, "I didn't get a first prize."

"Let's see. ......" The boss lifted the curtain and walked in, "Second prize, not bad, you want to cash in? Two hundred dollars."

Bai Liu nodded, "Tui."

The boss took the money and gave it to Bai Liu, he paused and said with a sigh of relief, "You're a student, it's tough out there, you'd better go back soon."

Bai Liu took the money and turned to leave, when he heard the boss's words his back paused for a moment and then said, "I'm not alone."

"Someone to keep me company."

The boss asked, "Who is it?"

Bai Liu replied calmly, "Spades."

Bai Liu was already far away in the mist and rain.

The boss turned back with his head full of confusion, he turned his head, looked at the [Spades] name topping the fallen, dead game character on the console changing surface, and wondered to himself, "But Spades ......"

"Not an NPC player who only exists in the game?"

"It's been four days." Lu Yizhan, with dark circles under his eyes so thick they fall to his cheeks, says, breathlessly, "Where the hell is Bai Liu?"

By this point, Lu Yizhan was even beginning to regret that he hadn't asked Cen Buming, who had gone there in the first place, to send a few people to follow Bai Liu.

He now spends a third of his time worrying about Bai Liu getting into trouble, another third worrying about Bai Liu getting other people into trouble, and the remaining third dealing with exam papers, games, the orphanage and school, hating to break a man into 64 pieces to turn around.

If Cen Buming's men did track down Bai Liu and if Bai Liu was doing anything, Cen Buming would have shot him dead.

The game's prop is also not to mobilize heretics and game props to track Bai Liu, each of which is related to Bai six, and if it is, Bai six can definitely influence Bai Liu through heretics.

Bai Liu is the most special child in the world, and Lu Yizhan, a "parent" with countless avenues at his disposal, has no choice but to resort to the most common and painstaking method of parental search when faced with this runaway child. -He and Fang Dian were both searched for.

But he and Fang Dian have searched like crazy and still haven't found Bai Liu.

Bai Liu was smart enough to know that if this man really didn't want to be found, even if Lu Yizhan used all the above means, it would be difficult to find him.

In the afternoon of Lu Yizhan's dizzying search for an unknown number of days, Fang Dian finally brought back good news and bad news.

"I found Bai Liu in an internet cafe in the next district." Fang Dian said, "but he didn't want to come back."

Lu Yizhan went from a flash of light to a heartbeat of death in a second, collapsing onto the sofa and almost crying out, "Why?"

"It's all worked out!"

They went to great lengths to find the surveillance camera that had been deliberately concealed by the headmaster, proving that Bao Kangle had forced Bai Liu to gamble, and found Hou Tong as a witness to testify, which cleared Bai Liu of any suspicion.

When Bao Kangle was later questioned about why he had to bite Bai Liu, the man stammered and couldn't say anything, but when he interrogated Xu Wei, he couldn't hold his tongue and confessed something the headmaster had done to the students in secret.

The whole school went through a harsh investigation and the headmaster and Xu Wei, two unworthy teachers, were sent straight to jail on the spot.

Bao Kangle was also expelled from school and received a demerit for this.

Cen Buming, Lu Yizhan also found the solution to the [incorrectly done exam paper] from the game and managed to seal the paper as a heresy, and Lu Yizhan has undone the effects of the heresy on the girl before, and used a prop to blur her memory so that she now thinks what she saw when she fell was an illusion.

Bao Kangle's influence Lu Yizhan wanted to eliminate him too, but the man is in a very bad state of mind and I don't know if the elimination will be effective.

The entire Qiao Mu Private High School has been cleaned from top to bottom, the high school lake on the hill has been filled in and the area on the hill for exceptional students has been disbanded. As soon as he took up his post, he immediately came to Lu Yizhan to ask them about Bai Liu and helped to find him for several days.

Everything is getting better.

As well as them, many others were looking forward to the return of Bai Liu, Hou Tong, the rest of the Fang Dian volleyball team, the new English teacher.

Now Bai Liu is no longer alone at Qiao Mu High School as she was before.

However, Bai Liu did not want to return.

"I had a chat with Bai Liu." Fang Dian propped her face up, she seemed to be in contemplation or in a daze, her gaze a little scattered, "He told me that he wanted to live alone."

"He didn't think there was anything wrong with just dropping out and living on his own after that."

"He has no expectations of high school or college, nor does he have much expectation of what is called ordinary people, and life with ordinary people, but if the future leaves him alone all the time, he is used to such a life, and has expectations."

Fang Dian's eyes drifted a little: "I think he meant what he said, but I don't think he really wanted someone.

"What do you mean?" Lu Yizhan asked, frowning.

Fang Dian took a deep breath, "I feel as if ...... there's something I can't see."

"Stay with him when he's alone."

In the silence of the rented house, Bai Liu lies alone on a wooden bed.

He had been living in an internet cafe before, and when Fang Dian arrived, he had already left, but then he killed him, saying that it was fine for him not to come back, but he couldn't stay in the cafe, and rented him a small house on the spot and got him in.

Bai Liu lies on the plank bed, his eyes looking at the set of keys on the small table opposite him - the keys that Fang Dian had left him when he found him in an internet cafe.

Next to the set of keys, on the table, lies Spades, who is also looking at him.

The room was so quiet and dark that Bai Liu could clearly see Spades' black eyes turning a strange silvery blue, and he could clearly see Spades' body turning translucent.

"I'm leaving." He heard Spades say.

"Why?" Bai Liu asked, "I'm still alone, so why can you go?"

Spades blinked very slowly, "But you soon won't be."

Bai Liu's tone was cold: "You don't need to decide what I am like."

Spades' voice was soft: "Because I don't want you to be alone, Bai Liu."

He got up slowly, came over and swept Bai Liu, who was lying on the plank bed, into his arms and said, very softly and very low.

"There will be many, many people around you in the future, and I know that you will be happy that way, and I hope that happy you will come soon."

"So I don't want you to be alone for too long."

Spades hugged Bai Liu tightly: "Go back."

"We made a deal, and I promise you that in the future I will come to you, see you at first sight, follow you forever, and never disappear again."

Bai Liu gripped Spades' shoulders, but his gaze faded.

He looked over Spades' shoulder at the set of keys on the table and there was a long, long silence before Bai Liu closed his eyes and he wrapped his arms around Spades' shoulders and gave a very soft muffled cry.

Bai Liu is back.

The return of the man of the hour has shaken up the lives of everyone at Qiao Mu Private High School for a while, but his own life has been uneventful.

It can't be said that it was uneventful, he became the centre of attention.

After the cancellation of the buildings on the hill, Lu Yizhan and Fang Dian started to study at the bottom of the hill. The two of them used to run to Class 17, asking Bai Liu to eat, attend classes, play ball and do homework. He was so angry that he had to gnash his teeth.

The new teacher in the class is very attentive to Bai Liu and she is very friendly but not overbearing, only marking Bai Liu's papers in a way that she finds useful.

The orphanage gives Bai Liu an allowance of eight dollars a night for a bowl of beef noodles.

Lu Yizhan and Fang Dian would pay him extra to order an egg, so in the last 50 days, Bai Liu was able to see that he had risen a bit.

He is no longer alone, or rather, has no opportunity to be alone; he is surrounded by so many people that he is rarely alone anymore.

Sometimes also Bai Liu would be alone in the flowerbeds downstairs with two popsicles in his hands, but the other one he usually didn't eat and he didn't know who did, but such alone time was usually rare.

Soon the time came for the GCSEs.

It was a gloriously sunny day in the summer heat.

Fang Dian and Lu Yizhan got up early in the morning to have breakfast with Bai Liu. Lu Yizhan's face was white with nerves and before sending Bai Liu into the examination hall, he kept telling him, "Make sure you remember to write your answer key! Check your answer key twice!"

After instructing Bai Liu, Lu Yizhan subconsciously walked out of the school and headed outside to the parents' area to wait for Bai Liu to finish his exams.

Fang Dian, in tears, caught Lu Yizhan, who was so nervous that his mind went blank and he was walking out with his hands and feet in the same direction: "Stop right there!"

"It's not just Bai Liu's exams today, you have exams too, why are you waiting in the parents' area!"

"Oh!" Lu Yizhan slapped his head in realization, "I forgot that I'm going to take the entrance exam too, I just remembered that today is Bai Liu's entrance exam day."

Bai Liu: "......"

In the end, it was Bai Liu who sent Lu Yizhan, who was so nervous about his own exam, into the exam room with the words, "Don't forget to write your answer card, Little Lu."

"You too!" Lu Yizhan grabbed Bai Liu's hand with tears in her eyes, "I'm sure you'll have a good exam!"

Fang Dian also grabbed the hands of the two, and she smiled brightly, "Of course, our Bai Liu's exams will go well!"

Bai Liu watched Fang Dian and Lu Yizhan wave goodbye to him as they entered the examination hall, but instead of turning around immediately, he looked at their backs for a moment.

As the backs of these two men faded away, a black figure suddenly appeared beside him.

Spades takes Bai Liu's hand and Bai Liu slowly shakes it back.

In the crowded examination hall, Bai Liu stood abruptly in place, his hand clasping something in vain as people passed him by, smiling and greeting him.

" Bai Liu Go for it!"

" Bai Liu, charge!"

"Steady on, Bai Liu, you can do it!"

Whenever a person smiles and greets Bai Liu and wishes him well, the Spades around Bai Liu disappear for a moment, but soon after the greeter leaves, the Spades come back and continue to hold Bai Liu's hand.

In the crowd, Bai Liu holds Spades like a flickering image from an old film, his silhouette blurring, appearing and disappearing in the sunlight, like an artificially imagined silhouette of a monster, silently appearing next to the hero of a fairy tale.

Holding his hand tightly when he is alone and releasing it silently when he is swarmed.

Bai Liu walks into the final English exam room and the monster looks out the window at Bai Liu, who is writing down his paper, without looking away from him for a second.

The moment the bell rang for the end of the exam, Bai Liu subconsciously turned her head to look at the monster outside the window.

He's gone.

Bai Liu's mind reacted sluggishly for a moment, when he suddenly remembered that he had told Spades earlier that Fang Dian and the others would definitely come to him for the last exam, and that he should wait under the ping pong table, not outside the classroom.

I think he's gone to the ping pong table, Bai Liu thought.

Fang Dian came to see him and asked Bai Liu excitedly how he had done in his exams, Bai Liu said he had played well, then Fang Dian cheered and said we would go shopping later to celebrate.

Soon Lu Yizhan and Fang Dian were pulled away by their fellow classmates and Bai Liu was given some free time of his own. He returned to his seat in the classroom, paused for a moment and pulled a roll of sticks from underneath the classroom.

Ten in all, the sticks he had saved up, just enough to exchange for two cuteness more.

The classroom was buzzing with people, and many others were hiding in various places to confess their love. Bai Liu, without any expression on his face, brushed past them without a glance and headed down to the flower bed.

He went to the kiosk and exchanged ten [one more] sticks for two strawberry-flavoured lovelies, then waited by the ping pong table in the hot sun.

The ping pong table is a very private corner, so it is a mecca for many couples to avoid the detection of the head teacher, but now that everyone has finished their exams, all the under-the-table relationships can be turned over to the table, and there are no more teachers or parents to control them, so this ever-popular couples' mecca is empty at the moment.

The playground is full of boys and girls chasing each other, laughing and having fun. In the shade under the ping pong table, there is an eighteen year old boy with two ice creams waiting to come, who has been on this table in the pouring rain, calmly thinking of ways to kill someone, and where he has clung to a non-existent monster, hiding from the light of a torch sweeping from afar.

And now he waited calmly with the monster's most wanted strawberry-flavoured cutie pie, waiting for him to come out and finish eating with himself before telling him.

Tell him that I like you.

As any eighteen year old boy would say to his lover - I like you, stay with me a little longer before you go.

I've said what you like and brought what you like to eat, so can you walk a little slower because I'm still alone?

He waited and waited from sunset to dusk, from dusk to sunset, until the ice cream in his hand had completely melted, but the monster still had not come.

He didn't hear his favourite words, didn't get his favourite ice cream, didn't even say goodbye and just walked away?

When he sees it in the future, he must not forgive it so easily, if he can see it at all.

Bai Liu slowly, slowly dropped his hand that was holding up the ice cream, and with a very calm face he looked away and said.

"I like you, Spades."