There’re Always Paranoid Thoughts to Monopolize Me - Chapter 18.2

Amidst these discussions, Qin Ke’s expression grew colder.

Ignorance breeds arrogance.

Some people, without knowing the truth, believed themselves to be on the moral high ground just because of a few tears and flowery words, thinking they had the right to judge and dictate.

Even living through it again…

Foolish people remain foolish, and ignorant people remain ignorant.

And Qin Yan, with her years of shamelessness and acting skills, still easily manipulated these foolish peers.

This farce made Qin Ke feel both annoyed and exhausted.

She reached out and tugged on Gu Xinqing, who was futilely trying to argue. “Let’s go.”

Gu Xinqing’s eyes widened. “Just let her go like this? Why?! They’re the ones twisting the truth!”

Qin Ke smiled helplessly.

“Do you think it matters who is right? It doesn’t.” She glanced coldly at Qin Yan a few meters away, “Qin Yan has been in the Literature and Art Department for a year, we’ve only been here a few days. —And can you act as pitiful and shameless as she does?”

Qin Ke shrugged, joking.

“I certainly can’t.”

Gu Xinqing gritted her teeth in anger, and after a few seconds, she wilted.

“I can’t either. Who can be as shameless as her? —If it were me, I’d probably want to find a hole to bury myself in, not come out and say such shameless things.”

“Exactly.”

Qin Ke smiled, feeling a cold and resolute determination inside.

“In many situations, the more shameless you are, the more you benefit. —The Literature and Art Department is her territory; she has the advantage here. Understand?”

“Not really.”

“Gu Xinqing, why are you so—”

Before Qin Ke could finish saying “dense,” she suddenly realized something and paused.

She looked up at Gu Xinqing, “?”.

Gu Xinqing innocently shook her head.

“That last sentence wasn’t from me.”

“……”

Qin Ke thought to herself, of course, I could tell.

She turned around helplessly, and sure enough, she saw a boy in a black T-shirt and black pants lazily squatting on the sandy path, about two meters higher than the ground of the base.

He casually took off his baseball cap and placed it on Qin Ke’s head, who had just turned around.

“When you were with me, why didn’t you talk this much?”

Qin Ke: “…”

Qin Ke took off the baseball cap, her face inexplicably a bit flushed, either from the sun or something else.

“What are you doing here?”

The visitor was none other than Huo Jun.

Huo Jun raised an eyebrow at her words.

“Why can’t I be here?”

Perhaps it was the aggressive handsomeness of his face; even with his lazy demeanor, it was hard to meet his eyes when he raised his eyebrows.

He cast his gaze downward.

All the students of the Literature and Art Department on the lower ground instantly fell silent.

Huo Jun grinned, a rebellious and unruly smile.

“I heard you all chatting lively just now? What were you talking about? Tell me.”

“……”

Everyone looked at each other, but no one dared to speak.

Qin Yan and her two friends, seeing the familiarity and lack of hostility in the interaction between Qin Ke and Huo Jun, had a change of expression.

One of them finally snapped back to reality, forcing a stiff smile.

“Brother Jun… this matter doesn’t really concern you. It’s an internal issue of the Literature and Art Department, we’ll handle it ourselves—”

Thud.

Mid-sentence, the boy jumped directly from the two-meter-high concrete platform.

Everyone was stunned.

The air went silent.

After dissipating the impact, the boy stood up straight again, his eyes slightly narrowed, the smile on his handsome face turning a bit cold.

“What did you say? I didn’t hear it clearly. Say it again.”

“……”

The girl turned pale with fright, involuntarily stepping back half a step.

Huo Jun sneered.

He shifted his gaze to Qin Yan.

“Stop crying.”

Qin Yan was stunned, looking at Huo Jun with disbelief, a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

However, the next second, she heard him sneer coldly.

“If you keep crying, people might think that it’s your sister, whose reputation you nearly ruined for life, who wronged you.”

“……”

The air fell silent.

The members of the Literature and Art Department looked at Qin Yan in surprise.

It was clear that the part about “nearly ruined for life” was something Qin Yan had omitted in her tearful complaints.

Sensing those looks, Qin Yan’s face changed slightly.

After a few seconds of stiffness, she looked up pitifully at Huo Jun.

“Brother Jun, I really didn’t know Gao Hao would try to do that to Xiao Ke. He always told me that he and Xiao Ke were in love… I just thought Xiao Ke felt the same way—”

“What did you think, that she also liked that scumbag?”

Huo Jun chuckled softly.

He turned his head to look at Qin Ke, his eyes half-lowered in a roguish manner.

——

“Then you were wrong. She doesn’t even fancy me…What does Gao Hao count for?”

Qin Ke: “…”

Qin Ke pretended not to hear and looked away.

Qin Yan’s face turned pale.

She realized Huo Jun was determined to protect Qin Ke, so she didn’t dare to try to claim the moral high ground again. Instead, she lowered her head and let her tears fall silently, like a broken faucet dripping onto the ground.

“I’m sorry… I was wrong… Xiao Ke, please forgive me. I promise I won’t meddle again, I apologize…”

Someone in the Literature and Art Department couldn’t stand it and cautiously spoke up.

“Qin Ke, your sister is apologizing like this. I think there’s no need to hold a grudge.”

“Yeah, nothing really happened.”

“Let bygones be bygones.”

“……”

Huo Jun suddenly laughed.

Everyone fell silent, not daring to speak, and looked up at the boy.

Huo Jun narrowed his eyes and looked at the last person who spoke.

“If I kill you here—after three minutes, can I also say, ‘Let bygones be bygones’?”

“……”

That person turned pale instantly.

Obviously, Huo Jun’s words had scared him badly.

Although they didn’t know exactly what happened the night before, the broken glass and bloodstains in the tool room were enough to indicate the severity of the incident.

Moreover, it was said that Gao Hao left in an ambulance that morning.

The day Gao Hao left, Huo Jun was confined in the base’s detention room.

——

It was clear who did it.

After scaring the uninvolved members of the Literature and Art Department into silence, Huo Jun turned back to Qin Yan.

He took two steps forward.

Qin Yan seemed to tremble slightly, her face pale and pitiful as she looked up with tears glistening on her pretty face.

“Brother Jun, I’m sorry, I really didn’t know Gao Hao would do that…”

Huo Jun’s lips curled into a smile.

“Stop crying.”

“……”

“You’re an eyesore.”

“——!”

Qin Yan’s face turned several shades paler instantly.

She stared at Huo Jun, unable to believe and unwilling to accept why he could say such cruel words.

Huo Jun sneered.

“Do you think that all men in this world can be fooled into confusion and moral blindness by a few tears and a pitiful face…”

Huo Jun glanced sideways at the members of the Literature and Art Department.

He sneered coldly.

“Fools?”

“…………”

All the boys who had just spoken up for Qin Yan looked embarrassed.

Huo Jun couldn’t be bothered to deal with them.

He turned back, hands in his pockets, bending down slightly, getting so close to Qin Yan that any unsuspecting girl would scream.

However, those standing within earshot clearly heard his voice as cold as ice.

“Qin Yan, your pretense and pitiful act trying to twist the truth just make me feel disgusted.”

As he spoke, as if to match the occasion,

Huo Jun frowned, stepped back coldly.

Then he glanced at Qin Yan, expressionless, and spoke.

“I don’t care if your jealousy of Qin Ke involves me or not—this is my final warning to you.”

His sharp jaw tightened slightly, and he nodded to the side.

“…Get lost.”

Qin Yan’s face turned deathly pale.

In the dead silence, Qin Yan finally couldn’t hold back anymore and ran away crying.

Everyone sighed.

Some boys felt indignant but dared not speak, while many girls looked at Huo Jun with admiration or starry eyes—after all, they didn’t like Qin Yan’s pitiful crying act.

Huo Jun didn’t care.

After driving away Qin Yan, he turned around and walked to Qin Ke’s side.

Gu Xinqing’s face was flushed with excitement. “Brother Jun, you were so cool! Xiao Ke and I were about to be driven crazy by that shameless girl!”

Huo Jun frowned.

“Next time you encounter such a situation, don’t drag Qin Ke into it.”

Gu Xinqing’s face fell, looking apologetically at Qin Ke.

“Next time I won’t be so impulsive, Xiao Ke. You were right, the Literature and Art Department is practically Qin Yan’s domain, and those guys are blind—Brother Jun was right, Qin Yan’s crocodile tears fooled them completely—if it weren’t for Brother Jun…”

Qin Ke couldn’t stand it anymore and covered Gu Xinqing’s mouth with a smile.

“Alright, alright, stop flattering him. Don’t you have training after dinner?”

“Oh, I almost forgot!”

Gu Xinqing clapped her hands and remembered, “I’ll head back now!” Just as she was about to run off, she suddenly recalled something, and with a sly smile, whispered to Qin Ke, “Oh, I get it, you think I’m being too much of a third wheel? I understand, I understand, I’m leaving now…”

Before Qin Ke could get annoyed, Gu Xinqing dashed off like a streak of lightning.

Qin Ke turned back helplessly.

Meeting Huo Jun’s dark eyes, she felt a warmth in her heart.

“Thank you for what you did just now.”

Huo Jun raised an eyebrow, saying nothing.

Qin Ke hesitated, “But if there’s a next time, you shouldn’t stand up for me. As I said before, the Literature and Art Department is Qin Yan’s territory. If you provoke everyone into disliking you, then it won’t…”

“The Literature and Art Department is her territory.”

Huo Jun chuckled hoarsely, lowering his eyes slightly, looking at the girl with a sparkling gaze.

“But Qiande High School is my territory.”

Qin Ke: “…”

“And my territory is your territory.”

Huo Jun leaned forward slightly, whispering teasingly into her ear,

“My body counts too.”