There’re Always Paranoid Thoughts to Monopolize Me - Chapter 37.1

Qin Ke rushed to the floor where the elite class of the second year was located. Before she could even step out of the spiral staircase, she already heard Qin Yan’s tearful voice of defense coming from the classroom not far away—

“It really wasn’t me! I didn’t take those photos. Brother Jun, believe me… I really wouldn’t… wouldn’t dare to do such a thing again…”

Qin Ke frowned as she walked out of the stairwell.

There were many students in the corridor, some of whom were from the elite classes of the first or third year, obviously drawn by the commotion from upstairs and downstairs.

Gu Xinqing, who had just called Qin Ke, was standing at the back of these students who were carefully peering from the door.

Qin Ke walked over and gently pulled on Gu Xinqing’s arm.

Gu Xinqing, who was concentrating intently, seemed startled and quickly turned around. She let out a big sigh of relief when she saw it was Qin Ke.

“Ke Ke…” Gu Xinqing lowered her voice, looking worriedly at Qin Ke’s expression and reaction, “Are you alright?”

“I just went to look at the student apartments. What could have happened to me?” Qin Ke deliberately lightened her tone. She turned her head to look in the direction of the second-year elite class door, but the onlooking students blocked her view completely.

Qin Ke hesitated for a moment, then turned back, “What’s the situation inside? How is it going?”

“I don’t know…”

Gu Xinqing shook her head with a complex expression, her eyes hiding some undisguisable fear.

“Huo Jun has been inside for two minutes. I only vaguely heard Qin Yan crying. It seems the other students didn’t dare to stop him.”

Qin Ke frowned, “Then where are the teachers?”

She raised her hand to look at her wristwatch, “It’s almost class time. Haven’t the teachers arrived yet?”

Gu Xinqing: “I came late, so I didn’t see clearly. I heard from our classmates who arrived early that when Huo Jun came in, the second-year teacher was already standing at the podium. That teacher tried to stop him verbally, but Huo Jun didn’t even acknowledge them. His expression was terrifying… The teacher didn’t dare to directly intervene and seemed to have dropped their books and gone to the main building’s office to find the third-year homeroom teacher.”

Almost as soon as Gu Xinqing finished speaking, they suddenly heard another scream from Qin Yan inside, followed immediately by sobbing cries that almost couldn’t catch a breath—and after this, the background noise in the classroom became deathly silent.

“…”

Qin Ke’s brows furrowed into a knot.

She stood still for a few seconds, but still turned her head to walk towards the classroom.

Gu Xinqing, who had been standing on tiptoes to see what was happening, caught sight of this from the corner of her eye. Startled, she quickly reached out to grab Qin Ke.

This time, she didn’t even bother to lower her voice—

“Ke Ke, are you crazy… How can you go in at a time like this! Huo Jun’s mental state is completely off right now! If something really happens, he might hurt you!”

Gu Xinqing’s unrestrained voice finally drew the attention of the whispering and discussing students at the front of the corridor. Many people’s eyes changed when they turned their heads and saw Qin Ke.

Obviously, most of them knew exactly why Huo Jun was going crazy like this.

Moreover, seconds later, the students spontaneously cleared a path in front of Qin Ke.

It led straight to the back door of the second-year elite classroom.

Qin Ke sighed inwardly.

She took a light breath, composed herself, and turned to look at Gu Xinqing. “I know what I’m doing, Xinqing. Don’t worry too much, I’ll be careful.” As she spoke, she patted the back of Gu Xinqing’s hand that was gripping her wrist, and was about to turn and walk inside.

Gu Xinqing grabbed her again, her face changing with urgency, “You don’t need to go in at all—Qin Yan deserves what she’s getting, she had it coming. Even if she didn’t do it this time, didn’t you say she snuck into your room with a key to secretly photograph your phone’s communication records—that’s enough for her to be punished, why do you care about her!”

Qin Ke’s voice remained calm.

“Do you really think I’m going in there for Qin Yan’s sake?”

“Then you…?” Gu Xinqing was about to ask, but then realized something. She frowned, “But Huo Jun’s emotional state is really off right now… Are you sure he won’t hurt you if you go in?”

“I’m not sure,”

Qin Ke said.

“But he’s acting this way because of me. I can’t let him continue like this—if he does something or causes irreparable consequences because of me, the price he’ll have to pay will become something I’ll regret forever.”

“…Alright.” Seeing that Qin Ke was determined to go, Gu Xinqing slowly let go of her hand, but worriedly instructed. “Then be very careful—remember to shout for help if anything happens.”

“…”

The originally serious and tense atmosphere was broken by Gu Xinqing’s words. Qin Ke was a bit amused and exasperated, “There’s a whole room full of people in there, don’t scare yourself with such thoughts—but you, if any teachers come, make sure to let me know.”

“Okay, I got it.”

Qin Ke then turned and walked alone into the classroom.

As she walked in, the students in the corridor looked at her with complex and emotional gazes, as if seeing off a martyr going to the battlefield.

Qin Ke felt helpless, and their looks made her a bit nervous too. She took a deep breath before pushing open the back door of the second-year elite classroom.

If one were to ignore Qin Yan’s crying, the second-year elite classroom could be described as absolutely quiet—Qin Ke even suspected that most of the students sitting inside were taking turns holding their breath.

She couldn’t even hear a single obvious breath.

—

Everyone was sitting quietly in their seats. Qin Ke could see that the students in the seats closest to her were clutching their textbooks tightly with their heads down, as if afraid that some calamity might fall from the sky and land on them.

Even after the obvious “creaking” sound of the door opening in this incredibly quiet classroom, few students dared to look up.

Qin Ke instinctively looked towards the only place where someone was standing.

That was next to Qin Yan’s seat, where Qiao Jin and Qiao Yu were looking ahead with complex and sympathetic expressions. In the direction mostly blocked by their figures, the tense silhouette of Huo Jun could be vaguely seen.

Qiao Jin was the first to react, turning his head to look. When he saw Qin Ke clearly, his expression became even more complex.

After hesitating for a few seconds, Qiao Jin turned back, “Brother Jun…” He paused, “Qin Ke is here.”

The crying in the classroom stopped abruptly.

The next second, Qin Yan’s reaction was even more intense than Huo Jun’s—Qin Ke didn’t even have time to see clearly before Qin Yan suddenly ran over from behind Qiao Jin and Qiao Yu as if her life depended on it, her face covered in tears, eyes red from crying—

“Xiao Ke! Xiao Ke, please explain to Huo Jun for me—I really didn’t do it! Those photos weren’t taken by me—you should know that I went to the supermarket with mom that afternoon!”

“……”

In both her past and present lives, this was the first time Qin Ke had seen Qin Yan so “close” to her, clinging to her like the last lifeline.

She was inevitably stunned for a couple of seconds before coming back to her senses.

And by the time she regained her composure, Huo Jun had already silently walked up in front of her.

Qin Yan let out a frightened “Wah” and shakily hid behind Qin Ke—

“Xiao Ke… Xiao Ke, save me… Huo Jun is going to kill me, Xiao Ke…”

“…”

Qin Ke felt complex emotions and instinctively looked up.

Seeing Huo Jun’s current expression and demeanor, Qin Ke understood Qin Yan’s reaction, as well as the silence of the students inside and outside the classroom.

Huo Jun indeed looked like he had gone mad at this moment.

The young man’s usually cold, pale face now had an unnatural flush. Blue veins stood out on his forehead, bloodshot lines climbed into his eyes, and a terrifying fury was hidden in the deep blackness of his pupils.

—This was a sign of emotions suppressed to an extreme point, about to explode.

Qin Ke’s heart tightened.

Perhaps it was due to their blood relation, but Huo Jun’s current appearance once again reminded her of Huo Zhonglou from her past life.

Although that man had a disfigured face, Qin Ke had seen his most ferocious and terrifying side after her legs were crippled… It was no less intense than Huo Jun’s current state.

Thinking of this, Qin Ke couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

She wondered what “virtue or ability” she possessed that, whether it was Huo Zhonglou in her past life or Huo Jun in this one, she always managed to provoke them to such madness over her affairs.

Thinking this, as Huo Jun, with an expressionless face and a grim look in his eyes, reached out towards Qin Yan behind her, Qin Ke raised her hand and caught his wrist.

A collective sharp intake of breath could be heard in the classroom.

The students in the class hardly dared to look—even Qiao Jin, Qiao Yu, and the class teacher didn’t dare to interfere. They were afraid to see what would happen next to the girl who had rashly reached out.

However, to their surprise, the back of the classroom remained quiet for a very long time, with no movement.

It was so long that some students couldn’t help but carefully turn their heads to look—

“Enough, Huo Jun.” The girl’s voice was soft, so fragile in this quiet classroom that it seemed it could be crushed in an instant. But there wasn’t a hint of fear or trepidation in her voice.

She was so calm, as if certain that the violent and frightening young man in front of her wouldn’t harm her.

After a moment of silence, she softly repeated.

“Huo Jun, it’s really enough.”

“…”

The eyes that had never focused on her from the beginning finally slowly met hers.

All those gloomy and terrifying emotions were fully exposed.

And Qin Ke calmly accepted them.

Her five fingers gripping his wrist didn’t tremble at all, just gentle yet firm, unmoving.

The soft warmth slowly spread from where their skin touched, melting the heart in his icy chest that had been wrapped tightly by cold and gloomy emotions.

All the rationality in Huo Jun’s eyes that had been devoured by madness finally returned bit by bit.

After a while, he spoke in an almost hoarse voice.

“She did it.”

“No, Huo Jun.” Qin Ke turned her head and cast a cold glance at Qin Yan, who was still trembling, obviously terrified by Huo Jun. Then she turned back. “She’s right, that afternoon she went to the supermarket with her mother. She didn’t have the time or energy to take those photos.”

“…”

Huo Jun’s eyes darkened. “But only she knew about you and Huo Jingyan going to the art exhibition—she secretly photographed your phone message records and came to show me on Friday.”

Qin Ke wasn’t surprised to learn this.

But she still shook her head, “She’s almost scared to death by you. She doesn’t have that kind of courage.”

Huo Jun’s eyes were cold, with a sinister glint, “Then who?”

“…”

Qin Ke felt helpless.

She felt that if she were to say a name now, Huo Jun would probably drag that person out without hesitation and beat them half to death.

Well, maybe completely dead.

…Thinking about it this way, she realized the person in front of her was a terrifyingly lethal human weapon, and she was about to become the control switch for this weapon.

Amidst those varied gazes, Qin Ke felt a bit of a headache.

“I’ll investigate this matter myself, Huo Jun—now we should leave. You can’t disrupt their class like this.”

“…”

Huo Jun didn’t speak, his icy gaze sweeping towards Qin Yan behind Qin Ke.

Seeing that he seemed intent on settling old scores, Qin Ke helplessly pulled him back, while quietly “warning”:

“Remember our three rules—what’s the first one, do you remember?”

After two seconds of silence, Huo Jun, who had gradually calmed down, glanced at her sideways with some reluctance and said hoarsely,

“…No going crazy.”

Qin Ke sighed in relief,

“Good that you still remember.”

She gestured to Qiao Jin and Qiao Yu behind her about Qin Yan, who was almost crying herself unconscious, then grabbed Huo Jun’s hand without leaving room for refusal and turned to walk out of the classroom.

She held on tightly, not daring to relax for a moment.

Qin Ke dragged him all the way to the outside corridor, past those silent spectating students, and gave a slight reassuring nod to Gu Xinqing’s worried gaze.

Turning into the spiral staircase, Qin Ke finally let go of his hand.

“Don’t be like this anymore, Huo Jun.”

Qin Ke spoke as she turned around, lowering her voice, “Didn’t you see how those students were looking at you? If you keep this up, they’ll eventually see you as a monster.”

“I already am one.”

“…” Qin Ke, about to speak, found her tongue tied. A few seconds later, she frowned and looked up, unable to believe her ears, “What did you say?”