There’re Always Paranoid Thoughts to Monopolize Me - Chapter 64.2

Qiande High School’s high school and middle school divisions combined had over ten thousand students. Among so many people, when he didn’t know her, he seemed to have only seen her that first time in two or three years. But after he noticed her, Huo Jun began to see that girl appear in his field of vision in any corner of the school at any time.

Whether actively or passively, he also began to gradually collect many bits of information about her. Huo Jun found his attention to her increasing day by day, but Qiao Jin and Qiao Yu’s words had reminded him, he knew that he and that girl were definitely not from the same world, so Huo Jun only restrained all his emotions.

The most suitable distance for her was when she didn’t know him – Huo Jun knew his own defects well, and was clearest about this point.

But things don’t always go as planned.

This secret one-sided feeling lasted for a year, until the end of June, when the third year of middle school finished their final exams, declaring early liberation.

However, Huo Jun found that Qin Ke was different from her other classmates – while the students who had finished their exams were playing wildly everywhere, Qin Ke still regularly brought her books to the school’s study room every day, leaving early and returning late, as regular as if she were accompanying the suffering senior high school students.

Only unlike normal school days, she no longer had classmates accompanying her, but instead went to and from school alone.

And every night she passed through that alley behind the school.

The Hell Bar that Huo Jun and Wei Sheng ran was in that alley, so Huo Jun knew very well what kind of uneducated, dirty-minded, vicious, and morally dubious scum hung out there.

A beautiful girl like Qin Ke passing through there every day was no different from a tender little white rabbit hopping past a den of wolves.

The situation was clear. Huo Jun didn’t even hesitate for three seconds before he kicked away Qiao Jin and Qiao Yu, leaving this pair of difficult brothers to fend for themselves, while he waited at the entrance of the alley at a fixed time every night, waiting for the girl to return home in the night after finishing her self-study.

Huo Jun had been “escorting” Qin Ke like this for half a month, with the girl knowing nothing about it. The wolves in the den had been restless several times, but because they discovered Huo Jun’s presence, they didn’t make a move.

But in the end, they couldn’t resist.

It was already mid-July when it happened.

As usual, Huo Jun left the Hell Bar and walked towards the west gate of Qiande High School – the gate Qin Ke most often used.

But just as he entered the middle of the alley, he sensed something and slowed his steps.

Huo Jun’s gaze swept sideways, catching sight of a group of people with suspicious movements deep in the alley.

Huo Jun’s eyes turned cold.

A few seconds later, he instead curled his lips, stuck his hands in his pockets, turned around, and walked all the way to the entrance of this forked small alley.

The young man leaned against the wall, “Something wrong?”

The few people were looking strange, and now seeing Huo Jun actively come forward to speak, the leader’s expression changed. He exchanged a glance with the people behind him, then smiled and spoke, “No, nothing’s wrong, just came out for a walk, to get some air.”

“Get some air?”

Huo Jun snorted lightly, his eyes growing colder. He suddenly stepped forward, without warning reached out to grab the leader’s collar, and with a “bang” slammed him directly against the wall.

No one had expected Huo Jun to act without a word, and they all froze in place.

Huo Jun directly pressed his forearm and elbow fiercely against the man’s neck, choking him so that he rolled his eyes and struggled hysterically.

“Get some f*cking air.”

With these words, a vicious punch landed directly on the man’s stomach.

After a miserable howl, Huo Jun released his grip and stepped back half a step. The man was bent almost into a shrimp shape, falling to the ground while pointing at Huo Jun and cursing intermittently—

“Why the fuck are you all… standing there! Get… get him… k-kill him!”

Huo Jun let out a cold snort, flexed his wrist, and raised his leg to kick the first person who rushed towards him…

…

For Huo Jun, fighting was as common as eating, something he had been accustomed to since he was very young.

However, when it was all over, he casually looked up and saw the girl who seemed to be frozen in fear at the entrance of the alley. Huo Jun suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable.

There was no mirror in front of him, so Huo Jun couldn’t see what he looked like at the moment, but he knew that the fight just now had been fierce. When the opponent grabbed a stick, he naturally fought back to seize it—after several rounds, his body was probably covered in dust, grime, and even blood stains.

Such a disheveled appearance was probably something she had never seen in her world… Under the streetlight, those clean, dark pupils were clearly filled with panic and avoidance.

If she hadn’t been frozen in fear, she might have already turned and run away.

Huo Jun lowered his eyes self-mockingly.

Even though there were only a few short steps between them, the girl stood in the light while he stood in the shadows, as if they were in two completely different worlds that could never intersect.

So from the very beginning, he had never dared to hope.

Huo Jun walked out.

As he passed in front of the girl, he couldn’t help but stop.

Meeting those panicked eyes, Huo Jun could almost see his own reflection in them.

The girl opened her mouth, seeming to want to say something, but Huo Jun didn’t give her the chance to speak—the human heart cannot be tested, he had already endured for so long, so he really wasn’t sure if, after fully realizing the gulf between them, he might be driven by the evil thoughts in his heart to make some mistake.

“…Shh.”

He heard himself let out a low, mocking laugh.

“Good girl.”

Huo Jun straightened up and left.

The moment he walked out of the girl’s sight, all emotions related to warmth retreated from the young man’s fair and handsome face.

—

Huo Jun hadn’t expected that encounter would be their only meeting in the next half year.

****

After that day, Qin Ke never went back to school for self-study. A few days later, on Huo Jun’s birthday, which was also his coming-of-age ceremony, someone drugged his drink at the Hell Bar.

The group of people he had beaten up before came with iron rods and nail-studded clubs, lying in ambush in the alley behind the Hell Bar – it was the first careless mistake in Huo Jun’s life, which sent him to the ICU for two months.

When he was out of critical condition, the doctor told him that all ten of his fingers had suffered fractures to varying degrees. Even after the most precise surgery performed by the top surgeons Huo’s family had found, they could only restore the appearance at best.

From that day on, he would never need to touch a piano again.

Huo Shengfeng, his nominal father, was furious. Every single one of those scum who had ambushed him that day was imprisoned on serious charges.

Huo Jun felt somewhat relieved when he learned about this.

At least, he didn’t need to worry about those trash disturbing Qin Ke again.

However, after finally enduring the most painful rehabilitation and treatment, suffering through the agony of having his broken tendons and bones stretched repeatedly, almost equivalent to reliving the pain and torment of that night countless times, when Huo Jun was discharged and returned to Qiande High School, he only received one piece of news.

—

Qin Ke hadn’t entered the high school division.

She had gone to another school.