Chapter Thirteen: The Mystery Revealed

  After being fooled by me twice in a row this afternoon, Qin Ke refused to talk to me and sat alone on the sofa watching a terrible Korean drama. During which she called Zhang Wei to ask when she would be back to deliver her clothes. From Qin Ke's expression after hanging up the phone, it can be seen that Zhang Wei's answer was very disappointing to her.

  It's possible that the Korean drama being broadcast is the worst among many bad ones, Qin Ke watched it for a while and found it very boring, so he stood at the kitchen door watching me wash dishes, giving me the feeling of standing in a zoo watching monkeys perform.

  "I didn't know you could cook and even wash dishes."

  "I think it's nothing difficult. Anyone with long hands can do it, can you?"

  "I won't... You..." Qin Ke Yi subconsciously replied, finally realizing he had fallen into my trap again, and glared at me fiercely.

  "Hey! Whose house is the one I'm living in? It seems like a girl's house."

  "There is nobody; it's an empty house."

  "No way. The collection is so clean and tidy."

  "There's nobody now, the person who lived there has left and may not come back."

  "Judging from your expression, that person is not ordinary to you, is she your girlfriend?"

  "It's already in the past tense." Every time I mention Tong Chen, my heart skips a beat. Qin Ke didn't continue asking after I finished saying that sentence. Judging from the inherent inferiority complex of Chinese people, most girls would ask how we broke up and so on at this point, but Qin Ke just stood there silently watching me wash dishes. This actually made me feel a bit uncomfortable.

  "Why don't you keep asking?"

  "What...? What are you asking?" Qin Ke was left bewildered by my words.

  "Why did we break up and all that? You girls always ask about this kind of thing."

  "Sorry to disappoint you, I've never been interested in other people's private lives." Qin Ke suddenly regained the coldness of their first meeting.

  "Oh, right. I've had a question for you all along. That time when we met in the cafeteria, why did you react that way when you heard my name? It was as if I were some kind of despicable villain." I decided to change the subject and continue our conversation.

  "Judging from your behavior over the past three days, you're indeed a scumbag." Qin Ke said with a sly smile and a vengeful tone.

  "Hehe. The book says that when a girl calls a boy an idiot, eighty percent of the time it's the beginning of her having a crush on him."

  "What a coincidence, I was just evaluating you with the remaining 20% of my mind."

  "Oh! No way, the remaining 20% is born from love turning into hate!" I exaggeratedly said.

  "What nonsense!! Can't you read something serious for once?"

  "Haha, no more joking around. Let's get down to business, tell me the reason."

  "Do you know Bai Juan?"

  "Understand."

  "That's right. Why are you fooling her?" Qin Ke suddenly became serious.

  "I don't seem to recall laying a hand on her. What? Do you know each other?"

  "It's not just about knowing you, stop pretending to be stupid there!"

  "Could you give me a hint? Maybe I've done too many bad things in the past and can't think of it for now."

  "Since you don't like her, why did you cheat on her?" Qin Ke questioned me.

  "I deceived her!!! What did I deceive her of? Emotions? Flesh? Or money?" Qin Ke's words made my back feel a chill. Bai Xue was a troublesome woman, if some things weren't clarified, she would haunt you like a ghost.

  My acquaintance with Bai Xuan was a very absurd thing, which can be traced back to my senior high school days. Due to the intense life in senior high school, I often did some stimulating things like skipping class to relieve the dull learning atmosphere. The first time I saw Bai Xuan was when I skipped class and went online at an internet cafe. At that time, I was concentrating on surfing the internet, unaware of when a little girl with an ice cream cone appeared beside me, swaying her body to the rhythm of the music in her earbuds. As the music accelerated, her movements became more intense, and finally, she flung her ice cream onto my arm. At that moment, I only felt a chill on my arm, but she reacted quickly, apologizing while stretching out her hand to wipe it clean for me. However, when I saw that her hands were stained with the residue of ice cream and some unknown black substance, I swiftly stopped her. I took out the tissue paper from my pocket and handed it to her, intending for her to use it to wipe my arm clean. But apparently, she misunderstood my intention, took the paper, wiped her own hands, said thank you, and then sat down to continue listening to music and chatting. Leaving me standing there in a daze... I had seen people without conscience or manners before, but never someone who was both heartless and sloppy at the same time, especially not a girl. At that time, being relatively superstitious, I thought it was an ominous sign for such a thing to happen at that moment, possibly indicating that I would be caught by the teacher for skipping class. So, without bothering to reason with her, I hastily returned to school. It wasn't until later when we ran into each other on campus that I found out she was also a student in our school's grade 10. Perhaps in my past life, I hadn't interacted much with her, and it was destined that we would unknowingly become online friends this lifetime. However, due to the upcoming college entrance exams, we didn't communicate much.

  It was during the summer vacation after my high school graduation that I frequently chatted with her online. The content of our conversations depended on two things: my mood and the other person. Sometimes we could talk about a hot topic until dawn; sometimes I would pretend to be a poor abandoned soul emotionally; sometimes I would discuss literature with netizens; sometimes I would discuss national politics with some people, expressing my patriotic emotions, and occasionally I would chat with some people about very ambiguous topics. As for Bai Xue, I tried all of the above content, but none of them had a good effect, because I found that she was only interested in playing games and didn't care about anything else. She didn't even ask about what major to read after high school, which is crucial to one's fate, and completely let her parents decide. What made me even more helpless was that when I tried to correct her behavior, she would turn around and ask with a clear conscience: "What's wrong with listening to my parents?"

  Let's take a closer look, this phenomenon is actually quite common around us and not entirely Bai Xue's problem. In China, many parents' methods of educating their children are questionable, often with the intention of loving them, but the results are often contrary to their original intentions. From a young age, almost everything is taken care of, and it's called happiness, which is also a very annoying aspect of Asian culture. I have always believed that it is shameful for parents and schools to use the excuse "for your own good" to suppress children's nature and restrict them.

  Parents instill their thoughts in children from a young age, indoctrinating them with theories, only allowing obedience, without cultivating children's independent thinking consciousness. Listening to parents' words is important, but one should also consider whether parents' words are correct and reasonable. Parents are not infallible, even great people can make mistakes, let alone parents. Moreover, as a generation that has received higher education, you should be stronger than your parents in many aspects, especially after your thoughts have matured, you should have your own ideas and not mechanically follow your parents' ideas, otherwise, it's no different from being an animal in a circus.

  China has never lacked talent, but what is lacking is good education. Unfortunately, from a young age to adulthood, we have been indoctrinated with countless ideologies, but nothing else. This also explains why many students today are so confused.

  Later, Bai Ju was unfortunately sent to our school by her relatively ignorant parents, which was also my misfortune. She regarded me as the only relative in Harbin, and this made her think of me first whenever something happened. Following the principle of "helping others is the root of happiness", I basically responded to Bai Ju's requests, and after a long time of interaction, she mistakenly thought that we were actually a couple after Tong Chen left without saying goodbye. She began to care about me like a couple and interfered with my life, and also boldly said in front of friends that we were very compatible. At first, I just tried to avoid contacting her too much, hoping to awaken her self-awareness, but unexpectedly, this method had the opposite effect. So, I had to find the right time, place, and approach to clarify things with her. However, I got an incorrect conclusion - she thought I was testing her, forcing me to use extreme language.

  In this small school like a piece of dried tofu, you may unknowingly get entangled with someone, and after talking to Qin Ke Yi today, I finally found out that we have another layer of relationship between us - we are both friends of Bai Xuan. I don't know how Bai Xuan described our loving relationship in front of Qin Ke Yi and the others, but all I know is that one day when they saw Bai Xuan crying with her head covered in the dormitory, they unanimously thought it was me who hurt her and cheated on her feelings.

  "Is it because of this unverified stupid rumor that you think I'm a despicable scoundrel?"

  "It's not entirely true. And your absence that day was a clear sign of disrespect."

  "Missed an appointment? I don't recall anyone making plans with me recently?"

  "It was me who asked you to meet at 5421 over the phone last Monday."

  "Ah?!!!! It's you!!!"

  "Yes! I have two purposes for finding you. One is to see what kind of person you are, who can make Bai Ju almost die. Two is to seek justice for Bai Ju." Qin Ke Yi was like a chivalrous woman who hated evil at this moment.

  "It seems that from now on, when I help others for fun, it can only be limited to the same sex." Qin Ke glared at me fiercely.

  "By the way, can I borrow some clothes from the wardrobe in that house? I have something to do this afternoon and it seems like YOYO won't be bringing me any clothes."

  "It doesn't matter, they're just hanging there anyway. I was planning to donate them to Project Hope in a few days."

  "Why didn't your girlfriend take those clothes away?" Qin Ke asked curiously.

  "I recall you weren't interested in other people's private lives?"

  "I'm too lazy to bother with you, I'm going to change clothes."

  Five minutes later, Qin Kaiyi appeared in front of me wearing the clothes I bought for Tong Chen. This couldn't help but remind me of how Tong Chen looked when he wore this outfit... It seemed that Qin Kaiyi suited this outfit even better.

  "Does this outfit not suit me?" Qin Ke looked at me with great curiosity due to my daze.

  "Very pretty, really."

  "You must have taken the wrong medicine, normally you should be scolding me instead."

  "You won't wait until I'm gone before you can walk out of this door with a clear conscience, will you?"

  "Go die! I'm leaving. The clothes will be returned to you tomorrow."

  "Oh, by the way, I haven't had time to wash that piece of clothing for you yet. You're not in a hurry, are you?"

  Qin Kai glanced at me and said lightly: "I didn't plan on wanting it since I gave it to you."