After asking the teacher supervising the evening study hall to hand out the questionnaires, Xue Rui returned to the teachers' office.
"Why aren't you doing one?" Xue Xiaying demanded.
"This was my idea. I already know what the 'right' answers are, so what's the point?"
Xue Rui was speechless. For someone like him, who had taken countless online quizzes, this kind of test was meaningless. He would just subconsciously pick the "correct" answers.
"Auntie, which teacher is Lin Ruoxi's homeroom teacher?" Xue Rui asked.
He wanted to learn everything about Lin Ruoxi from the beginning, to unravel the facts and analyze the root cause.
"You can just ask me. I've already contacted her middle school homeroom teacher."
Xue Xiaying gave Xue Rui a long, hard look before adding, "You'd better not be getting any funny ideas. Lin Ruoxi has been through enough."
"Auntie, how could you think of me like that? I'm just concerned about a pretty classmate."
'My aunt is such a responsible homeroom teacher,' Xue Rui thought. 'She even contacted Lin Ruoxi's middle school teacher. That saves me a lot of trouble.'
"Her mother passed away a long time ago. Her father was a scumbag who often abused her..."
Xue Rui's fists clenched as he listened. No wonder Lin Ruoxi had reacted so strangely the other day when he'd only wanted to pat her on the head.
"Her father also passed away, the year before last."
"Good riddance!"
Xue Xiaying sighed. "For a family like that, is losing their only able-bodied worker really a good thing?"
"There are plenty of workhorses in the world. If a workhorse beats his own daughter, then he's better off dead."
"Xue Rui!"
...
The two of them talked for a long time, and the other teachers in the office sighed with emotion, chiming in with a few comments from time to time.
Soon, the students' answer sheets were handed in.
This type of assessment was all multiple-choice, and the scoring was simple.
Xue Rui pulled out Lin Ruoxi's answer sheet and began to calculate her score.
In the end, Lin Ruoxi's score was very low. For this type of test, the lower the score, the healthier the result.
Lin Ruoxi showed no signs of depressive tendencies. That slender girl was incredibly resilient on the inside.
"That can't be right. How could she jump off a building if she doesn't have depressive tendencies?"
Doubt filled Xue Rui's mind. He tossed the questionnaire down and walked out.
"Where are you running off to? I thought you were going to help me grade these," Xue Xiaying said, displeased.
"Gotta pee," Xue Rui said dismissively.
「In the Class Two classroom.」
The students were all buzzing with energy, having just finished the questionnaire.
They had never taken this kind of test before and didn't know what it meant, so everyone was eagerly discussing it, making the classroom a chaotic mess.
"Lin Ruoxi, come out here," Xue Rui called toward the back of the classroom, then gave the substitute teacher a smiling nod.
The substitute had just been in the teachers' office and had overheard many of the teachers discussing Lin Ruoxi. Assuming Teacher Xue had sent Xue Rui to get her, he didn't think much of it and waved for Lin Ruoxi to go outside.
Lin Ruoxi was a little surprised, her large, almond-shaped eyes filled with confusion.
'Why would Xue Rui call for me at a time like this, and right in front of the substitute teacher?'
'It must be the homeroom teacher who sent him,' she guessed.
She followed behind Xue Rui with her head down, but he wasn't heading toward the teachers' office. Instead, he was going to a corner at the other end of the hall.
The hallway was especially dim at night, and Xue Rui was deliberately leading her to a dark corner. 'He's probably planning to do something shady.'
"Why did you commit suicide?" Xue Rui asked, his voice edged with irritation.
Lin Ruoxi froze. 'Why did I commit suicide?'
"I... I didn't," Lin Ruoxi protested in a small voice.
"In my dream, you jumped off the roof. It scared me so much I can't eat or sleep. You have to give me an explanation."
What he said was the truth, but it hadn't happened yet.
From a normal person's perspective, he was just being completely unreasonable and pestering her.
However, the innocent girl had never experienced anything like this. She just kept bowing and apologizing, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
Xue Rui felt a prick of conscience, a deeply uncomfortable feeling. But he continued playing the part of the "bad guy" and said coldly:
"Why would you commit suicide? What could happen that would make you do it? I want a written explanation before the weekend."
'Time is too tight. The Mid-Autumn Festival is only a month away, and I have to spend most of that time in class. I just don't have the time or energy to find the reason myself.'
So he used the simplest, most direct method.
'This method might not work on others, but for a silly girl like Lin Ruoxi, she'll actually answer my question.'
"How many words should it be?" Lin Ruoxi asked meekly.
"As many as you want. Just don't tell the teachers. Otherwise..."
Xue Rui hadn't even thought of a proper threat yet when he vaguely saw Lin Ruoxi's shoulders starting to tremble slightly.
'Yeah, what girl wouldn't be scared when a bad student comes looking for trouble?'
Xue Rui lost interest. He turned to go back to the classroom, and Lin Ruoxi followed quietly behind him, her head still lowered.
When they reached the corner, Xue Rui stopped abruptly, and Lin Ruoxi bumped right into his back.
"S-sorry..."
Xue Rui turned and cupped Lin Ruoxi's face, admiring her divinely beautiful features in the dim light.
"What a pity. It'd be better if I were the one to benefit."
Xue Rui muttered to himself.
'With a personality like Lin Ruoxi's, even if she didn't die, she would be taken advantage of out in the world.'
'The thought of a peerless beauty like her falling into the hands of some filthy old men made Xue Rui think it would be better if he were the one to benefit instead.'
'Of course, that was all on the condition that he could save her first.'
"Benefit?"
Lin Ruoxi tried to parse Xue Rui's words. 'What does he mean by 'benefit'?'
...
Before Xue Rui could even make it back to the classroom, a figure well over two hundred pounds came running up to him furtively.
"Brother Rui, your uncle's on the phone." Yi Bing shoved a phone into Xue Rui's hand.
"My uncle?" Xue Rui took the phone. Sure enough, a familiar voice came from the other end.
"Xiaorui, I'm passing by your school. Want to come out for some barbecue?"
Xue Rui didn't have a phone, so he had given all his friends and family Yi Bing's number.
"Wait for me. I'll be right there."
Xue Rui hung up and slipped to the back door of the classroom. Hunching over to avoid the teacher's line of sight, he poked Qiu Mengze in a ticklish spot, making him squirm and twist like a pretzel.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" Qiu Mengze cursed in a low voice.
He chuckled. "Come on, let's go get some barbecue."
When something this good came up, of course he couldn't forget his best bud.
Qiu Mengze was bored out of his mind. He couldn't focus on his studies, and he didn't know what to do for fun, especially since Xue Rui, his usual chat buddy, had been gone all day.
When Xue Rui beckoned him to come out, he glanced at the teacher on the podium, confirmed it was safe, and hunched over to sneak out as well.
"Where'd you get barbecue?" Qiu Mengze asked.
"You'll know when we get there."
That's how it is between boys—a kind of unconditional trust.
It's like if A says, "Come on, let's go out."
B: "Where to?"
A: "Dunno."
B: "Alright, let's go."
The two of them avoided crowded areas, sticking close to the walls as they slipped out of the academic building.
To leave school during evening study hall, you obviously couldn't use the main gate. To get out openly through the front, you needed either a leave-of-absence slip or a day-student pass, neither of which Xue Rui had.
He might forget where the school infirmary was, but the "doggy door" for sneaking off campus was fresh in Xue Rui's memory.
They reached a corner of the school's perimeter fence. A few bars at the bottom had been cut, creating a hole you could crawl through.
Xue Rui never crawled through it; he always just vaulted right over the top of the fence.
Hands up, a push, and a landing—all in one smooth motion.
By the time Xue Rui was standing on the side of the road, Qiu Mengze was still twisting and wiggling his way through the doggy door.
Xue Rui thought crawling through the hole was too undignified and you could easily rip your clothes.
Qiu Mengze, on the other hand, thought vaulting the fence was too dangerous. There were too many spikes on top, and you could easily snag your balls if you weren't careful.
Different paths, yet they could still scheme together.
"Xiaorui!"
A young man in his twenties whistled at Xue Rui. His expression was full of flamboyance and nonchalance, and he bore a slight resemblance to Xue Rui.
"How did you know I'd come out from here?" Xue Rui asked, a little surprised.
This young man was Xue Rui's uncle, Ren Jun.
Ren Jun was only five or six years older than Xue Rui, so there wasn't any of the usual stiffness between an elder and a junior. Instead, they got along like peers.
"I graduated from No. 2 High, too." Ren Jun pointed at the doggy door behind Qiu Mengze and said with a roguish grin, "I'm the one who made this hole, way back when."