After Saving My Possessive Best Friend, I Couldn't Escape (GL) - Chapter 27

In her limited readings, the descriptions of these ‘numbers’ in the world of the book were not extensive.

This was especially true for the hidden number in front of her, who had “jumped the gun” prematurely due to her intervention.

Sun Li was a jerk—that much was certain. What made Fang Zhile feel a creeping sense of horror, however, was the fact that Sun Li was a subtle jerk, one who had been lurking for years.

She was like a poisonous vine, concealed beneath seemingly peaceful and normal circumstances. There are always dark, damp vines growing tangled beneath a lush tree, and if one isn’t careful, they will spread a toxic web.

Almost instantly, Fang Zhile’s first thought wasn’t whether “she” had actually been photographed in a scandalous way, but a rational “fear” that quickly spread up her spine: she vaguely recalled a sentence or two in Zhou Meize’s final repentance scene mentioning that Sun Li had subjected Ye Yu to some kind of covert bullying during high school.

Fang Zhile’s pupils narrowed to a pinprick, like a broken lake surface reflecting the sunset. The fractured light instantly crystallized into jagged, sharp arcs. Every shadowed curve reflected a light called rage, born from the pounding of her heart.

As Sun Li spoke, she shook the phone screen, which was completely white.

Fang Zhile watched her motionless. Her mind began frantically searching the memories of her character, but it was strange—the character’s high school memories were blank. When Fang Zhile transmigrated, she only received memories from before high school. The memories since entering high school seemed to have been destroyed along with the departure of the original soul.

In the original book, her character had no name. It was only after she entered that, along with the shifting timeline, the character was given a name. In the original book, she was just a marginal person who wrote homework for Zhou Meize, appearing once or twice, always with her head down, like a blurred face without any memorable traits.

Then, at some unknown point, she simply disappeared from the book.

The class bell rang, and everyone returned to their seats. Sun Li believed her threat had been effective, and her expression remained confident and triumphant throughout.

Fang Zhile sat down expressionlessly. The teacher on the platform dutifully explained the examples. Fang Zhile seemed to be listening but was actually recalling details since transmigrating: the initial incident where the three roommates treated her desk as the dorm’s trash can, locking her out of the room as they promised, and the revealing photos on her phone…

Once a person has a suspicion, they constantly deepen it.

The more Fang Zhile recalled, the more she felt something was amiss. The original owner had lost her parents long ago and was alone. Since transmigrating, aside from neighbors on the street, she hadn’t made a single friend at school. Yet, both the boss of “Xie Ji Braised Rice” and the uncle on the back street treated her well. Even Xiaohua, who feared humans, was willing to get close to her.

Although the memories of “Fang Zhile” were vague, that blurred face, combined with these clues, suggested she wasn’t a strange, aloof person who lacked friends entirely.

Unless something happened during high school that caused her to avoid all social interaction, curl up in her own world, and refuse to show her face again.

“The teacher is calling you,” Zhou Yunyi poked Fang Zhile’s elbow with a pen. “You spaced out.”

Fang Zhile snapped awake, staring blankly at the blackboard. The teacher frowned at her, holding half a broken piece of chalk. Oh, the other half is on her desk.

Fang Zhile touched her forehead. As she stood up, she glanced at the blackboard, quickly calculated the result in her mind, and recited the answer.

The teacher was satisfied with her correct answer and waved her to sit down. “Students, your time is very precious now. You have less than a year until the college entrance exam. If you understand the lecture, you can organize other incorrect problems, but you must not space out.”

Zhou Yunyi breathed a sigh of relief. “You scared me. I thought you wouldn’t know the answer.”

Fang Zhile stared at the blank test paper without a sound. After a moment, she suddenly whispered, “Zhou… Yunyi, right?”

Zhou Yunyi nodded. “What is it?”

“We’ve been desk mates for a while since the semester started,” Fang Zhile carefully chose her words. “What kind of person do you think I am?”

The question was sudden. Zhou Yunyi bit her pen tip, thought for a moment, and shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve been your deskmate for over a month, and you only started talking to me these past few days.”

“But,” Zhou Yunyi pondered, sounding a little troubled, “before, I always thought you were very negative and lifeless. You never lifted your head except to listen to the lecture.”

Fang Zhile frowned. “Do you know where I went after school?”

She found the job at the milk tea shop after transmigrating. The former Fang Zhile, if she wasn’t working, probably stayed in the classroom to study or returned to the dorm after school.

“I don’t know,” Zhou Yunyi smiled. “I go home after school. You always left quite late before. Why? Is there a problem?”

Fang Zhile changed her approach. “I’m just testing you. Seeing how much you know about me.”

Zhou Yunyi thought back, then suddenly whispered, “Ah, I remember.”

“Once, it must have been after school at noon, I saw several scratches on your arm. I asked you how you got them, and you said a little cat scratched you. That was the first time you volunteered so much information, and you even smiled. At the time, I thought you weren’t as aloof as you seemed,” Zhou Yunyi looked a little embarrassed. “To be honest, I thought you were hard to get along with before.”

Fang Zhile continued to probe this topic without batting an eye. “Was I hard to get along with before?”

Zhou Yunyi shook her head. “You just didn’t like to talk. That day, when I saw the injuries on your arm, I was scared. I thought you had been bullied.”

Fang Zhile was about to ask if she had ever witnessed her being bullied but stopped herself. There were no rumors about her in the class, and the timid Zhou Yunyi hadn’t avoided her, so it was highly likely she knew nothing. However, injuries and bullying—Zhou Yunyi had provided a new train of thought.

Classes and dismissal proceeded as usual. Ye Yu was busy writing the Ode to the Luo River Goddess, and Fang Zhile was closely monitoring stock fluctuations, missing several days of school to commute. The two hadn’t seen each other for days.

Fang Zhile left a message for Ye Yu on WeChat. The boss’s wife had brought back some high-quality coffee beans from abroad and left a few bags in the shop. She wanted to invite Ye Yu to try them when she saw them.

Ye Yu’s reply was slow and short, similar to her responses about lunch yesterday, effectively a refusal.

【Ye】: In a couple of days?

Fang Zhile thought she was busy and didn’t have time these two days, so she simply replied, “Work-life balance,” and put away her phone.

“Auntie,” Fang Zhile knocked on the infirmary window. The nurse on duty looked up. “Do you remember me?”

A look of the same kind of confusion Zhou Yunyi had shown when asked “What kind of person am I?” surfaced on the nurse’s face. “Who are you? What do you want?”

“It’s like this: the medicine I got last time worked really well, but I can’t remember the name. I’d like to get some more.” Fang Zhile smiled sweetly.

She was cute and polite. The nurse pondered in her confusion, then shook her head. “I can’t remember. So many students come here every day. How could I remember everyone? What was the medicine for last time? Headaches? Fever?”

Fang Zhile stated a symptom based on her guess. “Bruises, swelling, and sprains.”

“Ah,” the nurse slapped her forehead and broke into a smile. “I remember now. You’re the one from the advanced class who missed a step on the stairs and twisted her arm when she rolled down!”

The nurse came out from the inner room and looked Fang Zhile up and down with concern. “I haven’t seen you since then. How’s your recovery?”

Fang Zhile probed, “It takes a hundred days for bones and muscles to heal, but I feel pretty good now.”

“It really has been a long time,” the nurse said, mentioning the date. “You were still in first year of high school then. That was a year ago.”

“Oh, you were injured so badly that time,” once the memory of one person surfaced, related memories often followed. The nurse sighed with emotion. “You were covered in mud. I was so scared I almost called an ambulance, but you stopped me and calmly said you probably didn’t have any broken bones, asking me to clean your wound and prescribe some anti-inflammatory and anti-swelling medicine.”

The origin of the incident suddenly found a starting point in the timeline.

A year ago, “Fang Zhile” had just entered high school.