Volume Two: The Youth of a Thousand Faces, Falsehood Wearing the Mask of Truth Chapter Eighty-Seven: Shangguan Yudie’s Collapse

The Star Society’s gathering ended quickly. With this round’s earnings, and with Jiang Feng’s generous support, the society’s reserves had, in one stroke, risen to the level of a major organization. At the same time, though, the Stars’ consumption was immense, because they had Ke Zhen’s comprehensive training plan: strengthening everyone according to their individual strengths and weaknesses. Without the burden that larger societies carried in caring for their lower-ranking members, they could pool vast resources together. In this way, every one of them would improve at a pace no slower than the club’s leader himself.

Huo Ye returned home and lay idly in his rocking chair. His thoughts were in turmoil. Jin Puxian’s nightmare eye technique had left him deeply shaken. Seeing Qingxue’s illusion was not terrifying. He felt guilty, he felt sad, but he was not the kind of person who would wallow forever. If he had been the sort to stop moving the moment he lost the one he loved, then he would not have been at Bankloff now, preparing for the future Death God Hunting Corps.

Anger was always fleeting. Once the matter passed, Huo Ye would realize just how impulsive his killing intent toward Jin Puxian had been.

Only Pandora... Huo Ye did not think that figure was an illusion created by Jin Puxian’s eye technique. Otherwise, one snap of Pandora’s fingers would not have shattered the entire consciousness space. So there was an eighty percent chance that what he had said was true.

“In a sense, I am you, and yet not you.”

What on earth did that mean? Huo Ye thought he really ought to ask his father about it later, but not over a flying message. After all, no one knew whether his crystal brain was being monitored by some supposedly nonexistent organization within the colonial government, if the one who had wiped out the entire advance force was really him.

He was still lost in thought when he suddenly sensed someone approaching. It was either Alice or Shangguan Yudie, so he simply stopped thinking about it. If it really was Shangguan Yudie, then even the slightest chance meant he had to guard against her reading his mind. It was not that Huo Ye did not trust her. It was just that this secret would be better kept by no one but himself.

And sure enough, when she sat down in the rocking chair beside him, he saw that it was Shangguan Yudie.

“Come out to soak up the moonlight too?” Huo Ye said with a terrible joke.

Shangguan Yudie shook her head. “I was worried about you.”

Huo Ye froze for a moment, then laughed. “What nonsense are you talking? What could be wrong with me? Worried about me, indeed.”

“Brother Ye.” Shangguan Yudie’s cool voice rang out. Her starlike eyes fixed tightly on Huo Ye as she said with deep concern, “Stop pretending with me. You’ve been angry all night, and you’ve cried in your room several times. I can feel it.”

The corner of Huo Ye’s mouth twitched. “Can you not see through it and then blurt it out?”

“Uh...” Shangguan Yudie was left speechless. That was true; saying it so plainly really would make Brother Ye lose face.

Huo Ye drew a deep breath and said, “Forget it. There’s nothing worth saying about this kind of thing anyway. Life rarely goes the way one wants. You know what happened two years ago. I can’t even say what was so good about her. Her looks were at most delicate, her dress was plain and unfashionable, and her outlook was in an entirely different world from mine. The only thing you could really call a virtue was that innocent brightness born of never having seen how cruel the world can be. But... I just liked her. I liked her so much I could never forget her. What was I supposed to do?”

Shangguan Yudie stared at him in a daze. She had never expected Huo Ye to be so devoted. She could not help asking, “Then, Brother Ye, will you fall in love with other girls?”

“Of course.” Huo Ye answered without hesitation. “I’m not that fragile, and I’m not stupid enough to spend my whole life alone just because of Qingxue. It’s just that finding a girl as lovable as her will be very difficult.”

For some reason, hearing that made Shangguan Yudie feel a little sour. As a girl, listening to a boy praise another girl right in front of her always stirred up some inexplicable emotion.

Who would have thought that Huo Ye would suddenly change the subject and tease her instead? “Come to think of it, Little Jade, you’re pretty cute too. Want to try dating Brother Ye?”

Shangguan Yudie’s ears turned crimson at once. She panicked completely, speaking so fast she stumbled over her words. “I-I-I-I already have someone I like. Brother Ye, y-you really are outstanding, b-but...”

“Hahaha!” Huo Ye suddenly burst out laughing. Several residents in the same building immediately lit their lamps, and some even shouted out curses about having no public decency.

Huo Ye laughed for a long while. When he had finally had his fill, he wiped away the tears from laughing and said, “All right, I was only teasing you. Look how scared you got.” He stood up, hands in his pockets, and headed toward his room. “Go back and sleep. We still have class and training tomorrow. Busy, busy. As for romance, I’ll think about that when I have the time.”

Shangguan Yudie stood rooted to the spot. So it really had been a joke? Why, for an instant, had she felt something like... the amused mood of a teacher setting a test? How strange.

Huo Ye let out a soft sigh and murmured in a voice so faint only he could hear it, “As expected... it really is only Night Rain Cold Crow.”

Rarely, Huo Ye slept in, not waking until five the next morning. After he had consciously ignored his body clock for long enough, it finally could not bear it anymore and demanded to be acknowledged. He got up to cook. After thinking about it, he casually made some hand-pulled noodles. But while even Alice, who usually slept like a koala, had already gotten up, there was no sign of Shangguan Yudie.

Huo Ye walked to Shangguan Yudie’s door and knocked lightly. “Little Jade, are you up? Time for breakfast.”

Shangguan Yudie’s voice came from inside. “I... I’m up. I’m a little unwell. You two go on ahead. I’m taking the day off today.”

“All right,” Huo Ye said. “I’ll make some porridge and leave it here. Heat it up and drink it when you feel better.”

“Uh, thank you.” Her voice drifted out from behind the door.

“Is Little Jade all right?” Alice asked.

“She should be fine. She sounds healthy enough. Superhumans recover quickly from illness anyway. She might even be fine by tonight when we get back,” Huo Ye said.

“Really?” Alice glanced strangely at Shangguan Yudie’s door. For some reason, she had the feeling Shangguan Yudie was not actually sick.

Huo Ye and Alice left the apartment. Only then did Shangguan Yudie quietly open her door. Through the crack, she saw the bowl of white porridge Huo Ye had left on the table, and the cool boiled water with a tissue laid over the rim of the cup. Her face instantly flushed scarlet.

Her knees went weak, and she dropped to the floor. Though no one was there at all, she still covered her burning cheeks in embarrassment and let out a string of incoherent cries: “Aaahhh! This is so embarrassing, so embarrassing! Why, why is Brother Ye Night Rain Teacher?!”

The thing Huo Ye had feared had, in the end, come to pass.

--------------------

The night before

After Huo Ye had finished speaking and sighing, Shangguan Yudie still felt that something was off. So she activated the ability Huo Ye feared most: an advanced form of psychic waves, mind reading.

“As expected, he only likes Night Rain Cold Crow, not me. If he knew that Night Rain Cold Crow is me, what would he think?”

“Eh?” — “Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh?!!”

After a full five seconds of stunned silence, Shangguan Yudie’s whole mind plunged into chaos. Countless words flashed through her head in a torrent:

Brother Ye, Night Rain Teacher, brother-like, idol, mask, romance, friendship, family... What in the world was all this?!

Her eyes seemed to contain whirlpools that spun without end. She did not know whether she should rush back to her room and hide, or run up and seize Huo Ye by the arms and demand to know what on earth was going on. In the end, she chose neither.

She remained frozen in the rocking chair like that, all the way until the pitch-black horizon began to pale with the first white light of dawn.

“How am I supposed to face Little Ye from now on!”

Shangguan Yudie muttered to herself, utterly at a loss. Her world had been turned upside down since last night.