MNL Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Stalking? Get Lost, I’m Not Gay.

Yan Zhe on the video call was stunned for a few seconds before swallowing hard and hesitantly saying, “Jing-ge, you’re not kidding, are you?”

“Do I look like I’m joking with you?” Xu Jing shifted his gaze from the screen. “Hanging up.”

He couldn’t completely confirm whether this person was the suspect. If he rashly called the police, it might cause unnecessary trouble. Xu Jing called Qin Xin. The voice on the other end was very quiet when she first answered, likely because she was busy. Xu Jing knew she was in class, so he hung up without saying anything and sent her a message asking when she would be back.

The message wasn’t immediately replied to. Xu Jing put away his phone and followed closely in the direction the figure had disappeared.

This area wasn’t large, mostly consisting of winding roads, but the person in front was walking leisurely and openly under the surveillance cameras, which lessened Xu Jing’s suspicion.

Just one more road crossing and they’d be near home. Xu Jing was contemplating what he should do next when, in the brief moment a bus passed by, the person vanished!

The person had been walking slowly the whole way. Even without paying much attention, it was easy to keep up. How could they suddenly disappear at this moment?

Xu Jing looked around and found that they were indeed gone. But since the person lived next door, they would meet again sooner or later. Based on their attire alone, he couldn’t be sure if this was the person the police were looking for. Moreover, if they really were, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to parade around in this outfit.

Thinking this, Xu Jing decided to just go home.

Qin Xin replied with a message two minutes ago. It was quite long, saying that the school was busy, and she really couldn’t find the time to come home. She probably wouldn’t be able to come home for the next few days. Besides that, she added quite a few emotional words at the end.

Xu Jing wasn’t used to it. He replied with “Okay,” then thought for a moment and added, “Rest well.”

The apartment building’s main entrance was under renovation. The ground was covered in paint and steel frames. Not only was the path difficult to walk, but the air was also filled with the smell of formaldehyde. Xu Jing decisively chose to take another route.

He discovered this entrance through a cat. The cat was small and didn’t like to take the usual paths. He had seen it in strange places several times.

Unlike other places, the small path required climbing over low walls or squeezing through holes in the corner. It led to the back door of the apartment building. Climbing walls was a little difficult for Xu Jing to accept, but he’d rather choose this than endure the pungent smell at the main entrance.

The person who jumped down from the wall distastefully brushed off the dust that had stuck to the hem of their clothes. It was quiet and silent all around. At this moment, he felt inexplicably uneasy, as if something was about to happen.

With this feeling in mind, Xu Jing walked quickly. He only breathed a slight sigh of relief when he saw the back door of the apartment building. But before that breath could even settle, a voice suddenly came from behind him as he was about to push the door open.

“Still planning to follow?”

The voice that fell was cold and stern, yet the tone carried a hint of mockery.

It was that person.

Xu Jing’s hand gripping the doorknob tightened. He slowly turned his head back. “What are you talking about?”

The person approached two steps, their dark eyes unfathomable. “Following me for two kilometers, and you’re asking me?”

Xu Jing frowned and said, “Is this road your property?”

The provocative meaning in his words was obvious, but the person in front of him didn’t say anything after hearing it. Nor did they continue to press the issue. They coldly withdrew their gaze and finally turned around and walked inside.

Baffling.

Xu Jing completely threw out the fact that he was indeed following the other person.

A “ding” from his phone pulled him back to reality.

[Zhe Shen]: I’m at your door, when are you coming back?

The person was obviously going home. If Yan Zhe wasn’t absorbed in playing games or chatting with girls, he should have noticed. Knowing his personality, he would most likely rush up.

Thinking this, Xu Jing quickened his pace.

The elevator door opened, revealing a person squatting in front of his door without any regard for their image, their nimble fingers moving quickly across the screen.

“Defending the base, huh?”

“What’s the jungler doing?”

“I’m really impressed, this level should hurry home and farm.”

A few seconds later, the word “Defeat” echoed through the hallway. Yan Zhe pounded the ground in anger.

Hoping Yan Zhe would be useful at a critical moment was like hoping a sow would climb a tree. Xu Jing felt that Lin Jiayu’s words were becoming more and more valuable.

“Still playing? Playing all the way to No.4 High School.”

The voice suddenly dropped. Yan Zhe heard it, chuckled, propped himself up from the ground, and replied, “Jing-ge, you know I want to sleep as soon as I read a book, I’m not cut out for it.”

There weren’t many high schools in Linhe City. Only four were well-known. No.1 High School was a key high school, sending a large number of students to prestigious universities every year. No.2 and No.3 High Schools were slightly inferior. But No.4 High School, everyone usually didn’t mention it. If someone’s child got into this school, their parents wouldn’t want to talk about it. This school was established recently. To put it nicely, it’s an ordinary high school, but everyone who went there knew that it wasn’t much different from a vocational high school.

The two stood at the door for a while. Yan Zhe’s reaction was slow for half a century.

“Right, Jing-ge, why aren’t you opening the door?”

Xu Jing sneered, “How do I open it?”

“With the key, of course.”

“Where’s the key?”

“…”

Yan Zhe understood. It was all his fault.

“What about Auntie Xin? Don’t you have two keys? I’ll go get it from Auntie, it’s not far anyway.”

“An hour by car, the locksmith will be here in ten minutes.”

Yan Zhe said “Okay” softly. He didn’t dare to push the topic any further, because Xu Jing would throw him off the sixth floor in the next second if he did.

“By the way, were you serious on the phone? Did you call the police?”

Xu Jing looked at the time and asked strangely, “Didn’t you see him just now?”

“No.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a burst of footsteps echoed through the floor.

Yan Zhe, realizing what was happening, couldn’t calm down. “No way…”

Under the gaze of two pairs of eyes, the person who appeared from the stairwell this time didn’t even glance at them, walking straight into 602, treating them like air the whole time.

It took almost ten minutes to walk up to the sixth floor, what turtle speed.

Although it was inappropriate, Xu Jing couldn’t help but complain in his heart.

At this moment, Yan Zhe had already taken out his phone and was preparing to dial 110, but Xu Jing stopped him with his hand.

“Let’s see.”

The locksmith who came was an old stubborn man who had been doing this for many years. After arriving, he insisted that a minor had to have a parent present to open the door. Xu Jing was too lazy to argue and was about to switch to another locksmith company when Yan Zhe suddenly kicked his legs and erupted into a earth-shattering cough, clutching his chest. His breathing was rapid and short, as if he was about to suffocate.

The old locksmith was startled.

“H-h-h-he, what’s wrong with him?”

Xu Jing was also stunned for a moment, then met the eyes of Yan Zhe.

—Cooperate, cooperate with me!

“He has asthma, the medicine is in the room.”

“If you don’t open it, he’ll die.”

The two extremely calm sentences scared the person asking half to death. The old man hurriedly opened the toolbox, performing a series of operations like a tiger, his hands whirling sparks in a hurry.

The lock took five minutes to open, Yan Zhe gasped for four and a half minutes.

He really couldn’t catch his breath for the remaining half minute, he went on a mid-game break.

As soon as the door opened, the old man ran away, even without taking the money, for fear that Yan Zhe would extort him.

Yan Zhe laughed so hard that he couldn’t stand up straight. “Hahahahaha, am I awesome? Was my acting realistic?”

“Realistic.” Xu Jing commented objectively, “Like an idiot.”

“…”

After entering the door, Yan Zhe lay sprawled on the sofa and said, “Jing-ge, I might as well not go back tonight. I’ll stay here and keep you company.”

Xu Jing paused his drinking motion. “Get lost, I’m not gay.”

Yan Zhe almost choked to death on his own saliva.

If someone else had said this, he probably would have already rushed forward and beaten them to the ground. But it was Xu Jing, not to mention their friendship, the main reason was that he would definitely be the one beaten up in the end.

Others might not know, but he had seen how deceptive Xu Jing’s face was. He looked gentle and refined, but if he really started a fight, he had never seen anyone more ruthless.

Yan Zhe and Xu Jing were middle school classmates. At the beginning, the two were just deskmates and weren’t familiar with each other. It wasn’t until their second year of middle school when a math teacher was changed. The teacher’s strict teaching style completely broke Yan Zhe’s comfortable laid-back life. If he couldn’t handle the homework, he could only grit his teeth and write it. However, none of his friends knew how to study. After careful consideration, Yan Zhe could only choose to ask for help from the top student in the grade in front of him. At the beginning, he pretended to ask for answers in the way of discussing problems. Actually, Xu Jing had already known what this person was thinking. In the end, he ran out of patience and just handed over the homework without saying an extra word.

Yan Zhe was very touched by this, but only on the surface. Xu Jing had a high and cold aura, with the words “Stay away from me” written all over him. Moreover, one of them was at the top of the grade list and the other was at the bottom, they were completely unrelated.

After half a year, things suddenly changed. Yan Zhe’s friends outside of school caused trouble, and they mistakenly found him. At that time, there were more than a dozen people surrounding him. Yan Zhe was weak and alone, and he was ready to be beaten up. As a result, a person suddenly appeared.

Looking at those slender white arms, Yan Zhe felt even more desperate. Isn’t this just one more person to be beaten up? But he couldn’t involve others in his affairs. Looking at the person who rushed up, he quickly tried to block Xu Jing behind him, but in an instant, he saw a graceful arc flashing before his eyes, and the leading burly man on the opposite side flew several meters away.

At that moment, Yan Zhe was dumbfounded.

But he was surprised too early. Looking at the group of yellow-haired people writhing on the ground and crying in pain, he just wanted to kneel down and call Xu Jing “Big Brother.”

And that’s how the two really became close.

“I said, can you not look at me with that kind of look?” Xu Jing looked somewhat physically uncomfortable.

Yan Zhe was stunned. “What kind of look?”

“Intense adoration and infatuation.”

After two seconds of silence, an earth-shattering roar came from the house.

“I’m fucking straight!!!”