The Sticky Gaze and the Seeds of Doubt

The next day, when Ye Shengge woke up, the sensation of that sticky gaze scanning his body remained clearly etched in his mind.

He sat on the bed with his hair slightly messy, staring blankly at the sheets. For a moment, he couldn’t distinguish whether that feeling between being half-asleep and half-awake was real or not.

Unfortunately, he was the only one left in the dormitory. He didn’t know where the other two had gone, so he couldn’t even find someone to ask.

As for the audience, who might have also witnessed what happened last night, they didn’t send a single bullet-chat message.

Not a single one.

After confirming this fact, Ye Shengge couldn’t help but frown.

It was strangely quiet.

As if sensing his thoughts, the next moment, dense layers of bullet-chat messages suddenly appeared before him.

[Waaaah, the live-stream is finally open! I thought something happened to you, Wife qaq, I was so scared I couldn’t sleep all night.] [The stream was suddenly cut last night. I didn’t even have time to remind the silly wife that he slept in the wrong bed.] [Is now the time to care about the wrong bed? If you’re going to care, care about what actually happened last night.] [Exactly, exactly! Wife, what on earth happened last night? Why was the stream cut so suddenly?] […]

From the bullet-chats, Ye Shengge roughly pieced together what had happened the previous night.

Due to exhaustion, he hadn’t climbed to the upper bunk. Instead, he had accidentally occupied Mu Jinran’s bed.

Furthermore, while the audience was discussing this, the stream had abruptly cut out and only restarted a moment ago.

No one knew what had happened after the broadcast stopped.

“It’s nothing. Maybe the system saw it was bedtime and automatically closed the stream,” Ye Shengge said, shaking his head and glossing over the issue for the viewers in the chat.

As for that sticky gaze and the hazy voice, he couldn’t be sure if they were real or just part of a dream. Therefore, he didn’t mention them to avoid making everyone worry.

However, once Mu Jinran returned, he could ask him indirectly if anything had happened after he fell asleep.

Just as this thought surfaced, the dormitory door was pushed open.

“Mu Jinran told me to tell you that he has something to do this morning and had to go to class early.”

It was Jiang Yan, who had returned with a sour face and breakfast in hand. His tone was very displeased.

The youth sitting on the bed suddenly turned his head to look at him, his eyes full of confusion and distrust.

Because he didn’t believe Mu Jinran would ask Jiang Yan—with whom he had a terrible relationship—to pass on a message, Ye Shengge’s movement was a bit too wide. The school-issued pajamas were already loose, and now half the garment slipped down his shoulder.

Looking at that exposed, fair, and rounded shoulder, as well as the faint hint of pink on his chest, the irritability on Jiang Yan’s face vanished instantly. He froze in place, his face flushing red, but his eyes never left the youth’s shoulder.

He was like a starving hound, greedily and fiercely scanning the youth’s exposed skin, which was as white and dazzling as snow. He looked terrifying, as if he might pounce and start licking or biting at any second.

Facing such an explicit, searching gaze, Ye Shengge felt uncomfortable all over.

He hurriedly reached out to pull up the fallen clothing, then grabbed the school uniform sitting at the head of the bed and ran toward the bathroom, leaving not a single word for Jiang Yan, who stood at the door dazed and clutching the breakfast.

One couldn’t blame Ye Shengge for such a big reaction; Jiang Yan’s scanning gaze felt exactly like the sticky vision he had sensed in his half-asleep state last night.

Even though he knew it was unlikely the two were the same, instinctively, he wanted to distance himself.

While adjusting his strange state of mind, he quickly changed into his uniform and washed up. Then, he slowly walked over to the table laden with breakfast.

Jiang Yan, leaning back in his chair playing with his phone, clicked the screen off. The tips of his ears were still slightly red as he said to Ye Shengge in a dry tone: “Sit down and eat. After eating, I’ll go to the classroom with you.”

Ye Shengge found Jiang Yan’s “pure” appearance somewhat unusual, but he still politely declined: “Thank you, but even if Mu Jinran left early, I can buy breakfast and go to the classroom by myself.”

“You, go buy breakfast?” Seeing his rare kindness rejected, Jiang Yan sneered and held his phone out in front of Ye Shengge: “My little ancestor, look at what time it is. By the time you rush to the cafeteria and finish eating, class will have already started.”

Looking at the time displayed on the screen, Ye Shengge’s confidence was instantly punctured.

He had woken up late, and washing up and changing had taken extra time. Now, there were less than twenty minutes before class—not enough time to keep messing around.

And Jiang Yan’s next sentence made it impossible for him to refuse.

“As for going to the classroom alone, are you sure you won’t get lost while walking?” Jiang Yan’s tone held no mockery; he was stating a plain truth, but hearing it made one feel utterly embarrassed.

Ye Shengge couldn’t find a reason to refuse, so he obediently sat in the chair, took the chopsticks Jiang Yan handed him, and began to eat small bites of the lavish breakfast spread.

Aside from everything else, the breakfast in this dungeon was quite delicious.

Seeing him eat so happily, Jiang Yan couldn’t help but join in for a few extra bites.

The table full of food was finished between the two of them, one bite at a time.

After finishing breakfast, Ye Shengge wiped his mouth with a napkin and said gently to Jiang Yan: “Let’s go.”

As the saying goes, “eating someone’s food softens the mouth.” Having eaten the breakfast Jiang Yan bought, he felt too embarrassed to keep treating him coldly.

Jiang Yan had been focusing on Ye Shengge the whole time, so he naturally noticed the change in attitude. His mood instantly became cheerful. As he led the little ancestor outside, he muttered to himself about how buying this breakfast was absolutely the right move.

“This road is completely different from the one Mu Jinran took me on to get back to the dorm last night. Is this also a way to the classroom?” Ye Shengge asked curiously, glancing at the small woods behind them.

When he heard this question, Jiang Yan was still thinking about how to get rid of Mu Jinran tomorrow so he could keep bringing Ye Shengge breakfast. Hearing the question, he subconsciously followed the youth’s gaze and saw the cool, dark little woods.

“You mean the little woods he took you through last night?” Jiang Yan’s tone sounded somewhat dangerous.

Ye Shengge nodded. Recalling the scene of walking through the woods last night, he couldn’t help but shudder: “If there are other paths, I’ll tell Mu Jinran so he doesn’t take that one anymore. It’s really too scary.”

Hearing this addition, Jiang Yan felt as disgusted as if he had swallowed a fly.

However, this disgust wasn’t directed at Ye Shengge, but at Mu Jinran.

“I knew that pretending dog didn’t have good intentions,” Jiang Yan sneered, his eyes staring straight at Ye Shengge as he said seriously: “Mu Jinran is not a good person. Don’t believe a word he says. With how simple-minded you are, you won’t even know when he’s tricked you into being sold, and you’ll still be foolishly counting the money for him.”

Ye Shengge instinctively wanted to refute his words.

But Jiang Yan didn’t want to hear a single word in defense of Mu Jinran. He cut him off, saying: “Don’t doubt me. If there are so many paths from the classroom to the dormitory, why did he specifically choose the one that looks the most gloomy and terrifying? It’s because he wants to scare you so that you’ll rely on him. Don’t fall for his trap.”

His words were logical, his tone sincere, and his expression serious.

Even though Ye Shengge still believed in Mu Jinran, facing Jiang Yan’s heart-to-heart persuasion, he couldn’t help but feel a few sparks of doubt and suspicion.

The matter with the little woods was indeed a bit subtle…

“But you don’t need to worry too much.” Seeing the youth’s serious, thoughtful expression, Jiang Yan knew the seed of doubt had been successfully planted, and he felt even happier. He lifted his head and said boastfully: “Even if Mu Jinran is unreliable, it doesn’t matter. Don’t you still have me by your side? You can come find me anytime.”

Ye Shengge: “…”

For some reason, even though it was a serious matter, hearing it from Jiang Yan’s mouth made it feel childish—like a kid snitching just to compete for an adult’s attention.