The Debt Collector’s Shadow

What, what’s the matter, Senior? Roommate C’s curiosity was instantly sparked.

The other two roommates instinctively edged closer, while Lin Yating’s hand, clutching her phone, froze mid-air.

“Just yesterday… loan sharks were directly blocking the school gate,” Zhou Yi recounted, her gaze sweeping across them with a worried expression. “I’m just giving you a heads-up; it’s probably best to be extra vigilant when you go out alone these days.”

The incessant chime of QR code scans filled the air, yet every person remained utterly frozen.

Roommate A gasped sharply. “Is that true? The kind with violent debt collection?”

Roommate B instinctively clapped a hand over her mouth. “No way… someone at our school is actually being targeted?”

“The most terrifying part,” Zhou Yi continued, seeing the mood had shifted, and seizing the opportunity to fan the flames, “was that several burly, menacing men showed up. They cornered a girl, adamantly claiming she was the borrower’s girlfriend, and threatened that if she didn’t pay immediately, she could forget about graduating.”

She deliberately paused, allowing a palpable tension to settle over the group.

“Oh my god!” Roommate C gripped the hem of her shirt. “What happened then?”

Zhou Yi leaned forward conspiratorially. “That girl was absolutely terrified on the spot, crying hysterically, and no amount of explanation could convince anyone. In the end, the security department had to intervene, reviewing over two hours of surveillance footage before they could finally prove she had absolutely no connection to the borrower.”

“That’s… absolutely terrifying,” Roommate A whispered, covering her mouth.

Roommate B hugged her arms tighter. “They dare to act like this in broad daylight? That’s utterly lawless!”

Roommate C couldn’t resist lowering her voice, a mix of curiosity and fear in her tone. “Senior… do you, do you know who that person who borrowed the money… is?”

With her single question, the atmosphere in the dorm room instantly reached a fever pitch. Everyone held their breath, and even Lin Yating unconsciously tightened her grip on her phone.

Zhou Yi feigned hesitation. “Actually…” She silently offered an apology to Chen Hao, knowing full well that one must always bait the hook to catch a fish. “It’s Chen Hao from our business school.”

“Chen Hao?!” Roommate A gasped, her eyes instinctively darting towards Lin Yating.

The instant Lin Yating heard the name “Chen Hao,” her face drained of all color, turning stark white.

Zhou Yi observed everything, a cold smirk forming inwardly. Then, blinking with feigned innocence, she asked with an air of curiosity, “Oh? You… you don’t happen to know Chen Hao as well, do you?”

A flurry of unnatural expressions flickered across the faces of the other roommates. Some offered dry laughs, lowering their heads to pretend to smooth their clothes; others frantically grabbed their teacups, taking sips of water to mask their unease; still others let their gazes drift evasively elsewhere.

“N-no, not at all…”

“We’re not really close…”

“It’s just… we’ve only heard his name, that’s all…”

Lin Yating, meanwhile, remained silent, her head bowed and her face still disturbingly pale.

Zhou Yi listened to their scattered denials, then offered a considerate smile. “That’s good to hear then.”

Yet, inwardly, she let out a cold scoff.

In the past, whenever Chen Hao bought gifts for Lin Yating, he never failed to ‘take care’ of her “best friends.”

He would always include lipsticks for her roommates when buying perfume for Lin Yating, and whenever he reserved a restaurant, it was always an entire private room. These so-called “best friends” hadn’t been so reserved when sharing his thoughtful gifts back then.

Now, however, they were all pretending to be strangers.

After a few strained laughs, the dorm room fell into a temporary silence.

Zhou Yi’s gaze slowly swept over the roommates, whose eyes darted away nervously. This group of people, who had enjoyed his food and drinks, now, at this crucial moment, didn’t even dare to acknowledge his name.

Sensing the moment was ripe, she knew it was time to deliver the final, crushing blow.

Resuming her worried expression, she began her concluding remarks: “If you ask me, anyone who’s received gifts from Chen Hao or had any financial dealings with him is in serious trouble right now. These loan sharks are desperate; they’ll latch onto anyone who looks like a beneficiary, forcing them to shoulder the debt. Who can you even appeal to when such an undeserved calamity strikes?”

She uttered that final sentence almost directly to Lin Yating.

Lin Yating managed to force a laugh, attempting to brush the topic aside lightly. “Ah, haha… Senior, you’re quite the storyteller. You make it sound so real, it’s… it’s almost a little frightening…”

‘Go on, pretend! Keep up the act! Let’s see how long this facade of yours can last!’ Zhou Yi scoffed inwardly.

“This isn’t just a story, you know,” Zhou Yi gently shook her head, a timely hint of gravity settling on her features. “These are all things that have genuinely happened. It’s precisely because the situation is so extraordinary that the school is treating it with such gravity, urgently dispatching me to conduct this investigation.”

“Speaking of which… I wonder if anyone here might have, perhaps inadvertently, received a transfer or a gift from Chen Hao? Junior, have you?” Zhou Yi asked, her expression utterly guileless as she gazed at Lin Yating.

“N-no! Absolutely not! How could I possibly accept… anything from a person like that?” Lin Yating hastily disavowed.

Zhou Yi raised an eyebrow. ‘Ha, that reaction is practically a self-incrimination!’

“Oh, that’s good then,” Zhou Yi said, giving her phone a slight shake.

“However, I’ve heard he’s been quite lavish lately, giving out a considerable number of gifts. If the school were to truly investigate the financial flows, cross-referencing transfer times, and checking location records…” Zhou Yi clicked her tongue, shaking her head. “Tsk, that situation… it could get rather messy, couldn’t it?”

The composure on Lin Yating’s face finally fractured, piece by agonizing piece.

“I don’t know! I haven’t, anyway! Why are you telling me all of this?!” Her voice abruptly escalated, piercing the quiet.

The atmosphere in the dorm room suddenly grew rigid and uncomfortable.

The other roommates exchanged uneasy glances, then instinctively recoiled backward in unison.

“Oh, it’s nothing, nothing at all; I was just casually bringing it up,” Zhou Yi said, blinking innocently as her gaze swept over the visibly agitated roommates. “Why are you all so tense?”

“However… I hear the school is really getting serious this time. Those expensive gifts, like designer bags and limited-edition jewelry, are definitely going to be prioritized for investigation. The targets are quite obvious, after all.”

“I’m just giving you a friendly warning: if you really get ‘invited’ to the ‘dark room’ for a chat… that experience would be truly awful. I’ve heard they interrogate you individually for four or five hours, even cross-referencing everyone’s testimonies…”

Zhou Yi’s fingertips gently traced the rim of her teacup, savoring the sudden shifts in everyone’s expressions.

It was as if a Werewolf had suddenly revealed their role card; fear instantly erupted in every pair of eyes.

Sure enough, Roommate A and Roommate B’s faces immediately contorted. Their eyes instinctively flickered towards the expensive bottles and jars on Lin Yating’s table, then, recalling the lavish meals and gifts they had occasionally ‘borrowed,’ their expressions became a mixture of alarm and suspicion.

It was at this precise moment that Roommate C suddenly pushed up her glasses, as though a realization had just struck her.

“Hey, wait a minute… Yating, I think I just remembered… that really expensive, limited-edition new bag you were carrying last week… wasn’t that… ”

“What nonsense are you spouting?!”

A shrill, high-pitched voice burst from Lin Yating’s lips, her excessive reaction leaving everyone momentarily stunned.

Then, as if realizing her lapse in composure, she hastily tried to backtrack. “What I mean is… this, this was a birthday gift my cousin brought back from abroad! It has absolutely nothing to do with Chen Hao! Don’t just make baseless assumptions!”

She cast a frantic glance at the entire row of expensive skincare and cosmetics on her desk, then quickly added, “Those… those were all things I bought myself!”

However, her pallid justifications stood in stark, devastating contrast to her earlier composure.

A heavy silence descended upon the dorm room, as the other two roommates exchanged a complex, unreadable glance.