The Yandere’s Gaze and a Desperate Plan

Lin Yi, drenched in sweat, leaned against a thick wall in an inconspicuous corner, gasping for breath.

‘Terrifying, utterly terrifying,’ he thought. Just moments ago, as he fled, he’d felt a pair of eyes relentlessly fixed on him. Had he been even a fraction slower, he might have met his demise.

Slowly, Lin Yi sank to the ground, heedless of the dirt. Instinctively, his hand went to his chest, searching for the amulet he always wore—a small habit of his. Having been frail and sickly since childhood, the amulet had been a gift from his father, who claimed it would ward off disaster and evil. He had worn it around his neck ever since.

After fumbling for a while, Lin Yi suddenly realized: ‘I’ve transmigrated into a book! How could that amulet possibly have come with me?’

Just then, Lin Yi’s movements froze. He pulled his tightly clenched hand from his collar and opened his palm to reveal a familiar jade stone.

“What? You transmigrated too?”

Staring at the jade stone nestled in his palm, a preposterous yet strangely plausible idea began to take root in Lin Yi’s mind. ‘Could this thing be my cheat? Since I’ve already transmigrated, surely I’m owed some kind of compensation, right?’

As he pondered, footsteps reached Lin Yi’s ears. He looked up to see a striking young woman.

The girl appeared to be around one hundred and seventy centimeters tall, her long brown hair swaying gently in the breeze. Her attire was similar to Chen Sishi’s, save for the gray color of her bow.

She fixed her gaze on Lin Yi, her golden, almond-shaped eyes filled with both confusion and an unidentifiable emotion.

“Lin Yi? What are you doing running off to this place?”

Lin Yi shivered, quickly rising to his feet and feigning an air of normalcy. “Ahaha, Class Monitor, what brings you here?”

This girl was Qin Ruoxue, one of the original protagonist’s many “fish” in the novel, and also the Class Monitor of Class 3. She was strikingly beautiful, academically brilliant, and came from a wealthy family—the young mistress of a pharmaceutical company, if he recalled correctly.

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Qin Ruoxue retorted.

Qin Ruoxue blinked, noting his disheveled and dirty appearance. She reached out to brush the dust from him, but Lin Yi recoiled as if struck by an electric current.

He suddenly remembered that this very girl, in the later stages of the original novel, had also turned into a yandere—one who could rival the female lead.

‘Escaping the tiger’s maw only to stumble into the wolf’s den—how could any sane person endure this?’

“Ah… well… Class Monitor Qin, I-I have something to do, so I’ll be going now!”

The young woman watched the boy’s retreating back with a puzzled expression. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Lin Yi was acting strangely today.

‘Perhaps it’s just my imagination,’ she mused. ‘But seriously, what was he trying to do, getting himself into such a mess?’

“Did you see a boy, roughly one hundred and seventy-six centimeters tall?”

Still somewhat perplexed, Qin Ruoxue sighed inwardly, only for an eerie voice to suddenly cut through the air.

She jumped, startled, and was about to turn around to see who was playing tricks. But at that very moment, a slender, girlish hand seized Qin Ruoxue’s shoulder.

The hand’s temperature was chillingly low—unnervingly so. Qin Ruoxue could almost feel her own body heat being frantically absorbed by it.

“N-no, I didn’t see any boys here just now,” Qin Ruoxue stammered.

A bead of cold sweat trickled down her forehead. Qin Ruoxue struggled to maintain a normal expression, yet the tremor in her voice betrayed her fear.

The white-haired girl with dull eyes slowly stepped in front of Qin Ruoxue, her lifeless gaze fixed intently upon her.

“What… is your relationship with him?”

“Huh? I… I don’t know what you’re talking about. Who is he?”

The two girls stared at each other, until finally, the white-haired girl scoffed and let Qin Ruoxue go.

“No matter what your relationship with him is, he can only be mine…”

With that final declaration, Chen Sishi casually chose a direction and vanished from Qin Ruoxue’s sight.

Only after the girl’s shadow had completely disappeared did Qin Ruoxue collapse onto the ground, her limbs weak and jelly-like. The pressure the girl had exerted was immense, far exceeding the stress of facing a teacher’s stern questioning.

Gasping for air, Qin Ruoxue stared in the direction the girl had left, a fresh wave of confusion washing over her.

‘By her demeanor, it seems she’s looking for Lin Yi. What exactly is their relationship?’

****

Lin Yi ran desperately, a premonition growing in his heart: if he slowed down even a little, something terrifying would surely catch him.

In such situations, Lin Yi always instinctively trusted his gut feeling.

As he ran, Lin Yi’s stamina began to wane, but thankfully, he was almost back to his classroom.

‘Once I’m back in the classroom… I should be safe, right?’

*Thump!* Lin Yi, utterly focused on the corridor ahead, never anticipated someone suddenly emerging from around the corner. Unaware, he collided directly with them.

“Ah!”

Lin Yi stumbled back a few steps, finally seeing the person he’d knocked to the ground. She was a girl, perhaps a little over one hundred and sixty centimeters tall, and seemed to be a classmate from Class 3.

“Uh… I’m sorry, are you alright?”

The girl steadied herself and shook her head.

“N-no… I’m fine…”

However, when she looked up and saw Lin Yi, her expression froze. Lin Yi was somewhat bewildered; this girl was merely a minor character in the original novel, with very little plot involvement.

Lin Yi opened his mouth, intending to say something, but found he couldn’t recall the girl’s name. He could only offer an awkward, “Uh… is there something on my face?”

“Oh, no, nothing at all.”

Lin Yi’s lips twitched as he observed the girl’s infatuated gaze. ‘Is this the halo of a scumbag protagonist? The effect is terrifying!’

There was nothing for it. After all, Lin Yi wasn’t the original protagonist, and when faced with such situations, making a swift escape was always the best course of action.

He returned to the classroom without further incident, breathing a sigh of relief. It was almost time for class, and surely Chen Sishi wouldn’t come looking for him during lessons.

A moment later, the class bell rang as expected. Finally at ease, Lin Yi lazily slumped onto his desk, watching the students come and go at the doorway, a wave of nostalgia washing over him.

He recalled the last time he’d sat in a classroom, years ago. He never imagined that after such a long interval, he would once again experience the “joys” of school.

‘Seriously… did I really transmigrate?’

Even now, Lin Yi found it hard to believe he had actually transmigrated. He distinctly remembered being on a bus just moments ago, only to find himself in this school in the blink of an eye.

With a moment to spare, Lin Yi began to leisurely survey his surroundings. The environment was similar to his previous high school, though this one boasted many more facilities.

For instance, things like swimming pools and boxing gyms were absent from his old school. The main teaching building here was about six stories tall, with a moderately sized sports field directly in front of it. According to the original novel, this field was typically used for assemblies, such as flag-raising ceremonies.

On either side of the teaching building stood the cafeteria and the boxing gym. The cafeteria needed no explanation, while the boxing gym was primarily for competitions and performances, rarely open for general use.

Behind the teaching building stretched a long track, encompassing basketball courts, football fields, volleyball courts, and ping-pong tables—making it the largest area of the entire school.

Beyond the track lay a building similar to the teaching block, though overall larger. This served as the dormitory, and it also housed a large cinema that could double as a performance venue.

As for the swimming pool, it was located within the dormitory building. Since the original protagonist wasn’t a resident there, the novel had only briefly mentioned it.

Pulling his thoughts back, Lin Yi watched the teacher incessantly writing and drawing on the blackboard, feeling a surge of boredom. This knowledge differed from that of his previous world; while science subjects were mostly fine, with fundamental principles unchanged, subjects like geography, which the teacher was currently expounding upon, were vastly different. Lin Yi couldn’t absorb a single word. Rather than listening to this seemingly useless information, he decided it was better to consider his current predicament.

Lin Yi took out the amulet hanging around his neck. It was a jade pendant, carved with simple patterns he couldn’t decipher. Yet, since this object had transmigrated with him, it surely held some extraordinary significance.

However, after examining it for a long time, Lin Yi still couldn’t discern anything special; it simply felt like an ordinary jade pendant. ‘True,’ he mused, ‘it’s been with me for over a decade. If it truly possessed any unique abilities, I would have discovered them long ago.’ If forced to attribute any special power to it, it would merely be the psychological comfort it offered; holding it always brought him a profound sense of security.

Finding no revelations after half an hour of contemplation, Lin Yi gave up. His immediate priority was to avoid the original novel’s “death flag.” He recalled that after the original protagonist confessed his feelings, the plot remained quite sweet for a period. His transmigration, however, had occurred precisely at the moment of the protagonist’s confession.

‘Phew, good thing I didn’t confess to Chen Sishi today. I should have dodged that death flag, right?’

But as he pondered further, he felt a sense of unease. Firstly, the original protagonist had become friends with Chen Sishi *before* confessing. Secondly, Lin Yi wasn’t sure if this world possessed a “correction force.” If it did, there was no guarantee the female lead wouldn’t proactively confess to him. ‘If I refuse, she might pull out a cleaver and *chop!* If I agree, I’ll follow the original plot, then she’ll go yandere, and it’ll be a cleaver again.’

Considering this, a chill ran through Lin Yi’s entire body. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t escape the fate of death.

Lin Yi had already died once. Only those who had truly experienced death could comprehend its despair and agony. He certainly had no desire to relive it.

‘So, how can I avoid the cleaver ending?’

Pondering, Lin Yi took out a pen and a blank sheet of paper, deciding to write down his thoughts before considering anything else.

‘To avoid the cleaver ending, I must first avoid all contact with the original novel’s female leads, or at least become strangers with them.’

After writing this line, Lin Yi underlined it, marking it as his core objective.

‘Alright, next, I’ll set a small goal: distance myself from Chen Sishi, letting my presence in her heart gradually fade. This should largely prevent the cleaver ending.’

Lin Yi paused his writing, recalling the original novel’s description of Chen Sishi’s personality.

On the surface, she was gentle and appeared delicate, but in reality, she was incredibly sensitive, with emotions far more intense than anyone else’s.

‘This means that once Chen Sishi sets her sights on someone, they’re essentially doomed. All that’s left is to prepare for the afterlife and the cleaver ending.’

Finishing his contemplation, Lin Yi wrote another line.

‘I can’t rush this. Chen Sishi is highly sensitive, and if she senses I’m slowly withdrawing from her world, there’s no telling if she might “fall ill”.’

‘First, I’ll reduce our everyday interactions, speak less online, then become somewhat unresponsive, and finally reach the point where I don’t reply to her messages at all.’

‘As for the other female leads, apart from Qin Ruoxue and Gu Yuetong, who are hidden yanderes, I’ll simply cut off all contact.’

As he wrote, Lin Yi pulled out his phone and glanced at his friends list, immediately letting out a sigh of relief. In this current timeline, it wasn’t yet time for Gu Yuetong to appear; she would likely transfer in during their third year of high school.

Content with his meticulously laid plans, Lin Yi remained oblivious to the fact that an operation specifically targeting those very plans was already unfolding.