Too Sweet

When Jiang Li opened his eyes, the room was shrouded in darkness. It was so silent that the only thing left was the sound of breathing.

Outside the window, a few stray beams from the streetlights filtered in, allowing him to barely make out the silhouettes of the furniture. He was lying in bed. Beside him was Xiao Yue Hua, her arms tightly entwined around his, a gentle, unconscious smile gracing her face as she slept.

Jiang Li’s heart sank.

How did I end up in the same bed as Xiao Yue Hua?

Fortunately, fragmented memories soon surfaced, and the realization that his clothes were still neatly intact allowed him to settle down. He must have simply fallen asleep. Nothing irreversible had happened between him and Yue Hua yet.

There’s still time for everything… I should leave first.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

However.

Just as he attempted to carefully slide his arm out of Yue Hua’s grasp to leave, a violent sense of dread—accompanied by waves of vertigo—slammed into his brain.

His movements froze instantly.

Sinister memories and an agonizing weight of mental pressure flooded his consciousness in a heartbeat. His pulse spiked; his breathing became shallow and ragged. His lips turned white, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead. Jiang Li’s entire body began to shudder violently from a source of inexplicable terror.

It seemed that the mere thought of leaving was enough to strip away the last of his willpower.

Whirring…

A sharp, piercing tinnitus rang in his ears. Jiang Li let out a muffled groan, instinctively gritting his teeth as he nearly suffocated under the tidal wave of mental torture.

“It hurts… so noisy…”

He curled into a spasming ball, his pupils dilating involuntarily. With a dull, chaotic gaze, he stared blankly at Xiao Yue Hua. Looking at her tranquil, beautiful sleeping face, an intense, inexplicable sense of dependency bloomed in his heart.

His temples throbbed. Even though he knew his state was anything but normal, Jiang Li found it impossible to look away from her.

“Yue Hua… Yue Hua…”

He murmured her name in a low whisper, his voice carrying the feverish intensity of a religious zealot. A sense of total helplessness—as if he had been rendered an invalid—permeated his being. Yet, he still crawled toward her in a clumsy, pathetic shuffle.

His body pressed against the girl’s in a movement so desperate it bordered on greed. As he felt her warmth, a massive wave of satisfaction seeped through his limbs and bones.

The terror seemed to be receding.

A voice whispered in his heart: Only Yue Hua can bring me peace. As long as I have Yue Hua… as long as she is by my side, everything will be fine…

In the midst of this eerie tranquility, Jiang Li’s eyes filled with tears.

“Oh, Professor… why are you acting like such a spoiled child?”

The girl’s voice came from above, laced with a satisfied smile.

“Waking up and immediately pressing yourself against me… you’re just like a little baby.”

Her hand gently stroked Jiang Li’s hair. In this moment, the identities of teacher and student were utterly shattered and inverted. But Jiang Li couldn’t resist this tenderness. Currently, he was like a traveler dying of thirst; even if he knew the honeyed water before him was poisoned, he had no power to refuse. He could only drink it all down without hesitation.

“Your takeout is here.” “Coming.”

The lights had been turned on. Xiao Yue Hua took the delivery at the door and walked slowly back to the dining table. Looking at Jiang Li—whose expression was already showing signs of crumbling due to her brief absence—she appeared quite satisfied.

“Is the Professor scared? Don’t worry, Yue Hua won’t leave.”

She spoke softly, her voice flowing like water. Hearing this, Jiang Li looked up in a daze. He had thought that by keeping a stiff face and utilizing his “Poker Face,” he could hide his inner turmoil and his pathetic state.

But in reality, his scattered, unfocused pupils had long since betrayed him.

Xiao Yue Hua committed this expression to memory, suppressing the throb of excitement in her heart. The Professor’s psychological defenses had just been breached; his spirit was still fragile. If she didn’t want to drive him completely insane, everything that followed had to be done step by step.

But that didn’t matter.

The Professor can’t live without me anymore, can he? she thought greedily.

Between her and the Professor, there was plenty of time left.

Hiding her burning gaze, Xiao Yue Hua sat smiling by Jiang Li’s side. One hand wandered restlessly across his back. Feeling his uneasy tremors, she pressed her cherry-pink lips close to his ear, her warm breath tickling him as she spoke:

“It’s because Yue Hua and the Professor are the same kind of people. That’s why Yue Hua understands the Professor so well.”

“The… same kind?”

Jiang Li’s eyes were full of vacancy. He looked shrunk and cowering, a shadow of his former self. Yet, Xiao Yue Hua pulled him into her arms without a second thought.

“Yes, the same kind. You and I are both broken monsters. We’re both the same—unable to express emotions unless we are ‘acting,’ right?”

“Monsters…” Jiang Li blankly repeated her words.

“Exactly. Monsters. Compared to Ning Rou, or anyone else, we are incomplete, worthless, ugly, human-shaped monsters! Haven’t you experienced it too, Professor? That pain, that despair… that feeling of powerlessness when you try your hardest but still can’t achieve something…”

The more Yue Hua spoke, the more excited she became. Her expression turned fanatic, her mouth dripping with venomous nectar:

“Normal people can’t understand our despair or our suffering, let alone a ‘genius’ like Ning Rou. To them, we aren’t even the same species. We could never be understood by them!”

“Yue Hua… stop it…”

At the sound of her demonic voice, the bad memories surged back. A pressure sufficient to suffocate Jiang Li gripped his throat; his breathing nearly stopped.

“We only have each other now, Professor… Only I will care about you. Only I will understand what you’re thinking.”

Seeing Jiang Li’s agony, Yue Hua smiled knowingly. Her soft palm gently covered his fist—which was clenched so hard from mental torture that his nails were piercing his skin. One by one, she pried his blood-stained fingers open.

“Professor, you did nothing wrong… you just misjudged how others saw us. You gave your sincerity to people who didn’t care… You shouldn’t pay attention to them anymore, Professor. Otherwise, you’ll just get hurt.”

Xiao Yue Hua took a tissue and carefully wiped the blood from his palm. Every movement was saturated with intense love and pity.

“The Professor only needs to look at me. Only I won’t look at you with those ‘different’ eyes. Only I will truly love you… because only we are the same.”

“Is… is that true?”

Jiang Li looked at her with hollow eyes, his body still twitching occasionally from the aftershocks of the mental pressure. In the midst of that horrific, agonizing torture, it was Yue Hua’s embrace that had granted him peace.

At this moment, for a man whose mind was completely scrambled, Jiang Li lacked the strength to ponder the logic or the causes behind his suffering. Only Xiao Yue Hua—who had ended his pain and offered him tender affection—could be his sole mercy and salvation in an ocean of agony.

“It’s true.”

Xiao Yue Hua flashed a sweet, satisfied smile. She picked up a piece of food from the takeout and placed it into the mouth of the bewildered Jiang Li. He chewed instinctively, unable to taste a thing.

Yet, Yue Hua’s smile remained radiant as she spoke in a tone one would use to coax an infant:

“Good boy, Professor!”

I see… I was praised… I was praised by Yue Hua… Jiang Li thought blankly.

Perhaps it was a delayed reaction, but as that thought surfaced, a cloyingly sweet taste suddenly erupted from the tip of his tongue down to his throat.

Sweet, yet twisted.

“Wonderful, Professor. After you finish eating, let’s go back to the academy…”

Xiao Yue Hua clapped her hands in satisfaction, a somewhat sickly smile on her face.

“Together!”