Accidentally Caught The Eye Of A Yandere - Chapter 5

Young Master, Jiang Shi.

Who was Jiang Shi?

Whenever he had a free moment over the past few days, Shen Ying kept searching his memory for that name. He filtered through every single person he had ever met since childhood, but the results of his brain scan told him that he had truly never heard or seen the name “Jiang Shi” before.

Moreover, he couldn’t match any person in his life to someone capable of producing such a vast sum of money all at once.

It was Wednesday. His grandfather’s surgery went extremely smoothly. Although he still needed to be kept under observation, the doctor said his post-operative condition was good and there was no need to worry excessively.

Grandpa’s surgery expenses were paid by Jiang Shi’s representative. Not only did he cover the costs, but he also arranged a caregiver to help him take care of Grandpa. Over the past few days, aside from worrying about whether the surgery would be successful, Shen Ying didn’t have to lift a finger or worry about anything else.

When facing the representative, Shen Ying had asked more than once who the “Young Master” in his mouth was. However, the representative never gave him a direct answer, only telling him to wait patiently for his family’s young master to contact him on his own initiative.

In the evening, Shen Ying spoke a few words to his conscious grandfather. Once Grandpa fell asleep, he guarded the bedside and randomly scarfed down a few mouthfuls of a boxed meal for dinner.

Halfway through eating, Shen Ying stopped. After contemplating for a long time, he silently pulled his phone out of his pocket and located the phone number left behind by the representative when he signed the contract a few days ago.

[Hello, Young Master Jiang Shi. I’m Shen Ying. My grandfather’s surgery today went extremely smoothly. Thank you so much for your help. If there’s anything you need me to do, please feel free to contact me anytime.]

Shen Ying slowly finished off the flavorless bento, but no reply came back from the other side. Just as he turned off his phone screen and was about to put it away, the phone suddenly chimed. He quickly unlocked it again.

[Jiang Shi: Mm.]

He actually replied!

He hadn’t really held out much hope that Jiang Shi would reply to his message. The only reason he had taken the initiative to text earlier—despite the representative explicitly saying to wait for Jiang Shi to contact him—was because he felt that since Grandpa’s surgery was successful today, it was only right and reasonable to inform his savior.

Shen Ying stared at the single “Mm” on the screen for a few seconds before typing:

[Shen Ying: I will work hard to earn money in the future and repay you as soon as possible.]

[Jiang Shi: There’s no need for you to repay the money.]

[Shen Ying: I still have to repay it. You saved my grandpa and even had someone stay at the hospital to help me with everything. I’m truly very grateful. I’ll definitely work hard to earn money to repay your kindness in the future.]

[Jiang Shi: I wrote it very clearly on the contract. I only need you to abide by it.]

Shen Ying’s expression froze, his typing fingers pausing for a few seconds. Finally, he replied: [Don’t worry, I will definitely abide by it.]

[Jiang Shi: Mm.]

In reality, from the moment he signed the contract until now, Shen Ying had no sense of reality about it. Looking back at that contract now, he still felt thoroughly baffled.

The contract’s contents were extremely concise. It had no header and no complex professional terminology. There were only eight neatly handwritten characters:

Shen Ying needs to listen to Jiang Shi.

And in the lower right corner of that simple, straightforward sentence was a signature in the same handwriting: Jiang Shi.

Before Shen Ying signed his name, the representative had explicitly required him to fill it in right beside Jiang Shi’s signature, treating the whole matter with utmost gravity.

With black ink on white paper, even if the contract looked non-standard and hasty, it was officially in effect.

Looking at Jiang Shi’s final reply of “Mm”, Shen Ying tirelessly thanked him once more.

“Grandpa is fine now, hurry up and go to school.” On the second day after the surgery, under the guidance of the doctor, Shen Yizhi was already able to get out of bed and walk a few steps. After being helped back onto the bed to lie down by the caregiver, he began urging Shen Ying to return to school to study.

Shen Ying chewed on a fried dough stick and looked at him: “I took a week’s leave from the teacher. I’ll go next week.”

“You aren’t needed here. Go to school quickly. Why are you such a stubborn kid? Refusing to listen to Grandpa again, are you?” Shen Yizhi deliberately put on a stern face.

Shen Ying pretended not to see it and gave a calm “Mm”: “I’ll do my thing.”

“You only know how to talk back to your grandpa.” Seeing that he couldn’t persuade him, Shen Yizhi softly asked again, “By the way, that… what’s it called, netizen friend you know? Give me his contact information. Grandpa will personally call him to say thanks. Look at how he lent money and got someone to help with this and that.”

“No need. He’s busy, and he’s very afraid of interacting with elders—especially someone like you whose rough voice could scare a child to tears,” Shen Ying said casually.

“You…” This time, Shen Yizhi didn’t dare to refute or scold his grandson. After all, the person they were dealing with was a life-saving benefactor; it really wouldn’t do if he actually scared them.

In truth, before the surgery, the moment Shen Yizhi heard that his illness required a huge sum of money, he had decisively said he wouldn’t treat it. Even when Shen Ying told him that he had already borrowed money from a netizen he met while playing games, Shen Yizhi still refused to accept it, strongly demanding that he must return the money immediately, saying he didn’t want to incur bad karma.

In the end, it was only when Shen Ying blurted out, “If you don’t get treated, the moment you die, I’ll follow right behind you,” that he managed to subdue him, allowing the surgery to be scheduled smoothly and promptly.

Old Comrade Shen’s physical constitution was actually pretty good, and his post-operative rejection reaction was minimal. Today, the volume of his voice was almost the same as usual, not showing weakness at all, though his complexion remained somewhat pale.

“Alright, Old Comrade, get a good rest and stop worrying about this and that,” Shen Ying said. “Also, this money is borrowed by me now. Don’t interfere.”

He threw back the “debt perspective” that Shen Yizhi used to instill in him. Shen Yizhi had never allowed him to do part-time jobs to help pay off debts because he felt that the money his father borrowed wasn’t his debt; he didn’t need to interfere, nor was he allowed to.

Hearing this, Shen Yizhi stopped talking as well. He just quietly stared at his grandson. Shen Ying thought he was feeling unwell seeing his expression and was about to ask anxiously when he heard his rough voice say, “I’m sorry, Little Ying.”

“Stop, hold it right there! Grandpa, can you stop pulling this routine all the time? I’m about to throw up the fried dough stick I just swallowed,” Shen Ying hurriedly interrupted.

Since childhood, he hated listening to his grandpa talk heart-to-heart, whether it was “thank you” or “I’m sorry.” More importantly, every time Old Comrade Shen started off like this, without exception, it ended with snot and tears.

Shen Ying considered himself fearless of heaven and earth—except for his grandpa’s sudden sentimentality, snot, and tears.

“You brat, you never let Grandpa finish talking.” After being interrupted, Shen Yizhi put on a stern face again. “When you look for a partner in the future, what are you going to do?”

Shen Ying was confused: “What does this have to do with me finding a partner?”

“When getting along with a partner, sweet-talking is second; patience is first. Look at you—always lacking the patience to hear me out. If your partner wants to tell you something sweet in the future, are you not going to let her say it either?”

“You’re overthinking it, Old Comrade. Aside from you, I love hearing cheesy words from anyone else. Also, can you be like other parents and stop bringing up finding a partner at my age? Don’t you know puppy love isn’t encouraged?”

Hearing this, Shen Yizhi glared at him, but he was choked up to the point of being unable to speak any rebuttal.

On Friday evening, Peng Sheng ran to the hospital right after school to visit Shen Yizhi.

While Peng Sheng was chatting with Grandpa, Shen Ying stared at the message thread between himself and Jiang Shi on his phone. Even today, he still didn’t know specifically who Jiang Shi was.

Jiang Shi’s representative had suddenly brought him a personal information form to fill out today. The form was much simpler than the family survey forms he used to fill out at school. Shen Ying followed the labels on the form and filled in his name, date of birth, current school, and the science subjects he had already selected for exams.

Shen Ying didn’t understand why Jiang Shi wanted this information. When he asked the representative, he only got another line saying, “Just wait for my young master to contact you.”

This truly left him feeling unsettled and hanging in midair.

The phone screen lit up and turned off back and forth many times, yet Shen Ying couldn’t find an opening line to contact Jiang Shi.

Ding—

Before he could send a message, his phone chimed with a notification first. Shen Ying looked down, and his posture instantly straightened.

[Jiang Shi: Tomorrow at noon, bring your ID card and student status file to XX Hotel, Room 1405 on the 14th floor. The hotel is not far across from the hospital.]

Shen Ying blinked, reading the message back and forth a few times. He thought to himself: Why does he need my student status file right after I filled out the selected exam subjects?

Although he didn’t understand what it was for, Shen Ying could only reply promptly.

[Shen Ying: Okay, I will definitely arrive on time.]

Since there was a caregiver taking care of things at the hospital, Shen Ying could head home without worries, tagging along with Peng Sheng, who had come to visit Grandpa tonight.

Inside Shen Ying’s house, watching his figure rummaging through cabinets to find documents, Peng Sheng brewed his thoughts for a long time before finally speaking up. “Shen Ying, are you really going to meet that Jiang Shi alone tomorrow? Do you want me to go with you?”

“No need, I’ll go by myself. It’s fine.” Shen Ying didn’t turn back to look at him, continuing to search through the cabinet.

“I know he paid money to save Grandpa Shen and is your family’s benefactor, but I always feel like the agreement he made you fill out is weird.” Peng Sheng endured it again and again before finally voicing his worries. “He doesn’t state specific demands, doesn’t want you to repay the money, and only wants you to be obedient. That representative guy even calls him ‘Young Master’. I always hear that certain rich people are really… like that. Plus with this contract of his, I’m really afraid that if you go…”

“Don’t talk nonsense.” Shen Ying found the documents in the cabinet, turning around to face Peng Sheng. “He spent so much money to save my grandpa. No matter what he asks me to do, it’s worth it.”

That day when Shen Ying signed his name on the contract, it happened to be witnessed by Peng Sheng, who had gone to look for him. However, no matter how much Peng Sheng felt that Shen Ying shouldn’t sign that name, he was helpless. Just as his father said, it wasn’t that their family didn’t want to help, but that they simply didn’t have the capacity to help.

Peng Sheng lowered his eyes: “I’m sorry. This time, I wasn’t able to help with anything.”

“Why are you apologizing to me? This isn’t your responsibility.” Hearing this, Shen Ying smiled and immediately said to him, “Go home early. After I pack up, I’ll head back to the hospital myself.”

Peng Sheng looked at him, his eyes actually turning red at this moment as he said softly, “Actually, my grandpa originally wanted to sell our new house to pay for Grandpa Shen’s surgery, but… I’m sorry, Shen Ying.”

“What nonsense are you talking about!” Shen Ying approached Peng Sheng, raising his hand to lightly punch his shoulder, his tone becoming serious. “If Uncle Peng really agreed to sell the house to help us, I’d honestly rather go with my grandpa. How could we possibly accept that kind of help from your family?”

“…” Peng Sheng looked at him in silence.

“Peng Sheng, we’re going to be best brothers for a lifetime. I grew up with you since childhood and have been taken care of deeply by your family. I’ve never forgotten any of this.”

From the time Grandpa was hospitalized until now, Peng Sheng’s whole family had gone back and forth to the hospital. When facing them over these past few days, Shen Ying hadn’t shown anything unusual on the surface, but a earth-shattering change had long taken place in his heart.

A friend in need is a friend indeed, and the true friendship of the Peng family could be traced back to his earliest memories. Between him, his grandpa, and the Peng family, what they owed was far more than just a single debt of gratitude—it was something that could never be repaid in full.

“Mm, of course we’re best brothers for a lifetime! That definitely won’t change!” Peng Sheng didn’t know what he was thinking, merely expressing his firm stance, before continuing, “When you go find that Jiang Shi tomorrow, if what he wants you to be obedient about is something you can’t accept, find an opportunity to run immediately. Tell him you’ll repay his money along with interest in the future. Don’t worry, brother will help you pay it back together!”

Hearing this, Shen Ying nodded and smiled: “Mm.”

The next day.

After Shen Ying accompanied his grandpa through lunch at the hospital, he told him without any preamble that he was going to meet up in real life with the netizen benefactor.

When Shen Yizhi heard this, he only hurriedly urged him to go, telling him not to keep the benefactor waiting long. He even transferred two thousand yuan to Shen Ying’s WeChat, telling him to remember to buy a gift for the person.

Before long, Shen Ying’s figure appeared downstairs at the hospital. He crossed the zebra crossing to the opposite side of the street, walked for five minutes, and arrived at the hotel mentioned by Jiang Shi.

While waiting for the hotel elevator to come down, Shen Ying only then began to feel nervous.

Facing the impending unknown, truly no one could maintain a heart as calm as still water.

Although Shen Ying had acted in front of Peng Sheng as if this were a trivial matter—appearing extremely open-minded—it would be a lie to say he wasn’t frightened at all.

This was the first time Shen Ying realized that taking an elevator up to the fourteenth floor happened so fast.

Standing in front of the room door bearing the 1405 plaque, his heart hammered like a drum. All these signs seemed to be telling him that once the door in front of him opened, it meant he would bid farewell to everything from his past, with fortune or misfortune impossible to predict.

Shen Ying didn’t raise his hand to knock right away. Instead, he pulled that agreement out of his backpack. After signing the agreement that day, Jiang Shi’s representative hadn’t taken it away, but rather told him to keep it safe.

Staring at the handwritten “Shen Ying needs to listen to Jiang Shi” on the agreement for several seconds, Shen Ying unconsciously gripped the paper tightly. When he raised his head again, his eyes were firm, a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and he raised his hand to knock on the door.

The person inside the room seemed to have been waiting for a long time; footsteps sounded immediately following the knocking. Soon came the sound of the door lock turning.

“Hello, I’m Shen Ying. I…”

Shen Ying’s unusually stiff opening line came to a abrupt stop the moment he saw the person who appeared in front of him.