Accidentally Caught The Eye Of A Yandere - Chapter 7

If someone had asked Shen Ying before his grandfather fell ill whether he had any connections or knew anyone at Yinan No. 1 High School, he would have answered without hesitation: no.

But with the sudden tragedy at home, just as he was overwhelmed with doubts and needed that final push to clear the air, someone stepped in to part the clouds for him. Now, he could pinpoint a specific individual.

It wasn’t a strong connection, nor could they be called acquaintances, but if it came down to someone he had met once, there really was one person.

Shen Ying held his phone, his expression disbelieving: “Are you the boy I met last Friday at the Yinan Internet Cafe?”

“Mm.” On the other end of the line, Jiangshi answered promptly without hiding anything once he was finally recognized.

“No wonder your voice sounded so familiar when we talked this afternoon—it was you!” Shen Ying’s current mood could only be described as a storm of mixed emotions.

He actually had a strong impression of Jiangshi from that day at the internet cafe; otherwise, he wouldn’t have made the connection the moment it was mentioned.

Before this, his failure to link “Jiangshi” with the boy he met at the internet cafe was purely because he had been driven to his absolute limit. With his mind in total disarray, his brain had automatically blurred out that brief, seemingly insignificant chance encounter.

Now that he snapped back to reality—of course! Aside from Jiangshi, whom he had met once, who else in Shen Ying’s tiny social circle could possibly help him?

“Jiangshi, how did you know my grandfather needed surgery?” Shen Ying asked, suppressing his inner excitement with a hint of curiosity. “Was it because you overheard the phone call I took at the internet cafe that day?”

“Yes.”

Receiving Jiangshi’s confirmation, Shen Ying recalled everything he had been through over the past week, almost breaking down under the rush of emotions. His throat tightened as he prepared to express his gratitude once again, but Jiangshi preempted him, speaking in a calm, soft voice.

“I wanted you to know my name, but you left in a hurry and I didn’t have time. That day… I followed behind you.”

“So you followed me all the way to the hospital?”

Shen Ying was thoroughly stunned, his heart feeling unusually complex. He truly hadn’t expected that while he was lost and desperately running out of options, someone had been silently following him, keeping an eye on him, and then extending a helping hand without a second thought.

And the initial reason was simply wanting Shen Ying to know his name.

This filled him with shock, but also a sense of unreality.

In fact, even now—even though his grandfather’s surgery was a success—Shen Ying was still terrified of remembering everything that happened that day: how he had sprinted frantically from the internet cafe to the hospital, with what sheer panic he saw his grandfather lying lifeless on the hospital bed, and with what state of mind he listened as the doctor delivered the diagnosis.

And now, Jiangshi had appeared like a savior, bestowing a completely different meaning upon that dark memory.

“I didn’t mean to stalk you. I hope you aren’t angry,” Jiangshi even offered an explanation.

Shen Ying shook his head in a daze before realizing they were separated by a phone call and Jiangshi couldn’t see him. He quickly spoke up, “How could I possibly be angry with you? I don’t even know how to thank you properly. If I hadn’t gone to Yinan that day, hadn’t met you, or if you hadn’t secretly followed me to the hospital, my grandfather right now would probably… Jiangshi, you didn’t just save my grandfather, you saved me too. So whatever you want me to do in the future, just say the word—I won’t say a word against it. I will pay back the money too. It might take a long time, but I…”

“I don’t want you to pay back the money,” Jiangshi interrupted him.

“…” Shen Ying froze for a moment. “Alright, I’ll abide by that agreement, don’t worry.”

“You are willing to attend the same school as me, right?” Jiangshi asked out of nowhere.

“Of course I am,” Shen Ying sorted out his thoughts. “It’s just that Yinan No. 1 High School… will transferring me over be too troublesome? Will it cost a lot of money?”

“Your grades are good. Transferring to Yinan No. 1 High School won’t be a problem.”

“You know my grades?”

“After you filled out the information sheet yesterday, Brother Lin used his connections to inquire about it.”

Shen Ying froze in surprise, then came to a realization. Soon, however, he felt a wave of guilt and spoke up cautiously: “Are you really sure my current grades reach the admission cutoff for Yinan No. 1 High School? To be honest… my grades took a major nose-dive during the second semester of my freshman year because I stopped taking my studies seriously.”

“It was evaluated and approved by the school leadership. If you don’t believe it, I can have Brother Lin…”

“No, no, no, there’s no need!” Shen Ying quickly interrupted what he was about to say. “Don’t worry, I will work hard to catch up with everyone’s learning pace. I definitely won’t let down your trust.”

On the other end of the phone, Jiangshi fell silent for a few seconds before saying, “It doesn’t matter if you can’t keep up. Yinan No. 1 High School isn’t made up entirely of top students.”

“…”

“But rest assured, the class I’m in is an advanced key class. The educational resources won’t be any worse than your previous school.”

“I’m not worried about that, nor do I have any doubts.” Shen Ying thought for a moment and made a rare, unabashed declaration: “Jiangshi, I will definitely become part of the top-performing group at your school. I won’t lose face for you.”

Jiangshi paused for a moment on the other end before speaking, his tone softening by several degrees: “Okay.”

At this very moment, Shen Ying no longer felt any trace of panic or tension—his mind was dominated by a single thought: ‘My savior is such a good person.’

Once he connected Jiangshi’s identity to a face and a specific person, he felt there was no longer any need to worry nervously about how to repay him.

Even if he harbored slight doubts about the agreement Jiangshi made him sign, what did it matter?

Jiangshi was his savior; he would gladly work like a dog for him for the rest of his life. What was a little obedience compared to that? Obedience was his strong suit.

Not to mention that the very first thing Jiangshi ordered him to do was transfer to a better school. How could he possibly suspect Jiangshi of having malicious motives? That would make him a completely ungrateful wretch.

“Transferring schools?”

After finishing the sumptuous dinner sent up by the hotel staff, Shen Ying immediately returned to the hospital to visit Shen Yizhi. Upon arriving at the ward, he found Peng Sheng there as well.

Without hiding anything, he told Peng Sheng and his grandfather about his upcoming school transfer.

Jiangshi had mentioned that the transfer procedures would be finalized tomorrow, and he would go directly to Yinan No. 1 High School on Monday.

Peng Sheng had already reacted strongly when Shen Ying mentioned transferring schools. But hearing the name Yinan No. 1 High School, his reaction turned noticeably more intense.

“Yinan No. 1 High School?” Peng Sheng clearly remembered a certain scene as well, but because Shen Yizhi was right beside them, he hesitated, his face shifting through a kaleidoscope of unreadable expressions.

Seeing his expression, Shen Yizhi quickly asked, “What’s wrong? Is that school no good?”

“Of course not! Grandfather, Yinan No. 1 High School is a key provincial high school!” Shen Ying ignored Peng Sheng for the moment and patiently explained to his grandfather—who knew nothing about the school—just how prestigious it was.

Shen Yizhi listened, nodding with a half-understanding look before finally asking, “Is this child’s family very wealthy? Attending a school like that must cost a lot of money, right? He already spent so much to save my life, this…”

“Grandfather, I’ve already talked things over with him. He told me not to worry about repaying the money right away. I know what I’m doing. The most important thing for you is to take good care of your health and stop overthinking. My friend even said that as long as you recover and stay healthy, his money won’t have been spent in vain.” Shen Ying interrupted his grandfather’s fussing with a playful show of sternness.

Sure enough, hearing this, Shen Yizhi said, “Alright, alright, tell your young friend not to worry. Tell him your grandfather will definitely look after his health. Truth be told, my life belongs to him now anyway.”

Hearing the phrase “young friend,” Shen Ying couldn’t hold back a short laugh: “Alright, I’ll pass the message to him. He’s busy with his studies right now, but he said he’ll come visit you when he has time.”

“Tell him there’s no need to visit an old man like me! Focusing on his studies is far more important. Once I’m discharged, I’ll visit him in person to thank him!”

Hearing this, Shen Ying paused for two seconds before saying, “Mm… when it’s convenient for him.”

Earlier tonight on the phone, he had actually asked Jiangshi if he would be willing to visit the hospital with him if he had time, wanting to put his grandfather even more at ease.

Although Jiangshi hadn’t explicitly rejected him, he hadn’t agreed either, simply saying they would talk about it later.

To Shen Ying, “we’ll talk about it later” was a polite euphemism for a refusal.

After coaxing his grandfather to sleep, Peng Sheng immediately yanked Shen Ying out of the ward into the hallway to interrogate him.

“Is this Jiangshi the guy we met at the Yinan Internet Cafe last Friday? I can’t think of anyone else! As soon as you mentioned Yinan No. 1 High School, his face instantly popped into my head! Do you know how that feels? It’s freaking terrifying!” Peng Sheng exclaimed in high agitation.

Shen Ying felt there was nothing to hide and recounted everything without omitting a detail: “What’s so terrifying about it? Stop talking nonsense! He said he originally wanted to get to know me back then, but I received the call about my grandfather and left in such a hurry that he followed us to the hospital. When he found out I didn’t have money for my grandfather’s surgery, he stepped in to help.”

“…” After listening quietly, Peng Sheng paced back and forth twice on the spot, then stopped. He looked at his best friend with an expression of hesitance, before resuming his frantic pacing.

Just as Shen Ying was about to tell him to spit it out, Peng Sheng muttered in a tone of agonizing heartbreak: “We’re done for~~~~”

“What are you doing? Are you sick?” Shen Ying was amused by his dramatic behavior.

“You—you…” Peng Sheng pointed at him, completely unable to finish his sentence, as if the words were too difficult to utter.

After all, he had experienced it firsthand that night at the internet cafe: Jiangshi had looked at him like he was literal trash, but when staring at Shen Ying, his eyes carried that bizarre, intensely clingy gaze. Thinking back on it now, Peng Sheng felt a chill run down his spine.

He had assumed they would never cross paths again, but now this guy had suddenly turned into Grandpa Shen’s savior! How could they not be done for?

“What on earth are you trying to say?” Shen Ying was losing patience waiting for his explanation. He was still thinking about heading home to clean up—the house hadn’t been dusted in a week, and it was bound to be covered in dust.

“Shen Ying, did you ask this Jiangshi why he was willing to help you?” After carefully weighing his words, Peng Sheng began to question him. “And that ‘obedience agreement’ he made you sign—did you ask him clearly what he intends to make you do?”

“No.”

“…No? Why didn’t you ask? Aren’t you even curious?”

“Why are there so many ‘whys’? Regardless of his intentions, the outcome right now is that my grandfather is fine. He even hired a caregiver to look after my grandfather. Asking these questions serves no purpose—he can ask me to do whatever he wants.” After giving his serious answer, Shen Ying added, “Besides, I don’t have anything he could possibly want from me. Maybe he just saw that I was in a miserable state, happened to have money, and kindly gave me a hand out of goodwill.”

“How could you have nothing? He’s definitely targeting something from you by helping you! Isn’t that agreement he made you sign the ultimate proof?” Peng Sheng argued.

At this, Shen Ying fell silent. Truthfully, that was the point that puzzled him the most as well, and he vaguely felt that something wasn’t quite right.

Money? Definitely not.

Academic talent? He couldn’t compete with Jiangshi. He had deduced that objectively just from hearing Jiangshi listening to advanced competition lectures.

As for anything else…

If it was about looks, Jiangshi’s face was completely flawless. Even if he made a huge leap and argued that according to public aesthetics he looked more pleasing to the eye, Jiangshi was a guy and so was he! Jiangshi couldn’t possibly be targeting another guy’s looks, right?

…Absurd.

Shen Ying understood Peng Sheng’s worries, and he had his own doubts, but he didn’t want to confront Jiangshi with such questions. Jiangshi had saved his family; asking him what his ulterior motive was would not only be offensive, but completely ungrateful.

“I already know why he made me sign that agreement, so don’t worry.” Having coaxed the old man in the ward, Shen Ying now carefully chose his words to soothe his childhood friend.

However, Peng Sheng wasn’t as easily fooled as his grandfather. He immediately gave him a look of utter skepticism: “You really know?”

“Yeah,” Shen Ying said with complete seriousness. “I wasn’t planning on telling you, but since we won’t be going to the same school anymore and might see each other much less often, I might as well tell you so your persecutory delusion doesn’t flare up.”

Peng Sheng: “…”

In truth, whenever Shen Ying lied to him, Peng Sheng could spot it in a second most of the time. He just never pointed it out. For instance, right now, he could clearly tell that Shen Ying was lying just to put his mind at ease.

“Jiangshi doesn’t have many friends at school, and his parents are busy with work and have no time to keep him company, so he’s pretty lonely. When he met me at the internet cafe, he felt an instant connection, but he was worried I wouldn’t want to be his study partner. So he came up with this obedience agreement—as long as I signed it, I’d have to agree whether I wanted to or not.”

Saying Jiangshi had no friends was a sudden spark of inspiration on Shen Ying’s part.

Saying Jiangshi’s parents were too busy working to spend time with him, making him lonely, was mainly inspired by how rich people were portrayed in TV dramas.

Anyway, these words were just meant to fool his childhood friend so he wouldn’t worry, and Peng Sheng wouldn’t go spreading them around, so it was completely fine.

Peng Sheng stared at him blankly, completely lost for words. In the end, he silently raised his hand and gave him a “six” gesture for respect.

His childhood friend truly lived up to the nickname assigned to him in private by the school’s girls: “terminal straight guy.” After all, Shen Ying was the type of person who, if someone flirted with him by shooting him an affectionate glance, his immediate reaction would be to suspect the person had an eye twitch.

At this point, Peng Sheng abandoned all hope that Shen Ying would ever realize he had accidentally been targeted by a male who likely possessed “yandere” traits.

Having finished their conversation while harbouring their own thoughts, the two headed home together. Peng Sheng helped him do a quick cleanup of the house before returning to his own home to shower and sleep.

Shen Ying stayed home tonight. Right after finishing his shower and roughly toweling his hair dry, he walked back into his bedroom just as his phone on the desk chimed.

He walked over, picked it up, and saw that Jiangshi had accepted his WeChat friend request.

Ding!

Jiangshi sent a message over:

[J: I don’t have friends at school]

?