Chapter 71: The Haunted School, Sun Doll (9)

Ziyu Shu?

Tang Mu couldn't understand why Ziyu Shu insisted on seeking her out at this particular moment.

Or rather, she simply didn't understand why he would come to her at all.

“Do you have something to say?” Tang Mu's tone was impatient and frosty.

After all, he was disturbing her as she tried to read her novel—how could she not be annoyed?

“It wasn't me who did it to your sister. She jumped herself; I didn't push her.” Ziyu Shu suddenly said, “I've come hoping you can forgive me.”

…

How laughable.

Tang Mu almost wanted to laugh upon hearing those words.

“It wasn't you? Then why do you need my forgiveness?” She truly couldn't follow the logic. “Or maybe what you mean is, you want me to plead on your behalf to my dead sister, ask her to stop haunting you for revenge?”

The only reply she received was Ziyu Shu’s silence.

So Tang Mu understood.

“Sorry, but I have to disappoint you. My sister and I never lived together growing up. You know how small the houses are in the slums. Only one person to a room. So whatever she experienced in this primary school, I don’t know, and I don’t care.”

“All I know is that she liked you. And died because of you. As for the rest, I know nothing. So if you want to apologize, you’ll have to do it yourself, just like Liu Qiongying and Li Meiqi did—go and apologize to her in person.”

“Begging me is useless.”

Tang Mu made it clear that she and “Tang Mo” were not close.

But Ziyu Shu still didn’t leave.

He gazed at Tang Mu quietly, his eyes clouded and unreadable.

“Tang Mu, you really are nothing like your sister.”

If it were Tang Mo, just being in the same space as him would have made her happy for ages—let alone speaking with him. If she could have a conversation with him, Tang Mo would have been overjoyed for the whole day, her face radiant with happiness.

“Yes,” Tang Mu replied, studying Ziyu Shu with a calm, cool gaze. “Because I was never like my sister. We are not the same person. She was too fragile, never knew how to protect herself.”

When she spoke, it was as if she had truly severed all ties with the girl she’d been a decade ago—as if she were speaking of a stranger, someone with nothing to do with her at all.

“A timid, docile herbivore cannot survive in the midst of wolves.”

“Isn’t that what you think too?”

Tang Mu licked her red lips, her gesture almost provocative as she looked at Ziyu Shu.

Today, she wore all red—a vivid crimson blouse and a leather skirt, long socks striped in red and white, and bright red leather boots on her feet. The effect was both wild and innocent, exuding a vibrant, electrifying charm.

“So you see, someone like me can’t stand her type. If you go through life always swallowing your grievances, one day you’ll snap, like a taut string that suddenly breaks. And at that critical breaking point, anything at all could be the last straw.”

“Some people are lucky enough to survive to adulthood.”

“But what if you’re not so lucky?”

“Then you end up like my sister, don’t you?”

Her smile was radiant, bearing no resemblance whatsoever to the bitter, frail girl from years ago.

So Ziyu Shu believed it: Tang Mu and Tang Mo were two different people.

He pressed his lips together in silence. Only after a long pause did he finally ask, “So you deliberately stirred up resentment against me during the exam? If you don’t want to be a docile sheep, you have to become a wild hunter? But people aren’t magnets—if you’re not positive, you don’t have to be negative.”

“I hope we can get along peacefully,” he said, his eyes suddenly sharp. “If you’re willing to work with me, I believe that together, there’s nothing we can’t handle.”

The moment Ziyu Shu uttered those words, the window of dormitory 044 began to bang open and shut, over and over, though there was no wind. The eerie disturbance seemed to voice Tang Mo’s dissatisfaction and resentment.

At the same time, Tang Mu’s eyes went cold.

“Are you hoping to use Tang Mo to kill me?” she asked, her face calm and remote, her eyes regarding Ziyu Shu as if he were already dead. “Just like what you did to Tang Mo? You didn’t want her, but didn’t want to dirty your hands, so you used Liu Qiongying and Li Meiqi, those two fools, to drive her to jump?”

Even now, Ziyu Shu wanted to exploit Tang Mo’s jealousy, to push her toward harming Tang Mu.

For someone to stoop so low—Ziyu Shu truly was something else.

“You’re right,” Tang Mu nodded, “You don’t need a real knife to kill someone.”

“And those words apply just as well to you.”

She smiled at Ziyu Shu.

For some reason, despite her smile, Ziyu Shu felt a chill—a sense of danger, as if he were facing a scorpion or rattlesnake lurking in the wild, not to be trifled with.

“Your so-called ‘good brothers’ are quite dissatisfied with you now. Since we are ‘friends’ who have had a ‘ten-minute’ heart-to-heart, I’ll give you a bit of advice.”

Her smile was as luminous as a star descending to earth—a beauty both noble and remote, icy in its brilliance, yet searing in its power. She made people want to draw near, yet fear to approach.

Ziyu Shu listened intently.

“Don’t overestimate human kindness. And never underestimate the darkness in people’s hearts.”

“Instead of wasting time here with me, you’d be better off figuring out how to pacify your so-called brothers. After all, your power in this school relies largely on their support.”

“But you yourself have a fatal flaw,” she added.

Being called out so plainly, a flash of pride flickered in the depths of Ziyu Shu’s eyes.

And it was precisely this pride that made him oblivious to the fact that every flicker of emotion was laid bare before her.

The roles of hunter and hunted can change in an instant. Those who walk the river’s edge long enough—unless they are gods—cannot hope to keep their feet dry forever.

“—And that is, you will never allow anyone else’s light to outshine yours.”

“You didn’t want me to see the answers on the exam paper, just as you didn’t want your brothers to know them either.”

Tang Mu lounged lazily on her bed, eyes half-closed, legs crossed.

Outside, sunlight poured gently through the glass, bathing her in a halo of radiance that made her seem almost holy.

Ziyu Shu stared, momentarily entranced, feeling as if his very soul had been ensnared by this woman.

Because she was right.

All these years, she was the only one who truly understood him!

Ziyu Shu’s soul trembled with exhilaration—he was ecstatic to have finally found a kindred spirit!