His Secret

Me: “!!!”

What is he trying to do?!

He wouldn’t actually hit me, would he?

He finally stopped in a secluded spot. Lu Xiao was breathing heavily, sounding a bit strange.

He said, “Qi Mengmeng, I’ll keep this short.”

I was so annoyed that I just raised my hands to cover my ears. “I don’t want to hear it.”

He sighed helplessly.

He reached out and poked my cheek.

Then he gave it a gentle squeeze, the gesture feeling a bit too intimate.

His youthful voice was filled with resignation: “I’m sorry. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to acknowledge you on purpose.”

“Remember that mind-reading thing you mentioned last time?”

I could actually hear what he was saying, but I’d forgotten to take my hands down, so I just nodded blankly.

He let out a soft laugh; there was a fine mist of sweat on his forehead.

“In this world, mind-reading is actually real.”

I was startled out of my wits. I took a defensive half-step back, pressing myself directly against the wall.

“Y-you… you don’t have mind-reading powers, do you?”

He shook his head, probably thinking I’d backed away too far.

He took a half-step forward as well.

“I don’t, but I know a girl who does.” Lu Xiao swayed slightly, bracing his arm against the wall beside me to steady himself.

His tone was flat, yet it revealed a dark, underlying sense of despair.

“That girl… she’s a lunatic who’s obsessed with me.”

“She’s the daughter of my mother’s ex-husband, from when we lived in Japan.”

“When a girl tried to give me a love letter, she stabbed her in the neck with a pencil.”

“She was only twelve that year, and she became a juvenile delinquent.”

“After being locked up for four years, she was released from a Japanese juvenile detention center and followed her father to China.”

Lu Xiao suddenly seemed to lose all his strength; he hunched over, resting half his body on my shoulder.

His voice was weary and agitated.

“And then, she found me again.”