The pretty little follower gets targeted by the crazy guys at the elite academy

Lu Ran slowly loosened the door frame, limped into the room, and sat down on the floor at the foot of the bed.

The floor was cold, pressing against the sole of his injured foot, making him hiss in pain, but he didn't move away.

He sat there, leaning against the footboard of the bed, his legs stretched out, the gauze on his feet standing out against the dark floor.

There were three people: one sitting on the bed, one sitting at the foot of the bed, and one leaning against the headboard.

No one spoke, but no one left.

The room was so quiet that you could hear sounds coming from the garden downstairs.

It's not specific words.

It was laughter, Li Ruo's laughter, drifting up from downstairs, passing through the windows, through the walls, through the silent air, and into the ears of the three people.

Lu Ran drew circles on the floor with his fingers, one after another, each one perfectly round, as if drawn with a compass.

"She was laughing very loudly," he said.

"I've never seen such a stupid person with such a low threshold for laughter," Zhou Si replied, annoyed.

Lu Ran retorted, "What's so funny about Pei Qingrang, that bookworm?"

"I really want to chop him up with one blow," Zhou Si gritted his teeth.

The two of them talked back and forth.

Lu Xingzhou leaned against the headboard with his eyes closed.

He wasn't asleep; his fingers were tapping lightly on his knees, one tap at a time, as if playing some kind of rhythm that only he could understand.

"Cousin," Lu Ran asked him, "Aren't you sad?"

Lu Xingzhou opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling: "...Sad."

Lu Ran didn't believe him: "You can't tell?"

Lu Xingzhou remained silent for a moment.

"Hmm, I can't really tell."

He lifted his hands from his knees and placed them on his stomach, interlacing his fingers:

"I've never liked to cry since I was little."

"I didn't cry when my dad died, I didn't cry when the company went bankrupt, and I didn't cry when she disappeared."

"But I know what sadness feels like."

"Sadness is when you stand in front of her, she smiles at you, and you feel like the whole world is yours."

"She turned and smiled at someone else, and you felt like you had nothing."

Looking at his calm face, his calm tone, and how calmly he spoke as if he were telling someone else's story, Lu Ran suddenly felt like crying.

Not for myself, but for Lu Xingzhou.

How much endurance does a person have to endure to suppress all their sadness in their heart until they can't even see it themselves?

"Have you ever cried?" Lu Ran asked.

Lu Xingzhou thought for a moment:

"Five years ago, on the night she disappeared, I drove to the place where she used to live."

"The dilapidated building in the slum is still there, but the light in her room isn't on."

"I sat downstairs all night, and the next morning I found my eyes were swollen. I don't know if that counts as crying, I didn't feel anything."

Lu Ran opened his mouth, as if to say something, but then swallowed it back.

He looked down at the blood-soaked gauze on his foot.

"I've cried, many times."

His voice also became very flat:

"I cried on the racetrack, I cried in the hotel, I cried on the plane."

"Once at Fuji Speedway, I won a race, and a reporter asked me what I wanted to say to anyone."

"I said, 'She hasn't come back to see me yet,' and then I cried. I cried like a fool in front of dozens of cameras."

Zhou Si got up from the bed, walked to the window, picked up the binoculars, and then put them down.

He didn't look; he just stood there with his back to them.

"Ah Si, you're such a tough guy, have you ever cried?"

Lu Ran asked his good brother out of curiosity.

Zhou Si remained silent for a long time.

"no."

He said, "But I went from smoking one pack a day to three packs a day. The doctor said my lungs were black, like burnt charcoal."

The room fell silent again.

It was so quiet that you could hear the wind in the garden downstairs, the rustling of the banyan leaves, and Li Ruo's laughter.

The laughter was softer than before, as if the person was tired of laughing and had leaned on someone's shoulder.

Lu Xingzhou sat up in bed and straightened his shirt collar.

His movements remained as elegant and composed as ever, as if he were preparing to keep his next appointment.

"I'll go get a glass of water."

"There's water in the room," Zhou Si said without turning his head.

"I want something cold."

Lu Xingzhou stood up and walked towards the door.

As he passed Lu Ran, he paused, looking down at the blood-soaked gauze on Lu Ran's foot:

"Your foot is bleeding, go get your dressing changed."

"I don't want to go."

Lu Xingzhou didn't say anything more and walked out of the room.

His footsteps faded into the distance in the corridor, very light and slow, like a cat pacing.

But Lu Ran realized that it wasn't the direction to the kitchen, but the direction to the stairs.

Go down the stairs, past the reception room, through the corridor, and past the door that leads to the garden.

Lu Ran looked up at Zhou Si's retreating figure and said somewhat uneasily, "He went to the garden."

Zhou Si didn't turn around, remaining calm: "I know."

"Aren't you going to stop him?" Lu Ran was surprised.

"We can't stop them."

Lu Ran lowered his head and looked at the blood-soaked gauze on his foot.

The blood had dried, turning dark red, mixed with the yellow of the iodine, making it look filthy.

He tore off the gauze, wincing in pain to reveal the wound underneath, cut by the rocks.

The wound had not yet healed; the edges were slightly curled up, revealing the tender pink flesh underneath.

He took a roll of new gauze from his pocket, tore off a piece, and wrapped it around his foot.

It was wrapped so tightly that my toes went numb.

He bit one end of the gauze with his teeth, pulled the other end tight, and tied a knot.

His movements were practiced and skillful, unlike when he was clumsy and awkward when bandaging Li Ruo.

"Ah Si, since you've already made up your mind to lock her up in this place where no one can get in, why did you let us in?!"

Upon hearing this,

Zhou Si's tall figure slowly turned around, his cold and sharp eyes staring directly at Lu Ran's somewhat angry face:

"You think I want to let you in?"

His voice wasn't loud, but every word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, carrying a long-suppressed anger.

The folding knife had reappeared in his hand at some point, the blade twirling between his fingers, reflecting the light streaming in from the window.

Lu Ran looked at his bloodshot eyes, at the bluish-gray stubble on his chin, and at the dark patch of sweat soaking through the collar of his T-shirt.

This person guarded the island for three days and nights, hiding Li Ruo in the safest room and arranging for three hundred bodyguards to patrol 24 hours a day.

He did everything he could, but in the end, he opened that door himself.

"Then tell me,"

Lu Ran's voice also hardened:

"Why should we let you in? If you keep us out, who can get in? This island is yours, you're the one hiding the people, and you set the rules. If you don't speak up, how can Lu Xingzhou's ship dock? How can my speedboat get close? How can Pei Qingrang drift at sea for a whole day and night? How can Guo Yiling climb over the wall to get in? Don't tell me your bodyguards are all useless."

Zhou Si's fingers paused for a moment, the blade stuck between his fingers and motionless.

"It can't be contained."

"It simply can't be shut off..."

"I've made up my mind."

Zhou Si spoke as if he had made a decision over a long period of time:

"I'm letting her go. She can see anyone and do whatever she wants."

"But I want her to know, where she can see me, that there's someone here, always here."

He opened the window, letting the sea breeze rush in.

Lu Ran watched Zhou Si's retreating figure.

The sea breeze billowed his T-shirt, outlining the contours of his shoulder blades.

He had broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and stood very straight, like a tree planted by the sea that had been blown by the wind for five years, its branches and leaves disheveled, but its roots still in the soil.

"Are you a tree?" Lu Ran asked.

Zhou Si turned around and glanced at him: "What?"

"It's nothing."

Lu Ran lowered his head, looking at the tangled bandage wrapped around his foot:

"I am a fish in the sea."

"Without feet, I couldn't get ashore and could only flounder in the shallow water near the bank. But she only needed to look down to see me."

Zhou Si stared at him for a long time, then fiddled with the folding knife in his hand:

"You're a stupid fish."

"Um."

Lu Ran smiled, but the smile was bitter, as bitter as the wound on the sole of his foot that had been soaked and festering in the seawater:

"Silly fish."

[When Zhou Si said he couldn't stop them, his voice trembled. He wasn't admitting defeat; he was resigning himself to his fate.]

[Li Ruo has played a long game. She's using Zhou Si to lure all the lunatics to this island, then peeling back the layers like an onion.]

[Zhou Si is now a tamed wolf; he no longer bares his fangs in front of Li Ruo, but has become a believer.]

Lu Ran seemed to have resigned himself to his fate.

[It wasn't just Lu Ran; Jiang Wu and Lu Xingzhou also became more rational. As long as Li Ruo was in front of them, they no longer cared about gains or losses.]

On the stairs.

Lu Xingzhou walked very slowly, each step firm and deliberate, as if measuring the distance from the room to the garden.

He walked into the reception room and saw Guo Yiling sitting on the sofa, holding a document in her hand and reading it.

Guo Yiling was wearing a coast guard uniform and sat upright with her back straight, as if she were reviewing documents in an office.

But his gaze wasn't on the documents; it was fixed on the garden outside the window.

Lu Xingzhou followed his gaze.

From the living room window, you can see a corner of the garden, a section of a banyan tree trunk, one leg of a white wrought iron round table, and Pei Qingrang's white shirt.

Li Ruo was blocked by Pei Qingrang, and only her milky white skirt could be seen, swaying gently in the wind.

"Principal Guo? You…" Lu Xingzhou knew he would come, but he didn't expect it to be so timely: "What are you looking at?"

Guo Yiling didn't look up: "Documents."

"You've got your file upside down."

Guo Yiling: "..."

He looked down and saw that the document was indeed upside down; the words were reversed.

He turned the document over, placed it on his lap, and continued reading.

But he didn't absorb a single word, because his gaze drifted back to the window.

Lu Xingzhou sat down opposite Guo Yiling, crossed his legs, and leaned back on the sofa.

How long do you plan to sit here?

Guo Yiling thought for a moment and said, "I don't know."

"Aren't you going out to take a look?"

Guo Yiling paused for a moment: "What good would it do to see it?"

Lu Xingzhou did not answer.

He knew that seeing it wouldn't do anything.

Seeing this will only make me feel worse, it will only make me clearer where I am in her heart, and it will only make me more certain that she doesn't belong to me.

But what if I don't watch it?

If I don't look, can I fool myself into thinking she still cares about me?

No.

Not watching it will only make me feel worse.

Guo Yiling put the documents on the coffee table, stood up, and walked to the window.

He stood by the window, his back to Lu Xingzhou, his gaze fixed on the garden:

"Would you... like to make a bet with me?"

"bet?"

Lu Xingzhou asked, "What are we betting on?"

"I'm betting that Li Ruo will eventually come with me after all this trip."

Guo Yiling turned around solemnly and asked, "Want to bet?"