When Guo Fengnian arrived at the entrance to the camp, the boy took one look at him and turned to leave.
Guo Fengnian grabbed him by the arm. The boy must have been in a great deal of pain; after struggling twice once he was restrained, he stopped moving, though his face turned even paler.
Guo Fengnian tossed the car keys to a camp employee, who hurried over to drive the car around.
The boy seemed to say something, and Guo Fengnian laughed angrily. Once the car arrived, he shoved and hauled the boy into it.
Only after the car disappeared over the horizon did Zhang Xiyue look away. “Yes, President Cheng. I lied.”
Cheng Mingjiao: “…”
She had deceived her boss, yet she was actually admitting it so boldly?
Cheng Mingjiao stared at her in disbelief and was about to speak when he heard her sigh.
“But have you ever thought about why Youyou would be willing to give me that candy when it was clearly her favorite?”
“Why?” Cheng Mingjiao asked instinctively.
Zhang Xiyue reasoned with him. “Because I knew you wanted that candy, so I went to great lengths to persuade her. The important thing is that I put in the effort, and you got what you wanted. Why should you care whether it came from her or whether I stole it?”
Cheng Mingjiao: “?”
Guo Fengnian had already returned.
Zhang Xiyue seamlessly switched the subject of her conversation from the Emperor to Yellow Hair. “Mr. Guo, what happened just now?”
As Cheng Mingjiao’s friend, Guo Fengnian was far too familiar with these desperate attempts to change the subject, so he happily picked up the cue. “Those little bastards from the Chen family tricked Counterfeit into coming here and then ran off. Counterfeit hurt his arm while making his way down the mountain alone and came to the camp for help. The camp manager had met Counterfeit before and knew he was acquainted with me, so he called me right away.”
“Ninety percent of this area is still undeveloped. It’s a blessing nothing worse happened.” Liang Xiao also came out of the tent.
“Exactly. Fortunately, Counterfeit was clever enough to stick to the main road. If he’d wandered into the deep mountains and gotten lost, he would’ve been done for,” Guo Fengnian said.
“Did you tell the Chen patriarch?” Liang Xiao asked.
Guo Fengnian snorted. “No. That old man is absurdly biased. Telling him would only give him a chance to sweep everything under the rug. But I did call those little punks and tell them they’re not allowed to attend any event hosted by our three families for the next year.”
The Cheng, Liang, and Guo families held enormous influence in Phoenix City. Being shunned by all three meant having no social life for the next year—a punishment more painful to them than death.
Since they had been in the wrong, they wouldn’t dare make a fuss and could only swallow this bitter pill. They probably wouldn’t dare cause trouble for Counterfeit again anytime soon.
Liang Xiao nodded, approving of Guo Fengnian’s handling of the matter. Then he looked at Cheng Mingjiao.
Cheng Mingjiao had a solemn expression and was still staring at Zhang Xiyue.
…What was going on?
Liang Xiao was puzzled for a second, then continued asking Guo Fengnian, “Where’s Counterfeit?”
“I had someone take him to the hospital.” At the mention of the boy, Guo Fengnian snorted. “He refused my help no matter what, so I had to subdue him.”
Liang Xiao imagined the scene and laughed.
Zhang Xiyue had been listening for a while. In the end, she couldn’t help asking, “Does he have some kind of grudge against you?”
Otherwise, why would he come all the way to the camp for help, only to turn around and leave the moment he saw Guo Fengnian?
“Who?” Guo Fengnian pointed at himself. “Me?”
Zhang Xiyue nodded.
“Strictly speaking, he has a grudge against all three of us.”
Zhang Xiyue looked around and accidentally met Cheng Mingjiao’s eyes.
She paused, then pretended nothing had happened and shifted her gaze back to Guo Fengnian. “Why?”
“Because we call him Counterfeit.”
Zhang Xiyue: “...Why do you call someone that?”
“Because he really is a counterfeit.” Guo Fengnian stretched lazily, then abruptly changed the subject. “I’m hungry. Let’s cook.”
“I’ll chop the firewood. You cut the meat,” Liang Xiao said.
“Sure.”
The two men walked away with their arms around each other’s shoulders.
Zhang Xiyue: “…”
They just left?
With the two of them gone, the air suddenly grew very quiet.
Wei Chengfang, who had been drinking tea and enjoying the spectacle the whole time, suddenly snorted with laughter.
The sound was so obvious that it successfully attracted Cheng Mingjiao’s attention.
Wei Chengfang immediately put on a serious expression and stood up to invite Zhang Xiyue. “Let’s go sort the vegetables.”
Zhang Xiyue wanted to go very much, but before she could leave, she had to deal with the problem she’d left behind.
Seeing the subtle look in her eyes, Wei Chengfang understood. She took Youyou and left first.
Under the sun umbrella, only Zhang Xiyue and Cheng Mingjiao remained.
Cheng Mingjiao narrowed his eyes, wanting to see how she planned to argue her way out of this one.
Zhang Xiyue had no intention of arguing. She tugged at her clothes and rummaged through her pockets for quite a while before finally pulling out a handful of something and holding it out to him.
“President Cheng, here.”
Cheng Mingjiao looked over.
They were round and lemon-flavored.
The same kind of candy as before.
And there were quite a few of them.
“I thought you liked them, so I bought some extra to bring along,” Zhang Xiyue said, deliberately emphasizing, “I really did buy these myself. I’m not lying this time.”
As Cheng Mingjiao listened to her voice and looked at the candy in her palm, the symptoms of formaldehyde poisoning appeared again.
After the camping trip, he absolutely had to undergo a thorough physical examination.
“President Cheng?” Seeing him lost in thought, Zhang Xiyue called his name.
Cheng Mingjiao stopped looking at the candy and turned his attention to Zhang Xiyue herself.
His eyesight was excellent. His vision was sharp at both near and far distances, and his ability to adjust to changes in light, as well as his sensitivity, was exceptional. Even though Zhang Xiyue wasn’t particularly close to him, he could still see her—and every tiny change in her expression—with perfect clarity.
For example, the moment he looked at her, she straightened up a little more. Her eyes grew more innocent, her smile more ingratiating, and she raised the candy in her hand a little higher.
Every detail showed that she already knew she had done wrong.
Unless something unexpected happened, she would probably never lie to him again for the rest of her life.
Cheng Mingjiao was not a demanding boss. When an employee sincerely repented, he was always magnanimous enough to forgive them.
“Don’t let it happen again.”
The Emperor accepted the traitor back into his good graces and took one of the candies.
Zhang Xiyue was profoundly grateful.
Cheng Mingjiao took her candy and gratitude with him to an outdoor sofa, where he sat down to rest and ease the discomfort caused by his formaldehyde poisoning.
Zhang Xiyue stuffed the remaining candy into her pocket and went to find Wei Chengfang and Youyou.
The greatest joy of camping was enjoying the satisfaction of hard work while surrounded by nature.
The overcast weather was cool and perfect for a barbecue.
Liang Xiao had already chopped the firewood and was standing by the grill, lighting the fire. Guo Fengnian had brought over a little folding stool and was sitting beside him, skewering meat. Zhang Xiyue and Wei Chengfang were washing vegetables and preparing ingredients inside the RV.
Everyone had something to do. Even Youyou was helping out.
The only exception was the Emperor, who did absolutely nothing and occasionally tried to direct everyone else.
When Youyou passed by carrying her teddy bear, Cheng Mingjiao stretched out his long leg to block her path. “Hey, go get me a bottle of water.”
Youyou: “…”
“You don’t do any work, and now you’re ordering Youyou around too?” Guo Fengnian protested on her behalf.
Cheng Mingjiao replied calmly, “Come over here and shoo the mosquitoes away for me.”
Guo Fengnian: “…”
When Zhang Xiyue came out carrying the skewered vegetables, she saw Guo Fengnian standing in front of the sofa with a fan in his hand, fanning Cheng Mingjiao with a deeply resentful expression.
Was it really that hot?
Zhang Xiyue didn’t understand. She carried the ingredients over to Liang Xiao.
Cheng Mingjiao took a sip of bottled water, and his expression changed slightly.
“Liang Youyou! What did you put in the water?!”
“Don’t you like having nothing to do? I added a little salt for you.” Liang Youyou stuck her tongue out at him.
Cheng Mingjiao sneered. “You’re a vicious little brat!”
“You’re a nasty adult!” Liang Youyou shot back.
Cheng Mingjiao: “I hate you too.”
Liang Youyou: “I hate you even more.”
Cheng Mingjiao narrowed his eyes. The nasty retort had just reached his lips when he suddenly changed it to something else. “Liang Xiao, stop putting paper into the stove. Supplying too much oxygen all at once can make the flames shoot up. You’ll end up bald.”
Liang Xiao, caught off guard by the warning, said, “My camping experience is no worse than—”
Before he could finish, flames suddenly shot half a meter into the air from the stove.
Zhang Xiyue’s pupils contracted. She took several steps back and only approached after the flames had disappeared for quite a while.
Liang Xiao, who had nearly had his hair singed off, was still shaken. His first reaction was to look at Cheng Mingjiao.
Cheng Mingjiao was in a better mood now and no longer bothered arguing with the child. He wore an insufferable expression that seemed to say, I warned you.
Liang Xiao: “…”
For the next half hour, Dr. Liang followed President Cheng’s instructions to the letter.
Although the process was a complete mess, everyone still managed to get lunch started before noon.
Cheng Mingjiao, however, refused to sit down.
“With so many suitable places to eat, why does it have to be on the lawn?” he complained, standing on the hard ground outside the grass with a deeply displeased expression.
Liang Xiao: “Because it’s fun.”
Cheng Mingjiao: “Are ticks and mosquitoes fun? Or bacteria and fungi?”
Liang Xiao patiently countered, “You should know that the lawn has been professionally treated and doesn’t have any of the things you mentioned, right?”
Cheng Mingjiao: “I know.”
Guo Fengnian couldn’t help but interject. “Then why did you ask?”
Cheng Mingjiao: “Because I don’t want to eat on the lawn, so I deliberately picked a fight.”
Guo Fengnian: “…”
Cheng Mingjiao: “The dew on the lawn will dirty my shoes.”
How could dew possibly dirty his shoes?
Everyone came up with the same question, but no one voiced it. Instead, they tacitly began moving everything.
Five minutes later, Cheng Mingjiao got his wish and ate lunch on the hard ground beside the lawn. His shoes stayed clean and dry all the way through the meal, untouched by dew.
The sky grew increasingly overcast, and there was already a faint dampness in the air, hinting that rain was on the way.
After lunch, everyone went off to do their own thing.
Cheng Mingjiao crawled into the tent and refused to come out. No one knew what he was doing in there.
Zhang Xiyue was happy to have some peace and quiet. She spent the afternoon feeding cats with Youyou in a corner of the campsite.
There were many cats living at the campsite. Sometimes they would charge up the mountain in a chaotic parkour race; other times, they would swarm around the girls, eagerly devouring their canned food.
Zhang Xiyue and Youyou played all afternoon. By the end, both of them were filthy, and so was Little Bear.
Toward evening, a light drizzle began to fall.
Zhang Xiyue went to take a shower in the campsite bathroom. She had just stepped outside when she heard Youyou’s shrill, heartbreaking cries.
She hurried after the sound. At the next bend, she saw Liang Xiao holding Youyou while Wei Chengfang tried to soothe her with anxious patience. Beside them, the campsite manager wore an embarrassed expression and kept apologizing.
Seeing that Youyou didn’t seem to be hurt, Zhang Xiyue felt half of the tension leave her. In a low voice, she asked Guo Fengnian, “Why is she crying so hard?”
Guo Fengnian’s brows were tightly furrowed. “Youyou’s Little Bear was stolen by a cat.”
Zhang Xiyue froze. “S-stolen… by a cat?”
Wei Chengfang explained, “After you left, she played with the cats for a while longer. Who would’ve thought a tabby would suddenly snatch Little Bear away and run straight up the mountain?”
Youyou lay across Liang Xiao, crying so hard she could barely catch her breath. “Bear-bear…”
Wei Chengfang kept trying to comfort her, tears nearly spilling from her own eyes.
The campsite manager continued apologizing. “I’m so sorry. This was our oversight. We’ll go look for it right away…”
Although they felt terrible for their daughter and understood how important Little Bear was to her, Wei Chengfang and Liang Xiao also knew that the campsite wasn’t really at fault. They had failed to keep an eye on her.
Even if the campsite had been entirely responsible, they couldn’t possibly make someone search through an undeveloped mountain forest on a rainy night for a stuffed bear.
After a few brief words, Wei Chengfang carried Youyou back to the family’s tent.
Liang Xiao told the manager to go back first, then took a flashlight and began searching the area near the mountain forest with Guo Fengnian.
Seeing this, Zhang Xiyue found a flashlight of her own. She was just about to join them when she caught sight of Cheng Mingjiao.
He stood beneath the rain tarp in front of his tent, arms folded, watching them from a distance.
Zhang Xiyue’s eyes brightened. She was about to call out to him when he frowned and went back into his tent.
…She must have been out of her mind to consider asking him for help.
Zhang Xiyue rubbed her nose and began searching for the bear.
The night grew deeper, and the rain heavier. Mud from the mountain forest washed onto the paths, making it difficult even to walk.
The three of them searched in the rain for a long time, but eventually returned empty-handed.
Dull rumbles of thunder drifted faintly from the horizon, mingling with the crackling downpour like firecrackers set off during the New Year festivities.
As Wei Chengfang had said, the tents were indeed well insulated. Once Zhang Xiyue closed the window, everything around her became quiet.
But she kept thinking about Youyou’s heartbroken sobs.
After tossing and turning on the air mattress for a while, she sat up, threw on a jacket, and went to the entrance of the family’s tent.
Wei Chengfang happened to be coming out to close the door. When she saw Zhang Xiyue, she lowered her voice and asked, “Xiyue, what’s wrong?”
“Where’s Youyou?” Zhang Xiyue lowered her voice as well.
Wei Chengfang: “She’s already asleep.”
Zhang Xiyue breathed a sigh of relief.
Wei Chengfang smiled. “Don’t worry about it. Tomorrow, once we’re back in the city, her dad can buy her another one. We’ll have someone make it look old. We should be able to fool her.”
There was a distinct uncertainty in her voice.
Zhang Xiyue pressed her lips together. “Once the rain stops tomorrow, I’ll go look again. Just in case.”
Wei Chengfang shook her head. “I already asked around. The cats here are very playful. A stuffed toy like that can be shredded in just a few minutes. Even if we find it, it probably won’t be usable anymore.”
Zhang Xiyue felt somewhat melancholy.
After saying good night to Wei Chengfang, she walked slowly through the campsite under her umbrella.
When she was nearly back at her own tent, she suddenly caught sight of a familiar figure.
It was Cheng Mingjiao.
He was wearing a raincoat and rain boots and carrying a bag of some kind. With a grim expression, he walked into the patch of mountain forest to the west.
That section of forest contained many simple cat shelters. The campsite’s cats often played there, so when she had searched for the bear earlier, she had focused on that area and gone over it several times. Unfortunately, she hadn’t found anything.
…What was he going there for?
Zhang Xiyue recalled his expression just now. Her first thought was that he intended to harm the cats, but she immediately felt that was unlikely.
He had always been at odds with Youyou. When she, Liang Xiao, and Guo Fengnian had been searching for the bear, he hadn’t even been willing to help. How could he possibly be taking revenge on a kitten for Youyou’s sake?
Then again… he was a yandere.
A dark, twisted one at that.
Did a yandere need a reason to do anything?
The original novel hadn’t said much about him, so Zhang Xiyue wasn’t sure just how twisted he was. But back then, Grandma Zhao Yuzhen had merely gotten in his way, and he had ordered Zhou Ce to run her over with the car…
The more Zhang Xiyue thought about it, the more uneasy she became. She hurried after him.
Once she left the campsite, the darkness, rain, and slippery ground made every step difficult. Her heart rate, however, continued to climb.
The rain grew heavier, and her small umbrella swayed helplessly in the wind.
Zhang Xiyue picked her way into the mountain forest, one deep step followed by another, only to discover that Cheng Mingjiao was nowhere to be seen.
The rain came down in torrents, and the road ahead was thick with mud. The clawing trees loomed like an army of demons born from the darkness, silently squeezing the breath from her lungs.
Zhang Xiyue held up an umbrella with one hand, while the other slipped into her pocket for courage.
“Hey!”
A cold voice suddenly sounded behind her, and she spun around.
Just then, lightning split the sky. The blinding white flash illuminated Cheng Mingjiao’s drenched silhouette, making him look like the killer from a horror movie set on a stormy night.
“You’ve been following me…”
Cheng Mingjiao had barely gotten the words out when he suddenly looked down in confusion.
A tiny stun device was pressed against his raincoat, crackling and spitting sparks.
He stood still for a second, then looked up at Zhang Xiyue. The next moment, he collapsed straight onto the ground.
The rain kept pouring. Still shaken out of her wits, Zhang Xiyue could think of only two words—
I’m doomed.
