Shang Nan clearly knew what this meant.

Everything around him was being destroyed and torn apart; he stood in a seemingly safe low-pressure zone, watching the disaster that was happening and about to happen.

"Is that your classmate?" Dai Lili appeared behind Shang Nan at some point unknown, her tone calm, like a completely different person from the crazy look in the room earlier.

Before Shang Nan could block the two, he heard Yu Zhibai already greeting Dai Lili, "Hello Auntie, I am Shang Nan's friend, Yu Zhibai."

Shang Nan clearly heard Dai Lili's breathing behind him become heavier for a split second.

"Mother, I'm going to school." Shang Nan dragged his schoolbag with one hand and pulled Yu Zhibai's wrist with the other, walking towards the outside; the door was still wide open.

Auntie ran over in a hurry, holding the door and shouting at their backs: "Not eating breakfast?"

"Not eating!" Shang Nan didn't even turn his head. He pushed Yu Zhibai into the car, then got in himself. He sat by the window, took his schoolbag off and placed it on his knees, subconsciously glancing back into the house.

Dai Lili stood at the doorway wearing a thin nightgown, her eyes surging with hatred.

[14: She has started hating you too.]

Shang Nan didn't respond to 14. His brows slowly furrowed due to physical discomfort. He clutched his stomach and bent over, pressing his forehead against his knees. Waves of spasms in his stomach made him grit his teeth.

'Do I have stomach trouble?'

[14: Yes, you cannot skip breakfast.]

[14: Another reason might be that you are too nervous.]

Li Houde and Yu Zhibai both noticed Shang Nan's abnormality.

"Young Master, stomach hurting again?" Li Houde knew his Young Master looked unparticular and easy to serve, but in reality, his body was as delicate as a newborn lamb.

He drove the car, looking out the window while lowering it as he drove, "Young Master, should I find a place to stop and buy you breakfast?"

Shang Nan's voice was muffled, "No need, I'll go to the cafeteria to buy something to eat."

"Then I'll drive a bit faster," Li Houde responded, stepping on the gas to increase speed.

The stomach only had a dull pain. 14 said he was too nervous; that might be part of the reason. Shang Nan felt much more comfortable bending over. At this moment, he had almost forgotten that Yu Zhibai was beside him.

During the morning rush hour, traffic was heavy. A taxi ahead didn't use its turn signal and suddenly turned. Li Houde hurriedly slammed on the brakes, scaring cold sweat out of his forehead. He wanted to curse loudly, but remembering the Young Master was in the car, he swallowed a basketful of profanities back into his stomach.

Because of this sudden brake, Shang Nan was thrown from his seat, falling forward. The leather seats wouldn't cause much harm even if he hit them, but Yu Zhibai, with quick eyes and hands, placed a cushion behind where Shang Nan was about to hit.

Knowing this posture made it easy to fall forward, Shang Nan straightened up, wanting to lean against the car window, only to realize that what he had hit was Yu Zhibai's palm.

Yu Zhibai did not immediately retract his hand, but instead used the momentum to help Shang Nan up with his arm.

Shang Nan didn't hold his breath, so he smelled the faint scent of wood pulp and ink on Yu Zhibai.

The smell of a Paper Person.

"You shouldn't skip breakfast." Yu Zhibai took his hand back, looking at Shang Nan, his gaze calm as water. "I know, she didn't do it on purpose."

Shang Nan was stunned, even the stomach pain faded a bit, "You know?"

He parted his mouth slightly, the inside of his mouth moist, the tip of his pink tongue curled up a little, looking soft and sticky. Yu Zhibai had never thought that expressions of surprise and shock could be made so beautiful.

Student Shang Nan was a work of art that paper effigies could not imitate, so he had rejected Yu Xiaoyu's proposal last night.

Yu Zhibai: "She disregarded the master's obstruction and privately painted eyes on the Paper Doll. That Paper Doll is now mine."

"Yours?" Shang Nan didn't quite understand. "But wasn't that used to curse you?"

Sharp silver needles were all inserted into the Paper Doll's chest and abdominal cavity. Since this world contained all sorts of strange events, it meant Dai Lili's curse could also be effective.

"Doesn't it hurt?" If it really had power, those silver needles could genuinely pierce Yu Zhibai's body through the Paper Doll. Why was Yu Zhibai so indifferent?

"I am not human; her curse is useless against me." Yu Zhibai's voice was very low. In the front, Li Houde was concentrating on driving and didn't hear what the two in the back were chatting about. He constantly reminded himself not to drive into the Red Stone Tunnel again.

In fact, ever since encountering the 'ghost hitting the wall' that day, Li Houde would bypass the Red Stone Tunnel every time.

Seeing Shang Nan frowning all the while, Yu Zhibai raised his hand and rubbed the center of Shang Nan's brows with his fingertips. "She didn't do it on purpose, I don't blame her."

......

The two rushed to the school cafeteria to buy breakfast. Yu Zhibai only drank half a portion of porridge as a gesture; he didn't really need to eat. Eating was just to maintain a resemblance to humans.

When they arrived at the classroom, the class bell was ringing.

As soon as Shang Nan entered, he saw Lu Yang sitting in his seat, leaning against the wall, looking at him and Yu Zhibai with a gloating expression.

Sure enough, Lu Yang did not let the matter rest.

A large puddle of red ink had been poured onto Yu Zhibai's seat, and it was all over the desk as well.

The light-colored solid wood desk and chair, the neatly stacked exercise books and test papers on the desk, and even the inside of the desk—nothing was spared. It looked like a bloody crime scene. The empty ink bottle lay on Yu Zhibai's desk, showing off its power without fear.

The reason Lu Yang dared to be so arrogant was that his family was related to the principal, and his family gave the school a lot of sponsorship. Yu Zhibai, aside from having good grades, had nothing to compete with a second-generation heir like Lu Yang.

Even if Shang Nan had a good relationship with Yu Zhibai now, it depended on the face of the adults of both families. Since it wasn't Shang Nan being bullied, neither family's elders would understand him sticking his neck out.

Those people had long changed color soaking in the world of debauchery; even their bones had been soaked soft.

For suffering unrelated to themselves, not watching as a joke was their greatest mercy.

Zhang Hu rummaged a pack of tissues out of his schoolbag, wanting to put it on Yu Zhibai's desk, but couldn't find a clean spot. He could only place the tissues on Shang Nan's desk. "Hurry and wipe it, class is starting," he whispered.

Yu Zhibai's expression didn't change, not even a frown. He took the tissues from Shang Nan's desk, thanked Zhang Hu, and bent down to wipe the chair carefully and resignedly.

Shang Nan's chair had been affected at one corner; Yu Zhibai wiped Shang Nan's chair first.

The classroom was silent, as if the mute button had been pressed. Students sitting nearby kept looking over here. Every expression on Lu Yang's face represented his very, very, very, very pleasant mood right now.

He propped his chin up watching like it was a show one moment, yawned the next, or grinned and laughed a few times. Even his deskmate rolled his eyes in discomfort.

Yu Zhibai rolled up his sleeves. The red ink soaked through the tissues and stained his fingers; his fair fingers were dyed red.

Fortunately, only the top layer of the books splashed with ink was affected; the ones underneath could still be used.

Seeing the person beside him not moving for a long time, Yu Zhibai stopped his movements and smiled apologetically at Shang Nan. "Sorry, I dragged you into this."

[14: Its Blackening Value hasn't fluctuated, don't worry.]

Shang Nan squatted down without saying a word. He rummaged inside his desk for a long time but found nothing.

He stayed in that position without moving. After a few seconds, he stood up and patted Zhang Hu's shoulder. "Do you have ink?"

"Yeah, why?" Zhang Hu answered, taking a bottle of ink out of his desk. "Imported, silky smooth and non-smudging..."

"Lend it to me." Before he could finish, Shang Nan had already snatched the remaining half-bottle of black ink from Zhang Hu's hand, and then walked straight towards Lu Yang.

While walking around classmates, Shang Nan unscrewed the ink bottle.

Lu Yang was currently laughing and joking with the boy in front of him, completely failing to notice Shang Nan, until the boy chatting with him gave him a signal with his eyes.

Before he could see the expression on Shang Nan's face clearly, a cold sensation attacked his head. His vision was blocked by a large patch of black, and the strong, pungent smell of ink instantly rushed into his nasal cavity. Lu Yang's smile froze on his face, and his fists slowly clenched on his legs.

Black ink flowed down his hair onto his face, then dripped from his chin onto his clothes and trousers. Most of his face had turned black, but the ruthless look in his eyes became increasingly clear.

Zhang Hu looked at Shang Nan, "I... f—."

Everyone around was watching this scene, forgetting even to retract their shocked expressions.

Shang Nan expressionlessly poured all the ink over Lu Yang's head. Listening to the ink go from a splash to a drip-drop, he slowly withdrew his hand and lowered his eyes to look at the trembling Lu Yang. "I told you, don't touch him."

The ink in the bottle was poured out completely clean. Shang Nan gently placed the empty bottle on Lu Yang's desk. "A gift for you," he said softly.

Shang Nan liked Yu Zhibai; this was a well-known fact. But liking was one thing; Shang Nan had never intervened in affairs between Yu Zhibai and Lu Yang. Aside from anything else, Shang Nan's family and Lu Yang's family were acquaintances. To tear up face for Yu Zhibai didn't seem worth it no matter how you looked at it.

But today Shang Nan actually flipped out, not giving Lu Yang any face at all.

Lu Yang was not one to be trifled with; even the teachers didn't manage him much. How would this end?

Lu Yang laughed once, raising his hand to wipe his face with the back of his hand.

"Damn!" He cursed, kicked over his deskmate's desk, grabbed the steel pipe that was always prepared in his desk, stood up, and walked towards Shang Nan.

"Shang Nan." He called out to the other from behind.

Shang Nan turned around. Lu Yang raised the steel pipe and swung it at Shang Nan.

Shang Nan couldn't avoid it at all. He closed his eyes and turned his head to the side, thinking that getting hit on the shoulder was better than getting hit on the head, and thinking that this time he could at least make Yu Zhibai's Blackening Value drop by 20, otherwise it would be too much of a loss.

But the anticipated pain did not arrive. Shang Nan felt a gust of wind brush past him, followed by the rumbling sound of something falling to the ground. Immediately after, screams rang out in the classroom, and it turned into a chaotic mess.

Shang Nan opened his eyes and saw Yu Zhibai clutching his neck and falling beside him. Blood was constantly seeping out from between his fingers. His face instantly lost color, truly becoming paper-white.

—Lu Yang didn't hit Shang Nan. Yu Zhibai rushed up and blocked it, but Lu Yang used too much force. Yu Zhibai fell to the ground, knocking over a girl's water cup. The water cup shattered into glass shards on the floor, and Yu Zhibai happened to fall right on that patch of glass.

The class was in chaos. Some called for teachers, some dialed 120, while Zhang Hu hid under the desk to call the police.

Amidst the turmoil, Yu Zhibai clutched his neck, struggled to get up, and curled the corners of his mouth at Shang Nan.

"The teacher is coming! The teacher is coming!!!" A student shouted in the corridor.

Shang Nan's mind was in a mess, and became even messier after seeing that smile from Yu Zhibai. Before he could walk over to Yu Zhibai, he saw the other close his eyes and faint.

Seeing this, the student who was shouting "The teacher is coming" yelled hysterically at an even more exaggerated volume: "Student Yu Zhibai has fainted!!! Murder! Murder!!!"

Shang Nan, who knew very well that Yu Zhibai couldn't be hurt or die: "..."

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