Chapter 45

That person was really asking for trouble. Making such dismissive comments in front of a student from No. 1 High School, saying things like, “This school is just like that”—would make anyone uncomfortable.

A hot-tempered boy asked directly, “What do you mean?”

Hearing someone challenge him, the speaker became interested. “I’m just stating the truth, aren’t I?”

He had always thought that No. 1 High School was full of timid, glasses-wearing students. What’s the use of excellent grades if they get exhausted after running two laps and collapse on the lawn? The sports field didn’t seem particularly impressive, either.

“With you guys like this, how are we supposed to pull off a sports meet?” As he looked down, he caught sight of someone, and he froze. “Jiang Zhihuo?!”

Jiang Zhihuo propped himself up with one hand, leaned back, and raised his chin casually. “Long time no see.”

Zong Bei found the person familiar and recognized him after a moment. “Aren’t you He Xiezhou?”

He Xiezhou’s face darkened immediately. “You’re really at No. 1 High School?”

Jiang Zhihuo: “Mhm?”

The people nearby overheard the conversation and asked, “Huo-ge, do you know him?”

“Of course, we were classmates in junior high school,” Jiang Zhihuo replied, his tone making it clear he didn’t want to reminisce. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Damn.” The moment He Xiezhou saw Jiang Zhihuo, memories flooded back. Jiang Zhihuo didn’t say anything harsh, but He Xiezhou felt deeply humiliated by his indifferent gaze. Anger surged within him, darkening his expression, and without a second thought, he raised his hand.

The two who came with him recognized He Xiezhou’s temperament and sensed that he was about to get into a fight! Not wanting to start trouble while trying to familiarize themselves with the competition environment, they quickly intervened. “He-ge, don’t, don’t. This is another people’s school!”

Jiang Zhihuo usually avoided conflicts and maintained a good temper with everyone, except for Yan Mu. Even when confronted, he typically just laughed it off and didn’t let it get to him.

But today was different; disdain was clear on Jiang Zhihuo’s face, showing no signs of concealment. He let out a sneer.

He Xiezhou felt even angrier, memories surging back from a few years ago in a narrow alley when he had received the same condescending look.

He instantly shook off the hand that was holding him and prepared to charge at Jiang Zhihuo.

But just then, someone grabbed He Xiezhou’s wrist, applying pressure and bending his elbow in a standard grappling move that effortlessly restrained him.

A cold voice said next to his ear, “There are too many people here. If you want to fight, we can go somewhere else. I’ll join you.”

He Xiezhou looked up in surprise. The person holding him had a cold expression; although the grip wasn’t tight, he found himself unable to move. That calm demeanor stood in stark contrast to He Xiezhou’s mounting embarrassment.

He Xiezhou used all his strength to shake off the grip and covered his wrist, which throbbed from being twisted. He stumbled back several steps.

Yan Mu calmly let his hand drop.

The sports field was large and crowded, with everyone running laps for training. The tension in the air went mostly unnoticed until Yan Mu suddenly appeared and forced it down.

Jiang Zhihuo was already ready to fight; after all, he had beaten up He Xiezhou before. He deserved it; if he didn’t hit back, He Xiezhou wouldn’t behave.

He didn’t expect Yan Mu to step in for him.

At this moment, Yan Mu stood while Jiang Zhihuo remained sitting on the grass. One stood, and one sat under the harsh, slanted lights of the sports field, making the red marks on Yan Mu’s arm exceptionally noticeable.

“What happened to your hand?” Jiang Zhihuo grabbed Yan Mu’s hand. He tried to avoid the red marks, but the area was too large, stretching from his palm to his arm, and he inevitably touched a few spots.

Yan Mu instinctively shrank his arm back.

“Burned.” He replied.

“Burned? Do you think I’m blind?!” Jiang Zhihuo said sharply.

Yan Mu didn’t say anything else and showed no intention to explain.

A few members of the relay team sensed something unusual about Yan Mu’s sudden appearance but didn’t pay much attention until they overheard the two speaking and noticed the burn marks on Yan Mu’s arm.

“What the hell happened to God Yan?”

“Did he burn himself while boiling water?”

“I have some water. Do you want to rinse it?”

“That’s a thermos! Hot water!”

He Xiezhou: “….…”

Nobody paid any attention to him.

Feeling ignored was frustrating; his wrist pain was fading, and he wanted to start again, but his two followers stopped him once more.

He could act tough at his own school, but it was really pointless to cause trouble at someone else’s.

“He-ge, calm down!”

“Let’s talk later, let’s talk later!”

This guy was really annoying, always hovering around. Jiang Zhihuo gave him a glare and said with a rare tone of disgust, “I told you never to let me see you again.”

That look reminded He Xiezhou of the one he had in the alley back then. He wanted to hit him but didn’t dare take another step forward, so he could only threaten, “Just you wait.”

“Heh,” Jiang Zhihuo scoffed. “You told me to wait back in junior high school. I waited a long time. Are you brave enough to show up now?”

During their exchange, no one from the relay team dared to speak.

Huo-ge was angry.

Even though they didn’t know why… it sounded like a grudge from junior school.

The aura was too strong; they didn’t dare to ask anything. They watched as Jiang Zhihuo ignored the furious He Xiezhou, who had walked away, pulled down Yan Mu and took some wet wipes from his bag.

Wet wipes might not help with any injuries, but they felt cool on the skin and could ease some pain.

“What’s going on?” Jiang Zhihuo asked again.

“It’s nothing,” Yan Mu replied.

“Tsk,” Jiang Zhihuo pressed the wet wipe against the red mark, bringing out some moisture. The coolness mixed with the pain under his fingers.

This was the third time.

Yan Mu’s hand had shown red marks three times already.

The first time was the day he returned from the hospital.

The second time was when he bumped into Feng Zhi and got into a fight. That day, Yan Mu even helped him fend off a customer who had been persistently bothering him.

The third time was this incident.

Jiang Zhihuo hadn’t noticed the previous two times, but this time, he clearly saw that Yan Mu’s red marks appeared after he had come into contact with He Xiezhou.

However, when Jiang Zhihuo asked, Yan Mu still replied, “It’s nothing.”

Jiang Zhihuo decided not to press further. He gently pressed the red marks with his fingers, carefully wiping them with the wet wipe.

He was so serious, and Yan Mu was also looking down at him.

The atmosphere between the two created a barrier that outsiders couldn’t penetrate; though surrounded, they felt completely cut off from the outside world.

A boy spotted the injury on Yan Mu’s hand and felt alarmed, yet when he met Yan Mu’s icy gaze, he quickly backed away, too afraid to ask anything.

So scary; only the school bully could treat the god of learning like this.

Girl A subtly shifted a bit closer to Zong Bei.

Zong Bei and Jiang Zhihuo were classmates in junior school, and he also knew the troublemaker from the other school.

Girl A whispered, “Zong Bei, does that guy have a grudge with Huo-ge?”

“Um……” Zong Bei reluctantly nodded.

There had indeed been some issues between He Xiezhou and Jiang Zhihuo. He knew only the general storyline, not the specific details.

During their third year of junior high school, Zong Bei gradually grew close to Jiang Zhihuo when their homeroom teacher began a one-on-one study support program.

Before that, he had only one impression of the school bully, who always slept in class, was frequently late, and often skipped school.

—Fear.

The reason was that during their second year, Jiang Zhihuo beat up He Xiezhou, the son of their homeroom teacher.

No one knew the exact reason, and the school hadn’t shared any details. Jiang Zhihuo and He Xiezhou weren’t even in the same class, so nobody knew how their conflict started.

All anyone knew was that Jiang Zhihuo got into a fight outside of school, and He Xiezhou had been badly beaten. His face was bruised and one ankle twisted, making it hard for him to walk.

In the following days, Jiang Zhihuo was called to the Academic Affairs Office multiple times. Everyone thought he was in big trouble for beating up the son of a homeroom teacher, who was rumored to be a relative of a school leader. There was no need to wait for the result; it was clear he would either be expelled or suspended.

Surprisingly, after several visits, Jiang Zhihuo came back without any consequences. He wasn’t punished or even asked to write a reflection paper. In the end, it was actually the homeroom teacher and He Xiezhou who left.

At that time, everyone was young, and Jiang Zhihuo didn’t say much. They could only think of one thing after seeing what happened—Jiang Zhihuo must have powerful backing to beat someone and force them out of school.

Nobody, could, mess, with, him!

After that, Jiang Zhihuo’s reputation as the school bully was firmly established. No one dared to approach him anymore. Even the teachers stopped disciplining him, letting him skip class without a word.

As a classmate, Zong Bei was initially scared as well.

His seat was close to Jiang Zhihuo’s, and he couldn’t forget the day of the fight from the rumors. Jiang Zhihuo had walked into class wearing a dirty school uniform jacket, then laid his head down on the desk, looking cold and withdrawn.

It wasn’t until their third year that Zong Bei got to know Jiang Zhihuo better and began to realize the school rumors were unreliable. Huo-ge was clearly warm, cheerful, and loyal. The notion that he fought and drove people away was definitely a misunderstanding.

In reality, he didn’t dare approach Jiang Zhihuo at that time. Besides saying Jiang Zhihuo had strong backing and warning everyone to stay clear of provoking him, there was another rumor going around.

“I heard that Jiang Zhihuo is gay. It was He Xiezhou who said it. He used to be with Zhu You from our class, and Zhu You even admitted he’s gay. Jiang Zhihuo only fought because of him.”

In junior school, there were no divisions, and because there were relatively few alphas and omegas, most people viewed orientations from a beta perspective, simply seeing everyone as boys or girls.

Back then, Zong Bei just wanted to study quietly and stay away from the school bully. He carefully concealed his fear of the rumors and the school bully, never letting it show.

But that day, he unexpectedly saw two people walking together in a nearby alley, neither too close nor too far apart.

Zhu You, a head shorter than Jiang Zhihuo, walked on his left side, reaching out to grasp the edge of his clothing.

His behavior wasn’t particularly ambiguous, but with the rumors about their sexuality swirling around, it felt very strange.

Nobody dared to mention it in front of the school bully, and Jiang Zhihuo naturally didn’t clarify these kinds of rumors.

Yet later, one day, Zhu You also stopped coming to school.

As a good friend, Zong Bei never mentioned those rumors in front of Jiang Zhihuo. Huo-ge was simply the Huo-ge he knew, not the one from the rumors. Besides, enough time had passed, and those words were eventually overshadowed by the news that the school bully had actually transferred to Lincheng No. 1 High School.

Besides, wasn’t Huo-ge pursuing the school beauty not long ago? There was no way he could be gay!

“I’m not really sure about the details,” Zong Bei said honestly.

When he finished recounting, Girl A lost interest in the grudge with the guy from the other school. Her gaze stayed fixed on the two of them, illuminated by the glowing lights.

Jiang Zhihuo was still carefully applying the wet wipe, his lips pressed together tightly.

Yan Mu reached out to ruffle his hair and explained, “I didn’t dare tell you.”

Jiang Zhihuo looked at him seriously. “Then there’s no need to say it.”

Girl A: “Waah!”

The school bully is worried about the god of learning!

The god of learning patted his head!

They’re perfect together!!

Jiang Zhihuo didn’t care about He Xiezhou. He had beaten him once before, and he could do it again.

Back at his place, Jiang Zhihuo lay on his side on the bed and opened his browser’s search bar.

“Red marks appeared on the hand after making contact.”

“A touch and red marks appear.”

“Not allowed to touch.”

Jiang Zhihuo changed the keywords, but none of the web pages that appeared were relevant. Some mentioned allergies; others talked about stress reactions but those didn’t cause red marks. Everything else was merely advertisements for treatments.

After searching for a while with no results, he found no references to cases like this.

Jiang Zhihuo threw his phone aside and pressed his arm over his eyes, blocking out the light.

What a fool. How could he expect to find answers on Baidu for something like this?

There had to be a trigger for those red marks to appear spontaneously. Yan Mu never revealed the cause, only stating that treatment was not possible.

Could it be a coincidence that the red marks appeared after he touched He Xiezhou?

But the last time the red marks occurred was similar; Yan Mu hadn’t touched anything, only people.

However, if he assumed that ‘he can’t touch others, or he will get hurt,’ that wouldn’t make sense either.

He could touch Yan Mu; they slept in the same bed and had been intimate before. Even when they fought, Yan Mu was completely fine.

Forget it, forget it. That guy was not at all worried; why should he be the one being so worried?

Jiang Zhihuo patted his face, grabbed a change of clothes, and went to the bathroom to shower. After drying his hair and hanging his clothes out to dry, he lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling without closing his eyes for a long time.

Even though he tried to comfort himself like that, Jiang Zhihuo still knew why he cared about this matter.

The internet didn’t have cases saying one couldn’t touch others, but he had seen people with this condition.

Qin-ge couldn’t be touched by anyone.

At first, Qin Mu told him he couldn’t go out because of this. Back then, he didn’t understand anything and jokingly said that Young Master Qin was delicate and that his mother had spoiled him too much.

This caused Qin Mu to not talk to him for several days.

However, a few days later, during a piano competition, a girl about their age went on stage with Qin Mu. The girl grabbed his hand, but Qin Mu jerked away as if he were burned.

After the performance, Yun Zhou noticed that the palm and back of Qin-ge’s hand were bright red and hurting. His arm twitched in pain.

He immediately apologized to Qin-ge.

Later on, he tried his best not to touch him because it would be painful. When he had no choice but to touch him, he would wear gloves.

He didn’t want Qin-ge to feel pain.

Jiang Zhihuo let out a long sigh, pushing a nearly impossible thought from his mind. Forcing himself to rein in his wandering thoughts, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

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The author has something to say:

Just listen as I slowly explain.

Waaah! I messed up; I didn’t include any kissing or cuddling scenes!!! Ugh, so frustrating!!