He Yanqing didn’t know how things had come to this even as he sat at his desk.

He had arranged to go to the library with Zhou Shiyi today; as usual he sent Zhou Shiyi a message asking if he had left yet.

Usually Zhou Shiyi would reply that he had already left, was on his way, or that he had arrived.

This time when he sent the message, he found that Zhou Shiyi hadn’t arrived yet.

Zhou Shiyi usually arrived a few minutes early; he found it strange, so he sent Zhou Shiyi a message. Unexpectedly, as they were chatting, Zhou Shiyi sent him an address.

When he arrived, he recognized it as an upscale residential complex near Mingde Middle School.

His family had originally wanted him to live here, but because they couldn’t find an apartment at the time, they put him in a different complex, so he still had some impression of this place.

He didn’t think much of it; he knew Zhou Shiyi had recently been tutoring a middle school student whose family was well off.

He pressed the doorbell, and the one who came to open the door turned out to be Gu Sheng.

He still remembered this classmate from the back row whom he’d rarely seen; there was no helping it—Gu Sheng, just by standing there, drew people’s gazes toward him.

He Yanqing grew increasingly dissatisfied with his own height; he was easily half a head shorter than Gu Sheng.

Gu Sheng looked down at him from above and nodded toward him, “Come in.”

He even stepped aside for him, and He Yanqing, slightly flattered, said, “Sorry, I might have taken the wrong way…”

Gu Sheng looked at him expressionlessly and said, “You didn’t.”

By the time he moved, Zhou Shiyi, who had heard the noise and come downstairs, arrived.

Zhou Shiyi greeted him, and Gu Sheng led him inside.

This apartment was originally meant for the Gu family’s second sister, but she prepared her own application to study abroad in middle school, so the place was temporarily given to Gu Sheng.

After Zhou Shiyi agreed, Gu Sheng told him to come along. Just then He Yanqing messaged Gu Sheng, so Gu Sheng invited him to join them too.

Send the address over, and Gu Sheng had Zhou Shiyi get into the car arranged by the Gu family to go ahead.

In the car, the driver sized up the young master’s classmate through the rearview mirror.

Last night, the Gu family went frantic, even called the police, only to find out the young master had gone to a classmate’s house.

The driver suddenly caught Gu Sheng’s eyes in the rearview mirror. Gu Sheng shot him a warning glance; the driver felt his scalp tighten, quickly looked away, and focused on driving.

The house was a three-story standalone villa. It had never been lived in, but a cleaner came by regularly, so while it lacked any signs of daily life, everything inside had been prepared.

When they brought Zhou Shiyi inside, Gu Sheng suddenly felt a bit excited.

After yesterday, he suddenly realized what this person meant to him.

He was the obsession he would rather endure the aftereffects of abruptly halted hypnosis than give up.

During the hypnosis, everything was normal at first, but when Dr. Li urged him to let go of his obsession and forget those painful memories, he suddenly felt resistant.

He didn’t know what he was rejecting. The memories from his last life—being tied to the bed like an animal, having experiments performed on his body—were still vivid, yet he suddenly felt deeply unwilling to accept it.

He heard Dr. Li’s voice, guiding him back to that childhood sense of pure happiness.

He thought of his family, of the house throwing its doors wide open, everyone gathered around a dining table, smiling toward the doorway, waiting for him to walk in and join the New Year’s Eve meal.

It was the courtyard from his childhood, and his parents looked much younger, while his older siblings still had the air of teenagers.

He wasn’t sure when he had become small again; he looked about seven or eight years old.

He didn’t know that in reality he was still lying on the treatment bed, eyes closed, a tear sliding from the corner of his eye.

Dr. Li saw it; she’d encountered patients like this during treatment before, and they’d show all kinds of reactions.

Some people break down into loud sobs after treatment, others laugh out loud with relief, but she had never encountered anyone as resolute as Gu Sheng.

Gu Sheng’s buried memories were very deep, and he was extremely sensitive to commands that had been forgotten.

Dr. Li could only give him a psychological suggestion, using his pleasant memories to make Gu Sheng let down his guard.

Gu Sheng was almost inside; it felt as if he’d forgotten something important, but when he saw his family’s smiling faces, he thought maybe it wasn’t anything—until his foot had just crossed the threshold.

He suddenly heard someone sigh in his ear, then call his name: “Gu Sheng.”

He hurriedly turned back and found nothing behind him; the courtyard was empty, everything seeming like his imagination.

Nian Meilan smiled and asked him, “What? Little rascal getting shy now? Aren’t you coming in?”

Gu Sheng, however, acted as if he hadn’t heard anything; at that moment, only one thought occupied his mind.

He had to find that person!

Dr. Li looked terrified as Gu Sheng forced his eyes open and climbed out of the treatment bed.

Gu Sheng wasn’t fully conscious yet and had no idea what he was doing, but Dr. Li could clearly see.

Gu Sheng’s eyes were vacant, his whole body like a walking corpse, yet tears constantly shimmered in the corners of his eyes.

His gaze was both desperate and sorrowful, fixated obsessively in one direction, filled with a deep hatred that was unforgettable after just one glance.

Dr. Li suddenly didn’t dare to stop him anymore; by the time Gu Sheng ran out, she was still a bit shaken.

A moment ago she thought she had seen a demon crawling back from hell.

With his consciousness not fully clear, Gu Sheng couldn’t hide his negative emotions; that terrifying paranoia and the madness of wanting to drag others down to hell with him made Dr. Li feel chilled to the bone with just one glance.

Because of that, Gu Sheng ran all the way to the library entrance.

He knew it clearly.

If Zhou Shiyi could become his obsession, then he would keep him right under his nose so he couldn’t go anywhere.

Maybe staring at that face every day, one day he’d suddenly let go.

When Zhou Shiyi arrived at his house, Gu Sheng suddenly remembered that he seemed to have forgotten his homework.

He went up to the second floor; he’d had someone bring his homework back before, and it was usually left in the upstairs study.

Among that pile of books, Gu Sheng rummaged and found the midterm exam paper.

He hadn’t been to school since taking the test; he’d been taking classes at home the whole time.

Holding that exam paper, he suddenly felt a little embarrassed to take it out.

He used to have pretty good grades; his exam results were always in the top thirty of the year.

Only, before the rebirth, seven or eight years had passed since his high school days, and he’d long since returned all that high school knowledge to the teachers.

“Didn’t find it?” Zhou Shiyi followed behind and came up the stairs.

Gu Sheng steeled himself and handed the test paper over, and Zhou Shiyi saw the score on that paper.

He didn’t show much expression; after receiving it, he analyzed the points where Gu Sheng lost marks.

He found that Gu Sheng had missed a great deal of the basic material.

He went over the exam paper with Gu Sheng, and felt reassured. He took out the textbook, located those points, and began explaining from the beginning.

As he spoke, he realized Gu Sheng’s thoughts didn’t seem to be here; he frowned slightly.

At that moment Gu Sheng suddenly became alert. “I’m a bit thirsty, want to drink some water. You should rest too.”

Zhou Shiyi opened his mouth, thought about it, and decided whatever—He Yanqing teaching him would be the same.

Gu Sheng went to the kitchen to pour two glasses of water, when suddenly the doorbell rang. He opened the door and saw He Yanqing.

He Yanqing was surprised to see him as well.

Gu Sheng thought for a moment; he seemed to be someone from the He family.

In the previous life it seemed the He family’s youngest son was revealed to actually be an S-rank omega, and afterward the Gu family had also started considering a marriage alliance with the Hes.

But back then Gu Sheng was still lying in the hospital, so he didn’t know how things went afterward.

He wanted to leave as soon as he saw He Yanqing; he was eager for He Yanqing to hurry up and go, but he’d already promised Zhou Shiyi that the two of them would come to his house to do homework together.

Zhou Shiyi, seeing that Gu Sheng took so long to pour a glass of water, went downstairs to see what was going on and happened upon He Yanqing and Gu Sheng locked in a standoff at the door.

“You’re here? Come on in.”

Seeing Zhou Shiyi had come downstairs, He Yanqing had no choice but to grit his teeth and go up to the second floor with them.

The three of them wrote furiously in the study; for a time there was nothing but the rustle of pens on paper.

Zhou Shiyi had already finished his homework and was previewing the upcoming material.

He Yanqing had a strong foundation; he sought out Zhou Shiyi to go over past competition problems together.

Gu Sheng was working through the sample problems Zhou Shiyi had assigned him.

He had forgotten the basics, but fortunately he wasn’t dull; having studied it once in a past life, he picked it up very quickly.

The three of them tacitly avoided disturbing one another—only He Yanqing, when he found a particularly interesting problem, would show it to Zhou Shiyi.

Gu Sheng bit the end of his pen, frowning as he wrestled with the problem.

He suddenly heard the two of them whispering to each other—Zhou Shiyi was explaining the problem to He Yanqing.

Gu Sheng immediately lost interest and watched them from the side.

When Zhou Shiyi finished speaking, Gu Sheng promptly shoved the problem toward him: “I don’t know how to do this one.”

Zhou Shiyi glanced at it and drew two auxiliary lines on the page: “Look, start from here…”

He Yanqing took the scrap paper, but when he saw Gu Sheng he was promptly pushed aside, and an indescribable feeling surged up in his chest.

Seeing Gu Sheng clearly paying attention in class but still stealing a glance at him with his eyes made He Yanqing feel even stranger.

After that the feeling grew stronger; every time He Yanqing finished answering a question, Gu Sheng would follow up with another question right after.

Once again having shoved He Yanqing away from Zhou Shiyi’s side, he gave He Yanqing a provocative look.

Zhou Shiyi also noticed the little interactions between Gu Sheng and the other person; he disliked it most when someone daydreamed while he was lecturing.

He tapped his pen in front of Gu Sheng: “Focus on listening.”

Gu Sheng whispered a quiet apology and stopped playing those little games.

The three of them spent the whole morning bent over their books in the study on the second floor.

He Yanqing looked up and realized it was getting late; only then did he notice how interesting it was that the three of them of the same gender were gathered together.

Coincidentally, the three genders were all present, but the other two didn’t know — they still thought he was a beta.

What he didn’t know was that the other two already knew his actual gender; nobody had said it out loud.

Zhou Shiyi was a bit slow when it came to gender — like a beta, he couldn’t smell pheromones and could mistake someone else’s gender.

But then again, betas can judge by experience; they don’t rely solely on appearance to tell male from female like Zhou Shiyi did.

Gu Sheng, however, didn’t have that idea.

All in all, aside from being a bit unwilling at first, He Yanqing was still quite satisfied.

Zhou Shiyi had to go to the hospital at noon, so he left early.

After he left, Gu Sheng and He Yanqing exchanged a glance, then instinctively looked away. They said brief goodbyes, and He Yanqing promptly followed him out.

After that day, Gu Sheng started going back to school for classes.

Zhou Shiyi had tutoring work at night, so he moved the extra lessons to noon.

Gu Sheng was a bit displeased, but Zhou Shiyi had agreed to it long ago, so he had no choice but to compromise.

But He Yanqing and Zhou Shiyi were like conjoined twins — whenever he made plans with Zhou Shiyi, Zhou Shiyi would always invite He Yanqing along.

The three of them spent every lunch break doing homework at a fairly nice café nearby.

After a while, they got familiar with each other; whenever someone went somewhere or bought something they’d check with the other two.

Gu Sheng, in particular, could feel it clearly: Zhou Shiyi seemed intentionally trying to push him out.

Every time, Zhou Shiyi was the one who left early.

He was left alone with He Yanqing, both staring at each other in silence.

What Zhou Shiyi thought — that after he left He Yanqing tutored Gu Sheng and their relationship would suddenly advance — did not happen.

He Yanqing didn’t know why Gu Sheng held such hostility toward him. Whenever Gu Sheng was alone with him, he treated him with obvious disdain, acting as if he never wanted to see him again.

Later he realized Zhou Shiyi deliberately kept the two of them behind, trying to ease the tension between them.

A stubborn streak suddenly flared up in him; he’d refuse to leave. Even if he and Gu Sheng sat together without speaking a single word, he’d stay until the end.

After it happened a few times, he seemed to have discovered a secret.

Gu Sheng seems to be interested in Zhou Shiyi, but Zhou Shiyi appears to be trying to set them up.