The Red-robed BOSS Says I Killed Him - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Dean’s Office was much more normal than the outside.

It was so normal, in fact, that it felt eerie.

The bookshelves were tidy, the desk was spotless, and there was even a bunch of freshly washed green grapes in a fruit bowl.

Droplets of water still clung to them.

I stared at the grapes, my throat tightening for no apparent reason.

It wasn’t that I wanted to eat them.

It was that I suddenly remembered standing under much colder white lights many times before, peeling grapes one by one to coax someone who refused to take his medicine.

Once, he had smashed all the medicine, and shards of glass had splattered all over my sleeve.

I had snapped at him in a rage, “Li Shuheng, if you act out again, don’t even think about seeing a single grape skin tonight.”

But the youth on the hospital bed had merely looked up. Even though he was burning with a fever, he insisted on a cold sneer.

“Then try me.”

The image flickered and vanished.

“Sit.”

Li Shuheng took off his coat and draped it casually over the back of the chair.

He was wearing a white shirt underneath, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing a stretch of pale, cold wrist bone.

I didn’t sit.

“What do you want?”

“To look at you.”

“Look at what?”

“To see exactly how much you’ve forgotten.”

He spoke so calmly, as if we were discussing dinner.

It made my skin crawl even more.

“How do you know my name?”

“You told me.”

“When?”

“Many times.”

“Stop speaking in riddles.”

Li Shuheng looked down and chuckled softly, turning to wash his hands.

The sound of the water running over his fingers was very light.

“The first time, you stood at the door of the ward and said your name was Luo Tinglan.”

“The second time, you snatched my medicine and scolded me, saying if I smashed things again, you’d tie me to the bed.”

“The third time, you sat in this very chair, eating grapes while teaching me how to curse at the System.”

“Back then, you weren’t a Player.”

“You were an Observer for the Experimental Layer of the Judgment Institute.”

“I was 0719, the one you were responsible for.”

I froze.

Because the moment I looked at the chair he mentioned, it actually felt familiar.

There was a crack on the right armrest.

The legs would wobble slightly when someone sat on it.

These were things I shouldn’t have known.

“You’re trying to bait me.”

“You overestimate your current intelligence.”

His words choked me up.

Just as I was about to retort, he walked up to me and handed me a peeled grape.

“Want one?”

“Aren’t you afraid I’ve poisoned it?”

“If you really wanted to poison me, you wouldn’t pick this moment.”

“You trust me that much?”

Li Shuheng looked at me, his voice suddenly dropping low.

“It’s not that I trust you.”

“It’s that I trust myself for having remembered you for so long.”

As soon as he said that, the room fell silent.

I didn’t take the grape.

He didn’t push, either, and ate it himself.

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, his gaze still fixed on my face.

“Aren’t you going to kill me?” I asked.

“I will.”

My fingers tightened.

But his next sentence was even calmer.

“But not now.”

“Then when?”

“When you remember.”

“Remember what?”

He took a step closer.

He was so close I could smell the faint, cold scent on him, like metal and snow.

“Remember why you promised to take me away.”

“And why, every single time, you plunged a knife into my heart.”

He grabbed my hand and pressed it against his chest.

Through the shirt, I felt a deep, old scar.

Not just one.

They were densely packed, all near his heart.

My fingertips trembled, and I immediately tried to pull back.

But Li Shuheng didn’t let go.

“These were all left by you.”

“I didn’t!”

“Mhm.”

He stared at me, but the hint of a smile gradually faded.

“You say that every time.”

“But you weren’t like this before.”

“Before, when you entered the ward, you’d first check the restraints on my wrists, then curse them for treating people like disposable materials.”

My chest felt tight under his gaze.

That tightness wasn’t fear.

It was more like an indescribable ache.

Suddenly, someone pounded on the door outside.

“Is that newbie inside still alive!”

“We want to talk to her!”

It was the crew-cut man from earlier.

Li Shuheng frowned, casually picked up a thin blade from the desk, and flicked it out.

With a *clang*, the blade embedded itself into the door panel.

The outside went silent instantly.

I couldn’t help but look at him. “Are you sick?”

“Yes.”

He answered without hesitation.

“You diagnosed me yourself, once.”