Ling Ze smiled faintly, his face as gentle as always. That was just the way he was—the more tumultuous his heart was, the gentler his face appeared.
In the dorm, the playing cards that Chen Cheng and the others were holding had already scattered all over the floor, and Zhang Xu was almost scared to pee—"Oh my god! He can't be serious..."
Chen Cheng's face turned pale. In the middle of the night, listening to a roommate tell a murder story with such a calm and light tone, if it weren't for having others beside him, he would run out any minute.
Who said boys are braver? Even if he played supernatural horror games, it didn't mean he could accept a real-life murderous maniac!
In comparison, the well-off Zhou Haoran was more composed.
—Composed my ass!
His hair stood on end, and he couldn't speak for a long while. Finally regaining his composure, he didn't say a word, immediately got out of bed, put on his slippers, and walked towards the door without looking back.
"Haozi, Haozi! What are you doing?!"
Chen Cheng and Zhang Xu, both scared half to death, didn't even bother to lower their voices as they hastily asked, fearing he would run off.
Fortunately, even with their loud voices, Ling Ze still didn't wake up.
Zhou Haoran turned around. His expression couldn't be seen in the darkness. The other two thought he was very calm, only to hear him answer, "I am going to squeeze in next door's dorm for the night, are you guys coming?"
Yes! Definitely!
Mommy, how thrilling! Listening to the story alone didn't feel scary, but if Zhou Haoran's guess was right, then it meant they had been sleeping with a murderous maniac for three years. The more they thought about it, the more terrifying it became… Time to get out!
The two got out of bed and ran out. Zhang Xu didn't see clearly and hit his head on a bedpost with a loud "thud"! However, Ling Ze, premeditatedly dragged into dreams by Zheng Mingcui with He Qing's assistance, couldn't easily get out and continued to sleep unwittingly.
It was three o'clock, the rooster crowed announcing dawn, and the yang energy was rising. Zheng Mingcui, with bloody tear-streaks on her face, "saw" that the three from the dorm had already run out and silently smiled.
Ling Ze slept very heavily that night. When he woke up, it was already broad daylight. He looked at the wristwatch he hadn't taken off before sleeping, seven fifty-eight...
Seven fifty-eight!
Damn, he was late!
He quickly rolled out of bed, getting dressed while still wondering: How could he have slept so long? And there was no reaction at all from the people in the dorm… Could someone have tricked him?
In a hurry to leave the dorm, he caught Zhang Li also about to leave next door. Zhang Li had recently caught a severe cold, had taken two days off, so he wasn't in a rush to go out.
However, the look he gave Ling Ze wasn't the usual admiring and envious glance. That kind of look, common since Ling Ze and Zhang Lingyan became a couple, was no longer surprising. But today, the look in Zhang Li's eyes carried an inexplicable strangeness, filled with disdain, shock, disdain, and fear. The complex emotions interwoven together made Ling Ze completely puzzled.
However, it was only for a moment.
The next instant, Zhang Li's face, covered with a large mask, quickly turned away as he mumbled in a nasal voice, "I have something to do, got to go…" and hurried away.
With no time to spare, Ling Ze couldn't think too much about it and also hurriedly skipped any concern for appearance and ran to the classroom.
However, upon arriving at the classroom, everyone was talking. But as soon as he entered, the whole room immediately went silent.
Such a usually bustling public classroom, irrespective of whether the teacher had arrived or not, the noise was never lacking—how could it be so quiet?
As he suppressed the doubts in his mind and sat down, the classmates on both sides immediately moved aside like Moses parting the Red Sea, gathering their stuff and shifting aside a step.
Ling Ze: ...
What on earth is going on? With so much weighing on his mind, the class seemed to last an eternity, and he could barely sit still.
Class was over, but instead of leaving as usual, everyone in the classroom seemed to keep their distance from him, gathering in small groups and whispering. Even many of the girls did the same.
All of this, in Ling Ze's heart, felt like a massive mountain pressing down on him, making it hard to breathe.
Until Zhang Lingyan found him.
"Ling Ze, they're saying you killed someone! How, how could that be?"
Zhang Lingyan had seen the message in the group chat first thing in the morning, but since Ling Ze had left in a hurry and forgotten his phone, she couldn't contact him.
Anxious, she had run all the way here, out of breath.
Ling Ze's eyebrows twitched, and he asked calmly, "What murder?"
"They're saying you, you killed a woman named Zheng Mingcui."
"Zheng Mingcui?!!"
Ling Ze's expression immediately turned grim.
Then, he quickly adjusted his demeanor, gave Zhang Lingyan a slight smile, and immediately dazzled this girl who was completely smitten with him, responding, "Who is Zheng Mingcui? Why on earth would they say I killed someone out of the blue? Lingyan, could it be because we're together, that I'm out of your league, and that's why someone can't stand it..."
With just a few words, Zhang Lingyan immediately became indignant. She stomped her foot, fuming, "I knew it! Aren't they just jealous because you're good-looking and capable? That's why they're making up nonsense with a few imaginary words, claiming you're a murderer. Even Meng Jie is speaking ill of you...it's okay," she reassured, looking at Ling Ze's saddened face, "mediocrity does not evoke envy. Ignore them, they're just behaving like scoundrels! I'll go ask my brother to look into it..."
Having said that, despite Ling Ze's suddenly grim expression, she ran off quickly.
Idiot!
With this kind of situation, it would have been discovered sooner or later even if Zhang Lingyan asked her brother!
Damn it!
What nonsense? What murder? How could anyone know about Zheng Mingcui? She had never been to the school, nor had she ever had public dealings with him...what went wrong?
Ling Ze was filled with resentment.
However, the pressing matter was to think about how to handle it.
Ling Ze endured whispers and strange looks all the way to his dormitory. Since entering university, he had been crafting an image of a gentle, inspiring, commoner school heartthrob. He had always succeeded in everything he did, and he had never felt such humiliation like he did at this moment.
Upon reaching his dormitory, he turned on his phone, and the first things that popped up were missed calls and messages from Zhang Lingyan. Ignoring these, he went directly to the campus forum, where the topmost post, in bold red letters, shockingly read: Thriller! Finance Department's Heartthrob LZ Spills Murder and Dismemberment Details in His Sleep!!!
Such an eye-catching and engaging title, featuring the somewhat famous finance heartthrob, and posted at just past three in the morning, had already garnered hundreds of thousands of views.
Almost every student at Ming University, whether they had graduated or not, knew about it!
Ling Ze's hands trembled as he clicked on it. The post began with: "I am from the finance department, XX dormitory. Our dormitory is next to LZ's. Around three this morning, someone knocked on our door. When we opened it, we saw that all three of the other guys from LZ's dormitory had come to stay with us. The reason was, they were playing cards at night and heard LZ talking in his sleep; it was so horrifying they got scared out of their room!
The sleep-talking went like this..."
Ling Ze's eyes reddened, and he clenched his teeth, "Zhou Haoran! Chen Cheng! Zhang Xu——"