I'm Actually Panicking Because My Heart Doesn't Beat (GL) - Chapter 44

On a sunny afternoon during the May Day holiday, a girl dressed in a pearl-white dress walked out of the Normal University. She wore a pale yellow hat and carried a small brown crossbody bag. At the school gate, she scanned her phone to unlock a shared bike.

This girl was none other than Guan Xiaoxuan, wearing her usual unremarkable mask. With the hat on, she looked completely ordinary and easy to overlook.

But as soon as Guan Xiaoxuan sat on the bike, she realized the pedal was broken.

Feeling helpless, she switched to another bike. This time she checked carefully before unlocking it, but because of the delay, the traffic light at the intersection near the school had just turned red.

The red light would last for 120 seconds. Guan Xiaoxuan sighed helplessly under the sun.

“What’s going on? Why am I so unlucky?” She pulled out her makeup mirror from her bag, looked at the reflection of Bai Zhiqi, and quietly said, “If anything happens later, remember to come help me.”

Bai Zhiqi in the mirror nodded helplessly and said, “I know, you’ve said it so many times. Doing business means taking risks. Don’t you get that, Guan Little Coward?”

Guan Xiaoxuan gave her a helpless look and corrected her, “I told you, I’m not a coward. I’m just cautious.”

Bai Zhiqi mocked back, “Sure, sure. Now put me back in your bag, Guan Little Coward.”

Guan Xiaoxuan didn’t want to argue—she’d still need her help later—so she obediently closed the makeup mirror and put it back in her bag.

She waited out the full 120 seconds of the red light. When it finally turned green, she pedaled forward.

All along the way, Guan Xiaoxuan felt something was off. Every intersection she reached greeted her with red lights lasting over 30 seconds.

At the fifth intersection, the red light turned on again—this time lasting 60 seconds.

How strange.

Guan Xiaoxuan frowned slightly. She had encountered long stretches of red lights before, but having a brand-new red light timer at every intersection felt weird.

She looked around carefully but didn’t notice anything unusual.

She checked her phone again. There were still over 40 minutes left until her meeting with Jian Yuchang. It would only take 20 minutes by bike to get there from the university.

So even with all the red lights, she had plenty of time.

Still, the red lights made her uneasy—as if something was inexplicably blocking her from reaching Lakeside Café.

Just as the light turned green and Guan Xiaoxuan was about to pedal off, an electric scooter suddenly sped by and knocked a pedestrian down right next to her.

“Bang—”

Guan Xiaoxuan was startled. She stared wide-eyed at the person who had been hit on the sidewalk.

“How are you riding like that? Didn’t you see I was crossing?”

The pedestrian and scooter rider started arguing loudly in the middle of the road. Luckily, neither was hurt, but their quarrel caused a traffic jam at the intersection.

By the time Guan Xiaoxuan finally managed to ride past, the green light had turned red again.

Her brows furrowed deeply.

From the moment she left school and unlocked the bike, she’d encountered nothing but red lights—and even a minor accident. Both people were fine, but the argument was fierce.

It all seemed coincidental, but Guan Xiaoxuan couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very wrong.

The crowd around the intersection grew thicker, and the traffic came to a standstill.

If she were taking a taxi, she’d definitely be stuck. Luckily, she was on a bike and could move as soon as the light turned green.

After crossing the street, she glanced back at the congested intersection, hiding her confusion deep inside.

Despite accepting the endless red lights, Guan Xiaoxuan was frustrated when she tried to return the bike at the station—it just wouldn’t scan.

Was the network down?

Her phone’s loading circle kept spinning, and the eerie feeling inside her grew stronger.

Finally, she managed to return the bike, but it was already five minutes before 3 p.m.

“What should’ve taken 20 minutes ended up taking me an hour?” Guan Xiaoxuan was shocked and her face darkened. Thinking about everything that had happened so far, she felt something was off.

But she didn’t dwell on it too much. After confirming she still had the glass pearl with her, she headed to the entrance of Lakeside Café.

“Watch out!”

Just as she was about to step inside, someone nearby shouted, and she instinctively dodged to the side.

Crash—

A flower pot fell and smashed down right where Guan Xiaoxuan had just been standing.

Now she was truly unsettled. She looked up at the café’s second floor and saw a tabby cat sitting in a clearly empty spot, looking down at her and flicking its tail.

No way!

Everything today had gone wrong.

Guan Xiaoxuan wasn’t usually an unlucky person, but she had never been this unfortunate before.

It was like… something was deliberately stopping her from selling that glass pearl.

That thought popped into her mind, so she quickly pulled out her makeup mirror. When she opened it, Bai Zhiqi’s expression was serious.

Neither of them spoke at first—they just exchanged a look.

Though Bai Zhiqi was trapped inside the mirror, she had witnessed everything that happened along the way. After a long silence, she finally said to Guan Xiaoxuan, “This probably isn’t just a coincidence.”

Guan Xiaoxuan agreed. She glanced at the café again and could see Jian Yuchang sitting inside.

The man was dressed in his usual sharp suit. Across from him sat a woman.

She wore a vintage green dress, with long black hair pinned up, quietly sipping coffee.

From behind, she didn’t look young—more like someone in her thirties or forties.

Without thinking further, Guan Xiaoxuan turned and left immediately.

She remembered what Haohao once told her—he said, “I just felt like this pearl should belong to you.”

At first, Guan Xiaoxuan thought Haohao was just a kid throwing words around, but now she had a feeling he really could sense something.

Just like Guan Xiaoxuan now.

Even though no one had said a word to her, she felt deep down that she couldn’t sell this pearl to Sword and Immortality or the woman with him.

The journey getting here was full of hardships, but going back seemed smooth and easy.

What made Guan Xiaoxuan’s feeling even stronger was the sense that this pearl seemed to be controlling things behind the scenes, making all kinds of coincidences come together to send a message.

Was this pearl alive?

In Bai Zhiqi’s dorm room, Guan Xiaoxuan took out the pearl and placed it quietly on the table, her face dark.

Bai Zhiqi looked at the pearl and stroked her chin. “What are you thinking?”

Guan Xiaoxuan was silent for a while, then asked Bai Zhiqi, “Do you think there are special items in this world that are alive?”

Bai Zhiqi glanced at her, asking, “Do you think everything that happened today was caused by this pearl?”

“I can’t rule that out,” Guan Xiaoxuan said, frowning. She stared at the quiet pearl on the table. “How else do you explain what happened today?”

“Maybe it was just a coincidence?”

“All coincidence?”

Bai Zhiqi didn’t say anything. One or two things might be coincidence, but all of it happening together? Without some supernatural cause, that would be ridiculous.

“But I’ve never heard of any active weird items,” Bai Zhiqi frowned. “Maybe I haven’t been with the Weirdness Bureau long enough. You’re not with them anymore, right? Why don’t you ask some professionals?”

Guan Xiaoxuan thought for a moment and said, “I will ask. Can you contact Haohao? I want him to come to my dream tonight. I want to tell him about this pearl.”

Bai Zhiqi agreed quickly. “I can reach him. You go home first. I’ll have him visit you in your dream tonight.”

Guan Xiaoxuan nodded. “Thank you. I’ll go home now.”

Meanwhile—

Sword and Immortality anxiously called the forum poster on WeChat again and again, but the person refused to answer no matter what.

The woman in a vintage green dress calmly sipped her coffee. Her eyes drifted to the side, watching a waiter at the café sweep up broken flowerpot shards that a cat had knocked over.

Half an hour past the meeting time, Sword and Immortality wiped the sweat from his forehead, hung up the phone, and looked at the woman. He said awkwardly, “Sorry, Boss Xu, that person just won’t pick up…”

The woman called “Boss Xu” calmly drank her coffee. She watched the café cat run past and slowly set down her cup.

“She’s probably delayed on the way. Boss Xu, please wait a little longer. I’ll call her a few more times.”

“No need.”

The woman watched the waiter finish cleaning and come back inside, then turned to Sword and Immortality and said, “The person you arranged to meet isn’t coming today.”

Whether she’ll come in the future, no one could say.

Sword and Immortality thought she was upset. He awkwardly explained, “Boss Xu, please don’t be angry. If she doesn’t come today, I’ll arrange another time. Since she has the item you want, I’ll find a way to get it for you…”

The woman raised her hand to stop him and spoke calmly, “It’s not your fault, and it’s not hers either. Ultimately, it’s the item itself that knows I’m the one trying to buy it, so it’s doing everything it can to stop me.”

Sword and Immortality was stunned. “Boss Xu, what do you mean?”

She looked at him and smiled slightly. “Not all items are lifeless. There are always a few with their own thoughts and life. They have instincts sharper than humans—they know where danger is and where safety lies.”

Sword and Immortality didn’t fully understand her and looked puzzled.

The woman looked at the man’s innocent confusion and said with a laugh, “Don’t overthink it. Keep the forum bounty going and raise the price to two million.”

Sword and Immortality’s eyes went wide. “Two million?!”

She nodded and said lightly, “That person doesn’t want to sell, but someone else will try to snatch it. We just need to sit back and reap the benefits.”