The Senior Student (female) Is Not Human - Chapter 26

Chapter 26: The Pervert

“To mark you all over with my scent…”

“You must stay closer to me, closer.”

The highly seductive voice carried a distinct magic.

Even though Xie Shiwei had left the activity building long ago and had worked a few hours at her part-time job, her heart still hammered wildly against her ribs when she returned home and closed the door.

…How much closer does she want me to be?

Xie Shiwei leaned her back against the cold door, but her face was flushed enough to drip bl00d.

Taking advantage of the empty house, her courage was greater than it was outside. She repeatedly replayed the memory of sitting on Jiang Xiyao’s long legs, whispering:

“Does ‘negative distance’ mean mutual cunnilingus? Or does she plan to personally explore the potential and capacity of my young body with those beautiful hands?”

She even dared to quietly challenge the air:

“Come on.”

“Take me from the front.”

…

Not until she relied on the familiar surroundings to suppress the disobedient pounding in her heart did Xie Shiwei slide to the floor. After the initial rush of fantasizing about overtly seducing Sister subsided, she slowly got up.

However, as she looked up, she was met with a face that was creepily staring at her, clinging to the edge of the balcony.

—Her apartment was on the tenth floor!

Xie Shiwei let out a sudden scream. The sight of a thief/pervert climbing onto her balcony late at night, trying to get in, made her limbs go weak and her mind blank.

She fumbled for her phone to call the police, but the moment she lit up the screen, she saw the person, who was scrambling on all fours, suddenly lift his head and grin at her.

Eyes covered in bl00d-red spiderwebs, stark white teeth, and a bizarre, crawling posture.

“Plop…”

Xie Shiwei’s mind went blank, her phone dropped to the floor, and she passed out.

Perhaps due to the string of recent terrifying attacks, Xie Shiwei quickly woke up on the cold floor, seeing her phone—which had sent an emergency help request to Zhong Chuyao—in someone else’s hand.

She heard the person’s first words: “I won’t kill you.”

The boy had personally witnessed the mysterious demise of the two accomplices from the camping night after they showed murderous intent towards Xie Shiwei.

Perhaps it was because he had held the knife that night and ultimately hadn’t dared to strike, or perhaps he had realized the strangeness surrounding Jiang Xiyao. His remaining rationality and will to survive told him to stay far away from that monster.

But his mind was already broken. For most of the day, he would unconsciously start calling that name, followed by an explosion of murderous intent!

It was the same just now.

Even though You Jiayi’s instructions had filled his eyes with the fear of his two accomplices being arrested by the police, upon hearing the name “Jiang Xiyao,” his body had acted on its own.

When he finally came to, he was already climbing onto the tenth-floor balcony.

The cowardly rival was so timid he was pathetic. Yet, when he pulled out the knife from his waist and saw the Buddha beads on the girl’s wrist, he suddenly regained his sanity for a moment and couldn’t muster any murderous intent—

It was the same now.

He inexplicably found a long-lost peace around Xie Shiwei. Though he held a knife, his voice was surprisingly calm.

But Xie Shiwei was petrified.

She swallowed hard, not daring to look at the person behind her. She lay on the cold floor and whispered, “Then what do you want?”

Even if he wasn’t going to kill her, she couldn’t imagine the consequences of robbery or assault!

The next sentence made her heart pound with fear again:

“You Jiayi told me to kill you.”

“She said you were both seducing Jiang Xiyao and cheating on her, seducing her, seducing other girls—”

Xie Shiwei didn’t know where she found the courage to argue with the suspected killer:

“I didn’t!”

The boy, who was holding a knife and sitting behind her, paused: “You didn’t.”

His tone was strange: “You better not have.”

The low, hoarse voice sounded right near the back of Xie Shiwei’s head: “Because Jiang Xiyao is a monster, an undying, lingering monster…”

Xie Shiwei was on the verge of tears, terrified by the maniac’s words.

She had no idea You Jiayi was so vengeful. The woman had openly smeared her, calling her a murderer. Not only had she refused to apologize, but she had escalated to inciting people to kill her!

She’s a lunatic!

She let out a slight gasp, but very skillfully made a guarantee to this pursuer of Sister Jiang, who was obsessed to the point of turning dark: “I don’t like Sister Jiang. I won’t get close to her, and I won’t seduce her, I promise.”

Xie Shiwei quickly made her promise. Afraid he wouldn’t believe her, she proactively suggested:

“I, I’ll write a letter of guarantee. Can you let me go?”

“Guarantee? A letter of guarantee?” The low voice sounded doubtful.

Soon, Xie Shiwei heard the rustling of him getting up behind her, followed by footsteps receding.

She was just about to seize the moment to quickly sit up and find her phone to call the police when the sound of his furious footsteps rushing back from her room echoed.

A light sheet of paper was angrily flung to the floor by the boy:

“You’re lying! What is this? What is this?!”

Xie Shiwei’s heart nearly leaped out of her throat from his shout. She quickly looked at the paper, only to find it was just a yellowed, old, wrinkled blank sheet of writing paper?

She was on the verge of tears, not understanding how a sheet of stationery from her room could infuriate the criminal:

“It’s… writing paper? Stationery that came with my online order? I-Is that not allowed?”

“No! No!” The boy’s voice suddenly rose. The cold, delicate feeling of touching the paper reminded him involuntarily of touching Jiang Xiyao’s corpse pieces that night at the campsite.

In an instant, his murderous intent surged. He wanted to chop the paper into pieces in front of her. However, the anger mysteriously vanished as he threw it down:

“Paper. You want this paper. You’re planning to write a love letter to Jiang Xiyao, right?!”

Xie Shiwei: “…?”

How did he even arrive at that conclusion?

She couldn’t keep up with the mental patient’s jumping logic. Her shoulders shook from his roar, and her voice trembled: “N-No, I’m not.”

“Then who are you going to write to?!” The boy’s eyes bulged red with rage. On the verge of a frenzy, he suddenly remembered another figure: “Is it her? That Le Qiong from the music department? Are you going to write to her?”

Xie Shiwei couldn’t understand these love-crazed people who were so obsessed with Sister Jiang that they were mentally unstable and only associated writing paper with love letters.

She sobbed and asked: “D-Do I absolutely have to use writing paper for a love letter?”

“You won’t write? You don’t want to write to Le Qiong? Are you still planning to write to Jiang Xiyao?!” Hearing the refusal, the boy’s breathing became heavy and wheezing. He clenched the cleaver in his hand again.

Xie Shiwei started answering in terror: “I’ll write! I’ll write! I’ll write to Le Qiong right now!”

Never having been forced to write a love letter with a knife at her back, Xie Shiwei exchanged glances with the yellowish paper after the boy threw a pen down.

She didn’t know why.

She had a feeling that the paper’s texture was similar to the bookmark that had fallen off the desk a certain night, and after staring at it for a long time, its color even seemed similar to the hair clip she refused to wear.

…What exactly was this complimentary gift from?

Seeing her mind wander, the boy shook the knife in his hand.

Xie Shiwei instinctively found an excuse: “I’m, I’m sorry. I’ve never written a love letter. Let me think.”

She originally wanted to copy You Jiayi’s homework, but when she thought of Le Qiong, she inexplicably felt that if the woman read something so “deeply emotional,” she might be excited enough to agree to a relationship.

Xie Shiwei just wanted to live; she didn’t actually want a girlfriend.

Adopting the mindset of writing the word “Solution” when doing a math problem, she solemnly wrote “Sister” in the upper left corner of the paper, followed by a slow colon.

But when she thought of Le Qiong, her mind was utterly blank.

Her pen hovered over the paper several times, but suddenly, the vibrant, rich figure of Jiang Xiyao barged into her mind: the silky, cool black hair, the red mole flickering beside the smiling, curved red lips.

When she finally reacted, a sentence had appeared on the paper:

“The first day I met you, my world became bright. The colors in my eyes were only given new definition because of you.”

As she silently read the sentence, Xie Shiwei felt as if she was back on the day she first saw Jiang Xiyao.

She was in the crowd of freshman military trainees, exhausted, drenched in sweat. Her yellow-green uniform clung to her body, and even the lenses of her ordinary glasses were fogged.

Just as she took off her glasses to carefully wipe them, a fragrant breeze swept past her.

In a world blurred into mere color blocks, only this figure was exceptionally clear. She instinctively put on her glasses. The moment she looked up and saw that side profile, all sound around her vanished.

The beauty wore the clean white shirt and black trousers uniform of the student council event, but her red lips were pouted, filled with disdain: “Next time, don’t ask me to come to events where I have to wear ugly clothes.”

“Looking at a whole field of ugly things—I should get worker’s compensation, shouldn’t I? I need to go back and look in the mirror and wash my eyes.”

Xie Shiwei stared blankly at her red lips opening and closing as she spoke.

She also saw the fingers, white and luminous in the sunlight, impatiently tugging at the red tie on her collar. It was a silk shirt, different from everyone else’s, yet she was ruthlessly pulling off the buttons.

Not until the beauty, who had been constantly complaining, suddenly noticed something and looked her way.

Xie Shiwei instinctively lowered her head. It was a long time before she realized her chest hurt from holding her breath.

She took a deep breath. When she looked up again, the light in her vision dimmed—

The beauty had already left.

But her eyes and her brain could never forget that stunning figure.

“Are you done?”

The boy, who had suppressed his impatience and waited for a long time without seeing her write another word, urged her on.

Xie Shiwei suddenly snapped back to reality, looking at the words on the paper.

She could have continued writing, letting her feelings flow and misattributing them, but the moment she thought about Le Qiong reading these words, she inexplicably lost all desire to put pen to paper again.

Realizing this, she fiercely warned herself again:

Would she really be able to write more if she was thinking of Sister Jiang? You’ve only maintained your current distance, and you’ve already met so many terrifying perverts at school and at home. If you get any closer, do you have enough lives to be with her?

Xie Shiwei suddenly calmed down.

She knew that the desperate, fanatical attempts to eliminate rivals had nothing to do with Jiang Xiyao.

She was just timid and cowardly. She only had a few things she truly wanted: one was to live a good life, to help her grandfather see the world and her grandmother taste the world’s cuisines.

The other was to earn money and hold onto the apartment her grandparents bought her.

Romance was a luxury for Xie Shiwei.

Jiang Xiyao was an even greater one.

She didn’t want to get close to types like Le Qiong, who could trigger her poor person’s fragile, sensitive self-esteem just by glancing at her Buddha beads or asking about her family and part-time earnings.

A beauty like Jiang Xiyao, who was born to be matched with all the world’s finest, who deserved the most expensive and best in every aspect of life—what could Xie Shiwei possibly give her?

If they weren’t at the same university, Jiang Xiyao’s distance from her should have been like a handbag in a storefront window on the central street of a commercial district—something she could never even allow herself to look at for too long in this lifetime.

—They were people from two different worlds.

Xie Shiwei pressed down on the paper, vaguely smelling Jiang Xiyao’s scent again, but she no longer wavered:

“Yes, I’m done. I can only write something this subtle. If you’re not satisfied…”

Before she could finish, the boy suddenly interrupted: “Give that to the person tomorrow. I will watch you give it to her with my own eyes. If you dare to lie to me, I will kill you and Jiang Xiyao both!”

Having been afraid for too long, Xie Shiwei felt a degree of numbness. She suddenly asked:

“If I give the love letter to Sister Le Qiong, and I keep my promise. Regardless of the outcome, will you let me go, and let Sister Jiang go?”

“I’ll let you go. I told you, I don’t want to kill you.” The boy assured her. When he thought of the other person, his frenzied expression returned: “As for Jiang Xiyao, she deserves to die! She was supposed to die already!”

Xie Shiwei watched him walk back toward the balcony as he spoke. Amidst her alarmed cries, the person, holding the knife, leapt off the balcony!

Don’t jump! Don’t jump! The property value of this apartment and the entire complex can’t drop—

The timid girl instinctively squeezed her eyes shut. When she didn’t hear a loud “thud” for a long time, she gathered her courage and walked two steps toward the balcony. She saw no dark puddle in the area under the streetlights below.

Xie Shiwei, who had experienced extreme highs and lows in a single night, felt her legs give way and sank back onto the floor.

It wasn’t until she heard someone unlocking her front door’s keypad and saw Zhong Chuyao appear that her tears instantly burst into a flood.

“Wuwuwu Chu Chu…”

The moment Zhong Chuyao reached her, Xie Shiwei, unashamedly, hugged her friend’s leg and started crying.

She began ranting wildly, unable to form coherent sentences, but her sense of grievance was unmistakable.

Zhong Chuyao hesitated for a second, then placed her palm on Xie Shiwei’s back, bending down to pat her:

“Don’t be afraid, I’m here. I already called the police. After you explain what happened, why don’t you stay at my place for now?”

Xie Shiwei nodded vigorously.

Because she had faced so much danger in the past two days, and the police found that the escaped mental patients seemed to be targeting her, they applied for a restraining order for her, even with a friend accompanying her and staying at Zhong’s house.

Zhong Chuyao saw how terrified she was and simply took two days off work to stay home and help her rest.

Since her best friend had kindly taken time off, Xie Shiwei couldn’t insist on going to class.

Luckily, her most lucrative part-time job with the Zhou family was temporarily suspended because the family was traveling, and it was easy to get time off from her other jobs.

Xie Shiwei justifiably stayed at Zhong’s house, even pleading with her friend to accompany her to pick up her repaired glasses.

It wasn’t until the police quickly found and arrested all the escaped mental patients, who were then, with their parents’ consent, sent to the most strictly managed psychiatric hospital.

They even gave her an extra update: the person who appeared at her house that day was later found dead under a bridge frequented by the homeless.

“However,” the police officer updating her said, “although your phone accidentally recorded evidence of You Jiayi inciting them to murder, she has suddenly disappeared from her home, and we haven’t found her yet.”

Xie Shiwei had let out a huge sigh of relief when she heard all the mental patients had been caught.

But Zhong Chuyao, standing next to her, frowned, looking dissatisfied.

Disappeared?

After returning home, Zhong Chuyao casually tossed a few coins to calculate the woman’s hiding location. She had only been looking at the coins for a moment when she saw Xie Shiwei, who had been on her phone, squat down to help her pick them up.

“Huh? What century is it? Chu Chu, why are you carrying coins?”

She smiled.

If she wasn’t afraid of Xie Shiwei getting suspicious and asking questions, she’d be more comfortable carrying copper coins.

But she only put the coins away, answering calmly: “I’m going out for a bit. Are you going to stay home, or—”

Although Xie Shiwei’s courage had improved slightly after the recent attacks, she didn’t dare to stay long in front of the other snake tanks, except for the most beautiful green snake.

Moreover, if Zhong Chuyao wasn’t home, and one of them escaped, she wouldn’t have anywhere to call for help.

So she quickly held up her phone: “Perfect. I promised two upperclassmen I’d help them with the campus singer event. They’ve been nagging me these past two days while I’ve been absent, so I’m going back to school for a bit.”

To be accurate.

The person nagging her was only Le Qiong.

She hadn’t even added Jiang Xiyao as a friend.

Le Qiong seemed utterly terrified of Jiang Xiyao after that day. If Xie Shiwei didn’t go, she wouldn’t dare go to the activity center, frantically emotionally blackmailing her about the dangerous consequences of missing practice and performing poorly.

Xie Shiwei had righteously refused the past two days, but Le Qiong sent her a red envelope today.

Her tone shifted to desperate pleading for help.

Xie Shiwei, who was always more receptive to soft requests than hard ones, felt a little embarrassed.

She specifically confirmed with Le Qiong that only the two of them would be at the activity room today. Then, she planned to drop Chu Chu off at her destination on her scooter before returning to school.

But her best friend laughed and declined her offer, telling her not to worry and to focus on her rehearsal. At the same time, she looked at the Buddha beads on her wrist and, just in case, added:

“If that string of beads loses even one more bead, call me immediately.”

Xie Shiwei covered her wrist, slightly embarrassed: “I’ll protect it carefully. I definitely won’t let it lose any more.”

Zhong Chuyao casually tapped her forehead:

“Are you an idiot? Even if those cheap, peace-bestowing trinkets are from a temple, they’re supposed to protect you. Why are you protecting it? You’re doing it backward.”

Xie Shiwei instinctively started to say: “Because you gave it to me…”

But Zhong Chuyao had already turned and walked into the Zhong family’s underground garage.

Watching her friend’s decisive, efficient back, Xie Shiwei felt her spirit uplifted by her aura. All the way back to school, the wind blowing across her face also scattered the lingering fear in her heart.

However, after entering the activity building, she didn’t see Le Qiong in the familiar music room at first glance.

Xie Shiwei’s backpack was a little heavy. She squatted down ungracefully, pulled out her phone, and started typing a message while muttering: “Sister Le Qiong, I’m here. Where are you?”

Before the message could be sent—

A stunning face suddenly appeared in the reflection on her screen.

“Only she can get you to move, can’t she?”

Xie Shiwei gasped. If the face wasn’t so beautiful and the voice so pleasant, she would have thrown her phone.

But it didn’t matter.

After her half-released breath caught, the memory of the consequences of getting close to Jiang Xiyao returned. She scrambled forward a few steps, completely embarrassed, and only turned back once she was sure the distance was safe:

“S-Sister, why are you here?”

Jiang Xiyao frowned.

She was very displeased with the distance they created between them.

Didn’t that fool who was incited and dared to climb to Xie Shiwei’s house to threaten her already die? Now that no one was holding a knife to her neck, why was she still this scared?

Thinking this, Jiang Xiyao glared fiercely at the Buddha beads on the girl’s wrist.

If it weren’t for this annoying thing blocking her from hearing Xie Shiwei’s inner voice, she wouldn’t have known what was happening until the idiot showed up with a knife.

So annoying.

She wanted to rip that awful thing off and crush it right now.

The girl seemed to sense her gaze, shrinking back even further, and subtly hiding her hands behind her back: “Didn’t Sister say she wasn’t coming today?”

Jiang Xiyao looked at her with a cold smile.

“What, am I interrupting your little date?”

Xie Shiwei’s eyes darted away: “N-No. I don’t know anything anyway, and I’m not suited for the stage. So, I’m just here to be Sister Le Qiong’s… morale booster…”

Jiang Xiyao interrupted her without hesitation: “If you don’t know how, then learn. I’ll teach you.”

With that, the beauty turned and closed the music room door, even turning the lock with a definitive click.

Then, she sat down naturally at the Guzheng table. The deep black cheongsam she had changed into was alluringly slit, the fabric draped over her thighs, revealing a line of snow-white skin.

Jiang Xiyao’s painted fingertips tapped carelessly on her leg: “Sit here.”

However, the person who was usually powerless against her beauty and had long forgotten how to refuse her was now shrinking back to the corner of the room, blushing and shaking her head vigorously.

She even pleaded, looking toward the door: “I don’t want to learn… Sister, please, find someone else to perform with. I don’t want to go.”

Jiang Xiyao rested her chin on her hand, her elbow leaning on the Guzheng, producing a few muffled chords.

After a while, she let out a light laugh, and the beauty spot at the corner of her lip grew even more vivid.

She spoke slowly: “How many times have I warned you, hmm? You can’t run from me.”

“Xie Shiwei, are you coming over yourself, or should I come to you?”

When Jiang Xiyao’s smile reached her dark eyes, it was like two clusters of dangerously flickering dark flames.

“But if I catch you again—”

“Guess how I’ll punish you this time?”

Xie Shiwei inexplicably thought of the time she was caught after hiding in the gym during the fitness test, and the way her nose would sting and her eyes would glaze over just by looking at her.

She even remembered the expensive gold chain Jiang Xiyao suddenly wanted to put on her when she came into her tent during the camping trip.

She could not become any more addicted to Jiang Xiyao.

She could not get any closer to Jiang Xiyao.

Because it would only bring misfortune to both of them.

So, the girl, whose face was bright red from anxiety, clutched the corner of her clothes against the wall. Thinking of the people who had recently threatened both her safety and Jiang Xiyao’s, she suddenly gathered her courage and said:

“I-I can’t come over!”

“Because I, I am a pervert!”

“As soon as I get close to Sister, smell her scent, or touch her skin, my body becomes very strange. My legs get weak, I lose all strength, I’ll, I’ll…”

She knew she had to make the problem sound severe enough to scare off the beauty who had taken a strange interest in her.

Since she had already said “pervert,” Xie Shiwei closed her eyes and spat out scenes from the erotic novels she had read:

“I’ll want to use the fluid from my poor body to stain your expensive, beautiful skirt, to mark you all over with my scent, to soak you completely! To infect you!”

“Are you scared now! Are you shaking! If you’re scared, then don’t ever come near me again!”

“Because I’m just a poor, scary pervert who fantasizes about doing strange things to you every day!”