Chapter 64

"It was my selfishness and willful insistence that caused you to faint and end up in the hospital, missing your exams." Fu Shuxing walked step by step until he stood right in front of Ji Xun, lowering his gaze to look at him. "I didn't apologize to you in person because I was afraid. My very first instinct was to run away."

"I'm sorry, Ji Xun."

Ji Xun pressed his lips tightly together, frowning suspiciously as he looked at Fu Shuxing.

What on earth was wrong with this guy, why was his attitude changing so fast?!

"No one ever taught me what I should do..."

Fu Shuxing looked at Ji Xun. "By the time I realized, I had already done a lot of things that went completely against my own intentions. Some of those things hurt myself, and some hurt you."

Ji Xun gripped the box tightly!

"The things I said last night at the banquet were the same," Fu Shuxing said, looking at Ji Xun with a low, deep voice. "I didn't know how to handle it. I thought I was protecting you, but every time, it only seemed to cause you more pain and distress."

Compared to earlier in the bedroom, this confession from Fu Shuxing was clearly much more sincere.

Yet Ji Xun was far from certain what Fu Shuxing's true motives were.

He might genuinely feel remorseful about something, or perhaps he was responding to last night's message, or maybe he was simply acting and playing games with him.

Ji Xun had certainly not forgotten how infuriating this guy could be when he was being malicious!

Of course, there was another possibility.

——Fu Shuxing assumed that since they were moving, their chances of meeting in the future would be drastically reduced, so he wanted to seize this opportunity to say everything all at once just to make himself feel better inside.

However...

Did he really think moving meant they wouldn't see each other?

Heh! As if that was ever going to happen!!

"You were right. Sentinels and guides shouldn't just be reduced to a relationship of mutual tools."

Ji Xun looked at Fu Shuxing once more.

Fu Shuxing's gaze remained calm. "Regardless of whether you can help me with mental guidance or not, you are still... I said I would protect you. From now on, no matter who bullies you, just tell me, and I'll help you beat them up."

"Alright, I've said everything I needed to say."

Fu Shuxing pulled his hands out of his pockets, revealing two hard fruit candies with beautifully patterned wrappers.

Fu Shuxing raised his other hand, pinched the two ends, and gave them a gentle twist. The wrapper loosened, but then he twisted it back into place.

Fu Shuxing handed the candies to Ji Xun. "You can eat these after taking your traditional Chinese medicine. They're very small and fruit-flavored, so they won't interfere with the medicine's effectiveness."

The sentinel's hand remained extended for a long time.

Ji Xun finally reached out and took them, his fingertips pinching the corner of the wrapper.

Fu Shuxing lowered his gaze to watch, his expression looking completely calm. Only he knew the fierce impulse raging within his heart, screaming at him to take them back, unwrap them, and feed them to Ji Xun's open mouth just like he used to do when they were little.

But he mustn't do anything extra.

He could not do anything extra.

"That's all." Fu Shuxing's fingers finally curled into a fist before relaxing again.

Fu Shuxing said, "It's freezing outside, you should hurry inside."

After a long silence, Ji Xun clutched the candies in his hand and looked up at Fu Shuxing. "Aren't you going to tell me where the Marshal's Mansion is?"

Fu Shuxing: "?"

Ji Xun said, "You said so much and even apologized to me, but you didn't tell me your new address. If Stone and I want to come find you and play in the future, how are we supposed to find you?"

Fu Shuxing understood, hesitating for a moment. "I'll send it to your communicator."

Ji Xun: "Deal!"

Fu Shuxing's gaze swept over the box in Ji Xun's hands before shifting away, without lingering, toward a distant street lamp. "I have to go."

"Alright."

The two parted ways at the entrance.

Ji Xun waited until Fu Shuxing had walked some distance away before calling out, "Brother Xing!"

Fu Shuxing stopped immediately.

"Even though you're moving, you still have to go to school!" Ji Xun raised an eyebrow, calling out to Fu Shuxing's retreating back, "Wasn't this apology of yours a little too hasty~?"

Fu Shuxing did not answer, merely leaving behind a low, soft whisper: "Goodnight, Xiao Xun."

The cool night breeze carried those words of goodnight straight to Ji Xun's ears.

Stone had gone home.

Fu Shuxing had also left.

Ji Xun turned and walked into the courtyard. He glanced up at his second-floor bedroom, put down the gift box in his hand, placed two chairs stacked together against the wall, stepped onto them, and then, using every available foothold on the brick wall, climbed upward little by little.

Ji Xun's fingers were frozen red as he struggled to haul himself over the windowsill, only to find the Great King Egg hard at work against the door latch.

Clearly, it was trying to undo the deadlock.

Yet, after all, it was still just an egg; no matter how agile it might be, it couldn't complete such a complex action.

Therefore, Ji Xun took a deep breath, gathered his remaining strength to flip into the room, shook his aching fingers, walked over to scoop up the Great King Egg with one hand, unlocked the bedroom door with the other, and then went back downstairs to retrieve both the chairs and the gift box from the courtyard.

Ji Xun lay on his bed, staring at the gift box he had placed on the desk. After a moment of thought, he sat back up, climbed down to grab the box, and swept his palm across the lid—not a single speck of dust was on it.

Ji Xun undid the latches of the box. With a soft click, the lid popped open, revealing a whole world of little trinkets.

Every single one of them was a gift he had given to Brother Xing from childhood up to the present.

There were birthday gifts, New Year gifts, and gifts for various other holidays.

Whenever Ji Xun picked something up, he could vividly remember the scene when he gave it and Fu Shuxing's reaction.

Until Ji Xun discovered something that had no business being in there.

First came confusion, followed by widened eyes.

Ji Xun picked up the long packaging bag—incense sticks??

Wasn't this stuff something he had buried near the pond and the willow trees?!

Ji Xun recalled being caught red-handed by Fu Shuxing when he buried the incense, and a wave of shock hit him. Did the guy actually go and dig it back up on the spot?!

He set it aside and kept digging through the box.

The squeaking prank frog he had given Fu Shuxing, the little prince doll that danced ballet when you wound the key on its back, the sports headband and wristbands, the mini basketball and soccer balls, and the slightly more valuable sentinel white-noise headphones, barrier watch...

Behind every single gift lay a piece of a memory.

When he learned last night that the Fu family was moving away, and stared at Brother Xing's pitch-black bedroom, Ji Xun had felt as though a full decade of his past life had been coldly and ruthlessly snatched away from him!

It wasn't until he saw these things that he realized they hadn't been taken away at all—Fu Shuxing had left every single one of them behind for him.

Left them.

Fu Shuxing had said he intended to return them from the very beginning.

Wasn't this essentially walking away with nothing?

Ji Xun put the rumpled items back into the box one by one. Remembering Fu Shuxing's earnest, trick-free apology, he belatedly felt a bit more satisfied.

Sure enough, Fu Shuxing was only pleasing to the eye when he was actually "acting like a decent human being."

So for tonight, he would temporarily sleep a "grudge-free" sleep!

His grand plan for revenge would have to wait until school started!

Ji Xun hugged the Great King Egg and prepared to lie down to sleep.

The Great King Egg, however, gave a sudden start and immediately nudged him insistently, urging him to go take a bath right away.

Figuring it might be because General's lingering mental power was still clinging to him and making the Great King Egg uncomfortable, Ji Xun had no choice but to get up and shower.

After a hot bath and with his mind finally settled, Ji Xun quickly drifted off to sleep.

Before long, the sanctuary welcomed the start of the new semester.

When Ji Xun returned to the guide instruction room, he received the warm and affectionate condolences of dozens of classmates.

The questions ranged from initial ones like, "Ji Xun, are you feeling better?" and "Ji Xun, how did you do on your final make-up exams?" to later ones such as, "Ji Xun, did you get a lot darker?" "Ji Xun, you've grown taller!" and "Ji Xun, why hasn't your Great King Egg hatched yet, when is it going to hatch..."

As Ji Xun answered them one by one, he quickly shooed them back to their seats.

"My mental power seems to have stabilized, but the Great King Egg still shows no signs of hatching" was Ji Xun's deepest sore spot, yet these people had zero tact, frantically rubbing salt into his wound...

Even so, Ji Xun still cherished the friendship he shared with his classmates.

After all, once he entered the military academy, he wouldn't be able to see these friendly, naive, and cute faces anymore.

Ji Xun's happiness lasted for only a single morning.

During lunch, a piece of gossip was circulating everywhere in the cafeteria—"Today, Fu Shuxing didn't come to the sanctuary."

Asking for leave on the very first day of the semester?

Fu Shuxing was the sanctuary's top sentinel, after all! He was even supposed to give the mobilization speech for the freshmen!

How could he possibly take leave?

Just as Ji Xun pricked up his ears to listen closely to two junior guides at the neighboring table discussing the matter, Qian Peng, sitting across from him, suddenly said, "Xun Ge, Xun Ge."

Interrupting his eavesdropping, Ji Xun glared at Qian Peng with mild displeasure. "What??"

"Your communicator is vibrating."

Ji Xun glanced down to see "Ji Xun" displayed on the screen. He immediately snapped to attention, answered the call, held it to his ear, and was about to ask about Fu Shuxing when Zhao展磊's voice—unchracteristically out of breath—spoke first from the other end: "Xunxun! Where are you right now?"

"I'm in the cafeteria, by the north entrance."

"I'm almost there."

Hearing the strange tone in Zhao Zhanlei's voice, and with his mind already preoccupied by the fact that Fu Shuxing had skipped the sanctuary today, Ji Xun stood up directly to go meet him. "What's wrong? I'll come to the entrance to meet you—"

"It's about Brother Xing."

Ji Xun's steps halted abruptly, before he began walking even faster, saying quickly, "Brother Xing didn't come to the sanctuary today, I know. Everyone in the cafeteria is talking about it."

"It's not that he didn't come. He's quitting."

"What do you mean??"

Ji Xun felt his mind go blank for a split second. He stopped just two meters away from the cafeteria's north entrance, his eyes locking onto Zhao Zhanlei, who was striding toward him, while Zhao Zhanlei's voice transmitted clearly through the communicator by his ear—

"Brother Xing has gone to enroll in the military academy."

Brother Xing had gone to the military academy.

While the rest of them were following the established path, obediently studying in the sanctuary, Fu Shuxing—who had only just turned down the military academy's invitation last year—had this time gone entirely on his own, without telling anyone, without leaking a single whisper of a rumor.

"The military academy starts earlier, so he left a few days early." Zhao Zhanlei noticed that Ji Xun's emotional state seemed a bit off and hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to finish: "It was the day we snuck into the Fu family estate... Brother Xing left that day..."

Ji Xun didn't speak.

He just stood there, rigidly holding the communicator to his ear.

Only at this moment did he finally understand why Fu Shuxing had said so many things that night.

He hadn't been apologizing.

He had been saying goodbye all along.