Chapter 87: Experiencing Life as a Dwarf

The moment Yi Li-ze sent that message, the small study group chat of six people exploded. They all knew he had taken that camera with him to the haunted house, and that cursed place was somewhere the teachers had explicitly forbidden them to go. If it had fallen into the hands of some ill-meaning person, wouldn’t they be finished?

Bai Xu: Oh no, I told you not to go. What do we do now, orz?

Jiang Mu-wen: Don’t panic. Check the room again and see if it’s there.

Yi Li-ze: I’ve turned the place upside down.

Gu Nian-xi: Should we post a lost-and-found notice?

Yi Li-ze: Forget it. I’ll go look again. When I first got back to the hotel, I did check, so it should have been dropped at the hotel.

Gu Nian-xi: It’s this late. What if a teacher catches you?

Yi Li-ze: It’s fine. The teachers don’t care about me.

After sending that final message, Yi Li-ze opened the door and stepped out, leaving Gu Chen alone in the room.

The corridor was quiet. It seemed everyone else was asleep. He walked alone down the hall, head lowered, searching this way and that, but still could not find the memory card. Yet such a tiny thing—would anyone even bother to pick it up?

As he was looking down, he suddenly noticed a pair of small white shoes in front of him. They were not large; they must belong to a girl.

He paused, then slowly raised his gaze along those shoes and found Xia Man-man.

“What are you doing out here so late, Yi Li-ze?” Xia Man-man looked at him in confusion.

The boy before her was bent over; when he lifted his eyes, those bright pupils happened to meet hers. She did not know if it was because he was born with that overbearing air in his gaze, but the very first second their eyes met, Xia Man-man was startled.

Yi Li-ze had never had much contact with Xia Man-man, but he had heard enough about her character from Gu Nian-xi. Worried that she might stir up trouble later, he chose to hide the truth. “Nothing much. The room was stuffy, so I came out for some air.”

“Getting air while bent over?” Xia Man-man studied the boy curiously. Even though she could tell at a glance that he was lying, she still did not expose him.

“...” Hearing that explanation, Yi Li-ze’s face twitched, and the next second he gave an awkward laugh. “Just trying out the life of a short person now and then.”

“...”

At his reply, Xia Man-man was at a loss for how to answer. As expected, the school bully’s train of thought was rather eccentric. Considering the innate pressure Yi Li-ze carried, she did not dare say anything more. “Then take your time experiencing it. I’m heading back to my room.”

With that, Yi Li-ze only answered with a calm hum and then continued bending down to search the floor for the memory card.

Coincidentally, Xia Man-man had not gone far when Yi Li-ze’s phone rang. He instinctively answered it.

“Yi Li-ze, did you find it?” It was Gu Nian-xi calling.

“Not yet. Don’t worry, boss. Something like a memory card shouldn’t be noticed by anyone, and even if someone did find it, they wouldn’t be twisted enough to look through what’s inside.”

As Yi Li-ze said this, Xia Man-man unconsciously slowed her steps. She even pricked up her ears and listened carefully.

“But the things in the memory card...”

“Don’t worry. Only the few of us know about this. It won’t get to the teachers. I’m not talking now—I’m going to keep looking. Bye, boss.”

After saying that, Yi Li-ze hung up and put his phone back into his pocket before continuing his search.

He said all that to reassure them, but inside he was just as panicked. He had not only recorded footage of entering that haunted place, but had also accidentally captured the scene of Jiang Mu-wen hugging Wen Yi-chen, and when he draped a coat over Gu Nian-xi, he had handed the camera to Wen Yi-chen. Even if Wen Yi-chen had not deliberately recorded anything, he still might have caught some of it.

Some things the homeroom teacher might not care about, but the school still watched them very strictly—for instance, romance too early.

Even if there was nothing between them, anyone who watched the video would surely think there was.

In the end, Yi Li-ze searched all the way down to the hotel entrance, but still found no trace of the memory card.

From the way things looked, someone must have picked it up. All he could hope for now was that it would not fall into a teacher’s hands.

Having failed to find the card, and unable to turn the hotel upside down, Yi Li-ze had no choice but to return to the room.

The night passed quickly. Early the next morning, the students gathered at the hotel entrance one after another. Judging from everyone’s reactions, all seemed normal—so perhaps no one had found it after all.

Forget it. He would just treat it as lost.

Thinking that, he followed everyone to the forest park.

Not long after entering the park, they came upon a stream. A cluster of stones had been laid one after another across it, serving as a bridge for visitors to cross. The water was not very deep, but when walking over those uneven stones, one could not help glancing down and feeling a shiver in the heart, as though one misstep would send them tumbling into the current and be swept away.

Several classmates walked together. Bai Xu and Gu Chen led in front, while ahead of Jiang Mu-wen and Gu Nian-xi, Yi Li-ze walked alone. “Boss, I’ll scout the way for you. Just follow my route.”

He said it with great solemnity, as though the road ahead were truly fraught with danger.

Even so, the two girls obediently followed behind Yi Li-ze, while Wen Yi-chen said nothing and trailed behind Jiang Mu-wen at a slant, glancing at her every couple of steps as if worried she might accidentally fall.

Behind them came Zhou Yao and Xia Man-man. Since that last incident, Xia Man-man had not gone looking for Wen Yi-chen for quite some time, but every time she saw him, she still could not help drifting toward him. Zhou Yao followed Xia Man-man, and whenever she saw Jiang Mu-wen beside Wen Yi-chen, a nameless disgust would rise in her heart.

If Xia Man-man liked to scheme in secret, Zhou Yao preferred to scheme openly. The more she looked at Jiang Mu-wen, the less pleasing she found her. Taking advantage of the moment when Jiang Mu-wen had fallen slightly behind the group, Zhou Yao pretended to act absentmindedly and gave her a push from behind. It looked as though she were pushing Jiang Mu-wen forward to help her move faster, but in truth she seemed to want nothing more than to shove her into the water. “Jiang Mu-wen, could you stop dawdling?”

The sudden force from behind caught Jiang Mu-wen completely off guard. The path beneath her feet was already uneven, and with Zhou Yao’s shove, she instantly lost her balance.

“Ah!”

Her ankle twisted, and her body staggered sideways.

Just as she was about to fall in, a powerful arm suddenly swept around her waist and pulled her back. The next second, she was thrown into a warm and strangely familiar chest.