Shanuo and I walked side by side.
I’m really happy to be able to do something with someone I’ve always admired!
The person next to me is tall and graceful, gentle as the wind, and always has a warm smile on his face, as if he can melt all the indifference and ice in the world. If I can be like him, then everyone will be my friend!
I was watching intently when suddenly a gust of wind blew over and blew up his hair. I suddenly saw a bruise on his fair forehead.
Feeling my gaze, the smile on his face suddenly froze, and then he turned his head away quickly as if to hide something.
The moment he turned his head, I saw that the smile on his face disappeared, and his expression was so distant and cold that it was scary.
I subconsciously took two steps to the side. He turned his head and looked at me. At this time, the frightening expression on his face was gone, and the familiar Xia Nuo was back.
How is this going?
Did I see it wrong?
Nope!
Could it be that Xia Nuo, who is as warm as the sun, the Xia Nuo who coincides with the prince in my dreams, the Xia Nuo whom I have always admired, also has a dark side?
Is this what is called the "shadow behind the sun"?
That's right, how can there be something completely bright in this world? Wherever there is light, there is shadow, and it is possible that the brighter the light, the darker the shadow behind it.
What about Shano?
What is the shadow of Shanuo, whom I have always admired, and how big is it?
I don’t want to think about it anymore. This world is really wonderful and anything can happen.
That day under the street light, I was moved by Shu Nian's smile; and today, in the breeze, I was shocked by Xia Nuo's momentary expression.
"I...I..." I wanted to say that I didn't see anything, but if I really said that, it would be like "here is a case of trying to cover up one's own faults"!
Facing Shanuo, I suddenly didn’t know what to say.
Xia Nuo didn't seem to care at all. He smiled, adjusted his bangs, and said, "It's okay, even if someone saw it."
It was embarrassing, even though he said it was okay. What really concerned me was not the bruise on his forehead, but the fleeting expression on his face.
We walked to the sports equipment room in silence, and Shanuo pushed open the door and walked in.
The light in the equipment room was dim, so I walked in front of him to find the light switch.
Suddenly, I heard a muffled sound from behind, followed by Xia Nuo's groan.
"Xianuo?" I exclaimed and asked hurriedly, "Xianuo, what's wrong with you?"
When I looked back, I opened my mouth wide and looked at Shanuo sitting on the ground in astonishment. He was covering his left shoulder with his hand and lowering his head, like a wounded tiger.
There were two people standing at the door of the equipment room. They were dressed very maturely and looked much older than us. Their eyes were fierce. When they saw me running out, they stared at me with cold eyes.
I was so scared that I shuddered and instinctively wanted to run away.
"Tsk tsk, Xia Nuo, you want this kind of stuff too!" The man with dyed yellow hair looked at me sarcastically.
"It has nothing to do with her." Xia Nuo said coldly, "Get out of here! This is my school, and you achieved your revenge with that stick just now, right?"
"You, you guys, you guys stop messing around, I'm going to call for help!" I mustered up the courage to speak, even though my voice was trembling badly.
I don't know where these two people came from, but they are scary. Their cold expressions are almost exactly the same as the expression Xia Nuo showed in an instant just now.
"Call for help? I'll beat you too!" the man said viciously, "Xiano, we're not done yet. Do you think you can just let it go by breaking one arm? Dream on!"
What do they want to do?
I was so scared that I wanted to scream, but I knew I couldn't scream at this time. I forced myself to calm down. The important thing now was not to figure out what happened, but to get these two people away.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a baseball bat to my left, and the two men were looking at me, as if they were considering what to do with me. I clenched my fists tightly to calm myself down.
"Let her go," said Shano. "You can do whatever you want, but let her go."
"Let her go? Go get help?" The yellow-haired man glanced at Xia Nuo mockingly, "Do you think we are fools? I tell you, no one can leave!"
Hearing this, my blood boiled. I gritted my teeth, ran over quickly, grabbed the baseball bat in my hand, and then threw it at them when they were off guard.
The two men instinctively stepped back, and I took this opportunity to close and lock the door of the equipment room as quickly as possible.
After doing all this, I was shaking violently. I was so scared that I couldn't even speak, I just kept shaking.
Suddenly, a cold hand held mine.
I looked down and saw it was Shanuo.
He looked at me apologetically, as if he wanted to say sorry to me. I shook my head at him, my mind was in a mess, I didn't even know what I had done.
“Bang, bang, bang—” There was a loud knock on the door. The two men kicked the door of the equipment room angrily. “Open the door for me! Don’t think you can escape like this. It’s easy to break this door open. If I open the door now, at most I will break your arms and legs. But if you don’t, I will kill you!”
"You can use a little more force, so you can attract people from the school." Xia Nuo said calmly.
There was a brief silence outside the door, and then a voice louder than before came out: "You'd better not come out for the rest of your life. We will wait outside to see how long you can stay in there."
As he said this, the sound of footsteps gradually faded away outside the door.
Finally the footsteps disappeared and it became eerily quiet outside.
I fell to the ground exhausted, my heart beating wildly.
I then realized that my forehead was covered with sweat. My bangs were blocking my eyes, which was very uncomfortable. I used my hands to push my bangs away and gasped for air.
"Your hands are shaking so badly." said Shanuo.
Only then did I realize that Xia Nuo was still holding one of my hands. I instinctively pulled my hand away and hid it behind my back.
He seemed to be amused by my little action and said, "Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you. Thank you for what I did just now, otherwise my hands and feet would have been broken."
I looked at his left arm hanging down limply. The muffled sound just now should have been caused by a sneak attack on his left arm.
"I was careless and didn't expect them to be so sneaky. If I had been more careful, my arm wouldn't have been injured by them." There was a hint of hatred in his voice, "If that had been the case, who knows who would have lost their arm now."
I felt very uncomfortable all over and wanted to escape from there, but I didn’t dare to imagine the consequences of opening the door if those two people were still outside.
I was very curious about what was going on, but I didn't know how to ask because Shanuo and I were not familiar enough to ask questions casually.
"Are they... still there?" I couldn't help but ask.
Xia Nuo sat on the ground leaning against the wall, looking like he was enduring great pain. His originally fair face was now as pale as paper.
He took a breath and said, "They should still be there. They are not that easy to get rid of."
"Then how long are we going to stay here? Your arm ...it's better to go to the hospital?" I was a little worried, his left arm looked like it was broken.
"It's okay, I can hold on." Xia Nuo smiled at me. Even though he was in pain and his face was pale, at least he didn't make me feel scared.
"Are you curious about what's going on?" he suddenly asked.
I nodded and shook my head quickly.
"Forget it. You should know that I'm the one who got you trapped here."
"If those are secrets you want to keep, don't tell me." I looked him in the eye and said, "If it's an important secret, keep it."
He was stunned for a moment, then he laughed: "Student Bai, I never knew you were such a gentle girl."
"I'm not." I shook my head, "Because I understand that some secrets only want to be known by oneself."
"Ballet is beautiful." He suddenly changed the subject. "Will you really dance a ballet at your community's autumn festival?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "I'll dance at the celebration."
"I'm really looking forward to it." He looked up, his eyes as warm as water, "I will go to see it, I will definitely go."
He leaned his head on my shoulder and I didn't move. I was only worried about one thing now, which was when we could get out of this equipment room.
I don’t know how long we have been trapped here, or how long it will last. I am very panicked.
"Xiaodie." He whispered my name in my ear, "You smell so good."
I was shocked and pushed him away, looking at him in surprise.
His tone just now scared me. It was not the gentle tone that belonged to Xia Nuo, but a tone with a hint of evil and temptation.
I pushed him and he fell to the ground. I realized that I had pushed his left arm, and I hurried to help him up: "Hey, Xia Nuo, are you okay? I just... just now... "
"Are you scared of me?" He suddenly grabbed my arm with his uninjured hand and approached me.
I really wanted to hide away, but this was a corner of the equipment room and the space was very small, so I couldn't hide away at all.
I was forced into a corner and he leaned over me with a cold look in his eyes.
This kind of coldness is so chilling that it penetrates the heart. I don’t know what kind of person has such a look.
Although I have always found Shu Nian's eyes and expression annoying, that is only because that expression seems to see through my heart completely, making me feel guilty and angry, which makes me feel disgusted.
It's not the cold, it's the Xia Nuo in front of him that is really scary.
"Xianuo, Shanuo, wake up." I kept saying in a trembling voice.
How I wish someone would come here and take me out. I don't want to stay here any longer.
The Xia Nuo in front of me doesn't seem to be the Xia Nuo I know! How scary!
Why is it happening like that?
"Stop pretending!" He said sarcastically, "Don't you girls all like me? You like me too, right? I know. Bai Xiaodie, and Shen Xiaoxi, you two both like me, right? You say you don't like me, don't you feel hypocritical? In fact, you are very happy to be trapped here with me, right? Many girls envy you!"
"I don't like you!" I shouted loudly. After saying this, both he and I were stunned.
For the past three years, Xia Nuo has always been the boy I admire. I feel that being closer to him will make my heart warmer.
But are admiration and liking the same feeling?
Before I was moved by Shu Nian's smile, I thought so, but now I know that admiration is not liking, admiration is just envy, and the desire to become that kind of person.
But liking someone means wanting to make yourself better, so that one day you can stand next to that person.
"You're a double-faced guy." He didn't believe me at all.
"No!" I said, "I am not saying one thing and thinking another. I really don't like you! And even if I did, I wouldn't be like you now, with a hideous face that makes people scared. Who are you? You must not be Xia Nuo. Give me back the Xia Nuo who likes to smile and is always gentle to others!"
"I am Xia Nuo!" He suddenly became angry, "Shut up, I am Xia Nuo, I am Xia Nuo! Are you scared? The real Xia Nuo is like this. That gentle Xia Nuo is just a hypocritical guy, pretending!"
"No, you're not!" I struggled hard to escape from his shackles, "You're not the Shanuo I admire!"
His whole body froze, then he closed his eyes and fell towards me as if he had lost his strength.
I was still in a state of panic, my heart was beating wildly.
I'm really scared, why doesn't anyone come here to save me?
Woo woo, I want to get out of here.
Shu Nian, Shu Nian, why don’t you come to save me?
Every time I fall into despair, he always catches me. Will he come to save me this time?
I pushed the unconscious Shanuo away and asked him to sit aside, against the wall. I moved as far away from him as possible, then walked to the door and looked out through the crack.
The sun was shining outside, but no one came here, and there was no way to see whether the two people were still there.
I want to go out, but I don’t dare to go out.
I sat on the floor next to the door, hugging my knees.
At this moment, I wish I had a cell phone so I could call someone to rescue me.
I didn't know how long I had been sitting there hugging my knees, when Xia Nuo's voice came from the back of the equipment room: "Student Bai...are you still there?"
His voice sounded tired, and I hesitated, not knowing whether to answer him.
But he had already come over, he was walking towards me, and I instinctively shrank back.
As if sensing my fear, he quickly took a few steps back: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry...Did I scare you just now?"
"Yes, you scared me," I admitted.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He kept apologizing to me.
I suddenly felt something was wrong. I had a hunch that the Xia Nuo in front of me was the Xia Nuo who always smiled and couldn't bear to reject any girl, but the Xia Nuo just now was not him.
I know this idea is absurd.
But Shu Nian said that sometimes the heart is more reliable than the eyes, and only with the heart can you see things that are invisible to the naked eye.
"Xiao Nuo." I tried to ask him, "Do you remember what you just did to me?"
He was stunned, his eyes a little confused.
"Xia Nuo, you..." I looked at him in disbelief.
He lowered his head and finally said slowly: "You found me. I thought I could hide forever, but I was still found. You are right. It wasn't me just now. That was not me..."
"You can't be..." The rest of the words were stuck in his throat, unable to be spoken or swallowed.
"Medically speaking, this is a mental illness, a type of paranoia." He laughed at himself, "Now it's easy to understand if I say it's a dual personality, right?"