Chapter 18 - 2#
There was a pack of tissues on the cabinet by the door. Mo Xuzhi took several and muffled a few coughs while covering his mouth.
After his breathing gradually stabilized, Mo Xuzhi wiped his mouth and didn’t even look at the tissue before throwing it into the nearby trash can.
Dark red blood gradually seeped through the tissue and spread outward.
The air was permeated with a faint scent of blood.
Mo Xuzhi leaned against the door and let out a long breath.
While sleeping in the car, he dreamed about before—or more precisely, his previous life. All sorts of big and small things happened then.
In his previous life, he was just an ordinary person.
His parents were both researchers, very busy. When doing non-confidential research, they would take him outside the laboratory to visit, dedicated to cultivating his interest in scientific research.
Under his parents’ year-after-year influence, he finally developed an interest in acting.
He followed through with the last research project and switched to acting halfway through. Since he wasn’t from a professional background, he encountered many obstacles along the way. Later, he managed to win several Best Actor awards and flew all over the world.
Then his parents passed away, while he was still attending an awards ceremony abroad.
His parents hoped he could resume scientific research work, at least to contribute something to the country.
He also got tired of battling wits and courage with the media every day. He responded to the national call and returned to the laboratory for two years, during which time he had no contact with the outside world, and everyone was isolated from the rest of the world.
The day he was hit by the truck was exactly the day he completed his work and came out of the laboratory.
He hadn’t seen such a lively scene in a long time. In two years, everything around him had changed, and it felt new to him.
A child holding a rocket passed in front of him. The rocket was knocked down by a passerby, and he let go of his parents’ hands to pick it up.
An out-of-control truck came rushing from the corner.
He saw the driver’s terrified face, the child’s ignorant eyes, and heard the screams of those around him.
Then came the sound of bones being crushed by wheels.
“Honk——————”
Finally, a piercing car horn.
Having just struggled to wake up from a dream, a car horn exactly like that of the truck suddenly rang in his ear. Fantasy and reality overlapped, his brain was in severe pain, and Mo Xuzhi had no time to distinguish what was real. He only knew to repeat what he had done before by instinct.
Until he realized he was sitting steadily in the car, with no little boy and no truck, Mo Xuzhi couldn’t say exactly what he felt in his heart.
It felt like panic, like the joy of surviving a disaster, and like… regret.
—Had another episode.
Mo Xuzhi looked at his hands, which were still trembling incessantly. He fell silent for a moment, his eyelashes trembling slightly. The corners of his mouth hooked upward but were quickly pressed down.
He took out a small white medicine bottle from his pant pocket, shook out two tablets, and swallowed them directly.
After sitting on the ground for a while, Mo Xuzhi slowly supported himself against the wall to stand up and leaned by the window to look downstairs.
The paparazzi who saw him must have told the others about his entering the building. Several other paparazzi, who were originally pretending to be passersby, had gathered downstairs, staring at the gate and wondering what they were planning.
But he could roughly guess what they were thinking.
Mo Xuzhi quietly pulled the curtains.
He had been squatted by paparazzi before and knew that if they were serious, they could squat for several days at a time.
Looking at their appearance, they probably wouldn’t leave until they squatted something.
He had to participate in a variety show tomorrow.
He couldn’t stay here anymore.
It was a pity; he quite liked this place.
Turning over a key from the bedroom cabinet, Mo Xuzhi took out his phone and made a call.
Whatever the other side said, Mo Xuzhi remained silent, occasionally responding with a few words.
“…Yes, okay, sorry for the trouble.”
The person on the other end said they would bring someone to help him pack, but he felt it was unnecessary. Finally, he decided to just have them send a car.
After having a dream just now, he had no sleepiness. Looking around, he finally decided to get up and pack his things.
He didn’t have many things; just a few pieces of clothing in the wardrobe, and the kitchen was like new. There was only a study room with many books in it.
He had a little habit; when doing things, he preferred to put things where they were convenient. As things piled up, the desktop became messy, and a large stack of things overlapped, making his head ache.
Large volumes of materials were fine, but the A4 sheets were a bit troublesome. Literature and sheet music were mixed together; some scores were written on literature, and annotations on literature were written on drafts.
Although he could remember the position of each piece of paper on the desk, he couldn’t just move it into the car as it was; as soon as it was touched, it would become messy again.
Mo Xuzhi: “…”
Mo Xuzhi began to think about the possibility of continuing to live here.
Finally, he chose to compromise.
The people from the Institute still had to meet up with the special service team and would need some time to get here. He took this time to reorganize the scores and literature, and those that weren’t reorganized would be put together for now.
Besides the books, all his luggage together wouldn’t even fill a suitcase.
Mo Xuzhi tried to lift it.
It was quite light.
The phone rang at the right time. Mo Xuzhi answered while looking downstairs.
Then he covered his eyes, unable to bear looking.
Three cars in a row.
They were parked there, and the old men and women walking and playing cards around were constantly looking at them as if they were something strange. The paparazzi even caught an unusual scent and reached for their cameras, ready to record at any time.
Mo Xuzhi put on a mask, casually wore a bucket hat, and went downstairs to open the door.
Five or six people entered in a row, then surrounded a small suitcase placed at the door and fell into deep thought.
“Just this?”
Mo Xuzhi came out of the room carrying a wooden box, with a somewhat helpless smile: “Just this.”
He didn’t expect the Institute to be so honest and so wealthy; just moving house, they made it look like it was going to be demolished.
The youth stood like a clear pool of pine and cypress. His habitually cold face had a faint smile, the distance was immediately pulled closer, and he even looked a bit pitiful.
This group of people finally clearly realized that the core researcher designated to be protected by the higher-ups was only at the age of graduating from university.
One of the older-looking women asked: “Is there anything else?”
Mo Xuzhi shook his head: “No more.”
The Institute had provided him with housing. He hadn’t lived there, but he knew there was everything inside, so he didn’t need to bring anything.
Someone wanted to take the wooden box from Mo Xuzhi’s hand, but he politely refused.
A suitcase was all the things they were going to move.
So five or six people came in, and when they came out, only one person had a small black suitcase in his hand, plus a tightly wrapped young man.
The person carrying the suitcase put the luggage into the trunk of a car in the middle, and while doing so, his clothes pulled up, revealing a bulging pant pocket.
Mo Xuzhi turned his gaze away and glanced at the paparazzi who were raising their cameras.
Others also noticed.
“Mr. Mo, it’s time to go.”
The car door opened. Mo Xuzhi looked back again and saw that someone had already stepped forward to say something to the paparazzi. The paparazzi first stared, then quickly packed up their things and left.
The vehicle drove out of the old street.
Then the three cars took three different paths.
Mo Xuzhi opened his phone.
The phone was still at the call record interface from just now. He then realized that Xue Feng had called him earlier.
And it was even connected.
After thinking for a while, Mo Xuzhi propped his chin and tapped the phone twice.
[Delete this call record?]
[Yes]
Much more pleasing to the eye.
After deleting the call record, Mo Xuzhi habitually browsed through Weibo.
#MoXuzhiStickingToLuoWenyun#
#LuoWenyunRomance#
#FOXWinsChampionship#
#ICEAskForWeChatRejected#
#InstituteEntranceIsTheEndForMortals# Counting the gods of the National Institute of Science
The trending search about him and Luo Wenyun was still up there.
The romance variety show starting tomorrow was also frantically mentioning Luo Wenyun for traffic, contributing another fire to the heat.
Some other terms were unfamiliar.
Skip if you don’t understand.
Mo Xuzhi didn’t have much curiosity about these things. He clicked into the first term and scrolled a few times, and conveniently liked a few anti-fans.
No matter how the anti-fans reacted, Mo Xuzhi slipped away after liking and casually went to the topic about the Institute of Science.
The topic originated from a simple but extraordinary Q&A on a certain Zhihu.
[Q: I want to enter the Institute of Science. Are there any requirements?]
[A: First, enter Jinghua University.]
[Q: Then become an outstanding student there?]
[A: No, be the first in your chosen major.]
[Q: Can I enter the Institute of Science if I’m the first?]
[A: No, when you can teach a first-place student in the whole department with your ability, you’ve reached the minimum threshold.]
Mo Xuzhi flipped slowly.
The title of the topic was “counting,” and it really was counting—at least the ones on the surface were almost all counted. Most of them were names plus resumes, no photos, and no comments.
According to the host’s words, they were just awesome.
Mo Xuzhi saw several acquaintances on it, took a screenshot and threw them over one by one. Then, regardless of the reaction, he put down his phone and began to close his eyes to rest.
He was thinking about how to arrange the next few weeks.
The progress of the laboratory was too slow, and he only went one day a week—not subtracting the time spent on the car. It was obviously unrealistic to start work after he returned.
He still had to go back to the hospital to get his laptop and work overtime during the gap in filming the variety show.
Otherwise, in the remaining last three months, he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to complete anything.
Xue Feng stayed at the hospital for a while, then received a phone call and returned to the old residence.
The old residence looked like it hadn’t changed at all, only the flower beds in the courtyard had been renovated. The old butler was still waiting for him at the door as usual.
After returning to the house, the maid took off the coat he had taken off, and the old butler brought a cup of tea.
Xue Feng didn’t move. Later, he propped his elbows on his legs and thought for a while. He took out his phone and stared at it on the table for a while, then turned his gaze and drank a sip of tea as a cover.
“Master, where is Young Master Shen?”
The old butler looked outside several times. Seeing that Xue Feng had no movement at all, he finally asked carefully.
“He’ll come over after the variety show is finished.”
When talking about Shen Le, Xue Feng was clearly much gentler. The old butler’s heart hadn’t even been settled when he saw him suddenly frown and ask, “Where’s Mo Xuzhi? Do you know what he’s been doing these past few days?”
“He came back once the day before yesterday.”
He was even called over to pack his things.
Xue Feng sneered.
See, he really came back.
“So what’s he been doing lately?”
“I don’t know either,” the old butler’s tone wasn’t very apologetic, more like he felt proud, as if he had completed some earth-shattering feat, and said, “There’s been no news of him since he was ‘asked to leave’.”
“What do you mean, ‘asked to leave’?”
The old butler lowered his head and unexpectedly met Xue Feng’s gaze, instantly becoming stiff all over.
Xue Feng finally understood why he had felt something was wrong since entering the house.
One of the commonly used water cups on the coffee table was missing, the nineteen-yuan-ninety-cent cushion that Mo Xuzhi had spent hundreds of yuan to win from a claw machine was gone, and the small flower on the table hadn’t been moved into the light to soak up the sun.
Someone had left quietly.