Chapter Fifty-Nine: A Foreboding That Comes True Once More

Zhuge Yun barged in like a marauding barbarian, causing quite a commotion that startled everyone in the room.

However, once they had time to process his words, the others froze in utter shock.

"What? Luo Xiaoluan and Wang Lin got back together?!"

The piercing, high-pitched male voice gave them another jolt. Zhuge Yun, who had just stepped through the door and was standing closest to Zhang Bo, took the brunt of it, his ears ringing and head buzzing.

"Will you speak properly? Why are you always so dramatic?" Xiao Xiao rubbed his temples, feeling a sudden wave of exhaustion.

Before Zhuge Yun and Zhang Bo could say another word, Zhao Lüzheng eagerly jumped in, bombarding them with a rapid-fire series of questions.

"Really? Didn't they just break up? Didn't people say Wang Lin never eats grass behind him? How on earth did Luo Xiaoluan pull that off..."

"Wait, wait!" Zhuge Yun hurriedly yelled, cutting him off.

"With so many questions, which one do you expect me to answer first?"

"One by one..."

"Answer them one by one!"

"...Fine." Zhuge Yun looked at Zhao Lüzheng, whose soul of gossip was burning fiercely, and swallowed hard. The word "fine" rolled around in his throat a few times before coming out so softly that only he could hear it.

Good grief, Fourth Brother has really unleashed his inner beast!

"Ahem, well, actually your many questions all boil down to one single question: how did they get back together?"

"However, the answer is—I don't know."

Seeing Zhang Bo starting to roll up his sleeves, Zhuge Yun quickly put on a serious expression. "Hey, hey, where's your sense of humor?"

"Besides, I really don't know."

"I believe that aside from the people directly involved, nobody knows how they managed to reconcile."

"Zhang Jiajia said they all think it's extremely bizarre. Just a few days ago, Luo Xiaoluan was in terrible shape and didn't even attend classes. But suddenly, they noticed she had completely shed her previous despondency, glowing with radiance and looking utterly sweet."

"They thought Luo Xiaoluan had found a new boyfriend. Originally, they never approved of her dating Wang Lin in the first place, and were even less optimistic about their romance. So seeing her with someone new made them genuinely happy. Besides, isn't the best way to forget an old love to start a new one?"

"A few days ago, Luo Xiaoluan was so depressed that it actually scared them."

"Yet when they asked her about it, what new boyfriend? It was none other than that total playboy Wang Lin!"

"Zhang Jiajia said they felt like they were going to explode with anger at the time. Getting dumped once wasn't enough, she had to go running right back?"

"No matter how they tried to advise her, Luo Xiaoluan simply refused to listen."

"They even questioned how Wang Lin could possibly date her again, pointing out that it completely contradicted his usual behavior. But Luo Xiaoluan was as stubborn as a mule; she had her heart set entirely on Wang Lin, determined to hang herself on that one crooked tree. She even claimed their reunion was blessed by the gods."

"Seeing that tough persuasion wasn't working, they softened their tone and tried to reason with her patiently. They couldn't understand why Luo Xiaoluan was choosing to completely ignore such obvious facts. If that guy Wang Lin could dump her once, he would definitely do it a second time! Yet Luo Xiaoluan actually went on about how Wang Lin would be with her forever, calling it a covenant of love between them."

"Zhang Jiajia and the others all felt that Luo Xiaoluan had completely lost her mind over Wang Lin."

Zhuge Yun rambled on endlessly, finally giving a rough summary of everything he knew. As he finished, he hurriedly grabbed the water cup from the table and took a massive gulp; his throat was completely parched from all the talking.

Xiao Xiao and the others indicated that they needed a moment to digest all of this.

***

"Blessed by the gods?"

"A covenant of love?"

Zhang Bo and Zhao Lüzheng felt that Luo Xiaoluan truly still possessed the mindset of a naive little girl to actually believe in such ethereal nonsense!

Xiao Xiao wondered if he was being overly sensitive, but he couldn't shake a lingering sense of foreboding.

Surely he was just overthinking it, right?

Yet, past experience showed that whenever he had a bad premonition, something genuinely unfortunate usually ended up happening.

Could it be that he had actually developed some kind of sixth sense or psychic awareness?

He felt a headache coming on again.

***

In the blink of an eye, Christmas had arrived. Of course, for Xiao Xiao and the rest of Room 417—a veritable sanctuary for single souls—this day was no different from any other.

The other three seniors were holed up in the dormitory, playing video games in utter oblivion, determined to remain locked inside unless the heavens cracked and the earth split open. There was no way anyone could drag them out.

They did this primarily to avoid venturing outside only to be relentlessly blinded by couples showing off their affection. They worried that if they went out, they wouldn't be able to suppress the primordial fury within them and would feel compelled to carry out their sacred duty as members of the FFF Inquisition—burning all heterosexual couples to ashes!

So, for the sake of the world's love and peace, it was best for them to stay put.

Faced with their grand, righteous justifications, Xiao Xiao's mouth twitched, the corners of his eyes quivered, and his expression went completely blank.

Fine, he surrendered.

"What do you guys want to eat?"

"Chicken leg rice!"

"Pork chop rice!"

"Golden fried rice!"

"Alright, chicken leg rice, pork chop rice, and golden—golden fried rice? What on earth is that?" Xiao Xiao stared speechlessly at Zhuge Yun, who had already plunged right back into his video game obsession.

"Fine, just egg fried rice." Without waiting for an answer, Xiao Xiao nodded knowingly, successfully cutting off whatever Zhuge Yun was about to blurt out. Ignoring Zhuge Yun's pleading "Erkang hand" gesture, he simply turned around and walked out.

From behind came a mighty roar from Zhuge Yun.

"Add a fried egg for me too~!"

It was truly lingering and resonant!

***

Walking across the campus, Xiao Xiao was unsurprisingly subjected to a gauntlet of public displays of affection, leaving him feeling suffocated and exasperated.

Just as he was quickening his pace toward the cafeteria, his gaze drifted casually across the path, and he caught sight of a familiar pair of figures.

Weren't those... Luo Xiaoluan and her boyfriend?

***

Luo Xiaoluan, petite and adorable, leaned intimately against Wang Lin's side, her large eyes crinkling in coquettish delight, her face radiating pure happiness.

Wang Lin, tall, long-legged, and handsome with a scholarly air, turned his head slightly to look at the girl beside him with a gaze full of gentle indulgence.

Anyone who saw them couldn't help but exclaim: what a picture-perfect fairy-tale couple!

Xiao Xiao could only shrug inwardly; their eldest roommate's hopes were truly and completely dead.

Fortunately, the big guy hadn't come along, otherwise this visual blow would have been a bit too harsh to bear.

Xiao Xiao made no effort to avoid them, simply continuing along his original trajectory as he walked toward them.

Luo Xiaoluan's attention was entirely focused on her boyfriend, completely oblivious to Xiao Xiao passing right by her side, walking past without the slightest pause or even a flicker of hesitation.

Xiao Xiao, however, stopped in his tracks and turned to look back.

The retreating figures of Luo Xiaoluan and Wang Lin were still shrouded in an undisguised sweetness, drawing looks of envy, jealousy, and hatred from the surrounding passersby.

Yet, Xiao Xiao frowned.

His earlier bad premonition had indeed come true.

When they had brushed past each other just now, the demonic aura radiating from both Luo Xiaoluan and Wang Lin was simply undeniable.

In Xiao Xiao's eyes, that demonic energy had almost materialized into solid black mist, winding tightly around Luo Xiaoluan and Wang Lin like thick chains, binding them so closely together that they seemed on the verge of fusing into a single entity.

Both of them actually carried demonic energy?

Had they been possessed? Or was it because they had come into close contact with a supernatural entity?

With the current distance between them, Xiao Xiao had no way to make a further assessment.

It seemed he would have to find an opportunity to interact with them directly.

***

Carrying bags full of food in both hands, Xiao Xiao returned to the dorm to a rapturous welcome.

"Third Brother, you're finally back! I was getting so hungry I couldn't even play properly, I kept losing!" Zhang Bo shook his arms, impatiently snatching the bag from Xiao Xiao's hand and rummaging through it for his share.

"As if you ever win when you're full." Zhuge Yun's hands never stopped flying across his keyboard, his eyes glued to the computer screen, yet he still managed to multitask enough to roast Zhang Bo.

"Eldest, calm down! You know Second Brother's mouth has never been able to spit out anything ivory." Seeing Zhang Bo's face darken, Zhao Lüzheng quickly chimed in to defuse the tension.

"Fourth Brother, you're playing favorites!" That lingering, trilling tone made the other three break out in universal goosebumps.

...

After a round of playful bantering, everyone finally quieted down to fill their stomachs. For a while, the only sound in the room was the enthusiastic munching of food.