Oh no! My yandere school beauty is so clingy!

Lin Anran was slightly taken aback, but then seemed to have her interest piqued and moved a little closer to him.

"Let me guess?" she said in a low voice, the last syllable rising slightly.

"Is it... that you want to stay with me forever?"

Shen Yu looked at her face so close to his and couldn't help but smile.

The smile was faint; he raised his hand and gently tapped her forehead with his fingertips.

"This is supposed to be about stress or worries. The one you mentioned, is it a wish? Ranran, you didn't understand the question."

"Oh, right." Lin Anran touched her forehead where he had tapped her, blinked, and began to think seriously:

"About my...worries?"

She tilted her head, looking as if she were analyzing something with great seriousness.

Lin Anran thought for a few seconds, then frowned slightly:

"Is it... that you feel I'm too clingy and taking up too much of your time? After all... if I'm not around, you can do a lot of things, like playing ball with your friends or reading books..."

This was the most likely possibility she could think of.

After she finished speaking, she secretly observed Shen Yu's expression, feeling a little uncertain.

Shen Yu shook his head, his tone calm: "No, it won't cause any delays."

Upon hearing Shen Yu's denial, Lin Anran breathed a sigh of relief, and then continued to speculate:

"Is it because...sometimes my ideas are too strange, and you find them troublesome?"

"No, not really..."

Lin Anran made several more guesses, each one seemingly reflecting her own vague unease.

Shen Yu simply listened quietly, waiting for her to finish before denying it. Almost all the troubles and pressures that Lin Anran felt were nothing in front of Shen Yu.

"Alright, stop guessing." He interrupted her increasingly outlandish speculations and said softly:

"None of that matters. Let's go back; school will be over soon."

Lin Anran's train of thought was interrupted by his interruption.

Looking at Shen Yu's calm profile, the specific details about her "troubles" suddenly became blurry.

The important thing is that he said none of that mattered.

"Okay, okay!" She obediently replied, no longer hesitating, and walked towards her classroom.

Anyway, it's his problem, so if he doesn't want to talk about it, that's fine.

As long as... the problem isn't about "hating her" or "wanting to leave her," it's fine.

But Shen Yu's attitude was clearly different.

Then she had nothing to worry about. Although she was still very curious, she chose to trust Shen Yu.

After school that evening, the two went home together.

On the way, it was no different from usual. Lin Anran held Shen Yu's arm and whispered about trivial things at school.

When she got home, Shen Yu said, "I'm going to take a shower first," and then took her change of clothes into the bathroom.

Soon, the sound of dripping water could be heard from inside.

Lin Anran sat down on the sofa in the living room, picked up the book in front of her, and browsed through it casually while waiting for Shen Yu to come out.

She was captivated by this peaceful and stable life and didn't want any other factors to interfere.

However, just then, her cell phone, which she had casually tossed in the corner of the sofa, suddenly rang, its shrill ring breaking the tranquility of the living room.

Lin Anran looked towards the phone, her brows furrowing immediately, her face filled with confusion.

Her phone was very quiet; there were almost no messages, let alone phone calls.

Lin Anran picked up her phone and glanced at the screen. It was an unfamiliar local number with no saved name.

She frowned, hesitated for a moment, then picked up the phone, pressed the answer button, and without saying a word, simply brought the receiver to her ear.

"Feed? Feed?! Lin Anran! Is it Lin Anran?"

A rough, hurried voice came from the other end of the phone.

Lin Anran's brows furrowed instantly.

The voice carried a familiar, mercenary and arrogant quality that instinctively made her nauseous.

"Who?" Her voice was cold and wary.

"It's me! Your second uncle!" the man roared, his voice so loud it made the receiver buzz.

"Lin Anran, where have you been?! What have you been doing out there?! Your dad! Your dad's in the hospital! Emergency! You get here right now! The Municipal People's Hospital! Do you hear me?!"

The man spoke very quickly, his words carrying an unquestionable command through the microphone.

Lin Anran's fingers tightened suddenly as she gripped her phone, her knuckles turning white.

Unlike a typical daughter who would panic or anxiously ask questions upon hearing news of her father's emergency, a cold, intense, and unyielding sense of disgust and irritation quickly gathered in her eyes.

A wave of nausea washed over her, and a familiar feeling of suffocation gripped her throat...

However, at least hearing that the man had been admitted to the hospital was good news for her.

She had been away from that "home" for a long time, so long that she thought she had cut herself off completely.

But this phone call, like a rotting hand reaching out from hell, was trying to drag her back again.

"Oh, that has nothing to do with me."

After saying that, without waiting for the other end of the phone to say anything more, she decisively pressed the hang-up button, her action so fast that she didn't hesitate for a moment.

The world fell silent instantly, with only the faint sound of water coming from the bathroom filling the suddenly empty living room.

Lin Anran remained holding her phone, frozen for a few seconds, before slowly lowering her arm.

The phone screen went dark, and she instinctively turned to look at the closed bathroom door.

The sound of water continued; Shen Yu was still inside.

He mustn't know...

We must not let him get tainted by those dirty things.

This is her and Shen Yu's home, a clean, warm place that belongs only to the two of them.

Nothing dirty can be allowed to enter this place.

She picked up her phone and, expressionless, added the number to her blacklist.

After doing all this, she tossed her phone back into the corner of the sofa.

Then, she curled up, hugged her knees tightly with her arms, buried her face in them, and remained motionless.

The sound of water in the bathroom became the only background noise that could bring her some peace of mind at that moment.

She was waiting, waiting for that door to open, waiting for the person who could pull her back from the cold mire to the warm reality...

However, about five minutes later, Lin Anran's phone rang again, the buzzing vibration particularly clear in the quiet living room, like some kind of relentless urging.

Lin Anran suddenly raised her head, the lingering coldness and annoyance on her face not yet completely faded, replaced by a new and deeper irritation.

She grabbed her phone, intending to turn it off without even looking at it...

She'd had enough of these distractions trying to drag her back to hell.

However, as her fingertip hovered over the power button, she caught a glimpse of the incoming call display on the screen.

It wasn't that unfamiliar number from before. What appeared on the screen were two words: "Grandma".

Her grandmother used to treat her fairly well, and her impression of her grandmother was also okay, not that bad.

She stared at the name, hesitating for about five or six seconds.

In the end, she pressed the answer button, though slower than before.

"Feed?"