My Strange Tale Love Strategy Simulator

Zhang Ying didn't go out all Saturday.

Yesterday's incident at the Lakeview Community didn't feel like anything at the time, but after I got home and rested for a night, my body finally seemed to react.

The aches and pains that had been building up all day finally came back to haunt me. My shoulders, back, thighs, and waist—every muscle was throbbing, as if it had been taken apart and then twisted back together.

He simply propped himself up with pillows, sprawling out in a starfish shape. His body couldn't move, but his mind was still working.

He went over Li Ziqing's story again and again, trying to put himself in her shoes and think about what she wanted, what she lacked, and what she was most afraid of.

This kind of immersion is not an easy task.

As he retraced her timeline step by step, the tighter his chest felt with each subsequent step. That afternoon, he forced himself out of this emotional turmoil, took a deep breath, and made a decision: he would go see her tomorrow night.

The ringing of the cell phone interrupted my thoughts.

Caller ID: Zhou Ping.

Zhang Ying answered the call. The voice on the other end wasn't Teacher Zhou's, but a hoarse, nasal female voice.

The background noise was chaotic, with someone announcing over the loudspeaker, "Please pick up your medicine at window number three," the muffled thud of a cart wheel rolling over the paving stones, and footsteps coming from near and far.

The location was likely in a hospital corridor, and the person making the call was Xu Miaofeng.

"Hello, are you Ping'er's student?"

"My name is Zhang Ying, and I am indeed a student in Teacher Zhou's class. How is Teacher Zhou?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

The loudspeaker blared again, this time calling for the on-call doctor from a certain department.

Xu Miaofeng's voice, hoarse and tinged with a bitter laugh, rose beneath the noise: "Ping'er is out of danger. But the doctor said... she suffered a great shock and is still unconscious. There's a high chance she'll wake up, but it's also possible she'll just stay asleep forever."

Zhang Ying held his phone and looked out the window. A thin layer of mist had formed on the glass, and the sky outside was overcast.

He felt deep sympathy for the plight of Teacher Zhou and Xu Miaofeng, but sympathy does not mean that Xu Miaofeng was innocent.

Zhou Ping has her own suffering, and Xu Miaofeng has her own sins.

As a teacher, one should not impose one's own emotions on students; as a teacher, one should not stand by and watch bullying; and most importantly, when Li Ziqing needed an adult to stand up for her the most, the teacher threatened her with expulsion.

She has to pay for the mistakes she made.

I hope she can reform herself in prison and start a new life.

"Teacher Zhou will get better," Zhang Ying said.

A very soft voice came from the other end of the phone, covered by both hands.

When Xu Miaofeng spoke again, her voice was clearer: "Ping'er's family has arrived. I... I should turn myself in too. It's just a pity I can't see her one last time while she's awake." She paused, "As Ping'er's student, could you pass on a message to her for me?"

"Okay, go ahead and say it."

Xu Miaofeng took a deep breath. "When Ping'er wakes up, please tell her that if she's still waiting for me when I come out, I will definitely hold a wedding for her. A wedding that belongs to us."

The call ended. Zhang Ying took the phone away from his ear, stared at the call-end screen for a second, and then returned to the home screen.

He sighed, put his phone back on the bedside table, and sank back into his pillow.

After lying in bed all day, the sun set and rose again, and sunlight streamed in through the window, falling on Zhang Ying's face.

He opened his eyes and propped himself up in bed. His shoulders were no longer sore, his back was no longer aching, and his body, which had been disassembled and reassembled yesterday, felt as if it had been recalibrated today.

Clenching my fist, my knuckles cracked. I stretched my neck, and my cervical spine emitted a series of fine, crisp sounds.

With improved physical fitness, recovery ability also increased significantly.

In just one day, the aches and pains were almost gone.

After taking a shower, he came out of the bathroom.

The mirror was covered with a layer of mist. He reached out and wiped it, staring at his face in the mirror for two seconds.

Then I picked up the razor and carefully shaved off the stubble on my chin. The hairdryer hummed for a moment, and after drying my hair, I combed it twice. I changed into clean clothes and checked myself in front of the mirror one last time.

He wanted to be in the best possible condition to see her.

Before leaving, Zhang Ying opened the simulator to check. The line of text on the panel remained unchanged: "No certain death situation within the next week."

The bus was still crowded on Sunday, with not a single seat available. Zhang Ying stood by the rear door, holding onto the handrail with one hand, his body swaying with the movement of the bus.

After more than a dozen stops, several people got off and several more got on, but not a single seat became available. His lips twitched. Could this train be going to a team-building event?

The bus swayed and turned the last intersection, finally stopping at the stop in front of the school.

Zhang Ying loosened the handrail and stepped off through the back door. Just as his foot touched the platform, the bus started moving again. The driver glanced at the empty back door, then at the monitor screen, and muttered something to himself.

"Young people these days are really healthy. The whole carriage was empty, but they just wouldn't sit down."

Zhang Ying sat in front of the convenience store near the school gate for a long time.

Buses passed by one after another, kicking up dry dust. He sat on a bench inside the convenience store, watching the iron railings of the school gate cast long shadows in the setting sun.

He waited until the sun set, the last rays of the evening glow faded, and the streetlights came on. He sat up straight, gulped down the last mouthful of mineral water, tossed the empty bottle into the trash can, and turned into the nearby alleyway where there were no security cameras.

When he came out again, he was dressed in all black.

The sky grew darker. He groped his way along the base of the wall to the dog hole in the back wall of the school, squatted down, crawled inside, and stood up to brush the dirt off his knees.

One of the streetlights on the playground was broken, leaving only a few lonely white lights shining at the end of the track.

The stairwell was quiet.

As he turned the corner on the second floor, the motion sensor light flashed. He didn't move, and the light went out on its own. The red light on the security camera at the end of the fourth-floor corridor was still on. He crouched down and crept under the camera.

Because of what happened in the archives, there was only one person left on the night shift in the security room. Patrolling was out of the question, so he could only sit in the monitoring room and watch the cameras.

Fifth floor.

The sixth floor.

He stood in front of the vocal room. A small, pale white light shone from the emergency lights at the far end of the corridor. The door was the same door, a thin layer of dust on the handle.

The air was stuffy, a dry heat clinging to the top of my mouth, and my Adam's apple bobbed. Summer hadn't even arrived yet, but this oppressive heat rose from within.

He took a deep breath and reached for the doorknob.

With a gentle turn, she pushed open the door to the vocal studio.