Chapter 18: Act of Courage

Chen Fengshi felt that he was really stupid. Before, he thought the Love Sage was very stupid, knowing full well that Shen Ai’s attitude was firm and she would not date before entering society, yet he still insisted on launching pursuits again and again, only to end up battered and bruised.

But now, Chen Fengshi realized that perhaps the stupid one was himself. He thought he could predict the future of his life, planning so far ahead and so perfectly.

But—who did he think he was? Could he predict the next few years? Was he a god or a prophet?

As a result, he didn’t even get the chance to launch his all-out pursuit before he was already done for! The Love Sage at least fought for so long; even if he didn’t succeed, he had tried and had no regrets. And what about himself? He didn’t even have the chance to speak!

At this moment, he understood Skinny’s feelings, yes, very sad, very power less…

Chen Fengshi wandered aimlessly on the streets of Xuancheng, having nowhere else to go, and going home would only make his family worry. His mother knew his school schedule well and never allowed him to skip classes. If he ran home and stayed there acting unusual, his mother would definitely feel that something was on his mind, and nine times out of ten, she would call his school teacher to ask.

He didn’t want to look for other friends either. For this matter, looking for someone to talk to out of nowhere would only make others suspect he was crazy.

Now, the only ones who believed him were Skinny, Big Guy, and Xiao Fei.

But, he had no way to tell them the truest situation.

Skinny and Big Guy called him separately, saying they were backing him up on the school forum, and even mentioned that someone had jumped out to agree with his statement.

But… it didn’t help much.

Because believing it was an illusory memory was still the mainstream view; there were simply too many men who felt humiliated by being cuckolded.

“Old Chen, don’t come back to school yet, and don’t even come to my place first! Someone is staking out outside my rented house, and I heard they have knives on them…”

“Old Chen, absolutely do not come back to school! Many people are carrying knives and want to stab you, saying things like ‘a scholar can be killed but not humiliated,’ and ‘a green hat cannot be tolerated.’ It feels like someone is stirring the pot, because there are even people offering to provide sulfuric acid. There are also several rich and handsome guys putting a bounty on you, and quite a few thugs from outside the school have come…”

Chen Fengshi felt lucky to have reliable brothers to help him, but he still felt lonely.

There was no one he could talk to about the complete truth, and he couldn’t go back to school now. But, for all the size of Xuancheng, where could he go? As a student, no, even if he wasn’t a student, he didn’t have the money to stay in a hotel every day! These days, ten-yuan beds no longer existed in Xuancheng.

Watching the people coming and going on the street, Chen Fengshi let his mind wander for a long time, and couldn’t help but think of that cool girl named Little An. Frankly speaking, she was someone he could talk to about the Fungal Demon. But, remembering her utterly disrespectful attitude at the time, Chen Fengshi felt he had had enough!

Hungry, he ran to another restaurant that offered a big eater challenge reward to get his meal. By eating at different places, he avoided always taking advantage of the same shop, which would be too unkind. Although… taking advantage of multiple shops wasn’t really kind either.

With nowhere to go even after eating his fill, Chen Fengshi just sat in the restaurant. Bored, he flipped through his phone again. Anyway, he had already figured things out, so seeing all the abusive messages inside no longer made him angry; he felt almost no emotional waves.

Then, he discovered a text message from Sister Yao.

‘Didn’t your mom call to ask you? Or should I say, do you not care if I go find your mom to chat with her in person?’

Chen Fengshi was not surprised; sure enough, Sister Yao was capable of doing such a thing.

He was in a bad mood right now, and since he and Sister Yao used to hang out on the streets together in the past, he spoke very roughly. ‘Go verify the illusory memory for yourself and then think about whether we have anything going on. If something was going to happen between us, it would have happened back in middle school! You’re saying that at the age when I longed for the opposite sex the most, nothing happened with you, so how could something happen now?’

‘Old Chen, can you stop your bullshit? Is Liu Shuzhi’s full body of muscles also an illusory memory? Haven’t you read the school forum? You say illusory memory, if it’s an illusory memory—then how come everyone you played with, including me, can still remember what yours looks like? Stop feeding me this nonsense, just give me a clear answer! You know my temper; I’ve only followed you all these years. Do you want to play and then dump me? I am capable of doing anything!’

Chen Fengshi certainly thought it was impossible. He went on the school forum and scrolled through the posts, and then—he was shocked to see people talking about the private details of his body, and the key point was, they actually matched! There was even a girl who made a fully simulated 3D short video, clamoring for him to have the guts to show up on video for a comparison!

Chen Fengshi was dumbfounded… that picture, and those detailed descriptions, were really him from before last night!

But, why?

How was this possible?

For a moment, Chen Fengshi simply couldn’t help but wonder if everyone else’s memories were normal, and it was actually only his memory that had a problem!

On the screen, those pictures on the forum, along with the popping up text descriptions, agitated Chen Fengshi so much that he wished he could really upload a photo!

But, his skin color had turned white, while his shape hadn’t changed…

‘Can playing dumb make this go away?’ Sister Yao’s message flew over again. Chen Fengshi knew how stubborn she was, and thinking about being framed made him even more furious, so he quickly typed a message back: ‘Go to the hospital and get checked to see if you’ve actually had an abortion or not. If you’ve had three like in your illusory memory, then consider me unlucky, and I’ll take responsibility! If not, please reflect on yourself and don’t come dragging me down!’

‘What a joke! Liu Shuzhi was right there when you tried to kill me last night, do you think your ghost stories are interesting?’

‘Liu Shuzhi himself has an illusory memory. I’m just a fucking ordinary person, and my parents are ordinary people too, so where would I get such magical medicine to make him grow a full body of muscles? If I had that medicine, wouldn’t I sell it for money and become a rich man first! His muscles were created by a ghost possessing him, and I destroyed that ghost, so his muscles stayed behind. It’s already generous enough that I didn’t ask you two to thank me for saving your lives, so don’t even think about pinning this blame on me, is there no justice?!’

The more Chen Fengshi thought about it, the angrier he got. Not wanting to continue nagging, he quickly sent another message. ‘I’m begging you, beautiful! Can you go to the hospital and get checked? If you really had three abortions like you remember, I’ll take responsibility!’

For a long while, no messages came from the other side.

Chen Fengshi’s breathing gradually calmed down. After cooling off, he suddenly felt that what he said was wrong. What if Sister Yao had abortions for someone else in the past, wouldn’t he be setting himself up? So he immediately searched for whether it was possible to check how many times someone had an abortion.

Not searching was fine, but searching made him feel even more annoyed than before. Chen Fengshi simply put away his phone and ran outside to wander the streets again.

The night grew deeper, and the traffic on the road decreased significantly. Before Chen Fengshi ate, it was so jammed that he couldn’t move, but now it was completely clear.

The flow of people on the street also lessened, and he didn’t see anyone else wandering alone like Chen Fengshi. This made Chen Fengshi look even more pitiful… homeless, full of grievance, with no one to tell his worries to, lonely and miserable.

As Chen Fengshi was wandering, he suddenly saw an internet cafe up ahead, one he had visited many years ago. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in the mood to play games right now, so he didn’t plan to go in.

Unexpectedly, when he got a little closer, two people suddenly walked up to a motorcycle parked outside the internet cafe, and then, right in front of everyone, started picking the lock.

That’s right, stealing the bike!

Those two people looked very young. Chen Fengshi saw that they both carried long bags on their backs, which looked like they held weapons.

From inside the glass doors of the internet cafe, a young man suddenly ran out, screaming at the two thieves outside: “What are you doing!”

He originally thought that the two thieves would definitely run away, but the next scene overturned Chen Fengshi’s common sense.

The two thieves were not panicked at all. The thief in red unhurriedly continued to work on the lock, while the one in white took a machete out of his bag, strode forward, and shouted, “You want to die!”

The young man who was about to rush out was scared when he saw this. Seeing the man actually trying to come in, he quickly closed the glass door. The one with the knife pushed but couldn’t open it, so he stuck the knife through the crack of the door to stab. The people inside hid behind the door, their faces pale with fright, desperately holding the door shut.

How was this still stealing? It was outright robbery!

In the past, Chen Fengshi would have just stepped aside and used his phone to help call the police. Since they were not his family or friends, and both thieves were carrying deadly weapons, he certainly had to be careful.

But now, he didn’t take those two thieves seriously at all. Seeing such arrogant behavior, he decided to help without any hesitation!

So, Chen Fengshi decided to recite a poem.

Yes, recite a poem.

Reciting a poem certainly couldn’t scare away those two arrogant thieves, but Chen Fengshi was going to recite it anyway.

He strode over, reciting loudly: “Those who abandon me, the days of yesterday cannot be kept.”

The thief in red who had just picked the lock heard it. With such a loud volume, he couldn’t ignore it even if he wanted to. Moreover, at a time like this, his partner’s murderous aura should have made anyone scatter, yet someone was still walking toward them, and was even stupidly reciting a poem at the top of his lungs!

Therefore, the thief in red stared at Chen Fengshi with a look meant for an idiot. The thief in white, who was originally threatening and cursing at the people inside outside the glass door, was also staring at Chen Fengshi now. His gaze was also looking at an idiot. He felt that this fool definitely hadn’t seen them. Otherwise, just based on the terrifying machete in his hand, even a moron would have backed off in fear!

Chen Fengshi acted as if he didn’t see them, still striding forward, keeping his voice loud and high. “Those who mess with my mind, the days of today bring much worry! The long wind for ten thousand miles…”

“Fuck! Where the hell did this idiot come from! Roll as far away as you can! Are you tired of living!” The thief in white couldn’t bear it anymore. Facing his own powerful presence, such an idiot had appeared. He raised his knife and pointed it at Chen Fengshi from afar, faking a swing to threaten and curse that he would chop him to death.

Chen Fengshi stopped reciting. He recited the poem just to achieve this result in the first place. After all, he had been a delinquent before. The consequences of him taking the initiative to deal with the two thieves versus the two thieves provoking him into dealing with them would be very different if any follow-up incidents occurred.

Seeing that Chen Fengshi still hadn’t run away immediately, the thief in red couldn’t help but mock: “Is the retard so scared he can’t run! Did you pee your pants?”

In this moment, the thief in white had already walked closer.

Chen Fengshi, who stood silently for a few seconds, suddenly charged forward, leaping across a distance of five or six meters. Before the skinny guy could raise his lowered knife, Chen Fengshi casually swiped at him, knocking the bony youth flat to the ground, and then stomped on his hand. The machete immediately slipped out of his grip and flew away.

The thief in red was stunned for a moment, and then angrily grabbed a weapon from his bag. However, before he could even pull out the machete, Chen Fengshi had already turned and pounced on him. He grabbed the thief by the hair and smashed him to the ground, kicked the knife out of his hand, and then kicked his body over and over, cursing as he kicked: “Retard, right! Peeing my pants, right! Can’t run, right!…”