Peach-Orange! – Chapter 176 – Your Xiaocheng Died for Nothing

Her advisor was also injured, though she didn’t know which hospital she was in.

Su Tao lowered her head, pressing her lips together, then nodded. “I’ll go back to the dorm first and grab something for my advisor.”

“That works too.”

Chengcheng had no objections and followed Su Tao back to the dorm.

With the semester nearing its end, the dorm was bustling with people coming and going. Most who recognized Su Tao greeted her.

A small figure sitting at the dorm’s front desk was busy preparing departure forms for signatures, looking quite occupied.

Hearing Su Tao’s voice among the greetings, she immediately jumped up and shouted, “Su Tao jiejie ¹ ”Jie” means sister !”

The moment Fang Ning’s voice rang out, Su Tao’s entire body stiffened.

The little loli happily squeezed through the crowd. “Su Tao jiejie, long time no see! Do you have time later? There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

“Ah… about that.” Su Tao awkwardly avoided eye contact. “Sorry, I need to go see my advisor later. I don’t really have time.”

Fang Ning blinked in confusion. “Advisor Qin?”

“Yeah.”

“But Advisor Qin has already—”

Before Fang Ning could finish, someone behind her loudly called, “Ningning! What should I fill in here? Where’d you go?”

“Ahhh! I’m here!”

Fang Ning clasped her hands apologetically at Su Tao before hurriedly disappearing back into the crowd.

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Su Tao tilted her head slightly. Though puzzled, she didn’t dwell on it.

Back in the dorm, Chen Qian’s bed was neatly packed, her luggage ready, though her suitcase was still there, suggesting she hadn’t left yet.

Xiaowei was still fast asleep in bed.

Su Tao treaded lightly, gathered what she needed, and quietly left.

Chengcheng followed beside her and asked, “What now?”

“I’ll ask which hospital my advisor is in.”

Su Tao returned to the first floor and quickly found a classmate from her major. “Hey, do you know which hospital Advisor Qin was taken to after being stabbed?”

“Advisor Qin?” The classmate recognized Su Tao and replied slowly, “Advisor Qin was already disciplined and fired. Tao-Tao, as the person involved, didn’t you know?”

“Disciplined? Fired? I’m involved?”

Su Tao was utterly baffled.

Nearly half a month had passed since Chi Xiaocheng’s death. At first, she had been completely depressed at home, avoiding Ye Liang while drowning in regret and tears.

After taking revenge on Ye Liang, she lost all purpose, spending her days in a daze. She hadn’t even attended her final exams.

Most of her courses this semester were already failed. She had no idea what had happened at school.

The classmate pointed outside. “After leaving the dorm area, turn right. The bulletin board has all the details. Go see for yourself.”

For some reason, a sense of foreboding settled in Su Tao’s heart.

Her steps quickened as she left the dorm.

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Chengcheng’s lips curled into a smile. She glanced back and met the gaze of a small head peeking out from the front desk.

Fang Ning had been watching Su Tao ever since she came downstairs.

Chengcheng raised an eyebrow at the little loli, then gestured toward Su Tao’s direction before leisurely following after her.

Fang Ning blinked several times in confusion.

Then, as if seeing a familiar shadow in Chengcheng’s silhouette, she hesitated before calling into the break room, “Auntie Ruan, I need to step out for something. Can you cover for me?”

A gentle voice replied from inside, “Of course, little Ningning. Go ahead. If you have things to do this afternoon, don’t worry about coming back. Auntie will handle things here.”

“Thanks, Auntie~”

Fang Ning chirped sweetly, threw on a shabby secondhand coat she’d bought online, and hurried out after Su Tao and Chengcheng.

The school’s major announcements were posted on a bulletin board outside the dorm area.

It was about a five-minute walk.

Su Tao wanted to visit her advisor not just out of concern and apology but also to prove that Xiaocheng’s yandere tendencies were excessive, that it wasn’t her fault for failing to control Xiaocheng.

This was her way of easing her guilt.

‘It’s not that I didn’t love Xiaocheng. It’s just that her yandere nature was beyond my control.’

She was trying to evade responsibility… one that was both hers and not entirely hers.

But the closer she got to the bulletin board, the heavier her heart grew.

Her sixth sense warned her: It’s better not to look.

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Yet in the end, she still stopped in front of the bulletin board, quickly scanning for any notices about Advisor Qin.

When her eyes landed on one particular notice, her pupils constricted sharply.

“Academic fraud… plagiarism… dismissed… blacklisted from academia….”

The light in her eyes dimmed as her lips silently mouthed the contents of the notice.

“Advisor Qin plagiarized papers authored by student Su, publishing them under her own name in academic journals to significant acclaim….”

Below were several examples of paper titles.

Su Tao recognized them instantly. They were the papers she had painstakingly written over the past few months!

Chengcheng strolled over leisurely. “So your advisor wasn’t nurturing you at all. She was just using you, stealing your work as her own.

“First your Sister Long, now your advisor. So much time has passed, and Xiaocheng is already dead. Yet you’re still trying to escape reality.

“Xiaocheng really died for nothing.”

As Su Tao listened to these murmured words, Chengcheng’s usually cheerful, lark-like voice gradually took on a darker, more oppressive tone.

It sounded almost like… Chi Xiaocheng on the verge of a yandere episode!

Su Tao whirled around and saw Chengcheng’s black eyes seemingly tinged with a hint of red.

Thud.

The items she had brought from the dorm fell to the ground.

A long-absent fear surged through her heart.

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Su Tao shuddered, only to realize Chengcheng was just calmly reading the bulletin.

There was no sign of a yandere transformation like Xiaocheng’s.

Had she… imagined it?

Right. This was Chengcheng, not Xiaocheng.

They had just met in person. At most, they got along well and had a good rapport. There was no way Chengcheng would go yandere.

She wasn’t Xiaocheng.

Yet Chengcheng’s words struck deep into Su Tao’s heart.

“Now, Tao-Tao, do you still think Chi Xiaocheng interfered in your life just because she was yandere?

“Remember what I said earlier? No matter the outcome, Chi Xiaocheng did those extreme, radical things because she loved you.

“Look. Your Sister Long, your advisor, they were all secretly harming you.

“Sun Wukong protected Tang Sanzang by defeating the White Bone Demon three times ² Another Journey to the West reference. The White Bone Demon is a shapeshifting demon. I don’t remember what it shapeshifted into (maybe a woman, an old man, and a child?), but anyway, Tang Sanzang thought Sun Wukong was killing innocent humans, so he banished him , yet he wasn’t trusted and was ultimately banished.

“And your yandere knight? Not only was she misunderstood and distrusted by you, but she even died protecting you. And still, you refuse to face her, even in death.”

Chengcheng glanced at a tree trunk behind Su Tao and smirked.

“Your Xiaocheng… really died for nothing.”

Behind that very tree trunk, Fang Ning, clutching a book, had lost all light in her eyes.