Apocalyptic Forecast - Chapter 43

Chapter 43: Let’s Not See Each Other Anymore

Sadly, Chief Fu was not able to shoot the bastard in the head as he wished to.

In short, after interrogating him several times, he did not do anything more to Huai Shi out of respect for the Astronomical Society. However, he had warned him repeatedly before leaving, “Remember, stay away from my daughter.”

“Alright, alright.”

Huai Shi nodded with a stiff smile as he watched Chief Fu walk away.

As soon as the back to school ceremony had ended, Huai Shi found himself being blocked by a girl at his classroom door. Pulling him aside, she reached for his phone that was in the pocket of his trousers. She said, “Come on buddy, hurry up and give me a hand… I’m about to drop to bronze rank soon!”

“Miss Fu, please don’t ——”

Huai Shi pushed her away gently as his face began to turn red. “I’ve changed for the better.”

“Relax, it’s not prostitution if I don’t pay.”

No longer pretending to be as pure as when her father was around, she dropped her innocent little white rabbit act and kicked into gear. “Help me get back to diamond rank and I’ll take care of your attendance for these 2 weeks, what do you think? The Student Union has been pretty strict with attendance recently. You don’t want to get reported, do you?”

Huai Shi rolled his eyes at her.

Although he was an art student, the school had certain requirements that had to be fulfilled during class periods. Without Fu Yi’s help, Huai Shi would have trouble dealing with them.

However, upon recalling Chief Fu’s stern expression when he left, Huai Shi could not help but shrink once again.

‘If your dad finds out that you’ve been secretly playing an online game in the arts and sports room, and furthermore, realized that I was an accomplice, would he dispatch Ascender suppression troops to hunt me down straight away?

‘Besides, which one of your fans don’t know about your taste in men? The screen is always flooded with comments of people looking for volunteers to beat me up during my turn.

“Alright, I’ll let you know later. Remember, don’t run…”

Seeing that the class teacher was walking up the stairs and was about to start the meeting, Fu Yi hurried into the classroom. However, before that, she made a pleading gesture as her palms clasped in front of her and she winked at him while sticking her tongue out cheekily.

They had never been courteous with each other in private before. However, she could still pull it off by acting cute.

Huai Shi rolled his eyes. Instead of feeling touched, he had the urge to run away from her.

Why would he not want to?

If he did not run away any sooner, Chief Fu was going to catch him and haul him to the Eastern Crematorium!

There was a chance he would get turned into an urn too!

Therefore, Huai Shi only stayed throughout the first half of the class meeting. The second his class teacher got distracted, he took the opportunity to slip away.

The moment he left the classroom, he could hear Class Monitor Fu’s angry voice as the latter slammed her hand on a desk. “Teacher, Huai Shi just slipped away!”

‘Alright, such leaders the father and daughter duo are. I can’t possibly afford to offend either one of you, not at all…’

With that, Huai Shi picked up his pace and ran away.

.

He always had the impression that the school was considerably kind toward the art stream students.

Perhaps it had something to do with the low college entrance rate. However, aside from enrolling a large number of students who had failed their college entrance examinations, the school management gave plenty of benefits to art students. Hence, the students faced less stress in their college entrance examinations.

As long as the number printed on the banner hanging at the entrance of the school after the annual college entrance examination was decent enough, the school management would not say much otherwise.

Moreover, Huai Shi’s behavior in school had always been just alright. He never caused any sort of trouble, and his cello results were more than acceptable. After his sincere promise to make up for his cultural classes with his next academic semester, the dean’s office simply issued him a free pass whereby he obtained the privilege of an art stream student. With the pass, he was able to wander out during classes. Not to mention, it made it convenient for him to disappear from class on days he had class duties.

In the shoes of the other senior year students who were completely stressed out from studying, they found it annoying always seeing him wandering around the school compound leisurely like a stray dog.

Even Huai Shi himself had not expected that the process of obtaining a free pass was so easy.

All the other students had to have their art or music studio teachers sign as their guarantors before they could get their free pass. Hence, why did the school management seem so eager to give him his?

Never would he have expected a middle-aged man to be staring intently at a surveillance screen, eagerly waiting for him to leave the classroom and be as far away as possible from his precious daughter.

A middle-aged man who was always ready with a troop of snipers was truly scary.

Huai Shi who soon more or less understood the reason behind it shook his head with a sigh. He felt like his privacy was being violated. However, seeing a surveillance camera in the corner of a wall rotate 180 degrees, he was brought before the image of a group of intimidating men wielding an array of weapons… Forget it…

He would not lose anything from being watched anyway.

After all, he could skip classes easily. Hence, he could pretty much just stay in the music studio all the time. Thanks to his outstanding cello examination results and various competition certificates, the school had also given him certain benefits.

For example, they had opened up a separate practice room for him so he did not have to wait in line to get into the music studio like everyone else.

After all, he was the only one who played the cello in the entire school.

Huai Shi entered the room and proceeded to clean up the dust that had accumulated over the summer holiday. Then, he took out his cello and began to play it nonchalantly…

Practicing the cello in the practice room?

No way!

He was conveniently right below the teacher’s office, and it meant that the WiFi speed was completely unmatched. Watching videos would be a breeze because they would not lag at all compared to when he used the broadband Crow had found for him. Not only was the broadband’s internet speed horrible, but he always got anxious using it.

He habitually looked through the local news, reading articles like “Business Booms As All-Bird-Meal Becomes Popular In New Ocean”, as well as unfortunate news such as the recent grave digging incidents.

He closed them after looking at them for a few minutes.

Meaning to kill time, he opened up Silent Crown on his client workstation. It had been a while since he last logged in, so he had to install the latest update. Right then, a window popped up.

“Limited Time Event: Dark World: The Lost Dragon City!

“As the result of an expedition carried out by a group of pioneers, the tip of a strange iceberg has been revealed in Yamatai, the mysterious kingdom hidden in the Dark World.

“What mysteries lie hidden in the nation that has long died over thousands of years ago, and what kind of treasure is buried in the relics entrenched by natural disasters?

“Heavens and Earth: Magical Freedom and Natural Disaster: The White Emperor (SSR) has entered the limited-time card pool…”

Another sudden update then brought before him plots that were worth hundreds and thousands of words. In addition to that, three complementary card draws came with it. Various valuable weapons were also listed under the drop-down menu… Was the production team crazy? Why were they being so kind?

Unfortunately, it was a pity that the SSR drop rate of this game was too low. Hence, Huai was reluctant to pay to win. Up till then, more than 30 SSRs had been released by the official game, yet he only had one. It was when he obtained an African medal, and the officials sent him a clone of Yan Qingge that came with a cool title ——”Self Perseverance: I Am All Things.” Sadly, he was only playing a support role.

Still, there was no denying the fact that the female characters in the new update were extremely beautiful. Judging by the character sketches, they seemed to be dazed-looking sporty girls. Not to mention, the post itself had received plenty of likes. The more Huai Shi looked at them, the stronger his urge was to go pay to win.

Filled with hope, he drew ten times consecutively and immediately saw white clouds in a blue sky… D*mn it, he had just wasted a hundred stones which all went down the drain.

However, before he could close the game, he heard a loud bang. The door was kicked open and a petite shadow entered the room before it sat comfortably on the small couch that was opposite Huai Shi.

“Quick, I’ll bring up your points!”

It was Fu Yi.

The room had almost become her base. The small sofa she was sitting on had been moved there from the Student Union room. Not to mention, the extension cord that had several PSPs plugged in was convenient for charging at any time.

If it was not because it was inconvenient, she would have even moved two of her monitors in.

Huai Shi rolled his eyes at her. “Are you skipping class again?”

“You’re the one skipping class. I’m the secretary of the Student Union, so it doesn’t count as skipping class.”

Fu Yi narrowed her eyes at him. “Besides, I’m going to be stuck in the art studio from next week onwards for intensive sessions. It doesn’t matter much if I start my leave from classes a few days earlier. Isn’t it more worthwhile for us to start playing the game now than waste any more time?”

As she spoke, she booted up the game and invited Huai Shi to her team before he could even reject her.

Ever since games like PUBG had become less popular, the MOBA real-time strategy game released by Silent Crown caused a new wave of excitement in the online community.

Fu Yi’s skills were not exactly bad. After all, she was a quite popular part-time live streamer. Aside from her good looks, her skills were alright. However, she was often too ambitious and she liked showing off. Aside from that, she liked playing ADC even though she was bad at it. On the bright side, her mistakes and fooling around always added a flair of entertainment that attracted more viewers to her.

As soon as she entered the game, she easily acquired a Divine Hand. It made her teammates immediately go crazy.

Her acrobatic character was useful in late games, but her early games were a complete mess. There had been many occasions where players flamed the game developers because of the problem in the game hero’s design. It made the game too easy, and one had to rely on luck to survive until they reached late game.

“Are you showing off now?”

With a sigh, Huai Shi chose Moon as his backup. “Alright, it can’t be helped that Daddy loves you a lot.”

As expected, they lost five times in a row.

Not only did Fu Yi fall further below bronze rank, but she managed to pull down Huai Shi’s rank as well. Huai Shi had fallen behind a lot because of his month’s break. He could still maintain his rank in the past, but he had now been brought down together with her.

After a few games, Huai Shi decisively rejected her invitation and switched off his phone.

As if they had just done the deed, Fu Yi skilfully whipped out a box of cigarettes hidden in Huai Shi’s cello case and took a cigarette out for herself. She lit it and then passed another one to Huai Shi.

The way she smoked with her legs crossed made her seem extremely tyrannical, nothing like the innocent bunny she was in the morning when she was on her way to school. If Chief Fu found out, there was a chance he would shoot Huai Shi on the spot.

Sadly, only heaven knew that Huai Shi picked up smoking from Fu Yi.

What could the experienced girl possibly not know?

Huai Shi hesitated to speak up for a long while before he finally dismissed himself with a weak wave of his hand. He looked sadly through the window and at the bright sun shining outside. It was as if he was a mistress who had just been abandoned.

“Let’s not see each other anymore.”

“What are you afraid of?”

Fu Yi chuckled at his miserable tone.

“Are you scared that he might break your legs?”

Huai Shi froze.

“Has he done that before?”

“Yeah.”

With the cigarette still in her mouth, Fu Yi stretched her arms behind her head to tie her hair up into a ponytail. “The last time he found a love letter in my bag, he broke the legs of the lad who confessed to me.

I’ve never been able to experience how it feels like to be chased after by a guy. The guys in my class don’t even dare to speak to me.”

Huai Shi continued to stare at her in disbelief.

Fu Yi shrugged casually and continued, “My mom divorced him after that. Domestic violence. I chose my mom so he can’t control me anymore.”

“…”

Huai Shi was stunned for a long time before he said, “I’m sorry.” He then heaved out a heavy sigh.

Sure enough, curiosity did kill the cat.

Huai Shi had never been interested in others’ business before. Now, the very first time he was curious, he ended up stepping on a landmine.

“It’s okay.” Although Fu Yi did not elaborate on it anymore, she waved a hand at him casually and said, “I only told you because you were the one who asked.”

“I guess I’m unlucky then.”

Huai Shi shook his head and motioned with his finger as he leaned closer to her. Fu Yi rolled her eyes at him before she ignited the lighter with a click.

The flame that had been tuned to maximum almost lit Huai Shi’s hair on fire.

Upon seeing Huai Shi’s panicked reaction, Fu Yi slapped her knee proudly as she let out a laugh.

It was at times like this when nobody else was around, that she would show her other side and not her usual prim and proper manner. Otherwise, she was always serious and well-behaved. Most of all, she made it a point to stay far away from boys and harmful objects.

She was just like any other good daughter in the mind of any parent; the Student Union secretary that every teacher adored, and the class monitor that every student knew.

Oh well, every family had a skeleton hidden in their cupboard.

With a sigh, Huai Shi ruffled his scorched hair and said nothing more.

If there was a need for respect between the two of them, there was no better way other than keeping a distance from each other. Life was already terrible as it was so there was no need for one to be judgemental nor comment on another’s life.

Among their many classmates, if Fu Yi wanted to make friends, there were many other people that were better than himself. Their sort of unsound friendship was only able to exist and last until this day because they understood a mutual unsaid agreement whereby they maintained their distance between each other.

Among their many classmates, she was the only one Huai Shi had never envied.

He had said so during their school anniversary rehearsal when she was smoking in front of him.

“I realized that you’re good to everyone and you can talk to anyone, but I don’t think you enjoy socializing. I think you don’t like anyone at all.”

“That’s because I’m just the same,” she said.

Therefore, it was nice for both of them to be together in a corner.

It was well known that birds of a feather flocked together, just like how people who were sick to a certain extent appeared on online platforms to seek comfort as well as join some club for sick patients.

Huai Shi could not possibly drive her out just because she had a powerful father.