The Nth Day of Being Able to Read Minds

Chapter 1 – Nemesis

“Say, why is every school assembly we have so messy? It was supposed to start at nine o’clock, but it’s already nine thirty now and still no sign of it starting.”

“I don’t know.”

“The cafeteria’s going to run out of food if this goes on any later.”

The main hall was packed full of seated students, only a few student council members and teachers were standing to maintain the order. Most students had their heads hung low while chattering with each other, causing the place to be as loud as a market instead.

Tao Ran sat in the last row of the hall, headphones plugged in to reduce the noise. All the noises from the outside world were cut off as he completely immersed himself in the dense lines of text on his computer.

A bottle of water suddenly came in between him and his computer screen, interrupting his thoughts.

Tao Ran looked up and took it, “Thanks.”

“What for.”

The person who passed him the bottle was his childhood friend, Wu Hao. He sat down beside him after that.

“All students, please remain silent. Wear your masks and do not take them off. The assembly is about to start!”

Wu Hao elbowed Tao Ran and hinted at him to look at the teacher holding the microphone.

Tao Ran took off his headphones, switched off his laptop on the small table top and looked ahead.

Up until today, the pandemic has been going on for a year now. Wearing a mask had become an integral part of people’s lives as every person in the crowd had their face covered with one.

Except for one person.

Wu Hao pointed at the stage, “Hey, that’s Jiang Yu Heng, right?”

Without him stating the obvious, everyone around them started to grow restless as their eyes overflowed with excitement.

Even from a far distance away, anyone could still recognize that handsome silhouette of Jiang University’s god.

Wu Hao clicked his tongue twice, “It’s true that anywhere the school’s god go to, he’ll have to give a speech. Perfect grades, handsome looks, he sure is popular. I heard he joined the school basketball team too. You probably didn’t hear about it since you don’t like basketball that much, but he mesmerized so many juniors and seniors that the court was about to burst from the number of fans.”

Tao Ran frowned, why did he have to see him just everywhere.

Noticing Tao Ran’s silence, Wu Hao turned around only to find his best friend starting dead ahead with an extremely weird look.

Following his line of sight, Tao Ran’s intently looking at…Jiang Yu Heng?

Jiang Yu Heng went to the same high school with them but Tao Ran and him were in the same class while Wu Hao was in another.

He hasn’t heard any conflicts or grudges between them two though? Furthermore, they are currently living in the same dormitory too. But why is Tao Ran glaring at him like he wanted to eat him alive?

Wu Hao shrugged his shoulders a little, then heard Tao Ran letting out a cold ‘hmph’.

At this moment, the sound system echoed out a sound. It was Jiang Yu Heng who tapped on the microphone twice with his hand. After the microphone adjusted to the input, a low, magnetic voice blasted into the ears of everyone present.

“Can you hear me?”

Many people under the stage started shouting and hyping him but were silenced with a warning glare from the teacher.

Jiang Yu Heng gave an OK gesture to the staff behind him and his face was projected on the large screen on both left and right side of the stage.

Although Tao Ran sat in the last row, there were still people behind him.

It was during this small period of time where a few people from the student council teamed up to carry a camera over. It was placed right behind Tao Ran. If he looked up even slightly, he would be able to see the big, long camera lenses.

As if that wasn’t enough, there were several young girls in front of him filming with their cell phones and he could clearly hear what they were talking about.

“Wow…Jiang Yu Heng is so handsome. Say, do you think I can ask for his WeChat number?”

Another girl bragged, “Of course you can. Try your luck after the assembly is over.”

How annoying.

Tao Ran secretly scoffed at their behaviour in his heart. He really couldn’t understand what was so great about this guy that was worthy of people seeking after him.

On the screen, Jiang Yu Heng’s lean body and long neck could be seen. His proportions are at a golden ratio, his face has sharp features, high nose, well-defined eyebrows, thin and moist lips…

Tao Ran gritted his teeth while watching the scene on the stage, with that guy basking in absolute glory. No matter how much he refused to admit it, he was really fucking handsome.

“Collect yourself a little, your expression.”

Wu Hao’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Your eyeballs are about to fall out from staring. Are you looking at Jiang Yu Heng?” Wu Hao was a little confused at Tao Ran’s behaviour. He wondered, “Didn’t you stay in the same dormitory with him for a year? One day of behind husband and wife, a hundred years of peace and gratefulness. Did you have some kind of conflict?”

“What kind of phrases are you using now?” Tao Ran looked full of shock, waving his hand disgustedly, “It’s just my eyes hurting these two days. Nothing much.”

Wu Hao had a big heart. He nodded and said, “Were you working on coding again in the middle of the night? I told you long ago to rest well at night.”

Tao Ran casually responded with a few placating words then hurriedly brought the topic to the past.

Wu Hao didn’t know the disagreement that happened between Jiang Yu Heng and him. They were really close, but till this day, he still couldn’t bring himself to tell Wu Hao what happened.

After all, if he really had to say the real reason he hated Jiang Yu Heng so much, he would be putting his pride and self-esteem on the line. So he will definitely never say it.

Tao Ran felt that Jiang Yu Heng was particularly pretentious.

At first, they were just ordinary classmates with a normal relationship. And because Jiang Yu Heng was extremely friendly, he even thought well of him. However, the thought that ‘hes such a great guy’ was quickly withdrawn.

Back in high school, their class president was a really cute girl. Her grades were average but she was very hardworking.

He had personally witnessed Jiang Yu Heng patiently explaining and teaching the class president on questions she didn’t understand. The atmosphere around them was harmonious and friendly, until the class president thanked him politely and left. Jiang Yu Heng’s expression immediately changed to a cold one, as if he could switch his skin.

This wasn’t a big deal to Tao Ran actually, except…

He had a crush on the class president then.

That was the reason why he paid extra attention to the two of them. It was how he realized Jiang Yu Heng was someone who could just flip like that. Even though he hated being nice to others, he still pretended to be like the perfect model student.

Initially, he thought he saw it wrongly. After all, who would possibly believe that the deeply and widely loved by teachers and classmates alike – Jiang Yu Heng and his gentle, friendly demeanour was all an act? That would be too frightening.

And so, he began to observe Jiang Yu Heng more later on and finally came to a conclusion. Jiang Yu Heng’s gentle appearance was truly just an act.

Several times after Tao Ran saw the class president talking to him, he would immediately change his expression back to one that was a disgusted one, worse than when you smell vegetables that were left overnight and turned rancid after a week.

The disgust and disdain for Jiang Yu Heng reached its peak when he overheard the class president confessing her love to him.

Jiang Yu Heng’s expression was frivolous then. His tone was somewhat shocking too. His words were exactly this: “Ah, is that so. But I don’t like you.”

After the class president ran away in tears, he also heard Jiang Yu Heng let out a laugh.

How fucking terrifying! Is he a psychopath?!

Tao Ran admitted that he was indeed a little small-minded. Direct rejection was far better than dragging it out and giving false hope. But he just hated Jiang Yu Heng so everything he did just didn’t sit well with him anyhow. They will always seem several times worse in his heart than they really are.

He believed that no one would possibly not hate someone whom their crush likes. He also didn’t want to tell Wu Hao about his failed one-sided love.

Jiang Yu Heng was still giving his speech. His voice wasn’t too fast nor too slow. The words coming out of his mouth seemed extra vivid and lively, making him look confident and charismatic.

…That got even more annoying.

Tao Ran thought to himself, if he really must find a reason for their relationship being so bad, then the conclusion he made up over the years would be – that their birth dates, characters simply didn’t match. They were born to clash.

After Jiang Yu Heng finally finished his long speech, he still remained on the stage and took the note from the teacher’s hand. And after some talking, he raised the microphone again.

“All students, please wait just a moment longer. There will be a notice that will need to be announced. We have thirty new infected cases in the city, so please pay more attention to the news in the group chats and cooperate with the pandemic prevention efforts. If not needed, please don’t leave the premise…”

Tao Ran was tormented for another ten minutes or so before the assembly finally ended.

Wu Hao pulled him along with the flow of the crowd and went out, “Wanna go to the canteen?”

“Nah, I’m going back to the dorm to code.” Tao Ran hugged his laptop bag and yawned.

“You’re really not eating?” Wu Hao laughed at him, “I’ll go by myself then. I’ll buy you some wontons so that you, this big programmer can eat at night when you’re hungry.”

Tao Ran thought about it, “Okay. I’ll transfer the money to you on WeChat later.”

“No need to for formalities with me. I’m going to squeeze you dry on the weekend instead.”

“…” Tao Ran rolled his eyes, “The grilled fish on the third floor is my limit.”