El hibisco como pintura

Capítulo 31

Lin Nana and Li Biqi hid behind another bookshelf, barely daring to breathe.

Xu An peeked out from under the table, nervously watching everything before him, his mind racing to find a solution.

Gao Xiaoyuan stood there, unsure of what to do.

Ms. Duan's eyes almost squinted up. She put her hands on her hips, glared at Gao Xiaoyuan, and said sternly, "Gao Xiaoyuan, you still dare to go back to school?! I advise you to go to the police station and turn yourself in right now!"

"I...I didn't kill anyone," Gao Xiaoyuan desperately tried to clarify.

"As your teacher, I feel ashamed. Xiaoyuan, since you don't want to turn yourself in, it seems that your teachers will have to take you there!" Teacher Duan slowly walked towards Gao Xiaoyuan.

Gao Xiaoyuan's heart was in her throat, but she didn't know what to do. Just then, Xu An rushed out from under the chair, grabbed Gao Xiaoyuan's hand, and rushed towards the front door.

The teachers were startled by this sudden turn of events. Before they could react, Xu An had already grabbed Gao Xiaoyuan, pushed them aside, and rushed out.

"Don't run! Stop! Don't run!" Teacher Duan led the other teachers in pursuit, and the library fell silent again.

Lin Nana and Li Biqi slowly walked out from behind the bookshelf.

"Everyone's gone?" Lin Nana asked softly.

"It seems like they've all left." Li Biqi cautiously walked to the door and peeked out tentatively.

"What should we do? The teachers have discovered Gao Xiaoyuan."

"With Xu An here, Gao Xiaoyuan should be fine, right?" Lin Nana asked worriedly.

"Why are the lights on? Why is this place so messy? What happened?"

Lin Nana and Li Biqi looked towards the door in the direction of the sound, only to find that Chen Shuai was already standing there at some point.

"Where have Xu An and Gao Xiaoyuan gone?" Chen Shuai then asked.

"Gao Xiaoyuan was discovered by the teachers, and they were going to send her to the police station. Then... Xu An grabbed her and ran out." Lin Nana had barely finished speaking when Chen Shuai had already run out.

Lin Nana and Li Biqi looked at each other, not knowing what to do.

In the corridor, Xu An pulled Gao Xiaoyuan along, running forward as fast as they could. The teachers chased after them, shouting, "Stop running! Stop right there! Gao Xiaoyuan, listen to your teacher, I won't hurt you!"

Xu An grabbed Gao Xiaoyuan and ran forward without looking back. When he saw a men's restroom on one side of the corridor, he immediately pulled Gao Xiaoyuan inside.

"This is the men's restroom..." Gao Xiaoyuan didn't want to go into the men's restroom. She was about to leave when Xu An pressed her against the wall: "You..." Just as Gao Xiaoyuan was about to say her second sentence, Xu An covered her mouth in time.

Random footsteps came from outside the men's restroom, followed by Teacher Duan's voice.

"I saw them disappear right here..."

"Could he have gone into the toilet?"

"Probably not, where could it be?"

"Should we search the area? We absolutely cannot let that student make another mistake!"

The teachers' voices continued outside the restroom, seemingly not going to dissipate anytime soon.

Xu An looked down at Xiao Yuan in his arms; her face was a little red, and she looked very uncomfortable. Xu An quickly removed his hand.

Gao Xiaoyuan let out a breath and looked worriedly towards the toilet door.

Xu An quickly racked his brains for a solution. Suddenly, an idea struck him. He leaned close to Gao Xiaoyuan's ear and whispered, "Take off your clothes."

Gao Xiaoyuan stared wide-eyed at Xu An in astonishment.

Xu An looked at Gao Xiaoyuan with a determined expression and said, "Trust me." After saying that, Xu An turned around.

As Gao Xiaoyuan watched Xu An's tall and slender figure, she asked herself in her heart, "Should I still believe in him?" But her actions betrayed her thoughts. She began to take off her school uniform skirt because she realized that she still believed in him.

Xu An waited silently until Gao Xiaoyuan said, "I've already taken it off." Xu An didn't say anything, took off his coat and handed it to Gao Xiaoyuan, then said calmly, "Give me your coat."

Gao Xiaoyuan obediently turned her back to Xu An and handed him her clothes. The two of them changed clothes back to back.

"Wait until they leave before you come out!" After saying this, Xu An rushed out wearing Gao Xiaoyuan's clothes before Gao Xiaoyuan could react.

Outside the corridor, the teachers were searching for Gao Xiaoyuan when they saw someone wearing Gao Xiaoyuan's school uniform rush out of the restroom. Without thinking twice, the teachers immediately gave chase.

The footsteps quickly disappeared at the end of the corridor.

Gao Xiaoyuan slowly walked out of the men's restroom and looked towards the end of the corridor: "Thank you, Xu An!"

Chen Shuai was looking around for Xu An when he heard messy footsteps and shouts from adults on the stairs. He immediately ran upstairs, dialing a number on his phone as he ran.

“Gao Xiaoyuan…”

"This is Xu An!" came Xu An's panting voice from the other end of the phone.

"Xu An? Are you with Gao Xiaoyuan?" Chen Shuai asked anxiously, hearing the teachers' shouts coming from his phone.

"She's safe. I'm facing a pack of wolves all by myself!" Xu An seemed quite overwhelmed.

"Where are you now?" Chen Shuai asked worriedly.

"They've almost cornered me on the roof. If they see me, it'll be a real problem. It'll be hard to explain things clearly. They might mistake me for Prince Qiu," Xu An shouted as he ran.

"Xu An, I will save you," Chen Shuai said solemnly.

Xu An, who had already reached the rooftop, suddenly stopped, his expression becoming unusually serious.

“I remember there were lots of ropes on the school roof. You tie one rope to yourself and swing the other end down to the ground. I’ll grab one end of the rope.”

Xu An frowned.

"Xu An, you have to believe me," Chen Shuai said solemnly.

Xu An abruptly hung up his phone, quickly pushed open the door leading to the top floor, found the rope Chen Shuai had mentioned, tied it to himself, and then threw the other end of the rope downstairs.

"I'm leaving everything to you."

Just then, the teachers rushed to the rooftop.

Xu An felt his body growing heavier and heavier, closer and closer to the ground, his breathing becoming increasingly rapid. He slowly closed his eyes. Just then, he suddenly felt a rope tighten around his waist. He instinctively cried out in pain and felt himself slam into the window beside him. He nimbly grabbed the window frame and jumped through the window with a swift movement, only to crash into a desk in the classroom and fall to the ground, gasping for breath.

"You owe me a favor." The voice came from behind Xu An. He turned around and saw Chen Shuai standing panting at the classroom door, with blood dripping from his hands.

Xu An stood up from the ground and looked at Chen Shuai with a serious expression: "I will repay this favor to you."

Chen Shuai frowned as he looked at Xu An's clothes: "You really know how to pick clothes, but your taste is terrible."

The seventh map has been found.

When Xu An came out of the bathroom after changing into Chen Shuai's clothes, she saw Gao Xiaoyuan applying medicine to Chen Shuai's hands, while Chen Shuai huddled beside her like a cat, meowing incessantly. Xu An felt a pang in her heart. Just then, Gao Xiaoyuan's gaze shifted to Xu An, and a faint smile appeared on her face.

Lin Nana and Li Biqi were sitting to the side eating. Everyone is safe now, that's good.

Xu An dried his hair as he walked to the sofa furthest to the side and sat down.

"Honestly. We didn't find anything, and we almost got caught by the teachers," Lin Nana said dejectedly.

Without saying a word, Xu An suddenly stood up and walked to Gao Xiaoyuan's side. He pulled Gao Xiaoyuan up, who was applying medicine to Chen Shuai, and before she could react, he took an old book from the pocket of his own clothes. "I found it," Xu An said, pulling an old map from the book.

The map was so old that it had broken into pieces, forcing Lin Nana, Li Biqi, and Gao Xiaoyuan to hunch over the coffee table and painstakingly piece it together, like they were playing a jigsaw puzzle.

Xu An and Chen Shuai sat to the side waiting.

About half an hour later, Lin Nana was the first to raise her head, blinking as she looked at Xu An and Chen Shuai, but didn't know what to say.

"What's wrong? Have you finished putting it together?" Chen Shuai asked.

"It's pieced together, but..." Lin Nana lowered her head again.

Chen Shuai and Xu An immediately peeked out.

A pieced-together map lay on the coffee table, but it was missing the most crucial part, meaning the map was incomplete.

Xu An examined the map carefully: "This map doesn't seem to be naturally damaged; it looks more like it was torn up."

"So someone deliberately concealed the location of the school building?" Chen Shuai asked.

"So, we have no way of finding out the location of the classroom in the photo," Lin Nana said, somewhat disappointed.

No one responded, and everyone looked frustrated.

Gao Xiaoyuan stared at the map on the table. Could it really be like this? Could it really not be found? Who would have torn out the crucial parts to prevent others from finding it? Could it be Principal Chen?

In the latter half of the night, it started to rain. The sound of the rain was like a soothing agent, making everyone's eyelids too heavy to open. They slept haphazardly on the sofa, except for Gao Xiaoyuan, who was wide awake.

The lamplight shone on the torn map on the coffee table. Only Gao Xiaoyuan felt a sharp pain in her head. The pain was intensifying, like countless bees stinging her brain. She suddenly opened her eyes and saw that Chen Shuai had somehow gotten to her and was now sitting beside her, staring at her.

"Are you alright?" Chen Shuai asked with concern.

After catching her breath, Gao Xiaoyuan managed a weak smile at Chen Shuai and said, "I'm fine."

Chen Shuai leaned closer to the map on the table, frowning as he looked at it: "This map is missing the addresses of the higher grades. Maybe it's here, maybe it's..."

Gao Xiaoyuan got up and walked to the window, staring blankly at the rain outside.

Chen Shuai walked to Gao Xiaoyuan's side and gently asked, "What are you thinking about?"

Gao Xiaoyuan's gaze remained fixed on the view outside the window: "So I'm an orphan too."

Chen Shuai put his hands in his pockets: "I heard it from Xu An."

"Why...why did I come into this world? Why don't my parents want me?"

Chen Shuai didn't know how to comfort Gao Xiaoyuan. She inadvertently noticed a photograph on the cabinet by the window—a picture of him and his mother. Looking at the photo, he suddenly felt a sense of irony. He had always considered himself an orphan, yet he had family in this world, and now his only family member was missing. When someone is always with you, you might not realize their significance, but when they disappear, you suddenly realize how much you've grown accustomed to them. Chen Shuai picked up the photograph and gently stroked the image of Principal Chen in it.

"I also really want to know why she hid her relationship with me."

"What is this?" Gao Xiaoyuan asked curiously, pointing to the numbers in the photo.

“This is my mom’s habit. She always likes to number her favorite photos. When I was little, she told me that I must never lose any photos that she numbered.” Chen Shuai gave a wry smile, then his smile froze, and he stared at the numbers on the photos. “Could it be that my mom…?”

Gao Xiaoyuan sensed that Chen Shuai's expression was off, so she immediately asked, "What's wrong?"

Chen Shuai suddenly rushed upstairs. Gao Xiaoyuan was about to follow when Xu An walked over, picked up the photo Chen Shuai had placed on the table, and stared at it silently. Gao Xiaoyuan immediately stopped and looked directly at Xu An. Xu An didn't say anything, but took the photo out of the frame and looked at the back of the photo, his brows furrowing in a calm expression.

Gao Xiaoyuan looked at the back of the photo in Xu An's hand in surprise. There were faint lines drawn on it. At first glance, it looked like a drawing that someone had drawn unconsciously, but upon closer inspection, each line seemed to have its own specific trajectory.

"What are these?" Gao Xiaoyuan asked.

“We might have found it.” Xu An’s face showed a rare sense of relief.

"Let's give it a try!" Chen Shuai ran down from the second floor with a photo album in his hand.

Lin Nana and Li Biqi were awakened by Chen Shuai's shout. They rubbed their eyes and sat up from the sofa, looking at Chen Shuai in confusion.