Tan Yin’s fingertips began trembling with shame; she was almost completely dazed as Chu Hang held her, until his voice sounded by her ear again.
His voice was clenched through his teeth: “What are you still standing there for? Do you think it’s easy for me to hold up this bookshelf with one hand?”
“Hide under that table over there by the wall.”
Despite her tangled emotions, Tan Yin came to her senses and quickly scrambled out from behind Chu Hang’s body-shield: “Chu—Chu Hang, let me help you hold the shelf, you can’t handle it alone, you’ll get hit.”
Though his face was flushed red from the strain, Chu Hang’s tone was still cold. He no longer pretended not to see Tan Yin, only glancing at her: “Stop talking nonsense. Go, quickly.”
Tan Yin figured she really would only be in the way, so she promptly and obediently crawled under the table in the corner by the wall. Not long after she got in, she heard the crash of the bookshelf collapsing.
Her heart lurched—worried and afraid something had happened to Chu Hang—and she was about to crawl back out to check when a hand pushed her back in. He had clearly dodged the falling shelf with practiced agility.
Chu Hang glared at her, sounding somewhat annoyed: “Didn’t I tell you to stay put?”
“I was worried something happened to you,” Tan Yin said softly.
Chu Hang pressed his lips together and said nothing more, then climbed in as well.
He glanced at her, his face still slightly flushed, but his voice was deliberately cold: “I’m fine. Just worry about yourself.”
Compared to her, Chu Hang—with his long limbs—was cramped and constrained under the table. In this half-enclosed space, the two of them couldn’t help but press close together. Outside, books and shelves were still crashing down, but for Tan Yin, sharing this cramped space with Chu Hang felt like something was collapsing inside her chest as well.
Chu Hang glanced down at her, then quickly looked away: “Button up your shirt. Put your skirt down.”
“…”
Tan Yin wanted to find a hole to crawl into. She fumbled, trembling, to button her shirt with her head down, then pulled her skirt down to fully cover her legs.
The library was still stuffy, and now, wrapped up so tightly and hiding face-to-face with Chu Hang under the table, close enough to hear each other breathe, it felt like they were a pair of cheating lovers hiding from their spouses—nervous, scared, awkward, and thrilled all at once. But it really was thrilling.
Ever since discovering Chu Hang could see her, Tan Yin’s body temperature hadn’t stopped rising. The more she thought about it, the more she felt she might as well just die…
Logically speaking, none of this was Chu Hang’s fault, but from her own perspective, Tan Yin still felt he was sneaky and mean. If he could already see her, why hadn’t he said anything? Why not just come talk to her directly? Instead he’d quietly watched her make a fool of herself!
Thinking of everything she’d done in front of Chu Hang in the past, not knowing since when he’d been watching her, she felt like dying of shame and fury: “Chu Hang, you liar!”
Chu Hang pressed his lips together, and to her astonishment, raised his voice slightly, sounding entirely justified: “I’m a liar? How have I lied to you?”
“Haven’t you been able to see me all along?”
“And haven’t you been able to turn invisible? You’ve been following me around every day—did you ever come clean with me?”
“…”
Tan Yin was so angry her cheeks puffed out. Both of them were science majors—why was Chu Hang’s tongue so sharp? But no matter how she racked her brain, she couldn’t find a rebuttal.
Ashamed and angry at once, she could only shrink further into the corner under the table: “Anyway, you’re no good. I want to stay far away from you. You even secretly watched me undress…”
Unfortunately, before Tan Yin could finish her accusations, the ground shook violently again. Things on the desks above clattered and slid to the floor, and with another wave of tremors, Tan Yin lost all composure. Almost instinctively, she leaned toward Chu Hang and grabbed his arm in fear.
Fortunately, this aftershock was more bark than bite, and the shaking soon stopped. Chu Hang glanced at Tan Yin, who was still trembling and clutching his arm: “Weren’t you going to stay far away from me?”
“…”
Tan Yin’s face flushed and she was about to let go when several more books tumbled down from the shelves above onto the desk. Startled, instead of releasing Chu Hang, she gripped his arm even tighter—but then, remembering what she’d just said, she loosened her grip again.
Only, after she let go, Chu Hang extended his hand toward her.
“Hm?”
“Here, I’ll pull you up.” Chu Hang glared at her, looking somewhat put out. “Let me show you what it means to repay resentment with kindness.”
“…”
Since Chu Hang had given her a way to save face, Tan Yin didn’t hesitate this time and grabbed his hand. She’d never experienced an earthquake before, never experienced this kind of danger, and even holding onto Chu Hang now, she still couldn’t stop trembling.
What was most frightening was that this completely unforecasted, unannounced earthquake still had no official evacuation notice, and everything around them was chaos, with aftershocks coming intermittently. Tan Yin’s mind replayed every disaster film she’d ever watched, and she felt her heart pounding even harder. Worst of all, in the earthquake’s wake, the library’s power system had been damaged, and all the lights suddenly went out at once.
The library was instantly filled with screams and cries for help, and in the pitch darkness, Tan Yin huddled with Chu Hang under the table.
It had been bad enough with the lights on—now that she couldn’t see anything, trapped in this tiny space under the table, she felt a deep terror at the claustrophobic scene…
Just as she was losing her composure from fear, Chu Hang’s calm, steady voice sounded by her ear—
“You can hold my hand, but I need to correct one thing—I wasn’t peeking at you undressing. I was stopping you from recklessly stripping,” Chu Hang said coldly. “You’re a girl. Even if you go invisible during a thunderstorm, you don’t get to decide when the storm ends. If you strip like that and the rain suddenly stops, what if some other guy sees you? After all, what if there’s another guy out there who can see you too, just like me?”
Chu Hang’s tone remained composed, and this righteous tirade successfully distracted Tan Yin, who muttered without thinking: “Is anyone else at this school as sly and cunning as you? If you could see me, why didn’t you say so sooner?”
“Oh, so now you’re the one accusing me?” It was still pitch dark around them, but Chu Hang’s voice was light, as if he intended to take this opportunity to settle accounts with her properly. “If I didn’t have a strong mind, I’d have been driven insane long ago by all your bizarre antics.”
“…” Tan Yin couldn’t deny this point. If their positions were reversed and she’d spent years seeing things no one else could see, she’d probably think she’d lost her mind too. That Chu Hang could remain so calm and logically accuse her now really spoke to his mental fortitude.
“I didn’t know you could see me. I thought no one could see me,” Tan Yin said awkwardly. “So you… when did you start being able to see me? At first you shouldn’t have been able to, right? And since you could see me, didn’t you think it was strange? Why didn’t you report it to the police?…”
“One question at a time.”
“Oh…” Tan Yin thought it over and decided to ask the most crucial one first. “When did you start being able to see me?”
“Heh.” Chu Hang gave a cold laugh. “Very early.”
This answer immediately made Tan Yin’s heart sink with guilt. If Chu Hang said very early, then it really must have been very early—as for exactly how early… early enough that she’d already done all sorts of outrageous things in front of him… Tan Yin unconsciously bit her lip, growing anxious and nervous inside.
In the darkness, Chu Hang spoke again: “When did you start being able to turn invisible?”
“Right after I got struck by lightning… There was nothing unusual right after being struck, so I didn’t pay attention at first. Then the next time it stormed, I realized something was off. That day I’d planned to see a movie with Jiang Yilu—I was waiting at the theater entrance, and she couldn’t see me or hear me calling her. That’s when I realized I’d been struck with the power of invisibility…” Tan Yin explained. “But just like you found out, once the storm stops, my power disappears. Other than that, I’m completely normal.”
If she hadn’t mentioned this, it might have been fine, but bringing it up reminded Chu Hang of something, and he said coldly: “Tan Yin, you’ve touched my butt, haven’t you?”
“…”
At this moment, Tan Yin only wanted to recite poetry to herself, silence, silence is tonight’s theme…
But Chu Hang wouldn’t let it go: “Is this question so hard to answer?”
Thanks to this sudden earthquake, Tan Yin was now completely cornered by Chu Hang under the table with no way to escape. Gritting her teeth, she braced herself: “I touched it.”
“Heh, so, was my butt nice to touch?”
“It… it was okay…”
Chu Hang snorted coldly: “Just okay? Then why do I remember you giving it a squeeze the first time?”
“…”
“And you touched Teacher Zhu’s butt in the elevator to frame me, didn’t you?”
“…”
No wonder he’d had such suspiciously smooth footwork!!! Now, reconsidering everything with the premise that Chu Hang had long been able to see her invisible self, everything finally made sense…
Tan Yin desperately wanted this topic to end, but Chu Hang, like an evil cat that had caught a mouse and wasn’t in a hurry to kill it, pressed on relentlessly: “Besides that, whose other butt have you touched? Have you touched Xu Yu’s?”
Tan Yin was nearly in tears: “No… really, no more. As for Teacher Zhu’s butt that day, even though I said I touched it, it was really just a light pat.”
“Fine, so your primary target of crime is me.”
“…”
Chu Hang! Could you please stop dwelling on butts!
Soon, Tan Yin learned that Chu Hang really had stopped dwelling on butts—but what he focused on next was even more dangerous than butts…
“I’ll give you a chance,” Chu Hang’s voice was calm and steady in the darkness. “Tan Yin, I know exactly what you’ve done to me, and I have a clear list of your crimes. But interrogating you one incident at a time would be inefficient and a waste of my time, so I’ll hand the initiative to you—confess on your own, tell me what you’ve done, and I’ll give you a chance to explain your original intentions and thought process, whether there’s anything that might warrant leniency. This time, I’ll let you confess your own crimes—admit what you did while invisible. For each thing you say, I’ll consider that you’ve reflected on it, and I won’t pursue that matter further. But if you don’t cooperate, don’t blame me for what comes next…”
“I confess! I confess!” Tan Yin’s mental defenses crumbled before Chu Hang could even finish. “I’ll turn myself in, is that good enough!”
In the past, it wasn’t that Tan Yin had never thought about revealing her uncontrollable superpower to more people, but every time she nearly worked up the courage, she’d backed down in the end. She always felt that aside from someone as easygoing as Jiang Yilu, everyone else would think she’d lost her mind—no one would believe her. She’d never imagined she’d one day get the chance to sit calmly and rationally with someone, discussing her invisibility power with such composure, let alone that this person would be Chu Hang.
Even now, caught and being called to account by Chu Hang, Tan Yin felt a strange sense of relief, as if the other shoe had finally dropped. No more tiptoeing around to hide things, no more scrambling for clumsy excuses to cover her tracks—it was like a criminal who’d gotten away with murder finally being caught, and in that moment, instead of fear, there was only relief, finally free of the guilty conscience, finally able to accept her punishment…
At this point, the school’s power system seemed to have been restored, and the library lights came back on. The thunderstorm outside had stopped at some point without her noticing, and though the earthquake’s aftershocks were weak, they still came intermittently, so Tan Yin had no choice but to stay put and behave—not that she had any choice anyway, since Chu Hang was blocking the only path out from under the table. He watched her like a seasoned detective, his face cold and expressionless, yet Tan Yin could almost feel the pressure radiating from him, as if she didn’t confess honestly, he’d resort to interrogation by force in the next second…
As a newly repentant criminal, Tan Yin immediately began her confession to show her sincerity: “So, after I drew that comic and you and Xu Yu caught me red-handed, it was raining, so I turned invisible, then hid under your umbrella and walked with you. Your umbrella wouldn’t stay straight—it wasn’t the wind, it was because I was holding it from the other side. That umbrella broke later, and I’m willing to pay for the damage…”
Chu Hang’s expression remained composed: “I already know about this. Go on.”
Tan Yin kept up a rational appearance on the surface, but inwardly she was startled—Chu Hang already knew about this?! That meant he’d seen through her invisibility almost the moment he’d come back to the country! Tan Yin nearly wanted to wail. Given this timeline, she’d probably have to confess to everything.
Well, honesty brought leniency and resistance brought severity—Tan Yin decided to properly turn over a new leaf.
“Because you threatened to expose that comic as evidence against me, I went to your dorm during a thunderstorm, trying to steal back the evidence,” Tan Yin recounted, not forgetting to self-criticize as she went. “Of course this kind of behavior was completely wrong, a moral failing, a distortion of human nature, dancing wildly on the edge of the law—but I was blinded by desperation at the time… Because I accidentally got locked in the boys’ dorm, I used your computer to look something up… and then that page happened to get seen by Zhang Chen…”
Though Tan Yin used careful phrasing, omitting what could be omitted, Chu Hang was clearly unsatisfied with her confession’s candor: “Describe every detail of your crime clearly.”
Reluctantly, Tan Yin had no choice but to recount everything from that time in exhaustive detail. Throughout the process, though Chu Hang’s expression darkened somewhat at the mention of Zhang Chen, he remained composed, only using a deep but overly calm gaze to signal for Tan Yin to continue.
“That time at Lanruo Village, I wasn’t going into the forest because I was upset—it was because a thunderstorm hit and I turned invisible,” Tan Yin said, glancing cautiously at Chu Hang. “Then I saw you go into the forest looking for me, so I followed you too. Even though you won’t admit it, but…”
Just as Tan Yin’s confession on this matter was hitting its stride, Chu Hang cut her off abruptly, looking somewhat uncomfortable: “Alright, I already know about this. Don’t waste time. Confess the next one.”
Oh…
Tan Yin thought it over: “Then there was the food delivery incident. Actually, I turned invisible during a thunderstorm and tried to steal my comic manuscript from your place to destroy it. I didn’t go into your house to pester you, and I hid under the bed because the storm suddenly stopped and I had no other choice, so I just…”
Chu Hang laughed coldly: “Continue.”
Tan Yin swallowed: “And then I ate your dog food.”
“…”
Chu Hang was so composed that Tan Yin couldn’t tell what he knew and what he didn’t. To maximize her chances of leniency, she gritted her teeth and confessed everything in detail: “It wasn’t your dog that ate it—it was me. I’d been delivering food all morning that day and hadn’t eaten, and I was really starving. I saw the dog food and couldn’t help eating over half the bag.”
“Heh, so Cocoa’s innocence has finally been vindicated.”
Tan Yin tried to appease him: “I’ll buy it ten bags of dog food to make up for it next time…”
Chu Hang looked at her expressionlessly: “Alright, stop interrupting, continue.”
“That time you and Duan Yingfei were eating at the Japanese restaurant, I was there causing trouble…”
As Tan Yin confessed, she felt more and more wronged inside—Chu Hang was actually pretty sinister too. If he could see her all along, how could he stay so calm, watching her make a fool of herself again and again without saying anything? Truly a model of “gentle face, dark heart”—someone destined for great things.
The more Tan Yin confessed, the more mortified she became, and she had no choice but to report every single thing she’d done to earn leniency. The library building still shook occasionally with weak tremors, but what Tan Yin feared wasn’t the earthquake’s aftershocks—it was Chu Hang glaring at her, ready to pounce.
Regardless, thanks to Chu Hang’s “interrogation,” Tan Yin was so focused on answering that she had no time left to worry about the tremors around her, and the fear and terror in her heart completely dissipated because of it.
Chu Hang glanced at her: “Are you done confessing?”
Tan Yin nodded repeatedly: “All done, all done!”
“Think carefully again—anything you’ve missed?”
“No, really, nothing else!”
“Good.” Chu Hang finished speaking and smiled, revealing white, chillingly sharp teeth. “Thank you for your cooperation—now I know all the things you did to me while thinking I couldn’t see you.”
Wait, hadn’t Chu Hang just said he’d been able to see through her invisibility since the moment he came back to the country???
Under Tan Yin’s shocked gaze, Chu Hang composedly pressed his lips together and said, utterly without sincerity: “Oh, actually I couldn’t see you that early.”
You son of a— Tan Yin finally understood. Chu Hang had been bluffing her completely! He’d never had evidence of her “crimes” at all, or at least not nearly as much as she thought! This had been an entirely leading interrogation! She’d been tricked!!! So much for honesty bringing leniency—more like honesty bought her a life sentence, while resistance would’ve gotten her home for the holidays!
Tan Yin was furious: “Chu Hang! You tricked me! You really are cunning and sly!”
Chu Hang seemed quite satisfied with the results of her confession, and he smiled slightly: “All’s fair in war—you chose to confess, could I have stopped you?”
“…”
Tan Yin nearly burst into tears: “Fine, I admit I was stupid. So can you tell me now, when exactly did you start being able to see me?”
Chu Hang pressed his lips together: “Oh, after you gave me that hair-growth helmet. But at first I could only hear you, not see you.”
Tan Yin was utterly confused—what did that even mean? Had the hair-growth helmet somehow unlocked Chu Hang’s hearing?
“How could that be…” Tan Yin asked, puzzled. “So when did you start being able to both hear and see me?”
“Later, there was a time in the library when I plugged in an outlet and got a mild shock.”
Chu Hang’s words jogged Tan Yin’s memory: “That was the time you were reading The Course of Beauty in the library?”
“Mm.”
Tan Yin remembered that incident well: “But that was pretty dangerous—how did you nearly get shocked just plugging in an outlet?”
“If you hadn’t been chattering nonstop in my ear, slandering me by claiming there were adult videos in my ‘academic materials’ folder, and giving a running commentary on my backside the whole time I was bending over to plug it in, I wouldn’t have gotten shocked,” Chu Hang said, looking at her expressionlessly. “You didn’t mention that part in your confession just now, and you claimed you’d told me everything?”
“…” Tan Yin gave an awkward laugh. “That’s just some unimportant detail. Time is precious, so I filtered out the key points for you…”
Chu Hang said nothing, just kept looking at her, watching her scalp prickle and her legs go weak, instinctively wanting to keep confessing.
Tan Yin felt she couldn’t keep taking the hits passively—she needed to go on the offensive too. She immediately changed the subject: “I’ve confessed so much already, so now it’s my turn to ask you. You said you could hear me after I gave you the hair-growth helmet—what’s going on with that? Logically, my invisibility power came from being struck by lightning, and you being able to see me came from getting shocked plugging in an outlet—both seem related to electricity somehow. So what does the hair-growth helmet have to do with it?”
As she spoke, a spark suddenly went off in Tan Yin’s mind, like a short-circuited wire suddenly connecting. She realized: “That hair-growth helmet—I bought it through a reseller, but the reseller sold a counterfeit. The helmet had an electrical leak—I found out later, which is why I called you and told you not to use it. You said at the time you’d never used it, that you’d rather die than use it, but now it seems…” Tan Yin was almost certain now. She looked at Chu Hang. “Chu Hang, you actually used it, didn’t you.”
“…”