Extra 3: Devil’s Proof
“Do you know that boy from computer class?”
“You mean …?”
“Seems to be called Du … something? Du Ze? I think his name is Du Ze.”
“Oh, him! Yes, of course, I know about him. I heard that his hearing is bad and that’s he’s a freak who’s always talking to himself or doing strange stuff. The people in his class aren’t close to him.”
“Do you know why? My friend is in the same class as him and he told me a secret. In fact, that boy seems to be able to see unusual things.”
“Unusual? … You mean he’s psychic?”
“Bingo! That guy is always ‘talking to himself’ so people always avoid him since there are ‘unusual phenomenon’ around him.”
“Do you really believe those rumors?”
“It’s not a rumor! Did you know that last week, the people from the Chinese World Trade Center threw an iron disk and broke a window? Du Ze was sitting beside that window but he wasn’t hurt at all.”
“So miraculous!”
*********
Du Ze listened to the conversation between the two boys in the hallway and looked at the person who had turned him into a campus myth.
Noting Du Ze’s gaze, Xiu smiled and asked, “What’s wrong?
Du Ze shook his head then suddenly realized that this one of those things that made people say he was “doing strange stuff.” He froze.
Since he began going to school, Xiu has invisibly followed him. Others can’t see Xiu but instinctively avoid the place where Xiu is, thus creating a lot of strange rumors. A silly, cute person thought that the students who saw him right now would only see a person shaking his head at nothing. They would think that this person forgot to take his meds today; what a fool!
Du Ze was right – shaking his head at nothing had called attention to him.
“You there – the one sitting by the window.” The advanced mathematics teacher rapped his knuckles on the podium. “You’re shaking your head, do you have a problem with what I just said?”
The whole class turned their heads to watch as the black-haired youth silently stood up, his face impassive. The teacher’s brow wrinkled as got ready to teach this boy a lesson, but before he could do so, he stopped – he seemed to feel that danger was near, as though a beast was eyeing him. Suddenly weak at the knees, the teacher leaned on the podium and smiled dryly: “Fine, sit down, sit down.”
Du Ze had half-lowered his body when he stopped abruptly.
“Xiu …!” Du Ze silently mouthed the beastkin’s name. Just as Du Ze was about to sit down, Xiu slid behind him and sat down on the chair. Now, if Du Ze sat down, he would be sitting on Xiu’s lap.
Xiu reached out to embrace Du Ze. In order to not stand out too much, Du Ze was forced to half sit down on the beastkin’s lap. Since he was seated at the last row, it wasn’t too obvious.
Put me down.
Xiu glanced at Du Ze’s note. Not only did he not put Du Ze down, but the beastkin wrapped his tail around Du Ze’s arm.
“Listening to him is too boring.” Xiu stroked the back of Du Ze’s neck. “Why don’t we do something interesting?”
“I’m in class.”
“Let’s leave and I’ll teach you instead.” Xiu said indifferently: “Yesterday I changed into my human form. These things are not difficult to learn.”
