Chapter 24.2
Cheng Lingxue’s question made Xie Shuyun snap back to herself with a start. She subconsciously touched the corner of her mouth to check whether she had been drooling while staring at the other girl.
Fortunately, she had not embarrassed herself to that extent.
Then she lowered her head shyly and said,
“Nothing. I just spaced out for a moment. Hahaha…”
The laugh at the end was obviously dry and full of guilt.
“…Is that so…”
The cold young girl’s voice lightly spoke those two words. It sounded ethereal and carried no emotion at all, leaving Xie Shuyun unable to tell what she was feeling. She could only touch her own face to ease the guilty feeling in her heart.
Suddenly, she felt as though she had forgotten something.
She felt around on her face for a moment, then lowered her head and looked at the bite-prevention device hanging against her chest. She quickly picked up the strap and wrapped it behind her head, putting the bite-prevention device back on properly. In a small voice, she said,
“Lingxue, next time if I forget to put on my bite-prevention device, you have to remind me. Otherwise, it’ll be too dangerous for you.”
“It’ll cover up…”
Cheng Lingxue seemed to say something, but Xie Shuyun did not hear clearly. She subconsciously leaned her head closer and asked,
“What did you say just now?”
The young girl glanced at her. Her fingertips, which were pinching the page, slowly turned it. Her pink, thin lips parted slightly.
“It’ll cover your face. Your silly face.”
Xie Shuyun’s eyes widened slightly.
The first half of that sentence had sounded normal, but why did the second half sound so unpleasant?
Was she silly?
With how outstanding her major ranking had been, she should be very smart academically.
She muttered inwardly, but did not dare say it out loud. She could only curl her lips. Glancing at the time, she saw there was still half an hour before class. She turned her body, bent down, and lay sideways on the long bench in the pavilion.
Her tall, slender figure just happened to occupy half the curved bench.
She yawned and said to Cheng Lingxue,
“I want to rest for a bit. You should think about letting your eyes rest too. There are still quite a few classes this afternoon, so conserving energy isn’t a bad idea. Don’t worry, I’ll set a timer.”
She shook the phone on which she had already set an alarm, then closed her eyes.
Her slightly trembling lashes gradually stopped moving as time passed. Her breathing slowly became even and steady.
After the heroic-looking girl wearing the bite-prevention device fell into a long, soft breathing rhythm, the cold young girl beside her gently closed her book. Her deep gaze slowly landed on the sleeping girl.
The breeze blew over the girl, making her hair and clothes sway. The loose strands on her forehead drifted left and right, then finally slid down to the tip of her nose.
The girl seemed to feel the itch on the tip of her nose. Her brows furrowed slightly, and a tiny whine of protest came from her throat.
Before the girl could raise her hand, two long, slender fingers had already gently pinched that stray lock of hair.
Cheng Lingxue looked at the hair in her hand. A trace of hesitation flashed through her eyes. In the end, she did not do anything. She merely tucked the stray strands behind the girl’s ear without leaving a trace.
Once the uncomfortable thing was gone, the girl’s brows gradually relaxed, and her breathing also returned to normal.
Cheng Lingxue looked around and confirmed that there was no one nearby. Only then did she slowly lean closer to Xie Shuyun’s face.
She was so close that she could almost feel the other girl’s breath. If not for the bite-prevention device blocking her, she probably could have moved even closer.
Her deep pupils carefully took in everything before her eyes.
Brows, eyes, nose, lips—every corner was observed. Even the tiny mole on her collarbone did not escape her gaze.
“There’s no change in her body.”
This was the conclusion Cheng Lingxue finally reached.
Although it was shameful, there was no doubt that she knew every part of Xie Shuyun’s body very clearly.
As for the pheromones…
There was no need to deliberately smell them. Xie Shuyun, who was currently in rut, still had the sweet, fresh lime wine fragrance around her even after using an inhibitor.
Although it was truly different from the scent before, it was still lime wine.
However, after a person differentiated, their pheromones would basically become fixed by their next rut. The difference in Xie Shuyun’s scent before and after could be considered quite obvious.
But only Cheng Lingxue knew about this change.
Because at that time, Xie Shuyun had only just differentiated, and her pheromones had not yet stabilized. Perhaps no one else had noticed this point.
Cheng Lingxue’s fingertips tapped silently against the tabletop, drawing her memories back to that rut.
Her memories of that part were fragmented.
But in the early stage, the pheromones Xie Shuyun had released had clearly been the same as in her memories—muddy, inferior, cloying. Then, when her consciousness had blurred, that scent seemed to have changed. It became the fresh, sweet fruit wine scent it was now.
And then Xie Shuyun…
had changed too.
Her thoughts came to a halt.
Cheng Lingxue’s gaze moved to the clasp around Xie Shuyun’s neck.
So this person was different because her pheromones were different, which had then led to a different personality?
Could it be a second personality?
She had no impression of Xie Shuyun having dissociative identity disorder, and there had been no signs of it either. But other than this explanation, Cheng Lingxue could not think of anything else.
But…
If it really was a second personality…
Didn’t that mean the main personality might wake up at any time?
The moment she thought of this possibility, Cheng Lingxue felt her breath catch. A dull pain appeared in her heart.
Her fingertip pressed heavily into the pad of her own finger. Looking at the person still sleeping peacefully, her lips pressed together slightly.
She raised her hand, wanting to touch the girl’s face, but was blocked by the bite-prevention device and could not move forward.
The bite-prevention device seemed to transform into the ugly face Xie Shuyun used to have before she changed, laughing arrogantly at her, as if reminding Cheng Lingxue of its existence.
This current person could be covered up, hidden, or even…
never appear again at any time.
“…Wu…”
Xie Shuyun furrowed her brows slightly. She kept feeling that something was pulling at the thing on her face. Her drowsy thoughts were still somewhat muddled, and after thinking for a long time, she finally remembered that what she had on her face was a bite-prevention device.
A bite-prevention device!
It couldn’t be some blind omega again, could it?!
Thinking this, Xie Shuyun immediately shivered and opened her eyes with a swish.
In an instant, she found herself staring wide-eyed at the beautiful face above her.
The girl seemed to be lowering her head and looking at her. Her hair fell down on both sides, some strands landing on Xie Shuyun’s bite-prevention device, passing through the gaps and falling against her cheek.
It brought a faint ticklish feeling.
But what was even harder to ignore was the fresh fragrance carried by those strands of hair. It rushed straight into her nose. If Cheng Lingxue had not been watching her, Xie Shuyun would have wanted to greedily inhale it.
Ah…
She was having perverted thoughts again…
But that regretful thought was quickly thrown to the back of her mind, because the moment Xie Shuyun met Cheng Lingxue’s eyes, she froze.
Those pupils, which had always been dark, cold, and calm, seemed like a lake disturbed by a thrown stone, rippling because of it. Yet the light inside had also been shattered by that stone, revealing traces of fragility within.
There even seemed to be a faint watery sheen in them.
Xie Shuyun actually saw…
fear and helplessness.
Even when Cheng Lingxue had faced those absurd relatives the day before yesterday, Xie Shuyun had not seen her reveal such emotions.
What was wrong?
Her gaze moved downward.
She felt the pressure on the bite-prevention device. It was Cheng Lingxue’s fingertip, lightly hooked around one of the horizontal bars on it.
One could clearly see her neatly trimmed, rounded fingernail turning slightly pale from exerting force. It seemed this was the culprit that had disturbed her sleep.
Of course, Xie Shuyun did not care about being woken up.
What she cared about was why Cheng Lingxue had revealed such an expression.
It made her feel heavy, and even her voice became dry and hoarse.
“…Lingxue? What’s wrong?”
As if she had not expected Xie Shuyun to be woken by her, the cold young girl closed her eyes slightly. When she opened them again, the emotions that had tugged at Xie Shuyun’s heartstrings had vanished without a trace.
She had once again become the calm and self-possessed Cheng Lingxue.
“Sorry. I woke you up. A gust of wind blew over just now and brought quite a few leaves. I thought some had fallen on you.”
Cheng Lingxue spoke softly. Her body also slowly withdrew, giving Xie Shuyun space to sit up.
For the first time, Xie Shuyun heard Cheng Lingxue give such a clumsy excuse.
The question she had wanted to ask was immediately stuck in her throat. For a while, she did not know how to begin.
The atmosphere between them grew somewhat frozen.
Cheng Lingxue lightly stroked the book with the pad of her finger, lowering her eyes slightly. No one knew what she was thinking.
Xie Shuyun looked left and right, scratched the back of her head, and after considering for a moment, finally asked,
“You… were in a bad mood just now?”
“…No…”
“Then just now, you…”
“It’s nothing.”
Those two words killed the conversation entirely.
Very much Cheng Lingxue’s style.
But it also made the opening line Xie Shuyun had barely managed to squeeze out shrink back again.
Looking at Cheng Lingxue’s emotionless face, Xie Shuyun finally sighed.
She could be considered to understand now. No matter why, the other girl probably would not say it.
In the end, all her thousand words turned into one sentence.
Xie Shuyun originally wanted to touch her nose, but after touching the bite-prevention device, she could only switch to lightly rubbing her own hair. She said softly to Cheng Lingxue,
“No matter what, if someone bullies you, tell me. Maybe there are a lot of things you don’t want to tell me, but if you need help, I’m very willing to help you.”
As she spoke, the regret on her face from earlier was swept away, replaced by a brilliant smile.
Looking at that smile, which was comparable to sunlight, made even warmer by the colorful spots of light falling across it, and seeing the gentle, sincere emotion flickering in her eyes, Cheng Lingxue’s slightly pursed lips pressed even tighter.
The fingertips gripping the corner of her skirt gradually tightened, causing a few wrinkles to appear in the smooth fabric.
Ding-ling-ling, ding-ling-ling…
The alarm on the phone broke the quiet atmosphere.
Xie Shuyun quickly raised her hand and turned it off.
“Sorry, sorry. I forgot about the alarm. But are you really not going to rest? Even if you just close your eyes for a little while, there’s still some time.”
“No need. I’m not tired.”
Cheng Lingxue shook her head and rejected Xie Shuyun’s suggestion.
She raised her hand and used her fingertips to pinch the hair falling in front of her chest, gently curling and rubbing it in her hand. Finally, she spoke.
“I’m a little thirsty.”
“Is that so!”
The moment Xie Shuyun heard Cheng Lingxue’s words, she quickly jumped up. As she patted her slightly wrinkled uniform, she asked,
“What do you want to drink? Bottled water? Or a drink? Cola? Milk tea?”
“Milk tea.”
“I got it. Then I’ll go buy it for you. You go back to the classroom first. By the time I finish buying the milk tea, the bell will probably have rung. Otherwise, we won’t make it.”
As she spoke, Xie Shuyun stepped forward and was about to run off.
Suddenly, Cheng Lingxue reached out and grabbed the corner of her clothes.
Fortunately, the corner of Xie Shuyun’s eye had been watching the other girl’s movements the entire time, so she noticed it early. Otherwise, she would already have rushed out. She quickly stopped and turned around to ask,
“Is there anything else you want to buy?”
“You won’t…”
Cheng Lingxue’s mouth opened and closed.
Xie Shuyun only heard the first few words clearly, because at the same time the other girl spoke, a sudden gust of wind blew over.
She subconsciously narrowed her eyes and raised her hand to block the leaves and dust stirred up by the wind. Her face even hurt faintly. It was the feeling of Cheng Lingxue’s hair being blown forward and striking her face.
Because of that, she did not dare wave her hand too hard, afraid she would tug on Cheng Lingxue’s hair.
The strong wind came quickly and left just as quickly.
Patting the leaves and dust off her body, Xie Shuyun raised her head and glanced at Cheng Lingxue. She could not help clicking her tongue.
Compared to her sorry state, the other girl was spotless. It felt as though the wind had been targeting her specifically.
How strange!
“Ah, what did you say just now? Sorry, I didn’t hear clearly.”
With her limited vision, Xie Shuyun had tried hard to open her eyes, but could only see Cheng Lingxue’s mouth opening and closing. Her ears had only been filled with the howling of the strong wind. She could only helplessly ask.
But Cheng Lingxue shook her head and said softly,
“…Nothing…”
Her attitude made it clear that she did not intend to repeat it, leaving Xie Shuyun confused.
But seeing Cheng Lingxue’s calm and unruffled appearance, it probably was not anything important, right…?
“Then I’ll go first. If there’s anything, tell me later.”
Standing inside the pavilion, Cheng Lingxue watched Xie Shuyun run forward.
Her strong and agile figure, and the ponytail swinging behind her, displayed the girl’s youthful energy.
Cheng Lingxue slowly raised her hand toward the girl’s back and lightly closed her fingers around that running figure, as if holding that person in her palm.
A silent question left her mouth.
You won’t disappear, right?
Only after that figure disappeared did she lower her hand.
She lowered her head and looked at the dust and leaves Xie Shuyun had knocked away during the gust of wind just now. Bending down, she gently picked up one of the leaves and held it beneath the sunlight.
It was not green like the other leaves, nor did it have ordinary veins. Instead, there was a strange golden ripple of light flowing within it.
After only a few seconds, the leaf weathered away in Cheng Lingxue’s hand and finally vanished completely.
When she lowered her head again, the dust and leaves on the ground had also disappeared without leaving any trace, as if the strong wind just now had only been an illusion.
This strange situation did not frighten Cheng Lingxue. Instead, a mocking cold smile appeared on her face.
Her lowered gaze grew even darker.
She stepped out of the pavilion and onto the spot where the leaves and dust had disappeared, grinding her shoe against it.
So you finally can’t sit still anymore?
Comments 0
You must be logged in to comment.
No comments yet. Be the first!