Li Namei’s mouth dropped open, and she even reached up to rub her ear. After a long moment, she managed to squeeze out one sentence:
“What? A rabbit?”
Ruan Mei was equally shocked, but after the initial surprise wore off, she realized that everything made sense in retrospect.
Fang Zhishui had known about the rabbit all along… and had been feeding it rabbit pellets… No wonder the little rabbit wouldn’t eat the grass she picked for it. With specially formulated rabbit food available, who would want to eat grass anyway!
Ruan Mei sighed, thought about the rabbit’s waistline, and resignedly lowered her head to tell Li Namei:
“Just go home directly. Everything’s fine now.”
After sending the confused Li Namei away, Ruan Mei walked a few steps forward and stood in front of the group of thugs who were lying down pretending to be dead. She spoke sternly from above:
“Get lost, now!”
The thugs hadn’t been seriously injured. At first, they thought Fang Zhishui would help settle the matter fairly. But when they saw she was on Ruan Mei’s side, their hopes were dashed, and they could only lie there like salted fish.
Hearing Ruan Mei speak now, the few of them immediately scrambled up. They each grabbed one of Wan Shanshan’s arms and legs, tying her up tightly before hauling her down the mountain.
Fang Zhishui watched the entire scene with a smile on her face, a smile that looked increasingly strange. Ruan Mei really wanted to ask her what she had seen, but she was afraid of getting the answer, “I saw everything,” so she bit her lip and said nothing, leading the way towards where the rabbit lived.
Fang Zhishui’s footsteps were very light, following behind without making her presence felt. It seemed that if one were slightly distracted, one would miss her existence.
However, Ruan Mei absolutely dared not ignore her. Her sharp ears could almost hear the sound of every fallen leaf cracking under Fang Zhishui’s footfalls, could pick up on the other person’s slight breathing, and the rustling of clothes.
Rustling, rustling it was actually somewhat like the natural background noise of the woods. After listening for a long time, it even sounded a little pleasant.
Ruan Mei, with her mind preoccupied, arrived at the destination and immediately spotted the rabbit, now so fat it was hard to see its waistline, crouching beside a cardboard box.
The little rabbit’s eyes were reddish, its ears perked up, its nose twitching it was incredibly cute.
Fang Zhishui walked forward with the bag of rabbit food, but Ruan Mei stopped her:
“How did you discover this rabbit?”
Ruan Mei looked at Fang Zhishui with hostility.
“The day you discovered it, I happened to be here too and saw you going to get the cardboard box.”
Fang Zhishui said it very calmly.
“…Are you following me?”
Alarms blared in Ruan Mei’s mind. She knew it! She had sensed the female lead was up to no good all along! Following her!
“No, it was truly a coincidence.”
Fang Zhishui explained.
“…So you feed the rabbit rabbit food every day? Look how fat it’s gotten!”
Ruan Mei’s tone carried a hint of complaint.
“I strictly follow the scientifically recommended feeding amount.”
Fang Zhishui picked up some rabbit food and poured a little into the rabbit’s dedicated small bowl. The rabbit quickly ran over and began to devour it.
Ruan Mei had never seen the little rabbit’s three lobed mouth move with such enthusiasm! It was eating so vigorously that the entire rabbit was shaking from the chewing.
Ruan Mei squatted down beside it. Fang Zhishui placed her schoolbag on the ground and patted Ruan Mei’s shoulder:
“Sit here.”
Ruan Mei felt it was inappropriate to sit on someone else’s schoolbag, so she pulled out a book from her own bag, plopped down on it, and focused intently on watching the little rabbit eat.
Fang Zhishui sat down on her own schoolbag, sitting side by side with Ruan Mei, their bodies almost touching.
Ruan Mei’s nose caught that sweet scent again, very faint, almost imperceptible. At first, she thought it was the smell of the rabbit food, but then she realized it might not be.
It seemed to come from the person next to her.
Ruan Mei wrinkled her nose, turned to glance at Fang Zhishui, and immediately looked back at the rabbit, completely afraid of being discovered.
She didn’t dare to say anything or ask anything, afraid that Fang Zhishui had seen her impressive fighting demeanor from earlier. If she had, even the densest person would realize Ruan Mei was an Alpha.
“Were you being bullied just now?”
Fang Zhishui finally spoke.
“…Yes.”
Ruan Mei lacked confidence. Even if she lied, she didn’t know where to begin, so she could only admit it.
She stole a glance and noticed Fang Zhishui’s eyelashes were especially long, her profile elegant, and the tip of her nose had a slightly charming roundness. Although she appeared a bit cold, she was indeed very beautiful.
Ruan Mei’s heart skipped erratically, unsure if it was due to nervousness from being questioned by the female lead, or because of the strange atmosphere between them at that moment.
Even a dense person like Ruan Mei had to admit that two people, one rabbit, and a small patch of woods, with the rapidly darkening twilight… these elements combined were already creating an ambiguous atmosphere. Furthermore, one of these people was an Alpha, and the other would become an Omega in the future.
There has always been an absolute attraction between Alphas and Omegas.
Ruan Mei swallowed, feeling utterly shameless. What time was it for her to be thinking such messy things!
“Then it’s quite interesting that the five of them suddenly fell ill.”
Fang Zhishui let out a slight chuckle.
“Ah… I was quite surprised too.”
Ruan Mei forced herself to remain calm, grabbed a nearby blade of grass, and tried to tease the little rabbit.
The little rabbit was absorbed in eating its food and completely ignored the grass she offered.
Ruan Mei felt very dejected, lowered her head, stared at the grass in her hand, and mumbled:
“It used to love this grass the most…”
Fang Zhishui smoothly changed the topic, not pressing further about the fight:
“It loves the rabbit food more now.”
Ruan Mei thought about it for a moment and then brightened up:
“But no matter what, I was the one who found it. If it weren’t for me, it surely would have starved to death long ago, so it must love me very much.”
Fang Zhishui turned her head to look at her, then smiled and shook the bag of rabbit food in her hand.
The little rabbit looked up. Upon seeing the bag in Fang Zhishui’s hand, as if it understood human language, it quickly scampered over.
Ruan Mei’s eyes flared with jealousy. She came up with an idea:
“Put the food down, and both of us stand far away, empty handed. We’ll call the little rabbit over. We’ll see who it runs to, and that will show who it loves more!”
Fang Zhishui asked in disbelief:
“Why are you so confident?”
Ruan Mei:
“…”
She felt mocked. What was going on?
The two actually did it. They both stood far from the rabbit, beckoning the little rabbit with empty hands.
Ruan Mei gestured wildly and shouted, looking like she was performing a shamanistic dance, using all her strength to attract the little rabbit’s attention:
“Little rabbit! Good bunny! Bunny! Big white rabbit! Mommy is here, come to Mommy quickly! Come here, come here, come here!”
The little rabbit’s red eyes darted left and right. It had finished the food in its bowl and didn’t go for the grass, but its attention was indeed caught by Ruan Mei.
On the other side, Fang Zhishui simply extended her hand gently, making a gesture as if to feed rabbit food, a mysterious smile on her lips, beckoning the little rabbit.
Ruan Mei saw this: “Hahaha, how can that work? Rabbits have very poor eyesight. If you don’t make big movements, how can it see you? It looks like I’m definitely winning this round! My bunny must love me more because I found it!”
Fang Zhishui did not respond, only sending Ruan Mei a smile.
The little rabbit finally moved.
Ruan Mei was extremely excited and stomped on the leaves with even more force.
However, the little rabbit only made a beeline for Fang Zhishui. As its stout little paws sprinted, a cloud of rolling smoke seemed to rise behind it.
The little rabbit quickly ran to Fang Zhishui, stuffed its entire head into Fang Zhishui’s palm, its mouth moving up and down, as if eating non-existent food.
Fang Zhishui stroked the rabbit’s head, turned, and looked at Ruan Mei with a bright smile.
Ruan Mei:
“…”
The little rabbit she had raised for so long with grass and a little water how could it not even recognize its own mother? Waaah!
Ruan Mei was so heartbroken that she lost all motivation and even felt like sitting on the ground and crying while staring at the sky.
Her beloved pet, which she had cared for so long, turned out not to be hers after all, not even recognizing her this was too tragic!
Just as tears were about to fall from Ruan Mei’s eyes, something soft and warm was placed in her hand.
She instinctively patted it twice and felt a cool rabbit ear, gently twitching in her palm.
“Don’t be sad. It’s our shared secret.”
Fang Zhishui stood to the side, handed the rabbit to Ruan Mei, and took two steps back, watching Ruan Mei pet the rabbit with a wronged expression.
“A loving mother and filial child,” Fang Zhishui commented.
Ruan Mei looked up, unconvinced:
“You admit I’m its mother too?”
Fang Zhishui made a gesture of shrugging her hands:
“But the rabbit chose me.”
Ruan Mei said angrily:
“I don’t care, I’m its mother. You’re at most the rich caretaker, but I gave it love!”
Fang Zhishui couldn’t help but laugh:
“In that case, I must be its father.”
Ruan Mei’s hand, which was stroking the rabbit, froze.
Both of them were startled by the analogy. Ruan Mei looked up at her. Under the twilight, Fang Zhishui’s face was blurred, but her eyes were bright as stars.
Ruan Mei was grateful that it got dark early otherwise, her bright red face would surely have been mocked mercilessly by Fang Zhishui.
In the autumn woods, even the birds were quiet; there was only the low chirping of insects. One sat, one stood, and besides their breathing, there was silence.
For some reason, Ruan Mei felt like she was suffocating. The air grew ambiguous and heavy, pressing down on her until she couldn’t breathe.
Finally, Ruan Mei’s phone ringing in her pocket broke the silence.
Ruan Mei put down the rabbit and fumbled to answer it. On the other end was Sister Chuang, demanding to know why she wasn’t at work yet and hadn’t requested leave in advance. Ruan Mei quickly apologized, hung up the phone, turned back to grab her schoolbag, and shouted towards Fang Zhishui in the darkness:
“Be safe on your way home tonight! Good night!”
After shouting those words, Ruan Mei felt like a squid sizzling on an iron plate, burning hot, so she could only sprint down the mountain, radiating heat the whole way.
She ran so fast that she didn’t hear the low reply from behind her:
“Good night.”
Fang Zhishui stroked the rabbit’s soft fur, gently placed it back in its nest, and slowly walked down the mountain herself.
Regarding Ruan Mei, Fang Zhishui had only solved the first mystery; many more awaited, attracting her to delve deeper.
Walking, Fang Zhishui took out her phone and sent a message to Ruan Mei:
“Give the child a name.”
After sending the message, the smile on Fang Zhishui’s lips could no longer be concealed.
Having a shared secret with someone like Ruan Mei was truly too interesting.