Fang Zhishui also laughed and asked with great care, “Were you feeling any discomfort last night?”
Ruan Mei blinked, shook her head with a playful grin, and said, “No, I’m fine. Maybe the medicine you gave me was good; I didn’t have any after-effects.”
Fang Zhishui nodded.
Ruan Mei was in a great mood and acutely noticed something. She blurted out, “Why did you have that kind of medicine?”
However, as soon as she asked, Ruan Mei instantly regretted it. Why was she probing into Fang Zhishui’s privacy? She didn’t want to become that kind of close friend with her!
“Because my family always assumed I would differentiate as an Alpha, so they always kept Alpha inhibitors ready for me.”
Ruan Mei thought of Fang Junzhi and couldn’t help but frown as she asked, “Didn’t they ever consider that you might differentiate as an Omega? Shouldn’t they have kept Omega inhibitors for you instead?”
Fang Zhishui’s gaze drifted far into the distance. After a while, she looked down and said softly, “If I differentiated as an Omega, they would throw me out of the house.”
Fang Zhishui’s voice was very light, as if afraid of disturbing the sacred snowscape. Dressed in a white down jacket, tall and graceful, with a look of silent, suppressed pain on her face, she resembled a snow sprite, exquisitely beautiful.
Ruan Mei’s eyes widened, and she exclaimed passionately: “…What kind of trash is that! What era is this, practicing blatant male chauvinism here? That driver last night called you ‘Second Young Master,’ I should have slapped him then. Are all the people in your family perverted? How could such a twisted thing happen! What a person is determined by Heaven! If those misogynistic people were truly capable, why don’t they just reproduce themselves? They’re all trash!”
She had spoken with such fervor that even Fang Zhishui was momentarily stunned: “It’s not male chauvinism; it’s pro-Alpha bias…”
Ruan Mei shook her head, grabbed Fang Zhishui’s arm, and said, “It’s all the same! Equality for everyone! Regardless of what they favor or look down upon, it’s all trash! Let’s go play! Ignore the trashy behavior of those trashy people. It doesn’t matter, so what if they don’t want you? You are so excellent; they are not worthy!”
Ruan Mei ran ahead without noticing Fang Zhishui following her. Fang Zhishui’s eyes slowly brightened, a look of shock mingled with an unexpected sense of satisfaction on her face.
Ruan Mei pulled Fang Zhishui to the edge of the playground, found a large patch of untrodden snow, and pointed to the smooth, beautiful snow surface, proudly declaring: “Alright, this spot belongs to just the two of us. You jump down and make a human print too, like the Hollywood Walk of Fame.”
Fang Zhishui shook her head, her eyes full of laughter: “This coat of mine cost over one hundred thousand.”
Ruan Mei: “…Sorry to have disturbed you.”
She was not willing to give up. She looked around, then pulled Fang Zhishui to half crouch down.
Ruan Mei spread both hands flat and pressed them into the snow. She quickly poked Fang Zhishui with her elbow: “Quick, quick, you too! Your hands can’t cost over a hundred thousand, right? Come on, one for you!”
Fang Zhishui hesitated a little, but seeing Ruan Mei’s face turning pink from the cold, she smiled and took off her gloves.
Her fingers were long. She placed both hands flat, placing her handprints very close to Ruan Mei’s.
“Oh my, why are they pressed so close? Our index fingers are even touching! It’s my fault for not reminding you.”
Ruan Mei looked at the two sets of handprints and laughed, white mist puffing from her mouth. She extended her index finger and wrote below the handprints: AO Equality!
Fang Zhishui almost couldn’t help but laugh watching her write; she covered her mouth with her hand and turned away to chuckle quietly.
Ruan Mei took out her phone to take a picture, capturing both handprints and the writing in one shot. Then she held up her hand near her phone and called out, “Fang Zhishui, stretch your hand over here!”
Fang Zhishui brought her hand over and placed it above the handprints, both of them stretching their hands wide.
Ruan Mei took a photo of the hands and the handprints together, was very satisfied, and immediately tapped to send it to Fang Zhishui.
Fang Zhishui took out her phone, looked at the photo, and couldn’t help but continue laughing.
As Ruan Mei was fiddling with her phone, she was suddenly hit by a snowball that seemed to come from nowhere. It was icy cold, making her jump.
She turned back to see Chu Wanji.
Chu Wanji, as the class president, always dressed plainly and neatly, and today was no different a long black down jacket, thick glasses that looked like bottle bottoms, her hair tied back in a low ponytail, and no makeup on her face.
Today, however, two patches of red bloomed on Chu Wanji’s cheeks. She nodded slightly toward Ruan Mei: “Sorry, did I hit you too hard?”
Ruan Mei shook her head, showed off her brilliant smile, squatted down, grabbed a handful of snow from the nearby ground, rolled it into a snowball, and said to Chu Wanji, “Class President, stop right there! I’m taking revenge!”
Chu Wanji grinned, ran to the side, and Ruan Mei playfully followed, carefully controlling her strength. She lightly threw a snowball that landed on Chu Wanji’s back.
Chu Wanji casually grabbed a handful of snow from a nearby tree, molded it into a snowball, turned around, and attacked Ruan Mei, laughing heartily.
Ruan Mei played around with Chu Wanji and other students from Class Three. Accidentally, snowballs flew everywhere, hitting several people from other classes.
Most of those people just laughed it off, but some became invested and insisted on settling the score with their class.
A tall boy from Class Seven stood like a tower in front of his class, shouting down at Chu Wanji: “No sneak attacks! Let’s have a head-on fight!”
Chu Wanji looked at Ruan Mei in confusion. Ruan Mei was just about to deploy her ultimate move of whining and crying to make the other party look bad for bullying a weak girl, when she suddenly remembered that Fang Zhishui was watching this direction.
If she acted weak in front of Fang Zhishui again, Fang Zhishui would surely laugh her to death… Forget it then.
So, Ruan Mei didn’t speak. Instead, the Alpha hoodlum, Qiang Kai, who hadn’t gotten along well with Ruan Mei before, shouted loudly, “Who’s afraid of whom? Bring it on!”
And so, inexplicably, the morning self-study’s snow play turned into a snowball fight between Class Three and Class Seven.
This snowball fight had no set rules or judges it depended entirely on the stamina of the two classes and the screams of their cheering squads.
Ruan Mei unhesitatingly stayed beside Chu Wanji, pulling Fang Zhishui over to replenish ammunition right behind her.
Chu Wanji, as the class president, charged forward first, throwing a snowball. People around shouted: “Class Three is the best! Class President is awesome!”
Chu Wanji hit her target immediately, and the other person immediately retaliated. A snowball exploded on Chu Wanji’s shoulder, and she ran back looking a bit flustered.
Ruan Mei quickly followed up. This time, she used a bit more force and threw a snowball that hit the Class Seven tall boy right in the chest.
The boy was knocked back four or five steps by the impact. As the snowball exploded, he stared at Ruan Mei in disbelief, waved his hand, and shouted to his classmates: “All of you, aim for that short one! Her throws are really strong; we need to take her out!”
Ruan Mei was suddenly shocked: “…Brother, you can’t play like that! How did a one-on-one turn into a group brawl? Where is the sportsmanship!”
The tall boy revealed a wicked smile: “No sportsmanship, only winning!”
And so, several snowballs flew directly toward Ruan Mei’s head.
The intuition of a top-tier Alpha reappeared. Ruan Mei twisted and turned, backing away, weaving a confusing, dazzling curve with her feet. Yet, miraculously, she dodged every single snowball!
The people from Class Seven stood frozen. Even the people from Class Three were stunned. Chu Wanji kept her mouth open for a full three seconds before asking in shock, “Ruan Mei, since when did you get so good?”
Ruan Mei: “Uh, that was just an extraordinary performance… Hurry, they’re starting again!”
She vaguely pointed at Class Seven, then quickly retreated to the back, adopting a look of extreme exhaustion. She sat right down in the snow, panting heavily.
In reality… she hadn’t even broken a sweat. The heavy breathing was just her trying to catch a chill, making her chest feel icy cold. Still, she didn’t dare to stop, afraid of being discovered.
She sat slumped in the snow, her gaze still fixed on the battle ahead. She noticed that the people from Class Seven had started focusing their attacks on Chu Wanji, and Fang Zhishui, standing beside Chu Wanji, had also taken quite a few hits.
However, Fang Zhishui dodged every hit skillfully; not a single speck of snow landed on her expensive down jacket worth over one hundred thousand.
Ruan Mei couldn’t help but frown. Has Fang Zhishui differentiated yet? Did she differentiate as an Alpha or an Omega?
She couldn’t even find clues by following the plot anymore because the plot had already derailed somewhere unknown. Fang Zhishui had absolutely no interaction with the real male lead, Gu Yanlin. With the plot changed, Fang Zhishui’s differentiation should also change would it be early or late?
But looking at Fang Zhishui’s agile movements now, it seemed like she had differentiated as an Alpha…
Ruan Mei pouted, suppressing the thoughts in her heart. Whether the female lead had differentiated or what she differentiated into had nothing to do with Ruan Mei. Why should she care about that?
This absurd snowball fight finally ended with the bell for the end of morning self-study. Neither side was convinced, and they agreed to fight again after school.
Chu Wanji, covered in scattered snow, ran over to Ruan Mei with a complex expression and spoke softly: “How are you? I saw you resting for a while just now; were you too tired?”
Ruan Mei stood up, brushed the snow off her butt, and smiled sweetly: “Those few moves just now were a bit tiring. I just recovered a little after resting this long. Sorry, Class President, I didn’t help our class much.”
Chu Wanji smiled and hesitated before inviting her, “Do you want to go to the tuck shop together?”
Ruan Mei readily agreed. It was such a normal thing for high school girls to go to the tuck shop for snacks! This was the first time the Class President had invited her Ruan Mei was quite excited.
The light in Chu Wanji’s eyes sparkled, and her usual rigid expression became much more lively: “Everyone lacks calories in the winter; we should appropriately supplement with snacks. What kind of snacks do you like?”
Ruan Mei smiled and was about to reply when a low voice suddenly cut in from the side: “She likes strawberry flavored things.”
Ruan Mei turned to look. Fang Zhishui was actually walking right next to her and Chu Wanji.
At school, Fang Zhishui never hung out with anyone other than Wu Tong, whom she had grown up with. What was going on today? Had the sun risen from the west?
Ruan Mei asked in disbelief: “Fang Zhishui, you’re going to the tuck shop too?”
Fang Zhishui raised an eyebrow, nodded, and tilted her head to ask, “Is that not allowed?”
She was too beautiful, and one tilt of her head made Ruan Mei a little unable to cope. She quickly looked away and mumbled softly, “N-no, nothing’s not allowed…”
Her face quietly turned red. She quickly rubbed her face with her hand, pretending to be cold, and said loudly, “Ah, I’m so weak! Just playing for a little while and my face is already flushed red from the cold.”
Chu Wanji looked over with concern, her gaze under her glasses dark and unclear: “Ruan student, your face is indeed very red. Do you need me to… warm it up for you?”
What? No wonder the Class President didn’t have many friends; her emotional intelligence was slightly…
“No thanks, I’m not cold!”
Ruan Mei smiled shyly at Chu Wanji. Chu Wanji seemed unable to understand, pushed up her glasses, and was about to reply.
Suddenly, both of Ruan Mei’s cheeks were enveloped by two icy hands.
Ruan Mei: Damn it, she’s freezing me!
Chu Wanji watched the scene unfold, her hand suspended halfway up, forgetting to push her glasses up. She was so shocked she forgot how to walk.
Ruan Mei glared at Fang Zhishui, the owner of the hands, and protested in a low voice: “I already said I don’t need it! And your hands are so cold, let go!”
Fang Zhishui slightly lowered her head, her expression relaxed, as if what she was holding wasn’t Ruan Mei’s head, but a delicate flower. Her gaze was slightly appreciative, observing Ruan Mei’s annoyed expression.
“Weren’t you cold? I’m warming you up.”
Ruan Mei angrily shook her head. After shaking it several times, she finally managed to fling Fang Zhishui’s hands away.
She stomped angrily to the tuck shop. Ignoring everyone else, she rummaged through the shelves, gathering a whole bag full of strawberry-flavored items, and quickly checked out at the counter.
“That will be 53 yuan and 8 jiao.”
Just as Ruan Mei was about to scan her WeChat pay code, a long arm stretched out and snatched the bag of snacks from under her hand.
Ruan Mei stomped her foot in anger: “What are you doing! That was all mine, mine!”
Fang Zhishui used her own phone to scan the code, tapped a few times to pay, and flashed the payment page in front of Ruan Mei: “I paid for it, so it’s mine now.”
Ruan Mei pouted angrily, looking like a round little pufferfish. She was so angry she was full and didn’t want to buy anything anymore. She walked out of the tuck shop.
Fang Zhishui followed her and quietly asked, “Are you really mad?”
Ruan Mei didn’t say anything, walking forward with her arms crossed.
Fang Zhishui carried the bag, which made a rustling sound, making the snacks sound delicious.
Ruan Mei became even angrier listening to the sound. She had actually counted Fang Zhishui as a friend just yesterday, but it turned out the other person didn’t treat her as a friend at all it was all wishful thinking on her part!
Thinking of this, Ruan Mei almost exploded with anger.
“Wait a moment.”
Fang Zhishui called out to Ruan Mei from behind.
Ruan Mei stopped, crossed her arms, and turned around, glaring at Fang Zhishui, wondering what trick she was trying to pull now.
But Fang Zhishui held the entire bag of snacks out to her, a smile on her face and a gentle look in her eyes.
Seeing Ruan Mei not taking it, Fang Zhishui used one hand to grab Ruan Mei’s hand and hung the snack bag on her wrist.
Under the dim winter sunlight, Fang Zhishui’s smile was very faint and perfectly beautiful it wasn’t oppressive, but it wasn’t distant either.
She spoke to Ruan Mei very sincerely, her eyes like glittering obsidian: “Last time, you bought so many snacks to give me, and I really liked them. This time, I’m giving you the snacks I love. I hope you like them.”
Ruan Mei froze, it took a moment for her brain to process the implication.
So, did this mean that because she liked those snacks, Fang Zhishui liked them too?
Ruan Mei’s cheeks turned red before her brain fully processed it. By the time she understood completely, her entire face was flushed, including her ears and neck.
“You… what you’re saying… I picked them all out, how could I not like them?”
Ruan Mei took the bag of snacks back, hugged it with both hands, and kept her head down, finally managing to squeeze out, “Then, thank you.”
Fang Zhishui focused intently on Ruan Mei. While Ruan Mei was looking down, the longing in Fang Zhishui’s eyes was undisguised.
Behind the two of them, Chu Wanji, holding two bottles of strawberry drinks, stopped walking silently.
Chu Wanji pushed up her glasses, looked at the two people in front of her for a long time, and only slowly walked back with the two drinks after they returned to the classroom.
On this Christmas Day, besides the snow, there was another major event circulating among the students by the time school was about to end:
“Did you hear? Gu Yanlin! He differentiated! He’s a Top-tier Alpha! The first Top-tier Alpha that No. 1 High hasn’t seen in over a decade!”
“Holy crap, an absolute beast of an Alpha! I’m available! Does anyone know his home address? I’m going to climb his bed tonight!”
“Stop dreaming. How many Omegas are lining up with numbers in hand? Sigh, I wonder which Omega will finally win Gu Yanlin’s heart. I’m feeling jealous already!”