Qi Qi waved goodbye to the two of them.
Just as she was about to keep walking, she felt a slight resistance from behind.
Qi Qi turned her head to look and saw the little monster, who rarely took the initiative to touch her in public, tugging at the corner of her shirt.
The little monster looked up, saying nothing, merely knitting her brows and staring at her. Her reddened lips parted hesitantly before closing again almost immediately, the very picture of hesitation.
Her eyes, which usually only revealed a surface level cold numbness, now reflected a straightforward disgust.
It was like a knee jerk reaction, or perhaps a case of same-gender repulsion? The moment she saw those two people, an uncontrollable irritation flared up in her heart.
“…Qi Qi, don’t get too close to them.”
Although she didn’t know why the person who was supposed to die last night, according to the order in the diary, was still able to appear here today, she was certain that whatever was inside that seemingly normal human skin was definitely nothing good.
It was a sickening, foul fishy stench that even heavy perfume couldn’t mask.
The furrow in Shen Lu’s brow deepened, marking the first time she had put such a clear emotional fluctuation so openly on her face.
This actually piqued Qi Qi’s interest.
Even back when dealing with those who bullied her, whether the little monster felt resentment or hatred, such emotions were always restrained, disguised behind a mask of numbness so that no one could easily see what she truly felt inside.
This was the first time, aside from that one occasion when she had pushed her too far, that she had seen the little monster show such strong negative emotions toward someone else.
It was quite a rare sight.
“What’s wrong? Do you know them?”
Qi Qi stopped in her tracks, feeling a bit strange about the little monster’s unexpected reaction.
“…N-No, we’re not familiar. I’ve just heard some bad things about them,” Shen Lu didn’t want to reveal her past humiliations in front of Qi Qi, but she couldn’t mention the diary either. She had no choice but to rack her brain for a suitable excuse. “Uh… they have bad character, so could Qi Qi please not hang around them anymore?”
In that moment, she began to feel furious at her own clumsy tongue. The excuse she came up with practically reeked of a hasty, flimsy concoction. Her racing heart, spurred by lying, pounded like a drum, and the accelerating beat made her even more nervous. She began to suspect whether Qi Qi had already caught on to her lie.
Besides, how could Qi Qi possibly believe someone like her?
Although those two were rotten inside, the type to bully others for no reason at all, on the outside, they were indisputably attractive girls. At the very least, they were far better than a scrawny, ugly monster like her. Anyone looking at this would think it was just a pathetic lie born of jealousy.
Her thoughts, once again, inevitably spiraled into the dark.
A sudden gust of wind kicked up out of nowhere, swirling up the fallen leaves that remained no matter how diligently the area was swept.
It rained gold and red leaves from the sky.
Nervously closing her eyes without realizing it, Shen Lu felt a gentle touch on the top of her head. Surprised, she opened her eyes.
What met her gaze was Qi Qi’s lips curved into a slightly mocking smile. Qi Qi was twirling a withered leaf she had just plucked from the top of Shen Lu’s head right before her eyes, before casually tossing it to her. “Didn’t even notice something landed on your head? So stupid.”
After coming back to her senses, Shen Lu carefully held that leaf in the palm of her hand.
The leaf itself had already lost its moisture, turning dry and withered yellow. It was entirely different from those vibrant, water filled leaves that would make nice bookmarks or collectibles even after falling from a branch. It lay light and crumpled in her palm, looking as though a tiny bit of force would easily shatter it into pieces.
Perhaps because the wind just now had been too strong, Shen Lu stared blankly at the withered leaf for a moment before her eyes began to redden, tears spilling uncontrollably.
Seeing the little monster standing there silently with her head lowered, unsure of what she was thinking and not saying a word for ages, Qi Qi originally wanted to drag her along. But just as she reached out her hand, she saw the little monster silently weeping.
She hadn’t even started bullying her today; they were still on the way, how had she suddenly burst into tears?
She cried without making a single sound, yet the tears kept flowing like an uncloggable faucet, leaving the corners of her eyes and brows flushing a pitiful shade of red.
Qi Qi rubbed her temples in a headache, pondering for a long time before finally tapping the little monster on the shoulder. “Fine, I get it. It’s not like we were close anyway. I’ll listen to you. I won’t talk to them anymore, okay?”
In a couple of days, it would be time to rearrange seats anyway. After that, they probably wouldn’t have much interaction anyway.
Qi Qi thought to herself indifferently.
Hearing her words, the little monster snapped her head up, her eyes wide as she stared straight at her. Her tears still hadn’t stopped, but perhaps because they had been washed over by tears, her pupils, which were noticeably larger than an average person’s, shined with an astonishing brightness as she locked her gaze on her.
That intensely focused gaze made her feel a bit uneasy inside.
The passing students on the roadside kept casting sideways glances at the two of them. Being subjected to all these gossipy stares, Qi Qi instantly felt so embarrassed she wanted to crawl right into the adjacent bushes.
“I haven’t even had the chance to mess with you today, right? If there’s something else you’re unhappy about, just say it…”
Qi Qi had a little known quirk, she couldn’t bear to see people cry.
However, she was quite particular about this crying, either the person crying had to be exceptionally beautiful, or they had to look exceptionally pitiful.
Clearly, the little monster in front of her fell into the latter category.
She kept her head lowered without a word, as if trying to hide herself away, yet the tears representing pain and sorrow could not be hidden, falling in large, heavy drops.
Shen Lu stubbornly refused to avert her gaze, staring at her while shaking her head frantically, though her tears only fell harder as a result.
She had absolutely no idea what she was trying to say.
Qi Qi simply grabbed her and walked away quickly, fleeing the spot before it turned into a full blown tourist attraction surrounded by onlookers.
In her rush to escape the uncomfortable atmosphere, she failed to notice a familiar figure among the crowd who watched the entire scene, casting an intrigued look at her retreating back as she pulled Shen Lu away.
“…I’m sorry.”
Because she had been crying, the little monster’s voice sounded raspier than usual.
Qi Qi shut the door to her rest room and turned to meet a pair of heterochromatic eyes that sparkled like gems under the sunlight. They were so clear and pure that Qi Qi, who had originally felt like losing her temper, couldn’t bring herself to say anything. Mentally exhausted, she simply collapsed onto the sofa, grabbed an unfinished novel from the coffee table, and covered her face with it.
Whatever. She had done so many bad things bullying people before anyway, she was long overdue for divine retribution.
Consider this light punishment.
Shen Lu, whose emotions had mostly settled down on the way over, felt her anxiety and nervousness flare up again when she saw Qi Qi giving no response. “I’m sorry, I embarrassed you just now. You can punish me however you want. I’ll do anything. If you don’t like my voice, I promise I won’t make a sound…”
…Just please don’t ignore me.
She flushed bright red, unable to bring herself to utter that last sentence.
Another long silence ensued.
The room was so quiet that it felt as though only her own annoying breathing and heartbeat remained.
After an unknown amount of time, she finally got a response.
“No.”
Qi Qi’s muffled voice sounded from underneath the flashy book cover, carrying a slow, sluggish sense of weariness: “I’m not in the mood today. I’m going to sleep.”
“Do you… believe what I said?”
Not long after quiet returned, Qi Qi heard the little monster ask her in a very soft voice, like a child who had done something wrong and lacked all confidence.
It was a volume almost equivalent to talking to herself, yet in this quiet room, it sounded as if it had been amplified.
“Why wouldn’t I? A pet wouldn’t lie to its master, right? Your entire person belongs to me. If you dare lie to me, I’ll…”
The room returned to silence, with only the occasional sound of the wind howling past the window outside.
Before Qi Qi could finish her sentence, she had already fallen asleep.
Asleep as she was, she naturally didn’t know that even though what she said was clearly insulting, a bizarre, faint blush quietly spread across the little monster’s sickly pale face upon hearing those words.
Shen Lu let out a slightly louder “mm” than before. Then, hugging her knees, she sat down on the pet mat Qi Qi had bought specifically for her, staring at the sleeping Qi Qi as she began to cry silently once more.
Those tears, fluid she had once despised as utterly useless, poured continuously from the corners of her eyes. It was as if her tear ducts were broken, attempting to cry out all the accumulated tears of her past all at once.
Yet, those heterochromatic eyes, which had always been clouded with a layer of gloom no matter what they looked at, grew brighter and brighter as the tears washed through them.
The girl stared intently at the figure on the sofa without even blinking, as though deeply terrified that the person might suddenly vanish before her eyes in the very next second.
She possessed very few things in life, so she would cherish every single one immensely, holding onto them with an iron grip.
Therefore, no one was allowed to snatch her away.
Right now, Shen Lu was like someone who, while standing in an otherwise pitch-black hell, suddenly saw a glowing spider thread dangling down toward her.
Even if she resided in this murky hell, even if she was a hideous monster, she had ultimately met the person willing to grant her salvation. This dangling thread representing hope belonged to her.
No, rather, she belonged to Qi Qi.
The monster had never been taught human love, nor had she ever experienced the happiness of an ordinary person. Growing up soaked in human malice for the past decade or so, the predominant emotions in her heart were anger, resentment, and jealousy.
Yet for the very first time, just looking at someone made her feel happy.
Qi Qi.
She silently murmured the name, her eyes turning exceptionally soft. However, a deeper sense of obsession began to quietly brew at the same time, though she herself wasn’t even aware of it.
Qi Qi held her breath and sat up abruptly from the sofa.
Realizing that the scene where she had been stared down like prey by a hunting giant python was merely a nightmare, she finally let out a long sigh of relief. Feeling her cold sweat sticking her clothes to her skin, she couldn’t help but frown.
Though it was just a nightmare, that sense of danger, as if she were about to be swallowed whole, had felt unnervingly real.
Qi Qi remembered there should be someone else in the room, but she only found a note sitting on the table by the door.
As expected of a good student, she had already gone back to class.
She raised an eyebrow, though this was fine too.
Speaking of which, the little monster’s attitude had been a bit strange lately. Maybe she should put some distance between them, appropriate silent treatment counted as a form of bullying too, right?
Unwilling to admit that she just wanted to slither out of her duties, Qi Qi cheerfully settled on her future bullying policy.
She walked into the bathroom, and soon the sound of running water drowned out everything else.
Including the sharp clack of the door lock turning shortly after Qi Qi entered the bathroom, followed by light, cheerful footsteps.