“Sister Luo, this is my classmate. Let’s leave her things here for now.”
Qi Qi turned her head and held out her hand to her. Seeing Bai Zhi’s bewildered expression, she spoke with a helpless look on her face. “The knife.”
Bai Zhi froze imperceptibly for a moment, but quickly recovered her composure. She pulled the knife from her pocket and placed it in Qi Qi’s open palm. “Sorry, I forgot.”
Qi Qi didn’t mind, assuming Bai Zhi was worried she was confiscating it. She reassured her, “When you head back down later, just tell Sister Luo and you can take it right back.”
The woman wearing a security like uniform had defined, powerful muscle lines on her exposed forearms. With a single hand, she easily lifted the thick burlap sack, which actually contained bloody prey and a bow and arrow. Without asking what was inside, she carried it into an inner room and gave the two of them a nod.
Bai Zhi pretended not to notice the silent, cool woman’s faintly approving gaze as she watched her. She offered a polite smile and greeting before following Qi Qi into the elevator.
It seemed this entire building belonged to Qi Qi.
Once inside the elevator, Bai Zhi couldn’t help tugging at the scarf around her neck.
It had been fine outside, but as soon as they entered the well-heated interior, the scarf became a bit too warm.
“Sorry, I tied the knot too tightly.”
Noticing her small movement, Qi Qi turned around, walked over, and leaned down to help her untie the scarf, then hung it over her own arm.
The elevator quickly reached the top floor, opening with a fingerprint scanner.
The main door unlocked with a soft click and swung open, revealing a minimal, modern interior layout. On the table was an opened box of chocolates, and an open book rested on the sofa. Though neat and tidy, the space clearly bore the living traces of its owner.
“Thank you.” Bai Zhi followed her inside, lowering her eyelids as she softly expressed her thanks, naturally exuding an aura of delicate vulnerability.
“I couldn’t just leave you alone on the side of the road in the middle of the night.”
Qi Qi hung up her heavy coat and scarf in the entryway, then bent down to pull a fresh pair of simple slippers from the shoe cabinet and handed them to Bai Zhi behind her.
Bai Zhi took them and shed her outer jacket, which was still stained with dirt, grass leaves, and blood.
Getting lost had been true, but doing so had been deliberate.
She just hadn’t expected Qi Qi to bring her back to her place so easily. Making it this effortless took away some of the fun.
“Go take a shower.”
Before her thoughts could wander further, she was snapped back to reality by a straightforward, commanding voice, along with a towel and a set of unopened clothes tossed her way.
“They’re all brand new, you can keep them. Go clean yourself up quickly.”
Qi Qi knit her brows in disgust as she looked at her, as if looking at something filthy.
And in truth, it was.
In order to make herself look more disheveled and more likely to soften someone’s heart, she had deliberately worked herself into this state.
Bai Zhi hugged the soft towel and clothing, turning toward the bathroom.
“Okay.”
Qi Qi finally breathed a sigh of relief as she watched Bai Zhi walk into the bathroom and close the door.
Even though Bai Zhi looked delicate and weak enough to be incapable of trussing a chicken, and even though her explanation earlier made it seem like the whole situation was just Qi Qi’s own misunderstanding, Qi Qi couldn’t help feeling that there was an unusually dangerous aura surrounding Bai Zhi.
Of course, part of it was also because the visual impact of their very first encounter had been far too intense.
By the time Bai Zhi walked out of the bathroom, Qi Qi was on the sofa playing video games.
On the large display screen, the leaping game character easily dodged obstacles along the path, collecting every single gold coin before finally reaching the end to rescue the princess.
Having just cleared the stage, Qi Qi saw Bai Zhi step out, laid down her controller, and walked into the kitchen. She retrieved a small pot of milk she had been simmering and set it down in front of the young girl, who was now wearing her clothes.
The girl’s ink black hair was loosely pinned up, droplets of water still falling extremely slowly from the ends onto her exposed, delicate nape.
Her skin, already pale, had been steamed by the hot water into an even more translucent, glossy sheen, flushed with a thin, alluring trace of red. Her collarbones were straight and slender with deep hollows. Her pair of jet black pupils appeared increasingly dark and deep when staring at someone, as though possessing a magic that could draw a person’s soul directly into those eyes.
She carried the same fragrance as Qi Qi now, yet with a subtle, distinct difference.
Qi Qi took only a single look at her before unconsciously breaking eye contact.
“Drink.”
Her tone was equally terse.
When Bai Zhi returned to her senses, she found herself shoved another glass of milk, except this one was lukewarm.
She glanced at Qi Qi. Even dressed in a soft set of loungewear, the other girl still seemed aloof, cold, and hard to approach and she was currently adding several more spoons of sugar into her own cup.
Bai Zhi withdrew her gaze, lifted the glass, and took a tiny sip, her brows knitting slightly.
So sweet.
She immediately set it back down.
“Um… Student Qi, where is the hairdryer…”
The electronic background music from the game continued to chime untiringly.
“Over there.”
Without even looking up, Qi Qi pointed in a direction. Bai Zhi spotted the hairdryer, but at that moment, she made an even more important discovery. Instead of going to get the hairdryer, she sat down on the sofa, resting only an arm’s length away from Qi Qi, who was leaning over and continuing to add granulated sugar to her milk.
“Student Qi.”
Bai Zhi called out to her, her voice soft and light.
She had been calling her directly by her name before, so why the sudden shift to this?
At this moment, Qi Qi, whose whole body was going numb from being called that way, had no idea that there was a concept in the world known as romantic playfulness.
“Hm?”
The presence beside her leaned closer and closer.
Qi Qi felt as though she were being repeatedly zapped by faint static electricity when taking off a scarf in the autumn or winter, it wasn’t painful enough to make her cry out, but it felt terribly uncomfortable, leaving her subconsciously at a loss for words.
Bai Zhi seemed to have confirmed something. The curve of her brows and eyes deepened beyond her usual, flawless, static mask of a smile.
She leaned in closer and closer until Qi Qi could almost feel the warm breath brushing against her earlobe or rather, until those lips were practically pressed against the rim of her ear.
It tickled a bit.
“Do you like girls?”
Qi Qi’s mind went blank for a second. She hadn’t expected Bai Zhi to suddenly ask a question like that. Although a surge of inexplicable embarrassment washed over her at having a secret exposed, she didn’t actually feel it was something she couldn’t admit to. Once she pulled her thoughts together, she gave a nod.
At the same time, she turned her head aside and rubbed her itchy ear.
Bai Zhi had originally just asked as a joke, but she froze at this unexpected, affirmative answer.
Now it was Qi Qi’s turn to find it amusing. Thinking back to how flustered and alarmed she herself had been outside earlier, she simply leaned forward, getting even closer to the stunned and flustered girl. She casually placed her hand on Bai Zhi’s shoulder, using a bit of force to press her back onto the sofa, then leaned closer still, fixing her gaze tightly on Bai Zhi’s eyes.
The corners of her own eyes gradually flushed with a rosy tint, her pupils glistening as though holding water.
An ambiguous atmosphere and a heavy sense of pressure expanded simultaneously within the room.
Qi Qi raised an eyebrow and smiled unabashedly, adopting a frivolous and malicious posture. With her index and middle fingers, she hooked a strand of Bai Zhi’s still damp hair, bending her knuckles to gently graze the area behind her ear. Her earlier cold detachment vanished entirely. “Find it disgusting? That’s right. I’m a bad person who likes to trick pretty little girls like you into coming inside so I can devour them. Scared now?”
Seeing Bai Zhi merely staring at her blankly, looking as if she were too terrified to move, Qi Qi finally drew her hand back in satisfaction and straightened up.
“Just like you, I was only joking. Even though I like girls, I’m not some rogue. I won’t just make a move on someone for no reason. Now you know how it feels when someone makes an ill-timed joke at your expense, right?”
Qi Qi waved her hand in front of Bai Zhi’s eyes, trying to summon back her scattered thoughts. It seemed she had frightened her a bit too much.
Bai Zhi slowly sat up, though her head remained lowered, no one knowing what was passing through her mind.
Just as Qi Qi was about to offer another apology, the hand she reached out was suddenly grabbed. Even though she herself hadn’t moved, the girl before her drew closer and closer.
A soft sensation pressed against her lips.
“What are you doing…”
Having finally broken free from Bai Zhi’s ox like strength, Qi Qi displayed genuine shock across her facial expression for the very first time. She stared with wide eyes at the girl sitting opposite her, who was smiling with utter innocence and purity.
Wait, if she had that much strength, why had she let herself be pinned down onto the sofa so easily just now?
Qi Qi felt like she had been tricked all over again.
“I wanted to try it out,” Bai Zhi said, having done such a sudden thing, yet her lips were curled into a smile even brighter than before. Her eyes shone with a startling radiance, her wide pupils faintly dilated with a trace of emerging madness. “But the time was too short. Can you let me try again?”
Looking at this face that appeared even more beautiful and virtually radiant under the light, Qi Qi silently condemned herself in her heart for being a pushover for good looks, and then offered no refusal to the person leaning in once more.
Similar scents gradually blended together.
Without knowing who opened her mouth first, their lips and tongues quickly entwined, pulling out long threads of silver.
“Your thoughts?”
Bai Zhi licked her glossy, vivid red lips. Even though her curiosity ought to have been satisfied, she still held onto Qi Qi’s hand without letting go. “I think… I shouldn’t dislike this feeling.”
Even she didn’t know how much of it was out of amusement, how much was out of curiosity, or whether there was a trace of genuine feeling mixed within.
However, she had always possessed a free spirit that acted on impulse, never considering the consequences.
“Student Qi, you don’t dislike me either, right?”
The doorbell suddenly rang.
“Eldest Young Miss, a car claiming to be here to pick up your classmate is parked downstairs. It’s from the Bai family.”
Sister Luo’s calm, steady voice echoed through the door, shattering the room’s lingering ambiguity.
Qi Qi hadn’t expected that in just a single night, she would somehow gain a girlfriend.
Although it had happened so abruptly, it was ultimately because she herself had been swept away by good looks.
She slumped against her desk, brooding over it for a long while, before finally letting out a long sigh. She could only blame herself for getting lightheaded from the atmosphere in the heat of the moment.
Her former classmate from two rows ahead, who had now become her neighbor across the aisle after a seating rearrangement, seemed to hear her sigh. The gaze that had been fixed on the blackboard shifted over to focus on Qi Qi. Taking advantage of the teacher stepping to the other side to question another student, she pretended to pick up a pen and asked in a low voice, her dark eyes looking at her with concern.
“Student Qi, are you feeling unwell anywhere?”
Qi Qi had wanted to say something, but remembering her promise to the little monster to stay away from her, she kept quiet. She merely shook her head, pulled her gaze back, and stared blankly at the patterns on her desk.
Her considerate desk neighbor refrained from asking further, though her subtle gaze continued to drift over intermittently.
Qi Qi felt a bit annoyed, but realizing that it was her own unusual reaction that made the other girl so concerned, she chose to stay silent.
The moment the bell rang for the end of class, the teacher, who had been immersed in solving problems, deftly gathered the lesson plans and left. Behind them, the classroom instantly turned rowdy. Qi Qi had finished all the snacks kept in her desk compartment and was planning to head downstairs to buy some sweet treats.
The moment she raised her head, she saw Bai Zhi spawn at the door.
“Is Student Qi here? I came to return your things.”
With a clear objective in mind, Bai Zhi locked her gaze on Qi Qi, beaming as she waved at her from the doorway. Her voice calling Qi Qi’s name was melodious and affectionate, as if their relationship were incredibly close… Well, their relationship was indeed very close now, but they hadn’t known each other for long. One was swept away by beauty, while the other was driven by novelty, so there was really no need to act so…
“Excuse me, Student Qi…”
Even though Bai Zhi had already seen her, she persistently kept calling out, wishing for nothing more than to draw everyone’s attention to this spot.
Qi Qi thought for a long time about how to describe the aura Bai Zhi was currently exuding, and finally managed to settle on a word, clingy.
“Stop shouting.” She slapped a hand over the girl’s restless mouth.
Once Bai Zhi quieted down, Qi Qi released her hand with a slight headache, realizing once more that she had brought a huge trouble upon herself.
“Didn’t we agree that we can’t let others find out we’re dating? Calling out so loudly, are you trying to announce it to everyone?”
Bai Zhi actually looked back at her with a hint of anticipation, her honey colored eyes blinking softly. “Are you angry? What should we do then? Do you want to punish me?”