[Recently, students from Mingde High School have been disappearing one after another. Neither the police, who received reports, nor the high-priced private investigators hired for the job have managed to find any valuable clues. The occurrences are bizarre to the point where it seems as though these people simply vanished into thin air in an instant, their fates unknown.
At the same time, numerous snakes have appeared on campus. The school purchased a large amount of snake poison, but it yielded little result. No matter how many batches of dead snakes were cleared away, a continuous stream of snakes kept emerging from unknown corners of the school.
The originally clean campus would occasionally reveal a patch of unfamiliar blood. Although it sparked panic among the students, final investigation results showed that it was merely snake blood.]
Qi Qi walked back to the classroom carrying her newly bought snacks. Looking at the bag of new flavor cheese filled chocolate balls right in front of her eyes, her sweet tooth heart began to itch again. Unable to help herself, she tore open the packaging on the way.
Through a slip of her hand, one ball dropped. Because her hands were full of things, she couldn’t react in time to catch it and could only watch as the chocolate ball rolled some distance away across the ground.
With so many things in her hands, it was truly difficult to squat down. Just as Qi Qi hesitated for a second, the lonely piece of chocolate was suddenly picked up and handed over.
“Student Qi, you should be a little more careful. Let me help you carry half of those?”
Although she couldn’t see the face, that familiar, gentle tone and thoughtful gesture definitely belonged to that kindhearted former front desk deskmate.
Qi Qi congratulated herself that after the embarrassing moment during their encounter on the road, when she hadn’t been able to call out her name while introducing her to the little monster, she had made a special point to memorize her name afterward.
“No need, it was just an accident, I can manage on my own. But thank you anyway, Liu You…”
As she reached out to take the sweet candy, Qi Qi’s expression of gratitude was halfway formed when her eyes met the person she had assumed to be “Liu You,” widening slightly.
The girl had soft, gentle eyes and brows. Her every move closely resembled the kindhearted former deskmate in her memory, but she unmistakably possessed a delicate, refined face completely different from Liu You’s bright, flashy, and ostentatious style.
“Student Qi got the wrong person.” Even after being mistaken for someone else, the girl maintained her poise with just a slight smile, showing not the slightest hint of annoyance. “Do I look very much like that Student Liu You?”
Looking at this unfamiliar face, a rare sense of confusion stirred in Qi Qi’s heart.
She looks very much like her.
“Ah, I’m sorry, your voices sound somewhat similar.” Qi Qi watched as the girl naturally took the snacks from her hands and walked beside her as if the two of them had known each other for a long time. Yet, no matter how many times Qi Qi searched her memory, she couldn’t find a single figure that resembled this person.
Seeing that they were about to reach the classroom door, she finally couldn’t hold back from asking, “Have we met somewhere before?”
The girl was in the middle of returning the snacks to her. Hearing this, she merely smiled, her gaze deepening. “Student Qi is very outstanding and famous, so I’ve been following you unilaterally for a while. It’s completely normal that you don’t recognize me.”
Being stared at by those eyes, Qi Qi suddenly felt somewhat uncomfortable. To shake off this eerie feeling, she knitted her brows, pulled out a box of cranberry filled chocolates, and handed it to her.
“Thanks for your help, but there’s nothing special about me. You don’t need to follow me either, it sounds pretty strange.”
The girl’s gaze fell on the chocolate. When she took it, her fingers seemed to accidentally brush against Qi Qi’s. Though it was just a light graze lasting less than a second, that peculiar chill made Qi Qi shudder uncontrollably.
“I like it so much.”
The girl gripped the chocolate tightly, her knuckles even turning somewhat pale. Her eyes, usually narrowed into a smile, opened completely, yet the curve at the corners of her mouth remained unchanged, looking somewhat discordant.
Qi Qi worried a bit whether she would squeeze that delicious chocolate out of shape.
“As long as you like it.”
Having said that, Qi Qi carried her stack of snacks and wanted to enter the classroom. However, as soon as she stepped through the door, she saw the pair of close friends who had been growing increasingly similar lately. Liu You and Zhao Jiyue, standing a few steps away and looking at her. They wore identical smiles at the corners of their lips, possessing a tacit understanding that was somewhat chilling.
In unison, they said, “Student Qi, let me help you carry those.”
Looking at the two beaming girls, and catching a glimpse out of the corner of her eye at the unfamiliar girl still standing to the side, motionlessly smiling at her, Qi Qi got goosebumps for reasons she couldn’t explain.
“No need, I can do it myself.” She directly dodged the four reaching hands and returned to her seat to peacefully enjoy her new chocolate.
The chocolate paired wonderfully with the rich, aromatic cheese. As the layered sweet flavor and aroma slowly melted on her tongue, flooding her brain with blissful dopamine, that peculiar chill at the back of Qi Qi’s neck finally dissipated gradually.
It was just that, until the very end, the girl hadn’t responded to the second half of her statement.
Qi Qi didn’t even realize it herself, but only when those gazes secretly fixed upon her disappeared did her tense body finally relax.
The three people at the door exchanged glances for a brief few seconds. The template-like smiles on their faces vanished in unison, turning blank and expressionless.
Then, their eyes simultaneously fell upon the piece of chocolate tightly gripped in the girl’s hand.
“Mine.”
Resounding simultaneously were three voices spoken with the exact same tone, yet clearly belonging to three different people.
The voices overlapped in a disturbing manner, like a finely woven net.
“Did you hear? Someone from our school has gone missing,” the speaker whispered mysteriously in a hushed voice, yet couldn’t hide the excitement surging in her tone.
“Missing? What missing?”
The speaker acted greatly shocked by her companion’s ignorance, her tone extremely exaggerated. “Everyone’s been talking about this recently, and you actually don’t know? How out of touch are you with this school?”
It was the first time Qi Qi had heard about this, and she felt indirectly called out, but she couldn’t help feeling curious and continued to listen. She was naturally interested in these kinds of stories, especially when they occurred right around her, it felt much stronger both in terms of realism and thrill.
The two girls bantered for a while. Just as Qi Qi was about to lose her patience and leave, they finally pivoted back to the original topic.
“It’s those young masters and ladies from high society who used to love forming bullying cliques. For some reason recently, they started pretending to be good students, but then starting from a certain day, they suddenly stopped coming to school.”
The speaker’s tone carried a few hints of mockery. Judging by her accent, she was likely a tuition waived special admission student admitted to Mingde due to top grades. Perhaps because of this, her attitude while telling this story was even excited and satisfied.
“At first, everyone thought they got tired of playing the good kid game and went back to their usual habit of skipping class to play outside whenever they wanted. Since that used to be the norm, it was completely normal for them to disappear for ten days or half a month when they were having fun. Their families barely cared, and the teachers cared even less about meddling, so nobody paid attention initially.”
“But later, as time passed and they still hadn’t shown up, their families finally realized something was wrong and contacted the school. When both sides cross checked, they found out that no one had seen them for quite a while.”
The other girl’s voice held only anticipation and hope. “That’s great. If you ask me, the more of those scumbags that vanish and never come back, the better.”
“Tell me about it! Every time I saw their disgusting faces, I felt like throwing up.”
What followed were more extreme complaints.
Mingde’s system and the school administration’s inaction had caused the existing gap and rift between regular students and special admission students to grow wider and deeper, turning into a massive, irreconcilable conflict by now.
To avoid drawing trouble to herself, Qi Qi quietly departed upon hearing up to this point.
Consequently, she didn’t hear the conversation between the two that followed.
“Still, some people say it’s because of that ugly freak’s curse. Look, the ones who went missing happen to be the exact people who used to bully her.” She spoke as though it were a proven fact, growing more certain the more she talked. “Besides, have you seen that birthmark on her face? I accidentally caught a glimpse a couple of days ago, it’s getting more disgusting. There seem to be bumps growing on it. I couldn’t eat anything the whole day after seeing it. Maybe it’s a side effect of the curse…”
“Really? But you actually dared to look at that face…”
The two girls talked with increasing enthusiasm, their faces wearing a few hints of deeply satisfied smiles.
Despite being special admission students themselves, having felt sad about their own past of being bullied just moments ago, they were now using malicious words to speculate about another special admission student who shared the exact same bullied plight.
It was as if they were extracting nourishment for their own survival from the suffering of others.
Today, she was pestered endlessly again by Bai Zhi, who had suddenly appeared and cornered her against the wall. To avoid attracting more attention, Qi Qi ultimately ended up bringing her back to her apartment.
On the screen, two little game characters reached the finish line. As colorful fireworks exploded across the screen, a cheerful stage clear sound effect played.
Qi Qi exhaled a long breath, finally relaxing after the intense and thrilling obstacle course. Just as she went to put the controller aside to rest, her palm touched a patch of warmth that didn’t belong to her.
Habitually, she gave it a gentle squeeze, then abruptly froze. She slowly lowered her head, meeting a pair of sly, bright peach blossom eyes.
She didn’t understand. In the beginning, they were merely playing games together, but for some unknown reason, the distance between them had grown closer and closer. By the time she snapped back to her senses, a warm weight was already cradled in her arms.
The game sound effects urged them to move on to the next level.
However, Qi Qi was clearly in no position to care about that now.
“Student Qi, where are you touching?” Bai Zhi widened her eyes in feigned shock, but her hands expertly wrapped around Qi Qi’s waist. With teasing in her eyes and brows, she bit Qi Qi’s earlobe and whispered in a breathy voice, “Pervert.”
The atmosphere imperceptibly turned thick and muggy.
It was so hot that even Qi Qi, who rarely sweated, broke into a thin layer of perspiration.
Outside the window, rain began to fall into the pitch black night.
In this kind of weather, it seemed as if anything done would remain hidden within the darkness.
Just as they were about to cross the final boundary, Qi Qi hit the emergency brakes. Her pulled hand shifted slightly, resting against the girl’s fair, delicate thigh, catching a handful of moist slickness that gently seeped through her fingers like water soaked cotton candy.
“We can’t.”
Bai Zhi’s beautifully shaped peach blossom eyes were veiled with a misty layer of tears. She stared straight at her, her breathing rapid and suppressed as if she had been enduring for too long, her voice even carrying an uncontrollable sob. “Why can’t we?”
Qi Qi shook her head. The back of her neck, wet with sweat from the heat, briefly caught a refreshing chill.
She raised her brows, a bit of clarity and sharpness returning to her eyes.
“If we’re going to do it, it has to wait until you’re of age. Otherwise, it violates the JJ Underage No Smut Law.”
Bai Zhi’s movements lagged for a brief moment, her eyes showing a rare, genuine sense of bewilderment.
Qi Qi took the opportunity to put distance between the two of them.
“What is that?”
Qi Qi didn’t know why she had blurted out something that sounded so made-up on the spot, but she still said with a serious, righteous demeanor, “In short, we can’t right now. If you keep acting like this, I’m going to get a set of diamond encrusted nail extensions.”
Bai Zhi’s gaze strayed for a moment before the corners of her lips curled up involuntarily. In a deliberately troubled tone, she said, “Student Qi likes this kind of play? How perverted. Fine then, even though it will hurt a lot, if you like it, I can actually accept it. After all, who told me to be Student Qi’s girlfriend?”
Although her words carried a bit of reluctance, her expression bore unhidden anticipation.
Perverted, far too perverted.
Qi Qi couldn’t listen any further. She simply grabbed the nearby blanket, wrapped the girl up into a chubby chrysalis, and stuffed her mouth with a piece of chocolate while she was at it.
She had noticed during this period that, unlike her, Bai Zhi disliked sweet things, especially chocolate. Now she could finally get her to be quiet for a while.
Stuffed inside the blanket, Bai Zhi couldn’t move her hands or feet, and with the excessively sweet chocolate in her mouth, she could only knit her brows and pout her cheeks like a child.
Qi Qi poked the defenseless girl’s soft, pale cheek with satisfaction.
Outside the window, several consecutive flashes of blue and purple lightning struck.
Qi Qi subconsciously glanced outside. By the flash of the thunderbolt, she caught sight of a face reflected on the top floor window, staring dead at her.