Her attention had been entirely on Gu Ximian just now, and it wasn’t until the other girl had left the stage that Zhuang Chi realized things didn’t seem to be going as she had imagined.
The ceremony was still proceeding normally. It was now time for the current student representative’s speech. Zhuang Chi wasn’t surprised to see An Chen go on stage, and his speech ended quickly. Nothing that could be called an incident occurred, and no hawk smashed through the glass to fly in.
Even when the end of the ceremony was announced and Zhuang Chi stood up from her chair, she was still a bit dazed, feeling an inexplicable sense of unease.
…Nothing happened at all, did it? Aside from the small commotion in the audience when Gu Ximian appeared, there was nothing else worth mentioning about the entire ceremony. If you ignored the excessively magnificent and opulent setting, it was a completely ordinary opening ceremony… Had she been worrying for nothing?
Or perhaps… something had already happened, but she hadn’t noticed? Zhuang Chi pondered this seriously as she walked out. For example… maybe there was a character from the plot among the new students who had just fallen in love with Gu Ximian at first sight…
After all, based on her strenuous efforts to recall last night, there were supposed to be four main pursuers of Gu Ximian with significant roles in this school. Their character tags were very cliché. Besides Ling Jing (the maverick lone-wolf school tyrant) and An Chen (the gentle and cunning student council president) who had already appeared, there were two other main characters positioned as “sweetheart!” and “little wolf dog!” who had yet to make their debut.
…It would be reasonable for one of them to be a newly enrolled student, Zhuang Chi thought silently, but she really, truly couldn’t remember their specific names… She could only recall that one was male and one was female…
In fact, being able to remember their general character archetypes was already the result of Zhuang Chi’s best efforts. She didn’t know if it was her memory failing her or something else, but recalling the plot was extremely difficult. Her mind felt subtly muddled, like water clouded with milk, always giving her the feeling that she could vaguely make out some outlines but couldn’t grasp them precisely.
Considering that she had only remembered Ling Jing’s character setting at the last second by the school gate… Zhuang Chi could only grimly make a worst-case guess: could it be that she could only fully remember things right before they were about to happen?
…If that were true, it would be too unreasonable. Besides, the opening ceremony was over now, and she still hadn’t remembered anything. Or what, did it have to be a plot she was personally involved in to count? That would be too—
“…Is it a bit noisy outside?”
Her thoughts were interrupted by the faint sound of discussion coming from outside. Zhuang Chi, who was walking out, frowned. Lu Man beside her also noticed it, saying, “It is a bit loud.” She then cautiously craned her neck to look toward the crowd gathered at the door, but to no avail. She then gestured to Zhuang Chi, “You’re tall, you take a look.”
The tall Zhuang Chi obediently gave it a try and saw a figure standing menacingly at the entrance like a door god, right in front of the flow of people.
“Ah!”
The moment their eyes met, before Zhuang Chi could react, the person at the door cried out first. Her cat-like, slightly upturned eyes widened in a flash as she pointed at her and shouted.
“—Zhuang Chi! I’ve finally found you!”
The new students caught between them turned in unison to look at Zhuang Chi and very consciously cleared a path. As for Zhuang Chi… Zhuang Chi stumbled, but she persisted in taking a few steps back, her entire body strongly conveying her complete unwillingness to walk over.
…What the hell, why is Ling Jing blocking me here…!
“…Although I told you before to be careful of retaliation, I didn’t expect it to come so quickly, and so brazenly.”
The surrounding people had all silently distanced themselves from the named Zhuang Chi. The only one still willing to stand by her side, Lu Man, said gravely, “Blocking someone at the entrance of the auditorium after the opening ceremony… Has Ling Jing really become this arrogant? It’s impossible to guard against. But we don’t need to be too pessimistic. At least the auditorium is large, with plenty of room to escape.”
…It sounded like she was already preparing to escape, which wasn’t very optimistic either.
Zhuang Chi felt a headache coming on. It wasn’t that Lu Man’s words were an exaggeration; seeing Ling Jing’s murderous stance, she did indeed look like she was here for revenge. And now that Zhuang Chi was directly blocked inside the doorway, it seemed that fleeing back inside was her only option.
…But maybe she wasn’t really here for revenge? Based on Zhuang Chi’s shallow memory of Ling Jing’s character, she felt that something was fishy. But her thoughts didn’t last long before Ling Jing, who couldn’t wait any longer, strode over herself. With her superior height as an Alpha, she stood before Zhuang Chi, her long hair nearly reaching her waist, looking like some kind of mafia boss lady. The sight made Lu Man shrink her neck in fear.
“Why aren’t you coming out? Isn’t the ceremony over?” This person was clearly very beautiful, but she always sounded not-so-bright whenever she opened her mouth. Ling Jing put on a stern face, glanced around casually, and huffed again. “Whatever, just give me your student card now.”
“…”
Zhuang Chi was silent, while Lu Man gasped, exclaiming, “She wants to rob you of your student card!”
“Huh?” Ling Jing whipped her head around and glared at Lu Man. “What use would I have for that thing!”
Lu Man cautiously retreated two steps and, from a safe distance, calmly replied, “It has many uses. Eating in the cafeteria, borrowing books from the library, and entering the dormitory building all require a student card.”
Ling Jing was taken aback, then raised her voice angrily, “What nonsense are you talking about! Do you think I don’t know these things? I’m not a new student!”
…So unreasonable, she was the one who first asked “what use would I have for it.” Zhuang Chi thought this, and Lu Man clearly had the same idea, but she just silently closed her mouth, leaned closer to Zhuang Chi’s back, and whispered, “She doesn’t seem very bright. Let’s think of a way to slip away when we get the chance.”
Although she had been yelled at, Lu Man seemed calmer than she was at the beginning, probably having figured out from the brief exchange that Ling Jing wasn’t much of a threat. Zhuang Chi didn’t know what to say to that, but the idea of finding a way to slip away was sound. In any case, Ling Jing blocking her like this could never be a scene from the original novel, so—
“…”
…It should be absolutely impossible, that’s right. The character Zhuang Chi didn’t exist in the book. But if that’s the case, why… why did Zhuang Chi suddenly have a faint feeling that she was about to remember something?
Ah, this is bad, Zhuang Chi thought. Speaking of which, has the freshman representative left yet?
“…Ah!”
Just as this thought popped into her head, Ling Jing’s voice rang out again. It was similar to her reaction when she spotted Zhuang Chi in the crowd, but this time her imposing manner had clearly deflated. She seemed to have shrunk, and her voice wasn’t as loud as before. “Gu… Gu Ximian…”
…Well, that was a quick fulfillment of a prophecy.
The new students who had been huddled at the entrance watching them now turned their gazes in unison toward Zhuang Chi’s back—seriously, why haven’t these people left yet, are all new students this idle?—Zhuang Chi also slowly turned on her heel and, sure enough, saw Gu Ximian standing a few steps away. She was also wearing the school uniform today. Seeing it up close was much clearer than when she was on stage. Zhuang Chi could see that everything from her necktie to her shirt cuffs was neatly and properly arranged. The style was meant to be on the sweeter side, but on her, it exuded a slightly distant and noble air.
Gu Ximian didn’t respond to Ling Jing’s call. She just stopped there, her gaze like water sweeping over Ling Jing, past the crowd of new students at the exit, and finally landing on Zhuang Chi’s face.
“Good morning.” As if no one else was there, Gu Ximian greeted her, slowly walking two steps closer to stand by her side, and asked in a gentle voice, “How is your wound? Have you changed the dressing?”
“…” This conversation was completely disconnected from the current situation. Zhuang Chi took a beat to react before nodding hesitantly. “Yes, I’ve already changed it…”
“That’s good.” Gu Ximian’s eyes curved at her, and as if only just noticing the frozen Ling Jing not far away, she cast a casual glance at her, then looked back at Zhuang Chi. “Is she here to see you?”
Her enunciation was slightly different from before, her tone a little heavier. Zhuang Chi’s heart skipped a beat. Before she could speak, Ling Jing, who had gone silent after Gu Ximian’s appearance, started to move. Like a wind-up doll that hadn’t been fully wound, she slowly and stiffly stood up a little straighter. “…Not just her.”
Those three words were like a spell that cleared the fog. A flash of lightning seemed to pass through Zhuang Chi’s mind, and the previously formless memory finally began to reveal its true face. She took a deep breath and watched as Ling Jing approached them rather timidly, muttering, “You… you too, give me your student card.”
Before Gu Ximian could frown and Lu Man could gasp again and say, “Robbing Zhuang Chi isn’t enough, now you want to rob Gu Ximian’s student card,” Zhuang Chi was jolted and blurted out the memory that had finally surfaced in her mind, “You… you want our student cards… to transfer us money for compensation, right?”
“Yeah.”
The admission was very straightforward. When talking to her, Ling Jing’s speech returned to its original fluency. She frowned righteously, “What else? I definitely have to transfer you the money you spent at the infirmary, right? Or you can give me your bank card, that works too.”
Zhuang Chi and Ling Jing looked at each other for a moment. In her large, clear black-and-white eyes, Zhuang Chi saw a hint of bewilderment. This person’s thoughts were practically written on her face; right now, she was clearly thinking something along the lines of “isn’t this obvious,” which made Zhuang Chi want to speak, then stop, several times, before finally lowering her head in silence.
…Let’s briefly summarize the current situation. First, what she was experiencing right now was undoubtedly a plot from the original novel. It was just that Ling Jing was originally supposed to approach Gu Ximian alone, but because Zhuang Chi had intervened yesterday, she had also become someone Ling Jing needed to compensate, getting completely dragged into the plot.
Second, Zhuang Chi thought grimly.
The reason this situation had developed was, fundamentally, because when she wrote this novel back then… mobile payment wasn’t very common yet…!
