As it turns out, you really shouldn’t tempt fate, not even in your thoughts.
In the sports warehouse, Zhuang Chi was rummaging through a pile of clutter with difficulty, but to no avail. The person not far away also stopped what she was doing, turned her head, and spoke to her: “Did you find it?”
Zhuang Chi shook her head. Seeing Gu Ximian frown with a hint of distress, she let out a soft sigh: “How strange. The teacher said there were spare tennis rackets here.”
Why did it turn into a situation where she and Gu Ximian were alone together in the sports warehouse? Zhuang Chi thought silently. She should have realized something would happen sooner.
When she asked for leave on Ling Jing’s behalf from the Student Council’s sports department and saw the other person’s troubled expression, she didn’t think anything of it. When she learned that Ling Jing’s task had a deadline of today and decided to cover for her just this once, she still didn’t feel anything was wrong. Even when she heard that Student Council member casually mention that a department had a PE class in the afternoon and someone might come here to borrow sports equipment, Zhuang Chi still paid it no mind—looking back now, she really should have been more vigilant then, otherwise she wouldn’t have been so unprepared as to stumble over some clutter when she saw Gu Ximian poke her head in.
‘My tennis racket suddenly broke during PE class. I heard from the teacher that I could find a spare one here, so I came to take a look.’
That was how Gu Ximian explained her purpose for coming. At that time, Zhuang Chi was diligently counting the number of volleyballs—Ling Jing’s job was to count and record the types and quantities of sports equipment in the warehouse, a complete chore. Although Zhuang Chi’s heart was filled with an ominous premonition, under the circumstances… there was no other choice. She couldn’t just let Gu Ximian look for the tennis racket by herself while she stood by and watched, could she?
And so, it turned into the current situation of them searching together. But St. Blaisedon’s sports warehouse was no different from any other school’s: it was large, filled with things, and after being used for a long time, the various pieces of equipment were stored in a rather messy and unsystematic way. The two of them had already been searching together for over ten minutes. They hadn’t seen a single tennis racket, though they did find a basket of tennis balls covered in a thick layer of dust, which made Zhuang Chi sneeze three times in a row.
“…Sigh, let’s just forget it,” Gu Ximian said helplessly, dusting off her hands. “By the time I find it, PE class will probably be almost over. There’s just too much stuff in here.”
Indeed. And judging by the condition of things, even if they managed to dig up a tennis racket, there was no telling if it would still be usable. Zhuang Chi nodded in deep agreement: “Then you should head back to class first, right? You can even justifiably rest on the sidelines for the rest of the period. That’s pretty good.”
“…” Gu Ximian didn’t answer immediately. She blinked thoughtfully, then suddenly said, “Why don’t I stay and help you?”
“?!” Zhuang Chi was startled. She first shook her head subconsciously, then stammered out a refusal, “N-No, that’s not necessary. You’re still in class, after all. If you don’t go back, it would be bad if the teacher mistook it for you skipping class. And-and look how dusty it is in here, staying here is definitely not as comfortable as being on the tennis court! I can finish this little bit of work by myself quickly…”
She racked her brains and delivered a long speech, while Gu Ximian just listened quietly. Only when Zhuang Chi couldn’t think of any more excuses did Gu Ximian let out a soft laugh: “So many reasons.”
…She felt that her tone was a bit strange, but Zhuang Chi couldn’t quite figure it out. She then saw Gu Ximian quickly return to her usual self, smiling gently at her: “It sounds like I really should go back to class. I’ll be going then?”
Zhuang Chi nodded dumbly and bid her farewell, silently sighing in relief. She felt that she had probably overreacted this time, thinking Gu Ximian’s appearance here was going to trigger some major plot point. Now it seemed it might just be a coincidence—
“Strange, the door doesn’t seem to open.”
“…”
…Huh?
Zhuang Chi’s heart immediately leaped into her throat, and the alarm bells in her head rang at an unprecedented volume. She looked at Gu Ximian, who had turned back from the warehouse door with a puzzled expression, still clinging to a sliver of hope: “N-No way, it was fine when I came in earlier. Let me see…”
Zhuang Chi walked to the door and twisted the handle. It didn’t budge.
Right, maybe it locked itself at some point. What a willful warehouse door. But it’s fine. Zhuang Chi optimistically took out the key she had gotten from the sports department member earlier, speaking to Gu Ximian as she inserted it into the keyhole: “It’s okay, I have the key. Even if it’s locked, I can still open it—”
She twisted the key. It didn’t budge.
“…………”
Her mood gradually turned chaotic. Zhuang Chi refused to believe it and tried several more times, but the key and the doorknob simply wouldn’t turn. Gu Ximian also tried a few times, and finally had to conclude, “…It looks like the lock is broken.”
…The lock is broken. Zhuang Chi thought dazedly. Isn’t this too unreasonable? It’s not that locks can’t break, but this door was opening and closing normally when she and Gu Ximian came in. Did it have to break right when Gu Ximian was about to leave? This, this, no matter how you think about it…
“Let me send a message to my classmates,” Compared to the momentarily stunned Zhuang Chi, Gu Ximian appeared much calmer. She took out her phone and said, “I’ll ask them to try and see if they can open the door from the outside… Ah.”
She raised an eyebrow slightly, waved her phone screen at Zhuang Chi, who had turned her head at the sound, and smiled with some helplessness: “…Seems like there’s no signal.”
“…But we’re just on campus?”
So, isn’t this too unreasonable? It’s not like we’re stranded on a snowy mountain, how can there be no phone signal!
Zhuang Chi also checked her own phone, and as expected, it was also out of signal range. For a moment, she found it hard to accept this reality, closing her eyes in anguish and taking a silent, deep breath.
…It wasn’t an overreaction at all; in fact, she had underestimated the enemy. Such a forced method of plot progression, this illogical turn of events…
—Without a doubt, the plot of her novel was in full swing.
In other words, according to the original plot’s development, Ling Jing and Gu Ximian were supposed to be trapped here together.
…At lunch, she was just thinking about trying to recall more of Ling Jing’s plot to prepare for getting dragged into it, and not even half a day had passed before something major happened. Zhuang Chi sighed silently, wondering if this was retribution for ordering a salad with peanut sauce for lunch.
“It’s okay.” Perhaps mistaking her sigh as pessimism about the situation, Gu Ximian comforted her, “My PE class is still going on. If I don’t return by the time class is over, the teacher and my classmates will definitely notice. They’ll come looking for us then. We just have to wait a while, and we’ll be rescued.”
…She’s right. Zhuang Chi gradually calmed down, clenching her fists in self-reflection. How could she immediately fall into despair after getting dragged into the plot? Thinking so much now was useless. Gu Ximian, being suddenly trapped in a sports warehouse, would naturally feel uneasy too. Making her divert her attention to comfort her was too much. As the one with more information, she should be more reliable.
“Yeah, let’s just wait here for a bit then. You can sit here,” Zhuang Chi pulled herself together and pushed the box she had been sitting on while counting equipment over to Gu Ximian. “I just wiped it clean. You can sit on it, but it’s a little hard.”
Gu Ximian glanced at the small box, which could only fit one person, then looked at Zhuang Chi: “What about you?”
“I’ll go over there and finish counting the volleyballs…” Seeing from Gu Ximian’s gaze that she wasn’t asking what she was going to do, Zhuang Chi thought for a moment and added, “I was sitting for a long time just now, so it’s a good chance to get up and move around.”
At worst, she could find a ball to sit on for a while. Zhuang Chi thought, smiled at Gu Ximian, and stepped aside. Gu Ximian’s gaze flickered, but she didn’t refuse any further, obediently sitting down on the small box and watching her intently as she tidied up the pile of volleyballs.
…She didn’t know if it was psychological or something else, but she felt like her back was getting hot from Gu Ximian’s stare. Zhuang Chi looked back, feeling a bit uncomfortable, but before she could speak, Gu Ximian preemptively explained, “There’s no signal, so I can’t play on my phone. I’m a little bored, so I’ve just been watching you… Am I bothering you?”
“…” Zhuang Chi pressed her lips together, looking hesitantly at the volleyball in her hand. “…Then… should we play some volleyball?”
“There’s not enough space in here.” Gu Ximian was amused by her, her eyes curving softly. “Just chatting is fine.”
Alright, chatting it is. Zhuang Chi obediently put down the volleyball. Her mindset was pretty good right now. Although she couldn’t recall the detailed plot progression, she vaguely remembered that the purpose of this plot was to force Ling Jing and Gu Ximian to be alone together, thereby resolving some of their previous misunderstandings—now it was her instead. So, aside from being locked in, it should be fine…
But being locked in a warehouse was really not a pleasant experience. Although the door had been closed when she was counting equipment earlier, now that it wouldn’t open, it made the air circulation feel much slower than before. The surrounding temperature seemed to rise along with it, making Zhuang Chi unable to resist unbuttoning her cuffs and secretly fanning herself with her collar.
Thinking about it, she felt there were no winners in this whole affair. She couldn’t help but glare at the unreliable door and sigh, “…After we get out, I’m definitely going to have a good talk with the people from the sports department and have them inspect the doors of all the sports warehouses in the school. We can’t have this kind of strange problem happening again.”
“Indeed, it’s quite dangerous when you think about it.” Gu Ximian also looked towards the door, frowning slightly. “It’s fine for us since we know someone will come looking for us later. And there are two of us, so we can talk and figure things out. But if someone came in alone and got locked in, they would probably panic, especially with no phone signal…”
She clearly also found the situation illogical. The more she spoke, the deeper her frown became. Finally, she paused, pondered for a moment, and chuckled softly: “…It’s almost as if this space was forcibly created.”
Zhuang Chi remained silent, once again cursing the younger Zhuang Chi in her heart for writing such a plot full of holes. Gu Ximian was quiet for a moment, then suddenly changed the subject: “Did Ling Jing have an allergic reaction because she ate your salad?”
“…Yes,” Zhuang Chi nodded grimly. “No wonder she always eats her own packed lunch. It turns out she has food allergies…”
Speaking of which, that person is really unlucky, getting into trouble after just one bite of salad. Gu Ximian seemed to have the same thought and smiled: “Quite a coincidence.”
Her tone felt the same as when she had just called the broken door ‘forced,’ but this was a different matter. Ling Jing’s situation was a genuine, complete coincidence…!
Zhuang Chi, who was very sure of this, couldn’t say it out loud and had to hold it in with great difficulty. Then she heard Gu Ximian continue, “It might not be nice to say this… but if Ling Jing hadn’t had an allergic reaction, she would be the one here with me now, right? For me… this is better.”
…It seems Gu Ximian still really dislikes Ling Jing. Zhuang Chi thought. She had thought that after the incident of subduing the Alpha, her attitude towards Ling Jing had softened, but it seems it hasn’t improved much—Strange, why is it really getting hotter? Is it my imagination?
Even with the door closed, there shouldn’t be such a significant temperature change in such a short time. She felt like she was about to sweat. A dry heat, like a fire quietly burning inside her body, grew more and more intense. Zhuang Chi felt a little helpless and touched her forehead, but couldn’t tell how high her temperature was. When she tried to sneak a peek at Gu Ximian to see if she also felt hot, she met those beautiful eyes, which were staring fixedly at her.
“You…” Gu Ximian’s gaze sharpened slightly. She said hesitantly, “Your face is so red.”
…Then it seems it really is just her feeling hot. Zhuang Chi blinked in confusion and laughed, at a loss: “How come it’s similar to how Ling Jing was before? Don’t tell me I’m having an allergic reaction too, really…”
“…”
Gu Ximian looked at her for a long moment, then twitched her nose slightly.
“…Zhuang Chi,” Gu Ximian’s voice sounded again after a long pause, carrying a rare, strong uncertainty, as if she was facing something for the first time that even she didn’t know how to handle. She hesitated, then said softly, “…I think… I can smell…”
Smell?
Zhuang Chi couldn’t understand immediately. As she was thinking vaguely, the fire burning inside her body had unknowingly crept upwards, finally converging at—
The back of her neck.
The moment she realized it, she was horrified. Zhuang Chi almost immediately raised her hand to cover the back of her burning neck and retreated away from Gu Ximian. Not paying attention, she even tripped on a volleyball. Fortunately, she wasn’t far from the wall. She stumbled back a few steps and leaned against it, which allowed her to frantically raise a hand to stop Gu Ximian, who had subconsciously stood up to help her.
The hand covering the back of her neck trembled involuntarily. The originally smooth skin under her palm seemed to have swollen slightly, and it was astonishingly hot, as if something was forming on its own underneath, coagulating the scalding blood to form a new, very common organ in this world.
This is bad. So hot. What is this. The words flashing through her mind were not even complete sentences. Zhuang Chi only felt that the coolness of the wall behind her was a great help. She couldn’t be bothered about getting her clothes dirty or anything now. In short, she tried her best to lean back, using the coolness to fight against the surging heatwave.
Ah, honestly, it’s always at times like these that she remembers what the development of this damn plot is. Zhuang Chi’s mind was a mess, but she managed to sort out a thread of logic from her chaotic thoughts. So, Ling Jing’s condition wasn’t just an allergic reaction at all. Or rather, the peanut sauce was probably just a trigger that caused Ling Jing’s susceptible period, which was supposed to start at this time, to begin two or three hours early.
In the plot’s setting, Ling Jing’s susceptible period was brought on early due to the influence of that other Alpha’s pheromones from before, and it just so happened to start while she was in the same room as Gu Ximian. With things having developed to this point, one could only say that this world’s promotion of the plot was both lenient and strict in different senses. Now that the stage of the “temporarily inescapable sports warehouse” was set, and the female lead Gu Ximian was in place, what was still missing? It certainly wasn’t her, Zhuang Chi, but similarly, it didn’t have to be Ling Jing either.
Zhuang Chi took a deep breath. The hand covering the back of her neck was pressed so hard that she could already feel pain, but she didn’t relax, gritting her teeth and pressing down even harder.
What was missing was… an Alpha on the verge of losing control.
