…Hmm, was there really no option for Gu Ximian and Olivia to dance together?
Looking into Gu Ximian’s eyes, Zhuang Chi felt a cold sweat about to break out. She… what right did she have to choose between the female lead and the princess… And to have to make the choice so openly, wasn’t that too—
“Then, you two go dance!”
Her mind raced for a countermeasure, but she heard Olivia’s voice first. The young princess’s face was filled with surprise and anticipation as she smiled gently at her. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll wait for you here.”
An angel! Zhuang Chi was practically moved to tears by her considerate behavior. Meanwhile, Gu Ximian raised an eyebrow, took a step forward, and stopped tantalizingly close to Zhuang Chi, asking, “Is that okay? Didn’t you want to invite her too?”
“That’s true, but to see you two like this… ahem,” Olivia said, getting a little excited again, which she barely managed to suppress. She nodded gracefully, “…I’m also very happy just watching you dance. Seeing someone I like with another person I like brings me double the happiness!”
Her completely guileless and sincere words softened even Gu Ximian’s expression. She nodded quietly, then looked over at Zhuang Chi.
“What do you think?” Gu Ximian tilted her head slightly in a suggestive gesture. “Do you want to dance with me? I’ll say this first, it will definitely be very eye-catching. It’s okay to refuse me if you don’t like it.”
Before Zhuang Chi could answer, Olivia seemed even more anxious than her, muttering worriedly on the side, “Quick, say ‘I do,’ Zhuang Chi, you can’t hesitate now.” Just then, the first dance song slowly came to an end, making Olivia even more frantic. She looked around nervously, her whole body tense, and whispered rapidly to Zhuang Chi, “Quick, invite her! Zhuang Chi! Just like in the movies, ‘My beautiful lady, may I have the honor of this dance?’ That kind of thing!”
…What a rosy-pink taste. Zhuang Chi felt embarrassed just hearing it, feeling that she probably couldn’t say such words in her entire life. Gu Ximian also noticed Olivia’s little actions but didn’t stop her, merely watching Zhuang Chi with a faint smile, likely waiting for her reaction.
“…It’s fine,” Zhuang Chi let out a shallow breath, suppressing a strange surge of nervousness. “Anyway, today has already…”
—been eye-catching enough. That’s what she had wanted to say, but Zhuang Chi suddenly realized that saying it like that might make her seem too casual about the matter. She frowned in annoyance, and after racking her brain, she chose the simplest words.
“…Let’s go dance, Gu Ximian.” Zhuang Chi smiled a little sheepishly. “If we do something eye-catching together, it won’t feel so embarrassing.”
Gu Ximian didn’t answer right away. She looked at Zhuang Chi with eyes more captivating than the stars, and then they curved into a slight smile.
“Okay.” She reached out and slowly took Zhuang Chi’s hand, saying softly, “Let’s go, the next song should be starting soon.”
For their previously distant relationship, a physical touch like holding hands seemed overly intimate. But thinking about the upcoming ballroom dance which required them to be very close, Zhuang Chi felt her current nervousness was trivial. She tried hard to shift her attention away from their clasped hands and noticed Olivia looking at them with a gaze filled with a mixture of relief, longing, and blessing. When she saw Zhuang Chi look over, she gave a big smile. “You two go on, don’t worry about me. I’ll wait right here! Just like… just like the loyal dog Hachiko!”
“…That’s too unlucky! For both you and us!”
“I-Is that so? It does seem that way…”
That indescribable atmosphere dissipated because of Olivia’s overly inappropriate example. Torn between laughter and tears, Zhuang Chi temporarily bid farewell to Olivia and led Gu Ximian toward the dance floor.
As expected, the moment they took a step, gazes from all around turned toward them. Zhuang Chi hadn’t yet grown as accustomed to this as Gu Ximian. When they stood still on the dance floor, her shoulders and neck tensed up, and she could only take a slow, deep breath.
“Are you nervous?” Gu Ximian, of course, saw her movements clearly and said softly, “Is it because many people are watching us, or because you’re about to dance with me?”
“…Both, I guess.” Zhuang Chi gave a wry smile and said, “Besides, I only took a week of ballroom dancing lessons a while ago. I’m definitely not as good as you, so I’d be very happy if we could dance a bit slower later…”
“Lessons?” Gu Ximian raised her eyebrows in surprise. “You actually signed up for a course?”
“Yeah.” Zhuang Chi nodded. “Back when I first differentiated… I had taken leave from school for those Alpha classes anyway, so I thought I could use the spare time to sign up for a ballroom dancing class outside. I couldn’t just come to the banquet like that… I felt that would be too unfair to my dance partner.”
“…” Her dance partner looked at her for a long moment, a faint smile spreading across her lips. “Then you could have just asked me to teach you. It would have been more convenient.”
This was a bit… Zhuang Chi silently kept her mouth shut. Fortunately, Gu Ximian didn’t press the issue. Instead, she looked around and said, “Everyone else has already taken their positions.”
That one sentence made Zhuang Chi’s heart rate spike. She hesitantly glanced around, while Gu Ximian had already placed a hand on her shoulder, urging, “Hurry up. Didn’t you take lessons? You should know where to put your hand, right?”
The spot below the shoulder blade.
Although she had learned it and committed it to memory, Zhuang Chi’s movements were still cautious and careful. She didn’t dare to touch too firmly, so she rested her hand lightly below Gu Ximian’s left shoulder, immensely grateful at this moment that Gu Ximian’s gown today was not a backless style.
But the material of the strapless long dress was soft and thin. Even with her hand resting there so lightly, she could still feel Gu Ximian’s body heat faintly transferring to her palm.
“…The position is correct.” After a long silence, Gu Ximian said this, looking up at Zhuang Chi. “It seems you learned very well.”
No. Don’t look at me. I’m about to forget everything I learned. Zhuang Chi thought. This was completely different from when she was learning. The scene, the lights, the sounds, and… the scent and the warmth.
She was too close to Gu Ximian.
The semi-embracing posture created an illusion of intimacy. Even though she could only smell Gu Ximian’s faint, elegant perfume, her mind inexplicably kept recalling the scent from the sports warehouse, making Zhuang Chi’s throat dry. The back of her neck, bound by the choker, also grew faintly hot.
The instinctual reaction of an Alpha was still very unfamiliar to Zhuang Chi. Even though she knew she wasn’t thinking anything improper, it still produced a faint sense of self-loathing. She hardly dared to look down, rigidly fixing her gaze behind Gu Ximian and trying to change the subject as if making small talk. “…Speaking of which, with a completely random draw for dance partners like this, there must be a lot of same-sex pairs, right? Like those guys over there, they look like two Alphas…”
“Yes, there probably are.”
Gu Ximian glanced nonchalantly at the two people Zhuang Chi mentioned, then looked away without much interest, saying flatly, “Before the banquet was held, I also raised this question about this segment. The answer I got was—it doesn’t matter, let’s just do it this way.”
“Very perfunctory, right? My father is usually a very meticulous person in everything he does, and he never brushes me off.” She smiled faintly and said softly, “But I figured it out myself later.”
“It’s not my father’s problem. It’s because the plot is arranged this way, and he is just faithfully executing it, regardless of whether it’s reasonable or not.”
Zhuang Chi’s heart trembled, and she subconsciously lowered her head, meeting Gu Ximian’s gaze.
“…Anyway, no matter how unreasonable this segment is, it’s all the same to me… it should be like this.”
Gu Ximian stared at her, the emotions in her eyes too complex, like a layer of hazy mist. What lay behind it seemed to be understanding, yet also confusion, making it impossible for Zhuang Chi to see clearly.
“My dance partner was bound to be an Alpha.”
Her tone sank with certainty. Gu Ximian looked at Zhuang Chi, her gaze long and distant, and she smiled as if reminiscing. “Do you remember, on the day of freshman registration, I told you that ‘you might be a very special person’?”
The memory was as clear as if it had happened yesterday. Zhuang Chi nodded silently, listening as Gu Ximian continued, “If I was a little uncertain before, I have no doubts now.”
She said softly, “Perhaps that sentence should have been: My dance partner was bound to be you.”
“You really are very special.” Zhuang Chi felt the hand on her shoulder press down slightly, and their clasped hands also tightened, as if unconsciously, forcing her to look directly at Gu Ximian, watching as she hesitated and her lips parted slightly. “Zhuang Chi, you…”
The second dance song began to play at that moment, the melodious music filling the entire dance floor, interrupting Gu Ximian’s words. Zhuang Chi waited, at a loss, for Gu Ximian to continue, but she slowly shook her head, seeming to have changed her mind. A faint, clear smile appeared on her face as she led Zhuang Chi to dance to the rhythm of the music.
What was she going to say? Zhuang Chi wondered. Stopping halfway… is a little concerning.
…Speaking of which, putting everything else aside, this “Official Pairing” hat she was wearing… was it becoming impossible to take off?
What was it that she wanted to say to Zhuang Chi?
The second dance was very gentle, with a slow rhythm. Everyone was dancing and chatting in this relaxed atmosphere. They were dancing too, but Gu Ximian, looking at Zhuang Chi’s slightly pursed lips, could feel that the hand on her back was very stiff, carefully maintaining a proper distance, as if afraid to cross a single step over the line. It was easy to tell she was nervous.
It should have been a question. But she had too many questions she wanted to ask Zhuang Chi. What do you think of this world? Do you believe you’re my official pairing now? What are your thoughts on this plot development? And—
Do you want to… follow the plot to the end?
In the past, there was no one she could talk to about such topics. Now that Gu Ximian had met Zhuang Chi, she hesitated about whether she should ask—if the ending of “following the plot” was for her and Zhuang Chi to become partners, then she didn’t even know what kind of answer she hoped to hear from Zhuang Chi.
After confessing her secret to Zhuang Chi, Gu Ximian found herself being even more careful around her than before, always having to think about many things. She herself was aware of it. For this person she had finally met after so many years, someone who could share the world’s secret with her, Zhuang Chi’s significance to her was far more important than just being an “official pairing.”
But she knew too little about Zhuang Chi. Gu Ximian thought. A person who looked so soft was, paradoxically, much harder to understand than those Alphas who prided themselves on being profound.
When she asked Zhuang Chi to get number 49, it was actually just to run a test.
At that time, she didn’t know about Ling Jing and An Chen’s little schemes with the number cards, but she was already guessing that she would draw Zhuang Chi’s number in this predetermined plot. Gu Ximian wanted to verify this, so she sent Zhuang Chi the message.
Later, Ling Jing and An Chen made a big commotion collecting all the cards, which she noticed before she went to find Zhuang Chi. She quickly realized they were using the number cards as stakes to decide a winner. It was just that Zhuang Chi’s attitude wasn’t very enthusiastic. It was Gu Ximian who pushed her to participate. Zhuang Chi neither agreed nor refused, but in the end, she won, just as she had thought.
Thus, the verification of whose number she would draw lost its meaning here. What became worthy of Gu Ximian’s attention was another direction for the test.
Zhuang Chi originally had number 50.
So Zhuang Chi had really intended to get number 49 as she had said. Gu Ximian thought. Then, does this mean Zhuang Chi also wanted to be her dance partner? After all, when she sent the message, she had deliberately not explained anything, intending to make Zhuang Chi think she had rigged the draw, wanting to see what Zhuang Chi would do.
Then why… was Zhuang Chi unwilling to compete with An Chen and the others, when that was also a shortcut to the same goal? If it was because she didn’t want to lose, she didn’t seem particularly happy even after winning.
It wasn’t the first time she had noticed such a sense of contradiction in Zhuang Chi. Not to mention things from long ago, just take this banquet. She was clearly inclined not to attend at first, but in the end, she agreed to Gu Ximian’s request and came here.
…Could it be, Gu Ximian thought. That Zhuang Chi simply didn’t want to refuse her?
After this realization, the question of why followed. If that was truly the case, Gu Ximian found it unusually difficult to discern whether Zhuang Chi’s accommodation of her stemmed from special feelings or from an innate gentleness.
As the protagonist of this world, Gu Ximian knew she had grown up in an environment where she was the center of attention. Being liked was common, and having her requests met was almost a matter of course. If any other Alpha had done this, she could have drawn a conclusion immediately, yet she couldn’t define Zhuang Chi so simply. And seeing Zhuang Chi treat Olivia with such friendliness and gentleness produced a slight, ineffable sense of being at a loss.
Her first dance at this banquet was one she had snatched. For no particular reason, Gu Ximian just wanted to do it at that moment. Only after getting her wish did she become perplexed by her own feelings. The melodious dance music and the movements of others fell on her ears like noise, making her wish that all sounds and everyone else besides them would disappear right now, so she could think properly about what exactly was wrong with her.
Gu Ximian had heard a saying before: caring is the prelude to love.
She didn’t believe this saying, but she couldn’t deny that she cared about Zhuang Chi. She was well aware of this.
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