(1)
“Zhu Ying, get out of the way!!!”
“Eeyaah—!!”
“Pfft—!!”
Blood stained the girl’s vision.
But the boy whose palm had been pierced struggled to hold the gun and then pulled the trigger.
The red laser beams sliced through the pitch-black night, striking down the two oddly shaped mechanical monsters with loud bangs.
“Anjing, your hand…”
“It’s nothing, nothing… Here, my body recovers quickly…”
“Hurry and bandage it, where’s the—bandage?”
“There’s none of that stuff.”
“Use this then!”
Rrrrrip—the sound of fabric tearing.
“Eh, eh?!!”
“It’s what I was wearing close to my body. It’s cleaner than the clothes on the outside.”
“Mm!”
“You saved me again. When will I get a chance to save you?”
“Don’t be so impulsive…”
“What, looking down on me?”
“No… I just think it’s way too dangerous…”
Amid the noisy classroom, Zhu Ying slowly lifted her head, then straightened up.
Something heavy slipped off her body—a loose, warm coat.
“Always getting saved by that idiot…”
She pursed her lips lightly and bent down to pick up the coat, but it wasn’t Anjing’s.
In fact, on closer inspection, the seat beside her was empty, nothing left behind.
Clearly, Anjing hadn’t come yet.
Clutching the coat, she looked a little dazed.
“Yingying, you’re awake? I was worried you’d catch a cold, so, so I just put my coat on you,” came Wang Xinru’s somewhat timid voice from behind.
Zhu Ying turned and forced a faint smile.
“Thanks.”
“It’s nothing. If you’re still cold, just keep it on.”
“I’m okay.”
She shook her head gently and returned the coat.
“Anjing still hasn’t come?”
“Didn’t see her today.”
Zhu Ying bit her lip and took her phone out of the drawer, flipping it open to glance at it.
No messages from Anjing either.
Just as she was about to send another message, the Class Advisor, who had put on some weight over the year, pushed the door open:
“What are you all doing? It’s winter break and you don’t even know your own names? So noisy, no early reading? Doing winter break homework now? You should have done it earlier! Sun Wei! Stand outside the classroom for punishment—your voice is the loudest!”
The lively classroom instantly fell deathly silent.
Zhu Ying hurriedly pushed her phone back into the drawer.
The school didn’t check if students had phones, but if a teacher saw one out, it would almost certainly be confiscated—especially during class or early reading time like this.
A few sharper students picked up their textbooks and began their early reading in scattered voices.
Although the classroom gained some sound, it still felt stifling—those sparse early reading voices sounded like monks chanting sutras.
Suddenly, the Class Advisor’s phone rang.
“Hello? Anjing’s guardian? Oh… requesting leave?” she said as she walked out of the classroom, her voice fading.
Zhu Ying pursed her lips and mumbled to herself, propping her chin on her hand, “If I’d known, I would have asked for leave too… so tired…”
Although the Class Advisor was just in the corridor taking a call and not far from the classroom, the previously suppressed students suddenly perked up like grass blown over by the wind.
“That bitch!”
“So arrogant!”
“Last half year, we don’t have to see her anymore!”
“Assigning so much winter break homework and still has the nerve to talk.”
“Exactly!”
But the renewed noise didn’t last long.
When the Class Advisor finished the call, the classroom immediately went quiet again, as if no one had spoken moments ago.
“Zhang Qiqi, come up to the podium and supervise the early reading. No whispering or chatting. I need to go to the office for a bit.”
“Okay.”
Zhang Qiqi stood up promptly.
She took being class monitor seriously.
“Gone?”
“Really gone.”
“Don’t come back!”
“That fat pig wearing high heels—ridiculous!”
“Exactly!”
Listening to the noisy chatter, Zhu Ying felt they were really childish.
Compared to them, Anjing was much more mature.
“Yingying?”
“Hmm… Xiaoru, what’s up?”
“What’s wrong with An’an?”
“I don’t know, maybe something’s wrong at home.”
“Not sick?”
“Probably not… oh, maybe a fever. She got caught in the rain yesterday.”
Zhu Ying found a plausible explanation.
“That must be it.”
“Why did she get caught in the rain yesterday?”
“Because of some stuff.”
Zhu Ying didn’t want to explain further.
Not only was it complicated, but she also wasn’t sure if she should say anything.
It never felt like a simple street fight.
It might involve something more complex…
Besides, she didn’t understand why those guys kept whispering and staring at Anjing.
Why was she the target?
Because she was pretty?
If that was the case, Zhu Ying thought she would be noticed too, but those people hardly glanced at her at all…
She sighed and covered her forehead, wishing she could understand Japanese back then…
“Damn it, I’m not doing this bird language homework! Why study English? Why not Japanese instead!”
A boy suddenly shouted.
“What the hell, traitor!”
“The big traitor’s at it again.”
“Future Wang Jingwei.”
“Calling him Wang Jingwei is an insult!”
“You guys complain about how annoying bird language is. Japanese uses kanji too—it’s way easier to learn!”
“I bet you just want to watch porn after learning it!”
“Tch, I already know those few sentences in the videos, over and over…”
“Shut up, Anjing!”
Zhang Qiqi glared at the boys.
“If you don’t want to be punished at the door later, quiet down.”
When Zhang Qiqi called Anjing, Zhu Ying instinctively glanced beside her.
She didn’t know when she had gotten used to Anjing sitting next to her at school…
From childhood, Zhu Ying had always been praised as a beauty, yet she never imagined she would like a girl…
***
(2)
For Zhu Ying, the day felt especially long.
Whether it was wanting to sleep but forcing herself to stay awake, or because Anjing hadn’t come to school, today dragged on like an eternity; every second felt like a year.
Lunch tasted bland, and she barely ate two mouthfuls before tossing the food box into the blue plastic bin for lunch containers.
The passing Vice Principal shook his head sadly and muttered, “Kids these days, such a waste. Back in my day…”
Zhu Ying didn’t hear a word and turned to walk down the stairs.
“Sigh, kids nowadays have no manners at all…”
“Zhu Ying, daydreaming again?”
Zhou Chao caught up from behind, smiling and greeting her.
“I’m okay.”
“Missing Anjing that much because she’s not here? Haha.”
“A little worried about her.”
“Probably just a cold or fever, nothing serious.”
“Phew… Zhou Chao, are you Anjing’s best brother?”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Is she your best brother then?”
“Well, A Qiang has to be counted too!”
“Um… There’s something I want to tell you, but can you promise not to tell anyone else?”
“Hm? Sure, go ahead.”
Zhou Chao’s expression grew serious.
“You two aren’t having any cracks in your friendship, right?”
“What are you thinking?”
Zhu Ying rolled her eyes and kept walking downstairs.
“Actually, yesterday, under Anjing’s building, we saw a woman collapsed in a pool of blood…”
“Oh? You stumbled onto a murder scene?”
“Yeah, and… we almost got killed too.”
“Whoa, what happened? Tell me!”
Zhou Chao’s eyes widened.
“Simply put, we heard a scream and went to check. We saw a little girl pushing a woman lying in blood, calling her ‘Mom.’ Three men seemed like they were about to attack Anjing too, and they were speaking Japanese. Then a Japanese guy showed up, stopped them. Another person tried to save the little girl but got stabbed in the chest and fell. Then the barber from nearby came to help, called the police. To save the girl, one guy fought against three…”
“What about the fourth Japanese guy?”
“He seemed like he wanted to take Anjing away but not to kill her…”
“Doesn’t sound like a crime of passion.”
“You think so too?”
“Assassins? That kind of thing feels so distant from us.”
Zhou Chao clicked his tongue.
“But with superpowers involved and crazy stuff happening to Anjing, it’s not impossible if higher-ups are involved.”
“Zhou Chao, can you just say what you’re thinking? My brain’s stuck.”
“I’m just organizing my thoughts.”
Zhou Chao picked up his pace.
“Come on, let’s hit the vending machine. Coffee’s on me.”
“What exactly are you thinking?”
“Patience—let me think.”
Zhou Chao stroked his chin, darted down the stairs, and dropped coins into the vending machine.
Soon, two cans of coffee clattered down.
He handed a can of hot coffee to Zhu Ying, then headed to the playground.
After a cloudy morning, the sun finally peeked out, warming Zhu Ying’s cold body.
“Hmm, I think it’s definitely related to the changes in her and those supernatural powers.”
“Then why didn’t she come to me…”
“Maybe your ability isn’t obvious. After all, it’s just mind-reading targeted at Anjing, and your body hasn’t changed noticeably.”
“Hmm…”
“I guess the foreigners have an intelligence network even in small cities. After some deep digging, they discovered the huge problem Anjing has, then planned to take her away for research. As for those trying to kill her, they’re probably a different group. In the end, the decisions are different but the starting points are similar.” Zhou Chao squinted. “If our side isn’t stupid, they’d notice the problem by now. So Anjing’s probably not in the hospital but taken somewhere secret for protection.”
“Huh?”
“If you don’t believe me, we can check the hospital after school.”
“You can analyze all that from just these clues?”
“…I know quite a bit, not just a little.”