Su Family.
In the bedroom, Su Mengyao sat at her desk, staring at the chat page on the screen in front of her, her gaze distant.
“Bai Xue… Dongxue… could they be connected?”
She murmured, voicing her speculation.
“She said Dongxue is a very tall girl… Could she be Bai Xue’s older sister or something?”
Suddenly, she heard extremely faint footsteps behind her.
Su Mengyao’s pupils contracted, and she quickly closed the chat page, switched screens to open a TV show webpage, and her gaze quickly returned to its usual clarity.
“Waaah!”
A small body suddenly pounced onto her back, two little hands overlapping around the girl’s neck, and a threatening, soft roar came from behind her.
“Wah!”
The girl’s body trembled violently, and a small cry escaped her lips, as if she was startled; but on the side the girl couldn’t see, a hint of happiness curled at the corner of her eye, as if she wasn’t scared at all.
She quickly restrained her smile, put on a frightened expression, and turned her head to look behind her.
A soft, fair little face came into her view.
Even after seeing it many times, Su Mengyao’s heartbeat still quickened uncontrollably. She forced down the throbbing in her heart and put on a smile.
“White Snow, you scared me to death.”
“Hee hee~”
The girl nuzzled her face affectionately, looking very happy.
“Yao Yao, good evening~”
“Mm, good evening too, White Snow.”
After saying that, Su Mengyao suddenly didn’t know what to say.
White Snow didn’t speak either.
The room fell silent.
On the computer screen, the TV show that had been opened as a decoy was still playing silently.
In the frame, two heroines were sitting on the rooftop, their legs dangling and swinging, their mouths opening and closing as they said something.
Su Mengyao hadn’t turned on the sound, so it looked like a silent movie.
White Snow’s gaze passed over Su Mengyao’s shoulder and landed on the two pixelated figures swinging their legs, but she didn’t take in a thing.
Her mind was occupied with other things.
After Lin Shuangxue had left this afternoon using a meeting as an excuse, she had been thinking about it, and the more she thought, the stranger it seemed.
‘Was Su Mengyao’s reaction this afternoon too extreme?’
‘”What is the person you like like?” What’s wrong with that? Isn’t it just a very ordinary question? It could be considered a guess, or just something said casually. After all, in reality, people who like multiple people at the same time are the minority. Assuming she likes “one person” based on that preconception isn’t pretty normal?’
‘Moreover, this body of “Jiang Cheng” has never done anything bad to Su Mengyao. At most, they’ve only met twice. Once at the school gate to help her out, and once in the psychological counseling room. Both times were with good intentions, no improper behavior.’
*’Why does she have such strong hostility towards “Jiang Cheng”?’
White Snow lay on Su Mengyao’s back, her chin resting in the girl’s shoulder hollow, her eyes darting around.
She thought of a possibility.
‘Su Mengyao… could she be a yandere?’
As soon as this thought emerged, White Snow felt a chill on her back.
She secretly turned her head and glanced at Su Mengyao’s profile out of the corner of her eye.
The girl was staring at the screen, her expression calm, her features soft, without any aggression.
‘Hmm…’
‘But yanderes usually look harmless too. The prettier the mushroom, the more poisonous; the gentler the girl, the more dangerous. Isn’t that a standard trope in those past life manga?’
‘No, no.’
White Snow shook her head again inwardly.
‘Yao Yao was bullied by those bad guys for so long, and the only way she could think to resist was to jump into a river and commit suicide. What kind of aggression could such a girl have? She doesn’t even dare to take revenge on those who hurt her. How could she be a yandere?’
‘So… I must be overthinking it, right?’
*’But maybe not? What if she’s the type that only “acts up towards specific targets”? What if her “trigger” is “White Snow might be taken away by someone else”?’
White Snow bit her lip.
‘I’ll test it out.’
Meanwhile, while White Snow was lost in thought, Su Mengyao was also thinking about things.
But what she was thinking was completely different from what White Snow was thinking.
She didn’t want to tell White Snow about what happened this afternoon.
If that Jiang Cheng really is secretly watching White Snow—though she thought it unlikely—she would drive her away anyway.
If not, she would find an opportunity to apologize.
Either way, she wouldn’t let White Snow know about this, wouldn’t let White Snow come into contact with these unpleasant, unsettling things.
White Snow just needed to be happy and innocent.
What she really cared about was something else.
That Dongxue.
Dongxue and White Snow both have the character ‘xue’ in their names.
She hadn’t seen her in person, but from Ye Xiqiu’s description, she could roughly know that the other person also had white hair.
‘And that song… that streamer named Shengxia, how could she sing that song?’
‘Weren’t we promised that it was a song only for White Snow?’
‘Weren’t we promised that it was a song only for the two of us?’
Su Mengyao’s fingers curled slightly on the mouse.
The TV show without sound was still playing.
The two heroines on the rooftop had stood up, and she didn’t know what they were saying, their mouths opening and closing like a silent movie.
“Yao Yao.”
White Snow’s voice suddenly came from behind her.
Su Mengyao turned her head slightly.
“Mm?”
“I want to ask Yao Yao a question.”
“What question?”
White Snow slid off her back, crawled onto the bed, flipped over, propped her cheeks with both hands, and looked up at her.
Those sky-blue eyes were sparkling in the light of the desk lamp.
“If,” White Snow paused, “if a bad person comes to take me away, what should I do?”
Su Mengyao’s body stiffened for a moment.
She abruptly turned around, placed her hands on the edge of the bed, leaned down, and brought her face almost right in front of White Snow’s.
“Is it that guy Jiang Cheng?”
“Did she follow you?”
“Where?”
“Weren’t you with me the whole time, White Snow? How could she have followed you?”
“Was it when we went out a few days ago? Was she mixed in the crowd then?”
“How did you notice, White Snow? Was it magic?”
“Or did she threaten you using some method?”
A barrage of questions came like a rapid fire, and White Snow, dizzy and disoriented, shrank her little head back.
“No, no, no… no! I just…”
She hurriedly denied it, but for a moment couldn’t find a reason for asking that question.
Her gaze darted around the room and finally landed on the computer screen.
“Got it!”
“I was watching a drama on Cat Star earlier and saw a scene where a girl was brutally killed, so…”
Su Mengyao was taken aback.
‘Cat Star has dramas too?’
“By the way, White Snow, you should watch less of this kind of stuff. It’s too bloody for a child…”
At this point, Su Mengyao suddenly stopped, thinking of a question.
“What’s wrong?”
White Snow tilted her head.
“Um…”
She pursed her lips, eventually asking.
“White Snow, how… how old are you?”
The girl was taken aback, then giggled.
“Really… Yao Yao has wanted to ask for a long time, right… I’m eighteen, a proper adult.”
‘That’s good.’
Su Mengyao finally breathed a sigh of relief.
But… her heart felt strangely empty, as if she was still unsatisfied with this result.
‘Am I really a lolicon?’
Su Mengyao shook her head, discarding this strange thought from her mind.
‘Let’s get back to the main topic.’
The girl let out a sigh.
‘At least White Snow wasn’t really being followed… After all, in this world, White Snow always comes and goes as she pleases. How could she be followed?’
‘But is it really just that…’
For some reason, Su Mengyao still felt uneasy.
She was used to uneasiness, but not to being uneasy for White Snow.
That feeling was like a thin thorn in her chest—it didn’t hurt, but she could vaguely feel it when she breathed.
She steadied herself and looked at White Snow.
“If a bad person comes,” she said, “I will drive her away.”
Her tone was serious.
White Snow blinked.
“What if that bad person can’t be driven away no matter what?”
“Then I’ll put my life on the line.”
Su Mengyao answered without hesitation.
“No matter what, I will never let White Snow get hurt.”
After saying that, she realized White Snow had been staring at her.
The girl was lying on the bed, propping her cheeks with both hands, watching her intently.
Those sky-blue eyes reflected the light of the desk lamp, and also reflected something else—Su Mengyao dared not look closely.
“Wh… what’s wrong.”
She turned her head away, pretending to look at the still-playing TV show on the screen.
Seeing the girl’s shy expression, White Snow revealed a genuine smile.
‘What’s with that.’
‘Yao Yao is just lovesick, not a yandere at all.’
‘Come to think of it, Yao Yao was bullied by those bad guys for so long, and the only way she could think to resist was to jump into a river and commit suicide.’
‘What aggression could such a girl have?’
‘If someone really came to take me away, she’d probably just curl up under the covers and shed little pearls, then pretend nothing happened when I came back.’
‘Really, I was overthinking it…’
Hearing this, Su Mengyao turned and saw the bright, pure smile on White Snow’s face, and was stunned for a moment.
She didn’t know what this little loli was thinking.
She only knew that when White Snow smiled, her eyes seemed to hold an entire sky.
Not that dazzling, mesmerizing azure, but a lighter, softer color, like the first ray of brightness that slips through the curtain gap when you wake up in the early morning.
She silently made a vow in her heart.
‘No matter who.’
‘As long as they approach White Snow with ill intent. As long as they want to destroy this adorable sacredness.’
‘Then even if I become a demon, I will drag them to hell.’