(1)
Raindrops pattered, falling from the bare branches.
An Jing quietly stayed in the classroom, all alone.
Two days without classes, the air seemed to have become much heavier.
She just opened the window a little, and the wind, like it was coming for a party, whirled and danced around the classroom.
Thinking about wetting the bed that morning, her small face couldn’t help but turn red.
When Yu Mingfei helped her strip the bedsheet and duvet cover, she exaggerated loudly.
And Yu Minghui, with a furrowed brow, was considering whether to give her some American ginseng.
“Wetting the bed can also be considered kidney deficiency… Seriously… Adults just love to blame everything on kidney deficiency.”
An Jing pouted dismissively, “If entering other people’s dreams counts as a superpower, then shouldn’t this be considered a side effect…?”
The side effect of a superpower is not being able to hold your pee.
This superpower doesn’t feel proper at all…
She sighed faintly, propping her small face up and looking out the window, lost in thought.
“Will it snow this winter?”
The last time it snowed was in her first year of junior high. Now she was in her third year.
“Time seems to pass so quickly…”
For adults, two or three years might not feel like much, but for An Jing, who was only fifteen this year, three years had already taken up one-fifth of her life.
“Ach-choo!!”
The tightly closed classroom door suddenly pushed open.
Along with the stronger wind, there was also Zhu Ying, whose nose was a little red.
The baby-faced girl covered her mouth and sneezed several times, tears and snot streaming out, making her fumbling for a tissue look a bit clumsy.
The classroom door slammed shut with a “bang” from the wind.
Zhu Ying then walked around the back of the classroom and threw the wadded-up tissue into the large trash can.
Even though they had just been together at home, meeting in the classroom now, for some reason, felt a little shy.
“Ahem…”
Zhu Ying cleared her throat and vigorously rubbed An Jing’s head, “Move over~”
“So early today,” An Jing looked up at her, and also coughed loudly.
Just now, her chest had brushed past her nose.
It felt like she had touched something soft, and it carried a faint milky scent…
“I woke up around three, and didn’t really fall back asleep after that.”
Zhu Ying covered her mouth and let out a big yawn, “Whew… So sleepy.”
“Insomnia?”
“Not really… Uh… I dreamt of you yesterday, in my dream.”
“Cough!”
“But, it was you as a boy.”
Zhu Ying smiled lightly as she set her backpack down, “Maybe I already liked you when you were a boy?”
An Jing awkwardly scratched her head.
She felt as if her dream-entering action yesterday had given Zhu Ying a bit of a psychological hint.
In reality, when she was a boy, she was so ordinary that Zhu Ying wouldn’t have even noticed her.
“When you were in elementary school, you were a very righteous person, right?”
“Yeah…”
Zhu Ying nodded gently, taking out assignments one by one from her backpack, “No wonder I had such a dream. It really is like your style.”
“Ha, haha…”
An Jing laughed awkwardly, but she was more curious about what the dream’s ending would be if she hadn’t appeared in it.
Would Zhu Ying herself beat down those hooligans, or would she just wake up from the dream in a fright?
There was no way she would dream of a dazzling boy-An Jing appearing to save her.
An Jing touched her forehead, a wry smile involuntarily appearing on her lips – she knew very well that what Zhu Ying liked was probably just her as a cute girl…
“Why the sigh?”
“It’s nothing…”
“Oh, by the way, did you bring panty liners and sanitary pads today?”
“Uh… I… I brought them…”
As she said this, An Jing immediately felt like she didn’t know where to put her hands.
Yu Mingfei had forced them into her backpack that morning.
If other boys found out that she, a ‘big man,’ had these things in her backpack, it would probably spread throughout the school within three days…
Everyone would definitely think she was a pervert!
Although no one would casually go through her backpack, just the one in ten thousand chance kept her heart anxious.
“Did you put one on?”
“Panty liner… Sister Huihui taught me.”
“How does it feel?”
Zhu Ying blinked with a smile.
“Uh… It feels a bit uncomfortable… Strange.”
An Jing said softly, unconsciously clenching her legs, “Is it always this much trouble for girls?”
“If you don’t want to make a fool of yourself, you have to be careful.”
“Sigh.”
An Jing sighed, “Being a woman is really not easy.”
“Yes, it is,” Zhu Ying smiled, “But there are also many places where we’re treated preferentially.”
Perhaps this world exists in such a dynamic balance.
An Jing poked her forehead with her finger, then saw Zhu Ying take out a brightly colored comic book from her own backpack.
On the page, a girl in a Japanese school uniform grabbed another boy by the collar.
The girl’s expression looked confident with a hint of arrogance, while the boy’s expression was flustered and shy.
“Ahem!”
Seemingly sensing An Jing peeking, Zhu Ying coughed loudly, a little embarrassed, “What are you doing? Do you want to read it?”
“You’re always so mysterious, what is it exactly? Is it… manga? Do girls read that kind of thing too?”
Zhu Ying’s baby-fat face was flushed, as pink and fresh as a newly picked apple, “Of, of course! Do only boys get to read them?”
“Hmm—”
“Here, take this one and read it slowly.”
She said, taking another manga out of her backpack and mysteriously slipping it into An Jing’s desk drawer.
“Don’t let anyone see it! Even if they do, don’t say I gave it to you!”
“Hmph, it’s not like I haven’t seen this kind of thing before. You really think I’m a three-year-old!”
An Jing snorted lightly, confidently opening the manga.
The manga told a campus story.
At the beginning of the story, everything seemed quite normal; just a romance between a girl and a boy!
The art was quite detailed, and the female lead was very pretty.
But after only a few pages, the story went off the rails.
An Jing’s eyes widened, and she flipped back to look again.
She didn’t even notice when the male lead put on that choker.
The further she flipped back, the more the plot seemed like a runaway train, spiraling out of control.
The male lead became the female lead’s “pet dog,” constantly acting out his play.
By the end, the two finally got married, but the male lead still wore the choker under his wedding dress, and it wasn’t removed even when he was hammered by the quilt, held in the female lead’s hand.
An Jing’s eyelids twitched.
There were no explicit scenes in this manga, yet her mind was greatly impacted.
Not because her worldview dictated that two people in love should have equal status, but because how could one person have such a strong weakness?
That was simply unacceptable!
It made her feel physically uncomfortable.
“Finished…”
“Was it that fast?”
“…Do you only read this kind of thing?”
“Hey, that’s just an entry-level one.”
“Entry? Entry-level?”
“Oh… are you opening up? Zhu Ying stretched out her small hand and patted An Jing’s arm, ‘Manga is just drawings, just for looking, it won’t make you do anything.'”
“…Hmm—” An Jing quietly pulled at the goosebumps on her arm, ‘Grandma always said, pretty girls can be scary…'”
“What’s scary about it? There are even manga where boys are with boys.”
“Hmm—” “I’m not into that kind of thing, don’t worry.”
“…An Jing tried to turn the topic back to ‘An Jing’ on the table. ‘Are all girls like this?'”
“It’s not that exaggerated.”
“It looks different…”
“Aren’t you worried about Little Jing becoming a little dog? The current situation is different from that.”
Zhu Ying said, rolling up the manga An Jing was still holding into the book.
But it seemed there wasn’t a set, but rather a large, exposed black collar.
She subconsciously lowered her head to look and saw a delicate black choker.
“Th-this is because—”
An Jing frantically tried to recall the book’s color, “I saw it in your store and thought it was pretty, so I bought it!”
“Wow! An Jing, right?”
She stood up and poked her, “You, too…!”
“Then… Little Jing, want to try it with me?”
“No! I’m not a dog, I’m a dove!!”
“No, no, it’s not like that. This kind of feeling is actually more of a loving thing, and there’s even a heart on it! It’s very cute, right?”
An Jing frantically pushed her chair back, her head hitting the corner of the wall with a painful yelp.
“See, see, it doesn’t look like you dislike it at all!”
This was clearly an act.
“Zhu Ying still loved little dogs, even her voice was slightly hesitant, but she was strong enough to clasp that kind of choker on her own shoulder, it’s… better…”
“Hmm… it seems…”
An Jing stammered, thinking that if that thing were to be on herself, she would immediately feel a shudder of revulsion.
Just then, she felt a warmth in her lower body, as if something had flowed out.
***
(2)
“Huh?!”
“What’s wrong?”
“It seems… it seems it’s here? Is this it? My stomach feels so cold…”
“It really is here!”
“Why… I didn’t want this… Ugh—so much, I can’t control it…”
Zhu Ying quickly pulled a bulging pack of ‘Whisper’ (a brand of sanitary pads) from her backpack and, without a moment’s hesitation, grabbed An Jing’s small hand: “Quick, come with me to the restroom!”
“Ah… ah!”
An Jing’s mind was a complete blank at this moment.
Her sisters had already taught her what to do.
But she just couldn’t remember anything.
As if she had lost her self-awareness, she instinctively allowed Zhu Ying to pull her towards the women’s restroom.
By the time she came to her senses, she was already standing inside a stall.
“Quick, quick, change it! The first time, the flow might be heavy!”
“Ah… ah?”
“Did you forget how to use it?”
“Ah—! H-how do I use it?”
Zhu Ying covered her burning cheeks with both hands, “You, you… you don’t expect me to help, help you change it, do you?”
Shy and stammering, Zhu Ying had a cuteness different from her usual self, making An Jing even forget that she was ‘hemorrhaging.’
She stared at Zhu Ying’s flushed little face, lost in thought.
She’s not gonna have a good time at all after this. I just hope An Jing doesn’t get too stressed the fuck out.