Winter has come. Can spring be far behind?
After the concert, Gu Xue still thought of that morning when she pushed open the door.
She had been completely unguarded, opening it without a second thought. If she could be given another chance, she would definitely knock politely a few more times, waiting until someone opened the door from inside.
But there are no ifs.
When she looked again at the scene before her, two beautiful women lay entwined on the bed, their sleepwear half in disarray, maintaining a tangled, intimate posture.
Light dust filtered through the translucent gauze curtains, scattering a layer of golden shimmer across their angelic faces. Their crystal-bright eyelashes trembled slightly, and someone let out a muffled, sleepy sound.
Su Yaqing frowned. Her waist ached dully, sore and painful, and her eyelids were dragged down by exhaustion, unable to open.
Covering her waist, she propped herself up on the bed board, then bared her teeth and lay back down again.
She sucked in a sharp breath and hazily realized that she had fallen asleep last night before finishing what she was supposed to do.
‘Xiaojue must have already left by now.’
Thinking of Lin Xiaojue’s disgust from the night before, Su Yaqing tugged at the corner of her mouth. The slap mark on her face still burned hot with pain.
‘You are really disgusting.’
Those words, mixed with the girl’s blurred, tear-filled eyes, replayed in her mind.
Along with the sweetness of their everyday moments, along with the trust and friendship she had spent years building, everything had been reduced to ashes by her moment of impulsiveness.
Su Yaqing did not know, and could not understand, what had been wrong with her back then.
She had not apologized. Instead, she had immediately tried to provoke her lover.
Even though she knew she was in the wrong, she still licked her lips, curved her mouth, and said words so embarrassing they made one’s skin crawl.
Like a maddened residual beast, she had been stripped of reason, left with nothing but the desire to vent, hollow and terrifying.
After sleeping for a night, perhaps because she had been too tired lately, Su Yaqing felt an unprecedented sense of fullness and clarity, as if she had reached a great enlightenment.
She felt she could view everything with objective rationality.
If she were sent to attend a shareholders’ meeting right now, she could probably make those old men swallow their anger whole.
But all of that had already been handed back to her parents to manage.
Right now, she only wanted to properly accompany the lover who had returned her expectations.
So then, where was that lover?
Her delicate nose twitched as Su Yaqing sniffed the air. A faint gardenia scent lingered around her, along with a certain sweet fragrance.
It was beautiful and clear, like a young girl in early spring standing beneath a cherry blossom tree, smiling brightly amid drifting petals.
She wore a beret, her cherry-pink and pearly-white soft long hair fluttering in the wind.
Cherry blossoms rose and fell, and she lifted a strand of hair, tucking it behind her ear. Her golden eyes widened slightly, rippling with a moving brilliance.
Doll-like in her exquisite beauty.
‘So badly want to pull her into my arms, pinch her cheeks, watch her beg with watery eyes, her mouth making soft, sweet sounds.’
‘Turning her head stubbornly to refuse, yet unconsciously pressing her warm, soft body closer.’
“Ha—”
The two people awake in the room inhaled sharply at the same time.
Reading Su Yaqing’s inner thoughts, Gu Xue could not help but take several steps back. What she had seen today made her once-familiar childhood friend feel both familiar and utterly strange.
Letting go of the door handle and ignoring Su Yaqing’s gaze, she fled.
Down in the living room, Gu Xue sat on the sofa and unboxed the helmet she had bought for Lin Xiaojue, setting it aside. Her movements were quick, with almost no hesitation, yet her hands trembled nonstop.
Staring into the helmet’s visor, Gu Xue looked at herself shrouded in darkness and fell into deep thought.
She was dating someone. With the person she admired. And they were holding each other.
The senior she admired and the friend she cherished were together.
How nice.
And yet, something precious felt as if it had been gouged out of her heart.
She could not describe the feeling. It was cold, icy. She wanted to offer her blessings, but did not know where to begin. Her throat was silently strangled, unable to produce even a sound.
She remembered her childhood with Su Yaqing.
The first time she had gotten lost outside, Su Yaqing searched street after street. There were no familiar signs, no familiar buildings.
Strangers around her stared with curious eyes. When she thought she would never make it home and broke down crying to herself—
A beautiful Great Lady, like a princess, stepped out of a car. Her pale wrist reached out and took Gu Xue’s hand, a bright, captivating smile on her face.
“Come to my house.”
The noble princess tilted her head, radiating sunlight-like warmth. Under a cloudless, clear sky, Gu Xue met Su Yaqing.
After that—
Lead-gray clouds covered the sky, and daylight dimmed.
Torrential rain fell without end. Sirens wailed across the heavens. Rainwater soaked her face, blood blurred her vision.
Reeking monsters writhed across the ruins. Panicked crowds were swept away by thick tentacles, leaving no bodies behind.
‘Everyone… was eaten.’
She clenched her hand. In her palm was only gray dust. A massive worm-like creature slithered toward her over broken stones.
It opened its maw, and the stench of blood rushed out from a mouth full of suckers and fangs.
Perhaps because she was the final course, it took its time with interest.
The magical girls who had come as support earlier were already unconscious. At this very moment, only despair awaited her.
She lifted her face. Sheets of rain blocked out the sky. Wetness clung to her clothes, and a cold dampness spread through her body.
Death was only an instant away. Maybe if she closed her eyes, she could see her parents again.
The family who had left to save her.
The stench drew closer. A scorching warmth suddenly covered her head. Gu Xue’s heart pounded wildly. She did not want to die, but there was nowhere to run.
“Boom.”
In the next moment, a rainbow beam lit up her vision.
When she opened her eyes again, the monster had vanished amid an ear-splitting roar, not even ashes left behind.
“Sorry. I am late.”
A white-haired girl in a silver-white dress landed beside her. As the hem of her skirt fluttered, the scent of gardenia spread from her.
So beautiful…
That was Gu Xue’s first thought.
She was spotless, descending under the light of the sky with a halo on her back, noble and mysterious.
“My name is Tianyu.”
She extended her hand toward Gu Xue.
Then withdrew it.
“Senior is in Yaqing’s arms…”
She was sleeping soundly and sweetly. She must have experienced something very happy last night.
Surely happier than when she was by Gu Xue’s side.
She wanted to become stronger, wanted to appear mature in front of her senior, but in the end she still tore off—
That utterly useless veil.
“Gu Xue!”
Gu Xue turned her head in shock. Su Yaqing was holding the stair railing, limping her way downstairs.
Her long, delicate white legs trembled visibly. Looking up along her thighs, the two full curves on her chest rose and fell together.
Above that was a mature, charming face.
Gu Xue let out a dazed “ah.” Compared to Su Yaqing, her own looks seemed young and frail.
Her wild-grass-like dark green short hair had not been properly trimmed either, truly growing in chaotic disorder like weeds.
In her senior’s eyes, she must look very sloppy.
“What are you thinking about?”
A heavy weight settled on her shoulder. That hand was very soft, yet light, with no pressure at all. It seemed its owner was in quite a good mood.
“Nothing…”
Gu Xue lowered her head in silence.
“Is that so? Then let us tidy up and hurry to pick up Xia, shall we?”
Her voice sounded far more mature than Gu Xue’s, and her words carried an unquestionable authority. As expected of a Great Lady.
“Okay.”
Suddenly, a humble darkness enveloped Gu Xue.
She glanced at herself reflected in the helmet.