Chapter 56: The Secret That Cannot Be Told

(1)

The stray dogs were panting with their tongues out, wagging their bushy tails, and walking alongside An Jing and Zhu Ying.

Under the dim yellow light, the two standing opposite each other could barely see one another’s face.

“Ah!”

An Jing took a nervous step back, “You… you… are…”

Zhu Ying clearly didn’t want to hear her say it out loud and admit it.

She quickly walked toward a quiet residential area in the distance.

“Huh…?”

She was hesitating, but still bit her lip and followed.

The two walked silently for a while and entered an unguarded neighborhood.

The road was dimly lit with round streetlamps.

The neighborhood was somewhat chilly.

Not many houses had lights on.

When you looked up, you could even see a few scattered stars.

In one corner of the neighborhood, there was a basketball court enclosed by wire fencing, with a few old wooden benches just outside.

Zhu Ying sat down on one of the benches.

An Jing also sat down uneasily and followed.

She fiddled with her fingers, seemingly having a lot to say, but after a long silence, not a single word came out.

“That day… did you also see the meteorite?”

“You were also at… the beach that day?”

“Yeah.”

“Ah…”

An Jing suddenly let out a breath of relief.

She realized that the only person who had discovered her identity was Zhu Ying herself.

Just now, she even thought the others might have found out too, but just hadn’t said anything.

“What’s wrong?”

Zhu Ying, looking nervous, held her cheek and tilted her head with a smile.

“Cough… No, nothing… I’m okay… It’s just that, I didn’t expect you to also see the meteorite that day. So, you also got a piece of the meteorite?”

“I didn’t dare get close.”

“Look… this is the shard of the meteorite I got.”

An Jing took off the pendant she wore around her neck and pulled it out from her collar.

“This is it… Although it’s very likely the thing that caused me to turn into a girl, I still…”

“I don’t know how I can change back.”

Zhu Ying curiously looked at the shard of the meteorite, examining it from left to right, “It’s blue, looks like it’s glowing, so pretty.”

“Right… cough…”

An Jing scratched her head and let the pendant hang over her chest.

“So, you have superpowers too?”

“Do I actually have them or not… I’m not sure…”

“Huh?”

She took a deep breath, then smiled slightly and said to An Jing, “I can sometimes hear your inner voice. So I thought maybe you were like me.”

“—Huh?”

“In the beginning, I was suspicious too. I kept hearing another person’s voice in my head, echoing in my mind. I even thought I was going crazy.”

“And then…?”

“Then I started to see images. How should I put it… it’s not exactly seeing… it’s more like the images would suddenly appear in my mind.”

“Cough…!!”

An Jing panicked again, trying not to let her mind wander, but looking at Zhu Ying in front of her, she couldn’t help but think about the photos floating in Zhu Ying’s room, and then about the recurring dreams she’d been having lately…

How to explain it… there was a delicate girl dressed in semi-transparent white gauze, sitting on top of her… that smooth, flat belly, that tender skin, and…

Zhu Ying’s little face visibly flushed red in real time.

“Ahhh—I wasn’t thinking of anything like that!!”

“Mm… okay, maybe not.”

Zhu Ying covered her flushed cheeks with both hands, “So yeah, I just sometimes can tell what you’re thinking. Not all the time. Sometimes I go a whole day and can’t sense anything… mm…”

An Jing felt like she was someone running down the street naked.

Everyone has a “demon” hidden inside, but most people go their whole lives without showing it.

But now, in front of Zhu Ying, she had almost no secrets left…

“It took me a few days to finally understand—that thing you were thinking about.”

“Ah… and then you…”

“And then I tested to see if it was true.”

“So… so… you, you… saw… everything?”

“Everything… saw it? Hmm… probably not.”

“Wow, seeing even half was terrifying enough! Don’t misunderstand—it’s just what your heart imagined, not mine!”

Zhu Ying narrowed her eyes with a sly smile, “You think I can’t read your thoughts, but I can pretty much guess what you’re thinking, right? Most people’s reactions to me, I actually know quite clearly.”

“Ah…”

“That day when I saw you at the movie theater entrance, I already had a strange feeling. Then, when I saw you again later, you looked completely different. I started to wonder: if I recognize you, and you look like that, then… do you not usually look like that?”

“And no one else acted like there was anything strange…”

“Yeah, everyone acted really normal, like you’ve always looked like that.”

“Then you knew… what I was thinking?”

“I knew a lot.”

Zhu Ying looked smugly at An Jing and lightly tapped her own chest.

“Since you have superpowers, why not try seeing what I’m thinking?”

“You—you should just tell me directly…”

“But it’s too much. Wouldn’t it be easier if you just looked directly?”

“No, don’t. I won’t use my powers recklessly!”

“Sigh…”

“And if I accidentally see inside someone’s heart, I might stumble upon their secrets. Everyone has secrets. Peeking like that… is really not good…”

“But I can’t control whether I see or hear it…”

“Ah, but you and I are different… and it’s weird, why can I only hear you?”

“I’m really curious too,” Zhu Ying leaned in closer, “Aside from both of us seeing the meteorite that fell… didn’t you not have any special powers before?”


An Jing panicked and leaned back, “I—I don’t know! Maybe you just picked me randomly, and that’s why! And—and besides! Heroes help those in need!”

“Actually, I already knew a lot about you. That’s why I knew you were the one who helped me that day, even though you tripped and fell.”

“Well, yeah, I was just… acting a bit impulsively.”

“Honestly… I was kind of unreasonably mad.”

“Huh? What were you mad about?”

“It’s nothing.”

Zhu Ying smiled and shook her head.

She stood up slowly with help from the back of the bench.

“Today’s birthday… a really special experience, and also very… ah!”

Just as she was smiling, Zhu Ying suddenly stumbled forward and fell into An Jing’s arms.

She instinctively reached out to support herself, and happened to touch the faintly glowing blue meteorite shard.

The shard began to warm slightly, and the light radiating from Zhu Ying also grew stronger.

“Ah… your eyes…”

“Wh-what’s wrong…?”

“They’re turning golden… they’re glowing.”

An Jing recalled what that big sister had said that day.

This might be the outward sign of a power awakening.

The next second, she felt countless voices rushing into her mind.

At that moment, no words were needed—An Jing could fully “hear” what Zhu Ying was thinking.

“The shard… it’s glowing brighter and brighter…”

“Her eyes… so beautiful.”

Their bodies froze for a second, because at that moment, their minds became one.

And their thoughts were no longer confined to the present.

Their thoughts surged like cars on a highway, flying ahead—thoughts about each other, memories, doubts, worries…

They saw and heard so much that they completely forgot what they were originally trying to do.

“Wow, I actually ended up in the same class as Zhu Ying. Fang Qiang, that little guy, so lucky, sitting right next to her…”

“Hmm… I remembered everyone’s names. Just walked past—is that An Jing? Such a cute name, but she looks so average…”

“So this is what they call infatuation? The first time I saw her in real life, she was so cute. Honestly, I approached Fang Qiang just to get closer to her. I knew it was impossible for us to be together directly, but if I got close to her naturally…”

So much… maybe if I had gone the wrong way, I would’ve ended up becoming her instead…

“An Jing? She’s gotten a lot prettier and more delicate.”

“Hehe, maybe I really can get the two of them together. I’m going to sleep well tonight! If I become my little brother’s girlfriend, I can’t let her show up in my dreams anymore!”

“Huh… so that boy from elementary school was him…? His inner thoughts are surprisingly cute. Hmm… should I make a note of this?”

All those chaotic thoughts Zhu Ying had once had were now flooding into An Jing’s mind, overwhelming her.

“Why can I hear his voice…?”

“I absolutely can’t let him see the real me!”

“No no no, that’s not right—Zhu Ying, you barely know him!”

“Huh? He turned into a girl? When did that happen? And he’s still worried about getting found out…”


“Wha… wants to talk to me…? Aww… that’s such a cute thought. Chat… that’s fine, right? Hmm… but he hasn’t sent me a message yet?”

“Why didn’t she come all of a sudden? I can’t hear her voice anymore. What is she thinking? We had clearly agreed to meet…”

“Spending a birthday alone… Why am I thinking about her…?”

“I don’t want to go home. Can I stay here until dawn? Will someone suddenly show up to surprise me for my birthday? If that happens, I’ll go home…”

“She’s about to tell me her secret?? She… trusts me? Then shouldn’t I trust her too?”

“What! She didn’t even say the most important thing!”

“She’s going to sneak off to buy a cake—no way, no blushing allowed!”

“Zhu Ying, do you like girls or boys? Which is it?”

“I—I said it by accident… What do I do… She must be so embarrassed now…”

Those chaotic memories scattered like waves crashing back to the sea.

An Jing’s eyes also returned to their original deep brown.

Both of their faces were flushed red, as if they could drip water.

“C-Can you get up now? Y-You’ve been pressing on me…”

“Did… did you see everything just now?”

“I-I saw a lot…”

An Jing turned her head away in panic.

“Ah… but… I… I didn’t mean to look at it!”

Zhu Ying bit her lip in annoyance, “You, you, you forget about it…”

“I’ll try my best to forget… Then, that, can you get up? You, you’ve been pressing down…”

A quiet voice with a sob, “It’s, it’s going to leak out!”