(1)
A cool breeze brushed An Jing’s somewhat flushed face.
Downstairs, the chaotic sounds of music and human voices intertwined.
On the metal outdoor staircase, footsteps echoed as others went up and down…
The events of last night were still fresh in her memory.
And for some reason, even though only one night had passed, the girl in front of her seemed to have become even more beautiful.
Her rosy cheeks were like apples, subtly emitting a sweet scent.
“Ah, Zhu Zhu—”
An Jing hadn’t even finished her greeting when she saw Zhu Ying reach out and place something on her head.
“Huh? What is it?”
Zhu Ying playfully shook a small plastic box in her hand.
Inside, neatly stacked, were several blue hair clips.
The hair clips had no patterns and looked very plain, but their color was exceptionally beautiful, somewhat resembling An Jing’s meteorite fragment.
It was clear that despite its simple design, it probably wasn’t cheap.
“Yes, I saw them on the way. Girls always need hair clips, right? Otherwise, your hair gets messy easily.”
“I’m not, I’m a man!”
“Well, you are now.”
An Jing irritably took off the hair clip.
It caught a few strands of hair, making her wince in pain.
“Ugh… Who wants this?!”
“I already gave them to you anyway.”
Zhu Ying shoved the box into her hand without explanation.
“Aren’t you going to let me in?”
“Who is it, Xiaojing?”
Yu Minghui’s voice came from the kitchen.
“Heh… Your relationship is pretty good… How far have you two gone?”
Yu Mingfei teased. Zhu Ying blinked her watery eyes.
“I saw what I should have seen, and what I shouldn’t have seen.”
“Huh? Hey, you little rascal, did you really…?”
“I didn’t!!”
“Anyway, come on in, okay?”
Yu Minghui said with a suppressed smile.
Today’s homework hadn’t even started, and a huge “problem” had already arrived…
On the dining table, there was a fruit platter and a plate of local specialty pastries.
These pastries could be bought everywhere in this small city, but almost nowhere else.
Of course, there was a reason for that. Because the local pastries were too sweet.
If they were to improve them, they would have to change the ingredients, which would make them lose their local character.
In An Jing’s memory, after leaving her hometown village and coming to the city, she never ate those local pastries again because all sorts of snacks from all over the country and even the world could be bought in various stores, and they tasted much, much better.
So An Jing also couldn’t understand why adults always said that hometown pastries were delicious, buying a pile every Chinese New Year, and then looking surprised while eating them, saying, “This is the taste!”—they weren’t delicious at all!
Her gaze swept over the jiaobingtong, glutinous rice cakes, brown sugar rice flower candy, and brown sugar mácà on the plate, finally using a toothpick to pick up a slice of apple and put it in her mouth.
“Hmm, so, hurry up, spill it, what exactly happened? You little rascal, did you sneak into someone’s bathroom and peek while they were showering? Or has something already happened between you two? Hey, hey, you can’t be responsible in your current state!”
“Speak slowly, don’t rush. We sisters have also been through that age.”
Yu Minghui said earnestly.
“We know very well about things during puberty. This is when you’re most interested in matters between men and women.”
Zhu Ying rested her chin on her hand, poked a grape with a toothpick, and said lightly, “I know An Jing became a girl.”
The room instantly became incredibly quiet.
The toothpick in Yu Mingfei’s hand dropped directly onto the table.
After a brief silence, she widened her eyes and looked at An Jing, “You told her about this?”
“N-no! I didn’t say anything!”
“Then what happened?”
“Feifei, don’t always be so impatient,” Yu Minghui pressed down on Yu Mingfei’s shoulder.
“Just listen first.”
“Ahem… uh… anyway, it’s… ah… very complicated.”
“Hey, you didn’t say anything at all!”
“Shall I explain?”
Zhu Ying looked seriously at her two older cousins.
“Not only do I know she became a girl, but I also know she has the superpower to read other people’s thoughts.”
“You know this too?”
Yu Mingfei looked shocked.
“I know because… I can occasionally see her memories, and… hear her thoughts at the time, though it’s only occasionally.”
“Wow, you have superpowers too?”
“But it only works on her, isn’t that strange?”
“It’s fate…”
“Sister Fei, you, you shouldn’t talk nonsense!”
“It was influenced by the meteorite.”
Zhu Ying finally stopped joking.
“Because we both saw the meteorite fall, that’s why we got connected.” “It’s fate…”
“Sister Fei, is that all you can say…?”
An Jing’s eyelids drooped.
“Then how did you two find out about each other? Did Xiaojing use mind-reading one day?”
“Yes, last night, she used mind-reading to see all of me…”
“I was passive! I don’t know how I just saw it… And I only saw fragments of memories!!”
“So, that’s how it is.”
“Because you’ve seen Xiaojing’s memories, you also know that her two older cousins know about this?”
Yu Minghui nodded gently.
“If we told our parents directly, they definitely wouldn’t believe us, and it would cause a lot of trouble. But some things do need to be told to adults. I think telling our sisters is the most appropriate.”
“Huh…? What’s there to tell…?”
An Jing completely disagreed.
“Because our sisters have definitely experienced more things than us, they’ll have advice for the current situation, right?!”
“They haven’t experienced anything like this…”
“But we have life experience, right Huihui!”
“Mm, you should consult us.”
“Consult about what…?”
An Jing pouted, her face as red as if she’d been in a sauna.
“No need to consult, I approve of this marriage!”
Yu Mingfei raised her hands high.
“The rarest thing in this world is people who know what each other is thinking! Besides, the rascal might turn back someday anyway.”
“Leaving aside whether Xiaojing will turn back, it’s completely irresponsible to casually encourage two girls to be together, you know?”
The older sister narrowed her eyes, and the second sister immediately shrank her neck.
“Hmph, then what do you suggest we do!”
“Anyway, let’s keep it a secret for now and not tell anyone else.”
Yu Minghui began to think seriously, her expression becoming stern.
“Although I know that children your age, when encountering such special things, will definitely feel it’s ‘destiny,’ and that being able to see into each other’s hearts makes you the most suitable people in the world—please, absolutely do not truly believe that.”
“I certainly don’t…”
An Jing mumbled, keeping her eyes straight ahead.
Zhu Ying rolled her eyes, then suddenly tilted her head and looked at her.
“These are all accidents that have tightly linked you two together. Now, you definitely have a special feeling for each other, but that’s not necessarily love.”
“Huh… Love is something that’s hard to explain,” Yu Mingfei pouted.
“Xiao Ying.”
“Sister Huihui?”
“If Xiaojing had always been that ordinary-looking boy, would you have had any deep interactions with ‘him’?”
“Hmm… He’s good at studying, so if we were desk mates, I might often ask him questions?”
“Aside from that, would you have had any other feelings?”
“I…”
Zhu Ying’s voice trailed off.
“I don’t know.”
***
(2)
“Your lives might not have intersected at all. Xiaojing would have been like a passing stranger in your life, forgotten after junior high graduation.”
Yu Minghui shook her head gently.
“He’s as insignificant as those other boys who secretly like you.”
Zhu Ying puffed out her cheeks.
“But because of an accident, your destinies became intertwined. That shared secret, that intimacy of glimpsing each other’s inner thoughts, is real.”
Yu Minghui’s icy expression melted slightly, replaced by a gentle smile.
“This feeling isn’t necessarily a lover’s emotion; it could be a close friend or something else. Some people are good as friends but not as lovers. Even if you know a lot about Xiaojing, you might not like her personality – and Xiaojing, you too, don’t let joy cloud your judgment, okay?”
“I’m not!”
An Jing yelled.
Zhu Ying blinked.
At this moment, she didn’t seem hurt at all.
“But no matter what, An Jing has become a special person to me, hasn’t she? Her voice often appears in my mind, and those memories – I can’t actively choose not to listen or not to see them.”
“So, just get married and be done with it!”
Yu Mingfei finally couldn’t hold back.
“Don’t listen to Huihui’s nonsense. If you like each other, be together; if you don’t, separate. It’s that simple! Such a special situation is a once-in-a-millennium opportunity. A meeting of minds—so many people yearn for that! You’ll regret it if you don’t try!”
“But if we break up, it’ll hurt a lot…”
“Absolutely no way you’ll break up, I’ll bet my year-end bonus on it!”
Yu Mingfei said with certainty.
“And what if it hurts? People can’t always hide in a safe place just because they’re afraid of getting hurt, can they? Getting hurt is normal! Like when we were kids, we often fell, got scratched, got burned, but so what? We still ran and jumped boldly!”
“Feifei…”
Yu Minghui sounded a bit helpless.
“So, from today onwards, I’m your girlfriend. Please take care of me~”
“Huh? Hey, hey, hey?! Didn’t you hear what Sister Huihui just said?”
“Sorry~ I only heard what Sister Feifei said~”
That quick?!