After hanging up on Jiang Zilin, Yu Qing let out a soft sigh.
The faint pain in her lower abdomen still lingered, like a small knife slicing thin pieces of flesh from her body, causing the ease she felt just moments before to vanish once again.
She frowned and rubbed her stomach, then sighed helplessly, putting her phone back into her pocket and pulling the collar of her off-white windbreaker tighter to ward off the damp morning air.
Time waits for no one.
She’d already wasted quite a bit talking on the phone.
If she kept dawdling like this, the crisis she faced might pounce on her in the very next second.
She needed to find a place to finish her disguise.
And it had to be somewhere absolutely safe and private.
Yu Qing looked around, memorizing places with independent spaces where she could stay for a long time, then compared them one by one.
Her first thought was the public restroom, but after considering it carefully, she gave up on the idea.
Too risky. Not many people used the restroom in the morning, and with only one entrance and exit, if someone was watching her, she’d easily be discovered.
She needed a place with a more complex layout, multiple exits, and one that wasn’t easy to track.
After some thought, Yu Qing locked her sights on the library—or rather, the nearly abandoned storage room on the library’s top floor.
At the moment, old newspapers, broken tables and chairs, and various little items eliminated due to wear and tear were piled up there.
Some things could still be used, and with some searching, she might find useful tools.
It was the place she and Jiang Zilin had visited that day when they were searching for the smoke jet canister.
Only after cleaning up did they finally find the canister stuffed at the bottom of a box.
Later, to make it easier for Yu Qing to access materials, Jiang Zilin left the key with her, telling her to return it after the school anniversary.
She hadn’t expected it to come in handy now.
The storage room was very spacious.
Standing at the entrance, she could see all the exits on that floor.
If someone followed her, she’d spot them the moment they stepped onto the floor.
There were many exits, plus an elevator.
Anyone wanting to tail her would have a hard time.
Besides, the environment here was much cleaner than a restroom.
Though a bit dusty, it was better than muddy puddles and sewage.
Having decided on her destination, Yu Qing lowered her head and hurried off, trying not to attract attention.
After a day of preparations yesterday, the atmosphere of Anniversary Day had begun to spread across Jiangzhou University’s campus.
Colorful flags fluttered, and small banners dotted the roadside lawns.
Some club members had also gotten up early, rushing to claim spots and busying themselves with setting up booths or activity areas.
The noise drove away some of the gloom of the rainy day, but beneath the surface excitement, Yu Qing still sensed a hidden tension, as if countless eyes were watching her from the shadows.
She reached the library without issue, deliberately avoiding students returning to sleep after a night of studying, and silently took the emergency stairs up to the top floor.
The air was filled with the musty smell of old paper.
Yu Qing quickly found the storage room from her memory and stopped at the door.
She didn’t enter right away, but began carefully observing her surroundings, even lying at the stairway to scan the floor below, though it wasn’t very effective.
Then again, if a professional didn’t want to be found, there were countless ways to avoid detection.
All her precautions were just in case. If Junior Yi and the others were determined to track her, she probably had no way to fight back.
No.
Not exactly.
Yu Qing touched the collar in her backpack.
If she transformed into a gentle appearance, she could probably shake off her pursuers, at least for a while.
But the downside was, if she failed to bring down those two, her ability to transform would be directly exposed before them.
Forget it.
No point in overthinking.
She shook her head to clear her thoughts, fingers rubbing the exposed metal of the collar.
The cold touch snapped her back to reality.
The Black Pearl was currently embedded in the collar and couldn’t be removed for now.
Besides, Yu Qing couldn’t possibly walk around with a collar on her neck.
As for the backpack, she had no intention of carrying it.
She planned to lock it, along with her women’s clothing, inside the storage room.
After observing a bit longer and confirming no suspicious people appeared, Yu Qing entered the cluttered room and locked the door behind her.
Looking around, she saw a pile of dust-covered junk.
Even though it had been cleaned not long ago, dust had settled once again.
The lighting inside the storage room was dim.
Yu Qing walked to the wall, turned on the overhead bulb, and then dragged a broken table over to block the door.
Only then did she feel somewhat at ease.
After confirming the area was safe, Yu Qing sprang into action.
She opened the window for ventilation, grabbed a broom from the wall, and began clearing a space suitable for changing clothes.
In an instant, dust swirled everywhere.
Luckily, she’d opened the window and turned on the old fan in advance, letting the dust float outside.
After some effort, Yu Qing cleared out a space, tossed the broom aside, and pulled out a few usable chairs and tables from the pile.
She dusted them off, turning them into a makeshift vanity and stool.
But first, she had to change clothes.
Making sure there were no tiny cameras around, Yu Qing took off her windbreaker first.
The outside was covered in dust, so she spread it out on the table as a cushion for her other clothes.
Then she removed her dress, leggings, and over-the-knee socks, folding them neatly atop the windbreaker.
From her backpack, she pulled out the set of men’s clothes she’d brought that morning.
At a glance, it was a loose, white men’s sweatshirt and a pair of gray cotton wide-leg pants.
After putting them on, Yu Qing planned to start on her makeup.
Wait, no.
She needed to pack the clothes back into the bag and sit on the windbreaker instead.
After transforming so many times, Yu Qing had become a bit of a neat freak—not overly so, but enough not to want her female self to look bad in others’ eyes.
Folding the windbreaker into a rectangle to use as a seat cushion, she set a small square mirror from her backpack on the table with its stand, placed her makeup bag beside it, and began her final makeup work.
Thanks to her morning experience, Yu Qing worked much faster.
She blended foundation for a dull, sallow skin tone, then used an eyebrow pencil to dot fine, dense freckles across her nose and cheeks.
As for dark circles, she used darker concealer to outline them, making her look like she hadn’t slept in days.
Finally, she put on thick black-rimmed glasses and a messy mushroom-head wig.
The icy, beautiful girl in the mirror gradually disappeared, replaced by a quiet, introverted male student.
After carefully checking every detail, Yu Qing confirmed that even up close, her makeup would be hard to detect.
Any issues with her figure or skin were covered by the loose clothing she’d chosen, making it impossible to tell that this ordinary-looking boy was actually the famous Jiangzhou University school beauty, Fu Yi.
Now, she was just a completely average, unremarkable male student.
Youthful, plain, forgettable!
Feeling an odd surge of motivation, Yu Qing’s heart soon quieted. Staring at the boy in the mirror, she suddenly remembered her old self.
After everything she’d experienced, she’d become a full-fledged junior, yet still, because of the darkness in her heart, she’d disguised herself again as someone else.
Was this just her true nature showing?
Yu Qing smiled bitterly, but her expression hardened.
As long as she could succeed, what did it matter how dark her true nature was?
If she was the only Fu Yi, then no one could criticize her.
She gazed at her reflection for a long time before abruptly snapping the mirror shut, slipping the key into her pants pocket.
She took nothing else with her, tidied up briefly, and left the storage room.
Before everything began, she needed to confirm a few key locations.