After parting from her father, Ye Yiyi headed to the class gathering on the fifth floor. Elegant music floated like silk in warm amber light, and classmates clustered like small islands, laughing in soft ripples.

“Yiyi, over here!”

A clear voice rang like a bell. Ye Yiyi followed the sound and saw Li Muyan waving, so she walked over. Heads turned like sunflowers following the sun; the class beauty drew easy smiles. Her gentle manner had seeded good will, and greetings came like petals drifting in.

Three girls and one boy stood with Li Muyan. The girls weren’t at Ye Yiyi or Li Muyan’s level, but among ordinary folks they were still blossoms. The boy wore an offbeat orange dye job, bright as a tangerine at dusk. When Ye Yiyi approached, awe and a hungry heat flared in his eyes like sparks. He masked it fast, like a fire tucked under ash, and slipped away from the circle—he wouldn’t risk the queen bee’s ire.

“Yiyi-jie, you look stunning today!”

“Yeah, Yiyi-jie, you’re gorgeous.”

Two of the girls beamed like lanterns. Ye Yiyi answered with a small smile, soft as rain.

“Oh? Then tell me—who’s prettier, me or her?”

Li Muyan cut in, a sly edge like a knife wrapped in silk. Her look fell on the three girls like a shadow. Cold sweat beaded on their foreheads like dew; their voices tangled and stalled. At school, they ran pranks with Li Muyan and took her as their leader, so they didn’t dare anger her. Yet saying Ye Yiyi was less beautiful felt like stepping on a rake. Their tongues knotted.

“Alright, drop the pointless topic.”

Catching their struggle, Ye Yiyi eased the tension like a hand smoothing rumpled silk. The three girls exhaled as if a tight collar loosened and said with a sunny grin:

“Muyan-jie, let’s keep drinking. Look, there’s plenty left.”

Li Muyan didn’t press. She wasn’t after a verdict, only a mood. She lifted her glass and sent Ye Yiyi a look weighted like a pebble dropped in a pond. Ye Yiyi’s heart thumped like a misplayed note; she could feel Li Muyan brewing mischief.

The party ran past three in the afternoon. Li Muyan had called it to let everyone talk before school started—the kind of thoughts trapped in classrooms flowed freer under mellow light. After two glasses of red wine, Ye Yiyi offered a few polite farewells and planned to leave. She was gentle but not talkative, and the conversation with her father still clouded her mind like a lingering mist, dulling her mood.

“Muyan, I’m going to rest. You have fun.”

“Mm? Okay. Head upstairs first. I’ll come find you. Wash up nice and wait for me, okay?”

Her grin curled, a fox’s tail flicking. She knew her best friend was low and tossed teasing in like sugar to bitter tea.

Ye Yiyi rolled her eyes like a breeze swaying curtains and left.

On the eleventh floor, Tang Coco had cleaned most of the hallway. Since turning into a girl, her stamina had thinned like watered wine.

Seriously, this body’s too weak. A bit of work, and I’m wiped.

She leaned against the wall to catch her breath, chest rising like a slow tide. The elevator chimed at the far end, a bright ping cutting the quiet. A beauty stepped out as if from a cloud. White dress flowing like moonlight, long legs graceful as cranes, features fine enough to stop a heartbeat—Tang Coco’s gaze snagged like a fish on a line. He’d had beauties around him before; Xin’er outshone even this white-dress fairy by a shade. Yet the sight still tugged Xin’er’s name from her mind like a silk thread.

The beauty noticed and looked back. Tang Coco dropped her eyes, mask hiding half her face like a veil. The woman who exited was Ye Yiyi. She glanced at the cleaner leaning on the wall with a mop in hand. Mask plus big glasses turned the face into fog, and with Tang Coco’s head lowered, it stayed unreadable. Curiosity flickered like a candle in Ye Yiyi’s eyes, but respect settled like a quiet stone. She withdrew her gaze and slipped into Room 1113.

Tang Coco’s heart didn’t settle. A sigh flowed out under the mask like wind through reeds.

What a joke… look at me now. Heaven loves its tricks.

She cut off the thought and returned to the work, mop whispering across tile like water over rock.

At the party, Li Muyan had drunk plenty. Warmth flushed her cheeks like rosy peaches, but she remembered her friend needing comfort. She said her goodbyes and staggered toward the guest rooms, steps swaying like reeds in wine-scented wind.

Tang Coco kept her head down, mopping toward the front corner. The elevator sat beyond a right turn at the hallway’s end, bright as a steel box in a cave. Li Muyan wobbled out of the elevator and headed along the corridor. Neither saw the other, minds misted with worry and fatigue, until they met at the corner and collided.

“Ah!”

“Ow!”

Two cries broke like snapped strings. Tang Coco’s tired body and Li Muyan’s sudden speed crossed like blades; Tang Coco went down hard. Li Muyan toppled with her, landing on top like a velvet hammer.

Alcohol scented the air like fermented fruit. Pain climbed Tang Coco’s back like a hot hand.

“Where’d this drunk come from, walking blind?”

Urgency stripped her disguise; a melodic voice dropped a rough line like a pebble into still water.

Li Muyan snapped to, temper sparking like flint.

Which idiot blocks my way and dares blame me?

She reared to explode, then lifted her gaze—and froze. She met eyes like clear lakes, a hint of blue swimming in them. A mask still covered the lower face, but skin around the eyes and forehead shone like translucent porcelain.

Tang Coco also got a good look.

Damn, another beauty—and a drunk one.

Wine had rouged Li Muyan’s cheeks like fresh petals. Paired with a scorching red dress, she looked dangerously tempting, a flame in silk.

Tang Coco cooled, anger melting like frost in sun. She had missed the approach; since her change, her alertness had dulled like a blunt knife.

Huh? Why’s this beauty staring at me?

The woman stared, unmoving, her gaze a pinned butterfly. A prickle ran over Tang Coco’s face like ants.

Damn—my glasses. Where are they?

She felt the absence like a bare branch.

Not good. I’ve been seen.

She shoved the stunned Li Muyan aside with a swift push, grabbed the fallen glasses, snatched up the mop, and turned to bolt like a startled deer.

“Stop!”

A sharp voice cut from behind, hard as a whip crack.