“What are you doing? This is a school!”

Shock flared like a struck match, then Tang Coco saw two girls lunging at her like birds diving. She spun and dashed for the door, heart pounding like a drum.

The handle bit cold like iron in winter; the lock wouldn’t budge. That senior had planned it, the way a hunter sets a snare.

Hands clamped her arms like vines on a wall, trying to press her down. Their strength was solid, trained, like stone under flowing water.

Tang Coco wouldn’t yield like a withering reed. She jerked hard, snapped free, and thrust forward like a gust through bamboo.

The two parted to either side like fish splitting in a stream; her push struck empty air.

“Damn it!”

One hooked a foot like a root catching an ankle. Back when she was Tang Ke, these little tricks were fireflies in daylight—impossible to miss. Now she was dulled, like a blade gone soft.

Her balance broke like a wave on rock, and she tumbled onto the sofa, cushions swallowing her like moss.

Both girls surged in, swift as cats. One sat across her legs like a sandbag; the other pinned both wrists above her head like crossed branches.

She fought, breath hot as steam, but this body was fragile as spring paper. Against two girls with martial footing, she couldn’t shake free.

“Hey! Let me go! This is school! Do you even know what you’re doing?”

Her shout snapped like thunder in a closed room.

“Relax. No one comes to the fifth floor at this hour,” came Xu Yinuo’s voice, calm as a still pond. “Our Arts Club office has special soundproofing for rehearsals. You can scream, and it’ll be snow on glass—no sound gets out.”

Xu Yinuo rose from her chair and strolled over, looking down like a moon over water. Tang Coco saw the easy smile and felt anger rise like flames under oil.

“Xu Yinuo! What do you want? Tell them to let me go!”

“I’m just curious,” she said, breezy as a spring wind. “If you won’t cooperate, that’s that. Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you. No need to bare your fangs.”

She put on a tiny, frightened face like a kitten, then crouched in front of Tang Coco.

No escape now; the thought dropped cold as sleet. How did she figure it out?

Xu Yinuo’s hands were pale and clean, moving like swans. She eased off Tang Coco’s heavy glasses, that shield she wore like a mask.

“So it’s this trick. Heh.”

She straightened and walked into the restroom, the office sleek as a private lounge, with its own restroom and little changing room like hidden alcoves.

Soon she returned with a damp towel, water glinting like dew. Tang Coco knew exactly what was coming, and dread pooled like ink.

“Hey! Don’t mess around, or I won’t let this slide.”

She strained one last time, but the two strong girls held firm like stakes in the ground. Bitter humor pricked her chest: even after the change, she wasn’t some helpless pushover.

“Come on, how would I mess around?” Xu Yinuo’s tone was sugar over ice. “I’m just wiping the dirt off your face.”

“You—”

“Close your mouth, or it’ll drip inside.”

She ignored Tang Coco’s struggle. The towel moved slow and sure, circles like clouds drifting. Minutes stretched thin as taffy—nearly twenty of them.

Curiosity on Xu Yinuo’s face tilted into surprise like a curtain lifting, then into shock, as if she’d opened a door and found a garden. When she finished, she stared at the most beautiful girl she’d ever seen—features fine as carved jade, eyes a pale blue like morning frost, and in her brows a flicker of shy anger like a red tassel.

Xu Yinuo went mute, breath caught like a bird in a net. Even the two girls pinning her went wide-eyed, stunned as statues.

At last Xu Yinuo found her voice.

“Now I get why Ye Yiyi suddenly ‘found a distant cousin.’ It’s the old gilded-room trick—hide the beauty at home.”

“Happy now?”

Tang Coco’s words were sharp as a snapped twig.

“Ah, little beauty, don’t be mad,” Xu Yinuo cooed, smile bright as lacquer. “I was just curious. So why hide your face? Did Ye Yiyi tell you to do it?”

“My business isn’t yours. Will you let me go?”

“Of course. Hehe. Sorry about earlier, little sis.”

She signaled, and the two girls released her. Tang Coco sat up, fingertips brushing her cheeks like petals; they were clean, polished like porcelain.

“So, heading back to class?” Xu Yinuo settled beside her, eyes drinking in that face like cool tea.

“Back? You think I should show up like this?”

The memory of what they’d done burned like chili. Her voice snapped.

“I think it’s perfect.”

Tang Coco shot her a look, eyes like cold stars, and her mind spat a single spark: Screw you.

Xu Yinuo only found that anger cute, like a cat puffing up.

“Alright. I’ll go call Ye Yiyi. Wait here.”

She slipped out of the office like a shadow. Tang Coco faced the two girls, their gazes heavy as stones, and sighed.

“You two… practice martial arts?”

“Uh… we’re in the school Martial Arts Club.”

One spoke up, voice timid as a sparrow.

“Um, we’re really sorry about earlier, we…”

The other started in, guilt hanging like rain. Tang Coco heard the intent and cut it off with a tired breath.

“Forget it. Don’t say it. It’s not all on you.”

In Ye Yiyi’s classroom, she sat reading, calm as a lake. Li Muyan had wandered off who knows where.

Xu Yinuo walked up to Ye Yiyi’s desk. Ye Yiyi lowered her book like a curtain.

“Do you need something?”

“Come to my Arts Club office.”

“Is it important? If not, I’m reading.”

She didn’t want to go, her tone cool as shade.

Xu Yinuo leaned in, voice soft as silk at Ye Yiyi’s ear.

“That pretty… what was it? Oh. Your distant cousin’s there. Aren’t you going to check?”

Ye Yiyi slammed the book down with a sharp smack, anger flaring like lightning.

“You! What did you do to her?”

“Hey, hey, relax. She’s fine at my place. You’ll see.”

Xu Yinuo lifted both hands, innocent as a dove.

Ye Yiyi ignored her, stood, and strode for the fifth floor, feet quick as rain.