She only stopped when her fists ran out of thunder.

Wen Quan still stood at the edge of her bed, face pale as frost on glass, the fright he’d dealt her still clinging like a cold mist.

Nana Toki’s brow tightened like a drawn bow; she turned and hammered Wen Xuntian again, a sudden squall of knuckles and breath. Motherf—er, you dared scare my wife; if this plants a shadow so she won’t brave the bathroom alone at night, then what?

“Classmate Lu... that’s enough, right...?” Her voice was a trembling leaf; keep going and someone would die.

“Cut the chatter. Stand there and keep watch.” Nana shot Wen Quan a sideways glare, sharp as a winter blade, but her hands didn’t slow. He almost forced himself on me; and this idiot wants to plead for that scum of a father? Maybe I’ve spoiled her lately, and it’s shaved points off her IQ.

Wen Quan didn’t dare talk back; blush rose like dawn on her cheeks, and she drooped her head like a child who’d broken a vase.

“Brat, look at me.” Nana ignored Wen Quan and fisted Wen Xuntian’s collar, yanking his swollen face up into the light. “Name your price. Then vanish from my and Wen Quan’s sight.” Or I sink you in Dongx Bay and let the sharks do math.

Wen Xuntian swayed, eyes spinning like lost gulls, and only after a long, ragged breath did he focus. “Who... who are you? This is my family’s business; it’s not your turn to meddle.”

“Oh? Your family’s business means I can’t meddle?” Her temper sparked like flint, and remembering what he’d tried a moment ago, Nana couldn’t help it—she drove a few more punches in like hail on a tin roof.

Heat flared across his face and body, a rash of fire ants, and only then did Wen Xuntian grasp that the woman before him wasn’t some soft persimmon. The alcohol fog thinned like morning fog; after ten seconds of bottling it up he snapped, “This is breaking and entering. I’m calling the cops.”

“Call.” Her tone was lazy, like a cat in sun. “Your mouth’s yours; say what you like. But do you think I’ll let you stroll out to make that call?” The tease slid icy as a draught up his skull.

“Last chance. Make a deal. Disappear from our field of view, and I’ll pretend tonight never breathed. Otherwise, I can’t promise your safety won’t blow away like ash.”

“What can a snot-nosed high schooler offer me?” He’d been cowed, but not convinced; his doubt clung like damp. “Money? Or something else that could move me?”

“Oh? Money?” Nana laughed, a bell with an iron tongue. “Since you brought it up, I’ll make money the offer.”

“What do you mean?” He frowned from the floor, a prickle of bad omen crawling like ants under his skin.

“Here’s the math. I’ll give you one million for the years you raised Wen Quan. Two more for incidentals and seventeen, eighteen years of her room under this roof. That’s three million.”

“And it’s not done. Your place sits close to her school; I’ll buy the house too. Total, five million. You take it, and vanish from Wen Quan’s world.” Nana slipped a check from her pocket and flicked it down like a crisp leaf; her poise was a clean blade in moonlight. She’d earned that reserve while boarding here, never thinking she’d spend it this soon. “For you now, she’s dead weight. Trade the burden for something useful. Or what—too little for your taste?”

“Hah. Don’t try to snow me. You’re a student—where’d you get that kind of money?” He was ruined, not brain-dead; a girl dressed like any high-schooler, holding a fortune? The math chafed like sand.

“That’s beyond your pay grade, Mr. Wen. What you should do is take the check, then get out of our sky.”

Nana drifted to the side and opened the doorway like parting a curtain; she didn’t radiate force, yet her presence pressed like a storm front.

Wen Xuntian slumped in a mess on the floor; this was the second time a woman had humiliated him like mud, and now he couldn’t bring himself to care. She was right. To him, Wen Quan was a burden; his heart had room for no one but his own shadow.

The man past forty looked at the woman before him, then at his own daughter, and made his final cut. “Fine. Five million it is. Take Wen Quan with you.”

The words cut; for Wen Quan they cut to the bone. Yet the ease of a shattered shackle was lighter than air and heavier than grief.

“It’s over. With me here, no one can touch you again.” Nana smoothed Wen Quan’s tangled hair like combing ripples on a pond, shot a cool glance at Wen Xuntian as he snatched the check and fled, then folded Wen Quan into her arms like sheltering wings.

She knew this world’s Heaven had a miser’s hand; she’d barely stepped out, and Wen Xuntian had followed like a shadow. If Heaven wasn’t tugging strings, she’d eat rocks.

System: “...” Who knew the host would double back when she was almost home? Even timing the gap, that was a flashy play.

Luckily, nothing worse happened; otherwise Wen Xuntian wouldn’t be limping off with mere bruises.

Cold wind seemed to live in Nana’s eyes; but when she touched Wen Quan’s warmth, spring flowed back like thaw.

“Let’s go.” After sending the father off, Nana laced her fingers with Wen Quan’s and breathed by her ear like soft rain. This place was property Wen Quan’s mother left Wen Xuntian; even if Nana bought it, these walls would keep stirring old ghosts.

“Where are we going?” She still floated in the wake of the storm, dazed like a bird after thunder.

“Where we belong. And live well for a lifetime.” Nana smiled, sunlight through bamboo. “I promised to lead you out of the dark. It’s done. Now you can live in the sun without a care.”

“...” Wen Quan said nothing, only watched the light in Nana’s eyes like stars in deep water.

Her words always flew in sideways like swallows, and Wen Quan didn’t mind at all.

By the time Nana had maxed Wen Quan’s favor bar, summer had ended, and the new term opened like a fresh page.

They’d been official for a long while; every student who took make-up classes at Aomori over summer knew the school had one hell of a power couple.

One was a quiet, well-behaved good girl, a pool of still water. One was a brash delinquent, a spark in dry grass. Oil and water, and somehow a perfect pair; not just the students, even Wen Quan herself hadn’t seen it coming.

In this life, the person she loved turned out to be a woman like her, a reflection in a clear lake.

Their early romance spread through school like fire in tall reeds. Forget the taboo’s pull on teenagers; the two involved were top-tier campus stars, which made every glance a headline.

Aomori High ran a tight ship; when their early dating broke, it kicked up big waves. But their grades were ridiculous, and homeroom teacher Jiang Xing laid a tidy cover like cloud over the moon.

His pretty words were, “As long as your grades don’t slide, you young folks can play however you want.”

That was sweet rain, through and through.

Wen Quan’s grades were never bad; she’d scored low to spend less time at home and dodge that man. Now that knot was cut, she didn’t have to pretend to be a struggling student anymore.

Every day, they flaunted their love like tossing candy at a parade; their shameless PDA fed the whole school dog food.

It stayed that way right up to graduation, steady as a drum.

“I’ve got one question. I’ll ask it once, and never again. Why me?” After the ceremony, sitting side by side on the bench by the campus lake, Wen Quan let it spill like a pebble into water.

Even now, she didn’t understand why the other had chosen her. If it had to be a girl, there were many brighter stars. So why her?

“You want to know?”

“Mm.” The nod was small, like a leaf in wind, but it mattered.

“Then bring your mouth here. I’ll tell your lips.” Nana crooked a finger with a fox’s smile; sunset poured on her like honey, adding a wicked sheen.

“Why lips to lips?” Usually it was mouth to ear; Wen Quan’s face flushed the color of peach skins, whether from dusk or shyness she couldn’t tell.

“So the words don’t wander, don’t take the long road, don’t slip in through your ear after a detour.” Nana laughed, then grazed Wen Quan’s lips, a playful bite like a dragonfly on water.

By the lake at sunset, bench under breeze, grass vivid as silk, two girls in an embrace kissed—an ink-wash scene, soft and immortal.

...

Side Story (End)