Click.
Chen Yanyu slotted in the keycard, shut the door, and lightly threw herself onto the hotel bed.
She hugged a pillow, kicked off her shoes, and rolled once across the mattress. Her long legs curled up beneath her shorts.
Chen Yanyu curled up alone on the bed. Her silver-white hair lay quietly against the sheets, and her clear golden eyes stared blankly at the ceiling.
It was like how some people save their favorite food for last.
There were so many places Chen Yanyu wanted to visit.
Back when she watched idol dramas, she'd grown interested in all kinds of places. She even wanted to try going to an internet café.
So she felt it would definitely be better if he were there with her.
There were too many people outside. Chen Yanyu would panic.
The way people looked at her varied in all sorts of ways. Quite a few gazes swept over her legs, hips, chest, and her pretty face behind sunglasses. There was a suppressed heat in them, and it scared her.
Chen Yanyu remembered the moment that boy grabbed her wrist without a word.
It was obviously a forceful move, yet it gave her an indescribable, strange sense of security.
As she kept thinking, the doorbell suddenly rang.
She thought she'd imagined it.
Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong.
Chen Yanyu lifted her little face and stared at the door in disbelief. A single ahoge slipped down from her silver hair.
“I-I-I'm coming!”
Flustered, Chen Yanyu scrambled off the bed. She didn't even bother putting on her shoes. Her delicate little feet, softly wrapped in pure white socks, pattered across the floor as she ran to the door.
Who could it be?
Was it Luo Qingchuan?
No way, right?
But she hoped it was him...
It'd better be Luo Qingchuan! There was an accident at school today, so he came to take me to a movie!
Chen Yanyu's heart pounded. Nervous and hesitant, she slowly opened the door.
She saw a person. A very cute, very beautiful person.
“Hello. My name is Lu Chuning.”
Standing by the door was a smiling young girl.
She wore side twin-tails and a black dress with white patterns. A black ribbon cinched her tender waist, making it look even slimmer. She was so delicate she looked like a doll. There was a pink bow at her collar, yet the reddish eyeliner made her face both pure and alluring.
“P-please, come in!”
“Sorry for the sudden visit. My apologies.” Lu Chuning walked into Chen Yanyu's room and sat down in a chair.
It was Chen Yanyu's first time having a stranger come visit. She shut the door, then ran back awkwardly and nervously. She tried taking out a bottle of drink and handed it to the very young little girl.
A friend... maybe not a friend, but a guest anyway!
How was she supposed to host someone again...
Chen Yanyu kept thinking.
She had imagined countless times what she should do if she ever had friends come over to play, and what gestures would make her more thoughtful.
Lu Chuning froze for a moment.
Because Chen Yanyu took the drink back.
Then the little dragon girl pulled a box of yogurt from the fridge.
“For you.” Chen Yanyu smiled sweetly and gently. “Little girl, what did you come to see big sis for?”
She really wanted to pinch Lu Chuning's soft little cheeks.
Lu Chuning hesitated, but still reached out and took it with a smile. “You're not wary of me at all?”
“You don't look like a bad person.”
“Why?”
“You're very pretty. I think pretty people aren't bad, right?”
In idol dramas, the good-looking ones are all good people!
Lu Chuning, who had just poked the straw into the yogurt box, paused and stared at Chen Yanyu, who was sitting obediently by the bed.
So this was what it meant for one's values to follow one's face?
The Dragon King's daughter was nothing like she'd imagined.
Still, that made things much easier.
Lu Chuning crossed her legs. She was clearly just a little girl, yet her posture was relaxed as she drank her yogurt and asked,
“What do you think of Luo Qingchuan?”
She got straight to the point.
Who would've thought that the moment she said it, Chen Yanyu's snow-white face flushed pink in an instant, as cute as if she'd been dusted with cherry blossom powder.
“Luo Qingchuan?!” Chen Yanyu's fingers unconsciously clenched together. “He's very nice... You know him?”
Lu Chuning's youthful, delicate face curved into a slight smile. “Luo Qingchuan is my disciple.”
Chen Yanyu immediately sensed something was wrong. Her gaze turned heavy, and the outline of a storm appeared in her golden eyes.
She shot to her feet and said, word by word, “I don't believe you. You're lying to me. You're a bad person.”
'No one shares my path to immortality.' Chen Yanyu remembered Luo Qingchuan saying that!
Crackling arcs of electricity rose around the girl, making her look even more like a holy deity.
“Why did you lie to me? What do you want?” A cold, sharp aura came with Chen Yanyu's soft and lovely body, like a bolt of lightning swaying beneath dark clouds.
Lu Chuning's smile slowly stiffened. She sighed helplessly. “It's true I haven't started teaching him yet. And I mean you no harm. It's my duty. I had to ask you a question, just to set my mind at ease.”
“What?”
“You already answered it.”
Lu Chuning lifted her foot and walked to the door. Then she turned back and smiled at the fully guarded Chen Yanyu.
“Thanks for the yogurt, Sister Chen. As a return gift, I've decided to take you as my disciple too... Feels like it'd be pretty interesting.”
And just like that, Lu Chuning left.
“Who wants to be your disciple?!”
Chen Yanyu's aura instantly scattered. Suspicious, she ran to the door and peeked outside, only to find that mysterious and adorable little girl had already vanished.
...
The campus roads were covered in a slick sheen of water.
The sun had fully risen. A new day was underway.
Luo Qingchuan walked Su Yingsnow to her classroom, then stood in the hallway and looked inside for a while.
After leaving Luo Qingchuan's side, the girl became cool and elegant. It was completely different from the lively, ever-changing grace she showed around him.
Su Yingsnow sat alone at her seat and quietly opened her book. Her expression was serious, with a faint distance of its own.
She was simply cold.
She was like a snowflake falling alone in the noisy mortal world, and also like a cold moon that could only be admired from afar, never touched. She made people feel ashamed of themselves, and stirred a beautiful longing that seemed forever out of reach.
Luo Qingchuan headed upstairs, but before entering his own classroom, he casually glanced back.
A figure at Class 7's doorway happened to slip back inside.
As if he hadn't found anything strange, Luo Qingchuan walked into Year 2, Class 5.
“Ancestor, I think Luo Qingchuan noticed me!”
Zuo Tian sat at his desk with narrowed eyes, his head slightly lowered.
An aged voice slowly rang out, soothing the doubts in Zuo Tian's heart. “You're at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer. You merely glanced at him once. How could an ordinary person sense that?”
“No, Ancestor. I really feel like that look back was him deliberately searching for me!”
Zuo Tian bit down nervously. “It's my intuition.”
It was like a beast's instinct. Unreasonable, but terrifying. Like glimpsing a natural predator in a bloody jungle.
As if fate itself were telling Zuo Tian: yes, he has already noticed you.
Or perhaps heaven and earth were both affirming his thought. He felt all the blood in his body heating up, and murmured,
“I've been discovered.”
“Ancestor, the Truthseer Mirror gave Luo Qingchuan a decent evaluation. That guy's mind is unusual. I was careless.”
Zuo Tian buried his head low and clenched both fists.
“I should've hidden myself better. I shouldn't have been so direct.”
“Your excessive caution only proves that your heart has always been trapped in fear under Su Yingsnow's shadow.” The Ancestor's sigh was heavy. “Kill him.”
“I can leave him gravely injured, crippled, or in a coma for life. But I don't want to kill him. That would be like admitting I've reached the end of the road, forced into using any means necessary.”
The Ancestor's remnant soul fell silent for a few seconds in thought, then said with feeling, “That works too. Su Yingsnow's deep attachment will still damage her Dao heart. When will you act?”
Zuo Tian's breathing gradually grew long and steady. At last, he made up his mind.
“Tonight.”
Because he knew what he was about to do,
Zuo Tian wanted to keep as much dignity as possible. He wanted to preserve that pride of his, the pride of standing above others.
Zuo Tian spread open his palm and looked at those clear lines, as if he were looking at layer upon layer of fate.
“Luo Qingchuan, for the greater will of heaven's mandate, both of us will have to pay a price.”
Zuo Tian coldly closed his fingers.
Everything was under control. He had already seen the future.
...
...
...
