Liang Sheng crouched there and stared at An Hua’s dog for a long time. She hadn’t taken the dog to find An Hua because... she was scared of dogs. Terrified of them.

She carefully took hold of the leash and shakily stood up.

“Woof woof woof woof—!”

The dog suddenly burst into loud barking.

“Ahhhhhhh—!” Liang Sheng let out a full-on macho scream, then started yelling in a panic, “Don’t bite me! Help! Someone’s gonna die here!”

The dog seemed to get scared by her reaction. It took a step back, turned around, and ran.

Only after it had run a fair distance did Liang Sheng dare chase after it. Even then, she kept a safe gap between them the whole time.

After turning left and right over and over, Liang Sheng got completely dizzy. Across from her was a flower bed, and she caught sight of a wisp of black hair drifting out from behind a tree.

“Senior An Hua,” Liang Sheng called out. She felt a little guilty, thinking it really wasn’t nice to joke around with a girl like that.

She hurried over, tapped the person on the shoulder, and apologized. “Sorry, Senior... huh? Y-you... ma’am, I got the wrong person. Sorry.”

Liang Sheng looked around at the scenery and reached a universally acknowledged conclusion—she was lost.

She slumped onto a bench. As for An Hua’s dog, who knew where it had run off to.

Liang Sheng thought about it. Fine, she’d just call her family and have them come pick her up. She patted her clothes pocket. Nothing. She checked for a bag... right, she hadn’t brought one. At that moment, Liang Sheng finally understood why her life was so cold.

Helpless, she shoved a hand into her pants pocket... wait.

Liang Sheng lowered her head and saw her dark blue jeans. She was wearing pants today. And her phone just so happened to be in the pocket.

She unlocked her phone and was just about to call her mother, Zhong Wen, when a flash of inspiration hit her. A bad—cross that out—brilliant idea popped into her head.

Grinning to herself, Liang Sheng sent Gu Yuqi a text on QQ: Senior, save me! I’m lost! Then she added a crying-laughing sticker.

The reason she didn’t send a voice message was mainly because she still felt weird about Gu Yuqi’s painfully unromantic reply last time.

She waited and waited. Just as Liang Sheng was about to give up, her phone vibrated.

She snatched it up excitedly, stars practically shining in her eyes. It was Senior Gu Yuqi’s reply! She replied, she replied! Liang Sheng got so excited she started waving her hands around. She was one step away from kissing the phone twice.

Gu Yuqi replied: Where are you? I’ll come get you.

Liang Sheng sent her location.

Gu Yuqi replied: Okay. Stay there. I’ll be there soon.

Gu Yuqi had been reviewing her schoolwork. Good student stuff—totally not something the rest of us could copy. When her phone chimed, she ignored it at first. Then she suddenly remembered that was the sound for a special contact, so she picked up her phone and glanced at it.

She opened QQ, and an icon with a certain moon girl from a magical girl series popped up. The note under it read: Little Fairy.

That was pretty similar to what Liang Sheng had saved Gu Yuqi as in her own phone. Her note for Gu Yuqi was: Fairy Senior.

Resting her head on one hand, Gu Yuqi tapped open her chat with Liang Sheng using the other. The first thing she saw was Liang Sheng’s “Save me.” Her drowsy head snapped right up. That woke her fast. She grabbed the phone with both hands and read carefully.

Oh... so she was just lost.

Only then did Gu Yuqi finally let go of the worry hanging in her chest.

After confirming the location, she immediately stood up, changed into a light set of sportswear, and tightly tied her shoulder-length hair back. She normally never cared about her appearance, but this one time, she looked in the mirror. Only after deciding it looked pretty good did she run downstairs, her steps light and cheerful.

When Gu Yuqi’s mother saw her daughter coming down, cheeks pink, bouncing toward the front door, she casually asked, “Where are you off to so happy? Got yourself a boyfriend?”

Gu Yuqi straightened her back at once. A little embarrassed, she shot back at her mother in mock complaint, “Of course not. She’s a girl!”

Then she ran out the door, leaving her stunned mother muttering to herself, “I just asked one question. Why did she react so strongly?”

Gu Yuqi quickly found Liang Sheng sitting on a bench, scrolling through short videos. She walked over slowly, rubbed her head, and teased, “You can get lost even near your own home? Impressive.”

Liang Sheng gave a few awkward little laughs, embarrassed.

Kind of cute.

Gu Yuqi didn’t say that out loud. It wasn’t that she didn’t dare. She was just afraid Liang Sheng’s silly grin would poke right at her heart again.

Liang Sheng looked at the sweat all over Gu Yuqi’s forehead, and warmth rose in her chest. Her gaze traveled down Gu Yuqi’s face. Those alluring peach blossom eyes. That charming chin. Those delicate collarbones...

Then lower still. Fair skin. Slender fingers. And...

a dog.

It was running this way.

“Ahhhhhhh! A dog! Senior! There’s a dog!”

The color drained right out of Liang Sheng’s face. She flailed backward in panic.

Gu Yuqi grabbed the leash and forcefully yanked the poor dog back. It had also been thoroughly frightened by Liang Sheng’s screaming.

“This dog... whose is it? Do you know?” Gu Yuqi fixed Liang Sheng with her beautiful peach blossom eyes.

Liang Sheng patted her chest and took a few breaths before answering, “It’s Senior An Hua’s. She just... uh, suddenly ran off for some reason.”

She didn’t dare say An Hua had been scared off by her “sexual harassment.”

“Oh...” Gu Yuqi thought for a moment, then crouched down and reached out to stroke the dog’s fur. “No wonder this dog looked so familiar.”

Liang Sheng quietly shuffled behind Gu Yuqi, afraid of startling An Hua’s dog. Then she crouched down too and asked softly, “Senior, do you know Senior An Hua?”

Gu Yuqi stood up and turned her head. “Yeah, of course. We’re classmates.”

Liang Sheng was asking a question she already knew the answer to. Of course she knew they were classmates. It had been written clearly in the story. And she also knew An Hua and Gu Yuqi were rivals.

At that moment, An Hua suddenly walked out from the other side. When she saw Gu Yuqi and Liang Sheng, she froze slightly. Then she walked coldly over to Gu Yuqi, yanked the leash away, and said in a voice as emotionless as a machine, “Thanks.”

Then she left without looking back.

In truth, Gu Yuqi and An Hua didn’t share a single hobby.

Gu Yuqi liked sanda, javelin, and cello. An Hua liked math olympiads and vocal music.

But they had to become rivals, because Gu Yuqi’s father and An Hua’s father were both in the tobacco business, and they were sworn enemies. Every time they met, they’d trade barbed words and fight in that passive-aggressive way adults do.

So under family pressure and constant pushing, the two girls became each other’s strongest rival.

Gu Yuqi didn’t like math olympiads, yet she was forced to compete for first place in every contest.

An Hua didn’t like playing the cello, yet she was forced to fight for top honors in every cello competition.

Gu Yuqi knew nothing about vocal music. Every vocal class gave her a splitting headache.

An Hua wanted nothing to do with javelin. Every javelin class made her sigh nonstop.

Liang Sheng saw the loneliness filling Gu Yuqi’s eyes at that moment.

She was really so tired.

She didn’t want to keep competing anymore.

If she won, her family would celebrate with joy. But if she lost, their words would rain down like artillery fire, one after another, until she could barely breathe.

There had been one time when it got especially bad. Because Gu Yuqi refused to obey and didn’t want to attend vocal class, her father beat her hard. Her calf swelled up badly, puffed high, and she couldn’t get out of bed for three days.

Liang Sheng stood up too. Looking at Gu Yuqi like this made her heart ache. She opened her arms, wrapped them around Gu Yuqi’s waist, and muttered softly, “Senior... please lean on me a little.”

Gu Yuqi’s eyes reddened. She didn’t make a sound, and she didn’t cry either. She just held Liang Sheng tightly.

“Senior, please let it out. Don’t keep enduring it.”

Liang Sheng’s heart hurt so much for the tall girl standing in front of her. She was as tall as a boy, yet inside she was soft like a delicate little girl.

Tap.

A soft sound rang out and slowly reached Liang Sheng’s ears. A tear slid down a cheek and hit the ground, blooming into a flower that vanished in an instant.

Gu Yuqi held Liang Sheng even tighter.

Ding~ Favorability increased significantly.

Gu Yuqi’s favorability toward Liang Sheng: 38

That sudden favorability chime appeared at the worst possible time. It was so tactless. For the first time, Liang Sheng found that sound unbearably harsh, irritating to the point of annoyance.

Gu Yuqi still didn’t cry. She only stared blankly ahead as a few tears slipped down.

She was forcing herself to stay calm.

“Waaah... ahhh... uuuugh...”

Liang Sheng couldn’t hold it in anymore. She started crying for Gu Yuqi instead, huge tears pouring down desperately.

“Y-you... what’s wrong?” Gu Yuqi panicked. She was the one being comforted, so why had Liang Sheng started crying first?

Liang Sheng was really furious. That damn author—why did they have to write Senior Gu Yuqi so miserably? And it only got worse later. She’d even be driven to the brink of death. Why torment my fairy senior this much?!

Liang Sheng cried against Gu Yuqi’s chest, and Gu Yuqi stroked her head like she was petting a little cat while coaxing her gently, “Don’t cry, don’t cry...”

You were only a passing breeze through the corridor, yet somehow you stirred a flood in this lonely heart.

Even if Liang Sheng knew that line wasn’t exactly fitting for her current ugly crying, she could only make do with it and stick it in here anyway.

“S-Senior... l-let... let me be your s-support,” Liang Sheng said through hiccuping sobs.

Gu Yuqi smiled slightly and asked, “Looking at this scene right now, who exactly is supporting who?”

Liang Sheng went awkwardly silent.

...Yeah. She had gotten a little ahead of herself.

“It’s okay. I’ll be your support, and you can be my emotional anchor.” Gu Yuqi gently stroked Liang Sheng’s back.

Liang Sheng’s face turned red, and her body stiffened. Afraid the other girl would see how flushed she was, she buried her face in Gu Yuqi’s arms and answered in a muffled voice, “Okay...”

Ding~ Favorability increased.

Gu Yuqi’s favorability toward Liang Sheng: 46

Gu Yuqi’s favorability toward Liang Sheng had gone up a lot today, but Liang Sheng wasn’t paying much attention to that. What she cared about were the words Gu Yuqi had said to her today.

No one had ever said something like that to her before.

In the end, Gu Yuqi still didn’t cry.

But she smiled.

She smiled at Liang Sheng, so happily, like a child who had never grown up.

Liang Sheng smiled through her tears too.

The two girls laughed and played around, bickering and fooling about. What a beautiful sight it was.

That evening, when they got home, both of them opened QQ on their phones with perfect unspoken understanding. They tapped on each other’s contact notes.

One changed “Fairy Senior” to “Angel Senior.”

The other changed “Little Fairy” to “My Angel.”

So what did Liang Sheng feel like to Gu Yuqi today?

Was it salvation?

Not quite.

It was warmth. The kind of warmth Gu Yuqi hadn’t reunited with in a very, very long time.