Epilogue 1: If Line – Childhood Sweethearts (Part 3)
Ding-ding— The bell for the end of the lunch break rang throughout the entire dormitory area.
Ye Qingyu slowly opened her eyes.
Perhaps dissatisfied with her sleep being disturbed by the bell, the little red panda in her arms unhappily nuzzled her.
Ye Qingyu raised her hand and, with practiced ease, rubbed the little beast’s head.
After a moment, her two hands moved down, fumbling for the hem of Pei Rong’s school uniform. She reached in, found the bra clasp that had been unfastened for comfort during her nap, and lightly fastened it.
A rustling sound came from all around the dormitory. It was the sound of her roommates getting up.
Ye Qingyu called out to the red panda in a low voice, “Jiejie, it’s time to get up.”
“Ying.” The sleepy Pei the Red Panda was reluctant to get up from her tree and, changing her position, continued to sleep.
Ye Qingyu was not in a hurry and sat up. She took the special comb for the red panda and began to comb her Jiejie’s hair.
Her long, reddish-brown hair, which was a little messy from sleep, was once again combed smooth.
Back when she had been in her beast form, the little red panda would have her fur combed by her mother or younger sister every time after a bath and when she woke up. Now that she had transformed into her human form, this habit had naturally been changed to combing her hair.
Being combed so comfortably, Pei the Red Panda’s morning grumpiness gradually disappeared.
In the end, she obediently followed Ye Qingyu to wash her face and brush her teeth, and went to class, clean and refreshed.
They stepped into the classroom just in time, and several gazes were immediately cast on them. Ye Qingyu keenly sensed that everyone’s gaze was different from this morning, as if a certain hesitation was surging.
After the first class in the afternoon, her classmates came over to kindly remind her:
“It’s being said all over school that classmate Pei Rong is a school bully. They say she dyed her hair against the school rules and is going to beat people up after school.”
“School bully?” Pei the Red Panda tilted her head slightly, her pair of peach blossom eyes clear.
Does that mean a red panda is a tyrant in a human school? She’s quite satisfied with this title.
Pei the Red Panda licked the tip of her teeth and, pleased, acknowledged it for herself. “I am.”
All the girls’ eyes widened. “…”
“…” Ye Qingyu’s eyelashes trembled slightly. Under the desk, she squeezed the red panda’s hand and asked seriously, “There must be a misunderstanding. Are there any other rumors? Could I trouble everyone to tell us?”
“You can go to the student forum and see. The post has already been bumped up very high.”
To be able to contact her mother at any time, Ye Qingyu had brought her phone. And so, after school, she turned on her phone and, with the red panda, looked at the forum.
She saw that a post titled [The First-Year Red-Haired School Bully Jiejie and Her Sweet Follower] was floating at the very top of the forum, and it was even followed by a [Hot] tag.
The main post had no text, only a photo of the human and the red panda in the cafeteria. Countless student accounts were active in the thread, chatting lively.
There were no aggressive words. They were basically all saying how cool the school bully Jiejie’s red hair was, and how the dean’s face was going to turn green with anger, and how the sweet follower and her holding hands and cuddling was a little shippable…
There was also an account named “Tun’s Lament,” which had posted a short fanfiction of a school bully top and a follower bottom.
And then, the content of the post went off track—everyone argued for three hundred floors about who was the top and who was the bottom, and they kept throwing out more and more vivid fanfictions to attack each other.
Zhisong High School’s school spirit had always been lively, and it did not affect their good grades. And since it was just the beginning of school, the students were particularly excited and active.
But this seemed a little too lively.
The moment she swiped to the fanfiction section, Ye Qingyu’s pupils trembled slightly. She quickly scrolled past it and said to the red panda, “It’s not good for us to look at this,” but she had accidentally bookmarked it.
In the end, Ye Qingyu exited the post and was preparing to edit a clarification post.
But she saw that a new post had appeared at the top of the forum: [Report! There’s another school bully in the first year—the light-blue-haired Jiejie!]
Ye Qingyu’s eyes widened.
…
After school, Ye Qingyu was walking in the school with Pei the Red Panda, and from time to time, students would cast a glance at them.
But the human and the red panda had no time to care about that, because a tall and slender school bully was blocking their way home—
The school bully coolly flicked her long, light-blue hair and made a brilliant debut.
“Hi.”
It’s bad. It seems we’ve run into a real school bully. Ye Qingyu’s brow furrowed slightly, and as if unintentionally, she took half a step forward and protected Pei the Red Panda behind her.
Sensing the two girls’ wariness, the school bully blinked her eyes innocently.
“Hey, I don’t have any ill intentions!”
“I’m a sports student on the first-year swimming team, and my name is Luo Bian.”
“I saw your post on the forum today, and I also swiped to the clarification post,” she said helplessly. “Actually, my hair color is also natural, but I’m also being treated as a rebellious school bully.”
After explaining, Luo Bian spread her hands. “I feel like it’s fate. Let’s be friends.”
Hearing this, Pei the Red Panda poked her reddish-brown, fluffy head out from Ye Qingyu’s shoulder and looked at her.
“Did they ask you to be their Jiejie too?”
Luo Bian flicked her head with a certain pride. “Yup, they want to call me Sister Luo.”
Ye Qingyu said, “Then how did you refuse?”
“I didn’t refuse,” Luo Bian said with an air of composure. “I’m already the Jiejie of twelve people.”
The human and the red panda: “…”
“Anyway, my ex-girlfriend doesn’t want to bother with me.” Luo Bian snorted.
In short, the human and the red panda had thus, for no reason, gotten to know this school bully friend, and the three of them would often have lunch together.
The news of the new school bullies forming an alliance spread like wildfire on the forum.
At the same time, clarification posts were also constantly appearing—
Saying that their hair color was actually natural, and that Pei Rong was privately a particularly cute classmate who looked just like a little red panda when she smiled, and was very dependent on her sweet girl. And that Luo Bian looked cool and arrogant, but was privately in a state of youthful pain for her ex-girlfriend every day, which had disappointed many of the chuunibyou girls who had called her Jiejie.
But, such a vibrant and unusual hair color, it was really hard to believe that it was natural. In the end, everyone just thought that the school bully had held a chair high above a poor classmate’s head and had forced them to send a clarification post.
Even if the school had come out to explain, those serious words had been drowned out by the tide of discussion.
But, the rumors about these two school bullies had suddenly and silently dispersed one day—
A real school bully had appeared out of nowhere.
The first-year (Class 6) sprinter, Wu Shu, had, with her own strength, beaten up three boys in the woods until they were black and blue, a miserable sight.
It was said that a student had been there to admire that violent aesthetic. The school bully had been wearing jade-green colored contacts, her profile cool and cold, and her fists had been like the wind, and she had been as agile as a black panther.
And the three boys who often bullied girls had been stepped on by her, and were crying and begging for mercy.
Wu Shu’s hair was dark black, and she had not dyed it a rebellious color. But she was the real number one in a fight, and her righteous battle had won her countless fans.
With the spotlight shifted, Pei the Red Panda breathed a slight sigh of relief.
She could finally study properly with Ye the Little Tree.
Although the little red panda had once been a fruit-and-bamboo-shoot-eating, sleep-all-day creature, once she had made the decision to go to high school with Ye Qingyu, she was also a very diligent and persistent little red panda.
During the previous summer vacation, Ye Qingyu had helped her review and consolidate her basic math and English. The little red panda was very smart, and with more than a dozen years of haphazard accumulation, she had progressed very quickly. But the time was too short, and she had only completely gone through the elementary school curriculum.
So, now she was studying junior high math.
During the evening self-study class, the classroom was brightly lit. Pei the Red Panda lowered her peach blossom eyes, and the tips of her thick lashes were fluffy, and she held her pen and seriously did the problems that Ye Qingyu had customized for her.
Sometimes, when she really couldn’t do it, the little red panda would get so anxious that her fur would bristle, and she couldn’t help but part her pink lips slightly and bare the tips of a little beast’s sharp canines at the problem.
But the problem was not afraid of a red panda and would never yield to it.
The problem and the red panda were in a fierce standoff, and in the end, it ended with Ye Qingyu writing out the detailed steps to the solution, and the battle was barely stopped.
Ding-ding-ding— Finally, it was time for the long break.
The little red panda, who had been ground down by math, was lying on the desk, sullen, her peach blossom eyes misty, like a little red panda soup dumpling who had lost her dreams.
Ye Qingyu rubbed the wronged little beast and led her to the playground to relax.
In the turn of summer and autumn, the evening breeze was cool. The playground was very lively during the break, and many students were playing in groups, and their lively and wanton laughter was flying.
The clear fragrance of flowers and grass came with the wind and would occasionally lift a girl’s hem.
The human and the red panda were holding hands in the water-like moonlight, each holding a vanilla-flavored ice cream cone, and they were eating it slowly.
Pei the Red Panda licked her ice cream and continued to complain sullenly about the math problems.
“The triangle is playing with me, a little red panda.”
“How can a triangle be so unreasonable?” The girl holding her hand said with a serious and righteous indignation, “Next time, we’ll attack it with an auxiliary line.”
“Mhm.” The human unhesitatingly stood on the red panda’s side, which made Pei Rong feel much more comfortable.
Later, they walked to the deep end of the playground, and the lush and verdant leaves of the trees blocked the moonlight, and it was dark under the trees.
Pei the Red Panda pulled Ye Qingyu to a stop and, lifting her chin, commanded with a spoiled air:
“I want pets.”
Ye Qingyu’s eyes curved slightly, and her mood was softer than the night wind. She raised her hand and, with practiced ease, petted the red panda’s head and smoothed her fur, and also gently kneaded her ears, and said in a gentle voice:
“Our Neng Bao has worked hard in her studies.”
Being so comforted in body and soul, Pei the Red Panda contentedly and lazily nestled on Ye the Little Tree’s shoulder, feeling that her spirit was fully charged and that she could do many more math problems.
“I want a kiss,” she continued to demand. Back then, Yu Bao would always kiss the tip of her furry ear. Now that she had transformed into a human, it had become kissing her ear.
Ye Qingyu obediently lowered her head and, at her beck and call, kissed her childhood sweetheart’s ear.
Smack.
After being so intimate and cuddling for a while, a sound suddenly and vaguely came from the playground.
“Run! The dean is coming to the playground to catch couples again—”
High school couples would often appear on the playground during the evening self-study break, sweetly holding hands and walking. And the dean would from time to time lie in wait and hunt, and would catch them every time.
What is a dean, and what is a couple?
The red panda was thinking when she heard a woman’s serious voice from a distance. “You two over there, hugging and kissing, come over here.”
“Ying?” Pei the Red Panda tilted her head slightly. Who is she talking about?
She turned her head without any warning and saw a woman in black clothes pointing at her. “Yes, you two.”
“Still hugging? You can’t bear to be separated, can you?”
Ye Qingyu’s hand, which was rubbing the red panda, paused. She belatedly looked up and met the woman’s gaze from a distance, and her breath hitched.
As a good student who had been excellent in both character and studies for a thousand years, she had never been afraid of the dean. But at this moment, a tingling, electric sensation ran up her spine, and for no reason, she felt a little guilty.
She pursed her lips slightly and led Pei the Red Panda over.
These two girls were not only dawdling, but were also holding hands as they walked over.
The dean narrowed her eyes, even more displeased.
“Let go of each other’s hands.”
Pei the Red Panda blinked her clear peach blossom eyes. “Why?”
Is this woman trying to take away her, a red panda’s, right to possess a tree? That’s not okay.
At a critical moment, a red panda must bravely stand up and declare her sovereignty over her own tree. And so, she reached out her hand and hooked it around Ye Qingyu’s neck, and lifted her chin with a spirited and majestic air.
“She’s mine.”
The night wind blew by, and the bright moonlight swayed gently through the gaps in the trees. The sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl lifted her bright and beautiful face and, domineeringly, hooked her arm around the gentle-faced girl next to her, their long hair entangled in the wind, full of the feeling of a youthful romance.
And the words she had spoken were also such an inexperienced and romantic declaration of love, so young and brave that she was not afraid of the secular world or of power.
The dean: “…”
She was so angry that smoke was coming out of her head, and her face had turned green.
