In an instant, sweat beaded on the green-haired girl’s forehead. She stammered for a long while but couldn’t get a coherent word out.
Mo Qingrou’s heart sank halfway. The hearts of the other girls sank halfway too.
And Liang Sheng? She felt like her entire body had turned to ice. Right now, she just wanted to close her eyes peacefully, clasp her hands together, and lie in a crystal coffin.
Oh, screw it!
Mo Qingrou thought Liang Sheng was about to refuse, and her heart sank. The other girls thought Liang Sheng might actually agree, and their hearts sank. As for Liang Sheng herself? She was terrified she’d die in some freak accident right there. Better to just end it herself now—DIY all the way, fully self-sufficient.
God, she wanted to run.
That’s exactly what Liang Sheng did. While Mo Qingrou wasn’t paying attention, she shook off the other girl’s hand, covered her face, and bolted out of school like a shot.
She had skipped class.
This was the first time she’d ever done it as “Liang Sheng.”
On the way, she ran smack into Bai Zhen, who was heading home after wrapping up work for the day. The androgynous tall girl had the novel’s villainess, the female CEO Ou Lu, by her side—they’d been discussing an endorsement deal.
“What happened? Why so careless?” Bai Zhen steadied her, bending down slightly with a concerned look.
Liang Sheng’s mind was a total mess. The words tumbled out before she could stop them. “Someone confessed to us.”
That sent Bai Zhen’s and Ou Lu’s hearts—who hadn’t said a word—straight up to their throats.
“Who?” Ou Lu played it gossipy, but she was really fishing for info. She leaned in close. “Tell your big sisters. We’ll help you figure it out.”
Bai Zhen nodded in agreement. These two rivals had suddenly found themselves on the same side.
The green-haired girl only realized her slip a beat too late. She smacked her own cheeks in frustration. “No, it’s nothing, sisters. Really, I can handle it myself.”
Ou Lu and Bai Zhen exchanged a glance in perfect sync.
“Hey, you guys… Huh? Shengsheng?” Cha Susu’s voice rang out from behind the trio.
Liang Sheng’s head was now the size of all three of theirs combined.
Another one? What were the odds?
That was the only thought swirling in Liang Sheng’s mind. Her brain had turned to complete mush.
“Shengsheng, why aren’t you at school? Did something happen? You look awful.” Cha Susu oozed concern as she muscled past Bai Zhen and Ou Lu, reaching the green-haired girl. With a pitiful expression, she clutched her hand and batted her big innocent eyes a few times.
Not this act again. Bai Zhen frowned. She hated green tea the most.
“I’m fine, Susu. I just…” Liang Sheng scrambled for an excuse. “Uh, my head hurts a bit. Brain’s foggy, so… I took the day off to go home.”
“Ah~?” Cha Susu opened her mouth wide in exaggerated surprise.
The sound was partly performative, but mostly genuine worry from this little green tea.
“I’ll be fine after some rest. Don’t worry.” Even though her mood was in the dumps, the green-haired girl did her best to soothe Cha Susu, patting her head.
Mmm~ Shengsheng really was the gentle white horse prince… No, white horse princess? Uh, that sounded even weirder. Cha Susu gazed up at the green-haired girl with eyes full of adoration.
Sigh. Liang Sheng desperately wanted to escape this place.
“No more chatting, Susu. I feel awful. Heading home now—I’ll fill you in later.” With that, she pulled her hand free and hurried toward home.
“Liang Sheng!” Bai Zhen called out to stop the green-haired girl.
“Hm?” Liang Sheng turned back.
Bai Zhen hesitated, words catching in her throat.
Ou Lu sighed inwardly, mentally cursing Bai Zhen for being so indecisive. She stepped forward and patted Liang Sheng’s shoulder. “Liang Sheng, you’re still young—prime time for studying. Confessions and all that…”
Ou Lu tugged at the corner of her mouth, her smile stiff. “Best to turn them down. Focus on school for now.”
Bai Zhen nodded along in support. Cha Susu, oblivious to what was going on, just went “Ah?” “Ah?” from the sidelines, complete with a bewildered little look.
“Of course! I get all that now.” Liang Sheng nodded vigorously. “I… figured I’d wait till college for any romance.”
If she had to deal with this Shura field right now, better to drag it out. Kick the can down the road a year—let future-her handle it.
Liang Sheng left, but she didn’t go home. Instead, weighed down by heavy thoughts, she showed up at little loli Zhen Zhu’s house.
The sharp-tongued little girl was utterly shocked by her arrival.
The green-haired girl’s goal was to give the clueless kid a heads-up in advance.
“Zhen Zhu.” Liang Sheng still didn’t know how to broach it. She hemmed and hawed, face turning beet red.
“What’s wrong, old hag? You sick or something?” The usual venom hid genuine concern.
“No, it’s not…”
Liang Sheng rubbed her hands together. “I mean, if someone liked the person you like, what would you do?”
Zhen Zhu froze, blinking rapidly. Then she blurted, “Did you find out someone likes you?”
Her words hung in the air, silencing them both instantly.
Zhen Zhu paled in fright, clapping a hand over her mouth as a tear trickled from the corner of her eye. She wouldn’t have figured out I like her, right? I’d been so obvious…
Meanwhile, in Liang Sheng’s head: Holy crap, two confessions in one day? What was I even coming to Zhen Zhu’s for? Forgot. Damn, another one?
One room, two petrified people.
“No, I meant…” Zhen Zhu tried to explain, but her voice choked up.
“No need. I get it.” Liang Sheng threw in the towel. “You like me. I know.”
Silence stretched on between them.
“Th-then, you, I… her!” Zhen Zhu’s eyes spiraled like dizzy cartoon swirls, her face burning up from nerves. Too overwhelmed, she fainted dead away onto the bed.
Watching chaos erupt as Zhen Zhu’s family rushed in, Liang Sheng felt a pang of guilt and self-reproach. She slunk away shamefaced.
Sure enough, her choices had backed her into this impossible corner.
Who to pick? Liang Sheng had no idea.
She wandered outside until night fell.
By then, her phone was blowing up with over a hundred missed calls and five hundred texts.
She didn’t want to answer or even look. She had no idea how to face this mess, no face to confront those girls.
The dragon-slaying youth would become the dragon in the end.
What if she could give every girl a complete home?
She shook her head, dismissing the thought as soon as it surfaced. That was wrong. She had come to stop this exact thing from happening—so why was she thinking…
But it was her choice. No right to regret it, no way to change it.
That night, she didn’t go home. She returned to the sea where Su Ze and Ling Dang had jumped. Staring at the endless ocean, listening to the waves crash, Liang Sheng’s heart finally began to calm.
So why had things turned out like this?
Liang Sheng sat hugging her knees, staring blankly at the sea.
The seaside at night was freezing.
She wasn’t dressed for it and shivered violently. Still, she refused to check her phone or go home.
Agony swelled in her chest.
No one found her that night. She spent it all gazing at the sea.
As the sun rose slowly, warmth crept into the air at the seaside.
How to choose… No!
Liang Sheng jolted awake.
She had no right to choose now. The choice was entirely in the girls’ hands.
It was up to them to choose her—not her picking them, or one of them.
What she didn’t know was that while she was gone, all the girls had converged at her house searching for her. And so, they ran into each other.
Rivals face off, eyes burning with jealousy.
But by now, everyone understood—even the usually dense Song An’an got it. The girls before them were all rivals, all in love with Liang Sheng.
They all realized why Liang Sheng had vanished so suddenly, what she was running from.
This time, they chose silence. Chose to forget. Chose never to bring up picking one person again.
If it troubled Liang Sheng… If anything happened to her… Because they loved her. Loved her too much.
Love was a shackle, locking away their clear minds. They knew a shared life was impossible, yet they chose temporary blindness, willful ignorance. Some even started to think this wasn’t so bad.
As long as… Liang Sheng came back. As long as… Liang Sheng stayed safe.
Except Hana didn’t think that way.
Dawn broke the next day, still no sign of Liang Sheng.
Liang Wengao and Zhong Wen wept in anxiety.
It turned into a full-blown high-society daughter hunt.
People, cars, even helicopters whirring overhead.
The kind of rich-folk spectacle you couldn’t imagine from a Mary Sue novel.
“Liang Sheng!”
“Miss Liang Sheng!”
“Where are you, Miss Liang Sheng?!”
Liang Sheng, who had dozed off by the sea, woke to the calls.
Still groggy, she cracked her eyes open.
“Ah~”
“Achoo!”
A thunderous sneeze. Liang Sheng rubbed her nose and sniffed. Damn, she’d caught a cold.
Who’s calling me?
Hallucination?
Before she could process it, an excited shout nearly burst her eardrums.
“Over here! Miss Liang Sheng is here!”
Still dazed and slack-jawed, she was manhandled up and stuffed into a black car before she knew what was happening.
Holy crap?
Am I kidnapped!? Liang Sheng reeled in shock.
“Help! Let me out!” The green-haired girl pounded on the window.
The black-clad men in the car grabbed her hands, explaining frantically until she finally calmed down.
They pulled up at her home.
Liang Sheng spotted a crowd of familiar faces.
She shrank back in the car, refusing to get out.
Her old father—snot-nosed and teary-eyed—finally dragged her out.
The girls said nothing, just watched her silently. Some smiled at her, tears spilling over as they did. Liang Sheng’s heart ached; tears welled in her own eyes.
The incident was like a tiny pebble tossed into water—no big splash, the surface soon smoothed over.
Life seemed to return to normal: the girls’ chatter surrounding her, the occasional Shura field flare-up. But they all tacitly agreed never to confess to Liang Sheng again.
The days would go on just like this forever, wouldn’t they?
Yeah, they definitely would!
Everyone would live happily together~
