“Where’s Brother Su Ze? Did he split up with you to search for me?” Zhen Zhu blinked her big eyes, a glimmer of longing and eager anticipation shining in them as she looked toward Liang Sheng.
Liang Sheng hesitated for a few moments after hearing this. She looked at the other girl’s sparkling eyes and couldn’t bear to tell her the truth.
“Um, um, um.” Liang Sheng patted the little loli’s head on the opposite bench. “Yeah, but he didn’t find you. I did. Disappointed?”
Zhen Zhu answered honestly: “Yep, disappointed.”
Liang Sheng was at a loss for words.
The two of them fell silent for a long while. Liang Sheng watched as Zhen Zhu idly fiddled with a leaf that had fallen to the ground, and her heart softened. She handed her phone over. “Here, play with this for a bit. I’ll rest a little longer, then take you with me.”
Zhen Zhu’s eyes lit up at the sight of something to play with.
“Do you have anything in there you don’t want me to see?” Zhen Zhu asked.
Liang Sheng’s face flushed bright red in an instant. She pointed at the little loli across from her, stammering, “W-what do you mean by that? You’re just a little kid, how could you even…”
Zhen Zhu tilted her head, clearly not understanding what Liang Sheng was talking about. She gazed back with utter sincerity.
Ah… Liang Sheng realized she’d let her mind wander into the gutter again.
“You, you, just play with it.” Liang Sheng covered her face in embarrassment.
Zhen Zhu eagerly unlocked the phone and saw the screensaver: the profile of a girl.
“Hmm…” Zhen Zhu felt like she’d seen this girl somewhere before. Propping her head up with one hand, she racked her brains trying to remember.
“Ah!” Zhen Zhu slapped her thigh. “Hey, your screensaver is that senior from sophomore year, right? She’s pretty cool.”
Only then did Liang Sheng remember that her screensaver was Senior Sister Gu Yuqi. Her cheeks colored slightly. “W-what about it?! Can’t I?!”
Zhen Zhu drew out her tone: “Ooh~”
“Stop that!” Liang Sheng pressed down on the girl’s head.
Zhen Zhu burst out laughing. “So you’re secretly crushing on that… Mmph mmph mmph!!!”
The little loli’s words were cut off as Liang Sheng clamped a hand over her mouth and grabbed her by the neck.
“Shut up, you stinky brat!”
“Are you trying to silence me?! Pfft pfft pfft!!” As soon as Liang Sheng let go, Zhen Zhu shouted.
“You stinky brat don’t know a thing! This is pure socialist sisterly love! If you don’t get it, don’t spout nonsense!” Liang Sheng explained excitedly.
“Tch~” Zhen Zhu pouted. “You’re no fun at all~ I was just teasing. It’s not like girls like other girls.”
Hearing this, Liang Sheng let out a long breath of relief. Still, she wanted to retort. Girls could like girls too. It wasn’t because the person was a woman that she liked her; she simply liked that person, plain and simple. She just couldn’t understand why it was okay to love someone of the opposite sex but not the same sex.
But she didn’t say it out loud. There was no point; no one would understand. Liang Sheng sighed and slumped back onto the bench.
In her hazy daze, Liang Sheng suddenly heard a voice coming from Zhen Zhu’s side.
“Kids are always so playful…” Huh? Su Ze’s voice? Liang Sheng jolted awake, instantly alert as she turned toward the source. What she saw was Zhen Zhu, eyes wide and glued to the phone screen.
What was she looking at? Liang Sheng leaned over.
The phone was playing the conversation she’d recorded earlier with Su Ze. The video quality wasn’t great—it kept shaking—but it had accidentally captured Su Ze’s appearance.
Oh~ So she’d seen it. Liang Sheng fought to keep her mouth from grinning, her excitement bubbling inside but not showing on her face.
“Hey hey hey! How can you go snooping through someone’s photo album?!” Liang Sheng snatched the phone back, pretending to be angry—her acting rivaling that big pig hoof Su Ze.
“Brother Su Ze’s voice…” Zhen Zhu murmured in a daze.
That’s right. Liang Sheng had recorded it on purpose. Her intent in giving Zhen Zhu the phone was for the girl to browse the album and stumble upon the video by chance.
Haha~ Success! Liang Sheng cheered inwardly. But she planned to keep up the pretense a bit longer.
“Th-that, um, this, this…” First came the flustered stammering, the most natural reaction in a situation like this. Liang Sheng waved her hands in panic, as if she couldn’t find the words and was desperately searching for an excuse.
“I just recorded it by accident…” This didn’t outright confirm the man in the video was Su Ze, but anyone who’d met him and knew what he looked like—even an idiot—could tell. Especially his little fangirl, the little loli Zhen Zhu.
Liang Sheng hung her head, looking aggrieved as she sat to the side, on the verge of tears. In reality, her heart was filled with secret glee and a touch of smugness. Look at that—my acting skills are top-notch!
After a long while, just as Liang Sheng was growing impatient and about to peek at her reaction, Zhen Zhu suddenly grabbed her hand. With a sob-choked voice, she cried out: “This is what Brother Su Ze said, right?! That’s Brother Su Ze?!”
Wasn’t it obvious? Liang Sheng was truly caught off guard now. What she feared most was a girl crying in front of her.
“Shh, it’s not him.” Liang Sheng chose to lie. Not out of kindness, but because she knew a smart kid like Zhen Zhu already had the truth figured out in her heart.
Sure enough, Zhen Zhu cried even louder. “You’re lying! Waaah…”
Whoosh! Favorability drops sharply.
Zhen Zhu’s Favorability Toward Su Ze: 58
“Liar, big liar!” Zhen Zhu clutched at Liang Sheng’s sleeve, refusing to let go. By the time she pulled her hand away to wipe her tears, the sleeve was all wrinkled.
“Don’t cry, don’t cry, shh~” Liang Sheng didn’t mind at all. She used her sleeve to gently wipe the tears from the girl’s cheeks.
“Waaah…” Kids were impossible to console—one wrong word, and they felt even more wronged, crying louder still. In the end, she threw herself into Liang Sheng’s arms, hugging her waist tight.
Whoosh~ Favorability drops.
Zhen Zhu’s Favorability Toward Su Ze: 52
“Why would Brother Su Ze say that about me? Why?!” Zhen Zhu buried herself in Liang Sheng’s embrace, sobbing and sniffling.
Liang Sheng had no idea how to comfort her now. Her hands hovered awkwardly in midair, unsure where to place them.
“Don’t cry, don’t cry.” Liang Sheng rubbed the girl’s fluffy little head. “Look, Sister Liang Sheng came to find you, and she did. Isn’t a pretty big sister better than Su Ze? Right?”
“No way! I want Brother Su Ze! I! Want! Brother Su Ze!” Zhen Zhu wailed, tightening her arms even more around Liang Sheng’s waist.
“Gah…!” Liang Sheng nearly choked, letting out a strange yelp. For a moment, she felt like she was being cut in half at the waist.
“H-how about I take you away right now?” Liang Sheng didn’t dare yell at Zhen Zhu anymore or tell her to let go. After all, the girl was crying this hard because of her own little scheme.
Unfortunately, Zhen Zhu didn’t catch the implication. Instead, she hugged even tighter and wailed louder.
Liang Sheng gazed despairingly at the sky. What a sin…
And what made her even more despairing was still to come.
