“You should know that Hana is a total yandere. If Su Ze gets the drop on her and plants some sick obsession in her head, I’ll lose all my advantage.” Liang Sheng straightened her turtleneck sweater, rolled her neck a few times, and flashed a smile at her reflection in the mirror.
“Besides…” Liang Sheng stepped out of the bathroom and glanced at a small glowing dot atop the wardrobe.
She sauntered over, grabbed a towel, and draped it over the spot. “You didn’t actually think I was clueless about Hana planting a camera in my room, did you?”
“Or did you really believe I genuinely like Senior Sister Gu Yuqi?” Liang Sheng plopped down suddenly in a chair and crossed her legs.
“You—you what do you mean?” Kazuko suddenly felt ice creeping through her veins.
Liang Sheng propped her chin on her hand and rolled her eyes.
“I know that around here, nobody but Gu Yuqi, Bai Zhen, and Ye Yuzhe can handle Hana. And besides…” Liang Sheng paused for a beat, her mind drifting back to that dream from a few months ago.
The dream had continued seamlessly. In it, Gu Yuqi had originally teamed up with Bai Zhen to take on Hana. But suddenly, Gu Yuqi plunged a knife into Bai Zhen’s lower back. Bai Zhen crumpled to the ground, blood gushing from the wound. Then came the clash between Hana and Gu Yuqi, where Gu Yuqi held the upper hand the whole time. She bore plenty of small cuts, but they didn’t slow her ferocious assault in the slightest.
In the end, Gu Yuqi slashed open Hana’s throat with a single stroke of her blade. And then the dream faded.
“Besides, Gu Yuqi can definitely beat Hana without getting killed herself—unlike everyone else. So why not steer all of Hana’s bloodlust right toward her?” Liang Sheng leaned back in her chair, yawned comfortably, and stretched.
“Got it, Kazuko?” Liang Sheng drawled lazily. “Don’t take me for a fool. The ditzy side you see is just for show, put on deliberately for all of you. I am Liang Sheng, not Liangliang.”
Kazuko fell silent for a long moment.
“Pfft.” She suddenly burst out laughing.
“Hey, Liangliang, you think you’re so clever, like you know everything?”
Liang Sheng’s brows snapped together at those words. She sat bolt upright.
“Hey, what’s with that snide tone?” Liang Sheng shot back irritably.
Suddenly, icy fingers encircled her neck from behind, cool and light as a chill breeze.
“You can’t even get your own name straight, yet here you are, trying to play the pig to eat the tiger with me?”
The voice drifted from right behind her.
A shiver raced down Liang Sheng’s spine. Eyes widening, she turned slowly—and locked gazes with a pair of crimson eyes. The hair matched hers in color but was far darker, the face babyishly youthful. She wore a soft pink camisole dress and was gently hugging Liang Sheng’s neck.
“You…” Liang Sheng got out only that single syllable before clamping her mouth shut.
Kazuko brimmed with smug satisfaction. Scared you good, huh~ Nyah nyah nyah! Take that for calling me stupid!
“Aren’t you supposed to be a mature big sister?”
“Gah?” Kazuko’s grin froze solid, her mouth still stretched wide, but the laughter died in her throat.
“Hey! You rotten little loli! What mature big sister crap? You kept me hanging all this time for this? This?! This?!” Liang Sheng glared at the tender, adorable face, fury boiling up. Where was her promised mature bombshell? What in the world was this flat-chested gremlin?!
Nothing was more awkward than when the air went dead silent.
Liang Sheng slapped a hand to her forehead in exasperation. “Why’d you have to go and ruin it like that? I was finally building up a proper villain vibe, and now you’ve killed my whole mood!”
She buried her face in her hands and whined through pretend sobs. “Senior Sister Yuqi, wuwuwu! Do you still love me? Wuwuwu, my Senior Sister Yuqi, wahhh~”
Kazuko short-circuited right then and there. She’d pegged her for some deep-cover mastermind playing possum, but nope—just a chuunibyou meltdown.
Wiping fake tears from her cheeks, Liang Sheng sniffled and blustered on. “J-Just you wait! I-I’ve got schemes for days! Don’t you dare underestimate me, wu~” Her nose tingled, threatening a fresh wave of tears.
Kazuko felt a pang of pity herself. Manifesting physically for this clown? Totally not worth it.
“Wait… hold on, that’s not right!” Liang Sheng caught on. “Didn’t you say you needed over a hundred more favorability points to restore your physical form? You’ve dropped over three hundred now—how are you even here?”
The moment turned painfully awkward.
“Uh…” Kazuko’s eyes darted evasively, avoiding Liang Sheng’s stare.
Liang Sheng seized her wrist and yanked her forward, then pinched the girl’s plump little cheek for good measure.
“You sneaky dumb loli! Fooling me all this time!” Still fuming, Liang Sheng gave Kazuko’s cheeks a few more vicious pinches.
Kazuko’s eyes went red with rage (not that they weren’t already). A true lady could be slain but never shamed!
“I-I used to be a mature big sister, okay! It’s just the favorability wasn’t high enough!” Kazuko batted away Liang Sheng’s hands and rubbed her stinging, swollen cheeks. Did this girl have to pinch so damn hard?
Oh… Now it clicked for Liang Sheng. Kazuko’s favorability hadn’t been enough to shift into mature big sister mode, so she’d held off on showing her face.
That realization sent Liang Sheng into muffled giggles, hand clamped over her mouth as she taunted the loli version. “Aww~ No wonder you wouldn’t show me your physical form~ Afraid I’d see what a little dwarf, little loli you really are~”
Kazuko burned to smack the smirking girl across the face, but truth was truth, and random violence didn’t suit her refined upbringing. She pivoted instead. “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be heading to Hana’s? You’re gonna be late if you keep dawdling.”
Liang Sheng jabbed a finger at the wall clock. “You ever seen someone crawl out of bed before four a.m. in the dead of winter—on vacation, no less?”
Even after clapping back at Kazuko, Liang Sheng hauled herself up and headed for the door. Dawn was still hours off, but better early than sorry. Su Ze might be dim, but he wasn’t brain-dead.
Outside, darkness blanketed everything. Timid as ever, Liang Sheng flicked on her flashlight and shuffled forward on shaky legs, muttering the whole way. “Kazuko, you’ve gotta protect me if anything jumps out, okay?”
“No one else can even see me, and nobody but you can touch me. Protect you with what?”
Rustle. Rustle. Rustle rustle rustle.
Sounds erupted all around Liang Sheng. Her legs turned to jelly. Summoning courage, she spun around—nothing there. She exhaled shakily.
But the moment she faced forward again, the eerie noise resumed.
“Kazuko! Ghost!” Liang Sheng wailed like a banshee and bolted ahead. The sounds dogged her every step, accelerating, growing louder.
Kazuko sighed, half-annoyed, half-amused. “You absolute dummy—there’s a plastic bag tangled on your shoe!”
Liang Sheng skidded to a halt and peered down. Sure enough, a white plastic bag flapped from her foot. Mortified, she kicked it free, cheeks burning with shame over her freakout.
In the end, Liang Sheng took away a valuable lesson from the ordeal: Protecting the environment is everyone’s duty. Don’t litter.
