Chapter 21 Part 1

As Bai Tongsheng’s nose slowly drew closer, she caught a faint lemon scent.

That was the smell of toothpaste.

The aroma seemed to take solid form, burrowing bit by bit into her nostrils. There wasn’t even a trace of alcohol, yet Bai Shuangshuang felt her mind growing hazy, just like the times she’d gotten drunk in her previous life.

The warmth from the other girl’s nose, starting from the point of contact, spread through her bloodstream. Soon, her entire body began to heat up from the shift.

She didn’t realize when her tense hands had clutched the bedsheet beneath her, crumpling it into wrinkles—just like her heart, pounding wildly and unable to return to its former calm.

“A-A-Sheng?”

The girl above her made no further moves.

The room was pitch black, and Bai Shuangshuang couldn’t make out the expression on her face. But she had a gut feeling that those beautiful eyes were scrutinizing her closely—from head to toe, leaving nothing out.

She felt bewitched in that moment. She ought to push her away. The “demonstration” she’d mentioned—even someone as dense as Bai Shuangshuang could now grasp its meaning from this excessively intimate position.

But she couldn’t move, as if under some spell. Her hands could only grasp helplessly at whatever was nearby, not daring to do more.

Then Bai Tongsheng moved.

Not downward, but slowly upward.

Those moist, hot lips finally came to rest on her smooth, pale forehead.

Unlike their usual good morning kisses, which brushed and parted in an instant.

She pressed down firmly for a long while, as if determined to leave a mark there—or perhaps to vent the frustrated desire of not truly going through with it.

Bai Shuangshuang forgot to breathe, her body rigid as she felt the lingering heat from those lips deepen, bit by bit.

Finally, Bai Tongsheng pulled away. The spot she’d claimed felt sealed with a burning brand—scorching hot, searing straight into her heart.

In her daze, she heard the girl now lying beside her speak in a hoarse voice.

“I don’t want to demonstrate anymore. Good night.”

Bai Shuangshuang didn’t ask why. She offered no opinion on what had just happened. Instead, she heard herself reply calmly, “Good night.”

That moment seemed to pass so easily.

But she knew it couldn’t be brushed aside like that.

Only once the breathing beside her evened out did the emotions Bai Shuangshuang had been forcibly suppressing finally loosen their grip, just a fraction.

If Bai Tongsheng had actually touched her then, would she have understood the deeper meaning behind such an act?

She probably wouldn’t.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have done something like that so casually—especially since, in the end, she truly hadn’t gone further.

So if that was the case, why was she agonizing over it now?

She just needed to follow Bai Tongsheng’s lead: treat it as something trivial and forget it.

But a voice in her heart kept insisting: No, that’s not right! No, it’s wrong to think that way!

What was wrong about it?

No one could tell her.

Bai Shuangshuang simply stared straight up at the ceiling. She couldn’t see a thing, but somehow, just staring seemed to slowly calm her racing thoughts.

She could pretend in an instant that nothing had happened—so why couldn’t she manage it?

She had no idea, nor did she know how long she lay there quietly staring until her consciousness faded and she finally slipped into dreams.

~~~

Bai Tongsheng never brought up the “touching would get you expelled” question again, and Bai Shuangshuang wasn’t surprised. Kids had short attention spans; they could forget last night’s events by morning.

With no one mentioning it, time passed, and she eventually put the incident behind her too.

But one day in the dorm, when she overheard a roommate chatting about secretly kissing her boyfriend in the classroom that day, an unreal image from that night flashed unbidden through her mind.

The next instant, a strange sensation stirred in her left chest—not the stabbing pain of the Silver Knife, but more like a gentle nip from something, sending waves of tingling itchiness rippling through her.

That feeling came only once.

~~~

When Bai Shuangshuang was in her second year of high school, a transfer student joined their class.

The new girl had dyed yellow hair and stood nearly five foot seven, her features sharp and proper, yet radiating a fierce hostility. The moment she planted herself at the podium, it was clear she was someone not to be messed with.

—like a girl who’d been running with the wrong crowd.

Bai Shuangshuang remembered her. In her previous life, she’d transferred into their class at this exact time too.

In her previous life, the first time Bai Shuangshuang heard her name, she had sincerely sighed to herself that this girl’s name was beautiful.

—Jiang Chan.

In her previous life, Jiang Chan had been assigned to sit next to that lonely girl. She had a foul temper, always snapping at people with a fierce glare, and with her perpetually scowling face, she offended everyone around her in less than a week.

In the end, even the only deskmate who would still talk to her couldn’t take her attitude anymore and demanded a seat change from the teacher, leaving Jiang Chan by herself at the window.

Bai Shuangshuang hadn’t interacted much with Jiang Chan in her previous life. Later on, when Jiang Chan’s unlikable temper led to her being shunned by most of the class, Bai Shuangshuang still had no real chance to talk to her.

Back then, her heart and eyes had been filled only with Bai Tongsheng. She had known full well that she and Jiang Chan came from different worlds.

There was no need for any deeper connection.

But this life—

“Then you sit next to Bai Shuangshuang. Bai Shuangshuang, Jiang Chan will be your deskmate from now on. Is that okay?”

Suddenly called on, she turned her head on instinct and nodded under the teacher’s expectant gaze.

Jiang Chan sauntered down the aisle with a defiant swagger, then slammed her backpack onto the desk with a loud thud. The noise made the two students in front of them whip their heads around, their furrowed brows smoothing out the moment they saw her sullen expression. They turned back without daring to say a word.

Seeing Bai Shuangshuang still eyeing her curiously, Jiang Chan let out a soft scoff, her voice smooth and velvety with an oddly captivating lilt. “Hey, what’s your name?”

“Bai Shuangshuang.”

“Don’t look at me like that anymore, or else—”

Without warning, she reached out and pinched Bai Shuangshuang’s slender chin, a playful smirk on her face. “I might just dig your eyes out.”

When no trace of the fear she expected appeared on the other girl’s face, Jiang Chan tsked in disappointment. “Boring.”

With that, she yanked out her chair and sat down.

Staring at the girl’s head of bright yellow hair and replaying her words in her mind, only one phrase flashed through Bai Shuangshuang’s head: Mary Sue Chuunibyou Girl.

That term had been everywhere in a wildly popular web drama from her previous life.

How had she never realized back then that Jiang Chan—the girl everyone shunned for her rotten temper—was actually a total chuunibyou?

Did distance really produce beauty, after all?

Oblivious to the fact that others now saw her not as a ferocious Tibetan Mastiff, but as a goofy, brainless husky, Jiang Chan wondered: Did I just hear someone cursing me?

~~~

Bai Shuangshuang got her first real taste of Jiang Chan’s bad temper because of her hair.

That brilliant cascade of yellow, like it had been kissed by the sun itself, was a visual stunner—and it made the Discipline Director’s face darken to a glossy black.

Halfway through Chinese class, the Discipline Director, passing by the window, spotted that radiant head amid the crowd at a glance.

He shoved the door open and barked at Jiang Chan in a commanding tone, “You with the yellow hair—get out here.”

The moment “yellow hair” left his mouth, everyone in the class knew exactly what came next.

Jiang Chan wasn’t dumb. He clearly wanted her to dye it back, but she pretended not to hear a thing, sitting stock-still in her seat.

The Discipline Director’s face grew stormier. “Yellow hair! Out!”

Seeing his expression turn downright terrifying, Bai Shuangshuang nudged her. “Jiang Chan, the teacher’s calling you.”

Jiang Chan shot her a glance, her eyes every bit as intimidating as his. “Butt out.”

Bai Shuangshuang flinched, finally getting why so many people had shunned Jiang Chan in her previous life.

This side of Jiang Chan really was pretty scary.

In that moment of distraction, the Discipline Director stormed inside.

He slammed his clipboard down on Jiang Chan’s desk. “Didn’t you hear the teacher calling you? Get out here!”

Jiang Chan didn’t flinch at his glowering face. Amid the terrified faces of her classmates, her cool composure stood out like a sore thumb.

“I’m not deaf. Of course I heard.”

The Discipline Director’s eyes flashed darkly. “Is that any way for a student to speak to a teacher? The rest of the class needs to keep learning. I won’t waste words on you here—come with me. Now.”

She gave him a lazy once-over. “If you’re telling me to dye my hair back, sorry. Can’t do it.”

“Jiang Chan—”

The Chinese Teacher, who had stayed silent until now, spoke up. Jiang Chan glanced her way and curved her lips in a faint smile. “Teacher, save your breath. Even if the Principal showed up, I wouldn’t agree.”

Smack.

Without any warning, the sharp crack of a slap echoed through the room.

Jiang Chan’s face was forced to one side, her fair cheek instantly blooming red.

“Jiang Chan, huh? I can’t control you—let’s see if your mom can.”

It seemed that particular word stung the girl who had seemed utterly indifferent until then. Bang!

The desk piled high with books toppled over from a kick. Jiang Chan tilted her head back with a mocking sneer, gazing coldly at him. “Sorry, but my mom can’t control me either.”

The man’s eyes bulged red with fury at her defiant attitude. He swung his hand again, but halfway through the motion, someone grabbed his wrist.

Everyone stared in shock at the reckless interloper.

Bai Shuangshuang met the man’s blazing rage with calm, steadfast eyes. “Teacher, Jiang Chan’s attitude was wrong, but that doesn’t give you the right to hit her.”

The man’s face flushed an ugly mix of green and white. His gaze landed on the swelling red mark already rising on Jiang Chan’s cheek, and a flicker of discomfort crossed his features. He yanked his hand back, turned on his heel with a thunderous scowl, and stormed out.

“The rest of you, get back to class. Jiang Chan, report to my office. I’ll be waiting there with your parents.”

Only after he had vanished completely did the stifling tension in the room begin to lift.

“Alright, everyone, keep translating the classical Chinese text on your own. I’ll call on someone shortly. Bai Shuangshuang, take your seat. Jiang Chan, head to the Discipline Director’s office.”

The Chinese Teacher found delinquents like Jiang Chan the biggest headache. Bai Shuangshuang, on the other hand, was perpetually at the top of the class rankings—a prized student in any teacher’s eyes. Though she’d gotten tangled up in this sudden drama, she was really just a voice of calm reason.

Whether for the sake of duty or personal favor, the teacher had no desire to see her dragged in deeper. If the Discipline Director started doling out punishments, Bai Shuangshuang could easily get caught in the crossfire.

Bai Shuangshuang murmured her assent and sat down.

She glanced up at Jiang Chan, who was still standing beside her seat. Rather than leave, though, Jiang Chan sat down as well.

The Chinese Teacher watched the exchange, her mouth opening and closing, but in the end, she said nothing.

Bai Shuangshuang leaned in and whispered softly, “The Discipline Director told you to go to his office. If you don’t, you could get disciplined.”

Jiang Chan shot her the same sharp glance as before. “I told you, butt out.”

Her tone was as hostile as ever, showing not a shred of gratitude for Bai Shuangshuang’s bold stand against the Discipline Director’s wrath.