Chapter 55: Golden Oriole

That roar sent Chu Susu plummeting into an ice cave, freezing her in place. She almost didn’t dare to turn around and look at who was outside.

Even though she had already recognized the voice’s owner.

A flurry of hurried footsteps approached. Chu Zhen’s face was ashen, and behind him trailed their stern-faced homeroom teacher. He strode into the lobby and grabbed her arm.

“Chu Susu.”

He called her name again, his eyes somewhat clouded, as if he had aged ten years in an instant. The hand gripping her arm kept trembling.

“Dad, Teacher Wu.” Chu Susu’s arm hurt from his grip, so she couldn’t help but shake him off and back up two steps, utterly confused. “Why are you here…”

“Parent, please calm down first.”

Her homeroom teacher was a middle-aged man. Seeing that Chu Zhen was worked up, he first offered a quiet word of comfort before fixing Chu Susu with a piercing gaze.

“Chu Susu, your teacher is asking you—what are you doing in a place like this?”

“I-I came to meet someone.”

“Meet who?”

Chu Susu named a person, and instantly, disappointment like one feels toward an ungrateful child flashed across the teacher’s face, making her even more afraid.

Teacher Wu had always been kind and gentle. Even when she had flipped over the wall and broken the rules, getting publicly scolded by the dean, he had never shown such an expression.

“Dad, Teacher Wu.” An ominous feeling suddenly enveloped Chu Susu, fear crawling all over her heart. “How… how did you know I was here…”

Their commotion was quite loud, drawing curious glances from the hotel front desk girl.

Teacher Wu didn’t answer her question, and Chu Zhen remained silent as well.

Even the air fell deathly still in the blink of an eye.

… …

Later, Chu Susu truly couldn’t remember how they had dragged her back to the empty school after classes and brought her to the dean’s office.

She only recalled standing in the center of everyone’s gazes, facing the crowd’s stares devoid of any goodwill, letting those insulting words land on her face one by one.

An unfamiliar middle-aged woman slammed a small phone onto the table and shouted hysterically:

“Look at what she did to our little Xingxing!”

The screen showed their chat records, but for some reason, they had been cropped—only the parts about getting a room and asking for the room number remained.

Scrolling up revealed their casual greetings, full of sweetness between the lines.

“Xingxing is still so young.” The middle-aged woman lowered her eyes in sorrow, squeezing them shut. “She’s just a little girl. You’re not much older yourself—how could you, how could you do something so outrageous…”

As she spoke, tears streamed down her face. She really couldn’t go on.

The other teachers in the office soothed the woman’s emotions while the dean glowered fiercely and asked in a deep voice:

“What exactly is your relationship with her? Are you lesbians? Who suggested getting a room today? What were you planning to do?”

Chu Susu opened her mouth: “I…”

She had long known she was a lesbian, but Xingxing… Xingxing wasn’t her girlfriend.

She liked Xingxing, but that auntie was right—Xingxing was three years younger than her, still just a little girl. How could she mess around with her?

“I don’t have a special relationship with her.” Chu Susu’s voice felt parched, struggling to form words. “We just had something to discuss and agreed to meet at the hotel.”

The dean slammed the table viciously, clearly not buying it:

“Then explain it clearly in front of the parents and teachers—what was so important that you had to meet in a hotel room? You’re both minors—didn’t you know that?”

Chu Susu bit her lip hard.

Xingxing had a special ability that no one else knew about except her, and her injury was probably related.

She had promised her long ago not to tell anyone.

“Susu!” Chu Zhen grabbed her shoulders and shook her back and forth. “Speak! Is there some reason? Did you really plan to take that girl to a hotel room?”

The man who was usually calm and collected in business dealings was now frantic like a madman.

He wasn’t home often, so their father-daughter bond wasn’t deep. But whenever she saw him, Chu Susu wanted to show him her best side.

And now, she couldn’t come up with any explanation. Helplessly, tears blurred her vision and spilled out.

“I didn’t.” Chu Susu could only repeat those three words over and over. “I didn’t.”

The dean slowly took a sip of tea, saying with heartache: “You’re so young, you shouldn’t…”

Before he could finish, the middle-aged woman’s shrill scream cut him off again: “She’s young, but what about our Xingxing?”

“Parent, please calm down…”

Ignoring the other teachers, she rushed forward on her own, grabbed Chu Susu’s collar, and demanded with bulging eyes: “You might be sixteen or seventeen, but Xingxing is only fourteen—have you ever thought about her?”

A red mark appeared on Chu Susu’s neck from the strangling. She struggled to explain: “I… I swear to heaven, I didn’t do anything to her!”

The woman sneered: “Didn’t do anything?”

Under others’ pulling, she finally let go bit by bit.

“Fine, you didn’t do anything.” Her gaze was feral, like a beast about to pounce and tear her apart. “You just kept harassing Xingxing relentlessly, without any shame! How can a young girl be so shameless?”

Those words slapped her across the face like a real strike.

And the suspicious looks from everyone around shattered her self-esteem to pieces.

“Harassment?” Tears welled in her eyes, but she gritted her teeth, refusing to admit it. “No, how could I harass her? I would never do such a thing! If you don’t believe me, come to the hotel with me right now—Xingxing is still inside! Let’s confront her face-to-face.”

Deep down, Chu Susu still harbored unrealistic fantasies. As long as Xingxing showed up herself, it would prove her innocence.

The woman stared at her.

Those two or three seconds felt like a century.

“Hotel? Xingxing is perfectly fine at home—she didn’t go anywhere.”

“Those words earlier? That was Xingxing herself who said them.” She smirked mockingly. “Xingxing handed me her phone herself, as evidence to report your actions to the school.”

“She didn’t come in person because she’s had enough of you.”

How could that be?

Chu Susu felt petrified, frozen in place.

The middle-aged woman wiped her tears and turned to the dean and others: “Xingxing’s mom passed early, her dad doesn’t care, and I’m her only living relative. I’m the only one standing up for her. They’re both your students—surely you won’t side with her just because her family has money?”

“Parent, please calm down. Trust the school—we’ll handle this seriously and fairly…”

“Don’t give me that nonsense! If there’s no resolution today, I’m not leaving!”

Chu Susu suddenly looked toward Chu Zhen, who stood silently in the corner.

He was hunched over, head bowed low, repeatedly bowing apologies to the middle-aged woman—only to be shoved away, nearly stumbling.

“Dad!”

Chu Susu was furious and anxious, choking back sobs. “I didn’t do those things—don’t apologize!”

But with so many people in the room, no one paid attention to what she was saying.

Chu Susu reached for Chu Zhen’s sleeve but grasped at air.

He finally spoke: “Shut your mouth.”

“Why should I shut up?” She still wouldn’t yield, stubbornly asking in a clear voice, “Dad, you…”

But under his indifferent gaze, she gradually fell silent.

Don’t distrust me.

And don’t back away slowly with that look that’s nothing but disappointment.

This isn’t how it is.

I really didn’t do anything.

Why doesn’t anyone believe that—the dean, Teacher Wu, Xingxing’s aunt, and even Dad?

In the face of unshakeable doubt, Chu Susu dejectedly closed her mouth.

—

“That’s pretty much how it went.”

It took Chu Susu a great effort to slowly recount everything, with many details blurred—like the other girl’s name and nickname.

She only thought of “Xingxing” once in her mind before forgetting it again.

“Funny, huh? I can’t even remember why I agreed to meet her at the hotel back then.” She leaned back, saying carelessly, “There must’ve been a good reason. I was too young then, tightly controlled by my sister—how dare I do something like getting a room and sleeping with someone.”

Han Xuan lay down beside her, paused, and asked:

“Then why, in front of the dean and everyone, did you endure the injustice instead of speaking up?”

“I promised that girl I’d keep her secret. But I can’t recall what it was anymore.”

For some reason, that chunk of memory had been erased from her brain like with an eraser—she just couldn’t bring it up.

“Do you hate her?”

Chu Susu chuckled lazily: “Eh, whatever. It was years ago—who cares.”

Han Xuan fell quiet for a moment, then suddenly leaned over.

It all happened so naturally. The mattress creaked softly amid Han Xuan’s gentle, fragmented whispers of comfort:

“Don’t be sad…”

“I’m not sad.”

Chu Susu tilted her head up, gazing at her porcelain-like face, her dark hair cascading down by her ear, and reached out to hook Han Xuan’s shoulder.

Right before their lips were about to touch, she whispered lowly, “Will anyone else come here?”

“No.”

The box of things Han Yao had given her was still somewhat useful.

Chu Susu pinched it in her hand, gently rubbing Han Xuan’s nose tip like a lover’s murmur: “But I don’t want it to be like last time.”

She saw Han Xuan hesitate for a moment, then nod as if she’d made some resolve: “Alright.”

This reaction made Chu Susu unable to contain her delight, a smile tugging at her lips.

Han Xuan pursed her lips, completely clueless about what was so amusing about her.

“Why are you so adorably silly?” she sighed softly. “You nod along to everything I say? Someone could sell you off and you’d be none the wiser.”

“I…”

“You were pretty skilled last time. Have you done it with others before?”

Han Xuan shook her head slowly: “No.”

“Not even as a 0?”

Still shaking her head, like a silly little lamb.

“If you really want it that badly, then come on.” Han Xuan said softly. “I don’t mind.”

Chu Susu gazed at the innocence in her eyes, and suddenly her thoughts drifted elsewhere.

People were selfish by nature—that was what she’d always believed, and the painful memories from her youth only reinforced it.

Chu Susu suddenly remembered why so many spots on those slips of paper in the “rat hole” room were smudged and blurred with color.

It wasn’t because of the passage of time.

It was because on that rainy spring night, the teenage Chu Susu had sat by the window, tears streaming silently down her face amid the thunder and rain, no longer afraid at all.

Instead, she’d taken a pen of the same color and viciously, thoroughly crossed out that girl’s name herself.

As if that could erase her from her life entirely.

After that, she’d never pinned any hopes on anyone else.

That way, there’d be no disappointment.

For instance, a couple years ago, when she found out one of her girlfriends was actually straight, she didn’t get angry or make a scene—just parted ways peacefully and gracefully. Even now, the other girl still spoke well of her.

Or like when she saw Xia Zilu furiously kick Pipi flying, then panic and beg for forgiveness in front of her. Though angry, she wasn’t shocked, just numbly thinking—

As expected, people are like that.

But now, Chu Susu stared at Han Xuan’s face so close at hand, and her heartbeat suddenly skipped a beat.

How could someone be misunderstood and still not get angry, always smiling at her so cautiously?

How could someone with supernatural abilities be so dumb and silly, letting ordinary people bully her so easily?

How could someone be this pure, agreeing so readily to demands on someone else’s bed?

Could it be— she meant, was there any possibility—

That this person was different from everyone else she’d ever met in her life?