Chapter 72: The Trampled School Bully (2) Part 2

Bai Qian pulled out her phone and jotted down the dates for Jiang Yusheng’s upcoming susceptible periods in her memo app.

Better safe than sorry.

~~~

Meanwhile, back at home, the first thing Jiang Yusheng did was spill the whole story to her mom.

As expected, Zhao Lanzhao laid into her without mercy.

“Didn’t your mom warn you just the other day? I told you your susceptible period might be coming up, so keep an inhibitor in your pocket. But nooo, you didn’t listen! And look what happened—susceptible period hits, ears get touched, huh? I’ve been telling you since you were little: no one touches those ears! But it all went in one ear and out the other!”

The woman shot her a furious glare. “Now your ears got touched! Serves you right, you Rabbit Brat! You needed to learn the hard way. Now everything’s ruined. I told you not to let anyone touch those ears willy-nilly, told you to carry that inhibitor, but you wouldn’t listen. You’re gonna give me a heart attack!”

She huffed a few breaths, still fuming, then spotted her daughter with her neck all stiff and stubborn, refusing to admit fault. Her blood pressure spiked. She jabbed a finger toward the bedroom. “Get your butt back to your room! No dinner tonight! You make me so mad. How old are you? Still acting like you’re three? Do you know how important susceptible periods are? In you go—don’t let me see your face right now!”

With that, she slammed the door shut on her without giving her a chance to explain.

Jiang Yusheng didn’t argue back. She knew her mom was just worried about her, and the blowup stemmed mostly from the misunderstanding that her ears had actually been touched.

With her mom still in a rage, now wasn’t the time for clarifications.

But the mere thought of ears dragged her mind back to that girl in the alley.

She’d been in such agony earlier that she hadn’t gotten a good look. Now, trying to picture her face, it all blurred together, impossible to pin down.

The one thing burned into her memory was the girl’s scent.

It was unique— a crisp, refreshing fragrance she’d never encountered before.

Inhaling it felt like diving headfirst into a deep winter snowbank, rolling around until she was wrapped head to toe in soft flakes, that pure, exhilarating joy filling her up.

A loud bang jolted her from the doorway.

It snapped Jiang Yusheng out of her reverie.

Realizing what she’d been daydreaming about, her face flushed crimson with shame and fury.

How could she be thinking about that annoying jerk!

To drown it out, Jiang Yusheng decided to bury herself in studying—force her mind to settle and shove that scent right out of her head.

She grabbed her workbook, flipped it open, and started on a tough math problem. She’d barely scratched out the first step when—crack—the pen snapped clean in half under her grip.

What right did a perennial bottom-of-the-class slacker like her have to “study her troubles away”?

A floppy-eared rabbit burrowed under the covers.

She curled up, scrolled through some videos on her phone for a bit, then found her thoughts drifting uncontrollably back to that scent.

As she lost herself in the memory, her eyelids grew heavy, her mind fuzzy—she was on the verge of drifting off—

Thump.

Someone pounded on the door.

“Jiang Yusheng, come out for dinner,” Zhao Lanzhao called from outside.

The noise shattered her drowsiness. She mumbled a response, slipped out of bed, shuffled into her slippers, and opened the door.

Two steaming bowls of takeout noodles had appeared on the table.

Jiang Yusheng scooted over. “Mom, you didn’t make dinner today?”

The woman shot her a glare. “Don’t you know damn well why I didn’t cook? I’m so pissed off I couldn’t eat a thing.”

With that, she shoved a pair of disposable chopsticks into Jiang Yusheng’s hand. “If your dad saw this, he’d grab a stick and break your legs for sure.”

Jiang Yusheng didn’t argue. She meekly leaned over her bowl and took a sip of the noodle soup.

Zhao Lanzhao cracked open an extra tea egg she’d bought, peeled off the shell, and dropped it into her daughter’s bowl. The flavor-infused egg let off a savory aroma as it plopped into the broth and sank. Her tone softened a bit. “You know exactly what it means when someone touches your ears during your Susceptible Period, right? So spill—who was it? They know you’re a Rabbit Spirit. Did they freak out?”

“I’m not a Rabbit Spirit! That sounds awful—don’t call me that!” Jiang Yusheng exploded.

Zhao Lanzhao rolled her eyes. “What, you gonna pretend like you did when you were little, thinking you were some big bad wolf? You’re a full-grown rabbit now. Face facts and own it—you’re a Rabbit Spirit. It’s not embarrassing! Hell, your mom only reeled in your dad back in the day because I was a Rabbit Spirit. What’s wrong with that? We’re cute as hell!”

“Cute my ass,” Jiang Yusheng shot back. “I wasn’t cute before, and now that I’ve got a Susceptible Period? Even less so!”

Just thinking about how she’d made a total fool of herself in front of Gu Wanching during it made her blood boil.

She could only imagine what those guys would say about her after she bolted.

The thought that her hard-earned reputation as the school bully might crumble overnight turned her face pitch black.

Seeing her daughter sulking, Zhao Lanzhao didn’t press the issue. She gracefully changed the subject. “Fine, so what about the one who touched your ears? Tell me about her.”

“No one touched my ears! I’m perfectly fine!”

The woman let out a scoff. “Keep bullshitting. You think I don’t know what a Susceptible Period is like, being a Rabbit myself? Look, it’s come to this—running from it won’t fix a damn thing. Let’s both cool our tempers and talk it out properly, okay?”

“I really wasn’t touched. She fed me some weird drink, and a few seconds later, I was good as new.”

“Jiang Yusheng, if you keep this up, your mom’s really gonna lose it! I’ve told you before—the higher-ups made it clear after the founding of the country: no more spirits. You and I are the exceptions who slipped through the cracks. I can say for damn sure that we’re the only Rabbit Spirits in the world. So who else would know how to make an Inhibitor besides me?”

“…”

Jiang Yusheng knew her mom was right. Ever since she could remember, Zhao Lanzhao had brought this up every now and then. There was no way she could forget.

But today, of all days, she’d run into someone downright bizarre.

Thinking about that person got her fired up all over again. “I’m not lying to you. Why the hell would I joke about something like this? I told you straight-up about the Susceptible Period—what reason do I have to lie about whether my ears got touched?”

Zhao Lanzhao nodded. “Alright, I’ll take your word for it. Then bring that good Samaritan over so I can meet her. Let’s see who this miracle worker is who knows how to get a Rabbit Spirit through her Susceptible Period. Oh, and from what you’re saying, she knew about your ears, didn’t even flinch, just calmly pulled something out of her pocket, fed it to you, and bam—crisis averted?”

Jiang Yusheng’s eyes widened in shock. “Did you bug me or something? Yeah, that’s exactly what happened.”

Hearing her mom lay it out like that made Jiang Yusheng realize it herself.

That woman’s reactions… it was almost like she’d been waiting for it.

Zhao Lanzhao got pissed all over again at her stubbornness and slammed down her chopsticks with a clack. “Fine. Track her down and bring her here, and I’ll believe you.”

Jiang Yusheng’s attention snapped to that. “How the hell am I supposed to find her? I don’t even know her! Once the Susceptible Period passed, I bailed. I don’t know where she’s from—how am I supposed to track her down?”

The two locked eyes, neither willing to budge, and in the end, Jiang Yusheng got slapped with a temporary label: “lying little brat rabbit.”

“Fine then. We’ll wait for your next Susceptible Period. We’ll see if you need someone to touch your ears. If you’re lying to me, Jiang Yusheng—even if you’re in high school now—your mom’s gonna yank down your pants and spank your ass till it blooms!”

Under the threat of a blooming backside, Jiang Yusheng vented all her frustration on Bai Qian, the one who’d given her the drink.

Helping her out and then not even leaving contact info? Now she was getting chewed out by her mom because of it. That woman was the worst!

The sulky rabbit burrowed under the covers and fell asleep, completely forgetting that after Bai Qian had helped her through the Susceptible Period, she’d been the one with no manners—no thank you, nothing. She’d just up and left without a word.

Bai Qian, whose home was a kilometer away, suddenly sneezed. She rubbed her nose and casually grabbed the air conditioner remote from nearby, bumping the temperature up by two degrees.

A knock came at the door, accompanied by a woman’s gentle voice. “Qianqian, are you studying? I’ve warmed some milk—shall I bring it in for you?”

“Sure, Mom. Come on in.”

The soft glow of the desk lamp illuminated the woman’s face, brimming with tenderness as she gazed at her daughter.

Under that watchful eye, Bai Qian sipped the milk down sip by sip. When she set the glass back on the tray, she murmured a warm thank-you.

Shen Chenyun pulled a tissue from the box and handed it over, motioning for her to wipe the milk stain from the corner of her mouth. She glanced at the extra workbook spread open on the desk and said with concern, “It’s almost ten. Tomorrow’s the weekend—why don’t you call it a night, Qianqian?”

“Alright. I’ll finish this problem and then head to bed. Good night, Mom.”

If Jiang Yusheng’s home was like a bottle of Coke spiked with fizzy mints, then Bai Qian’s was a simple glass of plain water.

One fizzed and bubbled with energy, the other flowed quiet and serene.

~~~ Yet both captured the essence of “home.”

~~~

The weekend flew by, and Jiang Yusheng put the alleyway incident completely out of her mind.

She had no intention of asking anyone to track down that mysterious girl.

The reasons were straightforward.

For one, she didn’t want a soul knowing she was a lop-eared rabbit. She had no idea how the girl had helped her, but judging from how her health had stayed perfectly stable these past few days, the stranger had likely just been a genuine good Samaritan.

Someone who did a good deed without expecting payback? No way was Jiang Yusheng going to be fool enough to shove her vulnerability right in their face. What if it sparked some darker impulse?

Secondly, she’d utterly forgotten what the girl even looked like. All she remembered was that clean, crisp scent clinging to her—fresh and pleasant. Asking someone to hunt her down based on that alone? Even if they kept a straight face, they’d probably think she was nuts.

Jiang Yusheng figured Rong City was far too vast for their paths to ever cross again in her lifetime.

But come Wednesday’s PE class, they ran into each other right there on school grounds.