At lunchtime, Yan Qing and Gu Xizhou went to the cafeteria together. Many people on the way stared at Gu Xizhou, as curiously as if she were an alien.
Gu Xizhou didn’t know if she was being overly sensitive, or if it was because she’d never had the experience of eating with someone in middle school, but she felt these gazes were unusually scorching.
But the joy of eating with a friend outweighed the discomfort in her heart. After she and Yan Qing bought their food, they sat down together at a window seat.
While eating, Yan Qing asked Gu Xizhou when she could come to their family club to train.
Gu Xizhou answered, “Next week. The doctor said by next week, I can exercise as much as a normal person.”
The growth period was so fragile; even slight movements could risk injuring her bones and muscles. This meant she needed to strictly control her physical activity to ensure her safety.
Yan Qing understood upon hearing this: “You really have it tough. Alphas who undergo secondary differentiation are just too rare.”
Usually, only adolescents with nutritional deficiencies or hormonal and neural problems experienced this—sparking the body’s latent potential through secondary differentiation, taking a step forward. Differentiation was already dangerous; this made the risks even greater.
Gu Xizhou smiled but didn’t say anything.
Just then, a cute, round-faced little alpha carrying her tray passed by their table and greeted Yan Qing: “Yo.”
Yan Qing nodded: “Yo.”
Gu Xizhou couldn’t help but look up at the other alpha. The round-faced alpha’s eyes lit up upon seeing Gu Xizhou, and she accurately said her name: “Yo, Gu Xizhou.”
Gu Xizhou instantly became flustered. She raised her hand and offered a stiff greeting: “Hello.”
The other alpha smiled, like a tourist who had successfully checked in at the panda exhibit in a zoo, and walked away with her tray, completely satisfied.
After that alpha left, Gu Xizhou turned her head and couldn’t help but ask Yan Qing: “Was that alpha just now your friend?”
Yan Qing kept her head down, eating, and answered nonchalantly: “From the same middle school before, so she’d have some impression of me.”
Gu Xizhou’s eyes sparkled with admiration as she looked at Yan Qing: “You’re so amazing. The people you know all remember the friends who appear around you. She could even remember my name.”
What did this mean? It must be that Yan Qing was so popular that everyone cared so much about her friends!
Yan Qing looked at Gu Xizhou’s adoring, childlike expression. She straightened up a little in her seat and, after thinking for a moment, said: “Have you ever considered… that person didn’t know you because of me, but recognized you based on who you are, and that’s why she proactively greeted you?”
Gu Xizhou was baffled, blinking: “Me?”
Yan Qing nodded: “Yeah, just you.”
Little Xizhou was very puzzled: “Why?”
0820 yawned in her mind, mocking her younger, foolish self: “For the past three weeks, photos of you and Su Nanfeng have been floating all over every online forum. Any student who pays a little attention to lively drama could remember your face.”
Gu Xizhou didn’t engage with 0820, and soon heard Yan Qing give an answer roughly similar to 0820’s: “One reason is the whole thing with you and Su Nanfeng; everyone remembers your face.”
“Also, what happened on the day of your differentiation at the military base.”
Gu Xizhou had absolutely no memory of that, and neither did 0820. After all, 0820 had withdrawn her consciousness and returned to the nutrient capsule the night before Gu Xizhou’s differentiation.
0820 had a bad feeling and urged Gu Xizhou: “Ask her what happened that day.”
Although Su Zhiyi had just said it was a fever and she was sent to the hospital, 0820 felt there was something still left unexplained.
Following 0820’s suggestion, Gu Xizhou asked: “The day of the differentiation? What happened?”
Yan Qing gave Gu Xizhou an odd look, her tone very subtle: “That was the day you had a fever, suddenly ran from the infirmary to the drill ground, hugged Su Zhiyi’s thigh, knelt on the ground, and wailed loudly.”
Gu Xizhou’s head buzzed, on the verge of exploding.
She stared blankly at Yan Qing, watching her moving lips, desperately trying to decipher the words she was uttering, piecing them together, but she simply couldn’t process them.
Yan Qing thought Gu Xizhou didn’t really mind the matter, and even teased: “At the time, all of us classmates saw it. You hugged Su Zhiyi, knelt on the ground, like a scummy alpha begging their wife for forgiveness. That scene… tsk.”
Scummy alpha? Wife? Forgiveness?
The overwhelming amount of information made Gu Xizhou’s mind explode even more.
Yan Qing continued, still brooding over it: “I tried to pull you away, and you shook me off, crying and telling me to get lost.”
“You even released your pheromones, drew a huge circle to ensure no one could get near you and Su Zhiyi, like a beast marking its territory. Even the instructors didn’t dare approach you casually.”
“Some people were even guessing if you were in your heat/rut cycle…”
Heat/rut cycle? Crying and shouting, hugging Su Zhiyi? And trapping her…
What on earth was all this?
Could this be the reason why she felt people’s eyes on her all day?
Gu Xizhou’s face flushed instantly crimson. Amidst Yan Qing’s description, for a moment, she felt like a drowned person washed up on a beach, and everyone present had seen her bare bottom.
Ah! So humiliating! I want to die!
The intense heat robbed Gu Xizhou of all ability to think. Sitting in the middle of the noisy cafeteria, her heart pounding like a drum, she lost all perception of her surroundings.
As Yan Qing spoke, she felt something was off. She abruptly looked up at Gu Xizhou sitting across from her.
She saw the other alpha sitting there dumbstruck, her face beet red, just like a tomato, completely ripe.
Gu Xizhou’s expression was shocked and blank, ashamed and lost.
Seeing her behavior towards Su Zhiyi today, Yan Qing belatedly realized something and asked in surprise: “You don’t… have no memory of this at all, do you?”
Oh God, had she just publicly executed her new friend for a second time? She had thought Gu Xizhou had great stress tolerance and simply didn’t care about it, which is why she brought it up!
Gu Xizhou’s eyes welled up with tears, she looked about to cry: “I don’t remember.”
Gu Xizhou shook her head, both aggrieved and ashamed: “My fever was so high that day, I have no impression of any of it.”
“I only knew that you were the one who sent me to the infirmary because Su Zhiyi told me.”
Yan Qing instantly understood everything. Su Zhiyi must have realized through their conversations that Gu Xizhou had lost this part of her memory. That’s why she could interact with Gu Xizhou so calmly, and carefully protected the other’s self-esteem.
But now…
After her “blabbering” on, any semblance of that was utterly destroyed.
Seeing Gu Xizhou’s teary eyes, guilt surged in Yan Qing’s heart. She wanted to slap her own mouth and curse, “Why can’t I just control this mouth of mine?!”
Very tactfully, she immediately put her hands together and bowed her head to apologize to Gu Xizhou: “I’m so sorry, Gu Xizhou. I didn’t know you couldn’t remember.”
“If I’d known, I definitely wouldn’t have brought it up in front of you.”
Gu Xizhou sniffled, trying her best to calm down: “It’s okay. I would have found out eventually.”
There were so many students in their grade; if not Yan Qing, someone else would have told her. If anything, the fact that she was only learning the truth now showed how much Su Zhiyi cared about her feelings.
At least, Su Zhiyi herself didn’t mind.
Gu Xizhou wiped her tears, enduring the heat on her face, and sincerely thanked Yan Qing: “I should actually thank you for telling me this.”
“I… after all, it was something I did. Even if it was unconscious, it was still my doing. There’s nothing really to say.”
Yan Qing cracked open one eye, cautiously glancing at Gu Xizhou: “You’re really not mad at me?”
Gu Xizhou shook her head, forcing out a smile: “I’m not mad. After all, we’re friends.”
She had finally made such a good friend; how could she get angry and unreasonable over a reason like that?
Yan Qing let out a sigh of relief: “That’s good, that’s good.”
She sat up straight in her chair and comforted Gu Xizhou: “But don’t worry too much about it. Actually, over these past two weeks, Su Zhiyi has already pretty much calmed the situation down.”
“At least the Omegas in her dorm know you were going through a secondary differentiation and instinctively looked for someone familiar, not in some messy heat/rut cycle or whatever.”
The reasoning Yan Qing provided was very convincing: “After all, Su Zhiyi is the only one who helped you during those years Su Nanfeng bullied you. We can all understand that.”
“I told my friends the same thing.”
Of course, these explanations were also at Su Zhiyi’s request. The goal was to separate the incident of Gu Xizhou hugging her from the years of Gu Xizhou being bullied by Su Nanfeng—dealing with the matter on its own merits, without entanglement.
But there were always some who didn’t believe it. For instance, some alphas thought Gu Xizhou had intentions towards Su Zhiyi or had temporarily marked her; why else would there be such a strong possessiveness?
Although Yan Qing felt it wasn’t possessiveness, but more like a tadpole looking for its mother…
Still, she couldn’t say these things to Gu Xizhou, right? She was a tactful, socially adept child, knowing how to comfort a friend and make them feel better.
Gu Xizhou indeed showed a grateful expression: “Thank you, Yan Qing.”
“It’s really too good to have met you.”
Ah, and of course, it was too good to have met Su Zhiyi.
—
Feeling she had misspoken, Yan Qing bought Gu Xizhou an ice cream bar after lunch as compensation.
Although Gu Xizhou tried hard to decline, Yan Qing forced her to eat it.
The two walked back to the classroom eating their ice cream. On the way, Gu Xizhou began continuously brainwashing herself, trying to figure out how to forget the already established facts.
Gu Xizhou’s self-regulation ability was very strong. What happened had happened; she couldn’t go back and erase her delirious self. Gu Xizhou had no choice but to pretend that memory didn’t exist. She even pinned the blame on 0820, brainwashing herself that it was 0820 controlling her body, which led to that socially fatal act.
In short, everything was 0820’s fault.
0820 laughed in disbelief: “So now I’m your personal scapegoat, is that it?”
Gu Xizhou ignored her, just desperately brainwashing herself in her mind: It wasn’t her, it wasn’t her…
Unfortunately, after learning the truth, when she returned to the classroom and saw Su Zhiyi through the crowd surrounding her, Gu Xizhou still felt embarrassed.
Her face flushed instantly.
For the entire afternoon, as she sat in class, she felt like a little monkey with a bare bottom, restless and fidgety.
Every single person here had witnessed her wailing scene, had seen her hugging Su Zhiyi. What would they think? What would they guess?
That’s how people are. Once you start thinking about how you appear in the eyes of others, you are doomed to become a slave to these useless observations.
This, 0820 knew all too well.
She just couldn’t help but think about it. What would Su Zhiyi’s reaction have been back then, if she knew the truth, knew she had been violated by Su Nanfeng? Constantly guessing, that’s why she could never bring herself to speak about it, time and time again.
Even if you know someone very well, another person’s heart is ultimately not your own. You still worry about your image in their heart.
This is why people yearn to draw close to each other, yet cannot be truly honest with one another.
0820 sighed. Seeing Gu Xizhou on pins and needles, she consoled her: “It’s really nothing to care about. Humans are a species that only cares about novel things. You just happened to make two big splashes right when school started, so the classmates remembered you.”
“But as their campus lives become richer, as they develop people they care about in their hearts, they won’t focus their attention on you.”
“As time passes and memories weather, by then, the impression you leave on them will just be: ‘Ah, that person was beaten up by a school bully at the start of the semester, and had a public secondary differentiation, hugging the Omega she liked.'”
“If you can end up marrying Su Zhiyi in the future, it might even become a beautiful tale.”
At the very least, this high school life, compared to the real world, is already incredibly happy, isn’t it?
It was fine when 0820 didn’t speak, but mentioning it made Gu Xizhou want to die even more. Her face was terribly red, her ears still burning even now.
0820 had no choice but to say disdainfully: “Alphas your age are just too self-important.”
“Too narcissistic, thinking you’re too important, that’s why you dwell on even this kind of thing.”
“What’s there to be so embarrassed about? You have much more face-losing to do in the future.”
This was the experience of someone who’d been through it. But little Gu Xizhou was a youth who hadn’t experienced it, and she simply couldn’t listen.
She remained restless afterwards. However, after 0820’s guidance, she was at least able to continue listening to the lectures.
The afternoon soon ended, and it happened to be Gu Xizhou’s turn for classroom duty. She stayed behind with three other students to clean.
When Gu Xizhou returned after putting away the mop, her classmates had already arranged the desks and chairs neatly. The last one left called out to Gu Xizhou: “Only the blackboard is left. Gu Xizhou, I’ll leave this to you, okay?”
“Mm, okay.”
Gu Xizhou put down the mop, took the eraser from the lectern, and began wiping away the black marker writings on the whiteboard one by one.
But there was one spot she just couldn’t wipe clean. She strained to stand on her tiptoes, jumping several times, barely managing to erase a little bit.
Su Zhiyi, who had just come back into the classroom, saw this scene and sighed: “Let me.”
Her sudden voice startled Gu Xizhou. Clutching the eraser, Gu Xizhou turned her head towards the classroom door. Seeing Su Zhiyi standing there, backlit, her expression involuntarily became flustered: “Su Zhiyi…”
God, why hadn’t Su Zhiyi left yet?
Su Zhiyi nodded, walked up to Gu Xizhou, picked up the eraser from the lectern, and effortlessly wiped away the remaining writing on the board. She asked calmly: “Did all the duty students leave? Why were you left to clean alone? Did you mop the floor all by yourself?”
There was no helping it. Knowing Gu Xizhou’s easygoing nature, combined with her two-year history of being bullied by Su Nanfeng, it was hard for Su Zhiyi to believe she hadn’t been given all the work and left alone in the classroom.
Gu Xizhou let out an “Ah,” quickly catching on. She explained to Su Zhiyi: “No, they just left. I mopped the corridor, the classroom floor was mopped by them. It’s just… I was slower…”
Gu Xizhou spoke in a fluster, the core point being that no one was bullying her.
“Mm.” Su Zhiyi nodded, wiping the whiteboard several times. Once it was clean, she placed the eraser neatly back on the lectern.
Gu Xizhou looked at her curiously: “Why haven’t you gone home yet? Did you leave something behind?”
Su Zhiyi nodded, looking at Gu Xizhou beside her, sizing her up: “Left a notebook.”
“Oh…”
Gu Xizhou clasped her hands together, a little hesitant. 0820 egged her on in her mind: “This is a rare chance, invite her to walk home together!”
“Quick, quick… and you can apologize for the differentiation incident while you’re at it.”
But before Gu Xizhou could speak, Su Zhiyi beside her proactively called her name: “Gu Xizhou…”
Gu Xizhou looked up at Su Zhiyi, seeing Su Zhiyi gazing at her with a smile, her look extremely gentle: “Did you grow a little taller?”
Huh?
Could she tell just by looking?
Gu Xizhou’s eyes instantly lit up, her tone very excited: “You think I grew taller too, right?”
