Chapter 4

Senior Class One was buzzing during break, everyone eagerly discussing the grade president election.

At a traditional aristocratic academy like Teitan Academy, power was divided along both visible and invisible lines. The five great families each held sway over their own faction, and the students knew without saying where their loyalties lay.

Students who had grown up immersed in the world of power never discussed such things openly.

But this time was a little different.

The Lu Family’s eldest miss was a senior. Aside from the ailing eldest daughter of the Yu Family, who was rarely seen, none of the other three families had anyone in Lu Li’s year.

More importantly, everyone at Teitan Academy knew that Lu Li, Qi Jinyu, and Yu Ling were close.

The aristocratic students kept quiet to their faces, but behind the scenes their thumbs flew over the internal forum, frantically discussing the undercurrents between the families.

Then the sound of a wheelchair rolling into the room brought every conversation to an abrupt halt.

First came a pair of slender legs in white knee socks and expensive Mary Janes, resting on the footrests. They were pale from years without sunlight, but not stiff and useless as the rumors claimed.

Then came a brown pleated skirt, a white shirt and striped tie, soft black hair falling over her shoulders, and a delicate face full of impatience. Her skin was so pale it seemed almost translucent.

Pushing her into the classroom was Lu Li, tall and slender, with hair as black as ink.

Her fingers guided the wheelchair with a light, steady touch. She moved at an unhurried pace, her expression impassive.

The students fell silent almost instinctively. In their academy uniforms, the two girls seemed to radiate an aura that kept everyone at a distance, born as much from their striking beauty as from their immense power.

Yu Ling rarely came to school. Even on the few occasions she did, she slipped in through the back door, listened to only a few minutes of class, then yawned her way back out as someone wheeled her away.

Even her classmates knew little more about her than anyone else.

“God, aren’t they even closer than we were saying?”

The students began whispering among themselves.

Lu Li wheeled Yu Ling over beside her desk, then briskly laid out her books, notes, tablet, and everything else she needed for class.

Looking weary, Yu Ling stared at the blackboard covered in mathematical formulas and blinked, very slowly.

“Sleepy?” Lu Li glanced at the ailing girl beside her and asked in an even tone.

“No,” Yu Ling denied at once.

What kind of good student gets sleepy before class?

“I was just thinking—”

“Hm?” Lu Li gave a low hum without looking up. Her fingers kept turning the pages of her book.

After a moment, when Yu Ling said nothing more, Lu Li finally raised her eyes.

A mischievous glint flashed in Yu Ling’s.

The next instant, someone caught Yu Ling’s restless left hand.

It was soft as silk, smooth and delicate. Lu Li’s fingertips were cool, but her grip was steady. She slowly stroked the back of Yu Ling’s hand, making no move to let go.

Yu Ling pouted, bored.

Leaning closer, Lu Li whispered beside her ear, “So this is what you like? Should I tell Qi Jinyu?”

Yu Ling looked at her in surprise.

She raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know how Qi Jinyu would react, but I know you wouldn’t like it.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Lu Li loosened her grip a little.

Yu Ling smiled knowingly. She knew Lu Li was only putting on a brave face, so she changed the subject. “Anyway, aren’t we rivals now?”

“Who says?”

“Lu Li, why do I feel like you have a worse temper than I do?”

Lu Li didn’t answer. She only gave Yu Ling’s left hand a warning squeeze.

Under the desk, Lu Li’s hand held Yu Ling fast. Above it, her face showed no sign of emotion. Her obsidian eyes stayed fixed on Yu Ling, and only her earlobes had turned faintly red.

Yu Ling decided she needed to learn from Lu Li: how to lace every word with a barb and answer any disagreement with silence.

What kind of sharp-tongued, short-tempered heiress got flustered by Lu Li?

“I think our relationship is pretty messed up.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

The bell rang, and the teacher entered on time to start class for a roomful of young ladies and gentlemen.

Lu Li and Yu Ling weren’t about to talk openly during class, so they switched to private messages on their phones.

Typing with one hand was awkward, so Yu Ling tried to pull her left hand free.

It wouldn’t budge. She glared at Lu Li, who finally let her reclaim the use of her hand.

[Yu Ling: You won’t admit you like me, and now we’re publicly competing against each other.]

[Lu Li: What kind of competition is that? If you want it, take it.]

Yu Ling frowned.

[Yu Ling: Lu Li, I may not get involved in family affairs, but I’m not so clueless that I can’t see this much.]

Lu Li was bound to get the position. It had nothing to do with what she wanted.

Since Yu Ling had no freedom of movement in her lower body, she made especially deft use of her hands. Gaming and typing were second nature to her, though she often lacked the stamina to make it through a game that lasted an hour or two.

Lu Li didn’t reply.

Yu Ling propped her head on one hand and turned to look at her deskmate, who was listening to the lesson with complete attention.

Lu Li’s eyes were narrow at the corners, her pupils dark. When she fixed her gaze on someone, it felt like being watched by a black snake, damp and icy. That was how other people described her.

Now that black snake sat upright, her back perfectly straight.

Yu Ling shifted her neck and glanced around. Sure enough, a photographer stood outside the window, snapping away at her deskmate.

It had to be another order from the family. Only the head of the Lu Family, even more taciturn than Lu Li, could have made her take on the tedious, troublesome post of grade president.

Yu Ling lifted her brows, bored. Then, ignoring the teacher’s nonstop lecture and Lu Li’s performance as a model student, she folded her arms on the slightly cool textbook, let her head droop, and prepared to fall asleep—

A plush cushion slipped beneath her arm.

Yu Ling closed her eyes, perfectly content.

“Little Ling, the grade president election isn’t complicated. The final score is based on three things: academics, popularity, and ability. The candidate with the highest score gets the position.”

This was the student council president’s private office, at the very top of the Student Council’s office building. One whole wall of windows overlooked the academy. The room was spacious and lavishly furnished, its clean lines elegant rather than plain.

The lights were dim. Beyond the windows, the lights of the surrounding buildings glittered like a vast painting of the starry sky.

Qi Jinyu, whom Yu Ling hadn’t seen all day, motioned for the bodyguards who had brought her to leave. Then she swept the girl up in her arms and gently settled her onto the leather sofa in the middle of the room.

When Yu Ling asked, “Is the grade president election really that difficult?” Qi Jinyu gave her a brief rundown of the process.

But she didn’t leave afterward. Bracing herself with both hands on either side of Yu Ling, she gazed down at the girl, amber eyes quiet and intent. Her chestnut curls fell loose, tangling with Yu Ling’s black hair.

“Academics means your grades. Popularity is decided by student votes, and the board of trustees evaluates ability.”

At Teitan Academy, though, the students’ votes and the board’s wishes amounted to the same thing.

As Qi Jinyu spoke, her warm breath brushed Yu Ling’s lashes. Her hair tickled Yu Ling’s cheek. Yu Ling shifted uneasily beneath her, met her smiling gaze, and pressed her lips together.

“Popularity includes a vote from President Qi, doesn’t it?”

Qi Jinyu made no move to change position. Her gaze wandered freely over Yu Ling’s porcelain-doll face, but her voice remained gentle. “Of course.”

“Then vote for Lu Li.”

Only then did Qi Jinyu’s expression change. A hint of surprise entered her voice. “Why?”

“I don’t want the friendship between the three of us to fall apart over something this stupid.” Yu Ling put particular emphasis on the word “friendship.”

The girl above her suddenly smiled. Her smile widened, and that soft, gentle face drew closer until it blurred before Yu Ling’s eyes.

Qi Jinyu’s lips covered hers in a tender, patient kiss, gently teasing and nibbling.

It didn’t hurt, but a strange numbness spread from her lips.

Qi Jinyu’s gaze was soft, almost seductive, drawing Yu Ling in little by little, as if she meant to sink her into this sudden, impossibly tender kiss.

Just as Yu Ling began to enjoy it, the door was shoved open with a bang.

Light spilled from the doorway into the intimate room, illuminating the two girls tangled together.

“Qi. Jinyu.”

The cool voice rang through the student council president’s private office like ice cracking on a snowy night.

Qi Jinyu chuckled, entirely unruffled. She eased upright, one arm still bent, and traced a fingertip over Yu Ling’s lips, spreading the sheen their kiss had left there.

Yu Ling’s lips, kissed and teased until they looked like crushed roses, glistened with a lush, dewy sheen.

Qi Jinyu’s eyes remained lowered on the girl beneath her, amber pupils reflecting Yu Ling’s dazed, porcelain-pale face. Yu Ling’s uneven breaths drifted against her ear.

Yu Ling’s chest rose and fell. The kiss had lasted a little too long; it was already a strain for her.

Once she’d caught her breath and recovered, Yu Ling sat up. Only then did Qi Jinyu straighten fully, releasing her from that little pocket of space.

It seemed the two of them had only just remembered that Lu Li was there.

Yu Ling touched her slightly swollen lips, then turned to Lu Li. “What are you doing here?”

Lu Li’s eyes were lowered, her posture ramrod straight. The bright hallway lights cast a deep, unreadable shadow over her.

Her expression was dark. Since entering the room and seeing the two of them, she hadn’t moved at all, standing as straight and still as a stalk of ink-black bamboo.

Is she angry?

Yu Ling tried to read Lu Li’s mood. Maybe I did go a little too far this time.

She hadn’t expected Lu Li to barge in, least of all at that exact moment. It was almost a perfect repeat of last time.

So she opened her arms, making as if to hug Lu Li. “Lu Li, take me home.” She didn’t spare a thought for Qi Jinyu, whom she’d just kissed.

She’d already gotten what she’d come to Qi Jinyu for: to seduce her, bluntly speaking, and find out where they stood.

Now it seemed things had gone much more smoothly than she’d imagined. The two of them had slipped into an unspoken, mutually acknowledged flirtation.

She thought back over it. Somehow, everything had fallen into place. From the moment they kissed, their relationship had charged off in a direction neither of them could predict.

As for Lu Li’s feelings?

Yu Ling’s thinking was simple. If she couldn’t—or didn’t have the energy to—pursue two people at once, she’d take them one at a time.

Perhaps she’d been holding her arms out too long. Yu Ling’s shoulders were starting to ache. She pouted and was about to lower them when Lu Li finally moved.

She crossed the room one quiet step at a time.

Yu Ling leaned forward and opened her arms.

Her slender frame trembled faintly. Her hair was a little mussed, hanging down her back. A flush touched her pallid cheeks as she watched Lu Li intently, like a deep-sea fairy waiting for her master to arrive.

Lu Li ignored Qi Jinyu standing beside the sofa, and the traces of her kiss on Yu Ling’s lips. She gathered Yu Ling into her arms, and Yu Ling looped her own arms around Lu Li’s back.

Lu Li rose carefully with Yu Ling in her arms. Only then did she turn her gaze to Qi Jinyu.

“For the student council president, you’re remarkably careless.” Her voice was flat.

Clearly, that door had been left only half-shut so Lu Li could enjoy the scene without obstruction.

“Thanks for the reminder, A-Li. It won’t happen again.” Qi Jinyu’s smile remained, her tone still warm and familiar.

Yu Ling yawned and closed her eyes, resting peacefully in Lu Li’s arms.

Both girls spoke softly, their voices so lovely they sounded like lullabies. Yu Ling had fallen asleep right there in front of them.

Lu Li made to leave. As she passed Qi Jinyu, she lowered her voice and enunciated every word.

“Don’t act like a rat skulking in a gutter.”

Qi Jinyu’s smile didn’t waver. Her voice stayed gentle and affectionate.

“You too, A-Li.”