Chapter 40: ◎Lucky Star◎ Part 2

-Right?

-Just hypothetical. Chill.

After nearly five minutes of emoji spam, Qiao Qiao took the reins.

-Don’t sweat it. I got this.

Qiao Qiao had just made her bold claim when she dove onto a short-video app and crammed an eight-minute motivational pep talk. Once she’d memorized every line, class let out—and she went straight to find Zhu Lexing.

Zhu Lexing had just booked her tickets when she looked up and spotted Qiao Qiao, instinctively leaning back. “Holy shit, when did you sneak up?”

“Not long ago.” Qiao Qiao glanced at the phone Zhu Lexing was trying to hide. “What’re you stashing? Catch something you can’t tell anyone about—”

Zhu Lexing very earnestly showed the booking screen to Qiao Qiao.

Qiao Qiao stared at the flight departing at six that evening. “…I gotta say, you’re way too smitten.”

“Smitten with what?” Zhu Lexing flipped to the next page of her workbook.

Qiao Qiao replied, “Yan Mian, obviously. What else?”

Zhu Lexing said earnestly, “It’s not smitten. It’s friendship. Family. Do you have any idea how long her classes run every day?”

During the ten-minute break, Qiao Qiao endured eight straight minutes of Zhu Lexing rambling about Yan Mian’s daily routine. Her initial annoyance gradually shifted to pity for the girl.

“So.” As the bell for class rang out, Zhu Lexing added one final point. “She’s working so hard. For me to go visit, help her unwind a bit—that’s just human nature, right?”

Qiao Qiao nodded, her expression convinced.

Zhu Lexing had just started to relax when Qiao Qiao added, “That’s just normal for Xing.”

Zhu Lexing: “…”

Zhu Lexing didn’t hide her plan from Liu Su.

With only two days to prepare, she packed a simple backpack that morning and left it in the car. The moment class ended, she skipped heading back to the Zhu Family home and went straight to the airport.

Zhu Lexing toyed with the box in her hand, sipping from her straw as she gazed at the thin clouds of dusk beyond the terminal. Only when the screen updated did she grab her luggage and head toward the gate.

~~~

“That’s it for this class.”

The authoritative female voice rang out, but unlike with other teachers’ announcements, no one in the room let out a collective sigh of relief.

It was the first detail Yan Mian had noticed since arriving here.

Chairs scraped against the floor one after another as students began filing out. Yan Mian planned to finish this problem before texting Zhu Lexing. Midway through her calculations, her seatmate Ning Yan spoke up. “Yan Mian? Forget the homework. Come chat with us.”

Ning Yan’s hair was jet-black in the back, but streaked with odd white strands up front—strikingly out of place, almost garish.

A few Beta girls hovered nearby, clearly picking up the conversation from the previous break. Yan Mian didn’t bother remembering things that had nothing to do with her. She hadn’t planned to respond, but Zhu Lexing’s words suddenly came to mind.

“Maybe you’ll make a friend.”

Yan Mian set down her pen. “What about?”

Ning Yan was a bit surprised that Yan Mian was willing to join in.

She arched a brow. “You’re the only one in class who hasn’t really introduced herself.”

Ning Yan didn’t just mean school or grades. She meant personal details beyond that—family background on the big end, trivial likes and dislikes on the small. Friends, acquaintances, preferred types.

Girls bonded with other girls easily. A single shared interest could bridge the gap in seconds.

Ever since learning her seatmate was Yan Mian, Ning Yan had taken a special interest. Simple reason: Yan Mian was stunning, and Ning Yan was a total face-connoisseur.

Yan Mian, though, was like a block of wood. Unless Ning Yan called her out directly and said she wanted to talk, Yan Mian stayed utterly silent.

Ning Yan had never met anyone so tight-lipped.

Yan Mian parted her lips. “I don’t know what to say.”

Ning Yan could tell she wasn’t lying. The other girls were curious too, so she tossed out a topic. “Okay… what’s your zodiac sign?”

Yan Mian hesitated. Of course she had no clue about that sort of thing. Ning Yan had her name her birthday instead, and they looked it up on the spot.

She gave the date, and someone exclaimed in surprise, “That’s tomorrow, isn’t it?”

Yan Mian nodded.

The girls exchanged glances. They barely knew her yet—no way were they rushing to throw her a birthday party.

But—

“For your birthday… think Teacher Chen will approve a leave?” Ning Yan’s mind had already wandered to vacation possibilities. “S City’s got tons of great food spots. There’s even that castle-themed amusement park nearby. I figured we’d get a chance to check it out, but things have been so slammed—”

Yan Mian shook her head.

Ning Yan figured she either didn’t want to be friends or just didn’t have any in her daily life.

How could someone be this quiet?

With anyone else, Ning Yan probably would’ve dropped it rather than throw herself at a brick wall. But Yan Mian was watching her with such sincere attention. Ning Yan had no choice but to pull out her ultimate social weapon.

“Do you have someone you like?”

When in doubt, ask about crushes.

It was abrupt, but it worked.

Yan Mian clearly froze for a second, as if sifting through memories. Ning Yan pressed the advantage. “Looks like you do. An Alpha? Or a Beta…”

“Not an Omega, right?” one girl laughed. “OO romance has been trending lately, though.”

Yan Mian snapped back to the present and shook her head. “No one I like.”

Ning Yan studied her face. “What about a flirtation? Or your type?”

Yan Mian replied, “No. I don’t have many friends.”

Ning Yan: “…”

Not many friends implied some. Ning Yan finally grasped the pattern for talking to her: stick to topics Yan Mian actually cared about.

And so Yan Mian fielded a whole string of friend-related questions.

By the end, even she felt parched. It was rare for her to talk this much.

Just as Yan Mian started feeling worn out, Ning Yan finally declared herself satisfied. “Alright, let’s go grab dinner—”

With that, she casually tried to drape an arm over Yan Mian’s shoulder.

Yan Mian dodged on instinct. Realizing what she’d done, she started to explain, but Ning Yan beat her to it. “Sorry—you don’t like being touched?”

Ning Yan seemed all too familiar with the situation. Tension creased her face, sincere regret in her eyes.

Yan Mian hesitated, then nodded. She didn’t want to disappoint her.

It wasn’t until dinner that Yan Mian finally checked her phone.

The Seven-Person Group Chat miraculously had no 99+ notifications. She scrolled through—most of the recent messages were Shi Ruofeng teasing Qiao Qiao, the two firing off emoji volleys at each other.

Li Nian’s messages, by contrast, brimmed with excitement.

“Ahhhh! Mianmian! I won the lottery on Star Net…”

Ever since learning Yan Mian’s class schedule, Li Nian had been very well-behaved about not disturbing her too much. Today, however, she unusually bombarded her with over a dozen messages, urging Yan Mian to forward that lucky charm post as well.

【Forward this lucky star, and you will achieve your most desired wish today】

The attached image showed a shiny star.

Yan Mian normally wouldn’t give such content a second thought. But with the word “star” in the text and the image to match, even though she had no idea what her most desired wish for the day actually was, she still forwarded it on impulse.

Once that was done, Yan Mian tapped open the chat window they’d been using most frequently lately.

The conversation was still paused at yesterday.

-【Sharing [The Sea Takes Away Your Unhappiness] video】

-LOL!

A few minutes later, Zhu Lexing seemed to suddenly realize she’d sent it to the wrong person and followed up with a single period.

Yan Mian couldn’t help but chuckle at the exchange. She replied: Get some early rest.

Zhu Lexing probably felt too embarrassed to respond.

Yan Mian stared at the messages, her fingers hovering over the keyboard as she typed and deleted, ultimately saying nothing.

Ning Yan, meanwhile, noticed her conflicted expression and leaned over for a peek—only to see a darkened screen.

“Your crush?” Ning Yan whispered, unable to resist some gossip.

Yan Mian shook her head. “Just a friend.”

Ning Yan blinked. “…An Alpha? Why get so worked up over messaging a friend?”

Yan Mian fell silent for a few seconds before replying, “She’s a very important friend to me.”

~~~

After landing, Zhu Lexing was hit with a flood of @ mentions.

She opened them one by one in confusion, only to discover that Li Nian had unearthed the old post about “Zhu Lexing going to see Yan Mian out of love” from an hour earlier. Li Nian had promptly spammed the group chat with exclamation marks.

-Mianmian’s birthday is tomorrow…

A single ellipsis captured Li Nian’s entire mood.

A few months ago, she never would have imagined being in the same group chat as Zhu Lexing—let alone sighing over how “nice” she was being to Yan Mian.

The post set off a storm. The entire small group jumped in, roasting Zhu Lexing for going rogue and not treating her friends like friends.

Stuck with the blame, Zhu Lexing shot back, thoroughly annoyed: 【Why are you all butting into Yan Mian’s birthday?】

-Tomorrow’s a day off anyway. What’s wrong with heading to S City together? It’s not far.

Before Zhu Lexing could even respond, the others were already discussing tickets. Seeing how eager they were, she relented: I’ll cover the flights. Come tomorrow—the last one today is too late.

She didn’t check their replies after that. The moment she stepped out of the airport, a gust of wind slapped her in the face.

In the booked car, the driver glanced at the destination and sounded surprised. “This is the Winter Camp, right? You one of the competition kids?”

Zhu Lexing replied, “…No, but my friend is.”

The driver grinned. “Then your friend must be a top student.”

Zhu Lexing fought to tamp down her bubbling excitement.

She had no idea why she felt such a surge of pride in that moment, but hey—if she was going to feel proud, might as well own it.

Yan Mian had sent her the Winter Camp location ahead of time.

It was nearly nine when she arrived. In the distance, the neon lights of a bustling amusement park twinkled brightly. Zhu Lexing gave it a quick glance before looking away. She was just about to scout a spot to wait for Yan Mian’s class to end when students began filtering out from behind the gate.

She spotted a girl dressed in student casuals but rocking an outrageously punk hairstyle and called out to her. “Um… are classes over?”

Ning Yan could scarcely believe that the excuse of celebrating Yan Mian’s birthday had actually scored her a full hour off—

Startled by the sudden call, she was initially annoyed. Leave was so short; she wanted to make the most of every second.

But when she looked up and saw the Alpha’s face, she swallowed every bit of her irritation.

“Ah—” Ning Yan blinked. “You looking for someone?”

Zhu Lexing hesitated. “Do you know Yan Mian?”

In the next instant, the Beta’s eyes lit up visibly.

Zhu Lexing: ?

Before she could say anything, Ning Yan waved backward and called out loudly, “Yan Mian—your friend is here! The Alpha you said you’re super close to—!”

Ning Yan’s logic was airtight.

If she weren’t an A, Yan Mian would have corrected her, but she didn’t.

Besides, Zhu Lexing had that unmistakable Alpha vibe—calling her one was spot-on!

Zhu Lexing: ???

She instinctively followed Ning Yan’s gaze.

Yan Mian wore a crisp white hoodie, her jacket draped over one arm. For once, she’d tied her hair back, though it had loosened considerably over the day, giving her an even more youthful, girlish air.

The Omega clutched her phone, its glow illuminating her face. She looked up in astonishment at the sound of her name.

Across the iron fence, Yan Mian spotted Zhu Lexing standing under the streetlamp.

The tall girl shouldered a backpack, having waited an unknown amount of time, simply watching her quietly there. The lamplight stretched her shadow long. As if struck by a sudden thought, Zhu Lexing mimicked Ning Yan and waved at her.

Yan Mian pocketed her phone, paused for several seconds, then walked toward Zhu Lexing. In her heart, she wondered uncertainly: Was this the wish she most wanted to come true?