Chapter 2
Thump, thump, thump.
The air was so quiet it was suffocating, the only sound the deafening beat of her own heart.
The last rays of the setting sun fell upon Pei Wang, casting his shadow forward to completely envelop Fu Xia.
She tried to negotiate with the boy in front of her.
Her voice trembled uncontrollably. “I’ll pretend I didn’t see anything. I won’t say a word to anyone.”
Pei Wang just let out a soft snort.
What’s with the huffing and puffing? Can’t you speak?
Of course, she didn’t dare say that out loud. Fu Xia tried to let her thoughts drift to distract herself from her terror.
Remaining seated on the ground, she slowly scooted backward, trying to put some distance between herself and the blood-splattered boy before her. But the ground was uneven, and the palm she’d scraped during her fall pressed down on a sharp piece of gravel.
She winced, her face paling from the pain.
The next second, Pei Wang seized her by the arm and yanked her to her feet.
He clasped her hand, his fingers forcing their way between hers in a powerful grip, and slammed her against the wall. The force was so great Fu Xia felt as if her bones were about to break.
Then, Pei Wang buried his face in her palm.
It was only when a wet tongue licked the wound in her hand that Fu Xia realized what was happening.
A sharp sting shot through the scrape as he gnawed at it, his movements carrying a hint of desperation.
Fu Xia’s brain completely shut down. She felt a strange, light-headed sensation, as if she were floating on a cloud.
When Pei Wang’s breath traveled from her palm up towards the side of her neck, Fu Xia snapped back to her senses. She immediately raised her free hand to cover her throat.
Pei Wang lifted his eyes.
His irises were the same deeply saturated emerald green as his cufflinks. When he stared at someone without emotion, he looked less like a human and more like a wild beast.
Thwarted, he tilted his head and commanded, “Move your hand.”
Facing death, Fu Xia was suddenly filled with a surge of courage. She tried to kick him where it counted. “Are you insane?!”
Pei Wang let out an annoyed “Tsk.”
He effortlessly blocked her raised leg, wedging his own between hers to pin her in place. That pair of emerald eyes locked onto her. He seemed to be in a state of high excitement and irritation, his pupils slightly dilated, his black hair a mess.
“Hand down,” he said, his tone suddenly shifting.
It carried an unmistakable sense of command, like some kind of spell.
Instantly, the words filled Fu Xia’s mind.
…Listen to him, obey him.
Just as she was about to lose control and lower her hand, exposing her neck—
A sharp whistling sound cut through the air.
THWACK!
Fu Xia watched, wide-eyed, as the strength abruptly drained from Pei Wang, and his full weight collapsed onto her.
A clear voice rang out from behind. “Nice! Bullseye!”
Fu Xia: “…”
Her hands trembling, Fu Xia struggled to shove Pei Wang’s dead weight off her. She braced herself against the wall to stay upright and looked toward the source of the voice.
The sun had not yet fully set. The newcomer stood at the boundary of light and shadow, her form haloed in an ethereal glow.
It was a stunningly beautiful girl.
She was about a head taller than Fu Xia, with streaks of red highlighting her black hair. Her makeup was exquisite, a black lace choker adorned her neck, and she was wearing an incredibly ornate, princess-like dress.
Fu Xia’s gaze drifted down to the girl’s hands—slender and well-defined, with several expensive-looking, designer rings on her knuckles.
Most importantly, she was casually swinging a heavy-looking baseball bat.
She grinned at Fu Xia. “Does this count as a hero saving the damsel in distress?”
At that moment, Fu Xia kind of wanted to die.
Call a teacher? Call the police? Or should I just dig a hole right here, bury both of them, and pretend none of this ever happened?
…I’d have to wipe away the fingerprints and footprints, too. There are no security cameras around here, so it should be doable if I take my time…
While Fu Xia stood there, covering her mouth and staring at the two bodies on the ground, the girl gracefully hopped over the pool of blood and came to her side.
A rich, floral fragrance washed over Fu Xia.
The scent was so intoxicatingly sweet that for a moment, she forgot all about the two people lying on the ground, her entire attention captivated by the girl before her.
She casually tossed the baseball bat aside and smiled at Fu Xia. “You’re Fu Xia, right?”
Fu Xia nodded instinctively.
The girl clapped her hands together, the corners of her lips curling up. “Perfect! I’ve been looking for you for a long time.”
Fu Xia was certain she had never met such a refined and beautiful girl before. “…Do we know each other?” she asked.
“We didn’t before, but that’s okay.” The girl familiarly looped an arm through Fu Xia’s; her skin was cool to the touch. “I’m your new roommate. You can call me Xie Rin.”
Fu Xia tried to pull her arm back. “But I’m a scholarship student.”
Lorenz Academy didn’t admit many students each year, and since some of them lived off-campus, there were plenty of dorm rooms. Regular students got single rooms, while scholarship students were assigned doubles. Fu Xia had a roommate when she first enrolled, but the girl couldn’t handle the plight of the scholarship students and dropped out halfway through their first year. Fu Xia had been living alone ever since.
Xie Rin blinked. “It’s for some special reasons, sweetie… Let’s talk about it when we get back. It smells awful here.”
Fu Xia glanced back. “But the people on the ground…”
Xie Rin cupped Fu Xia’s cheek with one hand, turning her face back towards her. “Don’t worry, someone will come and take care of it~”
“Alright… let’s go back to the dorm together now.”
The cold rings on Xie Rin’s fingers brushed against her cheek. Fu Xia’s head was still spinning. Suppressing the strange feeling bubbling up inside her, she let Xie Rin pull her along.
Whatever was happening, the first priority was to get away from the crime scene.
She wasn’t entirely sure how she got back to the dorm.
Today was supposed to have been an ordinary day. Go to class, go back to the dorm, do homework, and get a good night’s sleep.
It was not supposed to involve witnessing an assault, nearly being bitten by a rich young master with a weird fetish, and walking back to her dorm arm-in-arm with a beautiful, clearly wealthy girl.
It wasn’t until the dorm room door was closed and she was sitting on her bed that the tension that had gripped Fu Xia since Pei Wang’s appearance finally began to ease.
The room was now filled with new things.
Lorenz Academy wasn’t particularly harsh on its scholarship students. The room was about forty square meters, with a private bathroom and a balcony.
Xie Rin was clearly not a scholarship student. Her luggage had already been unpacked for her, and her closet was overflowing with so many beautiful dresses it couldn’t even close properly.
Fu Xia’s bed was by the window. She went over and sat on the chair beside it, taking out a bottle of iodine from the drawer to disinfect and treat the wound on her palm.
Only then did she realize her hand was still shaking.
…In all her years, Fu Xia had never seen such a gruesome, bloody scene. The most extreme thing she had ever done was trash her family’s house before she left.
But she still had to attend school. She could probably take a few days off, but sooner or later, she would have to face Pei Wang in the seat behind her. He hadn’t seen Xie Rin, so he would likely hold a grudge against her.
Fu Xia hesitated for a moment, then looked at Xie Rin, who was sitting at the desk with her chin propped in her hand, watching her tend to the wound. “Um, why did you become my roommate?”
Xie Rin looked delighted. “Oh, I’m in the Art Division.”
The Art Division’s project for this quarter was [Poverty].
But the lives of the young masters and misses were so far removed from poverty that they had no real concept of it. So, Xie Rin had randomly selected Fu Xia as her observation subject. For the next quarter, she would be paying very close attention to her.
Fu Xia: …
Whoever came up with that project topic is a monster among monsters.
Fu Xia pressed her lips together. “Do you know Pei Wang, then?”
“An arrogant idiot. The kind of guy who looks down his nose at everyone.”
Xie Rin’s beautiful, cat-like eyes were fixed on Fu Xia’s movements. She seemed to swallow. “He’s super controlling and likes to engage in… well, dangerous activities.”
It sounded like they had some history.
…Maybe that explains why Xie Rin bashed his head in with a baseball bat?
As if sensing Fu Xia’s unease, Xie Rin said, “Don’t be scared, sweetie. I’m here.”
She lightly flicked a ring on her finger, spinning it up and then down, the smile on her lips deepening. “As long as you obediently let me ‘observe’ you, I’ll protect you.”
Fu Xia didn’t press for details on what exactly this “observation” entailed. Her thoughts were a tangled mess, and a part of her was ready to just give up and let things happen.
“…Fine,” she whispered.
The smile on Xie Rin’s lips grew wider.
She stood up, crossed the room in a few steps, and leaned down to press a kiss to Fu Xia’s cheek.
Meeting Fu Xia’s horrified gaze, Xie Rin giggled. “We’re going to get along just great… sweetie.”
…
Perhaps because of the afternoon’s events, Fu Xia had a terrifying nightmare.
She dreamed she had shrunk to the size of a thumb and was being held in the grasp of a monstrously large Pei Wang. The arrogant young master toyed with her, the pads of his fingers pressing down on every inch of her skin, effortlessly leaving red marks behind.
Soon, he undressed the doll in his hands and brought her to his lips. For someone so arrogant, his gaze was surprisingly soft with fascination as he stared at the fragile flower before him.
Just as he had licked the blood from her palm, his tongue now traced over every inch of her.
Fu Xia could barely breathe.
After what felt like an eternity, he seemed to grow bored and placed her on the ground. The moment her feet touched the floor, Fu Xia scrambled forward, running until she was out of breath.
This guy is a complete… psycho freak!
She had to run faster, to escape the massive hand hovering in the air above her.
But it was no use. Her speed dwindled, and a shadow gradually fell over her, enveloping her completely. An immense sense of dread seized her. Fu Xia looked up and saw the arrogant smirk on his lips.
Then, she tripped over something.
Fu Xia struggled to her feet, instinctively looking to see what had tripped her.
…It was a corpse.
His eyes were open, his emerald-green irises staring lifelessly in her direction. Blood flowed towards her, more and more of it, until her hands were drenched in it.
At that moment, the tightly wound string in her mind finally snapped.
The giant hand behind her snatched her up and threw her into a tiny cage.
Fu Xia tumbled to the floor.
She covered her face and curled into a ball in the corner.
…Damn it all.
How did all this bad luck suddenly latch onto me?
If I were a little richer, born into a better family, would I still have to face this kind of malice I can’t possibly fight against?
Just as the nightmare was suffocating her, Fu Xia felt something lick her cheek, lapping up a tear.
She looked up and saw a pair of red, cat-like eyes in the darkness.
A cat…?
She’d never owned a cat in her life.
Fu Xia rarely dreamed of things that had no connection to reality. The cat leaned in again, licking the side of her face. She tried to push it away with her hand, but her fingertips were caught in its mouth. The cat bit down on her knuckles with its sharp teeth, but not hard enough to break the skin.
Fu Xia suddenly realized this might not be a dream.
—Because something was really licking her face.
Starting from her chin, a wet sensation traveled all the way up, finally stopping at the corner of her eye.
At this realization, Fu Xia’s scalp tingled. All sleepiness vanished.
She slowly opened her eyes. In the sliver of moonlight filtering through the curtains, she saw Xie Rin pressed on top of her.
The girl, whose features were as delicate as a doll’s, seemed completely unaware that she had crossed a line. She was straddling Fu Xia, and as she leaned down, her long black hair cascaded around them, intertwining with Fu Xia’s and forming a narrow cage.
As if oblivious to Fu Xia’s shocked expression, Xie Rin pressed closer affectionately, kissing the corner of her eye before rubbing her cheek against hers.
“Sweetie, why are you crying?”