Chapter 3

Chi Shen had been silently watching her for many years. Though it wasn't the first time he'd been caught, it was the first time in this way; even someone as deadpan as him couldn't help his eyelashes fluttering.
Qiao Zhenzhen had only meant to kill time and tease the little pervert who kept peeking at her. She hadn't expected to see his lashes tremble. The twitch was fleeting, back to deadpan a second later, but she couldn't help laughing.
Then she saw Chi Shen press his thin lips together and grow noticeably paler.
Qiao Zhenzhen: "..." Did I scare him?
She quickly put the mirror away and lifted her head to pretend to pay attention, but after a little while she couldn't resist raising it again. She only wanted to look at him, but ended up accidentally meeting his eyes through the mirror once more and was left speechless.
...He stares at me like this all the time, how on earth has he kept first place in the grade for three years?
With that thought she felt duty-bound to supervise his studying, so she raised the mirror again. Sure enough, he was still staring.
"Study hard." She mouthed the words solemnly at the mirror.
Chi Shen held her gaze steadily; the longer they stared, the tenser it became. Qiao Zhenzhen clearly saw that the thin arm under his short sleeve had flexed into muscle from the rising tension, no, not bulky, but with clean, attractive lines, the kind she liked.
Chi Shen actually had muscles. She raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.
"Qiao Zhenzhen, stop looking in the mirror."
The homeroom teacher's voice suddenly came from overhead. Qiao Zhenzhen jumped and quickly stowed the mirror in the desk cubby, placing it with the comic Zhao Lianqiao had given her.
Class dragged on again. Qiao Zhenzhen sighed, listened to the unintelligible lecture, and mentally decided it was time to hire a tutor.
After enduring the 45-minute class, the moment the dismissal bell rang Qiao Zhenzhen felt completely uplifted. Although Chengde High ran an alternating week schedule, this week she had to attend classes until noon on Sunday, there were no evening study sessions from Friday to Sunday, which meant the second the bell rang today she could leave.
Qiao Zhenzhen happily packed her bag, but before she could stand she heard the homeroom teacher call from the front: “Qiao Zhenzhen, it’s your duty today, remember to clean up.”
“…Oh.” Qiao Zhenzhen could only agree.
Classmates filed out one by one, and the large classroom quickly felt empty. Qiao set her bag on the desk, glanced back and saw Chi Shen still there, and a small smile tugged at her lips.
“Zhenzhen, let’s go.” Zhao Lianqiao called to her.
Qiao Zhenzhen frowned and looked at the girl by the classroom door. “The teacher made me on duty.”
“Duty? The room’s clean, no need to sweep. Besides…” Zhao Lianqiao gave Chi Shen a significant look, “there aren’t many people around the school; it’s not safe.”
Hearing her bring Chi Shen up again, Qiao snorted coldly. “This is a society governed by law now; there’s nothing dangerous. If you want to leave, go ahead.”
“How could I leave you alone? I’m not comfortable with it.” Zhao Lianqiao frowned, putting on a concerned act. In truth, she only had time for tutoring on Friday through Sunday evenings and had to be home within half an hour on those days.
To save on taxi fare she hitched a ride with Qiao’s family every day; if Qiao Zhenzhen dawdled any longer she’d be late.
“Come on, look at him, his eyes are all wrong.” Seeing Qiao Zhenzhen still clutching the broom, Zhao Lianqiao dropped her voice and tried to scare her.
Qiao Zhenzhen hesitated, followed her gaze, and saw Chi Shen still sitting in the corner, silently staring at her like a dark little mushroom.
A flicker of amusement crossed her eyes. When she looked back at Zhao Lianqiao her expression had turned cold. “Excuse me, you're blocking my way.”
Zhao Lianqiao’s eyes widened in shock. Had Qiao Zhenzhen taken the wrong medicine? Every time before that Chi Shen had been used to frighten her and she’d have wanted to run, yet today she remained unmoved?
With tutoring time approaching and Qiao Zhenzhen still dawdling over sweeping, Zhao Lianqiao steeled herself and snatched Qiao’s broom. “Alright, alright, I really can’t deal with you. I’ll help. A rich miss like you wouldn’t know how to clean.”
As she spoke a flash of resentment crossed her eyes. Everything Qiao Zhenzhen had now, she would take it all away sooner or later.
Qiao Zhenzhen let go. “Thanks then.”
Having said that, Zhao Lianqiao returned to her desk, packed her bag, and slipped out quietly while Qiao Zhenzhen was still bent over sweeping.
Zhao Lianqiao, preoccupied with her tutoring schedule, was sweating in the classroom with the air conditioning turned off in late summer. After she cleared the last bit of trash she looked up and found the room empty, not only was Qiao Zhenzhen gone, but the ghostlike Chi Shen had vanished as well.
“…Zhenzhen?” she called hesitantly.
No answer.
Her expression changed; she tossed the broom aside and shouted, “Qiao Zhenzhen!”
The sound was so loud it echoed through the empty classroom like an invisible mockery.
When Qiao Zhenzhen ran out of the classroom she thought of Zhao Lianqiao’s face, and the pressure she’d held in her chest for ten years finally eased a little. Looking back, she saw Chi Shen had come out too, following at a measured distance, neither too near nor too far, and a smile lifted one corner of her mouth.
“Want me to take you home?” she asked loudly.
Chi Shen stood silent. When he realized she was speaking to him he hesitated, pressed his thin lips together, and took a step back.
Seeing that, Qiao immediately stopped teasing him. She didn’t know why the guy who had shadowed her like a ghost always instinctively recoiled when she reached out first, but if he resisted she wouldn’t force it.
With that in mind, Qiao fell silent and walked alone toward the school gate. The setting sun fell behind her and stretched her shadow long; she watched her shadow walking ahead until another shadow appeared at her feet.
Her heart gave a small thrill. She lifted her foot and stepped on it.
[Affection +10, current 20 points]
“…Are you really happy about stepping on a shadow?” Xiao Ba was sincerely puzzled.
Amusement flickered in Qiao Zhenzhen’s eyes. She slipped into the familiar car and before she’d even settled glanced into the rearview. Seeing Chi Shen standing in the corner and silently watching, she let the corner of her mouth lift. Just as she was about to tell the driver to go, he turned and asked, “Where’s Miss Zhao?”
“Why do you ask?” Qiao Zhenzhen replied coolly.
The driver smiled. “She’s usually with you, Miss. I didn’t see her today; if something delayed her we could wait a bit.”
“You’re awfully concerned about her?” Qiao Zhenzhen countered.
The driver hesitated. “...She’s the young miss’s friend.”
“What business is my friend of yours? Ask less of what isn’t your business from now on.” Qiao Zhenzhen looked at the driver who’d worked for the Qiao family for over ten years and spoke without mercy.
If she remembered correctly, the driver had been hired and paid by her mother. Yet instead of showing gratitude he had helped Qiao Jian cover up his affair. Several times when they were about to notice something, he’d smoothed it over, completely taking the side of Zhao Lianqiao and her mother.
An ungrateful wretch.
Seeing her expression, the driver immediately fell silent and started the car. Qiao Zhenzhen watched Chi Shen in the mirror grow smaller and smaller until he rounded a bend and disappeared.
“Stop.” Qiao Zhenzhen said suddenly.
The driver hurriedly pulled over.
Qiao Zhenzhen got out and stood beside the car. “I have something to do. You go home on your own.”
“Okay!” the driver’s eyes lit up.
Qiao Zhenzhen shot him a sidelong glance. “Go buy a milk tea from the shop across the street and bring it back for my mother. It’s twenty minutes from school to home; the taste shouldn’t be affected.”
“…Bring milk tea?” the driver blinked in surprise.
Qiao Zhenzhen gave a faint, enigmatic smile. "Is there a problem?"
"No, no." the driver hurriedly laughed.
When he agreed, Qiao Zhenzhen closed the car door and headed back. As she neared the school gate, the gloomy "Little Mushroom" had just finished crossing the road and was walking down another street.
Despite being followed by him for years, this was the first time she'd seen his back; when she noticed his straight posture, she was startled to realize how tall he was.
Tall and lean, but not as frail as she'd imagined. His spine showed faintly beneath the thin short sleeves, his waist taut and slim, and though his long legs were sheathed in slightly loose trousers, they couldn't hide their length.
Qiao Zhenzhen stared several times, and only when she realized he was walking away fast did she snap back to herself and jog after him. Knowing he was very alert, she didn't dare get too close; she slowed whenever she could still see his silhouette from a distance.
"Host, why are you following him?" Xiao Ba asked curiously.
Qiao Zhenzhen pressed her lips together. "I want to know more about him, but the original text offers so little description."
In the world of novels, unimportant characters often lack even the simplest biographies. In her previous life she had avoided him, never asking about him. Combining what little the book said and her past life, she only knew his name was Chi Shen, that his throat was damaged, that he'd been following her since the first year of high school, and that, if not for that kidnapping, he'd die the day before his twentieth birthday.
He was like every unimportant, utilitarian character in novels, the sole purpose being to prove the heroine's charm. Where he came from or where he would go, why he would die, none of that seemed to matter.
Reborn, Qiao Zhenzhen wanted to give him a different life.
The sun sank slowly, staining the clouds crimson; a warm, dim light fell across the street, filtering through leaves into dappled shadows. Qiao Zhenzhen followed Chi Shen through the pedestrian street, past malls and alleys, and finally into a rather rundown snack street.
Three-wheel carts selling fried skewers and moon-shaped buns lined the road; in the corner a wok frying dough sticks sent up blackening smoke. Food waste mingled with grease, making the whole street sticky. After walking a while, Qiao Zhenzhen's white sneakers were more than half dirty.
She skirted the busy crowds and stayed close behind Chi Shen. At the end of the snack street, the shops shifted from selling snacks to live poultry and fish, and the smell grew stranger and fouler.
Chi Shen kept walking and stopped at the door of a fish shop. Ignoring the potbellied, bald middle-aged man smoking at the entrance, he put on an apron, rolled up his pants, and began weighing and killing fish for customers.
The rolling pin struck the fish's head, quick, precise, brutal, and the fish that had just been flopping was instantly still.
"Hey, you're scraping the scales after it's dead, you're supposed to scrape them while it's alive, that's fresher!" a customer complained.
Chi Shen said nothing; silently, he began to scrape the scales.
The bald man snorted. "Don't pay him any mind, he's stubborn as hell!"
The sharp knife deftly slit the fish's belly; his long fingers reached in, scooped out all the entrails, then he picked up a cleaver and chopped the fish into even pieces with a crackling sound, packed them straight into a black bag and handed it to the customer.
He moved with the ease of someone who'd been a fish butcher for a decade or more.
Qiao Zhenzhen stared at the silent youth, suddenly realizing where the strange smell on him came from,
Living in an environment like that, no matter how fastidious, it would be hard to smell of nothing but laundry detergent.
Such a simple reason, because he'd never explained it, had been turned into hundreds of possibilities by other people's mouths. Everyone tried to invent stories, desperate to prove that someone who didn't fit in and was excellent must be some kind of strange freak.
She took a deep breath to steady herself when a middle-aged woman suddenly stormed out of the fish shop and hurled obscenities at the boy. He remained silent, expressionless, and continued to process the next fish.
His quiet enraged the woman; she grabbed the rolling pin by her side and swung it at his head. Qiao Zhenzhen's heart leapt, and she instinctively mouthed, "Stop!"
Time froze in an instant; the world locked into place. The crowd became statues, birds were pinned to the sky, even running water and wind stopped; splashing droplets hung midway in the air, freezing the whole street into a vignette.
"Ten favor points can only freeze time for thirty seconds, Host, you need to hurry!"
Before Xiao Ba finished speaking, Qiao Zhenzhen had dashed forward, gritted her teeth, lifted the woman's right foot and placed it atop her left.
"Ten, nine, eight..."
Flustered, Qiao Zhenzhen yanked the rolling pin from the woman's hand; it hovered in midair.
"Five, four, three..."
Having done it, she turned and ran. As soon as she hit the street, the noise resumed and the frozen people started moving. Behind her came a thud, then the woman's cry of pain and the sound of the rolling pin hitting the ground.
"You can't even walk properly, what good are you!" the bald man swore as he went to help her.
Qiao Zhenzhen exhaled in relief and stood still for a moment, then couldn't help peeking back, only to unexpectedly meet a pair of jet-black eyes in the crowd.
Although she knew he wouldn't realize it was her, she suddenly felt guilty. As she wondered how to explain her presence there, she saw his gaze drop, down to her white sneakers.
The pressure around her suddenly dropped.