Chapter 64: Tightly Hugged Her

Source: http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=5896087
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.

The somewhat lazy and casual voice fell into Wei Qingyu's ears. The scorching warmth traveled from her earlobe all the way to her cheek.  

Wei Qingyu looked at Ji Xiao in disbelief. The trembling voice carried a bit of fragmented joy. "What... What are you saying?"  

"Isn't it?" Ji Xiao didn't notice the unusual tone in Wei Qingyu's voice at all.

As she spoke, she leaned back in the chair, turning to look at an Alpha not far away who was casting a hostile glare at her.  

The girl's golden-orange eyes were filled with a silent, intimidating warning, instantly scaring off those foolish enough to challenge her from afar.  

Ji Xiao snorted disdainfully and said, "Today, those Alphas who like you nearly ate me alive."  

Wei Qingyu naturally knew about this and asked cautiously, "But if that's the case, shouldn’t you keep your distance from me?"  

"I don't want to." Ji Xiao said firmly, relaxing her back and lazily leaning into the chair.  

"Why?" Wei Qingyu immediately asked 

Ji Xiao: "Because this Young Miss is righteous, so she doesn't fear the shadows."  

It was one thing that she liked Wei Qingyu.  

It was another thing entirely for her to actually be with Wei Qingyu.  

Instead of keeping her distance from Wei Qingyu and continuing to endure the unwarranted hostility from these Alphas, she might as well make this scandal even more believable. After all, if she and Wei Qingyu didn’t admit it, they’d just be the Schrödinger couple for one more day.  

This way, she could also declare her sovereignty.  

She wanted all those Alphas and Betas to know that Wei Qingyu had her backing, putting an end to any future attempts to provoke Wei Qingyu.  

It would also help her get rid of some of her own peach blossoms*.

*admirers/suitors 

Ji Xiao's response made disappointment flash in Wei Qingyu's eyes.  

She thought Ji Xiao sitting beside her meant she acknowledged the rumors and liked her too.  

But Ji Xiao was only upright and unafraid of shadows.  

Wei Qingyu sighed quietly and took out the small cake she had kept in her pocket since noon.

She gently nudged Ji Xiao's left arm with her elbow and said, "Here, for you."  

Ji Xiao looked at the small cake wrapped in a bulging bag in front of her, slightly surprised.  

She hadn’t expected that just as she felt hungry, a small cake would appear right before her.  

And the person giving her the cake was Wei Qingyu.  

Ji Xiao asked, "Why are you carrying..."

"I heard you didn’t eat much at noon, so I brought you a small cake," Wei Qingyu explained calmly as she pushed the cake into Ji Xiao’s hand.  

The girl’s slightly cool fingers brushed against Ji Xiao’s palm, easily sending a tingling sensation through her hand.  

"Ji Xiao..."  

That lingering, soft tone swept through Ji Xiao’s mind, and her pale face instantly flushed red.

This movement suddenly reminded her of the dream she had that morning.  

Wei Qingyu’s slender fingers had similarly brushed across her arm, then slowly moved toward her neck.  

Ji Xiao’s fingers tightened slightly, crumpling the small cake in her hand.  

She stammered, "Th-thank you."  

The slanted sunlight cast its shadows on the polished floor.  

In truth, someone wasn’t entirely upright either.

….

"Students, this week marks the midterm of our semester. The school anniversary just ended, and I believe many of you are still talking about last week's party, but we need to refocus..."  

The principal's loud speech echoed through the speakers in the small auditorium. Many students had already lowered their heads, reciting vocabulary and ancient poems.  

Ji Xiao bored out of her mind, stared at the principal’s shiny, light-reflecting bald head, still holding the empty wrapper of the small cake she had finished eating.  

"Sister Xiao, Sister Xiao."

Two hushed calls came from behind Ji Xiao.  

When Ji Xiao turned around, Fang Yiming had somehow moved from her class’ northwest corner to the experimental class’ southeast corner.  

The face that was usually all smiles now carried an uncharacteristic urgency.  

Ji Xiao immediately had a bad feeling. "What happened?"  

"Qi Qi just fainted. She's at the school clinic now. Do you want to come with me?" Fang Yiming whispered.  

Upon hearing this, Ji Xiao’s heart thudded, and it felt as if something was about to jump out of her mind.

But the principal's endless voice from the speakers muddled her mind, making it impossible for her to think clearly.  

Chaos. Disorder.  

Ji Xiao frowned deeply as if she were teetering on the edge of losing control.  

At that moment, a pair of slightly cool hands rested on her wrist.  

Wei Qingyu said, "Go quickly. I’ll take your things home for you."

The girl’s tone was as calm as ever, instantly clearing Ji Xiao’s previously chaotic mind.  

For some reason, Wei Qingyu’s presence always gave Ji Xiao a sense of peace.  

Even at this moment, she couldn’t catch that familiar mint scent.  

"Alright," Ji Xiao nodded.  

With that, she followed Fang Yiming out of the auditorium and ran toward the school clinic.  

The clinic, nearing the end of its working hours, was quiet. Sparrows on the lawn outside the entrance hopped leisurely, pecking at grass seeds.  

As the two girls dashed by, the startled sparrows flapped their wings and soared into the sky.

The hallway of the clinic, filled with the scent of disinfectant, echoed with noisy and anxious footsteps.  

Ji Xiao arrived at Qi Qi's room before Fang Yiming. She opened the door and asked, "Qi Qi, how are you?"  

Leaning against the bed, biting into an apple, Qi Qi flashed a smile that could easily be mistaken for a genuine one. "Don't I look fine? Look how worried you two are."  

The setting sun outside the window painted half the sky red, casting a warm glow on Qi Qi's face.  

She was still in her school uniform, the neatly pressed shirt outlining her figure, giving her a healthy appearance.  

She really looked like she was perfectly fine.

But Hao Hui interrupted Qi Qi and countered, "Do you think you actually looked fine just now?"  

Hearing this, Fang Yiming quickly asked, "Doctor, what exactly is wrong with Qi Qi?"  

Just as Hao Hui was about to respond, Qi Qi cut her off and confessed, "I... have a bit of a problem with my body. It's with my glands."

Ji Xiao’s heart was suddenly yanked hard. She immediately thought of many past events and hurriedly asked, "So, the day you slipped while climbing the wall, it wasn’t an accident. It was because your body wasn’t well at that time, right?"  

"And during winter break, when you came to visit me, it wasn’t because you happened to be passing by. The person in your family who’s always in the hospital... it’s actually you, isn’t it?"  

Faced with Ji Xiao’s series of questions, Qi Qi’s gaze wavered as she nodded.

Despite repeatedly hiding it to avoid worrying others, it seemed that in the end, it had still caused her friends to worry and feel upset.  

"Is... is the illness treatable?" Fang Yiming asked anxiously.  

Qi Qi replied, "It’s fine. I’ve been managing it well, but maybe the stress from high school made it worse."  

She then raised her hand and made a gesture, "But it’s just a little. You don’t need to worry."  

"A little? A little my foot."

Qiao Ni's familiar, arrogant voice came over. Two boxes of medication with all English labels were placed on the bedside with the usual attitude.  

The young girl looked a bit angry, but there was a hint of redness at the corner of her eyes as if she had just been crying.  

Qiao Ni skillfully opened the medicine and handed a cup of water to Qi Qi, saying, "Luckily, I brought the medicine you need, or I don’t know what you'd do."  

Qi Qi looked at Qiao Ni’s awkward expression and gently squeezed her hand. "Hey, don’t be so nervous about me. The worst case is just removing the glands. It’s no big deal. I’ll just live as a Beta. It’s like I never went through differentiation."  

Hao Hui's expression instantly turned serious. "You child, do you think removing the glands is such an easy thing?"  

Qi Qi mischievously smiled at Hao Hui as usual. "I was just saying it to lighten the mood."

The heavy clouds were blown away by the wind, and the sunlight, previously blocked, poured back into the room without reservation, illuminating Qi Qi's pale face as she smiled.  

Ji Xiao froze when she saw the blood-stained tissue discarded in the trash can.  

She finally remembered why the original owner had suddenly lost control and completely marked Wei Qingyu, and why there was that ‘heartache that no amount of effort could ease’.

Source: http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=5896087
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.

On some distant day in the future, Qi Qi would die on this hospital bed, and Ji Xiao would lose her best friend in this lifetime.  

The fiery red clouds rolled in the orange sky, and people on the bridge stopped to take pictures, only Ji Xiao silently walked past the bridge.

The high ponytail tied atop her head drooped slightly, perhaps because her hanging arm was pulling it down, causing the usually proud neck of the girl to lower.  

On the way home from the school clinic, Ji Xiao felt a bit dazed.  

She thought she had already changed the plot. Her relationship with Wei Qingyu had eased and improved, Liu Yue no longer held hostility toward her, and even Wei Qingyu and Jin Nanfeng hadn't formed the same bond as in the original story.  

She thought everything was getting better.  

She thought that if she just let things go, following the timeline, she would be able to live to the happy ending.  

But unexpectedly, the plot handed her a knife at this moment.

Ji Xiao then realized that the plot she was supposed to follow was still progressing. Just like that day at the ball when Wei Qingyu didn’t meet Jin Nanfeng, but at the school anniversary, they still got to know each other.  

So, the misfortune she suffered after leaving the ball, was it really an accident?  

Or was it a punishment from the world of the plot for disrupting the initial meeting between the male and female leads?  

The wind rustled through the greenery on both sides of the road, producing a chaotic rustling sound.  

A feeling of unease and panic slowly began to engulf Ji Xiao's calm heart.  

She pushed open the door and happened to run into Wei Qingyu, who had just returned and was changing shoes at the entrance.  

The light overhead cast a glow on the girl’s straight figure. The translucent white shirt faintly outlined a pair of beautiful butterfly bones.

A faint mint scent slowly gathered in this area, falling into Ji Xiao's nostrils, and she liked it.  

She really didn’t want to let her go to anyone.  

Not even to the plot's rules in this world.  

At this moment, Wei Qingyu, who had been facing away from Ji Xiao, noticed the arrival and greeted, "You’re back, is Qi Qi okay?"  

There was silence after her words.  

Ji Xiao, standing at the door, didn’t respond to Wei Qingyu.  

The setting sun behind her churned intensely as if it wanted to burn this girl’s world to the ground.

The folds of the shirt piled up at the slouched shoulder, and Wei Qingyu noticed that the golden-orange eyes seemed to have faded by half for some unknown reason. Her heart couldn’t help but sink.  

"Ji..."  

Wei Qingyu was about to call out to Ji Xiao when her wrist was suddenly grabbed.  

The scent of peach brandy filled the air, and the person standing at the door tightly hugged her in an absolutely possessive manner.