“It’s a strange ceiling.”
Ruan Zhixian slowly came to from a dazed sleep, her beautiful eyes staring blankly at the ceiling above her. A familiar line immediately surfaced in her mind.
The ceiling was made of off-white matte plasterboard, decorated at the edges with elegant European-style carvings.
In the center hung a delicate bronze chandelier, its six crystal-clear glass shades unlit in the daylight.
Following her gaze forward, she saw a wall lined with shelves, packed full of books she couldn’t quite recognize.
Beside it stood a desk holding a computer in sleep mode, with a few game controllers hanging nearby.
Obviously, Ruan Zhixian was in a cozy bedroom, fully equipped.
“? ”
“Wait, that’s not right. Wasn’t I just at the 90th Anniversary Main Hall at school? Where is this place? How did it suddenly become daytime? Could it be that I’ve transmigrated again?”
As Ruan Zhixian was wildly guessing which careless bastard had sent her to reincarnate this time, just as she silently counted down her personal Top 7 most hated people, a somewhat familiar, sweet, and cheerful voice came from beside her ear:
“Zhixian, you’re awake~”
“? ”
Turning toward the familiar voice, Ruan Zhixian saw a somewhat familiar figure leaning on the edge of her bed.
In the shadowed side of the bed where morning light didn’t reach, a black-haired beauty was resting there. Her long, glossy hair fell like silk.
Her pale, slender hands were folded neatly on the pure white bedsheets, making her skin appear even more translucent.
Resting gently on her hands was a delicate face with a faintly sickly transparency—as if you could see the blue veins beneath her flawless skin.
Under long eyelashes were a pair of cold, phoenix-shaped eyes, yet those eyes now held a trace of warmth and smiled gently at her.
“Are you… Su Ling? How did you get here? Wait, no—where exactly am I?”
Ruan Zhixian looked at the black-haired beauty in front of her, momentarily confused.
The young woman before her was none other than Su Ling, the eldest daughter of the Su Family.
The Su Family was one of China’s top-tier powerful noble houses, and Su Ling was its legitimate heir. Two months ago, she had transferred to C City University, the same school Ruan Zhixian attended.
From what Ruan Zhixian knew, Su Ling had come to study in C City as part of her family’s market expansion strategy there.
Because of this, Ruan Zhixian, as the eldest daughter of the Ruan Family—another local influential clan—had crossed paths with Su Ling quite often.
Strangely, the Su Family’s eldest daughter, who was rumored to be aloof and difficult, got along with her remarkably well.
“This is my home, and it’s also where you’ll be living from now on~”
The girl’s words floated lightly, accompanied by a happy smile.
“Eh, wait, why am I at Su Ling’s house? Oh, I get it—it must be because I got drunk at the Main Hall banquet last night, and you brought me back, right? Thank you, Su Ling.”
Ruan Zhixian scratched her tousled golden hair, just waking up and looking a bit messy. Suddenly enlightened, she muttered inwardly:
Sigh, being a girl is inconvenient. Good thing it was Su Ling who took me home when I was drunk, or else I wouldn’t know what to do.
Thinking of this, Ruan Zhixian beamed brightly at the girl, causing the black-haired beauty to blink in slight surprise.
“By the way, did you contact my family? I didn’t come home all night, my mom must be worried.”
She glanced around the room for something but found nothing, then asked Su Ling:
“Su Ling, have you seen my phone? I want to call my family.”
“Huh? Oh, Zhixian’s phone~”
Su Ling seemed to snap out of a daze, then answered after a moment:
“That thing? You won’t need it anymore~”
“Besides, Zhixian, you don’t have to think about going home anymore, because you’ll be living with me for quite a long time. This is our home now~”
The black-haired beauty smiled oddly, her eyes gleaming with a dangerous light as she said this.
“Eh, wait? Why don’t I have to go home, and what do you mean I’m going to live with you?”
Ruan Zhixian was baffled. Suddenly, a series of recent events at home flashed through her mind, and she understood:
“Oh, I get it. Something must have happened at home, right? Let me guess—my situation is dangerous now because of my identity, and my mom asked you to protect me for a while. That’s why I’ll be living with you, right?”
“Let me guess again—is it because my phone number and such are being monitored by someone else, so I can’t use my phone or access my accounts online? Oh, why didn’t you say so earlier? You had me thinking you kidnapped me~”
***
The golden-haired girl crossed her hands on her hips, grinning triumphantly.
After hearing Ruan Zhixian’s analysis, Su Ling’s smile wavered. After making sure the last sentence was really a joke and not a test, she silently swallowed all the carefully prepared lines she had planned to say.
Wait, how did she convince herself without me saying anything? And why are her guesses exactly what I had prepared?
As Su Ling spiraled into self-doubt, Ruan Zhixian’s attention shifted to the computer desk nearby.
She hadn’t looked closely at the room when she first woke up—just glanced roughly. Now she saw that on the desk sat a brand-new gaming console.
On the bookshelf next to it were rows of game cartridges, a huge collection ranging from the latest popular titles to obscure niche masterpieces.
“Su Ling! Can I play all these games in your room?”
Ruan Zhixian held a cartridge in one hand, her aquamarine eyes sparkling.
“Oh, those? Of course you can.”
Su Ling finally came back to her senses and smiled at Ruan Zhixian.
“But if you want to live here properly, you’ll have to listen to me carefully, okay? You…”
“Mm-hmm, I know, I’ll listen to you. I won’t cry or throw tantrums, and I won’t reach out to the outside world and blow our cover.”
“Thank you for protecting me and giving me a safe haven. Su Ling, please take good care of me during this time. I hope we can get along well! I’m really looking forward to living here with you!”
The golden-haired girl was in high spirits, her face lifted in a gentle smile, her aquamarine eyes shining like shattered sunlight scattered across the sky.