Chapter 2: The Anxious Girl

“Um… hi, I’m Zhang Ruolin—”

Ruolin raised her hand and gave a small wave at about shoulder height, almost entirely on instinct.

Then the two of them just stood there, staring at each other—you look at me, I look at you—neither saying another word.

By the time Ruolin came back to her senses, Ms. Guan Mengyao, the homeroom teacher, was already talking about something else on the podium. Probably something about the school’s upcoming 20th anniversary celebration this fall. While speaking, the teacher seemed to cast a subtle glance in their direction.

Ruolin immediately sat up straight.
She had no desire to attract the teacher’s attention.

But now, she couldn’t focus on anything the teacher was saying. No matter how she tried to redirect her thoughts, they kept drifting back to the pink-haired girl sitting right behind her.

Sure, she had said she wanted something interesting to happen—but now that it actually had, she found herself overwhelmed and unsure how to react.

This new girl, Xia Kexin, definitely wasn’t ordinary.
She had shown up and immediately taken the seat right behind Ruolin.
Had she been… targeted?

That question was easy to dismiss. Ruolin’s eyes scanned the back row of the classroom. There weren’t any other empty seats.

The only available spot was that last corner seat by the window.
So… it was only natural that Xia Kexin would sit there. That ruled out one possibility.

But other, deeper questions were making her more and more uneasy. For the first time, she truly understood what it meant to feel like sitting on pins and needles.

And then came the doubt:
Had she really seen what she thought she saw earlier?
Was it real… or just a trick of her eyes?

The black-rimmed glasses she wore weren’t prescription. She had dug them out of an old drawer at home. She couldn’t explain why, but wearing them gave her a strange sense of comfort.

She wanted to turn around for another look—but didn’t dare.

What if she saw something terrifying… something she wasn’t meant to see?
What if all the ghost stories and strange rumors she’d read over the years were actually real?

Just that one thought was enough to drain the color from her face.
Her mind turned to mush—and before she knew it, the whole morning had slipped by.

Suddenly, a hand landed on her shoulder.

She jolted upright in her seat, nearly jumping out of it.

“Are you okay, Ruolin? You don’t look so good.”

She slowly turned around to see a pair of gem-like emerald green eyes gazing at her in concern.
It was Violette.

“Ah… something wrong?”

“What do you think? It’s already lunchtime. If we don’t hurry, we’ll miss out on the A lunch set.”

“Lunchtime?”

Ruolin glanced toward the clock on the wall. The hour hand was already past 12.

The classroom was mostly empty now—just a few groups chatting. Some students had brought their own lunches, and others were snacking on fruit or junk food.

Even Liu Yumeng, who usually stuck to her like glue, was nowhere to be seen.

“All the morning classes are done?”

Ruolin looked down. On her desk were the textbooks from the last period. Even her classwork was already filled out.

Did she really write this?

She stared at the handwriting on the page.
It did look like hers…

“Ruolin, do you want to go to the school nurse? I can go with you.”

“No, it’s fine. I’m probably just tired… I did stay up kind of late last night.”

She gave a vague excuse and stood up. The transfer student was already gone.

Of course, Violette wasn’t buying it for a second.
She still insisted on taking Ruolin to the infirmary, though she wasn’t about to physically carry her there… probably.

“I’m really okay. I’ll feel better after lunch and a nap.”

As they walked out of the school building, there were few students around.
Violette took the chance to speak more directly:

“You seem really bothered by that Xia girl.”

“Do I?”

Was it that obvious?

That’s what she wanted to ask.

“I’m not great at reading people,” Violette continued, “but this time it’s obvious. Did you two know each other before?”

Ruolin had been fine that morning. But the moment Xia Kexin appeared, something about her had changed—and even Violette, who sat in front of her, had noticed.

There was no point in keeping it all bottled up. Ruolin figured she should at least answer the question honestly.

She thought for a moment, then shook her head.

“No… I don’t remember ever meeting someone like her before. But—”

“But?”

“There’s this strange feeling of familiarity. I can’t describe it. It’s not a smell… not anything specific.”

“Déjà vu? Maybe in some parallel universe, you two already know each other.”

Ruolin lowered her head, staring at the ground as they walked.
She considered the possibility seriously.

“Wait—you’re not actually believing that, are you?”

“Actually… I think I saw something. I don’t even know if I can call it a ‘thing.’”

Violette’s expression sharpened instantly.
The joking tone was gone—her green eyes turned serious.

By the time they reached the cafeteria, they found Liu Yumeng and Ayano Sasaki already seated. After a year of being in the same class, the four of them usually spent most of their time together.

Ruolin ordered a bowl of ramen and sat down beside the others.
Violette had gone for a full lunch set—one she hadn’t even had to line up for—and started explaining everything before Ruolin arrived.

“So you’re saying… that pink-haired girl is one of those ‘weird beings’ you always talk about?”

Yumeng had heard Ruolin talk about “weird beings” countless times. From ancient legends to modern urban myths across the world, Ruolin had long lumped such phenomena into a single category: “guaiyi”—the anomalous.

“Hey, that’s a bit rude. Xia Kexin is adorable, you know.”

“Ayano, isn’t that basically what Ruolin meant?”

“Maybe… but saying it that bluntly is kind of inappropriate.”

“I’m not totally sure,” Ruolin said, setting down her chopsticks.
She’d only taken a few bites but had already lost her appetite.
“But I think this is it—the breakthrough. The thing that’ll shatter our boring everyday life!”

Yumeng and Violette both lit up at that idea, visibly excited.

“Do you have a plan, Ruolin?”
“Count me in!”

Just as the fire of enthusiasm sparked in their eyes, it was immediately doused by a bucket of cold water.

Ayano, the quietest of the four, spoke up with her usual calm.

“Let’s be rational here. If Xia Kexin really is an anomaly… and we jump in recklessly, what do you think will happen? If she has powers beyond human understanding, can we really handle it?”

All three of them fell silent.

They hadn’t thought that far.
Now that they did, their heads just got even more jumbled.

“So what do you suggest, Ayano? Just ignore it?”

“Of course not. Since she’s already affecting Ruolin, we can’t just leave it alone. That’s why I suggest—”

Ayano gestured for them to lean in closer.
In a hushed voice, she revealed her plan:

“We follow her.”