Chapter 14: The Night Before the Death Clock

When Jiang Ciqiu pulled out her keys and opened the creaky metal door plastered with ads, the clock on the living room wall had already pushed past midnight.

In the old residential district, silence reigned except for the occasional chirps of birds and insects she couldn’t name.

She instinctively moved with more care, tiptoed through the entrance to change her shoes, and didn’t even bother to turn on a light. She felt her way through the dark toward the kitchen, hoping to find something to fill her stomach.

After all, she’d been hungry since lunch in the cafeteria, and that brief battle as the magical girl Crimson had only made it worse. She was starving.

As she passed the dining table in the faint moonlight filtering through the window, she noticed something sitting there.

She turned on her phone’s flashlight. It was a plastic bag with a note torn from a notebook on top, the handwriting a bit messy.

“Your aunt’s been going through menopause and she’s constantly worried about Jiaxin’s grades. She didn’t mean what she said. Don’t take it to heart.”

Her uncle’s note. Inside the bag was a box of stir-fried noodles that still had some warmth.

The girl curled the corners of her mouth slightly.

It had been a long time since someone cared about her. Not a bad feeling.

Five minutes of wolfing down her food later, it was time for a shower and some sleep.

Jiang Ciqiu felt her way into the dark bathroom, locked the door behind her, and stripped off the oversized boys’ school uniform, then began unwinding the wrappings around her chest, loop by loop.

As the bandages fell away, the curves of a young girl gradually revealed themselves in the mirror over the sink.

Once she was completely bare, she let out a long breath and stepped into the shower.

The warm spray drove off the lingering chill of the late spring night.

She closed her eyes and let the water run down her black hair, along her neck, over her collarbones, washing away the exhaustion in her tired body.

Slippery body wash spread over her pale skin, frothing up in thick lather that masked the warm flush the hot water had brought out.

Her fingers traced over her thighs and belly, feeling the silk-smooth texture, and she couldn’t help sighing to herself.

No wonder at sixteen she had a body like this. It felt amazing, nothing like the wreck she’d become as an overworked office drone, tortured by late nights and alcohol.

Steam misted over the bathroom mirror. She turned off the shower, wiped a clear spot on the glass with her hand, and met the eyes of the black-haired girl in the reflection.

Her collarbones were clean and delicate. Years as a magical girl meant no spare fat anywhere on her arms or belly, skin fair and smooth enough to make you want to take a bite.

“Yep, a certified beauty, straight up.”

The fictional Supreme Bone passed the review, and Jiang Ciqiu nodded in satisfaction.

Then her gaze drifted downward.

Though that part of the mirror was fogged, as its owner, she could still see it perfectly.

What’d you call this,”baby face, big chest”? But it wasn’t quite at the “big” level yet, hovering just around a handful.

At the thought, she unconsciously reached out, spread her fingers, and pressed them against herself.

“Hiss!”

A jolt of electricity-like sensation shot up her spine to her brain. She snatched her hand back, startled by how overly sensitive the body was.

“Jeez, this sensitivity… is it because I’ve been wearing binders for so long?”

Then she reconsidered. At sixteen, she’d spent every day going to school or fighting as a magical girl, with none of the stress of work to teach her self-exploration.

Forget about getting any mining done; even touching the searchlight outside the mine shaft was enough to send her reeling.

“Sigh… I wanted to try the whole ‘child laborer mining’ thing too.”

Jiang Ciqiu sighed in regret, then grabbed a dry towel to wrap around herself.

Her hair wasn’t too long, so drying it was quick. She held the hairdryer in one hand and scrolled through her phone with the other.

Back then, the short-video apps that would later swallow every spare second hadn’t fully taken over yet, and she’d already watched every popular anime on pink websites.

Looking at the time on her screen, she suddenly thought of a random question.

If she was going to die in seven days, shouldn’t she sleep as little as possible and waste every single second having fun?

Just as that slightly grim thought crossed her mind, a message notification popped up at the top of her screen.

[Cǎnshēng: Made it home?]

She tapped on it and saw the familiar Houtarou Oreki avatar. The heavy mood from her death countdown lifted instantly, and her left thumb started tapping the keyboard.

[Qiūcí: Just got out of the shower, about to sleep. You?]

A few kilometers away, in an apartment building, Lin Xia was lying face-down on his big soft bedroom bed in his pajamas.

Seeing the cat avatar message saying “just got out of the shower,” his brain started working instantly.

That body, usually hidden under the baggy boys’ uniform, in the steamy bathroom mist and water droplets… what a tempting sight it must be?

Feeling a wave of heat rise in his nose, he slapped his cheeks a few times to try to kick the fully rendered CG out of his head, then typed his reply.

[Cǎnshēng: Same here. Not doing the homework tonight, I’ll get up early tomorrow and copy it at school.]

Jiang Ciqiu, now cozily tucked under the covers, twitched at the word “homework.”

[Qiūcí: Don’t mention something that cruel.]

Lin Xia smiled. She sent a crying emoji, but he’d never actually seen her cry.

It was hard to imagine Qiū crying. She’d always been the brave girl who carried the sky on her shoulders, and because of how she dressed and acted, the neighbors often mistook her for a boy when they were kids.

And unlike other girls, she never seemed to mind being taken for a boy. Instead, she’d puff out her chest and look proud about it.

That unique courage and pride had always drawn his gaze as a self-proclaimed coward throughout their childhood.

“Damn, I was spacing out! Does she think I’m ignoring her?”

Snapping back to reality, Lin Xia glanced at his phone. True enough, Jiang Ciqiu had sent a few more messages.

[Qiūcí: I’ll come in early tomorrow too. You can copy it and then I’ll copy yours! Please please]

[Qiūcí: I’m dead. Good night. Gym class this morning was exhausting.]

The last message was a sticker of a kitten crawling into bed, sent thirty seconds ago.

“Hmm… should I say good night back? If it wakes her up it’d be a waste, but not saying it feels distant.”

His finger hovered over the send button as he bit his thumb, hesitating.

He waited until the clock’s minute hand had gone around five full times, certain Jiang Ciqiu would be sound asleep by now and wouldn’t be woken by a notification. Only then did he carefully press send.

[Cǎnshēng: Okay, good night.]

On the other end, Jiang Ciqiu had meant to stay awake until Lin Xia replied, but exhaustion had already seeped into every inch of her.

The “good night” from her closest friend glowed on the screen next to her pillow, but the girl had already closed her eyes, hugging her body pillow and sinking into dreamland.

One-seventh of her seven remaining days had just passed.

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