Chapter 20: The Photo Album’s Secrets

The waiting process was quite agonizing, as she grappled with the issue of the ‘price’. It wasn’t until class ended that Ye Qing suddenly realized something else.

Tang Nuo hadn’t seemed to come.

This unusual absence caused Ye Qing a degree of concern. After all, Miss Tang Nuo’s soft, seemingly easily-bullied demeanor always made it hard for one to feel at ease.

“Hey, where are you going?”

Seeing Ye Qing walk out the door on her own, Lin Shaoyao quickly followed.

“Tang Nuo has been very unusual these past few days.”

“What’s there to be so surprised about? Doesn’t it happen a few days every month?”

Catching Lin Shaoyao’s unspoken implication, Ye Qing abruptly halted.

“You have a point.”

Ye Qing, her small, cat-like face serious, stared fixedly at the ground with her amber eyes, genuinely deep in thought.

After all, she hadn’t experienced it herself. What if it truly possessed such power?

“Hey, hey, I was just kidding! If that were the case, wouldn’t she have to take a week off every month?”

Lin Shaoyao was amused by Ye Qing’s interesting reaction, and her curiosity about Ye Qing deepened.

“Regardless, we should still send a message to ask. I’m worried she might have run into some trouble.”

“Don’t be so anxious, why are you so worried about her?”

Ye Qing tilted her head, gazing blankly at Lin Shaoyao.

‘For a friend’s abnormality, does worry truly require a reason?’

“My intuition.”

Her intuition told her that Tang Nuo might have encountered something.

Receiving such an outlandish answer, Lin Shaoyao’s lips twitched.

“Well, my intuition tells me she’s just at home mining…”

A moment later, as Tang Nuo still hadn’t replied, the two swiftly ‘descended’ upon her building.

“I’m telling you, there’s really no need…”

“We’re already here.”

Hearing this, Lin Shaoyao let out a helpless sigh, then followed Ye Qing upstairs.

After a few knocks at the door, a blue-haired woman, strikingly similar to Tang Nuo but more mature and elegant, opened it.

After a brief exchange, Ye Qing quickly earned the woman’s trust with her obedient and adorable appearance.

“Oh, are you Tang Nuo’s friends? She hasn’t been in good spirits these past few days, and I’ve been a little worried myself…”

Ye Qing glanced at Lin Shaoyao, her expression unchanging, yet her eyes subtly curved, as if silently reiterating the accuracy of her intuition.

Being stared down by the usually timid Ye Qing, Lin Shaoyao pouted, a hint of competitiveness sparking within her.

“Hmph, don’t be so smug. Let’s see what’s inside first.”

After receiving permission from Tang Nuo’s mother, the two girls approached Tang Nuo’s room. After a moment of hesitation, Ye Qing knocked on the door.

Knock, knock, knock.

No response.

Undeterred, Ye Qing knocked several more times, but Tang Nuo remained utterly still inside.

This deepened Ye Qing’s suspicion, prompting her to decisively push the door open.

What greeted them, however, was a rather disastrous sight.

The girl’s ice-blue short hair was disheveled, splayed across her shoulders.

Her delicate, rosy shoulder peeked out from beneath her slipped nightgown.

Her collar was also slightly open, revealing a distinctly enchanting allure amidst the half-concealed, half-revealed fabric.

Sensing the intrusion, she hastily covered her flushed face, while desperately trying to hide something beneath her.

The word ‘suspicious’ was practically emblazoned across her face.

Seeing this, Ye Qing didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and quickly retreated outside the door.

Lin Shaoyao, meanwhile, was utterly triumphant, looking as if she wanted to flare her nostrils to the heavens.

“Hmph hmph, well? Was my intuition wrong?”

Lin Shaoyao’s intuition had always been remarkably accurate, a fact evident from how she could precisely ‘snipe’ Ye Qing even among a hundred people.

However, Ye Qing wasn’t outdone this time either.

“That’s true enough… but who hides in their room ‘mining’ so much they forget about class?”

Ye Qing’s face was flushed with embarrassment, the scene she had just witnessed replaying in her mind.

Especially what Tang Nuo had desperately tried to conceal. Her small frame couldn’t possibly hide such a thick photo album.

Yet, despite her full-blown shame, she had feebly attempted to cover it with her small hands and slender legs.

Ye Qing felt the urge to draw again.

“Look at you, blushing like that. Anyone would think you were the one caught in the act.”

Lin Shaoyao playfully nudged Ye Qing with her elbow, who immediately retorted with a pout:

“Could you really watch something like that with a straight face?”

“But I don’t see any expression on Miss Ye Qing’s face either, just a lot of heat. If I caught you in such a situation, I certainly wouldn’t be shy; I’d eagerly join in…”

Pinched on both cheeks by the shameless pink-haired girl, Ye Qing mumbled something indistinctly as she struggled to pry open those mischievous hands.

Just then, the door opened.

Although her clothes were now tidied, the blue-haired girl’s pretty face still bore a lingering, intoxicating blush.

She pursed her cherry lips, unsure of what to say, and could only cautiously tug at their sleeves, pulling them inside.

“I’m so sorry, please, please don’t let my mom find out!”

Seeing Tang Nuo with her eyes tightly shut, head bowed in a prayer-like posture, Ye Qing quickly offered comfort.

“It’s fine, everyone has these kinds of things.”

“Right…”

Lin Shaoyao casually agreed, yet a flicker of resentment stirred within her. She remembered how Ye Qing had ‘ruined’ her, leaving her sleepless for an entire night.

“Mmm…”

After a moment, Tang Nuo finally calmed herself and retrieved the voluminous photo album from beneath her pillow.

It seemed Ye Qing’s recent intrusion had poked a hole through an invisible ‘paper window’ in Tang Nuo’s heart.

Now, she felt significantly lighter, and an inexplicable sense of intimacy towards Ye Qing had blossomed.

“It’s this. A big sister in a mascot suit gave me a flyer, and then she gave me this too. I’ve been looking at it these past few days…”

Ye Qing took the photo album, surprised by its considerable weight.

On the cover was a purple-haired magical girl. With just a glance, Ye Qing recognized her as An Yueying.

Her heart quickened a little, anticipating what she might find inside.

With trembling, slender fingers, she opened the cover. On the title page were two sentences.

[What you see is what you desire.]

[Just do it.]

These two sentences, so different in their brushstrokes, made Ye Qing’s brow twitch slightly. Although both were annotations from An Yueying, something felt off.

Regardless, that ‘bad woman’ had certainly piqued her curiosity. Today, she was determined to see what exactly this photo album contained.

The moment the first page was turned, the three girls each displayed varying degrees of remarkable expressions.

Tang Nuo shyly covered her face, Lin Shaoyao’s eyes lit up, while Ye Qing’s face darkened, and she slammed the photo album shut.

Clutching the album tightly, she went next door.

She called An Yueying, unhappily cursing at her.

“Oh my, such a strong reaction from you! You must have seen something interesting in those ‘study materials,’ right? Don’t be nervous; my reaction wasn’t any smaller the first time I saw them.”

“Then first, explain why there are photos of my defeat in there?”

Silence reigned on the other end of the line for a moment, followed by a peal of silvery laughter.

“Our Miss Ye Qing truly is narcissistic, to see herself first thing…”

“What do you mean?”

Ye Qing’s delicate brows rose, as she urgently demanded an answer. It was a good while before An Yueying finally managed to rein in her laughter.

“Didn’t I write it? What you see is what you desire.”

“Don’t be a riddler…”

Before she could finish, Ye Qing’s mind caught up, and she fell silent, her pretty face rapidly flushing.

“The answer isn’t just on the surface of the riddle, Miss Ye Qing? What you’ve seen is precisely what your heart desires.”