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Join the ServerSu Wanqing drifted in the slightly noisy classroom, the chill of her resentment not yet fully dispersed.
But there wasn’t much she could do.
She returned to Lin Cheng’s side, calming herself down, and, out of habit, prepared to curl up beneath his chair.
But as she instinctively lowered her head, her gaze swept past her semi-transparent ankle—and there, still tightly wrapped around it, was that chain, like a living shadow.
Wait…
Her eyes froze at her ankle.
The color… was it different?
When she had woken up in the cemetery a few days ago, the chain had been a shifting, illusory dark gray—like a living shadow.
But now, the part coiled around her ankle seemed… darker?
Like congealed, half-dried ink, heavy with a viscous, suffocating stillness.
“Is it just the light? Or am I seeing things?”
Su Wanqing’s heart skipped a beat, unease creeping in.
She needed something to compare it with.
She floated to the mirror at the front of the classroom.
Carefully adjusting her hovering height and angle, she tried to get her ankle as clearly into the mirror’s view as possible.
In the mirror, she could see herself.
The outline of her ankle was blurry, but the image of the chain was stark—almost pure black, far deeper and heavier than it had been a few days ago.
“It really… got darker?”
“So it’s not just my imagination?”
Her heart sank. Refusing to give up, she lifted her head to compare the chain’s color and texture in the mirror with what she remembered.
Then she lowered her head to look at the real chain on her ankle.
Head up—mirror.
Head down—real thing.
Head up—mirror.
Head down—real thing.
She repeated the mechanical comparison over and over.
But the last time she raised her eyes from the real thing to the mirror, she froze.
Her gaze didn’t land on the chain—
It locked onto her entire semi-transparent silhouette in the mirror.
The edges of her translucent form seemed blurrier than when she’d first seen her reflection in a puddle in the cemetery.
A more terrifying thought took hold.
The chain’s darkening…
Could it be because…
I’m the one becoming more transparent?
And that’s why, in my eyes, the chain looks darker by comparison…
The thought chilled her to the bone.
She wanted to deny it, but she wasn’t stupid.
She knew what she looked like.
The truth was right in front of her—
She was indeed becoming more transparent.
If…
She kept getting more and more transparent…
Until, in the end… what would happen?
Disappear completely?
As if she had never existed?
Would her consciousness dissolve into nothing, unable to even be a ghost?
Someone who has died once cherishes existence even more.
Even like this—unseen by anyone, unknown to anyone, unable to speak to anyone—Su Wanqing absolutely didn’t want to truly die.
Not when she still hadn’t killed Zhou Mingyuan!
That animal—she wanted to crush him into paste…
But the moment she had the thought, the icy stab at her ankle made her instantly give up.
Then… maybe she could tell Lin Cheng—
Another stab of pain.
She couldn’t do anything.
She could only watch herself die, little by little.
Su Wanqing felt lost.
The heavy, suffocating sense of death and helplessness she’d felt upon first waking in the cemetery washed over her again like a tide.
She curled up in a cold corner of the wall, her translucent body rising and falling slightly.
Her mind was a blank void.
She didn’t want to think about anything.
She didn’t dare think about anything.
Time passed slowly.
The sweet chime of the 10:30 bell ended the stifling atmosphere of evening study.
The clatter of students packing up, the scraping of chairs, and the lively chatter about tomorrow’s sports day and Zhou Mingyuan’s party all came muffled and distant, as though through frosted glass.
Lin Cheng packed up too, standing to leave.
He glanced—almost unconsciously—towards the back corner of the classroom, frowning slightly.
It felt like something was watching him.
Who?
But he simply shook his head, slung his bag over one shoulder, and walked out with a few boys, chatting and laughing.
Su Wanqing didn’t follow.
For the first time since her death, she didn’t trail after Lin Cheng like a little shadow.
She simply stayed curled up in that cold corner, her empty, transparent eyes fixed on the doorway where he’d disappeared.
Meanwhile, Li Xiaoran was like a bird injected with excitement.
The enormous embarrassment from evening study had quickly transformed, in her pounding young heart, into indescribable sweetness and courage.
Once she’d calmed down, she felt—deeply—that this was the best chance fate had given her!
“Strike while the iron’s hot! Act first!”
Cheering herself on, she walked with a new lightness in her steps. She jogged a few paces and caught up with Lin Cheng, who had just parted ways with his friends and was heading alone towards a small alley.
“Lin Cheng! Wait for me!”
Her voice, though trying to suppress excitement, still carried an unmistakable joy.
Lin Cheng stopped and turned, the streetlight casting shifting shadows across his face.
“Hmm? Xiaoran? What is it?”
“N-no, nothing big.”
Her cheeks pink, her fingers twisting the strap of her schoolbag, she walked beside him, matching his pace. “I just felt a bit sorry for tonight—making a scene in front of the classmates and teacher.”
“Oh, it’s fine. Just an accident.”
“Then… as an apology, let me buy you milk tea! There’s a new shop at the end of the alley—people say it’s really good!”
She looked up at him, eyes sparkling with expectation.
“Uh… maybe not. It’s pretty late…” Lin Cheng hesitated.
“No, we have to! Just… just think of it as thanks for helping me with homework!”
Without waiting for him to agree, she reached out and lightly tugged on the sleeve of his school jacket.
“…Alright then, just one cup.”
Lin Cheng finally nodded.
Li Xiaoran was simply too gentle.
Besides, during that incident in evening study, he hadn’t exactly been in the wrong—in fact, he’d even gotten a little something out of it.
Li Xiaoran’s smile bloomed, her hand on his sleeve tightening just a little.
“Mm! One cup!”
And so, the two of them walked under the warm yellow streetlights, chatting as they headed for the milk tea shop.
In the cold corner of the classroom,
that faint shadow in the darkness only curled up tighter.
The soon-to-be-extinguished lights of the schoolyard cast a long, hollow shadow through the window—and deep, heavy darkness over where she lay.
The adventure continues! If you loved this chapter, The Moon Reflected In The Water is a must-read. Click here to start!
Read : The Moon Reflected In The Water
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