VAP - Chapter 3
Chapter 3: The Sleeping Beauty Whose Words Are Law (2)
The Star Class was the honors class of Shengjing City's First High School.
It was currently class time. Most students sat ramrod straight, listening attentively as the teacher read an article aloud with great expression.
The few who felt drowsy would only turn their heads, cover their mouths, and let out an extremely restrained yawn, not daring to let the teacher on the dais catch them.
The atmosphere was positive and uplifting, a picture of harmonious progress between teacher and students. The fragrance of knowledge seemed to fill every corner of the classroom...
...except for the area around Qi Jiu.
Qi Jiu was in a deep sleep, completely motionless. Her breathing was so light and slow that it was nearly silent.
Her large school uniform jacket concealed most of her upper body, hiding her head and face as well. Only a few strands of glossy black hair draped down from the edge, creating a serene and peaceful image.
The blue stream of data hovered beside her desk. In truth, Yue Du had been staring at her for a long time.
Yue Du truly didn't know how to describe this student.
From the first period in the morning to the current fourth period—a full four hours, including breaks—Qi Jiu hadn't changed her posture even once. She hadn't moved a muscle!
Even when the students poured out of the classroom for morning exercises, no one tried to wake her—not even the dean of students who was making his rounds.
Qi Jiu was like a statue fixed in a single pose. If not for the fact that she was still breathing, Yue Du would have thought someone had placed a human-shaped rock there.
What Yue Du found even stranger was the reaction of the students in this class.
Qi Jiu sat alone in a corner in the last row. During breaks, not a single student would approach her. Even the chatter of nearby students would drop to a much lower volume...
...as if they were afraid of disturbing Qi Jiu's sleep.
A vacuum seemed to have formed around Qi Jiu: no entry, no sound, no disturbance.
Yue Du was now basically certain that the information she had was wrong. After all, just on the point of being bullied, the script had already deviated from reality.
What poor, bullied victim could possibly sleep so soundly?
In Yue Du's mind, the script's credibility had dropped a notch. Whether she would continue to rely on it for judgment would depend on her subsequent observations.
In short... the covert observation plan would continue.
And so, Yue Du floated to the side, patiently waiting for Student Qi "Sleeping Beauty" Jiu to awaken.
Fortunately, she didn't have to wait long. As the final bell rang and students began leaving the classroom in twos and threes, Qi Jiu moved.
First came a lazy sigh. Qi Jiu lifted her head but didn't sit up straight, instead leaning slowly against her desk.
Seemingly unwilling to get up just yet, she remained motionless for another moment before raising a hand to remove the uniform jacket, revealing the face Yue Du had seen in her ID photo.
But it was far more captivating than the photo... She had come to life. Whether it was her soft, lustrous hair that seemed to have a life of its own, the faint red marks imprinted on her jade-white cheeks, or her lazily half-lidded, deep black eyes, everything about her was all the more magnificent, and all the more real.
Sleeping Beauty had awakened, and all of creation stirred.
A few nearby students who hadn't left yet glanced in her direction. After a brief, stunned moment, they quickly averted their eyes, like the instinctive reaction one has upon seeing something frightening but not immediately dangerous.
They were afraid of her.
Soon, nearly everyone had left the classroom, but it seemed Qi Jiu had no intention of getting up just yet.
Yue Du drew closer, observing her face and expression. After dealing with people for a long time, one develops a certain perceptiveness. For instance, Yue Du herself could roughly deduce a person's character from their face.
Of course, it wasn't as mystical as fortune-telling; it was simply a well-honed intuition.
Without a doubt, Qi Jiu was on a completely different level from her classmates. Even though she appeared lazy—even a bit listless—she was still a mentally mature person with a strong mind of her own.
When dealing with someone like this, her approach couldn't be too forceful, but it also couldn't be overly soft and cute. Otherwise, she'd end up as nothing more than a decorative system, led around by the nose.
Qi Jiu had been staring at her desk, her gaze vacant and weary, as if she still wasn't fully awake. Suddenly, she straightened her back slightly and cast an emotionless glance in a certain direction.
It was in Yue Du's direction. Unfortunately, she was currently so close to Qi Jiu that she was practically in her face, so that glance was a real shock.
Calm down. Unless a being was itself composed of data, who could possibly see a System in this state?
Qi Jiu just happened to glance over!
Despite telling herself that, Yue Du still retreated a little further away and cautiously observed Qi Jiu's movements.
The glance just now did indeed seem to be a coincidence. By now, she had slowly draped her jacket over her shoulders and, without taking anything with her, left the classroom.
Yue Du tailed her the entire way.
Qi Jiu's posture as she walked wasn't actually slovenly. Her shoulders weren't slumped, her back wasn't hunched, and her hands weren't stuffed in her pockets.
But she still gave off an air of extreme weariness, as if she might fall asleep at any second.
Yue Du watched her get into a car waiting at the school gate, watched her get out in front of a high-end residential complex just five hundred meters away, and watched her lazily enter her home...
...then washed her face, changed into pajamas, and lay down comfortably on a large bed big enough for four people to lie side-by-side. And slept.
She was out in a second, with absolutely no delay.
From this magnificent, face-up angle, she looked exactly like a real-life Sleeping Beauty.
Yue Du had mixed feelings.
If she's this sleepy, she must have stayed up late last night, right?
But soon, the brutal truth shattered the newly appointed System's guess: this Sleeping Beauty slept in the morning, slept at noon, slept in the afternoon, and continued sleeping right on through the night.
Of course, there were times she wasn't asleep. During those times, she would just stare blankly, her eyes unfocused on some point in front of her.
Once, her gaze landed right on Yue Du, scaring her into dodging away instantly.
Yue Du did the math. This student slept for at least eighteen hours a day!
Was Qi Jiu really a human... and not some kind of koala spirit?
Author's Notes
Koala spirit Qi Jiu makes her grand entrance! Clap clap clap.
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