MORIC - Chapter 38

Chapter 38: We All Have Secrets

As it happened, the Alpha training room was temporarily closed for maintenance for the past two days, so Chi Yueshan wasn't able to go inside with Ling Xun for a tour.

Instead, it was Ling Xun who asked a question as she walked her back to the dormitory.

"Yueshan, do you want to test into the top three because you want to change your major?"

The lights of Guyun Academy at night were exceptionally beautiful. In the cold wind, Ling Xun wore a blue and white scarf as they happened to be passing through Orchid Avenue.

The shadows cast by the lights were shaped like flower petals. Chi Yueshan exhaled a puff of cold air and nodded, "Are you going to laugh at me too?"

She usually spoke with great energy. Perhaps it was the sudden drop in temperature today, or perhaps it was something else, but it gave Ling Xun the feeling that she was somehow special.

She hurriedly shook her head. "No, that's not it."

"I'm just very curious why you're so fixated on this."

When Chi Yueshan studied with her in the library, she had also borrowed Ling Xun's access to go to the advanced open room and scan a lot of mecha data. She didn't hide it from Ling Xun and studied with exceptional diligence.

Chi Yueshan said as she walked, "I really like it."

Last week, the Omega division held a random prize draw, and Chi Yueshan won a new pair of glasses. The on-campus glasses shop included the lenses, so she didn't spend a single cent. Xuan Ping had marveled at it for a long time.

At this moment, the light and shadows were hazy. The accessory dangling from the side of her glasses, like a star, caught Ling Xun's eye.

She couldn't help but ask, "Why, though?"

Chi Yueshan turned her head and asked in return, "Does there need to be a why?"

Ling Xun let out a small sound and hesitated again, just looking at Chi Yueshan.

Orchid Avenue was the necessary route for Chi Yueshan to get from the cafeteria back to her dorm. Many couples also passed by, being all lovey-dovey.

This kind of lighting wasn't enough to see faces clearly, but it was more than enough to let one feel the sweet atmosphere.

Ling Xun couldn't manage to say a word for a long time. Chi Yueshan said, "I know you have a reason for being friends with me."

Even when she was with Ling Xun, Chi Yueshan wasn't very intimate with her. After all, Alphas and Omegas were not the same gender.

Even though they were both female, it seemed as if a shackle separated them.

Ling Xun looked at her, stunned, as Chi Yueshan started walking forward again.

Her steps were light. "But I'm still very grateful to you."

"At the academy, I'm only really close with Xuan Ping. She's in the throes of a new romance lately and doesn't even eat with me anymore."

Chi Yueshan wasn't the type of person who needed someone with her to get things done.

She just found it novel, but this novelty was fleeting, which was quite a pity.

Ling Xun was an exception. Even though the other party had ulterior motives, Chi Yueshan herself also had her own agenda, so she actually felt less constrained.

So what if she was an Alpha? Chi Yueshan had never been afraid.

An Omega dominated by their heat was pitiful. If she wanted to refuse someone's approach, there was an extreme, mutually destructive method.

To simply kill herself.

This was the first method Zhou Fengqin had taught her.

Ling Xun: "You knew?"

Chi Yueshan nodded. "Of course."

"You're not bad-looking, you're the top among the first-year Alphas, and your family background is excellent. There's no way you'd want to hang out with me just because you like me, right?"

Her tone was calm when she said this, with no sadness at all.

It was as if she saw through all of life's equivalent exchanges and didn't mind this kind of open and honest transaction.

Ling Xun was somewhat at a loss.

Chi Yueshan said, "You're really not very Alpha-like."

She let out a laugh. "I thought all Alphas were either really fierce, or gave a great sense of security, or…"

She paused. "Ling Xun, you're very different."

The taillights of spaceships occasionally streaked across the sky, along with the flowing lights of the sky-rails.

The nights in the Upper World were so lively, even at school—something Chi Yueshan had fantasized about since she was a child.

Later, when she was a bit older, she had also helped her Master deliver goods to the Upper World, but only once.

Her desire had swelled enough after that one trip.

In the midst of such prosperity, she had to find Wen Xinghuo.

They were both Alphas, but Ling Xun and Wen Xinghuo were completely different.

Her appearance and demeanor were minor points; Ling Xun was too placid, her gentleness so unreal that it was enough to make Chi Yueshan wary the moment she got close.

Yet she was also very simple, as if she had nothing to worry about besides her rank.

She was even terrible at lying.

After a long while, Ling Xun finally sighed. "I wanted to ask you if you know someone."

They walked along Orchid Avenue and reached the dormitory area.

The first-year building was a bit old, but the flowers and plants outside still bloomed dazzlingly in the cold wind.

AO couples in love sat on the benches, while others were embracing.

The public buildings looked bizarrely shaped, but it didn't detract from their beauty under the night sky.

Someone was even playing the violin on top of a circular decorative structure.

There was a music hall up there, and the aroma of coffee beans wafted from a newly opened café.

Chi Yueshan stopped, not intending to let Ling Xun walk her any further. She raised her eyes slightly to look at the other girl. "You can just say it."

Ling Xun suddenly felt that Chi Yueshan wasn't at all as reckless as the forums claimed.

She actually had very good control over her emotions; it was just that she acted more like a little girl in front of Wen Xinghuo. Most of the time, Chi Yueshan was just like she was now—though they were the same age, she seemed like a senior.

You would even get the feeling that she had probably been through a lot.

Ling Xun's bangs were slightly curled, forming the shape of a comma on her forehead.

Chi Yueshan thought at first glance it looked more like seaweed, but strangely, the person's aura was like the bright moon.

"It's like this…"

The Alpha before her still seemed to find it hard to speak. "I'm not sure if you've met…"

Chi Yueshan looked at her, listening very attentively.

"I saw you when you were a child."

She didn't look at Chi Yueshan. The upbringing her family gave her was completely different from her younger siblings'. Xi Shuang had also said that Ling Xun didn't seem at all like someone raised in a merchant family.

She completely lacked that vibe, seeming instead like the type whose parents were both professors.

She scratched at her bangs, too embarrassed to look at Chi Yueshan.

"I want to know if you are Zhou Fengqin's daughter."

They were talking downstairs, and to the eyes of those upstairs, the two of them looked incredibly close, almost like a couple.

In the music hall with the glass dome, an orchestra composed of Omegas was playing. The music was melodious, but the conductor had just been replaced.

The first-year Omega was a bit flustered and glanced outside.

Xi Zhoumeng was sitting with a second-year Alpha. From behind, the two didn't look that close; there was even enough space between them for another person to squeeze in.

Wen Xinghuo stirred her coffee, listening to the music distractedly.

Xi Zhoumeng's lip brush swept across her full lips. The rust-red color made her features appear even more cold and clear, like the chill of being touched by frost and snow.

She capped the lip gloss and casually glanced outside, but her gaze fell upon two familiar figures.

The system laughed heartily in her mind.

Xi Zhoumeng added more milk to her coffee and asked, as if casually, "Did you take the Princess back?"

Wen Xinghuo hummed in affirmation.

She didn't understand music, so being in a place like this was just listening to sounds for her.

But it was Xi Zhoumeng who had called her over. At that moment, Wen Xinghuo had just walked Sheng Yangkui to the entrance of her building when a special light-brain notification sound went off.

Xi Zhoumeng's voice message played automatically.

"I'm waiting for you at Qionghua Hall for coffee."

Having known her for so many years, Wen Xinghuo understood her to some extent.

When Xi Zhoumeng had nothing to do, she would rather lie around by herself than go out and ask someone to meet up.

Something big must have happened.

Sheng Yangkui heard it too.

The young girl pretended not to know her well at the academy, not even daring to reach out and hold Wen Xinghuo's hand.

Etiquette, or perhaps other emotions, didn't allow her to look at Wen Xinghuo with that kind of gaze, nor did it allow her to spend time with Wen Xinghuo frequently.

Sheng Yangkui could only bite her lip in anguish.

The tall Alpha looked heroic and extraordinary no matter how you looked at her. Even if secondary genders didn't exist, Sheng Yangkui felt she would still love her.

Wen Xinghuo's strength gave her a sense of invincibility, just like the bravery Wen Xinghuo had shown in her past life when she cut off her head with a knight's sword.

Sheng Yangkui didn't hate her; on the contrary, she loved her very much.

Wen Xinghuo had freed her, but she had also sent her back to the past.

To a past where nothing had yet begun.

But Sheng Yangkui still didn't possess a future of infinite possibilities.

Her life didn't even have any bargaining chips.

No one would love her, and no one knew who she was.

Unless she took the initiative to step forward herself.

Step down from the throne, step off the red carpet paved with the white bones of her subjects.

And walk towards the Wen Xinghuo who would become a hero by beheading her.

Let Wen Xinghuo kill it at the source.

But that person's plan had already begun, and Sheng Yangkui didn't know how to stop it.

What she found even more terrifying was that her jealousy grew day by day.

She wasn't satisfied with her first meeting with Wen Xinghuo, not satisfied with taking away the right to be her other half, and not satisfied when she was good to others.

She lowered her head, standing right beside Wen Xinghuo.

In the distance was the Guyun Academy dormitory for royal students, its towering dome sharp and pointed, like the sharp sword that had pierced her chest back then.

Wen Xinghuo replied with an "Okay."

She looked at Sheng Yangkui.

A lady-in-waiting who had come to pick her up stood to the side, bowing her head in the twilight, so respectfully that it was as if Sheng Yangkui was truly a princess in every sense of the word.

Wen Xinghuo said, "I'll be going then."

Sheng Yangkui nodded, her voice as light as a dragonfly skimming water. "Goodbye, Senior."

She followed the lady-in-waiting, who was the head maid, through the door, but in the end, she couldn't resist glancing back at Wen Xinghuo one last time.

In the dim twilight, the tall female Alpha's hair ribbon was lifted by the wind—that section of red, that section of gold tracing, was their first meeting.

It was the only lie of her life, and also a determined plunder born from the regrets of her past life.

She had stolen Chi Yueshan and Wen Xinghuo's first meeting.

She had grafted that still-weak flower bud onto herself, without any expectation that it would bloom.

She just wanted to look at Wen Xinghuo a few more times.

After all, fate was hard to defy, even if this fated connection was something she had stolen.

Wen Xinghuo's destiny was also set: to be invincible for the sake of the Empire, to kill the queen to prove her stunning talent.

But that was Wen Xinghuo.

What did it matter if I became her final stepping stone? If possible, when she kills me in this life...

...could she please not behead me, and just kiss the back of my hand instead?

The bell in the distant clock tower chimed, marking another hour.

Xi Zhoumeng's lip gloss left an ambiguous mark on the rim of the porcelain cup.

Her eyes held a trace of impatience, the lake of her heart seemingly stirred by the person downstairs, compelling her to ask bluntly—

"Did you know Sheng Yangkui before?"

The evening wind was so cold; Chi Yueshan shivered.

Ling Xun wanted to give her the scarf, but Chi Yueshan refused.

She patted her chest to catch her breath.

How strange. Why am I getting impatient? I shouldn't be.

She smiled at Ling Xun. "Zhou Fengqin is my Master. You've already looked up my information, so why are you still asking me this?"

Ling Xun's face flushed red. Just then, a maglev car sped by, and Chi Yueshan subconsciously stepped aside, happening to bump right into Ling Xun's arms.

Wen Xinghuo stared at the cracked coffee cup and asked in astonishment, "Zhoumeng, you can't be that angry, can you?"

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