TGSS - Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Kiss

The way down the mountain seemed especially steep, and Chu He's knees trembled slightly as she walked. The location the System gave was very far, almost halfway down the mountain. Chu He held her breath as she went down. At first she remembered to keep her breathing steady, but later her throat felt like a broken bellows. Because their group had arrived early, more and more people were now coming up the mountain. Every few steps she had to steady herself to avoid bumping into others, and this stop-and-go way of walking was extremely draining.

Sweat beaded and the heat fogged Chu He's lenses a little. Luckily her prescription was not strong, so she simply took off her glasses and put them away, and asked the System in her mind, "Liang Zhouyi hasn't moved from this spot at all, what is she doing?"

She waited a long time without a reply. Chu He knew it was inconvenient for it to reveal anything. She sighed. Since there was no danger to life she would just go look herself. She had earlier suggested to the System that they directly send people to search the location, but the System had sternly rejected it, answering like this, "Host, our very existence in this world is already irregular, do not create extra trouble and arouse others' suspicion."

It spoke with such righteous certainty that Chu He gave up on the idea.

The stone steps had no handrail. After walking most of the way, Chu He glanced at the location the System gave and realized the spot was no longer along the steps. She frowned looking at the still muddy mountain path beside the stone stairs. How had Liang Zhouyi managed to get to such a remote place?

She stretched out a leg and tentatively stepped on the muddy ground. Fortunately it was only slightly damp. She grabbed the trunk beside her and walked inward, finding a relatively even mountain trail. Chu He breathed a slight sigh of relief, scraping away the withered yellow leaves caked with mud with her shoes as she moved forward.

Halfway along, the mountain path suddenly sloped sharply downward. Momentum nearly made Chu He lose her footing and pitch forward. From the corner of her eye she caught a flash of white and abruptly stopped. It was Liang Zhouyi's phone. She looked at the phone half buried in the weeds, and ahead there was a muddy puddle of dirty water. Chu He considered whether she should just buy Liang Zhouyi a new phone instead.

She pressed her lips together and wrestled with herself for a long time, finally holding her breath as she waded into the puddle. When she pinched the phone Chu He was holding her breath so hard tears nearly came out. It was truly miserable. The wet muddy water clung to her pant legs, and the cold weather froze her legs like sticks of ice. Her face ashen, she resignedly tucked the phone into her pocket.

Because her soles were wet, Chu He lost her footing and slipped, even falling once, her face smeared with broken leaves and dirt. But strangely, Liang Zhouyi should have been nearby, yet as far as Chu He could see there was only dense brush. The surrounding trees were very tall, blocking most of the sunlight, and a gloomy atmosphere arose unbidden.

"Liang Zhouyi?" Chu He hugged her arms and rubbed them to get a little warmer, calling out tentatively a few times. Receiving no response, she walked on helplessly, one step deep, one step shallow.

Could this be some supernatural incident? Chu He looked up at the sky but saw no one. Suddenly thinking of another possibility, she began to pay attention to traces on the ground, and sure enough she noticed a patch of ground ahead that seemed sunken.

Walking closer she saw it was actually a deep pit. She lay down and shone her phone flashlight, and saw Liang Zhouyi sprawled on her back at the bottom of the pit, even wearing a peaceful smile on her face.

!

"Liang Zhouyi!" Chu He shouted in terror, the fishy smell of earth filling her nose. Her fair chin knocked against the dirt at the edge, both hands clawing at the rim, mud packed under her nails, her hair in disarray, she looked utterly wretched.

When Liang Zhouyi opened her eyes this was the Chu He she saw. She sat up somewhat flustered, looked at Chu He, pinched herself to confirm she was not dreaming, and only then said blankly, "You, how did you get here?"

"How did I get here? I came to see how you died, and to collect your body while I was at it." Chu He, laughing from anger, shot back sarcastically. She had not even asked how Liang Zhouyi ended up staying in this pit, and yet Liang Zhouyi was the one asking first.

Liang Zhouyi raised her wrist and rubbed her temple, feeling oddly guilty. She said in a small voice, "I lost my phone, anyway I had nothing to do so..."

Chu He was so angry she nearly jumped up, "You had nothing to do so you just sleep here, you couldn't think of a way to climb out, aren't you afraid of dying here, do you know how worried I was!"

Once those words were out, both fell silent for a moment, a strange atmosphere circulated in this cramped place. Chu He glanced at Liang Zhouyi whose eyes flickered and gave a light cough, "Come, I'll pull you up."

Liang Zhouyi looked at the pit that was more than half a meter deeper than her height and refused, "You should go find someone, you probably can't pull me up."

Chu He was very confident, "I can pull you up! Don't you know how strong I am?"

Liang Zhouyi was speechless yet could not help blushing a little. She knew Chu He was probably referring to the time she hit Gao Mingchen, but her own thoughts veered off course. Realizing this made Liang Zhouyi even more embarrassed. Fortunately Chu He could not see her face at all.

While she hesitated, Chu He had already leaned forward. Liang Zhouyi tried to stand on tiptoe, and just as she extended her arm it was tightly grasped. The bright smile on Chu He's face crashed into her eyes at once. Liang Zhouyi thought she might not forget Chu He in this moment for a very, very long time.

Her gaze carefully traced Chu He's delicate brows and eyes, the line of her lips, the clear line of her jaw, as if to engrave Chu He's appearance stroke by stroke into her heart. The next second that face rushed straight toward her. Liang Zhouyi was instantly knocked down hard onto the ground, her head slamming against the earthen wall. As the world spun and her consciousness blurred her last thought was, what happened to being so strong?

Chu He felt truly wronged. When she pulled Liang Zhouyi it really had not taken much effort, but at the instant she tried to lift her, her arm went suddenly limp as if a pressure point had been struck. In that moment of lost strength Liang Zhouyi's weight dragged her into the pit. She felt herself crash onto Liang Zhouyi. She tried to lift her head and move, but only managed a muffled groan before fainting.

When Chu He opened her eyes again the sky was already very dim. She seemed to have completely lost feeling below her knees. She propped her knees against the ground and pushed with her hands to get off Liang Zhouyi. She shook her dizzy head before looking at Liang Zhouyi.

"Liang Zhouyi, Liang Zhouyi!" Chu He leaned close and patted her face, finding that Liang Zhouyi only frowned, her breathing steady, with no other injuries on her body. It looked more as if she had merely fallen asleep.

Chu He's taut nerves finally relaxed, only to feel aching soreness in every muscle. She reached for the phones. Great, Liang Zhouyi's was out of power, hers had no signal at all.

She tossed the two useless bricks aside, bent one long leg and sat beside Liang Zhouyi, examining Liang Zhouyi's face carefully.

It was clearly still that same delicate face, even in sleep her brows were tightly knitted, looking as if she bore a deep grudge. A face that had seemed utterly ordinary at first glance now looked so pleasing. Chu He felt that every feature of Liang Zhouyi's face was placed just right, no matter how she looked it made her feel at ease.

She rested her chin on her hand, her gaze drifting downward. Liang Zhouyi's slightly pale lips were a little cracked, looking very parched. In a flash Chu He thought of the thirty days of Life Points she owed the System. Somehow a voice in her head seemed to be tempting her: if she secretly kissed Liang Zhouyi, Liang Zhouyi would not know. It was just touching lips; many female friends did this too. At worst she could treat it as losing a dare.

The thought made Chu He's palms sweat with nervousness; even her throat went dry and itchy. She swallowed. Though there was no one around, she still glanced around before shifting closer and half-kneeling beside Liang Zhouyi. Her long curls wound down along her fair neck, and she braced her palms against the ground without daring to touch Liang Zhouyi. It felt as if a rabbit were hopping inside her chest, its noise making it impossible to concentrate. Finally she gritted her teeth, closed her eyes and bumped toward Liang Zhouyi's face.

Nothing unexpected happened. Their lips pressed tightly together. Liang Zhouyi's lips were very dry, with a faint warmth. Chu He licked them unconsciously. Her heart beat even faster, and even her fingertips tingled with excitement. She froze on the spot.

When she lifted her face she felt something cool sliding down. Wiping it she realized it was her own tears. Chu He smiled hazily. Unlike the long mental struggle she had just endured, she could not put into words what this kiss made her feel. It was like... like a feeling she had thought she would never obtain, never touch, filling her entire heart in an instant, sour and complicated, mixed with a sadness she could not name.

Chu He bit her lip unconsciously, still recalling the impact of that kiss, not noticing that Liang Zhouyi's hand at her waist had long since clenched into a fist, the bluish veins on her wrist standing out starkly from the effort.

"Ding, congratulations Host, you have obtained thirty days of Life Points." The System's voice calmed Chu He down. Without the excitement she had imagined in her plan, she only asked faintly.

"Why thirty days? Didn't you say Hidden Missions are all fifteen days?"

"Because... the emotion is different."

Emotion? Chu He had thought it would say it was because before she kissed a cheek and now she kissed lips and so on, she had not expected it to be emotion. Could it be because Liang Zhouyi had been resistant before, but now she was unaware so there was no aversion?

Chu He pondered as she brushed the back of her hand against Liang Zhouyi's smooth forehead. In the dim light, she studied the outline of the woman's face as her hand slowly slid down Liang Zhouyi's temple, gliding past her slightly pointed chin.

"Mm..." Liang Zhouyi gave a soft hum, opening her eyes with great effort. After coming to her senses, she looked at the stubborn person beside her. She was silent for a long time before finally sighing helplessly.

Chu He, who had been a little embarrassed, heard the sigh and turned sharply. "What do you mean? Do you think I couldn't pull you up?"

Liang Zhouyi rubbed her brow and said nothing, the facts were already laid out before them.

"I'm so cold." Chu He lifted her pant leg and looked at her calf frozen bluish purple. She poked it, as if poking a cold piece of wood, "This doesn't feel like my leg anymore, I can't feel it at all, do I need an amputation."

Chu He's joking words made Liang Zhouyi's face change on the spot. She quickly shifted over and reached out to feel Chu He's leg, her expression serious, "How did your pants get wet?"

"I was picking up your phone for you. So tell me, why did it end up there? No, I should ask first: why did you fall into this pit?" Since they could not get out anyway, Chu He remembered to ask Liang Zhouyi the important question.

"Are you crazy! How could a phone be more important than your leg?" Liang Zhouyi's voice rose, as if she were looking at a fool.

Chu He was stunned by the shouting, then immediately retorted, "Don't talk about me first, what important thing did you come back to find for Xu Lu?"

Liang Zhouyi pressed her lips together, too embarrassed to say it was that red ribbon, because saying it would make herself, who had just yelled at Chu He, look especially foolish.

She only told Chu He that when she came back to look for something she had taken this small path, she slipped because the road suddenly sloped, her phone must have been flung out then, later as she kept walking she accidentally fell into this hole...

"..." Chu He looked at Liang Zhouyi not knowing what to say, "You're actually quite impressive, put that way it's still my fault, I shouldn't have given you all those wishing red ribbons."

Liang Zhouyi said nothing, she just placed her hands on Chu He's leg and began to rub, trying to restore some feeling, her expression earnest and focused.

Chu He looked at the whorl on top of her head and said to herself, "Why do I feel like I've only brought you trouble since I met you? The thing with Xiang Qianqian, and that awful blind date of yours, and even this time..."

Hearing her sound more and more convinced, Liang Zhouyi laughed. She turned her head, her expression subtle, "It has nothing to do with you, I am just that kind of person, I've never been very lucky. You could even say I have no luck at all, the kind where if a teacher calls on someone to answer a question, if they call the study committee member it's me, if they call by the date's student number it's me, if they call by name it's still me."

"That unlucky..." Chu He's voice dropped, her expression unreadable.

"Yes." Liang Zhouyi took a deep breath, "It's been like this since I was little. So, before I met you, I was already facing the risk of being laid off, I could only work harder to prove my value. Blind dates were the same, I tried very hard to adapt and get used to it, but for some reason it always ended unpleasantly. But it doesn't matter, I've gotten used to it anyway."

"Liang Zhouyi." Chu He looked at the woman with a calm face and even tone, and suddenly felt very, very sad inside. She called out and Liang Zhouyi looked up, her expression utterly sincere. "Now that you've met me, I will make you more and more lucky."

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