Chapter 8: Which Part Offended You?

The next morning, Shi Qi had barely made it into the classroom—her backpack still zipped shut—when someone called out from the doorway.

"Shi Qi, someone's looking for you."

The voice came from the front door, relayed by a passing classmate doing someone a quick favor. Shi Qi was digging through her desk for an eraser. At the sound, she looked up and glanced toward the entrance.

Grumbling under her breath, she pushed herself up to go shoo whoever it was away. She dusted the pencil lead off her hands and headed for the door.

Then she reached the doorway and stopped dead.

Yu Cheng stood in the middle of the corridor, angled toward the window, the light outside falling across her profile.

She had her hair down today. Long black strands draped over her shoulders, the ends curling naturally, a few wisps blown by the wind and clinging to her uniform collar. She looked at Shi Qi without a word, reached into her uniform pocket, and pulled out her phone. The screen lit up, the green WeChat icon sitting in the top left corner.

"Let's add each other on WeChat," she said.

Shi Qi froze.

She stood there, one hand still in her pocket, the other hanging at her side.

"What?"

Yu Cheng watched her blank out, her brow shifting just slightly.

Her lips pressed together. Her eyelids dipped for half a second, then lifted again. Those eyes—already so expressive—fixed on Shi Qi, and somewhere deep in her pupils was a faint, barely-there flicker of disappointment, as though she'd already been turned down.

"You don't want to?" she asked.

Before Shi Qi could get a word out, Yu Cheng took a step forward.

The distance between them collapsed in an instant—from ordinary classmates to something far more private, close enough to pick out the exact position of the two tear moles at the corners of her eyes, close enough to catch the faint scent of laundry detergent on her skin.

Yu Cheng's collar hung slightly open, her collarbone casting a shallow shadow in the sunlight, her skin so pale it was almost translucent.

Her hand came out of her pocket and reached for Shi Qi. Lightly, she caught the hem of Shi Qi's uniform.

Shi Qi glanced down at the hand tugging her clothes, then back up at Yu Cheng's face.

"Is that a no?" Yu Cheng said.

Three words. Her voice had dropped lower than before, the tail end sinking, carrying a grievance that was hard to put into words.

As if one "no" from Shi Qi and she'd pull her hand back and retreat to the distance they'd started from. Her brows were knitted slightly, her lashes trembling.

Shi Qi's brain flatlined.

She could feel her heartbeat spiking at a thoroughly unhealthy rate.

Her ears buzzed, blood pounding against her temples. She barely remembered what happened after that—only that she moved like someone had put a hex on her: fished out her phone, unlocked it with her fingerprint, opened WeChat, pulled up her QR code, no pause anywhere in between.

Yu Cheng lowered her head and scanned it. Her fingers tapped the screen a few times, then she tucked her phone away.

She let go of Shi Qi's hem and stepped back half a pace. The aggrieved look was gone, replaced by a very faint, very subtle smile.

"There," she said, her tone back to its usual light, airy self. Then she turned and walked off toward Class Two.

Shi Qi stood rooted to the spot, phone clutched in her hand, the screen still showing the chat interface—"Cheng has accepted your friend request."

The avatar was a solid block of color, light gray, nothing else. The WeChat name was just "Cheng," spare in a way that didn't seem typical for a student her age. She tapped into Moments—not a single post. Even the cover image was the system default.

She stared at the empty chat window for several seconds, then slowly slid her phone back into her pocket and headed for Class Three.

When she pushed open the back door, Liu Qingqiao was sprawled over her desk, blowing air at herself with a palm-sized mini fan. She spotted Shi Qi coming in and was about to wave her over to share the breeze.

But something was off about Shi Qi's face. It was red in a way that wasn't normal. Her eyes were unfocused, and she wasn't watching where she walked—nearly tripped over the trash bin by the door.

Liu Qingqiao watched her stumble, catch herself on the doorframe, steady herself, and then carry on inside like nothing had happened. She reached her seat, pulled out her chair, and sat. Then she folded her hands on the desktop, stared straight ahead, and didn't move.

Liu Qingqiao waited about ten seconds. Shi Qi still hadn't moved.

"Shi Qi?" Liu Qingqiao waved a hand in front of her face. "You okay? Did a teacher yell at you?"

Shi Qi turned to look at her, her eyes finally coming into focus. She opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again.

"Liu Qingqiao," she finally said, her voice a little unmoored.

"Hm?"

"Yu Cheng asked for my WeChat."

Liu Qingqiao blinked. "She added you? On her own?"

Shi Qi nodded.

"Just now?"

Shi Qi nodded again.

Liu Qingqiao set down her mini fan.

"Why'd she add you?"

Shi Qi went quiet. She'd very much like to know the answer to that herself.

She buried her face in her hands and said, muffled, "I don't know."

Liu Qingqiao was quiet for a moment, then offered a very objective observation: "Does she do this with anyone else, or just you?"

Shi Qi looked down at the blank chat box on her screen. Under the name "Cheng" sat a line of gray system text.

You are now friends. You can start chatting.

She stared at it for a long time, then flipped the phone face-down on the desk.

Liu Qingqiao watched her for a bit and didn't push. She turned back to her homework, then a few seconds later swiveled around again. "So what are you going to talk to her about? She can't have added you just to pad her contact list."

Shi Qi thought about it and realized she had absolutely no idea. She and Yu Cheng had exchanged maybe a hundred characters total, all told.

"I don't know," Shi Qi said.

"Then take your time figuring it out," Liu Qingqiao said, turning back, her pen tip landing on her workbook, tossing the words over her shoulder. "You've already added each other. Not like she's going anywhere."