Chapter 39: The Wall

Xiahou Ming pulled Wen Xuelan and ran wildly in the dark and deserted alley.
They finally stopped at the unguarded section of the wall on the west side of the school that she was most familiar with.
“Go in… from here.” Xiahou Ming panted and pointed to the wall that was more than two meters high.
Wen Xuelan looked at the wall that looked particularly tall in the night, and was so scared that she shook her head repeatedly, her face draining of all color.
“No… No! It’s too high! We’ll be discovered! I… I don’t dare…”
“Being caught by the guard or falling down here, which one do you choose?”
Xiahou Ming said this a little impatiently, but when she saw that Wen Xuelan was about to cry, her heart softened again.
She sighed, stopped talking nonsense, walked straight to the wall, turned her back to Wen Xuelan, half squatted down, and patted her shoulders with her hands.
“Step on it.”
“Huh?”
“Hurry up, there’s no time.”
Wen Xuelan looked at her slender shoulders, her cheeks burning as if they were about to catch fire.
“No… No! I’ll… I’ll crush you!”
“So much nonsense.”
Xiahou Ming clicked her tongue impatiently, turned around, and put her arms around Wen Xuelan’s waist without saying a word.
“!”
Wen Xuelan’s whole body stiffened, and her mind went blank in an instant.
She could feel a pair of slender but strong arms tightly clasping her waist.
Through the thin T-shirt, the scorching warmth of the other’s palms was constantly branding her skin.
A strange scent instantly enveloped all her senses.
There was the faint smell of chalk dust lingering on school uniforms after cleaning; there was the grass-like smell of a young girl’s sweat after she had worked up a little sweat in the evening breeze; there was even a hint of the pungent aftertaste of cheap tobacco that seemed to come from her very bones.
This was a unique aura that belonged only to “Xiahou Ya.”
Dangerous, yet strangely reassuring.
Her cheeks were so hot that they were about to burn.
“Hold on tight,”
Xiahou Ming’s voice came muffled from below her chest, and the vibration of the voice seemed to reach her heart directly.
“I’ll count to one, two, three, and you push up against the wall.”
Wen Xuelan was unable to think at all and could only nod stiffly like a puppet.
“One, two, three!”
Xiahou Ming growled and exerted force with her arms, waist, and abdomen at the same time.
Wen Xuelan felt her body being suddenly lifted up.
The feeling of weightlessness and the sense of security brought by the arms tightly clasping her waist, these two completely opposite feelings, collided wildly in her body.
She screamed and kicked the wall with her hands and feet.
Finally, she managed to grab the rough top of the wall.
“Hold on tight! Turn over!” Xiahou Ming shouted from below.
It was not until this moment that she realized what she had done.
She could clearly feel the soft and slender waist of another girl under her palm.
She could smell the faint fragrance coming from Wen Xuelan.
She could see the lines of her legs tensed from the effort of climbing up…
A heat that made her blush and her heart beat fast spread from the palm of her hand to her heart.
She… was holding a girl.
In this… strange posture.
The thought almost made her arms go limp.
Wen Xuelan closed her eyes and climbed up using her hands and feet, her trouser legs rubbing against Xiahou Ming’s cheeks.
She finally climbed up to the top of the wall tremblingly, and when she was about to jump down, she slipped because of nervousness and fear.
“Ah—!”
Bang!
A short scream and a muffled sound came from inside the wall.
Xiahou Ming leaned against the wall and asked nervously:
“Hey! Are you okay!?”
Inside the wall, there was silence for a full five seconds.
Then, Wen Xuelan’s crying and somewhat stubborn voice came:
“No… it’s okay… it’s just… my butt… hurts…”
When Xiahou Ming heard this embarrassed response, her tense nerves finally relaxed, and she couldn’t help but chuckle.
“…A daredevil.”
She leaned against the cold wall, listening to the rustling sound of Wen Xuelan crawling up inside the wall, and a sense of satisfaction surged in her heart.
“Um…” Wen Xuelan’s voice came from inside the wall again, “Xia Houya… you… you should go back quickly. It’s too late, and it’s not safe.”
“Um.”
Xiahou Ming turned around and was about to leave.
But after taking two steps, she stopped again.
She turned around, leaned against the wall again, and said in a soft voice that even she felt a little embarrassed about:
“Wen Xuelan… today… thank you.”
There was silence within the wall for a moment.
“Then… see you tomorrow… at school?”
“…Um!”
From inside the wall came Wen Xuelan’s answer, filled with joy, though still with a hint of tears in her voice.
Xiahou Ming finally smiled with ease.
At this moment, a calm voice came faintly from the shadows behind her.
“Good progress.”
Her blood seemed to freeze at that moment.
She turned her head stiffly, inch by inch.
Yu Yuhui stood there, her arms folded across her chest, leaning quietly against the wall, not knowing how long she had been watching.
There was a familiar smile on her face.
Xiahou Ming looked at her, moved her lips, but no sound came out.
Her mind was in a mess.
All the warmth and sweetness just now instantly turned into a shameful farce that was displayed publicly.
But beneath this shame, there was a hint of joy hidden—
Look.
I did it.
I did as you said.
Are you… satisfied?
This desire for recognition frightened her.
She was afraid that the humility deep in her heart had already been seen clearly by the woman in front of her.
Yu Yuhui walked forward slowly and gently stroked the ponytail on the back of Xiahou Ming’s head with her cold fingertips, which was tied by Wen Xuelan herself.
Xiahou Ming didn’t dare to move because of her intimate action.
“It’s pretty.”
Yu Yuhui withdrew her hand and turned her gaze back to Xiahou Ming’s eyes.
“Tomorrow, come to school like this.”
Xiahou Ming returned home with mixed feelings.
She locked herself in the room and walked to the dusty little mirror.
In the mirror was a self she had never seen before.
The long hair that was always messy was now neatly tied behind her head with a simple blue hair tie, forming a slightly swaying ponytail.
It revealed the facial features that she had always subconsciously tried to hide with her hair.
Her eyes seemed bigger and brighter.
Subconsciously, she shook her head slightly.
The ponytail at the back of her head also followed suit, gently brushing across the back of her neck.
Itchy.
A novel feeling.
She looked at the girl in the mirror who could be said to be pretty.
A smile, which she herself didn’t even notice, quietly appeared at the corner of her mouth.
This was the first time since her transformation that she felt a little… happy because of the “self” in the mirror.
Maybe… being a girl isn’t so bad after all?
Just as this thought was about to sprout in her mind—
Her gaze followed the mirror, and she saw her reflection behind her.
She saw that the dark blue dress was casually spread out on the bed behind her.
Wen Xuelan’s skirt.
The smile on her face froze instantly.
Last night, she knelt on that skirt…
There must still be some residue on the fabric…
That familiar feeling suddenly surged up from her stomach again.
She felt like vomiting.