Chapter 29: Look Behind You

Noon, on the 333rd floor of the White Tower, in Lu An’s office, inside the room on the third floor of the living quarters, Lu Xin wearily opened his eyes.
It felt as if he’d run a marathon in a mortal body during the night—nothing as drastic as sweating, but his limbs truly lacked any strength.

Subconsciously, he lifted the thin blanket and scratched at his itchy chest, only to find the sensation off.
Looking down, the flat plane belonging to a man had become an enormous softness.

Lu Xin—no, Miss Alice Phil—barely propped herself up on the bed.
This cool summer outfit that originally belonged to Miss Alice Phil had somehow been changed into a black, pure-desire-style lace nightgown.

She surveyed the room.
On the desk, compared to before she fell asleep, there were now several stacks of what looked like freshly developed photos.
The chair and coat rack were piled with clothes Miss Alice Phil had never even seen before.

The inexplicable fatigue on her body, plus waking up groggily last night only to suddenly lose consciousness again—Miss Alice Phil already knew the truth.

Miss Alice Phil tried to shift to her other form, but the golden patterns didn’t appear on her neck.
She attempted to channel mana to use Mage’s Hand to support herself, but the mana flow was even more sluggish than driving through mud.

She couldn’t stay here any longer, Miss Alice Phil thought.

Musters all the strength she could in her muscles, Miss Alice Phil tumbled off the bed.
Little by little, her ample bosom rubbing against the floor, she crawled from the third floor of the duplex all the way down to the first, then inch by inch to the office area.

The office area looked much the same, except for the absence of that alchemical puppet skeleton—no major changes otherwise.

She hadn’t caught sight of that person the whole way she’d crawled here—this was a rare golden opportunity.

Miss Alice Phil didn’t care if someone saw her in this provocative nightgown.
Right now, she just wanted to escape this already-burning inferno.

As long as, as long as, as long as she could reach that place, she’d be free.

Miss Alice Phil strained to reach the door handle.
Clearly, just pulling it back would let her escape this sea of suffering, but her intuition screamed of great terror beyond the door.

Yet the door clearly smelled of freedom, while her intuition told her not to open it.

So Miss Alice Phil released the door handle and quickly crawled into the small space under the desk, curling up and hiding.
She hugged her knees, forehead beading with cold sweat.

Click—the door opened and closed.
As expected, that person had entered.
The footsteps gradually approached the desk, and Miss Alice Phil’s heart leaped to her throat.

At the critical moment, after the footsteps placed something on the desk, they receded from Miss Alice Phil’s hiding spot.

Click—the office door opened and closed again.
But Miss Alice Phil didn’t let her guard down.
After waiting a full quarter-hour, she finally poked her silver-haired little head out from under the desk.

Confirming no one else was around, she slowly crawled out and made her way back to the office door.

Her fair little hand touched the door handle.
Just as she was about to push the door open—her shoulder was patted.

A leisurely voice drifted over:

“Mommy’s right here~ baby.”

Miss Alice Phil’s vision suddenly went black.

…………

In Class 1 of Grade 10 at Tongzhou City’s No. 1 High School.

Watching Lu Ming lecture from the podium, Lu Yue twirled her neutral pen absentmindedly.
Xiao Yan, meanwhile, diligently jotted down notes from the blackboard—if she weren’t air-writing her notes, she might actually pass for a good student.

Unlike Xiao Yan, though Lu Yue was distracted, she was still listening and taking notes properly.
Her attention just wasn’t fully focused, mainly because she was a bit worried about Liu Lian not coming to school today.

She sneaked a glance back at the empty desk behind her, feeling a hollow ache in her heart.
Of course, it wasn’t because she coveted that “mommy” vibe from Liu Lian, Lu Yue thought seriously to herself.

“Hey, do you know why Liu Lian didn’t come today?”
Lu Yue nudged Xiao Yan’s elbow.

“Hm?!”
Xiao Yan turned her head.

“What’s up?”
Xiao Yan asked, puzzled.

“You…”
Before Lu Yue could finish, Xiao Yan suddenly snatched the classic alchemy textbook from in front of her.

“Hey! You jerk.”
Lu Yue was about to scold the thief who stole her book when she turned and saw that Lu Ming, who had been at the podium moments ago, was now in the aisle near their seats.

“Xiao Yan, you’re gonna get me killed.”
Lu Yue glared viciously at Xiao Yan, then buried her head to fish out the physics textbook that looked similar to the alchemy one’s cover.

She placed the physics book on the desk and sat up straight, looking every bit the eager learner.
No trace remained of her earlier崩坏 expression toward Xiao Yan—now her face showed only thirst for knowledge.

Lu Ming approached the desk of the two who had just been “flirting and bickering,” reaching out to pick up the textbook in front of Xiao Yan.

Not bad—though the girl was a bit dim, her notes were at least comprehensive.
Just the handwriting was a mess.
Lu Ming flipped through the book, mentally appraising Xiao Yan’s notes.

He set the textbook back on Xiao Yan’s desk.
Just then, a breeze from the window blew, flipping open the cover.
Lu Ming’s gaze sharpened—he saw Lu Yue’s name written inside.
Turning, he noticed the physics textbook on Lu Yue’s desk.

“I see.”
Lu Ming murmured.
So these two troublemakers were up to these tricks.

“You two, come to my office after class.”
Lu Ming issued the final notice to them, then returned to the podium to resume the lesson.

“Xiao Yan, got nothing to say?”
Lu Yue’s face was expressionless.
At this point, she didn’t even want to berate the idiot anymore—she just wanted to know Xiao Yan’s motive.

“Why’d you snatch my book?”

“I treat you like a sister, and you do this to me?
It chills the heart.”
Lu Yue said coldly.

It really did sound cold—Xiao Yan felt the air temperature around her drop noticeably.
Facing Lu Yue, she could only shrink her slender frame and retort stubbornly:

“Between good sisters, is it really ‘snatching’?
I was borrowing—borrowing, get it?”

“Of course I get it.
Since you’re so unrepentant, let’s just part ways.”
With that, Lu Yue turned her gaze to the window.

Seeing Lu Yue ignore her, Xiao Yan panicked completely and hurriedly hugged Lu Yue’s arm, rubbing it against her flat chest.

“Please forgive me, okay, Lu Yue?”
Xiao Yan pleaded.

“I’ll treat you to milk tea another day.”

Lu Yue remained unmoved.

“I’ll take you for fried chicken.”

Still unmoved.

“I’ll top up Magic Kill for you.”

The moment Xiao Yan said those last words, Lu Yue whipped her head around and grabbed Xiao Yan’s arm.

“That, I can accept.”

“Hey! You two!”
Lu Ming’s voice boomed from the podium—still cold, but loud.

“Stand at the back and listen to the lesson.”

And so the two slunk to the back of the classroom.
They knew they’d gone too far this time.