Don’t You Want to Pet Me?
Yu Luo didn’t pay much mind to the encounter.
In life, everything flowed by in a hurry, without pausing, without stopping.
She just couldn’t help but steal a few more glances at the girl’s bright face, and then she couldn’t help but think: Just how much love must one be nourished with to grow so brilliant and dazzling, to have a presence so full of confidence?
A little bit of envy quietly rose in her heart, but it quickly withered away—
There’s nothing to be envious of. She no longer yearned for anything.
After returning from her punishment of standing in the hall, Yu Luo fell ill.
These days, she injected an excessive amount of inhibitors during every heat period. Under the side effects, she appeared healthy on a daily basis, but in reality, her immune system was constantly declining, her constitution gradually hollowed out, and her body was always plagued with various ailments. She was barely hanging on, relying entirely on the conditioning provided by her nutritionist.
Colds and fevers were common occurrences, and whenever she got sick, she would be bedridden for a long time.
Even so, that day her grandmother forced her to get out of bed to see guests.
“The people from the Qi family are here.”
Her grandmother furrowed her brows and said with dissatisfaction, “With such a sickly appearance, tidy yourself up and look more energetic.”
Yu Luo’s lips were pale and dry. She struggled to climb out of bed, letting out two muffled, uncomfortable coughs. Someone entered the bedroom to apply makeup, concealing the dark circles under her eyes and adding some healthy color to her lips.
She knew that the Yu family had recently been collaborating with the Qi family. The Qi family had originally made their fortune abroad and had only recently established themselves in S City six months ago, but their development was already like fire and like the tu flowers1. Since malicious competition was inferior to a win-win situation, both sides valued the resources held by the other, and their interactions had become increasingly frequent.
In a daze, Yu Luo remembered that the pretty little sister2 seemed to be a child of the Qi family.
Just as this thought arose—
She saw the bright, gentle gaze of the girl on the sofa turn towards her, like the rising sun in the early morning.
When it shone upon her, she who had been lying in a dark ditch all day felt momentarily unable to adapt, so dazzled that she couldn’t help but want to close her eyes.
“Yu Luo, take Xiao Song for a walk around the house,” her grandmother said.
And so, a tail was temporarily added behind Yu Luo.
She didn’t make a sound, and Qi Song also remained silent the entire time.
For a moment, Yu Luo thought the other girl hadn’t kept up. Hesitantly, she stopped and turned back, only to meet the girl’s direct gaze.
Qi Song was four years younger than her. After hitting her growth spurt, she had shot up quickly, and the top of her head already passed Yu Luo’s chin.
“Yu-jiejie,” Qi Song called out.
Yu Luo’s hand, hanging by her side, curled slightly. She remained silent for a few seconds before saying, “Your name is Qi Song?”
Qi Song nodded obediently.
Seeing that Yu Luo had no intention of continuing the conversation and was about to turn back around, she hesitated before asking, “Has Yu-jiejie been sick all this time? I haven’t seen you these past few days.”
“You… you have to take good care of your health.” She looked a little worried.
Yu Luo paused slightly, her quiet gaze falling upon Qi Song. “Why do you say you haven’t seen me?”
Although they were on the same campus, they were in different divisions, and their usual areas of activity were different. To get from the middle school division to the high school division, one had to pass through a small grove of trees.
Qi Song’s thick, long eyelashes trembled, and she gave a light cough. “Um, don’t you third-year high school students have to run around the grove every morning for exercises? I occasionally go there for a walk…”
Going for a walk there at six or seven in the morning, she certainly has a lot of leisure time.
Yu Luo didn’t think much of it, only giving a faint “Oh.”
Qi Song didn’t seem to mind being treated with such a cold and distant attitude. The girl’s clear eyes still watched her brightly, as if tiny stars were twinkling within them.
Perhaps no one could easily refuse such a gaze.
Even for Yu Luo, even if she was very unused to it, her cold and desolate heart would occasionally warm up a little in such moments. But that was all.
Between them, it was mostly Qi Song who did the talking.
Having been a loner for too long, Yu Luo was not good at, nor willing to, communicate with others—and everyone else was daunted by her icy attitude, not daring to approach.
She treated Qi Song the same way, she thought. Why didn’t Qi Song mind at all?
“Can I be good friends with Yu-jiejie?” Before leaving that day, the girl looked at her with anticipation.
Don’t look up at me with a gaze as warm and light as an April day on Earth3, only to be driven away by my deathly silence and dullness.
Thinking this, Yu Luo’s long-indifferent heart felt a rare trace of sadness.
She finally spoke, her voice slightly hoarse from her illness. “I don’t think you’re lacking a friend like me, and we’re not the same kind of people at all.”
The girl’s gaze froze for a moment, and it was unclear if she understood her meaning.
Yu Luo guessed that Qi Song was born sincere and passionate, habitually shining on everyone like that. And she was just one of the unremarkable, self-righteous, and ungrateful bad people among them.
But when she happened to run into Qi Song at school that day, she discovered that this person was actually quite cold in front of others.
The girl was surrounded by many people, like many stars surrounding the moon4. Her beautiful double-lidded eyes were half-drooped, the corners of her lips pressed down slightly, looking lazy and indifferent.
A girl next to her, a bit taller, reached out as if to pat her head, but Qi Song sidestepped it without a change in expression.
“You’re so cute, can’t this senior5 pat your head?” that girl said, embarrassed.
“Sorry, I’m not used to physical contact.”
As Yu Luo passed by, she heard the girl’s usually warm and clear voice take on such a distant tone.
Her eyebrows moved slightly without her realizing it; she found it a bit novel.
And in the next second, Qi Song seemed to sense something and turned her head, looking straight at her.
Those beautiful eyes then visibly and abruptly became bright and focused.
In that instant, Yu Luo’s heart trembled lightly.
She pressed her lips together, nodded at Qi Song as a greeting, and then turned to leave.
Before turning the corner, as if sent by ghosts and gods6, she glanced back, only to see the girl still gazing at her from afar.
The first collaboration between the Qi and Yu families far exceeded expectations, and the celebration banquet was held at the Qi family’s residence.
As the Eldest Miss of the Qi family, Qi Song followed beside her elders, greeting the industry elites who had come to attend the banquet.
She faced the crowd without any stage fright; at such a young age, she already possessed an initial air of elegant composure.
Yu Luo watched from a distance for a few moments before retracting her gaze.
Later, it was Qi Song who found her way to Yu Luo.
“Yu-jiejie looks so beautiful in this dress.” The girl’s eyes were sparkling, pretty and cute, a complete change from the cool and noble composure she had just a moment ago.
Yu Luo met her gaze and was inadvertently lost in thought for a moment.
The thought that surfaced in her mind at that instant was: These eyes are so clear and bright, it would be best if they never dimmed.
—Because someone had once praised her for having such eyes, but now it seemed her own gaze could never be that clear again.
Before she could snap back to her senses, Qi Song was already leading her on a tour of the Qi family home.
After some unknown number of twists and turns, they passed through the back garden and arrived at a secluded corner.
“I like it here the most,” Qi Song said.
This place was far less magnificent and exquisite than the garden next to it, and even less magnificent and imperial7 than the distant residential buildings.
There were only slightly messy weeds and wildflowers, and a small pond. It seemed somewhat out of place with the girl in her expensive dress.
“Every time I’m in a bad mood, I come here to space out…”
Her words stopped there. Qi Song turned her head to look at her, seeming to hope very much that she would take the initiative to ask why.
Yu Luo hadn’t planned on speaking.
But the moment she noticed the cautiousness faintly rising in the girl’s eyes, her chest suddenly ached with a dull pain born from a sense of familiarity—she used to be like this with her mother.
And she knew very well that in the midst of repeated cautiousness, people’s expectations would gradually die out, and the light in their eyes would fade.
Yu Luo seemed unable to bear the thought of the girl before her ending up like that too.
After hesitating for a moment, she finally responded, “…What makes you feel down?”
She had thought Qi Song’s emotions would be like her eyes, always bright.
Qi Song crouched down by the patch of weeds, her slender, fair fingers tugging at a withered blade of grass.
After a moment of silence, she asked, “Does Yu-jiejie still remember the debate tournament from three months ago?”
Yu Luo was slightly taken aback.
There was such a thing—she didn’t like participating in activities, but someone in her class fell ill, and she had no choice but to take their place.
“The topic for the finals was gender, and we needed to elaborate on the survival difficulties people face based on it.” Qi Song looked up, a trace of profound emotion flickering in her eyes as she gazed at her. “Everyone talked about the six genders, but only Yu-jiejie mentioned that there were also ordinary people in the world. You said that ordinary people were essentially the same as the other six genders, no different…”
At the time, many people in the audience cast strange looks at her, and other contestants openly disagreed. But the cool and noble girl on the stage didn’t bat an eye, calmly and composedly saying, “The proportion of Differentiators is too large, so the discrimination and prejudice against ordinary people that is ‘known in the heart but not said out loud’8 becomes the overwhelming ‘justice.’ How is this not a form of bullying?”
At that time, Qi Song sat below the stage, lost in a daze for a long, long time.
“I had just finished my pre-screening test not long before that, and the results showed that I would be an ordinary person…”
“From then on, my family searched everywhere for doctors, made me drink many kinds of medicine, and gave me lots of injections, saying that this way I could differentiate. Even if I drank until I was nauseous, even if I couldn’t help but vomit at the smell, they forced me to keep drinking. Even if I started trembling at the sight of a needle…”
As she spoke, Qi Song rolled up her sleeve, revealing her upper arm.
On the skin that should have been as fair as jade were multiple reddish and even bluish needle marks, looking quite horrifying.
Under the impact of the image, Yu Luo’s eyes felt as if they had been seared for a moment, and a dense wave of sourness instantly welled up. Even her throat began to ache astringently.
“They place so much importance on this matter… I suspect, I suspect that if I really can’t differentiate in the end, they will abandon me.”
Qi Song looked at her, her obsidian-like eyes under her thick lashes holding a hint of melancholy, as well as a certain glimmer of light.
“I’m telling you this to let you know…”
“I’m pitiful too, Yu-jiejie.”
Her gaze was like that of a puppy caught in the rain, wet and naturally evoking pity.
Yu Luo stared at her blankly, knowing that Qi Song was responding to the rejection she had given that day.
—We’re not the same kind of people.
—I’m pitiful too, so we are the same kind of people.
This answer not only laid herself bare but also seemed to have understood Yu Luo completely.
Yu Luo’s lips trembled slightly, and she was momentarily at a loss for words.
Her heart silently fell into a tremor.
It was hard to tell if it was the layer of numbness that wrapped her loneliness beginning to sway as if about to fall9, or if her withered emotions were being drenched by the damp pity in Qi Song’s eyes—
Yu Luo inexplicably had the urge to pat Qi Song’s head.
Her hand slowly reached out, only to freeze in mid-air.
Not only because Qi Song had told the senior last time that she “disliked physical contact,” but also because, after having her sincerity trampled on time and time again, she had become terrified of offering her heart.
But in the next second, the girl actually took the initiative to look up, her smooth, soft, dark hair brushing against her palm.
Fluffy, like a little puppy.
Yu Luo’s heartbeat stopped abruptly.
She saw a cautious light flickering in Qi Song’s clear, beautiful eyes:
“Don’t you want to pet me?”
The academic pressure of the third year of high school was heavy. Although she now seemed to have a “good friend,” Yu Luo was buried in a pile of test papers and couldn’t pull herself away, having almost no time to see the other girl.
Despite being so busy, she managed to find time between her studies to compile some books related to ordinary people for Qi Song, hoping she could draw courage from reading them.
—Don’t be like me, stumbling all the way, surviving until now purely on numbness.
With one month left before the college entrance exams, to alleviate everyone’s stress, the school held a sports meet for the third-year students.
Yu Luo was surprised to see Qi Song on the field.
They hadn’t seen each other for a long time, but Qi Song’s gaze towards her was as bright and clear as ever.
The girl seemed to have grown taller, her figure slender and straight, making the simple school uniform look exceptionally good on her. A DSLR camera10 hung in front of her. She jogged up to Yu Luo, the corners of her lips curved. “I signed up as a volunteer, responsible for taking pictures of the athletes. Is Yu-jiejie competing later?”
Yu Luo’s physical constitution was poor, and she had never been good at sports. Her participation in the sports meet was mandatory by the school.
“Mhm,” she responded.
A premonition inexplicably rose in her heart. This premonition felt a bit narcissistic—she felt that Qi Song would take a few extra pictures of her.
Only, when it was over, seeing the troubled look on the girl’s face, Yu Luo’s thoughts paused.
“What’s wrong?”
Qi Song’s eyelashes lowered, revealing a pitiful expression. “Yu-jiejie, I forgot, forgot to take pictures…”
Yu Luo instantly thought she meant she forgot to take pictures of her.
So, I was just being narcissistic earlier—Yu Luo thought with some embarrassment.
She pursed her lips, trying to suppress the shame and a certain hidden disappointment in her heart, only to see Qi Song continue:
“Whimper… I was so focused on taking pictures of you, what do I do, I forgot to take pictures of anyone else? How am I going to explain this to the teacher later…”
Though her words sounded extremely troubled, she was, in fact, already eagerly moving closer, holding the camera to share with Yu Luo just how beautifully she had captured her. Her eyes were sparkling, so content it was as if a tail was about to start wagging.
“…” Yu Luo stared at her, slightly stunned.
After a moment, the corners of her mouth gently hooked up.
With a slight shift in her thoughts, she raised her hand, her movement carrying a hint of hesitation. But Qi Song had already consciously leaned in, rubbing her soft hair against her hand.
“Does Yu-jiejie want to pet me?” she blinked, the smile in her eyes vivid. “If not… well, now you do.”
The corners of Yu Luo’s lips couldn’t help but curve up a little more.
Later, the icy Student Yu, who had never interacted with her classmates, had to bite the bullet and go around asking classmates who were taking commemorative photos with their phones on the field for pictures to hand over to the teacher.
And the chief of crime and head of disaster11 tugged at the corner of her shirt, following behind her, transformed into an innocent little tail.
The author has something to say:
Perhaps some people remember, during the live broadcast in the first season of the variety show, someone’s camera couldn’t help but be on their wife the whole time…….
That’s right, she was already like this as a teenager, she’s hopeless (spreads hands)12.
Also, many darlings have asked what Yu-jiejie’s pheromones actually smell like—the description at the end of chapter 72 is her true pheromone scent. As for the current timeline, I won’t write it out specifically, as that would be a bit cruel. Everyone can try to infer it from the reactions of passersby. Anyway, it’s only temporary, it will get better!
✨ Unlock Early Access to Chapters! ✨
Choose your perfect membership at bamboopandatl.net:
📚 Full Access ($4.99)
• Advanced chapters of ALL ongoing novels
• Access to complete finished novels
• Ad-free reading experience
📖 Single Novel Access ($1.49)
• Advanced chapters of ONE specific novel
• Ad-free reading for chosen novel
PayPal is the only current payment option!