The Senior Student (female) Is Not Human - Chapter 56
Chapter 56: Term
A love that will never end.
The sound of the rain grew heavier.
Zhong Chu-yao stood on the bridge holding her umbrella. Facing the demon’s provocation, she immediately made a phone call.
The other side answered almost instantly.
“Hello? Chu-chu? I think today is Minor New Year here. Is your family making those brown sugar glutinous rice balls again?”
The vibrant voice of the college student was the same as it was every time she received her call.
Zhong Chu-yao suddenly realized that the reason she often failed to detect Xie Shiwei’s abnormalities immediately was that her best friend always sounded happy to her, whether she was joyful or sorrowful.
The figure on the bridge stared intently toward the pavilion.
The human and the demon were embracing even tighter, inseparable, their auras completely mingled—yours within mine, mine within yours.
Damn that demon.
Zhong Chu-yao’s expression darkened, but her reply was the same as usual when talking to Xie Shiwei.
“That’s right.” Her voice was filled with easy laughter: “I saved a bowl for you. Should I come pick you up now? I’ll add more aged ginger tea; it’ll be perfect for dispelling dampness and cold in this heavy rain.”
“…N-now?”
The voice on the other end hesitated.
Zhong Chu-yao’s forced smile barely reached her eyes: “What’s wrong? Do you, perhaps, have someone else keeping you company?”
Xie Shiwei hesitated. The phone receiver was covered, and muffled sounds came through.
A moment later, Xie Shiwei spoke to her seriously:
“I can’t today. Don’t your relatives come over every year around this time? Tell me when your family isn’t busy after the New Year, and we can meet? I want to formally introduce someone to you!”
Even the pretense of a smile vanished from Zhong Chu-yao’s lips.
With just that one sentence, she knew how serious Xie Shiwei was about that creature.
In that instant, Zhong Chu-yao wished she could summon a thunderbolt to strike the demon into dust and smoke, never to be reborn! That despicable filthy thing, how dare it cling to Xie Shiwei!
Yet, she knew with agonizing clarity that she couldn’t do that in front of Xie Shiwei.
Before Xie Shiwei realized the true identity of the person sleeping beside her, Zhong Chu-yao, the staunch materialist, absolutely could not rashly pull out her magical artifacts and fight the demon.
—She even began to hate her former self for not using her brain to adopt a different persona!
…
Meanwhile, in the pavilion.
Xie Shiwei heard her friend’s desolate reply and felt a surge of guilt for betraying their friendship. But she didn’t have time to say more. After hanging up the phone, she immediately began to struggle out of the increasingly tight embrace.
“What are you doing?”
She asked in surprise: “I was on the phone. Why are you hugging so tightly? You’re going to choke me.”
And what was even more outrageous was that Jiang Xi-yao kept making noises halfway through! If Xie Shiwei hadn’t stopped her with a fierce look, this woman would have snatched her phone and rudely hung up for her!
Yet, Jiang Xi-yao looked even angrier than she did.
The embrace loosened slightly at the right moment, but the dark-haired woman buried her head into Xie Shiwei’s neck, her tone furious:
“Didn’t you invite me out on a date? You dared to ignore me for a full three minutes and five seconds! What’s the point of answering a scam call like that—”
Jiang Xi-yao paused, redirecting her rage toward the Daoist—How dare she brazenly try to call her away! She has a death wish!
“No. It’s all the fault of that blind fool for deliberately calling you at a time like this to interrupt our date. She really deserves to be mmmph…”
Xie Shiwei covered her mouth to block the unpleasant words.
Her clear eyes looked at her seriously: “That was my best friend’s call, not a scam call.”
Xie Shiwei clarified for her friend: “She didn’t know I was with you today. Every year for the New Year, she used to invite me and my grandparents over so we wouldn’t be lonely.”
“With my grandparents gone this year, she was worried I’d be lonely, so she’s been inviting me to spend New Year’s at her place since the summer. She’s a promise-keeper and a very, very good friend, so you are not allowed to badmouth her around me.”
Jiang Xi-yao gave a bewildered look.
Huh? Didn’t know?
Then who was that stinking Daoist standing on the opposite bridge, so furious her hair was standing on end, ready to charge over with a sword?
Sure enough, these stinking Daoists are all hypocrites, one thing on the surface and another behind the scenes!
She ground her teeth, forced to maintain an unspoken understanding with the wretched Daoist at this moment, as she also dared not expose her true form or display any abnormality in front of Xie Shiwei.
So, Jiang Xi-yao stubbornly buried her head into Xie Shiwei’s neck:
“What best friend? Isn’t having me enough? Best friend, best lover, best family—I can be whatever identity you want, but you are not allowed to want anyone else or look at these… things—”
What friends? Anyone who dares to compete with her for Xie Shiwei, any irrelevant person who dares to occupy half a glance from Xie Shiwei, should die, die, die!
But a request that other prey would grant without hesitation was unequivocally rejected by Xie Shiwei.
“That’s not okay, though.”
The girl lifted her head and kissed her cheek: “Chu-chu is a very important person in my life. I can’t live on love alone; friendship is also something I can’t lack in my life.”
“Just as I hope many people will like you as much as I do, I also hope you can think the same way I do.”
Jiang Xi-yao frowned.
No other human would ever treat her like Xie Shiwei did. In her long lifespan since her birth, only Xie Shiwei was special. How could those uninhibited fools compare to Xie Shiwei?
She felt an inexplicable surge of fury.
It wasn’t because Xie Shiwei didn’t make her the only one; as long as Xie Shiwei stayed by her side, nothing Xie Shiwei did was wrong. The fault lay with those who dared to approach Xie Shiwei, those who didn’t know their place.
Jiang Xi-yao was just thinking that Xie Shiwei was more fragile than she had imagined.
Too high a temperature would kill her; a lack of air would kill her; a lack of money would also kill her.
Not getting a scholarship made her unhappy; continuous rain without sunshine made her unhappy—
Now Xie Shiwei even couldn’t live without friendship!
This was too fragile!
Jiang Xi-yao couldn’t control her anxiety. Xie Shiwei was so fragile that she might suddenly die of sadness if she didn’t have her own kind around her. With Xie Shiwei like this, how could she safely leave her to forage alone?
But if she didn’t feed, she couldn’t maintain this appearance that Xie Shiwei loved most.
Xie Shiwei saw her unreadable expression and, remembering her unusually possessive nature, thought for a moment and apologized earnestly:
“Alright. I was wrong just now. I invited you out, but I wasn’t focused on our date. Next time we go out on a date, I’ll mute my phone, okay? I promise not to let anyone interrupt us.”
Jiang Xi-yao’s eyes were dark, immersed in the dilemma of her anxiety. She only spared a moment to reply:
“You’re fine.”
The fault lay with the unobservant Zhong Chu-yao, and the phone that had presumed to ring!
Xie Shiwei tilted her head, unsure if her girlfriend was truly mollified.
So, she tentatively offered: “…Then, will you kiss me?”
Jiang Xi-yao paused.
Chaotic thoughts instantly scattered.
The rain curtain around the pavilion was like a string of pearls. The beautiful monster cupped the simple face of the human in her arms and kissed her tenderly.
The sound of the rain poured down.
A long, long time passed, until Xie Shiwei was breathless and gasping for air. Jiang Xi-yao still held her in her arms, calling her name repeatedly:
“Xie Shiwei.”
“Hmm?”
“Xie Shiwei, Xie Shiwei, Xie Shiwei Xie Shiwei—”
“Mmm mmm mmm mmm, why are you calling me?”
Jiang Xi-yao’s tone was full of sorrow: “Could you please not die too soon?”
Xie Shiwei: “?”
To say something so mood-killing in such a romantic atmosphere!
She raised her hand and gently pinched Jiang Xi-yao’s waist: “What are you talking about? I’m still so young. Stop jinxing me! Quickly Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey! I’m someone who plans to live to at least eighty, and a hundred would be even better!”
The energetic voice came from her arms.
But Jiang Xi-yao couldn’t smile.
Eighty years. A hundred years.
So short, and so little.
For the first time, Jiang Xi-yao realized how fleeting a human lifespan was. The length that Xie Shiwei felt satisfied with was only a mere moment in her nearly eternal life.
Yet, she already wanted to change the term of this love game.
—The lifetime she wanted to spend with Xie Shiwei was her lifetime: a love that would accompany a monster’s eternal lifespan and never end.