Chapter 22 - Ambush

Cheng Xiu walked towards the rotund figure, who stood leaning against the railing.

"Brother San?" Cheng Xiu called.

He started and whirled. "Sister Xiu!"

Cheng Xiu smiled. "What were you doing out here all alone?"

He blushed and then pointed outside. "There are hummingbirds out there."

Cheng Xiu peered out and saw the beautiful birds she had seen that morning.

"Bird watching…is that a hobby of yours?"

He shook his head. "Not really, but it's so rare to see these creatures so up close that I was transfixed."

Cheng Xiu leaned against the railing next to him and watched the fluttering wings. "Hmm…do you think…they will survive?"

"No," San Zhu said immediately. "they won't."

"Aren't you a bit too pessimistic?" a voice said behind them. Gu Shu smiled and leaned on Cheng Xiu's shoulder. "I'm Gu Shu."

San Zhu bowed to her. "Hello, Sister Gu. I'm San Zhu."

"I know you!" Gu Shu said. "Aren't you that guy Ms Bo replaced yesterday?"

Cheng Xiu jabbed her in the ribs.

Gu Shu looked at her with a hurt face. "What?"

San Zhu laughed awkwardly. "I am."

"Please don't mind her, she doesn't intend to be rude. It just happens."

Gu Shu pouted. "I don't offend people."

Cheng Xiu smiled at her words. "Sure you don't. That's why I keep apologizing to people wherever we go."

San Zhu turned to look outside again.

Cheng Xiu followed the birds with her eyes. "It really is a beautiful sight to behold."

"Yeah," Gu Shu whispered from beside her. "But the Qi Beasts will get them in the end."

"Yeah," San Zhu said. "In the wild, those without power fall prey to those who are more powerful."

Cheng Xiu pursed her lips as her hands clenched into a fist. Power. Their entire society was based on it. No one said it out loud unless they were extremists but their society did belong to those with the power. Those without had to silently suffer.

She had read many history articles about the changes. It was there even before the outbreaks but it's during and after the Manifestations that people changed.

Kindness was still advocated but for only your own kind.

Like Ms Bo. She remembered the friendliness the woman had first shown until she had found out about Cheng Xiu's reality.

Kindness towards like-minded people.

"Is that really how you think it's going to be?" Cheng Xiu asked him. "Do you think we will all end up as prey for the powerful? That's our end?"

Gu Shu shifted on her feet. She felt out of place all of a sudden.

San Zhu looked at Gu Shu and then at Cheng Xiu. He smiled.

"Well not everyone. I meant the powerless like me."

Cheng Xiu frowned. "Am I not included in your group?"

San Zhu looked at her with pitying eyes. "You are Cheng Xiu."

They stayed silent for a moment.

"Is that all you have to say?" Gu Shu asked San Zhu in confusion.

Cheng Xiu gritted her teeth and pushed down the anger that raised at his words. "I don't understand Brother San's words. What does my name have to do with me not being not…like you?"

He smiled. "Sister Xiu, you are Cheng Xiu. You have an identity beyond being a Qiless. You are called the most beautiful girl on campus. You are a Hyperactive Genius." Cheng Xiu's grip on the railings thigh tend. "You are the first Qiless with an S-Ranked mind potential at such a young age. You are more than just another Qiless. They have to think twice before they can scorn you."

She didn't want any of those titles. Because in the end, those titles came with a pitying sigh that said if only she was a Blessed, she could be more.

Cheng Xiu was sure she was doing her best but her best was brushed off with simple words like 'Genius' and 'S-Ranked'. Like the near sleepless days she spent to get those results didn't even happen.

"I'm also a Qiless."

"But you are still Cheng Xiu. Almost all the men on this campus who knows you, have a crush on you."

Cheng Xiu gave him a mocking laugh. "Where are these men then?"

San Zhu stilled. "Um…that…"

"Let me guess," Cheng Xiu said, "They said, 'If only she was a Blessed.' Am I right?"

San Zhu ducked his head. "I didn't mean to offend you."

"I'm not offended. I don't think I'm any of those things you listed."

San Zhu opened his mouth in protest only for Cheng Xiu to hold out her hand in a stop sign.

"I'm more than a Qiless? But I am still a Qiless, and that's an important identity to me."

San Zhu bowed to her. "Really sorry Sister Xiu. I didn't mean to make you feel like that!!"

She slumped. "It's okay. I'm just…taking my frustrations out on the wrong person I guess."

"Um...excuse me?" a soft voice floated over to them.

The three of them turned around.

Chu Ying stood in a pale green sundress and smiled at them. "Thank you for saving me, Senior Cheng."

Cheng Xiu blinked. "Uh...I'm in the First Year."

Chu Ying nodded. "I know, but you are my saviour so I want to honour you."

"Just call me Xiu."

Chu Ying shook her head. "I haven't done anything to earn the right to call you by your given name and my grandfather always says that we should earn the right to call someone by their first name!"

Cheng Xiu chuckled. "Oh? What an interesting ideal to have."

Chu Ying smiled, her eyes sparkling. "Yeah, Grandpa is awesome."

"This is Brother San Zhu. He is in third-year Mathematics Department," Cheng Xiu introduced.

San Zhu and Chu Ying bowed and headbutted each other.

Gu Shu laughed. Cheng Xiu grinned.

"That was funny and adorable," Gu Shu told the two of them.

chu Ying and San Zhe blushed.

"I'm Chu Ying, it's nice to meet you, Brother San," she said, hoping to get over the incident. "I'm from the Mecha Software Department."

San Zhu nodded his head and the back of his neck. Now it seemed like a gathering of the greats and then him. "Um…yeah, nice to meet you too, Sister Chu. Sister Xiu, I'll contact you at 4:00 in the evening?"

Cheng Xiu nodded her head.

After San Zhu left, Chu Ying also did because she promised her friend she would meet her friend at the library and she was already late.

Cheng Xiu and Gu Shu continued with their classes.

Lunch was simple, with Gu Shu alternating between praising Ren Dao and confirming that Cheng Xiu didn't have feelings for him.

It ended with the two of them reaching their dorm room still arguing about why Gu Shu's obsession with that moron was bringing the Gu heiress's potential down.

Gu Shu huffed and then went to take a bath to cool off as Cheng Xiu pulled out her Daily assignments. All games aside, she shouldn't forget the thing that gave her the power to oppose Ren Yin today.

Her status as a Grade S Scholarship student.

By the time Gu Shu came out of the bathroom, Cheng Xiu had moved on to reading some short stories.

"Weren't you doing wave calculations before?" Gu Shu asked her.

Cheng Xiu shrugged. "Done."

Gu Shu slumped against her, putting her head on Cheng Xiu's shoulder. "I'll do it tomorrow. Besides, the due date is next week. I'm not a freak like you."

"Don't you have a Coding that's due tomorrow?"

Gu Shu shot up to her feet and paced. "Damn it! What do I do! What do I do! A'Xiu, I'm dead! I didn't even begin my research! I forgot all about it in my excitement at buying our gaming pod!"

Cheng Xiu sighed and then handed Gu Shu a Lightscreen that laid beside her pillow.

Gu Shu looked at her in confusion.

"There is a file in it called 'Just Incase'. Its password word is GuCode2. It has the research notes on your topic necessary for you to write a barely passable paper."

Gu Shu looked at the Lightscreen in her hand in shock. "When did you do this?"

"When you were busy buying a Gaming Pod and running after Ren Dao."

Gu Shu looked pleasantly surprised and annoyed at her best friend for assuming she wouldn't do the work.

An alarm rang on Cheng Xiu's Folder.

Cheng Xiu switched off the device and walked off to the pod.

"Where are you going?"

"It's 4:00 pm. Time to go into your precious Other World."

Gu Shu began to follow her.

Cheng Xiu glared at her.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You have a paper to write."

"But-"

"I'll never help you in this again if you waste my effort."

Gu Shu huffed and sat back down on the bed. "Go on then."

Cheng Xiu nodded and got into the pod.

Cheng Xiu closed her eyes and concentrated on the changes she felt in her body.

She felt the inside of her lower abdomen warm up briefly and then her consciousness left the reality.

Cheng Xiu took a deep breath and smiled. The sweet scent of dawn was still in the air in the Virtual world. The land under feet was wet.

Did it rain in the game last night?

She felt a cool breeze brush against her skin, making her feel refreshed and energetic.

The smile on her face froze as her eyes fell on a man hung upside down on a spear in his underwear.

"Bro-brother Sa-san?" she called in disbelief.

"Sister Xiu, run!"

Shadowed figures surrounded her.