CH 27

Peijin heard and raised her head. He Xun’s handsome face fell quite clearly before her eyes.

She tried to push and found that she hadn’t pushed him away. She called out in a whisper, “Brother Xun…”

He Xun aptly let go of his hands, raising an eyebrow and questioning, “Peipei, running as soon as you see me, hm?”

Peijin gave a start. She hastily shook her head, denying it, “No way, Brother Xun, I’m playing hide and seek with you.”

Playing hide and seek in the supermarket? He Xun chuckled, obviously he didn’t believe this excuse, but he didn’t poke and burst Peijin’s clumsily made lie then and there.

He looked around, “Peipei, what were you going to buy?”

A thin sheen of sweat formed densely in her palms, after she carefully placed her hands behind her back, she stammered out, “I’m just looking around.”

You specifically left school a quarter hour earlier to look around? And with the purpose of coming to the supermarket farthest away from the school?

He Xun knew Peijin was hiding a secret from him, but at this moment, he didn’t question it any further. And if he did ask, they might not even talk about it. He raised his arm, affectionately hooking it over Peijin’s shoulder, his tone soaring with arrogance, “Then look as you will, if you like something, help yourself.”

Although Peijn’s heart was as nervous as hell, at this moment she was amused by He Xun’s words.

“Help yourself? Brother Xun, could it be that your family owns this supermarket?” Peijin had in fact meant to crack a joke too, but she never thought that once her voice died away, He Xun would really nod his head.

Peijin was astonished, this luxury, giant supermarket located at the heart of the city was actually run by He Xun’s family?

He Xun gave an indifferent laugh, “This supermarket is but the most insignifiant property of my family’s countless properties.” He Xun tone was flat, extremely flat, flat like he was talking about what he was going to eat today.

Peijin was aware that He Xun wasn’t showing off anything, but simply stating a fact.

Even though she had always known her Demon King roommate was a nouveau riche, it was the first time she knew her roommate was actually such a nouveau riche.

Ultimately, Peijin bought a few daily necessities like toothbrushes and so on, and snacks too.

When they left the supermarket, she still felt a little regretful. It was a shame the buns couldn’t come with her back to the dormitory, otherwise today would’ve been perfect.

After arriving back at the dorm, the first thing Peijin did was order buns off of the internet. When she was checking out, she had even especially left a message in the comments, “Please do not write what this is on the outside of the package, thank you.”

Aftering buying the buns, Peijin could finally put down one of her worries.

At this time, He Xun was outside their dorm, on the phone.

“Manager Zhang, go look back on the surveillance footage and see what the boy I was with today was doing before I arrived…. Yes…. contact me as soon as you finish. This matter is extremely important to me, so I will be waiting here for you to call back. Be quick.”

Peijin had no knowledge of the phone call.

After placing the order for the buns, she finally had the time to carefully reflect on what happened over the course of the last two days. First was those confession-like words during English, and those words today at the supermarket, “Such enthusiasm? Throwing yourself on me.”

It sounded like a joke, but then didn’t.

She felt dazed, and then lost.

Peijin took out her phone and opened the “soul” app in spite of herself. This was an anonymous voice chat app and although she had downloaded it a long time ago, she had never used it.

Before when she had downloaded this app, she had wanted to use it as a tree hole (1) and throw up all of her unhappy feelings into it. However she wasn’t used to speaking with strangers, so she had been slow to use it after downloading it.

(1) This is an internet term that has long deviated from its original meaning, which was supposed to describe the emptiness of one’s heart/feelings, now it is used to describe the divulgement of secrets to a confidant/close friend. The saying was supposedly derived from the story of “the Emperor has grown donkey ears”, where a king grows donkey ears and his barber, who can’t hold back the secret after hiding and bearing it for so long, tells a tree hole. Later the tree hole would echo out “the emperor has donkey ears”.

Too many things had happened for the past few days and she didn’t have a girlfriend or knew a close friend she could talk to, so she could only turn to this app.

Saying it made her sad, after she had transmigrated, she didn’t even have someone she could talk or chat to by her side.

Soul’s slogan was, “Match to someone with a similar soul as yours.” Peijin’s prior information had all been thoughtlessly filled in, whether it was age, or even location, it was all fake. As a result, she didn’t think it would seriously be able to match her with a person who had a soul that resonated with hers. Right now she was only looking for someone to talk about what was going on in her mind.

Peijin glanced outside of the dormitory, she didn’t know what He Xun was doing but she inferred that he wouldn’t be back anytime soon. With this in my mind, Peijin finally pressed down on the “match” button.

“Matching in Progress” was displayed on the screen at once. She felt a little regretful again after seeing these words. Forget it, she might as well not match, the stranger wouldn’t necessarily give her genuine advice.

Not only that, but to tell her own heart’s secret to a rando, was it really appropriate?

Peijin was just about to cancel the match, but she hadn’t expected that at this moment the system would happen to match her up with someone.

A young and pleasant voice of a man came from the other side, “Hello?”

Peijin pursed her lip, somewhat uncomfortably saying, “I obviously chose to be matched with a girl, why did I get matched with a guy?”

The opposite party good-naturedly laughed, “I had selected for a guy when I was being matched, I didn’t think that I would be ultimately matched with a girl, there might be a bug in the system.”

Peijin “hm’ed”.

Because there was a stranger on the opposite side, she didn’t tell them that she was in fact a “boy” right now.

It was a stranger across from her, she didn’t need to keep consciously suppressing her throat and could finally use her real voice to talk.

After that, the two didn’t say anything else. A while passed, and the boy made the first move to smile and say, “How come you’re not talking?”

Peijin pursed her lips, her tone vexed, “Because my mind is a mess, and I don’t know what best to do.”

“Something’s bothering you?”

“Mhm.”

“If you’re willing, you can tell me.”

Peijin hesitated for a moment. But she thought, they don’t know each other anyways, so it’s fine to tell him.

With this thought, Peijin spilled everything that happened since her transmigration. Of course, she wouldn’t say a word of what couldn’t be divulged.

“I’ve always been keeping a really big secret from my roommate, and it makes me feel very guilty. Many times, the words are on the tip of my tongue, but in the end I retreat again, afraid to tell him my secret.”

“Why are you afraid?”

“Because I’m scared he will misunderstand me.” Afraid that He Xun would mistake her as a pervert, afraid that He Xun would distance himself from her, and more afraid that she would completely lose He Xun, this friend of hers.

The opposite party concluded, “You care a lot for him.”

Peijin very straightforwardly admitted it, “Yes, because among everyone I know, he is the one that has treated me the best.”

The opposite party went silent for a few seconds.

Peijin continued on, “But recently he’s become really strange.”

“How so?”

Those words of a suspected confession in English class, and then the words today at the supermarket, “Such enthusiasm? Throwing yourself on me.” These words, sounded like a joke, yet didn’t sound like one either.

Peijin didn’t know if she was overthinking or what. Right as she wanted to tell this stranger more concerning her situation, at that moment, He Xun was beginning to open the door and come in. Peijin hurriedly hung up on the voice call, and put her phone away.

Peijin waited a while after putting away her phone, but the footsteps she had been anticipating were late to come.

Could it be that He Xun hadn’t come in yet?

Thinking so, Peijin hastily raised her head and looked out toward the entrance.

Unexpectedly, He Xun was there with a hand in his pocket, his vision unblinkingly falling onto her body. Such a savage look made her feel a bit flustered, like she didn’t know something, like there was something important that had happened.

Peijin touched her face, “Brother Xun, why are you looking at me like that?”

He Xun’s lips curled as gave a laugh, taking a step forward Peijin, “I think you look nice.”

Peijin snickered, “Brother Xun, have you been single for too long, so no matter who you look at you feel they’re all beautiful?”

He Xun stopped before Peijin.

His eyes were downcast, fixated on her face. Then he slowly smiled, “Peipei, do you have some misconceptions about your own appearance?”

Peijin ‘ah’ed”, “What misconceptions?”

He Xun slightly raised Peijin’s chin with a hand, the two peoples’ eyes accidentally meeting midair.

He Xun leaned over, slowly drawing closer to Peijin. Without anyone telling him how, he paid a compliment, “If your appearance could only be considered beautiful, then in this entire world, there is no one better looking than you.”

Authors Note:

She’s fallen off her horse. (1)

(1) Metaphor for falling from grace/ Peijin has gotten exposed.