508. The Journey
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The big bus chugged its way toward the increasingly remote outskirts.
Lin Nan leaned her head against the window, feeling the wind lightly brush her face. At last, the smell of gasoline was barely noticeable at her nose.
She guessed it would be about an hour’s ride and thought she’d catch some Zs, but the bus was anything but quiet. The back row had formed a rowdy five-man band, shouting and hollering as they battled it out in their game. Meanwhile, the girl in the front seat never seemed to stop chattering—either she was talking or munching on chips.
The students were buzzing about what kind of scene they would encounter on this hiking and camping trip, brimming with excitement for their first big college activity.
Up front, at Zheng Qian’s urging, the outgoing and lively Lin Kexin jumped up in the aisle, a touch bashful, and belted out a song called “Bubble.”
Once she finished, the students erupted in even more excitement, as if the energy in the air had sparked them into action. Everyone began to cheer and clap, almost as if they were witnessing a rock concert.
“Yay!!!”
“Encore!”
“Kexin, I love you!”
Such a lively atmosphere was rare in college, at least in Lin Nan’s college experience. Even during the best singer competition, one couldn’t expect the whole audience to erupt in applause after just one song.
Lin Kexin’s singing was clearly not on par with those top ten singers, yet Lin Nan joined in the applause, riding the wave of excitement and shouting, “One more! How about a duet with the class monitor!”
As soon as she said it, the cheers grew louder, and the class monitor was pushed out of his seat. He hesitated, but the coaxing classmates grew increasingly boisterous, leading him to begrudgingly stand next to Lin Kexin.
Chen Yao watched with a smile, not even looking at the duo preparing to sing, instead grinning at the excited Lin Nan whose face was flushed with joy.
It was rare to see Lin Nan this happy.
This trip was unquestionably worth it!
The ruckus continued for a good half-hour, until the bus wound its way onto a serpentine mountain road, the view outside now a dense forest.
The students, their initial energy sapped, were either dozing off or glued to their phones, quietly murmuring about the scenery outside. Only a few were still riled up, maintaining their cheerful antics.
Ever since Lin Nan inherited Lilith’s magic, her energy had been a bit lacking. Now, after stirring up a fuss with her classmates, she felt drowsy and leaned her head against Chen Yao’s shoulder, yawning lazily.
A gentle breeze flowed in through the window, tousling Lin Nan’s hair. A rebellious strand danced around her earlobe, irritating her by either tickling her cheek or blocking her sight.
Irritated, she grabbed that pesky strand of hair, furrowing her brow as she contemplated shutting the window, but worried the smell of gasoline and the bumpy ride would make her nauseous.
“Shouldn’t we be there soon?” She let the hair fall behind her, looking up at Chen Yao’s chin, a bit judgmental. “You didn’t shave before coming out?”
“I’ll get a manual razor next time; the electric one just doesn’t cut it,” he replied.
Lin Nan reached up to poke at his prickly chin. “I heard that when you shave more, it grows back thicker?”
“Yup, that’s how it goes.”
“Then who told you to start shaving in middle school?”
At this, Chen Yao turned, confused. “Didn’t you have some fuzz when you were in middle school too?”
“No way!” Lin Nan exclaimed instinctively, a bit startled. “Even if I did, a lot of girls had a little bit of fuzz if you looked closely, okay?”
During her own awkward puberty phase, she did have some hair above her lip, but it wasn’t noticeable. Still, she’d been so self-conscious about it that she had even borrowed Chen Yao’s razor to get rid of it.
Quickly, she found a convenient excuse. “Maybe I just had a lot of androgen back then?”
Well, that was a solid point! Back then, she was practically a normal dude, compared to how much hormones are running wild now, it was like night and day.
“True…” Chen Yao chuckled, quickly brushing off his confusion. “I have a cousin who’s only thirteen but is already quite pretty—her arm hair is longer than mine.”
“Just do some laser hair removal in the future,” Lin Nan said, a tad sheepish as she gazed out at the scenery, not wanting Chen Yao to catch the complicated expression on her face.
Even if Chen Yao accepted the fact that she had transitioned from male to female, she couldn’t very well explain it all.
It was better to keep it under wraps. After all, she had explained herself to him before, and he merely thought it was some sort of middle school confusion.
Though back then, she’d said it half-jokingly.
The morning sun was shining brightly as they set out, but now, as the bus wound through the mountain road, the weather seemed to have turned quite gloomy all of a sudden.
Not sure what the elevation was, but the distant clouds were swirling, covering the peaks as if they were straight out of a fairytale.
This winding road was snug enough that the bus seemed to take up the whole thing. Looking out the window, Lin Nan could see the rocky cliff edge just inches away. Her imagination ran wild—could they really not flip over?
If they did, even a little magic wouldn’t save them!
The distant mountain scenery stirred up some buzz in the cabin again, with students hurriedly snapping photos, while Lin Nan remained worried and pensive.
“What if this bus rolls down the cliff? If we manage to survive, does that mean our camping trip turns into a wilderness survival challenge?”
Imagining that scenario, she gazed down at the lush green trees below.
“Stop daydreaming,” Chen Yao rolled his eyes, amused. He had caught on to Lin Nan’s excessively pessimistic mindset and overly heightened sense of crisis.
Before they could chat more, Lin Nan suddenly noticed the bus had jolted a bit. As she leaned out to look, she realized they had stopped in a large plaza.
The plaza was packed with tourists, grouped in twos and threes, totaling hundreds. A mist hovered above the plaza, creating an ethereal backdrop, as if the world had been painted with a translucent white veil.
“We’ve arrived, we’ve arrived!”
The students excitedly poured out of the bus while Lin Nan stayed back, observing the square from her seat.
To the east of the plaza was a cluster of short buildings, adorned with banners welcoming tourists, while to the north was the access road they had just traveled; the other two sides featured only a row of railings, making the outside feel eerily empty with just the distant mountains and mist-shrouded peaks visible.
As more than half of the students exited the bus, Chen Yao finally tugged Lin Nan out.
The moment she stepped off, a burst of vitality hit her as she inhaled the fresh mountain air. Giddily, she dashed toward the railing, arriving at the edge of the plaza, hands gripping the railing as she peered down—yup, another steep cliff!
Her trembling hands gripped the railing; she was always afraid of heights. A quick glance made her legs feel wobbly, and she took a step back, unintentionally leaning against Chen Yao’s chest.
“Not bad,” she said sheepishly, hiding behind him, her eyes wide with fear.
“If you’re afraid of heights, don’t hang around here,” Chen Yao said, grabbing her hand and leading her back. “We’re gathering. Didn’t you hear Zheng Qian calling?”
“Wait, wait!” Lin Nan halted abruptly, her big eyes sparkling as she spotted some candied hawthorn not far away. “I want to get a candied hawthorn first!”
“Gather up! Roll call! Group photo! Stop running around!” Zheng Qian, seemingly out of nowhere, brandished a megaphone, desperately shouting at the students who were starting to disperse: “Don’t scatter! Roll call! Gather up!”
He had clearly reminded every student not to run around when they got off the bus, but in the blink of an eye, they had spread out all over the plaza.
After hollering for ages, only about thirty students gathered back, while several others seemed to have left their brains at home.
Zheng Qian felt like his lungs were about to explode.
