Beastfolk Girl

"Another peaceful day."

Ye Qing woke naturally, took his time grooming himself, then stepped out of his rental into the morning sun.

The sky was still blue, the sunlight still brilliant, and he could not help but sigh in appreciation.

His luck was good. He had just reached the stop when the bus he needed arrived.

If you did not know which bus to take, you could find the relevant information on the bus stop sign.

Or you could use one of those bus-related phone apps to conveniently check on your phone, such as which bus would arrive next.

Once aboard, the bus was neither as lifeless as those from his previous life nor overly crowded. It carried just the right number of passengers, making it pleasant to look at.

Running into energetic high school girls was quite a nice sight.

It felt like even his livor mortis had faded quite a bit. Such thoughts inevitably surfaced.

Different times brought different circumstances, and different circumstances brought different states of mind.

In his previous life as a worker, Ye Qing had gotten up at six in the morning and taken the first bus to work, where he would happen to encounter students who had left early for morning self-study.

Energy? Smiling faces? Those were things you simply did not see at six in the morning.

They were a group of walking corpses, steeped in resentment and no different from restless ghosts.

But now, Ye Qing did not leave until eight. The students he encountered were Bailan City students with no morning self-study and relatively manageable academic pressure, so naturally, he could hear laughter and cheerful voices.

When Ye Qing casually found an empty seat and sat down, he inevitably overheard the high school girls beside him talking, and could not help but frown slightly.

"Tia, where's the breakfast you promised me? Didn't you say I could pay you later?"

"Are Beastfolk incapable of understanding human speech? Did you go to school for nothing?"

"And here we thought you were our friend. Is this how you treat your friends? You really don't understand human feelings at all."

Isn't this bullying?

Ye Qing thought silently as he half turned his head to sneak a look at the nearby scene.

At the multi-person seats near the front of the bus, a Beastfolk girl with furry ears sat with her head lowered. Three high school girls stood around her, trapping her in her seat.

District 28 did not have the terrifying harmful paradox of, "If you didn't knock them over, why did you help them up?"

Nor was it common for people to bite the hand that helped them, hoping to profit from their benefactor.

If he encountered special circumstances like this, Ye Qing was willing to lend a hand as long as it was within his ability.

Drawing on the stereotypical image of a delinquent in his head, Ye Qing put on an excessively unruly expression and swaggered over, his dyed yellow hair swaying.

"Yo, little sisters, haven't you had breakfast yet?" Ye Qing smiled with ill intent, extending a hand toward the high school girls and vaguely cupping it in front of them.

"How about having breakfast with your big brother?"

The girls looked Ye Qing over, taking in his handsome face, sharply pressed formal suit, and imposing appearance.

But when their eyes fell on the tattoo peeking out from his collar and his gleaming golden hair, obvious disgust immediately appeared on their faces.

They hurriedly exchanged looks with one another, not even wanting to respond to him.

One of them slapped away Ye Qing's outstretched grubby hand, and they hastily headed toward the back of the bus, disappearing into the more crowded area.

"Bad luck."

At the faint mutter, the girl looked as if she wanted to spit on the ground.

It had to be said that getting pestered by a yellow-haired delinquent was indeed bad luck.

You could not scold them away, could not beat them up, and they had clear targets, with their minds full of nothing but you.

Any other action would be treated as part of the play, making them as awful as stepping in sticky dog shit.

It was perfectly normal for people to discriminate against him. Ye Qing had even put on temporary tattoos. If others did not discriminate against him or treat him differently, then had he not gotten tattooed for nothing?

He did not chase after them. Instead, in a manner that perfectly matched a yellow-haired delinquent, he fixed his gaze on the Beastfolk high school girl.

Shamelessly taking the seat beside Tia, he leaned against the backrest with one leg crossed over the other, looking as relaxed as if he were at home.

Before he could say anything, Tia fearfully shifted to the side. She was also preparing to stand up and leave, fleeing from the uninvited yellow-haired delinquent.

"Just sit here. You can sit quietly until your stop," Ye Qing said calmly, his expression returning to normal.

There was not much he could do to help this Beastfolk girl.

But at the very least, he could keep her mood from worsening and let her reach school safely.

After all, the morning set the tone for the day.

Your emotional state in the morning could easily affect your mood for the entire day.

Tia looked at Ye Qing's serious expression. Hearing his words, whether true or false, she somehow sat back down.

"They're bullying you. You know that, right?" Ye Qing said casually.

"I... know," Tia replied vaguely.

"So do you know or not?" Ye Qing felt rather speechless and continued, "It sounds like you do. Aren't you planning to resist?

"They must be laughing at you right now, secretly delighted that I pestered you while pretending to care."

"I... I don't know," Tia answered weakly.

"If you don't say anything, no one will know what you're thinking."

Ye Qing could not help sighing. Thinking it over carefully, she had no reason to open up and be honest with a stranger.

Asking this and that only made him seem as if he had ulterior motives.

"Even if you don't have human friends, you'll still be fine."

After saying something of unclear meaning, Ye Qing said no more. Nor did he care whether she took his words to heart.

He had done all he could. The rest was her private matter.

Discrimination had truly grown increasingly severe in recent years. The broader social environment had created a terrible atmosphere.

People from Ye Qing's parents' generation had been far more accepting when they saw other races.

Among people Ye Qing's age, discrimination had already begun to increase.

Among even younger children, exclusion toward other races was especially severe.

It seemed that every five years, prejudice would undergo another substantial explosive increase.

Having long been shaped by their environment, the instinctive urge to please and obey humans was also an inescapable tragedy for children of other races.

In just one week, merely by staying in Bailan City, Ye Qing had already encountered two instances of humans excluding other races.

Tia fell silent for a long time, sitting quietly on the bus.

It was not until Ye Qing reached his destination that she finally asked somewhat frantically, "Human uncle! What should I do to become friends with humans?"

"Start by standing up to bad friends?" Ye Qing glanced at her and answered uncertainly.

With that, he followed the crowd and disappeared from Tia's sight.

At a stop not far from the school, Tia got off the bus.

With Ye Qing gone, the three high school girls who had surrounded her earlier crowded around Tia from both sides, speaking in sarcastic tones.

"Are you okay? You look awful. Don't tell me you're upset? Upset that we didn't help you?"

"Sorry. But this only happened because you weren't good enough. If you had bought us breakfast, none of this would have happened."

"Why aren't you saying anything? We were only joking. I thought you could take a joke. It's fine, we're still friends. Don't take it too seriously."

Listening to the same "comfort" day after day, Tia did not want to endure it this time.