As Hesta approached, a wave of applause inexplicably rippled through the crowd. Hesta gestured for everyone to stop, and everyone lowered their hands again. The clamor of the crowd vanished like dust beaten down by rain, and quiet settled all around.
This fleeting change caught Lu Qi Zhen's eyes, causing her previous smile to freeze once more. After her brief conversation with Hesta last night, she had thought she adjusted, but at this moment, everything returned to that afternoon when the few of them were about to head to the theater.
Thinking of Jahadorei's earlier expression toward Boheng, Lu Qi Zhen immediately lowered her gaze with a guilty conscience, then turned to look toward the back rows, as if to confirm who had yet to arrive.
She felt like she was sitting on pins and needles, terrified that this sudden flutter of emotion would be noticed by others, so she unconsciously cast her gaze left and right, sizing up the reactions of Jahadorei and Chloe with her peripheral vision—these two had stared at Hesta without blinking ever since she appeared, their gazes serious and earnest, carrying a certain unyielding hostility.
"Are you being bitten by bugs?" Jahadorei finally grew annoyed by Lu Qi Zhen's fidgeting.
"No, I... I'm looking for someone."
"Who?"
"Um," Lu Qi Zhen's throat moved, "Tulan."
"Is that person over there?" Jahadorei pointed toward the seat where Victoria sat; all the Quicksilver Needles were sitting over there.
Lu Qi Zhen let out an exaggerated sigh of relief, as if confirming a major event: "So she did come. Ha, haha, as long as she's here."
Jahadorei swept her friend a somewhat surprised look—that group of Quicksilver Needles was uniformly wearing uniforms to attend today, tall and brawny in their own separate row, so wouldn't it be stranger if