The Awakened

Chapter 2: The Awakened

Let's start with the conclusion: Gaoyan might soon bid farewell to being single since birth.

Things started two days ago.

Two days ago, Wang Zikai, who was Gaoyan's best friend, stole Gaoyan's phone and sent Li Weiwei a "deep confession" three hundred characters long, wanting to play a prank on him.

It was already too late to recall by the time Gaoyan discovered it. Although he immediately sent a follow-up message to explain, Li Weiwei did not reply. Not only that, but for the next two days, she didn't come to talk to Gaoyan either, and even deliberately avoided him at school.

Li Weiwei and Gaoyan were childhood sweethearts. Their two families lived close by, and they had known each other since kindergarten, later moving together to Licheng and attending the same high school. You could say they were quite destined.

According to the host's memories before the age of six, he had indeed had a secret crush on Li Weiwei. When he first saw Li Weiwei, this little beauty embryo, in kindergarten, he secretly decided that he would marry her when he grew up. Unfortunately, before his dream could be realized, Gaoyan had transmigrated over.

Over the years, thanks to Li Weiwei, Gaoyan hadn't missed out on being envied, jealous, and hated by the male classmates in his class.

Gaoyan's feelings for Li Weiwei were naturally very deep, and if you called it liking, he liked her too. Who doesn't like a pretty girl? Yet he had truly never thought in that direction. To be pedantic about it, maybe he just lacked that little bit of a "heart-fluttering" feeling.

In another two months, the classmates would graduate from high school and go their separate ways.

As Gaoyan's best friend, Wang Zikai couldn't just stand by-actually, he was just having too much time on his hands-and decided to "matchmake" the two of them, which led to this prank.

Now, two days later, Li Weiwei finally replied on WeChat: I accept your confession.

Gaoyan's mood was complicated. He thought to himself, didn't I explain to you that this was a prank message sent by Wang Zikai? How did you manage to completely ignore that message?

No, I have to explain again...

The WeChat notification sounded again: "Come out to meet today?"

Gaoyan hesitated for a moment and replied with an "okay".

2:00 PM. Shanqing District. Dawan Plaza.

Li Weiwei had already been waiting for a bit when Gaoyan hurried over.

Taking advantage of the rare weekend holiday, Li Weiwei had changed into a light-green sweater, and her usually tied-up hair draped softly over her shoulders. As the wind blew, the girl's hair and skirt fluttered gently. She held down the long hair beside her ear and waved happily toward Gaoyan, "Over here, Gaoyan, over here!"

The spring breeze was radiant for miles, and the young girl's smile was as bright as a flower.

At that moment, Gaoyan could understand the feelings of those simps in his class to some extent. He really was blessed and failed to realize it.

Gaoyan walked over with a smile, "Sorry for the trouble, I'm late."

"It's nothing. Qingling and I strolled around for a bit first and just bought some supplementary teaching materials at the bookstore. We bought two books for you too," Li Weiwei said.

Only then did Gaoyan notice that not far behind Li Weiwei stood another tall ponytail-wearing girl. One hand in her pocket, she was coolly playing on her phone.

The ponytail-wearing girl was named Qingling, 1.67 meters tall, a sprint specialist in their class, and Li Weiwei's best friend.

Besides that, Qingling was also recognized by the whole school as a goddess.

Needless to say about her pretty face, her skin was as white as snow despite being exposed to the sun every day, which was simply too much. Due to long-term training, her undulating body curves beneath the tight sportswear were filled with pleasing artistic beauty, and a pair of long legs was a 10th-degree straight-man killer.

What was interesting, however, was that compared to Li Weiwei, who handed out rejection cards every few days, Qingling practically had no suitors. That was because she never spoke to boys. To be more precise, the look in her eyes whenever she looked at boys always betrayed a physiological disgust, as if she were looking at flies.

Over time, everyone knew she had misandry and stopped asking for humiliation.

However, Gaoyan believed she didn't have any misandry; she was very likely a beautiful... lily.

Seeming to sense Gaoyan's gaze, Qingling put down her phone and raised her head to meet Gaoyan's line of sight. The strength of that aura and the depth of that air of disgust... made Gaoyan feel not only like a fly, but like a fly that was staring at shit.

"Qingling, are you coming with us?" Li Weiwei called out toward Qingling.

"No, you two have fun." Qingling flashed a smile as gentle as an angel toward Li Weiwei.

Double standards! What massive double standards!

In the afternoon, Gaoyan drank milk tea, watched a movie, and ate barbecue with Li Weiwei, spending a pleasant and normie-filled day.

Late at night, Gaoyan was walking Li Weiwei home. On the quiet, deserted road, Li Weiwei walked in front. As they walked, she suddenly turned around: "Hey, do you regret it?"

"Huh? Regret what?" Gaoyan asked.

Li Weiwei blushed: "Regretting confessing to me."

"Weiwei, actually..."

"I thought you'd be a bit happier since I agreed." Li Weiwei tilted her head, her gaze somewhat unconfident, "Though it's hard to say, do you boys instantly lose interest after chasing a girl? Then find out you actually didn't really like the other person after all."

"No, actually that paragraph..."

"Gaoyan," Li Weiwei narrowed her eyes with dissatisfaction, sizing Gaoyan up, "What on earth is wrong with you today? Do you have something you're hiding from me?"

"...Is there?"

"There is! You've been absent-minded the whole day." Li Weiwei's tone was somewhat displeased.

In fact, Gaoyan had indeed been a bit absent-minded today. He had wanted to use the "date" to distract himself, but the more he told himself not to care, the more he couldn't help thinking about it.

After hesitating for a long time, Gaoyan still spoke up and asked, "Li Weiwei, let me ask you a question."

"Go ahead and ask."

"In the third year of junior high, didn't your grandmother pass away from a cerebral hemorrhage?"

"Yeah."

"Did you see her for the last time?"

Li Weiwei froze, blinking. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, her body after she died-did you ever see it?"

"I was at school back then. When I got home, my parents had already sent her off to be cremated."

"I see."

Just as I thought, Gaoyang thought.

"Is there something strange about that?" Li Weiwei asked, confused.

"Nothing..." Gaoyang hesitated, stopping himself.

Although Gaoyang had only been six years old before crossing over, he had attended the director's funeral. He had long vaguely realized that this Parallel World still had some differences from his previous world.

For example, in the current world, many people were cremated at the very first opportunity after dying, without customs like holding a "viewing of the body" ceremony.

They were in such a rush, as if they were trying to destroy some evidence-like his own grandfather, like Li Weiwei's grandmother.

Thinking of this, Gaoyang felt a nameless panic.

"What's wrong with you... Your face looks so bad." Li Weiwei noticed.

Gaoyang thought for a moment and said, "Li Weiwei, have you ever thought that the world we live in is actually full of danger?"

Li Weiwei immediately grew nervous. "What on earth are you trying to say? D-Don't scare me..."

"I was grabbed by a psychiatric patient last night, you know?"

"I heard about it. It's a good thing the police shot that guy dead so you didn't get hurt. I was so worried about you." Blushing as she said this, Li Weiwei added, "Actually, it's because of that incident that I decided to accept your confession."

Gaoyang shook his head. "No, actually he didn't intend to hurt me at all back then. He was warning me."

"Warning?" Li Weiwei was baffled. "Warning you about what?"

Gaoyang briefly explained what had happened, and mentioned the death of his grandfather when he was five years old.

Li Weiwei grew more and more frightened, unconsciously leaning in a bit closer to press against Gaoyang's arm.

"Could it be a dream? After all, you were so little..."

"No, definitely not a dream!" Gaoyang said with certainty.

"Do you mean to say your grandfather was..." Li Weiwei didn't dare continue.

Gaoyang shook his head. "Not necessarily, I just always feel like something is wrong."

"Didn't you sneak a peek into the room back then?" Li Weiwei said. "What did you see?"

Gaoyang fell silent. He had indeed seen a glimpse of something in the memory of that dream, but let alone Li Weiwei, even he himself wasn't clear whether it had been an illusion.

"Actually..."

"Ah! Forget it, don't say it..." Li Weiwei lowered her head. "Let's hurry home."

"Li Weiwei, don't you believe me?" Gaoyang grabbed Li Weiwei's hand.

Li Weiwei was startled at first, but she took a moment to overcome her fear and nodded forcefully. "I believe you."

"I believe you too. I don't know who else I can talk about this with besides you." Taking a deep breath, Gaoyang mustered the courage to speak. "Actually, I saw a hand."

"A hand?"

"Yeah, an arm to be exact. It was as thick as a normal person's thigh, and covered in grayish-green scales. Those scales were crammed together like little bugs, and they could crawl and roll around-gross as hell, anyway..."

"Oh, god..."

"I don't know what that was, but it definitely couldn't be a human hand." Gaoyang furrowed his brow.

"Gaoyang." Li Weiwei raised her head to look at him. "The hand you talked about-is it like this?"

Gaoyang suffered a violent shock!

A sharp pain came from his wrist!

He looked down and saw the skin on Li Weiwei's delicate, fair arm suddenly split open, grayish-green flesh scales drilling outward from inside one by one.

Under the moonlight, the edges of those scales shimmered with a pale, eerie gloss. They grew longer and longer, snaking along Gaoyang's arm and digging into his skin bit by bit, greedily sucking his blood like leeches.

"Li Weiwei... you..."

Li Weiwei quickly reached out her other hand, clamped onto Gaoyang's neck, and easily lifted him up. The grayish-green scales writhing on the girl's arm transformed into soft, viscous tentacles that burrowed into Gaoyang's mouth, nostrils, ear canals, and even the corners of his eyes.

Gaoyang's skull endured unimaginable pressure. He felt that in just a few seconds, his head would burst open like a watermelon in a microwave.

"Gaoyang, thank you." Li Weiwei's voice hadn't changed; if anything, it was even gentler than before.

Smiling, she said, "You're the first Awakened I've met."

"..."

"I will never, ever forget you."