Bai Lili gazed through tear-filled eyes at Qiji as he flew over to save her, and she couldn't help thinking-
That's Qiji for you. He's so reliable...
Whenever she was in danger, he always came to her rescue.
But even with her half-baked Echo abilities, she could tell.
The terrifying power contained in the blood arrow was not something a freshman who had enrolled less than a month ago could possibly withstand.
Even if that person was the seemingly omnipotent Qiji, just as he had said earlier, no matter how capable someone was, there would always be times when they were powerless.
Perhaps her death now was one such case.
Bai Lili thought in despair as fragments of her life flashed uncontrollably through her mind.
-Her parents' adoring smiles, the warm, bright living room at home, Suyo's indifferent profile when they first met...
And the boy she had seen sleeping on the rooftop on the day she enrolled, wearing a mask just like that person...
Finally, she even thought with some amusement-
I never imagined that I, Suyo's fiancée, would spend the final moments of my life dying in another...
Masked boy's arms.
I wonder what Suyo would think of me if she knew?
Just as these jumbled, almost self-abandoning thoughts flashed through Bai Lili's mind, she suddenly saw Qiji, who was holding her tightly, make a move she had never expected-
Qiji actually took off his mask...
"?!"
Bai Lili's eyes widened abruptly, tears still clinging to her trembling lashes.
She didn't understand...
Why is Qiji taking off his mask now?
Is he trying to satisfy my curiosity before we die?
I really am curious about it, though...
In fact, every single girl in the class wants a glimpse of Qiji's real face beneath his mask.
I never thought I'd be the first...
Even if it came at the cost of my life.
Just as Bai Lili slipped into a "jumble of fantasies before death," thinking about this and that, she realized in the next moment that she seemed to have misunderstood something.
Qiji had not taken off his mask.
No, more precisely, Qiji had taken off half his mask-
There was a crisp click.
The pure white mask on Qiji's face, seamless and seemingly indivisible, split in two at the bridge of his nose!
An extremely fine crack appeared between the upper and lower halves!
With him so close, Bai Lili could see it all the more clearly.
Qiji removed the lower half of his mask, the piece covering his nose, mouth, and jaw.
And so, the moment the mask came apart-
A fleeting glimpse!
She saw it clearly.
She saw Qiji's face.
Though it was only half of it.
Freed from the mask, his jaw was exposed to the cool moonlight, its lines clean and sharp, its curve graceful.
There were his pale, thin lips, their shape clearly defined.
Notably, the corners of Qiji's mouth seemed to turn up slightly by nature.
Even in this moment of peril, they seemed to carry a faint, almost imperceptible trace of playful nonchalance.
Without the mask concealing it, the lower half of his face was almost so handsome that it set her imagination racing!
A single glance was enough to make her heart skip half a beat!
In her mind, Bai Lili had already begun imagining it without even realizing-
Imagining the rest of his face, hidden beneath the half-mask.
How ethereally beautiful and incomparably handsome it must be.
Chapter 41: Half My Mask for You
Qiji had previously taken off his heavy black trench coat. Now, he wore only a rather thin white academy uniform shirt on his upper body.
A white shirt, a white mask, and a white moon.
In Bai Lili's eyes, the scene was just like something out of the dreamiest fairy tale: the one who descended in a moment of peril to save everything-
[Prince Charming].
In truth, Bai Lili had rarely read stories about "Prince Charming" and the like growing up.
Because for as long as she could remember, her family had made it clear to her-
When she grew up, she was to marry into the Thousand Faces Family.
So she couldn't have someone she "liked" for herself.
Bai Lili's marriage was part of her family's interests, a "predetermined script" that had long since been written.
So, at an age when other girls were first discovering love and dreaming of romance, Bai Lili had already given up such thoughts. She had someone she had to like, someone she had to please.
Bai Lili had no complaints about this and even thought it only natural.
Because in the Bai Family, she had been cherished by everyone since childhood.
She had grown up surrounded by everyone's love.
Compared to her peers who either struggled to put food on the table or had lost their parents to war, she already had far, far too much.
She lived beneath a glass dome woven from honey and flowers.
Whatever she wanted, her parents would do everything they could to give it to her.
Bai Lili often even felt a little uneasy because she was so happy.
She would often wonder-
Do I really deserve this happiness I did nothing to earn?
Compared to her peers who were unfortunate yet hardworking, or exceptionally talented, she was too ordinary.
Her aptitude for Echo was only average, she wasn't particularly smart, and her soft personality left her lacking both conviction and resolve.
Ordinary as she was, she had been given all the privileges that ninety-nine percent of the world's children had never had.
It was amid these faint doubts and anxieties about her own worth that she learned of the marriage her parents had arranged for her.
At that moment, not only did she not resist, she felt as though she had finally found an answer: the value of her existence and a way to repay her family-
For my family, and so I don't let down all the love and happiness I've been given since I was little...
I have to work hard to become a worthy "wife of the Thousand Faces Family," one who can bring benefits to my family!
So let it all begin with falling in love with Suyo!
Bai Lili told herself this, and she earnestly set about doing just that.
She took the initiative to approach Suyo.
She cared for her, got to know her, and tried to build "feelings" from nothing, little by little.
But.
She thought that, sure enough...
She couldn't do anything right.
Because Suyo didn't seem to like her at all.
Suyo was always cold, rarely responding to her enthusiasm, and there was always resistance in her eyes when she looked at her...
She had already tried her very best, carefully trying to accommodate and please her.
She didn't even know what else she could do, or how she could do it, to make Suyo feel even the slightest bit of affection for her.
So she asked her mother.
Her mother gently stroked her head and told her:
"Lili, one day, when you're with Suyo and you feel your heart pounding like a little deer bounding about, you'll know what to do."
"Love isn't something anyone else needs to teach you. It's an instinct everyone is born with."
But...
What exactly did it feel like to have "a little deer bounding about" in her heart?
She had never felt it when she was with Suyo.
To be honest, what she felt more often around Suyo was caution, even...
Fear, perhaps.
She was afraid of doing something wrong, afraid of accidentally making Suyo unhappy again, afraid that Suyo would dislike her even more than before.
She was like a puppet pulled along by the strings of "marriage between families," performing fearfully on a stage called "fiancée," yet never managing to win the approval of the person watching below.
And yet...
Just now.
When Qiji descended from the sky and pulled her tightly into his arms...
When Qiji removed his mask for her, revealing part of his real face...
When, from so close, she saw that half of his face hidden beneath the mask, so handsome it took her breath away...
Her heart suddenly began to race, faster and faster!
"Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump-!!!"
It was so loud it seemed as though it would burst through her chest.
Blood rushed to her cheeks as though boiling.
Her breathing quickened, and her fingertips tingled, as if she had been shocked!
That was...
That was a feeling she had never experienced when facing Suyo.
Could it be...
Is this what Mom meant by my heart bounding like a little deer?
But...
But this isn't Suyo.
It's Qiji.
Qiji, who was powerful and mysterious, who seemed unapproachable yet always showed his gentleness without realizing it, and whom she could never quite figure out.
Qiji, who was incredibly reliable, whom she couldn't help wanting to lean on, and who always saved everyone from danger.
It's not Suyo!!!
So-