Do you want me to beat him up?

Zhou Lan quickly covered her scream. Lei Nuwa, after adjusting to her surroundings, began profusely apologizing.

"Ah, Zhou Lan, forgive me! It was instinct, did I hurt you? Are you okay? I'm so sorry, I must have been surprised. I don't want to offend you– I am so sorry. I understand if you leave." Lei Nuwa felt regret and remorse deep in her heart. Her past lives had taught her that mistakes, no matter how small, were unforgivable. She was ready for Zhou Lan to reject her apologies and begin hating her.

Zhou Lan embraced Lei Nuwa. Nuwa was too shocked to return the gesture.

"Lei Nuwa, even if you are a gang member, you are my friend. Even if you had hit me, I would have forgiven you. But I dodged you! Maybe I should join your gang." Zhou Lan said with warmth in her voice.

Lei Nuwa was very confused. She was unsure why Zhou Lan thought she was in a gang, but she was too tired to begin a conversation like that. She instead patted Zhou Lan's hair.

"I'm going to let you get away with that because you are injured. Tomorrow morning, we are going to the infirmary." Lei Nuwa shook her head.

"I will be better by morning. This is nothing. Thank you, Zhou Lan." Zhou Lan was ready to argue before she saw how tired Lei Nuwa was. Putting her comeback to the side, she instead had Lei Nuwa lay down again.

"Goodnight, you better be alive in the morning." As Zhou Lan ran out of Lei Nuwa's room, Nuwa felt amused at her dramatics. While her head hurt, she had long since come to her senses and knew it would only leave a bruise.

She took one more look at her bracelet before tapping the light. Eventually, she fell into a deep sleep.

***

In the morning, she woke up to a cold rag on her head. She greatly appreciated Zhou lan's efforts, but when she saw on the clock it was five in the morning, she was ready to kick her out of the window.

"Zhou Lan, if it is not past seven in the morning, consider me dead. Undisturbable. Look but do not touch." her words came muffled from behind the towel. Zhou Lan laughed nervously.

"I was worried that you would wake up with a fever, or a concussion, or brain damage, or memory loss…" She continued to list ailments until Lei Nuwa sat up and groaned.

"It is a bruise, I'm fine. I would be even more fine if I had more sleep." She grumbled the last part, trying hard to conceal her petty anger.

Zhou Lan ignored the last part and instead folded the rag in order to look Lei Nuwa in the eyes. She thought to herself that she would never stop being surprised or entranced when seeing the strange purple hue. It felt as if she were on a fast roller coaster; a speeding car or long dive that contains the purest form of excitement and adrenaline.

"You would have had to get up anyway, mother." Her nickname for Lei Nuwa made Nuwa glare at her, but Zhou Lan paid no mind. "We have orientation today, remember?"

Lei Nuwa threw a pillow on her face, trying not to scream.

'Why do I even need to go? I've been to it so many times already.' She thought, but she obviously couldn't say that to Zhou Lan.

"I'm not going. I look horrible, people will ask questions. Leave me here to suffer." She turned over, throwing the covers over her face.

"Fine, then I won't go either. I will be too worried about you to be able to pay attention." Zhou Lan paused, and then sighed. "I am disappointed that I won't be able to see everything this school has to offer, though." She sighed again. "I hope I can still make friends…" She sighed once more, but Lei Nuwa finally got up and threw the towel at her.

"Fine, I'll get ready!" She threw her hands up and snatched her uniform off of the rack. She stomped into the bathroom and slammed the door.

Zhou Lan rolled her eyes at Lei Nuwa's tantrum, but smiled nonetheless. She knew that Lei Nuwa would go for her, even if she didn't want to.

After both girls were done getting ready, Zhou Lan held a compact in her hands.

"Let me touch it up– I can cover the discoloration, but it would still look swollen." Lei Nuwa shook her head.

She wanted to scare Liu Yichen if he dared approach her again– bearing her injury in retaliation to his violence.

"Okay…well, at least the bruise matches your eyes!" Zhou Lan tried to be cheerful, but abruptly covered her mouth after finishing her sentence. She had not meant to speak that part out loud.

Lei Nuwa laughed as Zhou Lan grew red.

***

Orientation was held in the main quad of the school– it displayed the clubs available at Lu Biu, the top students, schedules for classes, and information about the school itself. It was packed to the brim with people– Nuwa felt suffocated in the crowd.

She broke away, walking towards an empty aisle of the club fair. Nobody had set up a stand in this row, so Nuwa was alone. Or at least she thought she was.

"Yo Violet!" Lei Nuwa vaguely heard a voice behind her, but paid no attention. "Violet! Yes, I'm talking about you, rude girl." As she started to recognize the voice, the man had already caught up to her.

"Do you want me to scream again?" She turned to Lin Cheng.

"Well, you can try. It's loud– woah, did you get in a fight?" He reached up to touch the swollen bruise, but Nuwa suddenly shrunk back– as she flinched, she tripped. Before she could fall, Lin Cheng had grabbed her arm and hoisted her upright again. Nuwa was embarrassed.

'I need to stop reacting so much.' She thought, as she began to think of ways she could explain to the annoying boy in front of her what happened.

"I'm fine. I fell." Inside of Nuwa's head, a small version of her was beating up another mini Nuwa for the lame excuse.

Lin Cheng snorted. "Sure."

An awkward silence came over them, and Lei Nuwa had finally decided to walk away when he stopped her.

"Whoever did it, I can beat them up. Do you want me to? Just give me the name." He cleared his throat.

Nuwa gaped at him, her jaw dropped. She wracked her brain, trying to figure out if she had interacted with him in this life before the first time she remembered. She didn't find anything, so why was he acting like this?