Irreversible - Chapter 2

Gu Xizhou did not sleep well for the entire night.

Around 6:30 AM, she got out of bed and made breakfast in the kitchen. Amidst the fragrant aroma, her mother, Gu Jing, pushed open the bedroom door, smelling of alcohol, and walked out while rubbing her messy hair.

Gu Xizhou brought out the fried eggs and bread slices. Seeing her mother stumble toward the bathroom, she said in a muffled voice, “Breakfast is ready.”

Gu Jing responded incoherently, pushed open the bathroom door, staggered to the sink, and vomited with a loud “Wah.”

Gu Xizhou glanced at the bathroom. Amidst the nauseating sound of retching, she pulled out a chair with practiced habit, picked up a slice of bread, and ate it with total composure.

She finished breakfast in a few quick bites, tidied up the dishes, placed them in the kitchen sink, and walked over to the medicine cabinet on the living room coffee table. She skillfully popped out some stomach medicine, poured a glass of warm water, and placed it on the table at Gu Jing’s seat.

After finishing these tasks, Gu Xizhou returned to her room to pack her school bag.

Gu Jing rubbed her temples as she emerged from the bathroom, lifting her eyes to see Gu Xizhou changing her shoes. The young girl was wearing a grey-green Western-style school uniform, her hair in a ponytail, appearing extremely slender and frail.

Gu Jing rubbed her aching head, feeling a severe headache coming on: “School starts today?”

Gu Xizhou was pulling the heel of her leather shoe up and responded faintly with one word: “Yes.”

Gu Jing said “Oh” and seemed to want to say something else, but due to the hangover headache, she held her tongue.

After putting on her shoes, Gu Xizhou turned and glanced at Gu Jing, saying coolly: “After you finish breakfast, just put the dishes in the sink. I’ll wash them when I get back tonight.”

Gu Jing opened her mouth to say “Ah,” nodded awkwardly, and then watched Gu Xizhou shoulder her bag, pull the door open, and walk out without looking back.

The front door slammed shut with a “bang,” sealing the girl’s silhouette outside.

Gu Jing sat upright by the table, thinking of her daughter’s expressionless face before leaving. She reached out, picked up a slice of bread, and muttered indignantly: “Couldn’t even say goodbye…”

“That stubborn temper is just like her mother’s!”

Cold to the point of being detestable.

The First High School was neither near nor far from Gu Xizhou’s home; taking the subway after leaving the house took about half an hour.

Having been tormented by the “0820” system for a week, and having woken up so early, Gu Xizhou couldn’t help but feel drowsy.

At 7:20 AM, during the peak hours of the early subway commute, she stood with her bag on her back, clutching the handrail and nodding off. Various scents, perfume and sweat, mixed together, stimulating the small Alpha’s keen olfactory system. Gu Xizhou simply slowed her breathing rate to reduce the intake of these odors.

The subway shook as it rolled forward amidst clanging sounds, and the conversations of the diverse crowd along with the whistling wind in the tunnels rushed into her ears. Scents and sounds intertwined, constructing a strange yet unnaturally stable world.

Suddenly, Gu Xizhou caught a whiff of an exceptionally familiar cherry scent in the crowd.

As if seeing a bright flash of lightning in the dark of night, she snapped her eyes open and jerked her head toward the source of the fragrance. Her gaze cut through the layers of people, accurately landing on the back of a young girl.

The girl was wearing the same grey-green Western-style uniform as Gu Xizhou, carrying the same style of backpack, with straight black hair draped down, standing in the crowd with her back to her.

Behind the girl, an adult in a business suit held a bag against their chest, insulating themselves from contact with her. However, the adult’s other hand was holding a phone, furtively reaching downward amidst the friction of the crowd.

Gu Xizhou’s heart leaped into her throat instantly.

—It was secret filming!

As this thought arose, Gu Xizhou’s entire body began to tremble. She gripped the straps of her bag tightly, in less than a second, countless thoughts flashed through her mind. Encountering a situation like this, she should reprimand the filmer, but the sound was stuck in her throat, and she couldn’t say a thing.

The person was taller than her and older, although she was an Alpha, she couldn’t be sure she would win against the other party.

Furthermore, they were on the same subway train, which meant they would inevitably run into each other again. She was a student in a uniform; it was inevitable that the person would remember her and seek revenge…

But…but…

In this very instant, the filmer’s hand had already reached under the girl’s skirt, about to snap a photo with a “click.”

System 0820’s voice suddenly rang in Gu Xizhou’s mind: “Smash her with your umbrella!”

As if controlled by another, without any room for thought, Gu Xizhou decisively pulled the folding umbrella from the side pocket of her bag and flung it violently at the “filmer.”

“Ouch!”

A gasp erupted from the crowd, and everyone in the car turned to look at Gu Xizhou. In front of everyone’s eyes, Gu Xizhou lifted her gaze, looking at the girl standing behind the filmer, her blood feeling as if it had frozen solid.

She stared blankly at the girl’s turned face, at those clear eyes like a mountain stream in spring, and her lips couldn’t stop trembling: “Su…Su…”

Su Nanfeng!

The girl held onto the subway handrail with one hand, looking up at the pale-faced Gu Xizhou with calm eyes. Eye to eye, they stood in silence.

Just then, the “filmer,” hit by the umbrella, clutched their forehead and glared coldly at Gu Xizhou, looking ferocious: “You brat, what do you mean by that!”

“Are you looking for a beating!”

The “filmer” said this, grabbing their bag and phone, walking aggressively toward Gu Xizhou, making a motion to hit her. Seeing the person was looking for trouble, the others turned their heads away to look elsewhere.

Gu Xizhou gripped the handrail tight. In a state of extreme shock, with a pale face and trembling voice, she barely managed to say: “You…your phone…”

“It’s you who are in the wrong first!”

Even though she was terrified, Gu Xizhou shakily took out her own phone with trembling hands, trying to be as calm as possible: “I’m calling the police!”

The filmer paused, clenching their fist: “You!”

Everyone in the car, in the moment of the filmer’s hesitation, subtly understood the whole event, and the girl who looked exactly like Su Nanfeng was no exception.

The girl immediately took out her phone, dialed 110, and spoke in a steady voice amidst the uproar: “Hello, is this 110? I want to report a crime.”

“On line 3, someone has been filming me secretly.”

As the girl spoke, she reached out, grabbed the “filmer’s” hem in front of everyone’s astonished gazes, met the filmer’s panicked eyes, and said with extreme composure: “Yes, I have caught her.”

“At the Cultural Center station, please be prepared to take her to the police station!”

Even with all the filmer’s quibbling, blocked in by the onlookers and faced with the girl’s sternness, the person was still brought to the police station. Gu Xizhou went along as well.

At the station, the filmer was still shouting that they hadn’t filmed anything, and that these two high school students were slandering them.

A female Beta police officer ignored this entirely, firmly taking out the phone and ordering the person: “Face ID and unlock it!”

Even if the filmer was unwilling, they were forced to open the photo album. When the officer opened it, a barrage of colorful, suggestive photos flooded everyone’s field of vision. The officers only glanced at them once before frowning in disgust: “Tsk, shameless!”

With evidence secured, the officer said blankly to the filmer: “Secretly filming and peeping into others’ privacy, you’re being detained for five days for administrative detention!”

The officer slapped the filmer’s back, pushing them toward the interrogation room with great disgust: “I see you’re a repeat offender. You’d better come clean and confess whether you’ve uploaded these images to the internet!”

After the officer pushed the filmer away, the remaining auxiliary officer smiled at Gu Xizhou and Su Zhiyi, who were sitting on the sofa: “Little ones, you did very well.”

“Since you called the police, we still need to take your statements.”

Gu Xizhou nodded, glancing at “Su Nanfeng”—who was sitting beside her with a very dignified posture, and felt her heart drumming: “Okay.”

The officer, seeing them cooperate, relaxed: “Looking at your uniforms, you’re students from City No. 1 High School, right? What are your names?”

Gu Xizhou clenched her fist, trying to stay calm: “My name is Gu Xizhou.”

“Gu Xizhou…” The officer scribbled the name in their notebook, then turned to the girl beside Gu Xizhou: “And what is your name?”

Gu Xizhou turned her head to look at the girl along with the officer.

Under their gaze, the girl reached out, tucking the soft hair falling over her temple behind her ear with her pinky finger, and said with extreme detachment: “My surname is Su, and my name is Su Zhiyi.”

“The ‘Zhiyi’ from ‘The South Wind knows my intention, blowing dreams to Xizhou’.”

Gu Xizhou looked at the girl’s fair, soft profile; her heart felt as if it had been blown open by a fierce wind.

Ah…it really was like this.

This was Su Zhiyi, not Su Nanfeng.

Gu Xizhou looked blankly at the other person’s vibrant face, her mind constantly replaying those cold, indifferent eyes that stared blankly at the sky in her dream last night, her chest aching and swelling.

Her mind was a mess, and fragments of dream memories flooded her brain crazily.

On the busy subway platform, the train roared past.

The eighteen-year-old girl stood before her, tucking her hair behind her ear, looking up at her with flushed cheeks: “Thank you for what happened earlier.”

The girl paused and introduced herself: “My name is Su Zhiyi. May I ask, what is your name?”

Gu Xizhou, having long since shed the introversion and timidity of her youth, curved her eyes and smiled faintly: “I know who you are. You are Su Nanfeng’s sister.”

Gu Xizhou extended her hand to the girl, Su Zhiyi, putting on a poised and generous facade: “My surname is Gu, and my name is Gu Xizhou.”

“The ‘Xizhou’ from ‘The South Wind knows my intention, blowing dreams to Xizhou’.”

Under the girl’s astonished gaze, Gu Xizhou put on a friendly expression and laughed softly: “I was high school classmates with Su Nanfeng. You really do look exactly like her.”

Yes, exactly the same.

It made her both disgusted by this appearance and unable to stop herself from loving this girl’s clean and pure soul.

This was how they first met, at a subway station, after she had followed the other party for a month to orchestrate a “hero saving the damsel.”

It was the beginning of everything Gu Xizhou would do in her revenge.