Chapter 3: Fateful Kiss

On the first day of the Golden Week holiday, our class president hosted a birthday party at a lavish venue. Inviting Song Yubai was usually just a polite formality, but I knew he’d actually show up this time because Chu Nuannuan was going to be there. Sure enough, the moment he walked in, low murmurs of “He definitely came for Chu Nuannuan” rippled through the room.

He merely curled his lips into a diplomatic smile, offering a smooth response: “I couldn’t refuse our class president’s invitation.”

As the party reached its peak, someone suggested playing King’s Game. The rules were simple: whoever drew the King card got to command two chosen numbers to do whatever they wanted. After a few tame warmup rounds, the class president drew the King card. Surrounded by wild cheers, he announced:

“Alright then… give each other a kiss!”

I glanced at the card in my hand: Ace of Spades. And the person holding the Three of Diamonds was Song Yubai.

This was a pivotal scene in the original plot. In the book, he was supposed to brutally reject me right here, only for him to passionately kiss Chu Nuannuan just a few rounds later when the numbers aligned. One girl publicly rejected, the other given exclusive intimacy—it was the very stepping stone that launched their sultry, ambiguous phase.

Every pair of eyes in the room instantly locked onto the two of us. Yubai held his card between two long, elegant fingers, lightly tapping it against the tabletop as he looked at me with a gaze that was cool, calm, and utterly detached. I didn’t even need to use my brain to figure out how much disgust and resistance was churning inside him. So, before he could open his mouth to turn me down, I beat him to the punch:

“Sorry, I’m not comfortable getting intimate with the opposite sex like that.”

The entire room fell dead silent. Ji Qingran, the girl who had relentlessly chased Song Yubai for over two years—had just voluntarily passed up a chance to kiss him? It sounded completely insane.

“Wait, you’re actually opting out? Turning down a command means slamming ten shots of liquor!” someone gasped in disbelief.

I hesitated for a fraction of a second. The truth was, even if I agreed, he would’ve shut it down anyway. Those shots were never meant to be mine to drink. But I refused to let myself be turned into a laughingstock ever again. Making a fool of myself in front of Chu Nuannuan once was more than enough.

Without another word, I knocked back all ten shots of alcohol, one after the other.

Seated right next to me, Yubai silently watched me drain every single glass. His sculpted, breathtaking face didn’t register a flicker of emotion. Except, hidden beneath the edge of the table where no one could see, his knuckles were clenched so tightly they turned stark white.

By the time I finished, my head was spinning like a top. I stumbled into the restroom and splashed cold water on my face for a long time before my head cleared up even a little. On my way back out, I bumped straight into a guy from our grade. He blocked my path, asking in a hushed, curious voice, “Why’d you turn him down back there?”

I paused for a second before pulling a lie straight out of thin air: “Had a change of heart. I don’t like Song Yubai anymore.”

Seeing his stunned expression, I shrugged with dramatic philosophy. “Love comes and goes unexpectedly, you know? It’s not like I gave a heads-up when I fell for him, either.”

With that, I turned around and walked straight away, completely oblivious to the fact that the second I disappeared around the bend, a figure in a crisp white shirt stepped out from the shadowy corner of the hallway.

The young man let out a faint, nonchalant hum after hearing the guy relay my exact words. After casually granting the boy a small favor in return, Yubai didn’t bother returning to the party. He walked straight out toward the black Maybach waiting for him outside.

Leaning back in the leather seat, he rested his head against his hand, watching the city nightscape glide past the window. A moment later, a very quiet, dark chuckle escaped his throat—one that carried a chilling, spine-tingling edge:

“A change of heart? … In your dreams.”

—

On the second day of the holiday, I slept straight through until noon. Waking up, a terrifying realization suddenly hit me: because I had refused that kiss, Yubai had walked out early, meaning that steamy French kiss with Chu Nuannuan never actually happened. This was the first time the plot had veered off course. Was the butterfly effect starting already?

While I was spiraling in my own thoughts, my best friend, Xu Jiaojiao, called to drag me out for an escape room. Thinking that exercising my brain outdoors would be far better than staying home and wallowing in fear, I agreed.

Yet the moment I arrived, alongside Jiaojiao and her boyfriend, I spotted the one person I wanted to avoid most in this world: Song Yubai.

“Don’t say I never look out for you. I practically delivered Song Yubai to you on a silver platter!” Jiaojiao whispered into my ear, looking immensely proud of herself.

Turns out her boyfriend was a distant relative of his, and this whole surprise meetup was entirely engineered by her.

I clutched my head in sheer agony. “I seriously don’t like him anymore.”

Xu Jiaojiao looked at me like I was telling a bedtime fairy tale. “Lying to others is fine, but don’t go deluding yourself. If you actually believe your own nonsense, I’m legitimately worried about you.”

Under my best friend’s unyielding pressure, I reluctantly dragged my feet into the escape room. The second we crossed the threshold, instant regret set in. The dim, flickering lights, eerie sound effects, and gruesome blood splatters smeared across the walls caused my brain to completely shut down. I latched onto Jiaojiao’s arm for dear life, practically trying to sling my entire body onto hers.

“Ji Qingran! You’re choking me to death!” Jiaojiao shrieked.

Embarrassed, I loosened my grip slightly, but I still refused to stray more than an inch away from her.

Throughout the entire game, I contributed absolutely nothing except being total dead weight. That was until we hit a puzzle that required splitting up the team. Quick as lightning, Jiaojiao grabbed her boyfriend and sprinted off. “Qingran, wait here for a sec!”

Before I could even react, I was left standing in the pitch-black, terrifying hallway with only two people by my side: a random guy I didn’t know, and… Song Yubai.

Suddenly, I had a sneaking suspicion that the aura in this room was infinitely scarier than any of the ghosts lurking inside.