Chapter Text
The words on the textbook melted into one quasi-gargantuan bubble of calibri and despair. Beidou blinked twice to unblur her vision, then once again as she attempted to process what she was reading.
“Non judicial grievance methods provide an alternative to formal court proceedings for organisations impacted by business activities… they take various forms such as operation-level mechanisms and international organisations… faster and more efficient…”
She murmured the paragraph under her breath, attempting to cram it into her head already rife with knowledge about business and human rights, and then closed her eyes and tried to recall as much as she could from memory, drawing up utterly blank. She opened her eyes and recited the paragraph again. These words would find a way into her long term memory regardless of whether they wanted it or not.
“You look fucking insane,” her treasured friend, a purple-haired Keqing, slid into the chair opposite Beidou from where she was slouched over in the depths of the Qixing campus library, looking entirely too preppy for the time of night and examinations looming over them.
“What do you want,” Beidou asked dully.
“No, but seriously, your eyebags look like they could carry Mary Poppins’ umbrellas and I am genuinely concerned as to when you last washed your hair…” she trailed off with an alarmed look on her face. Beidou tugged her hoodie up self-consciously and started seriously reconsidering the ‘treasured friend’ title she had once bestowed upon the girl. Alas, she could not summon the energy to respond.
“I’m just gonna…” A pedicured hand crept into her vision and closed the textbook on the law of human rights, as well as the notebook she was scrawling into. Beidou made a weak noise of protest. She muttered something about how demeaning this was and how she was a fully functioning third-year who could take full care of herself.
“The good news is your handwriting has not gotten any better since the last time I checked,” Keqing said brightly, “the last time I checked being literally yesterday.”
Immediately, Beidou demoted Keqing from ‘friend’ to ‘acquaintance’ with serious potential to drop all the way to ‘worst enemy’.
“You are praying for my downfall,” she groaned.
Keqing agreed: “So true babe,” before bringing out a paper bag and pulling out two strawberry turnovers; Beidou’s eyes lit up. “That’s why I got your favourite food before coming to save you from this haunted place.”
Beidou immediately promoted Keqing all the way back up to ‘treasured friend’ as she took a huge bite into the pastry, the rich strawberry filling spilling over her lips and down her chin.
“I’m in love with you,” she declared, using her thumb to scoop up the filling and push it back into her mouth. Her eyes rolled satirically into the back of her skull and she lightly groaned.
“Okay, what is it you wanted from me?” Beidou asked, suddenly feeling substantially more well equipped for conversation.
“Come home and sleep.”
“No.”
“I’ve literally already packed your bags.”
Beidou raised her eyebrows in alarm, because it was true – the table was desolate of her extensive notes that were once sprawled across it like an atomic bomb had exploded in her bag.
“Huh,” she remarked, having been so caught up in the glory of the strawberry turnover she utterly missed Keqing’s efficiency in tidying away all of her shit.
“Let’s go,” the girl demanded, grabbing her arm and attempting to pull her upwards
“Five more minutes,” Beidou pleaded. If she didn’t finish this chapter today she’d be behind on the next seminar and her entire university degree was at stake – she communicated as much to Keqing.
“Be serious,” Keqing glared at her. “We are doing the same course and I haven’t even started Chapter 12 yet. You’re ahead of the entire class. You are going to graduate with a First with a Law degree from fucking Tianheng University and you’re out here complaining ?” She snapped her fingers in between Beidou’s eyes. “Come home and take a nap!”
Beidou slowly stretched, leaning her back over her chair and pushing her arms above her head. “I’m not ahead of the entire class.”
Keqing sighed. “Of course that’s what you choose to focus on.”
Beidou’s eyes drifted over to the other end of the library. It wasn’t like she chose to be aware of the other girl’s presence – more likely, it was forced upon her, like an annoying itch she could never fully scratch. In every seminar, every late night library session, every hangout with their communal friends, Beidou was unwillingly and acutely conscious of everything Ningguang did.
“Focus on me,” Keqing demanded. “I’m going to restate that you are ahead of the entire class, granted you achieved higher than her in the paper on Citizenship and Migration Law yesterday.”
“Not by enough,” Beidou said under her breath, still eying up Ningguang’s form. From the very start of their first year, they had been neck and neck fighting for the highest grades of their cohort. It wasn’t like they hated each other, as their friend groups largely overlapped, meaning they had no choice but to be civil, despite how little they interacted outside of comparing grades. It did not help that Ningguang fit Beidou’s type to a T – confident, effortlessly intelligent, endlessly witty, blonde .
Alas, Ningguang was the only person that could make a 69/70 feel like failure – either she got full marks, or Beidou did not win by enough, and had to work double as hard to improve for next time. They say academic competition is healthy, but Beidou was of the personal opinion that this obsessive, soul destroying, utterly consuming rivalry was the last thing good for her.
Keqing pinched the bridge of her nose and sucked in a sharp breath.
“Stop staring at her or she’s going to notice.”
Beidou’s eyes ripped away. She hadn’t realised she was staring.
“Come home with me, Ganyu is sad and nobody wants to make Ganyu sad.”
“I think one person in particular does not want to make Ganyu sad,” Beidou teased, relishing in the blush that spread across Keqing’s cheeks, even as she moved to get up. It was rapidly approaching two in the morning anyway, and she had an early start if she wanted to exercise before the workout bros took over the gym.
Together they meandered towards the staircase that would take them down two floors and eventually to the exit. Beidou spared one final glance at Ningguang, who was still typing into a laptop, textbook open beside her. She squinted, trying to get a look at what Ningguang was working on – the left side of the page displayed an image Beidou was unfamiliar with. Fuck, she’s on Chapter 13. Then her eyes wandered upwards, to Ningguang’s face, who was already looking at her with sharp eyes.
One thin eyebrow arched upwards delicately, as if to inquire about what she was looking at. Then she glanced towards her open textbook, and then back to Beidou, as if to say, yeah, I’m ahead of you, fuck you gonna do about it?
Beidou looked away quickly. Sun Tzu once said the expert in battle moves the enemy and is not moved by him. That probably applies here somehow.
“Well, if you’re done eye fucking…” Keqing prompted.
“That is just not what we were doing,” Beidou defended, even as her ears burned red.
“Whatever you say!”
Beidou lightly punched the other girl’s shoulder as they stepped out into the brisk April night and started the brief walk to their shared accommodation alongside Ganyu, Shenhe, and two second years. No chance Ningguang would ever think about flirting with her. Ningguang probably didn’t even like girls; there was no evidence to suggest so, and Beidou spent a lot of time dissecting Ningguang’s movements. She would for sure notice something as potent as that – at least, that’s what she told herself as she toppled into her bed and fell into a dreamless, academia-induced sleep.
***
A week later, Beidou lightly pushed past the beaded curtain falling across the door into the living room of her friend’s house. The boys Childe, Kaeya, Diluc and Zhongli – or, as they called themselves, Big Dick Energy – lived a few blocks away, in the wealthiest accommodation, with double doors on their Samsung smart fridge that had ice and automatic cat food dispensers, mostly due the courtesy of Zhongli being a trust fund baby and set to inherit the largest string of banks in the entire country.
Ergo, it was the designated hangout spot of all their friends, a group that had slowly congregated over years of Tianheng unloading its ruthless punches upon them (as expected from the most prestigious university of the country).
Immediately she was greeted with a sight that warmed her to her toes; around the wooden coffee table, an intense game of poker was being played, and on the couch adjacent an equally intense conversation was occurring (probably about something stupid, like how many tictacs one would need to consume before overdosing on sugar). Light music floated in the background.
“Hey, man,” a hand clapped her roughly on the shoulder. “Haven’t seen you in a while!”
Beidou turned around and briefly squeezed Thoma in a tight hug. The second-year pulled back with a grin on his face and a can of beer in his hand from where he had been helping himself to BDE’s extensive liquor collection.
“I know,” she agreed wistfully. “I have five exams next week. I’m just here for a little while.”
Thoma sighed, but by now, all her friends were desensitized to the absurd revision schedules she set herself, and had learnt the hard way it was easier to let her leave the function early, if only to avoid having her stay up into the night to make up for the hours she lost.
“Sure, just play some games with us,” he demanded, tugging her hand towards the poker table.
She gestured behind her back to where the kitchen was. “In a minute, I’ll just get a drink real quick.” Thoma nodded his assent and wandered away.
The kitchen was as modern as the rest of the house. Sleek black countertops, that fucking fridge, a sink basin that had hand-painted koi fish swimming on the bottom. Beidou had to get quickly used to the unfair wealth some of her friends held, back in first year when she used to get irrationally jealous of their silver spoons upbringings. Sometimes, it still surprised her.
She paused at the sound of movement behind her.
“Evening,” a smooth voice remarked. Beidou stifled a laugh – she was so attune to Ningguang’s presence, of course she would notice her without the other woman saying a word.
“Good evening,” she politely responded, bending down to open a cupboard she knew held beer. Naively, she assumed that would be the limit of the conversation – whilst they shared friends in common, they never properly spoke together.
“How are you feeling for next week?” Ningguang asked. Beidou shot up in surprise and properly turned around. She felt her ears immediately burn red – the other girl was wearing a small tank top and denim shorts that hugged her figure, and her blonde hair was spread gracefully across her shoulders, as she leant casually on the countertop, an empty wine glass loosely hanging from her fingertips.
Self consciously, Beidou fiddled with her hair quickly to make sure it was not sticking up unforgivably.
“Not bad, not good,” she replied. This was the kind of wishy-washy response she delivered to anybody in regards to examinations. That way, the question answer’s emotions were spared if Beidou was confident and they were not; it was also effective expectation management, so nobody could ever think too highly of her lest she disappoint them. Not like that worked anyway. “How about you?”
Ningguang shrugged. “Alright. Can’t really stay here for long though.”
Beidou nodded empathetically. “It’s so much work, honestly…”
“I’m not sure what you expected. You chose to come here,” Ningguang stated sharply, eyes narrowing judgmentally; Beidou suddenly felt ice cold and then irrationally angry at the insinuation.
“Is there a problem?” she asked, her face screwing up, utterly out of her control. “You were the one trying to talk to me.”
“Well, I was mostly trying to reach the wine,” Ningguang gestured to her empty glass.
“Then reach it?” Beidou furrowed her eyebrows.
“You’re in the way, Clever.”
Beidou reached down, grabbed a can of Budweiser, and moved out of the way, allowing Ningguang full access to the alcohol. She chose to ignore the petty nickname because she was the bigger person.
She lingered in the open doorway and pursed her lips thoughtfully. Ningguang glanced up from where she was in the middle of uncorking a bottle of white wine.
“What?” the blonde asked testily.
“You’re the only person here drinking wine, you know.”
Ningguang made a confused face, as if to ask ‘And’ ?
“Pretentious,” Beidou commented, and then made to leave.
“You’re out here in the son of a millionaire’s kitchen drinking his beer. You’re just as pretentious as the rest of us,” snided the other woman. Beidou fully turned her back so Ningguang would not see her aggressive eye roll.
“You don’t even know the half of it, woman,” she muttered under her breath. Didn’t matter whether Ningguang heard it – any words on that girl were wasted. Beidou was suddenly reminded of perhaps why she never bothered to speak to her: grades as high as the Empire State building but personality as dull as the concrete it was made of.
She left the kitchen and sulkily sat down on the floor next to the coffee table, watching the current hand of poker – Texas hold ‘em, in particular – being played between Childe, Thoma, Lisa, and another blonde girl she failed to recognise.
“Beidou!” Childe crowed, reaching out to ruffle her hair. She pushed his hand away.
“Fuck do you want,” she complained.
“Please fix my hand. It is deeply upsetting me,” she leant over his shoulder and he moved his cards so she could see them. Three of hearts and the eight of spades. She glanced at the cards on the table and then smothered her laugh with her hand. He had absolutely nothing.
“Okay, now I definitely know he’s bluffing,” Lisa smirked and pushed two chips forward.
All eyes fell to Thoma, skipping the blonde girl – clearly she had folded a while ago – who rolled his eyes and matched her raise. Childe dramatically threw his cards on the table.
“I fold,” he announced.
“Why did you even go so far with that hand? That’s one of the worst ones you can statistically be dealt,” Beidou snickered.
He shrugged. “I thought I could bluff but everybody here reads me like a book.”
“Statistically, he has the worst poker face here,” the blondie said. Lisa giggled into her hand.
As the hands got revealed and Thoma gathered the money he had won – with three Kings against Lisa’s two pair – Beidou introduced herself to the blonde girl, whose name was Jean, 22, in the middle of a business degree, and unfathomably cute (although not quite Beidou’s type).
Beidou collected some chips and someone pushed the deck to her to shuffle and to deal.
“Ay, Ningguang! Get over here already,” Childe leaned backwards on his hands and yelled towards the woman who had just wandered back into the living room.
“Ah, really?” she asked bemusedly even as she made her way over.
“Jean, this is our reigning poker champion,” he bragged. “I don’t even know how she does it.”
Jean hummed thoughtfully, eyes wide. “Ningguang…” she murmured.
Beidou scoffed. “Are you intimidated because you know who she is?”
The other girl nodded rapidly.
“Don’t be. When you get to know her you’d find out she’s just as boring as the rest of us – maybe even more so. Whatever rumours you heard probably aren’t true.”
“Even the one about Professor Zhao giving her the first 100% he’s ever given out, in eighteen years of teaching?” she asked.
Beidou’s eyes narrowed. “No,” she stated. “That was me.”
Jean blushed bright red as Ningguang placed a pillow on the floor opposite Beidou and sat down on it. Someone had already given her the necessary chips.
“Still talking about me?” she asked Beidou, pulling her long hair over one shoulder.
“Why would I do that,” Beidou said noncommittally as she dealt every player two cards.
“I don’t know,” she replied lightly. The conversation tapered off. Beidou turned over three cards in the middle of the table – King of Spades, Jack of Clubs, 3 of Clubs. Beidou checked her own cards: the Queen and 10 of Diamonds. If an Ace or a 9 got turned over, she would have a straight.
To her left, Childe raised the bet by two chips. Thoma matched him after a long pause (potentially his hand was weak?). Ningguang raised it by two further chips.
“Damn, woman,” Thoma cursed. “Fuck do you have?”
Ningguang only glanced at him, her face a porcelain mask. Lisa matched her raise and Jean folded.
Beidou sighed under her breath and matched the raise, as did Childe. She turned the next card over: King of Clubs.
“I fold, fuck you,” Thoma announced.
“Dumbass, it’s not even your turn yet,” Lisa snided.
“This just displays the passion in which I give up,” he responded and threw his cards on the table.
“I also fold,” Childe said. “I had –”
“ – shut up!” Beidou exclaimed. “What on Teyvat gave you the impression you’re allowed to reveal your hand after folding?”
Childe took a long swig of his beer which probably answered her question.
Meanwhile, Ningguang and Lisa had raised the bet by a further two chips. It was risky if one of them had two clubs and therefore a flush. Riskier if they had a King and a pair, making a full house.
“Scared?” Ningguang taunted, noticing her hesitation. Beidou looked up from her cards to meet her amber eyes that could potentially turn people into stone if she stared hard enough. She rolled her own and looked down – eye contact was mute on somebody like Beidou that just did not give a fuck about her.
Surely the universe was kind to her on this day: she matched the raise.
The final card to be turned over was the Ace of Diamonds, finalising Beidou’s straight, who made absolutely no reaction because she was not shit at poker.
Ningguang raised the bet by another two.
“Why do you always raise by twos?” Lisa complained, reluctantly matching her from a pile of chips that was running dry.
She got no response from either of the women who were currently staring at each other in intense distaste.
“Okay…” she muttered.
Did Ningguang have a full house? Did she have a flush? A full house with an Ace would blow her out the water. On the other hand, if she had three Kings and nothing else, Beidou’s straight would beat that, and that victory would almost be as satisfying as achieving a higher grade on a 10k word paper.
She raised the bet by one.
Ningguang glanced at her cards. This was the longest pause she had shown yet.
“Scared?” Beidou mocked her words from earlier.
“Of you?” Ningguang asked rhetorically. “Why?” She raised it by another three.
“You guys know this isn’t real money right…” Childe mumbled. He went ignored.
“For fuck’s sake, I’m folding,” Lisa dropped her cards on the table. Beidou had honestly forgotten she was still in the game.
Regardless of whether Ningguang had a better hand, Beidou was in too deep – she matched the bet.
Thoma groaned, “Oh my god hurry up.” He sounded oddly muffled; when Beidou looked over she saw he was currently lying face down on the carpet. To be fair, this round was taking a while.
“Should we just call it?” she asked.
Ningguang shrugged wordlessly and indicated for Beidou to reveal her hand. She did. Lisa said something about how she was glad she folded and Jean clapped her hands.
“Oh, well done Beidou!” she exclaimed. She abruptly stopped when Ningguang revealed her cards. King of Hearts, Ace of Hearts. Full house.
“Ah,” she started.
Ningguang gathered the chips from the center of the table. She looked up.
“I win,” the corners of her lips upturned slightly.
“Yeah, alright,” Beidou conceded. “I’m getting another drink. Don’t deal me in.” She clambered upwards, stretched, and headed for the kitchen.
“But you haven’t finished that one,” Childe said confusedly. Beidou breezed past him.
In the kitchen, next to the koi fish sink, she saw the bottle of expensive wine Ningguang was drinking, the cork lying next to it. Beidou absently wondered how easy it was for Ningguang to uncork it, whether she struggled, whether she had a taste for wine, or if she preferred red or white, and why she didn’t like beer.
Then she caught herself for thinking too much about the enemy. Forget the drink, she was clearly not in the right headspace to continue playing poker, or perhaps even conversating.
She tugged on her hoodie and closed the front door as quietly as she could behind her.
[Childe 21:08] did u go? where are uuuuuuu
[Beidou 21:10] Yeah. I have to study lol.
[Childe 21:11] LAME BRO
[Childe 21:11] i havent seen u in soooo long and u leave after one round >:(
[Beidou 21:13] Soz.
[Childe 21:14] ningguang is sad ur gone
[Beidou 21:14] What?
[Beidou 21:18] Childe?
[Childe 21:19] yeah haha sorry she said shes scared she came on too hard and she made a bad first impression
[Childe 21:20] but idek cause its not ur first impression is it lol so why would she say that
[Beidou 21:24] Idk lol
[Childe 21:26] do u think she'd let me hit
[Beidou 21:30] No lol why
[Childe 21:31] cus titties
[Beidou 21:31] Bye Childe
[Childe 21:32] NOOO dont leave me they kicked me out for trying to eat one of the cards
[Childe 21:33] thoma says i have the attention span of a meerkat
[Childe 21:33] like what does that even mean i swear meerkats are super focused
[Childe 21:34] ok kaeya just said hed give me a lap dance bye luv u miss u xxxxxxx
***
The next week saw them in Copyright and Trademark Litigation, one of Beidou’s easier classes that she chose with the intention of coasting through (clearly, Ningguang had the same idea). It was an afternoon lecture on a Monday that had already been delayed forty-five minutes due to Professor Baizhu being so late, meaning everybody in the packed lecture hall was bored, tired, and uncomfortable from sitting in stalls for so long. Beidou had passed the time by getting a head start on one of her essays due for administrative law (much to Ganyu’s chagrin, who side eyed her with a complaint about exam week having just ended and Beidou should be taking a break).
Ganyu took a sip of her drink. “You wanna try this? I think it has goat milk in it,” she offered. Beidou tried it, and made a face.
“Damn, it’s so…” she grasped for words.
“Milky?” Ganyu giggled. “I don’t know, Keqing got it for me.”
Beidou raised her eyebrows. “So, about Keqing…”
“What about her?” Ganyu asked quickly, turning pink from behind her blue hair.
“You guys seem close, that’s all,” Beidou brought her attention back to the essay she was working on. Clearly this was a lost cause right now.
Ganyu remained silent for a few moments, and then: “I don’t think she wants me for the right reasons.”
Beidou startled. The other girl was staring fixated at the wooden desk in front of them, tracing its pattern with her fingertips.
“Okay, that’s a lot to unpack right there –” she started.
“ – I know it’s bad, but I can’t stop comparing myself to Hu Tao –”
Beidou sighed.
“I know! But I am the dichotomy of her and it feels like she’s fixated with me as a rebound,” Ganyu pouted. Beidou chose her next words carefully, as it usually took two bottles of wine to get Ganyu to confess her worries and she didn’t want her to clam up again.
“Firstly, Hu Tao was like… 6 months ago,” Beidou lectured, referencing Keqing’s ex-girlfriend, who she dated on and off for a year and a half until finally calling it quits to the advice of literally everybody in their circle. “It is a little patronising to assume Keqing is still not over her and needs your opinion on the matter.”
Ganyu blushed, embarrassed.
“Secondly,” she continued, “surely this is a good thing, that you’re different to her? She was miserable in that relationship. Especially towards the end.”
“... I wasn’t really involved,” Ganyu confessed. “It hurt a lot to see her with somebody else.”
Beidou put her hands together in prayer and took a deep breath, reminding herself it went against societal norms to start hitting her friends. “Sometimes I want to punch you guys around the face. Think about my poor heart, Yuyu.”
Ganyu giggled at the stupid nickname. Hopefully she would ruminate on the advice provided. If not, Beidou would take matters into her own hands; watching them pine for each other from 3 feet apart was indescribably annoying.
Just then, Baizhu burst through the double doors loudly. Beidou quickly minimised the Google doc she was writing on and opened the class slides.
“Apologies, everybody,” he projected. “Level with me: how many people have left?”
“Like… 10 people,” some boy from the front row said.
“Okay, you know what, we can finish early. Sorry guys. So many roads were closed due to roadworks. I don’t know why they chose to do them all today, and right now.” he took off his glasses and wiped them on the corner of his shirt. “Where did we leave off last week?”
He gestured silently to somebody who raised their hand.
“Whether copyright and patents should be totally abolished,” she said.
“Yes, exactly. And what do you guys think?”
The class was silent.
Baizhu crossed his arms and stood in front of his lectern as his laptop booted up. “Come on, nobody has any thoughts? … Ningguang?” He resorted to his default answer when nobody else could comment. Beidou rolled her eyes inwardly, and glanced over at her, as they were sitting opposite each other in the curved lecture hall; she looked entirely too put together for someone who has just been through an exhausting week of examinations. Her hair was perfectly washed and straight, as always. Her posture was immaculate and her round glasses sat infallibly on the bridge of her nose, framing her already polished face.
She only tended to wear glasses when she was stressed, Beidou noted. She started to consider what could have happened, then remembered that ever since poker night, Ningguang was the enemy and Beidou was not supposed to care about her, and quickly stopped.
Ningguang cleared her throat politely. “Patent laws should be abolished. People are restricted in how they can use their own property which is a violation of natural property rights. It also prevents existing products from being improved upon, stagnating society – it’s clearly a negative servitude.”
Baizhu nodded thoughtfully and typed some things into his laptop.
“Insightful, as always, Ningguang. Any other perspectives?”
Once again the class remained quiet. Beidou realised it was up to her to combat the woman. She raised her hand.
“Yes?” Baizhu looked at her in surprise.
“I would argue in some circumstances private parent laws are actually necessary to facilitate the creation of certain things. With regards to intellectual property, for sure some parts should be held in common or the entire system will break down, but equally some parts need to be exclusive to protect innovation.”
“That is an incredibly thoughtful point, Beidou, thank you,” Baizhu said appreciatively, probably thankful that at least two people are listening in his classes. “Now, moving on –”
“On the other hand,” interrupted Ningguang. Baizhu looked up sharply. Ningguang was staring at her desk, her eyes focused from behind her glasses. “Is it not more persuasive that human life is literally at risk due to patent law? In 2010, people were dying due to Fabry’s disease and their access to the drug for this was inhibited due to the high price and the patent on it meaning nobody else could make it. This is just one of countless examples of this kind of thing where patent laws end up costing lives.”
“Yes, yes, very interesting point…” murmured Baizhu.
“Imagine you spend billions of dollars creating a rare drug,” Beidou pointed out, wondering if Ningguang would be able to tell Beidou did not give a shit about the argument and just wanted to provoke her. “Without patent laws, someone else can figure out the formula for it by reverse engineering, and outsell you as he has not made any investments to pay back on. People will be aware of this and avoid making any investment whatsoever. Society is ‘stagnant’ as you feared so much.”
Ningguang made eye contact with her for the very first time. She did not look surprised: either she was unflappable or she actually expected this.
A boy Beidou had never seen before piped up. Beidou was rudely reminded that the class consisted of more than just herself and Ningguang.
“I agree with Beidou, men who do hard work deserve to be rewarded,” he stated.
Beidou’s eyebrows furrowed, as she was not entirely sure where that point had come from.
“Whilst that is a very anthropocentric take, I would argue in both cases – parent laws existing and patent laws being abolished – society is stagnating,” Ningguang summarised.
“It’s about balance, really,” Beidou agreed quickly.
“Yes, it’s about balance.” Ningguang finally averted her eyes back to her textbook. Beidou pulled the hood of her jumper up in the hopes nobody would notice her red ears; eye contact with Ningguang was not for the frail hearted. Ganyu huffed out a laugh for reasons unclear to Beidou.
“Fascinating arguments all around,” Baizhu intercepted, smoothly bringing the class back on topic. For a few minutes, Beidou zoned out of his lecturing, as the content was not exactly scintillating. She went through the conversation in her mind, overturning what she said, and wondering whether saying nothing would have been better as now she appeared incredibly capitalist to the entire class.
This went on until Beidou’s gaze naturally fell to Ningguang who was rapidly typing into her laptop whilst flicking through textbook pages. That shocked some life into her and she zoned in on what Baizhu was saying. She pulled herself upright and wrote a title in her Google doc, courtesy of Ganyu whose notes were nice and legible for her to copy.
It was just academic rivalry that kept her sneaking glances at Ningguang throughout the entire lesson, is what she told herself. They had occasionally debated in class, but rarely did it feel so heated or personal – she was just trying to, on an investigative level, figure out what had changed. Clearly Ningguang was on the same train of thought (as always) because she, too, kept glancing at Beidou, her stare intense as if she was trying to read the other girl’s thoughts.
That is definitely what it was, and absolutely, certainly, 100% nothing else.
***
Debate Society occurred on Wednesday evenings, 7 to 8:30pm. Hence, by the time it ended, the sun had almost finished setting. Beidou largely chose it because all of her friends were and she was following the crowd like a sheep. As it turns out, Professor Zhao allowed very little time for messing around or talking beyond locking in on the debates themselves. They averaged one debate a month, most notably: whether a person with a criminal record was allowed to run for president, and the role of moral ambiguity in fiction – that particular debate extended an hour over the finishing time.
This particular evening was the very first since September that Zhao was more relaxed. The more lax students had filtered out a while ago, leaving behind only those who were abnormally serious about their education; Beidou almost felt like he was rewarding them for the gruelling examinations, as he remained sat at the front desk, rarely checking in on their conversations, and when he did, he refrained from disciplining them when they had steered off topic.
At this moment, Beidou had her feet up on the table and was doodling in the back of her Human Rights textbook whilst absently listening to whatever her friends were arguing about.
“As I was saying, Alvin and the chipmunks uniting against Dave is symbolism for the colonialism faced by indigenous people when white culture is forced upon them,” Kaeya ranted passionately.
“Which chipmunk is the most fuckable,” mumbled Childe from where his face was smushed against the desk. Beidou gently nudged him with the heel of her shoe.
“Moron, do not fuck the chipmunks. Why are you even here?” she asked. Childe was most certainly not included in Debate Society – he was kicked out on the first day when he suggested the reason global warming occurs is due to the loli industry in Inazuma.
“I promised to suck Zhao’s dick if he let me hang,” he said, dead straight faced. Beidou nodded as this was not out of character behaviour from him.
“Are the chipmunks not children?” Ganyu proposed. She was the only one pretending to do any work, but Beidou could see a crossword open on her screen.
“He’s joking,” Kaeya intercepted, ignoring Ganyu. “We slipped some weed into Zhao’s green tea so he wouldn’t notice anything.”
“That… is a crime,” Beidou said thoughtfully, still mostly thinking about the chipmunks.
Childe continued, “yes, and following the weed, I will give him the best blowjob of his life,” which really did not clear the air at all on whether he was being serious or not. His eyes suddenly lit up.
“Do you still need a 7 letter word for ‘Ecstasy’? Could be blowjob,” he excitedly related to Ganyu.
She shook her head politely. “Second letter is an E, but thank you.”
Childe looked upset and Kaeya clapped him on the back. “Ay, bro, I gotchu later. You, me, Zhongli.” He visibly perked up at this. Beidou wondered how true the homo allegations were.
The sounds of other students packing up encouraged Beidou to slam her textbook shut, stuff her bag full, and beeline for the classroom door. Keqing had made Wonton soup and Beidou wanted to fill her stomach with it and then pass out for the next 3 days.
“One more thing before you all go,” Professor Zhao commanded. Beidou immediately stopped in her tracks and turned to look at him. The man was on the older side, intimidatingly tall, with short, black hair and a no-nonsense attitude about him. Maybe if she was a young, blushing girl, she would even focus on his sharp cheekbones, glowing eyes, or perfect skin. Alas, she had never felt more than a flicker of attraction for the opposite gender.
Zhao had a reputation for seldomly awarding high grades and being the strictest out of the abundance of teachers at Tianheng, which is partly why Beidou liked him so much, to the extent she joined his society: she liked a challenge.
Ningguang obviously had the same idea at the beginning of term, the relentless copycat.
“I have an opportunity lined up. There is space for six of you to observe me as I speak in court on behalf of the country for the Lotus Killer case – I’m sure you’ve heard of it. You will have reserved seats in the journalist booth. I don’t suppose I have to remind you how priceless this will be to mention on your CV when applying for further training outside of Tianheng.”
Of course, everybody in the room had heard of the Lotus Killer case. For three years, Liyue’s most prolific serial killer prowled the streets, mostly targeting prostitutes and other vulnerable women, carving out their eyes and replacing them with lotus flowers. He had evaded justice for murdering nine victims and was finally caught in the act whilst killing the tenth, allowing the police to put a name to the Lotus Killer: Gui Lian.
The court case that would ensue could be months long. Of course someone as competent as Zhao would be chosen to prosecute him; he was possibly the most famous criminal law professor and ex-barrister in the country. Clearly, he was coming out of retirement just for this case.
Kaeya raised his hand: “How are you deciding who gets to go?”
Beidou swore she saw Zhao’s eyes glint. “Yes, there will be a series of examinations coming up in my classes. As well as constituting fifteen percent towards your final, those who score the highest marks will be granted a space.”
The noise of the classroom faded away as Zhao answered more questions, like where the court was located, when the exams were, and what content would be on them (Ganyu could fill her in on the details later).
This opportunity was literally gold. Beidou’s working class upbringing could not compare to the luxurious ones experienced by her peers; as such, whilst they were getting opportunities handed to them on a silver platter, she had to fight tooth and nail to even think about reaching the same level. Even with regards to the Tianheng entrance exams: she had to balance studying for them with her part time job as well as caring for the local children when there was nobody else to, meanwhile her friends had all the time in the universe and then some more to prepare for them.
Getting the chance to speak about the Lotus Killer case from first hand experience would make up for so many of these barriers. It was imperative that she achieved a place. She was usually at least second highest in the class anyway.
Speaking of which – she glanced over to Ningguang, who had remained uncharacteristically quiet throughout the entire session (not like Beidou was listening) and whose face right now was as porcelain and unreadable as it had been when they were playing poker. Whatever.
She looked back over to Zhao. He checked his watch, then said: “We can discuss more next week.”
Getting more information out of him at that point was a lost cause. The class reluctantly disassembled, Childe and Kaeya first. Beidou threw an arm over Ganyu’s shoulder as they filed out into the hallway.
Zhao’s deep voice rumbled over the crowd: “Ningguang, could I speak with you?”
Beidou glanced behind her. Ningguang froze in her tracks for a second before composing herself and turning back around. The door swung shut behind her before Beidou realised she was staring.
Ganyu looked at her with a knowing look in her eyes.
“I was just wondering…” she quietly defended. Luckily, Ganyu was too nice to tease her, although surely Keqing would hear about this and happily bully her for weeks.
“Oh, Hu Tao!” Beidou exclaimed.
The short girl, another third year who was studying thanatology and also happened to be Keqing’s ex of a year and a half, spun around from where she was reaching up on her tip-toes to fix a display on the rates that different mammals decompose. Of course, she was head of the Forensic Pathology Society, one she had created herself, which was a fact very difficult to forget given adverts for it (like this one) were literally everywhere.
“Beidou! Ganyu!” she grinned. Beidou always thought Hu Tao was lovely, if a little weird, and it was just unfortunate she clashed so much with Keqing. She glanced to her right; Ganyu appeared frozen in place.
“Do you need any help?” Beidou offered. “You seem to be reaching a little…”
Hu Tao gasped. “I would love some help. I just need to staple this bubble writing to the top of the display on the decomposition of hedgehogs…”
“You go on ahead,” Beidou muttered to Ganyu. “Save some soup for me.”
Ganyu nodded gladly before taking her leave without another word. She was, clearly, still not over the wrecked state Keqing was in following her break up with the girl.
“I can’t believe nobody else offered to help,” Hu Tao pouted, handing Beidou a staple gun and a stack of laminated letters.
“Well, you do have a little bit of a reputation,” Beidou said, not unkindly. Hu Tao was famously erratic throughout Tianheng. There were even rumours she ate the souls of the poor students who failed the entrance examination, as fuel for her underground cartel that would one day take over the school and eventually the world. Beidou was certain Hu Tao was aware of and delighted by these whispers – maybe she even started them herself.
They fell quiet as they worked in tandem, with Beidou reaching the places Hu Tao could not by herself. This allowed her, unintentionally, to eavesdrop into Ningguang’s conversation with Zhao in the classroom. In her defense, it was not Beidou’s fault the door was propped open minutely by the door stop, and if they truly wanted their conversation to be private they should have checked before talking.
“Have I made myself clear?” Zhao’s voice was saying. He sounded cold, stricter than usual, making Beidou pause in her tracks. “Ningguang?” he provoked when she remained silent.
“You need to understand I had no intention to talk to your daughter ever again,” she finally said. She sounded distant in a way she never usually did.
“That is not enough of an apology.” Beidou’s spine ran cold at the anger in his voice.
“What am I apologising for? That Lihua is a lesbian?” Ningguang replied disinterestedly. Beidou could practically see her fiddling with the ends of her hair, or cleaning her nail beds.
“Keep her name out of your mouth!” Zhao’s tone, followed by the sound of a fist hitting wood, made Beidou jump and look in amazement at Hu Tao who was totally oblivious and in her own world.
Surely she did not imagine that…
“I have nothing but disdain for you and your entire family,” Ningguang said calmly, much louder now. Beidou jumped into motion as the door swung open and Ningguang marched down the corridor, barely sparing a glance behind her.
She rapidly finished stapling the O and N, mumbled a thank you and goodbye to Hu Tao, and lightly jogged to catch up to the blonde who had already disappeared down a set of double doors and a flight of stairs.
“Hey! Is everything okay?” she yelled, slightly out of breath, as Ningguang reached the doors that opened into the outside world. She turned around, allowing Beidou to catch up with her.
“Why would it not be okay?” she asked calmly, but Beidou looked into her eyes and saw how tight they were at the corners.
“You and Zhao sounded kind of… feisty.”
Recognition visibly dawned upon Ningguang. “Well, it’s all fine and none of your business. See you tomorrow,” she opened the double doors and started walking down the stone steps, shivering lightly in the evening wind.
“Let me walk you home,” Beidou pleaded. “It’s dark and cold and I can scare predators away with my huge muscles.”
Ningguang’s eyes glittered, but she said nothing.
“Please?” Beidou asked.
“Okay,” she said.
They walked in dead silence for forty metres.
“Where are we –” Beidou started.
“How much – oh, you go on,” Ningguang interrupted.
“Oh, it’s just – where are we going?”
Ningguang paused under a streetlight. “I can’t believe I didn’t tell you where we were going.”
Beidou looked back. Under the yellow glow of the street light, Ningguang looked ethereal, as if God was beaconing down his goodness onto her figure.
“Yeah,” she said dumbly.
“I live in the East block,” Ningguang said, then shook her head slightly. “Sorry, I’m so out of it right now.” They resumed walking.
“Ah, the East block. Now I really know you’re pretentious,” Beidou joked. She looked up to check the signs for where they were going and then realised what she said. Previously calling Ningguang ‘pretentious’ did not entirely land well, despite the East block famously being the most expensive and luxurious accommodation, isolated from the rest of the campus.
“I mean –”
“No, you’re right,” Ninggaung quietly laughed. “I don’t know why I tried to deny it.”
“It doesn’t make you a bad person,” Beidou defended softly.
“Sure.”
“Like, all of my friends are also upper class and pretentious, and none of them are bad people,” she continued.
“What about you?” Ningguang asked suddenly. That was just about the last thing Beidou expected to come out of her mouth.
“What about me?”
“Are you also upper class and pretentious?”
Beidou wrinkled her nose. “Doesn’t sound like a real word anymore. And, most definitely not. I’m from the bottom of the barrel compared to you guys.” After three years, she was desensitised to the privileges of her peers, even when Zhongli thought food stamps were a myth and Keqing was genuinely shocked and apologetic when she found out Beidou only had one house and did not own a pair of skis.
Once again, Ningguang paused in her walking. “That makes what you have achieved so much more impressive.”
Beidou had no words for that. She looked down shyly and they walked onwards.
“Um, what were you asking earlier?” she remembered as they rounded a corner. She could see the hill behind which the East block accommodation resided.
“How much –” Ningguang cleared her throat. “How much of Zhao and I talking did you hear?”
“Only the very end,” Beidou said slowly, trying to recall as much as possible. “Something about a lesbian and you cursed his entire bloodline.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much the extent of it,” she laughed humourlessly.
“I must repeat my question from earlier. Are you okay?”
Ningguang shrugged. “He hates me because three years ago I fucked his only daughter. Ever since I chose his class he spends most of his time trying to fuck me over.”
That was a lot to unpack. Firstly, at some point in time Ningguang liked girls – definitely not the point she was supposed to be taking here, but a win is a win. Secondly, Zhao is actually a massive asshole. Thirdly, that explains why Zhao awarded Beidou instead of Ningguang the 100%, and why Beidou regularly achieved highest in the class. That felt substantially less like an achievement and more like pity points, which felt terrible, because she wanted to beat Ningguang at her best, not when she was awarded grades out of personal interest.
“That’s terrible,” she settled for.
Ningguang said nothing. When Beidou looked over at her, her eyes were screwed shut and her lips were quivering.
“It’s just –” she said in a broken voice. “Utterly humiliating –” She took in a deep breath as the first tear fell.
“Hey,” Beidou sprung into action, eyebrows furrowing. She put one arm around Ningguang’s shoulders and gently moved her hand away from her face. “Don’t waste your tears on him,” she murmured, smoothing out Ningguang’s forehead and using her thumb to clear her eyes. “Seriously, at no point has he ever been worth anything.”
Ningguang took a deep breath, but kept her eyes averted.
“I hate him… so much,” she said wetly.
“Come here,” Beidou brought Ningguang properly into her embrace. She wrapped both arms around her shoulders, trying to permeate some of the heat from her leather jacket into Ningguang’s frame. “You’re freezing.”
“Sorry,” came the muffled, despondent reply.
“Don’t apologise…” Beidou trailed off, placing her chin on Ningguang’s head and closing her eyes. That seemed to summon life into her: she pulled away and wiped her face dry.
“You know the worst part?” she started. Beidou immediately missed the feeling of Ningguang’s body pressed against hers, but she nodded for her to keep going.
“Obviously he’s been changing my grades all year. But there is no way he’d take me for the Lotus Killer case he mentioned today.”
“But you deserve it!” Beidou exclaimed righteously.
“I guess not, because I fucked a girl three years ago. That’s mostly what he was saying to me earlier.”
“You haven’t told any of the faculty?”
Ningguang shrugged. “He’s been there for so long, he has all of them in his pocket. Even you look at him like he’s an idol. They’d never believe me. It wasn’t even a huge deal until today.”
They started slowly walking up to the East accommodation barrier – because of course, they needed a barrier to keep all the povos out.
“I’m so sorry you had to go through that,” Beidou offered.
“It’s fine.”
“I wish I could do something to make it better.”
“Stop worrying about it. You’ll get a spot on the trial because you deserve it more than anyone, and you will remember it for the rest of your life.” She smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. “I’ll find a different way. I always do. Thanks for walking me.”
“No problem…” Beidou paused at the barrier. The mood was far too heavy for her liking. “I guess I just have one question.”
“Don’t push your luck,” Ningguang sniped. Mostly, Beidou was just happy she was feeling normal enough to return back to their usual back-and-forth.
“Was she decent in bed?”
A shocked laugh emerged from Ningguang. “Lihua? No, she had one pillow and thought the clitoris was a conspiracy theory. I didn’t think that would be your question of choice,” she said bemusedly.
“I’m just asking the important things. See you tomorrow, Fancy,” she teased, walking backwards a little bit, before turning fully around when Ningguang gently waved.
When she was a safe distance away, her smile fell, and she barely even registered the journey home, her mind swirling with thoughts like a storm drain after a thunderstorm.
***
May 21st was Yun Jin’s birthday – a local indie artist that was especially popular throughout the city of Tianheng. As a thank you to her community, she was hosting a birthday party in the local bar, Jade Chamber, with performances throughout the evening from herself and other local artists, such as adorable pop artist Barbara, and up-and-coming alt indie band 4nemo. The proceeds from this event would be reinvested into their music careers as well as donated to a charity teaching disabled children how to play instruments.
The Jade Chamber was very much the hangout spot of choice for anybody in their age range. It was large enough to host a small congregation, with an alcohol collection expansive enough to satisfy an army of university students, and speakers that could blow up the ceiling if they were turned loud enough. It had all the grime of a bar slash nightclub that was to be expected in a city, yet all the charm to make up for it.
Beidou let the red and yellow lighting wash over her as she took in the atmosphere of sweaty bodies and white powders – in her first couple years at Tianheng, she visited the Jade Chamber semi frequently, to cop free drinks from older guys and disappear behind a booth to make out with cute girls. Unfortunately, since September, third year of university very quickly caught up with her and trysts like that became rare; in fact, this was probably her third time here all year. Not like she was interested in making out with anyone anyway.
“You want anything to drink?” Keqing yelled in her ear to be heard over the music. Beidou took her hand and they forced their way through bodies to the largest of the three bars. She waved someone down and they both took a seat on leather barstools.
“Haven’t been here since November,” Beidou commented conversationally. She received no response and looked sideways, prepared to start complaining, but stopped in her tracks when she followed Keqing’s gaze.
Ganyu was dancing with a small, blonde woman, to the floaty pop music that permeated the chambers. She normally looked cute, with her round face and blue hair, however, under the red lights of this evening, as well as the pink flush that alcohol had brought to her cheeks, she looked downright seductive.
Keqing visibly gulped and Beidou watched her eyes trace up and down the lines of Ganyu’s body.
“Feel free to kill me if I am ever that obvious,” she said lightly, breaking the trance Keqing had fallen into.
“Bitch –” Keqing raised her hand to slap her but was interrupted by the bartender.
“What can I get you ladies?” he asked. This was one Beidou was unfamiliar with. He was tall, had scruffy white hair, and was wearing a black shirt that stretched obscenely over his biceps.
“Damn bro, what’s your workout routine?” she whistled and let her eyes rake his muscles appreciatively, because even she could appreciate art.
“Don’t answer that,” Keqing waved her hand around. “Nobody cares. Can we get two margaritas, and put it on my tab,” she slid her credit card over. Perk of having stupidly rich friends: you will never have to buy an alcoholic drink in your life.
“I’ll be right back with those margaritas and my workout routine,” he clicked both his fingers in a finger gun motion that Beidou reciprocated with one hand. Keqing huffed in annoyance.
“He just wants a tip,” she complained.
“He works a minimum wage job,” Beidou countered. “And he has huge muscles. Let him be friendly.”
Downside of having stupidly rich friends: they were occasionally out of touch.
Keqing was about to rebuttal when Beidou interrupted: “Go back to staring at Ganyu or something, stop arguing with me.”
“You know what, I will,” Keqing turned around again. Happy she was occupied, Beidou opened her phone and checked what she had missed in their group chat (appropriately named Flex Offenders).
“Who’s singing right now?” she asked.
“Um, I think Venti is doing a solo,” came the reply after a long pause. Beidou did not bother looking up. Having a conversation with her currently was fighting a losing battle.
“I’m gonna talk to her,” Keqing said resolutely. That caught Beidou’s attention: she closed her phone screen and stared at her face.
“Like… talk talk?”
“I am yet unclear on the specifics but I can get back to you in three working days.”
“Like, right now?”
Keqing hummed. “Yeah, right now.” She got up and walked towards Ganyu, gently coming in between her and the small, blonde girl, who looked utterly unoffended and also a little bit like sunshine incarnate as she turned around to talk to somebody else.
Beidou watched them like a hawk: Keqing’s hand skirted down Ganyu’s arm, until it paused at her wrist, and her slender fingers wrapped around it. Beidou would have bet real money that Ganyu’s brain activity was reduced to a net zero, especially when Keqing stepped further into her personal space. She was seconds from calling it softcore before a warm arm slung around her shoulders, pulling her from her thoughts.
“Bei! Come do shots with us!” Thoma crowed. “Also, I made a new friend, and I want you to meet him,” he demanded.
Beidou collected Keqing’s abandoned margarita, spoke briefly with the bartender (who, without Keqing there to dismiss him, she discovered was called Itto) about how long to rest between sets and the importance of eating a meal after working out, a conversation Thoma eagerly contributed to.
By the time they left to go to a corner booth their group had snagged, Ganyu and Keqing were nowhere to be seen.
“I thought they might be over here with you guys,” she explained as Childe tugged her by the waist to sit next to him. “Keep your hands off me,” she snapped playfully, pushing him away.
“But you look so yummy in that top,” he grinned like a Cheshire cat.
“Sorry about him, he’s been like that to everyone today,” Diluc explained, looking thoroughly unamused by the entire situation.
“Will you step on me,” Childe threw his entire upper body onto the table in Diluc’s vague direction.
“So, if anyone has any horse tranquilizer, we can knock him out right now,” continued the man in question.
“The wind hath blown the sweet smoke into his orbs,” a short, pale man sat next to Thoma stated wistfully as though he was reciting a line from a play. Thoma grinned and pointed to him.
“Isn’t he great? We found him smoking naku weed in the toilets. I think he does poetry, and I also think he might be being chased by a murderer or the police,” his smile partially faded as he thought over the logistics. “I mean, it’s hard to say, he talks in really roundabout ways…”
“The given name is Kaedahara Kazuha. The life is yet short, blurred by the gratifications we call living.” He stretched out a hand slowly. “I have experienced many a pleasure, but none as tantamount as this moment right now.”
“I’m Beidou,” she shook his hand. “I want to adopt you. Would you like a margarita?” Keqing could just buy another one. Clearly, this drink was destined for her new friend.
At that moment, Kaeya turned up with a tray full of shots, and the music changed from floaty pop to a smooth, bass heavy track, as Xinyan, another up and coming indie artist, took over center stage.
“Shots!” Childe reached out. Zhongli pulled him back by his ear, to a very loud protest, like he was a toddler.
“I think no more for the ginger,” he commanded.
“Kaeya, you’re like a magician,” Thoma said, in awe. “The music changed just as you arrived.”
He looked around like he had just noticed the change. “That was intentional actually.”
“The man with one earring spreads falsehoods like the eagle tries to sing,” Kazuha interjected. Kaeya stared at him like he grew two heads.
“... The fuck?”
“Isn’t he amazing?” Thoma beamed.
“My sincerest and most respected friend shares intimate relations with the tongue of the one who toils the fields of labour, alas, he is reluctant to let his feelings fly with the cranes,” Kazuha recited as he gazed into the lights. “When will he learn that he must avoid deception lest it eat him from the inside?”
Thoma’s smile slowly fell from his face, and Beidou’s grin grew on hers, as she realised Kazuha had essentially tattled on his new friend’s secret relationship.
“Yes, he’s amazing,” she started.
She was seconds away from teasing him about it when movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention. In particular, long, blonde hair, tinted red from the lights; she followed the trail like a map leading to gold and saw Ningguang laughing with an unrecognisable woman, on stools at the centre of the three bars. It suddenly became imperative that she conversed with the woman.
“I’ll just be one second, guys,” she slammed back two shots in succession, pocketed her phone, and shuffled out of the booth.
“Oh, okay… what about your margarita?” Thoma asked petulantly.
“Drink it!” she exclaimed. Irrelevant whether anyone heard her or not.
“Hey,” she said when she approached them. They were politely talking over drinks, giggling at what the other was saying – Ningguang’s companion had short blue hair and matching blue eyes (why did nobody in this city have a normal hair colour?) but Ningguang herself was the true center of attention, in her short black dress that contrasted her pale skin, and her golden eyes that narrowed when they fell over Beidou.
“Looking pretty fancy,” Beidou commented.
Ningguang smiled from around her straw. “Not so bad yourself,” she agreed. Beidou looked away before her face erupted into flames.
“I’m Beidou, a classmate of Ningguang’s,” she introduced to her companion.
“Yelan,” she replied warmly.
“Beidou, let me buy you a drink,” Ningguang insisted. The sound of her name on Ningguang’s lips could have made Beidou agree to anything and everything – dangerous.
“Okay,” she said, like her tongue was too heavy for her mouth. Ningguang waved down the bartender and ordered three cherry sangrias.
Beidou was somewhat surprised. “Cherry?”
“I’m trying to expand my horizons,” she explained.
Yelan snorted. “Yes, by having red wine instead of white wine. You should sit down, Beidou.”
Beidou did, on Ningguang’s other side. Ningguang herself pursed her lips and waved her finger between her two companions.
“This is not a friendship I want to endorse,” she complained. Yelan grinned wickedly.
The cherry sangria melted on her tongue, sweet and bitter. It usually took a lot more than two shots and some cocktails to make Beidou feel drunk, but she was already starting to feel some of the effects; potentially the result of close proximity to Ningguang.
She swallowed.
“Um, can I talk to you for a second?”
Ningguang was out of her seat before Beidou could finish her sentence.
“Yelan, give us a moment.”
Yelan nodded, and Beidou guided them into an empty booth (luckily, the large majority of the bar were on the dance floor for Xinyan’s set, so this was pretty easy to find).
Ningguang sat opposite her and words failed Beidou as they made eye contact. This was definitely the closest they had ever been, cursed table in between them.
Beidou tried to focus. “I was thinking about what you said a few weeks ago. About Zhao.”
Since that night, Ningguang had skipped all of Zhao’s classes, as well as avoiding Debate Society despite them returning to regularly scheduled business. Zhao had provided more details on the examinations; they would be in two weeks, on all of the Criminal Law they had learnt over three years, and even for those not aiming for a spot on the Lotus Killer case, the exam would make up 15% of their final for the class. If anybody wanted to graduate with a high grade, or potentially a First, they needed to ace it – or, have aced everything up until that moment.
Ningguang looked down. “You really should stop thinking about it.”
“I –” Beidou started, but the other girl put her hand over her mouth, stopping her from speaking.
“Not tonight, anyway,” she interrupted. “We should be having fun.” She removed her hand just as Beidou was beginning to evaluate how childish it would have been to lick her palm. Even without her hand there anymore, Beidou still felt the phantom pressure on her face, the feeling of Ningguang’s fingers on her cheek.
“Are you not having fun?” she settled for instead of sounding stupid.
“So much,” Ningguang exaggerated. It was unclear whether she was being sarcastic or not. That train of thought halted to a stop when Ningguang leant over the table, giving Beidou a very generous view down her dress. She felt something unholy shiver down her spine before she realised what a pervert she was being.
“Let’s talk about something happy,” Ningguang demanded.
“Like the 99% I got from Baizhu yesterday?” Beidou teased. This was safe ground, comparing scores they got in essays. This was not dangerous like the red lights falling across their faces, the cherry sangrias between them, the low cut dress Ningguang was wearing. In any case, Beidou won last time (Ningguang had gotten 98%).
She rolled her eyes. “Anything but that.”
It took all of Beidou’s willpower to focus on Ningguang’s face and not her body; she should have been awarded a medal for determination or something.
“Are you not freezing?” she asked pathetically.
Ningguang shook her head. “Not really. Are you?”
Beidou hummed thoughtfully. “Come here,” she said, moving further into her side of the booth so her intentions were clear. She was already taking off her leather jacket before Ningguang had even started moving.
“Beidou… This is quite unnecessary,” the woman complained, despite sliding in next to her. Beidou did not reply as she placed the jacket around Ningguang’s shoulders. It was too late to save Ningguang from Beidou’s perverted thoughts, but at least she could protect her from everybody else.
Ningguang’s eyes glittered. She moved her face further into the collar.
“Smells like you,” she murmured.
“What do I smell like?” Beidou responded, equally quiet. They really were alarmingly close without the rude table in between them. She could feel the warmth of Ningguang’s thigh from where they were pressed together.
“Cherries,” Ningguang said. Beidou’s world tilted on its axis.
She smiled slowly. “Cherries?” The taste of the cherry sangria was suddenly fresh on her tongue.
Ningguang made a ‘mm’ noise as she, as if unconsciously, leant in closer.
“‘S my perfume,” she explained. She moved her hair to reveal her neck. “See?”
Ningguang pressed her nose to Beidou’s neck and took a deep breath, their torsos fully pressed together at this point. Beidou was seconds from complaining that Ningguang’s nose was freezing before the other girl moved upwards, to the corner of Beidou’s jaw, and pressed a light kiss there.
Beidou’s lips opened around a silent noise, before Ningguang again moved targets and kissed the corner of Beidou’s mouth.
“... It’s Tom Ford,” she explained over her racing heart.
“Shut up,” Ningguang said, before pressing their lips together.
A low noise of satisfaction escaped Beidou before she could control it. Ningguang reacted by pushing further, harder, opening Beidou’s mouth and gently biting her bottom lip. Beidou’s arm wrapped itself around her waist, moving her to sit on her thigh.
“Do you know,” Ningguang complained between kisses, “how long I have waited to do that?”
Beidou found it frankly offensive that Ningguang was trying to talk at this moment; she gripped the back of her neck and moved their faces together again to express her distaste.
Ningguang lightly grinding on her thigh made Beidou come to her senses and realise that they were, in fact, still in the Jade Chamber, and not in a place where she was satisfied with other people potentially overhearing the soft noises spilling from Ningguang’s throat.
She slowly pulled away. The string of saliva connecting their lips broke. Ningguang was breathing heavily and looked wrecked. Likely, Beidou was not faring any better.
Against all odds, Ningguang still looked like she had stepped out of a fashion magazine.
“I hate you sometimes,” Beidou panted. She moved her hands up and down Ningguang’s curves, pausing to squeeze her thighs. Ningguang giggled.
“Why?” she asked lightly.
“Because you still look like that ,” Beidou complained.
“Like what?”
“Like the sun.” She kissed her again, because she could. Ningguang hummed happily.
Beidou gazed into her eyes when they broke apart again, which is when the magnitude of how insurmountably fucked she was hit her like a freight truck. She also found that when her lap was full of very attractive, very gay, blonde woman, she did not care that she was fucked, which, against all odds, was infinitely scarier.