[GL] I'm Just A Side Character... So Why Is The Heroine Chasing Me?!-Chapter 33: The new neighbor

Word of Zhao Lingxi’s victory in the Trials spread through the Academy like wildfire.

By the next morning, everyone knew. The girl with three shattered spirit roots and a fourth level cultivation base had beaten students twice her level. She had collected more tokens than anyone in a decade. And she had done it while looking like she barely broke a sweat.

The reactions were... mixed.

Some students stared at her with open admiration. Others avoided her entirely, as if losing to her might be contagious. And a small, stubborn group led by Shen Zhiran continued to mutter about "connections" and "favoritism" whenever she walked past.

Zhao Lingxi ignored all of it.

Lan Yue, on the other hand, kept a mental list of every person who talked badly about her mistress. Just in case.

"You’re glaring again," Liu Ruyan said as they walked through the Academy corridors.

"I’m observing."

"You’ve been ’observing’ that boy for five minutes. He looks like he might cry."

Lan Yue looked away. The boy in question quickly scurried around a corner.

Fine. Maybe she was a little intense.

---

The morning brought a surprise.

When Lan Yue returned from fetching breakfast, she found a commotion outside the East Pavilion dormitories. A mountain of luggage was piled near the entrance. Wooden trunks, silk bags, a birdcage with a very confused looking sparrow inside, and what appeared to be a full sized vanity mirror wrapped in cotton padding.

Standing in the middle of this chaos was a girl.

She was short. Maybe a head shorter than Lan Yue, with round cheeks, big brown eyes, and a mess of curly hair that stuck out in every direction like she had fought a windstorm and lost. She wore robes of bright orange that clashed wonderfully with her pink hair ribbon.

She was also yelling.

"Careful! CAREFUL! That trunk has my pill furnace in it! If you crack the lid I will personally feed you to a spirit beast!"

Two terrified servants shuffled past with the trunk, handling it like it contained a live explosive. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Who is that?" Lan Yue asked a nearby student.

"Tang Xiaoli. She just transferred from the Southern Branch Academy. Apparently she’s some kind of alchemy prodigy." The student paused. "Also apparently she’s been assigned the room next to Zhao Lingxi’s."

Lan Yue’s eye twitched.

Great. A neighbor.

---

It took exactly two hours for Tang Xiaoli to introduce herself.

Lan Yue was organizing Zhao Lingxi’s desk when a knock came at the door. She opened it to find the curly haired girl standing there with a plate of pastries and a smile wide enough to split her face in half.

"Hi! I’m Tang Xiaoli! I just moved in next door! I brought snacks! Are you Zhao Lingxi? You don’t look like how I imagined. I thought you’d be taller."

Lan Yue blinked. "I’m her servant. Lan Yue."

"Oh!" Tang Xiaoli’s eyes went even wider, which shouldn’t have been physically possible. "You’re THE Lan Yue? The one who stood in the rain for three hours waiting for her mistress to come back from the Trials? That’s so romantic. I mean loyal. I mean... are those the same thing?"

Lan Yue’s face heated up. "How do you know about that?"

"Everyone knows about that. It’s the most talked about thing after the Trial results." Tang Xiaoli leaned in conspiratorially. "Some girls in the lower dormitory are writing poetry about it."

"They’re WHAT?"

"Can I come in? These pastries are getting cold."

Before Lan Yue could respond, Tang Xiaoli had already squeezed past her and settled herself at the table, arranging pastries on a plate like she owned the place.

"So," she said, popping a bean paste bun into her mouth. "Tell me everything about Zhao Lingxi. Is she really as scary as people say? Does she actually eat spirit beasts for breakfast? Someone told me she killed a stone giant with her bare hands."

"She used a sword, actually."

"Close enough!" Tang Xiaoli clapped her hands together. "I knew I picked the right room. This is going to be so much fun!"

Lan Yue stared at her.

This girl was either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. Possibly both.

---

Zhao Lingxi returned from her morning cultivation to find a stranger sitting at her table eating pastries.

She stopped in the doorway. Her dark eyes moved from Tang Xiaoli to Lan Yue and back again.

"Who is this?" she asked.

"Your new neighbor," Lan Yue said helplessly.

Tang Xiaoli leapt to her feet and bowed so quickly she nearly headbutted the table. "Tang Xiaoli! Alchemy Division! Southern Branch transfer! Huge fan of your work in the Trials! Would you like a pastry?"

Zhao Lingxi looked at the pastries. Then at Tang Xiaoli’s eager, puppy like expression. Then at Lan Yue, who shrugged.

"...Thank you," Zhao Lingxi said, and took a bean paste bun.

Tang Xiaoli looked like she might faint from happiness.

---

Over the next few days, Tang Xiaoli became a fixture in their lives whether they wanted it or not.

She showed up every morning with breakfast. She chattered nonstop about alchemy, her experiments, her pet sparrow named General Fluffbottom, and whatever gossip she had collected from every corner of the Academy.

"Did you know that Shen Zhiran challenged three different students to duels this week? Lost all three. His face was amazing. Like a tomato that someone stepped on."

"Did you know that Master Jiang, the combat instructor, once punched a hole through a mountain? A MOUNTAIN. With his FIST."

"Did you know that Bai Xuelan has never smiled at anyone? Like, genuinely smiled? Except apparently she smiled at you, Zhao Lingxi. The entire Academy is losing their minds about it."

Zhao Lingxi ate her breakfast in silence, her face unreadable.

Lan Yue, however, choked on her porridge at the last bit of information.

"She smiled at her?" Lan Yue said, wiping her mouth.

"Oh yeah. During the results ceremony. This tiny little smile. Like a cat that caught a really interesting mouse." Tang Xiaoli demonstrated, pulling her lips into a weird grimace. "Like this."

"That looks like you’re in pain," Lan Yue said.

"Well I’m not Bai Xuelan, am I? She makes everything look elegant. Even smiling at people. It’s honestly unfair."

Lan Yue poked at her porridge with unnecessary force.

Zhao Lingxi glanced at her. "You’re murdering your breakfast."

"It deserves it."

Zhao Lingxi’s lips twitched. She looked back at her own bowl, but that tiny curve stayed on her mouth.

---

Tang Xiaoli, despite being loud and chaotic and completely incapable of reading a room, turned out to be genuinely useful.

As an alchemy prodigy, she had access to the Academy’s herb gardens and pill furnaces. And she was generous to a fault.

"Here!" She shoved a small bottle into Lan Yue’s hands one afternoon. "Muscle Recovery Pills. I made a batch last night and had extras. Give them to Zhao Lingxi after her combat training. They taste terrible but they work like magic."

"You’re just... giving these away?"

"What am I gonna do, sell them?" Tang Xiaoli laughed. "I have like fifty bottles. My roommate back at the Southern Branch used to say I make pills like a chicken lays eggs. Constantly and with no warning."

Lan Yue turned the bottle over in her hands. Muscle Recovery Pills were expensive. Most students couldn’t afford them.

"Why are you being so nice to us?" Lan Yue asked. "You don’t even know us."

Tang Xiaoli’s cheerful expression softened into something more honest. "Because you looked like you could use a friend. And honestly? So could I."

She scratched the back of her head, messing up her curls even further. "Transferring to a new Academy is lonely. Everyone already has their groups and their cliques. But you guys don’t seem to care about any of that stuff. Zhao Lingxi doesn’t care what anyone thinks. And you..." She grinned. "You stood in the rain for three hours for someone you care about. That’s the kind of person I want to be friends with."

Lan Yue didn’t know what to say.

So she just handed her a pastry from the plate Tang Xiaoli had brought that morning.

"Welcome to the group, I guess."

Tang Xiaoli beamed.

---

That evening, Zhao Lingxi sat at her desk reviewing cultivation notes while Lan Yue tidied the room.

"The alchemy girl," Zhao Lingxi said without looking up. "You like her."

"She’s alright. Loud. But nice."

"She talks too much."

"She does."

"She gave you pills."

"She gave them for you, actually."

Zhao Lingxi turned a page. "She looks at you like you’re a puzzle she wants to figure out."

Lan Yue paused her sweeping. "Is that a problem?"

"No." Zhao Lingxi’s brush moved across the paper in smooth, even strokes. "Just an observation."

Silence settled between them. Comfortable. Familiar.

Then Zhao Lingxi added, very casually, "She’s not allowed in the bathing chamber."

Lan Yue nearly dropped the broom. "Nobody was going to invite her into the bathing chamber!"

"Good."

"Why would you even say that?!"

"No reason."

"Young Miss..."

"Hm?"

"Are YOU jealous?"

Zhao Lingxi’s brush paused for exactly half a second. Then it resumed its steady rhythm.

"Don’t be ridiculous," she said.

But she didn’t deny it.

And Lan Yue, standing there with a broom in her hand and her heart doing backflips, decided that maybe having a thousand Chapters in this story wouldn’t be so bad after all.