After the Soft Sister Differentiated Into A

Tong Fei’s heart trembled as she looked at Yao Jin’s cold eyes. She felt wronged and pouted. 

After being humiliated by Yao Jin, she had no outlet for her anger. So, she turned around, a huff in her voice, and marched up to the group of Chengye students blocking the entrance. With her hands on her hips, she angrily said, “All of you, get the hell out of my way!”

After yelling this sentence, she lowered her head and charged forward, regardless of how many people stood in front of her. 

The dark-skinned students with big round and large hips from before stood like unmovable mountains in front of the door. Seeing Tong Fei recklessly charge at them with her head down, they quickly raise their hands to stop her. Unexpectedly, Tong Fei immediately slipped and then fell to the ground on her butt as she screamed loudly. 

“Aiya, it hurts! Not only do you Chengye students shamelessly occupy the gym, but you’re now resorting to violence?! Are there no authorities here who can dole out justice?” 

Yang Xing, who was standing next to her, quickly took out his phone as the cogs in his head turned. He took a picture and shouted a little too loudly, “Everyone has seen it! It was Chengye High who made the first move! The entire fiasco was probably captured by the security cameras above! I’m going to report to you all right now!” 

“Wait a minute.” 

The stalemate was slowly breaking after Tong Fei’s “porcelain scammer”* act and so at this moment Fang Mu stepped forward calmly. (*T/N: slang for when someone creates/exaggerates an accident to get money out of you. The origin of the slang comes from when a crook sets up a something fragile like a porcelain vase in front of your car and demand you pay for it when you knock it over) 

He knew that it would be impossible to maintain their blockade forever so he had already thought of a backup plan. He spoke slowly in a flat voice, “I know everyone wants to use the gym today, but the capacity is limited. Why don’t we decide this through a competition and the school that wins will have exclusive rights to the gym?” 

“No deal.” 

“Alright!” 

As soon as Tong Fei heard about a competition, she immediately jumped up from the ground and excitedly agreed. 

Yang Xing glared at her, and said frustratedly, “Are you stupid? Why would you waste your time on him?” 

Yang Xing felt that since he had gotten evidence of Chengye High “beating up” people, he could drive them away if he reported them directly to the staff. He thought there wasn’t a need to waste time to compete with them, and even if they did, they might not win against Chengye. 

But Tong Fei didn’t think that far. She only latched on to the fact that Yang Xing was calling her stupid and narrowed her eyes to glare at him unhappily, “Yang Xing, was it? Have you forgotten the lesson from last time? Five days from now, when the center opens its gates again, you better be waiting for me to teach you another lesson.” 

Yang Xing quickly took a half step back, a sudden bout of nervousness sprouting in his heart. 

Yuanhai High and Deshang High are located right next to each other and so he often butted heads with Tong Fei in the past. He originally had the upper hand until Tong Fei differentiated and got a rank several ranks higher than his. When the third-years and no other seniors to help him, he could only be beaten and bullied into the ground by Tong Fei. 

Seeing his cowardly appearance, Tong Fei smiled mockingly and continued: “Is a weak chicken like you in charge of Yuanhai High? If I recall correctly, the highest-ranked Alpha should be Jin Siming, right?” 

Yang Xing clenched his fists. Tong Fei’s words hit him in his sorest spot and the truth he was most unwilling to admit. 

“Class presidents, in the end, will our school participate or not?” 

Yao Jin suddenly called out. She raised her chin and looked over at the hesitant class presidents with a smile. 

Although she was enjoying standing next to Jin Siming and receiving her umbrella service, there were too many people around and too much noise for her to fully enjoy it. 

Perhaps it would be better to find another place to be alone with Jin Siming? 

When one is in love, all other people are insignificant. 

In the end, all three schools unanimously decided to compete to determine the right to use the gym. 

For the sake of fairness, the competition would be held in the Five Senses testing center that was already opened. Specifically they would be competing on the vision exam. Each school can freely choose the number of people participating but there is a maximum of four people and the final score will be based on the highest score out of the people from your school. 

On Yuanhai’s side, they first selected Yao Jin, who excels in virtually every subject, and Jin Siming who has the highest physical rank in their class. 

If this was in the past, Jin Siming would definitely have competed against Yao Jin with all her heart because people would be comparing them again. Now, however, she had no plans at all to compete against Yao Jin. 

Five Senses testing center is located in the building next to the gym and it was only a short walk there. Jin Siming, who was sharing an umbrella with Yao Jin, naturally walked over, side by side with Yao Jin. 

On the way there, they also bumped into Tong Fei who deliberately speeded past her. Naturally she was one of the students picked by Deshang to represent them along with another male student. 

When Tong Fei passed her, she turned her head and purposefully raised an eyebrow at her in a challenging manner. 

Jin Siming: “…..” 

“Have you ever taken a course on the vision aptitude test?” Yao Jin suddenly asked. 

“Ah? Uh….no.” Jin Siming answered honestly.

Yao Jin was a little surprised, paused, then raised her lips again, and said in a playful voice, “Then what have you been doing all last week?” 

Of course she’s been….playing video games all day. Aren’t that what holidays are for? 

Jin Siming had originally taken this test for granted but when Yao Jin asked her this question she was suddenly feeling a little guilty. 

However, why should she feel guilty in front of Yao Jin? 

So she puffed out her chest and said, “Eat, drink, and play of course.” 

Yao Jin sighed, “You….” 

Does she not know how important these tests are? She didn’t even make any preparations in advance. 

Yao Jin was preoccupied with her thoughts, but didn’t say anything. 

Now was not the time, some things….will be saved for later 

She swallowed the words in her throat and turned to point at a little bird flying in the sky, “Do you see that little bird?” 

Jin Siming followed her fingers and looked up, “Yeah, I see it.” 

“What is its wingbeat frequency?” 

Jin Siming: “….” 

Yao Jin looked at Jin Siming with a ‘As I thought’ expression on her face. She stopped walking and stood face to face with her, raising her head, “Although I don’t care if we win or lose, if I’m to participate with Classmate Jin, I hope we can get some good results~” 

Seeing Yao Jin’s pretty face suddenly become serious, Jin Siming was taken aback for a moment, and before she could think about what she said, that soft voice sounded in her ear again.

“It’s too late for a lesson, so I’ll make a long story short. Just memorize what I’m about to say. With your innate advantages, you should be able to understand immediately and perhaps you can use it later….” 

As they walked towards their destination, Jin Siming experienced a special lecture from Yao Jin. By the time she walked into the testing center, her head was dazed by the sudden overload of information. 

The vision aptitude test is located on the 4th floor. After taking an elevator up to the 4th floor, there is an oval-shaped hall with long corridors extending to both sides.

In the middle of the hall is a round table with a middle-aged man sitting behind it, his arms propped under his head as he dozed. Even with several people approaching him, the man did not wake up. 

Tong Fei tapped on the smooth marble tabletop, eyebrows raised as she shouted loudly,  “Hey, wake up, wake up!” 

The man’s arm slipped, but he caught himself before his head dropped onto the table. He struggled to open his eyes, standing up lazily after getting a good look at them: “Y’all are here rather early! It seems the students this year are quite proactive. Feel free to enter any of the rooms on the right hand side. Please keep in mind that only one person can enter a room at a time. After you enter the room, simply swipe your ID card against the scanner to start the machine. Let me boot up the equipment for y’all.” 

After the man finished speaking, he opened the door behind him and went. 

“What is this? The staff’s service is quite terrible.” 

While Tong Fei complained about the man’s attitude, the girl from Chengye indifferently took the lead and walked towards the corridor on the right. 

Unlike Yuanhai and Deshang, who each sent two people, Chengye had only sent this one girl to represent them. 

Jin Siming glanced at the girl’s retreating back when Yao Jin suddenly pulled on her sleeve. 

“Let’s go.” 

She looked towards the place where Yao Jin was pointing at and quickly followed after her. 

She stood in front of a room and entered after a quick swipe of her ID card. She looked around as she entered. 

The interior wasn’t very large with only a small round table in the middle. There appeared to be some sort of operating console sitting on the table while a display screen hung onto the wall opposite of the machine. 

She walked over to the machine and placed her ID card into the scanner. The lights in the room instantly dimmed and the screen on the console and the display screen on the wall both lit up. 

“Ding–” 

A timer appeared in the top right corner of the console screen. Jin Siming watched as the timer changed from “0“ seconds to “1” seconds. It seems the timer had already started running. 

At the same time the timer blinked “1”, a picture appeared on the display screen. A picture of four people that is. 

Jin Siming focused her attention onto the screen, carefully studying every detail of the photo. When the timer reached 6 seconds, the photo disappeared and the display screen returned to the silver-gray color it had before. 

Then four boxes appeared on the console screen, with photos of each individual person from the group photo just now placed on the bottom. There was no other prompt on the screen indicating what she should do. 

Jin Siming thought about it for half a second before placing each individual photo according to the positions she saw in the group photo just now. 

After she finished, the display screen refreshed and lit up again. Another picture appeared but this time it was a group photo of 8 people. After 6 seconds, the screen grew dark again and the console gave her the same task as before but with 8 different photos instead. 

The test continued in this fashion. From 16 people, 32 people, 64 people, to 128 people….the number of people kept increasing, but the allotted time was still only 6 seconds. 

So the test is testing your ability to capture and retain visual information in a short period of time. 

Jin Siming recalled what Yao Jin had said during her lecture on the way here: 

“In most circumstances, humans perceive things after our brain receives visual feedback and finishes processing it, but what we get is a simplified version of what we see. Generally speaking, normal human vision cannot capture information beyond its capacity and even if the human possess vision capable of it, their brain lacks the ability to process it. However, this is different for individuals who have differentiated.” 

“Don’t be deceived by your original genes, for someone of your level, an S-rank Alpha, your visual system should not be what it used to be. When you look at a bird, try to focus your eyes as if they are a high-definition camera. When you compose the picture in your mind, slowly zoom in and slow down….” 

Jin Siming closed her eyes as she tried to construct the 128 people group photo she had just seen in her mind. At first, only a blurry picture full of faces with rough outlines appeared, but as she focused the photo gradually became less blurry until it was crystal clear in her mind. 

Once she opened her eyes again, she quickly arranged the boxes on her console screen. 

After she finished the task, a photo of 256 people appeared. Once she finished the task for this photo, a new series of questions appeared. 

This time the task was more difficult than the last one. In addition to retaining information, her brain also had to quickly process it in time. 

The 84th rapidly spinning ball flashed across the screen. She quickly memorized its color and hit the corresponding color option on the console screen before it disappeared. After doing so, the test finally came to an end as the words “Test Completed” appeared on her screen. 

Jin Siming took out her ID card out of the scanner and opened the door to leave. She felt a little dizzy due to how much energy and brain power the visual test took. 

“Gurgle, gurgle—” 

She clutched her growling stomach, feeling a little hungry. 

Why was she hungry? She had eaten lunch just before the test and the test itself only took 30 minutes. 

Jin Siming walked slowly to the hall with her head down, and muttered to herself as she walked, “It seems that even if the body has been optimized after differentiation, the visual processing is still simplified if one doesn’t focus. But if one does focus, it becomes a high-energy consuming task. After all, the brain tends to choose the easiest path when processing information, taking shortcuts whenever possible while avoiding any harm to the body.” 

As she walked out with these thoughts floating in her mind, she saw a familiar figure sitting in one of the seats resting against the wall. 

It’s the girl from Chengye High. The one who was first to enter. She had come out earlier than Jin Siming, but didn’t leave the test center. Instead, she said in one of the chairs, head down as she read a book in her hand. 

Jin Siming glanced behind her and saw that the dim light above Yao Jin’s door was still on, indicating that she had not finished yet. 

She stood there awkwardly. 

Should she wait for Yao Jin? Although she is not familiar with anyone else except Yao Jin, since everyone came together it would be more polite to wait for everyone to come before walking out together. But….

She hesitated for a moment before sitting down in one of the chairs. 

“You’re quite skilled. Is this due to innate talent of a higher rank?” 

A cold voice sounded out and Jin Siming looked up to find the girl from Chengye High speaking to her. This was her first time hearing the girl speak. 

“I came out only 51 seconds or about a minute before you, but I have done this kind of visual test no less than 20 times in the last month. A training method that prepared me well for this test.” 

She paused and continued, “I overheard your conversation with that girl earlier. This is your first encounter with such a test, correct?” 

Jin Siming looked bewilderedly at the strange girl when the other party asked, “May I see your results?” 

When the girl said this, Jin Siming was finally reminded that the machine had already tallied up a score for her when she finished the test. She could check her score any time on the app developed by the aptitude center. 

So she took out her phone and clicked on the app. After logging in, she showed the girl the screen where her scores were displayed. 

Click-

At this moment, the sound of a door opening rang out and she turned to see Yao Jin coming out. 

She made a beeline to the seat next to Jin Siming and sat down with a smile: “Classmate Jin is really fast, but I wonder if you can finish fast and well at the same time?” 

Jin Siming: “….” 

Why does this sentence sound a bit weird? 

Yao Jin adjusted in her seat, stretching the waist as she stretched up to lift her hair. One of the twintails on the side of her face was coming loose so she took out her hair tie and let her black hair flow down her face. 

“Can you do me a favor?” She looked over at Jin Siming, who was sitting in an upright position with her hands on her knees, and raised her rosy lips. 

Jin Siming turned towards her as Yao Jin held up a hair tie in front of her, shaking it back and forth, “I can’t reach the back of my head, but you should know how to tie up hair, right?” 

Yao Jin was actually asking her to tie her twintail for her! 

Jin Siming swallowed and looked down at Yao Jin’s smooth and beautiful black hair. One could tell by the luster shine and fluffy look that this hair must be regularly taken good care of. 

She wonders how it would feel in her hands…

Pah, why does she feel like a pervert? Isn’t it just tying up some hair? 

JIn Siming squeezed the phone in her hand, forcing her disordered breathing to calm down as she spoke, “Of course I know how! No matter what, I’m still a girl who keeps up with the trends! Not only can I tie up my own hair, but I also know several advanced braiding techniques.” 

“Oh~” Yao Jin said playfully, blinked her beautiful fox-like eyes up at her as she leaned sideways towards her, “Then help me tie my hair.” 

Jin Siming took a deep breath. 

Although her heart kept yelling at her that it was no big deal, that it was just tying some hair and classmates helped each other all the time with such trivial matters, her hand couldn’t help trembling uncontrollably as she reached out for the hair tie. 

“Jin Siming! I bet you my score is much higher than yours!” 

At this moment, Tong Fei rushed out of her room and arrived in front of them with another 2-3 steps. Jin Siming quickly withdrew her hand and drily coughed twice as she averted her gaze and scratched the tip of her nose. 

No matter how you look at it, there was an unspoken tension in the air. 

Tong Fei stared at Jin Siming’s red ears, frowning as she asked, “Why is your face so red?” 

After she finished speaking, she glanced at Yao Jin next to her, and saw that she was leaning sideways towards Jin Siming with her long hair loose. Then she looked over at Jin Siming’s unnatural blushing face. Tong Fei immediately jumped to conclusions as strange images flashed in her head. 

She took a deep breath: “You two…what were you two doing just now?” 

“Hey, hurry up and leave if you’re done with your test! Don’t kick up a ruckus here.” 

The middle-aged man, who was dozing off behind the marble table was woken up by Tong Fei’s blustering, shouted impatiently at them. 

The boy who came with Tong Fei also came out at this moment so they were unceremoniously kicked out together. 

They got out of the elevator with Jin Siming walking in front, the pink on her face still hadn’t completely faded.

But, she didn’t actually do anything so why does she feel like she got caught doing something she shouldn’t have done?

How strange. 

Jin Siming quickly left everyone else behind as she hurried forward when sounds of Tong Fei pestering Yao Jin rang in her ears. 

Tong Fei: “Jinjin, can I say a few words to you in private?” 

Yao Jin responded coldly, “No, I’m busy.” 

Tong Fei’s voice softly rang out again, “Aiya, Jin-Jin, don’t be like this. Even if I’ll never have a chance with you, we can still be friends. I’ll change myself to be whatever you like.” 

The sound of Tong Fei’s persistent voice lingered in her ears, making Jin Siming feel irritated for some reason. She slowed down her pace. 

“You don’t have to change anything, because I just don’t like you at all.” 

Tong Fei froze. This was her first time hearing Yao Jin, saying such heartless words to her. No matter how much she pestered and harassed Yao Jin in the past, the other party would still take her feelings into consideration when she rejected her. The current Jin-Jin, however, seemed to be different than before. As if she was no longer leaving any room for her in her heart. 

However, she was still unwilling to let go, “Then can you at least tell me your type? This….is my last question.” 

Jin Siming stopped in the front, pricking up her ears to listen. 

However, because she had braked so suddenly Yao Jin, who was walking behind her, accidentally bumped into her back. 

The bridge of her nose hit such a hard back, causing her nose to ache in pain. Yao Jin covered her sore nose, looking up at Jin Siming, who had just turned around, with a face full of grievances, “Ah, that hurts! I’m in so much pain! You’ll have to blow on it and rub it to make it feel better~” 

“….” 

Tong Fei watched as Yao Jin, who just now was colder than ice and could freeze someone to death with her glare, suddenly made a 180 in her expression when facing Jin Siming. Her soft and tender expression that wore a slight “begging to be touched” look made Tong Fei breathless and want to fall to the ground. 

“Very well…I understand now.” 

She gave Jin Siming one last meaningful look, before she covered her face and ran away with a painful ache in her chest. 

The boy who was with her quickly ran after the retreating Tong Fei.

Jin Siming only looked at Tong Fei in confusion and felt puzzled by why she ran away all of a sudden. 

With Tong Fei gone and the girl from Chengye already far ahead (she had gotten off the elevator  and left without stopping), only Jin Siming and Yao Jin were left. 

The atmosphere suddenly grew quiet. 

Jin Siming lowered her head only to see Yao Jin’s bright gaze looking straight up at her. Her heart skipped a beat twice and she quickly averted her gaze, turning around to walk away. 

“When will you ever behave more naturally in my presence?” 

The voice behind her called out, forcing Jin Siming to stop in her tracks.