The next morning Lingjing opened her eyes, took in the state of things around her, and went bright red all over again.
After the previous night's roughhousing, everything on the big bed had been flung around in a mess—pillows, the condom, the videotapes, and both girls' pajamas. Now both girls were bare from the waist up, wearing nothing below but a pair of clean white panties, tangled together like a pair of octopuses. Lingjing's small, only recently budding chest was in Huaisha's grip, while one of Lingjing's hands had wandered quite shamelessly into Shasha's panties, where her thighs held it lightly pinned.
Oh no, this is bad... What on earth happened last night?
Tangled up like this, slipping free was simply impossible. As for last night—all she remembered was that after those videotapes, the two girls had gotten into a restless, rowdy tussle. Shasha had pinned her to the bed, and she, not to be outdone, had grabbed and squeezed back the way they had seen on TV. But it had only felt embarrassing and ticklish, and after a fit of giggling they had drifted off to sleep just like that...
Her heart in a hopeless tangle, the little girl bit her lower lip until it went white and tried to slip soundlessly out of Shasha's embrace. A moment later, though, she woke the other girl anyway; Shasha's eyes opened with a "Mn," and the two of them stared at each other, speechless for a long while.
"Ah... Lingjing, you..."
"I... I..."
The two naked bodies sprang apart like released springs, each face so red it looked as if it had been watered with tomato juice. After a good while it was Shasha who recovered her composure first; hugging the quilt around her, she scooted over toward Lingjing.
"We... nothing happened last night..."
"Nothing happened... nothing happened..." Lingjing shook her little head like a rattle drum in agreement.
"We... we're both girls... so..."
"It's fine... we... didn't do anything..."
Comforting each other back and forth like this, they each picked up their pajamas to put them on again—and then Lingjing suddenly said, her voice thick with tears, "Oh... oh no, Shasha, are we... are we not virgins anymore...?"
"Ah?" Shasha forced down a swallow. "N... no way..."
"But... last night we watched that kind of movie, and then... then we did that kind of thing..."
"B... but..."
Schools back then didn't teach any physiology or hygiene classes, and society was a plain, honest place. Both girls, knowing nothing at all about any of it, had gone red to the point of bursting and looked about to start bawling—when Lingjing suddenly remembered something. "R-right, I once read a book of Mom's that said virgins all have... have a hymen... Maybe... maybe you can see it..."
"Oh, yeah, yeah, I've heard that too! Then... Lingjing, do you know how to look?"
"I... the moment I saw that kind of thing I put the book down, so how would I know... But... but we can try looking. Maybe it's easy to tell... I'll look at yours first, then you look at mine..."
"O-okay..." Face burning, Shasha thought it over for a long time before finally perching on the bedside cabinet as if walking to her execution, shyly pulling down her panties; then she gritted her teeth, squeezed her eyes shut, and opened her legs in front of Lingjing.
"I... I don't know how to look either, but..." Lingjing, blushing, reached over with trembling hands.
"You... don't say anything... d-don't go groping around, uh... don't, don't put your fingers in there... uh..." Her voice thick with tears, the usually bossy Shasha was now speaking in soft little gasps—a rare and marvelous sight, except that the only witness was so flustered she was one step away from bursting into tears.
"I... I'm not putting anything in... I'm being very careful... but I don't dare push too hard, in case I break something... uh, I can't see clearly inside, I... I need a flashlight..."
After studying the matter for ages, Lingjing raised her head from between Shasha's legs. Shasha had figured it was one chop whether she stuck her neck out or pulled it back—best to get it over with in one go—but who knew she would have to endure a second round of torment?
As she opened the bedside cabinet to look for the flashlight, tears were already welling up in her eyes. Then something suddenly occurred to her.
"Oh, right—I... I've heard a girl's first time bleeds, and it hurts a lot. Last night we didn't hurt at all, so quick, let's see if there's any blood..."
Her reminder sent both girls scrambling all over the bed hunting for bloodstains. A long while later they finally confirmed it had been a false alarm; by then Lingjing was wearing only her panties and Shasha was completely naked, and the two fair-skinned girls hugged each other and cheered on the bed. After a moment a wicked grin spread over Shasha's face. "Oh, right—just now you looked at mine... now... now I want to look at yours too..."
"Haha, no way..."
"I'm going to anyway, don't you dare run..."
"Ah—help!"
The two of them thrashed about on the bed for a few moments. Lingjing had learned some martial arts, but in raw strength she was no match for Shasha at all; with pouncing, tickling and biting used in rotation, Lingjing was soon pinned flat on the bed. She was in high spirits herself by then, laughing and struggling at the same time, and within moments Shasha had yanked off her panties and she was a little white lamb.
"Haha, stop it, help—"
"Who are you calling for help, Jiaming? I'm going to look, I'm going to look..."
"Don't!"
Lingjing was lying on her side, one leg hoisted high over Shasha's shoulder, while both of Lingjing's hands were clamped on Shasha's head to keep her from bending down. The standoff was still going when—bang—the door opened.
"What are you two doing in there? I've got breakfast all—"
Innocent, pure classmate Jiaming appeared in the doorway holding a glass of milk. Then came a "pfft," and Jiaming—who had just been tipping the milk into his mouth—sprayed it out in a violent burst, milky white liquid splattering all over his head and face.
He really was shocked. This was hands down the most astonishing scene he had witnessed since being reborn.
Drip. Drip.
In the room, the two girls were intertwined in an utterly alluring pose: Lingjing's right leg was hoisted high, everything between her legs in plain view, and Shasha was fully naked with her head braced in Lingjing's hands. Neither girl was fully developed yet, but their chests already had a quite tempting swell, natural and symmetrical, and now both of them were staring at the doorway in the same mortified posture.
As for Jiaming in the doorway, he stood there stunned for a good while and was the first to come back to himself. With the milk glass still pressed to his lips, he shut the door, unable to hold back a low burst of laughter.
"Ah—"
"Get out!"
The two girls shrieked at the top of their lungs, and pillows, videotapes, pajamas and panties all went flying at the doorway; from beyond the room came Jiaming's uncontrollable howl of laughter.
Only after they had thrown every throwable thing within reach did the two girls gradually calm down. They glanced at each other, faces red, then silently got dressed. Shasha put on a pair of smart suit trousers that were made purely for boys, paired with a shirt and a vest—a clean, sharp jeans-and-shirt look; Lingjing got back into the pale green floral-print dress she had worn the day before, then sat down on the edge of the bed, covered her face, and began to sob.