After Transmigrating Into a Book, I Was Played by the Black Lotus – Chapter 16

Logic

The sequential appearance of characters as dictated by the world line.

After helping Bai Xiying to the hospital, they happened to run into the same doctor from last time.

“You?” The doctor frowned. “Why are you here again?”

He looked the two of them up and down. He had to admit, they were seeing each other again a little too quickly.

“Being hit with this drug so frequently is not a good thing,” he mumbled.

Having been a doctor for many years, a single glance was all it took for him to know what had happened to Bai Xiying.

Bai Xiying had been unconscious the last time and hadn’t seen the doctor. Plus, with other things on her mind after she woke up, she hadn’t paid much attention. So, upon hearing his words, she lifted her eyes slightly to glance at Lin Xingzhu.

Lin Xingzhu was a bit embarrassed. “There are just too many unscrupulous people out there.”

The doctor said no more and had a nurse wheel Bai Xiying into an inner room.

Lin Xingzhu sat outside waiting. When the doctor came out midway, she quickly grabbed him. “What did you mean just now? What isn’t a good thing?”

The doctor paused and thought for a moment. “As I said before, a small dose of the drug can act as an aphrodisiac, adding a bit of spice to a relationship. But your friend here was previously hit with a dose of an extremely potent new drug. Her recovery period just ended, yet her body has been stimulated once again. If this happens a few more times, her body will develop a chain reaction to the drug’s stimulation…”

Lin Xingzhu’s eyes widened, her brow already knitted tightly.

“…In short, her body will become more sensitive than a normal person’s, or she may develop other irreversible side effects,” the doctor continued. “However, I haven’t encountered a case like this before. What I’m saying now is based on my professional judgment from many years of practice.”

After a moment, Lin Xingzhu asked hesitantly, “So if that happens, is it because of the drugging incident from half a month ago?”

The doctor glanced at her and affirmed her suspicion.

Lin Xingzhu froze, her hand slowly letting go of the doctor’s sleeve.

So this was another mess created by the original owner of this body.

“I understand,” Lin Xingzhu said. “You can go back in.”

After the doctor left, Lin Xingzhu leaned back on the hallway bench, resting her forehead in her hand as she sank into deep thought.

—If this happens a few more times, her body will develop a chain reaction to the drug’s stimulation…

—Is it because of the drugging incident from half a month ago?

—Yes.

Lin Xingzhu slowly closed her eyes. To prevent this from happening, she had to ensure that aphrodisiacs never touched Bai Xiying again.

This meant that Bai Xiying, or rather, she and Bai Xiying together, had to raise their guard and eliminate any future risks.

Lin Xingzhu let out a slow breath, a decision already forming in her heart.

When Bai Xiying was wheeled out, her expression had returned to normal, showing no signs of anything unusual.

Lying on the gurney, Bai Xiying’s face was a little pale. The lipstick on her lips had been wiped off at some point, revealing their natural, faint pink hue.

She said listlessly, “I’ve troubled you again.”

Seeing her dispirited state, Lin Xingzhu fell silent for a moment before suddenly asking, “Are you hungry?”

Bai Xiying had only eaten a few desserts to tide her over at the banquet; she hadn’t had a proper meal at all.

Bai Xiying’s expression suddenly turned strange again, and a bit of life returned to her pale, weak face.

“…” Lin Xingzhu rubbed her nose and added, “If I buy congee, I’ll have them add sugar.”

Bai Xiying immediately looked away, satisfied.

Seeing this, Lin Xingzhu turned on her heel and left the hospital to buy food.

She had only recently discovered Bai Xiying’s preference for sweets. Thinking back, when Bai Xiying was hospitalized before, Lin Xingzhu had followed conventional wisdom and ordered light, bland meals for her, most of which were savory. It must have been difficult for her to force herself to eat them.

After telling the shop owner to add extra sugar, Lin Xingzhu carried the purchased dinner back.

The hospital room Bai Xiying was checked into was the same one as last time. Lin Xingzhu familiarly pressed the elevator button for the correct floor. After getting off and walking toward the third-to-last room in the hallway, she suddenly heard voices from inside.

Her hand, about to open the door, paused. Lin Xingzhu glanced inside and immediately saw a wheelchair by the hospital bed, and the back of the person sitting in it.

An indescribable premonition suddenly arose in her heart.

She pushed the door open, and the people inside turned around at the sound.

A gentle and elegant face immediately came into view.

“…Lin Xingzhu?” The woman with a gentle disposition frowned subconsciously.

Lin Xingzhu greeted her. As she got closer and bent down to put her things away, she heard Bai Xiying say softly to the woman, “Xuejie¹, Lin Xingzhu and I are friends now.”

The frown on Xie Yunya’s² brow didn’t ease, but her expression did soften considerably.

Her gaze swept across the room, finally noticing the environment. Given Xiying’s situation, she certainly couldn’t afford a high-end VIP room, but if it was Lin Xingzhu… Thinking of this, she shot a glance at Lin Xingzhu, and it all made sense.

But how did Xiying end up with Lin Xingzhu?

People’s preconceptions are truly hard to shake. Lin Xingzhu’s reputation at school wasn’t good; she was the type of person Xie Yunya would have never associated with in the past. But now that they had a mutual friend, Xie Yunya thought she should try to trust Xiying’s judgment.

Perhaps Lin Xingzhu wasn’t as bad as the rumors claimed?

Thus, Xie Yunya spoke in a gentle tone, “I just happened to run into Xiying in the hospital corridor. We haven’t seen each other in a long time, so I came here to catch up.”

She figured that since Lin Xingzhu had arranged the VIP room, it was only right to let her know.

“Is that so,” Lin Xingzhu smiled faintly, her eyes drifting to the wheelchair as she asked casually, “What happened to your leg? Is it serious?”

Xie Yunya was taken aback, not expecting her to show concern. She touched her leg and smiled lightly. “It’s nothing serious. I should be able to leave the hospital in a while. I just happened to run into Xiying and Dr. Zhao on the fifth-floor corridor and realized she was here too, so I came over with them.”

The fifth floor… Lin Xingzhu lowered her eyes. Bai Xiying’s room was on the ninth floor, and Dr. Zhao’s consultation room was on the third. So why would they have met on the fifth floor of the hospital?

A contemplative look flashed in her eyes. In the original novel, Bai Xiying did indeed reunite with Xie Yunya at the hospital sometime after graduation.

And quite coincidentally, it was also on the fifth floor.

The reason Lin Xingzhu remembered this small detail so clearly was that a colleague of hers at the time happened to have a urological problem, and the original novel had described the fifth floor as having that exact department. She had skimmed that part of the story but had subconsciously registered the detail.

The memory surfaced easily, and Lin Xingzhu quickly sensed that something was wrong.

At that moment, the sense of dissonance from half a month ago suddenly returned.

—“Who did you hear that from?”

—“Perhaps an acquaintance saw you at the bar.”

Half a month ago, Shang Cengrou had come to the hospital to see her, revealing that the news of “Bai Xiying being put in the hospital by her” had already spread. But when they left the bar that day, Bai Xiying’s face had been buried in her chest; even Mu Muqing hadn’t recognized her.

And she herself had walked quickly, not encountering anyone along the way. As for Shang Cengrou’s claim that an acquaintance just happened to see them, it was certainly possible.

But Lin Xingzhu felt the probability was far, far too low.

Yet, this false rumor had spread like wildfire, quickly reaching the ears of Qiao Ziqin, who had always been fixated on Bai Xiying, thus triggering her subsequent actions.

Tracing these clues, everything seemed logical on the surface, but Lin Xingzhu couldn’t shake a strange feeling.

And… Xie Yunya wasn’t just a simple senior. She was also Gong Three from the original novel.

The collision with Mu Muqing at the elevator late at night in the bar, an enraged Qiao Ziqin provoked by false rumors, the strange encounter on the hospital’s fifth floor.

In a flash of insight, Lin Xingzhu seemed to understand everything.

Xie Yunya looked at the silent Lin Xingzhu strangely. “Is something wrong?”

Lin Xingzhu looked up, her expression as calm as ever. “No, I was just marveling at how coincidental it is to run into Xuejie at the hospital.”

Xie Yunya was a year ahead of her and Bai Xiying, so it was perfectly fine for Lin Xingzhu to address her as Xuejie.

Lin Xingzhu then turned to Bai Xiying and asked with concern, “Did Dr. Zhao take you to the fifth floor for another check-up?”

Bai Xiying nonchalantly withdrew her gaze from Lin Xingzhu.

“No,” Bai Xiying shook her head. “Dr. Zhao was just taking me to find a colleague of his to get some keys for a piece of equipment.”

Lin Xingzhu nodded, the tension and worry on her face gradually fading with her words.

Bai Xiying’s dark, feather-like lashes fluttered as she lowered her eyes to look at the steaming congee on the table.

The fifth floor… hmm?

At that moment, after dealing with Xie Yunya, Lin Xingzhu turned and bent down to tidy the clutter on the table, a complex and enlightened look flashing in her eyes.

So that’s how it is…

Ever since she transmigrated into the world of this book, the original plot had already started to change.

But luckily, this change in plot wasn’t like the forced-plot novels she had read about in her previous life, where any deviation would lead to irreversible consequences or punishments.

All things operate according to logic; the world is a material existence, not a mere fantasy—even if, as a book’s setting, it was imagined by an author. Since this place had become a world of its own, it had to follow its own operational laws and logic.

That was why there was the low-probability encounter with an “acquaintance,” and why Dr. Zhao, who had no reason to bring Bai Xiying along, still did so when he went to the fifth floor to get keys from a colleague.

Although the probability of these events was low, they were, upon reflection, perfectly plausible.

Thinking about it this way, her bumping into Mu Muqing as she rushed out of the bar was the simplest and most logical event of them all.

The world didn’t have to follow the original story’s plot line, with all its logical bugs. But perhaps because its existence was indeed born from the original book, it retained some of the original story threads as it operated.

This story thread could perhaps be called the character appearance sequence line.

—From Gong One, Mu Muqing, to Gong Two, Qiao Ziqin, and now to Gong Three, Xie Yunya.

But Lin Xingzhu wasn’t sure if the world’s influence was limited to just the sequence of appearances.

Her eyes flickered. Perhaps she could use Qiao Ziqin to test the waters?

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