After Transmigrating Into a Book, I Was Played by the Black Lotus – Chapter 42

Clarity

Seeing how much effort Bai Xiying was expending to help up the drunk Lin Xingzhu, Jiang Yeye hurried over to lend a hand. “Xiying-jie, let me. You drank quite a bit just now, too. I can just help my cousin downstairs.”

She looked at her cousin, who had closed her eyes at some point, and couldn’t help but complain in her heart: if you can’t hold your liquor, you shouldn’t drink so much.

Bai Xiying shook her head, refusing. “I can manage.”

She glanced at Jiang Yeye’s eager-to-help face and smiled. “Could you help me clean up the table?”

Jiang Yeye immediately looked down at the post-meal disaster scene and couldn’t help but blush slightly.

The biggest pile of trash was right in front of her.

She glanced over at Bai Xiying, who was helping her cousin sit down on the sofa, then looked away and began to clean up with swift efficiency. Afterward, she and Bai Xiying washed the dishes together. Once everything was done, Bai Xiying returned to the living room and once again helped Lin Xingzhu up.

Lin Xingzhu was very well-behaved when drunk and drowsy; she didn’t make a fuss or struggle, simply letting the person beside her do as she pleased.

Seeing this, Bai Xiying’s mood shifted, and her eyes darkened slightly. She bent down, her slender arm wrapping around Lin Xingzhu’s soft, pliant waist and tightening. Her other arm held firmly to her shoulder as she slowly used her strength to stand up.

Their two soft bodies were instantly pressed together. Bai Xiying could feel breath mixed with a fragrant, intoxicating aroma of alcohol wafting against the side of her neck, stirring a frisson within her.

Jiang Yeye, who was holding the door open and waiting, accidentally caught a glimpse of this and couldn’t help but blush.

She followed obediently behind Bai Xiying and Lin Xingzhu, offering a hand to steady them whenever Bai Xiying seemed to lose her balance.

It wasn’t that she lacked sisterly affection and didn’t want to support the other side; it was that Bai Xiying’s posture was like she was holding Lin Xingzhu entirely in her embrace. If Jiang Yeye were to rashly intervene, it would easily make all three of them uncomfortable.

Besides, she noticed that Xiying-jie could still manage.

The whole way, Jiang Yeye was only responsible for opening and closing the elevator and the doors. After Bai Xiying brought Lin Xingzhu back to her bedroom and placed the soundly sleeping person on the bed, Jiang Yeye immediately said, with great tact, “Xiying-jie, you should go back and rest early too. I can take care of my cousin here.”

Afraid that Bai Xiying would again say she was just a kid and couldn’t take good care of her, Jiang Yeye puffed out her chest and guaranteed, “I have experience taking care of drunk people!”

She had taken care of her mom before when she got drunk!

“Is that so?” Bai Xiying didn’t answer her directly, saying instead, “Can you help me get something from your room?”

“Huh?” Jiang Yeye froze for a second, then, after meeting Bai Xiying’s eyes, she nodded dumbly. “Okay.”

“Xiying-jie, come with me. I don’t know what you want to get.”

“Alright.”

Bai Xiying glanced back at Lin Xingzhu, whose cheeks were flushed and eyes were tightly shut, before following Jiang Yeye to her room.

Jiang Yeye’s room was clearly decorated in the style of a guest room. Bai Xiying gave it a cursory scan, her gaze landing on a white cabinet by the wall. “I’ve found what I was looking for.”

She took a step forward, approaching Jiang Yeye, who had her back to her. Then, just as she was about to turn around, Bai Xiying struck out swiftly, hitting the back of her neck.

Looking at the unconscious Jiang Yeye on the bed, Bai Xiying’s eyes shifted. She bent down to change her position, casually pulled the nearby quilt over her, and then closed the door and left.

Bai Xiying had never told anyone that she had also practiced the technique of knocking people out before her rebirth; she just couldn’t do it as gently or skillfully as Lin Xingzhu had that one time.

This was also why Bai Xiying hadn’t immediately realized something was wrong when she woke up last time.

Now, no one in the entire apartment would come to disturb her.

An unidentifiable emotion surged in her eyes, wrapped in an inexplicably dangerous aura.

Bai Xiying stood before Lin Xingzhu’s door for a moment, composed her expression, and then lifted her foot and walked in.

She approached the bedside and knelt on one knee, bringing her to eye level with Lin Xingzhu on the bed. Her eyes, like black obsidian, were fixed on Lin Xingzhu’s drunken face. Her gaze grew darker and darker, like a great, dark reef in an abyss where a dark flame seemed to flicker.

After a long moment, she straightened up, then slowly closed the distance again, bowing her head. Her jet-black hair, draped over her shoulders, cascaded down her front, a few stray strands even brushing against Lin Xingzhu’s cheek.

The person lying on the bed was completely unaware.

Her breathing gradually grew ragged. The corners of Bai Xiying’s eyes had, at some point, become tinged with crimson, creating an uncanny and bewitching allure in the dim, hazy bedroom.

The person had already been schemed into her grasp. Bai Xiying lifted the corner of her lips; hesitating any further was not her style.

Her eyes instantly became incomparably dark. Bai Xiying leaned down, closed her eyes, and gently kissed those moist lips.

Very soft, very astringent, and then slowly, a little sweet.

Bai Xiying’s body was rigid as she closed her eyes and felt the emotions in her heart. There was no nauseating feeling.

After a moment, she opened her eyes again. Lin Xingzhu’s eyelashes brushed against the side of her eye like a small brush, a little itchy.

She didn’t pull away. Instead, she hesitantly parted her lips and took a somewhat clumsy step forward.

Met with resistance, Bai Xiying paused, then persevered onward.

Tonight, she had to test this and get a result.

In her sleep, Lin Xingzhu frowned uncomfortably. She felt something touching her lips, soft, like a caramel pudding.

But she didn’t like sweets. At this thought, Lin Xingzhu pressed her lips together, blocking the thing outside.

Suddenly, the caramel pudding before her began to transform, instantly becoming a bright red crab. Though it had clearly been prepared and served on a platter, it bizarrely continued to use its hard, large pincer to pry at her mouth, as if saying she had no choice but to eat.

There was such a thing as food that actively came to you to be eaten?!

Bai Xiying’s ten fingers, braced on the edge of the bed, slowly tightened, wrinkling the smooth bedsheet. A tingling numbness spread down her spine. Not only did she feel no revulsion or disgust, but her entire mind was captivated by the movement between their lips.

But it was precisely Lin Xingzhu’s clumsy, artless technique that brought Bai Xiying to the brink of losing control, her remaining rationality screaming in protest.

A different kind of feeling permeated the air.

Bai Xiying wanted to retreat, to leave, but that person gave her absolutely no chance to withdraw.

She didn’t know how much time had passed. It seemed like only a minute, yet it also seemed like a century had gone by. Bai Xiying’s eyes were hazy, her mind adrift, completely unable to distinguish the flow of time. Before she couldn’t help but release all her strength, Lin Xingzhu finally let her go.

The tip of her tongue was numb, its perception sealed away.

But Bai Xiying felt that her mind had never been as blissful and ethereal as it was in this moment, like a floating white cloud, light and airy, without any anchor, yet making one reluctant to wake, wishing to drown within it.

So this is what kissing feels like?

A trace of red colored the corner of her eye, and a watery light shimmered in her gaze. This watery light, mixed with her moving beauty, became all the more soul-stirring.

Bai Xiying lowered her gaze, staring blankly at Lin Xingzhu’s sleeping face, as gentle as jade.

Up to this point, none of her tests had produced any feeling of disgust.

It was even excessively wonderful.

In this moment, everything from her past seemed so fragile it couldn’t withstand a single blow under this clumsy kiss.

Bai Xiying’s eyelashes trembled lightly as she contemplated whether or not to continue.

In her original plan, this alone was not enough.

But her own reactions couldn’t be faked. Bai Xiying bit her lip, her eyelashes quivering, stirring a ripple.

In truth, it wasn’t just her eyes that were shimmering with a watery light.

But in her original conception, she should have been unable to bear it and fled in disgust the very moment their lips touched, yet the reality was the complete opposite.

Extending a pale, pink fingertip, Bai Xiying gently traced Lin Xingzhu’s peaceful brows and eyes, gradually moving downward until the cool pad of her finger lightly touched her even more moistened lips.

Finally, with her head lowered, Bai Xiying slowly took Lin Xingzhu’s long, slender hand that was dangling in the air. She controlled her strength, gently stroking every inch of the hand beneath hers, her eyes churning with deep, dark emotions, her thoughts unreadable.

After a moment, Bai Xiying lifted Lin Xingzhu’s warm hand. Her shoulders slumped, and beneath her relaxed body, the pupils in her eyes gradually lost focus, blurring, dazed. Finally, as if uncontrollably, she slowly lowered her head, parted her lips, and almost imperceptibly licked the fingertip cradled in her palm.

Her soul seemed to tremble, letting out a tremendous sound.

Bai Xiying looked at the person on the bed with a dark, obscure expression.

The next second, she pressed the other person’s palm tightly against her cheek. Heat circulated, flowing where the two of them touched. Bai Xiying knelt on the cold floor, staring into the void, lost in thought.

The person sleeping soundly on the bed seemed a little uncomfortable. As she turned over, she subconsciously pulled her hand back, letting it fall casually by her side as her breathing gradually returned to a steady rhythm.

Bai Xiying remained in her original position. She turned her head, stood up, and tucked the quilt in for Lin Xingzhu.

After doing all this, she stood by Lin Xingzhu’s bed, casting an even deeper shadow in the dim bedroom. After taking one last, deep look at the oblivious Lin Xingzhu, Bai Xiying closed the door and turned to leave.

As she entered the elevator, Bai Xiying glanced at the time, then, still dizzy with a pink flush that had yet to fade, she floated her way home.

It wasn’t too late, but Bai Xiying no longer had the mental energy to do anything else.

Her usual fixed routine for this time of day had been unconsciously cast aside.

Bai Xiying threw herself onto her bed. Without turning on the lights, she kicked off her slippers and, by the silver glow of the high-hanging moon, curled herself into a ball at the head of the bed, maintaining her lucidity amidst the tearing of desire.

Bai Xiying felt that she had no need to enter that room again tonight, even if her heart was on fire.

The test she had deliberately engineered tonight had already explained everything: she was not the least bit repulsed by further contact with Lin Xingzhu. She was even addicted.

The moment she had touched upon her own feelings for Lin Xingzhu that morning, Bai Xiying had already begun planning to do these things at night.

Bringing up hot pot was deliberate, taking out the strong liquor was also deliberate, and even before Lin Xingzhu and the others came upstairs, Bai Xiying, unsure if she could remain sober enough to get Lin Xingzhu drunk, had taken a sobriety pill she had bought from the pharmacy outside the residential complex just in case.

Everything she did was to ensure that tonight’s operation could proceed smoothly.

Furthermore, Bai Xiying had even considered that if Lin Xingzhu’s post-drinking behavior was inconvenient for her plans, she would directly do as Lin Xingzhu had done when she pinched her neck last time—she would, preparing a concoction according to the recipe¹, knock her out.

Bai Xiying would not allow any person or accident to interfere with her plans.

The calculated solitude revealed a clarifying truth.

At this thought, she suddenly let out a low laugh.

Silken threads of moonlight traced the edge of the wall, shimmering with a faint, fluorescent glow.

The light split Bai Xiying, who was leaning against the bed, into two distinct blocks of color.

The lower half was faintly luminous; the upper half was submerged in darkness.

The dark night concealed her ever-deepening eyes. Bai Xiying tilted her head up, her delicate chin tightening into a taut curve. Her swollen red lips curved into a startling arc, radiating an uncanny, magnificent beauty into the silent room.

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