After Transmigrating Into a Book, I Was Played by the Black Lotus – Chapter 94

Extra 4

Parallel World IF Line 3

Lin Xingzhu had already looked at the time several times.

Her colleague, who was sitting with her, saw this rare sight of hers and guessed quizzically, “Lin Xingzhu, are you in a relationship?”

“Ah?” Lin Xingzhu, who had come back to her senses, frowned, not at all understanding why her colleague would say that.

The suspicious colleague pouted her lips. “You’ve looked at your watch so many times, exactly the same way Shen-ge¹ looks at the time every evening, rushing to go on a date.”

Lin Xingzhu: “…”

She knew of the Shen-ge her colleague spoke of. It was said that once, during a company meeting, the director had extended the meeting time. Everyone, who should have gotten off work, was forced to work overtime in the conference room, and Shen-ge’s behavior of frequently lowering his head to look at the time finally caught the attention of the director in charge.

It was said that the director was originally very displeased and asked him for the reason. Upon learning that he was afraid his girlfriend would get angry and wanted to rush to their date, the director was stunned for a moment and then laughed, speeding up the meeting’s progress.

From then on, the matter of Shen-ge looking at the time became famous in the office.

The corner of her mouth twitched, and she denied it, saying, “Where is your mind going? I’m certainly not in a relationship.”

Her colleague raised an eyebrow. “But the frequency with which you’ve been looking at the time as it gets close to quitting time has been quite high recently. You were never like this before.”

Because recently, an uninvited guest had come to her home.

Lin Xingzhu swallowed these words back into her stomach.

Ever since Bai Xiying arrived, Lin Xingzhu, who had wronged herself by sleeping on the sofa for one night, tidied up a room and ordered a new bed the very next day without another word.

As for Bai Xiying, Lin Xingzhu couldn’t drive her away, so she decided to just watch over her like this for now. Who knows when Bai Xiying might lose interest in her and decide to leave.

Lin Xingzhu saw it with perfect clarity. Bai Xiying was like a traveler who had fallen into an abyss. After seeing through the world, she had originally planned for self-destruction, but it was obvious that she had now arrived in a new world and encountered a new situation. She perceived pleasure for the first time in a long while, and feeling that it was interesting, she had to play around properly.

And those seemingly-existent-yet-non-existent teases and seductions of hers were even more false.

That was Bai Xiying’s disguise. Once the prey was hooked, what awaited the prey was the hunter’s cruel devastation.

Originally, Lin Xingzhu didn’t want to bother with her, but on the night she slept on the sofa, Lin Xingzhu had an extremely bizarre dream.

She forgot the specific contents of the dream, but that feeling of a rapidly beating heart, thump thump thump, and that faint, indistinct connection in the unseen world were very clear after she woke up, giving her a very mysterious and profound feeling.

—It seemed as if Bai Xiying’s arrival was related to her.

Lin Xingzhu couldn’t figure it out, nor could she find anyone to explain it to or discuss it with. She just felt that the emergence of this thought was particularly strange, yet it wouldn’t go away.

Only after she bought the bed and truly expressed her intention to let Bai Xiying temporarily settle in her home did that feeling slowly disappear.

Thinking about it now, Lin Xingzhu still felt a chill down her spine.

Why did this kind of thing have to happen to her?

She let out a breath in frustration, said goodbye to her colleague, and for the fifth time this week, stepped into that dessert shop, packed up a small cake, and continued driving home.

At home, Bai Xiying was wearing a cool and refreshing slip dress. Upon hearing the sound of the door opening, she came forward to greet her with a beaming smile.

Lin Xingzhu: “The cake you wanted.”

She handed the item in her hand to Bai Xiying and walked straight past her to put her things away.

And she didn’t know why Bai Xiying loved to eat sweet things so much.

Bai Xiying smelled the sweet and sugary aroma, her mood joyful as she said, “I cleaned the entire house today.”

Hearing this, Lin Xingzhu scanned the room and discovered that the house was indeed much cleaner and tidier than usual today.

However…

She frowned slightly. “Actually, just calling a housekeeping service would be fine.”

“With a Conch Shell Maiden² at home, what need is there for a housekeeping service.” Bai Xiying turned and followed Lin Xingzhu, who was walking further inside, her tone light and cheerful.

Lin Xingzhu’s expression was strange.

What the hell is a Conch Shell Maiden?

She looked Bai Xiying up and down, blatantly holding an attitude of suspicion toward her words.

Bai Xiying didn’t mind either, looking at her with a smile, and even asked in a very gentle and considerate manner, “Are you tired from work?”

In a sense, the two had already seen each other’s true nature in the past two days, so Lin Xingzhu found it strange that Bai Xiying was still intermittently putting on an act.

Could this be some kind of sick hobby of Bai Xiying’s?

She shot Bai Xiying a sidelong glance. “So what if I’m tired? It’s not like someone will support me for free.”

She was blatantly condemning Bai Xiying!

Unfortunately, this person Bai Xiying was truly thick-skinned, just as if she hadn’t heard a thing. “So you’re not tired, ah. Then I’ll just drink the tea I just brewed myself.”

The tea Bai Xiying spoke of was actually goji berry and red date tea. Ever since she discovered that Lin Xingzhu often drank this kind of health-preserving tea, she would occasionally brew it for her in advance after Lin Xingzhu got home from work.

Lin Xingzhu herself felt no embarrassment about this. Bai Xiying ate her food, drank her drinks, and lived in her house, so what was wrong with her drinking a little of the tea she brewed? The goji berries and red dates were bought with her own money! The water and electricity bills were also deducted from her own account!

Lin Xingzhu changed her route and turned to go to the kitchen. Sure enough, the brewed tea was already placed there. It looked as if it had been brewed with the time carefully calculated in advance; it was just right to drink now.

Bai Xiying was behind her, her eyes narrowed as she stared at Lin Xingzhu’s back.

After this period of getting along, even she had to admit that this Lin Xingzhu was truly a woman with very high self-control and bottom lines.

How long had it been since she had encountered such a normal person from under the sun?

Bai Xiying’s gaze was somewhat dazed.

In the week or so that she had been living at Lin Xingzhu’s house, her soul had calmed down as never before.

During the day, when she was home alone, she would lie on the recliner on the balcony, basking in the warm sun and whiling away the time.

Doing nothing, thinking about nothing.

Letting the golden, dazzling sunlight slip through her fingertips, Bai Xiying, who had emptied her mind, felt an unprecedented peace.

This kind of life is really good, ah.

Especially since every evening there would also be a cake dessert from Lin Xingzhu.

Bai Xiying sat on the sofa, scooped a mouthful of sweet, rich cream into her mouth, and a fragrant, sweet taste instantly exploded within her oral cavity.

Bai Xiying felt that she was becoming a bit addicted to this kind of life.

This kind of peaceful and comfortable life made her intoxicated.

Bai Xiying’s eyes gradually deepened, and faint points of light landed on Lin Xingzhu’s back.

And this woman who had given her all of this…

She stuck out the tip of her tongue, licked the cream that had smeared onto the corner of her lips, and took another spoonful of the small cake Lin Xingzhu had bought for her.

After finishing dinner, Bai Xiying suddenly made a request.

“Help me register an account on social media, okay?”

Lin Xingzhu looked up. “I can, but what do you plan to do?”

Bai Xiying: “To earn money, naturally.”

Only then did Lin Xingzhu remember that Bai Xiying knew how to draw.

But speaking of drawing, she suddenly remembered a plot point that would be in the book.

…Bai Xiying should have had a better future.

For some unknown reason, as soon as she thought of this, her gaze meeting Bai Xiying’s, Lin Xingzhu’s heart suddenly clenched.

“Fine, I’ll register it for you in a bit,” Lin Xingzhu said as if nothing had happened.

The tail of Bai Xiying’s eyebrow moved slightly, and then she remembered something else, raising the corners of her lips into a smile. “I just remembered, I might have to trouble you with one more thing.”

Lin Xingzhu, whose heart had softened a little at this moment, was easy to talk to. “Go ahead.”

Bai Xiying’s eyes curved. “Order some toys for me. Same-city delivery, I need to use them tonight.”

Lin Xingzhu: “…?”

Her gaze moved past Bai Xiying’s pinkish-white fingertips.

“Is it absolutely necessary?”

“It is absolutely necessary.”

Lin Xingzhu’s face was taut. “Oh.”

Bai Xiying was not the least bit embarrassed. “Sorry to trouble you.”

If you knew you were troubling me, you shouldn’t have raised this issue in the first place.

Lin Xingzhu took a deep breath, took out her phone, opened the page and handed it to her, letting her choose for herself.

Watching Bai Xiying lower her head and choose seriously, Lin Xingzhu realized that she really needed to get another card for Bai Xiying.

Bai Xiying hadn’t mentioned it these past few days, and she had forgotten about it too.

The corner of her eye caught a glimpse of Lin Xingzhu; there was no expression of disgust on her face. Bai Xiying, who was holding the phone and making her selection, paused for a moment, then naturally clicked to add to the shopping cart again.

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Waking up in the middle of the night to go to the living room for a drink of water, Lin Xingzhu ran right into Bai Xiying.

Under the incandescent light, Lin Xingzhu was able to see Bai Xiying’s satiated appearance with perfect clarity.

She saw Bai Xiying shoot her a glance full of spring color³, then tilt her head back to drink the water from the glass cup.

This state was exactly the same as the appearance she had bumped into before after the other had relieved herself.

Thinking of the toys that had been delivered a few hours ago, Lin Xingzhu pressed her lips together, wanting to pretend she hadn’t seen anything.

But Bai Xiying had no intention of letting her go.

She drank all the water in the cup, then raised her head to reveal moist lips. “Can’t be helped. The water that I’m lacking, I must replenish.”

Lin Xingzhu: “…”

Who asked you!

The tips of her ears turned red, and she was about to walk around Bai Xiying to get some water.

Bai Xiying grabbed her arm and said ambiguously in a low voice, “Lin Xingzhu, are you really not going to give me a try?”

Taking a deep breath.

Lin Xingzhu turned her head, looking at Bai Xiying, who was acting crazy⁴ again in the middle of the night. “Bai Xiying, you don’t need to be like this on purpose.”

Bai Xiying blinked her eyes. “What have I been like?”

Lin Xingzhu enunciated her words clearly, each one striking the air without any hesitation. “I’ve already agreed to let you stay, you don’t need to be like this anymore. Although I’m not sure what ideas you’ve come up with to want to test me again, I want to tell you, put these ideas to rest. I am a normal person, not one of those lunatics you’ve met, nor is it possible for me to use sex as a transaction.”

The corners of Bai Xiying’s lips slowly flattened. “Oh? Is that so?”

Lin Xingzhu said with absolute certainty, “Naturally.”

Bai Xiying gave her a deep look, then suddenly changed the subject. “Lin Xingzhu, I’m very curious, if one day you were to fall for someone who doesn’t like you, what would you do?”

Lin Xingzhu glanced at her. “I would pursue her within a reasonable scope. If the other person still doesn’t like me, or even finds me annoying, I would choose to distance myself from her and slowly let go of my feelings.”

Bai Xiying was not at all surprised by this answer.

She let out a light laugh, something brewing in her eyes that Lin Xingzhu couldn’t understand.

This kind of warmth, a warmth within arm’s reach, Bai Xiying suddenly had a strong desire to seize it tightly in her hands.

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