Alone, Beautifully – Chapter 163

A Story About Happiness (10)

“We are, indeed, a destined pair.”

In the room filled with lingering fragrance, Xu Jiao watched Shen Yelan who had fallen asleep after receiving acupuncture. A gentle smile appeared in her eyes, and remembering the bold words the other had spoken earlier, her lips curled up slightly.

            

Then she wiped away the sweat from Shen Yelan, who was sleeping on the couch. Smelling the herbal medicine fragrance in the room, she raised her hand to yawn, and inexplicably felt drowsy, laying down beside Shen Yelan with half-closed eyes.

Her fingertip lifted up, hooking a strand of Shen Yelan’s hair near the ear, tucking the thin strand behind the ear, then moved a bit closer and said softly:

“Silly.”

            

“You’re cured now, Shen Yelan. I want to tell you that I still like you too, and want to be with you.”

As she spoke, thinking of Shen Yelan’s foolish behavior, she let out a deep sigh, thinking she must wait until this person wakes up to say it again by her ear, otherwise this extremely insecure person would surely start overthinking again.

The person she thought was in deep sleep twitched a finger at her side, as if wanting to wake up from the dream, but reluctant to leave this warm atmosphere, finally fell back into deep sleep.

            

Xu Jiao had only meant to rest for a while, thinking in her heart about giving Shen Yelan some nutritional therapy later. Although this person’s body was healthy, it couldn’t withstand this kind of mental torment – despite appearing fine on the surface, she had actually become much thinner.

But as she was thinking, she too fell asleep beside the other person.

Perhaps because what brings the most peace in this world has never been those passionate moments or desperate embraces, but rather a quiet afternoon nap, two people with heads touching and hands held, waking up to see each other first – this surpasses all solemn vows and promises.

            

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Xu Jiao was awakened by her own thoughts.

While sleeping, she suddenly realized it must be very late, and she and Shen Yelan’s dinner wasn’t settled yet. She instinctively wanted to get up, but somehow her head felt extremely dizzy.

Her whole body felt soft, unlike her usual self.

            

When she opened her eyes again—

A strong stream of water hit her face with a “zhi” sound [onomatopoeia for water spraying].

Xu Jiao: “I… cough cough cough… splutter…”

            

She instinctively moved backward, unable to open her eyes anymore, and could feel her hair becoming soaking wet, much of it sticking to her face. Her appearance at this moment must have been particularly unsightly.

Xu Jiao was jolted awake by this sudden cold water.

When she came to her senses, she waved her hand in the air, trying to stop that overwhelming coldness, but because she had no strength, and her feet were standing on something slippery, her whole body was about to fall backward. Even though she tried to adjust her stance, due to insufficient friction under her feet, she still fell backward unreasonably.

            

She tightly closed her eyes, preparing for her head to collide with the ground, while secretly vowing that once she identified this prankster, she would definitely make them pay the price.

But halfway through the fall—

Her wrist was caught by a warm force, pulling her directly back to stability.

            

Xu Jiao rubbed her face with her shoulder, enduring the slight stinging pain from the water in her eyes, and struggled to open them. The moment she made out the other person’s face, her heart collapsed [or: she felt internally devastated].

“Sister!”

Xia Jingzhe, Shen Yelan, and now who else?

            

When will this transmigration finally end?

Has Ye Zhen’s soul awakened in these people’s bodies or not? Could someone give her a chance to explain?

Right now, three distinct words emerged all over Xu Jiao’s body:

            

Angry, shivering, cold.

And a bit wronged.

But she couldn’t blame anyone, after all, these were debts she owed. If she had been a little nicer to the female protagonists back then, things wouldn’t be so difficult now. She was even tired of being the dominant one, while for Ye Zhen this might just be switching between different memories, but she had been genuinely playing the dominant role throughout. Earlier, Shen Yelan had said after recovering from illness, she wanted to be intimate again, but!

            

But before Xu Jiao could reclaim her “pillow princess” treatment [submissive/pampered role], she had transmigrated again!

Feng Qingyu was stunned by her grievance-filled tone, and after a while repeated: “Sister?”

Xu Jiao had never called her that before.

            

So…

Who was this term of address meant for?

Thinking of this, Feng Qingyu’s eyes grew colder.

            

Xu Jiao had just been splashed with cold water, and the smell of alcohol dissipated from her body. As the air circulated in the room, it brought wisps of coldness to her, seeping through her wet clothes into her skin, then into her bone joints, making her tremble continuously.

Feng Qingyu originally wanted to ask who she was calling earlier, but as her gaze shifted, she noticed her trembling shoulders. Her hand holding the shower head paused for a moment. Finally, she reached up to turn the faucet to hot, and when she turned it on again, the shower spray was directed at the bathtub wall near Xu Jiao’s feet.

Rising steam wafted up from below.

            

The bathroom’s glass walls gradually became foggy.

Neither person spoke.

Feng Qingyu was silent because of her poor mood, while Xu Jiao simply hadn’t gathered her thoughts yet. She crouched there hugging her arms, looking small, pitiful, and helpless, while trying hard to remember in her mind how far things had progressed with Feng Qingyu.

            

After all, the person before her was wearing all designer brands, and her bearing was completely different from ordinary people – it wasn’t difficult for Xu Jiao to recognize Feng Qingyu’s identity.

After a while, Feng Qingyu took the initiative to speak:

“Are you sober now?”

            

Xu Jiao remained silent for two seconds, raised her hand to rub her face, and looked at Feng Qingyu with wet eyes, appearing like a lost dog, emanating a pitiful aura:

“Feng Qingyu.”

She called out.

            

Feng Qingyu slightly raised her chin, silently asking what she wanted.

Xu Jiao sat in the hot water bathtub, feeling warmth slowly rising from her feet. Feeling uncomfortable with her clothes clinging to her skin, she raised her hands to unbutton them, saying while unbuttoning:

“Please don’t be angry with me anymore?”

            

“I don’t have a substitute, and I don’t like anyone else—”

Feng Qingyu was stunned watching her naturally unbuttoning motion, watching helplessly as large areas of jade-white skin were revealed. Her mind went blank, and it took her a while to react and stop her:

“Wait!”

            

“Xu Jiao!”

Her expression changed several times, but finally she chose the most unbelievable explanation: “You… have you experienced some kind of shock?”

Like discovering the person you like doesn’t like you back, so you turned around to find her as a spare tire [Chinese slang for backup romantic option]?

            

Xu Jiao followed her gaze and looked down, pausing her movements, and weakly raised her hand: “That’s not what I meant, I was just too cold earlier, and the clothes sticking to me are uncomfortable…”

Halfway through explaining, she stopped speaking, looking completely dejected, her head half-submerged in the water, with everything below her eyes soaking in the bathtub that was eight-tenths full, making bubbles [gurgling sounds] on the water surface as she exhaled.

Feng Qingyu saw her head going lower and lower, and worried she might choke on water. Though she had planned to leave once the hot water was properly running, she had to change her plans, stepping forward to lift Xu Jiao’s chin from the water. She pressed her lips together, then said:

            

“Even if there’s something making you unhappy, don’t do this, it’s dangerous.”

Xu Jiao looked at her, her already slightly tipsy reddened eye corners becoming even redder, then her voice carried a hint of choking up: “There’s nothing making me unhappy, I was just thinking…”

After a pause, she said: “I was just thinking, when you were pursuing me before, were you ever as helpless as I am now.”

            

A heart full of love, not knowing how to express it in a way that would make the other person hear.

When she wasn’t moved [emotionally] before, she didn’t feel how cruel it was, until now that she had fallen in love with Ye Zhen. Looking back at these female protagonist identities of Ye Zhen, she felt all those knives she had stabbed into the other’s heart had now returned to pierce her own, without missing a single one.

How could she have treated Ye Zhen like that?

            

How could she have been so heartless?

Feng Qingyu heard her words, and though she wanted to pretend not to care and leave coldly, she was caught by Xu Jiao’s unprecedented vulnerable appearance, so she could only continue to stay here with her.

Half-crouching beside the bathtub, her voice carried rare gentleness: “Heartbroken?”

            

Xu Jiao shook her head.

She said with a sigh-like tone: “No, the person I like is very good, she wouldn’t let me experience heartbreak—”

As she said this, her eyes were looking at Feng Qingyu.

            

Feng Qingyu naturally understood what this hint meant, she even suddenly noticed the previously subtle freesia scent in the room became intense in an instant, and before she could react, it had almost enveloped her, like a dense spider web.

She gave a brief laugh: “You… are thinking of me now?”

Xu Jiao clenched her fist under the water: “I… if I say that I’ve always liked you, would you believe me? The person I like is you, Shen Yelan is also you.”

            

It’s over.

These words sounded like something a “green tea” [Chinese slang for a manipulative, seemingly innocent person] would say.

Xu Jiao seriously considered whether grabbing Feng Qingyu’s shoulders and shouting “Ye Zhen wake up” would work now.

            

Feng Qingyu narrowed her eyes.

The room was quiet for three seconds, then Xu Jiao heard her say: “I don’t believe you.”

Xu Jiao’s shoulders slumped as expected, desperately thinking if there was any way to remedy this, and even feeling some resentment about why this timing was so fatal [terrible]. How much better it would have been to transmigrate to when she first arrived – no need for divorce, just directly being wives, she could have made that ending as sweet as possible.

            

Just as she was slowly sliding down into the bathtub like a soulless paper cutout [lifeless/deflated], she heard the other person add:

“Unless you say it again when you’re sober tomorrow.”

Xu Jiao: “!”

            

She hurriedly tried to sit up, almost slipping again in the bathtub, her eyes showing uncontrollable joy mixed with surprise, as if not understanding why Feng Qingyu suddenly believed her.

But then she saw the other person looking down at the bathtub’s edge, saying softly: “I trust my judgment. Although I didn’t like the previous you very much, I can see your current changes. You’re also a proud person, and wouldn’t stoop to playing with someone’s feelings like this.”

“For you to suddenly develop feelings for me, something must have changed in there.”

            

Xu Jiao nodded instinctively.

As expected of the most rational and smartest female lead who could achieve a “no romantic CP” ending!

Sister Ye Zhen, how can every side of you be so charming!

            

Xu Jiao secretly waved light sticks [fan gesture of support] in her heart.

She sat up in the bathtub with a “splash” sound, and amid the scattered water droplets, grabbed Feng Qingyu’s wrist, her gaze serious: “Give me a chance, I will definitely show you my sincerity.”

While skillfully expressing her feelings, Xu Jiao couldn’t help but reflect that her practiced attitude of admitting mistakes and showing remorse was exactly like a scumbag man.

            

Feng Qingyu: “……”

She slowly turned her gaze away.

Xu Jiao: “?”

            

She regretted if her readily compliant attitude had caused Feng Qingyu to misunderstand again. Just as she was about to say something more, she heard the other person gently remind her: “Your… clothes.”

Xu Jiao belatedly looked down.

Only then did she realize that because her top was soaked with water, and with her big movements earlier plus the few unbuttoned buttons, it now barely hung on her arms due to gravity, leaving the view of her front completely exposed!

            

She had originally planned to take a bath anyway because of the alcohol smell, but now she didn’t know whether to cover up or not. Fortunately, Feng Qingyu noticed she had sobered up somewhat and walked out in time, otherwise the intense scents in the bathroom wouldn’t have been just freesia.

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When only one person remained.

Xu Jiao sat in the bathtub, feeling both sleepy and exhausted, thinking about Xia Jingzhe one moment, then worrying about whether Shen Yelan had fully recovered from her illness the next. While lost in these thoughts, her head bumped against the bathtub’s edge.

            

Outside, Feng Qingyu heard the noise and asked her a question through the door.

Xu Jiao wanted to answer that she was fine, but found herself somewhat short of breath. At first, she thought it was just because the bathroom was too stuffy, but when she tried to grab the edge to get out, she saw the pink flush appearing on the back of her hand.

Her body felt unbearably hot.

            

Her mind buzzed for a moment, and she belatedly realized:

This was the plot where that CEO Yan had drugged her.

“Feng…”

            

She called out weakly, and the person outside who was already worried about her immediately pushed open the door. Upon entering, she saw Xu Jiao’s delicate and vulnerable state, and in that moment when her gaze froze, pheromones a hundred times sweeter than before entwined around her.

Feng Qingyu instinctively released her Alpha pheromones in response.

She couldn’t even remember how she had carried the person out.

            

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Xu Jiao lightly grabbed at the person before her who was emanating a fatally attractive aura, hearing their admonitions of “bear with it,” “I’ll go find medicine for you,” “be good.”

Her consciousness was in complete chaos, and she thought pitifully, why should she have to bear it?

The person she liked was right in front of her, this person was her medicine, what else did she need?

            

Without thinking, she gripped Feng Qingyu’s wrist and whimpered: “Want you.”

Just want you.

Feng Qingyu’s voice became hoarse: “Jiaojiao, you don’t know what you’re saying right now—”

            

“You’ll regret it tomorrow.”

“Bear with it, hmm?”

Xu Jiao kept shaking her head, clinging to her like an octopus, messily kissing Feng Qingyu’s neck: “Won’t bear it, won’t bear it, I want you… please…”

            

Feng Qingyu had previously thought an indifferent, helplessly succumbing Xu Jiao was the most beautiful.

Now seeing her in this alluring state, she finally understood what true beauty meant.

She felt her hard-trained willpower crumbling in the face of these coquettish pleas.

            

She raised her hand to cover Xu Jiao’s eyes, kissing those crimson, slightly dry lips, trying hard to contain her own pheromones while patiently saying: “It’s that I can’t hold back, I won’t be able to stop myself from marking you. I don’t want you to regret it, be good.”

Xu Jiao’s frantically scratching fingertips suddenly pressed against the gland position on her nape, filling the entire room with the scent of bitter orange blossom, somewhat astringent yet endlessly intoxicating.

She bit down on Feng Qingyu’s shoulder, whining coquettishly like someone being unreasonable:

            

“Mark me.”

“I want you.”

Feng Qingyu: “!”

            

She seemed to watch her rationality crumble like dead leaves in a storm.

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The person who had been shamelessly seducing earlier, at the most crucial moment, still wanted to retreat, not from regret, but because of that terrifying sensation—

Xu Jiao bit the pillow, the layer of sweat seeping from her body darkened the bed sheets by a shade.

            

She moved, trying to pull away from the other’s hands to escape forward, but was caught by the waist and pulled back into Feng Qingyu’s embrace, who spoke in a coaxing tone: “Be good.”

Xu Jiao shook her head in disarray, tears falling from her eye corners – not from pain, yet falling heavily.

The bitter orange pheromones in the room had become so intense that the automatic ventilation system detected it and began continuous air exchange, but before that, the bitter orange scent had already reached its warm destination through fingertips.

            

At the moment those pheromones spread overwhelmingly and invaded, Xu Jiao’s entire body trembled uncontrollably—

She never knew the merging of pheromones could be such a frightening thing!

More terrifying than the temporary injection at the nape!

            

It was an uncontrollable trembling that surged from the depths of her soul. She thought she was using all her strength to escape, but had actually lost all strength, falling softly onto the bed, yielding to what was happening.

She parted her lips, but no sound came out.

She could only tremble while feeling this ultimate pleasure feeding back through every nerve in her body!

            

Every inch of skin was telling her:

You are hers now.

Feng Qingyu held her, having tasted sweetness and unwilling to retreat, bit her ear and asked with burning breath: “Tomorrow when you wake up, will you regret being with me for a lifetime like this?”

            

Xu Jiao instinctively shook her head, and Feng Qingyu laughed pleasantly, then said: “You’re willing to give yourself to me like this, even if you’re deceiving me, I’ll accept it.”

At least for one moment, you’re willing to let yourself be marked by me.

Xu Jiao moved her lips, wanting to speak, but her throat hurt terribly – she didn’t even know when she had cried out. Sweating, she lazily mouthed:

            

“Not just for a moment.”

I will be yours for a lifetime.

Feng Qingyu may or may not have seen it, holding her from behind, both apologizing and continuing: “I know I should have waited longer.”

            

“But I’ve really waited too long, Jiaojiao.”

And so Xu Jiao was pulled along to drift in this boundless feeling.

Even her consciousness gradually became hazy.

            

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“Don’t…”

The person on the bed made a murmured sleep-talk.

Then, a hand reached over from beside and pinched her nose.

            

Xu Jiao was suddenly awakened by the lack of air, raised her hand to pat away that paw, and heard a laugh with a teasing tone: “What were you dreaming about? Making such soft sounds, it makes people think strange things.”

Xu Jiao first yawned, then quickly recognized the voice, carefully looked left and right, suddenly sat up, and pulled the person beside her to look carefully, then pinched her own thigh. After confirming that what she saw was real, she immediately pushed the person back down onto the bed.

“Sister…”

            

Ye Zhen heard her sighing tone, stroked her hair, allowing herself to be pressed down, and said softly: “What’s wrong? Had a nightmare?”

Xu Jiao gave a muffled response.

Recalling those fragments, she added: “It wasn’t exactly a nightmare… just… more like making up for regrets…”

            

When Ye Zhen heard the latter part, a flash of surprise passed through her eyes. Xu Jiao felt the change in her breathing and looked up: “I dreamed of the previous…”

“Xia Jingzhe, Shen Yelan, Feng Qingyu?” Ye Zhen continued the topic.

Xu Jiao froze.

            

Ye Zhen looked at her expression, showing understanding in her eyes, then after recalling something, spoke with realization: “I thought it was just my own deep yearning that gave me such sweet dreams, didn’t expect you also…”

Xu Jiao surprisingly gripped her shoulders, “Sister, you also?”

Ye Zhen nodded, hooked her finger under Xu Jiao’s chin, thinking of Xu Jiao’s different ways of comforting her, and smiled: “Darling, who do you like the most, hmm?”

            

Xu Jiao buried her head against her: “Of course I like you the most!”

Ye Zhen teased her further: “Is it because I’m the only one here now, so you only like me? Or among all people, you like me the most?”

Xu Jiao made a motion to roll off the bed: “Sister can go play shura field games [battle of love] by herself.”

            

Ye Zhen pulled her back, kissed her forehead, sighed very lightly, and said: “Thank you.”

Thank you for being willing to make up for my regrets.

Xu Jiao understood her meaning and covered her lips, earnestly telling her: “It was my fault, I should have realized earlier, I was too stupid.”

            

As Ye Zhen was about to say something more, Xu Jiao changed the subject, making a fuss about wanting breakfast, not willing to let her mention this matter again.

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Later, one day.

Xu Jiao suddenly asked: “Why only Xia Jingzhe, Shen Yelan, and Feng Qingyu? Wasn’t Lilith also a tragedy?”

            

Ye Zhen slowly picked out the ginger shreds from her porridge with chopsticks, raised her eyebrows, and said casually: “Being able to feel even a little bit of love is like receiving feedback. As long as hearts are connected, even following each other in life and death is romantic.”

Xu Jiao then gestured with her hands: “Now it’s not just a little bit!”

Ye Zhen: “Hmm?”

            

Xu Jiao tried hard to extend her hands, spreading them as wide as possible: “Now it’s many, many bits, very very much love!”

Ye Zhen then laughed.

Xu Jiao put down her chopsticks and said to her seriously: “From past to future, you are the only one I love.”

            

Ye Zhen’s smile faded as she looked back at her:

“Through life and death, in my life there is only you.”

“It seems we are, indeed, a destined pair.”

            

—The End—

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The author has something to say:

This time it’s really the complete end! Goodbye goodbye bye-bye!

            

By the way, give me a five-star rating! This time it’s really really the end!

Kisses to you all! Love everyone!

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