Alone, Beautifully – Chapter 94

My Wife (6)

“You are destined to be mine.”

Xu Jiao did not pay attention to the honey-like temptation in the woman’s words. She savored the taste of what she had just eaten, feeling that Zheng Zhiyu probably wouldn’t do anything too excessive, so she didn’t mind and turned to leave the small forest, heading in the direction of the dormitory.

            

As she walked into the entrance of the girls’ dormitory in Building 18, a few girls were coming down the stairs. In the middle of the group was a girl from the neighboring literature department. When Xu Jiao suddenly looked up, she saw an exceptionally fair and beautiful face.

Xu Jiao was also fair-skinned, belonging to the category of fair skin, yet it was the natural fairness of an Asian, unlike the complexion of European and American people. The girl at the center of the group walking towards her was so fair, she seemed almost transparent.

Inside the dormitory building, there was no light, and the door did not face the direction of the sunlight, so the lighting on the first floor was very dim. The entrance had a swipe card turnstile, which required a student card to pass. Beside the turnstile, on the wall, was a large mirror for tidying one’s appearance. Now, whether in the mirror or in the entire scene on the first floor—

            

That girl’s appearance suddenly became the most dazzling scenery.

It seemed that just by staring at her face, one’s mind would be completely absorbed, and the soul would tremble, feeling that the word “beauty” was naturally born for her.

When Xu Jiao saw that person, she was only slightly startled, but then another face emerged in the original owner’s memory in her mind.

            

This face was seven or eight points similar to hers, yet far less extraordinary…

It seemed that last semester, during a big class attended by both majors, she had accidentally glimpsed the other person’s appearance.

Beside that girl were a few others surrounding her, either praising her complexion today or praising her taste in clothing, chirping like birds with joy:

            

“Manman, your clothes are really super good-looking, even better than when you tried them on the day we went shopping together! They’re super suitable for you! Isn’t our faculty having a team-building activity next week? You’ll definitely outshine everyone if you wear this!”

“Yes! Wow, your skin is so white, what shade of foundation do you usually use to match it? I feel like the lightest shade of the brand I use is still darker than your skin… Your skincare routine is truly amazing!”

The girl surrounded in the middle pursed her lips and smiled slightly, only saying: “I generally don’t wear much makeup, but being white isn’t necessarily good; I must apply sunscreen when going out, otherwise, my skin easily gets sunburned.”

            

Whether or not the other girls were comforted by her words is unknown, but at least their interaction seemed quite pleasant.

Even as they walked away, Xu Jiao’s gaze did not return, to be precise, her focus was on the backpack of He Qiman in the center.

A very flashy, trendy black backpack, but the pendant hanging on it is a very old, even somewhat grotesque little doll.

            

With straw-like dry yellow hair, its face hidden in the middle of the fabric seam uses two black plastic pieces as eyes. This craftsmanship is rather crude and shoddy, with the round eyeballs misaligned, which could annoy someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

One of the eyes is half-blocked by hair, revealing only a bit of its shiny edge.

The doll’s mouth is sewn together with red thread, just like…

            

As if someone had sewn its mouth shut with needle and thread.

Xu Jiao looked at that doll for a long time, and after a while, she had the feeling that the little fellow might suddenly smile at her in the next second. She calmly withdrew her gaze, took out her campus card, and tapped it on the card reader of the turnstile.

“Beep.”

            

The turnstile made a light sound, and her thigh lightly touched the hollow metal rod. With her movement, the metal rod slowly bent at an angle, allowing her to walk from the entrance to the area near the stairs.

Outside, the sunlight still had the heat of noon, carrying the scorching intensity unique to summer. Yet inside Building 18, it was as cool as ever. Xu Jiao, while on the stairs, could clearly feel a burst of coolness pass over the back of her neck.

As she turned the corner, the whole building was extremely quiet, with no students going up or down the stairs. It was empty, and unexpectedly, a touch of red appeared in the tiles on the wall, then pounced towards her direction, with a voice only she could hear leisurely asking:

            

“Why were you staring at another woman for so long just now? Do you like her?”

Xu Jiao didn’t even glance to the side, casually scattering the gathered red clothing with a hint of boredom on her face, as she hurriedly walked in the direction of the dormitory, planning to take advantage of this moment to brush through some reading.

Finishing just in time for a nap, as there was still an elective course waiting for her in the afternoon.

            

Zheng Zhiyu followed her into the room, seeing Xu Jiao close the dormitory door in front of her, but she wasn’t really angry. Instead, she passed directly through the door, then solidified into a physical form. Waiting until Xu Jiao pulled a chair to sit at the iron table, casually grabbing a set of exercises, she pounced from behind, her icy body pressing against Xu Jiao’s back.

A snake-like whisper fell behind Xu Jiao’s ear.

“So heartless…”

            

“On the bed, you call me little baby, off the bed, you ask who are you.”

Xu Jiao had just finished reading the first paragraph in English and was somewhat distracted by the unexpected fancy tone, instantly forgetting what she had just read. She paused her breath for a moment, glanced at the time, and began to read the long comprehension passage again.

While she was seriously engrossed, Zheng Zhiyu saw her looking as calm as if a fox spirit tempted her but her heart remained still like water. Pale fingertips rested on Xu Jiao’s shoulder, slowly lifting the loose fabric of the collar.

            

The original owner’s clothes were all of poor quality, having no shape when bought, most being round-neck rustic styles. For example, the grey long casual shirt Xu Jiao wore now had a loose collar that became even looser after many times tumbling in the washing machine, revealing her beautiful, delicate collarbone.

Now, just with a light, easy push, the rounded shoulder was half-revealed.

As if there was a deeper allure waiting to be explored.

            

Xu Jiao was just timing herself while doing an English reading exercise, roughly glancing at the beginning and end of each paragraph. She first marked the key points of the reading questions, highlighting the different wording and traps in the options, then went to the parts of the original text that mentioned related content to find answers, underlining them to compare and find related content.

Disturbed by Zheng Zhiyu like this, her gaze did not shift sideways. She simply used her left hand to hold the fabric at her shoulder and casually said, “don’t move.”

As a result, with this hold, the already very loose neckline, having been pulled mostly to the right side, when the left hand released, fell back to her side in an instant, and her shoulder was met with a cool sensation.

            

She did not know how tempting she was at this moment—

Her serious side profile was very charming, with her eyes only reflecting the cold, uninteresting questions on the test paper, seemingly devoid of emotion. Yet, her upright sitting figure inadvertently revealed a bit of scenery that should not have been exposed.

Like a red apricot peeking over the wall.

            

Her action of circling words with the pen suddenly paused, and she inhaled a breath of cool air between her lips, then her eyes glanced over.

It turned out Zheng Zhiyu completely ignored her warning, tempted by the straight line of her shoulder’s shape, and bit her right shoulder from behind, not lightly. The sudden pain reached her brain, forcibly carving out a small path in Xueba Xu’s world of solving questions.

When Xu Jiao looked over, the woman’s jet-black eyes slightly raised, and her elegant eyebrows arched, as if she didn’t know how this person, who said she would seriously do the questions, suddenly lost focus and had time to look at her.

            

The two people’s gazes met for a few seconds.

Zheng Zhiyu slowly released her grip between her teeth, her lips retreating slightly, with a bright red tongue tip faintly visible between her lips and teeth. A light smile flashed in her eyes as she asked the academic top student in front of her:

“Finished the questions?”

            

Xu Jiao almost laughed at her confident attitude.

Casually pulling the woman’s long hair, Xu Jiao’s lips tugged into a completely insincere fake smile as she countered, “Do you think I’m like wood?”

Being bitten so hard, can one really have no feeling?

            

Zheng Zhiyu, having her long hair pulled by her, looked at Xu Jiao’s arrogant appearance and somehow wanted to laugh. She wanted to ask Xu Jiao if she knew she might be the first person in history to dare to pull a female ghost’s hair.

But thinking of how the other person, no matter what she encountered, always looked unfazed and calm, Zheng Zhiyu felt she probably wouldn’t hear any unexpected answer.

She raised her hand to turn Xu Jiao’s head back to the English reading comprehension, her cold and lingering tone again approached the back of the female student’s neck:

            

“You do yours, I’ll do mine, be good.”

Xu Jiao: “…”

She glanced at the cartoon clock on the table, not knowing whose it was, and saw that seven or eight minutes had already passed. Then she looked at her own remaining two questions, with options not yet selected. In the end, she inexplicably ignored the trouble-making fellow and instead gripped the pen tightly in her right hand, wanting to quickly finish the questions before dealing with Zheng Zhiyu behind her.

            

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Knowing Xu Jiao’s character, Zheng Zhiyu also saw the last two remaining multiple-choice questions on the paper and understood that if she didn’t act quickly, the girl would turn the tables on her—

Staring at the small round mole on Xu Jiao’s right shoulder, Zheng Zhiyu couldn’t resist the temptation of the snow-white shoulder and bit Xu Jiao’s right shoulder until it was somewhat red. At the same time, her hand’s movement did not stop.

Xu Jiao was halfway through writing the stroke of “B.”

            

Just as she circled the first half-circle, the black pen paused, leaving a clear ink dot there. Her breath paused for a moment, then quickly continued, drawing the lower half-circle as well, and a large-headed, big-bellied letter immediately appeared on the paper.

The next second.

Xu Jiao didn’t even have time to put the pen cap on, hurriedly tossing the pen casually on the table. Her right hand reached back to grip the slightly cool fingertips that had wandered to her waist, her tone devoid of the slightest hint of passion, as if Zheng Zhiyu’s earlier teasing had all been in vain.

            

“Want to freeze me to death?”

Although she didn’t know why kissing in the small grove didn’t freeze her like it did before in the dormitory, Xu Jiao was very aware that she was just an ordinary person. More contact with ghosts and such things had no benefit for her.

Do you not see, in those Liaozhai tales, the scholars involved in human-demon or human-ghost love affairs usually met with the fate of dying young.

            

Now that Xu Jiao accidentally obtained the female protagonist’s script in the world of 《Building No. 18》. she naturally hoped her identity could lead to a long life, dying peacefully, with a fulfilled life.

Hearing her question, Zheng Zhiyu smiled, bending over to peck at the slightly protruding cervical vertebra at the back of her neck due to her head being lowered. The girl in front of her was indeed somewhat too thin, Zheng Zhiyu thought. Back in the Miracle Continent, although the Saintess’s waist was also slender, her complexion was much better than now.

Today’s Xu Jiao…

            

Always made Zheng Zhiyu worry she might accidentally die the next second.

Even feeding her a bit of the energy extracted from the previous black shadow’s soul didn’t seem to supplement much. Perhaps after one round of intimacy, she might really revert to her original state.

Thinking of this, Zheng Zhiyu was somewhat displeased, and this emotion directly manifested in her actions. Xu Jiao couldn’t help but raise her head, spitting out one word from between her lips:

            

“Don’t…”

Don’t bite there.

Zheng Zhiyu bit the back of her neck, a spot difficult for clothes to cover. Xu Jiao is a student now, with many classes on usual days and frequent outings, so she doesn’t want strange marks to appear on her body.

            

Despite knowing this was merely her dissuading tone, Zheng Zhiyu was still pleased by these subtle, somewhat yielding words, as if she could do anything to Xu Jiao if she wished.

In her good mood, Zheng Zhiyu slightly restrained her aura, not letting the girl feel the icy cold again. She didn’t suck, just held that piece of neck flesh with her teeth and softly said in a gentle tone:

“But I want to.”

            

Xu Jiao had been only a bit nervous just now, but her thoughts calmed down again, and her refusal left no room for compromise: “No.”

As soon as the words fell—

The pain in the back of her neck became a bit more obvious.

            

Despite doing something excessive, Zheng Zhiyu’s tone appeared pitiful: “I really miss you…”

“When you left, you didn’t tell me. I only found out from little Lilith that you would return, but you still deceived me. You will never return to that place.”

“Deceiving someone who has already fallen in love with you, do you not feel a bit of guilt?”

            

“Jiaojiao, is your heart made of stone?”

The series of questions were like the whimpering of an abandoned pet towards its owner, not very strong, yet the tone, voice, and content directly hit the softest part of a person’s heart.

Xu Jiao’s throat moved, and she didn’t realize she had already pressed her lips tightly together.

            

As if resisting.

Because once a tightly closed clam opens its hard shell, inside is a completely soft world, and even a single grain of sand falling in would cause incomparable pain.

It will take a long time for a clam to slowly envelop that tiny grain of sand with flesh and blood, transforming it into a pearl.

            

Xu Jiao does not want to be hurt, so her shell as a clam is especially hard.

Unless she is willing to open it herself, otherwise…

No existence can touch her heart.

            

She lowered her eyes, no longer caring about the almost familiar pain in the back of her neck, and stared at the test paper in front of her for a while. After a long time, she finally said: “Do not love me.”

This has no meaning.

They are people from two different worlds.

            

When Xu Jiao leaves this world, can Zheng Zhiyu still carry the memories of these two lives and chase after her again? Even stepping back, if one could chase one more book, two books, three books, then what? When Xu Jiao eventually cooperates with the system to complete tasks and returns to that real world, these past emotions are just illusory, fleeting moments that will no longer exist.

Like fetching water with a bamboo basket, all in vain.

Also like a dream.

            

Zheng Zhiyu heard her words, and the bit of good mood that had just risen instantly receded significantly. Contrary to expectations, she released Xu Jiao’s back neck and instead bit her ear, her voice filled with stubbornness and willfulness: “Simply want to.”

To avoid further entanglement on this topic, Zheng Zhiyu shifted the focus back to the previous matter. She embraced Xu Jiao’s waist from behind, as if weighing the weight of meat in a market, and softly said:

“You should eat more.”

            

“This time I’ll let you off, but when you gain more flesh, I’ll come to collect this debt—principal with interest.”

Xu Jiao only thought she was talking nonsense and let the words go in one ear and out the other. Now, evading the other’s lingering actions and feeling the slight coolness left on her earlobe, she glimpsed the other’s bright red clothing and suddenly asked:

“You… exactly from what era are you?”

            

Zheng Zhiyu’s red clothing looks like an ancient wedding dress, yet she knows things only modern people would know. When going out, she showed no surprise at anything. Even though Xu Jiao’s curiosity is minimal, she still cares enough to ask one or two questions about the people around her.

Hearing her words, Zheng Zhiyu squinted her eyes. She enjoys Xu Jiao being curious about her and exploring her story. Even if the memories in the memorial tablet are somewhat vague, since her beloved wants to know, she will naturally reveal everything.

“This identity?”

            

“It should be about the same time as yours… because I have impressions of all the surrounding things, and I will use them when I see them, but I can’t remember the scene when I died. Moreover, it seems that at the beginning I wasn’t wearing these clothes; it seems that because I became stronger, the color turned this red.”

“Also, your birth date characters and my birth date characters were combined and burned, and a ghost marriage ceremony was held, so naturally, I am wearing a wedding dress.”

Xu Jiao looked at her with slight surprise: “I held a ghost marriage ceremony with you? When?”

            

On the phone, Xu Dashu didn’t say that the things sent over were just to let her get slightly familiar with her future husband’s family. There was no mention of holding any ghost marriage or ghost wedding.

Zheng Zhiyu thought seriously for a moment, and after a while, she could only shake her head at Xu Jiao: “I can’t remember, my memory… is like fragments. Some things I can remember when needed, and some I can’t remember no matter what.”

“I just remember… you are mine.”

            

When she said this last sentence, her tone rose slightly, as if very pleased, and she couldn’t help but add: “Maybe in this world’s past life, we were also together—you are destined to belong to me.”

Xu Jiao heard her words filled with strong possessiveness. Rather than being captivated by the ambiguity and emotion within, she was more focused on thinking about the reason behind them.

Is it really just a simple matter of fate and coincidence?

            

From the time she received the memorial tablet until now…

Xu Jiao has always been someone who overthinks everything. Connecting the dots from when she inexplicably became the female protagonist of 《Building No. 18》 after entering this world, to her unclear entanglement with the red-clothed Zheng Zhiyu, and receiving a memorial tablet from an unknown source, she feels this novel is not just a sweet love story.

She smelled the scent of conspiracy.

            

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Xu Jiao found the delivery box where she had previously placed the memorial tablet.

Then she called the sender’s phone number listed on it.

After connecting, a man with a local accent and a rough voice answered: “Which one?”

            

Xu Jiao asked about the delivery, wanting to know why the other side sent her something. As soon as she asked, the man on the other side blankly said: “How would I remember? All the deliveries from these ten miles and eight villages come to me to send. Which troublemaker wrote my name? I don’t know you, what did you receive? Who wants to prank me like this?”

Xu Jiao pressed her lips, hearing that completely innocent loud voice, and said: “It’s nothing, just a small gift, thank you.”

She hung up the phone.

            

She sat on the chair, and Zheng Zhiyu, who also heard the phone conversation, seemed to understand something. Casually, she opened a chocolate-flavored yogurt sandwich bread from the table, pinched a small piece, and stuffed it into Xu Jiao’s mouth. Her cold voice sounded:

“Someone wants to harm you?”

Xu Jiao was filled with the chocolate flavor’s sweetness, leaving her no room to refuse. She opened her mouth and took in all the sweetness, her eyes momentarily blank, as if she didn’t understand why Zheng Zhiyu suddenly had the habit of feeding her.

            

After a few seconds, she finally started to chew, crushing the chocolate bread on the tip of her tongue, and swallowed the food in her mouth. Just as she was about to speak, the second bite was stuffed in again, taking advantage of the gap.

She could only utter a “mm” while eating.

She couldn’t say anything more.

            

Xu Jiao raised her hand to take the bread and eat it herself, but Zheng Zhiyu lifted her hand higher, not allowing her to reach. The woman in red was much taller than her, and with Xu Jiao sitting and Zheng Zhiyu standing, she could only reach up to the sleeve.

Their dark brown eyes met the ink-black pupils, and Xu Jiao inexplicably felt that the woman in front of her seemed to have an unspeakable joy. She couldn’t understand why the other was happy about such a thing. She remained silent for two seconds, and since there were no other people in the dormitory, she finally cooperated and let Zheng Zhiyu slowly feed her the piece of bread.

With slightly cool fingertips wiping away the breadcrumbs from the corner of her lips, the thoughts that had originally subsided surged back fiercely for some unknown reason.

            

Zheng Zhiyu looked at Xu Jiao’s obedient appearance, leaned down, and with one hand on the table beside her, asked in a low voice:

“Full?”

Xu Jiao hadn’t eaten lunch earlier, but fortunately, she usually doesn’t exercise much, so her energy consumption isn’t high. Now, with one high-sweetness bread, she’s about seventy percent full, so she nodded.

            

Zheng Zhiyu asked again: “Still doing problems?”

Xu Jiao was just about to shake her head when she suddenly sensed a different flavor in her tone.

She paused, not reacting, just calmly looking at the woman in red in front of her, wanting to know what shameless way the other wanted to use again.

            

Unexpectedly, Zheng Zhiyu already understood her answer, pulling her hand slowly towards her own waist, her voice moist as if about to drip water:

“Not doing problems?”

“Then… want to come do me?”

            

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