Scum A with a Sweet Black Lotus O – Chapter 86

Jiejie, run! While there’s still time.

Fu Chaoyun instantly panicked too.

“What’s wrong with you?”

            

The wound on Pei Xuezhi’s lip had already scabbed over, no longer seeping blood, but upon closer inspection, she found that teardrops really were sliding from the corners of her eyes, not just winding shadows from the lights.

Pei Xuezhi was indeed crying.

This completely stunned Fu Chaoyun. In an instant, all her awareness and emotions were in disarray.

            

In the original plot, no matter how the Scum A tortured her, Pei Xuezhi had never cried. Yet now, she was shedding tears right in front of her, genuinely revealing the emotion considered weak.

Fu Chaoyun didn’t even dare to reach out—she actually didn’t quite understand the current development, but it was obvious that all this abnormality was caused by her.

Things had clearly been fine just moments ago, but an unexpected interlude had caused her Zhizhi such distress. She didn’t know if reaching out again would be helping her or making things worse.

            

After transmigrating into this world.

She had been threatened by the System, mocked by Madam Fu, dragged down by the original host’s scandals… but even then, Fu Chaoyun’s emotions hadn’t been particularly tense. It was merely a matter of dealing with problems as they arose​¹. This was the first time she had felt the emotion called cowardice.

Afraid?

            

Yes.

Afraid that the person before her would become increasingly unhappy, increasingly in “pain”…

However, after crying out “Pain,” Pei Xuezhi said no more. Her injured lips remained tightly pressed together, silent.

            

It was as if that cry just now had been her own illusion.

This Pei Xuezhi was fragile, rarely seen, yet in another sense, she was also beautiful to the extreme.

Whether out of cowardice or captivation, even knowing she shouldn’t, Fu Chaoyun found herself staring, lost in the sight for a moment.

            

【Pei Xuezhi’s current state is terrible, almost nearing her emotional peak!】

At the critical moment, the System’s voice sounded. At this moment, it couldn’t care about anything else; it just wanted to stabilize the current situation.

【What on earth have you two been doing in this relationship! Hurry up and coax her! Aren’t you usually good at sweet talk! Go, go, go!!】

            

Fu Chaoyun, however, remained frozen in place, not extending her hand.

“I don’t know,” she said, vaguely discerning her own emotions. “I think I’m scared. I’m scared I can’t afford what she wants.”

Even—

            

She didn’t have it.

The System was also stunned for a moment, then roared again, 【Anyway! You can’t let her continue like this, something bad will happen… *&%￥#… I don’t care, just hurry up and appease her for me!】

Fu Chaoyun hesitated, but still reached out, “Zhizhi…”

            

“Meow~”

Nao Nao’s cry made Pei Xuezhi lower her arm. In the distinct light, the traces of tears were still on her face, but her expression had returned to its usual impassivity, just like when they first met.

At this moment.

            

Fu Chaoyun couldn’t utter concerned greetings like “Are you okay?”. Instead, it was Pei Xuezhi who spoke quite calmly.

“Sorry, I scared you.”

Very polite, and very distant.

            

Fu Chaoyun opened her mouth, “It’s okay, you—”

Pei Xuezhi had already pushed the Alpha off her and sat up, calmly interrupting the other party at the same time.

“My emotions get a bit unstable at night. Please excuse my poor hospitality, Miss Fu, please head back. I need to rest.”

            

Saying this, she ignored Fu Chaoyun’s reaction and walked straight towards the room.

But after only two or three steps, Fu Chaoyun caught up and grabbed her wrist. The Alpha’s lips parted and closed several times.

“Doesn’t Zhizhi have anything to say to me?”

            

Pei Xuezhi smiled slightly.

If this tactic were used for the first time, she might have been happy, just like moments ago. But if the other party was just borrowing everything from TV dramas… then it was nothing but stagnant water.

Pei Xuezhi turned back. She didn’t rush to pull her hand away from Fu Chaoyun’s grasp, just looked over like this, tilting her head slightly. Her face, having just cried, seemed even colder and more distant than usual. Her gaze traveled from the hand holding hers up to the Alpha’s bright and beautiful face.

            

“Did Miss Fu learn this from an idol drama too?”

“No.” This time, Fu Chaoyun’s answer was swift. “I wanted to ask myself.”

Pei Xuezhi continued to look at her, her expression unchanging. With a subtle tilt of her head, her wrist deftly slipped out of Fu Chaoyun’s grasp​².

            

She lowered her head and actually let out a soft laugh.

Happy?

Held so loosely, giving her the right to escape from the very beginning. In this baffling relationship that started unequally, the one deeply invested… was only her.

            

Only her.

“What?” Pei Xuezhi lifted her head, her tone cold yet tinged with mockery. “Miss Fu just excitedly acted out an idol drama scene with me, and now I must deliver the corresponding lines?”

“That’s not it…”

            

“Apologies, I didn’t get to watch that TV show. I probably can’t match the lines that follow. I’ve disappointed Miss Fu.”

“…”

“It’s very late.” Pei Xuezhi stated faintly again, cutting off any possibility for Fu Chaoyun to continue speaking. “I need to rest, and so does Miss Fu.”

            

This was terrible.

Fu Chaoyun knew that if she let Pei Xuezhi leave like this, everything tonight would be futile. Everything would regress to square one, perhaps even worse than the beginning.

Cannot let go.

            

This thought supported her. Fu Chaoyun had lost her grip earlier; now, when she tried to grab again, Pei Xuezhi gave her no chance at all.

Finally, Fu Chaoyun could only say, “If I don’t figure these things out, I won’t be able to sleep tonight.”

With pleading, with pitifulness, and a hint of coquettishness.

            

This tactic had always worked well, but this time, Pei Xuezhi merely hooked the corner of her lips, revealing a hint of mockery.

“Is that so? But what does that have to do with me?”

While this person slept soundly, how many sleepless nights had she endured?

            

Seemingly sensing that communication was hopeless, Fu Chaoyun eventually left with her head lowered.

Pei Xuezhi’s eyes lowered.

Yes, just like that… run!!

            

Run to a safe place, otherwise she would uncontrollably want to drag the other person back, and regardless of whether they were willing, engulf them in this vortex, and descend into hell together!

Before her thoughts could fully retract, hurried footsteps approached again. It was Fu Chaoyun, having left and returned. She was holding the bag with the toy she had previously bought for Nao Nao.

Pei Xuezhi glanced at it.

            

Is she taking this too?

Forget it.

She bought it all; give it back to her.

            

However, Fu Chaoyun suddenly rushed in front of her, aggressively. She pulled a black rose from the bag.

“Then what does this mean?!”

Discovered.

            

Fu Chaoyun was still speaking, as if grasping the last straw, “So why did Zhizhi put this in the cat’s eye back then? When you put it in, did Zhizhi want me to find it, or not want me to find it!”

During the variety show live broadcast, Fu Chaoyun had noticed a fleeting blackness in the cat eyes Pei Xuezhi had built. Afterwards, she asked the staff to bring it over, and discovered the hidden secret while playing with it repeatedly.

Exploring the cat’s eye area, she found a black rose hidden inside!

            

And the flower language of the black rose is “unique,” with another, more chuuni​³ meaning: “You are a demon, and belong to me.”

So was this Pei Xuezhi’s hidden true feeling?

She had originally planned to find a better opportunity to take the flower out, but this wave after wave of strangeness had driven Fu Chaoyun nearly to the point of losing her mind. She brought out this trump card prematurely, placing it bluntly before the other person.

            

Pei Xuezhi merely glanced at it.

So when the Alpha went to the towed car back then, she was actually retrieving this, put it in Nao Nao’s toy, and had been carrying this bag ever since. When she brought it up, the slightest touch made the other person extremely nervous. So that’s what she was worried about.

When had she originally planned to take it out?

            

It didn’t matter anymore.

Pei Xuezhi said faintly, “Forgot.”

“How long has it been? How could you possibly forget!” Fu Chaoyun clearly didn’t believe her.

            

“Tired, weary, so I forgot. Can Miss Fu accept this reason?” Pei Xuezhi said faintly. Suddenly, she leaned against the nearby wall.

The light here was conveniently blocked, not bright enough, casting Pei Xuezhi’s delicate face in flickering light and shadow, inexplicably shrouding it in a deep gloom.

“Miss Fu really has a lot to say tonight. Since Miss Fu can’t sleep, let me ask you a question too.”

            

“Go ahead.”

Fu Chaoyun looked over, instantly no longer tangled up about the black rose. She straightened her back, like a primary school student called on by the teacher to answer a question.

Pei Xuezhi said, “Tonight when you came looking for me, the first moment you saw me holding the cat, what did you think in your heart?”

            

Fu Chaoyun followed her heart, “Happy, glad, joyful?”

Pei Xuezhi shook her head, her gaze towards Fu Chaoyun seeming somewhat distant.

“Not like that.” She decided to break it down and explain it clearly this once. “I was holding the cat. Were you jealous of the cat, or jealous of me?”

            

“…”

Fu Chaoyun was stumped by the question.

This question was completely beyond her comprehension. She liked Zhizhi, and she liked Nao Nao. Two beings she liked together, that was naturally like x2. What was there to be jealous about? And what should she be jealous of?

            

Fu Chaoyun completely couldn’t understand this emotion. Her face was filled with confusion, incomprehension, and faint shock.

Seeing her expression, Pei Xuezhi understood.

She had known long ago.

            

This is how it is.

All of Fu Chaoyun’s emotions were too bright, too brilliant. Even the seemingly dark turn earlier was learned from watching TV dramas, done to cater to Pei Xuezhi’s preferences.

This Alpha before her was completely different from that scum from the previous life. Or rather, they were diametrically opposite sides.

            

It was as if Fu Chaoyun was inherently incapable of understanding these dark, insidious emotions.

Fu Chaoyun couldn’t answer. Seeing this, however, Pei Xuezhi smiled gently. She said, “You must think there’s no difference, right?”

Fu Chaoyun looked over. She knew this wasn’t right now, but she still couldn’t stop herself from slowly nodding.

            

Pei Xuezhi’s smile became even more beautiful.

Since the conflict between them erupted, she had reverted to the icy demeanor from their first meeting. Suddenly revealing such a beautiful smile didn’t ease the atmosphere; instead, it made one’s heart even more uneasy.

“See, this is where I’m different from you.”

            

She spoke, only the color of her eyes deepening slightly.

“Just now, when I saw you playing well with Nao Nao and forgetting about me, I really was a little jealous of it.”

“Maybe not just a little. I might have been thinking at that moment—would it be better not to have a cat? That way, Jiejie’s eyes would only ever see me alone.”

            

Fu Chaoyun was still looking at her, her gaze seemingly dazed.

“This is just one part, or perhaps one very, very small point of divergence.”

Pei Xuezhi was still speaking. Speaking so freely, this was also the first time she had torn open and exposed all her obsessive, dark, ugly, and unbearable emotions to the other person without any concealment!

            

“I usually speak very little, and even less often express my emotions directly, because the real me is much scarier than you imagine. Even—much, much scarier.”

“Just like the minor incident of holding the cat, you simply cannot understand my emotions. But actually, there are many, many times when you cannot understand my emotions.”

“Like this now, I’m already considered to be controlling myself while talking to you. Otherwise… I might do even more unreasonable things.”

            

The wind from the electric fan blew over, lifting Pei Xuezhi’s long hair, brushing against her fair cheek, obscuring those overly deep eyes, and also making her expression somewhat blurry.

Facing the Alpha’s completely frozen expression opposite her, Pei Xuezhi finally lowered her head slightly, retracting the deep darkness in her eyes.

“Sorry, from beginning to end, there has only ever been one Pei Xuezhi, the scary Pei Xuezhi, the terrifying Pei Xuezhi…”

            

“So—”

She curled her lips, her voice rarely tinged with a trace of gentleness, “Jiejie, run, escape.”

“While there’s still time.” She stepped forward, one hand reaching for the black rose in Fu Chaoyun’s hand, the other gently tidying the other’s scattered long hair. Her movements were gentle and intimate, and she even bent down to whisper near the Alpha’s ear.

            

It was the last time.

“If you want to escape… there’s still time.”

The author has something to say:

            

During my period, I wanted to sleep earlier. Because this chapter’s content is a bit long, I was sure I couldn’t finish it, so I’ll post half first (:з”∠)

Have to say, bullying Zhizhi or Yunyun is actually really… satisfying~~ But bullying Zhizhi especially when she’s crying seems even more satisfying? 【Maybe I am guilty.】

Really squeezed dry, good night, see you tomorrow.

            

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