A Disguised Scum Alpha Marked Her Aloof Ex-Wife - Chapter 10

The feeling of Zhu Yu’s palms was very strange.

Her hands were on the larger side. She could easily wrap one around Bai Shuzhou’s slender ankle. Her fingers were nimble and strong, and when she pressed down, every inch of skin received the pressure evenly.

There were calluses around her knuckles. If one looked closely, there were also extremely faint scars, worn pale by time.

And yet her palms were very soft, like some fool who tried her hardest to support heavy things with only her fingers.

Even knowing that Bai Shuzhou’s legs were numb and without sensation, Zhu Yu was still worried she might hurt her. One hand rested over the blanket on the woman’s long calf, while the other pressed against Zhu Yu’s own arm. She pinched herself a few times to test the strength before finally placing both hands down.

Bai Shuzhou’s gaze slowly moved from Zhu Yu’s hands to her face.

Without those exaggerated, overly flashy expressions, Zhu Yu looked clean and simple at this moment. Since she said she was giving a massage, her eyes were focused entirely on Bai Shuzhou’s legs. That serious expression was exactly the same as when she had been repairing the appliances earlier.

Warm light flowed at her fingertips, rising from below like a hot spring, gradually soaking into Bai Shuzhou’s sensitive muscles and bones. At the sore, slightly swollen places, Zhu Yu increased the pressure a little.

Tiny currents climbed upward.

The woman’s indifferent expression tightened. She bit her lip, only barely suppressing the low sound that had almost reached her mouth.

“Zhu Yu.”

This time, she was not calling her Bai Yu.

That cool ending note stretched slightly, carrying a faint, barely perceptible anger.

When mental power condensed, it naturally possessed a penetrating quality. Those numb senses began to awaken beneath Zhu Yu’s hands, becoming somewhat strange.

“Get lost.”

She rarely used such a harsh word. It did not fit the royal family’s upbringing, but for Zhu Yu, it was just right.

The young woman’s hand had just passed her knee. Hearing this, she paused, then answered gently, “I can’t.”

Her answer was soft, but she showed no intention of letting go.

When Zhu Yu worked seriously, that somewhat deliberate smile on her face disappeared. At first glance, she even looked a little fierce, like the tide had receded, exposing the wet, hard reef along the shore.

“If you don’t move for a long time, you’ll get pressure sores. It also won’t help with later recovery training.”

“There’s no need to avoid treatment when you’re sick. Although I’m not a doctor either, this ability should be pretty powerful, right?”

She thought of Bai Shuzhou’s surprise when her ability had appeared by accident that day. Everything had been so chaotic it felt like a dream. Only that kiss remained especially clear.

Zhu Yu’s face flushed. She coughed a few times and said loudly, “Mental power is very similar to physical strength. I can roughly sense how much I’m using now. I can massage and treat you for a while every day. You’ll get better eventually.”

Bai Shuzhou’s mental power was as high as 3S, and her control over it was masterful. She could even condense it into tangible vines.

Zhu Yu could not do that.

She had to touch Bai Shuzhou to transfer this energy.

Although Bai Shuzhou hated Zhu Yu coming close, the treatment benefited her. Besides…

She looked at the joy at the corners of the young woman’s lips and tugged out a cold smile of her own.

That night, Bai Shuzhou slept well for once.

When she woke the next day, Zhu Yu had already gone out. The extra pots and bowls on the table had disappeared, and those appliances had been put away one after another, stacked in the corner.

On the cleanly wiped table beside the bed, there was now a lamp and a few scattered books.

The woman bit her lip and did not touch the childish-looking flower lamp by her hand. A dark green vine silently reached toward the switch on the wall.

Click.

The light came on.

After a while, the sound of a key turning came from the door. Bai Shuzhou alertly reached under the pillow for the small knife.

“Sister Xiao Zhou, you’re awake! Good morning!”

He Ming poked her head in with her schoolbag on her back, then ran to the table and set the heavy bag down.

“Xiao Yu talked it over with my mom. She asked you to watch me do my homework, and she’ll check it tonight.”

She clenched her fist.

She had come with a glorious mission!

Zhu Yu had secretly asked her to take care of Bai Shuzhou. Leaving a patient alone at home was not very safe.

The payment was a game console. It had just been cleaned and had not yet been repaired.

Of course, this agreement was hidden from Helan.

What neither of them had expected was that He Ming’s studying efficiency here would be unexpectedly high.

In the past, homework that she dragged on for days had made Helan coax her and beat her, yet the child had still procrastinated with the heroic spirit of “I laugh toward the sky, blade held high.”

She was at exactly the age where she loved playing. A pen and an eraser could entertain her for an entire morning. Sometimes, when Helan was busy and could not watch her, He Ming could run from the east side of the city to the west and back again in the blink of an eye, making her mother grind her teeth with anger.

But times had changed.

Now, when her fox-and-cat friends came to call her out to play, He Ming only waved proudly and calmly.

“I have serious business to do.”

The little room was so simple one could recite An Inscription for a Humble Room inside it, but when Bai Shuzhou sat there, her cold, clear temperament made even the air much quieter. When she lowered her eyes, she looked like a divine figure in an oil painting.

She spoke very little, quiet enough that He Ming was a little afraid of her.

Every time He Ming sneakily tried to do some little trick, those pale blue eyes would drift lightly over, frightening He Ming so badly that her fur almost stood on end. She could only lower her head and write furiously.

All for that one word of praise from the woman after she finished everything.

The highest honor!

If a few words could be preserved properly, He Ming would have loved to pin them to her chest like a medal and swagger everywhere.

Zhu Yu looked at that smug little face of hers and was not jealous at all.

She was no longer a small-minded person. Why would she care about something so empty?

She was an adult now. She had a job. She had to become a shrewd, cold, self-interested person!

After finishing her homework, He Ming reported, “I did four test papers, ten pages of workbooks, and memorized fifty words!”

Zhu Yu also reported, “The team leader at the nutrient-solution factory praised me for being efficient, and I got three name requests at the evening tutoring class. There’ll be a generous bonus at the end of the month!”

Zhu Yu was worried that Bai Shuzhou would be bored staying home, so she especially liked rambling to her about interesting things from work.

And so He Ming chattered during the day, while Zhu Yu chattered at night.

Bai Shuzhou remained expressionless. She was very fair. She ignored both of them equally and coldly poured her gaze into her book.

Zhu Yu talked on by herself.

Most of her coworkers at the nutrient-solution factory were around her age. They shared many stores with great value for money, and Zhu Yu took the chance to secretly advertise Helan’s restaurant quite a bit.

Xiao Shan’s beast form was a long-tailed tit. During lunch breaks, she would turn into a little bird and curl up in a fluffy hat for a good nap. Her dream was to join a band and perform at the biggest underground bar on the imperial capital star.

A cat coworker was often criticized for shedding fur. At first, when they saw how agile Zhu Yu was, they mistakenly thought she was also a cat. Holding a small fish, they came to ask what she had been eating lately for such good results, since she did not shed at all.

Not losing much hair was indeed a small point of pride for Zhu Yu.

She recommended the vitamins Xiao Shan had recommended to her. After her income increased, she also added some fish oil and calcium tablets. Unfortunately, no matter how she fed Bai Shuzhou, Bai Shuzhou still did not gain weight. Zhu Yu felt a little guilty and a little distressed.

Cat coworker: “Then you can buy your sister some special cheek-fattening food!”

Cheek-fattening…?

Did dragons also need their cheeks fattened?

Wait.

Zhu Yu finally belatedly realized that something was not quite right.

Cat coworker: “Shocking! Aren’t you called Xiao Yu because you love eating fish?”

Zhu Yu: “No! My Yu is the Yu from ‘abundance year after year’!”

Illiterate cat coworker: “Fish year after year, so Xiao Yu!”

While cooking hot pot that night, Zhu Yu told Bai Shuzhou and He Ming the story. He Ming was so amused she laughed nonstop.

“Then I think Sister Xiao Zhou really does look like a cat! A beautiful, elegant, noble calico cat! Really not?”

A certain dragon “cat” gave a cold snort, clearly not very happy.

Because she had suffered a serious illness in childhood, injured her wings, and had cold poison repeatedly flaring inside her body, she had not been able to beast-shift for a very, very long time.

This was a royal secret.

And…

Zhu Yu had truly been becoming stranger and stranger lately.

Bai Shuzhou still remembered Zhu Yu’s introduction when they first met.

The young woman had stood beneath the sunlight, smiling brightly.

“Zhu Yu. Yu as in ‘extra.’ I’m an extra person in this world.”

The Yu in Xiao Yu.

The Yu in “extra.”

The Yu in “abundance year after year.”

They all pointed to the same Zhu Yu.

Bai Shuzhou’s gaze on her darkened, gaining a few traces of scrutiny.

Zhu Yu still often displayed some exaggerated performances, making grand claims and deliberately pretending to be happy. It could be seen through at a glance.

She helped neighbors repair small appliances and accepted bits of change she would once have looked down on—five yuan, ten yuan. Occasionally, when she ran into a tricky problem, she would be busy for hours, which was simply meaningless.

After a whole day of exhausting work, she might only earn enough for one meal.

Because the secondhand appliances she sold were cheap and good quality, Zhu Yu quickly accumulated a batch of customers. When she had time, she would even go to people’s homes for repairs. Her reputation was very good.

Others in the same line of work felt she was ruining the industry’s ecosystem and angrily came to pick a fight. Zhu Yu did not get upset. She smiled while being cursed bloody, and for things she could not fix, she would even take the initiative to ask for advice, calling the person “Master” again and again until they were thoroughly flattered.

Even when she was cursed as a “mutt,” she did not have much of a reaction.

Gradually, everyone said this little fish with a difficult background was a bit silly, and they became too embarrassed to bully her anymore.

Only Bai Shuzhou felt that the person who cursed her was dead for certain.

Zhu Yu must be enduring silently, waiting for the day she could strike fatally.

She cared a great deal about her birth. Once, a noble classmate had called her an abandoned orphan. Zhu Yu became friends with that person, then before the mecha pilot selection, used the excuse of private training to beat them half to death, leaving multiple comminuted fractures all over their body and causing them to miss the selection.

Then Zhu Yu had hypocritically gone to visit that classmate, and in the end, had not even received a disciplinary punishment.

Yet as the days passed one by one, those who had humiliated Zhu Yu were all still alive and well.

In the past, the young woman had always gone around selling misery to gain convenience.

Now, she scraped sweetness from cracks, reporting only good news and never bad. Those grievances revealed through the smallest details instead flickered faintly in Bai Shuzhou’s mind, becoming clearer and clearer.

What was she acting out this time?

Zhu Yu rarely mentioned the content of her night shift. She only brushed it off as a tutoring class, describing it beautifully, almost like a paradise beyond the world. The boss was generous, her coworkers friendly, the customers respectful, the pay high, the work light, and sometimes she even got days off.

Every sentence sounded like the opposite.

When she returned at dawn, she often sat alone at the table in a daze for a long time, counting the money jar again and again.

Zhu Yu carefully hid the money jar in the corner beneath the bed, wrapped in a plastic bag. She told Bai Shuzhou the password. The money earned from her two jobs and repair side work was all stored inside.

From hollow emptiness to a gradually fuller weight.

There was more and more meat on the dining table, while Zhu Yu’s smiles grew fewer and fewer. She often kept a stern face and pretended to be mature.

She was always secretly looking at Bai Shuzhou from behind. Her eyes turned over, but her body did not. She looked exactly like a dog on standby, ready to demolish the house at any moment. A little guilty, but not much. Its ears drooped, and it pretended to calmly wag around.

Occasionally, Bai Shuzhou could even see her silly smile in the mirror.

But when Bai Shuzhou looked back, Zhu Yu would stop smiling again.

A hidden worry took root and sprouted in Bai Shuzhou’s heart, turning into an indescribable irritation.

Seeing Zhu Yu unhappy should, of course, make her happy.

But she knew nothing about what Zhu Yu was doing at night.

Why was Zhu Yu hiding it from her?

What right did she have to hide it from her?

That night.

The sky was beginning to pale like the belly of a fish when Zhu Yu hurried back. She did not even play with her beloved game console. After washing up, she fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.

The woman on the bed opened her eyes.

After a pause, dark green vines silently crossed over the sleeping young woman and pulled over the clothes draped on the chair.

The spotless fabric showed no visible problem, but what kind of person could finish a night shift and keep their clothes in such perfect condition?

Bai Shuzhou’s slender brows furrowed lightly. Hesitating, she took the clothes and sniffed gently at the collar.

The dragon race’s sense of smell was also sensitive. Very quickly, she discovered something wrong.

The outside of the clothes had been sprayed with perfume and had deliberately been ironed and maintained without a single wrinkle. Only the lining retained the smell of alcohol, as well as all kinds of pheromones.

Just as Bai Shuzhou focused, her nose suddenly itched.

Frowning, she pulled a few strands of animal fur from a corner…

And they were not even from the same animal.

Shameless!

As for that so-called paradise, Bai Shuzhou vaguely had a guess. With a cold laugh, she thought Zhu Yu really was “fond of teaching others.” No wonder she came back from work and did not even play her game console anymore.

But what did what Zhu Yu did have to do with her?

They should have ended their marriage long ago. Now they were only wearing a false layer of sisterhood out of thin air.

Was this not Zhu Yu’s goal from the very beginning?

She deserved to die.

The young woman being scolded on the floor seemed to sense something. She sneezed quietly, shrank in on herself, and curled up into a white rice ball.

She looked…

D-Detestable to the extreme!

The icy gaze stared at her for a moment. Then pale fingers flung the coat away in disgust, and the jacket traced an arc through the air.

A piece of seaweed landed on the rice ball.

Perfectly centered, it just happened to cover the young woman’s faintly rising and falling stomach.

Author’s Note:

Zhu Yu: You covered my belly. You’re so good to me!! [Pitiful]

Bai Shuzhou: If I’d known, I would’ve covered your head. [Cat paw]

The illiterate cat coworker introduces herself: “I’m Cat~”

Zhu Yu: “I’m Fish~”

They look at Bai Shuzhou together*

Bai Shuzhou, transforming into a silver dragon: “I’m Dragon.”

Cat coworker & Zhu Yu: AAAAAHHH!!!