A Disguised Scum Alpha Marked Her Aloof Ex-Wife - Chapter 40

Zhu Yu always behaved too softly, like a harmless herbivore, so much so that Feng Jiyan had actually forgotten that the young body before her had already been tempered thousands of times on the frontlines. Its impurities had been washed away, and the taut lines of muscle were like newly forged silver, every inch containing sharp killing intent.

This killing intent was completely different from Bai Qianze’s condescending pressure, which felt as though she were stepping on an ant.

It was experience piled up from mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Even though Zhu Yu herself had not noticed it at all, her instinctive reaction had already gripped the most vulnerable part of Feng Jiyan’s neck with one hand, while the other covered that eloquent mouth that played with politics and power.

The young woman’s clear eyes stared fixedly at Feng Jiyan.

She knew it was not only Feng Jiyan and Bai Qianze. Countless people were watching from the shadows. Bai Shuzhou’s talent was extraordinary, yet she was powerless to protect herself. Everyone wanted a slice of her.

Schemes, calculations, the world, human hearts—it was all too complicated.

These were the things Zhu Yu was worst at.

“If anything happens to me or the princess again…”

She bent down, her hoarse voice pressed against Feng Jiyan’s ear.

“I won’t ask anything else. I’ll kill you first.”

Feng Jiyan’s pupils trembled. Suppressed by the young woman’s absolute physical strength, she could not move. This was the first time she had ever been treated so roughly by someone beneath her.

Zhu Yu was far too easy to anger. With her shallow experience, it was difficult for her to distinguish many truths from lies. As someone who played the game, Feng Jiyan had never taken Zhu Yu seriously. She had only wanted to borrow a knife to kill, to stir the board.

But faced with such tangled chaos, Zhu Yu had only one sentence—

I won’t ask anything else. I’ll kill you first.

A chess piece on the board had raised a blade toward the sky.

Zhu Yu released her hand and looked at the ring of red marks around Feng Jiyan’s neck. Her anger-clouded mind slowly cleared, though the tense veins at her wrist were still pulsing.

She lifted her face and exhaled deeply.

The killing intent surging around her startled even herself, as if she truly possessed enough power to destroy everything.

At first, Zhu Yu had still been frightened by this feeling. She hated violence and disorder. But at this moment, looking at her palm, she seemed to return to the instant when she had been threatened by the star pirates and had gripped the electric saw.

She desired power, and thus she could command power.

This power came from desire.

Wanting. Longing.

To Zhu Yu, desire was something hard to speak of. It had been tamed and suppressed for too long. Yet when she faced it directly, it became as natural as breathing.

Feng Jiyan covered her neck, her tongue pressing against the inside of her mouth. Zhu Yu had strangled her so hard that her throat hurt too much to speak. She could only watch helplessly as Zhu Yu shook out her hand and left.

Zhu Yu was still thinking that no wonder people said the Empire respected martial strength above all. Once she truly got angry, Feng Jiyan became obedient and stopped speaking in clever circles.

In this world, weakness meant being bullied. Cowardice was a sin.

Retreating would not earn respect. It would only make others take an inch and reach for a foot.

That power spread through her limbs and bones. The young woman’s face was cold, and even her pace was much faster than usual. She did not know how to control it.

Invisibly, the blocked meridians gradually opened, as if a drifting seed had finally found soil, still bewildered before taking root and sprouting.

The pressure around her remained low the whole way.

She became very sensitive. The world seemed unusually clear, so that when she stopped at the door, she immediately sensed a scent that was both strange and familiar.

It was…

Goloriel.

Zhu Yu stopped at the doorway. Without a teacher, her mental power seeped inward. Warm woody fragrance flowed through her blood, like the winding branches of a tree swaying according to her will.

Inside the room, the woman on the sickbed seemed to sense something. Her cold pale blue eyes lifted slightly.

Meanwhile, the bandaged Goloriel was still talking endlessly, holding a thick stack of evidence as she indignantly accused Zhu Yu of harboring wolfish ambitions.

Her family’s influence was undoubtedly enormous. Investigating Zhu Yu’s scandals was as easy as turning over a hand. What was more, the former “Zhu Yu” had never acted particularly low-key. Many nobles had long disliked her and wished they could eliminate her as quickly as possible.

Their first romantic meeting had not been at the military parade, as the official propaganda claimed.

It had been at noon, when Zhu Yu had climbed over a wall to skip class. Her clothes had fluttered as she leapt down, just in time to run into Bai Shuzhou, who was traveling incognito.

“Classmate, are you from the dance academy next door? I’ll ride you back on my bike. Please don’t report me. If the instructor catches me, I’ll be dead for sure—”

The young woman had pressed her palms together and smiled brilliantly.

At their first meeting, neither had exchanged names, as though it truly were only a young and innocent encounter.

But Goloriel brought out information and swore that Zhu Yu had clearly set her sights on Bai Shuzhou not long after arriving on the imperial capital star. She had asked around from multiple sides, scouted locations, and rehearsed repeatedly to ensure this so-called chance meeting.

A princess unstained by the mortal world atop a high tower would be most easily moved by blazing sincerity.

Zhu Yu had approached bit by bit, closed the net little by little. No matter how cunning a hunter was, she would always leave traces. After marriage, she had completely exposed her fangs and wounded Bai Shuzhou all over.

She was greedy for the supreme power Bai Shuzhou brought her, yet dissatisfied with the other woman’s overwhelming possessiveness during their passionate period. She had even publicly expressed hatred toward the royal family while drunk, saying that Bai Shuzhou, as a sensitive Omega, was boring and rigid, not even allowing herself to be touched…

If Bai Shuzhou became pregnant with her child, then sooner or later, the entire Empire would belong to her, to her child.

“This is what the Empire owes me—!”

At the end of the recording, the voice soaked in alcohol had become very hoarse. The young woman, full of malice, laughed lowly. The blurred syllables also sounded a little like crying.

The brighter and nobler the image “Zhu Yu” had built for herself, the more shocking the darkness beneath it became. The Alphas called each other sisters and laughed together as they jeered, their discussion filthy beyond description, until it abruptly cut off.

……

Goloriel’s posture was very low. She bent half at the waist, not daring to rise higher than Bai Shuzhou, nor did she recklessly look directly at her like yesterday.

But she had only restrained the overt offense leaking from her. When she spoke of Zhu Yu’s crimes, she was impassioned, and a twisted excitement flickered deep in her eyes.

Was that not also her own true feelings?

Under the banner of “doing this for your own good,” forcing Bai Shuzhou to look directly at these bloody past events was also a kind of hidden bullying.

A dignified princess, the most talented dragon in a century, was nothing more than this. Because of so-called “love,” after enduring and yielding again and again, she had become an object to be watched and discussed.

Because they longed to possess her but could not reach her, they tried to slander her, to make her cheap too.

“Your Highness, you lost your memory, which is why you were deceived once again by Zhu Yu… Your Highness Zhu Yu!”

“His Majesty feared you would be saddened, so she was unwilling to tell you these ugly matters. But I absolutely cannot bear to watch you repeat the same mistake!”

“I am willing to become your knight. As long as you need it, the Mundo family will swear loyalty to you unto death—”

Goloriel pressed one hand to her heart and squeezed out a false smile, warm and sunny. Under the catalysis of some kind of reagent, her pheromones had also become very sweet.

She was trying to seduce the princess, just as Zhu Yu had done back then, and she was even staking her family’s honor.

The sick, fragile Bai Shuzhou, whose memories still lingered not long after she had differentiated into an Omega, was trapped on this narrow sickbed. Without question, she greatly needed to cultivate power of her own.

At eighteen, Bai Shuzhou differentiated. The late empress passed away and released power. Bai Qianze officially ascended the throne as emperor.

The old foxes all understood without speaking that Bai Shuzhou’s memory disorder regressing to this exact point was undoubtedly very subtle.

At that time, Bai Qianze had been the only person Bai Shuzhou could look forward to and trust. In the seven years afterward, Bai Shuzhou appeared less and less, and became more and more silent.

Bai Qianze always said gently, “Xiao Zhou, you’re only ill.”

Goloriel quietly lifted her eyes, trying to observe Bai Shuzhou’s expression. Even if she pretended very well, that hidden anticipation still flowed from her cloudy gaze.

She was waiting for Bai Shuzhou to lose control, waiting for Bai Shuzhou to cry, waiting for the lofty princess to fall from the altar.

Look.

The person you like has been lying to you all along—!

But the woman propped her chin with one hand, her cold brows lifting slightly. She was also waiting.

“Is that so?”

She casually toyed with the apology gift Goloriel had brought. It was a pair of jade pendants shaped like twin fish, of excellent quality. They gleamed with cold porcelain-white light, and under the light, it seemed as though living water flowed within them. But when gathered in the palm and touched by the fingertips, they were warm.

Very much like someone.

Goloriel had paid a great price for them. The former Bai Shuzhou had indeed always been searching for similar things, once causing the price of jade to rise with the tide.

But now, she no longer needed them.

Outside the door, Zhu Yu clenched her fists tightly, killing intent spreading without concealment.

Feng Jiyan had deliberately called her away, giving Goloriel the chance to sow discord, hoping to sit back and watch tigers fight.

But all of this was secondary.

In a single night, Goloriel could dig up so much dirt on the original body. But had she never thought about it? If even she could find these things, could the emperor truly have been unaware?

The reason “Zhu Yu” had once dared to hurt Bai Shuzhou so unscrupulously, step by step becoming worse, was clearly because Bai Qianze had allowed it!

Only by allowing Bai Shuzhou to be hurt would she depend on Bai Qianze even more and obediently become a canary in a cage.

It was only that Bai Qianze probably had not expected that one day, she would go too far and force her kind, gentle younger sister to completely blacken.

To twist a person’s character, it never happened only in a single instant. It was daily, accumulated, subtle oppression, until a certain trigger made everything erupt.

Bang!

The young woman lifted her long leg and kicked the door open with a thunderous crash.

There was one thing Feng Jiyan had said correctly.

She really could not do anything to Bai Qianze.

But what about the others?

Every time Zhu Yu experienced a setback, she grew at an astonishing speed. She walked out from the greenhouse, worked hard to root downward, absorbed the nourishment of the world bit by bit, and searched for a better way to survive within the rules.

At first, she had only wanted to live.

But now, she wanted happiness.

A lot, a lot of happiness.

Goloriel, who had just passionately finished cursing Zhu Yu, turned her face in surprise. Then she saw that the young woman who had still been fairly good-tempered yesterday now had a cold face and strode forward.

She was like an asura god just descended from the battlefield, killing intent pressing in. Pearls swayed, and every step her soft boots took seemed to splash blood.

“When you see Her Highness, why don’t you kneel?”

If one had to kneel when seeing Bai Qianze, then of course one had to kneel when seeing Bai Shuzhou too.

Did nobles not love using strict hierarchy to pressure others most?

Zhu Yu did not know how to control pheromones, but as the strongest individual soldier, she had a simpler method.

She placed a hand on Goloriel’s shoulder and neatly kicked the other woman’s knee joint. The arrogant Goloriel’s body abruptly lowered, and she knelt.

“I am willing to become your knight. As long as you need it, Zhu Yu will swear loyalty to you unto death—”

No family.

Only me, this person.

I offer myself to you, body and soul.

Zhu Yu knew how to perform a knight’s salute.

Wearing Bai Shuzhou’s gorgeous clothes, she pressed one hand to her heart and turned slightly sideways, offering loyalty to her princess, her lover.

She had secretly observed the Snow Leopard Knights’ every move many times before. The royal knight uniform was undeniably handsome, white and gold, paired with a powerful, domineering tail. Wherever they went, they were the focus of the crowd.

Zhu Yu did not need so many people to see her.

As long as those pale blue eyes quietly watched her, that was enough.

Sunlight spilled along the edges of her hair, tinting it faint gold. The woman laughed softly, pleased and brief. Her cool voice chimed against Zhu Yu’s heart.

Zhu Yu nervously bit her lip, her eyes faintly red.

After being provoked again and again, even she felt her actions were too rushed and abrupt. She had just been exposed with undeniable scandals, unable to refute them, and then immediately turned around to swear loyalty. The contrast was too large. Nothing had been properly prepared.

There was no proper oath. She had learned it from someone else just now. There was no formal sword-bestowing ceremony either…

But at this very moment, the sunlight was just right, the glacier was melting, and Bai Shuzhou’s indifferent pale pupils reflected her figure. The entire world tilted with Bai Shuzhou’s raised hand.

On her slender wrist, that little red mole swayed faintly.

Being gazed at so gently, if Bai Shuzhou now said, “Go take down Bai Qianze,” even cowardly Zhu Yu would answer seriously, “Okay, then I’ll think of a way!”

But in reality, the woman on the sickbed merely let her cool fingertips fall very lightly on the top of Zhu Yu’s head. Jade-like fingers passed through ink-black hair, stroking that soft hair.

Zhu Yu’s tense heart softened too.

She had never known that simply having her head patted could feel this comfortable. Her anger, her killing intent, all vanished in an instant, finding a long-lost home in Bai Shuzhou’s palm.

“Good girl. You did very well,” the woman said in her cool voice.

To use such a thin voice for gentle praise was truly an unfair thing.

It represented unparalleled favor, bypassing the most basic distance between people, rubbing until Zhu Yu’s scalp tingled.

Bai Shuzhou handed the “evidence” to Zhu Yu and said softly, “You do it. Tear it up yourself.”

The young woman bit her lip, her pupils shrinking bit by bit.

Standing outside the door and listening to all those stained misdeeds, it would be a lie to say she had not felt uneasy. She had even instinctively prepared for the worst. That kick she had given Goloriel had also contained a measure of personal grudge.

But after reading Zhu Yu’s so-called crimes, Bai Shuzhou merely lowered her eyes and looked at her, saying faintly:

“I trust my… knight.”

Goloriel, kneeling on the floor, trembled violently.

All of a sudden, she had become a clown.

Even like this, Bai Shuzhou would still firmly choose Zhu Yu?!

Rip.

Rip.

From tentatively tearing open one corner, Zhu Yu discovered for the first time that tearing paper was actually this stress-relieving. Her suppressed ambition and nature were all released, as if she were cutting herself away from that obscure past. They were both welcoming a brand-new beginning.

The sharpest black words on white paper instantly turned into a heavy snowfall.

After throwing out the unnecessary witness on the floor, and before the Snow Leopards who had been sent away could return, Zhu Yu shut the door and forced herself to keep a straight face, not letting herself break into a silly smile too quickly.

Otherwise, she would not look as cool.

Expression control!

Using the reflection of the metal, Zhu Yu looked at her own serious, elegant shadow, tightened her hair, and took a deep breath.

Oh no.

She had actually begun to have a knight’s burden!

She had to smile a little wickedly. Bai Shuzhou might like that better. Three parts devilish charm, seven parts careless indifference…

“Come here.”

Bai Shuzhou took in every tiny movement Zhu Yu made and laughed lightly. “Take back your pheromones.”

Silly.

Every bit of emotion was exposed through her pheromones.

Very dangerous.

And also…

Far too showy.

“Is there?” Zhu Yu lifted her hand and sniffed, but all she could smell on herself was Bai Shuzhou’s rose fragrance.

The difference was only extremely subtle. She could not distinguish it.

“There is. Very strong. Please control yourself, Knight.”

Bai Shuzhou stood with her hands behind her back, proud and reserved, deliberately maintaining a distant space. She pretended to press her hand against the tip of her nose, but her palm opened slightly, and her little finger hooked faintly.

“Princess, teach me…”

Bai Shuzhou’s favor gave Zhu Yu enormous courage. She sat at the edge of the bed, still solemnly using the honorific on the surface, yet she had already gently held Bai Shuzhou’s hand. She rubbed the tip of her nose against it and asked softly:

“All right?”

Author’s Note:

Zhu Yu: I really have fallen into your hands!

She turns into a little fish seed, takes root and sprouts in Bai Shuzhou’s palm, blooming blooming blooming blooming blooming blooming blooming blooming blooming blooming blooming…