A Disguised Scum Alpha Marked Her Aloof Ex-Wife - Chapter 9

The first time Bai Shuzhou called her name, what followed was a furious slap.

The first time she told her to “come here,” her hand had been cool as she pulled down Zhu Yu’s mask, and that sudden kiss had been so soft.

Her beautiful voice could always so easily tug at Zhu Yu’s joys and sorrows. The fear was real, and so was the anticipation.

Zhu Yu could not refuse her.

Just meeting those pale blue eyes, Zhu Yu could not imagine what kind of person would ever bear to hurt her, let alone cruelly take their daughter away and use her as a bargaining chip…

Stop thinking about a daughter!

Even if Zhu Yu lacked common sense about this strange world, she still knew it was impossible to get pregnant from kissing. Kissing was probably the bottom line Bai Shuzhou had been forced to accept…

They were already almost ex-wives. Continuing to cling to her would be rude!!

Zhu Yu forced herself to look away.

The whole room was filled with the aroma of food. She noticed that there was now a very large rice cooker, with wisps of white steam drifting out from the vent.

Helan stood to the side with her arms crossed. The expression she gave Zhu Yu was very complicated.

But the young woman did not notice at all.

Whether looking openly or sneaking glances, her attention remained fixed on Bai Shuzhou from beginning to end, at most with a little clumsy disguise added in.

In her mind, countless thoughts had turned over and over.

In reality, Zhu Yu only walked toward Bai Shuzhou and pretended to respond calmly, “I’m back.”

On the wooden table was a tall stack of bowls. Through those little porcelain mountains, the woman’s slightly fuller face had gained some color.

Her voice remained faint. “How was work?”

Bai Shuzhou was actually caring about her.

Zhu Yu was overwhelmed by the honor and pinched her own wrist. “It was pretty good. The work was easy, everyone took care of me, and lunch was included. I met a very nice coworker too.”

“Really?”

Those two thin lips touched lightly.

Their eyes met.

Zhu Yu watched that overly beautiful face go from indifferent calm to faint ripples.

She smiled.

This was the first time Zhu Yu had seen Bai Shuzhou smile. Her pale blue eyes outlined the shape of the moon—not a full moon, but a sharp, rugged sliver of moonlight.

A single instant of silence.

A single instant of thousands of troops and horses crying out.

There were no beacon fires to summon the lords, and she was not King You of Zhou. She was only a tiny person, dumbly gazing up at the bright moon.

Whether it was mockery or false affection, Zhu Yu could not understand.

She only knew that Bai Shuzhou had truly curved her lips, like the mottled shadows on the moon, making her otherworldly joys and sorrows seem more real.

The young woman said nothing.

Pinching her wrist was a sign that her emotions were fluctuating intensely. Bai Shuzhou lowered her eyes in satisfaction, hiding the bone-deep chill within them. She was too lazy to spare Zhu Yu another glance.

Zhu Yu had been born poor. After gaining status on the imperial capital star, she had bought countless luxury goods. In private, her image was completely different from the “star of the common people” she had painstakingly cultivated.

After getting drunk, she had once worn an Alranka silk gown, half-open at the chest, smiling as she poured royal-supply rose wine over herself. Deep red liquor had soaked her collarbones and slid down along her chest. She raised the empty glass, who knew to whom.

She said, “Me? I will absolutely, absolutely never go back to the kind of life I had before.”

“I’ll have money, power, prestige. Everyone should kneel at my feet…”

Bai Shuzhou still remembered when they had first met, how Zhu Yu would share her daily life from work with her.

At that time, Zhu Yu had still been pretending to be a diligent, resilient little white flower. In truth, she hated those days of swallowing her anger so much that her teeth itched.

“Why can’t you see the hardships of the lower classes at all, Your noble Highness?”

I am looking, Zhu Yu.

Since you love performing so much.

Then show me those hardships you described all over again.

Bai Shuzhou took the handkerchief and wiped her fingers. She lifted her brows lightly, leaned back against the bed, and smiled at Helan.

The smile was very light, without the slightest weight.

Helan could not bear to look at it and turned her face away.

Helan glanced at He Ming, who was running around joyfully, then looked at Zhu Yu. She let out a low sigh.

“Xiao Yu, let’s talk outside.”

That reaction…

A very bad premonition suddenly rose in Zhu Yu’s heart. It felt like the final announcement in a hospital room, when the doctor deliberately called the family aside.

Bah, bah, bah.

How could she think of something so unlucky?

Bai Shuzhou would definitely live a long life!

Helan was still choosing her words, trying to ease into it. “There’s good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?”

“The bad news.”

“The bad news is, your sister may have injured her spine, not just her legs. Do you understand what I mean?”

Helan paused. “That is to say, she might be paralyzed and never stand again. The treatment would cost at least several hundred thousand. Even if she’s cured, there will probably be lasting complications.”

Silence stretched out.

The moon fell, growing larger and larger before her eyes, until everything sank into blankness.

Zhu Yu knew Bai Shuzhou loved ballet.

She had spent an enormous amount of time practicing. Every movement she made could be called perfect. At such a young age, she had already become a principal dancer, and tickets to her performances were impossible to get.

Even the leader of the opposing Federation had once said, “Art has no borders,” and hoped to invite the princess for an exchange visit.

She was the Empire’s rose, the darling of creation.

All those crowns and titles could only describe the tip of the iceberg.

A result like this…

It was too hard to accept.

No wonder Bai Shuzhou would blacken.

If someone broke Zhu Yu’s hands and made it so she could never do the work she loved again, she would certainly want to strangle them too.

“What about the good news?”

The voice squeezed out from deep in her throat sounded a little strange.

Helan patted Zhu Yu’s shoulder and said tactfully, “The good news is, her appetite is still pretty good. Being able to eat is a blessing. Things will slowly get better.”

Her appetite was pretty good.

Very good, in fact.

When Bai Shuzhou ate her third bowl of noodles, Helan had still been worried that she might overstuff herself. But by the time she reached her thirteenth bowl of food, Helan was only curious how much she could eat in total.

Seeing Zhu Yu’s blank, unaware expression, Helan silently sighed.

Bai Shuzhou had probably been hungry for a long time.

For poor people, a large appetite was also a kind of sin.

Helan herself had eaten a lot since she was little, so she could very much empathize. When her mother was laid off, the whole family could only eat the cheapest near-expired nutrient solution. Many people on this planet had survived that way.

The reason large nutrient-solution factories were built here was not only because labor was cheap. A major part of it was that, under interstellar food safety laws, many defective products that should have been destroyed could be sold cheaply on the spot here without anyone taking responsibility.

People would even be grateful.

“She didn’t want me to tell you about her condition. She’s probably worried about money. Right now, even food is already a significant expense. You’re still in school too, and you’ll need to buy an interstellar ticket to get there, right?”

Zhu Yu pinched her wrist and nodded.

She was already injured this badly, yet Bai Shuzhou still did not want her to know.

The image of the woman biting her lip, tears seeping from the corners of her eyes, appeared uncontrollably before Zhu Yu again.

Bai Shuzhou was so proud.

How could she possibly accept pity?

If it were that scumbag original owner, perhaps she would even deliberately joke about Bai Shuzhou’s pain and use it as a point of attack.

To her, Bai Shuzhou’s suffering was nothing more than leverage to play with at will.

Why hadn’t the guards come to find her yet and take her back to the palace?

Your princess is in my hands!

For one instant, Zhu Yu even wanted to give up and use some extreme method to attract official attention. But they were on a garbage planet.

No one cared.

Probably no one would have imagined that the broken aircraft Zhu Yu had hidden away had once been an experimental military product. No one would have imagined that an inferior Alpha could control a defective machine and execute a highly difficult interstellar jump.

Even the strongest ace warriors had to be extremely careful when using an interstellar jump. The slightest mistake would cause them to be swallowed by collapsing space, leaving them without even a grave.

They should have been obliterated in the artillery fire.

The furious emperor had ordered that their remains must be found. Otherwise, they could not be classified as dead. This was a despicable kidnapping, a conspiracy. They had to still be on the run!

Zhu Yu knew nothing about the political turmoil.

She only knew that she needed money now.

A lot of money.

They had no money. Without money, they would go hungry, and there would be no way to treat Bai Shuzhou’s illness.

Back home, Zhu Yu had never worried about this problem. Although her mother was always away, her older sister could always solve everything.

Now, it was her turn to shoulder these responsibilities.

Helan sighed and swatted away Zhu Yu’s wrist, which she had pinched red. She turned back to make sure the door was properly shut before lowering her voice.

“If you don’t mind, I can introduce you to a night shift at a bar. Places that burn money pay high wages. Six hundred for an overnight shift, with commission for any liquor you sell. But…”

As soon as she heard six hundred and commission, Zhu Yu immediately raised her face and said firmly, “I’ll go!”

Helan had not expected her to agree so readily. The crumpled piece of paper in her palm no longer had any use. Her expression turned serious.

“On the surface, that place is a bar. In reality, it’s involved in smuggling. Goods between the Empire and the Federation change hands there. If you really go, remember: talk less, work more, and just earn your base pay. Don’t touch what you shouldn’t. Those businesses are managed by gangs and interstellar pirates. Understand?”

“Save enough for two interstellar tickets and go to a third-tier star region, a big city. Things are different there. Someone will back you up there. At least…”

Helan did not continue.

“All right. Thank you. I understand.”

Zhu Yu answered very simply, then bowed to her solemnly.

“One more thing. Just pay me for the food. I’ll waive the rent.”

Zhu Yu hesitated. “That’s not really right, is it? It isn’t easy for you to raise Xiao Ming alone either. I can repair and pick through more appliances, and that can earn money too. My major is repair work. I’ve repaired aircraft as well.”

“Cough.”

Hearing the word aircraft, Helan’s gaze flickered. She pressed a hand to her lips and swallowed back the words already on the tip of her tongue.

In truth, the little courtyard rented to them had been abandoned for years and had no owner. She merely lived close by and happened to know how to pick locks.

Helan asked, “You really know how to repair aircraft?”

“Mm.”

Although what she had repaired were machines from her previous life, no matter how the universe changed, the principles were always connected. It was not as if something could step on its own left foot with its right and ascend to the heavens.

Helan had a wide network of connections. Zhu Yu looked at her with eyes full of expectation, hoping she could introduce a related job.

But in the end, Helan said nothing. She only patted her and told her to work well for now.

When Zhu Yu said goodbye and returned inside, Helan was also studying her. She looked Zhu Yu over deeply, especially those hands with clearly defined bones.

After thinking for a moment, Helan turned and called, “Xiao Ming, we’re going home. Are you planning to sleep over here?”

He Ming lifted her head from inside the room, cheerfully oblivious to the atmosphere. “Can I? I saw there’s a floor bed here!”

“You can. Then don’t come back.”

“Hey!” He Ming stomped her foot anxiously and quickly ran out, not forgetting to wave. “See you tomorrow, Sisters!”

The room fell into silence again.

Bai Shuzhou lowered her eyes and waited for Zhu Yu to remove her disguise.

Financial distress had always been one of Zhu Yu’s sore spots. She had been born in the slums, vain and insecure, and loved showing off her deep affection most of all.

After going in circles, they had returned to the starting point she hated most.

Bai Shuzhou knew too well what Zhu Yu cared about most.

Money. Power. Face.

For those things, she had not hesitated to disguise herself for years. Having taken too many shortcuts, how could she possibly be willing to work honestly?

Yet the young woman quietly served herself a bowl of rice and began eating in big mouthfuls, so serious she was almost devout.

This was a new rice-and-vegetable dish Helan had made, simmering in the rice cooker. Although there were very few strips of salted meat, the cost was relatively low, it was filling, and it smelled delicious.

Her hollow taste buds were awakened and filled. Her stomach became warmly satisfied.

Helan was right.

As long as one could eat enough and have strength, everything would slowly get better!

Zhu Yu went to the courtyard and brought in the little electric pot she had washed clean. Under the lightbulb, she took it apart and reconnected a section of wire.

Her skills had not grown rusty. She repaired it neatly, finishing in just a few minutes.

The red indicator light came on, and the young woman’s mouth spread into a satisfied smile along with it.

The woman on the bed watched her busy figure indifferently.

One by one, Zhu Yu brought in the broken appliances, repaired them, and arranged them in a row.

The old appliances were like mushrooms, soon filling the entire room.

She focused on thinking, observing, and lifting her wrist. For some reason, there was a reassuring strength about her.

Without realizing it, Bai Shuzhou watched for a long time. Her thick lashes blinked lightly, then drooped with exhaustion.

The young woman stood by the bed, her face poking through the gauze curtain.

She asked softly, “Are you asleep?”

Bai Shuzhou was too lazy to answer her.

The young woman continued standing there, like a puppy firmly guarding a bone. Even without opening her eyes, Bai Shuzhou could feel her annoying presence. Her sense of existence was very strong.

From the tip of her nose, Bai Shuzhou coldly hummed a single syllable.

Zhu Yu immediately seized the chance and asked quietly, “Can I use my ability to treat you and massage you a little? Don’t worry. My mental power has recovered a lot. I’ll definitely help you get better soon.”

She was asking, but her actions had clearly already crossed the line.

She stood, spread the blanket properly, and gently placed her warm palms over Bai Shuzhou.

Bai Shuzhou lifted her pale blue eyes. “No one is worried about you.”

Zhu Yu met her gaze very seriously.

“But I’m worried about you.”

Through the thin layer of fabric, warm light flowed beneath her palms. Tiny currents passed through Bai Shuzhou’s skin. She bit her lip, and her clenched fists trembled silently.