After I Died, The Little White Flower Heroine Went Mad - Chapter 6
Li Zhu, who was apparently wrong even just for breathing, still wanted to ease her relationship with Miss Protagonist.
But Miss Protagonist clearly had no such intention. She could not avoid Li Zhu fast enough. Over the next few days, whenever she saw Li Zhu, she ran. The moment class ended, she vanished, and normally Li Zhu could not even catch a glimpse of her shadow.
Li Zhu really wanted to talk to her and find a reasonable explanation to make it clear that she would not do something like that again, but she never found a chance to speak to her.
There was nothing she could do. Repairing a relationship with someone was not something that could be rushed. She could only take it slowly.
Just like that, amid slow observation, time slowly and finally arrived at the last day of September.
It was Friday, six days later—the day of the welcome gala.
There were no classes that day. From morning onward, everyone focused entirely on preparing for that night’s welcome gala.
In the cultural auditorium, final rehearsals were proceeding at full speed. Student council president Wen Yan led the student council in preparing the evening’s reception process. Some clubs were decorating the campus, while some people were decorating themselves.
At a time like this, Bai Wei’s shadow was even harder to find. Who knew what she was busy with?
Only Li Zhu was idle. She was not performing in the gala, nor was she involved in school affairs. All she needed to do was try on and choose an evening dress, then wait to enjoy the night.
She could not enjoy it at all. After all, an important plot point was about to arrive.
But of course, she was not especially nervous either. She would definitely change the original storyline.
Just like that, Li Zhu passed the day calmly, neither enjoying it nor feeling nervous.
When the sky was about to darken, the hour hand on the clock pointed to seven. It was seven in the evening.
The welcome gala began.
This grand annual gala was held in the campus cultural auditorium.
The name “campus cultural auditorium” sounded ordinary, but in reality, the auditorium was enormous, occupying several thousand square meters. Both its interior and exterior had been jointly designed by several artists specially invited by Nyx.
First, the outside. The exterior of the auditorium was an elegant castle carved from countless natural stones, looking lavish, beautiful, and noble at a glance.
Then, the inside. After passing through a dreamlike corridor lined with crystal beneath ceiling murals, one reached the equally dreamy and beautiful first floor of the auditorium.
At the very front of the first floor was a deep and spacious main stage. Behind it were rows of red velvet seats arranged in a fan shape. Surrounding the sides were audience halls from the second to fifth floors, encircling three sides, embellished with huge carved columns and exquisite railings.
The second- to fifth-floor audience halls could be reached from inside the auditorium, or by climbing the marble staircases outside. After entering, one could look down from above and take in the entire hall while watching the performance.
It was somewhat like the Paris Opera House that Li Zhu had visited before. Once inside, never mind the program itself; simply touring the venue was already a pleasure.
It showed how unbelievably wealthy Nyx was. Truly, its extravagance had reached the extreme.
The principal, school leaders, and honorary alumni were in the most luxurious main box on the second floor of this luxurious auditorium.
There were too many important figures, so not many minor nobles could enter. Among current students, only Hua Yi and Wen Yan could sit in that box. Gu Xing was still on leave today and had not come to the welcome gala either.
With the Li family’s status, Li Zhu could enter if she really wanted to.
But Li Zhu did not want to enter. Li Zhu only wanted to return to the real world. Her mind was entirely on the plot right now; how could she have time for fake socializing?
In the end, she did not go in. She did not go to the other box prepared for her nearby either. Instead, Li Zhu turned and left the cultural auditorium.
Her high heels stepped elegantly across the corridor and reached the stairwell. Just as she lifted her foot and prepared to go downstairs, she lowered her eyes to the marble steps before her and could not help pausing.
Because in the original plot, the conflict happened here.
The welcome gala was not long, only about an hour and a half in total.
But after the gala ended, the welcome celebration did not stop. Instead, it continued as a free dance.
The free dance was held not far away, beside Bright Moon Lake, the largest artificial lake on campus outside the cultural auditorium.
At that time, under the moonlight and beside the shimmering lake, people could casually talk and romantically dance with their partners or the ones they liked in the breeze.
Of course, “Li Zhu” wanted to be with Hua Yi. But she had not been able to find Hua Yi anywhere.
In the end, when she returned to the second floor of the auditorium to continue looking, enemies met on a narrow road. She still did not see Hua Yi, but instead saw Bai Wei, a poor student, actually wandering around on the second floor.
Then the two of them met at the stairwell and argued, and Bai Wei was pushed down the stairs by “Li Zhu.”
Li Zhu, who knew the plot in advance, naturally could not let any of that happen now. She might as well avoid it from the very beginning.
She would not even watch the gala. She would leave the cultural auditorium right at the start and never return, strangling the conflict in its cradle.
Yet who could have expected that when she had no intention of causing anything, something would happen naturally; when she deliberately avoided someone, that person would suddenly appear before her eyes.
Li Zhu left the cultural auditorium and walked outside. She came to Bright Moon Lake opposite, thinking she would sit on a bench by the lake for a while to pass the time.
Only then did she discover that she was not the only one who did not want to watch the gala and had secretly left early. Someone was already sitting on the bench.
And it was none other than Bai Wei. Beneath the green trees by the lake, in the gentle moonlight, that figure was precisely Bai Wei.
She wore a simple pale-blue long dress and sat alone facing Bright Moon Lake, her slightly lowered head moving bit by bit.
What was she doing?
Aside from during class, Li Zhu truly rarely saw Miss Heroine. And as a transmigrator, she inevitably felt a natural curiosity toward the protagonist.
So she shifted half a small step to the side and poked her head out to secretly look from the side.
Only then did she sneak a glimpse and realize that someone’s little head was bobbing because she was eating.
Bai Wei sat on the bench, holding a small cake in both hands. She was eating it in big, fragrant bites—so much so that it could even be called wolfing it down. She had not swallowed the previous bite before the next one was already being stuffed in, filling both her little cheeks until they bulged round.
She really looked like a little hamster. Strangely cute.
A smile could not help rippling through Li Zhu’s eyes.
Unfortunately, the little hamster was far too sharp.
Li Zhu had come so lightly, had not spoken the entire time, and had only shifted her feet and glanced at Bai Wei once, yet she was discovered.
Bai Wei, who had been burying her head and eating, paused, as if sensing something. She instinctively turned her head and looked back.
And so, the girl by the lake holding a cake with puffed cheeks and Li Zhu in an elegant, dazzling red dress beneath the moonlight met each other’s eyes in the breeze.
Both sides were caught off guard.
Li Zhu was naturally surprised when Bai Wei suddenly turned around.
Bai Wei was surprised because of her, and extremely surprised at that. While her cheeks were still puffed up, her eyes suddenly widened into perfect circles.
A moment later, after reacting, she immediately wanted to leave. But she could not bear to part with the little cake in her hands, so she simply stuffed the whole thing into her mouth in a few quick bites, then lifted her skirt and prepared to run.
Li Zhu had not expected Bai Wei’s reaction to be this big upon seeing her. Instinctively, she lifted her leg and wanted to chase after her, but the next second, when her shoe landed, she could not help hesitating.
Should she really chase her?
If she did not chase her, Bai Wei would keep hiding from her. If she missed this chance, who knew when the next opportunity to talk would be?
Then when would she ever be able to communicate with the heroine, clear the game, and return to the real world? A whole week had already passed, and she had made no progress at all.
But if she chased her, today was a major plot point, and she was afraid of causing some unexpected complication, so she hesitated.
Still, they were already far away from the incident location, and she would not do anything to Bai Wei. Logically speaking, there should be no possibility of anything happening.
While Li Zhu stopped and thought, the fleeing hamster saw that Miss Li had actually not pressed her advantage and chased after her. Feeling slightly surprised, she could not help looking back.
That one look brought disaster upon her.
Bai Wei, who had turned her head, failed to notice where she was stepping. She seemed to accidentally step into empty air, and with a smack, she fell onto the ground by the lake.
The movement was not small. She had probably fallen quite hard.
Li Zhu was stunned, then could not help laughing. This time, however, she no longer hesitated and finally chose to walk toward Bai Wei.
Because “Li Zhu” was not the kind of person who would see an enemy fall in front of her and pretend not to notice.
It was one thing for her to ignore Bai Wei fleeing in panic earlier, but now that Bai Wei had fallen, if she still stopped in place or turned and walked away, it would seem somewhat strange. Bai Wei would be confused.
But even after going over, she would not truly act according to “Li Zhu’s” personality by mocking her or kicking her while she was down.
Since the game creator wanted to see the ending she would play out by acting according to her own heart, she could not keep living inside “Li Zhu’s” personality forever and follow the original plot completely.
She had to become herself again as soon as possible.
During the week since she had transmigrated, although she had not managed to get close to the heroine, it was not as if she had truly been idle and done nothing.
Over these past few days, she had devoted herself to studying the situation and had figured out a good method that would let her avoid OOC behavior while still becoming herself again.
Now was the perfect time to test it.
So Li Zhu went over.
This little classmate Bai Wei looked thin and weak on the surface, but in reality, her vitality was quite tenacious.
Before Li Zhu passed the bench and reached her side, Bai Wei had already worked hard to climb up by herself.
As she bent slightly to pat the dust off her dress, the corner of her eye caught Li Zhu’s drifting skirt hem approaching. She hurriedly straightened and took a step back.
Seeing Bai Wei look so wary, Li Zhu stopped walking. She stood at a safe distance, neither too far nor too close, and did not move forward again, afraid that the person before her would be startled away like a small animal.
Perhaps because Li Zhu did not come any closer, or perhaps because of something else, Bai Wei did not run again.
She stood there and looked at Li Zhu.
In the breeze by the lake, the red dress fluttered and the blue dress rippled faintly. They looked at each other across layers of moonlight.
In the end, Bai Wei was the first to break the silence. She looked at Li Zhu before her and smiled bitterly.
“My young lady, what is it this time? I’m already avoiding you when I walk. Is even that not enough? Why are you still chasing me?”
“I don’t think I’ve provoked you recently, have I?”
Li Zhu looked at her too. One second. Two seconds. The next second, she curved her lips into a faint smile and said with elegant laziness,
“If you haven’t provoked me, then why are you running?”
Bai Wei was choked silent for a moment.
“Isn’t it because I’m afraid of offending your eyes?”
Li Zhu did not answer that. She only looked at Bai Wei. After a moment, she suddenly said,
“Bai Wei, I’m a little curious about you now.”
Bai Wei had never imagined that in this lifetime, she would hear such words from Miss Li’s mouth. She froze on the spot, her face filled with astonishment.
Only after several seconds passed did she react. Then came a mocking smile.
“You? Curious about me?”
“What kind of new trick is this?”
Of course Bai Wei would not believe Li Zhu’s words. She also felt that these words were strange to the extreme.
After recovering, her first reaction was that this young lady had come up with some new way to mess with her.
Her second reaction was: what was wrong with this young lady today? Had she been possessed, or had she lost her mind?
For “Li Zhu’s” character setting, this sentence was indeed severely OOC. How could a vicious supporting female character become interested in the delicate heroine?
And sure enough, the system did not allow OOC behavior.
Li Zhu had only just spoken those words in one second when punishment struck in the next. A piercing alarm abruptly rang in her mind.
But Li Zhu did not panic at all. She was not truly insane. She had a reason for saying this.
She remained composed, still smiling faintly as she looked into Bai Wei’s eyes and said,
“Messing with you is boring.”
“You are more interesting.”
“So I want to understand you a little.”
Li Zhu sincerely wanted to apologize to Bai Wei on behalf of what had happened before, but that did not fit “Li Zhu’s” character setting. Besides, if she abruptly apologized to Bai Wei, it would definitely arouse Bai Wei’s suspicion. Now was not the right time to apologize.
So if she wanted to get close to Bai Wei, she could only find another excuse. And if she wanted to achieve her goal of approaching Bai Wei, she had to say it in a tone that matched “Li Zhu’s” temperament as much as possible.
And so she said,
“As for why?”
“What business is it of yours?”
“I, Li Zhu, have always done whatever I want.”
This sentence was exactly the anti-OOC skill Li Zhu had thought of: This young lady does whatever she wants. Since when is it your place to discipline me?
Thanks to “Li Zhu’s” character setting, Miss Li was someone unpredictable who did whatever she wanted.
Even her childhood friend Hua Yi thought she was a paranoid lunatic. Then was it not perfectly normal for a lunatic to act on whatever whim came to mind and do whatever she pleased?
That logic was correct, yes…
But Li Zhu and Bai Wei were currently enemies to the death. Last week, the vicious supporting character had still been bullying the heroine, yet this week, the supporting character suddenly said she had grown curious about the heroine. That was still very strange…
The system’s alarm hesitated a little.
Li Zhu seemed to understand what it was thinking. She was also explaining her own behavior, so she patched things up by saying,
“But if you really insist on knowing why, it’s not as if I can’t tell you.”
“Because Hua Yi was fierce to me because of you.”
“I’ve known Hua Yi for a very long time. Over all this time, I’ve warned more than one or two people who dared approach her, but this was the first time she got so angry at me.”
“Was I angry? Of course.”
“But after getting angry, I became a little curious. What kind of charm do you have, to attract her like this?”
“Hua Yi protects you. Wen Yan cares about you. Although Gu Xing hates you very much, right now, her thoughts are indeed on you.”
“You’ve been enrolled for less than a month, yet you’ve firmly drawn K3’s attention.”
“Bai Wei, how could I not be curious about you?”
“Violence is ultimately an inferior method. Blindly bullying you has no meaning.”
“I’m not stupid. I’ve already been warned. If I continue oppressing you from now on, it will only make certain people dislike me even more.”
“So for the time being, I won’t act against you.”
“I want to observe you.”
Bai Wei lightly furrowed her brows, her expression a little ugly.
[Bai Wei affection -5]
[Current Bai Wei affection: -18]
Bai Wei probably thought she was insane, actually preparing to obsessively spy on a romantic rival.
But precisely because it was insane, this extreme OOC behavior of saying whatever came to mind and doing whatever she wanted instead became reasonable again. It no longer seemed that OOC, because “Li Zhu” herself was already quite crazy.
The system went over Li Zhu’s words and discovered that they did seem to fit the behavioral logic of a paranoid supporting character. In the end, it judged Li Zhu’s actions this time as passing.
Li Zhu heard the alarm in her mind stop and let out a breath of relief. This method worked!
That meant she could move almost freely in the future.
Once she did anything out of line and others felt confused by it, she could throw out this all-purpose phrase: I, Miss Li, do whatever I want. Since when is it your place to discipline me?
That would be enough.
As for Bai Wei’s side…
Li Zhu sighed softly.
If affection points were deducted, then so be it. She was not sad at all, not upset at all. Affection points, you can just leave me like this. Don’t mind whether I live or die.
The only benefit was that with curiosity as an excuse, she could now approach the heroine openly in the future.
She hoped that after approaching the heroine, she could restore her image sooner and quickly raise the affection score back up.
Still, Li Zhu felt a little heartache and tried to struggle one last time to salvage things.
“As compensation for observing you, from now on, not only will I no longer do anything to you, I also won’t let anyone else do anything to you.”
In other words, Miss Li would protect you a little from now on.
When Bai Wei heard this, her lashes trembled very lightly. “Are you serious?”
Li Zhu nodded.
Bai Wei paused before answering, “Would it matter if I disagreed? Miss Li won’t care about how I feel anyway. Suit yourself.”
Her mouth said, “Suit yourself.”
But in reality—
[Bai Wei affection -5]
[Current Bai Wei affection: -23]
What!
Had she said something wrong again?
The more she spoke, the more mistakes she made. Speak once, wrong once; speak again, wrong again; the more she spoke, the worse it got. Young President Li was truly afraid she would drive the affection score all the way down to -99 today, so she finally shut her mouth and did not dare speak anymore.
Bai Wei had even less to say. Her head was slightly lowered, making it impossible to see her expression clearly.
For a time, the two people by the lake fell into silence.
As the silence continued, Bai Wei suddenly raised her head and glanced to the side.
The movement was truly too subtle, hidden in the shadows of the trees by the lake, almost invisible, so Li Zhu failed to notice it.
Only after that glance did Bai Wei finally speak. Perhaps the wind was a little loud tonight, because her voice sounded somewhat low.
“If there’s nothing else, I sneaked out, and I still have things to do. Can I leave?”
Could Li Zhu still say no? Otherwise, the affection score might jump off a building in front of her again. She nodded and hummed in agreement.
Bai Wei stepped away, passing by Li Zhu’s left side along the lakeside.
But at that moment, the wind in the grove rose even stronger, blowing leaves down with a rustle.
As luck—or bad luck—would have it, one leaf carrying a caterpillar fell with the wind and landed smack on Li Zhu’s collarbone.
A caterpillar!
In this life, Young President Li’s greatest fear was ghosts. Her second greatest fear was precisely this kind of disgusting worm with a soft body and sticky texture all over.
Because she hated it so much, and because if she did not get rid of it immediately, the bug would fall into her clothes, Li Zhu did not think too much in that moment. Acting on instinct, she reached out and swatted the bug away.
In her panic, the arc of her arm was a little too wide. As a result, the bug was indeed swatted away, but her fingertips also accidentally touched Bai Wei, who was passing by.
Li Zhu opened her mouth and was about to say sorry.
However, before she could speak, at that moment, a sudden change occurred!
The instant Li Zhu’s fingertips accidentally touched Bai Wei’s arm as Bai Wei passed beside her—
Bai Wei abruptly let out a terrified scream.
“Ah!”
Then she stepped slightly backward.
Splash!
She fell into Bright Moon Lake.
Everything happened too quickly.
One second, Li Zhu was still frightened by the bug falling onto her body, and she had not even realized she had touched Bai Wei. The next second, Bai Wei had already fallen into the lake. Li Zhu’s arm was still frozen in the position of having just swung out.
All of this was far too bewildering.
She had clearly stayed far away from the site of the original accident. How had something still gone wrong?
Li Zhu instinctively still thought: What happened? How did Bai Wei fall into the lake? Did she lose her footing?
The next second, she immediately denied it herself. No, that was not right! This was definitely not an accidental fall into the water!
The more chaotic things became, the calmer she grew. At the moment this accident happened, Li Zhu became exceptionally composed instead. Her mind spun rapidly as she recalled everything that had just happened.
Very quickly, she found the first point that felt wrong.
The caterpillar falling was indeed a coincidence. After all, no one could control the wind. But her hand touching Bai Wei was not a coincidence.
Because Li Zhu remembered that one second before her fingers touched Bai Wei, Bai Wei had already seemed to stop beside her.
Then the second odd point surged up as well.
The scream came too early. While Bai Wei was still standing steadily on flat ground, she had already cried out.
She screamed first, then stepped backward and fell.
These two suspicious points alone were enough for Li Zhu to confirm one thing: Bai Wei had deliberately fallen into the water.
Was she crazy?
What was she trying to do?
Frame her?
But Li Zhu could no longer obtain the answer.
Because in the very next second, another scream sounded from behind her.
“Ah!”
“S-someone fell into the water!”
“Help! Someone hurry over! Someone fell into the water!”
That person seemed to have been frightened. Her terrified voice was especially penetrating.
So much so that it quickly attracted people. Several student council members from inside the auditorium hurriedly ran over and asked,
“What happened? What happened? The gala just started. Don’t shout randomly.”
The frightened-sounding female voice then said,
“But, but someone fell into the water.”
“I saw… I think… I think it was Li Zhu who pushed someone into the lake.”
Bullshit!
I only touched her arm once!
Hearing the other party’s absurd words, Li Zhu instinctively turned her head.
And so she saw the blurry figure of the witness among the crowd. It seemed to be… a girl with straight bangs, a schoolgirl bob, and black-framed glasses.
Who?
She had no impression of her at all.
Forget it. That was not important for now.
What mattered now was that the plot had already bolted onto the highway like a runaway horse, becoming more and more ridiculous.
The situation was very unfavorable for her. Given Miss “Li Zhu’s” reputation at school, once the witness’s statement spread, she would not be able to explain herself even if she had a mouth.
Tsk. Wouldn’t that make it the same as the “Fright Night Ball” plot all over again?
Li Zhu suddenly realized something.
But she had no time to think deeply. What mattered now was that she had to hurry and find a way to—
However, it was already too late.
The instant the witness said that “Li Zhu pushed someone into the water”—
Boom!
The world before Li Zhu’s eyes abruptly went dark.
It was like someone had suddenly turned off the lights in a bright room. In the blink of an eye, she was standing in a pitch-black space where she could not see her own hand in front of her face.
Li Zhu did not move immediately. She stood nailed in place, lightly biting her back teeth as she coldly observed everything before her.
What was going on this time?
This time, her question received a precise answer.
The next second after the doubt appeared in her mind, familiar game notification text floated up before Li Zhu, accompanied by the system’s mechanical, flat voice.
[You did not push Bai Wei into the water.
But because of your tyrannical behavior and everything you have done in the past, no one believes your words at all. After all, everyone knows that just last week, you locked Bai Wei in the restroom and taught her a lesson.
The witness at the time was too frightened and instinctively called many people over. In the end, even the principal and school leaders were alarmed, interrupting the gala.
You caused a huge disaster. Even with your noble status, you cannot block every person’s mouth or stop the anger of the public as it continues to ferment online.
You have no choice but to compensate Bai Wei and suspend classes to return home for self-reflection.
But it is already no use. Your reputation has thoroughly spread.
Everyone knows you as the vicious Miss Li.]
[BE Ending Achieved: The Disgraced Young Lady]
[Player, please choose]
[Continue Game] or [Continue Game]
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NyXXenon
OGFl really use reverse uno card