After Transmigrating, the Female Lead Went Dark (GL) - Chapter 26

The bridal chamber Zhou Zhuying imagined should have gone like this: Xiao Xinyue carried her back to the room, gently placed her on the bed, then intimately kissed her lips and began undoing her clothes, while she shyly responded…

Not this: after entering the room, Xiao Xinyue set her down and said, slightly out of breath, “Cult Leader, you really are heavy now.”

Zhou Zhuying’s amorous thoughts instantly scattered. While touching her little belly, she indignantly shifted the blame. “It’s the phoenix crown that’s too heavy!”

Xiao Xinyue glanced at her phoenix crown, smiled, and pulled her back into the room. She pressed Zhou Zhuying down in front of the bronze mirror and said, “Then I’ll take it off for you.”

Zhou Zhuying did not refuse. After all, she wished she could get rid of these ornaments as soon as possible. The same went for the makeup on her face. Beautiful was beautiful, but it felt as if her face had been pasted with flour for an entire day, which was rather uncomfortable. She had heard that ancient “foundation” was made from rice powder, which was basically the same sort of thing as flour!

Now that she and Xiao Xinyue had plenty of time to chat, she studied the rouge and powder on the table while asking, “What are these rouge and powders made of?”

“I do not know much about them,” Xiao Xinyue said. “But they are all produced by Yunxi Pavilion. I heard they do not contain any lead powder that damages the skin or body, so even if you wear them for an entire day, you need not worry about your face being harmed.”

“They even know lead is harmful to the body…” Zhou Zhuying muttered.

She removed her makeup and took off all the ornaments on her head. Her neck immediately felt much lighter.

Only now did she finally have the leisure to explore Xiao Xinyue’s bedroom.

At first glance, the layout here looked the same as the room she lived in, but in fact, there was a door by the warm chamber that connected to the room next door. That was a study. A desk was placed in the middle, and three sides were filled with bookshelves. Aside from books, the shelves also held antique vases, glazed glassware, jade ornaments, and the like.

The female lead was a rich woman! Zhou Zhuying was jealous.

Xiao Xinyue also removed the ornaments on her own head. Turning back and seeing the Cult Leader slip into her study, she could not help quietly following and leaning against the door to see what tricks the Cult Leader was planning to play this time.

She saw the Cult Leader looking at a pair of jade ruyi scepters, her eyes shining. She stretched out her hand, looking torn between wanting to touch them and fearing that if she broke them, she would have to compensate for them. After a while, she gave up on that pair of jade ruyi and turned to touch the jade pillow beside them instead. As she touched it, she muttered, “A pillow this hard—wouldn’t sleeping on it cause cervical spondylosis?”

Xiao Xinyue looked at the Cult Leader in amusement and said, “It is precisely because it is uncomfortable to sleep on that it is placed here as a decoration.”

Zhou Zhuying was startled. She thought, fortunately she had not picked up any of these things. Otherwise, if Xiao Xinyue frightened her like this and her hand trembled, she would not be able to repay the damage even if she sold herself.

“Sister Saintess, your collection here is quite rich,” Zhou Zhuying said.

Xiao Xinyue walked toward her and explained, “Most of these jade pieces were gifts from others. Some were given by Master on my birthdays, and some were sent by the people under me. These things are of little use to me, but since others gave them to me, I cannot sell them, so I can only leave them here to gather dust.”

“I could tell at one glance that Sister Saintess is not the sort of person who likes vulgar things like these.” Zhou Zhuying flattered her.

Xiao Xinyue asked, “Then what does the Cult Leader think I like?”

“Things that are not vulgar. For example… me!”

Xiao Xinyue’s temple throbbed.

She knew that the focus of the Cult Leader’s sentence was not “like me,” but rather “I am not vulgar,” so she asked, “Is the Cult Leader comparing herself to a ‘thing’?”

“That’s right. The ‘thing’ as in, ‘If Sister Saintess goes east, I will accompany you east; if Sister Saintess goes west, I will go west with you.’”

Zhou Zhuying had changed the original phrase “If you tell me to go east, I would never dare go west” beyond recognition. The meaning had also become completely unrelated, but after her revision, the words made one’s heart bloom with joy.

“In that case, shouldn’t the Cult Leader change how she addresses me?” Xiao Xinyue said.

“Oh, right. In front of people, I should call you something more intimate. Then… Wife?” After Zhou Zhuying called her that, a certain song suddenly echoed in her head, and she began humming “Mm-hm” under her breath.

Xiao Xinyue: “…”

She held her forehead. “Call me by my courtesy name. Zhaojian.”

Zhou Zhuying said, “You scared me. I thought you wanted me to call you a whore.”

Xiao Xinyue: “…”

She felt that her patience was about to run out.

Fortunately, the Cult Leader’s attention shifted quickly too. She pondered, “Do I have a courtesy name? Should I come up with one temporarily?”

“Yangchun.”

“Ah?” Zhou Zhuying did not understand.

“You—” Xiao Xinyue paused. “The Demon Sect Leader’s courtesy name is Yangchun.”

“Yangchun as in ‘Yangchun Baixue’? That seems pretty good.” Zhou Zhuying accepted her courtesy name with satisfaction. “But calling you by your courtesy name feels too distant. I want to call you Sister Saintess, because that’s my exclusive way of addressing you.”

Green tea. So green tea. Zhou Zhuying internally evaluated her own behavior.

Xiao Xinyue seemed not to see through her little scheme and said with a smile, “All right.”

“Then Sister Saintess’s room doesn’t have any secrets, right? After all, I’ll be living here from now on. What if I stumble across some secret and get silenced by murder? That would be terrible!”

Zhou Zhuying truly deserved to be called a little expert at both putting out fires and adding fuel to them. Xiao Xinyue was both amused and exasperated by her question. She wanted to be angry, yet could not get angry.

She raised her hand and pinched Zhou Zhuying’s tender cheek. “Since they are secrets, I would naturally hide them properly before marrying the Cult Leader. Why would I put them somewhere within reach?”

“That’s true.”

A female disciple’s voice sounded from outside. “Saintess, the hot water is ready.”

Zhou Zhuying asked quietly, “Which one of us washes first?”

Xiao Xinyue looked at her faintly. “Since we are already married, there is nothing wrong with washing together.”

Zhou Zhuying’s little heart pounded wildly as she cried inwardly: So, so exciting. So bold. So wild!

She said bashfully, “Wouldn’t it be a little crowded for two people? Why doesn’t Sister Saintess wash first?”

“Very well. Then I will have to ask the Cult Leader to wait a little.”

Zhou Zhuying: “…”

The script shouldn’t be like this, right?

She hurriedly went out and glanced at the bath barrel, discovering that it was actually quite large. It would be completely fine for two people to bathe in it! So she once again could not restrain her restless heart. Hugging the bath barrel, she said, “Wow, so Sister Saintess usually bathes in such a large tub? You could even swim inside it, right?”

From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of something beside it that looked suspiciously like shower gel. Her attention instantly shifted again. “What is this?”

“A cleansing item for washing the face and body, made by grinding bath beans into powder and mixing them with soap pods, plant alkali, and other ingredients.”

Zhou Zhuying accused her, “Why didn’t I have this before?”

Xiao Xinyue reminded her, “Before we married, the Cult Leader was still a prisoner.”

“Oh.” The Cult Leader remembered. As a prisoner, having three meals a day and being able to bathe was already very good treatment. Wanting facial cleanser, shower gel, and shampoo was simply a fool’s dream.

“Then now that I am already the Saintess’s wife, can I use it?” the Cult Leader asked again.

Xiao Xinyue looked at her with a faint smile. “The Cult Leader has entered into the identity of ‘Saintess’s wife’ rather quickly.”

Zhou Zhuying said as if it were only natural, “Of course! Since we have to pretend to be wives in front of others, if we want to deceive others, we must first deceive ourselves. Only then can it be called superb acting.”

“First deceive ourselves?” Xiao Xinyue’s gaze deepened, and the smile in her eyes when looking at Zhou Zhuying disappeared.

Zhou Zhuying’s heart lurched. She did not know what she had said wrong to make Xiao Xinyue unhappy.

Xiao Xinyue walked in front of Zhou Zhuying. Because the latter was squatting, being looked down on from above like this immediately made her feel pressure, and panic rose in her heart.

“The Cult Leader seems to have quite a bit of experience in acting?” Xiao Xinyue bent down and approached her, frightening Zhou Zhuying so badly that she sat down on the floor with a thump.

“Sister Saintess?”

Female lead, don’t be like this. I’m scared! Zhou Zhuying cried inwardly.

“So has the Cult Leader been acting all along, deceiving me and deceiving yourself?” Xiao Xinyue’s gaze suddenly became sharp and dangerous.

Zhou Zhuying finally understood what the female lead had misunderstood.

The female lead couldn’t possibly think that Zhou Zhuying had been pretending not to be the real Cult Leader herself, right? Heaven have pity on her—she really had not lied. No matter what this body’s outer appearance was, the core inside was already no longer the Demon Sect Leader!

“I… haven’t,” she said weakly.

Xiao Xinyue leaned down and bent her knees, both knees lightly touching the floor. One hand propped itself beside Zhou Zhuying’s waist. As the physical distance between her and Zhou Zhuying grew closer and closer, the latter’s uneasy heart beat more and more violently. The two of them could even feel each other’s breathing close at hand.

“You haven’t? We will know after looking.” Xiao Xinyue’s other hand rested on Zhou Zhuying’s waist and gently untied the red sash.

“Look? Look at what?” Zhou Zhuying only felt her body soften. The arms she used to support herself on the floor also gradually lost strength. Her mouth was dry and her throat parched; swallowing saliva was not enough to quench her thirst. She only wanted a handful of clear spring water so she could drink to her heart’s content.

Xiao Xinyue did not speak. Once the sash was untied, the red skirt on Zhou Zhuying’s body loosened. The red silk upper garment lost the support of the skirt sash and also loosened, revealing the red inner skirt beneath.

Zhou Zhuying’s eyes drifted toward the bath barrel, and she muttered quietly, “Sister Saintess, the water is going to get cold.”

Xiao Xinyue’s movements paused. Then she scooped Zhou Zhuying up and placed her into the bath barrel. While Zhou Zhuying was still shaken, she flicked her forehead with a bent finger. “Then hurry and wash!”

After saying this, Xiao Xinyue walked out of the warm chamber.

Zhou Zhuying looked at her retreating figure and felt as if all her passion had been doused with water.

Flirting halfway and then running away was an extremely immoral act! Even Liu Xiahui was not supposed to act like this! Come back and let us be mandarin ducks playing in the water!

However, no matter how she called out inwardly, Xiao Xinyue did not appear.

She could only remove the wet inner skirt and soak in the bath while the water was still warm.

After soaking for a while, Xiao Xinyue brought over a clean set of clothes and placed them beside her. Seeing Xiao Xinyue look straight ahead without glancing sideways, Zhou Zhuying said, “Sister Saintess, although my figure is better than yours, you don’t need to be afraid of looking and feeling ashamed of your inferiority.”

Xiao Xinyue gave Cult Leader Zhou a sidelong glance. “Have you made up your mind to repeatedly jump across the line in my heart?”

Cult Leader Zhou thought: As expected of the female lead. She can make seduction sound so fresh and refined.

Suddenly, her expression changed, and she cried out, “Sister Saintess, where are my sanitary pads? I feel like my period is coming!”

Xiao Xinyue: “…”

She said, “How would I know where you put them? Most likely in your dowry chest.”

Zhou Zhuying stood up in front of Xiao Xinyue, then hastily wiped her body, changed into clean clothes, and went rummaging through her chests and cabinets to find her sanitary pads.

It was not really her fault for forgetting about the sanitary pads. The main reason was that she did not know when this body’s menstrual cycle was. She had waited a long time without it coming, and on top of that, she had been busy with the marriage, so over time, she had forgotten she even had an “auntie” to worry about.

Before she could put on the sanitary pad, a wave of cramping pain twisted through her lower abdomen.

Her period had not even come yet, so why had the pain started first?!

“?!” Zhou Zhuying felt as if all the strength in her body had been drained away, and she collapsed to the floor.

Hearing the commotion, Xiao Xinyue hurried over. Seeing Zhou Zhuying clutching her lower abdomen, curled up like a shrimp ball, she was also slightly startled. She quickly picked her up, placed her on the bed, and asked with concern, “Cult Leader, what happened?”

Zhou Zhuying was in so much pain that even saying one more word seemed to increase the pain.

She pointed at her lower abdomen. Sweat was already pouring continuously from her forehead.

Xiao Xinyue frowned. She naturally knew that some people felt pain in the lower abdomen during menstruation, but she had never seen anyone with pain as fierce and sudden as the Cult Leader’s.

Thinking of something, she placed her fingers on the Cult Leader’s wrist and indeed discovered that her pulse was abnormally fast.

“Wuwuwu… Sister Saintess, it hurts so much.” The Cult Leader’s sobbing cries came over. She clutched Xiao Xinyue’s clothes like a pitiful and helpless child, seeking a harbor to shelter her from the storm.

Xiao Xinyue took off her shoes, climbed onto the bed, and had the Cult Leader lie on her side with her back facing her. Then she found several acupoints, such as the Qihai, Guanyuan, Zhongji, and Xia Yuquan, and sent qi into them one by one.

These acupoints were generally used to treat menstrual cramps. Xiao Xinyue had no needles, so she could only use qi to clear the meridians.

Suddenly, she felt that the stream of true qi she had sent in did not circulate according to the normal order. Instead, it reversed upward from the Zhongji acupoint and rushed straight toward the Shanzhong acupoint in the chest.

The Shanzhong acupoint had always been a place where meridian qi gathered, and it was also the meeting point of the Ren meridian among the extraordinary meridians and the Foot Taiyin, Foot Shaoyin, Hand Taiyang, and Hand Shaoyang among the twelve regular meridians. According to the circulation of meridian qi, it should never rush upward from Zhongji to Shanzhong in reverse.

Moreover, after the true qi she had sent in entered the Shanzhong acupoint, it suddenly disappeared. No matter how one looked at it, this was abnormal.

Xiao Xinyue’s heart sank. This problem was likely related to the disappearance of the Cult Leader’s true qi.

Zhou Zhuying was already in such pain that she was half-asleep and half-awake. Weakly, she grabbed Xiao Xinyue’s hand that had been placed near her and asked, “Sister Saintess, I won’t become the first person to die from period cramps, right?”

Xiao Xinyue’s face darkened. She raised her hand to wipe away Zhou Zhuying’s sweat and said, “Do not speak nonsense.”

She decided to take a risky move and directly inject true qi into Zhou Zhuying’s dantian. As expected, Zhou Zhuying felt much better. However, she had already been drained by the pain. Even though the pain in her lower abdomen lessened, she had not the slightest bit of strength left.

Maintaining the flow of true qi for a long time was also an exhausting task for Xiao Xinyue, both physically and mentally. Quite a lot of sweat flowed from her forehead, neck, and body.

After struggling until the middle of the night, Zhou Zhuying was already sleeping peacefully. Only then did Xiao Xinyue get out of bed and go to the kitchen to boil hot water.

The people on duty in the kitchen heard movement and thought it was the Demon Sect remnants who had been settled inside the sect coming to cause trouble. They hurriedly checked, only to discover it was Xiao Xinyue. “S-Saintess?!”

“Did I wake you?”

“Saintess, are you going to boil water? Let us do it.”

They had been hired by Moshan Sect and usually did miscellaneous chores. Boiling water was also part of their daily work. Therefore, seeing the Saintess personally boiling water made them feel ashamed, as if they had been slacking off.

“Go sleep. I can do it myself.”

“No, no, no. This is our work to begin with. Besides, we should have thought that the Saintess would need hot water again at night and prepared it earlier…” they said frankly.

Xiao Xinyue: “…”

“Saintess, please go back first. Once the water is ready, we will send it over. We absolutely will not make the Saintess and the Saintess’s wife wait long.”

Xiao Xinyue did not explain further either. She waved her hand and went back to the room.

Author’s Note:

Mini Theater — Rumors

Servant: Last night, the Saintess and the Saintess’s wife battled until the third watch!

Disciple: No wonder that Demon Sect Leader slept until noon the next day, and after getting up, her hands and feet were weak. She even had to be served by the Saintess while eating!

Servant: Exactly! When the Saintess came to boil water, her clothes were messy and she was covered in sweat, so we thoughtfully boiled an extra pot of hot water!

Disciple: So the Saintess is actually that kind of Saintess!

—

Note: Lanqun — inner garment.

Acupoint and meridian-related information comes from Baidu Baike.