After Transmigrating, the Female Lead Went Dark (GL) - Chapter 36

After listening to Fu Feifei’s accusations, Xiao Xinyue finally said, “You are my junior sister of the same sect. That will never change. But we are no longer children, so naturally, there are many things we can no longer do. As for recent matters, if you think I punished you because I no longer treat you the same as before, then you should reflect on whether your own behavior is different from before.”

Fu Feifei’s eyes reddened, and she said aggrievedly, “You are different! Ever since you returned safely two years ago, you changed. At first, we thought you were grieving because of the Xiao family, but in truth, it was because of a person!”

Xiao Xinyue looked at her sharply.

Zhou Zhuying also pricked up her ears: There was gossip to hear?!

Fu Feifei was startled by Xiao Xinyue’s gaze, but continued, “I accidentally overheard your conversation with the Sect Master. But I didn’t hear it clearly, and I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“What did you hear?” Xiao Xinyue stared at her.

“I heard… heard you begging the Sect Master to save someone from Yunxi Pavilion…” Fu Feifei’s confidence vanished all at once. After all, whether passive or active, eavesdropping was wrong.

“Oh-ho!” Zhou Zhuying cried inwardly.

It seemed her guess was most likely accurate. Xiao Xinyue was Zhou Shuren, and then she liked Yunxi. But something had happened to Yunxi, and Xiao Xinyue was helpless, so she could only return to ask her sect for help. As for whether Ling Guqing had helped or not, that was unknown.

In any case, judging by how Xiao Xinyue had previously avoided speaking about Yunxi, there was a high chance that Yunxi was no longer well.

Xiao Xinyue had even said she was not hiding a beauty in a golden house. Wasn’t that right? That “beauty” was already gone, so there was only Zhou Zhuying, this one “beauty,” left.

Zhou Zhuying sighed inwardly. She wondered whether Yunxi had fallen in love with Xiao Xinyue or not. If both sides had been in love, then if Yunxi learned in the underworld that Xiao Xinyue had married someone else, wouldn’t she be so angry that she jumped out of her grave?

After sighing, Zhou Zhuying felt a little guilty again. Would Yunxi enter her dreams to seek revenge and scare her?

“Enough.” Xiao Xinyue interrupted Fu Feifei. “Forget all of those things.”

“Senior Sister Xinyue!”

“Put down the medicine and go back to eat.”

Xiao Xinyue gave the order to leave. Fu Feifei also could not shamelessly stay here any longer, mainly because the serious Xiao Xinyue was still rather frightening.

After she left, the kitchen also finished reheating the dishes and delivered them over.

Zhou Zhuying was already unbearably hungry, so she quickly picked up her chopsticks and prepared to eat.

Seeing her eating so happily, Xiao Xinyue could not help asking, “Does the Cult Leader have nothing she wants to ask?”

Ask what? Ask about my wife and her ex? Zhou Zhuying was not going to make herself suffer like that!

She patted Xiao Xinyue on the shoulder and comforted her. “Let the past stay in the past. It’s good as long as you’ve moved on.”

Xiao Xinyue choked.

The Cult Leader truly was something. When it was time to gossip, she did not gossip, but when it was none of her business, she was always delighted to ask questions.

Because the Cult Leader had killed the conversation, Xiao Xinyue had no choice but to swallow her words back down.

At this moment, the Cult Leader placed a serving of Pingqiao tofu soup in front of her and said, “You are only allowed to eat this dish. The rest of the dishes are mine!”

The Cult Leader had always protected her food. Occasionally giving Xiao Xinyue some food only happened when she was in a very good mood. Xiao Xinyue did not mind. After all, this large basin of Pingqiao tofu soup was enough to fill her stomach.

She ladled a bowl and tasted it. Just as she took the first bite, she saw the Cult Leader stop eating and instead look at her with anticipation. As for the taste of this tofu soup, how could Xiao Xinyue not understand that the Cult Leader had personally cooked it?

It was not that the taste was bad. Rather, compared to the Huaiyang cuisine made by the cooks in Moshan Sect who knew how to make Huaiyang food, this dish leaned even more toward the Cult Leader’s own taste. In other words, the Huaiyang dishes made by Moshan Sect’s cooks were actually slightly salty, but this dish made by the Cult Leader had a little sugar added and less salt, so it was on the sweeter side.

Xiao Xinyue deliberately said, “The taste is different from what the previous cook made. Could it be that they mistook sugar for salt? No, I must go speak to him.”

When Zhou Zhuying heard this, she became very unhappy. “Are you saying it doesn’t taste good?”

“The Cult Leader will know after tasting it.” Xiao Xinyue ladled a spoonful for her.

Zhou Zhuying did not mind that the spoon had already been used by Xiao Xinyue. She leaned over and took a bite, discovering that there was not much wrong with the taste. She could not help feeling puzzled. “I’m very practiced at making this dish. The taste is the same.”

After saying this, she stole a glance at Xiao Xinyue and discovered that the latter was looking at her with a smile. “So it really was made by the Cult Leader.”

Seeing that she had been exposed, Zhou Zhuying no longer bothered with whether it was a surprise or not and simply admitted, “I made it. If you think it tastes bad, don’t eat it!”

“I never said it tastes bad. I only said that this dish is very much in the Cult Leader’s style.” Xiao Xinyue did not dislike it at all. “And this taste is just right. If there were too much salt, I would have to drink water.”

No one disliked hearing praise, and no cook did not hope to receive someone else’s approval. The corners of Zhou Zhuying’s mouth lifted, and she said, “This is the first time I’ve cooked for someone else!”

“Is that so?” Xiao Xinyue looked at her thoughtfully.

“Yeah! My parents—uh, my father and mother—were occasionally not home before, so I cooked for myself. But I always ate alone. Later, when I went to, cough, went to Dangu Mountain, I didn’t need to cook anymore.”

Xiao Xinyue said, “Didn’t the Cult Leader go to Dangu Mountain at eight?”

“Uh, yes. I’m talking about before I was eight.”

Xiao Xinyue said with a half-smile, “Then the Cult Leader has not cooked for fourteen years. Yet after so many years, you can still make such delicious food when you enter the kitchen again. Truly impressive.”

“Fourteen…” The Cult Leader calculated this body’s age and suddenly discovered that she was actually one year older than Xiao Xinyue?!

Damn it. No wonder when she called Xiao Xinyue “Sister Saintess,” Xiao Xinyue thought she was being sarcastic!

No, no, no. She refused to accept the fact that she had inexplicably gained four years of age for nothing!

“I’m only eighteen!” the Cult Leader seriously corrected Xiao Xinyue.

Xiao Xinyue: “…”

She paused, then cooperatively brushed her off. “Ah, yes. The Cult Leader is eighteen every year.”

Xiao Xinyue had said this before too, but back then, the Cult Leader had not known that she was younger than Xiao Xinyue, so she had not calculated the age matter. Now that she suddenly knew her own age, and Xiao Xinyue still said this, the Cult Leader became puzzled.

“Does that mean I can’t call you Sister Saintess anymore?”

Xiao Xinyue froze. She could tell that the Cult Leader was seriously thinking about this problem. After a moment, she pinched the Cult Leader’s cheek. “The current Cult Leader calling me that is indeed not a problem.”

“What does ‘current’ mean?” The Cult Leader still could not feel at ease.

“My mind is more mature than the Cult Leader’s, so just think of me as older than the Cult Leader.”

Cult Leader: “…”

Thank you. Not comforted at all!

Xiao Xinyue was amused by the Cult Leader’s defeated look, and her mood eased slightly. She then brought up the banquet tomorrow.

Zhou Zhuying was not very interested in drinking, but it was the jianghu, so there must be many interesting stories—gossip. Tomorrow, she could take the chance to ask around.

As they chatted, the two finished dinner. Zhou Zhuying looked at the medicine Fu Feifei had brewed, which had already gone cold, and asked, “Your Junior Sister Fu personally brewed this medicine for you. Aren’t you going to drink it?”

Xiao Xinyue seemed somewhat surprised, perhaps surprised that the medicine had been brewed by Fu Feifei, or perhaps surprised that Zhou Zhuying was speaking on Fu Feifei’s behalf. However, she did not say anything and slowly drank the bowl of medicine.

“How is Sister Saintess’s wound?” Zhou Zhuying asked again.

Xiao Xinyue clenched her right hand into a fist and said, “It is almost healed.”

“That’s good,” Zhou Zhuying said. “When the wound is completely healed, Sister Saintess doesn’t need to have people send over only Huaiyang dishes anymore!”

Hearing this, Xiao Xinyue’s gaze suddenly landed on Zhou Zhuying. “Does the Cult Leader want to eat dishes from other cuisines?”

“I still like Huaiyang cuisine. Lingnan cuisine is fine too, and I can even eat some Sichuan food. But Sister Saintess doesn’t like eating these in the first place, right?”

Xiao Xinyue pressed her lips together. She felt that the Cult Leader knew something and was hiding meaning in her words!

“The Cult Leader did not used to speak so indirectly. If you want to say something, you might as well speak plainly.”

Zhou Zhuying had indeed not spoken indirectly before. Who told her to always put her own life and safety first?

She had been constantly on edge because of her identity and worried about her situation. If she could muddle through one more day, then that was one more day. With no heart and no lungs, she had no worries.

But who told the female lead to crash into her heart and make her start feeling uncertain too?

She naturally knew that her mindset and actions were contradictory and irrational. But when she recalled herself waiting for Xiao Xinyue to return in the dark night, and seeing that faint light, she remembered how at ease she had felt.

Although they had not spent much time together, her heart had unknowingly taken Xiao Xinyue as a kind of faith. It was as if only by doing this could she find a source of light when she dreamed of that dark Demon Sect hall, carrying a strong thought with her to break free from the darkness.

She said, “You grew up in the Central Plains from childhood, so you probably aren’t very used to Huaiyang flavors either. No wonder you always eat so little at every meal, yet on the day we married, you ate so happily.”

Xiao Xinyue’s eyes flickered, and she smiled. “So that is what you were thinking about. Although I grew up in the Central Plains, it is not as if I do not eat Huaiyang cuisine at all. Because I am indeed from Jiangdu, I would return to Jiangdu once every year, and what I ate there was naturally Huaiyang cuisine. Besides, I am not picky like the Cult Leader. Whether it is the flavor here or the flavor of Huaiyang cuisine, as long as it can fill my stomach, there is no difference.”

Zhou Zhuying said, “Then Sister Saintess admits that the reason you ate so much on the wedding day was because you were happy?”

“Yes.”

“Then after getting married, are you not happy?”

Even the quick-witted Xiao Xinyue was half a beat slow when faced with this question.

An affirmative answer would undoubtedly only make the atmosphere tense, but if she denied it, how would she explain eating so little these days?

Very quickly, Xiao Xinyue chose to make the Cult Leader bear the answer to this question herself. She said, “I am happy. But I thought that a wedding only happens once in this life, so I could indulge once and eat freely. If I indulged like this at every meal—”

Her words changed direction. “I am also doing this for the Cult Leader’s sake. It does not matter if the Cult Leader gains weight. After all, lying down does not require effort. But if I also gain weight, I’m afraid the Cult Leader won’t be able to bear it.”

Zhou Zhuying: “…”

Lifting a stone only to smash my own foot—the clown is actually me?!

She decided to reveal her ultimate martial arts move.

After bathing, she deliberately waited for Xiao Xinyue to get onto the bed first, then threw herself straight at her. “You said I’m fat? Then behold my Mount Tai Crushing Down!”

Xiao Xinyue had originally been sitting at the head of the bed. Seeing this, her body rose, flipped in midair, and not only caught the Cult Leader, but also lessened the impact of her pounce.

Holding the Cult Leader in her arms, Xiao Xinyue said in amusement, “Cult Leader, this move is not called ‘Mount Tai Crushing Down.’ It is called ‘throwing yourself into my arms.’”

“Sister Saintess, are you relying on your powerful martial arts to bully the weak?”

Xiao Xinyue laughed softly. “It was the Cult Leader who launched a sneak attack first, then failed to defeat me and became my defeated opponent. How is this me bullying the weak?”

Cult Leader: “…”

So angry. Not only could she not beat the female lead in a fight, she could not even win a verbal battle!

When would she finally win once?

Thinking of this, she fiercely kissed Xiao Xinyue, even nibbling at her. When Xiao Xinyue was about to be stirred, Zhou Zhuying hurriedly broke free from her embrace and hid under the quilt, pretending to sleep.

Xiao Xinyue fished her out and said, “Do not cover your head with the quilt. You will suffocate.”

Aside from this, she did nothing else.

—

At noon the next day, Xiao Xinyue invited the disciples of the various sects who had stayed in Moshan Sect to the waterside pavilion in the garden to taste Ice Hall Jade Pot Wine, as well as Moshan Sect’s uniquely brewed Moshan Stream Wine.

As the host, Xiao Xinyue and Zhou Zhuying arrived relatively early. Afterward, the disciples of the various sects gradually arrived.

Xiao Xinyue introduced them one by one. “This is Tianyan Sect’s young sect master, Fang Jian. This is Feixue Sect’s eldest senior brother, Lin Ao. And this is Senior Brother Liang of Yaoshan Sect…”

When Zhou Zhuying saw Big Plain-Water Zongzi Liang once again looking at her with that appraising gaze, she suddenly felt like disgusting him. She threw him a flirtatious look and asked, “Zongzi Liang keeps looking at me like this. Could it be that you think I’m very beautiful?”

As soon as she said this, the entire hall fell silent.

Liang Kong had also not expected her to do such a thing in public. By the time he reacted, everyone’s expressions had already become somewhat subtle—except for Xiao Xinyue, whose face was expressionless, making it impossible to tell whether she was pleased or angry.

He calmly said, “I only felt that Cult Leader Zhou and the Saintess have a harmonious relationship and quite a bit of tacit understanding, so I was wondering whether Cult Leader Zhou has truly thrown herself into the righteous path.”

If it were another Demon Sect disciple, they would definitely have been angered by his words and flipped the table. After all, although they had no particular morality, they absolutely would not tolerate someone saying they had thrown themselves into the righteous path.

But Zhou Zhuying was sometimes rather careless. Her heart was broad enough to ignore the provocation in Liang Kong’s words.

“We’re already married. Could it still be fake?” Zhou Zhuying said.

“…Yes. I was rude. I will punish myself with three cups.” Liang Kong found himself a way out.

To ease the atmosphere, Lin Ao of Feixue Sect came out to tease him. “Brother Liang is truly cunning. You are actually using the excuse of punishment wine to secretly drink good wine!”

Quite a few people laughed. Xiao Xinyue’s face also revealed a smile. Although it was impossible to tell whether this smile came from the heart or was fake, the atmosphere finally became cheerful.

Xiao Xinyue pulled Zhou Zhuying down to sit. Although Zhou Zhuying did not drink, that did not stop her from sitting at the side cracking melon seeds and sizing up this group of outstanding disciples from various sects.

Perhaps because she had just shot back at Liang Kong, the disciples who had originally planned to use this chance to provoke the former number one person of the Demon Sect, the lofty Demon Sect Leader, immediately extinguished their thoughts. She did not play by common rules. Who knew how she would deal with them next?

Also, if Liang Kong’s explanation just now had been too weak, or if the Demon Sect Leader had continued teasing Liang Kong, then rumors between them would certainly have spread. This would not count as much for the Demon Sect Leader, since her reputation was already bad, but it would have a huge impact on Liang Kong.

After the banquet scattered, Xiao Xinyue mentioned this matter to Zhou Zhuying. “The reason Senior Brother Liang can be the sect heir is because he is engaged to the Yaoshan Sect Master’s only daughter. If this matter spreads, I fear his fiancée will refuse to let it go.”

Zhou Zhuying immediately became cowardly. “Sister Saintess will protect me, right?”

Xiao Xinyue kept a cold face and said nothing the whole time.

Zhou Zhuying asked carefully, “Is Sister Saintess angry because I threw him a flirtatious look?”

Xiao Xinyue’s face darkened another degree.

“At least I didn’t ask him to his face whether he has a secret crush on me. Otherwise, why does he always look at me? I don’t have that kind of meaning toward him, but I was too angry, so I just wanted to disgust him a little.”

After a while, Xiao Xinyue finally asked, “Is it because you hate him looking at you?”

“Yes and no. Because his face makes me hate him. That kind of groundless hostility… Maybe we were mortal enemies in a past life, so I hated him from my last life all the way into this one!”

To be honest, Liang Kong did not look bad. Setting aside his martial arts, his face alone would count as a fresh-faced young idol in modern times. So Zhou Zhuying also felt that her hostility toward him was somewhat inexplicable.

Xiao Xinyue, however, smiled faintly and said, “Since you hate him, then pay less attention to him from now on. But it does not matter. Very soon, there will not be many chances to see him.”

“He’s going to die?”

Xiao Xinyue: “…”

She could tell the Cult Leader truly hated Liang Kong.

“No? I thought he was going to die, so I would have no chance to see him again.” The Cult Leader was regretful.

Xiao Xinyue said, “It has nothing to do with him. I plan to take you to Jiangnan after I finish handling the follow-up matters of the Thousand Mechanisms Cult.”

Author’s Note:

Cult Leader: I heard your Yunxi is gone, Sister Saintess. My condolences.

Saintess: …I am fine.