After Transmigrating, the Female Lead Went Dark (GL) - Chapter 4

Xiao Xinyue raised her hand and pinched Zhou Zhuying’s chin. She did not use much strength, but the question she asked was extremely ambiguous—and it was one she had asked before.

“Why won’t you look at me?”

Zhou Zhuying: “?”

She admitted that the female lead was very good-looking, but that did not mean she could stare at her at every moment, right?

If other people saw, they might think she was utterly infatuated with the female lead’s beauty… At most, she was only eighty percent infatuated.

Still, just how narcissistic did the female lead have to be to ask such a question?

“Guilty conscience? You don’t dare face what you once did?” Xiao Xinyue asked again.

To Zhou Zhuying, Xiao Xinyue’s voice had always sounded cool and pure, but at this moment, she could hear a slight nasal tone in it. Zhou Zhuying knew that Xiao Xinyue was questioning her about the annihilation of the Xiao family back then, but she had nothing she could say.

She was not the author, she had not read the original novel, and she had no way to stop that incident from happening. All she could do was deeply sympathize with what had happened to the female lead.

But who would sympathize with her, the one who had been forced to shoulder the blame?

“I’m sorry.”

At this point, since Zhou Zhuying was wearing someone else’s skin, she had to do something the original owner should have done in that person’s identity—for example, apologize.

But she knew that one “I’m sorry” could not cancel out the mistakes the original owner had committed while occupying this position. So no matter how the female lead dealt with her next, she would not be surprised.

No sooner had this thought risen in her heart than Xiao Xinyue suddenly refused to follow common sense. She abruptly reached out, wrapped an arm around Zhou Zhuying’s waist, and pulled her completely into her embrace.

Zhou Zhuying: “?!”

This method of dealing with her really was a bit of a slap in the face.

Could it be that the female lead was about to use that move from Ainz: “crushing the girl in your arms”?

She waited for quite a while, but instead of being crushed at the waist, she felt crystal-clear tears fall onto the hollow of her shoulder.

The teardrops were cold, sliding down along the hollow of her shoulder. They made that spot feel numb and itchy, and even her heart grew somewhat restless. She had just been about to raise her hand and pat Xiao Xinyue’s back to comfort her emotions when Xiao Xinyue withdrew.

There were no tear marks on that beautiful face, as if the coolness Zhou Zhuying had just felt had only been an illusion.

Zhou Zhuying was also confused, uncertain whether the female lead had truly cried.

Xiao Xinyue pulled her over to the table and had her sit down. Only then did Zhou Zhuying clearly see that on the table lit by candlelight, there were several dishes laid out—and by coincidence, they were all things she liked to eat. Among them was that dish of red-braised lion’s head meatballs!

Thankfully, this was not preparation for severe torture, but a “candlelit dinner”!

“Eat. If you don’t, it’ll get cold,” Xiao Xinyue said, sitting opposite her and handing her a pair of chopsticks.

Happiness had come so suddenly that Zhou Zhuying briefly suspected this might be her last supper.

But her stomach had already been drumming for ages. Even if the food was poisoned, she still had to become a ghost who died full!

She happily began eating, even speaking in a way that paid very little attention to dining etiquette. “Squirrel-shaped mandarin fish, lion’s head meatballs, tofu soup, fried rice—these all happen to be Huaiyang dishes I love! Your Moshan Sect is located in the Central Plains, so why do you still eat Huaiyang food?”

That inexplicably deep gaze of Xiao Xinyue’s fell on her again, as if asking what trick she was playing.

Xiao Xinyue did not ask anything. She only said, “I am from Jiangdu.”

Zhou Zhuying suddenly understood. “Ah, right, right, right. I forgot.”

Nonsense. She did not know anything at all. She did not know why Moshan Sect had hired a Huaiyang chef, nor did she know that the female lead was from Jiangdu! After all, Meng Xiaoxiao would not be so bored as to mention the female lead’s native place on Moments.

Xiao Xinyue seemed unwilling to pay attention to her, so she could only quietly eat.

When she was about half full, she finally asked, “Sister Saintess, aren’t you eating?”

Xiao Xinyue’s patience seemed to have reached its limit. “What kind of sarcastic way of addressing me is that?”

Zhou Zhuying thought, she was only eighteen, while the female lead should be twenty or twenty-one by now, because she remembered Meng Xiaoxiao had said that the male and female leads got married right on the edge of the legal marriage age after destroying the Demon Sect and avenging their great hatred. So whether emotionally or logically, there was nothing wrong with calling her Sister Saintess!

Wait!

Now that the Demon Sect had already been destroyed, did that mean the male and female leads were about to reach their happy ending?

For the male and female leads’ wedding, Moshan Sect would definitely celebrate lavishly. Then the guards here would become weaker. Wouldn’t she have a chance to take the opportunity and escape from prison?

Zhou Zhuying grew excited. “Then what should I call you? Saintess?”

Xiao Xinyue only felt as if a breath was stuck in her chest, unable to go up or down, making her extremely uncomfortable. She exhaled. “Whatever.”

“Then I’ll still call you Sister Saintess. It sounds better than ‘Whatever.’”

Xiao Xinyue: “…”

She closed her eyes to rest. Only after quite a while did she coldly give the order to leave. “If you’re done eating, go back.”

Zhou Zhuying thought, although the single-room suite in the dungeon had a fairly nice environment, the only thing it lacked was floor heating. She had been captured in a bit of a rush this time, and she had not had time to bring extra clothes. Sooner or later, she was afraid she would freeze to death in the cell. This was the female lead’s room, with natural coal heating. If she could sponge even a little warmth, she would take whatever warmth she could get!

She slowed her eating speed. Her movements were somewhat affected.

Seeing this, Xiao Xinyue asked, “Do you not want to go back?”

Zhou Zhuying rubbed her hands together like a fly. “Is this a matter of whether I want to go back or not? I’m just somewhat reluctant to part with you.”

But Xiao Xinyue’s expression changed. She was somewhat angry. “Is playing with me very fun? Get out.”

Zhou Zhuying was most afraid of people whose moods changed unpredictably. Although she sometimes did not know her limits, she would not truly go out of her way to be disliked. Seeing that Xiao Xinyue really did not want to see her, she very tactfully got out.

As soon as she opened the door, cold air poured in again. She shivered, hunched her body, and ran.

Inside the room, candlelight spilled outward. Zhou Zhuying’s shadow stretched longer and longer, growing fainter and fainter. Only after she disappeared from sight did Xiao Xinyue withdraw her gaze and rub the space between her brows.

A black shadow silently appeared outside the door and said, “She ran.”

Xiao Xinyue picked up the cup on the table and poured a cup of hot tea. “Did she get away?”

“She ran a hundred meters before being caught and brought back.”

“A hundred meters…” Xiao Xinyue’s expression was obscure. Only after a while did she say, “Go see what happened on the kitchen’s side.”

After Zhou Zhuying ran out of the courtyard gate, she glanced back into the courtyard, then looked left and right, pondering: No one is watching me right now. Can I take advantage of this dark and windy night to slip away?

Although the female lead’s looks were indeed mesmerizing, she belonged to the male lead after all. Zhou Zhuying and she had a deep blood feud between them. Just because Xiao Xinyue was not killing her for the time being did not mean she would not kill her in the future.

What if one day, the female lead went to pay respects to her family, suddenly got the urge to kill Zhou Zhuying to comfort the spirits of the Xiao family in heaven? Was Zhou Zhuying supposed to just sit there and wait to die?

Zhou Zhuying did not want to die, so she felt her way through the dark and ran in the direction opposite the prison.

But she had not run far before someone discovered her and captured her back.

Once the iron cell door closed, the only things welcoming her were the two skulls embedded in the black iron chair. Under the silver light spilling in through the iron window, a red glow appeared in their dark eye sockets.

Eeeek—

Zhou Zhuying was so frightened that she flew onto the bed and tightly hugged her thin quilt, pitiful, weak, and helpless.

Fortunately, clouds soon covered the bright moon, and the red light disappeared from the skulls’ eye sockets.

Zhou Zhuying engaged in profound self-reflection. As a future scientific worker, how could she engage in feudal superstition? She should look at the strange phenomenon produced by these skulls through a scientific lens. For example, the reason the eye sockets glowed was because there was some substance inside capable of producing fluorescence or phosphorescence.

Thinking this, she quickly climbed down, grabbed the chopsticks she had used for dinner today, and poked into the skull’s eye socket. Finding that it was not deep, she then used her fingers to dig around and dug out a ruby the size of a glass marble.

“This chair really is exquisitely crafted. They even considered such a detailed question as ‘how to increase the intimidation effect of the skulls.’” Zhou Zhuying clicked her tongue in wonder, then stuffed the ruby back in.

Although rubies were good, they were of no use to her right now.

She flipped back onto the bed, rolled herself up in the bedding until she was wrapped like a silkworm cocoon, and muttered to herself, “When exactly will these people be willing to boil water for me to bathe? Even prisoners need to pay attention to hygiene, right?”

Suddenly, the melodious sound of a qin drifted in from outside the window. The tune was gentle and intoxicating, and one could tell the player was quite relaxed and at ease.

Zhou Zhuying climbed up to the iron window and craned her neck to look around. She saw Xiao Xinyue sitting in the courtyard, playing the qin. A thread of fantasy suddenly arose in her heart: before a withered tree, beneath the moonlight, Xiao Xinyue’s fair hands plucked the strings of the qin, while Zhou Zhuying sat leisurely beside a heater, boiling clear tea, sipping wine, and singing softly…

Once this wild imagination opened, she could not stop it. She had even already thought of what to name her child with the female lead.

Speaking of which, how many children would be best for her and the female lead to have?

After pondering for a while, Zhou Zhuying rolled back onto the bed.

Dreaming was still better.

…

Zhou Zhuying indeed had a good dream. In the dream, not only was it warm, but the female lead also did not enter her dreams to scare her by saying she would kill her. She slept all the way until broad daylight.

It was not until the cell door clanged that she was woken up.

The jailer delivering food opened the door. His thick brows and large eyes were filled with resentment as he looked at her, as if she owed him 108,000 yuan and refused to pay it back.

With a sour face, the jailer brought her a three-piece wash set, along with a steaming-hot breakfast.

“Eh? Two meals a day has been upgraded to three meals a day?!” Zhou Zhuying was quite pleasantly surprised. This breakfast was actually crystal shrimp dumplings, taro cake, and soy milk.

From Huaiyang cuisine to Cantonese dim sum, the leap was a bit large, but fortunately, both matched her tastes.

This was enough to show that Moshan Sect was indeed the foremost famous righteous sect under heaven, inclusive of all rivers and gathering heroes from every region. Otherwise, how could one sect have chefs from so many different cuisines?

“Hmph. If you weren’t still somewhat useful, you would only be getting a last meal before execution!” the jailer said resentfully before leaving.

Zhou Zhuying raised her middle finger at him. He did not understand what it meant, but he knew it was not a good gesture. With a bang, he shut the door.

Zhou Zhuying did not take his words to heart, because she was very clear that if the male and female leads did not still want to use her for something, they definitely would not be willing to waste food feeding an enemy.

Sometimes, having value to be used was not necessarily a bad thing.

She climbed up from the bed and discovered that there was actually an extra quilt over her.

No wonder it had been so warm last night.

Zhou Zhuying did not think too much about it. She curiously picked up the wooden toothbrush and examined it. “Is the original author a little careless? How does a martial arts world have toothbrushes?”

But thanks to the original author’s carelessness, after transmigrating here, she did not have to clean herself with bamboo strips or pottery shards after going to the toilet.

After brushing her teeth and washing her face, she quickly ate a few bites before breakfast cooled.

After a while, she heard movement outside and figured Xiao Xinyue must have also woken up. So she clung to the iron window and greeted her. “Good morning, Sister Saintess. Have you eaten?”

Xiao Xinyue: “…”

Zhuo Zidan looked up at the warm sun overhead. “Does she often sleep until this hour? I heard from Mishan that she’s always bothering you. Why don’t I watch her instead?”

Xiao Xinyue said, “Elder Zhuo is busy with many affairs. I would not dare trouble you with such small matters. Besides, I want to know what tricks she is playing.”

Zhuo Zidan was somewhat depressed. “All right! But you always calling me Elder is a little too distant. After all, in this world, aside from that Demon Lord Li Dang, only you and I are cultivators from Qiancang Continent.”

Xiao Xinyue’s gaze flickered, and then she smiled slightly. “The sect’s rules are strict. As the Saintess, I must set an example. How could I take the lead in overstepping boundaries?”

Zhuo Zidan said regretfully, “That’s true.”

“I will go ask the Cult Leader for a little more information.”

Once Xiao Xinyue left, Zhuo Zidan had nothing to do here, so he also departed.

As Zhou Zhuying drank her soy milk, she watched them from afar, not knowing what they were discussing. She had the constant feeling that they were conspiring against her.

Thinking this, the soy milk in her mouth instantly stopped tasting sweet.