I Really Didn't Want to Have a Happy Ending with the Black Moonlight Female Lead - Chapter 2

The sky deepened further. The moon, like a pale white circle, hung opposite the sun. The faint moonlight had an orange hue, draping the world in an overly beautiful unreality.

The moment the system’s alarm sounded, Lu Shizhen instinctively ran toward the direction Xu Shiyue was falling.

But she hadn’t fully adapted to her legged body. Her left leg tripped over her right, and she tumbled onto the ground, becoming a human cushion for Xu Shiyue.

A pain more intense than rolling off the bed shot up from her tailbone. It was the first time Lu Shizhen had ever felt pain originating from that spot, and she couldn’t help but grimace, tightly knitting her brows.

This feeling was agonizing.

The hazy sunset smeared across Lu Shizhen’s vision, which was squinted into a thin line by the pain, distorting everything. The world became unreal.

The damp smell of soil enveloped her. Amid the pain, Lu Shizhen caught a different scent.

It smelled like crushed rose petals, not overpowering, but delicate enough for one to notice, pulling her consciousness back.

The pain was slowly receding. Lu Shizhen attempted to open her eyes.

Perhaps the night wind was too harsh, as her newly opened pupils blinked unnaturally twice.

Dark, and dull.

Soft black long hair cascaded into Lu Shizhen’s gradually clearing vision, thick and curly, forming a net that encased her.

And the girl she had glimpsed from afar moments ago was now pressed close against her.

The sun was gradually setting. The wind, carrying the moist smell of soil, brushed past Lu Shizhen’s calves.

Lu Shizhen’s legs had been without sensation since childhood; this was the first time she had felt the sensation of human contact.

The feeling was incredibly strange. The texture of the fabric mingled with the warmth of the skin. The extreme proximity allowed her to clearly feel Xu Shiyue’s body temperature transmitting through the cloth, and the delicate softness of the skin on her uncovered calves.

She didn’t know how to describe her current feelings; she could only hear her heart beating thump-thump against her chest cavity.

And then, a shadow slowly crept onto one side of Lu Shizhen’s face.

Xu Shiyue’s fingers, stained with rose juice and imbued with a chilling coldness, slowly approached the face below her line of sight.

—She couldn’t see; she could only rely on touch to determine the current situation.

This situation created a peculiar illusion of direct gaze.

Xu Shiyue was “looking” at Lu Shizhen, who was pinned beneath her. Her raven-feather-like eyelashes spread out in Lu Shizhen’s view. Her unfocused eyes hid behind them, blinking slowly and dully with a kind of innocence.

She looked like a fawn lost in a rose forest.

Lu Shizhen watched Xu Shiyue’s slow, probing fingers and instantly realized what was about to happen, yet she remained still.

As if afraid her movement would startle the little fawn, Lu Shizhen watched as the fingers carefully and cautiously landed on her lips.

The night wind rustled, but the warm breath couldn’t warm the fingers on her lips.

Instead, the soft pad of the finger rested shamelessly on the girl’s lips, moving vaguely, creating a subtle mood.

The person she had vehemently declared her sympathy for and wished to hug and comfort in her original world was now tracing her lips with her finger.

That slender pinky finger lightly tapped her lip, enveloped by her own breath, picking up her temperature in this cool dusk.

The girl’s dark pupils flickered randomly. Her accelerating heartbeat was filled with confusion and helplessness until Xu Shiyue’s voice broke the awkwardness: “Lu Shizhen.”

This voice was somewhat similar to what Lu Shizhen had imagined while reading the novel, yet also different.

It was cold and aloof, carrying a distance colder than the evening wind. Her slightly furrowed brows suggested a hint of puzzlement.

Lu Shizhen opened her mouth and replied a beat late: “Yes, it’s me.”

As the reply fell, Lu Shizhen distinctly felt the hand on her lips pause. Immediately after, something was placed in her hand, and the weight on top of her suddenly lifted.

Xu Shiyue’s voice was even colder than before, laced with detachment: “This is the rose I found. If you deem it acceptable, please take it.”

With that, Lu Shizhen felt the weight that had been pressing on her withdraw.

The satin skirt swept across her legs without hesitation. The coldness rampaged, and the warmth that had been subtly generated between them vanished into the wind.

Xu Shiyue didn’t linger and walked away without looking back, heading toward the direction the wind was blowing from.

The rain that had fallen a few days ago had made the small path winding through the rose garden damp, swallowing her heels with every step.

But the girl’s steps remained steady and slow, an elegance rooted in her bones, or perhaps a cautious probing.

It was truly difficult to imagine how Xu Shiyue, having lost her sight, managed to walk all the way here alone.

The already fragile roses were violently battered by the fall. The untrimmed roses, armed with thorns, felt a dull ache in Lu Shizhen’s palm.

Lu Shizhen knew that these flowers clearly wouldn’t satisfy the original owner, but would instead make what she planned to do to Xu Shiyue next more logical.

But she wasn’t the original owner.

The roses trembled slightly in her hand. Lu Shizhen clumsily propped up her body.

Just as she thought of helping Xu Shiyue, the system, which seemed to have been knocked out, suddenly sounded in her mind: [Detection: Xu Shiyue’s body temperature shows a continuous upward trend. Probability of fever and fainting: 99.99%.]

Lu Shizhen paused slightly.

The next second, Xu Shiyue’s retreating figure fell abruptly onto the path back, like a broken rose.

The incandescent light reflected in the room. The medicine in the IV tube dripped down silently and orderly.

The roses, placed in a vase with gold-threaded carvings, quietly unfurled, oblivious to the tense atmosphere in the room.

“Miss Xu’s health was already poor. She caught a chill tonight, and her body couldn’t handle it, so she suddenly spiked a fever,” the family doctor told Lu Shizhen, after securing the IV tube for the unconscious Xu Shiyue. “Miss, don’t worry. As long as she receives IV treatment, she’ll be fine once the fever breaks.”

“Hmm.” Lu Shizhen nodded and turned her head slightly, pretending to casually look at Xu Shiyue.

The hanging medicine bag refracted the light, slowly and silently delivering the medication into the girl’s body.

The exposed arm showed no trace of visible veins; under the light, all that remained was paleness.

Lu Shizhen remembered carrying Xu Shiyue up from the ground moments ago.

The autumn wind was bleak and chaotic, seeming to devour human body heat in exchange for warmth.

Lu Shizhen hadn’t needed to exert much effort; she had lifted Xu Shiyue easily from the ground.

The skin that had just been cold was now scorching hot against her arm. The girl’s pale face was flushed with an unnatural redness.

Lu Shizhen struggled along the way. Xu Shiyue felt like a piece of paper in her arms that could be blown away by the wind at any moment. She was afraid that if she walked too quickly, Xu Shiyue would be shaken apart.

If it weren’t for the original owner, would she have suffered this much?

“Also…”

Lu Shizhen’s thoughts hadn’t drifted far before they were pulled back by the doctor’s words.

However, the doctor seemed to be hesitating about something, stopping mid-sentence.

Then, Lu Shizhen clearly saw him take a deep breath, as if making a decision, and said: “Miss Xu’s health is intrinsically weak. The aftereffects of the fire several months ago have not been fully cured, and her body has suffered severe damage. Miss, since you brought Miss Xu into your home, you must want her to stay by your side for a long time, right? It would be best to treat and recuperate her properly.”

The doctor’s voice carried a firm gentleness. He spoke tactfully, but any discerning person could tell he was objecting to the instructions Lu Shizhen had given him previously.

While it’s true that good doctors are hard to find and one should listen to their advice, none of the previous doctors who worked for this influential and powerful employer, whose decisions brooked no interference, dared to speak like this.

Lu Shizhen sat in the chair, her eyes slightly narrowed.

Seeing this expression, the surrounding servants sensed danger, and the atmosphere instantly fell silent. The night wind flowed into the large room, causing the temperature to drop further.

Lu Shizhen remembered. This doctor was named Qin Wen.

The reason Xu Shiyue was able to recover her sight despite the original owner’s perverse torment was partly due to her father’s private assistant, who risked ruining his own reputation to disguise himself and infiltrate the original owner’s home to deliver medicine, and partly due to this Doctor Qin, who was secretly deeply in love with her and assisted her covertly.

It seemed the original owner intentionally instructed the family doctor not to completely cure her so she could better control Xu Shiyue.

No wonder Xu Shiyue’s blindness persisted for so long in the original text.

Forcibly abducting and detaining a patient.

Using improper means to possess a minor.

Deliberately delaying treatment to achieve control.

If you don’t die, who will?

Lu Shizhen inwardly spat on the original owner’s grave again.

Everyone in the room was waiting for a response, the silence so profound that a pin dropping could be heard.

Just as the butler was secretly calculating where to find the next family doctor, Lu Shizhen’s voice broke the silence.

The girl leaned back in the chair with her legs crossed, looking somewhat cynical.

She looked at Qin Wen, who was standing opposite her, and nodded thoughtfully: “Hmm, then do as you say.”

Lu Shizhen’s voice was even and unusually calm.

Qin Wen was clearly surprised by her ready agreement and was momentarily stunned, forgetting even to nod in response.

Lu Shizhen was mindful of maintaining the original owner’s persona. Seeing his reaction, she propped her cheek up and raised an eyebrow, questioning him: “Do you have any dissatisfaction?”

“No, no.” Qin Wen also reacted, immediately shaking his head.

Then, he quickly gathered his belongings, his efficiency top-notch: “I will go and formulate a treatment plan for Miss Xu immediately. Miss, please rest assured, I will definitely help Miss Xu recover her health!”

“Hmm.” Lu Shizhen nodded. She still trusted this person who stood with the protagonist side.

The servants in the house all knew the original owner’s intentions toward Xu Shiyue. As Qin Wen left with his large medical kit, the other servants in the room followed suit, leaving one by one.

The window frame divided the outside sky into blocks, and the full moon, like a separated jigsaw piece, hung high in the upper right corner.

Silk flowed with the moonlight streaming in. Xu Shiyue lay in the center of this light.

The original owner truly didn’t spare any expense for Xu Shiyue. The costly silk was spread across her bed borders as if it were easily accessible paper.

Her long, lightly curled hair lay gently against her cheek. The wavy curves softened the light source. Coupled with the white silk piled around her, just lying there, a haze enveloped her, making her clean and beautiful, like the bright moon transformed into human form.

The original owner truly deserved to be called the queen of perverts and the leader among lunatics; she did possess good artistic taste.

Xu Shiyue deserved such objects.

As Lu Shizhen thought this, an alarm suddenly blared in her ear: [Detection: Host is at risk of being assimilated by the original owner. Please immediately cease your dangerous thoughts.]

The small sphere that Lu Shizhen had almost forgotten reappeared, jumping in front of her, blinking and warning her against the approval she had just fleetingly given the original owner.

Whether out of anger at having her privacy invaded or guilt for acknowledging the person she despised, Lu Shizhen glared at the small sphere.

She felt that this was not a place for a secure conversation. She then rose from the chair and turned to leave.

The door closed with a click, and Xu Shiyue’s room became completely silent.

The full moon, peering through the window, watched the person sleeping in the bed. Her thick eyelashes trembled slightly under the light, then slowly opened.

Her long hair rustled against the pillow. The girl’s gaze, calm and lifeless, turned toward the direction of the door.

Her dark pupils were covered with a layer of gray mist, clearly displaying disgust and contempt.

Xu Shiyue was awake.

She had been awake for a while.

The IV bag shook violently a few times, and the slender tube was carelessly tossed onto the floor.

Blood seeped onto the white medical tape and then flowed unhurriedly downwards, staining the girl’s fair fingers crimson.

Lu Shizhen had one thing wrong.

Xu Shiyue’s eyes not recovering quickly in the original text wasn’t solely the original owner’s fault.