Chapter 13

Faced with Wei Zhixu’s invitation, Ying Que happily trotted right along.

In the height of summer, the evening wind finally carried a trace of coolness. The Chinese roses bloomed high and low, even more lush and dense than they had been a few days ago.

Ying Que stepped along in sneakers, watching her shadow line up side by side with Wei Zhixu’s, and truly felt this was an excellent dating spot.

The only question was why Wei Zhixu had brought out a bucket of waste from the greenhouse that reeked of rot.

“Sister, what are you doing?” Ying Que pinched her nose and retreated three feet away. She even wanted to rush over, grab Wei Zhixu, and separate her from that bucket of filth.

“Fertilizing,” Wei Zhixu said calmly. After putting the bucket down, she took out two shovels, each about as tall as a person.

“Why?” Ying Que was completely confused by this sudden change in the scene’s style.

“When flowers bloom a lot, their nutrients need to keep up.” Wei Zhixu moved efficiently, rolling up her sleeves as she spoke.

But Ying Que had not been asking why they needed fertilizer.

She had thought Wei Zhixu invited her here for a date in the Chinese rose garden. Who knew she had called her over to work? And such fishy, smelly work at that.

In this lifetime, Ying Que had never done this kind of labor.

If Wei Zhixu really needed someone, why not go find that impostor?

Thinking of this, Ying Que’s dissatisfaction surged out. “Sister, you’re way too biased. That Alpha gave you rare books, so you can’t bear to bring her here to do this kind of thing? I think she’d want to accompany you for this more than I do. She’d probably be desperate for it.”

She said she liked Wei Zhixu, but when she was unhappy and throwing a temper, she was still completely merciless.

“Is it because you’re unhappy that I secretly watched her get punished, so you brought me here to punish me?”

“It’s not because of her.” Wei Zhixu denied the first half of Ying Que’s sentence, but did not clarify the second half.

Ying Que also failed to notice the sophistry in Wei Zhixu’s answer. She only continued expressing her feelings. “Tch. And here I trusted Sister so much, only to be tricked by you. I’m not doing it. I’m going back to watch the show.”

“Are you sure that if you go back now, what you see will still be the scene you want to see?” Wei Zhixu was unconcerned. ​read the original at bailiantales.com​She quietly looked at the little leopard throwing a temper in front of her and asked lightly in return.

A breeze blew past. The branches and leaves of the Chinese roses shook and rubbed together, making a rustling sound.

Ying Que’s foot, which had not yet lifted, seemed nailed into the soil. Wei Zhixu’s reminder made her think of Ying Xu, who was also in the study.

According to the usual process whenever Ying Ming punished her, Ying Xu would soon step forward and protect her.

That big idiot Ying Xu had no idea what kind of impostor she was protecting…

“Physical nausea can cover psychological trauma,” Wei Zhixu said, picking up a shovel and interrupting Ying Que’s thoughts.

Ying Que would never admit or feel that she had any psychological trauma. She considered herself perfectly healthy.

So she subconsciously believed that Wei Zhixu’s words were only meant to make “Wu Lan” forget the pain of her family falling apart.

Ying Que now felt a little sorry for herself. She had not obtained her older sister’s protection, nor had she received Wei Zhixu’s sincere comfort.

“How does Sister know it works? This kind of pseudoscience can’t withstand verification at all.” Ying ​unauthorized copy​Que pouted, the tip of her little white shoe rubbing against the flower leaves now and then.

“How do you know I haven’t verified it?” Wei Zhixu asked back.

The sunset spread across the entire sky. Tomorrow, there would be rain.

The light was too beautiful, making Wei Zhixu’s raised brows and eyes look especially exquisite. Sorrow was like smoke, drifting into the clouds.

Ying Que blamed Wei Zhixu for not understanding the her beneath Wu Lan’s skin.

But did she truly understand the real Wei Zhixu?

A love that began with a body and face seemed not yet deep enough to reach the bones.

“How big a hole should I dig?” Ying Que knew she was in the wrong and took the shovel Wei Zhixu handed over.

As the handle changed hands, Ying Que’s fingers overlapped with Wei Zhixu’s for one second.

A reckless person charged forward without restraint, leaving someone else standing in place, lost and uncertain.

Wei Zhixu slightly curled her fingers, took a mask from her pocket, and handed it to Ying Que while pointing to the nearest climbing rose. “Just dig a hole beneath it about as deep as the shovel blade.”

“Fine, leave it to me.” Ying Que rolled up her sleeves and solidly dug into the damp, soft soil, as though taking revenge on that impostor.

“Mm!”

At the exact moment the shovel cut into the earth, Qin Ye finally could not hold back and let out a muffled groan.

She had taken five strikes from the rattan cane, and her palm had already swollen red.

This body instinctively wanted to hide from the pain, but she simply knelt there straight-backed, like a stubborn piece of wood.

The brighter the sunset burned, the more stubborn her figure seemed by contrast.

“Mom, Xiao Que was terribly wrong, but five strikes really is enough. If you still think it isn’t enough, I’ll take the punishment for her.”

In the end, Ying Xu could not keep watching. While [bailiantales.com]mother and daughter were locked in a stalemate, she stood in front of Qin Ye.

Usually, whenever Ying Que got hit, she would cry miserably, acting spoiled and foolish.

Today was unexpectedly unusual. Up to now, she had not shed a single tear, which instead made Ying Xu’s heart ache terribly.

How could Ying Ming not feel the same?

“Do you know what you did wrong?” Ying Ming looked at Qin Ye, finding it strange that this child was unexpectedly stubborn today.

“I know I was wrong.” Qin Ye nodded.

She was not stubborn. She simply did not know how to beg for mercy.

So when Ying Ming gave her a way down, she took it. “I brought people home to hold a party without Mom’s permission, and I drank so much of Mom’s stored wine. I won’t do it again.”

“At least you know your mistake and will correct it. You sisters stay here and calm down.” Ying Ming put down the rattan cane in her hand.

The instant Ying Ming left, Qin Ye let out a breath of relief.

Even though her palm burned with pain, her reaction was still to silently wait for the redness and swelling to slowly fade on their own.

But she had not expected that an injury she herself did not care about would be remembered by someone else.

“Let Sister take a look.” Ying Xu carefully pulled up Qin Ye’s loosely clenched palm.

There was strangely medicine prepared in the study. Ying Xu found it with practiced ease, dipped a cotton swab into the ointment, and began applying it for Qin Ye.

“Mom keeps this here for you. Don’t hate her. It’s all for your own good.” Ying Xu’s voice was as light as her movements, making Qin Ye feel a little dazed as she listened.

No one had ever cared about her like this before.

The original owner really had such a good, good home, and such good, good family members.

Why had she not cherished it?

Why had she ended up destroying her family, having Wei Zhixu gouge out her gland, and dying [bailiantales.com]miserably on the street?

“Achoo!”

There was no wind around her, and she had already gotten used to the fishy smell, yet Ying Que still sneezed belatedly at that moment.

Perhaps out of consideration for the summer heat, or perhaps because of some other reason, Wei Zhixu only had Ying Que bury this one bucket of fertilizer.

An Alpha had plenty of strength. After huffing and puffing her way through digging the hole, she was now starting to fill it back in.

The sunset gradually scattered, and the setting sun was almost about to sink into the earth.

Wei Zhixu looked at the light in the study, which had turned from white to dim yellow, then turned her head again to look at Ying Que, who was burying the fish guts for her with her head lowered.

From the moment Ying Que agreed to help, this Alpha had not complained again or expressed disgust toward the pile of fertilizer.

It was just that sometimes, when the smell was too strong and she could not stand it, that pretty little face of hers wrinkled into a bitter melon.

She was somewhat able to endure hardship after all.

“Sister, do these things really work? They’re smelly and dirty. They won’t kill them, will they?”

Clearly unable to withstand praise, Ying Que could not help complaining about the fish guts’ stench.

After working for half an hour, she still could not understand how a clean and immaculate person like Wei Zhixu had come into contact with these dirty things.

“These are nutrients. To plants, they aren’t dirty,” Wei Zhixu corrected.

“I know, I know. It’s a matter of angle.” Ying Que echoed the conversation she and Wei Zhixu had had not long ago in the nearby pavilion.

A trace of “this child can be taught” appeared in Wei Zhixu’s eyes. “You still remember.”

“Of course. I remember everything Sister says very carefully.” Ying Que was somewhat smug and proud.

Seeming to grow interested, Wei Zhixu explained a little more to Ying Que, as though wanting her to appreciate it with her. “Queque, did you know? Chinese roses love meat. In murder cases, this kind of scene often appears. If a body is buried in the garden, the Chinese roses will grow especially well.”

“While the detective is still racking their brain to reason things out, the flowers have already told the audience the answer.” Wei Zhixu moved slowly and unhurriedly, bailiantales.comcovering the fertilizer with another layer of soil, like a killer.

Ying Que watched Wei Zhixu’s accustomed tone as she spoke. She truly could not imagine how that calm, cold face could say something so terrifying, and she could not help tightening her grip on the shovel.

“So Sister learned from mystery novels that you should put these things under Chinese roses?” Ying Que tried to ease the atmosphere and push Wei Zhixu in her heart back into a clean and pure position.

“No.”

But Wei Zhixu denied her definition.

Her words stopped abruptly, and she had no intention of telling Ying Que the reason she knew this.

Or perhaps she was unwilling to say it.

But Ying Que was not Ying Xu and did not know how to read people’s expressions.

She was the type to climb up the pole when one was offered. Since the conversation had reached this point, she had to ask further, even adding a bit of an unrealistic joke to liven the atmosphere along with her guess. “Then why? Don’t tell me Sister has really killed someone?”

“What if I say yes?” Wei Zhixu lifted her eyes, and a rich smile appeared in them.

Ying Que froze.

Wei Zhixu’s smile at this moment was even rarer than when the impostor had given her the rare books earlier. Beautiful, strange, like the climbing rose beside them that had just received a corpse’s offering.

A thin wind blew into the gaps between her bones, making Ying Que’s fingertips turn cold.

But very quickly, Ying Que denied the guess Wei Zhixu had guided her toward.

She turned her head away, not taking Wei Zhixu’s words seriously. “Tch. I don’t believe it.”

How could a clean Omega like Wei Zhixu possibly have killed someone?

Besides, Wei Zhixu had become famous at a young age. With the connections and inheritance left by her mothers protecting her, her path as a screenwriter had been smooth all the way, and she had won so many awards she could barely hold them.

Who would she need to get rid of?

Who could become a stone blocking her path?

“If Sister doesn’t want to say it, then forget it. It’s not like I want to know that much anyway.”

The little girl was stubborn, but she smacked the filled-in soil until it made loud thumping sounds.

“Queque.” Listening to the sounds Ying Que was making, Wei Zhixu, as though driven by ghosts and gods, called her name.

Clearly, Ying Que was angry. But the moment Wei Zhixu called her, she still lifted her head by conditioned reflex. “What is it?”

“Maybe there’s a role in my script that suits you.” Wei Zhixu’s tone wavered, but she still said it.

Ying Que was overjoyed. She raised a hand to wipe her sweat, only to smear a streak of dirt across her own face. “Really?”

Wei Zhixu looked at the little calico cat in front of her, her gaze calm.

At this moment, Wei Zhixu still did not know how certain she would become in the future.

“Talk to your manager. Clear your schedule after July for me.”

“Okay!” Ying Que answered loudly. Never mind clearing her schedule after July—even if Wei Zhixu asked her to clear her schedule for the rest of her life, she would gladly do it.

.

After getting what she wanted, Ying Que’s head was filled all night with thoughts of going to her manager and clearing her schedule for Wei Zhixu. As soon as the sky had barely brightened, she got up and rushed to the agency.

Speaking of which, it was strange. Wu Lan had not filmed a single drama, yet she had already signed with an agency.

And weren’t managers supposed to care a lot about their artists? How come after she had been in this body for so long, Wu Lan’s manager had never contacted her?

Strange.

Ying Que got out of the taxi and looked at the somewhat old office building in front of her, disdain appearing on her face.

No matter what, Hengxing Pictures, the company Wu Lan had signed with, was still an old established company. Although it was experiencing a talent gap, a starving camel should still be bigger than a horse, right?

With that suspicion in mind, Ying Que entered the elevator.

She stared at the red floor display. Only when the elevator delivered her to the twenty-third floor did she let out a breath of relief.

All good, still alive.

“When I was downstairs just now, I thought it looked like you. You’re here so early.”

Ying Que had just stepped out of the elevator and had not yet steadied herself when the doors of another elevator opened.

A male Alpha walked out from inside. He looked like a praying mantis that had gained human form.

Ying Que was very confused by this overly familiar person. Her eyes narrowed, and only after a long while did she react.

This was Wu Lan’s manager.

The photo on his Moments was seriously over-edited.

“Didn’t you say you had something to see me about? Let’s go.” Wu Lan’s manager could not hear Ying Que roasting him in her heart. He waved a hand and walked forward on his own.

For some reason, Ying Que felt something was not right.

And the instant she walked into Wu Lan’s manager’s office, that feeling was confirmed—

This Alpha’s hand landed squarely on her waist.