Accidentally Marking The Vicious Female Lead After Transmigrating Into A Period Novel - Chapter 10

As soon as Lin Yishu and Li Can heard it was snowing, they scrambled out of bed with a silent understanding, their movements synchronized in their excitement.

Stumbling slightly as they threw on their clothes, they couldn’t wait to lean their heads against the window.

“It’s really snowing… it’s so beautiful,” Lin Yishu whispered.

Born in the South, her winters were mostly filled with rain. On rare occasions, there would be tiny ice pellets or snowflakes smaller than grains of rice, they would melt into water the moment they touched the ground, vanishing before her eyes could even trace their shape.

She had never seen snow like this.

It was as if the sentences she had read in books had been pulled from the pages into reality.

Like goose feathers, like flying catkins, the snow unceremoniously dyed the world a pure, pristine white, as if washing away every bit of filth from the earth.

Seeing how mesmerized she was, Li Yan couldn’t help but lean in as well. “You’ve never seen snow before?” she asked, finding it a bit curious.

“Never before today.” Lin Yishu didn’t look at her, her eyes still fixed on the window. Her dark brown pupils reflected against the glass, shimmering with tiny fragments of light.

The two were close, so close that Li Yan could see the fine fuzz on her face, the flutter of every eyelash when she blinked, and the small, pinkish-brown mole on the tip of her nose.

“But I’ve seen it now,” the girl said, suddenly turning her head. “We saw it together.”

Lin Yishu’s eyes curved into crescents, brimming with genuine joy. It was like a pebble suddenly tossed into a calm lake, or a black and white painting being splashed with color, instantly becoming vivid and alive.

Li Yan’s heart skipped a beat for no reason.

Then came a violent thumping, like a powerful declaration of its own existence, driven by some inexplicable conviction.

Thump, thump, thump…

“We.”

A word that was clearly ordinary, yet felt utterly ambiguous.

Li Yan suddenly turned her head away in a flurry of confusion.

Before the other girl could notice anything strange, Li Yan stepped off the bed with her long legs, walking out before she had even put her shoes on properly.

She bumped right into Li Chunmei, who was just about to come in and wake her. Li Chunmei screeched to a halt. “You child! You’re in such a rush, is a ghost chasing you? You’re so old, why are you still so flighty? Come out and eat. The snow is heavy today, so the roads will be a mess. You need to leave early, don’t you?”

Li Yan caught a glimpse of the person on the bed seemingly turning to look over. Panicking, she quickly dragged her mother out of the room.

“Hey, hey, hey! What’s wrong with you, kid?” Li Chunmei was being pulled by the arm. If it weren’t for her thick cotton jacket, she surely would have cried out in pain.

As she was being hauled away, she suddenly noticed the skin on the back of her daughter’s neck was flushed red. She stopped dead in her tracks, her expression turning serious as she reached out. “Why is the back of your neck so red? You aren’t running a fever, are you? Let Mama check!”

Flustered and embarrassed, Li Yan dodged her mother’s hand and plopped down onto a stool, not daring to lift her head. “No, no… the kang (heated bed-stove) was just too warm last night. I’m just a bit hot from waking up…”

Li Chunmei was puzzled. She turned to ask her own mother, “Was the kang that hot last night? I didn’t feel it. I thought it was the same as usual.”

Xu Xiufen, who was handing a bowl of rice to her beloved granddaughter, said with a proud look, “It wasn’t that it was warm last night, your mother is so stingy she wouldn’t dare burn extra wood. It was me! This morning, while your mother wasn’t looking, I threw in two more logs. It’s snowing so hard, I couldn’t let my precious granddaughter freeze. Well? Isn’t it much warmer than previous mornings?”

“So that’s it.” Li Chunmei felt relieved, though she couldn’t help but glare at her mother. “Mom, tell me next time. I was wondering why the firewood was disappearing so fast.”

Xu Xiufen quickly raised her hands in a plea of innocence. “I only did it this once! Don’t go blaming me for everything…”

Seeing that their attention was no longer on her, Li Yan breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

Thinking about what her grandmother had said, she felt lucky.

It must be because the bed was too hot. It was just a coincidence.

While at work, Li Yan’s mind wandered. She was thinking of a way to get a cloth doll for Lin Yishu or at the very least, have her mom sew one. It wasn’t a sustainable solution for Lin Yishu to keep hugging her arm to sleep.

As she thought, she suddenly jolted.

Wait a minute!

When she worked the day shift, Lin Yishu could hug her arm. But when she worked the night shift, she wasn’t even there. How did the girl sleep then?

Though she had only worked one night shift in the past few days, she hadn’t heard Lin Yishu complain about it.

Could she be tricking me?!

But she quickly shook her head to dismiss the thought.

It was unlikely. Lin Yishu had a bit of a temper, but she didn’t seem like that kind of person.

Forget it. Maybe she found another way. Li Yan decided not to torture herself over it.

The snow stopped around noon, but it was already half-calf deep. Considering the difficulty of the commute, the leaders at the slaughterhouse made a generous executive decision to let everyone off work thirty minutes early.

Just before leaving, the workshop director, Qi Haisheng, suddenly called out to her. “Xiao Li, I’d like to discuss something with you.”

“Director, what is it?”

Li Yan stood tall and straight. At a glance, she looked like a dedicated, promising worker. Qi Haisheng’s eyes gleamed with even more satisfaction.

“It’s like this. After you get off today, you can rest tomorrow during the day. But once you come in tomorrow night, don’t go home for a few days. Just stay at the factory. We’ll work overtime before the New Year to finish all our tasks in one go. That way, everyone can have a good holiday. What do you think?”

These years, the slogan was “No rest for the Spring Festival” they shouted “No stopping on New Year’s Eve, keep working on New Year’s Day” but even so, people still looked forward to a couple of days of rest at the end of the year.

Qi Haisheng had checked with the higher-ups, the word was that as long as the tasks were finished before the New Year, they could have time off.

That was why he set his sights on Li Yan.

Despite being a female worker, Li Yan was incredibly strong. A pig that required two men to hold down could be handled by her with ease. Beyond that, her butchering and deboning skills were top-tier. Since she joined the pork workshop, production speed had increased significantly.

“I plan to recommend you for this year’s ‘Model Worker’ award.” Seeing Li Yan look over, he added, “Of course, regardless of whether you agree to this or not, I’m going to recommend you. I’m not using that as a bargaining chip.”

Since he had put it that way, refusing would make her seem ungrateful. Besides, she would be earning her own benefits.

Li Yan nodded. “Okay, Director. I’ll put in the overtime.”

The factory had a canteen and a bathhouse honestly, sometimes it was more comfortable than being at home.

After parting ways with the director, Li Yan couldn’t help but think of Lin Yishu again.

A couple of days ago, the girl had complained that she was starting to smell, but there was no way to take a proper bath at home. Since she was off tomorrow, maybe she should take her to the public bathhouse?

She just didn’t know if a Southerner could get used to a Northern bathhouse.

Wait…

Lin Yishu was an Omega, and she was an Alpha. Strictly speaking, wasn’t there supposed to be a “distinction between A and O”?

Li Yan walked along, her thoughts spiraling, until she actually managed to make herself blush.

As she entered the courtyard, she was wondering how to bring up the subject without sounding like she had “ulterior motives,” when she saw Li Chunmei running out in a panic.

She stopped. “Mom, what happened?”

Li Chunmei looked at her as if she were a savior and grabbed her arm. “Yanyan, you’re back just in time! Yishu has a fever, she’s burning up and completely unconscious! Li Can said the fever started in the afternoon. She’s been using wet towels and cold water all afternoon, but it won’t go down. I think we have to get her to the hospital immediately. If this keeps up, something terrible might happen!”

Li Yan’s pupils contracted. She sprinted into the house and scooped up the person lying on the bed.