Achieving A Happy Ending With The Tragic Female Lead [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 86

Inside the dim and murky Wufang Hall, only eerie ghost fires hovered in the air, providing a meager, almost useless amount of light.

On the desk, two thin little paper dolls were working together to carry an inkstick, walking in circles around the inkstone. Before long, the two dolls began to fight because they couldn’t agree on which direction to rotate.

The sound of paper clashing made a crisp rustling noise that echoed clearly through the silent hall.

Su Mi, who had been napping with her head resting on her hand, was awakened by the commotion. Her cold, elegant eyebrows twitched slightly.

“Silence.”

The two paper dolls froze instantly. After a moment, they lifted their flat heads as if “sniffing” the air. Suddenly, they scrambled up and wobbled as they jumped off the desk.

“Your Majesty, Auntie Meng is here! Auntie Meng is here!”

“Hide quickly, hide quickly!”

A wisp of green smoke drifted past the entrance of the hall, reaching the interior in the blink of an eye. As the smoke dissipated, a woman with a graceful figure appeared. She first bowed respectfully to Su Mi seated above, “Greetings, Your Majesty.”

Then, she reached out and snatched the two little paper dolls trying to flee, smiling with dazzling white teeth.

“Why run? It’s not like I’d eat you little ghosts, you’re not even enough to fill the gaps between my teeth.”

Su Mi opened her eyes and looked down at Meng Qing, who was teasing the paper dolls. “Is there a matter?”

Meng Qing looked up. “Your Majesty, you’ve already sealed the marriage contract, so why are you still here? Mount Shijun is waiting for you to visit once you possess a human form.”

Su Mi replied, “No rush. She is a bit afraid of me. I’ll wait until she’s a bit older.”

Perhaps her courage will grow by then, Su Mi thought.

Hearing this, Meng Qing couldn’t help but roll her eyes, thinking to herself that the Queen was truly a “benevolent ghost” who knew how to dote on her wife.

Su Mi closed her eyes again. “Besides, Xu Bai is over there. Nothing will go wrong for the time being. I know what I’m doing. You should focus more on the Ghost Realm.”

The Ghost Realm consisted of ten halls and five regions, each managed by a Hall Master, all governed by the Ghost Queen. Meng Qing was the Master of the Tenth Hall.

Hundreds of years ago, a riot broke out in the Five Regions, which Su Mi suppressed. They thought it was over, but an evil ghost escaped to the mortal world to recuperate and was only recently tracked down. Since Su Mi was tied down by official business, she dispatched Xu Bai, the Master of the Fifth Hall who could walk among the living, to handle it.

At the mention of Xu Bai, Meng Qing gave a small “tsk,” but she didn’t say anything more to the Queen. No matter how bold she was, she still remembered her status and the rules.

However, Su Mi’s “wait” lasted for two months in the Ghost Realm.

Time flows differently between the Ghost Realm and the mortal world. Two months for them was likely two years in the living world.

Meng Qing went from occasionally nudging Su Mi to dropping hints every time she visited, until finally, she grew so frustrated she just gave up.

Under the Scorching Summer Sun

Students pouring out of the teaching building after class raised their parasols, but they still couldn’t block the wave of heat that made everyone irritable.

Qiao Xinyue, who hadn’t brought an umbrella, walked under the shade of the trees along the street. She finally felt a bit of relief and wanted to get back to her dormitory quickly to enjoy the air conditioning.

Unexpectedly, she ran into a member of the photography club, who greeted her. Qiao Xinyue politely returned the greeting.

“Hey, Qiao Xinyue, what’s that hanging around your neck?” the club member asked, pointing.

Qiao Xinyue, who had been shielding her face from the sun, looked down. It turned out that her necklace had slipped out of her clothes while she was running. She held up the necklace, and the red jade ring dangling at the end swayed.

“This? It’s a protective charm my family got for me.”

“Wow, a protective charm shaped like a ring is pretty unique.” The club member peaked at it curiously. If they were closer, she would have liked a better look.

“Yes, it is quite special.” Qiao Xinyue looked at the red jade ring and tucked it back inside her shirt.

As the jade ring touched her skin, its icy sensation seemed to dispel some of the heat.

The two parted ways at a fork in the road. Qiao Xinyue ran straight back to her dorm, only feeling like she’d “come back to life” once she was in the air-conditioned room.

Because she had broken a sweat outside, the first thing she did was head to the bathroom to shower. She didn’t take off the necklace even while bathing. When her fingers touched the ring, the jade felt piercingly cold, as if it could never be warmed.

Truthfully, she didn’t remember the origin of this ring very clearly.

She only remembered that two years ago, she had fallen seriously ill. Her parents took her everywhere seeking a cure. When she finally woke up, this ring was on her hand. Her parents told her it was a protective charm they had sought for her, a “good thing.”

Knowing how hard her parents worked for her health, she accepted it as a token of their love, regardless of what it actually was.

At first, she didn’t pay much attention to it, but as school approached, she realized she couldn’t just walk around with a ring on her finger, it would be hard to explain. She tried to take it off, but the ring seemed fused to her finger, completely immovable. Yet, it wasn’t tight, it felt as if it were custom-made for her.

Later, the old grandmother who had helped treat her “communicated” with it, and the ring finally came off. However, she was warned that she must keep it against her skin at all times and never take it off.

And so, she had worn it for two years.

Since wearing the ring, she truly felt her health and spirit improving day by day. Things she couldn’t do before due to her weak constitution were now possible, she was no different from a healthy, normal person.

She had asked her parents and the old woman what the object was, but they insisted it was just a protective charm and told her not to overthink it as long as she stayed healthy.

So, while Qiao Xinyue had her doubts, she was grateful for the red jade ring. Whatever it was, it had given her health. Thinking this, she picked up the ring and gave it a small, smiling kiss.

At that moment, deep within the abyss, Su Mi who was busy reviewing documents, paused. She slowly pressed her hand against her heart, feeling a strange sensation.

She tapped her finger on the desk, and a paper doll emerged.

The paper doll took two steps forward. “Your Majesty, you called?”

Su Mi asked, “Where is she now? What is she doing?”

The paper doll suddenly covered its faceless head. “The little Madam went to bathe! Didn’t Your Majesty forbid us from following at times like this? Do you want to look for yourself?”

Su Mi was stunned for a moment. “No need.”

This exchange was overheard by Meng Qing, who had arrived for business. “Tsk tsk, some people clearly have a wife, yet they insist on acting like a saint while staring longingly from afar.”

Su Mi glanced at her indifferently. “Some people clearly have a wife, yet their wife ran away.”

Having her sore spot poked, Meng Qing began to emit green smoke, looking exactly like an enraged malevolent ghost. The little paper doll saw this and scrambled to hide.

Meng Qing: “Wasn’t that because of you, Your Majesty? When exactly are you going to the mortal world so she can come back sooner?”

Su Mi unhurriedly turned a page of her documents. “Soon.”

That “soon” was unclear, was she answering the first part of the question or the second?

After showering, Qiao Xinyue went to the laundry room to put her clothes in the machine and then returned to the dorm.

Her roommates seemed to be out. She sat for a while and felt sleepy, so she climbed into bed for a nap, setting an alarm to pick up her laundry later.

As soon as her head hit the pillow, drowsiness overwhelmed her, and she fell into a deep sleep.

In her sleep, she felt as if she had fallen into a pitch-black abyss. Her consciousness seemed trapped in a tiny space, unable to break free or escape.

Suddenly, a cold sensation touched her lips. Before she could think, something icy slid into her mouth, like a piece of ice cream, cold and smooth.

She felt the same cold touch on other parts of her body, mixed with other unfamiliar sensations.

In her daze, Qiao Xinyue heard a voice. It sounded like a thin layer of ice on a winter pond, clear, cool, and very beautiful. However, the voice seemed muffled by thick layers of cotton, sounding too distant to understand.

Then came an indescribable pain and a sense of wrongness. She began to struggle desperately to break free.

In reality, the sleeping Qiao Xinyue subconsciously gripped the necklace around her neck. The icy feeling brought a touch of coolness to her slightly feverish palm. Her forehead was covered in sweat, and her hair clung to her skin, making her look somewhat disheveled.

In a place Qiao Xinyue couldn’t see, Su Mi, dressed in an intricate formal gown, sat by her bedside. Her gold embroidered skirt draped over the side of the bed, adorned with blooming Lycoris flowers (equinox flowers). Her form appeared somewhat translucent, and her hand was hovering just above Qiao Xinyue’s brow.

As her fingertips lowered, a red ghostly light flashed.

In the next instant, Su Mi entered Qiao Xinyue’s dream. She saw the familiar stone bed from before. The Qiao Xinyue lying on it was still wearing that fiery red wedding dress, and “she” was pressed against the girl.

Su Mi walked over and tapped the “other self.” Time in this space instantly froze.

This was her “Dream Retracing” ability. It allowed a person to relive a previous scene. It was originally an ability used to punish evil ghosts by trapping them in an endless purgatory, but now she frequently used it for this.

Su Mi dispersed the dream version of herself, leaving only her current self behind.

She looked at Qiao Xinyue’s lips, which were flushed from the previous kiss, and pressed her thumb against them. Su Mi wrapped her arm around the girl’s waist, and as she leaned down to kiss her, the time stop spell was lifted.

With her clothes partially undone, Qiao Xinyue panted, looking pitiful as she whimpered and accepted this suddenly fierce kiss.

Having become the Ghost Queen, Su Mi had lost her five senses. However, after forming a ghost marriage contract, intimacy with her spouse helped her regain those senses and eventually gain a physical body.

Although they hadn’t “done it” in the past two years, they had shared intimacy like this dozens of times. Through this, Su Mi had regained a bit of her sense of touch.

At this moment, Su Mi could feel a faint sensation, which led her to kiss even harder, as if she wanted to snatch away the breath of the person beneath her.

Qiao Xinyue could only passively endure it all. This dream, which should have ended, was being intentionally prolonged by the one who desired her.

After an unknown amount of time, Qiao Xinyue suddenly snapped her eyes open and woke up, sitting up and gasping for air.

I dreamed it again. Since her illness two years ago, she occasionally had these strange dreams.

She could never see the person’s face or features clearly in the dream, and even her consciousness was hazy. She could only vaguely tell the other person was a woman who always pestered her to do… that kind of thing.

Recalling those sensations, so real they felt like they actually happened, her face flushed. She didn’t know if it was her imagination, but her tongue felt numb and a bit cold…

Just thinking about it made her turn red. Qiao Xinyue couldn’t understand why she frequently had such troublesome erotic dreams.

Was she really that frustrated?

Qiao Xinyue sat on the bed to calm her heart. She didn’t dare go back to sleep. She wondered if the air conditioner was set too low; she felt quite cold.

Just then, her phone alarm went off. She turned it off and decided to go get her laundry.

But just before she stepped out, she suddenly stopped and turned back to look at her bed.

Su Mi, who had just been pressing her against the stone bed in the dream, met her gaze. However, the former couldn’t see her, and naturally, she couldn’t see the insatiable desire swirling in the Ghost Queen’s eyes.