Acting as the Vicious Second Lead [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 24

Lights flickered inside the private booth, casting shifting shadows.

A bottle of grape-distilled Brandy lay silently on the floor, its contents drained. A residual trickle of amber liquid flowed from the mouth of the bottle, dampening the floorboards. The space was permeated with a pure, mellow fragrance that grew richer with every passing second.

Seven bottles sat on the table; six were empty.

Qin Xiaoxiao was still clutching the seventh. At this moment, her body swayed unsteadily. Her gaze was hazy, her cheeks flushed a deep crimson as she struggled to focus on the soft, beautiful woman before her.

Double vision had set in. She saw two, then three Qu Lis. Suddenly, she closed her eyes, shook her head violently, and snapped them open again. Finally feeling a bit clearer, she curled her lips into a bright, vivid smile and filled both of their empty glasses.

Her current state of intoxication added a layer of seductive charm. Unlike her usual self, she now looked like a little enchantress. Every frown and smile radiated a captivating allure that made one’s heart flutter involuntarily.

The subject herself, however, was completely oblivious. She refused to give up, inviting the starlet to drink again.

“Another… round…”

With that, Qin Xiaoxiao took the lead, gulping down a huge mouthful. The strong, stinging liquor rolled down her throat, burning all the way to her stomach.

“Ha… whew…”

Qin Xiaoxiao set the glass down, panting uncontrollably. Her whole body felt wretched; she clutched her stomach, suppressing the urge to vomit.

Qu Li, meanwhile, held her glass to her lips, taking small, elegant sips.

“Let’s head back after this glass,” Qu Li said helplessly. “You’re reaching your limit. Drinking too much is bad for your health.” After speaking, she set her glass on the table and rose to support her.

“Who… who says I’m reaching my limit!”

Qin Xiaoxiao took offense. She pushed away the hand reaching for her and argued stubbornly, “I can… drink more…” She held up a single finger.

Qu Li: “One more glass?”

“One… one case!”

“…” Qu Li remained silent.

“Again!!”

Qin Xiaoxiao spoke again, casually grabbing a bottle to fill the two empty glasses. However, after pouring for a long while, she suddenly felt something was wrong—why wasn’t it filling up?

Beside her, Qu Li pressed a hand to her forehead. “The bottle in your hand is empty.”

“Too… too much talk.”

Qin Xiaoxiao’s face flushed red, masking her internal embarrassment with a glare. To Qu Li, this looked like a petulant pout, devoid of any real threat.

Setting the empty bottle down, Qin Xiaoxiao picked up the Brandy that was still half-full. After pouring, she pushed one of the glasses toward Qu Li.

“Drink.”

She had noticed her own stutter, so she chose to speak in single, “cool” words to maintain her dignity.

Qu Li didn’t take the glass. She watched the woman quietly. “You’re drunk. Stop drinking.”

“I am… not.”

Having finally reached this stage and found an opportunity to be “wicked,” she was unwilling to give up easily. Using her muddled brain, she tried a provocation: “Unless… you’re… scared?”

Watching her relentless antics, Qu Li let out an almost imperceptible sigh. Then, the corners of her mouth tilted upward.

You asked for this.

This time, Qu Li didn’t decline. She took the glass, gazing down at the golden liquid. The surface reflected her own face, which was now filled with intense amusement. She swirled the glass gently; the reflection shattered into glittering golden pieces.

“I’m not scared,” she said softly, sitting back on the sofa. “I’m happy to see this through to the end.”

“However,” the woman’s tone shifted, adding a hint of pity, “though I’m curious to see how long you can last, health is the foundation of everything. If you feel unwell, please don’t force yourself.”

Faced with this lecture, Qin Xiaoxiao showed utter disdain. “Hmph. Just drink…”

The room fell silent except for the sound of swallowing. The scent of alcohol in the air became so thick it felt like it could be squeezed into juice.

Gulp, gulp, gulp.

Qin Xiaoxiao drained most of her glass. Her consciousness began to blur.

Her hypothesis had been correct: the original host did have a high tolerance, able to down six bottles of hard liquor without issue. But…

She glanced at Qu Li out of the corner of her eye. The woman’s face wasn’t red, her breathing was steady, and her IQ was clearly still intact. She looked perfectly fine. Qin Xiaoxiao felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

Gradually, the blood alcohol concentration rose, making her head heavy. Her stomach was packed with Brandy, ramen, and chocolate; she didn’t doubt that if someone touched her belly, everything would spill out. She felt too nauseous to speak. Her eyelids grew incredibly heavy. She could barely lift her hand.

Suddenly, the surroundings turned hazy. Qin Xiaoxiao’s eyes went wide, watching blankly as the scene shifted from low-definition to a blurry mess of pixels, finally fading into total darkness.

The last thought that flashed through her mind before losing consciousness was:

What happened to “poor tolerance”?! You big liar!

Thump—

With a muffled sound fueled by resentment, Qin Xiaoxiao’s body tilted uncontrollably. She gloriously passed out, falling onto the sofa unconscious. The glass slipped from her hand, rolling onto the floor with a crisp clink.

Beside her, the chestnut-haired woman held her own glass, leisurely finishing the last drop. Then, she picked up Qin Xiaoxiao’s fallen glass and placed them both on the table.

“You lost.”

“So, as the winner, it wouldn’t be too much to ask for a reward from you, would it~?”

“Sorry, I forgot.” Her voice grew deeper. “Even now, no matter what I do to you, you can’t resist. You can only take it obediently.”

After finishing her monologue, Qu Li’s expression turned mischievous. She stepped forward and knelt by the sofa, watching the drunken woman. She reached out her right hand, brushing away the strands of hair clinging to Qin Xiaoxiao’s cheek.

The hidden scenery was now fully exposed to her gaze.

In her sleep, Qin Xiaoxiao was exceptionally well-behaved. As if having a nightmare, she slept fitfully; her brows were furrowed, her long lashes trembled like butterfly wings, and her small face wore a sickly flush.

Qu Li’s gaze fell on her red lips. Moistened by the alcohol, they were as vivid as rose petals, radiating a fatal temptation. Sleeping quietly and without defense, she looked like a Sleeping Beauty from a fairy tale, waiting for her fated one to break the curse with a kiss.

Seeing this, Qu Li’s hand moved down, gently stroking her lips. For an instant, her fingertips caught the woman’s burning heat. The moisture on the lips left a shimmering film of water on Qu Li’s finger.

On a normal day, if Qu Li teased her like this, Qin Xiaoxiao would have jumped up and scratched her. Unfortunately, in this state of total intoxication, she could only be at the mercy of others.

“What would you do if the person standing before you wasn’t me?”

“Little idiot with no sense of danger,” Qu Li whispered, her voice husky.

Then, her hand reached toward the woman’s waist. After rummaging for a bit, she fished out a phone. The case was pink with a fluffy white pom-pom—a very “cute” aesthetic.

Cute…

Recalling how Qin Xiaoxiao had accepted the mask in the company corridor without resistance, Qu Li seemed to realize something: she liked cute things. Qu Li firmly etched this discovery into her heart.

She opened the phone, found the Weibo app, and searched for “Qu Li.” She entered her own profile and clicked “Follow.” Seeing the notification change to “Mutual Follow,” Qu Li curled her lips.

The reward she wanted was in hand.

She checked the time. It was 4:00 PM, nearing evening. They had been drinking and talking for three hours. Having a plan, Qu Li tapped into the contact list. There were many contacts—parents, as well as various “fair-weather friends.” After a bit of time, she found Lin Yu’s number in the call logs.

She dialed the manager. The call connected after just two rings. Before Qu Li could speak, Lin Yu blurted out:

“Why didn’t you reply to my messages? And what is wrong with you? I told you to go out the back, and you went to the side door! I’m impressed! Do you want to be on the trending searches that badly? Well, let me tell you—good job! Hahaha! I tried to convince you to hook up with a popular starlet before and you acted all disdainful, I didn’t expect you to take my words to heart so seriously. No matter what methods you use, you absolutely have to get Qu Li, build a good relationship, understand? Keep it up! Our company’s hope rests on you!”

After the manager finished her tirade, she noticed the silence. “Why aren’t you talking?”

Qu Li cleared her throat. “Hello, this is Qu Li,” she said softly. “Yin Ni accidentally drank too much and passed out. I wanted to ask if you know her address? I’ll take her home.”

Silence. The air solidified.

Clatter—

Qu Li heard the sound of a phone hitting the floor. On the other end, the manager frantically scrambled to pick it up.

“Miss Qu!” A shocked Lin Yu tried to adjust her tone, her face stiff. “No, no, that’s too much trouble for you. Just tell me your location, I’ll pick her up and take her back to the apartment.”

The manager was extremely enthusiastic. But how could Qu Li let go of an opportunity to get close to Qin Xiaoxiao?

She narrowed her eyes. “It’s no trouble. Leave it to me.”

“That doesn’t seem right…” Lin Yu said dryly. For a big star to personally send an 18th-tier actress home when they weren’t even a couple or best friends—no one would believe it. Even if her artist had a prominent background, compared to a seasoned starlet, she was still outmatched. To show courtesy without cause is to harbor hidden motives.

Even though she desperately wanted to matchmake them, Lin Yu couldn’t help but be suspicious. Plus, if she just handed her artist over and something happened, she couldn’t take the responsibility.

After a pause, Qu Li joked half-seriously, “Are you worried I’ll do something bad to her?”

The manager’s heart skipped a beat as her thoughts were read. Cold sweat broke out. She defended herself: “Oh, you misunderstand, I didn’t mean that…”

Failing to persuade her directly, Qu Li began to use an incentive: “I heard Director Wang Yi’s historical drama is still missing a lead. I think Miss Yin has a chance.”

After three minutes of silence, Lin Yu caved. “Then I’ll have to trouble you. The address is Yongyuan Street, Haiyun Apartments, Building 6, Unit 6012.”

After hanging up, the manager suddenly realized… competing for a lead role in that way… isn’t that just “unspoken rules” (casting couch)?

Ignoring the manager who was currently losing her mind, Qu Li hung up. The room echoed with the sound of one deep and one shallow breath. Without prying further into her privacy, she returned the phone to its owner and studied the woman’s sleeping face.

The yellow and purple lights flickered over the two of them, casting a magnificent luster on their hair and creating a dreamlike halo in Qu Li’s eyes. The scene was hazy and beautiful.

Twilight fell, and the moon rose as the stars grew sparse.

Leaning on each other and enduring the astonished gazes of passersby, Qu Li finally arrived at the apartment with Qin Xiaoxiao half-carried in her arms. She found the key in the bag and turned the lock.

Click. The door opened.

Qu Li used the cold moonlight spilling into the room to observe the layout. Locking onto her target, she dragged Qin Xiaoxiao to the sofa and laid her down gently. Having finished the task, Qu Li wiped the sweat from her brow and turned to find the light switch.

However, at that moment, Qin Xiaoxiao was lying face down, her stomach pressed against the sofa. Most of her weight was concentrated there. The pressure hit her stomach.

In a half-dreaming state, Qin Xiaoxiao felt her stomach churning. She scrambled up, trying to find a trash can to vomit. Before she could take more than a few steps, she bent over and vomited uncontrollably.

“Blegh…”

At the same time, the lights flickered on. Qu Li had found the switch.

She turned her head only to see the glamorous woman finish vomiting, try to return to the sofa to sleep, lose her footing, and fall back—landing right on top of the vomit.

Qu Li: “…”

If Qin Xiaoxiao ever found out that Qu Li had witnessed her in such a pathetic state, she would probably want to kill her. Qu Li still remembered the murderous intent she had felt radiating from Qin Xiaoxiao earlier.

How interesting, Qu Li thought fearlessly.

“Hey. Get up.”

Qu Li spoke as she walked over. As she got closer, she realized the other had fallen back into a deep sleep.

Qu Li: “…”

She pulled the woman’s upper body up, looking with a headache at the soaked clothes on her back. They reeled with the sour smell of alcohol and undigested chocolate. It was pungent.

Qu Li felt troubled. Being this dirty, she had to change her clothes.

Change her clothes…

At this thought, Qu Li’s face—which hadn’t reddened from the alcohol—suddenly flushed. Her pale skin turned as red as a cooked shrimp. She pursed her lips, looking at the person sleeping soundly in her arms, her eyes dancing with a different kind of light.