Acting as the Vicious Second Lead [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 35

The air in the room was stagnant and sweltering, carrying a faint, stale scent of alcohol.

At some point, the female lead had untied her ropes. Having regained her mobility, she didn’t leave immediately. Instead, she crouched by the door, lying in wait like a hunter.

It was a long wait. Sweat soaked her back, and her consciousness grew hazy. Every second felt like walking on the edge of a blade—agonizing and precarious.

Xiang Liwei closed her eyes against the wall, rehearsing in her mind a thousand different ways to be intimate with the woman. She fantasized about being toyed with, being punished, being held. At the peak of her imagined pleasure, the girl parted her lips and murmured that name in a soft, wet tone.

—Yin Ni.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Qin Xiaoxiao arrived. The key turned in the lock with a soft click.

Creaaaak—

The door swung inward, and then slammed open. The scene was laid bare to both of them as they stood face-to-face at a dangerously close distance.

The air froze. Qin Xiaoxiao instinctively took a step back.

The first thing Qin Xiaoxiao saw was the female lead’s flushed face and an expression of palpable, unfulfilled desire. Her clothes were disheveled, and her little white dress was stained with dust. However, the girl’s previously dull, lifeless eyes erupted with light the moment she caught sight of her.

She looked like a wolf cub that had been abandoned by its mother for days without food. Now, seeing its mother return, it was shivering with a joy that bordered on frenzy.

“Ugh… Yin Ni…”

The girl’s eyes brimmed with tears as if she were seeing her first love. She wiped her eyes and suddenly lunged forward.

WTF! Qin Xiaoxiao screamed internally, frantically dodging to the right.

Having missed the embrace, the female lead spun around to look at her. Due to momentum, her body was bent forward, and her fine hair fell over her face, obscuring most of it. Yet, the scorching intensity of her gaze was still felt through the veil of her locks.

Xiang Liwei bit her lip. Then, she lunged again. “Waaah… you’re back! Where did you go last night? Why did you leave me behind?”

“Don’t come over!” Qin Xiaoxiao barked while backing away.

“Oh… okay.”

Hearing the command, Xiang Liwei jolted and froze in place. Her expression turned tragic, her voice thick with sobs. “I… I missed you so much.”

“Tsk.” Qin Xiaoxiao’s tone was cold and hard. “Get your attitude straight.”

After just one night, she realized the female lead’s “art style” was becoming increasingly distorted. How should she put it? She felt more and more like a total stalker-styler. It was almost unbearable to look at.

Surprisingly, Xiang Liwei was exceptionally obedient. She stood silently, making no further move to touch her. Seeing this, Qin Xiaoxiao stepped forward, attempting to steer her back to the “correct” path of their antagonistic relationship.

“Look at me,” Qin Xiaoxiao said, pointing at her own face. “I hate you. Shouldn’t you hate me back?”

“To be honest, your constant attempts at intimacy are extremely annoying to me.”

Xiang Liwei countered with a question: “Then, if I like you, do you have to like me back?”

“Like?” Qin Xiaoxiao sneered. “I only know that liking someone doesn’t mean letting yourself lose all boundaries, doing irrational things, and becoming a loathsome person. Your ‘liking’…”

“I can’t afford it.”

Her heartless words rippled through the girl’s heart. Xiang Liwei dropped her tragic expression and pondered the words. Then, she shook her head and repeated: “I truly do like you.”

“Losing control and only caring about my own pleasure? If I were really like what you described…”

“Then right now, you would be a cold corpse. You wouldn’t be able to speak or respond to my love. You would just be lying on my bed, snuggled compliantly in my arms.” The girl’s imagination turned feverish as she let out a faint, haunting smile. “That scene sounds beautiful to me, but you probably wouldn’t like it.”

Until now… and forever after, Xiang Liwei would not do that. It wasn’t just because she had promised not to hurt her; it was a concession. Since the woman didn’t seem to realize it, she didn’t mind reminding her.

Xiang Liwei’s lips curled into a smile, her tone carrying a faint threat. “As you can see, I have never been a ‘good’ person. But I have never caused you any substantial harm. Is it because of that that you’ve become too comfortable?”

“If you say the word, I can let you experience right now what it’s like to be taken by force.” She lowered her eyes, her tone as casual as if they were discussing the weather. “Then you would understand that the ‘lack of boundaries’ you complain about is actually my greatest act of self-restraint.”

Qin Xiaoxiao: “…” Qin Xiaoxiao: “…”

Holy mother! The female lead is terrifying! It turned out she had been walking on the edge of being murdered this whole time?

At that thought, Qin Xiaoxiao raised an eyebrow, glancing at the girl’s slender arms and legs. She remained skeptical. With that tiny body that looks like it would blow away in a strong breeze, you’re going to take me by force? Dream on.

That being said, Qin Xiaoxiao chose to stay silent. She didn’t dare provoke the female lead on matters involving her “purity.”

Calming herself, she said impatiently, “Fine, I don’t want to hear about your mental journey. I’m just warning you: stop pestering me.”

Xiang Liwei looked at the woman’s gorgeous face and seemed to calm down slightly. However, as soon as she spoke, her words dripped with an obsession that exposed her “dark” nature.

“If you don’t like me and don’t want me near you, you shouldn’t have appeared before me yesterday. You shouldn’t have paid attention to me, and you certainly shouldn’t have told me to stay when I said I was leaving.”

“You always keep me at arm’s length.” “But you were the one who provoked me first.” “You say you hate me and don’t want to see me, but in the end, you always come back to me.”

Her voice was clear and pleasant, like pearls falling onto a jade plate. Her words were so manipulative that Qin Xiaoxiao almost felt her head spinning.

Recalling an unpleasant memory, Qin Xiaoxiao countered sharply: “Hey, don’t twist the facts. Get this straight: you were the one who provoked me first. If you hadn’t gone looking for a beating and crashed into me, knocking over my drink, would I have ever bothered to teach you a lesson?”

Xiang Liwei replied, “The circumstances back then were full of coincidences. It must have been fate that put you in the middle of the road, waiting for me to run into you. Should I be blamed for the mistakes of fate?” Her pitch-black eyes stared directly at the woman.

“Are you serious…” Qin Xiaoxiao’s lip twitched at the girl’s stream-of-consciousness logic and expert blame-shifting.

“I’m very serious.”

Xiang Liwei twirled the ends of her hair. “I rushed into the room, and you just happened to meet me. If that wasn’t a coincidence,” the girl’s eyes darkened, “are you saying you did it on purpose? That you wanted an excuse to punish me?”

She took a step closer, whispering: “That’s fine, too. You can do whatever you want to me. Right now is a great opportunity. What are you hesitating for?”

At this angle, she was nearly close enough to kiss her. Qin Xiaoxiao’s breathing hitched, and she scrambled back. “Enough! You’re overthinking it.”

The conversation was getting more tangled by the second. Feeling a prickle of guilt, she changed the subject. “I want to know—how did you untie the rope?”

The cut rope lay on the floor of the booth, the edges perfectly clean. She ruled out friction from the chair. She also ruled out an intruder.

“Oh, this?” Xiang Liwei didn’t let her wonder for long. “I cut it with a knife.”

She reached down and pulled a small knife out of nowhere, complaining piteously: “Getting it out took so much effort. That’s why I couldn’t chase after you in time. But after that, I stayed in the room like a good girl, waiting for you to return. Wasn’t I good?”

The girl looked up expectantly. Aren’t you going to give me a reward?

Seeing the female lead carrying a concealed weapon made Qin Xiaoxiao even more uneasy. Then she remembered something. “Since you had a knife, why didn’t you use it when that pig-headed creep was harassing you yesterday?”

Xiang Liwei looked at her for a few seconds before turning her head away. “There were too many people there. If I had done that, it would have drawn attention. Someone might have recognized me and posted it online. I didn’t want to make a scene.”

Their secret meetings, their shared memories—they were for the two of them alone. She wouldn’t allow others to peer in.

She twisted her fingers, feeling shy. “Most importantly, I believed you would save me.”

Inwardly, however, she thought: It wouldn’t have mattered if you didn’t. I would have just gone back with him and taken the chance to kill him.

Qin Xiaoxiao, knowing nothing of this: “…” You… believe in me way too much.

In reality, if the male lead hadn’t been useless and her “teammate” hadn’t gone missing, she wouldn’t have stepped in to play the hero. She felt the sudden urge to bang her head against a wall.

“Don’t misunderstand. I attacked that creep because he was annoying me, not to save you.”

Seeing that the girl was safe and the drug had worn off, Qin Xiaoxiao decided to leave. “Hmph. I’m done with you. I’m leaving, do whatever you want.”

“No!” Xiang Liwei grabbed her sleeve. “Don’t go.” She lowered her head, looking pitiful. “I’m so hungry I can’t walk. If you ignore me, I’ll die.”

“Hungry?” “Mm. Hungry up here… and down here.” “…”

Down there? Is that what I think it means? Qin Xiaoxiao’s expression cracked. She yanked her sleeve back. “That’s all in your head. If you die, you die. What’s it to me?”

She turned and left as if the very air were contaminated. Behind her, she heard the girl’s voice, faint as a mosquito: “I haven’t eaten for a whole day…”

No one responded. Xiang Liwei carefully looked up. The hallway was empty.

She left. I’m alone again, she thought sadly. Once upon a time, in that dark orphanage, it had been the same. So quiet. So cold. So hungry. Her strength seemed to evaporate, and she slumped against the wall.

In the hallway, around the corner, Qin Xiaoxiao peeked back. She saw the girl squatting by the wall, looking utterly despondent. It did seem like she was truly too hungry to move.

Qin Xiaoxiao pulled her head back and ran downstairs. The bar was filling up with people, though they were more subdued than usual because of last night’s incident.

The owner wasn’t happy either. He stared at his plummeting revenue with a heavy heart. When Qin Xiaoxiao found him, he jumped.

“My lady, what are your orders?” He looked at her like she was a harbinger of doom. “I won’t do anything illegal for you anymore!”

“Relax, it’s a small thing.” Qin Xiaoxiao instructed, “Order some delivery and send it to the girl upstairs—the one I was with last night. Got it?”

“Got it, got it. That’s it?” The owner breathed a sigh of relief. “Leave it to me.”

“Mm. I’m leaving.” “Take care!”

As he watched her leave, the owner stroked his chin. His intuition told him their relationship was complicated. Yesterday they were at each other’s throats, and today she was worried about her? People don’t change that fast. But he couldn’t figure it out, so he went to order the food.

Back at the company, Qin Xiaoxiao walked in to find her manager sitting on the sofa with a weird, “Auntie” grin on her face.

“What are you smiling at?” Qin Xiaoxiao sat across from her.

“I’m watching Qu Li’s interview! Hahaha, she mentioned you!” Lin Yu said proudly, handing over her phone.

Qin Xiaoxiao took it and saw a fan-compiled transcript of a Weibo “Micro-Interview.”

Host: Hello everyone! We’ve gathered the top 10 questions fans are most curious about. Miss Qu Li, are you ready for the challenge? Qu Li: I’m ready. (Laughs)

Host: Question 1: Why did you choose to film Dawn’s Breaking? We heard you originally didn’t intend to. What changed your mind? Qu Li: After reading the script. Its conflicting plot and dark yet humorous tone were different from my previous roles. I wanted to try it, and I’m grateful to the producer for the chance.

Host: I see! A very pure reason. Question 2: Any memorable incidents during filming? Qu Li: The ‘Magic Rolls’ at a certain restaurant were delicious. They could give you a good mood all day.

Host: Our Qu Li is a closet foodie! Question 3: Being away for months, did you miss your cat? Qu Li: I did! I was worried he’d miss me so much he’d get thin. But when I got back, I found he’d gained a whole circle of weight. I can barely hold him.

Host: (Laughs) Question 4: What is your opinion of the actress Yin Ni, who has a lot of ‘black material’ but has recently changed the public’s perception? Qu Li: She is a junior with a lot of potential.

…

Host: Finally, the crucial 10th question! Qu Li, you’ve been in the industry for years without a single scandal. Is there actually someone you like? Qu Li: There is someone I like.

Host: (Stunned) Who??! Qu Li: That’s the 11th question. Let’s talk about it next time. (Laughs)