After Dumping the Female Lead, It's My Turn to Cry - Chapter 17

Even so, Ruan Yubai obediently followed the female lead to the exclusive training ground.

After leaving the teaching building, they had to cross a large expanse of lawn. During the day, it was lush and green, but now, as the sun had set, it was shrouded in a grayish gloom. The fiery clouds cast a glaring orange-red hue along the edges of the building, yet when viewed from below, it created an illusion as if the building were ablaze.

The sharp peaks of the teaching building seemed to burn with the magnificent color of a thousand candle flames, but the grass beneath their feet only revealed faint, indistinct shapes. As they neared the center of the lawn, Ruan Yubai couldn’t help but murmur softly, “Don’t you think this grass is a bit prickly?”

Qing Ling, tall and long-legged, walked briskly, and in just a short while, the distance between them had grown significantly.

Ruan Yubai, lagging behind, didn’t expect her to hear, but since she was the one seeking help this time, she could only sigh quietly, bend down halfway to brush the grass blades off her ankles, and resignedly prepare to catch up.

But before she could lift her head, she caught a whiff of a fresh, cool fragrance. As the wind blew, it carried the distant scent of pine and cypress, mingling subtly with the charred aroma of the green grass, making it all the more elusive.

Yet it was also uniquely distinct.

Hesitantly, Ruan Yubai looked up and saw that the young lady, who had almost disappeared from sight, had unexpectedly turned back at some point. She clicked on her wristband, casting the beam of a flashlight. “What’s wrong with you?” she asked.

“Maybe the socks I’m wearing today are a bit short, it’s a little itchy,” Ruan Yubai replied, feeling deeply embarrassed. She truly felt like a useless person, making such a fuss just from walking across the lawn.

But it wasn’t just the itchiness; there was also some pain. Yet all of it paled in comparison to the sensation when Qing Ling leaned down and her fingertips lightly brushed against her.

Ruan Yubai instinctively flinched, but before she could pull away, she felt the slightly cool fingertips gently graze her ankle.

Suddenly, a strong wind swept through, causing the tips of the wild grass to sway wildly. The ends of the female lead’s smooth black hair softly brushed against her, sending a strange, tingling sensation through her.

Ruan Yubai’s eyelashes fluttered downward.

Was this peculiar feeling due to the stinging wild grass or something else, carrying the scent of freesia yet hard to describe?

Qing Ling, holding the flashlight between her teeth, carefully examined her ankle for a moment before standing up. Her obsidian-black eyes appeared even more translucent and beautiful under the beam of light.

“You’re allergic to goosegrass. Didn’t you know that before?” Qing Ling asked calmly.

Ruan Yubai’s skin was naturally fair, and due to her long-standing aversion to outdoor activities, it had a somewhat pale, sub-healthy tone. As a result, the scattered red spots that had appeared on it looked even more alarming.

Seeing the girl’s dazed expression, Qing Ling couldn’t help but sigh helplessly. “Miss Ruan, I often have the illusion that you’re the new student at Laureus.”

Ruan Yubai’s cheeks instantly flushed bright red.

Everything had its pros and cons. Ruan Yubai’s laziness meant she was disconnected from many activities. During P.E. class, she would slowly jog around the field but never lie back on the grass to gaze up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle. Apart from buying a bottle of water from the convenience store during breaks, she had never taken a shortcut across the wild grass to skip class.

Having been at Laureus for so long, Ruan Yubai had never realized that she was allergic to the plants in the vast, open lawn in front of the sports field.

Even though she had just finished a round of frog jumps with Bi Biba around the outermost track earlier that day.

But,

Watching the female lead skillfully retrieve a first aid kit from the corner of the dorm room, Ruan Yubai couldn’t help but click her tongue in amazement at the delicate white bow tied over the pale green ointment and gauze wrapped around her ankle. “Why are you so good at this?”

Although the Qing family had fallen on hard times, they were still considered a noble household before. Shouldn’t minor injuries like this be handled by a specialized doctor?

Thinking of the plot in the novel, Ruan Yubai’s expression shifted, and she muttered quietly in confusion, “Do you really like Nan Zhudi that much?”

To go so far for the male lead the cold, perfect young lady humbly cooking and caring for the protagonist seemed like one of the timeless tropes in male-oriented stories. But Ruan Yubai found it hard to superimpose such a “tsundere” image onto Qing Ling.

Even in love, the female lead shouldn’t have to become like that.

So, what would Qing Ling truly be like when she fell for someone?

Truth be told, Ruan Yubai wasn’t sure either.

Before she could sort out her thoughts, a sharp pain shot through her forehead. Looking up, she saw Qing Ling retracting the hand that had just knocked her on the head, a faint sneer curling her lips as she said, “Miss Ruan, please don’t project your ideas onto me.”

Their thoughts had veered off in completely different directions, yet both had independently concluded that the other was fond of Nan Zhudi and somehow, their conversation managed to align in a bizarre way.

“Ms. Qing, you’re truly vicious!” After being unceremoniously handed a handful of loratadine tablets for her allergies, Ruan Yubai rubbed her still-throbbing forehead and glared tearfully at Qing Ling. The flicker of gratitude she’d felt earlier had completely vanished.

Damn female lead! So what if she liked the male lead? Ruan Yubai had been genuinely concerned, and not only did she receive no thanks, but she also got a painful knock on the head.

Wahhh, is this the legendary love-struck female lead? What kind of ridiculous “power of love” is this? Bullying her, what kind of skill is that?

The worst part was that Ruan Yubai was too timid to retaliate properly. She could only vent her frustration by snatching the cufflink Qing Ling had set aside earlier. Baring her teeth in a provocative grin, she tried to break it with a fierce twist.

Oh my gosh, it didn’t even snap!

Was the quality of the student council president’s cufflinks a bit too good? Weren’t they supposed to be shoddy, cut-corner products?

If things were going to be rotten, they should all rot together! Let everything decay and stink! How could Laureis play favorites? It’s just not fair!

Seeing Qing Ling’s half-smirk, Ruan Yubai swore she detected mockery in her eyes. Grinding her teeth in frustration, she shoved the platinum cufflink into her mouth and bit down with a crunch.

Of course, it didn’t break, but at least she left a set of teeth marks on the exquisitely crafted school emblem. Satisfied with her iron-clad teeth, Ruan Yubai wiped the drool off the cufflink and handed it back to the female lead, sniffing haughtily, “I’m very magnanimous. I won’t hold it against you. Here, take it. Don’t go telling people I bullied you.”

That was just a desperate attempt to save face. Who was bullying whom, really?

Qing Ling couldn’t be bothered to argue. She had only taken off the cufflink earlier to avoid scratching Ruan Yubai’s foot with the hard metal while wrapping the bandage.

When she put it back on now, Qing Ling wasn’t angry at the sight of that tiny tooth-mark crack she actually found it amusing.

So she really did laugh. “Miss Ruan, do you think you’re Hei Pi?”

Hei Pi, of course, was the Ruan family’s fat pig painted in the guise of a forest cat.

Ruan Yubai was unusually furious: “Who’s Hei Pi? You’re Hei Pi! Your whole family is Hei Pi!”

“Fair enough.” Qing Ling had already stood up, but at these words, she paused and let out a light scoff. “But even Hei Pi isn’t as childish as you.”

Ruan Yubai: …

Ruan Yubai: ?

Ruan Yubai: Waaah! I’m going to kill the female lead! This isn’t the kind, gentle, noble young lady this must be a fake!

Qing Ling’s dorm room was quite spacious, but it didn’t have many decorations, looking a bit like a showroom with a sense of sexual indifference that matched its owner. Descending the stairs led to a vast, empty cellar.

Or perhaps it could be called a storage room.

A faint, slender candle flame barely illuminated a small patch of the ground beneath their feet. The dust-free basement felt even colder and more desolate, exuding a chill that cut to the bone.

Ruan Yubai felt as if she were about to develop night blindness. Just as she was blankly holding onto her knees, she suddenly saw the wall ahead split open. A firefly-like glow drifted from Qing Ling’s wrist, tearing a faint seam in the pure darkness.

At first, it was just a tiny, weak spark, but gradually, more and more orange-yellow specks gathered together, lighting up a patch of the empty space.

Floating at the junction between the two clearly divided spaces was a small silver-white plaque.

It bore the elegant script of the Planet Daili: Lumos.

Lumos.

[Every student in Class A had their own exclusive training ground, the location and method of access known only to themselves. If not for this accidental injury, Nan Zhu Di probably wouldn’t have known that Qing Ling’s training ground was right behind her laboratory. Equipped with a brainwave-connected PK arena, shooting range, boxing ring, a simulator for wormhole travel, mechas, and a sofa bed for rest, all separated by transparent partitions. The fair-skinned young lady turned around from the wooden bookshelf, her expression as haughty as ever and said]

“Welcome to Lumos.”

The novel’s plot and the real scene overlapped and intersected, sharing some similarities but differing in many specific details.

For a moment, Ruan Yubai couldn’t help but feel dazed, unsure whether this was illusion or reality. Yet, the scent of freesia truly lingered in her nostrils, and the wall behind her closed silently, just as it had when they entered.

It was overwhelmingly grand and beautiful.

This was truly the kind of treatment only the female lead would receive.

It was also Qing Ling’s exclusive, secret training ground.

Ruan Yubai’s thoughts were in chaos. Was the world she lived in really just a novel fabricated by someone out of boredom?

Or could she truly break free from the constraints of the plot and avoid that predetermined early death?

She didn’t realize how pale her face had become as weak as someone who had lost too much blood, as if she might vanish the next second.

When Qing Ling saw this, she frowned slightly. Before Ruan Yubai could gather her thoughts to respond to the female lead’s words, she felt a sweetness on her tongue, and that slender hand had already withdrawn.

It was another gummy worm.

But it wasn’t the same taste as before. Though the sweetness of blueberries was still present, the first flavor to hit her palate was a bitter, rich medicinal note. Yet before Ruan Yubai could purse her lips to savor it carefully, that hint of astringency had already dissipated, leaving only the lingering sweetness of fruit in her mouth.

Many emotional breaking points, suppressed to their limits, often shatter in just an instant.

“Please stop liking Nan Zhudi, okay?”

Such words spilled out without any forethought. Ruan Yubai was startled by her own wavering voice, but when she met the female lead’s calm and profound gaze, she didn’t look away. Instead, she stared back earnestly.

If she truly wanted to break away from the plot’s trajectory, wouldn’t bringing the female lead along make things better?

Though she often called the female lead a scoundrel, Ruan Yubai wasn’t a fool. Of course, she could sense the female lead’s kindness toward her whether it stemmed from wanting to repay the Ruan family’s favor or simply from a willingness to help. She could perceive the subtle tenderness the other showed her.

Qing Ling’s temper was far from the best, but no one had ever treated Ruan Yubai the way Qing Ling did.

Not even Lin Yi, who had grown up with her since childhood.

So why did she have to like the male lead? What was so great about him anyway? Did this proud young lady even know that her tumultuous life was merely a dash of seasoning in someone else’s story, her entire fate predetermined the moment her name appeared on the page?

Stop liking the male lead. Like anyone else, the universe is vast, fall in love with a planet if you must, or another Omega. Even falling for someone with dark skin would be fine. Why must it be Nan Zhudi?

Nan Zhudi, truly didn’t deserve the female lead.

“Then who should I like?” Qing Ling hadn’t expected the girl’s concern to still revolve around this. For a moment, she couldn’t even muster the energy to be angry and merely curled her lips into a smile. “You? Miss Ruan?”

This wasn’t an exaggeration. In that instant, Ruan Yubai saw snow-capped mountains cracking into the clouds, a polar bear lying on the ice, bewildered and looking around, and the clear blue sky churning into a chaotic vortex. She bit her lip until it bled, the strange pain in her ankle gathering in her eyes. Before it could spill over, she pressed her lips together and said, “Who wants your affection?”

How could the female lead be so stubborn?

Thinking that the female lead could break free from the novel’s plot and develop genuine self-awareness now that was a sign that Ruan Yubai had lost her mind.

The girl’s originally fair skin flushed slightly with emotion, her pale pink lips bitten until they turned white. Her clear almond eyes clouded with misty tears, and with just a gentle blink, they seemed on the verge of spilling over.

The next words Qing Ling had been about to say halted on the tip of her tongue. For a moment, she found herself at a loss for words.

“I was joking.” Ruan Yubai’s tear-filled eyes could only make out blurry shapes. Slender fingers gently wiped the tears from her cheeks, the scent of freesia mingling with the falling drops.

The once thinly sketched female lead, who had seemed like little more than a few sparse strokes of a pen, now knelt down. The training room’s overhead lights clearly outlined Qing Ling’s form in the real world as she gently ruffled Ruan Yubai’s hair. “How can you cry so much?”

This isn’t the female lead.

In that moment, Ruan Yubai realized this with absolute clarity.

She is Qing Ling.

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