After Dumping the Female Lead, It's My Turn to Cry - Chapter 19.4

Come to think of it, was she herself becoming strange too?

Chuckling softly for a moment, Qing Ling shook her head and reached out to bid farewell to the still bewildered girl. “No, I still have some unfinished matters. Remember to take your allergy medicine on time.”

Her cool fingertips inadvertently brushed against Ruan Yubai’s cheek. The marks left by the resentful bite of the salted fish still lingered on her fingers, like a flaw on a piece of exquisite jade. The marks were faint, but they were impossible to ignore.

The red mark on her ankle had almost faded, neither painful nor itchy. On ordinary days, if she didn’t deliberately think about it, she would hardly notice its existence.

But Qing Ling still remembered.

By the time Ruan Yubai snapped back to reality, Qing Ling had already turned and walked away. Her slender, resilient figure, unadorned by a coat, was as beautiful as if carefully sketched by God.

“Aren’t you taking your clothes back?” Ruan Yubai suddenly realized she was still wearing the other’s uniform and hurriedly called out, cupping her hands around her mouth. But her voice was quickly scattered by the wind carrying the scent of tuberose, just like Qing Ling, who had already blurred at the edge of her vision, leaving only a faint, ethereal silhouette.

Pale and delicate in color, yet always leaving a lingering fragrance.

What happened next was just as she had guessed. When Nan Zhuge woke up, after a moment of shock and anger, he fell silent, refusing to say what had actually happened. The Omega who was found insisted even more firmly that the scar on the Alpha’s head was the result of her furious retaliation when she was forcibly marked.

But this Omega also refused to report it to the police, insisting that it was only a temporary mark by Nan Zhuge and hadn’t caused any substantial harm. No matter how others tried to persuade them, they politely declined to involve the authorities, stating that such an incident was a stain on their life and they had no desire to revisit it. They only wanted to entrust the matter to the student council for disciplinary action.

Many informed members of the student council were indignant. Holding onto their simple moral values, they lamented in frustration, “Only the perpetrator should feel guilt and remorse, how could the victim be considered stained? If everyone acted like this Omega, who would dare to step forward and hold the truly guilty accountable? If this continues without consequences, these perverts might grow even more brazen. Isn’t this just victim-blaming? The victim should stand up and fight back!”

Many like-minded, justice-seeking peers nodded in agreement, practically wishing they could shove a phone into the Omega’s hands to report the crime and cleanse the world of such evils once and for all.

“You’re not wrong,” Qing Ling didn’t refute them or rather, this had been her own long-held belief. Yet now, she merely smiled faintly and said, “But don’t victims have the right to be vulnerable?”

Those who step forward are undoubtedly brave and deserve encouragement and recognition.

However, just like the name of their school, Lawless, this was a lawless borderland. Apart from their small enclave of highly civilized individuals, the rest of the world was a savage place where might made right.

In an era where laws protecting Omega rights were still far from comprehensive, wasn’t it excessive to expect individuals to challenge the entrenched mindset of the entire world?

The group fell into a stunned silence, then suddenly bowed their heads in shame. “The president is right. If we force victims to act in ways we deem correct, how are we any different from the perpetrators?”

“The president truly lives up to her title always more thoughtful than the rest of us!”

Yet, in private, some couldn’t help but marvel, “I never knew the young lady had such a gentle side. To be honest, when I first met her, she seemed elegant and perfect, but I instinctively felt she was cold and unapproachable. It seems we really shouldn’t judge by appearances.”

If Nan Zhuge, his head wrapped in bandages, had heard this, he would have spewed curses all over his sickbed: “Nonsense! It’s all a load of bullshit!”

When classmates came and went, or when his family visited in disguise, Nan Zhuge remained as tight-lipped as a gourd with its mouth sawed off, vowing to out-stubborn the hardest rock in a latrine. No matter what they asked, he refused to say a word.

This wasn’t out of guilt, it was pure humiliation!

He, a formidable Alpha with a combat rating of A++, had been knocked out by a soft, weak Beta. What kind of publicly humiliating spectacle was that? Nan Zhuge, who never changed his name and only occasionally considered altering his surname, couldn’t bear such disgrace!

He’d rather be accused of bullying an Omega that could at least be chalked up to a young Alpha’s reckless boldness, a spur-of-the-moment act driven by instinct.

But being knocked out by a delicate girl? What kind of humiliation was that?

And not just any Beta, but a genuine, physically weak B-grade one at that!

Utter humiliation! The greatest disgrace for an Alpha, even more searing than the words “You’re useless.”

Perhaps driven by a self-preservation instinct, Nan Zhuge found himself lost in thought even while recuperating. He couldn’t help but wonder if, in the hazy aftermath of the temporary mark, his memories had become a jumbled mess. Had his daytime worries and nighttime dreams blurred his perception, causing him to mistakenly identify the last person he saw as Ruan Yubai?

At this thought, Nan Zhuge frantically tapped open his light brain, his eyes widening in shock.

Where were his secretly recorded videos? Under-the-Skirt Angle.mp4, Pool Party.mkv, Dress-Up Stand-in Play.mov, and Marking Compilation.wmv where had they all gone?

Where was his massive compressed folder? This was the glorious summary of his hard-earned achievements, how could it just disappear?

Could it be that he had really damaged his brain from the fall? Failing an exam was one thing, but how could he lose this? This was the very source of his Alpha vitality!

Of course, Nan Zhuge had no idea that during the temporary marking of the Omega, his overly wild movements and exaggerated swings had not only rattled his already limited brain capacity but also caused the terminal storing the videos to fall out. During the subsequent cleanup by the student council, these items were naturally collected as evidence from the scene and were now lying on the student council president’s desk.

The video quality had originally been quite good, but after the violent fall, many files had become blurry. Still, most of the footage remained discernible.

A cat-eared call girl cooed sweetly, “Mr. Nan Zhuge, Number 14 is at your service. Do you have any particular preferences?”

The video shook slightly, and then a wide-angle lens captured Nan Zhuge’s distorted face. He patted the girl’s tail and chuckled, “Nothing else, but you’ll need to change how you address yourself.”

“Of course, Mr. Nan Zhuge. What name would you like me to use?”

“Ruan Yubai. Call yourself Xiao Bai.”

The latter part of the video cut off abruptly. This was only the beginning of the interaction; naturally, there were more thrilling and exciting scenes to follow. But the play button had already been paused by the president.

Qing Ling’s eyelashes lowered slightly, her expression unreadable, though the already chilly air in the office grew even colder.

After a long while, she switched to another video.

This one was even more blurred, as if filmed underwater. The light turquoise waves in the swimming pool were warm, and bubbles gurgled near the pipes.

Two slender, pale legs were clad in a deep blue swimsuit, with knees exquisitely delicate and adorable. Above them, a narrow waist and the swimsuit barely containing the curve of a half-moon.

The skin was a vast expanse of smooth, snowy white, like vanilla-seed-infused cream gently melting in the water. From half a meter away, the details were unclear.

At the boundary between water and air, something floated.

A tray carried fruits and sweet rice wine; the crimson watermelon was held between soft pink lips at that moment, making one imagine the sweetness of the fruit pulp even through the screen.

For a moment, you couldn’t even tell which color was more vibrant.

As she emerged from the water, the girl’s hair cascaded like gentle seaweed, her cheeks soft, pale, and delicate. She looked over with a serene, enchanting gaze, her eyes veiled in a hazy mist.

It carried a strangely captivating charm rather than wanting to cherish it carefully, one felt more inclined to crush it between their fingers.

“Who are you?” Ruan Yubai lifted her gaze, still slightly dazed from just waking up. Her lips were lightly bitten, a faint trace of rising heat flowing over her delicate jaw, tracing along her graceful collarbone, and finally pausing at the boundary where the water met her skin.

With a crack, the video turned into static. Qing Ling’s hand pressed a button, instantly turning it to dust. The bright room plunged into gloomy darkness in an instant.

Thus, everything that followed was completely destroyed from that point on.

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