After Failing To Win Over the Yandere Best Actress, I Got Marked - Chapter 25

Su Jin was so shocked by Ye Qinglan’s sudden switch to “overbearing CEO” mode that she was speechless for a long while.

“You’re unwilling?” Ye Qinglan questioned.

Before Su Jin could open her mouth, Ye Qinglan added, “You have no right to refuse. Just play your part as a body double properly!”

Su Jin: … Fine, she’s picked up that persona again.

Ye Qinglan pinned her down onto the bed and covered her eyes with one hand, commanding, “System, initiate shielding.”

Upon hearing this, Su Jin immediately grabbed her hand and looked at her urgently.

Shielding?

“Shh!” Ye Qinglan covered her mouth again as the System’s voice rang out.

【Shielding program initiated】 【3】 【2】 【1】

【Shielding complete. You only have half an hour; if you have something to say, say it quickly.】

The System vanished immediately after speaking.

Only then did Su Jin ask, “What was that about? Why the sudden need to shield the System?”

Ye Qinglan pulled her into a sitting position and reached out to massage her waist. “I wanted to talk to you.”

“The things I said to you yesterday weren’t true, and neither was what I just said. Don’t take them to heart.”

Su Jin shook her head. “I know. It was all just to deceive the System.”

She stared at Ye Qinglan’s deliberately darkened expression and suddenly reached out to poke the other woman’s tensed cheek. “But Teacher Ye, if you actually went to play a domineering CEO with that acting, I’m afraid the audience would tear you apart for ‘industrial grade saccharine’ acting.”

Ye Qinglan caught her mischievous finger and lightly rubbed the tip against Su Jin’s palm. “Is that so? Then what kind of acting do you think wouldn’t count as ‘industrial-grade saccharine’?”

She leaned in close, her breath and the morning light completely enveloping Su Jin. “Is it like last night.

“Stop!” Su Jin slammed her hand over Ye Qinglan’s mouth, her ears turning a shade of red that looked like they might bleed. “You’re overacting! If the System heard that, it would probably award me a banner for ‘Exceeding Mission Requirements’!”

Ye Qinglan arched an eyebrow. Suddenly, her tongue lightly licked the palm of Su Jin’s hand through the gaps in her fingers.

Su Jin withdrew her hand as if burned. The soreness in her lower back made her let out a sharp “hiss.”

Seeing this, Ye Qinglan immediately scooped her up in a horizontal carry. The silk nightgown slipped down, revealing the lingering red marks on the inside of her knees.

“Put me down! I can walk!”

Su Jin struggled and thrashed against her shoulders, but Ye Qinglan only held her tighter.

“Don’t move.”

Ye Qinglan’s nose brushed against the side of Su Jin’s neck, where the teeth marks she had bitten in the night before remained. They felt slightly hot under the sunlight.

“Don’t move,” Ye Qinglan said, walking steadily toward the bathroom. “Who was the one crying last night saying her ‘waist was broken’? And now you’re trying to act tough?”

Su Jin’s face turned red all the way down to her neck. The fragments of the night before, blurred by pheromones, now surfaced vividly in her mind.

She indeed had, in a moment of losing control, grabbed Ye Qinglan’s hair while crying and begging for mercy.

Being reminded of it to her face, she could only bury her head in the other woman’s shoulder and mutter a muffled “Rogue!”

Once in the bathroom, Ye Qinglan placed her on the vanity and reached out to turn on the hot water.

Steam quickly filled the air, blurring the overlapping shadows of the two in the mirror.

Su Jin watched Ye Qinglan’s back as she bent over to adjust the water temperature. The silk nightgown outlined a smooth waistline, and as the ends of her hair fell and brushed against the back of Su Jin’s hand, it made her heart tremble.

“What are you looking at?” Ye Qinglan straightened up. As she turned, droplets of water from her fingertips splashed onto Su Jin’s leg, rolling down her long, straight limbs.

She reached out to lift Su Jin’s chin, her thumb brushing against her lip. “Looking to see if I’ve ‘broken character’?”

Flustered by the gaze, Su Jin jerked her head away, only to see her own disheveled state in the mirror.

She had just woken up, her hair was a mess like a bird’s nest, and her neck and collarbones were covered in red marks of varying depths. Her moon white nightgown hung loosely, nearly slipping off.

In contrast, Ye Qinglan aside from the faint red marks on her collarbone had tidy hair and clear eyes, looking nothing like someone who had just survived a “chaotic battle.”

“It’s not fair…” Su Jin grumbled, reaching out to tug at the collar of Ye Qinglan’s nightgown. “How come you’re perfectly fine?”

Ye Qinglan allowed the movement, her gaze meeting Su Jin’s in the mirror. She suddenly chuckled, grabbing Su Jin’s meddling hands and pressing them against the sink.

The coldness of the tiles seeped through her palms, making Su Jin shiver. Then, she heard Ye Qinglan whisper in her ear, “Do you want me to ‘not be fine’ too?”

Warm breath puffed against her ear with an unmistakable predatory intent.

Su Jin looked at the slight redness at the corners of Ye Qinglan’s eyes in the mirror and suddenly remembered the surging possessiveness in those usually cold eyes when she lost control last night, it turned out that an Enigma’s pheromone collapse was a form of nearly destructive tenderness.

The light and shadows shifted in the mirror. Ye Qinglan’s fingertips stroked upward from Su Jin’s wrist, past her arm and neck, finally stopping at the back of her neck.

That was the location of the gland.

Last night, due to Su Jin’s strong protest, Ye Qinglan hadn’t marked her, but pheromones had been left behind. As they were rubbed by her thumb, Su Jin shuddered violently, the blush from her ears spreading down into the collar of her moon-white gown.

“Don’t…” she whimpered, letting out an ambiguous moan.

Ye Qinglan squeezed the back of her neck and kissed her. “Relax, I won’t touch you.”

There was only half an hour; there wasn’t enough time.

Su Jin watched her warily, and only after confirming she was just helping her bathe did she relax.

Rubbing her sore calves, Su Jin chatted with her, “How is the situation online?”

Ye Qinglan’s fingertips paused at her chest, her thumb lightly brushing over, feeling the instantaneous tension and tremors in Su Jin’s body. Waves began to stir in the depths of her eyes.

Helping her bathe, it was unclear whether she was torturing Su Jin or herself.

As their reflections blurred in the steam, Ye Qinglan instinctively leaned down to kiss away the water droplets on Su Jin’s collarbone, her voice muffled against her skin: “The PR department is already handling it. The marketing accounts bought by Song Jing are deleting their posts. They are also releasing a statement saying she and Fang Qi are in a consensual relationship and that they simply got carried away that night.”

Her tone was calm and unsurprised.

This was the best PR tactic for the moment, framing the live stream as a “secret filming,” finding a scapegoat, and shifting their roles to that of victims.

If the two of them publicly played the “loving couple” for a while, it would actually cultivate “CP fans.”

“However, since the incident was so big, the heat won’t die down anytime soon.”

Su Jin arched an eyebrow, allowing Ye Qinglan to rub the lather from the body wash onto her shoulders. “Will the netizens believe it?”

“It doesn’t matter if they believe it or not, as long as they keep acting the part.”

Ye Qinglan’s hand moved under the water, massaging Su Jin’s waist to soothe the aching soreness.

Su Jin let out a comfortable sigh, her tense body finally relaxing completely.

“As long as it doesn’t involve you, it’s fine.”

Ye Qinglan arched an eyebrow. “Are you that worried about me?”

“Of course!”

She and Ye Qinglan were now bound by fate. If something happened to Ye Qinglan and the conquest mission failed, Su Jin would be tossed into the void by the System.

“Then, how should I repay you for your concern?” Ye Qinglan’s hand wandered downward improperly, her lips brushing against the shell of Su Jin’s ear.

Warm breath puffed against her ear, and Su Jin felt the gland at the back of her neck burn once again.

Fine ripples spread across the surface of the bathtub, splashing onto the floor and shattering into countless droplets as the intensity grew.

When they finally emerged from the bathroom twenty minutes later, Su Jin was neatly dressed and sitting in the dining room. She bit savagely into a piece of fried dough stick, glaring at the person across from her.

“Didn’t you say no more? How did you…”

Ye Qinglan looked innocent. “You were the one who mentioned repayment. I could hardly refuse your kindness.”

“When did I say repayment”

Realizing what “repayment” she had actually referred to, Su Jin’s voice cut off abruptly. She turned away in a huff, refusing to speak further.

Shortly after, the System came back online.

Ye Qinglan immediately reverted to her cold and distant state from the previous day. After finishing her meal, she sat in the living room watching TV, though her phone chimed incessantly with incoming messages.

Su Jin sat obediently beside her, scrolling through Weibo.

Last night, Ye Qinglan’s studio had released a lawyer’s letter along with a frame by frame video comparison provided by the technical department.

Public opinion had reversed instantly.

Comments flashed before her eyes:

[Supporting Empress Ye in defending her rights! Rumor mongers must pay the price!]

[LMAO, Fang Qi and Song Jing are the real clowns, right? They played themselves and tried to drag someone else down with them?]

[Waiting for the PR disaster from the Song and Fang families. This move was suffocatingly bad!]

[It’s so obviously fake. I suggest the rumor-mongers visit an ophthalmologist first, and maybe get a CT scan for their brains while they’re at it.]

[Hilarious. Does someone’s team think netizens are village idiots? The hand shape in that video is worlds apart from the real Ye Qinglan. Even the curve of the fingernails doesn’t match. Was this face swap done with a foot?]

[I’ve watched the technical department’s frame by frame comparison ten times! Look at that small mole on Ye Qinglan’s right earlobe in the video, it shifted all the way to her jaw. Was this face swap tech bought with a ‘Group Buy’ discount?]

【Tsk tsk, the villain’s public reputation is actually quite good. She must have spent a fortune on PR,】 the System’s electronic voice buzzed in her head, alternating between analyzing Ye Qinglan’s strategy and mocking Song Jing’s attempts to save face.

【Song Jing picked the wrong person to scheme against. This time, if she doesn’t die, she’ll at least lose a layer of skin.】

Su Jin’s lips quirked. 【Is she really that terrifying?】

【Don’t you find it terrifying from Song Jing’s perspective?】 the System retorted.

【Song Jing just used some drugs, but her? She’s making sure the woman is utterly ruined.】

【Ye Qinglan is just giving them a taste of their own medicine. It’s not that terrifying,】

Su Jin argued softly, stealing a glance at Ye Qinglan.

Whatever the person on the other side of the phone said, Ye Qinglan’s expression had softened, and her posture was more relaxed.

Su Jin was curious, but with the System present, she didn’t ask. She pulled her gaze back and focused on Weibo.

Under professional analysis, the traces of AI face-swapping had nowhere to hide. Simultaneously, the reputations of Song Jing and Fang Qi plummeted.

Five minutes before Ye Qinglan’s studio released the technical analysis, Fang Qi and Song Jing had started a live stream together. Su Jin had been busy with a System mission at the time, so she hadn’t known.

However, recordings of the stream were now everywhere. Su Jin skipped through to the high-heat clips.

In the footage, Fang Qi leaned into Song Jing’s arms, tearfully admitting to a “consensual relationship,” while Song Jing put on a soulful face, claiming she would “take responsibility.”

The recording was filled with comments mocking their lack of credibility. When someone brought up the “bed scene” broadcast, Song Jing claimed they were completely unaware they were being filmed and would investigate to the end.

The netizens weren’t buying it.

[Barf..this acting is faker than a soap opera!]

[If it’s a consensual relationship, why didn’t you say so immediately? Why wait until the day after Ye Qinglan was being slandered to ‘clarify’? Do you think we’re stupid?]

[You reap what you sow! Before, they said Ye Qinglan was acting out of spite; now it’s clear these two are the ones playing thief to catch a thief.]

Su Jin couldn’t help but let out a snort of laughter. Ye Qinglan’s gaze swept over her lightly, and Su Jin immediately silenced herself, though she continued to scroll with great amusement.

The Fang Family Villa

While there was joy on one side, a different scene was unfolding across the city.

“BANG!”

An expensive, latest model smartphone was slammed onto the ground, the screen shattering instantly.

Fang Qi sat on the sofa with disheveled hair, her chest heaving. Her exquisite makeup was ruined by tears, leaving her looking wretched.

“Bitch! Bitch! Bitch! I won’t let her get away with this!” she screamed, her voice distorted by rage. “It must be her! She’s trying to ruin me!”

Ye Hui sat nearby, watching Fang Qi’s distorted face in silence. Fang Zhiqiang sat on the other side, puffing away on a cigarette. His daughter’s hysterical state finally ignited his fury.

“Cry! All you know how to do is cry!” He stood up, stroking forward to grab Fang Qi by the hair and forcing her face up. “If you weren’t so cheap, how would she have caught you? How did I end up with a daughter like you!”

Fang Qi’s scalp stung, but she struggled: “Dad! I was framed! I was drugged! You have to help me! You have to get revenge for me!”

“Revenge?” Fang Zhiqiang sneered, swinging his hand and landing a heavy slap on her face. “If you hadn’t provoked Ye Qinglan yourself, would this have happened?”

“I’m telling you, if you drag the Fang family down with you, I’ll act as if I never had a daughter!”

The crisp sound of the slap echoed in the living room. Fang Qi clutched her face, tears streaming down.

“Dammit!” Fang Zhiqiang shoved her aside and turned to slap Ye Hui, who had been watching coldly. “It’s all your fault, you bitch! If you hadn’t insisted on bringing that little brat Ye Qinglan along, how would things have turned out like this?”

His anger grew as he spoke, and he kicked Ye Hui while she was down. “Useless! You can’t even manage a daughter! What use was there in marrying you!”

Years of abuse had stripped Ye Hui of the strength to resist. She curled up on the floor, submissively taking the blows.

Watching this, a flash of fear crossed Fang Qi’s eyes. She scrambled out of the range of Fang Zhiqiang’s fists, but the fear was soon replaced by even deeper resentment.

She stared deathly at the phone fragments on the floor, hissing through her teeth: “Ye Qinglan… I’m not finished with you!”

In the living room, the sounds of violence and weeping intertwined, filling the air with an atmosphere of desperation and madness.