After Failing To Win Over the Yandere Best Actress, I Got Marked - Chapter 38

Ye Qinglan’s kisses fell upon Su Jin’s brow, then the tip of her nose, and finally pressed gently against her lips.

This kiss was tenderer than any that had come before, carrying a sense of deep cherished affection.

Su Jin closed her eyes instinctively, feeling Ye Qinglan’s scent completely envelop her. She could feel the other woman’s fingertips gently combing through her hair, as if handling a piece of fragile, priceless treasure.

“Relax…” Ye Qinglan whispered against her ear, her warm breath brushing past the sensitive lobe.

Su Jin’s breathing gradually steadied, and her tense body slowly relaxed under Ye Qinglan’s soothing touch. She felt a hand stroking gently down her spine, as if comforting a startled small animal.

“Look at me,” Ye Qinglan said softly.

Su Jin opened her eyes, meeting a gaze overflowing with tenderness. Ye Qinglan’s fingertips traced the lines of her brows and eyes, then moved to her flushed cheeks.

“You are so beautiful,” Ye Qinglan said, her voice filled with undisguised admiration.

Su Jin’s face grew even redder. She instinctively tried to turn away from that burning gaze, but Ye Qinglan cupped her face.

“Don’t hide.” Ye Qinglan’s thumb gently caressed her cheek. “Let me look at you properly.”

Su Jin lowered her head shyly, only to have her chin tilted back up. Though she was too embarrassed to look, she couldn’t withstand the intensity of the other’s gaze. Slowly lifting her eyes, Su Jin felt her heart skip a beat the moment their eyes met.

“Don’t… don’t look at me like that.”

It was like a wolf looking at a lamb that had wandered right to its door, impatient to devour her whole.

“I can’t help it. I want to look at you just like this forever,” Ye Qinglan lowered her head to nuzzle against her. “To look at you like this for eternity.”

She pulled Su Jin into her embrace, feeling her body heat as if trying to dispel the coldness deep within her own heart. Ye Qinglan’s palms were warm and strong, steadying her back.

Sensing the shift in emotion, Su Jin spoke: “Ye Qinglan…”

But as soon as her voice escaped, it was muffled. Burning kisses fell upon the corners of her mouth—repeated, light kisses that stole her breath away.

“Look at me,” Ye Qinglan whispered again.

Su Jin opened her eyes and met those eyes full of deep affection, momentarily dazed. Fragments of countless images flashed through her mind of herself, and of the woman before her.

Su Jin couldn’t quite catch the memories, but she instinctively reached out to touch Ye Qinglan’s eyes, murmuring, “Your eyes… I’ve seen them before.”

She had seen them, yet she couldn’t remember.

Ye Qinglan’s eyes widened suddenly, and her kiss became more fierce. “Sister, you will remember.”

Sister, don’t ever leave me again.

Su Jin arched her neck, forced to endure the storm Ye Qinglan brought upon her, her hands gripping the other’s clothes tightly.

“Teacher Ye…” Su Jin moaned unconsciously.

The title made Ye Qinglan pause for a brief second before she became even more gentle. She kissed Su Jin’s lips, stretching this intimate moment into infinity.

When it was all over, Ye Qinglan did not leave immediately. She held Su Jin in her arms, stroking her back gently. Su Jin buried her face in the crook of Ye Qinglan’s neck, her breathing finally evening out. She could feel Ye Qinglan’s heartbeat slowing back to normal, the powerful thrumming vibrating through their skin.

“Are you okay?” Ye Qinglan asked softly, her fingers combing through Su Jin’s sweat-dampened hair.

Su Jin nodded, her voice a bit raspy. “Mm…”

Ye Qinglan kissed the top of her head before gently releasing her. “I’ll go get a towel for you.”

The moment she stood up, Su Jin instinctively grabbed her wrist. Ye Qinglan turned back with an inquiring look.

“It’s nothing…” Su Jin let go, awkwardly averting her gaze.

Ye Qinglan gave a light chuckle, leaned down to plant a kiss on her forehead, and said, “I’ll be right back.”

During that brief absence, Su Jin curled up in bed, reflecting on everything that had just happened. Her body still held the lingering sensation of Ye Qinglan’s touch; every cell seemed to be crying out with longing for her.

By the time Ye Qinglan returned with a warm towel, Su Jin was half-asleep. Ye Qinglan wiped her body down with movements so gentle it was as if she were handling porcelain.

“Go to sleep,” she said, pulling Su Jin back into her arms.

Su Jin found a comfortable spot against her chest and quickly fell into a deep slumber. Looking at her peaceful sleeping face, Ye Qinglan’s eyes were filled with nothing but tenderness. She kissed Su Jin’s forehead one last time and closed her own eyes.

That night, at the hospital.

The moment the ward door opened, a glass shattered at Song Jing’s feet, shards flying everywhere.

“Get out!” Fang Qi’s hysterical scream echoed from the hospital bed.

Her entire face was wrapped in bandages, leaving only a pair of bloodshot eyes visible looking like a cornered, feral beast.

Song Jing elegantly brushed off non-existent dust from her skirt, her red lips parting slightly. “It seems you’re recovering well. You still have the strength to throw a tantrum.”

She stepped over the glass shards in her high heels, creating a grating, ear-piercing sound.

“Are you satisfied now?” Fang Qi’s fingers gripped the bedsheets deathly tight. Specks of blood seeped through the edges of her bandages like red plum blossoms in the snow. “Look at the monster I’ve become. Are you happy?”

Song Jing took a seat gracefully in the chair by the bed and pulled a document from her crocodile-skin bag. “What does this have to do with me?” She chuckled. “You brought this upon yourself through your own wicked deeds.”

“Heh,” Fang Qi sneered, her face twisting beneath the gauze. “Song Jing, stop acting like the good guy! If you hadn’t hinted that you wanted me to get Ye Qinglan back then, how would I have ended up like this?”

If it hadn’t been for Song Jing, she never would have gone after Ye Qinglan. Aside from Ye Qinglan herself, the person responsible for her current state was Song Jing.

Song Jing’s gaze turned cold instantly. “You can eat whatever you like, but watch what you say.”

“What? You dare do it but don’t dare admit it?” Fang Qi jerked upright, the movement pulling at her wounds and making her gasp in pain. “That day in the dressing room, who was it that said ‘that little bitch Su Jin isn’t worthy of Ye Qinglan’? Who said ‘it would be better if she just disappeared’?”

Song Jing’s lips thinned into a straight line. “I was just speaking casually. You’re the one who misunderstood.”

“Casually?” Fang Qi’s voice rose sharply. “Then why, the moment I made my move, did you immediately send people to destroy the surveillance footage? Why did you help me pull strings?”

The heart rate monitor spiked wildly. The atmosphere in the room was like a bowstring pulled to its breaking point.

Song Jing suddenly laughed, a sound that made Fang Qi’s skin crawl. “Fang Qi, didn’t your father ever teach you? Some things are better left unsaid, even if you see through them.” She elegantly crossed her legs. “In your current state, if you keep talking nonsense, you might lose even the last of your medical funding.”

Fang Qi’s pupils contracted. “Are you threatening me?”

“I’m merely reminding you,” Song Jing said, slowly flipping through the document, “who is currently keeping you alive.”

“Keeping me alive?” Fang Qi burst into a shrill, haunting laugh. “Song Jing, you think I don’t know? You’re just using me! Using me to deal with Su Jin, and now you want to toss me away like a used pawn!”

Song Jing’s expression finally changed. “Fang Qi, watch your language.”

“Watch my ass!” Fang Qi ripped out her IV drip, blood trickling down the back of her hand. “I’m telling you, I have dirt on you! That conversation in the dressing room? I recorded the whole thing!”

Song Jing stood up abruptly, her chair screeching against the floor. “You recorded it?”

“What? Scared?” Fang Qi smiled triumphantly, though the expression tore at her wounds. “Song Jing, you think you’re the only one who knows how to play dirty? I’m telling you, if anything happens to me, those recordings go straight to Ye Qinglan!”

Song Jing’s chest heaved, her fingers with their bright red nails gripping her bag tightly. After a moment, she suddenly laughed. “Fang Qi, you’ve grown smarter.”

She sat back down, her tone softening. “Tell me. What do you want?”

A glint of success flashed in Fang Qi’s eyes. “I want to go to South Korea. I want the best plastic surgeons.” She paused. “And I want fifty million.”

“Fifty million?” Song Jing sneered. “You certainly have the nerve to ask.”

“What? Your reputation isn’t worth that much?” Fang Qi looked at her defiantly. “If Ye Qinglan found out you tried to move against Su Jin…”

Song Jing suddenly leaned in, her red nails pinching Fang Qi’s chin. “You think you can threaten me with a single recording?” Her voice was as soft as a snake’s hiss. “Fang Qi, you are too naive. Do you think Ye Qinglan would believe your nonsense? In her eyes, we are the same kind of person. But the difference is, I only wanted Su Jin to leave. You, on the other hand, wanted to use Su Jin to ruin Ye Qinglan’s reputation.”

“Who do you think Ye Qinglan would rather destroy? You, or me?”

Fang Qi breathed heavily, staring at the woman before her with pure hatred. The monitor began to emit a piercing alarm, and the nurse rushed to press the call button.

Song Jing rose gracefully. As the medical staff burst in, she put on an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, her emotions are still quite unstable.”

At the door, she suddenly turned back, her red lips curling into a cruel arc. “Oh, I forgot to tell you. Chairman Fang was taken away this morning. Suspected of bribery and embezzlement.”

“I heard the amount involved is… quite substantial.”

Fang Qi felt as if she had been struck by lightning. She let out a scream that didn’t sound human, clawing frantically at the bandages on her face.

Blood quickly soaked through the gauze, blooming like a crimson lotus.

“Song Jing! You’ll die a miserable death!” Fang Qi’s curses echoed through the ward. “Even as a ghost, I won’t let you off!”

Song Jing stood outside the door, watching coldly through the glass window. Only after Fang Qi was injected with a sedative and slumped onto the bed like a rag doll did Song Jing pull out her phone: “I want to see Ye Qinglan.”

Hanging up, she took one last look at the ward. Sunlight streamed through the window, casting mottled shadows over Fang Qi, while the rhythmic lines on the monitor remained the only sign of life.

Leaving the hospital, Song Jing dialed another number: “Look into the recording Fang Qi mentioned. Use whatever means necessary to find it.” Her voice was bone-chillingly cold. “Also, keep a close eye on her. Don’t let her have the chance to contact anyone.”

Hanging up, Song Jing looked up at the window of Fang Qi’s ward, a flash of ruthlessness crossing her eyes. She whispered to herself, “Fang Qi, since you’re so hell-bent on seeking death, don’t blame me for being cold-blooded.”

For a period of time after that, the two women became completely immersed in their “teaching game.”

As the teacher, Ye Qinglan led by example, while her student, Su Jin, learned until her waist was sore and her legs were weak, sleeping until the afternoon every day. However, her sleep was far from peaceful.

Su Jin frowned uneasily, fine beads of sweat forming on her forehead. Her fingers unconsciously gripped the corner of the quilt as she slipped into a hauntingly familiar dream. In the dream, she watched from a third-person perspective as another version of herself argued with Ye Qinglan.

“What should we do?” her dream-self asked in a lost voice. “We failed again.”

Ye Qinglan gripped her wrist so hard her knuckles turned white. “I want to be with you!”

“You can’t! You belong to this world; the System won’t do anything to you.” The dream Su Jin turned her face away, tears shimmering in her eyes. “Wait for me. I’ll come back for you.”

“I don’t want to!” Ye Qinglan’s voice was broken. “I don’t want to be apart from you! Isn’t it just a conquest mission? I’ll agree to its mission, I’ll cooperate with it just don’t go, you can’t leave!”

Watching the scene as an outsider, Su Jin was dazed especially by the person who looked exactly like her and the softer version of Ye Qinglan. Was this them? But she didn’t remember this ever happening. No, they hadn’t experienced this scene, so this was…

Before she could figure it out, Ye Qinglan’s pained cry suddenly rang in her ear: “Sister, don’t leave me behind.”

Just as she tried to look closer, the scene shifted abruptly. Su Jin found herself standing in a void. The cold voice of the System seemed to drift from a great distance:

[Host mission failed. Entering the Void World.]

The Void World? Wasn’t that the place the System had mentioned?

She looked at the version of herself slumped on the ground, looking broken and desperate, repeating Ye Qinglan’s name over and over. As time passed, her expression gradually became blank and bewildered, and the name she muttered came slower and slower, as if she were gradually forgetting herself in that place and forgetting her.

Was this the power of the Void World?

Su Jin’s brow furrowed deeper, unable to understand when this had occurred.

“Sister, wake up. It’s time to get up.”

A familiar voice came from afar. She looked up at the sky, searching for the source of the sound. The moment she opened her eyes, Su Jin’s mind went blank; everything from the dream vanished, leaving only the person before her.

Ye Qinglan gently brushed the stray hairs from Su Jin’s forehead, her fingertips lingering on her slightly furrowed brow. “Sister, time to get up.” Ye Qinglan’s voice was softer than a morning breeze.

Dazed, Su Jin shrank back into the covers, letting out a kitten-like whimper. “No… five more minutes…”

Ye Qinglan chuckled and leaned down to whisper in her ear, “If you don’t get up, today’s acting class will change to…”

The rest of her words were quiet, but they acted like magic, making Su Jin snap her eyes open instantly. She blinked to adjust to the light and, seeing Ye Qinglan’s smiling eyes, covered her face in agony.

“Can’t we rest for one day? You didn’t sleep until dawn again today; aren’t you tired?” She was exhausted her body was covered in marks from top to bottom.

“How could I be tired of doing ‘bad things’?” Ye Qinglan flipped the quilt back, revealing Su Jin’s completely bare form.

Su Jin cried out and scrambled to grab the quilt back. “What are you doing!” She successfully snatched the quilt back and wrapped herself up like a cocoon, glaring at her from the bed. “You’re not tired, but I am. I want to sleep.”

“Don’t sleep anymore, get up and eat.” Ye Qinglan sat on the edge of the bed and reached out to scoop her up. “I’m giving you the day off today. I’m taking you out.”

Su Jin’s eyes lit up. “Really? You’re not lying?”

“I’m not. Can you get up now?”