After the Black Moonlight’s "Death Escape" Failed [Quick Transmigration] - 38.1

38.1: The Wolf and the Whip-Wielder

◎ I’ll teach you what to do ◎

Before Al woke up, she first smelled a faint floral fragrance.

It was like the scent of roses, yet slightly different, mingled with a familiar… scent of soapberry.

Realizing what this implied in her daze, Al snapped her eyes open.

“Awake?”

A voice sounded from her side. Al quickly looked up and locked eyes with Jiao Qingyin, who was sitting at the table reading a book.

Her long hair had been cut short for some reason, and she was wearing a rare, slim-fitting crimson dress. The red dress paired with her raven hair made her skin look even fairer and added a touch of lush elegance to her already beautiful face.

The floral scent Al smelled drifted from a vase on the table—but they weren’t roses; they were a bunch of small wild flowers that Al couldn’t name.

In the past, Al often dug up these wild flowers to fill her stomach. They were bitter and astringent, but they weren’t poisonous and were common enough.

She had never noticed before that these wild flowers actually looked quite lovely when gathered into a bouquet, yellow and tender like tiny stars.

“Meg, pour her a glass of water.”

The familiar cold tone snapped Al out of her daze, and she finally noticed there was another person beside Jiao Qingyin.

Someone she didn’t particularly like.

This discovery made her body react with instinctive alertness even before her thinking capacity had returned to normal.

Meg didn’t look at her, silently executing Jiao Qingyin’s command and handing a glass of water at the right temperature to Al’s hand.

Al didn’t take it. She used her elbows to prop up her weak, post-sleep body against the soft pillows at the head of the bed. With her back against something solid, her hands were free to move—it was a posture full of defensiveness.

Her gaze bypassed Meg and landed straight on Jiao Qingyin. She asked in a hoarse voice, “Why did you cut your hair?”

Al stared fixedly at Jiao Qingyin, her heart filled with an indefinable feeling.

How beautiful the other’s original hair was—long, straight, looking languid when loose, and when tied up, the swaying ends would tickle Al’s heart whenever the wind blew.

There had to be a reason for such a sudden change in hairstyle. Al’s head wasn’t clear, but she worried that something terrible had happened to the other.

Jiao Qingyin hadn’t expected Al’s first question upon waking to be this.

She hooked a strand of hair with her finger to look at it, then let out a soft breath, blowing it back. Her tone was indifferent. “Because I think it looks better this way.”

In reality, it was because the toxins in Al’s body were more than imagined. Not just in her legs, but also within the scars on her face, much medicinal residue remained. To clear them completely, Jiao Qingyin had been forced to sacrifice the lower half of her hair in addition to her left eye.

Hair turning withered and yellow overnight was strange, so she simply cut off the part that had lost its vitality. Now, her hair reached just below her shoulders. It wasn’t too much trouble to leave it down, and if she felt like a change, she could tie it into a small bun at the back.

Seeing Al still staring at her hair in a daze, looking utterly lost, Jiao Qingyin had to remind her: “Aren’t you going to get down and walk around?”

Al’s expression turned even more blank, as if she had been hit by a freezing spell.

Seeing this, Jiao Qingyin frowned slightly and closed her book. She was about to stand up when she thought of something, sat back down, and turned to Meg. “Check her condition.”

Al noticed that Jiao Qingyin seemed unwilling to approach her. While resisting Meg’s approach, a hint of helplessness appeared in her hollow eyes.

“…” Jiao Qingyin put down her book and waved Meg away. “Forget it.”

Meg stopped in her tracks. Then, she saw the Princess herself walk step by step to the bedside and stand still beside the white-haired slave.

“…” Al gazed up at Jiao Qingyin almost blankly. Only after a good while did she find her voice. “How long did I sleep?”

“Three days.”

“…Three days?”

Al’s eyes widened. She quickly scanned Jiao Qingyin from head to toe, as if she finally remembered what had happened before.

Jiao Qingyin stood still, allowing her to look. It wasn’t until Al reached out—first touching her arm, then reaching for her waist—that her expression darkened.

“Keep your hands to yourself,” she said in an ice-cold tone.

Seeing Jiao Qingyin move away from her, Al instantly had a bad feeling and rose to grab the other.

As her upper body leaned over the edge of the bed, Al remembered she wasn’t in her wheelchair. Simply reaching out wouldn’t allow her to touch Jiao Qingyin—

But she did touch her.

Not only did she touch her, she caught the hem of Jiao Qingyin’s dress.

Al stared down in a daze at her own half-bent knees.

“Since your legs can move normally—let go.” Jiao Qingyin’s voice came from above her head.

Al was now fully awake. The memories of three days ago flooded back, dispelling the grogginess of her long slumber: the accidental kiss, the failed confession, the conflict with Jiao Qingyin… and most importantly—

“…Jiao-Jiao?”

Hearing Al’s extremely soft call, Jiao Qingyin, whose back was turned, felt her heart skip a beat. She managed to restrain her expression and said nothing.

She behaved coldly, but she didn’t shake off Al’s hand, which served as a signal to the latter.

Al’s tensed expression immediately relaxed. Great, her Jiao-Jiao was still there.

Before losing consciousness, her greatest fear was that her legs would be healed, but Ottilia Hughes would take the opportunity to seize control of the body. She could barely accept Jiao Qingyin not liking her, but if the other were to disappear from this world… Al unconsciously gripped Jiao Qingyin’s skirt, her grip so strong she nearly tore the lace.

Though the current situation wasn’t the worst, it wasn’t what she hoped for either.

Is Jiao-Jiao ignoring her because her confession made the other angry?

The sense of crisis made Al speak almost immediately: “You said you would stay with me forever. Do you remember?”

She kept tightening her grip, her fingertips turning white, yet she didn’t notice. She could only stare fixedly at the person before her, waiting for an answer.

Jiao Qingyin looked down, her gaze falling on Al’s fingertips. After a moment, she pried the other’s fingers away and pulled her skirt free.

Feeling the fabric pull away from her palm without the slightest hesitation, a shadow crossed Al’s eyes.

After retrieving her skirt, Jiao Qingyin stepped back. She expressionlessly smoothed out the wrinkles, failed, and then simply stopped bothering with it.

She looked up and said, “I never said that to you.”

Jiao Qingyin knew perfectly well she couldn’t stay in this world for long. How could she make such an impossible promise to Al?

What? Al instinctively opened her mouth to argue, but before she could speak, she suddenly remembered. The other had indeed said those words to her, but… they were said to the “wolf pup.”

That day, Jiao Qingyin had held her while she was a wolf pup and promised to stay with her forever. Al still remembered the other’s smile and the lilt in her voice.

She had taken that promise to heart, but… in Jiao Qingyin’s eyes, was it just a casual remark made to tease a little pet?

Al felt as if she had stepped into a quagmire. Seeing her motionless for so long, Jiao Qingyin finally couldn’t restrain her inner anxiety and reached out to pull the girl up.

Until she saw the other walk normally with her own eyes, she couldn’t set aside her worries about the surgery’s results.

Al stumbled unexpectedly but steadied herself almost instantly.

The feeling of having her feet on the ground felt like a lifetime ago.

Although her calves were still a bit weak and her knees throbbed slightly from long inactivity, she—she could indeed stand.

Jiao Qingyin let go. Al looked at her, her body stiff. The other’s face was expressionless, but her eyes were focused intently on Al’s legs.

Sensing Al’s gaze, Jiao Qingyin looked up. “Try taking a few steps.”

Al’s body moved faster than her brain. Before she could sort out her thoughts, her foot took a tentative step forward.

It was steady and smooth.

Sensing enough support from the soles of her feet, Al couldn’t help but take two more steps forward.

She stopped in front of the table with the vase. Just then, a breeze blew into the room. The small yellow flowers swayed, and a petal flew up, landing on the back of Al’s hand.

A faint floral scent lingered around her nose. For a moment, Al actually felt a sense of rebirth.

Jiao Qingyin stood by, watching Al cautiously try to walk. The two long, well-proportioned legs beneath the nightgown were finally full of vitality. When she walked, the scene was even more beautiful than Jiao Qingyin had imagined.

Jiao Qingyin instinctively raised her hand and touched her left eye.

The blindness in one eye had a relatively small impact on her. From the outside, no one would notice any difference between her eyes. Although her field of vision had narrowed and she occasionally lost her sense of balance, after three days of adjustment, she was confident no one could tell anything was wrong.

“It seems you’ve fully recovered.”

Hearing Jiao Qingyin’s voice, Al turned back to look at her. Suddenly she realized that, for the first time since standing up, she could look the other in the eye on a level plane.

Even on the night of the full moon, she had never seen the other from such a perspective.

Gazing fixedly at Jiao Qingyin, Al felt a swelling emotion throbbing in her heart. Instinct drove her to call out: “Your Highness.”

Jiao Qingyin didn’t respond but said, “Walk around more these next few days. If there’s any discomfort, have the butler relay it to me.”

She made her intention to draw a line between them very clear. After speaking, she led Meg toward the door, intending to leave Al alone in the room.

However, just as she was one step away from leaving the room, her hand was suddenly grabbed from behind.

Al’s hand was a bit cool. She pulled Jiao Qingyin into her arms and hugged her tightly.

Meg’s pupils contracted, and her hand moved to her sword hilt. But since Jiao Qingyin gave no order, she made no further move.

The body heat of another person came from behind. After a moment of daze, Jiao Qingyin reached back to grab Al’s wrist. But before she could push her away, a muffled voice reached her ears.

“Jiao-Jiao, don’t ignore me.”

She spoke right against Jiao Qingyin’s ear in a whisper that only she and Jiao Qingyin could hear.

It was only after meeting Al that Jiao Qingyin discovered that whenever someone spoke right into her ear, her waist would tingle uncontrollably.

But this didn’t stop her from pushing Al away mercilessly.

The space in front of her became empty. Al felt as if her heart had been struck hard by an awl.

“I forgot to mention,” Jiao Qingyin’s gaze was half-veiled. “You will live in this room from now on.”

Al’s jaw tightened. But before any retort could come out, she remembered the other’s “soft on persuasion, hard on coercion” personality. She suppressed her impulse and slowly lowered her eyes.

Her slender eyelashes fluttered. Al deliberately showed her fragile side. After a few breaths, she asked softly, “Why?”

Al’s appearance indeed made Jiao Qingyin’s heart skip a beat, but her words remained heartless: “There is no ‘why.’ It is an order.”

Jiao Qingyin paused and added, “I don’t need an disobedient slave. Let go.”

Normally, if Jiao Qingyin said this, Al would mostly obey. While she did so today, her expression after letting go was vastly different from before.

She no longer hid the obsession in her personality. The dark light in her eyes was bone-chilling.

Jiao Qingyin felt very uncomfortable under her gaze, and her expression turned even colder. She had a bad premonition that Al might do something beyond her range of acceptance.

Although the System hadn’t returned for some reason since it left, if Al did something too outrageous that she couldn’t handle before the System’s return… the consequences would be unimaginable.

Thinking of this, Jiao Qingyin shifted her gaze, stared at Al, and spoke slowly: “Whatever you’re thinking, I advise you not to do it.”

Hearing this, Al actually smiled. “What is Your Highness referring to?”

The smile was simple and bright, even carrying a hint of naive innocence, yet it made Jiao Qingyin frown slightly. She turned around and stopped talking to Al, walking straight out of the room.

However, because her vision was restricted, Jiao Qingyin misjudged the distance between the doorframe and herself as she left, almost bumping into it. Fortunately, she reacted quickly and leaned her body away. Her movement was fluid, and the whole process looked completely natural.

“Thank you.” At that moment, Al’s voice came from behind her.

Jiao Qingyin acted as if she hadn’t heard, her footsteps never faltering.

Al watched her back without moving until the other left her sight. Only then did the expression on her face recede like a tide.

She turned her gaze around the room until she saw the mirror by the dressing table. Her whole body stiffened. Looking at herself in the mirror, Al slowly raised her hand and touched the smooth, even skin on the lower half of her face.

The terrifying scar that had once spanned across it was gone.

Jiao Qingyin sat alone in her room, staring at the fireplace in a daze.

The weather had turned warm, and the fireplace was no longer needed. The memory of the crackling sound of burning branches was still in her ears, but only emptiness remained before her eyes.

Beside her was the wolf pup that had been sleeping for the past few days. Aside from being unshakeable, all its physiological signs were normal.

Worried, Jiao Qingyin had consulted many books and concluded from the scarce records of the White Wolf tribe: at key stages of a wolf’s growth, the body needs to store a large amount of energy, so long periods of sleep are normal.

However, without the wolf pup’s company and having deliberately distanced herself from Al, Jiao Qingyin admitted she was a bit lonely.

Her past life was full of goals, her eyes fixed on a straight path. She never considered the scenery or her own feelings. But now, even she could notice the changes in herself.

Is it because of Al… Jiao Qingyin lowered her head and touched her left eye again.

Ever since she lost sight in her left eye, she couldn’t help but make this movement. Jiao Qingyin concluded it was probably a reflex, similar to how an animal might uncontrollably lick an old wound even after it has healed.

Just then, two knocks sounded at the door. Jiao Qingyin knew who it was without thinking—aside from Al, no one dared to come to her without being summoned.

Jiao Qingyin had made up her mind to apply for an emotional detachment once the System returned. But the System’s delayed return left her plan in limbo. She could only minimize contact with Al for now to avoid doing something she might regret in a moment of impulse.

She let go of her left eye. Before the person outside could speak, she said, “Don’t disturb me.”

The knocking stopped. Then, Jiao Qingyin heard a bit of a chaotic commotion, as if Al wanted to enter the room directly but was stopped by the butler guarding the door.

But within three seconds, the polite, restrained knocking sounded again, followed by Al’s voice: “Your Highness, may I come in?”

As she spoke, she had already turned the doorknob.

Jiao Qingyin didn’t want to think about how Al opened the door she had locked from the inside.

After entering, Al walked toward Jiao Qingyin with clear purpose. She was wearing trousers she didn’t usually wear; her calves, wrapped in black leather, were beautifully shaped and full of strength.

A good leg shape really does make it hard for others to look away, Jiao Qingyin thought, her mind wandering.

“Is the butler hurt?” she asked, closing the book whose pages she had barely turned.

“No, she just suddenly felt sleepy.”

As she spoke, Al sat down beside Jiao Qingyin. The pile of soft pillows immediately collapsed toward her, causing Jiao Qingyin’s body to slide down a bit.

It was a familiar scene, only the roles of the two protagonists were reversed—Jiao Qingyin flexed her fingers. She didn’t move for now, but her body tensed imperceptibly.

“Jiao-Jiao.”

Al whispered softly, reaching for Jiao Qingyin’s hand hanging by her side.

Before being touched, Jiao Qingyin withdrew her hand.

“…”

After nearly half a minute of silence, Al spoke: “I know you don’t like me, but… can you give me a chance?”

Jiao Qingyin simply closed her eyes and gave no response.

She expressed her rejection silently. After a pause, Al continued, her voice growing smaller and smaller: “It’s okay if you don’t like me, just don’t ignore me…”

Her tone was unsteady. She was essentially laying her heart open before Jiao Qingyin. Her words were filled with pure, blunt affection, causing Jiao Qingyin’s lowered eyelashes to flutter a few times.

Because she received no answer, in her agony, Al’s words gradually deviated toward self-deprecation. “My status is lowly, my hair and eyes are different from others, my personality is also annoying…”

Hearing this, Jiao Qingyin couldn’t help but disagree silently: Not at all.

Though Al’s status was a slave, her character was more sound than those high-ranking nobles. Her white hair and blue eyes were incredibly beautiful, and her awkward personality was actually very cute. She wasn’t annoying at all.

“…Growing up, no one ever looked at me properly. I know I’m not wanted, that I’m the scum of society, the bottom of the—”

Hearing Al go too far, Jiao Qingyin couldn’t help herself. She opened her eyes and glared at her. “Shut up.”

Al opened her mouth and swallowed the next sentence—but I’m becoming stronger; if you’re unwilling, I’ll kidnap you anyway—and instinctively, a pitiful look of grievance appeared in her eyes.

Jiao Qingyin’s heart softened, but she snapped back the next second. She stood up, pulling Al up with her.

The two stood face to face before the fireplace. Looking into Jiao Qingyin’s black-pearl eyes, Al, who had been full of words just now, suddenly went quiet.

“I’ve received your confession,” Jiao Qingyin paused amidst Al’s unconcealable tension. “And then what?”

“And then?” Al didn’t react, repeating blankly.

“Your demand,” Jiao Qingyin tapped Al’s shoulder, her expression unreadable. “Do you want to sleep with me?”

Al first blushed at Jiao Qingyin’s mention of “sleeping together” and nodded immediately. But then, she quickly shook her head and added: “I want to be your partner.”

She spoke quickly, as if she had repeated this answer countless times in her heart.

Then, she added even faster: “It’s okay if you don’t want to, we can…”

“No.”

“…”