After the Black Moonlight’s "Death Escape" Failed [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 73

Chapter 73: Proposal

◎Jiao Jiao, will you marry me?◎

As her memories flooded back in their entirety, Wen Fengyue immediately moved to stand up. However, the impact of the experiences from two worlds merging surpassed her imagination. Not only did she fail to sit up smoothly, but she also nearly fell off the bed.

It was Jiao Qingyin who caught her.

Seeing the familiar figure, Wen Fengyue’s tears fell instantly.

“…Jiao,” she gripped Jiao Qingyin’s sleeve, red veins crawling into her eyes, her voice raspy, “…Jiao Jiao.”

“I’m here,” Jiao Qingyin responded softly, taking Wen Fengyue’s hand—which was gripping so hard that the veins bulged—and trying to warm it with her own body heat.

As if unable to believe it, Wen Fengyue held Jiao Qingyin’s hand with one hand and reached out with the other to tremblingly touch her face. “Jiao Jiao?”

Jiao Qingyin tilted her head slightly, nuzzling against her palm, and repeated: “I’m here.”

The tangible sensation felt as if it carried a searing heat, causing Wen Fengyue to pull back her hand immediately, only to then—pull the other person directly into her arms.

“—I’m sorry.”

From the moment Wen Fengyue had fallen into her deep sleep, Jiao Qingyin’s body had been extremely tense. Only now did she finally relax.

“You remember everything?” she asked in a low voice.

Wen Fengyue’s entire body was trembling slightly. Upon hearing Jiao Qingyin’s question, she nodded extremely slowly.

After a few seconds of silence, Wen Fengyue’s raspy, trembling voice sounded against Jiao Qingyin’s ear:

“I’m sorry… I didn’t keep my promise. I followed you on my own… and I failed to find you immediately like I said when we parted. I even forgot our past… and I didn’t recognize you after we met… I, I’ve done so many wrong things.”

There were too many things to apologize for; she couldn’t finish them in one breath.

Jiao Qingyin let out a soft laugh, her fingers sliding into the other’s hair to rub her head. “It’s fine as long as you know you were wrong.”

“…” Being patted on the head made Wen Fengyue’s tears fall even faster, pitter-patter, soaking the fabric on Jiao Qingyin’s shoulder.

It took her a long time to finally stabilize her emotions. The final scene in the dream had been too stimulating, leaving her terrified even while holding her lover.

Jiao Qingyin held her even tighter.

After she finished crying and stopped sobbing, Wen Fengyue tugged at Jiao Qingyin’s fingers, pleading with a pitiful and sad expression: “Next… next time, take me with you, okay?”

Jiao Qingyin had also considered this. Mostly… she knew Wen Fengyue’s personality too well. She knew how much the other relied on her; if she didn’t agree, Wen Fengyue would likely follow her on her own again the next time she traveled between worlds.

Previously, there was no way to bring Wen Fengyue along, but now that the other had proven she had the ability to independently travel through space-time without damaging her soul, Jiao Qingyin had some ideas.

“…It might be possible,” Jiao Qingyin said. “After we finish the mission in this world, we can try.”

Wen Fengyue’s eyes suddenly lit up.

But she soon thought of another problem. “Once the mission is done, aren’t you going to leave?”

Jiao Qingyin shook her head and explained: “It’s not that I have to leave the moment the mission is finished, but I must leave when the death date of the person I am playing arrives.”

In the last world, the original host died early, so she couldn’t even stay to accompany Al for a longer period.

“Then this time…” Wen Fengyue became nervous.

Jiao Qingyin paused. She didn’t say what the original host had done in the original story, only her death date: “She lives until she is eighty-six before dying of illness.”

Eighty-six? That meant over sixty more years…!

Wen Fengyue was delighted for a moment, but the next second she caught another key point in Jiao Qingyin’s words. “Illness? What kind of illness?”

In the Blue Star era, incurable diseases were already rare. If they knew in advance what illness Jiao Qingyin would get, then as long as they took preventive measures, could they have even more time…

“No,” Jiao Qingyin guessed Wen Fengyue’s thoughts and sighed softly. “As an outsider, I cannot rewrite this ending. It would be detected.”

Wen Fengyue pursed her lips. She had long been unhappy with the Space-Time Administration that constrained Jiao Qingyin and kept her running, and now she added another grievance to the list.

While Wen Fengyue was still obsessing over what the illness would be and whether it would be painful, the latter skillfully changed the subject. “When I first met you on the deck, why was your hair wet?”

It took Wen Fengyue several seconds to recall what Jiao Qingyin was talking about. “Because an actor took a dislike to me and intentionally splashed a cup of water on me.”

Jiao Qingyin narrowed her eyes.

Before she could say anything, Wen Fengyue added: “Before meeting you, my personality was likely influenced by that… ‘World Consciousness’ you mentioned, so I didn’t pursue him.”

“But afterward, I found an opportunity to pay him back—you know I hold a grudge.”

Fearing Jiao Qingyin would worry, Wen Fengyue briefly described what she had done. Not just that actor, but almost everyone who had bullied her in the past had been retaliated against one by one.

She talked for a long while before realizing she had been led away by Jiao Qingyin’s train of thought. After hesitating, she asked: “Then… how long can I live?”

This question had been on the tip of her tongue for a while, but she hadn’t asked it yet—in this world, she was several years older than Jiao Qingyin, and she worried about dying before her and being unable to stay with her until the end.

Jiao Qingyin didn’t hide it and told her the truth directly: “According to the plot, you have half a year left.”

Wen Fengyue’s breath hitched for a moment, but immediately following that, she revealed a smile. “Jiao Jiao must have already thought of a way for me, right?”

She had indeed thought of one, though Wen Fengyue’s reaction speed was much faster than Jiao Qingyin had anticipated.

“You trust me that much?” Jiao Qingyin asked with curved eyes.

Wen Fengyue nodded with a somewhat silly smile, making Jiao Qingyin unable to resist kissing her cheek and suggestively stroking her neck.

Jiao Qingyin’s body temperature was always slightly higher than Wen Fengyue’s. Feeling the other’s fingertips brush past, Wen Fengyue suddenly felt her throat go dry, as if she hadn’t drunk water in a long time.

Seeing Wen Fengyue’s desire stirred by her, Jiao Qingyin smiled and called out the system, making it play several recordings.

“Forget that “friend” of yours; she isn’t worth your attention at all.”

“Jiao Jiao, stop thinking about the past.”

“White-furred pets are the hardest to keep. They get dirty easily and are quite stupid. Over time, the fur turns yellow and looks ugly.”

“Jiao Jiao, I…”

As the recordings played, Wen Fengyue’s face turned from white to red. The further she listened, the hotter her ears became. When she heard her recording say, “She actually had the heart to let you get a tattoo, which proves she must be incredibly selfish,” she could no longer maintain a normal expression.

“Jiao Jiao!” Wen Fengyue’s face was red as she tried to grab the round ball system. “Stop playing it…!”

Jiao Qingyin wrapped one arm around Wen Fengyue’s waist, pinned her to the bed, and refused with a mischievous smile. “How can I do that? There’s still a lot we haven’t finished listening to.”

Wen Fengyue struggled hard, but Jiao Qingyin was prepared. Not only did she prevent her from succeeding, but she also pinched the other’s side.

“!!” Being suddenly touched in a sensitive spot, Wen Fengyue’s strength instantly vanished, and she went soft.

“Sigh, I actually quite missed a certain wolf, but since you said so,” Jiao Qingyin sighed intentionally, poking Wen Fengyue’s sore spot, “I should probably raise a pet with a different color in the future.”

Wen Fengyue was both anxious and angry. “No!”

“What ‘no’?” Jiao Qingyin pretended not to understand. “Can’t I miss a certain wolf I raised before?”

Wen Fengyue, who had finally stopped crying, now had tears welling up in her eyes again. “No! You can only raise me!”

“You’re a human, not my little pet,” Jiao Qingyin scratched Wen Fengyue’s chin with her finger, her smiling eyes looking particularly beautiful. “I want to raise a puppy—since you don’t want me to raise a white-furred one, I can only consider other fur colors.”

“I—” Wen Fengyue was mortified. No matter how slow she was, she could perceive that the other was intentionally bullying her. Unfortunately, she had brought this on herself; with just a slight recollection, she could remember how she had slandered her imaginary love rival.

While teasing her Al, Jiao Qingyin’s hands weren’t idle either. After a series of provocations, Wen Fengyue’s face was flushed, and she couldn’t even speak clearly. Jiao Qingyin took advantage of Wen Fengyue’s weakened state from the memory merge to easily suppress all her resistance.

She had also held back for a long time—since the moment they reunited, she had been waiting for this. Combined with the desire to slightly punish the other’s self-assertiveness, Jiao Qingyin’s actions became increasingly excessive.

Wen Fengyue was pulled into a sweet yet dangerous trap.

One hour later.

Jiao Qingyin tucked a stray hair behind her ear. In Wen Fengyue’s dazed eyes, the corner of her mouth curled into a satisfied arc.

Seeing the other person sobbing with grievance, looking as though she had been bullied severely yet had no way to stop it, Jiao Qingyin was finally satisfied. She wiped the tears from Wen Fengyue’s cheeks, her tone sorrowful: “Your eyes are all swollen; how pitiful.”

“…!” These words made Wen Fengyue regain a bit of consciousness from her dazed state—who was responsible for this?!

The culprit looked innocent, appearing pure as if she had done nothing at all.

Wen Fengyue: Angry!!

Seeing that the other looked like she wanted to bite something to vent, Jiao Qingyin offered her hand. Wen Fengyue didn’t bite, only glaring at Jiao Qingyin with red eyes.

“Are you that angry?”

“…” Wen Fengyue remained silent.

Just as Jiao Qingyin thought the other was truly too angry to speak to her, Wen Fengyue bit her lip and squeezed out a sentence in a tiny voice:

“…I am your puppy.”

Jiao Qingyin was stunned. Misunderstanding that she hadn’t heard clearly, Wen Fengyue grabbed the other’s collar, used all her strength to sit up, and spoke her declaration of sovereignty in a fierce tone: “I am your puppy! You aren’t allowed to raise anything else!”

Those other creatures shouldn’t even dream of appearing before Jiao Qingyin…!

Jiao Qingyin couldn’t help but laugh, lowering her head to kiss the “puppy’s” forehead. “Alright, I’ll only raise you.”

Wen Fengyue felt burned by the kiss, and all her strength vanished. She fell back onto the bed, her eyes becoming even redder than before. She didn’t cry again, because Jiao Qingyin was tenderly kissing her eyelids and whispering softly, “I will only ever like… only ever love you.”

At this moment, Wen Fengyue felt like her heart was going to stop beating.

The rest of Jiao Qingyin’s main missions proceeded incredibly smoothly with Wen Fengyue’s active cooperation.

“Exploit Wen Fengyue’s labor”—Who says only work counts as exploitation?

“Make people in the entertainment industry avoid Wen Fengyue like the plagu”—With Wen Fengyue’s personality of taking a dislike to everyone and loudly expressing her likes and dislikes, Jiao Qingyin completed this mission without even trying.

“Publicly state multiple times that she and Wen Fengyue are a couple”—Not only did Jiao Qingyin do this, but Wen Fengyue was even more tireless in her efforts.

Wen Fengyue herself didn’t like the entertainment industry life. After her memories were fully restored, she shifted her focus away from this career and instead learned many things she found useful. She learned to cook, learned to massage, and learned to cultivate flowers—she was still bitter about the past where she could only afford bionic flowers, and the Forget-Me-Nots she grew herself gradually filled the entire garden.

Time passed, and it was soon the day when the original host was supposed to accuse Wen Fengyue of violence in a live broadcast.

Two hours before the broadcast started, Jiao Qingyin and Wen Fengyue were sitting in the audience of an awards ceremony. Because of their brilliant performances in Satellite, the show was nominated in the decennial Interstellar Film and Television Awards. As the leads, they, along with director Jing Ziqing, also received individual nominations.

This award carried the most weight in the industry, drawing countless people. Because it was only held once every ten years, even Wen Fengyue, despite her numerous awards, had never won it before. Since Satellite was a dual-female lead drama, their names were listed side-by-side in the nominations.

In the audience, Jiao Qingyin held the bright red nomination booklet and whispered to Wen Fengyue: “Look, our names are together. Doesn’t it look like the bride and groom section on a wedding invitation?”

The heat of her breath brushed against Wen Fengyue’s cheek, causing the latter to stiffen.

“…It does look a bit like it,” Wen Fengyue whispered.

Jiao Qingyin tilted her head. She felt Wen Fengyue’s mood had been a bit low lately, but after careful observation, it seemed fine.

“Best Interstellar Script Director—Jing Ziqing!”

Cheers and applause rang out, and the spotlight suddenly hit, making their group the center of attention. It was no longer suitable for the two of them to chat privately. Jiao Qingyin smiled appropriately and clapped along with the others for Jing Ziqing.

Jing Ziqing walked past them with floating steps, the smile on her face nearly reaching her ears. Listening to the applause, she felt like she was hearing the sound of Star Coins entering her account. After taking the stage, she pulled out a prepared script and, under the host’s teasing about “Director Jing bringing a cheat sheet,” loudly expressed her feelings.

It started normally, but toward the end, when she said, “I want to thank the two leads of our crew; without them, the profits, cough, artistic quality of Satellite wouldn’t be this high,” the crowd burst into laughter.

Jiao Qingyin couldn’t help but cover her forehead in helplessness.

In this lighthearted atmosphere, only Wen Fengyue was out of it. Her eyes were fixed on the void, and she hadn’t even heard what Jing Ziqing said.

Awards were announced one after another, and soon it was time for the Interstellar Best Actress category. The spotlights flashed, landing on Jiao Qingyin, Wen Fengyue, and four other actresses. The camera turned to these people; they all smiled and nodded or waved to the camera, but Wen Fengyue’s expression turned even colder.

Just looking at her face, it seemed as if she didn’t want to win. Seeing this, viewers on Star Net were abuzz with speculation, but the ceremony continued. On the big screen, clips from the nominated works were shown. When it was the turn of Jiao Qingyin and her partner, a scene from the ending of Satellite appeared.

Cheng Xing leaned on Wei Ling’s shoulder like a puppet. They sat on a peak soaring into the clouds, watching the stars in the night sky.

Wei Ling was crying silently, but there was no fluctuation in her expression; she looked more like a person who had lost the ability to express emotion than Cheng Xing.

As the morning star rose, Wei Ling lowered her head and kissed Cheng Xing lightly through her tears. “I regret it.”

“I wanted to turn you into my satellite, to use gravity to keep you orbiting me forever, never able to leave me. But it turns out…”

“I am the one who is your satellite. I cannot leave you at all.”

“Cheng Xing remained quiet, giving no response—without her hearing aid, she indeed couldn’t hear what Wei Ling was saying. Wei Ling seemed to be performing a monologue, saying many things to herself.

“I ruined you… your gravity is gone. As your satellite, I am also going to drift out of orbit.”

“If there is a next life, I hope…”

She didn’t finish the last sentence because Cheng Xing slowly raised her hand and wiped away her tears.

“Wei Ling”—Cheng Xing moved her mouth. No sound came out, but the lip shape was one Wei Ling knew all too well.

The sound of sirens grew from far to near. Wei Ling finally snapped back to reality. She had no way out; arrest would mean the death penalty. But Cheng Xing was different; she had done nothing. She could—

Cheng Xing smiled and took Wei Ling’s hand. “Together.”

They were like two birds with broken wings, falling from the clouds. The sun rose, and the light of the morning star gradually faded.”

Jiao Qingyin looked at herself and Wen Fengyue on the screen and raised her nomination booklet slightly to hide her expression. When filming this scene, both she and Wen Fengyue had been completely immersed in the roles.

Jiao Qingyin thought at the time that despite being mutual lovers, the ending of Satellite was not good at all. If it were her and Wen Fengyue, she would never let such a thing happen. If she felt jealous of someone appearing near Wen Fengyue, she would show it directly and make that person leave. If she wasn’t sure if Wen Fengyue loved her, she wouldn’t use extreme methods to control the other’s thoughts like Wei Ling; she would ask her directly.

However, with Wen Fengyue’s personality, she couldn’t hide her love at all, so Jiao Qingyin didn’t have those concerns.

On the Star Net live stream, the comments were filled with crying emojis. People were as heartbroken witnessing the leads drift toward a tragic path as they were hopeful for a sweet romance.

“Double death counts as a ‘He’ (Happy Ending), right!”

“If Cheng Xing had been more frank, if Wei Ling had trusted her more, it wouldn’t have ended like this.”

“Stop shipping ‘Satellite,’ come ship ‘Jiao Tang Yue Liang’!”

“Jiao Tang Yue Liang is the sweetest forever!”

“But why has Teacher Wen been pulling a cold face tonight? Did they have a fight?”

“Didn’t an insider leak before that Wen Fengyue has a terrible personality and might have tendencies for domestic violence?”

“Go away! Don’t take the chance to smear their relationship. They are fine!”

Though CP fans fought back, they were actually a bit worried. Wen Fengyue’s performance today was truly unusual. In the past, whenever Jiao Qingyin was present, Wen Fengyue would definitely have a smile on her face, her eyes never leaving the other. But today…

The CP fans saw that Jiao Qingyin repeatedly cast glances at Wen Fengyue, yet the latter didn’t even notice, making them even more anxious. Had they really fought?

The clip ended, and the host gave a long, suspense-building introduction. After praising everyone, she shouted with an excited tone: “The winner of the Interstellar Best Actress is—”

Jiao Qingyin had an inkling and turned to look at the person beside her. This time, Wen Fengyue finally wasn’t dazing.

Wen Fengyue was also looking at her. At the moment their eyes met, the host announced the result:

“—The female leads of Satellite, Jiao Qingyin and Wen Fengyue! Please come on stage!!!”

The theme song of Satellite played, and the lights focused on the two of them. They stood up at the same time. Jiao Qingyin reached out her hand to Wen Fengyue, her smile becoming sincere. “Shall we go?”

“…Mm,” Wen Fengyue took her hand and, in the next second, changed the grip to interlocking fingers. She broke into her first smile of the night. “Let’s go.”

The two walked onto the red carpet.

The ceremony was grand, and correspondingly, the red carpet was not only covered in petals but was also exceptionally long. It was so long that Jiao Qingyin felt as though she were walking toward a wedding altar with Wen Fengyue. Instinctively, she gripped the other’s hand a little tighter.

Cheers erupted from both sides of the carpet. People watching the live stream were also cheering; countless congratulations filled the screens. Amidst the noisy surroundings, Jiao Qingyin and Wen Fengyue could only hear each other’s footsteps.

Jiao Qingyin’s dress today had been chosen by Wen Fengyue—a pure white gown adorned with wave-like ruffles, its complex train gliding beautifully across the red carpet.

It looked like a wedding dress.

Wen Fengyue also wore a pure white gown of similar gossamer fabric, though the style was shorter, forming a perfect harmony with Jiao Qingyin.

They walked onto the stage together.

The host smilingly congratulated them on sharing the award, then first asked Wen Fengyue: “Teacher Wen, as partners, is there anything you want to say to Teacher Jiao?”

“Yes,” Wen Fengyue replied, her voice sounding a bit cold and stiff at first.

She paused for a few seconds but didn’t continue. Just as everyone began to feel strange and anxious, she turned toward Jiao Qingyin and gazed steadily into her eyes.

Jiao Qingyin’s heart suddenly began to race.

Under her gaze, Wen Fengyue knelt on one knee and held a small square box up before her. She opened the box, revealing the ring inside. The blue-green main stone reflected a brilliant light, looking exactly like her own eyes.

“—Jiao Jiao, will you marry me?”