Cool Alpha Pregnant with a Dryad’s Cub - Chapter 8

“Someone’s at N25! Number Three, Number Three, right behind you! Take him out!”

“N25!! Behind you, he’s coming for you, Number Three, get him!”

Bang, bang, bang. A flurry of gunfire echoed, and Number Three was dead.

“Damn it!! Number Three, are you an idiot? Do you even know how to play?” Bullhead cursed while spectating the match. “The guy was right behind you, why the hell were you aiming to the right? Are you blind? Moron!”

Number Three, who hadn’t uttered a single word the entire game, finally spoke up timidly. “I’m sorry, I just started playing today.”

The voice instantly extinguished Bullhead’s fire. He sputtered for a moment before softening his tone. “Oh, you’re a girl? You should’ve said so! It’s fine, it’s fine. Let’s play another round. Did you see Number Two? That’s my Sister Ti, she’ll definitely carry us to a chicken dinner.”

The two of them watched with bated breath as “Ti-Blade-Killer,” the only survivor left on the team, perfectly secured first place in a final circle of seventeen players.

“How about that!” Bullhead said proudly. “I told you my Sister Ti is a badass!”

The girl playing Number Three clapped. “Number Two, you’re so amazing! Can I keep playing with you?”

“Sure, sure!” Bullhead interjected quickly. “Let’s add each other, girl.”

Zhuo Ti’s head throbbed from Bullhead’s loud voice. She had logged on in the middle of the night on a whim to escape other noises, only to find herself cornered by his shouting.

Zhuo Ti pressed the voice chat button and said, “I’m done. Going offline. I won’t charge you for tonight.”

Without waiting for a response, she exited the game and shut down her computer.

She swapped her gaming headset for music headphones, pushed open the balcony door, and popped a lollipop into her mouth. Across the way, the curtains of the villa were all drawn, the light hitting the green fabric made it look strikingly vivid in the night. From Zhuo Ti’s perspective, it looked like a giant green cake.

Strange aesthetics.

The early morning air was as cool as water. Zhuo Ti rubbed her ears and took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the fresh, green scent of plants.

She was still restless and couldn’t sleep. The thought of visiting her grandmother at daybreak made it even harder to rest, she wished the night would stretch on forever.

After finishing her lollipop, she went inside to wash up.

The balcony door was left open, and a gust of wind blew a feather decoration off the wall and onto the floor. Zhuo Ti, wrapped in a bath towel, went to close the door. A fair number of golden leaves were scattered across the balcony. She had just closed the door when she opened it again, stepping out barefoot to pick up a leaf.

It was a ginkgo leaf. There were no ginkgo trees planted in the Zhuo family garden. She stood up and looked toward the yard, only to see a massive ginkgo tree that had seemingly appeared out of thin air in the clearing before the glass villa.

The tree looked to be dozens of meters tall. The two-story villa appeared tiny beside it, and it even towered over the four-story Zhuo villa. Its thick, lush branches spread out like a giant umbrella.

The branches were so close to Zhuo Ti that it felt like she could reach out and touch them. This was the first time in her life she had seen such a massive tree. Before she could admire it, she ducked back inside and pulled the curtains shut with a sharp zip.

In the time it took to take a shower, a tree had grown out of nowhere.

Zhuo Ti clutched her chest, holding back a scream, and pinched her cheek hard. “Ow, ow, ow.”

A rustling sound came from outside, followed by the sound of leaves fluttering onto the balcony. Zhuo Ti grabbed her phone, peeled back a corner of the curtain, and reached out to snap several photos. Hiding behind the curtain, she scrolled through them.

Nothing! The photos only showed the streetlamps in the garden and the villa glowing with a faint green light in the distance.

The sound of the wind rattling the dancing branches reminded her of a horror movie. She pulled a 110cm long sword from her cabinet, a heavy epee she used for fencing. The “Ti-Blade-Killer” grabbed the sword and yanked the curtains open.

The golden ginkgo leaves shimmered in the darkness. Zhuo Ti leaned half her body over the railing, stood on her tiptoes, grabbed a branch with one hand, and swung the sword with the other.

A branch as thick as a wrist was severed. As she propped herself against the railing to pull back, the ginkgo tree seemed to react, its branches swaying to create a sudden gust of wind. The towel tied across Zhuo Ti’s chest slipped and fell, leaving her completely unclothed.

The wildly thrashing ginkgo tree suddenly went still, followed by an even more frantic rustling.

Zhuo Ti felt a sudden, sharp embarrassment, as if she were being watched. She snatched up her towel, slammed the balcony door shut, and rushed into the walk-in closet to throw on the first outfit she could find.

Outside the Glass Villa

Gongsun Wu transformed into her human form, casting a spell to recall the ginkgo leaves scattered everywhere. She looked up at a certain room on the third floor across the way.

The branch Zhuo Ti had cut off did not return.

She closed her palm, but the branch felt as though it had escaped her control, showing no reaction at all.

Gongsun Wu kicked the osmanthus tree next to her. There was no response. She swung her sleeve and struck the top of the tree with her palm. The top was sliced off, and after a moment of thrashing, the osmanthus tree also transformed into a human.

Xu Zhuangyuan wailed as he reattached his severed top. “Boss, can you stop being so violent? That hurts!!”

After fixing his branch, he rubbed his head and noticed the strange expression on Gongsun Wu’s face. “Was the moonlight bath not to your liking?”

“Osmanthus,” Gongsun Wu tilted her chin toward Zhuo Ti’s room and said, “She saw my true form.”

They had placed a barrier when they transformed, otherwise, appearing as two trees out of thin air, especially Gongsun Wu’s form, would have terrified anyone.

“She wasn’t scared?” Xu Zhuangyuan looked over. The balcony door was tightly shut, revealing nothing. “I’ll go sneak in and seal her memories.”

“Mm,” Gongsun Wu nodded. “And get my branch back while you’re at it.”

“What?” Xu Zhuangyuan froze mid-motion. “Your branch is with her? Why? You didn’t recall it?”

Gongsun Wu’s ears flickered as she heard footsteps. “She’s coming.”

Xu Zhuangyuan turned around. Zhuo Ti was wearing a dark hoodie and a black midi skirt, stepping into the yard in slippers. Her eyes widened when she saw the empty space.

“Where’s the tree?” Zhuo Ti asked.

Xu Zhuangyuan’s shock was no less than hers. He looked at the branch in her hand, trying his best to remain calm. “What tree?”

Zhuo Ti thrust the branch toward him, though her eyes were fixed on Gongsun Wu. “The ginkgo tree.”

It was a straight, wrist-thick branch with vibrant yellow leaves.

Xu Zhuangyuan was speechless, stammering, “Uh… Miss Zhuo must be mistaken. As you can see, there are no trees in our yard…”

The yard was indeed empty, a bare patch of land. Zhuo Ti began to doubt herself, but the branch in her hand was undeniable.

“Then how do you explain this?” Zhuo Ti shook the branch.

Xu Zhuangyuan stared at the branch with a stiff smile. How was he supposed to explain this? He glanced at Gongsun Wu out of the corner of his eye. Boss, say something, Boss!

“Are you in love with me?” Gongsun Wu blurted out.

Xu Zhuangyuan’s words caught in his throat. Gongsun Wu’s sudden outburst caught him off guard, yet it was also exactly what he expected from her.

He felt everything his boss did was “normal.”

“What?” Zhuo Ti hadn’t expected Gongsun Wu to be this narcissistic, nor for her logic to be so impossible to follow.

“Approaching me with such a fabricated story,” Gongsun Wu smiled as she walked toward her, “was it just because you wanted to see me?”

She was tall, no shorter than the Alpha-like Zhuo Ti. Zhuo Ti actually had to look up slightly to meet her eyes. Gongsun Wu was smiling, but her aura intensified instantly.

Gongsun Wu stopped a step away. Zhuo Ti smelled a fresh, woody scent on her. Her smile was dazzling, and for a moment, Zhuo Ti almost lost her train of breath.

In truth, she really didn’t know what to say.

“If you want to see me, you can come by anytime,” Gongsun Wu said, looking into her eyes with a bewitching smile. “You don’t need an excuse.”

Zhuo Ti’s throat felt inexplicably dry, as if she were under a spell. She stiffly turned her head away. “Boring.”

She turned and left as if fleeing, her steps slightly unsteady.

Gongsun Wu watched her leave, the faint smile on her face gradually fading. Xu Zhuangyuan leaned in and said, “Boss, I’ll go seal her memories now.”

They had known for a while that Zhuo Ti wasn’t simple, but she was definitely human, yet she defied human common sense.

She saw through their barriers every single time.

This was something an ordinary human couldn’t do, but based on Zhuo Ti’s reaction, she didn’t seem to know about barriers or demons.

“She’s a person of extreme Yin, and so unique,” Xu Zhuangyuan analyzed. “I still suspect she mated with some high-level demon and gained demonic power, which is why she can see.”

This theory was plausible, as it was the only thing that could explain it.

Gongsun Wu looked back at Xu Zhuangyuan with a look that suggested she was staring at a complete idiot.

Xu Zhuangyuan said obediently, “I’d better go seal her memories.”

“Go ahead,” Gongsun Wu said, turning to go inside. “Even twenty percent of my power couldn’t penetrate her consciousness. How much power do you plan to use to seal it?”

“It’s worth a try,” Xu Zhuangyuan said. “At the very least, I need to get your branch back. Only an outlier like Zhuo Ti could touch your immortal branch and have zero reaction. If a second human touched it… you’d become the first immortal to accidentally slaughter a human.”

Back home, Zhuo Ti placed the branch into her cracked blue vase.

She stared at it for a while.

She couldn’t figure out the neighbors’ deal; they were shrouded in mystery.

And this branch, if that giant ginkgo tree earlier had been a hallucination, this branch couldn’t be.

Furthermore, there was something very strange about Gongsun Wu. For all these days, Zhuo Ti hadn’t heard a single one of Gongsun Wu’s inner thoughts!

It was too bizarre.

And… too beautiful.

Wait, what am I thinking!

Zhuo Ti shook her head, tossing those chaotic thoughts aside.

She took a photo of the branch with her phone. This time, the photo showed up. She leaned back on her bed, staring at the vase across the room, feeling a bit embarrassed. She had been completely defenseless against those few words from Gongsun Wu!

Who likes her! Narcissist!

And that tree, such a massive tree! Appearing and disappearing into thin air, along with all the weirdness lately—Zhuo Ti couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

Was the world really this absurd?

She lay in bed with her eyes closed, but after a long time, sleep wouldn’t come. Zhuo Ti opened her eyes, propped herself up, and pulled a sleeping pill from her nightstand drawer.

Her hand froze in mid-air.

Her hearing had always been excellent, and because of her poor sleep, her room was the most soundproofed in the entire villa. It was usually dead silent when she slept.

But now, she heard a faint sound.

It wasn’t anyone’s inner monologue, it was happening right inside her room.

Zhuo Ti sat up. The room was empty, but the leaves on the branch in the vase were swaying.

She sat for a moment and heard Aunt Qin getting up to use the bathroom, accidentally stepping on Zhuo Fanghe’s dog, Flame. Aunt Qin was apologizing in her head.

Zhuo Ti breathed a sigh of relief and lit some soothing incense.

She poured out two sleeping pills, thought about it, put one back, and took one.

She put in her earplugs and crawled back under the covers to wait for sleep. This time, drowsiness came quickly. Before Zhuo Ti could even marvel at how effective the pill was, exhaustion swept over her brain, and she lost consciousness.

A moment later, the balcony curtain was gently lifted, and Gongsun Wu slipped inside.

She rubbed her fingers together, looking at the sleeping Zhuo Ti with curiosity.

Zhuo Ti was sleeping soundly; it had taken seventy percent of Gongsun Wu’s power to put her into such a deep sleep.

Gongsun Wu walked to the bedside and studied Zhuo Ti’s sleeping face. She was lying perfectly straight, her breathing steady. Her long eyelashes cast shadows under the glow of the wall lamp, making her cold, elegant features look soft and youthful.

She was very beautiful and looked quite young.

A fragrance lingered in the air. Gongsun Wu closed her eyes and sniffed; it was the scent of sandalwood, which helps with sleep.

There was also a scent like Milan flowers, which seemed to be emanating from Zhuo Ti’s body.

She curled her lips into a smile, reached out a finger to brush away the hair on Zhuo Ti’s forehead, and touched her brow. She gradually increased her power, finally reaching her consciousness at the seventh level.

Seventy percent power.

If Gongsun Wu used seventy percent of her power on a normal person, they would have been reduced to ashes. Yet here, Zhuo Ti showed no reaction.

“Interesting,” Gongsun Wu smiled.

Searching a consciousness reveals a person’s past. Gongsun Wu wasn’t one to pry into privacy; she intentionally bypassed everything regarding Zhuo Ti’s life with humans, only wanting to see if she had any dealings with demons.

She saw chaotic, noisy places, many people twisting and swaying, humans and minor demons passing by, and the Toon tree demon from that other day.

Aside from the Toon tree demon trying everything to get close to Zhuo Ti, there was nothing else.

Gongsun Wu sealed the memory of Zhuo Ti seeing her true form and their later encounter. She also wiped the memory of the Toon tree demon. She withdrew her hand. Sealing memories could cause mental confusion in humans, so she watched Zhuo Ti for a moment but saw nothing wrong.

Zhuo Ti’s memory was sealed, but Gongsun Wu’s remained. The scene of the bathrobe falling when she was in her tree form was still vivid in her mind. Gongsun Wu cleared her throat softly into her fist.

Her eyes instinctively drifted toward Zhuo Ti’s body, though she was covered by the blanket and nothing could be seen.

Realizing she was being improper, Gongsun Wu stood up and looked at the branch in the vase. She reached out her hand, and the branch automatically flew back to her palm, vanishing instantly.

When Xu Zhuangyuan entered, he saw Gongsun Wu standing by the bed, looking down at something. He walked over. “Boss, how did it go?”

Gongsun Wu pointed to the item on the nightstand. “I saw in her consciousness that she used this thing… it’s a phone, right? She used it to draw a picture of my branch.”

Xu Zhuangyuan understood and picked up the phone. “That’s not a drawing, it’s a photo.”

The phone required a four-digit passcode. Xu Zhuangyuan thought for a moment and entered Zhuo Ti’s birthday, 0715.

Incorrect.

He then tried simple codes like 1234, but they were all wrong.

“Forget it,” Xu Zhuangyuan gave up. “I can’t delete the photo, but the memory is sealed, so it’s fine.”

Gongsun Wu looked at him. “You can’t get in?”

“Boss, this is technology,” Xu Zhuangyuan shook the phone. “Sometimes magic isn’t necessarily useful against technology. We have to admit, the world isn’t what it used to be. Humans are quite formidable now.”

Gongsun Wu fell silent for a moment, accepting the fact. As the two turned to leave, Gongsun Wu suddenly looked back. Zhuo Ti remained in the same position on the bed.

A faint scent of sandalwood lingered in the room.

She waved her hand and placed a soundproofing barrier over the room.