Forced to Act out a Strange Script with a Rival - Chapter 48

Consciousness was like a giant rock sinking to the bottom of the sea, slow and arduous in its ascent.

The first sensation was a dull, scraping pain at the back of her head, like a blunt knife. Every heartbeat seemed to pull at a fragile nerve, knocking out a sickening echo inside her skull.

Next came the raw, fiery dryness deep in her throat, as if she had swallowed grit. Every subtle swallowing movement brought a tearing pain.

Si Xiaoxiao kept her eyes tightly shut, her thick eyelashes trembling restlessly, trying to ward off the overly bright light from the window.

Stimulated by the sunlight, her chaotic consciousness began its difficult return.

Shattered fragments of memory, like a overturned kaleidoscope, spun and collided, finally settling on a scene of strange and shifting commotion.

—Deafening music, dazzling, swirling lights, swaying figures, and… a face, indistinct in the chaotic light and shadow, yet carrying an odd sense of familiarity.

It was Li Ting’s face.

What happened after that?

What was it that happened later?

It seemed… she couldn’t remember.

Si Xiaoxiao suddenly opened her eyes!

The overly bright light instantly pierced her unguarded pupils, and physiological tears immediately welled up, blurring her vision.

She subconsciously squinted, enduring the splitting headache and intense dizziness, blinking hard to squeeze out the tears. Only then did her vision manage to focus.

The first thing that caught her eye was a completely unfamiliar ceiling.

Simple lines, cold white color, without any unnecessary decoration. It looked like… a hotel?

She turned her eyes in surprise and uncertainty, quickly scanning the surroundings. Then, as if she had thought of something, her gaze suddenly shifted toward her side—

Empty.

Thank goodness, there didn’t seem to be any naked woman.

Strange, why did she think there would be a naked woman?

“You’re awake? How are you feeling?” Although there was no naked woman, there was one woman who was fully dressed.

Li Ting was standing by a single armchair near the window. She had changed her clothes, but was still dressed very casually, not showing any celebrity airs. She gave off a gentle, homey vibe.

The morning sun, passing through the glass, plated her with a faint golden edge, making her figure appear even taller and straighter, with an exceptional presence.

“Dizzy,” Si Xiaoxiao blurted out, her voice as hoarse as an old bellows, carrying the dryness and weakness of a hangover.

She looked at her arch-nemesis, who was only a few steps away, and a powerful sense of unease instantly gripped her.

Did something happen last night?

They said it was a drink even a child could handle! She actually got drunk?? Huh??

Subconsciously, as if seeking some kind of shield, she suddenly pulled the thin blanket covering her body up vigorously, right up to her chin, revealing only a pair of amber cat-eyes, which looked particularly moist and hazy from the hangover and shock, as she vigilantly assessed Li Ting.

Damn it! Did anyone take advantage of a great beauty like her!!

Then, almost instinctively, she lowered her head, her gaze quickly darting inside the blanket’s edge with a certain hidden scrutiny.

What came into view was a soft and comfortable long-sleeved cotton pajama top and matching pants.

An elegant beige color, excellent quality, but… definitely not the slip dress she wore when she went out last night!

Her clothes had been changed!

So, who on earth changed her clothes!!

A scorching heat “whooshed” straight from the soles of her feet to her crown. Her cheeks, ears, and neck instantly burned crimson, as if steam could rise from her next second.

She raised her eyes in horror. The round cat-eyes widened further in shock, clearly reflecting Li Ting’s placid face.

Her eyes were full of hesitation, shame, and disbelief. All her emotions were clearly written on her face, completely undisguised.

“Was… was it you?” Si Xiaoxiao’s voice trembled violently, with a heavy nasal tone and a barely noticeable hint of a sob. Each word seemed to be squeezed out of her burning throat: “Changed… my clothes??”

Li Ting didn’t answer immediately. She simply raised an eyebrow noncommittally and let out a chuckle, though it was a gentle one: “Why, do you think you have any other ‘assistants’?”

She lingered on the word “assistants,” pronouncing it lightly and slowly, carrying an indescribable ambiguity, like a feather stroking the heart, but it made every hair on Si Xiaoxiao’s body stand on end!

“!!!” Si Xiaoxiao’s pupils suddenly contracted, as if struck by a bolt from the blue.

Li Ting took a step closer to her direction, the teasing in her eyes widening. Her voice was low, like a cello, sounding particularly sexy to the ear: “What do you think? After all, your clothes have been changed…”

Si Xiaoxiao’s mind was instantly flooded with countless ancient, melodramatic arch-nemesis literature tropes:

Drunken sex, forced intimacy, taking responsibility, contract lover…

The amber cat-eyes, which were already hazy with moisture, instantly filled with an even denser mist. The corners of her eyes rapidly turned a faint red, as if tears were about to condense and roll down at any second.

Immense shock and an indescribable panic completely overwhelmed her.

Just when Li Ting thought she was about to cry, unable to handle the blow, Si Xiaoxiao’s peculiar, alcohol-and-confusion-ridden brain circuit suddenly took another bizarre turn.

She blinked her tearful big eyes, small water droplets still clinging to her thick eyelashes, and muttered a sentence in a tone mixed with bewilderment, annoyance, and… extremely strange unwillingness: “I… I didn’t feel a thing…”

The tone was as if she had missed out on a hundred million dollars!

She even daringly added, in a very quiet, very wronged, as if she had suffered a great loss, pitiful tone: “What a waste…”

Li Ting: “…”

The air seemed to freeze.

Li Ting never expected Si Xiaoxiao to react like this. For a moment, she was speechless. She truly wanted to take apart the girl’s head and see what kind of structure it had inside.

So, she retorted: “At a time like this, shouldn’t you be saying I’ll take responsibility? Hmm?”

Si Xiaoxiao’s cat-eyes widened again. The dizziness from the hangover seemed to be startled away by the word “responsibility.”

She jutted out her neck, trying to look rightfully indignant, her voice rising due to excitement, sounding a bit sharp: “Why should I take responsibility! I’m the one who collapsed after one drink, the one who lost the ability to act!”

Moreover, she even subconsciously puffed out her chest, attempting to emphasize her “victim” status, although the effect was minimal while wrapped in a blanket.

Li Ting was exasperated, yet her eyes still carried an indulgent smile: “You’re proud of collapsing after one drink? You’d be sold and still help the seller count the money!”

Si Xiaoxiao still employed her magical brain circuit, emphasizing her value as a matter of course: “Why would anyone sell me! I can continuously earn money for people! The one who sells me is the one with no brains!”

“…Hopeless case,” Li Ting sighed, rubbing her forehead.

However, Si Xiaoxiao’s attention quickly shifted from the philosophical question of “who sells whom.”

She seemed to have completely forgotten the previous shame and the “waste” argument. No longer shrinking in the blanket like a startled young wife as she had upon waking, she suddenly tossed back a corner of the blanket and, like an energetic puppy, bounced up to a sitting position on the bed.

Her eyes “flashed” alight, as if two small flames had been kindled within.

Because she had discovered an earth-shattering secret!

“My body doesn’t feel uncomfortable at all…” She rubbed her chin, scrambling towards Li Ting using both hands and feet like a playful puppy, crawling all the way to the bedside, almost touching Li Ting’s hand, which was hanging by her side.

Then, she looked up. Her face, slightly pale from the hangover but still undeniably radiant, was now filled with a strange, triumphant glow.

Her amber eyes shone strikingly bright. She stared at Li Ting without blinking, declaring with absolute certainty: “Which means! I’m the Top!”

She even proudly lifted her chin, as if she had unlocked some incredible achievement. She was the typical kind of person who, if you give them an inch, will immediately take a mile, and then proceed to beat the drums and proclaim it to the world.

Losing to her arch-nemesis? Impossible, never in this lifetime!!

Li Ting shook her head and turned to leave, muttering a retort: “Hopeless case.”

Si Xiaoxiao wouldn’t allow it. She grabbed Li Ting’s cuff, her puppy eyes full of smugness: “Given your character, you definitely wouldn’t do anything to a drunk person. If something were to happen between us yesterday, it must be me! I must have done something!!”

Si Xiaoxiao took great pride in the possibility of “dominating” her arch-nemesis.

Li Ting’s steps were abruptly halted.

A slight pull came from the captured cuff.

She neither shook it off immediately nor turned back.

She just stood there silently, with her back to Si Xiaoxiao, for a few seconds.

The air in the room seemed to suddenly freeze and compress at this moment, becoming unusually heavy.

Just as Si Xiaoxiao thought Li Ting had tacitly admitted defeat, and her triumphant smile was about to reach her ears—

Li Ting suddenly spun around!

The swift movement created a subtle current of air, fluttering the stray hairs on Si Xiaoxiao’s forehead.

The distance between the two was instantly closed to a near-dangerous degree!

Li Ting was already taller than Si Xiaoxiao, and with Si Xiaoxiao kneeling on the bed, Li Ting only needed to lean down slightly. The shadow she cast almost completely enveloped Si Xiaoxiao.

Her eyes, usually as calm as still water, were now like a sea suddenly stirred up by a storm, surging with highly aggressive undercurrents, sharp enough to penetrate the skin and reach the soul.

There was no smile in that gaze, no helplessness, only a kind of cold, intensely pressurized sharpness, completely ignited, firmly locking onto Si Xiaoxiao’s forgetfully triumphant face.

“What? Now that you’re so pleased with yourself, are you hoping I’ll do something to return the favor?”

She was the hunter. Once the foolish prey fell into the net she wove, she wouldn’t let go easily.

Si Xiaoxiao’s eyes darted around. She quietly released her puppy grip on the cuff and leaned back slightly, as if realizing the danger, muttering an aggrieved admission of defeat: “You were the one who started teasing me.”

Having spent so much time with Li Ting, how could she not know her character?

No matter how she made a scene, Li Ting would only stick to her cold-hearted nature!

Hoping for Li Ting to have a “drunken lapse”?

The probability was even lower than Si Xiaoxiao winning an Oscar tomorrow!

So, Si Xiaoxiao had not been fooled from the start!

She knew, of course, that this was just Li Ting’s way of teasing a child!!

Even if Si Xiaoxiao danced naked in front of her, this person would probably remain indifferent, perhaps even coldly critique her dance moves.

Li Ting’s voice rang out again, lower and deeper than before. Not only did she not put distance between them because of Si Xiaoxiao’s retreat, but she also maintained her leaned-in posture and took another step closer. Li Ting continued to press in, the aggression in her eyes intensifying.

“Who said I was teasing you?”

Her scent was like an omnipresent pheromone, freely marking the territory belonging to her.

“D-Did something really happen?”

Si Xiaoxiao immediately stuttered, her voice shaking badly, completely drowned in astonishment.

This… this shouldn’t be right. She had absolutely no memory of anything like that. How could it be?

And! Most importantly! They were both dressed completely! Not even a single hair was out of place!

According to the clichés of those melodramatic novels, this kind of “fully clothed” morning was a one hundred percent standard configuration for “nothing happened, all is pure”!

Huh? Something wasn’t right! This script was definitely not right!

Just as Si Xiaoxiao was staggering under the impact of this huge amount of information and Li Ting’s immensely oppressive aura, on the verge of a worldview collapse—

“Drink less next time.”

Li Ting suddenly straightened her body, like a beast of prey retracting its claws. The suffocatingly aggressive aura instantly diminished by more than half.

The intensely pressured, cold expression on her face also receded like a tide, returning to her usual gentleness and composure, as if the dangerous woman who had been relentlessly pressing in never existed.

Then, she turned around decisively, her clear voice, carrying a certain tone of proprietorial authority, clearly reached Si Xiaoxiao’s ears.

“Go figure out yourself what exactly happened.”

Following that was another no-nonsense command: “Get ready, let’s go out to eat.”

So what happened then?? Stop being so mysterious!

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