I Don't Want To Fall In Love With The Heroine [Quick Wear] - Chapter 9

The little girl has grown up.

Previously, she would hesitate and murmur complaints with a flushed face after being kissed, but now her courage has swelled significantly—she actually dares to initiate the request.

A strange sense of “parental pride,” seeing a daughter reach maturity, welled up within Bai Qian.

She intended to follow her usual routine: a firm hand over the mouth to signal a blunt refusal. However, as she raised her hand, she caught sight of the oil stains on her gloves from the crawfish.

That split second of hesitation was all the “grown-up” girl needed. She pounced forward, taking a “munch” of a kiss and firmly latching onto Bai Qian’s lips.

This was the first kiss Shao Zizhi had actively initiated while fully conscious.

Yet, as confident as her stance had been thirty seconds ago, the moment she actually succeeded, she turned into a total coward. In an instant, her pale ears turned a shade of crimson so deep they looked ready to bleed.

The girl bit her lower lip and scrambled back to her original spot, her head hanging so low it looked like she wanted to dig a hole and crawl into it. She couldn’t even get a full sentence out through her shyness: “I… I’ll keep… keep reading the script.”

The shift in attitude was so jarring that even Bai Qian didn’t react at first. When she finally came to, she couldn’t help but find it amusing. Rather than teasing her for retreating halfway, she asked naturally, “Do you still want more crawfish?”

Shao Zizhi looked up sheepishly, giving her a soft, indignant glare. “Bai Qian, you are not allowed to talk right now!”

Bai Qian’s tone was nothing short of doting. “Alright, alright. I understand, little girl.”

“Don’t call me that! Bai Qian, shut up!”

Bai Qian blinked and obediently fell silent.

Shao Zizhi had been facing her, but after this little interlude, she hurriedly turned her back like an ostrich burying its head in the sand. With no one speaking, the lingering tension of the moment was eventually swept away by the passage of time.

Shao Zizhi soon became immersed in her script again. Bai Qian sat quietly by her side, wearing her gloves and efficiently de-shelling the crawfish one by one, lining up the meat neatly on the side.

After a considerable amount of time, several pounds of crawfish were dealt with. Bai Qian only ate a third of them before standing up, taking off her gloves, and lightly rapping on the girl’s straight back.

“I’m going to shower first. When you’re done eating, don’t forget to clean up, okay?”

Shao Zizhi turned around and saw the plate of crawfish meat that required no effort to eat. As Bai Qian headed upstairs, she stared at the pile of tender, succulent meat and involuntarily licked her lips.

—It felt as though she could still taste the lingering trace of the woman’s lipstick on them.

Bai Qian never expected that Shao Zizhi would one day be so consumed by a role that it would spill over into her daily life.

In Autumn Chill on the Han River, the character Shao Zizhi was set to play, “Empress Jiang,” was a woman who rose from the lowest rank of palace maid through schemes and ruthlessness to eventually become the Empress Dowager. It was a classic palace struggle drama. Despite Shao Zizhi studying the script dozens of times, she had never shown any signs of emotional instability until tonight.

Bai Qian hadn’t anticipated that Shao Zizhi would actually fall victim to “losing herself in the character.”

What should have been an ordinary night was shattered by an unexpected turn. Bai Qian was jolted awake by a sound of heart-wrenching sobbing. At first, she was dazed, but once fully awake, she pinpointed the source.

It was right outside her door.

The shrill, agonizing wails sounded like a ghost’s lament. Every word spat out felt like it was forged from walking on the edge of a blade. Bai Qian reacted quickly, jumping out of bed and swinging the door open.

A single lamp was lit in the living room, casting a dim, yellow glow on the woman nearby, heightening the sense of desolation. The woman knelt there with her hair disheveled, her exquisite face now so pale it lacked a single drop of blood. Her expression was one of pure grief, her face smeared with tears.

“Yuan’er! Yuan’er! My Yuan’er!”

Hoarse, tuneless howls broke from her bitten, parched lips. She stared straight ahead as if someone were actually standing there. Her eyes were a whirlpool of obsession, resentment, sorrow, and hate. The moment Bai Qian saw her, she had to look away out of sheer pity.

She realized this was a case of being “too deep in character.” This scene hadn’t existed in the original plot; it was likely a new trial triggered by her own changes to the timeline. If she didn’t pull the female lead out of this extreme sorrow immediately, the consequences of her truly believing she was “Empress Jiang” were more than Bai Qian wanted to bear.

Bai Qian approached and knelt cautiously in front of her. She tried to call her back to reality: “Shao Zizhi, can you hear me? It’s me, Bai Qian.”

“Empress Jiang” heard the “man’s” gentle call. She looked up numbness, seeing the hypocritical anxiety and pity on his face. Her thin hand suddenly lunged, grabbing the man’s collar. She glared at him with a venomous hatred that made the heart tremble.

“Dugu Han, you are so heartless! Why?! Why?! That was Yuan’er, my only Yuan’er! Was he not your child? Why are you so cruel! Dugu Han, I hate you! I hate you!”

She spoke through gritted teeth, her fury causing a surge of “blood” to well up in her throat. Empress Jiang forced the copper-tasting sweetness back down, her hands trembling violently as she gripped the “man.”

“Dugu Han, you will have your retribution! Ha, you surely will! I curse you! I curse you! Hahahaha! I curse you for all eternity to have no descendants to carry your name! Hahahaha!”

The woman, driven mad by the loss of her child, began to laugh manically, yet she was so far beyond sorrow that she couldn’t even produce another tear. Empress Jiang staggered to her feet, her “golden hairpin” dangling precariously before hitting the floor with a sharp clack. In that moment, she felt her heart truly die.

She leaned down, slowly drawing close to the cowardly man she had loved all her life. She reached out a trembling, tender hand to touch the “man’s” cold lips, suddenly shifting back into the innocent girl who once stood under a peach tree in full bloom, laughing amidst the petals. “I did love you, Dugu Han. I did love you.”

Instead of her hand, her dry lips pressed against his in a meticulous, soulful kiss for the man she no longer dared to love.

Thrust—

The sharp, slender “sword” in her hand pierced straight through the man’s back. she looked up, saw the restraint and heartache in his dark eyes, and smiled.

“Dugu Han, I curse you. In the next life, the life after, and every life to come—may you never see me again.”

As she finished, her body went limp, and she began to fall backward. Bai Qian reached out just in time to catch her. The girl, still beautiful even with her tear-stained face, nestled into her arms. Her breathing was steady; she had fallen fast asleep.

Bai Qian let out a sigh of relief and carefully carried her back to the master bedroom. Setting aside everything else, the girl’s acting was truly explosive—it had almost sucked Bai Qian into the drama as well.

After settling her in, Bai Qian looked at her peaceful sleeping face, grabbed a tissue from the nightstand, and gently wiped away the tear tracks. Task finished, Bai Qian turned to leave, only for a hand to shoot out from under the covers, gripping her hand tightly.

The girl’s voice was soft and warm, filled with an unworldly innocence: “Dugu Han, did you really sneak out to find me? Where are we going to play today?”

Bai Qian felt a headache coming on. Even asleep, she’s still in this dream? At least the plot was lighthearted now; if she cried like that again, her throat would be ruined.

She tried to pull her hand away, but the girl sensed it. Her voice changed instantly: “Dugu Han, are you lying to me?”

Helpless, Bai Qian gave up on escaping, silently praying that this scene would end quickly. However, this “sweet romance” phase of the dream dragged on. Acting as a literal pillar, Bai Qian cursed the screenwriter in her head. She hadn’t read the script, but based on Shao Zizhi’s brief descriptions, she assumed it was a career-focused drama.

Why was the romance so syrupy? And why were there so many of these scenes? Did the male lead have an investor backing him to add extra fluff?

At first, “Empress Jiang” was satisfied just holding “Dugu Han’s” hand while reciting her lines to move the plot along. But once the thin veil between them was torn, the young girl was no longer content with just holding hands. She acted spoiled: “Dugu Han, give me a hug.”

“Do you not like me? Why won’t you hug me?”

Bai Qian, the outsider, thought she could just continue playing a wooden post, but if she didn’t move, “Empress Jiang” wouldn’t be satisfied. Her voice grew more piteous until that dreaded crying tone returned. “Dugu Han, why won’t you hug me?”

Bai Qian didn’t dare let her strain her voice again. With a sigh, she leaned over and gave her a perfunctory hug through the duvet.

“Not like this! Waaa, I don’t want this! I want you to hug me properly!”

Bai Qian looked down. The girl’s eyes were shut tight, but the anxiety and grievance on her face were vivid. She was still in the scene. Forced to serve the female lead’s whims in this world, Bai Qian pulled back the covers and climbed into bed, wrapping her arms around the girl.

The Empress Jiang of the dream got her wish. Satisfied, she snuggled in, resting her head on Bai Qian’s chest. “Dugu Han, I like you so much.”

The moment Bai Qian hit the bed, a mountain of exhaustion crashed over her. She closed her eyes but forced them open again. Empress Jiang continued her tireless confession.

“Dugu Han, I like you so much.”

“Dugu Han, I like you so much.”

One after another, like a lullaby. Bai Qian’s eyelids grew heavy, her ability to snap them open fading. Just as she was about to drift off, the girl in her arms suddenly asked: “Dugu Han, do you like me too?”

The “man” didn’t answer.

Empress Jiang grew anxious, like a child on Halloween who wouldn’t leave without candy. She pestered her: “Dugu Han, do you actually like me or not?”

“Do you like me, Dugu Han?”

Bai Qian was at her wit’s end. She finally spoke: “I do, I do. I like you.”

Hearing her lover’s confession, the innocent girl smiled shyly. Half a minute later, she lifted her head from the “man’s” chest and spoke with nervous anticipation:

“Then… I allow you to kiss me.”

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