I Topped the Aloof Omega in a Scummy Alpha Novel - Chapter 37

Only One Bian Yunchen

On a large banyan tree not far away, a startled macaque stood up. The branch under its feet bobbed, and several leaves fluttered away with the wind.

The macaque, even standing, wasn’t half as tall as Xuan Yuchi. Xuan Yuchi chuckled, “What are you afraid of? We won’t provoke it…”

The macaque shrieked, followed by another “whoosh” sound, and five or six macaques responded, appearing to be the macaque’s mother, macaque grandma, and macaque’s three aunts and eight cousins.

Some stood on the branches, while others swung from them playfully.

The path ahead narrowed. To get to the cave, they couldn’t avoid the area around the large banyan tree.

A Fan, sweating nervously, said, “Everyone, put away your cameras!”

Except for Sister Lin, everyone else turned off their cameras and put them into their backpacks.

She had promised Morandi to prioritize the show’s effect above all else.

A Fan picked up a branch from the ground. “Sister Lin, what are you doing!”

What if the monkeys rushed over and damaged the camera?

Sister Lin was a veteran of the production team; she had seen everything. “A Fan, you lead them. Yuchi and I will stay behind.”

The monkeys bared their teeth, looking quite thuggish. Xuan Yuchi stood up, considering discretion the better part of valor.

“Sister Lin, we should just…”

“Okay.” Bian Yunchen looked at Sister Lin and agreed.

Xuan Yuchi’s eyes widened. She shook Bian Yunchen’s arm. “It’s too dangerous.”

A Fan hesitated, “Then I’ll stay too.”

Bian Yunchen’s eyes were vacant, her white jade-like face catching the fragmented sunlight. She stood gracefully, more refined than the bamboo forest below.

Bamboo is hollow, and she was equally empty now.

Her soul had been taken away by her.

“Participating in this show, going to Pingyan City, we must go, no matter what.”

“This is very important.”

That person had left this message in the diary through her body.

Now, she was communicating directly with her.

“You must go to the cave. This is the only chance.”

“Xuan Yuchi’s secret is there.”

Perhaps she really was ill, or perhaps she truly felt the guidance of a divine being.

“Sister Bian.” Xuan Yuchi pried open Bian Yunchen’s tightly clenched hand and stuffed a cleaver into it.

The back of the blade reflected the woman’s beautiful face. In an instant, that face came back to life, grasping the cleaver.

She looked at Xuan Yuchi with a hint of confusion.

Xuan Yuchi, what other secrets do you have?

“I’ll go first,” A Fan said.

Having traveled extensively over the years, she had encountered the most unexpected situations and felt obligated to take the lead.

A Fan swapped to a thick stick and carefully moved forward.

Sister Lin followed, walking backward slowly to keep the camera focused on the two women.

Xuan Yuchi held the cleaver up to her chest, watching the macaques in the trees, her heart pounding.

A young macaque held onto a tree trunk, swinging back and forth.

Xuan Yuchi thought she saw it smile at her eerily. Immediately, the monkey opened its toes and flew towards her.

“Ahhhh!!!”

Xuan Yuchi screamed, wildly swinging the cleaver. However, the monkey merely landed on her shoulder.

“Stop!” A Fan stopped. “It hasn’t hurt any of your vital points, so don’t attack it.”

The little macaque’s relatives watched Xuan Yuchi intently, as if they would start a gang attack the next second.

Xuan Yuchi felt blood rushing rapidly to her brain, a ticking time bomb on her head, making her afraid to move rashly.

“It’s okay,” Bian Yunchen comforted her, taking her hand, unafraid of the monkey jumping onto her.

The little macaque plucked the microphone Xuan Yuchi wore for sound recording, played with it for a moment, seemed bored, and casually tossed it away.

Sister Lin watched, deeply worried.

Without the mic, Xuan Yuchi’s voice couldn’t be clearly transmitted to the equipment.

It was a pity Morandi wasn’t around; otherwise, she’d surely have a spare.

“Ah~” Xuan Yuchi covered her mouth.

Her hair!

That cursed monkey grabbed her hair and gave her a bird’s nest haircut.

Xuan Yuchi wanted to cry but could only stand still, enduring the little macaque’s mischief.

The atmosphere was too tense. A Fan, behind the camera, said, “The monkey is trying to wash your hair like a human.”

The little macaque was rubbing and scrubbing Xuan Yuchi’s head; it did somewhat resemble a dry-hair washing motion.

“Let’s go, walk slowly,” A Fan instructed.

Bian Yunchen, holding Xuan Yuchi’s hand, moved very slowly, afraid that walking faster would startle the monkey on Xuan Yuchi’s head.

The little macaque seemed to get tired of washing human hair. It stood up, looking around.

Xuan Yuchi: [Help!]

System: [Work not synchronized, unable to initiate lottery.]

Xuan Yuchi: [Synchronize now!]

System: [Detecting deliberate world damage, please proceed with a new round of tasks.]

System: [New task: Prevent Bian Yunchen from going to the cave.]

Xuan Yuchi: [???]

System: [Upon completion of the new task, the lottery panel can be reactivated.]

She couldn’t lose this cheat.

Xuan Yuchi stopped abruptly, clutching the upper part of her stomach, her expression one of pain. “My stomach hurts.”

“Rest for a while,” Bian Yunchen told A Fan.

“It hurts so much…” Xuan Yuchi frowned, tensing her body, imagining she’d been punched.

Bian Yunchen stared at her, analyzing her expression.

A few minutes later, the monkey on Xuan Yuchi’s shoulder jumped away, going to pick up the steamed bun Bian Yunchen had thrown.

The monkeys in the trees jumped down one after another.

“Hurry up and go!”

Bian Yunchen grabbed Xuan Yuchi and ran forward. Sister Lin also disregarded filming. The group urgently fled.

Xuan Yuchi was caught between a rock and a hard place, being forcibly dragged for quite a distance. She almost twisted her ankle on the way but was firmly pulled up by Bian Yunchen.

“I can’t run anymore, I really can’t!”

Xuan Yuchi hugged a tree, panting heavily.

Are her companions all marathon runners? They can run so much.

Logically, her stamina wasn’t that bad; it was just comparatively inferior.

A Fan looked back. No one could tell if those monkeys would follow. She felt a lingering fear.

“We’ll walk slower, but don’t stop!”

Bian Yunchen looked at the map and agreed with A Fan. “The cave isn’t far.”

Xuan Yuchi objected, “If the monkeys chase us into the cave, we won’t even have anywhere to run.”

Bian Yunchen took out a piece of paper to wipe the sweat from Xuan Yuchi’s face. Her back to the camera, she subtly held the mic on her collar and whispered into Xuan Yuchi’s ear, “Why are you suddenly so unwilling to go?”

Xuan Yuchi’s pupils trembled. She managed a strained smile, looking at her. “Isn’t safety the most important thing?”

“Hey, wait for me!”

Bian Yunchen walked forward without looking back. Xuan Yuchi wondered why the atmosphere just now felt wrong. She had a feeling Bian Yunchen’s tone was a bit sinister when she said that.

Bamboo stalks passed by them, becoming denser. The bamboo on both sides gradually converged, blocking the path ahead.

A corner of the cave was vaguely visible through the gaps in the bamboo forest.

System: [Warning: Seize the last chance.]

Xuan Yuchi slid to a stop, blocking Bian Yunchen’s way.

“Sister Bian, I’ll go in alone to search, and you keep watch at the entrance.”

This arrangement was quite reasonable, and A Fan also agreed.

A Fan said, “Xuan Yuchi is an Alpha, after all. If you’re worried, I can go in with her, and you and Sister Lin stay outside.”

“Mhm.” Bian Yunchen agreed.

Xuan Yuchi sighed in relief. She exchanged a glance with A Fan, and they walked side-by-side into the cave.

A Fan started her phone’s video recording, and Xuan Yuchi turned on her phone’s flashlight. The light inside the cave dimmed, and it was wet and slippery. They walked very carefully.

“Do you think monkeys would live in a cave?”

Monkeys wouldn’t like a damp place, would they?

A Fan said, “Maybe there’s something inside that attracts them?”

As she said it, she felt a chill herself. What could be inside the cave that would attract monkeys, and make them bring stolen items inside?

Xuan Yuchi opened her mouth but didn’t say it.

There wouldn’t be a corpse in the cave, would there…

A drop of unknown liquid fell on Xuan Yuchi’s face. She instantly froze.

What is this… why doesn’t it feel like water?

“Oh, relax, it’s just water. Why are you getting so timid?” A Fan said. “Weren’t you quite brave before?”

Before?

Xuan Yuchi asked, “Did you know me before?”

A Fan: “Huh?”

A Fan turned off the recording. “Are you kidding me?”

Xuan Yuchi thought hard for a while before remembering A Fan from her jumbled memories.

“My mind just went blank.”

A Fan: “It’s my fault too. I haven’t found a good opportunity to catch up with you these past few days… Uh, no, no need to catch up.”

Xuan Yuchi chuckled. This person was strange.

“Hey, do you dislike me?”

Although asking the question felt absurd to Xuan Yuchi, judging from her memories, their relationship used to be quite good.

Since there was no third person present, A Fan was straightforward: “No, it’s just that Yunchen misunderstood our relationship a bit.”

“Oh, how could we possibly have that kind of relationship!” A Fan shook her hand exasperatedly.

Xuan Yuchi was dazed. How was it misunderstood? No wonder Bian Yunchen seemed unhappy when she returned from the woods late that night.

However, based on her observations, Bian Yunchen wasn’t suspicious now.

She would explain everything properly when she got back.

“Plop.”

“Plop.”

Two more drops of water landed on Xuan Yuchi’s eyebrows and cheek.

She rubbed her arms, feeling a bit cold. The cave was like it was filled with mist.

A fine drizzle, appearing from nowhere, formed a curtain, dividing the cave in half. The terrain was higher on the left and lower on the right. A small stream had pooled on the right, and something was stuck in it… a hulusi (gourd flute).

“Oh my god,” Xuan Yuchi exclaimed.

It really was here!

She aimed her phone at the bottom right. A Fan was also shocked when she saw it.

System: [Alert: Please do not step past the rain curtain.]

The path became increasingly slippery. Xuan Yuchi held onto the cave wall and cautiously crouched down, retrieving the hulusi which was already waterlogged. Dirty water flowed down the hulusi onto Xuan Yuchi’s arm, then to her elbow. Xuan Yuchi shook the water off her hand.

“Sister Yunchen!”

She heard A Fan call out.

By the time she looked up, Bian Yunchen had reached her side. Xuan Yuchi immediately felt something was wrong. Before she could resist, she was pulled past the rain curtain and slid right through.

It was like skiing, sliding downwards uncontrollably. The wind whipped into her clothes, making her freezing cold. Someone was holding her hand, otherwise, she would have fallen long ago.

She thought Bian Yunchen was crazy, or that her illness had flared up again.

“Sister Bian, stop pulling me!”

There was a pool ahead. She’d rather fall on the ground!

Bian Yunchen looked back at her, her eyes inexplicably resolute, yet seemingly containing a deep question.

The pool didn’t look like an ordinary pool; it looked like the road to the Underworld.

Xuan Yuchi threw herself to the side, spreading her hands to increase friction, aiming to stop. Only after she fell did she realize Bian Yunchen hadn’t stopped with her and had fallen directly into the pool.

Bian Yunchen knew how to swim, but there might be something terrifying in the pool. Xuan Yuchi ignored the pain of her fall and quickly scrambled up.

Apart from the splash when she first entered, there was no sign of struggle.

“Bian Yunchen!” she shouted.

Cold, so cold.

Her body felt frozen, unable to move or breathe. Bian Yunchen was sinking to the bottom of the pool in a peaceful posture, as if she was going to sleep there.

Then, she heard the sound of ice breaking and entered a white world.

“You’ve finally come here,” Bian Yunchen smiled at her.

“Is there anything different here?” she asked.

“Different,” Bian Yunchen’s eyelashes fluttered like butterfly wings.

“Why did you make me come here?” she asked again.

Bian Yunchen surfaced with a cold smile and shoved her out.

Fate can only be commanded by one person.

The rain curtain that divided the cave seemed to be on pause. A Fan reached Xuan Yuchi’s side by crawling.

But then she saw Xuan Yuchi jump into the pool without hesitation.

Observation Post.

Bai Yangyang put down her logbook and stepped outside to take a call from her mother.

She could tell her mother’s excitement from her voice.

Biding one’s time, enduring humiliation for many years.

The grievance of being the second daughter, not valued by the family, and the hatred of being treated as her older sister’s stepping stone since childhood.

Halfway through life, Bai Ci saw a turning point beckoning her today.

Bai Fu had killed someone. At such a critical juncture, Bai Yi would never dare to bail her out, nor would the Bai family wait for a man Bai Yi’s age to have another daughter.

Therefore, according to the Bai family’s rules, the next head of the Bai family would be Bai Yangyang.

The corner of Bai Yangyang’s mouth curled into a faint smile. She returned to the observation room.

The clusters of stars on the wide electronic screen, TAN, had adjusted their trajectory again. The silent stones emitted life energy, displaying their subjectivity to the scientists.

Bai Yangyang’s smile contained some genuine emotion.

“But I don’t want to,” Bai Yangyang said from the bottom of her heart.

Her mother wouldn’t become the Empress Dowager controlling a puppet.

County Hospital.

Two patients lay in a room. Nurses occasionally pretended to walk past the door.

“Click.” A young nurse was chosen as a representative and boldly took a picture of Bian Yunchen.

In a flash, her phone was confiscated, and the photo was deleted.

Xuan Weiming, with a cold face, easily intimidated the young nurse with the absolute authority of an elder and his expensive attire.

“If even one of these photos is leaked, every one of you will be held accountable.”

The young nurse nodded repeatedly and quickly ran off.

A subordinate brought the doctor into the room, then guarded the door after closing it.

“When will she wake up?” Xuan Weiming stood by Xuan Yuchi’s bedside.

Doctor: “Well… Miss Xuan was just brought to the hospital for treatment. Her energy level isn’t very good…”

“Give me a number,” Xuan Weiming complained inwardly about the low capability of the county doctor.

The doctor had never seen a family member so eager for a patient to wake up. Faced with the other party’s power, he respectfully said, “At least two hours.”

Two hours.

It seems there’s no major problem.

Xuan Weiming raised his chin. “Make her wake up immediately.”