I Topped the Aloof Omega in a Scummy Alpha Novel - Chapter 44

A Contract of Indentured Service for Decades

Xuan Yuchi looked at her gradually reddening eyes, her wrist was tightly held and throbbing painfully. She raised her other hand and gently touched Bian Yunchen’s hand, as if trying to comfort her, but stopped due to a guilty conscience.

Two hours ago.

System: [Host, you underestimated her feelings for you.]

Xuan Yuchi: [That’s why I have to leave. Otherwise, seeing me will only remind her of the sad things from the past.]

System: [What if she doesn’t want you to leave?]

Xuan Yuchi: [How could that be? She already hates me.]

System: [Do as I say, let’s make a bet, how about it?]

Xuan Yuchi contacted Amy, saying she had mailed something to her and asked her to pass it on to Bian Yunchen.

Amy asked why she wasn’t giving it to Bian Yunchen herself.

Xuan Yuchi hung up hastily without answering.

System 666 smugly: [Now it seems I was right.]

The moonlight poured into Xuan Yuchi’s arms. Her breathing hitched, a few drops of tears stained her collarbone. Her fingers touched Bian Yunchen’s long hair, black as ink, and even the strands were icy cold.

“Ah!” she cried out in pain.

A deep teeth mark was left on her shoulder and neck. She pushed the other person away with force, but couldn’t erase the pain entirely. The faint ache reduced her guilt by half.

Bian Yunchen curved her lips slightly, her hands hanging by her sides. Her body looked frail, as if she might collapse at any moment. Yet, she carried a mocking smile typical of someone superior, her posture like a solitary strategist.

“Does it hurt? I thought someone like you wouldn’t feel pain.”

“Since you wanted to leave, why bother beating around the bush and informing people around me?”

Xuan Yuchi’s face felt like it had been slapped hard. The shame of having her subtle intentions exposed made her blush fiercely.

She went to pull her luggage, resolutely intending to leave.

“It’s a pity Aunt Huo gave birth to such a heartless daughter,” Bian Yunchen said. “It’s come to this, and she still has to be put through this turmoil.”

Xuan Yuchi froze, turning back to look at her, feeling a bit ashamed—ashamed of herself.

How could she forget that Bian Yunchen was paying for all of her mother’s expenses? Her family couldn’t afford the money now, and she was just running off, leaving her mother behind. What about her mother?

Bian Yunchen seemed to have read her mind, snorted dismissively, pushed past her, and left.

The next day, a car arrived outside Xuan Yuchi’s small courtyard.

A woman got out of the passenger seat, claiming to be Bian Yunchen’s cousin, here to take Xuan Yuchi to a small island under Bian Yunchen’s name for a vacation.

Xuan Yuchi immediately realized she was being placed under house arrest.

Her luggage from yesterday hadn’t been opened yet, so she simply pulled it and got into the car.

The sky above the dock was cloudless. This season was peak tourist season for Fengxia Island. To get there, one usually had to wait in line for over an hour to board the ship.

Naturally, Xuan Yuchi did not have to wait and was ushered onto a private yacht. She saw a sign by the dock—Fengxia Island Boarding Point.

“Fengxia Island is actually Yunchen’s property,” Xuan Yuchi said, surprised.

Xiao Qi held up a parasol for her: “It’s a Bian family asset, now indirectly controlled by the head of the family.”

The yacht started, leaving behind a trail of beautiful white waves. Flocks of seagulls chased them overhead. Xuan Yuchi admired the sky, which was turning orange, for a while, then suddenly asked, “Have I met you somewhere?”

Xiao Qi thought for a moment and smiled: “Perhaps at some banquet, but you didn’t notice me then.”

Xuan Yuchi: “So you noticed me?”

Xiao Qi’s smile became slightly awkward, and she averted her gaze.

Xuan Yuchi persisted: “Since we have such a connection, why don’t you tell me how long Yunchen plans to confine me? Is she still angry? I really can’t figure her out.”

Xiao Qi just smiled, playing deaf and mute.

Xuan Yuchi was an restless person. As soon as she settled down on the island, she began exploring.

The island was sunny. She sunbathed all morning and went shell-collecting in the afternoon. Sometimes Xiao Qi would visit her, and she would ask Xiao Qi to help her collect shells.

In the evening, she asked Xiao Qi to find out if Bian Yunchen was coming that night. Xiao Qi replied that Bian Yunchen had been very busy lately.

That night, Xuan Yuchi “accidentally” set her room on fire.

The next day, she got into an argument with tourists who poured sunscreen into the sea. The other party seemed to have some influence and threatened to find people to “deal with her.” The two sides almost came to blows.

On the third day, she borrowed a kayak and staged a scene of falling into the water and developing amnesia. The performance lasted for two days.

Xuan Yuchi couldn’t bear it anymore and demanded that Bian Yunchen answer her phone. What kind of person keeps a songbird without even looking at it?

Xiao Qi relayed Bian Yunchen’s words: “The family head says you can make as much trouble as you like, even if it gets a bit serious, it doesn’t matter. This is the Bian family’s territory, and she can smooth everything over for you.”

Xuan Yuchi sighed, collapsing onto the bed, and finally quieted down.

A week passed. Xuan Yuchi would always stand at the tourist dock after sunset, gazing in the direction of the city.

“Hi, are you waiting for someone?”

Xuan Yuchi turned to the sound and saw a red-haired woman wearing sunglasses smiling at her.

“No, I’m just enjoying the view.”

“Hey, I’ve seen you before, last time on Mount Qi.” Huo Xiaoli smiled meaningfully.

Xuan Yuchi nodded; she also remembered the wild, red-haired woman.

“I come to this island often,” Huo Xiaoli said. “It looks like you’ve gotten very bored here.”

Xuan Yuchi picked up on the hidden meaning in her words. She pulled out a candy given by the hotel from her bag and handed it to her: “Are there any other fun places here?”

Huo Xiaoli poked the center of her sunglasses. Two images of Xuan Yuchi were reflected in the lenses. She took the candy: “Let’s go, friend.”

The two walked side by side, tossing the candy away casually, unnoticed by anyone.

She didn’t like sweets.

“Hurry up, let me pull you.”

Huo Xiaoli was the first to climb the tree, looking very relaxed. When Xuan Yuchi tried, she slipped several times, the difficulty feeling like rock climbing.

She reached her hand out to Huo Xiaoli, who immediately pulled her up. They continued to climb higher, where the bumps on the tree trunk became more frequent. They climbed until they could climb no further, at least seven or eight meters off the ground, where they could overlook the entire Fengxia Island.

The two sat on a branch, the wind blowing their hair—one dazzling red, the other frizzy black. Besides being slightly cooler than on the ground, there were really no other advantages.

Xuan Yuchi gave this trip a minus two rating.

“I thought it was some interesting spot,” she tilted her head back slightly, unafraid of falling.

“Idiot,” Huo Xiaoli said.

Xuan Yuchi: “Huh?”

Did she hear wrong?

Huo Xiaoli said lazily: “No one else can hear what we’re saying here.”

Xuan Yuchi was slightly displeased: “So? Does that mean you can insult me?”

Huo Xiaoli: “No, I have something to tell you.”

Huo Xiaoli told her a story about the cycle of fate.

System 321: [Huo Xiaoli, why are you telling her this?!]

Huo Xiaoli: [Because I want to.]

System 321: [Stop quickly! That will do no good!]

Huo Xiaoli: [Why should I? I am not your host.]

Xuan Yuchi: [666, is what she said true?]

System 666: [This…]

System 666: [Isn’t this just a story?]

Xuan Yuchi: [But why do I feel like she’s absolutely right.]

She had those feelings of déjà vu since she was very young, although not every life script felt like she had experienced it once before.

But there were always some things where, from the moment they happened, she seemed to know the outcome.

“Why are you telling me this? Are you also someone chosen by a system? Are you on my side, or…” Xuan Yuchi asked.

Huo Xiaoli smiled: “You don’t need to know, but I certainly love watching drama unfold.”

With that, she jumped off the tree branch, completely unharmed.

Bian Yunchen was reading a script.

At 11:30 p.m., Xiao Qi called on time.

“Miss Xuan met a new friend today. The two were laughing and chatting, climbed a tree together. That woman is quite skilled. They also had dinner together tonight. Miss Xuan seems to get along very well with her.”

Bian Yunchen’s gaze lingered on the paper script. She reread the third-to-last line of dialogue.

It read: “My love for you is true, but that also doesn’t stop my heart from beating violently for her.”

Bian Yunchen placed the script face down on the table, pressing her temples. Annoyance festered in her heart.

This character needs to be revised.

Xiao Qi: “Should I find an excuse to ask that woman to leave?”

Bian Yunchen bit the hair tie and tied up her cascading hair neatly: “No need.”

She looked at her reflection in the floor-to-ceiling window, confused.

Was there anything about her that wasn’t good enough?

A knock on the door woke Xuan Yuchi from her deep sleep.

Xiao Qi personally delivered breakfast: “The family head says that starting today, you need to be her personal assistant.”

Xuan Yuchi’s eyebrows shot up, and she opened her mouth: “Does that mean I can leave?”

Xiao Qi nodded.

“Yes!”

Xuan Yuchi leapt up and did a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree spin on the spot. She even ate more breakfast than usual.

She knew this trick would work.

Today was the commencement ceremony for the movie Superior Joy.

The movie was adapted from two award-winning works, hence it had attracted a lot of attention even before filming began.

In the past, actors fought hard for roles, but for this film, even the director’s position was contested.

The originally designated director had won two International A-list film festival awards. Unfortunately, the casting process was too long, and the director voluntarily withdrew due to pregnancy. Learning from this, the producers immediately selected the alpha director Gu, who had also won an international award.

Speaking of the difficulty in casting this film, half the reason lay with Bian Yunchen.

The investors bought the rights to the original novel and immediately cast Bian Yunchen as the lead.

Finding someone in China whose skill and fame could match Bian Yunchen was almost impossible.

The producers had decided from the beginning that this film should be the kind that would go down in history, so they refused to settle.

A few months later, they finally came up with a solution: find the country’s top screenwriter to drastically adapt the original work, ensuring Bian Yunchen was the sole female lead in the show.

The commencement ceremony was scheduled in a county town near the capital, reachable by a four-hour drive.

Xuan Yuchi held the eyedrops between two fingers, facing Bian Yunchen, and whispered a reminder: “It’s time to take a break. Looking at it for too long is bad for your eyes.”

Bian Yunchen seemed not to hear, engrossed in savoring the script. The shadow cast by her long lashes on her face looked like a butterfly ready to take flight.

She was a method actress. While reading the script, she was already rehearsing in her mind the tone of her lines, the extent of her movements…

She could be as precise as a machine, yet she had never truly empathized with the character’s inner world. The moment the director shouted “Cut,” she could completely detach from the role.

In the words of her university professor, Bian Yunchen’s current achievements were a fluke accident; her professor believed Bian Yunchen was better suited to teaching acting at a university.

The tablet screen went black, and all her rehearsals stopped.

Bian Yunchen glanced at Xuan Yuchi and reopened the tablet.

Xuan Yuchi blocked the words on the screen and said seriously: “Let me put the eyedrops in for you, or I won’t stop.”

Bian Yunchen tilted her head back, exposing her swan-like neck, which was strikingly white under the car light, captivating the eye. A pair of emerald earrings shimmered with fire, making her seem illusory.

Xuan Yuchi leaned against the edge of her seat, her pinky finger resting on her face, her index finger and thumb holding the eyedrops aimed at her eyes.

That face, free of makeup, was like a lotus emerging from water.

Xuan Yuchi looked into her eyes. Although she had always thought Bian Yunchen’s eyes were beautiful, she could never find an accurate adjective to describe them.

Two drops of eyedrops fell into Bian Yunchen’s left eye, instantly turning into scattered starlight, then overflowing, like the tears of a goddess.

Xuan Yuchi used her pinky to wipe away the overflowing drops under her eyes and said softly: “Your eyes are beautiful.”

“Even more beautiful than my mother’s.”

Bian Yunchen’s heart felt like it had been lightly tapped, rippling outward in circles. Two drops of eyedrops fell into her right eye, and she wiped them away with a tissue.

The chauffeur slammed on the brakes at a red light. Xuan Yuchi hadn’t had time to return to her seat and accidentally lunged onto Bian Yunchen. Her lips brushed past Bian Yunchen’s face, a very intimate posture.

“Oh,” she sighed, pretending nothing happened, and calmly sat back in her seat.

But internally, she was trying hard to evade a fact: at that close distance, when their eyes met sideways, she had a bold thought.

She wanted to kiss her.

She felt an itch in her heart; perhaps spring had arrived.

Bian Yunchen stopped looking at the script, closed her eyes, and cleared her mind. She felt inexplicably anxious, as if there was something she hadn’t done.

The commencement ceremony was held near the ancient city of the county town. Cars couldn’t drive in, so all were parked in the underground parking lot.

As soon as they got out of the car, they saw many people who had come to attend the project. Many knew each other and were warmly greeting one another. This turned the underground parking lot into a veritable cocktail party.

Xuan Yuchi and Assistant Liu went to the trunk to retrieve the luggage. After just a moment, many people came up to greet Bian Yunchen individually.

It was raining outside when they arrived. Xuan Yuchi held two umbrellas. She remembered that as an assistant, she should hold an umbrella for Bian Yunchen and was about to put the smaller umbrella back.

“Hello, may we borrow this umbrella?” a short-haired woman asked her.

“Sure,” Xuan Yuchi agreed without thinking. It was just an umbrella.

Assistant Liu tried to stop her but failed. After the woman left, she grabbed Xuan Yuchi and whispered: “Sister Yuchi, that person is Li Qing’er’s assistant. Li Qing’er has a terrible reputation in the entertainment industry. We should keep our distance from people like her.”

“How bad is it?” Xuan Yuchi asked curiously.

Assistant Liu: “Every producer, director, and actor who has worked with her dislikes her.”

The statement was vague, so Xuan Yuchi didn’t take it to heart.

The rain outside was falling like rolling pearls. A gust of wind blew, wetting half of Xuan Yuchi’s shoulder. She temporarily switched the umbrella to the hand furthest from Bian Yunchen, touched her wet shoulder with the other hand, and then switched the umbrella back.

“Did you not think about yourself when you were being benevolent?” Bian Yunchen glanced at her wet shoulder.

Xuan Yuchi smiled: “It will dry soon.”

“You are quite generous,” Bian Yunchen said with a cold face.

She snatched the umbrella from Xuan Yuchi’s hand and tilted it toward Xuan Yuchi’s side: “Don’t catch a cold. I’m afraid you’ll infect me.”

Xuan Yuchi gripped her hand, positioning the umbrella exactly in the middle of them. She squeezed closer to Bian Yunchen and smiled shamelessly: “Why don’t we just get closer?”

The rain wouldn’t stop for another hour, so the producer arranged everyone in a waiting lounge, giving Bian Yunchen and other actors with important roles separate rooms.

Xuan Yuchi took the opportunity to change her clothes in the restroom, feeling much refreshed.

“Producer Sister Gao said she’s treating everyone to milk tea. Sister Yunchen, what would you like?” The producer’s assistant handed her the phone for Bian Yunchen to order.

Bian Yunchen’s order was separate; everyone else got the standard pearl milk tea.

Bian Yunchen looked at Xuan Yuchi: “You order.”

Xuan Yuchi: “Ah? But I don’t know what you like.”

In her memory, Yunchen didn’t seem to like milk tea.

She whispered in Bian Yunchen’s ear: “Is this for me?”

Bian Yunchen said clearly: “Stop the nonsense.”

Xuan Yuchi gave a slight smile and ordered a taro bobo milk tea.

The producer’s assistant: “Got it.”

Bian Yunchen stopped her: “Ask her to go get it with you.”

Xuan Yuchi pointed to herself. Bian Yunchen nodded.

No wonder. So she was being asked to do the heavy lifting.

Xuan Yuchi followed without a word. If it was hard labor, so be it, she had plenty of strength.

Just a few steps out of the room, Assistant Park called out to her.

“Our artist would like a jasmine honey flower tea. Could you bring one back separately, please?”

The producer’s assistant recognized Assistant Pu and seemed a bit impatient, urging Xuan Yuchi to hurry up.

Xuan Yuchi gave Assistant Park an OK sign.

Assistant Liu, upset, complained: “Li Qing’er is using Sister Yunchen’s assistant as her own.”

Just then, Li Qing’er passed by their door and exchanged a look with Bian Yunchen. Both of them, in a moment of tacit understanding, maintained a stern face.

Unexpectedly, a few seconds later, Assistant Park came in with an umbrella: “Teacher Yunchen, thank you for lending us the umbrella.”

Bian Yunchen said nonchalantly: “I didn’t lend it. You don’t need to thank me.”

Assistant Liu smiled: “It must be the new assistant beside you? Our Sister Qing’er seems to have taken a liking to her.”

Bian Yunchen broke into a smile, the coldness in her eyes enough to freeze water: “That’s a shame. She and I signed a contract of indentured service for decades.”

Assistant Liu realized the relationship between the two was not simple. She offered a few conciliatory smiles and then left.

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