I Transmigrated into a Scummy Alpha and Stole the Heroine from Her Tragic Romance - Chapter 64.2

As most of the boats started heading back, only Yu Peirong and Qi Xiyao’s boat and Lu Zhiyao and Zhao Yuan’s boat continued drifting deeper into the lake.

The lights were growing dimmer. No one had come to light the lanterns near the center of the water, but since this was a manmade lake and not too large, they could return just by turning around. No one felt worried.

Zhao Yuan leaned over and reached into the water. A bracelet on her wrist caught the surface and created gentle ripples.

At first, Lu Zhiyao smiled gently and said nothing. But when he saw Zhao Yuan leaning farther and farther forward, nearly submerging her upper body, his expression changed.

He gave her a quick warning. When he reached out to pull her back, Zhao Yuan playfully pushed his hand away for once.

“Yuan Yuan,” Lu Zhiyao frowned slightly, but before he could react, he saw the boat begin to tilt dangerously to one side. His face changed instantly. He moved to grab her again, but it was too late.

With a loud splash, Zhao Yuan fell into the water, sending waves crashing around her.

Lu Zhiyao turned pale. Panic and urgency filled his voice as he shouted, “Zhao Yuan!”

He wanted to jump in but hesitated, clearly afraid. Instead, he screamed for help from the staff onshore.

The sudden incident left the livestream viewers frozen in shock. No one reacted for a moment. The chat room went silent, followed by a flood of question marks.

In the dark water, Zhao Yuan’s terrified face emerged. She was no longer the elegant producer everyone knew. She screamed for help, struggling to stay afloat.

It seemed Lu Zhiyao could not swim. His eyes were filled with panic as he looked around for someone to help. His vision blurred as he desperately banged against the boat.

No one had worn life jackets for the sake of appearances. They had been left at their feet.

Yu Peirong knew how to swim. When she saw Zhao Yuan’s face start to pale and her body sinking lower, she immediately jumped in.

The spring water was cold, but for a physically fit Alpha, it wasn’t a big problem. Yu Peirong dove in and quickly found Zhao Yuan, who was already slipping beneath the surface. She grabbed her arm and pulled her up.

The staff rushed over as soon as they saw what happened. The livestream was cut immediately due to the emergency. Zhao Yuan was pulled out of the water and brought to shore. Lu Zhiyao followed closely, only relaxing when she was safely back on land.

Yu Peirong was completely soaked. After climbing out, a staff member handed her a cup of hot ginger tea. The warmth quickly returned to her body.

Suddenly, something warm landed on her shoulder. Qi Xiyao had arrived, placing a clean towel over her and gently drying her hair with another.

“Aren’t you cold?” Qi Xiyao’s voice was soft and gentle.

But Yu Peirong knew this wasn’t really what she wanted to ask. Making sure no one else was listening, she leaned closer and whispered in her girlfriend’s ear.

“Lu Zhiyao’s reaction didn’t feel right.”

At first, she had thought Lu Zhiyao was simply shocked, but his response felt too intense to be natural.

In other words, it didn’t match his usual personality.

Lu Zhiyao was an experienced flirt. Even if he had dated hundreds of people seriously, Zhao Yuan was still just someone he had recently met. Even if he felt attracted to her, it didn’t make sense for him to panic that much.

Yu Peirong did not believe he had suddenly become a lovesick fool.

Besides that…

“His expression didn’t just show concern for Zhao Yuan. It looked like he was genuinely afraid.”

Qi Xiyao had studied psychology on her own for acting. She was very sensitive to subtle expressions.

She clearly saw Lu Zhiyao’s face go pale when Zhao Yuan fell into the water. That was an expression she had never seen on him before.

Qi Xiyao found it strange too, though she couldn’t be certain of anything yet.

Filming wrapped up in a rush. News of Zhao Yuan falling into the lake quickly went viral.

Although she was usually a behind-the-scenes producer, many people had heard of her songs. A lot of netizens expressed concern for her. Given the popularity of the dating show, this kind of incident during filming was sure to attract attention from rival networks.

That was a problem for the production team. It had nothing to do with them.

When Yu Peirong returned to her room, she took a hot shower. When she came out, she found Qi Xiyao still there. No one had noticed she stayed.

As soon as she walked out, Qi Xiyao looked up at her with a sweet and bashful smile. Her eyes sparkled with joy, and Yu Peirong was slightly confused.

But Qi Xiyao didn’t say anything and soon shifted the conversation to something more serious.

She looked at Yu Peirong with a calm expression.

“Peirong, I think I remembered something.”

Zhao Yuan lay with her eyes closed. Her consciousness still seemed muddled, and she did not respond even as Lu Zhiyao called her name softly.

Lu Zhiyao tiptoed over to her bedside, her breathing unusually fast and strained. She could feel her own heartbeat pounding violently, something she had not experienced in a long time. Moving slowly, she lifted the bed curtain and gently took hold of Zhao Yuan’s wrist.

Only when she felt the Omega’s steady pulse did her tightly clenched heart begin to ease.

The next moment, Lu Zhiyao’s well-maintained, graceful fingers moved to cover the woman’s cheek. Zhao Yuan’s face was small and delicate, easily covered by a single hand.

In that moment, all it would take was a little more pressure, and Zhao Yuan’s breathing could be cut off completely.

A little more force, and the fragile life of this Omega could be ended instantly.

Lu Zhiyao’s lips were trembling. Her fingers were shaking. Her gaze, locked on Zhao Yuan’s face, was filled with complex emotions. She wanted to act like a normal Alpha on a dating show and show concern for the fragile Omega before her. She wanted to turn around and walk away, to leave it all behind.

But she stood there, trembling from head to toe.

Suddenly, a figure flashed through her mind. A rush of footsteps echoed in her ears, startling her. She quickly let go and stood up.

Her expression was unfocused, as if deeply shaken. The moment she considered a certain possibility, her nerves tightened, and she staggered to her feet and fled the room.

It was as if Zhao Yuan’s room had become a volcano, a forbidden and dangerous place.

As she rushed out, she accidentally bumped into Du Xi, who had come out to grab coffee. He had still been replaying the game he had just played with two of the girls in his head and was caught off guard by the collision. He instinctively apologized.

But Lu Zhiyao did not respond. She sprinted away as if she had seen a ghost, rushing straight back to her room.

Du Xi stood there puzzled, muttering to himself whether Lu Zhiyao had taken the wrong medicine today. He had never seen her so completely out of control.

—

Twenty minutes earlier, Yu Peirong was sitting in her room, watching Qi Xiyao skillfully operate her laptop.

An old news report appeared on the screen and was enlarged. Yu Peirong narrowed her eyes, though the image was still blurry.

This was the highest resolution photo available from official sources. Out of respect for the deceased, the victim’s face had not been shown.

The news reported a body found in an open, natural body of water. The woman was young, not yet thirty, and an Omega.

She had drowned after suffering leg cramps while swimming. Since it was an unregulated area and there were no signs of foul play, the death had been ruled accidental.

It was a simple and common case, but the comment section underneath sparked some debate.

People claimed this Omega was not just anyone, but Lu Zhiyao’s father’s new girlfriend. At that time, Lu Zhiyao had just turned eighteen and had recently differentiated as an Alpha. This woman, then, would have been her stepmother.

Lu Zhiyao’s father was known for his playboy reputation. His legitimate wife had been a partner from his early years, but she passed away due to illness. Though he didn’t remarry for years, he had never stopped indulging in affairs. The number of Omegas he had been involved with was countless.

This woman, however, had been kept well protected. Even her name was never released publicly. Only a few people learned her identity through whispers and backdoor sources.

No one dared to definitively say she was his girlfriend. With families of such status, their personal matters were too murky and secretive for outsiders to judge. This wasn’t the entertainment industry, where every move was made in public.

Besides, once someone dies, public interest fades. The incident was eventually forgotten.

Qi Xiyao, who was a few years younger than Lu Zhiyao, had never paid much attention to her family background. When she first saw this news years ago, she treated the rumors like gossip without solid proof.

But now, watching how Lu Zhiyao reacted to someone falling into the water, she sensed a deep and unusual fear.

If Lu Zhiyao had once fallen into water as a child, she would have developed a personal fear of swimming. But she had gone boating with Zhao Yuan just fine, laughing and chatting.

This made Qi Xiyao feel that Lu Zhiyao’s fear was not about herself, but tied to another person’s drowning.

She felt that Lu Zhiyao was somehow involved in this woman’s death.

“Wait, wait,” Yu Peirong interrupted. “You can’t say things like that without solid proof.”

Though she deeply disliked Lu Zhiyao and found her presence unbearable, she remained rational. She would never accuse someone without evidence, giving them the chance to flip the story back on her.

It wasn’t that she thought Qi Xiyao was reckless. She simply believed the situation was far more serious than it appeared.

If that woman truly had been Lu Zhiyao’s stepmother, and if her drowning was connected to Lu Zhiyao, then the question became: Did her father know?

What was the relationship between all of them? How did the woman fall into the water? What was her true identity?

Right now, everything was still speculation and assumption.

Yu Peirong’s head throbbed with pressure, but she couldn’t stop her thoughts from running wild.

She remembered that in the novel, the Yu family had taken down Lu Zhiyao through legal means. After all, people with great wealth and power were rarely defeated in any other way.

Lu Zhiyao’s father wasn’t just rich. He had power and influence as well. Although Yishui Entertainment was a strong player, they still couldn’t compete with someone who ran a casino empire.

Yu Peirong patted Qi Xiyao on the shoulder, signaling her to be patient. Now that this clue had appeared in front of them, there was no reason to let it go.

The timing simply wasn’t right yet.

—

Zhao Yuan needed a full day of rest before recovering. As an Omega, her body was naturally more delicate. Falling into the water had scared everyone, especially Lu Zhiyao, who treated her with excessive care and affection, setting aside her usual arrogance.

The romance analyst who had predicted a spark between them early on was thrilled. She said her guess was about to turn into another successful match.

Zhao Yuan also seemed to respond well to Lu Zhiyao’s kindness. Over the next two days, they became inseparable.

However, Yu Peirong found it rather intriguing. Lu Zhiyao appeared more affectionate and attentive than ever, seemingly on the verge of confessing her feelings.

But she noticed something strange. Despite appearances, the connection between Lu Zhiyao and Zhao Yuan didn’t seem as close as it looked.

Lu Zhiyao’s concern for Zhao Yuan felt shallow and performative, more like acting than genuine emotion.

Both Qi Xiyao and An Xiaomachi were actresses, just like Yu Peirong. It did not take them long to sense that something was off.

On the third night, in the middle of the night, all the guests were suddenly woken up. The crew announced that they were going to hike up a mountain to watch the sunrise.

This kind of romance was built on a foundation of exhaustion. Truthfully, no one was thrilled about it. But Yu Peirong, being an Alpha who was used to shooting night scenes, was still able to handle it.

The wind was strong and cold on the mountain. The cable cars did not operate 24 hours a day, so they had to hike up on foot, carrying emergency supplies. Yu Peirong wore a thick jacket and carried a large backpack. She walked in the middle of the group, with Qi Xiyao beside her. To stay close and keep pace with Qi Xiyao, she kept her steps small. Quietly, the two of them held hands under their jackets.

Feeling each other’s warmth, they shared a smile.

Du Xi walked just behind them. He had already lost his initial feelings for Qi Xiyao after realizing early on that she had no interest in him.

He had completely given up now, knowing he was probably just part of the background for this season.

When he saw Qi Xiyao and Yu Peirong holding hands, his mouth fell open in surprise, and a teasing shout nearly escaped him.

An Xiaomachi yawned loudly behind him and rubbed her eyes with both hands. When she saw Du Xi’s expression, she quickly said, “This production team is insane. I thought we were coming for a relaxing trip. This is harder than filming!”

She nudged the still energetic Du Xi and added, “Hey, Mr. Heartthrob, why don’t you find a rope and tie me to your back so you can carry me up the mountain?”

As a professional e-sports player, Du Xi was used to staying up all night and didn’t fear a sleepless hike. But he did not expect An Xiaomachi to make such a request, and he froze in confusion.

Seeing him fail to respond, An Xiaomachi scowled and said, “Ugh, forget it. I should have picked someone else. What a waste of my heartbeat vote!”

Du Xi was speechless. So An Xiaomachi had picked him just to make him do chores?

Gu Jinhua, walking nearby, had to fight hard not to laugh.

Thanks to An Xiaomachi’s antics, the group shook off some of their drowsiness. They continued climbing in better spirits, though it still took a long time before they finally reached the summit.

There were tents already set up at the top, and since the sky was still completely dark and even dawn had not yet broken, the guests were allowed to rest for a bit.

Just as An Xiaomachi was about to crawl into one of the tents, too tired to care, the staff stopped her and brought over a small box. Du Xi leaned over to peek inside and saw their long-lost cell phones.

The sight of their phones immediately perked everyone up.

This segment was prerecorded since it was so late at night, and few viewers would be watching people hike at three in the morning. A camera was set up nearby. One staff member smiled and explained the challenge.

“We’re sure your phones must be flooded with messages after being away for a few days. Each of you must now complete a task. Call the first contact in your message list. Work-related numbers can be skipped, but for all others, you must tell them that you’re currently on top of a mountain, waiting to watch the sunrise with someone.”

Everyone was stunned.

What kind of friendship-ending task was this?

Yu Peirong and Qi Xiyao were sitting close together. Peirong glanced at her phone and saw that the top message was from Zheng Xiuxue. It had been sent just after midnight, which meant it was already hours old. Now it was around three or four in the morning.

To call someone at this hour, and just to say something so meaningless? That felt like pure harassment.

And even worse, it sounded like the kind of task designed to make someone look completely unhinged.

Luckily, Zheng Xiuxue—

Xue has a good temper.

Yu Peirong silently repeated the phrase twice in her heart as a form of apology. Then, under the curious gazes of everyone around her, she opened her phone. She first sent a message to Zheng Xiuxue, then followed up with a call.

Gu Jinhua was also nearby, fiddling with her phone, apparently texting someone as well.

Yu Peirong had assumed it would take a while before anyone picked up, probably with a groggy and annoyed tone. But to her surprise, Zheng Xiuxue answered on the second ring.

Yu Peirong had already prepared herself for a scolding, even imagining being called insane and having to apologize. But she still followed the staff’s instructions and said politely,

“I’m standing on the summit of Jinshan with Qi Xiyao, waiting to watch the sunrise…”

On the other end, Zheng Xiuxue yawned, then cleared her throat. Her voice came through the speaker as clear and refreshing as spring water.

“Must be nice, huh? Publicly funded romance. Living the dream, sis.”

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