Scummy Alpha CEO Keeps Courting Death [Transmigration into a Book] - Chapter 21

Worried about me…

Lu Xibie paused slightly, her gaze lingering on that line of text.

“Thank you,” Zhao Qingqi accepted the supplement weakly and drank it, her eyes falling on Lu Xibie’s hand, which was still in the posture of offering it.

“Drip drip drip—”

「Zhu Xiaotao: Ji Ningyu just said she checked the list for the first-tier competition in the arena, and you don’t have a match today. Where are you now? We’re preparing to leave from Exit C-9, Chu Liruo is also here. Do you want to come over and go back with her?」

Lu Xibie hadn’t yet thought of a reply when a new message popped up before her eyes.

“Slurp slurp—” Zhao Qingqi made a slurping sound as she finished the supplement. She glanced at Lu Xibie’s unchanging hand posture, then turned her attention to her face.

She had seen the posts on the school forum. If they were truly that affectionate, Lu Xibie should have received a message from her wife.

But… why did her expression look so serious?

Just as Lu Xibie’s hand, which had offered the supplement, moved to her optical computer, the holographic screen vibrated.

Lu Xibie lightly tapped the pale gray phone icon that popped up on the optical computer. Zhu Xiaotao’s minimized face appeared on the holographic screen.

Zhu Xiaotao: “Lu Xibie, what are you doing?”

Lu Xibie glanced at Zhao Qingqi, lightly pressed behind her ear, and the optical computer’s sound was internalized.

Lu Xibie: “In the lounge.”

Zhu Xiaotao: “Did you get the message I just sent? Ji Ningyu said sending messages was too slow, so she told me to call directly.”

Zhu Xiaotao’s face on the optical computer moved forward a bit: “Are you okay?”

Just as Lu Xibie was about to answer, Ji Ningyu’s face appeared next to Zhu Xiaotao’s: “Lu Xibie, hurry up and come! Chu Liruo is really worried about you.”

Chu Liruo lightly clutched Ji Ningyu’s sleeve. Sweat, like fine raindrops, seeped from her forehead. Her face was almost transparently pale, her pupils slightly dilated; she hadn’t yet emerged from the scene in her mind.

She didn’t want to see Lu Xibie right now.

Sensing the pull on her clothing, Ji Ningyu looked down, scanned Chu Liruo’s face, and then continued to lean next to Zhu Xiaotao to speak to Lu Xibie: “Chu Liruo didn’t even want me to tell you, but hurry over! She’s terribly worried, so just come!”

Beep beep beep—

Lu Xibie stared at the holographic screen of the optical computer, standing still, her lips pressed together.

Ji Ningyu patted Chu Liruo’s hand, which was clutching her sleeve, and comforted her with a smile: “Your Alpha will be here soon.”

“Mhm.” Chu Liruo let go, her head lowered, her body trembling slightly.

“Let’s go, we’ll meet Lu Xibie at Exit C-9.” Ji Ningyu stood up, pulling Zhu Xiaotao up by the hand.

Zhu Xiaotao stood still like a tree stump: “You hung up before Lu Xibie even agreed. What if she doesn’t come?”

Ji Ningyu pushed Zhu Xiaotao forward: “She won’t not come. Her wife is here, how could she not come?”

Pushing Zhu Xiaotao into the aisle, Ji Ningyu looked back. Chu Liruo was still sitting in her original spot: “Liruo, let’s go!”

Chu Liruo nodded lightly, leaning on the seat to barely shake off the exhaustion that radiated from her heart.

She stood up and walked toward Ji Ningyu and the others.

“Go quickly, and thank you for the supplement.” Seeing Lu Xibie’s attention turn to her, Zhao Qingqi said to her, biting the straw. Judging by the familiar tone of her classmates on the call, their relationship seemed pretty good.

“Mhm… no need to thank me.” Lu Xibie nodded.

Zhao Qingqi noticed Lu Xibie’s unfocused eyes and felt puzzled by her still standing there, looking preoccupied: “Aren’t you going yet?”

“…Mhm.” Lu Xibie lifted her foot and walked toward the door. She stood in front of the brown alloy door, hesitant to open it.

Worry.

Worried about “Lu Xibie”?

Is it just because she hasn’t done what the original “Lu Xibie” in the novel did?

Lu Xibie leaned her head against the alloy door. The cold touch helped her sort out her thoughts amidst the persistent noise.

Chu Liruo truly is a very, very good person.

Just letting her enter the Zigu Military School and being her roommate for a while, and she’s already worrying about her.

But the “Lu Xibie” in the novel doesn’t deserve her worry.

Zhao Qingqi, not hearing the door open, looked toward the entrance and asked, “Are you out of energy?”

Lu Xibie turned to answer: “No, I’m leaving now. Goodbye.”

With that, she pulled open the alloy door and quickly walked toward Exit C-9.

Walking slowly soon turned into running, as if to make up for the time she had just delayed.

“Look! Isn’t that Lu Xibie?”

“Where’s she rushing off to?”

“I just heard Ji Ningyu calling her, telling her to come and pick up Chu Liruo.”

“Going to see her wife! No wonder she’s running so fast.”

…

“Oh, those in love—”

“What love? They’re already married.”

“Oh, right. But they say marriage is a siege on love. It’s been a while since the semester started, and they’re still inseparable?”

…

“Do you think Lu Xibie still remembers Dan Ruijing, the one she used to chase after?”

“Lower your voice, Lu Xibie just ran past.”

…

“What’s the big deal? It’s all in the past. Can’t people talk about what she’s done?”

“Aren’t you afraid she’ll hit you? The little tyrant isn’t to be trifled with.”

“She shouldn’t, right? The forum says Lu Xibie has changed, and that a married Alpha is different…”

…

“You believe that? Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Tch, afraid of her?”

“Didn’t you watch Lu Xibie’s two matches? Her opponent was exhausted, and then attacked by the reflected force…”

Lu Xibie had no time to mind the surrounding voices. When she ran, she temporarily blocked out the voice of the “Lu Xibie” in her mind.

She recalled the first time she saw Chu Liruo: her silky, seaweed-like long hair was gently blown by the wind, her skin was white as snow, like soft suet jade, her crystal-clear pupils shimmered with moisture, and her long lashes were tipped with light.

When she sees her later, she must tell her not to worry about her, not to be so kind to people, and especially, not to be so kind to her.

“See? I told you she’d come.” As soon as the three reached Exit C-9, Ji Ningyu spotted Lu Xibie’s figure in the crowd.

“Lu Xibie!” Zhu Xiaotao waved toward Lu Xibie.

Ji Ningyu pulled Chu Liruo, who had nearly been pushed to the other side by the crowd: “Look, she ran all the way here!”

Hearing Zhu Xiaotao’s shout, Lu Xibie’s pupils narrowed, and her gaze instantly fixed on Chu Liruo.

Chu Liruo’s face was like a bloodless canvas, terribly pale.

She was worried this much?

Lu Xibie slowed her pace as she approached Chu Liruo: “Don’t worry.”

She looked at Chu Liruo’s almost transparent complexion, unsure of what to say. She turned her attention to the two people next to them: “They all saw me win. I’m fine.”

“Yeah, what could possibly happen with Absolute Defense?” Ji Ningyu gave Zhu Xiaotao a look.

Zhu Xiaotao didn’t catch the signal at first and only followed suit after being pinched: “Right, Lu Xibie’s Absolute Defense is super powerful. I sparred with her in the dorm training room before. She was fine even when I used all my strength.”

Chu Liruo took a few steps forward, rested her head near Lu Xibie’s chest, melting into her embrace, her hands resting on Lu Xibie’s waist, speaking in a muffled voice: “I was so worried about you.”

Lu Xibie felt a sudden warmth in her arms and was momentarily at a loss. Her hands didn’t know where to rest, held stiffly in the air like a crooked wooden frame.

Zhu Xiaotao: “The one who should be worried is Zhao Qingqi. What is there to worry about Lu Xibie?”

Ji Ningyu frowned, pulling Zhu Xiaotao’s ear down to whisper in her ear: “Idiot! This is called ‘The pain is in your body, but the ache is in my heart.'”

Zhu Xiaotao: “Is that so?”

Ji Ningyu: “Yes!”

Zhu Xiaotao: “Last time in ‘Combat Techniques Class,’ when the teacher slammed me onto the floor, you seemed to have…”

Zhu Xiaotao rested her hand on her chin, thinking: “…gave me a watermelon-flavored jelly. Where did you buy it? I’ve been looking for days at school and couldn’t find it.”

Ji Ningyu: ……

Ji Ningyu let go of Zhu Xiaotao’s ear, pushing her head away: “Eat, eat, eat. All you think about is eating all day. I’ll bring it to you tomorrow.”

Zhu Xiaotao’s eyes lit up: “Okay, okay, okay, Ji Ningyu, you’re the best!”

Fine wisps of breath seeped through the clothing onto Lu Xibie’s skin. Warmth somehow climbed into her heart, painstakingly gluing and tightening the gray, cracked fragments of her heart until they barely maintained the shape of a heart.

Lu Xibie slowly wrapped her arms around Chu Liruo, her long lashes trembling, her eyes lowered. She inhaled the faint fragrance in Chu Liruo’s hair and gently rested her head on Chu Liruo’s shoulder in a gesture of submission.

It felt like a very long time since she had been hugged like this.

The cold scent of cedar and moss enveloped Chu Liruo. The not-so-heavy weight on her shoulder made her momentarily dizzy. In this moment, she couldn’t connect the Lu Xibie who was embracing her now with the Lu Xibie from her memory images.

“Chu Liruo…”

A voice as light as willow catkins drifted into Chu Liruo’s ear.

“Don’t worry about me… and don’t… don’t trust people too easily.”

If it had been the first day of her rebirth, Chu Liruo would have found Lu Xibie saying such words immediately ridiculous.

But now, she instinctively countered: “Is it bad to trust you?”

Lu Xibie sighed, remembering Chu Liruo’s fate in the novel: “It’s bad…”

Her voice later became quieter, like a murmur: “Not just bad, it’s absolutely terrible.”

“Why would you say that?” Chu Liruo closed her eyes, burrowing deeper into Lu Xibie’s embrace like a quail.

The fear and exhaustion brought by the memory images from a moment ago dissipated during the embrace, replaced by a warmth mixed with a hint of coolness.

“In short, it’s bad.”

After a while, Chu Liruo poked her head out: “But I trust you very, very much.”

Suddenly, her arms were empty. Lu Xibie met Chu Liruo’s clear eyes, overwhelmed with mixed feelings.

An unaccustomed chill appeared in her chest, but this warmth only lasted for a moment, and yet she found herself yearning for it.

Was she reluctant to let go of a novel character’s hug?

The fragments in her heart seemed to have shattered a little more, yet somehow they hadn’t.

It was as if small, either vivid red or dark tentacles grew from the fractured gaps. These small tentacles grabbed onto the fragments, one after another, pulling and tugging, persistently gluing them together.

They chanted slogans and worked with perseverance.

Look, quickly look, it’s still a complete heart.

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