Striving for Harmony After Transmigrating as an Alpha Female Supporting Character - Chapter 25

Ai Xiaoyu could no longer feel the icy current. In its place was a vast expanse of hills and fields, a sea of emerald-green tea trees radiating a faint, refreshing fragrance.

A white flower bud drifted toward her on the wind, landing on the tip of her nose and brushing against her lips as lightly as a dragonfly skimming the water.

Suddenly, the world shook. A splitting headache surged through her, and she felt her arms being jerked by something.

“Xiaoyu? Ai Xiaoyu!”

Slowly opening her eyes, Xiaoyu saw Li Shuqing frantically shaking her arm while Xiaomi pressed down on her chest, trying to force out the river water she had swallowed.

“Ow, ow, ow!”

Xiaoyu cried out three times before they finally stopped, both looking at her with deep concern. She realized her voice was now incredibly raspy.

With Li Shuqing’s support, she slowly sat up and surveyed her surroundings. They were back on the shore. She had been laid flat on the ground, and a few medical staff from the scenic area were crouching nearby, monitoring her vitals. Yuan Wen was off to the side on a phone call. Xiaoyu searched as far as her eyes could see, but Jing Nianxun was nowhere to be found.

Li Shuqing patted her back again. “I’m so sorry, Xiaoyu. We all thought you could swim…”

The pat made Xiaoyu cough up a bit more water. “It’s fine,” she managed. “I’m the one who disgraced the Alpha race.”

Xiaomi added, “We owe it all to Nianxun. She jumped in to save you immediately. If anything had truly happened to you, none of us would have ever forgiven ourselves.”

Nianxun? Jing Nianxun?

Xiaoyu recalled the silhouette that had grabbed her underwater. “Where is she?” she asked.

Xiaomi hesitated, stammering slightly. “She… she didn’t seem quite right after she pulled you up. She said she wasn’t feeling well, and once she saw you were out of danger, she went back to the hotel first.”

Xiaoyu immediately struggled to get up. “I’m going back to find her.”

“Hey!” The two girls held her back. “Rest first. We’ll get in touch with her.”

Eventually, the group forced Xiaoyu to take the shuttle back to the hotel. Many people on the bus asked how she was doing, and she told them all she was fine. Leaning against the window, she felt her strength returning; aside from a bit of water in her lungs and a lingering headache, she was okay.

Xiaoyu tapped the System in her mind. It took a long time before a “ding” finally sounded.

“System! Where the hell were you? I almost died just now! Don’t you care about your host at all?!”

The System replied in a flat, monotone voice: “We have no obligation to save the host. Furthermore, your Entropy points were insufficient to unlock the Resurrection feature. If you were to die from drowning or being hit by a flowerpot, it would simply prove that we chose a failed host.”

Xiaoyu was nearly fuming. She intended to argue back but decided against it. What’s the point in fighting with an emotionless machine?

The System continued, “And… it seems I may have—potentially—suffered water damage.”

Xiaoyu: “…” Are you trying to tell me I have water on the brain?

The System added, “I detected an increase of 500 Entropy points. However, the heroine’s attribute page has encountered an error and turned into garbled code. I cannot detect her current status at all.”

Xiaoyu thought to herself: Great. You’re a useless system now. You can leave.

Still, the System’s words made her worry about Jing Nianxun. Previously, the attribute page showed the heroine’s states—like [Curiosity], [Doubt], or [Hatred]. While Xiaoyu couldn’t check them manually, the System would tell her from time to time. Now that those attributes were undetectable, did something happen to her?

She watched the trees and cars blur past the window, wishing the bus would move faster.

Back at the hotel, Xiaoyu used her key card to open the door. The room was gloomy; despite it being broad daylight, the curtains were drawn tight. It was silent, as if no one were there.

Xiaoyu kicked off her shoes and stepped inside. She saw a bulge under the duvet—half a head and a mess of long hair were visible. She crept to the bedside, leaning over to check on Nianxun, but the girl was wrapped tightly in the blanket with her eyes shut fast.

Worried she might have a fever, Xiaoyu reached out to feel her forehead. As she drew closer, Nianxun’s long eyelashes quivered as if touched, and she buried her face deeper into the covers.

“…” So she’s awake.

Xiaoyu called out softly, “Nianxun.”

Jing Nianxun kept her back turned. She opened her eyes. “I’m fine.”

“Let me check if you have a fever.”

“I don’t. I just caught a bit of a cold. I’ll be fine after a nap.”

Nianxun seemed very resistant, curling into a ball to keep Xiaoyu away as if the girl were carrying something dangerous. The abnormality of it felt strange, but Xiaoyu couldn’t put her finger on why.

Xiaoyu sighed. “Do you want anything to eat? I’ll go buy it.”

“Peaches.”

Nianxun answered almost instantly. Xiaoyu blinked. She wants peaches now? There was a fruit stand nearby, but the mention of peaches always made Xiaoyu think of her own pheromones. I must be overthinking it.

Xiaoyu leaned down and pulled the duvet down slightly. “Don’t suffocate yourself in there. It’ll be hard to breathe.”

Suddenly, a familiar scent drifted from under the covers. It was faint, nearly imperceptible. Xiaoyu didn’t dare linger too long and stepped out, closing the door behind her.

Standing in the hallway, the scent seemed to cling to the tip of her nose. It was incredibly light, but it felt so familiar…

While picking out peaches at the stand, it finally hit her! That scent was exactly what she had smelled underwater!

In her hazy consciousness beneath the surface, she had fallen into a dream of green tea trees and white flowers. That was the scent. A possibility surfaced in her mind—it was just a guess, but it made her pick up the pace. She grabbed the peaches and hurried back.

She placed the washed peaches by Nianxun’s bed and leaned in close to sniff the air. But this time, there was nothing—only the scent of clean laundry and body wash. The fragrance had completely vanished.

Xiaoyu frowned. She suddenly felt that this girl on the bed had secrets she didn’t know about. But she was the transmigrator; she had the script. How could there be something she didn’t know?

The club members had intended to stay a few more days, but after the accident, the mood had soured. Moreover, Jing Nianxun’s condition didn’t seem great. Though she claimed she just caught a chill during the rescue, she remained unusually silent. Even Xiaoyu couldn’t figure out what was wrong.

They took the bus home the next morning. Both girls wore headphones, and several times Xiaoyu wanted to speak but couldn’t find an opening. She happened to glance at Nianxun’s phone; the music player was showing a song Xiaoyu listened to frequently.

When they arrived home, Xiaoyu’s parents were unexpectedly both there. A table full of steaming food was already set. Ding Chengying had removed her heavy makeup and was wearing an apron, smiling. “I cooked everything today. Come and try it!”

Xiaoyu was shocked. “Did something happen? Why are you in the kitchen?”

Ai Guohua was already seated at the table, speaking with a rare, gentle tone. “Jing Nianxun’s painting was selected for the city-wide competition. If she wins, she can go to a training camp over the winter break.”

“Really?!” Xiaoyu nearly jumped for joy. She grabbed Nianxun’s hand. “That’s amazing!”

Jing Nianxun smiled shyly. It was clear she was happy, and her complexion looked much better. Xiaoyu pulled her to the table and set out her utensils. “We definitely need to celebrate our little artist then.”

During dinner, Ai Guohua kept asking Nianxun about her painting. It was the first time Xiaoyu had seen her stern father show such interest in Nianxun. He even asked if she had any interest in studying fine arts formally.

Nianxun hesitated before shaking her head. “No… I just like painting. I haven’t thought about anything else. I want to get into university based on my academic grades.”

Ding Chengying agreed. “Nianxun’s grades are quite good. It would be a bit of a waste to go the art route.”

In their eyes, art school was mostly for students who couldn’t get into university through the standard “proper” way.

Nianxun listened quietly to them discussing her future. It was a strange feeling; it had been many years since anyone had paid this much attention to her. In the past, Ding Chengying rarely cooked, leaving it to the housekeeper. She would come home from shopping and just eat, or sometimes not come home at all. Ai Guohua was home even less, and when he was, he never had a kind word for Nianxun.

But tonight, Nianxun felt a sense of “home” in the rising steam of the soup and the spread of food.

Home…

Nianxun closed her eyes briefly and looked toward Xiaoyu. Xiaoyu was already looking at her. Their eyes met for a few seconds, sharing a moment of mutual understanding.

After dinner, they went upstairs. Since Nianxun’s old bed had broken, she had moved to a room much closer to Xiaoyu’s only a few steps away.

Nianxun closed her door and looked at her clean, refreshed room. She opened the curtains and placed her cactus back on the windowsill. The little bunny plush on her bed was wearing a tiny outfit—one Ai Xiaoyu had knitted herself. Her middle-school handicraft skills were surprisingly good; the delicate patterns and lace trim looked as good as anything from a store.

Nianxun sat at her desk. She took a small key from beneath a notebook in her drawer and unlocked the bottom-most compartment. From it, she pulled out a diary with a combination lock.

She stared at the cover for several long minutes. Finally, she opened it.

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