The Beautiful, Strong, and Tragic Female Lead is Mine [Transmigration Into a Novel] - Chapter 84

Upon entering, Li Changhui was greeted by the familiar scent of food.

His wife, her back to him as she busily worked in the kitchen, heard the commotion, immediately set down what she was doing, and walked quickly toward him.

Li Changhui was long accustomed to this. He stood in place, arms open, waiting for his wife to help him with his coat and find his slippers.

Kong Qian took his coat and sniffed it, then leaned in to smell his shirt. Her voice was soft as she complained, “So you’ve finally come home. You must have been drinking a lot these past few days.”

Li Changhui smiled and gently coaxed her, “It’s all for work, you know, for business. A few drinks, to build rapport, and things get easier to talk about.”

He looked toward the kitchen, changing the subject, “What delicious things did you make for me today?”

Kong Qian didn’t really understand the drinking culture. It was bad for his health, and a bunch of drunk people couldn’t possibly talk about business properly. To her, it was a thankless effort. But Li Changhui seemed to enjoy it, so she didn’t interfere, only reminding him not to drink too much and to take care of his health.

She said, “I knew you were coming back, so I made your favorite braised lamb ribs, stir-fried shrimp, and blanched lettuce. Go wash your hands, and I’ll get you some rice.”

Li Changhui raised his hand and gently tapped her small nose. “My wife knows me best.”

Kong Qian, as always, was a consistently good cook. Every dish was exquisite and delicious, whetting the appetite. Li Changhui had eaten a lot of great food outside over the years, but he still couldn’t give up Kong Qian’s cooking. He would miss her home-cooked meals if he went too long without them.

Li Changhui held the second bowl of rice Kong Qian had given him, a look of contentment on his face.

He asked casually, “What have you been doing at home these past few days?”

Kong Qian put a piece of lamb rib on his plate. “What else could I do? I’ve been doing housework, trying out new recipes, and waiting for you to come back. What about you? Is work going well?”

Li Changhui looked at her obedient face and felt even more pleased. He nodded, “Everything’s fine. Things will be a little easier after next month, and I won’t be so busy. I’ll make sure to spend some quality time with you then.”

“That’s good,” Kong Qian’s eyes lit up. “Once you’re done with this busy period, I want to go back to work.”

After marrying Li Changhui, he had told her that since he was so busy with work, he had no time for housework, so he wanted her to be a full-time housewife. He said that once things were stable, she could decide whether to work or stay at home.

Kong Qian, worried about Li Changhui’s health, decided to take care of him at home first and wait until he was less busy.

Li Changhui was taken aback. “What? You want to go back to work?”

“Yes, didn’t we agree on that before? Did you forget?”

Kong Qian reminded him, “I’ve always planned on working. Since you won’t be as busy anymore, I don’t need to stay at home all the time. I should have my own career, too.”

This time, Li Changhui was completely stunned. He had a vague impression of what Kong Qian was saying, but back then, he had only said that to get her to stay at home, as a temporary measure.

He never intended for Kong Qian to go to work from the start. After all, having a beautiful and obedient woman at home was much more cost-effective than hiring a nanny. Similarly, he had wanted Kong Qian to have a child as soon as possible, even deliberately sabotaging their contraception, but they had been unlucky and she hadn’t gotten pregnant.

Seeing him stay silent for so long, Kong Qian pouted and whined, “What’s wrong? You didn’t really forget, did you?”

“How could I? I remember everything I promised you,” Li Changhui said, struggling to maintain his smile. “What do you want to do? Tell your husband about it.”

He planned to put her off for now and find an excuse later, saying something came up at work and he had to be busy again, to get rid of the idea in her head.

Kong Qian smiled and began to explain, “I’ve thought it through. I want to open a small restaurant. You know how much I love to cook…”

Li Changhui played along, but he didn’t care for the idea. She loved to cook, but she could do that at home. Why did she have to open a restaurant?

Looking at the gentle smile on his wife’s face, a sentence from the dinner party suddenly popped into his head.

“Some women, they seem obedient on the surface, but they have a lot of their own ideas. You have to keep a close eye on them. Anything not in your own hands is never truly secure.”

Li Changhui’s heart tightened. He tried to speak in a natural tone, “Qianqian, I want to discuss something with you.”

Kong Qian blinked. “What is it?”

Li Changhui said, “I’ve been thinking these past few days, and I’ve decided to buy another batch of supplies for the soldiers. Their work is just too hard; they can’t go on like this. How about you lend me your dowry to help me out? I’ll buy supplies and distribute them. Once we defeat the aliens and our district’s economy recovers, I’ll pay you back double.”

He felt uncertain, expecting Kong Qian to hesitate. To his surprise, a look of pleasant surprise spread across her face. “What a coincidence, we were thinking the same thing.”

Li Changhui’s heart seized up. It took him a few seconds to react. “Wh-what do you mean?”

“I mean, we’re on the same wavelength.”

Kong Qian lowered her head to pour him some water and didn’t notice his strange reaction. “I’ve already converted most of my jewelry into supplies and distributed them to the cyborg soldiers in the various apartments.”

“I brought you some medicine, food, and some daily necessities. Just rest well once you get there. You don’t have to worry about anything else. We’ll come pick you up in a few days.”

Xie Zhitian sat in the back of the car, pointing to a few bags at her feet, speaking to the person next to her.

Tang Zhuoran nodded. “I know. I’m not worried about anything.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the driver in the front seat glance at the items on the floor as he buckled his seatbelt.

After negotiating with the sanatorium, they agreed to allow a family member to accompany her, get her settled in her room, and then leave. Since Xie Zhitian had a portable space, she naturally took on this role.

She wasn’t sure if the items she carried would be confiscated before entering the sanatorium, so she brought some food and medicine openly. If they weren’t confiscated, that was even better. If they were, the other party would lower their guard, thinking she had nothing else to hand over.

Xie Zhitian planned to take out the medicine and inhibitors from her space after getting her into the room, hide them in a discreet place, and find an opportunity to distribute them to others later.

However, Tang Zhuoran did not bring her communicator this time. She didn’t have a portable space, and while the consequences of being caught with medicine might not be severe, being caught with a communicator would arouse extreme suspicion and even expose the entire plan. Besides, they would be subjected to a thorough physical examination after entering the sanatorium, so a communicator sewn into a wound couldn’t be hidden either.

As they had planned, Xie Zhitian spoke in a light tone. “How are you feeling now? Are you a little better?”

Tang Zhuoran said, “A little better, but I still have symptoms of fever and headaches, and I can’t control my emotions very well. I still need to rest for a few days.”

The symptoms of a cyborg’s mutation are different, but once they reach a certain level, everyone can clearly sense it. Cyborgs generally don’t get sick, so once symptoms appear, it can be pretty much confirmed as a mutation. Common symptoms include fever, dizziness, nausea, and skin redness. More severe symptoms include hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, mental confusion, and aggression toward others.

Xie Zhitian said, “Your neck isn’t as red as it was this morning. It should be fine.”

At this moment, the driver started the car, and the sound of the engine made her next words a bit muffled. “Don’t think about anything. Just get some good sleep. You’ve been too tired these past few days.”

Tang Zhuoran agreed, leaning her head gently against the cold car window.

The scenery outside the window quickly passed by, leaving a blur of changing light and shadows in her clear eyes.

The sky was a dull gray, with heavy clouds hanging low and dark, as if they would fall at any moment. The damp, cold wind seeped in through the gaps in the window. The rain was about to fall, causing a sense of inexplicable frustration.

Tang Zhuoran closed her eyes. She suddenly remembered that a year ago, on a winter day, it was also this cloudy.

That day was the annual internal New Year’s party in the district. At that time, she had only been in District 14 for a little over half a year. She hadn’t accomplished much yet, and her physical condition had not fully adjusted.

As a cyborg who had mutated three times and had once implicated her teammates, Tang Zhuoran’s life seemed to be a solitary one. While her colleagues didn’t deliberately ostracize her, no one wanted to get too close to her either.

As fate would have it, the game she drew was to hug anyone present for ten seconds.

But at that time, she had no friends she was close enough with to do so.

Moreover, the types of drugs to control cyborg mutations were far from as abundant as they were now, and the mechanisms were still unclear. Many cyborgs were worried that intimate contact with someone who mutated frequently would lead to them being infected as well.

The host was a staff member from another department. She wasn’t familiar with Tang Zhuoran and didn’t know the reason for her hesitation. Seeing that no one was volunteering, she started calling on Tang Zhuoran’s companions from the guard squad.

The cyborgs’ expressions were subtle, and their responses were all over the place.

“Are you serious? I don’t think I’m worthy of that, I feel so humbled, hahaha.”

“Miss Tang is too beautiful. I’m not worthy, I’m not worthy.”

“What a shame, what a shame. I’m a man with a family now. If I were single, I would definitely love to. I’d be willing to wait in line all the way to the moon.”

…

The atmosphere was lively, and it all sounded like flattery, but in reality, they were all excuses.

The lights were dazzling, the noise was loud, and the laughter was a chorus. Tang Zhuoran stood in the center of the stage, feeling a loneliness she had never experienced before.

Everything in front of her seemed to turn into a fantasy of bubbles, blurry and unclear.

“Oh, you all don’t have to fight with me. Let me do it!”

A sweet, soft voice broke through the chaotic and twisted bubbles.

Tang Zhuoran looked up and saw an unfamiliar face.

Soft and vibrant, with a hint of immaturity but stunningly beautiful, like an unripe fruit on a branch, basking in the sun and warm breeze.

The young girl stood in front of her, a hint of a blush on her face, her eyes filled with sparkling anticipation. “My name is Xia Fufeng. Do you mind if I do the punishment with you?”

Tang Zhuoran lowered her eyes to look at her, a faint smile on her face. “Of course. It would be my honor.”

Later, every time Xia Fufeng mentioned that hug to others, she would blush while showing off.

At that time, Tang Zhuoran didn’t understand why Xia Fufeng thought she was so popular and was even worried that someone would compete with her, when everyone else was treating her like a jinx.

It was only much later that she realized that Xia Fufeng truly believed she was a good person, which was why she took all those flattering excuses as genuine.

In the lonely years that were like a black-and-white silent movie, her arrival brought color to everything.

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