The Villain I Loved Has Broken Free and Transmigrated Out of the Story - Chapter 12

Yin Ya froze, stopping in her tracks. She looked up at the storefront, where a sign read “Heaven’s Will Floral.” Through the glass walls, she could see vases of fresh flowers and bouquets arranged on shelves, along with potted plants.

It was a flower shop.

“Night Fragrance,” Cang Lanyan reminded her.

Yin Ya nodded slightly and stepped into the shop.

The commercial street wasn’t far from the school, and many shops were run by students. As Yin Ya entered, the shop owner, who had been watching a drama, immediately stood up with a beaming smile. “What kind of flowers would you like?”

“Mint,” Yin Ya said. “Ideally hydroponic, with plenty of leaves.”

“Let me see what I have.” The shop owner walked straight toward a row of sun-facing shelves.

“I want Night Fragrance,” Cang Lanyan reminded her again.

“They’ve renamed Night Fragrance to mint,” Yin Ya whispered, taking advantage of the shop owner’s absence. “Let me show you.” She opened her phone, searched for “Night Fragrance,” and just as she hit search, the shop owner called from nearby, “I have hydroponic mint, but only in small bottles. Let me show you.”

Yin Ya hurried over and almost frowned when she saw the palm-sized glass bottles.

A few mint leaves? Even three bottles might not be enough for Big Villain to bathe once.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized to the shop owner. “I need mint to drink. These… don’t have enough leaves.”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” the shop owner said with a good-natured smile. “But my mint is mainly for decoration. It’s not very effective as medicine. Why don’t you try the pet market or the grocery store?”

Yin Ya thanked the shop owner quickly, wrapped her scarf tightly, and hurried out of the flower shop.

The pet market was too far away. Ruiye Garden had an underground mall, but she couldn’t remember if they sold mint there.

But as soon as she stepped out of the shop, Cang Lanyan said, “I never imagined you had such a… peculiar taste.”

“What peculiar taste?” Yin Ya asked, utterly confused.

“To drink the water I’ve bathed in,” Cang Lanyan said, her tone surprisingly serious.

Yin Ya: “……”

She had only casually mentioned wanting to use mint to make tea. How did that turn into drinking bathwater?!

“But humans usually use mint like this,” Yin Ya explained, though she felt like crying and laughing. “Mint is edible, you can drink it steeped in water, or use it in baths. It’s just one of many uses.”

Cang Lanyan snorted, clearly unconvinced.

Fine, don’t believe me. Yin Ya didn’t want to argue about such nonsense. After explaining, she turned and walked toward the exit of the shopping street.

After walking for a while, Yin Ya couldn’t help but wonder if the Big Villain was even looking around.

Normally, there should be plenty of things on the street to catch her attention—neon lights, billboards, shops of all kinds, and passersby dressed completely differently from the ancient demons she was used to.

But Cang Lanyan seemed utterly indifferent to these new, unfamiliar things. She showed no curiosity at all. Why else would she remain so silent?

Could it be because she was worried people would think she was crazy if she talked to herself on the street?

Yin Ya decided to put the puzzling matter aside for now and quickened her pace.

Since the Big Villain wasn’t interested, there was no point wasting time on the street. It was bitterly cold, and she needed to buy the mint and get back home quickly.

In no time, she reached the entrance to Ruiye Garden Underground Mall and deliberately took the escalator down.

“This is another type of elevator,” she explained to Cang Lanyan when they were alone for a moment. “We usually call it an ‘electric escalator.'”

Cang Lanyan didn’t respond.

Her persistent silence gave Yin Ya a sudden sense of foreboding. She quickly reached into her ear and pulled out a chunk of ice that was rock-hard from the cold. When she rolled it in her palm, it unexpectedly melted into a shimmering light and vanished.

Terrified, Yin Ya nearly lost her soul. Ignoring the downward-moving escalator, she turned and scrambled upward.

Where did Cang Lanyan go?!

The ice in her ear hadn’t melted. It seemed the Big Villain had deliberately left a weight in her ear to avoid arousing suspicion before fleeing!

The escalator had been moving downward for some time. When Yin Ya rushed upward, the people behind her cried out in alarm and scrambled out of her way, afraid she’d bump into them.

Finally back on the ground, Yin Ya gasped for breath, staring blankly around her.

When did Cang Lanyan disappear? And where did she go?

What could she have seen that made her abandon Yin Ya and slip away silently?

Yin Ya couldn’t make sense of it. She trudged toward the shopping street, shouting Cang Lanyan’s name at the top of her lungs.

But there was no response.

At first, Yin Ya didn’t ask anyone. Partly because of her social anxiety, and partly because Cang Lanyan had said she wouldn’t reveal her presence in public. If that was true, asking anyone would be pointless.

But half an hour passed, and she still couldn’t find Cang Lanyan. Desperate, she steeled herself and began asking anyone she saw, hoping against hope that it might work.

“Have you seen a woman with white hair and blue clothes?” Yin Ya stopped a man walking his dog. “She’s about a head taller than me, with long hair, dressed lightly, very pale skin, looks a bit foreign, and has copper rings on her arms and wrists…”

Before she could finish, the man gave her a strange look, shook his head, muttered “No,” yanked the leash, and hurried away.

Yin Ya stood awkwardly in place, clenching her sleeves, gritting her teeth, then steeled herself and approached the next passerby, stopping her and asking the same question.

After questioning seven or eight people with no success, Yin Ya continued searching around the flower shop for a while. Finally, she stood in the bustling street, utterly lost.

Earlier, when she was angry, she had actually wished Cang Lanyan would suddenly disappear and return to the book. But now that Cang Lanyan had truly vanished, she felt even more uneasy.

Moreover, she had come out into the biting cold specifically to help Cang Lanyan get familiar with the outside world, only to end up losing her.

What should she do now? Should she go back home and wait, or stay here?

Yin Ya suddenly felt a pang of sadness. The emotions she had been suppressing while searching for Cang Lanyan welled up unbidden, blurring her vision with a misty haze.

Without any tissues, she sniffled and blinked away her tears, thinking, I have to make a choice. Steeling herself, she headed straight for Ruiye Garden.

Cang Lanyan was right: she was just a frail human. On such a cold winter night, she didn’t dare stay outside for long.

As she passed through the gates of Ruiye Garden and walked down the deserted path, a sudden gust of icy wind blew from behind, chilling her to the bone.

Yin Ya instinctively tightened her scarf. The next moment, she felt a weight on her ear, and a feather-soft voice whispered: “Not buying mint anymore?”

The familiar voice remained calm, but Yin Ya’s defenses crumbled instantly, tears streaming down her face.

Pulling out her phone, she pretended to be on a call, actually blocking the ear closest to Cang Lanyan. After a deep breath, she asked in a steady voice: “Where were you just now?”

She was thinking that if Cang Lanyan gave a plausible explanation, she’d pretend nothing happened. But instead, Cang Lanyan replied: “I was here the whole time. You just didn’t notice.”

Her voice carried a hint of laughter, though whether it was mocking or something else, Yin Ya couldn’t tell.

Yin Ya felt her blood boil, nearly grinding her teeth as she said, “Then you must know how long I’ve been looking for you.”

“About an hour,” Cang Lanyan replied calmly and precisely.

“Why… did you do this?” Yin Ya asked, struggling to contain her fury.

“Just to confirm a suspicion,” Cang Lanyan answered serenely. “Now I have my answer.”

Before Yin Ya could explode, she continued leisurely, “You overcame your fear of people to come find me, and you even cried when you couldn’t find me. That means I’m very special to you.”

“So what?” Yin Ya’s voice was harsher than ever. She’d spent a whole hour buzzing around the commercial street like a headless fly, searching for a paper-thin character who’d been watching her make a fool of herself the whole time. “So that’s what gave you the nerve to toy with me?”

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