The Villain I Loved Has Broken Free and Transmigrated Out of the Story - Chapter 53

The rented apartment should have been quiet as usual, but the washing machine’s start shattered the usual tranquility.

Before making her decision, Yin Ya never imagined she’d end up washing her own pajamas and Cang Lanyan’s bedsheets tonight!

If she’d known this would happen, she would have preferred taking proper precautions; dragging Cang Lanyan into the bathroom to confess instead.

Meanwhile, the “culprit” behind all this was calmly soaking in the bathtub.

This left Yin Ya feeling a little frustrated. After starting the washing machine, she draped her coat over her shoulders, pushed open the bathroom door, and slipped behind Cang Lanyan. Wrapping her arms around the merfolk’s neck, she remarked slyly, “Your merfolk race sure has impressive abilities. You truly deserve to be called the ‘Tyrant of the Sea’.”

“I can only speak for myself,” Cang Lanyan replied, tilting her head against Yin Ya’s arm. “I’ve never had a Dao Companion, nor witnessed my kind act in such matters.”

Yin Ya instinctively glanced at Cang Lanyan’s fish tail, then pressed her palm against the merfolk’s cheek.

The Old Spirit’s face remained icy cold, unlike Yin Ya’s, which would always flush crimson whenever she was asked about such things.

“You caused such a commotion, yet you don’t even blush. What are you thinking?” Yin Ya withdrew her hand, puzzled.

“Your Excellency the Author might care to guess,” Cang Lanyan replied.

“How could I possibly guess that!” Yin Ya was torn between laughter and exasperation. “Honestly, your reactions are so inconsistent. Where did that Merfolk from earlier go, the one demanding I take responsibility?”

She felt that Cang Lanyan, having regained her Seven Emotions and Six Desires, was a walking contradiction, just like her former self. Her mind was full of resistance, yet her body readily yielded.

“If I said I’m deeply embarrassed right now, would you believe me?” Cang Lanyan asked calmly.

“Then your face must be a billboard for embarrassment,” Yin Ya retorted sarcastically. She casually grabbed a tissue from the side, wiped Cang Lanyan’s damp hand resting on the bathtub edge, then took her wrist and pressed her hand against her own cheek. Half-joking, half-serious, she said, “At least let your face warm up a little, like mine.”

“But Your Excellency the Author, said I don’t need to deliberately seek out a normal reaction,” Cang Lanyan said, looking at her.

Yin Ya thought for a moment. “That’s true. For someone so aloof, not blushing over something like this isn’t a problem. I was just wondering… are you genuinely unable to show your emotions, or is it a habit of maintaining your dignity, refusing to let anyone see you flustered?”

She had seen Cang Lanyan flustered before. Back then, Cang Lanyan had reacted strongly, being particularly sensitive. Even an accidental touch would make her angrily chase Yin Ya out of the bathroom. Her current reaction was unnaturally calm.

Cang Lanyan remained silent. Yin Ya couldn’t hold back. Mustering her courage, she reached toward the fish tail.

Thanks to Teacher Cang Lanyan’s meticulous guidance, she could now spot the sunken scales at a glance.

But the moment her hand dipped into the water, before she even touched the scales, she was stopped by a spiritual power barrier.

“I hope Your Excellency knows when to stop,” Cang Lanyan said sternly.

Yin Ya dragged out a drawn-out “Oh,” withdrew her hand, casually wiped it on a tissue, and leaned in close to Cang Lanyan’s ear with a smile. “Looks like I guessed right. The Lord Guardian God really does insist on maintaining elegance and composure at all times.”

Cang Lanyan glanced at her and warned mildly, “Your Excellency the Author would do well to stay up all night focused on writing tonight. Don’t even think about closing your eyes.”

Yin Ya’s smile froze on her face, fully realizing what it meant to be “cool for three seconds.”

She’d thought she’d gotten the upper hand, but in reality, she’d always been at the mercy of this Old Spirit!

Within the Dream Realm of “Merfolk’s Delight,” Cang Lanyan was practically invincible. As long as she didn’t allow Yin Ya to leave the dream or fade her memories and perceptions, all beautiful dreams would turn into nightmares.

Yin Ya wilted instantly, crouching low and timidly pounding Cang Lanyan’s shoulders with cupped fists, her voice pleading in a small, ingratiating tone, “Master, thank you for enduring the trouble of teaching this clumsy disciple. Let me help you relax your muscles! Please, with your magnanimity, could you pretend you didn’t hear any of this?”

Cang Lanyan scoffed, raising her gaze to meet Yin Ya’s with a severe glare.

“Disciple has broken the rules and shown disrespect. This master cannot let that go unpunished.”

Yin Ya: “……”

Damn it, she’s gone too far!

After studying Cang Lanyan’s impenetrable expression for a moment, Yin Ya gave up struggling. Before leaving, she couldn’t resist tempting fate one last time and quickly leaned down.

Staying up all night to write was impossible. She couldn’t escape tonight’s punishment anyway, so she might as well seize the opportunity to gain some advantage while she could.

Even so, Yin Ya braced herself for a kiss in the air. But instead, she immediately felt the familiar softness. Cang Lanyan hadn’t dodged the kiss at all but had even parted her lips in cooperation.

This startled Yin Ya. Fearful that the Old Spirit was setting her up again, she hastily finished the kiss, straightened up, and tried to flee, only to be blocked by Spiritual Power Tendrils.

“Why are you trying to escape?” The merfolk in the bathtub remained lazily reclined, but her words carried an invisible authority.

“I still have writing to finish,” Yin Ya said, scrambling for an excuse. “I wanted to write a chapter before bed and post it.”

“Is that the duty of an author?” Cang Lanyan pressed.

“More or less,” Yin Ya said, straightening up and thickening her skin to accept the task. “But it also depends on one’s personal standards. I set myself a goal of finishing and posting at least one chapter a day, unless I genuinely can’t write anymore. Only then would I ask my readers for a break.”

“If that’s the case, then go ahead,” Cang Lanyan said. “Finish writing sooner so you can sleep sooner.”

Those amber eyes weren’t actually looking at her, but Yin Ya inexplicably felt their gaze piercing her, sending a shiver down her spine.

After hastily fleeing the bathroom, Yin Ya returned to her bedroom, clutching her slightly aching abdomen. She realized she’d been trying to compete with this Old Spirit these past few days.

Fortunately, the earlier interruption hadn’t disrupted her focus. Accompanied by the rhythmic hum of the washing machine, Yin Ya adjusted her posture, settled her laptop on the desk, and concentrated fully on the document.

She had her protagonist investigate Cang Lanyan’s disappearance and learn from informants that the military leader had failed to appear in two subsequent critical operations. In both cases, the young clan chief of the Merfolk had taken her place. The reason for this remained unclear.

This was undoubtedly an excellent opportunity for the protagonist to turn the tables. However, the Merfolk’s habitat was protected by the Sacred Tree Barrier, and historically, the only successful external assault had been Cang Lanyan’s transformation into a human.

In other words, if the Sacred Tree Barrier were impenetrable, it would prove that Cang Lanyan was still safely within the clan, rather than missing.

At this point in the story, Yin Ya ran into another dilemma.

Under normal circumstances, the protagonist should be trying to breach the enemy’s stronghold at this point. After all, Cang Lanyan and the Merfolk clan essentially constituted the ultimate boss. For the story to reach a logical conclusion, the protagonist needed to confront this ultimate boss.

Although this confrontation should ideally involve Cang Lanyan herself, since she had already entered the Sacred Tree and fallen into a deep slumber, the climax naturally shifted into a tug-of-war between the protagonist and the Merfolk Clan Chief. By arranging a plot point to explain the reason for Cang Lanyan’s slumber, this storyline could be considered barely concluded.

But how was this conflict going to end?

Yin Ya wrote and deleted, deleted and wrote, agonizing over it all night. She finally published what she felt was a satisfactory new chapter just after midnight.

Though the chapter was short, it finally cleared everything up.

After shutting down her computer, moving away her desk, and taking a deep breath, Yin Ya retrieved her phone from the storage basket and turned off silent mode.

Perhaps because school was about to start, the class group chat was unusually active today. Many classmates who were already close were chatting, and the message count had already skyrocketed past a hundred.

Yin Ya casually scrolled through the messages, then checked the group announcements and files to confirm there were no new updates. After exiting the class group, she opened her social feed.

Cen Xiang had been quiet since her afternoon notification. She’d probably confirmed Yin Ya was safe and gone out to play with her roommates, enjoying her last days of vacation.

Yin Ya quickly spotted Cen Xiang’s nine-grid photo post in her social feed. In each photo, Cen Xiang looked like a different person, her smile radiant as she posed with her roommates in trendy poses.

Yin Ya had seen her post photos on WeChat Moments before, but this time, instead of feeling indifferent, she felt both envious and lonely. She silently liked the post, then exited WeChat Moments, turned off her phone, and buried her face in the quilt covering her knees.

After what happened with her father, she actually lived on campus for a while. When she started high school, she actively joined various clubs, participated in class plays, and even won awards in district-wide team competitions.

During her first year of high school, with Cen Xiang by her side, she was genuinely happy. Her roommates were nice too. Every day after evening study, she’d return to the dormitory to hear her roommates chatting about the hottest otome games, sharing the latest dramas and anime they were watching.

Those were the happiest days. She even hoped that the pain from her past could heal over the three years of high school, leading to a hopeful and exciting college life.

It wasn’t until her second year of high school, when she switched to the liberal arts class and moved dormitories, that she inadvertently encountered the “lesbian” community. The sexual orientation she had always vaguely sensed gradually awakened, and her happy times plunged uncontrollably into an abyss.

Afraid of being discovered, she moved out of the dormitory, claiming she wanted to focus on her studies. She spent the remaining two years in a rented apartment across from the school, gradually drifting apart from her former female friends.

During that special period, no one noticed anything unusual about her. After all, the high school exam was a narrow bridge, and for any ambitious student, devoting oneself entirely to studying was undoubtedly the best choice. As for the separation and loss of contact after graduation, that was perfectly normal.

Unable to resolve her inner conflict, she discovered around that time that writing novels could alleviate her loneliness. Even after starting university, she continued to live day after day on her own isolated island.

Even so? Cen Xiang thought. Without being able to get to the root of her heartache, I can only try to offer her what I believe is necessary care and companionship. I can’t truly pull her out of this situation.

“What’s wrong?”

Cang Lanyan’s voice came from the doorway, pulling Yin Ya back to reality.

“N-nothing, I just finished writing and was resting my eyes!” Yin Ya quickly lifted her head, put her phone back in the tray, climbed down the bed ladder, and hurried past Cang Lanyan. “I’m just going to hang up my pajamas and bedsheets, then I’ll go to sleep.”

“It’s hung up.”

Cang Lanyan blocked her path with an arm. “Also, the washing machine didn’t get rid of those water stains. I cleaned them just now, but it looks like we’ll have to hand wash them in the future.”

Yin Ya froze, instantly following her train of thought to envision herself scrubbing the bedsheets by hand in the future. Her face flushed crimson.

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