The Villainess A Marked the Seductive Movie Queen - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Like

After admiring the scenery, Liu Yitong prepared to return to the hotel. She picked up the half-bouquet of hyacinths wrapped in the silk scarf she had received from Ruan Minxue. As the flowers left the sofa cushion, a small object fell with a clack and wedged itself into a gap in the wall.

Liu Yitong had long fingers and thin hands, but her grip was strong. She easily reached in and fished it out.

It was an opened box of suppressants labeled “For Omega.” The brand was Reperley, a top-tier domestic manufacturer; its price was equivalent to a full month’s salary for an average working-class person.

Omega-specific suppressants.

A private item, and a valuable one at that.

Expressionless, Liu Yitong deftly flipped the medicine box over, pressing her palm against the product name. She remembered Zhang Lishen emphasizing that there were cameras in the activity room. If the camera caught the name of the medication, it would expose the fact that an Omega had been present today.

She gripped the box in her palm. Thinking about having to return it made her feel as if she were holding a time bomb. The sensation traveled from her fingertips to her heart, making her chest feel scorched.

Liu Yitong considered asking someone else to deliver it. However, upon further thought, she didn’t know Ruan Minxue’s current situation or if she intended to keep her Omega status a secret. Nor did she understand Ruan’s social circle. Giving it to the wrong person might inadvertently leak Ruan Minxue’s secret.

Ultimately, Liu Yitong decided to leave it at the front desk. If Ruan Minxue needed it, she could send someone to fetch it—it would be more convenient.

Clutching the flowers and the box, she walked out of the activity room. But as soon as she stepped out, she froze.

At the end of the long corridor, on a terrace behind a pillar, stood Ruan Minxue.

She had assumed the woman had left with the director long ago. She never expected that after delaying so long, she would run right into her.

At that moment, Ruan Minxue opened her lips, and a cloud of misty smoke drifted from between her teeth, making the red of her lips pop even more.

It was the first time Liu Yitong realized this person had such a habit. Since Ruan never smoked in public, witnessing it gave Liu Yitong a subtle thrill, like glimpsing a hidden secret.

Ruan Minxue hadn’t seen her yet. Her elbows were propped on the terrace railing, her upper body leaning out slightly, her lower back arched lazily. Her soft white sweater draped over her form, tracing a beautiful silhouette. Between her fingers was a half-burnt slim cigarette. Her head hung low, the corners of her mouth pressed down, her eyes drooping as she looked down at the world.

The ends of her curled hair, held up by a shark clip, were gilded gold by the sunset. The stray hairs at the nape of her neck flickered in the wind. She looked detached and indifferent, which only made her appear more alluring.

It reminded Liu Yitong of the beautiful widow Ruan had played in a period drama—decadent, blurred, making people want to fill in the missing pieces of her tragic fate.

Liu Yitong’s glands began to heat up again; she raised a hand to rub them twice. Recalling the first temporary marking that night, she reinforced the “widow” fantasy—losing the company of a compatible pheromone was, in a way, like a form of bereavement…

Liu Yitong lifted her foot, intending to walk quietly and slip downstairs unnoticed to leave the suppressants at the front desk. But the butterfly effect disturbed the flowers on the other side; Ruan Minxue turned her head and spotted her.

With her foot barely touching the ground, Liu Yitong had no choice but to change direction and walk toward Ruan Minxue.

As she got closer, she noticed Ruan wasn’t holding any flowers. She guessed Ruan might have had someone take them away first. She could almost imagine the conversation: Ruan Minxue probably said, Take these down for me, I’m staying for a bit.

Staying for a bit. Staying behind specifically just to… smoke a cigarette?

As Liu Yitong dissected Ruan Minxue in her mind, she suddenly realized this scrutiny was overstepping. She quickly reined it in and looked up, only to meet Ruan Minxue’s unvarnished gaze.

She was being dissected in return.

Indeed, Ruan Minxue was spying on the girl without restraint, her eyes like soft knives attempting to peel back the surface. She looked at the tall girl before her; despite their height difference, her upward-tilting gaze carried a hint of a condescending appraisal.

The girl cradled the hyacinths Ruan had given her. Unlike other flowers that looked graceful at a glance, the hyacinth looked upright and wood-like from a distance—heavy and lacking charm. Only up close could one see the intricate detail. Each small flower was exquisite; if one touched them, the slippery, soft feel of the petals was a delight.

Ruan Minxue’s gaze moved past the flowers and landed on the girl’s obediently lowered eyes. This child always pretended to be low-key, yet she possessed a face so beautiful it was defiant, and a pair of uniquely unforgettable eyes. Within those Guanyin-like sockets, something seemed to be brewing—part god, part demon—sealed away by a surface of calm. Whether it would be a god or a demon once released depended entirely on the person who broke the seal.

She had remembered these eyes since that accidental night in March.

However, after that night, the number Ruan Minxue left was never called. After the chaos subsided and she remembered the matter, she sent someone to look, but the girl had vanished without a trace. Ruan Minxue wasn’t so obsessed that she couldn’t forget a passing encounter with a kid. Since the girl hadn’t tried to cling to her, Ruan had let it be.

The entertainment industry was full of people steeped in vanity; they wanted to please her but didn’t dare to be disrespectful, their attempts at flattery calculated to the last detail. The “pretty kids” before her were either pure or romantic, innocent or sexy, never speaking plainly but using subtle gestures to test if they could earn a moment of her heartbeat.

Ruan Minxue saw through it all but never spoke up, simply moving through the crowd with a mysterious smile, leaving others to guess. Those with wealth and status are used to having everything under control; others can guess about her, but she couldn’t be bothered to guess about anyone else.

Until those soul-snatching eyes, which had been missing for over a month, met hers again—on a resume, on a monitor, on a hot search, and on the film set.

The girl appeared frequently within her line of sight, yet never uttered a word about that night. Her intentions were unclear. Hard to dissect, hard to guess.

Anyone else might have been fooled, thinking either it was a different person who looked similar, or that the girl had forgotten that night. Unfortunately, Ruan Minxue was not “anyone else.” As a master of acting, she was an expert at catching details. No matter how well the girl managed her expressions or how airtight her answers were, there were always loose threads.

Liu Yitong’s disguise was like a thin sheet of paper that hadn’t been poked through yet. Ruan Minxue couldn’t guess the intention, so she decided to be mischievous. With her initial questions, the scent of hyacinths, and a box of O-type suppressants… she was intentionally stroking that paper with her finger. When the whim took her, she would press down slightly, making the membrane bulge on the verge of tearing.

In doing so, she could hear the girl’s breathing quicken on the other side of the paper, followed by a desperate attempt to suppress it; she could see the girl’s hazy silhouette clenching her fingers, then consciously relaxing them upon realizing her slip.

“Do you smoke?”

Ruan Minxue lowered her eyelids slightly, softening the scrutiny in her gaze.

Hearing the question, Liu Yitong shook her head truthfully. She then watched as the woman raised her brows in slight surprise and, a second later, without hesitation, reached out and extinguished the cigarette on top of the nearby trash can.

This small, thoughtful gesture made Liu Yitong’s heart stir.

She saw Ruan Minxue wiping her fingertips with a disinfectant wipe. It seemed to be an old habit kept alongside her cigarette case. No wonder she always smelled fresh and never of tobacco.

When her fingers were wiped clean and translucent like white jade, and the wipe was discarded, Liu Yitong reflexively switched hands, holding her palm out to take the trash. Ruan Minxue’s hand paused. She didn’t hand the wipe to the girl, but instead tossed it into the trash can herself.

Liu Yitong said nothing, calmly withdrawing her hand and switching the box back to her palm.

This switching of hands naturally caught Ruan Minxue’s attention. Her gaze landed on the item.

Liu Yitong simply placed the box of Omega suppressants on the terrace railing, right next to the ornate cigarette case. She confessed, “I found this in the activity room.”

Ruan Minxue glanced at the box. Seeing that the girl didn’t intend to keep it, she looked up and asked, “Giving it to me?”

Liu Yitong didn’t nod, but she didn’t shake her head either.

“Why give it to me?” Ruan Minxue pressed.

The simple question made Liu Yitong’s breath catch. She secretly adjusted, suppressing her anxiety. This was one of the reasons she hadn’t planned to return it personally. Besides not wanting to use it to get close to Ruan, it was also because… why would she assume an Omega’s item belonged to Ruan Minxue? How did she know Ruan Minxue—who hadn’t officially announced her secondary gender—was an Omega?

The moment she answered that question, it would be hard to avoid the accident from that night. But the girl wasn’t ready to speak the truth. She was panicked and lost; the secret of that night was like Schrödinger’s cat. Whether opening the box meant death or rebirth was a gamble she couldn’t afford to take, simply because it involved Ruan Minxue. She would rather guard this box of superposition; as long as the result wasn’t revealed, everything could remain normal for a while.

“I didn’t know who to give it to,” Liu Yitong said, having prepared this answer. She naturally threw the question back.

From there, she would just act according to Ruan Minxue’s attitude. If Ruan took the box, it proved she was willing to be open about being an Omega; if she didn’t, Liu Yitong would pretend to be ignorant and maintain a dignified distance.

Liu Yitong lowered her eyes, waiting intently for a response, but she only received a very, very soft laugh from Ruan Minxue. It was a smile of “as expected”—clear and calm.

Ruan Minxue said, “That’s the brand the director uses.”

“…” Liu Yitong was speechless. Her mind was so full of Ruan Minxue that she hadn’t even remembered Zhang Lishen had been in the room. The director didn’t release pheromones and hadn’t emphasized his gender; Liu Yitong truly didn’t know.

“Oh… oh.” Liu Yitong took the box back. “Then I’ll give it to the director later.”

Since she didn’t get a clear signal from Ruan Minxue, Liu Yitong thought she would have to continue pretending she didn’t know Ruan’s new identity…

“The one I use isn’t this brand,” Ruan Minxue added.

“Huh?”

Liu Yitong looked up blankly. She saw Ruan Minxue pick up her cigarette case, wave it in front of her, and say meaningfully:

“Keep my secret.”

Ruan Minxue walked away.

It wasn’t until the sun vanished behind the western hills and the light shifted, catching the corner of the suppressant box with a flash, that Liu Yitong snapped out of it. She belatedly realized:

Keep my secret. It referred to the smoking, but also to her Omega identity.

Sharing a secret is an act that pulls someone inside one’s personal boundary. Liu Yitong felt a surge of ecstatic joy. Her expression remained unchanged, but her ears turned red: These are little-known secrets, visible only to me.

“Liu Yitong, you’re quite capable, aren’t you?”

The first sentence of Shu Ran’s call left Liu Yitong bewildered.

“What happened?”

“I thought your ‘redemption through notoriety’ would take a while to show results. I didn’t expect you to start acting so soon!”

“What are you talking about?”

“You don’t know? Have you been off the internet?”

Following Shu Ran’s hint, Liu Yitong opened her apps. She browsed the group chats and the Super Topics. She discovered that while she had been too busy to look at her phone today, the traffic in the communities related to Ruan Minxue had been brewing all evening and exploded after nightfall.

What sparked this discussion was a photo. It wasn’t posted by any official account, but leaked by a marketing account.

From what looked like a fan-shot perspective, the image showed Ruan Minxue reaching out to tuck a stray strand of hair back into Liu Yitong’s beanie. The elegant woman wore a smile as gentle as melting snow. The Liu Yitong in the photo appeared calm with her eyes lowered, yet her fingers resting on her lap had quietly bunched up the fabric of her pants.

It was a behind-the-scenes shot from the activity room.

This was the first time Liu Yitong had seen herself in a frame with Ruan Minxue from a third-person perspective. The image lacked so much reality that she almost didn’t recognize herself in the photo.

“It wasn’t me…” Liu Yitong wanted to explain to Shu Ran, but she didn’t know what to say.

Shu Ran was in high spirits; she gave a few words of encouragement to “keep up the momentum” and hung up.

Liu Yitong watched the online celebration, falling into a brief state of dissociation:

What should I do? Why does this look so shippable? Ruan-jie and Little Liu seem to have a good relationship in private! How could someone Ruan-jie treats so gently be a bad person? I’m just saying, open your minds! Does she have to be a good girl? Isn’t the ‘Evil Woman’ younger sister even better?

The discussions online seemed to be about her, but she felt no sense of connection to them. She turned off her phone screen. Her mind remained blank for a long time before a conscious thought slowly floated up—

Taking behind-the-scenes photos was Ruan Minxue’s suggestion. The photos were all in Zhang Lishen’s camera. Under these circumstances, was it possible for a photo to be leaked for no reason and be “exposed” by a marketing account?

The answer was obvious, but Liu Yitong was a bit afraid of that truth. Because there was a beast of desire living in her heart, and even a tiny bit of sweetness could nourish it. If she let herself be ecstatic, the shackles of reason would crumble, and the beast would run wild.

Ruan Minxue had never fed her sweetness before. Because she hadn’t tasted it, Liu Yitong could suppress it well. But once Ruan Minxue started feeding her, Liu Yitong lost her ground.

At this thought, she felt a wave of grogginess. Looking at the clock on the wall, it was only 9:00 PM. She guessed she had been too focused and tensed during the day, causing her brain to tire early.

Liu Yitong intended to finish her diary before sleeping. Her wrist hovered over the paper, but she couldn’t write. The monster held at the tip of her pen was ready to pounce; she couldn’t let it out so plainly.

Suddenly, her glands throbbed again. Liu Yitong hissed in pain and raised a hand to soothe them, but her brain was instantly clouded by fog.

Too sleepy.

She leaned over the desk and closed her eyes for a brief rest. When she opened them again, her brain and body felt even more exhausted. Even her fingers were trembling from excessive force.

She focused her eyes. Everything before her was both familiar and strange. It was still the hotel, the room she had adapted to for a few days.

However, the clock showed 11:00 PM.

Looking down, the diary page that should have been blank was covered in dense writing:

“I like you I like you I like you I like you I like you”…

The handwriting was unfamiliar, jagged and messy. It filled an entire page.

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