Transmigrated as the Cannon Fodder Boss of the Disabled Heroine - Chapter 57

The world clearly demonstrated that it could keep turning without certain individuals. Freed from Liu Huanran and liberated from those bizarre love-struck tendencies, Yu Zhiwan now lived with complete freedom.

“A failed romance is the devil. An unsuitable lover will drag you into the abyss of ruin. An unhealthy relationship is worse than staying single.”

Pei Yujiang had read this line in a novel recently, one she found utterly engrossing. The protagonist, after shedding her love-struck mentality, became an outstanding police officer, earning widespread praise for serving the people.

She thought the heroine’s words were spot-on and began humming softly by Wing Lake:

“Happy break-up, wish you happiness…”

Seeing Yu Zhiwan cover her ears, Pei Yujiang initially thought her singing was so awful it had offended her and immediately stopped. But Yu Zhiwan simply gestured for silence, then wordlessly signaled for Pei Yujiang to push her wheelchair a little further forward.

Pei Yujiang complied.

The area around Wing Lake’s tower had once been sparsely visited, but after the incident where the actress Chen Lulu nearly jumped to her death, it had become a “check-in hotspot.”

At night, vendors set up stalls selling handmade lanterns, their multicolored lights floating on the water, casting rippling reflections in the breeze. Yu Zhiwan closed her eyes. Blind people relied on hearing and touch to perceive the world, and even though her vision had mostly recovered, years of habit weren’t easily discarded.

The clamor of the crowd around them seemed to fade into the distance. An Omega’s senses, especially smell, were particularly heightened just after a heat cycle. Yu Zhiwan inhaled deeply, but her delicate brows furrowed tighter and tighter.

After a moment, she crooked a finger at Pei Yujiang, who leaned down to hear her whisper against her ear:

“There’s a metallic scent in the lake.”

Pei Yujiang’s expression instantly darkened.

Neither of them would assume something so unusual had a simple explanation. So Pei Yujiang didn’t bother asking, “Are you sure?”, she trusted Yu Zhiwan wouldn’t say it unless she was certain.

The ingrained vigilance in Pei Yujiang’s bones made her first reaction:

“Do we need to evacuate the crowd?”

“Probably not a bomb.”

The abandoned tower had once been an unremarkable part of Wing Lake Park, but the earlier incident had made it infamous. The public’s fascination with spectacle left the authorities exasperated, and they hadn’t bothered repairing the structure after all, “the spot where a celebrity almost jumped” wasn’t exactly something to promote.

Amid the play of light and shadow, young men and women weaved through the crowd, snapping photos and recording videos. Some livestreamers and short-video creators loudly narrated:

“This right here is where Chen Lulu almost jumped, folks! Word is she was saved by some gorgeous woman should I climb up and see for myself? Ghosts? Pfft, I’m not scared. What if a pretty sister comes to rescue me too? Heh!”

The “pretty sister” in question, Pei Yujiang, turned and walked away without another word.

Wing Lake Park was open 24/7, with no official closing time, but by around 10 PM, the crowds usually began thinning. It was just past nine now, and some people were already leaving. If she could evade the cleaners’ rounds, she could slip down to investigate what menace lurked beneath the water.

But it was still the tail end of winter break, and the evening foot traffic was considerable. Pei Yujiang was currently live-streaming, having gained fame after her showdown with Qing Lemon. With Yu Zhiwan seated in a wheelchair her tall, striking figure making her stand out even with a mask on it wasn’t long before two young girls noticed them.

Recognizing Pei Yujiang, the girls rushed over excitedly, asking for an autograph. One even pulled out a tube of Yue Rong lipstick the scented one developed by Yu Zhiwan from her bag.

Pei Yujiang couldn’t refuse. Unlike big celebrities restricted by contracts from signing autographs or taking photos, she wasn’t bound by such rules. She posed for a picture with the girls, keeping the interaction quiet and low-key. The girls were considerate, not making a fuss, and simply waved goodbye with smiles after the photo.

Watching their retreating figures, Pei Yujiang sighed helplessly:

“Good thing I’m not a celebrity. Having your private life constantly under scrutiny like that most people couldn’t handle it.”

Yu Zhiwan replied earnestly:

“But celebrities make a lot of money.”

Pei Yujiang rubbed her nose. “True.”

Those A-listers earned far more than she did. Unlike her, a mere wage worker who still had to pay Yu Zhiwan’s salary and constantly worry about performance metrics even occasionally working after hours.

As night fell, the crowd thinned, and vendors began packing up their stalls one by one, unable to sell their remaining goods.

This was the moment Pei Yujiang had been waiting for. Once the cleaning staff finished sweeping the public restroom, she and Yu Zhiwan hid nearby. Soon, security would patrol Yi Lake Park, urging any lingering visitors to head home. After that, they could make their move.

The early spring night carried a slight chill, but it wasn’t too cold, nor was it plagued by the swarms of mosquitoes that made summer nights unbearable where squatting in the grass would leave you covered in itchy bites.

Standing out in the open was too conspicuous, and squatting for too long would numb her legs. Yu Zhiwan came up with a solution: Pei Yujiang could sit in the wheelchair while Yu Zhiwan perched on her lap. That way, they could make a quick escape if needed.

“If we get caught, we can just say we’re roleplaying something kinky.”

“Cough! Cough!”

Pei Yujiang choked on her own saliva, stunned that Yu Zhiwan could say such a thing with a straight face.

But the Omega was entirely serious, her clear eyes fixed ahead, lips pressed into a firm line as she meticulously analyzed their chances of being discovered and planned their cover story.

Some park cleaners and guards were lax, while others were thorough. If they ran into one who took their job seriously, they might be persuaded for their own safety to leave, even if it took some convincing.

“Fine.”

If Yu Zhiwan, an Omega, could be this bold, Pei Yujiango felt a twinge of shame for her earlier hesitation and wandering thoughts.

With their proximity, Pei Yujiang could catch the intoxicating fragrance clinging to Yu Zhiwan. But she reminded herself they were comrades, superior and subordinate. She was a Beta. The faint ripples of emotion quickly stilled.

Fortunately, the cleaning lady and security guard she encountered today were rather careless. After a quick round of inspection, they clocked out for the day. Pei Yujiang waited until the sounds outside faded completely before pushing Yu Zhiwan out.

Without the glaring lights of street vendors or the cheerful chatter of tourists, Wing Lake at night resembled the vast spread wings of a pterosaur in the distance. The windless, waveless surface appeared even more solemn, with dark hues gradually encroaching and overtaking it the lake now gloomier than the sky itself.

Under normal circumstances, Pei Yujiang would never have dared to dive straight in. But after the recent torrential floods, she had lost all faith in Yicheng’s leadership, no longer expecting them to act in the people’s best interests.

She even suspected that if not for her minor connections, she might have been quietly disposed of back then.

By disrupting their corrupt schemes, she had crossed a line as the saying goes, “Cutting off someone’s wealth is like killing their parents.” Those people likely saw her as an enemy already. Reporting this now could give them any excuse to detain her.

Faced with the choice between risking a dive into the lake or confronting those officials, Pei Yujiang chose the lake. At least with tangible monsters, she stood a fighting chance, unlike the unfathomable treachery of human hearts.

With Yu Zhiwan keeping watch from shore her legs making movement difficult, Pei Yujiang plunged in after a brief “Be careful” from her companion. An excellent swimmer, she cut through the water like a nimble fish, quickly adjusting to the temperature difference before diving deeper.

Wing Lake had been well-maintained over the years, and Pei Yujiang’s past-life combat experience here gave her familiarity with its general layout. Though two centuries apart, it remained fundamentally the same body of water, a fact that bolstered her confidence in navigating it freely.

The early spring chill in Yicheng was deceptive. Only upon hitting the water did the true, bone-deep cold reveal itself, threatening to freeze every cell in her body. Were it not for sheer determination, Pei Yujiang would have scrambled back to shore immediately her current physique, untempered by apocalyptic trials, couldn’t match her former resilience.

Forcing her eyes open in the icy water, a skill honed through maskless training, though sustainable only briefly, Pei Yujiang scanned her surroundings through blurred vision.

That single glance revealed the anomaly.

An iron cage sat submerged several meters from shore, explaining the rust scent Yu Zhiwan had detected. Ensuring no other obstacles lurked nearby, Pei Yujiang swam closer for inspection. Inside floated a corpse, if it could still be called human.

The features had dissolved into unrecognizable bloated flesh, swaying with the current. A grotesque mouth gaped open, revealing among normal teeth two prominent, razor-sharp canines.

This had once been a powerfully built man. His waterlogged flesh strained at the seams, wounds peeling back to expose rotting tissue. The waterlogged abdomen indicated prolonged submersion.

Pei Yujiango had already developed courage during the apocalypse, so she wasn’t frightened by this. She merely frowned slightly out of respect for life and instinctive disgust, then moved a bit closer.

Holding her breath, not daring to exhale casually, she could only observe carefully with her eyes, which stung painfully from the lake water.

When she felt she couldn’t hold on much longer, Pei Yujiang slowly ascended.

With a splash, Pei Yujiang broke the surface. Hearing the noise, Yu Zhiwan above quickly wheeled her chair closer but didn’t go too near. She waited until Pei Yujiango had climbed ashore before asking:

“What’s the situation down there?”

Pei Yujiang first caught her breath and spat out the water she’d inhaled before carefully describing what she’d seen. Yu Zhiwan, being no timid Omega, calmly accepted the fact that there was a body in the water.

Pei Yujiang took the bottled water Yu Zhiwan had bought from a vending machine and gulped down several mouthfuls. As she drank, Yu Zhiwan asked:

“Do you think it’s a simple murder case?”

Pei Yujiango shook her head quickly:

“I don’t think it’s murder. Why would someone hide a body here? Most killers would choose to destroy the evidence rather than leave a body soaking in a lake. Though at this depth, it’s unlikely anyone would notice. We can’t rule out the possibility of a psychopathic killer, but I’m more inclined to think it’s related to those people’s experiments.”

Yu Zhiwan, being highly cultivated, rarely interrupted when others spoke. She listened attentively and only pressed for details after Pei Yujiang finished:

“What kind of experiments?”

“Testing whether the experimental subjects are ‘waterproof’?”

In Pei Yujiang’s era, scientists had discovered that when those people tried to create zombies, they couldn’t produce finished products immediately. They called these incomplete yet partially formed half-human, half-zombie creatures “experimental subjects.”

Those who became test subjects met terrible fates. Pei Yujiang knew they were insane, but she hadn’t realized Yicheng had become so corrupt, rotten to its very roots.

Since arriving in this era, Pei Yujiang had developed a habit of assuming the worst. She found it hard to believe that a body could remain buried here undiscovered for so long. It was highly probable that someone had dumped experimental subjects here with the approval of Yicheng’s leadership otherwise, who would dare to be so brazen?

“Their workplace was in a massive, well-equipped underground bunker, designed somewhat like an air raid shelter with complete system facilities.”

Yu Zhiwan, unusually, began earnestly recalling past events. Those memories felt like distant fragments to her, things she’d avoided touching for various reasons. Yet now she started describing everything she could remember in meticulous detail.

Pei Yujiang began visualizing the outline of that underground laboratory. Yu Zhiwan’s descriptions were concise yet vivid, much like how Pei Yujiango would carefully describe things to her their roles now reversed.

Under the moonlight, Wing Lake remained calm and unruffled, its surface hiding unfathomable sins. By daylight, it would once again become a popular check-in spot and marketplace, filled with the noisy vibrancy of human life until one day when raging waves would swallow it all.

Pei Yujiang listened with a sinking heart.

As she walked out with Yu Zhiwan, she wrung her hair dry. Yu Zhiwan offered her coat, and Pei Yujiang had no choice but to accept it after repeated refusals, draping it over herself.

The next day, Yu Zhiwan went to her laboratory in Yicheng.

Pei Yujiang had a slight headache from the wind that day and originally planned to wait for Yu Zhiwan, but she ended up staying home to recover due to a fever. With the early spring flu season in full swing, she spent two dull days at home, unable to go to work or stream, feeling utterly bored.

Strangely, Pei Jinhuai hadn’t contacted her during those two days either.

Pei Jinhuai usually loved sending her messages, but Pei Yujiang had been sleeping most of the time. She wasn’t addicted to her phone and barely checked it. Just as her fever subsided and she prepared to head to the office, she saw police cars and an ambulance parked outside, surrounded by a noisy crowd.

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