What to do if I've locked myself in a book! - Chapter 4

“Are you all right?”

A gentle, courteous voice reached her ears, carrying with it a rich floral scent. When she looked up, a refined and handsome face came into view. His long, narrow eyes curved with a smile; a pair of peach-blossom eyes held a hint of amusement beneath the warmth.

That face—and the roguish charm beneath its elegance—was strikingly similar to her ex-boyfriend, Luo Qian. When she took in his dark navy bespoke suit and the strand of crystal beads on the bone of his right wrist, realization struck at once. This had to be the second male lead, Ye Xize. Back then, she had given him that crystal bracelet just to make him more memorable. It hadn’t really suited him, but she had been too lazy to revise it.

“I’m fine. Thank you.”

Ling Qianqian’s gaze moved away from the bracelet on his wrist. Seeing that she was steady, Ye Xize politely stepped back.

At that moment, she noticed the sash at her waist had come loose. As she lowered her head to retie it, the man’s cool, slender fingers brushed her cheek without warning, like a flicker of electricity.

“Hm?”

“You had something on your face. It’s gone now.”

When she looked up, she met Ye Xize’s charming smile. She had no resistance to men with this kind of face, and a faint blush crept up.

He smiled slightly and rubbed his fingertips together, as if there really had been something there—but she felt he had done it on purpose.

Cheng Ye’s gaze shifted in their direction, and he frowned slightly. The posture between Ye Xize and Ling Qianqian was a bit too intimate, and she had even blushed when their eyes met.

It wasn’t that Cheng Ye was jealous over a woman he had just met. He simply knew Ye Xize—this man was shrewd and hard to deal with. A woman like Ling Qianqian, who looked a bit careless and naive, would be easy to deceive.

Just then, the storm outside grew even more violent. People finally began to notice the weather, shouting in alarm as the heavy rain turned into hail.

The weather really was getting worse, just as the message warned.

Ling Qianqian sucked in a sharp breath. She had just turned to leave when Ye Xize stopped her. “May I have the honor of a dance?”

His smile was hard to resist—so handsome and so well-mannered. Facing a man who looked exactly like her ex-boyfriend yet wasn’t him stirred an odd sense of excitement.

At some point, Cheng Ye walked over and abruptly inserted himself between them. He spoke in a low, cool voice. “She doesn’t dance.”

“Oh? Is this lady here with Young Master Cheng?”

Watching the subtle tension between the two men, a tingling sensation spread from her scalp. A bad feeling settled over her—she had a growing suspicion that she might have become the female lead.

Before Cheng Ye could respond, the hail outside grew even more violent. Thunder rumbled, people screamed outdoors, and it was said the hailstones were as big as baseballs, even denting the terrace floor.

The weather was getting worse and worse. That meant she hadn’t fulfilled the card’s instruction: 【Act immediately】.

But what exactly was she supposed to do? Couldn’t the hint be clearer?

Unlike the others, the two men weren’t distracted by the weather. They stood right in front of her, making her unbearably awkward.

“If you don’t want to dance, would you like to visit the instrument museum over there?”

Ye Xize spoke first. She was still annoyed when her eyes accidentally caught sight of a line of glowing words floating on the mirrored wall:

【Accept Ye Xize’s invitation.】

This scene hadn’t existed in the original novel. But since the prompt was already there, she might as well go along with it and see what would happen.

“Sure. I’d be happy to.”

The moment she finished speaking, the wild hail outside stopped abruptly. The clear night sky returned, and even the stars reappeared from behind the dark clouds. The weather changed so dramatically it felt like a roller coaster—just because she had followed the prompt?

She drew in a sharp breath as Ye Xize politely placed an arm around her waist and led her deeper into the corridor.