Chapter 14: Caught on Camera

“Ugh! My plan to make money for a birthday gift totally failed!”

Mo Liang slumped in the corner of a bubble tea shop, clutching her cup with both hands. The straw was already chewed out of shape.

She had wandered the streets all morning, her legs nearly ready to give out, yet she hadn’t managed to land a single job.

The more she thought about it, the more irritated she grew. Angrily, she bit clean through a tapioca pearl.

She was clearly good-looking. How could no one be willing to hire her?

Were those manager bosses blind or what?

Then again, her standards for a job really were a bit too ridiculous.

High pay, long breaks, and simple tasks. Ideally, she could sit in an air-conditioned room doing nothing and still get paid.

If something that easy ever landed in her lap, that would be a real miracle. But Mo Liang clearly wasn’t one for self-reflection. She chalked it all up to those bosses having no eye for talent, then contentedly went back to her bubble tea.

“Hm?” Bored, she was scrolling through her phone when she noticed a scene across the street.

A black-haired girl was dragging another girl toward a narrow alley, yanking her roughly along.

The girl being pulled looked scared. Her eyes were glistening with unshed tears, yet she didn’t dare make a sound as she was hauled inside.

The black-haired girl’s hair just brushed her shoulders. Her gaze was sharp and cold, her movements crisp and efficient.

The young girl being dragged, on the other hand, looked adorable. She had a soft, round face and a gentle look to her.

Both of them seemed to be of school age. Why weren’t they at school at noon, and what were they doing in such a deserted alley?

Mo Liang felt a bit puzzled. This kind of scene seemed oddly familiar?

She bit down on her straw. A flood of improper scenarios flashed through her mind. Her eyes drifted to the phone in her hand, and a wicked idea slowly took root.

“Hehehe…”

Meanwhile, in the alley, Zheng Xianyun was watching Lin Qianqian, whom she had just dragged in. The girl had her shoulders hunched, the corners of her eyes faintly red, staring at her in fear.

Zheng Xianyun looked down at the girl she had pulled into the alley, and her mood turned bright.

In her previous life, this Lin Qianqian had leaned on her status as the second young miss of the Lin family to run wild without restraint. She’d toss Zheng Xianyun’s books onto the floor, humiliate her in front of the entire class, and make the whole school watch her become a laughingstock. A few times she’d even come close to driving Zheng Xianyun to her death.

But… Why had this girl come looking for her on her own at this exact time?

Zheng Xianyun narrowed her eyes, a trace of suspicion stirring inside her.

She herself had only recently been taken back by the Zheng family. News shouldn’t have fully spread yet, right? So why had the girl come to her all of a sudden?

Could the Lin family have heard some rumor? The look she fixed on Lin Qianqian grew even colder.

Lin Qianqian, however, was internally panicking.

Because unlike Zheng Xianyun, she was someone who had transmigrated into a novel. And the role she’d ended up with was the vicious female side villain, the kind of insignificant cannon fodder written specifically to bully the heroine, Zheng Xianyun.

If things followed the original plot, once Zheng Xianyun was recognized by the Zheng family, she would be in serious trouble.

Both her arms and both her legs would be broken, and she’d be thrown out onto the streets to fend for herself.

So right now, she just wanted to reach Zheng Xianyun before that plot point came, to apologize and beg for mercy, hoping to earn a slim chance to stay alive. Yet before she could even finish talking, she’d been dragged into this alley.

Before she transmigrated, she’d only been a high school girl. What did she know about dealing with something like this?

Just thinking about her future fate made Lin Qianqian’s legs start trembling uncontrollably.

“Hm? What brings Young Miss Lin over to offer her apologies so suddenly?”

With that, Zheng Xianyun pressed Lin Qianqian up against the cold, grimy wall of the alley. One hand appeared next to her ear, caging her in as Zheng Xianyun loomed over her from above.

The two of them stood dangerously close. The tips of their noses nearly touched, and their warm breaths wove together in the narrow space.

“I- I wanted to apologize for what I did in the past!”

Her voice shook badly, but she didn’t shy away. In fact, she seemed to gather every ounce of her courage and looked straight into Zheng Xianyun’s deep, dark eyes, forcing the words out as if they cost her everything she had.

“Whatever punishment you choose… I’ll take it all.”

A rapid reel of the original plot flashed through her mind.

At this point in time, Zheng Xianyun shouldn’t have officially returned to the Zheng family yet. As for herself, all she’d done so far was throw books and isolate her and embarrass her in front of the school. She hadn’t yet stepped over the line into endangering the other girl’s life.

So, as long as she confessed her faults properly and showed enough sincerity, then she should still have a chance to save her own neck, right?

“Oh? Any punishment will do?”

Zheng Xianyun raised a hand and caught Lin Qianqian by the chin, tilting that delicate face up and inspecting it from side to side.

Interesting. Why hadn’t she ever noticed that this little wretch could look so adorable?

Her fingers drifted downward, tracing along the curve of the girl’s jaw, as if moving on their own.

The moment those cold fingertips touched the warm skin of Lin Qianqian’s abdomen, the girl instinctively flinched back. Her hands pressed weakly against Zheng Xianyun’s shoulders in reflex.

Zheng Xianyun’s expression instantly went cold. “Is this the sincerity of your apology? If you don’t want it, you can leave right now.”

The moment the words landed, the hands on her shoulders hesitated for a few seconds. Then, slowly, they let go.

Lin Qianqian bit her lower lip. Without warning, she reached out and took hold of Zheng Xianyun’s wrist, gently pressing it back to where it had been a moment ago. She even tilted her head to the side, not daring to look at the other girl.

Zheng Xianyun was frozen for half a second. Then the edges of her mouth slowly curved upward.

How fun. How interesting!

Why was it that in her past life she had never discovered this side of Lin Qianqian?

Originally, all that had filled her mind were ways to make this girl die in misery. But now… it seemed like such a waste to simply kill her.

She might as well shut this little cutie away in the basement and keep her like a delicate, well-cared-for pet.

As for all those past grievances, given just how lovable she was being right now, letting her live wasn’t completely out of the question.

Just then, a crisp cough echoed from the entrance of the alley. Both Zheng Xianyun and Lin Qianqian turned toward the sound simultaneously.

“Ahem!”

Mo Liang held up her phone, giving it a deliberate little flourish. With her chin slightly lifted, she tried her hardest to project an air of solemn righteousness.

“Whatever the two of you were just doing, I taped the whole thing!”

“Miss, I’m sure you don’t want to end up in a police station, now do you?”

Every muscle in Zheng Xianyun’s and Lin Qianqian’s bodies stiffened at the same time.

Lin Qianqian’s legs went weak beneath her. She nearly crumpled to the ground, but Zheng Xianyun caught her, hauling her securely into her arms.

With one arm wrapped around the little creature who had already stopped struggling entirely, Zheng Xianyun casually rested her other hand against the wall. Those long, narrow eyes narrowed to slits as she studied the golden-haired girl waiting at the alley’s mouth, a look of intrigued delight on her face.

“Wuaah…”

Lin Qianqian buried her face into Zheng Xianyun’s shoulder, letting out a muffled, hopeless little whimper.

After getting trapped inside this godforsaken novel, first she got pinned up against a wall by the female lead and groped head to toe. Now she’d been caught on video by some unidentified person who’d sprung out of nowhere.

She didn’t even dare to recall how, just a moment earlier, she had taken Zheng Xianyun’s hand and placed it back where it had been.

Her dignity. Her reputation. This brief and utterly mortifying existence of hers.

All of it was doomed.

📚 Also on NHV Novels

Ability Inside

AngstBLFriendsToLovers

Read Now →
Not interested