Chapter 24: The Price of Pineapple Juice

The weather in the south was perpetually damp.

With the arrival of the southern winds, condensation adorned every wall.

Clothes remained stubbornly wet, as did underwear, and even silk stockings refused to dry.

Yet, Su Qianyu, it seemed, was more than capable.

“So, I really have to wear this?”

A trembling heart, trembling hands.

The trembling Su Qianyu cut a rather comical figure.

Illo, having tucked away the card she had snatched from the little fox girl, savored the moment immensely.

Had anyone bothered to look up, they would surely have spotted a sorrowful fox girl soaring across the heavens.

‘What more is there to say? I’m jumping, buddy.’

‘That woman… she’s spending all my money!’

Given another chance, Su Qianyu would undoubtedly have hidden that card far more securely.

What could possibly be more despair-inducing than witnessing your own hard-earned money being picked up and squandered by someone else?

While others might struggle to answer, Su Qianyu certainly had a definitive opinion on the matter.

‘Oh, there is, brother. There absolutely is.’

More agonizing than simply watching her money vanish was seeing it transform into an array of provocative swimwear, destined to accompany her.

Now, she felt a profound ache not just in her wallet, but deep within her very soul.

“Do you truly believe you have a choice in this?”

Illo spoke from her perch on the bed, simultaneously setting a bottle of pineapple juice onto the nightstand.

“Shall I assist you in putting it on, or will you…?”

Before Illo could even complete her sentence, Su Qianyu cut her off.

“I’ll do it myself!”

A flicker of amusement danced in Illo’s eyes as she watched the little fox girl before her, her gaze narrowing into a thin slit.

‘She even anticipates the question. Not bad at all.’

As she always maintained, she wasn’t one for malicious pranks, but she was certainly one to repay every grievance (TL Note: A Chinese idiom, ‘xiá zì bì bào,’ meaning to be meticulous in seeking revenge for even the smallest slight or injustice.).

‘Consider this your payment for the transgressions you committed in your previous life.’

“Let’s get one thing straight.”

“Dress quickly, and there’ll be a reward. Dawdle, and a punishment awaits, won’t it?”

Setting Jasmine’s letter aside, Illo simply watched as the seconds ticked by.

‘When under another’s roof, one must bow their head.’

A flurry of fleeting thoughts intertwined within her mind as Su Qianyu lifted the swimsuit, then slowly lowered it again.

‘Indeed, is she truly unable to do it?’

She tentatively lifted her head, her gaze meeting Illo’s for a brief, intense moment.

‘Yes, a glance that lasted an eternity.’

“Um…”

“Hmm?”

Su Qianyu’s voice abruptly caught in her throat, as if she were carefully concocting something.

“C-could I possibly wear something else?”

A sudden, forced smile contorted her face, looking far more grotesque than any cry.

Observing that expression, Illo found it strangely familiar.

Indeed, it was an expression she knew all too well.

After all, before her rebirth, it had been Illo herself who had been subjected to such treatment.

“How about this: you beg me?”

“Beg me, and perhaps if my mood is sufficiently good, I might just let you change.”

Illo uttered these words softly, twirling the magic wand in her hand.

The faint swish of the magic wand through the air reverberated within the room, an incessant provocation to Su Qianyu below.

Upon hearing that mere begging would suffice, however, Su Qianyu’s face immediately broke into a radiant smile.

‘So, I only need to beg, and I won’t have to wear these clothes after all?’

Overwhelmed by such a seemingly simple request, Su Qianyu was utterly delighted.

Yet, just as quickly, Su Qianyu hurriedly stifled the expression on her face, pulling back her smile.

‘No, I mustn’t smile yet.’

Suppressing her mirth, Su Qianyu deliberately lowered her head, ensuring Illo wouldn’t catch a glimpse of her full expression.

‘Aha! Ahahahahaha!’

‘In that case, victory shall be declared in mere minutes!’

‘Honestly, if only she’d mentioned this sooner!’

Recalling the various dramatic scenarios she had witnessed in her ‘resources’ (TL Note: Referring to media or experiences where similar situations occurred.), Su Qianyu tightened her face, immediately beginning to prepare herself.

‘An incompetent husband, a greedy superior.’

In mere moments, these fragmented scenes swept through Su Qianyu’s mind, much like a river-sweeping cleaner (TL Note: An obscure idiom, ‘guò jiāng zhī qīng dào fū,’ implying something that passes through quickly and thoroughly, leaving a clear path in its wake, or in this context, reviewing memories efficiently.).

‘She would feign a tone of tragic indignation, fabricate a sorrowful voice!’

‘And most crucially, those tears of anguish!’

Yet, despite recalling those vivid images, Su Qianyu found herself utterly unable to shed a single tear.

Fortunately, she was a person of considerable resolve.

‘Fingernails! Engage!’

“P-please, I beg of you!”

“As long as it’s not this outfit… I’ll do anything!”

With immense effort, Su Qianyu channeled the image of those ‘capable wives’ from her mental archives, trembling as she uttered the desperate plea.

Even tears, genuine this time, streamed from her eyes, spurred by the sharp pain of her nails digging into her flesh.

‘Surely… this should be enough, right?’

Yet, when she dared to look up, Illo remained precisely as she was, legs elegantly crossed.

“Hmm, not bad at all.”

“And what comes next?”

‘Eh, what “next”?’

“You didn’t actually believe that merely begging would be effective, did you?”

‘She’s… she’s lying, isn’t she?’

‘Am I not supposed to be the villain here?’

A wicked smile playing on her lips, Illo rose from the bed and, without hesitation, poured the pineapple juice from the nightstand directly down Su Qianyu’s throat.

“Ugh… *cough, cough*!”

“How does it taste?”

Observing the little fox girl down nearly a pint’s worth of pineapple juice, Illo inquired with eager anticipation.

Recovering from the choking sensation of the pineapple juice, Su Qianyu felt a surge of confusion.

“Hiccup… it’s, it’s alright?”

“But what’s the meaning of this?”

However, no answer awaited Su Qianyu; instead, Illo merely snapped her fingers.

“Eh?”

In that fleeting instant, Su Qianyu’s body felt as though it had aged an entire day.

Yet, upon regaining her bearings, she noticed no discernible change in the passage of time.

“Did you… do something just now?”

Soon, however, a potent aftereffect began to course through every part of her body.

An aching numbness.

And, naturally… an urgent need to use the restroom?

Abruptly pinning Su Qianyu down before she could even react, Illo immediately began to scrutinize the demon fox beneath her.

“To think, this trick actually works!”

“W-what trick are you talking about?”

Even then, Su Qianyu received no answer.

Illo’s gaze, however, continued to roam over every inch of the person beneath her, occasionally brushing the surface of her skin with a curious touch.

Yet, despite this physical intrusion, Su Qianyu found her mind largely devoid of coherent thoughts.

Staring at Illo, Su Qianyu gritted her teeth, her sole desire at that moment being to relieve herself.

A burgeoning pressure assaulted her lower body, and her legs instinctively clamped together in a desperate attempt to hold it in.

‘W-what has that woman done to me now?’

“Nothing much, merely testing out a new ability using you.”

The same wicked expression still graced Illo’s features, and as Su Qianyu gazed upon that face, she was momentarily convinced that Illo was, in fact, the true villain.

A grand antagonist disguised as a magical girl.

“C-can you please let me use the restroom first!”

Su Qianyu’s expression was rapidly morphing into something akin to (≧~≦), and even that plea was practically squeezed from her lips.

This, however, was precisely what Illo desired.

Gazin at Su Qianyu, Illo’s eyes gleamed with profound satisfaction at the outcome of her research.

The little fox girl’s current predicament was, in large part, due to Illo’s advancements in developing her psychokinetic abilities.

She had utilized her psychokinetic powers to accelerate Su Qianyu’s physical body.

More precisely, she had accelerated her body by roughly a day’s worth of time.

In fact, while on her way back to the banquet hall, Illo had stumbled upon an intriguing idea.

If this ability could, to a certain extent, control a person’s consciousness, then why not explore whether it could also accelerate specific parts of the human body?

Consequently, Illo had accelerated Su Qianyu’s body, but deliberately left her mental processes untouched.

While undoubtedly peculiar, its success lay in the sheer brute force of the method (TL Note: A colloquial expression, ‘lì dà zhuān fēi,’ literally ‘power makes bricks fly,’ meaning success achieved through sheer force or determination, often despite a lack of elegance or finesse.).

At the very least, the ultimate outcome was precisely as intended.

The sole drawback was that, given Illo’s current mental strength, this particular technique could only be employed sparingly.

Yet, a single instance was all she needed.

After a prolonged moment, gazing down at Su Qianyu, Illo slowly began to shed her own clothes.

“Do you know what other properties pineapple juice possesses, aside from its delicious taste?”

With a burgeoning urgency, Su Qianyu desperately tried to recall the properties of pineapple juice.

Yet, as if struck by a sudden realization, an expression of profound dread instantly contorted Su Qianyu’s face.

“Th-that, that!”

“C-can we please wait to do this, p-please, I beg of you…!”

However, her trembling voice failed to elicit any sympathy from Illo; instead, it merely fueled the triumphant joy of a harvester on the verge of claiming her bounty.

“I told you, didn’t I?”

“Begging, even that is useless now.”

‘Do not go gentle into that good night.’

‘She hated back rubs.’