Chapter 4

◎I Won’t Divorce You.◎

“No.” The word burst out before Liang Shi could think. “I won’t divorce you.”

The moment the words left her mouth, Liang Shi was stunned.

That wasn’t what she meant to say.

By all logic, divorce was the best choice for Xu Qingzhu.

As Haizhou’s Top Omega, she had a bright future ahead of her. She could meet other Alphas, far better ones than Liang Shi. Someone would surely look past her previous marriage and treat her well.

And yet Liang Shi said: “As long as I’m alive, I will not divorce you.”

Liang Shi’s brow furrowed into a knot. She clutched her chest as the pain forced her half a step back, a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead, her face draining of color.

It was as if someone else were controlling her body.

Or rather, the original host’s consciousness hadn’t fully vanished. On the matter of divorcing Xu Qingzhu, its stance was ironclad.

“What’s the point?” Xu Qingzhu’s lips curled into a sneer. “It’s not as if you actually love me.”

“I’m sorry…” Liang Shi realized she couldn’t stop the original host’s consciousness from speaking, so she apologized through a clenched frown. “I have something to take care of right now. Let’s talk about this later.”

Then she fled the ward in a panic.

Outside the door, Bai Weiwei and Zhao Xuning stared after her.

“Liang Shi seems…” Zhao Xuning frowned slightly, then added after a moment of thought, “different from before.”

“She’s always like this, isn’t she? After hurting A-Zhu, she tucks her tail between her legs and acts sweet as can be.” Bai Weiwei rolled her eyes in the direction Liang Shi had gone. “A-Zhu has to divorce her this time.”

“She won’t be able to,” Zhao Xuning said calmly.

Bai Weiwei looked up. “Why not?”

Zhao Xuning simply shook her head and went into the ward to check on Xu Qingzhu.

After leaving the ward, Liang Shi bought a bottle of water from a vending machine downstairs.

The icy water sliding down her throat finally steadied her.

She sat in the hospital lobby in her gown. Passersby kept glancing at her, a hundred-percent head-turn rate.

But Liang Shi felt nothing.

She’d long grown used to standing under spotlights, able to withstand the lenses of a million photographers and paparazzi. A few strangers’ stares meant nothing.

What truly troubled her was the original host’s lingering consciousness.

It had said: She would rather die than divorce Xu Qingzhu.

But if she didn’t divorce, what was the plan?

She was supposed to go explain to Xu Qingzhu: I’m not the old Liang Shi. I’ve changed. I’ll treat you well. The original host had probably said those exact words more than once. Even the few memory flashes were enough to prove how terribly the original host had treated Xu Qingzhu.

They had been married four months. Because Xu Qingzhu refused to let Liang Shi mark her, the original host had thrown tantrums both overt and covert, again and again.

Parties like last night’s had been thrown at the villa more than once.

And because the original host was angry, she never let the servants help. Xu Qingzhu was made to do everything.

Xu Qingzhu probably felt guilty too, so she always did the work in silence.

Liang Shi seemed to have hit a dead end.

【System Detection: The host’s body contains unresolved resentment. 100 Luck Points are required to fully unlock usage rights of this body.】

A cold, mechanical voice erupted inside Liang Shi’s mind, making her shiver.

She thought transmigrating into a novel was already absurd enough. She hadn’t expected a System too.

She pretended to stay calm and took a sip of cold water, then asked in her mind: “Who are you?”

【This is the Resentment Management Bureau. We are responsible for pacifying the resentments of the dying. However, we have detected your illegal occupation of another person’s body and are rendering a judgment against you.】

“Then why not let her come back?”

The System fell silent for three seconds, then answered in a deeply unsettling tone: 【She was just too much of a scumbag.】

Liang Shi: “…”

“And what’s Luck Value?” Liang Shi asked.

【The favorability earned by conquering lucky targets is what we call Luck Value. Here, your lucky target is Xu Qingzhu. Earn her affection, trust, and love. Accumulate 100 Luck Points, and your original body will be transported here to completely replace the original host.】

“And the original host?”

The System went silent again.

After a pause, it spoke in that same unsettling voice: 【We’ll send her back to the happy homeland.】

Liang Shi: “…”

“What about my original body?”

【It remains in a coma and has been declared vegetative. If your body is transported here, all memories of you in that world will be erased. No one will remember you.】

Liang Shi pressed her lips together. A wave of desolation rose in her chest. “So I never existed there at all?”

【Roughly, yes. However, you may also choose not to transport your body here. You only need 80 Luck Points to fully replace the original host.】

“And if I want to go back?” Liang Shi asked calmly.

This time, the System’s silence stretched longer than ever. When it finally spoke, its tone carried a strange, almost comforting note: 【Would you like to watch a short video?】

Liang Shi nodded. A scene unfolded across her mind.

Comments cascading beneath the trending hashtag #Liang Shi Vegetative State#.

[Scum like this doesn’t deserve to live.]

[How is she only in a vegetative state? She should just die.]

[I heard she’s an orphan, some dropout who didn’t even finish school. Scum of society.]

[Speechless. No wonder she was always so uncouth.]

[…]

Thousands upon thousands of comments, every last one cursing her. Then the scene shifted to a hospital room.

Her talent agent, Sister Wang, sighed helplessly. “That’s it, then. Publish a statement announcing her retirement from the industry.”

A heavy stone settled on Liang Shi’s chest, crushing the air from her lungs.

She had been a burden all along.

“I’ve decided,” Liang Shi said. “I want to stay here.”

【Very well.】

“How do I earn Luck Value? Be specific.”

【…However you like.】

Liang Shi: “?”

【Emotional matters fall outside this bureau’s operational scope. However, we will temporarily detain the original host for three months. If you cannot accumulate 80 Luck Points within three months, you will cease to exist as the price for disrupting spatial order.】

Liang Shi: …

What kind of System was this, booby-trapped at every turn?!

“So when I earn Luck Value, will you notify me? Like, plus one, minus one, that sort of thing?”

【No. We’ll issue a notification every 20 points.】

A moment later, the mechanical voice added: 【We’re very busy, you know.】

Liang Shi: …

Soon, she felt a strange energy surge through her body, an inexplicable lightness.

She called for the System again, but there was no response.

Liang Shi had always been someone who went with the flow. Faced with such a massive upheaval, she only zoned out for a brief moment, then went outside for a walk. Strolling while thinking was one of her habits.

On her walk, she spotted plump, fresh strawberries being sold at a roadside stall and bought some.

On her way back to the hospital, bag in hand, she tried to recall what the original host had done to Xu Qingzhu and found she couldn’t remember anything.

She could only take it one step at a time.

At the hospital entrance, her phone buzzed. She checked it.

A message from an unknown number.

【Coming tonight? I brought a foreign girl.】

【Deal’s a deal. Bring Xu Qingzhu.】

【Swap for a day or a week?】

Liang Shi: …

What the hell?

She knew the original host was scum, but she hadn’t imagined scum of this magnitude.

Wife-swapping? Really?

Liang Shi exhaled and blacklisted the number.

Then she tied her hair up with a hair tie, changed the elevator floor at the last second, and went straight to the tenth floor.

She needed to be straightforward with Xu Qingzhu.

She was not the same Liang Shi!

A few minutes later, Liang Shi stood outside Xu Qingzhu’s ward and knocked softly.

A cool, clear voice answered: “Come in.”

Bai Weiwei and Zhao Xuning must have left.

Liang Shi pushed the door open.

In the quiet, empty ward, Xu Qingzhu sat on the bed in a hospital gown, sunlight spilling across her face. She looked fragile, the kind of fragile that stirred an overwhelming desire to protect.

Liang Shi clutched the plastic bag, which rustled against her hand.

She closed the door gently and said warmly: “Xu Qingzhu, I need to talk to you.”

But the moment Xu Qingzhu saw what she was holding, her expression changed instantly. She slammed the emergency button by the bed.

Within seconds, urgent footsteps thundered down the corridor.

“I won’t hurt you.” Liang Shi’s voice came out desperate. “I’ve really changed. Can you just trust me once? I’m truly not like before.”

“I’ll treat you so well,” Liang Shi said. “Give me one more chance. I won’t let you down.”

Before the word “down” could leave her lips, the door burst open.

Zhao Xuning’s lab coat hung open as she panted heavily. The instant she saw the strawberries in Liang Shi’s hand, she erupted: “You dare bring her that?!”

Liang Shi looked baffled. “…”

“Last time you gave her strawberries laced with aphrodisiacs, it triggered her heat early and nearly killed her. And now you pull this again?!” Zhao Xuning threw a punch at Liang Shi, who dodged on instinct.

She’d trained in sanda and Muay Thai before, so her reflexes were sharp.

But hearing Zhao Xuning’s words, a storm of emotions churned inside her.

A lyric surfaced in her mind: “Build a city-state upon the ruins.”

Right now, she was the one who had to build a city-state atop ruins. And she didn’t even have an excavator.

She lifted the strawberries and explained: “These are just ordinary strawberries I bought downstairs. Nothing was injected into them. If you don’t believe me, I’ll eat one to prove it.”

She picked one up and was about to bite into it when Xu Qingzhu on the bed suddenly screamed.

A sound like a last, pitiful, heart-wrenching cry.

Zhao Xuning’s eyes went wide. She shouted toward the corridor: “Get Doctor Gu! The patient’s PTSD has been triggered!”