Chapter 9: True Colors Part 1

The young girl lay on the infirmary bed, her jet-black hair scattered messily across the pillow, making her palm-sized face look even more deathly pale.

The faint redness at the corners of her eyes was perfectly flushed, and her light-colored pupils shimmered with a pool of unshed tears.

She looked at the person before her with a mix of confusion and helplessness, yet she didn’t dare voice even a hint of her grievance.

Much like the tears swirling in her eyes from pain and fear, she didn’t dare let them fall.

This was the first time Xu Yinian had been alone with Ji Yan, and the sense of oppression was suddenly magnified.

She felt as if she couldn’t even catch her breath. It was exactly like the dreams where she was a pathetic villain, facing Ji Yan’s high-and-mighty, dismissive vengeance.

It was a simple action—holding an ice pack to help her—but in Ji Yan’s hands, it became something else entirely.

Beneath those slow, elegant movements, Ji Yan was slowly invading Xu Yinian’s safety zone, eroding her defenses through her fear.

It felt as if she could sense the temperature of those fingers and the arc of those long, powerful knuckles even through the bandages. The hard, freezing ice was less terrifying than the chill radiating from those fingers.

Xu Yinian couldn’t predict her next move. She only knew she was in danger, and even the will to retreat or hide had completely collapsed.

At this moment, she actually wished the person in front of her was the Shen Ruoshuang from last night.

Even if she couldn’t escape Shen Ruoshuang either, at least she wouldn’t be like this—lying on a hospital bed, unable to move, like a fish on a chopping block.

“…What I saw… that matter… I won’t… I won’t tell anyone.”

Her voice was incredibly stiff, with the words stumbling out one syllable at a time.

She tilted her head to look at the crack in the door left ajar by the school doctor, doing her best to avoid facing Ji Yan.

“What did you see?”

Perhaps it was the clash of their auras, or perhaps it was because Ji Yan, sitting on the edge of the bed, was so much taller than the reclining Xu Yinian.

Her gaze was condescending, chasing after Xu Yinian’s deliberately averted eyes, pressing closer with every step.

Even though they both knew the truth, Ji Yan insisted on making Xu Yinian say it.

Her goal was never the result of an interrogation; it was the process of gradually pushing the other person into a corner until their psychological defenses crumbled on their own.

Dyeing a blank sheet of paper with her own color.

This was indeed what Ji Yan was best at and most obsessed with.

Xu Yinian didn’t know if Ji Yan had some sort of fetish, but she was sensitive enough to perceive the other woman’s intentions.

Ever since she realized Ji Yan was the “protagonist-top,” Xu Yinian had indeed been overly focused on speculating about her feelings and private life, far exceeding the scope of what a normal person should see.

Just like the bracelet and the wound she discovered that day.

Even today, Xu Yinian was deliberately controlling herself, trying not to spare a single glance at Ji Yan’s wrist.

And yet, just now, when the other woman reached out to help her with the ice, she had still caught a glimpse of it. A black wristband was wrapped tightly around that cold, white wrist, deliberately covering all stains and leaving no trace behind.

If Ji Yan was a degenerate rogue, what was she? A voyeuristic creep?

If she allowed Ji Yan to lead her into recounting everything she saw, wouldn’t she be branding herself as a stalker?

She turned her head away in silence, unwilling to speak and refusing to look at Ji Yan.

Seeing Xu Yinian deliberately spacing out to ignore her, Ji Yan’s patience began to wane.

She wasn’t in a hurry, however. She merely looked down gloomily at the injury she was icing.

If Qin Jiashu had stayed a little longer to see this scene, she would likely have been shocked beyond belief.

After all, everyone who knew Ji Yan was aware of her cold, arrogant nature. No one had ever seen her have the leisure or interest to care for someone else like this.

Finally, her patience exhausted, Ji Yan’s grip on the hand holding the ice pack tightened. The previously gentle pressure now revealed its true face.

“Ngh!” Unpredictable pain surged, and Xu Yinian couldn’t hold it back.

Her lips, which had been pressed into a thin line from tension, let out a soft cry of pain. She turned her head, looking at the person before her in terror.

This pleased Ji Yan.

Ji Yan liked Xu Yinian’s voice, and she liked it even more when Xu Yinian lost control and made instinctive sounds because of her actions.

It was like the sweetest candy—harmless and naive—something she could consume without any consequences.

“Sorry. I don’t like it when people space out while I’m asking a question.”

She even apologized politely.

Yet she made no effort to hide the fact that she had intentionally caused the pain, all just to force the other girl to acknowledge her.

Ji Yan had always been this malicious and cruel, devoid of empathy.

Even though she had witnessed the Ji Yan from the original novel in her dreams, Xu Yinian felt that the version in this real world was far more terrifying.

Thus, she could only force herself to complete the task of “not spacing out.”

But her clenched teeth were trembling, carrying a sense of grievance and anger she didn’t dare vent.

After a long silence, the corners of Ji Yan’s mouth curled—a familiar, lazy, and cynical smirk.

“What? Weren’t you quite the talker in front of Qin Jiashu? You were just acting all sweet and pleasing for her, but now that she’s gone, you’re refusing to speak?”

Ji Yan cared more than expected about the special way Xu Yinian had tried to please Qin Jiashu.

The speaker may be heedless, but the listener is mindful. That unconscious, eerie charm seemed to plant a seed in the heart of Ji Yan, the bystander, instantly sprouting into countless desires.

Xu Yinian never imagined that the first reason Ji Yan would turn on her was because of her attitude toward her girlfriend.

Her effort to politely respond to the other woman’s enthusiasm was “acting sweet and pleasing” in Ji Yan’s mouth?

Even though she knew from the original book that Ji Yan had a pathological sense of possessiveness, Xu Yinian still found it utterly absurd.

Because of this scumbag’s messy relationships, how many times did she have to prove that she wasn’t gay and that she had zero interest in their girlfriends or the people they liked?!