Chapter 20: Little Rose Part 1

If anyone had been looking through the window of the dorm across the way—through curtains that might have been left open by accident or design—they would have witnessed a scene of mesmerizing, radiant tension under the bright lights.

The young girl sat stiffly in her chair, her face flushed with a mix of shame and embarrassment. She had nowhere to run, her only recourse being to avert her restless gaze.

The corners of her eyes were tinged with a delicate vividness, while her pale pupils shimmered with a watery sheen. She bit her lip, looking as though she were silently enduring some unspeakable trial.

Her pajamas were as conservative as ever—a set of soft blue and pink adorned with a little bunny pattern. Yet, on this delicate girl, the fabric only served to make every inch of her silky, warm-white skin seem inexplicably alluring.

Her hands pressed against her thighs, fingers unconsciously bunching the cotton fabric of her pajama pants. She was so tense that her small knuckles had lost their usual color, turning a stark, ghostly white.

The shorts barely reached her knees, leaving her pinkish joints partially exposed. Because she had been forced to lift her leg, more was visible than usual. Her smooth, slender calf was taut all the way to her toes, and her rounded toes curled slightly from a natural sense of shame.

The bruised, sprained ankle—now exposed after the bandages had been removed—seemed to become a part of her fragile, slender beauty.

From behind, one would see the Ice Queen—a woman whom countless others viewed as utterly untouchable—willingly kneeling at the girl’s feet.

Xu Yinian, however, knew better. She was completely suppressed and held captive by Shen Ruoshuang, unable to move an inch.

It seemed Shen Ruoshuang had long since mapped out all of her escape routes and tactics. She had intercepted her the moment Ji Yan left.

“Didn’t you say yesterday that your foot was fine? Why did you let her take you to the infirmary?”

That calm sentence was a revelation: Shen Ruoshuang had known everything all along.

In this silence before the storm, Xu Yinian found herself coerced by this leverage, forced to cooperate with every demand. But she never imagined she would be forced into a chair by Shen Ruoshuang to have her medication reapplied.

Even less expected was the sight of Shen Ruoshuang kneeling on one knee in a humble posture, cradling her foot.

Gazing down from above in a state of shock and fear, Xu Yinian could only see Shen Ruoshuang’s lowered, sweeping eyelashes. There was no way to decipher the emotions hidden within those Peach Blossom Eyes.

The actions themselves were perfectly normal, crossing no boundaries. Yet, beneath a veneer of ascetic restraint, an endless, ambiguous atmosphere intertwined and pulsed with a decadent intensity.

Even though Xu Yinian was the one “sitting high” with her foot raised, a sense of humiliation and embarrassment threatened to drown her.

If being held by the ankle by Ji Yan for an ice pack had been an obvious threat, then being controlled by Shen Ruoshuang now was a slow, agonizing torture.

Unlike the previous time when bandages had acted as a barrier, Xu Yinian could truly feel the touch and temperature of another person’s skin. The cool temperature of the fingers against her skin wasn’t as terrifying as she had imagined; in fact, it brought a temporary relief to her burning injury.

As if hearing her inner thoughts, Shen Ruoshuang suddenly broke the silence. Perhaps because she hadn’t spoken in a while, her voice was inexplicably husky.

“Am I much gentler than she was?”

Xu Yinian’s mind went blank. It wasn’t until Shen Ruoshuang sprayed the cold medication onto her ankle that she jolted, realizing the other woman was comparing herself to Ji Yan.

The spray caused a momentary sting. But this time, because her attention was so diverted, the pain felt much lighter.

“Do you like Ji Yan? You have a reaction to her, and you’ve stayed so close to her.”

Shen Ruoshuang’s eyes were shrouded in the shadows of her lashes, making them impossible to read. Even her voice betrayed no clear emotion.

“I don’t! I… I can’t get away from her fast enough! I’m afraid of her!” Xu Yinian defended herself decisively.

“If you’re so afraid of her, then stop paying her any mind, alright?”

In her state of alarm, Xu Yinian suspected she had misheard. Otherwise, how could she have heard a hint of soft pleading in Shen Ruoshuang’s voice?

Without warning, Shen Ruoshuang looked up. Her gaze locked directly onto Xu Yinian’s eyes before the girl could look away. An obsessive emotion, far different from her tone, flared like a wildfire. It spread into the depths of Xu Yinian’s eyes, burning so hot she could barely speak.

From the moment she had witnessed everything between Ji Yan and Xu Yinian in the infirmary yesterday, to seeing the photos of them in the car together on the forum this afternoon—no amount of jealous rage could compare to this intense sense of crisis.

Ji Yan was merely playing, attracted to Xu Yinian, yet she had easily done many things that the cautious, overthinking Shen Ruoshuang could not.

If either of them fell for the other, then she would once again…

Even if there was only a sliver of possibility, Shen Ruoshuang would do whatever it took to cut it off at the source.

She set aside her pride, her self-esteem, and her paranoid delusions. She didn’t force Xu Yinian into a corner and demand she look at her as she usually did. Instead, she used a seductive, pleading tone to quietly draw the girl closer to her side alone.

As for other matters… there would be plenty of time for those later.

“I… she and I have nothing—”

Before Xu Yinian could finish, Shen Ruoshuang interrupted her with a dark gaze, as if she already knew what was coming. “You said the same thing yesterday, yet today you were on the back of her bike, weren’t you?”

“You can’t refuse her. I can help you, but I need to see your attitude.”

“An attitude that shows you don’t like Ji Yan and won’t continue this ambiguity with her.”

She spoke every word clearly, leading Xu Yinian toward her goal.

Only then did Xu Yinian finally understand why Shen Ruoshuang wanted to apply her medicine. It turned out she was finally ready to make a move because of Ji Yan.

As a cannonfodder villainess who hadn’t even done anything wrong yet, Xu Yinian was still being swept into the emotional drama between the Protagonist-top and the Protagonist-bottom. She had become the obstacle and the source of misunderstanding between them in such a complicated way.

Xu Yinian was certain she had no ulterior motives, and it was even more impossible for Ji Yan to ignore the Protagonist-bottom, Shen Ruoshuang, to fall for her.

But the influence of the plot was truly immense… a couple of misunderstandings had indeed set the two of them at odds.

Fortunately, Shen Ruoshuang’s attitude was better than expected. Her request was perfectly reasonable and respected Xu Yinian’s own wishes. Xu Yinian wanted nothing more than to distance herself from the main leads and stay out of the plot.

Hearing Shen Ruoshuang’s proposal, she naturally wouldn’t refuse.

“I’ll… I’ll do as you say.”

Though her voice was soft and she stuttered from nerves, she sounded exceptionally serious.

As those words left her lips, Xu Yinian clearly saw the corners of Shen Ruoshuang’s mouth lift into a faint smile. Her aggressive, cold beauty seemed to melt like a collapsing iceberg. The corners of her eyes curved downward, revealing soft aegyo-sal, and for the first time, a mysterious spark of light flickered in those icy Peach Blossom Eyes.

It wasn’t the first time Xu Yinian had seen Shen Ruoshuang smile, but she was still captivated, staring blankly as if her soul had been snatched away.

Right then, the phone Xu Yinian had left on the desk began to ring, jarring her out of her stunned trance. It was a call from an unknown local number in The Capital.

Was it… Ji Yan?

The call notification allowed Xu Yinian to see the WeChat icon at the top of her screen. At some point, seven unread messages had piled up. They were likely all from Ji Yan, sent while she was under Shen Ruoshuang’s control.

Shen Ruoshuang saw them too. Her smile faded slightly. “Why aren’t you answering? It’s her.”