Chapter 2:
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“Ji Qinghe, can you stop being so unreasonable?”
“Xiaoran is my neighbor’s little sister. After the apocalypse hit, the environment had deteriorated significantly, and she was cold. I just gave her my jacket. Do you really need to be this petty about it?”
The first thing Ji Qinghe heard as she regained consciousness was a man’s impatient voice.
She opened her eyes and was met with a sharp-featured face, sword-like brows, and piercing starry eyes.
[Just by his looks alone, this guy had to be the male lead. Or at the very least, an important supporting character.]
[But… why was his hair blue?]
[Did I transmigrate into some edgy, early-2000s rebellious youth novel?]
Then she remembered what he said—“The apocalypse hit”—and scratched that theory.
Turning her head to look around, she realized she was in what looked like an abandoned clinic.
An empty medicine cabinet stood nearby, the hospital bed had disappeared, and the room was mostly bare, with scattered IV tubes and medicine boxes littering the floor.
The main door facing the street had been blocked off with two desks stacked together. A small inner door on the side wall was left open.
Through that small door, Ji Qinghe could see a few people standing outside, peeking in. Behind them was a small courtyard…
She was just thinking of getting a better look when a gentle female voice sounded from outside, soft and filled with guilt.
“It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have been afraid of the cold, shouldn’t have worried about getting sick… I accepted Brother Chengze’s kindness, and now I’ve made sister misunderstand.”
As the voice got closer, the girl pushed past the crowd blocking the door and quickly walked in.
She was a sweet-faced girl dressed in a white dress that reached just past her knees. Over the dress, she wore a man’s leather jacket.
Even as she hurried in, she clutched the jacket tightly, not letting it slip off her shoulders.
She walked between Ji Qinghe and Xuanyuan Chengze, casting a glance at him with a complicated and mixed expression—stubborn, scared, and embarrassed.
Ji Qinghe had no idea what this man was thinking, but she immediately got goosebumps.
[This has to be the female lead. No one else could pull off that kind of melodramatic eye contact.]
Ding Taoran took a deep breath, stretched out her arms to block Xuanyuan Chengze, and struck a pose like she was about to sacrifice herself heroically.
“Sister Qinghe, if you want to yell at me, hit me, whatever, just go ahead. But please, don’t blame Brother Chengze. He was just being kind. He didn’t mean anything by it.”
Xuanyuan Chengze looked deeply moved as this girl had just performed a noble act worthy of historical records.
Ji Qinghe stood off to the side like an outsider watching a tragic stage play, silently judging the performance in her head.
[Her green tea level is honestly weak. The ones I used to deal with back when I played villains were way more sophisticated.]
[They’d “accidentally” or “unintentionally” drink from the male lead’s cup in front of everyone, and then giggle, “Oops~ hehe, sorry! I shared your water with you. Hope your girlfriend doesn’t get jealous~]
Ji Qinghe couldn’t stand that kind of nauseating behavior. As a professional villainess, her policy was simple: anyone who made her life hell for a second, she’d make theirs hell for a lifetime.
Usually, she’d just lock the green tea and the man in a room and force them to talk like that 24/7 without any breaks.
By day three, both of them would be so disgusted by each other that they couldn’t even make eye contact without gagging.
But this was the apocalypse. The rules are less lenient than in peaceful worlds. No need for mind games—violence worked just fine.
[No point stifling myself in the name of helping true love bloom. Worst case, I just hold back a little so I don’t kill anyone.]
With that thought, she raised her hand and slapped the girl across the face.
Ding Taoran flew straight out, smacked into the wall with a bang, and then dropped like a dead weight to the floor with a splat.
Xuanyuan Chengze froze for a second, clearly not expecting Ji Qinghe to actually throw hands. Once it sank in, he let out a panicked shout.
“Xiaoran!”
He rushed toward Ding Taoran, crouching beside her with his hands twitching in hesitation. He wanted to pick her up but didn’t dare, worried she might’ve hurt something and that he’d make it worse.
He hovered awkwardly and said in a trembling voice, “Xiaoran, are you… are you okay? Did you hurt anything?”
Ding Taoran was in so much pain that she broke out in a cold sweat, still clutching tightly onto Xuanyuan Chengze’s jacket.
Suddenly, she coughed up a mouthful of blood with a “wah,” the dark red splashing all over the jacket. Despite the pain, she reached out to wipe it off.
“Brother Chengze… I-I’m sorry… I didn’t… didn’t protect your jacket…”
Xuanyuan Chengze’s heart ached. He grabbed her hand and shook his head.
“Don’t move. Why are you even worried about the jacket right now? Where are you hurt? Does it hurt a lot?”
It was only then that Ding Taoran seemed to notice her injuries. She tried to sit up, but another mouthful of blood spilled out.
“It hurts… Brother Chengze, it really hurts…”
Xuanyuan Chengze looked up at Ji Qinghe, his eyes red, teeth clenched, and his voice filled with anger.
“Ji Qinghe, you’ve always been jealous, and I always let it slide. But the world has changed; people die from catching a cold now. You beat her just because I gave her my jacket?!”
The more he spoke, the more disappointed he looked.
“You’re really cruel. If you don’t give me a proper explanation, I’m not forgiving you.”
Ji Qinghe tried to say something, but was interrupted by Xuanyuan Chengze.
“It’s not—”
Xuanyuan Chengze let out a sigh of relief, thinking she was finally going to admit fault.
“Good. At least you know you were wrong. But it’s too late. Look at how badly you hurt Xiaoran—”
Ji Qinghe cut him off.
“Hold it. I don’t think I did anything wrong, and I don’t need your forgiveness. I didn’t hit her because I was jealous of your little jacket. I hit her because she came up to me spewing fake sweet nonsense. It disgusted me.”
Xuanyuan Chengze choked on his words, so angry that it looked like steam would shoot out of his head.
“You’re really beyond saving! I’m telling you now, unless you get down on your knees and apologize to Xiaoran, I’ll never let this go, blah blah blah—”
[Tch, not the brightest guy out here. His so-called sister already coughed up several mouthfuls of blood, and he’s still standing around ranting instead of helping?]
Just as Ji Qinghe was thinking that, a red-haired young man burst through the door, the moment he saw Ding Taoran bleeding, his eyes filled with rage.
Without hesitation, he raised his fist and charged straight at Ji Qinghe.
“Ji Qinghe! You’ve gone too far! Xiaoran always tolerated you because you were Chengze’s girlfriend, and this is how you repay her? I’ll make you pay for what you did!”
Ji Qinghe sidestepped, spun around, and sent a roundhouse kick flying. The red-haired man flew in an arc before slamming into the wall with a loud bang.
Then, like a sack of potatoes, he dropped to the floor, landing right next to Ding Taoran. The space between the two of them was barely the size of a fist.
Ding Taoran’s face went even paler. She let out another “wah” and coughed up a fresh mouthful of blood—this time spraying it directly onto the red-haired man’s face.
She finally dropped the green tea act, trembling as she pointed at Ji Qinghe.
“You… you did that on purpose!”
She was sure of it. There was no way Chen Yan could’ve landed that perfectly close to her by accident.
Ji Qinghe quickly waved her hands.
“No, no! He’s the one who started barking about revenge and jumped at me. I just defended myself. Not my fault, right? Aww, are you mad at me?”
That “Aww” was delivered in a greasy, exaggerated voice straight out of a comedy skit—mocking, smug, and absolutely infuriating.
Ding Taoran: “…”
She was so mad, she coughed up another mouthful of blood on the spot.
The red-haired man’s eyes were wide like a startled ox. He stared at Ji Qinghe in disbelief.
[She is supposed to be an ordinary person. How the hell did she send me flying with one kick?]
Xuanyuan Chengze looked from Ji Qinghe to the two bodies now lying side-by-side on the floor, and something clearly clicked in his brain. He stared at Ji Qinghe, eyes filled with disbelief.
“How are you this strong? Did your ability… actually awaken?”
Ji Qinghe raised an eyebrow. Something was off here.
[Oh? That’s an interesting reaction.]
She crossed her arms and smirked.
“That’s a weird thing to say.”
“What, am I not allowed to awaken my powers now?”
