Chapter 109: If It's Not Love, You Wouldn't Think This Way
"Ugh, I deserve to die."
A few days later.
Ye Zhen recalled that night's milk and couldn't help but slap her thigh.
"If I'd known she'd play like this, I should've used a whole carton of milk!"
"Wouldn't that have made me millions in one night?"
"Damn it! Such a golden opportunity to make money, and I blew it!"
[Σ(⊙▽⊙"a……]
Not long ago, the dog system had been worried its host might develop jittery hands, but now it seemed like pure overthinking.
This dog host has such a resilient mindset.
Never carrying yesterday's failures into today!
Today is another day full of hope~
"Stockholm Syndrome is truly terrifying. One wrong move and you could be fooled by it. Thankfully, the slap was loud enough to snap me back to reality instantly."
Recalling those past moments when her heart had raced, Ye Zhen felt a pang of lingering fear.
But she soon let it go.
She wasn't made of wood—if she could remain unmoved by such blatant advances, she'd be something else.
After two lifetimes of being single, where would she find such unwavering resolve?
She wasn't some womanizer who could navigate a sea of flowers without a single petal clinging to him…
Before arriving here, she had been a respectable young man from a good family.
"Admitting those moments isn't shameful. What's truly dangerous is hiding them and refusing to face them."
"So~there!"
"Work hard to make money and end this game sooner."
At first, Ye Zhen had only wanted to slip away quietly.
But no one listened to her. No one cared about her choices. Even when she resorted to such extreme measures to strip away her own worth, they still refused to relinquish control over her fate.
Did they think she was easy to push around?
Or did they simply want her dead?
Ye Fuli, what exactly was she so stubbornly clinging to?
In Ye Zhen's eyes, she had already obtained everything she desired.
At school, she had Ye Fuli at her beck and call, summoned and dismissed at will—perhaps that alone wasn't enough to satisfy her thirst for revenge.
And now, seeing the vicious female antagonist who once tormented her reduced to such a pitiful, hideous state—stripped of everything, retreating in disgrace—wasn't that enough to satisfy her thirst for vengeance?
Does she really want to date her?
Hah.
Ye Zhen didn't believe she understood the meaning of love.
Oh well.
She wouldn't try to teach Ye Fuli this, just as Ye Fuli had once said she wouldn't try to teach her those complex concepts—it was too exhausting.
It was just a pity…
In the end, this body, this identity, the friendships with others, the rare family bonds she'd found, and the chance at higher education—all would have to be relinquished without reservation.
Ye Zhen felt a pang of regret.
But she had tried her best to preserve these precious things.
The days of outwitting and outmaneuvering Ye Fuli would grow fewer and fewer as the pile of money grew.
Only then would her true new life finally begin.
Ye Zhen swiftly overcame her already negligible Stockholm Syndrome tendencies and further solidified her unwavering resolve to escape.
Yet Ye Fuli's heart plunged once more into a sea of suffering.
…
Morning.
Gazing at the steaming milk on the table, Ye Fuli couldn't help but lightly trace her index finger along her lips, her eyes lingering meaningfully on Ye Zhen.
Unfortunately, Ye Zhen kept her head down, cutting the steak on her plate without looking up at her.
Evening.
Gazing at the creamy mushroom soup on the table, her mood remained turbulent.
Like a stagnant pond, ripples would stir within her heart, reigniting its vitality.
Ye Fuli's emotional control was impeccable; Ye Zhen couldn't possibly discern what was stirring within her.
But Ye Zhen didn't try to guess her thoughts either.
That stuff was too hard to figure out, and even if she guessed right, the other person would never admit it.
"Are you sure you don't need to sleep, Ye Fuli?"
Ye Zhen finished the soup before her and smiled at Ye Fuli.
If you're not going to sleep, then let's play a game worth something.
These days, she couldn't sleep unless she made at least a hundred thousand a night.
Ye Zhen had gradually mastered the rhythm of the game without ever provoking Ye Fuli.
Ye Fuli lifted her head slightly to look at her.
A deep, probing look lingered in Feng Aotian's eyes.
She'd never been in a proper relationship, so she wasn't quite sure what kind of emotion constituted positive feedback in love.
Was wanting to possess someone considered one?
Probably.
Then, needing to hold that person to fall asleep—did that count?
Probably.
As for wanting more intimate contact—including but not limited to drinking imported milk together…
Well, that should be a given, right?
If it weren't love, how could such thoughts arise?
She must be falling deeper and deeper for the little kitten before her.
"I've been thinking about something."
Ye Fuli said, placing her hand over her heart.
She tried to calm her emotions.
"Now, I've thought it through."
Ye Fuli disliked letting others see too much of her emotions.
But she would resort to more direct means to achieve her goals.
For instance, she picked up the milk beside her and poured it directly onto her legs clad in black stockings.
She stretched her legs out flat, tilted her chin slightly upward, and narrowed her eyes at Ye Zhen.
"Clean these stockings for me. One price: ten thousand."
Whether these stockings were worth ten thousand yuan was beside the point.
But Ye Fuli had clearly begun to relish the idea of buying pleasure with money.
Ye Zhen showed a hint of hesitation, then strode purposefully toward Ye Fuli.
One thought dominated her mind: Money comes first.
……
…
"Honestly, money is hard to come by."
Ye Zhen looked at the neatly stacked piles of cash in her room and shamelessly sighed.
[Host, your face is truly thick.]
"I can't even take this money with me!"
Ye Zhen snorted.
"It's just for the visual pleasure."
By simple calculation, she had already amassed nearly four million yuan—drawing ever closer to her ten-million-yuan mission target.
After a busy spell, Ye Fuli finally found some free time.
She stepped into Ye Zhen's room and gazed thoughtfully at the pile of cash stacked in the corner.
At that moment, Ye Zhen was leaning against the edge of the bed, engrossed in a thick novel.
She heard Ye Fuli enter.
But she pretended not to hear, silently turning the pages.
Only when the book was snatched from her hands did Ye Zhen feign alarm, scrambling backward several steps.
"Why are you so afraid of me?"
Ye Fuli stroked her slightly disheveled hair, her fingers sliding down to rest at the corner of her mouth.
She wiped it away gently, removing the crumb.
"I told you, as long as you obey, I won't punish you."
Ye Zhen gently pushed her hand away, eyes lowered. "I was just so engrossed in my book that I got startled."
"Is that so? What were you reading?"
There were simply too many books here, and not all of them had been personally selected by Ye Fuli. Back then, in the rush to move, she had packed up several bookstores' worth of books and had them shipped over in boxes by truck.
Curiosity piqued, she glanced at the cover of the book in her hands.
When she saw the title, Reborn Little Wife: You've Picked the Wrong Person to Bully, and the over-the-top Mary Sue comic cover, she froze.
"How can you read… this kind of thing?"
Ye Fuli flipped through a few pages before snapping it shut.
Somehow, this trashy knowledge had crept into her mind through a dirty backdoor, leaving her feeling utterly disgusted and thoroughly annoyed.
"Just picked it randomly, for fun."
Ye Zhen sighed.
"If you don't like it, I won't read it." To avoid getting beaten by you and enduring your nonsense.
Of course, she hadn't chosen it randomly—she'd picked it deliberately.
Ye Fuli would never know that she was no longer the same Ye Zhen.
Of course, Ye Zhen still had that twisted curiosity: What if Ye Fuli found out one day?
As far as she knew, Ye Fuli was someone who dreaded making mistakes.
Once she realized she'd made such a huge mistake, would she blame herself so much she couldn't eat… Hah, probably not.
She never cared about others' feelings anyway, right?
"Alright, I'm going to sleep."
Ye Zhen pulled the blanket over herself, ignoring this gloomy creature who turned somber the moment night fell.
Inside the room, the soft orange light gently illuminated their profiles.
Ye Fuli, however, stared at the book, lost in thought for a long time…