Transmigrated as the Imperial Princess's Scumbag Alpha Ex-Wife - Chapter 10

The sensation of Zhu Yu’s hands was peculiar.

Her hands were rather large, easily gripping Bai Shuzhou’s slender ankles. Her fingers were nimble and strong, applying even pressure across every inch of skin.

Calluses lined her knuckles, and upon closer inspection, faint, time-worn scars were barely visible.

Yet her palms were surprisingly soft, like those of a fool who strains to support heavy objects with only their fingertips.

Even knowing Bai Shuzhou’s legs were numb and devoid of sensation, Zhu Yu worried about hurting her. She placed one hand over the blanket on the woman’s slender calf and pressed her other hand against her own arm, testing the pressure before finally covering Bai Shuzhou’s legs with both hands.

Bai Shuzhou’s gaze slowly shifted from Zhu Yu’s hands to her face.

Stripped of her flamboyant, almost exaggerated expressions, Zhu Yu now looked utterly focused. Her eyes were fixed intently on Bai Shuzhou’s legs, her earnest expression mirroring the concentration she had shown while repairing the electrical appliance earlier.

Warmth flowed from Zhu Yu’s fingertips, like a hot spring rising from below, gradually enveloping Bai Shuzhou’s sensitive muscles and bones. At the points of aching tension, Zhu Yu increased the pressure slightly.

A subtle current surged through Bai Shuzhou’s body. The woman’s detached expression tightened as she bit her lip, barely suppressing a low moan that threatened to escape.

“Zhu Yu.”

This time, she didn’t call her “Bai Yu.” The cool, drawn-out tone carried a barely perceptible hint of anger.

When Mental Power is concentrated, it naturally possesses penetrating properties. Under her touch, the numbed senses began to awaken, becoming strangely sensitive.

“Get lost,” she snapped, using an unusually harsh word that clashed with her royal upbringing but was perfectly suited for Zhu Yu.

The girl’s hand, which had just crossed Bai Shuzhou’s knee, paused at the command. “I can’t,” she replied softly, her tone gentle but firm, showing no intention of letting go.

When she focused on her work, the somewhat forced smile vanished from her face, leaving her with a stern expression. It was like the tide receding, revealing the wet, unyielding rocks along the shore.

“Staying still for too long can cause bedsores and hinder later rehabilitation exercises.”

“A patient shouldn’t be ashamed to seek medical help, right? Even though I’m not a doctor, this Ability must be quite powerful, don’t you think?”

She recalled Bai Shuzhou’s astonishment when her Ability had unexpectedly manifested that day. The memory was chaotic, like a dream, except for the kiss, which remained vividly clear.

Zhu Yu flushed, coughed a few times, and declared loudly, “Mental Power is similar to physical strength. I think I can sense the right dosage now. I can give you massage therapy every day, and you’ll definitely recover!”

Bai Shuzhou’s Mental Power was at the 3S level, and her control over it was masterful. She could even materialize solid vines. Zhu Yu, however, lacked such precision; she had to make physical contact to transmit her energy.

Though Bai Shuzhou detested Zhu Yu’s closeness, the treatment was beneficial to her. Besides…

She watched the joy on the girl’s lips and let out a cold laugh.

That night, Bai Shuzhou slept soundly for the first time in ages.

When she woke up the next morning, Zhu Yu had already left. The extra dishes and utensils were gone, and the appliances had been neatly stored in a corner.

On the freshly wiped table beside her bed sat a new lamp and a few scattered books.

The woman bit her lip, resisting the urge to touch the childish floral lamp. Dark green vines silently extended toward the wall switch. Click, the lamp lit up.

A moment later, the sound of keys turning in the lock reached her ears. Bai Shuzhou’s hand instinctively reached for the dagger under her pillow.

“Sister Little Zhou, you’re awake! Good morning!” He Ming, his schoolbag slung over his shoulder, poked his head in and rushed to the table, dropping his heavy bag with a thud. “Little Yu and my mom talked it over. They asked you to watch me do my homework and check it tonight.”

She clenched her fist. She had come on a glorious mission! Zhu Yu had secretly asked her to look after Bai Shuzhou, arguing that it wasn’t safe to leave the patient alone at home.

The reward was a gaming console—newly cleaned but still broken. Of course, this arrangement had been kept secret from Helan.

To their surprise, He Ming’s learning efficiency here was unexpectedly high.

Previously, she would drag out her homework for days, despite Helan’s coaxing and even scolding. The child stubbornly maintained a “I’d rather die than do homework” attitude.

At her age, she could spend an entire morning playing with just a pen and an eraser. On the rare occasions when Helan was busy and couldn’t keep an eye on her, He Ming would dash from the east end of the city to the west and back in the blink of an eye, driving her mother to the brink of madness.

But now, things were different. When her old friends came calling, He Ming would wave them off with a proud and composed air, declaring, “I have important matters to attend to.”

The small room was so spartan it could have inspired the Ode to a Humble Abode. Yet when Bai Shuzhou sat there, her serene presence seemed to quiet the very air. With her eyes lowered, she resembled a divine figure in an oil painting.

She rarely spoke, her silence making He Ming slightly uneasy. Whenever He Ming tried to sneak in some mischief, those pale blue eyes would drift over, sending shivers down her spine and forcing her to bury herself in her studies.

All this just to earn a single word of praise from the woman when she finished.

The ultimate reward!

If only such fleeting words could be preserved, He Ming would have pinned them to her chest like medals, parading them everywhere she went.

Zhu Yu watched He Ming’s smug expression with amusement, feeling no envy whatsoever. She was no longer a child; why bother with such trivialities?

She was an adult now, working full-time, and needed to be a shrewd, cold-blooded egoist!

After finishing his homework, He Ming reported, “I completed four test papers, ten pages of workbook exercises, and memorized fifty new vocabulary words!”

Zhu Yu also reported, “The supervisor at the nutrient solution factory praised my efficiency, and I got three referrals for the evening tutoring sessions. There’ll be a generous bonus at the end of the month!”

Worried that Bai Shuzhou might be bored at home, Zhu Yu often chattered about amusing anecdotes from work.

So, during the day He Ming would chatter, and at night Zhu Yu would chatter, while Bai Shuzhou remained expressionless, treating them equally by ignoring both and coldly focusing her gaze on her books.

Zhu Yu continued talking to herself, mentioning that most of her colleagues at the nutrient solution factory were around her age and often shared tips on great deals. She seized the opportunity to subtly promote Helan’s shop.

Little Shan’s beast form was a long-tailed tit. During lunch breaks, she would transform into a small bird, curl up in her fluffy hat, and take a nap. Her dream was to join a band and perform at the Imperial Star’s largest underground bar.

The Cat Colleague, who shed fur constantly, often got scolded. Initially, they mistook Zhu Yu’s agility for feline traits and approached her with a small fish, asking what she’d been eating lately to stop shedding so effectively.

Zhu Yu took pride in her minimal hair loss—it was one of her few small advantages.

She recommended the vitamins Little Shan had suggested to her colleagues. With her increased income, she also added fish oil and calcium supplements to their diets. Unfortunately, no matter how much she fed Bai Shuzhou, the dragon remained stubbornly thin. Zhu Yu felt guilty and somewhat frustrated.

“Why don’t you buy your sister some food specifically formulated to help her gain weight?” the Cat Colleague suggested.

Gain weight…?

Do dragons even need to gain weight?

Wait a minute… Zhu Yu finally realized something was off.

“Shocking!” the Cat Colleague exclaimed. “I thought you were called Little Fish because you love eating fish!”

“No, I’m named after the ‘Yu’ in ‘Nian Nian You Yu’—may you have abundance every year!” Zhu Yu explained.

“Nian Nian You Yu… that means ‘little fish’!” the illiterate Cat Colleague insisted.

That evening, Zhu Yu told Bai Shuzhou and He Ming about the incident while preparing hotpot. He Ming burst into laughter. “Then I think Sister Little Zhou really is like a cat! Beautiful, elegant, and noble—a calico cat! Isn’t that right?”

The dragon-cat snorted, clearly displeased.

Due to a severe illness in her childhood that damaged her wings and caused recurring internal cold toxins, she had been unable to transform into her dragon form for a very long time. This was a closely guarded secret of the royal family.

Moreover… Zhu Yu had been acting increasingly strange lately.

She still remembered their first meeting, when Zhu Yu introduced herself.

Standing in the sunlight, the girl smiled brightly. “Zhu Yu, the ‘Yu’ that means ‘surplus.’ I’m just an extra person in this world.”

Little Yu’s Yu, surplus Yu, the Yu that means ‘abundance year after year.’

All pointed to the same Zhu Yu.

Bai Shuzhou’s gaze darkened, becoming more scrutinizing.

Zhu Yu continued to put on exaggerated performances, exaggerating her words and feigning happiness, all easily seen through.

She helped neighbors repair small appliances, accepting the small change she once scorned—five or ten yuan at a time. Sometimes, tackling tricky problems would keep her busy for hours, utterly pointless.

After a whole day of backbreaking work, she might only earn enough for a single meal.

Because her secondhand appliances were both high-quality and affordable, Zhu Yu quickly built up a loyal customer base. She even offered on-site repairs when she had time, earning an excellent reputation.

Competitors, feeling she was disrupting the industry’s ecosystem, stormed over to pick a fight. Zhu Yu remained unfazed, smiling sweetly as they berated her relentlessly. For items she couldn’t fix, she’d humbly seek advice, flattering them with “Master” this and “Master” that, showering them with praise until they were practically floating on air.

Even when called “mongrel,” she showed little reaction. Gradually, everyone began to think this little fish with her troubled past was a bit simple-minded, and they grew too embarrassed to bully her further.

Only Bai Shuzhou believed she was a ticking time bomb.

Zhu Yu was undoubtedly biding her time, waiting for the perfect moment to strike a fatal blow.

She was fiercely protective of her origins. Once, when a noble classmate called her an abandoned orphan, Zhu Yu befriended him, only to lure him into a private training session before the Mecha Pilot selection trials. Under the guise of sparring, she beat him half to death, leaving him with multiple compound fractures that forced him to miss the trials.

Yet Zhu Yu feigned concern and visited the classmate in the hospital, escaping without even a reprimand.

As the days passed, those who had humiliated Zhu Yu continued to thrive.

In the past, the girl had always played the victim, using her pitiful stories to gain advantages.

Now, she pried candy from crevices, sharing only good news and hiding her troubles. Yet the subtle traces of her grievances, revealed in the smallest details, lingered in Bai Shuzhou’s mind, growing clearer with each passing day.

What act is she putting on now?

Zhu Yu rarely spoke about her night shift, simply calling it a tutoring job and painting a rosy picture: a veritable paradise where the boss was generous, colleagues were friendly, clients were respectful, and the pay was good with light work and occasional days off.

Every word sounded like a lie.

When she returned in the early hours, she often sat alone at the table, staring blankly for long stretches, counting her savings over and over.

Zhu Yu carefully hid the piggy bank in a corner under the bed, wrapped in a plastic bag. She shared the password with Bai Shuzhou, and all the money from her two jobs and part-time repair work went into it.

From an empty echo to a satisfying weight.

The meat dishes on the dining table grew more frequent, but Zhu Yu’s smiles grew rarer. She often wore a stern expression, trying to appear mature.

Bai Shuzhou would steal glances at her from behind, her eyes darting sideways while her body remained still, like a dog ready to tear the house apart at any moment. A hint of guilt lingered, but not much. Her ears drooped, swaying nonchalantly as she pretended to be calm.

Occasionally, Bai Shuzhou would catch Zhu Yu’s silly grin in the mirror, but the moment she turned around, the smile vanished.

A secret worry took root in Bai Shuzhou’s heart, sprouting into an inexplicable restlessness.

Seeing Zhu Yu unhappy should have made her happy, but she knew nothing of what Zhu Yu had been doing at night. Why was Zhu Yu keeping secrets from her? What right did she have to hide things?

That same night, as the sky began to lighten with the first hint of dawn, Zhu Yu hurried home. She didn’t even touch her beloved game console, washing up quickly before collapsing into bed.

The woman in the bed opened her eyes. After a moment’s pause, deep green vines silently crept across the sleeping girl, pulling the clothes draped over the chair closer.

The pristine fabric showed no signs of wear, but who could possibly finish a night shift and keep their clothes in such perfect condition?

Bai Shuzhou’s slender eyebrows furrowed slightly as she hesitantly took the clothes, bringing the collar to her nose.

The Dragon Clan’s sense of smell was exceptionally keen, and she quickly detected the anomalies.

The outer layer had been sprayed with perfume and meticulously ironed to remove every wrinkle. Only the lining retained the faint scent of alcohol, along with a medley of pheromones.

As Bai Shuzhou focused her senses, her nose twitched. Frowning, she reached into a corner and pulled out several strands of animal fur—from different animals, no less.

Shameless!

Bai Shuzhou had a growing suspicion about this so-called “utopia.” She let out a cold laugh. Zhu Yu was truly a “born teacher,” no wonder she hadn’t even touched her game console after work.

But what did Zhu Yu’s actions have to do with her?

They should have dissolved their marriage long ago, instead of clinging to this hollow pretense of sisterhood.

Wasn’t this Zhu Yu’s original intention?

She deserved to die.

The girl on the floor, sensing the hostility, sneezed softly and curled up into a tight, white rice ball.

She looked utterly, utterly detestable!

Bai Shuzhou’s icy gaze lingered for a moment before she flicked her fingers away in disgust, sending her coat arcing through the air.

A sheet of nori seaweed landed perfectly on the rice ball, covering the girl’s slightly protruding belly.