Kill That Transmigrator Woman - Chapter 28

Chapter 28: Cui Heng (2)

After a long moment of silence, the young man’s tall, straight back slowly bent down, visibly collapsing into dejection before her.

“Elder brother, go back and reflect properly. You can’t even conduct yourself righteously, yet you still have the time to come lecture me, your younger sister.” Cui Wanwan continued stabbing at his heart.
“Wei Qingyu sees you as her elder brother, and yet you’ve developed that kind of feeling for her. If she were to find out, she would feel a hundred times more disgusted, she would spit on you and loathe you.”

“When that time comes, I won’t even need to lift a hand. Your good little sister, your dear Yu’er, will want nothing more than to slap you to death!” The malice in Cui Wanwan’s eyes grew deeper and deeper, as she deliberately planted those thoughts into her brother Cui Heng’s mind.

“And another thing, if what’s going on between you two were ever to be exposed, do you think Wei Qingyu would still be able to marry? Even if she does eventually marry, how would her husband’s family look at her? How would they look at you?”

“That’s not true…” As expected, Cui Heng panicked. He looked up, his eyes filled with confusion and fear, muttering repeatedly, “Yu’er doesn’t know anything. She’s innocent.”

“But someone has to believe it!” she snapped sharply.

“In this world, rumors are the hardest to control. Once they begin to spread, even if Wei Qingyu jumped into the Yellow River, she wouldn’t be able to wash herself clean.”

In her past life, Cui Wanwan had experienced exactly that. She had been shackled by unfounded accusations. Perhaps in the beginning, there had still been people who believed her, but over time, as rumors spread again and again, word of mouth poisoned everything, her reputation became utterly notorious.

She knew her elder brother all too well. In the past life, even though Cui Heng had loved Wei Qingyu deeply, he still hadn’t chosen to marry her, had he?

In that previous life, Cui Heng’s love for Wei Qingyu had never once been voiced.

Because he was born into the Cui clan, lived as a member of the Cui clan, raised since childhood as a noble son tutored in the classics and virtue, he could not bring himself to do anything that violated propriety and righteousness.

Wei Qingyu’s identity was, after all, a special one. Whether or not she was related by blood to the Cui father, just the nominal relationship alone was enough.

Cui Heng’s affection was something society could not tolerate, shameless and indecent.

Cui Wanwan was satisfied to see the light in her brother’s eyes fracture.
The corner of her lips lifted, yes, she was just this cruel.

Her brother’s heart, best if it shattered further, broken to pieces beyond repair.

Wasn’t Wei Qingyu flaunting herself as some transmigrated woman with the help of a system, going around recklessly trying to win over every so-called high-quality man in the world?

Then she, Cui Wanwan, would see to it that she failed.

What kind of person Cui Heng was, she, his real little sister, understood far better than Wei Qingyu ever could.

After today, so long as Cui Heng felt even a trace of those inappropriate emotions, he would crush them down himself without hesitation.

【Ding! Warning. Male supporting character Cui Heng’s favorability has decreased by 30%. Current favorability: 50%.】

The system’s cold mechanical voice gave Wei Qingyu such a shock that she jolted.

“What?” Wei Qingyu shot to her feet, eyes filled with disbelief, muttering to herself, “That’s impossible… I worked so hard to raise it to eighty.”

A favorability rating of 80% already signified romantic feelings. With just a bit more effort, she could have fully captured the male supporting character Cui Heng, pushing him to the point of loving her deeply and devotedly.

But what was going on now?!

It had suddenly dropped by 30%, and now it hadn’t even reached passing level.

This was absolutely outrageous.

“System! Say something already, hurry up and check, what on earth is going on?! I didn’t do anything at all, so why did Cui Heng suddenly stop liking me?”

【Cui Heng’s favorability: 70%… 80%… 30%… 65%… 10%】
【Favorability in the negatives. Warning! Warning!】
【Favorability: 45%!】

The favorability values surged up and down, fluctuating wildly.

Wei Qingyu was so shaken by the string of system alerts that her head was buzzing. The system’s alarm and voice notifications were blaring at once, sharp, grating, and unbearable, making her feel like her head was about to split open.

“Stop it! Stop talking!” she suddenly shouted. “Quiet!”

“Miss? What’s wrong?” A maid outside, startled by her shouting, rushed in after pushing the door open.

But she didn’t expect to be struck in the forehead by a teacup thrown by Wei Qingyu. Blood immediately gushed from the wound.

The maid’s face turned deathly pale in an instant. The searing pain from her forehead made it clear, her face had been disfigured.

“Get out! Get out!” Wei Qingyu shouted as she squatted down, clutching her head.
The system’s warning tones were still screeching in her mind like a drawn-out siren, piercing straight into her skull. She kept smacking her own head with her hands.

The maid, terrified out of her wits, ran out clutching her wound without even daring to look back.

Only after a long while did the emotional storm on Cui Heng’s end seem to calm down.

His favorability toward her finally stabilized at 50%, no longer rising and falling uncontrollably.

Wei Qingyu collapsed onto the floor like she’d been wrung dry, gasping heavily for breath, sweat the size of peas rolling down her forehead.

No. She had to figure out why.

If someone wasn’t deliberately interfering in this, she wouldn’t believe it for a second. Wei Qingyu summoned the maid she had injured earlier, stuffed her hands full of jewelry, and silenced her through a mix of bribes and threats.

She couldn’t allow this trivial matter to ruin her image of pure innocence.

Then she spent another hour meticulously fixing her appearance, redoing her disheveled hair, before rushing off to find Cui Heng without delay.

At this moment, Cui Heng was sitting inside the Bamboo Grove Study, staring blankly at the vase in front of him.

“Brother Heng!” came a crisp, clear, melodious female voice from not far away.

Cui Heng jolted all over and suddenly looked up.

In that instant when their eyes met, Wei Qingyu was startled by the look in his eyes.

Cui Heng’s complexion was pale, and the usual clarity in his brows and gaze was gone. He looked like he’d been hit hard by something.
Though dispirited and weary, there was also a strange sense of resolute finality emanating from him.

“Brother Heng, your complexion doesn’t look too good, did something happen?”

Wei Qingyu was dressed in the outfit she would wear later to enter the palace: white as snow, ethereal and elegant.

With that pure, jade-like face of hers, and the enhancement of the skills “Immaculate Purity” and “Ethereal Dream,” she looked more and more like a celestial maiden who existed far above the mortal realm, untouched by the dust of the world.

But the more beautiful and pure Wei Qingyu appeared, the deeper Cui Heng’s guilt grew within him.

Wanwan’s words echoed in his mind like a demonic chant, reverberating over and over again, deafening and inescapable.

He could not like Yu’er.
He must not like Yu’er.
Absolutely must not fall for her!

“Leave.” Cui Heng clenched his fists tightly, forcing out the word through gritted teeth.

The smile on Wei Qingyu’s face froze, her eyes widening.

She quickly adjusted, deliberately softening her tone, her voice sweet and gentle as she stepped forward with a worried expression. “Brother Heng, are you not feeling well somewhere? Yu’er is very worried about you…”

“Leave!” Cui Heng barked, his voice sharp. He turned his back to her and sat down, his eyes filled with forbearance and shame.

His little sister Yu’er was so clean, so pure.
How could he harbor such filthy, disgraceful thoughts?

It was all his fault, he had developed feelings that should never have existed.

Stunned by his outburst, Wei Qingyu’s face turned cold. She bit her lip, glared resentfully at Cui Heng’s back, then turned and stormed off.

On the way back, the winter wind chilled her to clarity. She gritted her teeth and muttered, “It must be that wretched girl! Female supporting characters are always a mess-stirring stick, it has to be that vicious wench Cui Wanwan who said something to Cui Heng. Otherwise, there’s no way his attitude toward me would’ve turned this cold so suddenly.”

“System, can’t you figure anything out on your end?”

She turned to the system for help, hoping to use its power to understand the full situation.

【Apologies, dear Host. This system does not currently have that function.】

“What?!” Wei Qingyu was instantly dissatisfied, complaining with clear resentment, “You call yourself a system? How can you be so useless? And you even boast about being the most advanced system, what a joke, you’re nothing but defective trash…”

【Warning to Host: Please watch your language. We are bound as one, your glory is mine and your shame is mine. All forms of verbal abuse are prohibited.】

No sooner had the system finished speaking than Wei Qingyu felt a jolt of electricity surge from head to toe, causing her to collapse in pain.

Luckily, no one was around. She curled up on the grass, trembling in agony for a long while, unable to even let out a cry.

Meanwhile, far away, Cui Wanwan raised an eyebrow.

Ever since her rebirth, she had discovered that she could not only hear the conversations between the system and Wei Qingyu, but as days passed, she realized that even when Wei Qingyu wasn’t around, she could sometimes still hear their dialogue.

She didn’t know exactly what had just happened to Wei Qingyu, but she had distinctly heard a muffled, painful grunt.

A bold thought surfaced in her mind:

So the system wasn’t actually under Wei Qingyu’s control?
It could even counteract her?
Punish her?

This, was truly an extraordinary piece of good news.