Chapter 31: The Cold Reality of the Present

Ling Xiaoli felt her heartbeat instantly shoot past 180!

A living person had been struck and sent flying right before her eyes!

There had been so much blood!

Everything around her descended into chaos. By the time Ling Xiaoli came to her senses, the pedestrians had already called 110, 120, and 122—the whole set.

People didn’t crowd too closely, leaving room for the injured person, but they had also intentionally or unintentionally blocked the driver’s escape routes.

The driver didn’t seem to have any intention of running, either. He stood beside the car, staring blankly at the injured person.

Ling Xiaoli even heard someone say that the woman probably wouldn’t make it, and that it looked as though her brains had spilled out.

Dead.

She had just died like that.

There was no denying that life could be incredibly fragile at times.

Ling Xiaoli sighed inwardly. After standing there quietly for a while, she stopped watching and walked around the crowd toward the other side of the road.

Just as she was about to reach the café, someone suddenly shouted:

“Hey! Isn’t that woman the viral Zhiyin influencer from our C City? What was her name again—Orange Sauce?”

“Now that you mention it, she really does look like her!”

“It can’t be anyone else. I remember the mole at the corner of her mouth. It’s definitely her!”

……

Ling Xiaoli could no longer hear the rest.

Her mind went completely blank, leaving only that name—

Orange Sauce.

If Ling Xiaoli was merely a minor villain in the original novel, then Orange Sauce could only be considered a villainous extra, appearing in fewer than five chapters.

Even her death had not occupied any space in the main text. The author had merely displayed their twisted sense of humor in a brief author’s note.

Yet this insignificant extra had really died!

She had died in the traffic accident described in the original novel!

She had died right in front of Ling Xiaoli!!!

Ling Xiaoli instinctively looked up at the sky.

The blazing sun overhead seemed fake, unable to bring her even the slightest warmth.

A chill from nowhere enveloped her entire body, seeping inch by inch into her marrow and reaching straight into her soul.

So this was it.

So villains really did die when they exited the stage!

……

Ling Xiaoli stood there in a daze for more than ten minutes, until a sudden shout brought her back to her senses.

“Ling Xiaoli, why aren’t you going inside now that you’re here?”

Ling Xiaoli raised her eyes.

It was Zhou Yan.

She lowered her gaze, pulled her mask higher, and then looked at Zhou Yan again.

“The sunlight is pretty good. I’m just getting some sun outside.”

……

Ling Xiaoli sat in a private booth on the second floor of the café. Her hands were clasped together on the table, and she stared at them, but her mind was filled with everything that had just happened.

Was it the world’s rules?

Or the author’s will?

Would villains die when they exited the stage, or would anyone who was destined to die in the original novel inevitably die when their time came?

Or had this merely been an accident?

Have all the efforts I’ve made so far been useful?

Can I really change my destined ending?

……

After sitting down, Zhou Yan didn’t immediately speak. Instead, he waited for the coffee to arrive.

He first placed several cubes of sugar into Ling Xiaoli’s cup, then poured in two small containers of creamer before beginning to speak.

But after only a short while, he realized that Ling Xiaoli didn’t seem to be listening to him at all.

Whatever he said, she simply replied, “Okay,” and she never once raised her head.

Even when he tentatively asked, “Shall we get back together?”

Ling Xiaoli still answered, “Okay.”

Something was clearly wrong!

Zhou Yan immediately thought of the traffic accident at the intersection that he had seen when he arrived.

Had A-Li been frightened?

Worried, he reached out his hand.

“A-Li, what’s wrong? Were you frightened just now?”

Ling Xiaoli was still thinking when a hand suddenly reached across the table toward her.

She was startled and quickly pulled both hands back.

Only then did she look at Zhou Yan.

“Sorry, I was distracted just now. What did you say?”