Chapter 38: Chapter 38: So Eager to See Me

Jiang Qingli was so exhausted last night, she nearly fell asleep on the way.

Once she reached the gym, Jiang Qingli, afraid she was late, bolted upstairs to the locker room to shower and change.

She thought she was running late, but after she finished changing, she was surprised to see Lin Xiyue rushing in. Her light brown curls bounced with every step.

Jiang Qingli playfully tugged the ends of her friend’s hair, waiting for her by the changing stall. "What kept you so late today?"

Normally, Lin Xiyue was such a good girl, always arriving early.

"You can thank your ex-husband for that—I mean, ex-fiancé." Lin Xiyue sighed. "Anywhere he shows up, the traffic gets completely snarled. And just my luck, I was on the same road as him. The whole area was gridlocked, packed with his crazed fans. God, if only those people could see how he treats you—"

Lin Xiyue clapped a hand over her mouth, cutting herself off.

She poked her head out and looked at Jiang Qingli cautiously. "I’m so sorry, sweetie. I shouldn’t have brought up painful memories. I just can’t stand how two-faced he is."

"It’s okay." Jiang Qingli smiled at her. "It’s all in the past."

"As long as you’ve moved on, that’s what matters." Lin Xiyue let out a sigh of relief.

After she finished changing, she walked out and spun around in front of Jiang Qingli. "How do I look?"

It was their swimming class, so they were both in swimsuits.

Lin Xiyue had an amazing figure. The black bikini stood in stark contrast to her snow-white skin. With her slender waist and long legs, she was impossible to look away from.

Jiang Qingli joked, "You just have to stand there. Everyone else will be stunned for a good five seconds, and you’ll cruise to an easy victory!"

Swimming was a required course at the Imperial Royal Academy. The final exam used a curve where the bottom 10% of students automatically failed. The original owner had already failed once last year, so she couldn’t afford to fail again.

"But of course," Lin Xiyue said, lifting her chin. Her eyes then swept over Jiang Qingli with a hint of resignation. "Why are you wearing a one-piece? Is that a style from the last century? I haven’t seen any females wear one of those since elementary school..."

Jiang Qingli looked down at her light blue one-piece and rubbed the tip of her nose. "..."

The truth was, she had other swimsuits. But while changing, Jiang Qingli had discovered several very obvious red marks on her lower back—hickeys left by Ye Linyuan at some point.

’I don’t have any ointment to help them fade right now, so a one-piece is my only option to cover them up...’

The two went downstairs arm in arm. With just a few steps to go, they spotted a crowd gathered around the azure blue pool.

Curious, Jiang Qingli’s gaze drifted over, landing directly on a young man with blue hair at the center of the crowd.

He had beautiful, amethyst-like purple pupils. The corners of his eyes tilted upward as he met Jiang Qingli’s gaze with a smirk.

This was one of the original owner’s five ex-fiancés, Yu Chenglan.

Yu Chenglan was a Mermaid Beastman from a renowned family of singers. At only twenty years old, his incredible voice had already made him the treasured prodigy of the Imperial Royal Academy’s school of music.

Of course, he was even more famous for his long, aqua-blue hair, his clear, crystal-like eyes, and an angelic face that drove countless fans wild. The media had dubbed him the "Rising Sea Pearl."

When the original owner first met Yu Chenglan, she was completely captivated by his face. From the start, she treated him far better than her other Beast Husbands, putting him on a pedestal with her every word and action.

But Yu Chenglan’s personality was extremely vile.

Unlike the other Beast Husbands, who were scornful and cold toward the original owner from the get-go, his demeanor was gentle, and he would look at her with seductive eyes as he spoke.

This made the original owner even more convinced that they had a future together, so she doubled down on her kindness toward him.

But during one trip to the beach where Bai Yiyi was also present, Yu Chenglan took them diving. He secretly told the original owner he would show her his mermaid tail.

Halfway through the dive, the original owner’s equipment suddenly malfunctioned, and she choked on a large amount of water.

Yu Chenglan was just a few meters away.

But no matter how desperately the original owner reached for him, he didn’t spare her a single glance, instead swimming leisurely away with Bai Yiyi.

In the end, it was Ling Qing who saved the original owner.

That night, as the original owner drifted in and out of consciousness, she heard Ling Qing and Yu Chenglan arguing at her bedside.

Yu Chenglan demanded of Ling Qing, "Why did you save her? She’s a useless, wicked female! Letting her die would have been justice for Yiyi, so why the hell did you save her?!"

Ling Qing sneered. "...You idiot. Jiang Qingli was with us this time. If something happened to her, forget about you not being able to escape responsibility—what if Yiyi were implicated?!"

At the mention of Bai Yiyi, Yu Chenglan’s face paled. After a long moment, his lips trembled as he said, "I was inconsiderate this time."

"You were just doing it for Yiyi," Ling Qing said, his expression softening as he patted Yu Chenglan’s shoulder. "We’ll find another chance later."

The original owner was utterly shocked that her own fiancé was actually plotting to murder her.

But whether it was due to the push of the plot or something else, it wasn’t long before the original owner went right back to fawning over him.

Her boundless indulgence only caused Yu Chenglan to become even more malicious.

He would often beckon to the original owner with a crooked finger, and when she approached, he would bully her at his whim, revealing his cruel nature.

Even though servants witnessed this several times, he showed no signs of restraint.

Lin Xiyue had heard rumors about this and looked worriedly at Jiang Qingli. "Qingli..."

"Don’t worry, I’m really not interested in him now," Jiang Qingli sighed.

There seemed to be a special event today. The instructor had sent a message in the group chat telling everyone to warm up on their own while she went to pick up a champion swimmer who would be helping them train.

Lin Xiyue pointed to an empty corner of the pool. "Qingli, let’s go practice over there. My ranking last year was pretty good, so I can give you some pointers."

Jiang Qingli nodded repeatedly.

The two went to the corner and slowly entered the water.

Jiang Qingli hadn’t swum much before, but the moment she entered the water, she felt a cool sense of freedom. After Lin Xiyue demonstrated the strokes just a few times, she picked it up naturally and began to swim.

As a teacher, Lin Xiyue felt a great sense of accomplishment. "Looks like you’ll have no problem passing this semester!"

The final exam consisted of a one-thousand-meter freestyle swim. Lin Xiyue had Jiang Qingli try swimming a hundred meters first to see how she’d do.

Jiang Qingli slipped into the water, as graceful as a fish.

But halfway through, the water around her feet suddenly formed a small vortex. It wrapped around her calves, viciously yanking her down!

Caught completely off guard, Jiang Qingli exhaled a large cloud of bubbles.

She struggled desperately toward the surface, her arms flailing and creating huge splashes.

She thought she heard Lin Xiyue scream. A moment later, Jiang Qingli saw a figure swimming toward her, and a hand grabbed her arm.

At the same time, the pull on her legs vanished. Jiang Qingli broke the surface, sputtering, and fell into someone’s arms.

The lingering terror made Jiang Qingli cling to her rescuer’s shoulders, but the person kept trying to back away. With her face and eyes full of water, her survival instinct drove her to grasp forward blindly.

She didn’t know what she’d grabbed, but gasps and shrieks erupted from the crowd.

"Where are her hands?!"

"He was kind enough to save her, and she’s taking the chance to cop a feel! I’ve never seen such a shameless female!"

"Poor Yu Chenglan, talk about no good deed going unpunished..."

A sliver of clarity cut through the chaotic, oxygen-starved haze in Jiang Qingli’s mind.

She furiously wiped the water from her face and opened her eyes, meeting Yu Chenglan’s purple gaze.

Yu Chenglan’s eyes were filled with a jeering smirk. In a low voice that only the two of them could hear, he said—

"So eager the moment you see me."

"What, can’t your Beast Husband satisfy you?"