After Becoming a CEO, I Ended Up With the Gorgeous Lunatic Villainess - Chapter 10

The stainless steel bowl clanged sharply, and in the next moment, the air around He Shu solidified into countless invisible blades.

She felt as if she had been stuffed into a freezer. The cold seeped deep into her limbs, and she couldn’t even move to run.

And just when she thought it couldn’t get worse, she realized something even more terrifying.

After carrying Cen Qianyi down the mountain, she had been so exhausted that she completely forgot about the muscle paralytic. She had left Cen Qianyi to walk back on her own.

She had walked back by herself.

“System, help! Has Cen Qianyi’s muscle paralytic worn off?!”

The electronic voice in her mind crackled as if the connection were poor.

“The effects of the paralytic will gradually weaken. Full recovery takes three days.”

So even if it hadn’t been three days, the effects were already weak enough that she could walk again.

“If she can walk, doesn’t that mean it’s easy for her to kill me now?!”

“Good luck.”

He Shu felt her chest tighten. What good luck? No, she needed to run.

Just as she forced her trembling legs to move, the system chimed again. A new plot was starting.

She had to eat breakfast with Cen Qianyi.

On the other side, Su Zhi finished setting the table for both the person and the pet. She turned to invite He Shu to join them.

Cen Qianyi lifted her head from the bowl. Her gaze was colder than morning mist and landed directly on He Shu.

With a thud, He Shu’s knees buckled under that look, and she dropped to the ground.

“Boss, what’s wrong?”

Su Zhi rushed over to help.

“My legs… they gave out…”

Su Zhi frowned. “It must be from the exhaustion of walking the dog.”

Just as she was pulled up again, He Shu nearly collapsed a second time.

She really wanted to kneel to this woman too, just so she would stop talking. Couldn’t she see those air blades were already hovering dangerously close to He Shu’s chest?

Tears welled in He Shu’s eyes. She had forgotten that Su Zhi couldn’t see killing intent. The woman was strong too and easily helped her over to the table.

When He Shu lowered her gaze, she could see the ‘dog’ at her feet and the bowl full of food in front of her.

She really was going to die. Those air blades were about to stab her right in the nose.

She clutched Su Zhi’s hand, refusing to let go.

Su Zhi looked at her in confusion. “What is it, Boss?”

What was it? The boss was about to die. There would be no one left to give Su Zhi a raise.

And the system? It couldn’t care less. The connection was still spotty, and it insisted she get to work.

The countdown for her dialogue started ticking again. He Shu gritted her teeth, shut her eyes, and from the tension in her voice, she even let it crack.

It came out sharp and grating, almost like she was shouting at Cen Qianyi.

“Why aren’t you eating? Don’t like it?”

Cen Qianyi slowly lifted her head, as if only now noticing someone nearby. She looked toward He Shu, her gaze still unfocused.

“What did you give me to eat?”

He Shu gripped Su Zhi’s hand tighter. There was no way she could say, “Whatever a dog should eat, you eat too.”

Su Zhi, feeling her hand being squeezed, frowned. She assumed the boss was angry.

Turning to Cen Qianyi, she scolded without hesitation.

“If it’s what a dog eats, then naturally that’s what you eat.”

He Shu stared at Su Zhi in surprise. When had she started stealing the scene? But honestly, she delivered the line perfectly.

Su Zhi caught He Shu’s look of approval and blushed slightly. Feeling encouraged, she pushed forward.

“Boss has rules. If you skip this meal, you don’t eat for the rest of the day.”

He Shu’s mouth twitched. Not only had she stolen her scene, but now she had also stolen her line.

Cen Qianyi looked at Su Zhi. Based on the information she found last night, this was He Shu’s most loyal “dog.”

Her fingers curled slightly on the table. She lowered her head and hid the killing intent in her eyes.

Seeing that Cen Qianyi didn’t move, Su Zhi gave a cold snort and was about to scold her again when her wrist was pulled back.

He Shu had seen that Cen Qianyi wasn’t finished and hurried to stop Su Zhi. If this woman kept talking, they might both end up dead.

She was just an employee. No need to go this far. The boss lived in a villa and never promised her one.

Su Zhi paused and looked at He Shu, suddenly remembering how she had just collapsed. Maybe it was low blood sugar.

She quickly picked up a piece of osmanthus rice cake and placed it in He Shu’s bowl.

“Boss, eat something before you discipline the pet.”

He Shu’s eye twitched hard. Was this woman trying to send her to the afterlife?

She could feel those air blades suddenly sharpen. It felt like they could turn solid any second.

Just then, Su Zhi’s phone buzzed. She glanced at it.

“A new fax just came in. Probably from the hospital. I’ll go check.”

He Shu nodded frantically.

But as soon as Su Zhi left, the horror set in.

Now, the entire villa held only her and Cen Qianyi.

She trembled as she looked at the woman by the table. It felt like Cen Qianyi might stand up and kill her at any moment.

He Shu sniffed and looked at the waves of killing intent and her silent system.

She was probably going to die here.

She took a deep breath but then froze. Something was off. She looked at the bowl in front of Cen Qianyi.

Something was definitely wrong. Why did the dog food smell like this?

She bent down, picked up a piece, and put it in her mouth.

She chewed, then pressed her lips together thoughtfully.

He Shu frowned, but her eyes gradually lit up.

To confirm her suspicion, she took a handful and continued eating.

The more she ate, the brighter her eyes became. Thank goodness. She had thought no one could be that twisted.

This wasn’t dog food.

It tasted like cereal mixed with grains, vegetables, and fruit. Some pieces even had a strawberry flavor.

She had tried Qianqian’s dog food before out of curiosity. It definitely didn’t taste like this.

This was a healthy breakfast cereal meant for humans. Best served with milk.

He Shu finished the last bite and was now sure. It was real food.

And it was tasty.

It was just shaped and colored to resemble dog food.

Cen Qianyi couldn’t even describe what she was feeling. If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she would never have believed it.

This woman had taken food from the bowl and eaten it. Carefully and thoroughly.

Her expression even suggested that it tasted pretty good.

Cen Qianyi’s eye twitched.

Was this woman not trying to humiliate her?

Why was she eating it herself…?

He Shu wanted to explain that the food just looked like dog food, but wasn’t. But her lines were locked, and she couldn’t say any of it.

Cen Qianyi couldn’t see either, or she would have just shown her directly.

After thinking it over, He Shu picked up the osmanthus cake from her bowl, emptied the food from Cen Qianyi’s bowl into it, then quickly shoved the cake into Cen Qianyi’s hand.

It was clearly an attempt at appeasement, like she was hoping to reduce her sentence.

Unfortunately, her next lines were suicidal.

“It seems you haven’t figured out how to behave like a plaything yet. Then you’ll have to suffer a bit.”

With trembling fingers, she placed a peeled egg into Cen Qianyi’s other hand.

“Here, only obedient playthings get to eat.”

She quickly poured milk into the bowl and finished the entire bowl of “dog food” before Su Zhi returned.

For once, Cen Qianyi couldn’t keep her expression still.

What kind of person was this…?

When He Shu leaned back in her chair and rubbed her full belly, she realized the killing intent had disappeared.

She turned to look. Cen Qianyi was slowly nibbling on the cake, chewing mechanically, as if lost in thought.

Goosebumps rose along He Shu’s arms. Was she planning a very specific kind of revenge?

And the lines just kept forcing her to dig her own grave.

“You did well. You get an extra meal tonight.”

In the original novel, He Shu had praised Cen Qianyi after she ate the food.

Suddenly, He Shu froze. She was an idiot.

If Cen Qianyi ate the food, she would know it wasn’t dog food.

But now He Shu had eaten all of it herself. Cen Qianyi hadn’t seen it. Now the misunderstanding would never be cleared up.

Just then, the system returned with cheerful static.

“Ding ding ding. Xishan Villa plot three successfully completed. Rewards issued. Please check.”

He Shu heard the announcement and ran upstairs without another word.

“Congratulations, Host. First phase of Xishan Villa plot concluded. Rewards being delivered.”

“Reward for Scene One: One custom dream gown. Fireproof, waterproof, and lightning resistant.”

“Reward for Scene Two: One full sunrise video recording.”

“Reward for Scene Three: One sensory dulling agent.”

He Shu’s face darkened. Once again, the rewards were useless. A custom dress? What did lightning resistance even mean?

And the sunrise video? This world had no internet. It wasn’t like she could upload it anywhere.

Only the last item seemed useful.

“System, what does the sensory dulling agent do?”

“It has the opposite effect of the sensory intensifier. One enhances sensation. The other weakens it. For example, with the dulling agent, level-ten pain would only feel like level one.”

He Shu’s eyes lit up. Now that was something worth having.

She reluctantly forgave the rest of the junk.

After changing clothes, she prepared to become the domineering CEO again. Thankfully, most of the twisted scenes with Cen Qianyi took place at night. During the day, she still had a proper job.

But before she could celebrate, the system informed her that Cen Qianyi had to come along.

The original novel had one line: “After acquiring her new plaything, He Shu remained fascinated for a while and took her everywhere.”

As she held back tears, Su Zhi arrived and asked whether she should bring the pet along to the hospital.

What choice did He Shu have? She nodded.

Su Zhi immediately responded with dedication. “Alright. I’ll go get her changed.”

He Shu stopped her right away.

Thinking about Su Zhi’s frightening fashion choices, He Shu went to the wardrobe herself and picked out a simple sports outfit.

“Wear this.”

Su Zhi was surprised. Usually, pets taken out by the boss were dressed like pampered little lapdogs.

Why had her tastes changed so suddenly?

Still, she always obeyed her boss.

By the time He Shu composed herself and sat in the car Su Zhi arranged, Cen Qianyi had already changed and was sitting quietly in the back seat.

They sat side by side. Sunlight streamed through Cen Qianyi’s window.

From He Shu’s angle, she saw Cen Qianyi in an ivory tracksuit. Most of her figure blended with the sunlight. Her long, soft, jasmine-colored hair and bloodless face made her look far less cold.

Like a delicate white flower transplanted into the sun, fragile and pure, making anyone feel a bit protective.

That face was far too deceptive. If she hadn’t felt that killing intent just earlier, He Shu would never have believed this woman was a ruthless assassin.

She shrank away and pretended to nap the moment she sat down. In truth, she was frantically catching up on the original novel.

She had fallen asleep reading it last night, and this morning’s sudden plot had caught her completely off guard.

Now, she had to catch up.

She flipped quickly through pages, skipping past the main storyline, until she reached the sunrise scene she had just acted out.

Reading ahead, she found something troubling. Pei Congxin’s death had come early.

In the novel, Cen Qianyi had killed her only after fully recovering from the muscle paralytic.

Now, Pei Congxin had died while Cen Qianyi was still at Xishan Villa.

The villa was an hour and a half away from the hospital by car. Unless Cen Qianyi had superpowers, there was no way she could have gone there and back and killed someone in that time.

Then He Shu saw something even more important.

In the original story, after recovering, Cen Qianyi hadn’t left the sadistic CEO because she had developed feelings. It wasn’t addiction.

She had taken a new “Shall We Kill” order, and the target had ties to the CEO.

She stayed close to her only to complete the job more easily.

He Shu found a section introducing Cen Qianyi’s background.

Her codename was “Yi.” It wasn’t a nickname or a pun on her name. It was an honorific given by the Bounty Alliance.

Because her fee started at a billion.

In other words, one job cost several billion.

He Shu did the math. With her net worth of ten billion, she could barely afford a hundred jobs.

The book said Cen Qianyi’s net worth now started at a hundred billion.

That meant she had completed countless “Shall We Kill” jobs. She was the queen of assassins.

Cen Qianyi noticed the intense gaze on her and turned to look at the other woman in the back seat.

She saw the fear trembling in He Shu’s eyes and couldn’t help raising an eyebrow.

This woman was either crying or looked like a startled rabbit…

What exactly was she afraid of?

If He Shu knew what Cen Qianyi was thinking, she would scream.

Afraid of you, obviously. Afraid of you, the terrifying queen of “Shall We Kill.”

He Shu read on. Cen Qianyi’s current target was the chairman of a major conglomerate. He Shu’s fortune didn’t even come close.

The original CEO had recently joined the chairman’s charity foundation and had signed up for her exclusive club.

In a few days, there would be a welcome event for new members. Cen Qianyi had stayed close just to attend. That was why she hadn’t killed her yet.

He Shu wasn’t sure if she should feel relieved that she had some use.

The book described the chairman as a renowned philanthropist. He Shu frowned. She needed to warn her to increase security.

Unfortunately, she had no way to contact her. She would have to wait until the event.

Hopefully, the protagonist would catch this assassin by then.

With that thought, she flipped back to find scenes with the main character.

But the case-solving details and technical jargon were so dry that she dozed off.

She had gotten up early too. With her eyes closed, she quickly drifted off.

The car turned a corner, and He Shu slumped sideways onto a soft cushion.

She adjusted her position and wrapped her arms around a long, slender “pillow,” falling fast asleep.

Cen Qianyi looked down at the head on her lap and the arms wrapped around her leg. Her cold eyes flickered with surprise.

He Shu nuzzled in closer, looking for a softer spot.

Half-asleep, she felt a paw patting her back and shifted her position with a mumble.

“Not now, Qianqian. Let’s play later.”

Cen Qianyi froze. Once again, she had been called “Qianqian.”