What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms – CH17

Chapter 17: Can You Afford It?

Pei Xiqing slept fitfully, overwhelmed by a bone-deep exhaustion. Her eyelids felt like lead, too heavy to pry open.

Her dreams were a chaotic, terrifying loop. She was being relentlessly chased and torn apart by a horde of zombies. She ran until her lungs burned, but when she looked down, she saw that her arms and legs had already been gnawed down to the bone.

Suddenly, her mangled body dragged itself onto a familiar movie set. The director enthusiastically praised her “exquisite zombie makeup” and ordered her to get into character.

The scene abruptly shifted. Her leading role had been stolen by a newcomer—a previously unknown actress who went on to win the Best Newcomer Award for this very zombie film, rising to instant stardom.

Paralyzed and voiceless, Pei Xiqing could only sit in the audience, weeping silently as hideous zombies feasted on the rotting flesh of her legs.

Pei Xiqing violently jolted awake, sitting bolt upright in bed.

She gasped for air, her chest heaving, her face entirely pale with lingering terror.

Frantically looking around the empty hotel room, she checked her limbs. Her hands and feet were intact. There were no fresh bite marks. She exhaled a shaky breath and wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.

It had only been a nightmare.

Her lifelong dream of becoming an A-list actress had ended the moment that stunt wire snapped. And after transmigrating, the original owner’s life had met a similarly tragic end due to a zombie bite.

Rubbing her throbbing temples, Pei Xiqing threw her legs over the edge of the bed, intending to get a glass of water.

The moment her bare feet touched the freezing floor tiles, she froze.

In the pitch-black darkness of the room, a pair of deep, icy green eyes was staring directly at her.

“!” She let out a sharp gasp, her legs giving out in sheer terror as she collapsed onto the floor. “Ah! Who are you?!”

A man sat in the armchair opposite the bed. The room was shrouded in darkness, illuminated only by the faint, silvery moonlight spilling through the window. Half of his face was concealed in the heavy shadows, ambiguous and unreadable. But the gaze lurking behind the lenses of his glasses was entirely calm—and terrifyingly sharp.

His eyes remained fixed on her, as if meticulously confirming a hypothesis.

Pei Xiqing stared into the gloom, her heart pounding. She had only taken a short nap, yet someone had already tracked her down and slipped into her room unnoticed.

The man leisurely crossed his long legs. “You are very good at finding a hiding place.”

Recognizing that deep, frigid voice, Pei Xiqing let out a massive sigh of relief. She scrambled to pull herself up from the floor. “Brother Duan… how did you know I was here?”

She tried to take a step toward him, but her legs were still completely numb from the scare. Her knees buckled, and she uncontrollably slumped back down to the floor.

Thank God I don’t have a heart condition, she thought wildly, or I would have died of a heart attack right then and there.

“Mhm.” That was his only confirmation.

She had thought this abandoned county town was perfectly secluded. She hadn’t expected tracking her down to be such an effortless task for him.

Suddenly, the man stood up. With slow, deliberate steps, he closed the distance between them, his towering presence bringing a suffocating chill.

He crouched down smoothly, bringing himself to eye level with Pei Xiqing’s delicate, anxious face. “You haven’t fully mutated,” he stated flatly. “You should have waited for me back at the camp.”

“…I was afraid of causing trouble for you, Brother Duan,” she whispered.

In reality, she had just wanted to escape before she fully turned and was inevitably executed.

“Is that the only reason?”

“Yes.” She looked up at him, her wide eyes perfectly clear and innocent.

“I don’t need you worrying about causing me trouble,” he replied, his tone clinical. “You possess immense research value for the central base. You don’t get to just run away so easily.”

Pei Xiqing obediently lowered her eyelashes, masking her dread.

Research value?

She had absolutely no desire to become a biological exhibit, locked inside a glass cage for scientists to poke, prod, and study for the rest of her miserable life.

“Look at me,” the man ordered, his voice dropping an octave.

Pei Xiqing blinked in confusion. “Huh?”

Duan Xiaolin stared down at her. Her face was pale and delicate, the side of her cheek slightly flushed from sleep. Her long, dark lashes fluttered like fragile butterfly wings, expertly concealing her true emotions.

Playing the innocent victim or the seductive siren—it all seemed to be a matter of effortless choice for her.

He frowned slightly. “You don’t want to go to the base?”

“Who would want to end up like that?” Pei Xiqing blinked slowly, her eyes brimming with a fragile, pitiful moisture. “Really…”

Kneeling on the floor, she tilted her neck slightly and daringly closed the distance between them by a few inches. “Brother Duan… do you really want to hand me over? What should I do if I don’t want to go?”

Maintaining a deliberate, ambiguous proximity, she looked up at him through her lashes. “Is there any way I can avoid going?”

Duan Xiaolin’s gaze felt like a physical weight pressing down on her. “That is not for me to decide.”

“Then… what are we going to do?”

Wait, isn’t he a high-ranking operative for Franlun? How could he possibly lack the authority to make a decision about one infected girl?

“I don’t know.” His tone was absolute frost, leaving zero room for negotiation. He sounded like an impartial, merciless judge preparing to read her sentence.

Yet, Duan Xiaolin didn’t move away. He didn’t stop her from closing the distance, allowing her to carefully cross his boundaries.

Pei Xiqing was so close she could almost hear the steady, rhythmic thud of his heartbeat, a sound that sent a strange, numbing heat blooming in her chest.

She tried her best to suppress her lingering terror, only stopping when she was mere inches from his chest. She was freezing cold, completely unable to resist the faint, magnetic warmth radiating from his body.

She had no idea how long it had taken him to track her here, but considering how calmly he had been sitting in the dark, he must have been watching her sleep for quite a while.

Her gaze drifted upward from the mud splattered across the hem of his tailored trousers. Beneath his immaculate facade of absolute restraint and composure, he felt like a dormant beast, calculating the exact moment to strike.

As she leaned in closer, the crisp, cold scent of pine and tobacco enveloped her. His steady breath brushed the top of her head, causing an involuntary shiver to run down her spine.

She knew better than anyone that Duan Xiaolin was not like the vulgar, lecherous scavengers the original owner used to manipulate. He wasn’t an animal controlled by base desires, nor was he like her rabid, obsessive fans from her past life.

He was an incredibly dangerous, mature man.

He possessed life experience and perspective far beyond her grasp, a dark history she couldn’t begin to comprehend, overwhelming power she couldn’t control, and an absolute, terrifying mastery over his own desires.

Realizing the futility of her act, Pei Xiqing’s body went slack, and she slumped back on her heels.

She looked like a defeated little animal, realizing it couldn’t get its way, kneeling pitifully at her captor’s feet.

I guess this is fate.

She had thought she could outrun the plot, but reality was always painfully disappointing. The cannon-fodder villainess avoiding death only to become a lab rat at a military base… it was a plot twist she hadn’t anticipated.

She had just wanted to lie low and survive. If she couldn’t, she figured she would just die and be free. But being dragged to a laboratory meant a life infinitely worse than death. Where was the freedom in that?

Just as she resignedly averted her eyes, a large, powerful hand suddenly gripped her jaw, forcing her head back up.

His fingers were unyielding, completely intolerant of rejection. He tilted her face upward, forcing Pei Xiqing to meet his gaze once again.

With the suffocating darkness of the room stretching out behind him, Duan Xiaolin truly looked like a god of death holding her life in his hands.

The moment their eyes met, the atmosphere violently shifted. Their auras tangled, the unspoken tension and hidden desires bleeding through the cracks of their composure. Something deep within the man’s dark eyes seemed to finally fracture.

“If the identity of ‘Duan Xiaolin’ isn’t enough to protect you,” he murmured, his voice dangerously soft, “there are always other identities I can use.”

“What…?” Pei Xiqing didn’t immediately process his words. It took her a second to realize he was answering her earlier plea. Subconsciously, she whispered, “What do you mean, other identities?”

The rough calluses on his knuckles slowly brushed against the delicate skin of her cheek, pressing hard enough to leave faint red marks. A terrifying, electrifying heat spread outward from the point of contact, igniting the cold air between them.

“It hurts,” Pei Xiqing whimpered, her brows pulling together.

His grip was punishingly strong; it was too much for her fragile jaw.

The man leaned in, his low, raspy voice sliding directly into her ear. “You can’t even endure this tiny bit of pain… and yet you still dare to provoke me?”

Pei Xiqing’s eyes went wide.

He let out a low, dark chuckle. “Don’t look so surprised. I know exactly what you’re trying to get from me.”

Pei Xiqing inhaled sharply as his thumb stroked her lower lip.

“And I can satisfy that request,” he whispered.

She looked up at him in sheer astonishment.

The man’s thin lips parted. “But the question is… can you afford the price? Can you give me what I want?”

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