What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms – CH58

Chapter 58: Did It Scare You?

Pei Xiqing backed up until she hit the edge of the large desk. Duan Xiaolin kept moving forward, forcing her back another step.

The cold surface of the table made her hand flinch when her palm touched it. She tried to steady herself, trying to ignore the heavy pressure coming from the man’s dark gaze. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, he locked his hands around her waist and lifted her up to sit on the desk.

“Are you afraid of me?” Duan Xiaolin asked. His eyes were lowered, his expression unreadable.

He stepped right between her knees, trapping her completely and blocking any way out.

Pei Xiqing stayed quiet for a long moment as his grip on her waist tightened. She tilted her head slightly, meeting his sharp eyes. “I’m just… surprised.”

“Why?”

“I never thought you would be the leader of Franlun.”

“Do you blame me for not telling you sooner?”

Pei Xiqing stiffened slightly. A rush of thoughts flashed through her mind, but there was no anger in her eyes.

“No, I just never noticed it. Now that I think back, there were actually plenty of clues. I just didn’t connect them,” she said softly. “I told you before that I was really interested in Franlun and wanted to meet that leader, but you didn’t say anything at the time.”

“So it was you…” she murmured.

She really should have figured it out earlier. Duan Xiaolin had always been part of Franlun. Whether he was a good man or a villain, his identity meant he would always be standing right in the middle of the base’s storms.

Pei Xiqing blinked and forced herself to look up at him, a mix of shyness and regret in her eyes. “Brother Duan, if you had told me earlier, I wouldn’t have panicked like this.”

If she had known his true status, she wouldn’t have been left making wild guesses. In fact, knowing he was the one pulling the strings behind the scenes made her even more curious about him. She wanted to know what kind of life he had lived to develop such powerful abilities and such a guarded inner world.

But since he had kept quiet, she hadn’t put the pieces together until she overheard the officers talking in the elevator.

Duan Xiaolin looked at her closely. “Then why did you run?”

“I was afraid of getting caught. If the guards found Xiaobai and me, wouldn’t we be doomed?” she asked. “Am I a wanted criminal in the base now?”

“Pretty much,” Duan Xiaolin said. “They thought you were a spy. They mistook you for someone connected to the underground black market.”

Pei Xiqing instinctively clutched the fabric of his shirt, her knuckles turning white. “A spy? What in the world…”

Xiaobai whimpered pitifully from the floor beside them, as if protesting his own innocence.

Duan Xiaolin didn’t say anything else, his gaze entirely fixed on her face. Noticing her slender fingers had caught the blood on his sleeve, he gently squeezed her wrist. “Let go.”

Thinking he was annoyed, Pei Xiqing quickly let go of his shirt. But losing her grip made her lose her balance slightly, and she had to quickly brace her hands against the table.

Duan Xiaolin took off his blood-stained coat, tossed it aside, and stepped close to her again. “Did you see everything through the monitor just now?”

She had indeed been shaken by the brutal interrogation scene. She hesitated for a few seconds, first shaking her head, then nodding.

“Most of the time I’m not afraid, but sometimes… it’s still a little scary.”

Duan Xiaolin took a deep breath. “When are you not afraid?”

Pei Xiqing looked into his eyes, seeing her own reflection clearly in them. She freed one hand and gently placed her palm against his cheek. “I’m not afraid when you’re right in front of me.”

The man froze slightly.

“Just like right now,” she added softly.

She wasn’t afraid of his bloody clothes, nor was she afraid of his dark, ruthless side. Surprise was the main thing she felt.

“Did you think I ran away because I was terrified of you? Is that why you were angry just now?” She explained, “It was just a reflex. Don’t take it to heart.”

The tension in Duan Xiaolin’s shoulders seemed to vanish. He tilted his head, his thin lips pressing a soft kiss against her palm. “Did it scare you?”

The touch felt like a sudden spark. Pei Xiqing tried to pull her hand back, but he held her fingers tight.

She could only bite her lip and nod. “A little bit, but I understand why you did it.”

Without strict rules, there could be no order. If the authorities remained gentle even with the most vicious criminals, there would be no reason for Franlun to exist. No one would step up to stop crime, and no one would fear the consequences.

“If you aren’t tough, people will take advantage of you,” she said, looking up at him with concern. “What did that prisoner do anyway? Why was he so aggressive when he was clearly the one in the wrong? He went way too far, trying to use his powers to hurt you.”

She had been watching the monitor, terrified he would fall into a trap, which was why she had panicked.

The coldness in Duan Xiaolin’s eyes completely melted away, replaced by a deep, patient gentleness.

“He’s an informant for an organ-trafficking ring,” he explained.

“No wonder he refused to talk about who was running things, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then I don’t think you did anything wrong. I just… wasn’t used to seeing something so violent,” she said, still feeling a bit shaken. “I’m slowly accepting how cruel and bloody this world can be, and I know this base has its own dark corners. But I’m still not the type of person who can look at torture and feel nothing.”

There was no helping it. Compared to the constant life-and-death struggles of the apocalypse, her past life had been ordinary, mundane, and focused on basic survival. Even as an actress, she was still just a regular person trying to make a living. She could accept the harsh reality of this world, but that didn’t mean she could watch it calmly.

She continued, “I was shocked at first, but considering your position, it makes sense. Those people committed terrible crimes. They deserved what they got.”

“Why can’t you get used to it?” he asked softly. Nowadays, almost everyone had become numb to the violence.

Pei Xiqing didn’t want to mention anything about transmigrating into a book, so she kept her answers vague, hinting at her past. It was the first time she had shared anything about her background, and the man listened with complete patience.

He wanted to tell her that she didn’t have to force herself to become cold just to stay by his side, but seeing the stubborn look in her eyes, he smiled slightly and changed the subject. “You aren’t the only one who had to learn to deal with it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t learn to enter that water prison with such composure overnight, nor did I always face criminals without feeling anything,” he said. “I had my moments of doubt too. A long time ago, I was just like you—lying awake at night, dreaming that my hands were covered in the blood of innocent people.”

Pei Xiqing’s eyes widened. “Then how did you change?”

“By realizing that a bunch of monsters who don’t treat others as human beings don’t deserve your fear or your sympathy.”

“I see.” Pei Xiqing nodded, her doubts fading. “I’ll keep trying to get used to it. After all, I’m a zombie now. Even if things get worse, I need to be able to protect myself.”

No matter what the present looked like or what the future held, she kept one core rule in mind: above all else, she had to ensure she and Xiaobai could survive and find a way out.

She looked at the man again, suddenly confused. “How did you know I had a nightmare last night?”

Duan Xiaolin didn’t answer. He leaned in, his lips tracing a path from her fingertips all the way to the corner of her mouth.

The kiss came quickly, leaving Pei Xiqing with no time to think. She had to clutch the front of his shirt tightly just to keep herself from leaning back too far.

She realized then that Duan Xiaolin wasn’t as unapproachable as he seemed. He could actually be coaxed quite easily. Now that she had spoken her mind, the lingering tension in her muscles completely faded.

She stopped trying to pull away from the kiss, closing her eyes as she leaned into him. Eventually, her balance gave out, and she began to slide backward until her spine pressed flat against the cold desk. Only then did she notice that her jacket had been pulled up without her realizing it.

With her back exposed to the chill of the smooth tabletop, she couldn’t help but shiver. She clutched his collar, protesting softly. “It’s cold…”

The room itself was perfectly warm, but the metal desk felt like a sheet of ice against her skin.

“I should have told you who I was from the start,” Duan Xiaolin murmured, pulling back slightly to look at her. “Then you wouldn’t have run around in a panic. It’s my fault.”

Pei Xiqing wrapped her arms around his neck, whispering, “No, I shouldn’t have run either.”

“Are you admitting you were wrong?”

“…What?” She hadn’t expected him to take her polite apology so seriously.

Pei Xiqing gave him a playful nudge. “Forget it, I wasn’t wrong at all.”

Duan Xiaolin’s eyes darkened, a teasing smile playing on his lips. “Why did you change your mind so fast?”

“Because if I hadn’t stumbled into the truth myself, you would have kept lying to me,” she countered, looking up at him. Almost every word out of this man’s mouth felt like a carefully laid trap. “I knew it.”

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