Su Ling understood.
Her heart sank suddenly.
Wen Ruyu’s embrace was fragrant and soft, but she felt a chill through her whole body.
“Why…”
She seemed to be asking Wen Ruyu, but she also seemed to be asking herself.
It was clearly the Bureau Chief’s fault.
Why did she have to be the one to take the blame in the end?
She was a mouse — a mouse struggling to live in the gutter.
Why did those high-and-mighty orange cats have to ruthlessly tear open her sewer and refuse to leave her a single path to survival?
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
Wen Ruyu held Su Ling tightly.
Su Ling felt a coldness on the top of her head.
Wen Ruyu was crying.
She had once gone to her mother and her mama, but after they heard everything, they merely sighed in relief.
“Fortunately, there’s a scapegoat.”
At the time, she had nearly broken down.
“This is all that bastard’s fault! Why involve an innocent person?”
“She’s a Lower City Witch, and one of those types at that. Hmph. My dear daughter, you should be glad you couldn’t control yourself two weeks ago. Otherwise, we wouldn’t even be able to find a scapegoat.”
Her mama’s tone remained completely level.
“If you feel guilty about it, I’ll talk to her. Doesn’t her family owe a massive debt? It’s perfect. As long as she takes the blame, settles the public outcry, and prevents Dalei’s approval ratings from dropping further, we’ll not only pay off her debts but also take care of her younger sister. We can even hire the best Great Witch doctor to treat her sister’s blindness. I don’t think she’ll refuse.”
Wen Ruyu completely broke down.
For the first time, she felt utterly helpless.
“Sister, can I be the one to take the blame?”
Su Ling’s voice rang out from within the embrace.
Wen Ruyu froze instantly.
She looked down at Su Ling, only to find that the girl’s expression was incredibly calm.
Those beautiful cherry-colored eyes were filled with stubbornness.
“Having an affair isn’t against the law, is it?”
“Hm? You…?”
Wen Ruyu seemed to realize something, her eyes wide with bewilderment.
“Phew! So that means I won’t be arrested?”
Su Ling suddenly smiled.
“Sister, you’ve already looked into my situation, haven’t you?”
Su Ling was very calm now.
From her initial panic, she gradually saw a sliver of hope.
There was a difference between being the active party in an affair and the passive one.
If Wen Ruyu had truly been the one to cheat and give birth to a bastard child, and Su Ling took the fall, the Bureau Chief certainly wouldn’t let her go free.
But the problem was that the Bureau Chief had cheated first.
The mistress was cuckolding the Director’s Wife.
By taking the blame now, Su Ling was providing much-needed help.
At most, she would have to endure the pressure of public opinion.
However, looking at it from another perspective, this was also a perfect opportunity.
Su Ling was intelligent.
Before she had transmigrated, she was an Industrial Engineering Master with a very sharp mind.
She thought of Wen Ruyu’s family and the so-called marriage between politics and business.
“Sister, although I’m just a bug in your eyes, I imagine you all want to make a deal with me, right? Of course, I know this wasn’t your idea, Sister. You definitely wanted me to run away first, didn’t you?”
Wen Ruyu remained silent.
She was exactly right.
Calling Su Ling here today was indeed because she wanted Su Ling to flee as quickly as possible.
Aside from the Superintendent Department possibly having discovered her, Wen Ruyu’s family was also trying to find the girl.
She had moved a step ahead because she wanted this poor child, whom she had dragged into this mess, to leave this place immediately.
“My family is buried in so much debt… where could I even go? Even if you gave me the travel expenses, if the Superintendent Department discovers I’m trying to run, I won’t even be able to get out of the Lower City.”
Su Ling sighed.
“I have a private spaceship. I can help you —”
“There’s no need. Even if I really did manage to escape, what would happen to you, Sister?”
Wen Ruyu’s pupils constricted.
She truly hadn’t expected the girl in front of her to be worried about her.
“You would be drowned by public opinion. You’d be cursed out horribly. I’m different. You know I’m a Fuli Ji. I was meant to be criticized anyway. If I take the blame, it’ll actually be better. Everyone’s attention will be focused on my identity.”
Su Ling’s eyes crinkled at the corners, as if she were telling a joke that had nothing to do with her.
“People will definitely say, ‘Ah, so it was a Fuli Ji. No wonder. It’s not the Director’s Wife’s fault; it’s just human nature.’ At that time, everyone’s attention will be on me. No one will pay attention to you, Sister. And if I’m not mistaken, there are probably quite a few people looking for me right now, wanting to make a deal, right? Sister, I can do this. I stepped onto this path originally to pay off my debts. Now that I finally have a chance to potentially pay them all off, I couldn’t be happier.”
Wen Ruyu was stunned. She hadn’t expected Su Ling to think this way at all.
“No, it’s not okay. You were dragged into this by me. I can’t let you —”
“Sister, you don’t need to blame yourself. On the contrary, you gave me such a large tip that day, which allowed me to buy lots of delicious food for Miao Miao. I’m actually quite grateful to you.”
Su Ling reached out and hugged the emotional Wen Ruyu back.
“But… but have you thought about what will happen to you?”
Wen Ruyu’s heart was breaking.
The girl before her had considered her family and even Wen Ruyu herself, but she was the only one she hadn’t considered.
Su Ling’s eyes dimmed.
“Me… I’m not worthy…”
***
Upper City, Sky Island.
Unlike the Folding Space, Sky Island was a small island floating 10,000 meters in the air.
The Witches here were either wealthy or noble; this was the area where the true upper class of the Azure Star resided.
“You found her? Then why haven’t you gone to arrest her yet!”
Inside a luxurious villa, a little girl with purple hair was screaming into her phone.
She was the Director of the Police Department, Meng Dalei.
“Honey, why are you so angry?”
Meng Dalei hung up the phone.
Suddenly, a pair of fair, tender hands wrapped around her from behind.
Meng Dalei’s purple eyes instantly turned into hearts.
“Hehehe. Baby, we found a scapegoat.”
“Ooh, then thank you so much, Honey~”
A pink-haired woman with an explosive figure wearing a tight-fitting cheongsam giggled.
However, what was terrifying was that this woman’s face actually had six symmetrical pink pupils!
The bedroom they were in was also filled with numerous pink Witch Eggs.
No — if one looked closely, they would discover that those were actually insect eggs.
This woman was clearly a member of the Zerg.
Yet for some reason, Meng Dalei didn’t seem to notice at all.
She looked at the woman with eyes full of love.
“Well, as a reward…”
The woman sat on the edge of the bed and crossed her legs.
She pulled off her white silk stockings, revealing her pale, tender feet.
Her six pink pupils narrowed slightly as a smile spread across her face.
“Hehe, Baby is the best!”
“Mm. When I’m rewarding you, what are you supposed to call me?”
“Master! Woof! I’m Master’s dog! Woof woof!”
“Haha, good girl~”
The woman laughed so hard her whole body trembled.
While she enjoyed the little girl’s service, she was also pondering her next move.
‘Fortunately, the scapegoat has already been found.’
As for who the scapegoat was, she couldn’t be bothered to care.
If it hadn’t been for that idiot insisting on a paternity test, none of this would have happened.
Fortunately, she had now completely seized control of the fool’s mind, turning her into a puppet.
The woman licked her red lips.
The six pupils on her face gradually closed until she looked like any other charming woman.
‘Empress, where on earth are you?’
Twenty years ago, that hateful Witch had kidnapped the Empress.
The Tyranid Swarm had instantly fallen into a state of being a leaderless horde.
The Witches took the opportunity to launch an offensive, and the situation had once been reversed.
Although other members of the Royal Family later took the opportunity to ascend to the throne, allowing the Tyranid Swarm to barely stabilize the situation, it was only a temporary measure.
Without an Insect Hive, one was not a true Empress, and the fate of the Tyranid Swarm remained uncertain.
Twenty years ago, Bai Wei had forcibly taken the Empress and torn open a rift between the Fourth Universe and the First Universe, which was later known as the “Wormhole.”
Over the past twenty years, many Zerg had passed through the Wormhole to the First Universe to search for the Insect Hive’s whereabouts.
They were generally divided into two factions.
One was the faction of the acting empress; she wanted to find the Insect Hive so she could become the true Empress.
The other was their faction — the Royalists. They believed that whoever possessed the Insect Hive was the Empress.
The one currently in the Fourth Universe was merely a substitute, and they wanted to find the true Empress to kick that imposter aside.