QT: Against My Will

Chapter 3: 1.03 – Bad Actress – Crimson Academy

+—- Author’s note —–+

Remember, MC’s not the know it all type, (for now) her assumptions are not always correct.

Edited by Psycho S

Proofreaded by P.D Webb.

+——————-+

Bing Shi put the pepper spray into her handbag and stepped out of her room. Walking down the stairs, she reached the kitchen and heard a noise of people speaking as she began to eavesdrop on her family. After a while, she raised her hand to reveal her presence, “I don’t know why you decided to break the engagement, but you have my full support! I always thought he didn’t deserve you.”

Grace’s eyes were looking at her knees, trying to silence the anger within. ‘Olivia is right,’ she thought, ‘Xavier doesn’t deserve my affection!’ He was too cruel to bankrupt her family for a ...mere girl. No, not a mere girl, that girl was a heroine! She sure deserved that title. She was the one who changed Xavier! *Poof* Just like that! From a cold ice cube to a melting lovestruck ice cube. It was like magic!

.....

Thankful for the support, Grace felt her anger drain away as she started to cry. She was overwhelmed and sorry for the things she did as she thought about her family’s tragic past. They were pretty much innocent; they didn’t deserve to die with her. ‘It’s all Xavier and Alisa’s fault!’

When Mrs Bacchus saw her crying daughter, she panicked. Hurriedly, she ran around the table and hugged Grace, weeping together, “Oh, my dear! It’s ok. Mum is here. We won’t force you to marry him anymore. Mum and Dad are sorry.”

“Don’t worry. Father will take care of it. Right father?” Bing Shi asked as she patted Grace’s shoulder, thinking about how she should show her concern as a sister and daughter. For her, they were all strangers. She didn’t receive Olivia’s memories. The system only gave her a short summary of Olivia’s life while transferring the story.

While everyone’s attention was focused on Grace, Bing Shi attempted to summon a few tears. Unfortunately, she was unsuccessful.

‘I can’t... I look ugly when I cry.’

“Before we go, I want to stop by LéCaffee to get some sweets,” announced Bing Shi, “Does anyone want to tag along?”

Everybody shook their heads. They just finished their breakfast. Since Olivia was famous for her love of sweets and desserts, nobody found it strange.

· · ———- · ???· ———- · ·

Reaching the main door of the mansion, Bing Shi stepped out and closed the door. She would test the handles: once, twice, three times just to make sure it was locked from the outside.

Methodically, she went through the daily routine she’d constantly go through in her previous life before she died. She was oblivious of her own actions, thinking that it was normal.

Before leaving her house, she always had to look presentable.

In addition, she always had to check the door to see if it was properly locked.

After taking a few steps away, she went back to check the door again.

Locked. Good.

Habits, surely, were hard to change.

She was such a bad, bad actress.

· · ———- · ???· ———- · ·

The time Bing Shi arrived at LéCaffe was between breakfast and lunchtime – this was when LéCaffe used to have the least customers dining in. She chose a table with two seats by the entrance. Sitting down, she observed the interior design of LéCaffe.

‘They sure made this place look gaudy by adding so much gold basically... everywhere.’

[“I’m planning to ask Mark to come. Do you think he’ll agree to meet me?”]

[I don’t know Host.]

‘I’ll have to get him here somehow.’

Going through the menu, Bing Shi ordered some milk tea and a velvet cupcake. Before paying for her order, she called her sister while examining the shop that started to gradually cram up with customers, “Grace? Hi, I forgot my wallet at home. Could you give it to the chauffeur for me, please?”

“How could you forget your wallet?! Where did you put it!?” Grace asked while walking to Olivia’s bedroom.

At the same time, Bing Shi sent Mark a double-meaning message.

Olivia Bacchus: Are you by any chance near LéCaffe? Someone wants to break her engagement here. It’s not going well. I feel like getting wasted. I’m in need of a little bit of company. ??

(A/N: Getting wasted = getting drunk. By wanting to break an engagement, she meant hers, not Grace’s.)

[“System, could you make the ringtone extra loud and long?”]

[Yes.]

Bing Shi thought of her room and seriously listed out a series of random spots where her wallet could possibly be, “Can you check if it’s on my desk table?”

Grace walked towards her sister’s desk, “It’s not here.”

Olivia used to be a gentle young lady, cheerful and lively. Like the older sister she used to be, she treated the capture targets like her little brothers. Her gentle behavior gradually began to change when news of her engagement spread out among the elite circle.

She started to distance herself from the boys. Her youthful liveliness had disappeared and what replaced her gentle nature was a frivolous woman with a questionable reputation of going to parties and wasting away her youth. This caused her engagement to be canceled; her prospect of finding a man to marry became null. That’s how the first daughter of the Bacchus family met her demise. Soon after that, the second daughter of the Bacchus family met her fall too.

Due to Grace’s interference in the novel, Olivia Bacchus avoided her tragic end and was happily married to her fiance, living out the perfect happily ever after.

“Is it under the table?”

“No....”

“Can you check if it’s on the bed?”

“It’s not there either....”

“What abouuut... under the bed?”

“... No, no it’s not there.”

“Can you please check the couch?”

Grace’s mood turned sour. She clenched her teeth in annoyance as she spat out the following sentence, “It’s. Not. Here. Either.” She suddenly remembered her purpose and so she sighed, “Wait there, I’ll come to you.”

Her sister was such an airhead. Grace briskly gave Olivia’s room another once over to make sure she really hadn’t found the missing wallet. Finding nothing, she focused her attention on her air-headed sister’s babbling on the phone.

“Thank you! You’re the best! I’m going to order a treat just for you, so could you hurry up please?”

“You!”

Grace ended the call with one twitching eye. Was her sister always so... bold?

· · ———- · ???· ———- · ·

After a while, Grace arrived.

“I’m right over here!” Bing Shi called out to Grace while waving her arm enthusiastically. She slid a plate with a cupcake over to Grace when she sat on the only other chair at the table, “This is the last one! Just for you.”

Grace unwrapped the cupcake, peeling the liner back and took her spoon to scoop a decently sized bite, “Mm... it’s good.”

Bing Shi grinned at her ‘new’ sister and took a sip of the milk tea, “Sweet food is good medicine for heartbreak. You’re still so young. Don’t lose yourself over some nobody, okay?”

Hearing Olivia suddenly mention Xavier, Grace raised her voice with annoyance, “Who said I’m heartbroken because of that Xavier bastard!?”

Bing Shi laughed out, “You’re overreacting, sister. I didn’t even mention his name. Besides, everyone loves him. I think anyone would be heartbroken if they’re no longer engaged to someone who’s handsome, mysterious and has a lot of influence!”

Grace didn’t retaliate; she puffed her cheeks and finished off eating the cupcake. She was now in a bad mood.

[Host, the Second male lead is almost here.]

‘He really took the hook?!’

“I’m going to the bathroom, I had too much milk tea,” Olivia urgently said as she abruptly stood up and rushed to the ladies restroom.

A few girls noticed a handsome young man standing in front of the store; they nudged their friends with a mischievous giggle and pointed in his direction. The man’s light brown hair had droplets of water slipping from his hair strands, making it look like he’d just left the shower. His lively green eyes hooked the hearts of many young maidens without even trying.

“Oh my god, is he a celebrity? He’s so hot! Does he have a girlfriend?” Some excitable young girls chattered amongst themselves as they grouped up together to admire the handsome man.

Olivia was among the few who weren’t affected by the capture targets. This was simply because they were her childhood friends and, no matter how much they grew, she would always view them as her younger brothers, or as kids. Not to mention she already had a pre-arranged fiance. If Olivia had acted similarly to those girls, Bing Shi would have chosen someone else to transmigrate into.