Transmigrated as the Mary Sue: The Villainess's Revenge System | Chapter 40 | The Shadow of Obsession | Novela.app

Chapter 40 - The Shadow of Obsession Que Tang dragged her weary body back to her small apartment, the silence that greeted her feeling heavy and oppressive. It was a stark contrast to the suffocating intensity of Lan Mi’s embrace earlier that evening. She tossed her keys onto the entryway table with a dull clatter and collapsed onto the sofa, staring blankly at the ceiling. Without Xiao Xianggu’s constant pestering and the familiar, mechanical pings of the system, the world felt strangely hollow—and significantly more dangerous. "That look in her eyes..." Que Tang murmured to herself, rubbing her aching temples. She didn't need a digital interface to know that Lan Mi’s Blackening Value must be skyrocketing. The once-pure "Saintly White Lotus" was transforming into something far more predatory and possessive. The way Lan Mi had kissed her—not with the gentle affection of a blossoming romance, but with the desperate, territorial hunger of someone claiming a long-awaited prize—sent a cold shiver down her spine. In the original *Xiao Bai Wen* script, the female lead was supposed to be a beacon of kindness and resilience, eventually finding her "happily ever after" after overcoming the machinations of the scumbag male lead, Wanqi Aotian. But this version of Lan Mi was fundamentally different. She was cold, calculating, and increasingly fixated on Que Tang to the exclusion of all else. It was as if the "Special Plot Mode" had spiraled out of control, warping a simple redemption arc into a dark psychological thriller. Que Tang reached out instinctively to pat the spot on the sofa where the fat black cat usually lounged, only to meet empty air. "I really am pathetic, missing that lazy furball," she sighed, her voice echoing in the quiet room. Xiao Xianggu was a "pit," a lazy, gluttonous creature that often withheld vital information or demanded bribes of dried fish, but it was also her only tether to reality. Without the system's guidance, she was flying blind in a world where the characters were starting to develop terrifyingly complex wills of their own. Her phone vibrated on the coffee table, the screen lighting up the darkened room with Lan Mi’s name. Que Tang hesitated, her heart skipping a beat. It was well past eleven. "Hello, General Manager?" she answered, forcing her voice to remain professional despite the exhaustion weighing on her bones. "Are you in bed, Tang?" Lan Mi’s voice came through the receiver, low and melodious, yet carrying an underlying edge that made Que Tang’s skin crawl. "I find myself unable to sleep. The house feels so empty, and my mind keeps wandering back to our time in the office." "I'm just about to turn in," Que Tang replied cautiously, choosing her words with the precision of a bomb technician. "It’s been an incredibly long day. You should rest too, President Lan. We have a lot of work ahead of us tomorrow if we want to finalize the move against the Wanqi group." There was a long, agonizing pause on the other end of the line. The silence stretched, thick with unspoken tension and the weight of Lan Mi's unyielding focus. "You’re right," Lan Mi finally said, though her tone suggested she was thinking of something entirely different than business strategies. "Rest well, my dear Tang. I’ll see you in your dreams." The line went dead with a sharp click. Que Tang stared at the darkened screen, a sense of profound dread pooling in her stomach. "See me in my dreams? That sounds more like a threat than a sweet nothing." She realized then that her "Integrity" was in more peril than ever before. In this twisted version of a romance novel, the mission to "Capture the Heroine" had devolved into a high-stakes game of survival. She needed to find a way to stabilize Lan Mi’s emotions before the woman’s obsession reached a breaking point. But as she finally curled up under her blankets, the image of Lan Mi’s icy, possessive gaze haunted the back of her eyelids, making the prospect of a peaceful sleep feel like a distant, impossible dream.