Rain fell in a patter, making the mottled fallen leaves scatter even more desolate.
Cold wind slipped in through the wet edge of the oiled paper umbrella, fine and biting, and together with the dim sky in the distance, it made her feel her clothes were suddenly too thin.
On the way to see Shen Gui, the Melodramatic Transmigration System kept nagging nonstop. “Host, you mustn’t give yourself away. Hold back and don’t curse at him, no matter what.”
“Shen Gui may be scum, but you’re here to do the mission. Remember your character setting!”
Too noisy.
Xin Yi wanted to cover her ears. She couldn’t help but click her tongue. “You’re this worried? Didn’t you just say I have the most obvious green tea bitch traits? With the green tea ancestor personally on the scene, can’t you put your mind at ease?”
And to be honest, given how much of a background character the original host had been, that scumbag probably couldn’t even remember what his wife looked like.
He had never loved Wu Xin Yi. How well could he know her?
Maybe if she ignored Shen Gui now, he would even take her unusual behavior as “playing hard to get,” just some little scheme to attract his attention and win his heart.
As long as she didn’t turn into a completely different person right in front of him, there shouldn’t be any problems.
As for Shen Ru Jie, there was even less to worry about.
The two of them weren’t just unfamiliar—they probably hadn’t exchanged more than five sentences, and those were just polite greetings full of false courtesy.
However…
Xin Yi stepped onto a bluestone step and lifted the hem of her skirt, which had been splashed by rainwater. She said indifferently, “System, can we make a deal?”
“What?”
“If there’s no important reminder in the future, can you try to talk less?”
The system thought for two seconds. “Sure, Host. Though that’s a bit of an odd request… Mind explaining why?”
Xin Yi let out a breath and said seriously and honestly, “Because your voice really sounds awful.”
If she had to describe it, it was a hundred times worse than the audiobook system on JJ. Completely emotionless, flat as an old lady cracking melon seeds by the bedside. It made her head buzz.
Once or twice was fine.
But hearing it too much was pure mental pollution! And this voice would follow her into every small world. Just thinking about it was terrifying.
The system suddenly let out an apologetic “Aiya.” “Oh, this? I forgot to tell you, Host—the system’s voice tone can be customized.”
Xin Yi: “…”
Why didn’t you say so earlier?
In the end, she picked a cute yet somewhat fawning voice. Extremely bootlicking.
This way, she wouldn’t seem quite so miserable while doing missions in the future.
The marquis manor’s lifestyle was truly extravagant.
It had only been from one courtyard to another, but it took them the time of several cups of tea. Xin Yi’s feet ached.
She endured it again and again and was just about to speak up when she happened to look up and see the plaque for “Shen Garden.”
So she swallowed her words silently again.
A Ying reminded her by her ear, “The steps are slippery, Madam. Watch your step.”
At the same time, she slightly raised the umbrella. Then she let out a surprised low cry. “It’s the Second Young Master…”
Xin Yi was stunned. Her gaze uncontrollably followed over.
Under the thick clouds, the green-tiled red eaves stood silent, as if everything was suppressed in the hazy rain curtain. Only the youth’s figure stood tall.
She had thought the first person she would see in this world was Shen Gui.
She hadn’t expected it to be Shen Ru Jie.
The youth wore dark clothes, very thin, with very pale skin and a cold appearance. He had a pair of extremely beautiful phoenix eyes, but his dark, heavy lashes always drooped inadvertently.
Making it impossible to see the emotions in his eyes.
Perhaps from the arduous journey, perhaps from traveling day and night—Shen Ru Jie had obvious wounds on his body and face.
His dark clothes originally hid the severity of his injuries.
But now, with the drizzling rain outside, and Shen Gui barring him from the corridor under the pretext of resting, forcing him to wait outside…
Soon, a pool of blood gathered where he stood. The blood seeped into the cracks of the bluestone slabs. Just glancing at it from afar made one’s scalp tingle. This… was straight out of a crime scene!
Xin Yi even smelled a faint metallic tang of blood.
The original host’s body was already weak, and now she felt physiologically dizzy. She pressed her hand hard to her chest to steady herself, barely keeping from stumbling.
In contrast, the youth showed no expression. He still stood ramrod straight in the cold rain.
As if that blood wasn’t his.
Xin Yi: What terrifying mental fortitude.
If it were her, she would have been hugging her feet long ago, sweating buckets in pain and wanting to jump up and down on the spot.
“Doesn’t he feel pain?”
The system answered in its punchably cute tone. “Don’t know. But that’s not in the scope of what you should worry about, Host. He hurts his way, you conquer your way. Promise the system—be a cold-blooded, heartless woman, okay?”
Xin Yi: “…”
She couldn’t help it entirely. People instinctively had filters for good-looking people.
Especially someone as exceptionally good-looking as Shen Ru Jie.
That face… No matter how she looked at it, it didn’t seem like a villain’s.
Too deceptive. If the system hadn’t kept reminding her in her ear, Xin Yi wouldn’t have been able to associate him with the word “villain” at all.
But speaking of the mission, Xin Yi couldn’t help growing curious. “What’s his favorability toward Shen Gui right now?”
The system: “-10000%.”
“Tch…” Though she knew Shen Gui had never treated this younger brother like a person, she hadn’t expected it to be this low.
No wonder in the original plot, even to please Zheng Wu, he hadn’t considered sparing Shen Gui’s life.
“What about toward the original host, Wu Xin Yi?”
The system: “-75%.”
“Why! The original host never offended him!”
The system comforted her. “Don’t worry, Host. Scans show his favorability toward even a random dog passing by would be negative. Compared to his favorability toward Shen Gui, Shen Ru Jie is practically on the verge of loving you.”
Xin Yi, who was practically loved: …
A Ying saw her madam staring in the Second Young Master’s direction for a good long while with no reaction. She gently tugged her sleeve and urged, “The marquis is waiting. Madam, hurry inside.”
Xin Yi shifted her feet at the words but didn’t go in immediately.
Instead, she stepped closer to that neglected corner. She moved carefully, her skirt swaying gracefully, trying not to let the pooled blood on the ground splash onto her.
Her slight movements were naturally caught by Shen Ru Jie easily.
The youth stood in the rain, thin lips pressed slightly together, like a cold, elegant bamboo in an ink wash painting. His handsome face showed no expression.
Until a pair of slender white hands appeared in his view, accompanied by a faint medicinal fragrance at his nose. The woman’s silk skirt stopped before him. The hem lifted slightly in the wind, graceful like a newly bloomed lotus.
He looked up and saw Xin Yi’s face.
Her gaze fell on him. Her pale, beautiful little face was full of reluctance and concern. “Um… Why don’t you stand under the eaves first and wait?”
Everyone was stunned at those words.
Not just A Ying, but the other servants who had stretched their ears long—why would Madam willingly talk to the Second Young Master?
She was usually sickly and quiet, always looking listless. Aside from the marquis, no one had seen her care about anyone.
Moreover, the marquis hated the Second Young Master the most.
It was so obvious that even when the old marquis was alive, everyone knew these two sons were fated not to be harmonious brothers. But he favored the eldest son, never letting Shen Ru Jie join the family reunion dinners each year, lest he ruin everyone’s mood.
And since Madam adored the marquis, she naturally shared his dislike for the Second Young Master too. So even seeing Shen Ru Jie injured or punished, she always avoided him like the plague.
Unless there was absolutely no avoiding it, she would only exchange a few perfunctory words.
Xin Yi naturally couldn’t hear their thoughts. She just looked at the youth’s handsome face, and a scene suddenly flashed in her mind.
She didn’t know if it was a remnant memory from the original host or information fed by the system.
In a dark alley at night, the youth propped himself up from the ground on one arm. He wiped the filthy blood from his sword blade with effort and answered in a youthful, cold voice, “Shen Ru Jie.”
“The Jie from ‘life as worthless as grass.’”
The wind blew harder, making the somewhat dazed woman before him shiver. Then she met his gaze again.
This time, it wasn’t just a question. She frowned, pulled a handkerchief from her bosom, and pressed it to the back of his hand, where blood kept seeping out. “This rain probably won’t stop. You should still stand under the eaves and wait. Getting soaked any longer will infect the wound.”
Shen Ru Jie also frowned. As he expressed refusal, he said indifferently, “No need. My brother dislikes being disturbed.”
With his movement, the silk handkerchief embroidered with pomegranate flowers brushed over the back of his hand and fluttered down into the bloody rainwater at his feet, instantly ruined.
Xin Yi: “…”
So this was -75% favorability?
A Ying saw the Second Young Master being so ungrateful and felt a bit unhappy. She quietly urged, “Madam, don’t mind him. Isn’t he always getting injured? The marquis’s side is more important.”
“Madam…”
Xin Yi knew that, given her current character setting, caring too much about someone she had little interaction with would seem strange.
So she didn’t press further. Before leaving, she parted her lips in a shallow smile and said, “Thank you for going to such lengths to fetch medicine for me. I’ll repay this favor one day.”
Shen Ru Jie said nothing.
Because he hadn’t gone to You Province out of concern for her illness, nor had he gotten injured for her sake.
So her gratitude was completely unnecessary.
Even Shen Gui had no regard for her at all.
Wu Xin Yi probably still didn’t know: The Shen Gui who acted proper and restrained before her had long ago secretly taken a mistress behind her back—and treated her like a treasure.
Rain soaked his eyelashes.
He curled his lip in faint mockery, actually a bit expectant for the moment her beautiful dream shattered. It would surely… be quite entertaining.
Xin Yi entered the room. The first thing she saw was Shen Gui standing before a portrait, stroking a piece of warm jade.
The man had a tall, slender figure, dressed in a broad robe of deep crimson. His long hair was bound in a jade coronet. His appearance was exceptionally handsome, with the settled nobility and majesty in his brows.
And the reason he was so absorbed in that portrait was, of course, related to Zheng Wu.
A few days ago, Zheng Wu had thrown a tantrum wanting to learn painting. Shen Gui had indulgently made time to teach her personally. It was in that idyllic little courtyard like a paradise, where his beloved nestled in his arms as he held her hand, stroke by stroke, painting earnestly.
Xin Yi thought of the original host’s and Zheng Wu’s endings and couldn’t help sighing that Shen Gui really had something special: Whether it was the woman he didn’t love or the one he did, none of them had a good end following him.
A natural wife-killer fate.
He looked decent, but did nothing worthwhile.
Worst of all, his body wasn’t clean anymore—like a rotten cucumber from the start. In an otome game… well, not even a 9.9 free-shipping badge would sell him to players.
As she inwardly dissed him, Shen Gui finally noticed her.
And without a shred of guilt, he turned the tables and demanded, “What were you spacing out about just now?”
“…”
Xin Yi was choked.