During the process of detaching from the small world, the Melodramatic Transmigration System assessed Xin Yi’s task completion level.
Both the mainline and branchline tasks counted as perfect, which originally should have been S-grade, but because she deliberately delayed her departure and chose to stay in the previous small world for two more months after completing the strategy, it was downgraded to C-grade.
For those two months, it had kept urging Xin Yi to leave, but unfortunately, she always found excuses to brush it off each time.
At first, her excuse was that Shen Ru Jie had knelt until his legs were injured for her sake, and it would be inhuman not to stay and take care of him at such a time.
Later, when she returned to the Wu Mansion, she still had no intention of leaving.
Her reason was that she couldn’t just drop dead the day she returned, or it would break her parents’ hearts and make the outside rumors unpleasant.
She had many similar excuses. She was reluctant to leave the flowers and plants in the courtyard, reluctant to leave the spring garments,
reluctant to leave the Seven-Stringed Zither she had grown accustomed to playing, reluctant to leave the landscape painting she had spent days creating.
The sugar pastries at the Drunken Immortal Building were also delicious; she hadn’t had enough yet.
After cycling through all the excuses she could find, she finally planned to leave.
But then she waited until that rainy night, when Shen Ru Jie, who had just recovered from illness not long ago, sneaked into the Wu Mansion. In the cold night, his clothes were soaked through, and he just stood pale and quiet in the courtyard watching her.
So she said again, “Wait one more day.”
The system thoroughly saw through her intentions and couldn’t help asking, “Host, you’re not actually afraid of A Ying crying, are you? Are you afraid of Shen Ru Jie crying?”
“Endlessly finding excuses to stay is also because you can’t bear to part with him.”
Xin Yi subconsciously wanted to retort, but found she couldn’t say it no matter what, so a hint of bewilderment leaked into her tone. “I don’t know either; I just feel like I’m being a bit cruel to him.”
Although Shen Ru Jie was a villain, and approaching him was only to complete the task, people’s hearts were made of flesh after all—how could she not feel the kindness that person showed her?
Every time she acted heartlessly toward him, Xin Yi couldn’t help thinking of the Shen Ru Jie who blushed while helping her wash her undergarments, the Shen Ru Jie who wrote on the Kongming lantern hoping to spend every year like this day with her.
And the Shen Ru Jie who knelt for three days in front of the Wu Mansion gates on a snowy winter night, all just to marry her.
Then, a fine, dense ache would uncontrollably well up from the bottom of her heart, one even she couldn’t quite understand.
Although she had known early on that this day would come, only by experiencing it personally could she understand that the taste of betraying true feelings was not pleasant.
The spring chill was piercing, and the thin ice on the lake surface had already melted.
The instant Xin Yi fell into the lake under cover of night, she heard the prompt sound by her ear: “Melodramatic Transmigration System loading new world.”
In a daze, she only felt a chaotic white light flash before her eyes.
When she opened her eyes again, she had completely detached from the original world.
“Is the host alright?” the system asked her.
“Not bad, just a bit dizzy.”
“Then, transmitting this small world’s plotline to the host. Please keep your attention focused during this process.”
As this reminder fell, memories of the original host and plot information simultaneously flooded into Xin Yi’s mind.
Her identity this time was the daughter of a minor official.
Named Bai Xinyi.
The original host Bai Xinyi had married the most renowned general of the court, Xiao Cheng Ce, back when she came of age.
Her husband had led troops to war on their wedding night itself, without even lifting her bridal veil, let alone having a chance to develop feelings with her. Years later, when Xiao Cheng Ce returned triumphant, there was an additional glamorous concubine named Chu Chu by his side.
Chu Chu was a woman he had met by chance, who had accompanied him through years of life-and-death struggles and sandstorms on the frontier; their affections ran deep. In contrast, the original host, as the general’s wife, seemed superfluous.
And Bai Xinyi was no kind, accommodating type who knew how to yield and endure grievances. Though she was born strikingly beautiful, deep down she was extremely hypocritical, jealous, and fond of vanity.
Not very bright, both wicked and stupid.
So when she saw Xiao Cheng Ce and Chu Chu’s loving demeanor, hatred festered in her heart.
Especially toward that glamorous concubine who had stolen all her husband’s favor. She schemed to harm Chu Chu, deliberately trying to make her fall to her death from a high platform. But Xiao Cheng Ce arrived in time to save her, and the man immediately berated her for her viper-hearted nature. Upon returning, he wrote a deed of repudiation and cast her out.
Bai Xinyi felt the sky had fallen. All she had ever sought in life was wealth, glory, power, and fame.
Yet Xiao Cheng Ce had actually repudiated her!!
To get revenge and to tarnish the general’s mansion’s reputation, blinded by hatred, she ordered someone to drug Chu Chu’s mute younger brother—Xie Shuo—with an aphrodisiac.
Then, while he burned with desire, she locked the door from the inside, stripped naked, and tried to climb into his bed to consummate with the youth and turn uncooked rice into cooked rice.
Naturally, she failed, and was released poisonous scorpions and centipedes by the Miao Frontier youth skilled in gu arts, who bit her to death alive.
The next day, when the mansion servants discovered her, her face and body were already ulcerated beyond recognition.
Xiao Cheng Ce naturally did not pursue the matter, as the original host was just the daughter of an insignificant minor official anyway—dead was dead.
Moreover, she was promiscuous, vicious, and debauched. Not only had jealousy twisted her heart, but she even dared to climb into Chu Chu’s younger brother’s bed. Just thinking about it was disgusting and shameful.
With such a vicious principal wife as contrast beforehand, Chu Chu seemed all the more worth cherishing.
So after Bai Xinyi died, Xiao Cheng Ce doted on his glamorous concubine Chu Chu even more, and they spent a period of sweet, honeyed days together.
Until Xie Shuo’s mating period arrived, and he lost control in front of the general’s mansion maids, transforming to reveal his snake tail.
Upon hearing this, Chu Chu instantly felt utterly revolted and extremely disgusted, nearly vomiting even her dinner.
She and Xie Shuo were not born of the same mother but the same father. Xie Shuo’s birth mother was a Snake Clan woman, so the offspring she bore was naturally a monster with a human upper body and snake tail.
Toward this younger brother, Chu Chu felt only fear and loathing. If not for his proficiency in Miao Frontier gu arts saving the gravely wounded Xiao Cheng Ce on the battlefield multiple times, she would never have been willing to keep this monster by her side.
Thus, after learning of his mating period, Chu Chu, following her initial disgust, saw it as a good opportunity to get rid of him.
Otherwise, keeping a monster around would make her tremble in fear every time she thought of it, utterly disrupting her peace.
She instructed the general’s mansion servants to, while Xie Shuo was tormented to near-unconsciousness during his mating period, force-feed him a massive dose of poison and realgar wine.
Intending to vivisect his snake core and make one final use of it.
Of course, Xie Shuo did not die. For revenge, he turned everyone in the general’s mansion, including Chu Chu, into human gu, calmly and smilingly watching as they slaughtered each other.
The final outcome was that Chu Chu killed Xiao Cheng Ce, then was devoured and gnawed by heaps of gu snakes until she turned into a pile of white bones.
“Ding dong~ Plotline loading complete. Please confirm the current small world’s mainline and branchline tasks, host.”
“Mainline Task: Strategy target—the glamorous concubine’s younger brother ‘Xie Shuo’; max out his favorability.”
“Branchline Task: Slap Xiao Cheng Ce in the face, achieve chasing-wife crematorium accomplishment.”
Xin Yi had been silently frowning and complaining in her heart: Wu Xin Yi in the last world, Bai Xinyi in this one, making her seem like a walking Black and White Impermanence.
Then she heard that this time’s strategy target was that bone-gnawing Snake Clan youth.
“……”
The system reminded her from the side, “In the last small world, the host’s persona was cannon fodder background board, so aside from normally acting like a delicate young lady, there wasn’t much special to do.”
“But this small world is different. This time, the host’s persona is the vicious female supporting character—vain, jealous, scheming in hackneyed and subpar ways. The host’s words and actions must follow the plotline to fit the vicious female supporting character’s persona.”
“……”
Xin Yi: “So not only do I have to drug that Snake Clan villain, but also cluelessly climb into his bed and try to force myself on him?”
Hearing her ask this, the system immediately acted all cheekily cute. “Yes, host! At some key plot points’ choices, the host needs to act according to the vicious female supporting character’s persona.”
“So before that, the host should work hard to avoid dying too miserably when the time comes~”
“……”
At this moment, the surrounding white light dissipated, and Xin Yi could finally see her location clearly. It was a very rundown side room, looking nothing like the treatment befitting a general’s wife.
More like a servant’s quarters. There wasn’t even a bronze mirror for makeup in the room, only a vat of clear water placed in the corner. She walked over and used the water in place of a mirror to look at herself.
She saw a face that could be called peerlessly beautiful slowly reflect on the calm, clear water surface—very glamorous, even garishly so.
Especially since she seemed to have applied very heavy makeup tonight, making it even more off-putting at first glance. Xin Yi couldn’t help reaching out to wipe it.
Unfortunately, she didn’t wipe it clean.
So she simply scooped up two handfuls of clear water and washed off all the powder on her face. When she lowered her head again, she finally saw the woman’s exquisitely glamorous lotus face reflected on the water surface.
She wiped the water from her face with her sleeve and looked up again to survey the furnishings in the room.
The more she looked, the more something felt off, and her brows furrowed uneasily. She asked the system, “What stage has the plot progressed to now? Why is the original host, as the general’s wife, living in such shabby conditions?”
“Please wait a moment, host.”
“At the current stage, Bai Xinyi, consumed by jealousy, deliberately pushed Xiao Cheng Ce’s glamorous concubine Chu Chu off a high platform. She’s been lying unconscious on the bed ever since. In rage, Xiao Cheng Ce wrote her a deed of repudiation and told her to get out of the general’s mansion with her dowry maid.”
Before Xin Yi could respond, the system continued, “The original host knelt and begged Xiao Cheng Ce tearfully for a long time, pleading not to be driven away.”
“She cried so pitifully and swore such remorseful oaths that Xiao Cheng Ce softened and agreed not to release the news for now, so her family wouldn’t know her daughter had been repudiated—but it wouldn’t be for long.”
Hearing this, Xin Yi breathed a slight sigh of relief: Not bad.
The situation wasn’t too dire, at least better than she had imagined, with still a chance to salvage things.
The system doused her with cold water. “Don’t celebrate too soon, host. No sooner had the original host tearfully repented than she secretly took it out on Xie Shuo. Not only did she throw the box containing his precious gu insects into the pond, but she also played the victim first by slapping him, claiming those ugly gu insects had scared her. Unfortunately, after hitting him, she regretted it, fearing Xiao Cheng Ce would really drive her out if he found out. So she planned to seduce Xiao Cheng Ce while Chu Chu was still unconscious and consummate with him to make uncooked rice into cooked rice.”
“So in a moment, the host should make an excuse to send him some soup, wearing loose and easily removable shark gauze attire, and go seduce Xiao Cheng Ce in his study.”
“…………”
Maybe she should just go apologize to Xie Shuo directly? She was pretty good at apologizing anyway : )