“Madam, this servant knows you feel bitter inside, but you cannot be foolish and truly quarrel with the Marquis…”
A Ying looked at the woman on the bed behind the gauze curtains and saw that she showed no reaction at all. She could not help but feel a pang of sorrow.
As her personal maidservant, how could she not know the Madam’s feelings toward the Marquis?
Ever since she married into the Marquis Manor, the Madam had worked tirelessly every day to nurse her body back to health. She hoped to share a bed with the Marquis soon and smoothly conceive a little heir.
Unfortunately, she drank one bowl of bitter-tasting herbal decoctions after another. She even sought out folk remedies prescribed by common doctors, but her body showed no improvement.
Moreover, the Marquis had…
secretly taken a concubine behind the Madam’s back.
A Ying held back her bitterness and continued to persuade: “Since the Marquis has not exposed it, the Madam can pretend not to know. A concubine is just a concubine. As long as she does not show up in front of you, there is still room for maneuver.”
“No matter what, you cannot gamble with your own health…”
Suddenly, the curtain in front of her moved.
Wu Xin Yi—no, it should be said Xin Yi—sat up.
That pale and beautiful face seemed stunned for a moment. With delicate features and thin silk robes, she looked fragile, like a paper butterfly about to be blown away by the wind.
Just as A Ying felt her nose sour, the woman turned her head, frowned slightly, and asked her, “Is there anything to eat?”
A Ying was stunned by the question.
The words of comfort stuck in her throat, and she could not utter them for a long time: “Madam… you want to eat?”
Xin Yi nodded. “Of course.”
For the original host Wu Xin Yi, the news of her husband keeping a concubine was no less than a bolt from the blue. Before she entered this body, Wu Xin Yi had gone more than a day without a drop of water.
The original host was not hungry, but she was.
She was about to starve to death.
A Ying’s face lit up with joy. She wiped the tears from her face, and even her tone carried irrepressible excitement and delight. She nodded repeatedly. “Yes, yes! What does Madam want to eat? This servant will prepare it right away!”
“Something sweet, something savory, a little of each.” Mainly because she did not know what delicacies this dynasty had.
Xin Yi thought for a moment and added, “Oh, and a bowl of plain congee.”
After the maidservant’s figure left,
Xin Yi lifted the quilt and got out of bed. At the same time, she shook her somewhat dizzy head vigorously: Hiss, it still hurt so much.
She held her head and asked, “System, when will the aftereffects of this space-time traversal roughly disappear?”
Immediately, a cold, mechanical electronic voice slowly rang in her sea of consciousness. “Host, no need to worry. In about half a shichen, your headache and discomfort will subside.”
With the affirmative answer, Xin Yi breathed a sigh of relief.
Then she walked to the copper mirror by the vanity and slightly examined her appearance in this Small World.
At first glance, Xin Yi was stunned: So beautiful.
Almond eyes and willow brows, an oval face exuding scholarly grace and gentle elegance. She could absolutely play the role of Xizi clasping her heart (a famed beauty suffering from heart palpitations).
If she had to nitpick, it was that the original host had been ill for years, so her complexion showed an unhealthy pallor.
But she was still very beautiful.
A gentle, fragile beauty carrying the scent of medicine.
“Looking like this… and still getting cheated on?”
Xin Yi did not understand: With a wife like this, how was that scumbag not satisfied and still went looking for a concubine?
The system keenly detected her other inner thoughts and reminded her: “The host was sent here for a task, not to admire yourself narcissistically.”
“Ahem…” Xin Yi pretended to cough, but her gaze did not leave the mirror immediately. “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”
The space-time company she worked for wanted to develop an immersive game and needed sufficiently realistic data templates for support. This would help refine game details and supplement potential emergencies.
That was why they selected Xin Yi for this test.
This was a dynasty that did not exist in history.
The original host was named Wu Xin Yi, a typical young lady from an ancient aristocratic family. From childhood, she was taught music, chess, calligraphy, painting, etiquette, and rules. Before she turned sixteen, she was betrothed and married to the eldest young master of the Marquis Manor at the time—the current Marquis, Shen Gui—as his wife.
Unfortunately, the original host was a frail young lady with a heart palpitation condition. On their wedding night, she suffered a palpitation episode midway and fainted. The two never formally consummated.
Later, whether out of pity for her health or disgust at that inauspicious scene, Shen Gui never stayed overnight in her room again after nearly two years of marriage. Even on family reunion holidays, he would only sit for a short chat before leaving.
The original host was also timid and unassertive by nature. She shed countless tears in secret but never dared to argue openly.
Until Shen Gui met the girl who truly stirred his heart: Zheng Wu.
Zheng Wu was the daughter of a Jiangnan tea merchant. She came to the Capital City with her father to see the world, but she was molested on the street by rogues and bullies. By chance, Shen Gui passed by and saved her. From then on, she secretly harbored feelings for him.
Even knowing he had a wife, she felt only sourness in her heart, no regrets. She willingly became his concubine.
In the original plot, Shen Gui would soon welcome the pregnant Zheng Wu into the Marquis Manor. Several months after she gave birth, he raised her from concubine to equal wife.
Meanwhile, the original host Wu Xin Yi moved to a remote side courtyard even farther from her husband. Her health deteriorated day by day, and not long after, she passed away quietly.
Things did not go well for Shen Gui either.
In the struggle for the throne, the Marquis Manor, represented by him, backed the wrong side and lost utterly. Not only did his marquis position get snatched by his younger brother “Shen Ru Jie,” but he could not even keep the woman he loved most.
Yes, as a proper melodramatic novel, the Marquis Manor’s illegitimate son Shen Ru Jie also fell for Zheng Wu.
And their first encounter was highly dramatic.
Shen Ru Jie was not aligned with his elder brother.
Shen Gui was part of the Crown Prince Faction, while Shen Ru Jie had always worked for the Seventh Prince.
Thus, he occasionally acted to secretly eliminate obstacles in the Seventh Prince’s path.
Once, Shen Ru Jie was gravely wounded and, in panic, hid in Zheng Wu’s boudoir. Yet she did not react like a typical young lady in panic.
She not only kept silent but cleverly helped cover for him. She only made one request: “Please, young master, do not harm our lives.”
In the rainy night of heavy injury, a fleeting glimpse.
From then on, he could not forget Zheng Wu.
Until the Seventh Prince rose to power, and real authority in the Marquis Manor fell to the previously unfavored Shen Ru Jie.
While retaliating against Shen Gui, his gaze once again uncontrollably fell on Zheng Wu. His feelings for her had not faded; after suppression, they burned even fiercer, to the point of no return.
Thus came the later plot of forceful seizure.
Shen Ru Jie used Shen Gui’s life as leverage to force her to marry him instead. While feeling deeply humiliated, Zheng Wu had no choice but to compromise. But before she could marry over in tears, she heard that Shen Gui and his young son had perished in a sea of fire.
She was certain Shen Ru Jie did it. Filled with hatred, she secretly hid a dagger in the sleeve of her wedding dress and, on their wedding night, perished together with Shen Ru Jie.
After hearing the whole story, Xin Yi held her face and sighed. “Isn’t this just a story of the second male lead rising with a deep abusive romance?”
Though it was not a proper rise through formal channels—it involved forceful seizure—and the protagonists ended in a spectacular bad ending.
System: “If the host thinks so, then yes.”
“So, who is the target I need to capture this time?”
System: “Shen Ru Jie.”
Xin Yi: “…”
It seemed she had celebrated too early.
In the silence, the system quickly pulled up more detailed information on the task target.
And dutifully infused it into Xin Yi’s mind.
—Shen Ru Jie, Second Young Master of the Marquis Manor.
His birth mother was a lowly bed-warming servant. Not long after giving birth to him, she was caught sneaking off to meet her lover and was ordered by the furious old Marquis to be tied up and drowned in the pond along with her adulterer.
But the matter did not end there. As Shen Ru Jie gradually grew into a youth, the old Marquis’s paranoia grew heavier. The more he looked at him, the more he felt he did not resemble his own son.
Kill him? Fear of killing the wrong one. Dote on him? Felt repulsed inside.
Thus, Shen Ru Jie had a miserable life.
Not only the elders of the Marquis Manor, but even the younger generation could bully and humiliate him on any excuse.
The only two in the entire Marquis Manor who had never tormented him were his irreplaceable love, Zheng Wu,
and the original host Wu Xin Yi.
Because the original host was a background character from start to finish: others had secret affairs, she was the background; brothers fought, she was the background; hatred filled the seas and love filled the skies, she was still the background.
So transparent it was as if she did not exist.
No one hated her, no one loved her. Even when she later died of illness, no one truly cared.
“Ding.” The information transfer completed.
The system began issuing tasks: “Host currently has two tasks, mainline and branchline.”
“Mainline Task: Prevent tragedy, capture the obsessive second male lead in each Small World, raise Favorability to 100%.”
“Branchline Task: Achieve scumbag abuse accomplishments, unlock the scumbag’s wife-chasing inferno mode.”
“Additionally, task targets in Small Worlds are all obsessive personality types. Host must teach them normal emotions.”
Xin Yi: “…”
With their layered relationships, normal was a pipe dream.
She was just about to complain when a transparent potion vial dropped from the air, landing right in her lap.
“What is this?” Xin Yi picked it up to examine it, then sniffed it. It seemed to have no scent.
“Emotion Suppressant. Host can think of it as an upgraded version of forgetting water.”
Xin Yi frowned.
The system explained, “Everything here is fake. Host only needs to complete the capture task without investing real feelings. This potion suppresses emotions with no other side effects. Host can use it with confidence.”
After hearing the explanation, Xin Yi decisively uncorked the vial and gulped down the sweet liquid inside.
Then she turned the bottle upside down. “There, happy now?”
“Yes, host.”
“Can I ask a question? Why did you pick me?”
Though she had done a few tasks before, they were all as genuine cannon fodder side characters. She clocked out after one episode on average. Aside from mastering various ways to court death, she had zero experience in strategizing.
“Does host remember the questionnaire?”
“Yes.”
“After system evaluation, you have the most obvious Green Tea traits.”
Xin Yi: “…”
Was this system speaking human?
She really wanted to write it a little essay, 800 words long : )
Thus, when A Ying entered carrying a food box, she saw Xin Yi’s face flushed with shame and anger: Madam… was this anger at the Marquis?
But this was much more vibrant than her previous despondent state. After all, ever since learning the Marquis had a concubine, the Madam cried thinking of him, cried while dressing, cried while sleeping.
The waters of West Lake were not as plentiful as her tears.
Meanwhile, Xin Yi’s shattered heart had already mended halfway the moment she smelled the aroma of food.
Right now, nothing was more important than eating, because she was starving, her chest practically sticking to her back.
The already overcast sky outside suddenly poured rain. Slanting rain threads battered the window frames, making the rosewood creak.
A Ying hurriedly got up to close the window. Turning back, she saw the Madam obediently sitting at the table eating, and her heart filled with relief.
By the time the meal ended, two incense sticks had burned.
Seeing Xin Yi eat the last piece of preserved fruit, she asked, “Madam, since your mood is better, shall we go walk in the pavilion to get some fresh air?”
“Sure.”
Xin Yi had just nodded when the maid guarding outside the door came in softly to report that someone from the Marquis’s side had come, summoning her over.
“What could he want?”
In the original plot, Shen Gui had rarely sought her out proactively, and each time it was bad news. The original host grew weaker with every meeting. Was this a weasel paying New Year’s call to the chicken?
A Ying seemed to recall something upon hearing this. She leaned close to her ear and whispered a reminder. “This servant guesses it is because the Second Young Master has returned.”
“Shen Ru Jie?”
“Has Madam forgotten? Some time ago, the Marquis heard there was a herb in You Province that cures heart ailments. It grew on sheer cliffs amid wolves and tigers in a perilous place, so he sent the Second Young Master alone to fetch the divine medicine. When this servant went to prepare lunch earlier, it seemed she saw the Second Young Master’s horse.”
A Ying grew more convinced as she spoke: “It must be, it must be! See, the Marquis still has Madam in his heart!”
“…”
Heh, like hell he did.
It was more like tormenting Shen Ru Jie under the pretext of her frail heart condition. If he could, he would rather Shen Ru Jie died out there directly.