Chapter 3
“They say the Xiao Family Manor is looking for a child to work as a servant. I don’t know what happened, but apparently the child who was working there last time ran away, so they’re looking for someone urgently…”
Xiao Family Manor…?
The word sounded strangely familiar, and when I tilted my head in confusion, Auntie Pyo chimed in from beside me.
“It’s a Xiao family that moved here not long ago. They were originally from Shandong, but apparently they brought their household members and came all the way here this time. I heard their young lady came here to recuperate because she’s ill…”
Xiao Family Manor, the Xiao family…
“Wouldn’t there be more renowned physicians up north? There shouldn’t be any reason for her to come all the way here to recuperate…”
“They say it’s only called recuperation. There are also rumors that the young lady was driven down here because she has a bad reputation. Apparently, her temper is so terrible that she’ll tear your mouth apart just for mentioning her name.”
“Come on, surely not… What’s her name, anyway? Is it somewhat strange?”
“It’s ordinary. So, her name is…”
A moment later, I heard Auntie Pyo whisper softly.
“Xiao Yanli!”
Xiao Yanli?
At that moment, several lines suddenly flashed through my mind…
[“Xiao Yanli of the Xiao Family Manor…… I’ve never seen a woman so beautiful.”]
[“The Manor Lord certainly chose Young Lady’s name very well. A beautiful oriole, indeed. If Young Lady could sing beside me for the rest of my life, I would envy not even an immortal.”]
[“Young Lady Xiao, would it be all right if I stayed at the Xiao Family Manor as a guest official? I’ll remain here and protect you… Don’t you need me? Haha, even when Young Lady is angry, you’re truly beautiful.”]
A chill ran down my spine.
Because I knew exactly one novel in which the protagonist spouted similar lines to every single heroine throughout the entire story.
‘Here, here…’
I screamed soundlessly.
‘This is <The Lord of Heavenly Pillars>!’
***
Xiao Yanli.
The reason I remembered that name was simple. She was the novel’s…
‘The only villainess!’
Then how did Xiao Yanli become the only villainess?
[“How amusing. You protect the trust of a fellow martial artist you met only a day ago as though your life depended on it, yet you cast aside the trust of a woman who gave you her heart as though it were a worn-out shoe, and you call yourself a hero?”]
Because she didn’t fall for the protagonist.
Xiao Yanli was a supporting character who appeared briefly in <The Lord of Heavenly Pillars> before exiting the story. She was also the only woman in this world who never fell for the protagonist.
Of course, when Xiao Yanli first appeared, everyone clearly thought she would be one of the heroines. Because…
[Her hair gleamed as black and glossy as polished jade and was as soft as silk, while her face was so white it looked almost pale as snow. Her densely layered eyelashes cast shadows across her face whenever she lowered her eyes, creating a sorrowful atmosphere, while her slender neck was as delicate as that of a deer, and the graceful contours of her body were as though a celestial maiden had descended to earth…]
The description in the novel practically filled an entire page.
‘The Most Beautiful Woman in the Central Plains,’ ‘The Most Beautiful Woman Under Heaven,’ ‘The Most Beautiful Woman of All Time’… she was showered with every possible title and compliment, so who would have suspected anything?
I assumed that even among the heroines, she would be one of the major heroines competing for the position of the legitimate wife, but…
[“I suppose your late father never taught you proper manners?”]
Nope.
Rather than falling for the protagonist, she outright started by insulting him during their very first meeting.
[“I’ve heard a lot about Young Master. They say you’re a spirited young hero who places great importance on trust. Indeed, for such a hero to consider a mere woman beneath his notice and attempt to toy with her as he pleases, even the unorthodox sects would have to concede to you.”]
[“Th-that’s too harsh!”]
[“Are my words too harsh, or is Young Master’s behavior too harsh? Surely Young Master doesn’t believe that his own rudeness is acceptable while other people’s rudeness isn’t? Now that I see you, you’re not a great man among men, but rather a petty man among men, aren’t you?”]
‘Wow, she’s no joke.’
In truth, Xiao Yanli’s anger was justified.
When Xiao Yanli refused to remove her veil, the protagonist, who was thoroughly drunk, took it off under the pretense that it was an accident.
The protagonist apparently knew that his actions were indefensible, so he shut his mouth. But perhaps because he had never been treated like this by a woman before, he couldn’t contain his anger and smashed the table in front of him with his fist.
Of course, Xiao Yanli wasn’t frightened.
[“How impressive. You even resort to using force to intimidate a woman. Your honored master must be so proud.”]
[“Enough! I’ll leave, all right?!”]
But the protagonist didn’t leave. Because Xiao Yanli was simply too beautiful for him to leave her alone.
‘Sigh, of course you wouldn’t.’
To be honest, even at this point, I didn’t have high expectations.
The protagonist was a woman-obsessed bastard, but I also thought this heroine would merely put on a slightly prickly front before quickly falling for him and becoming hopelessly devoted to him.
I was wrong.
[“I didn’t expect anything from the beginning, but I never imagined you would be this terrible.”]
Xiao Yanli consistently hated the protagonist from beginning to end.
At first, it would be more accurate to say she simply had no interest in him. Once she learned about the protagonist’s womanizing ways, she didn’t even treat him like a human being. Then, when she was injured by one of the heroines who had followed the protagonist, her disgust toward him reached its peak.
[“I’m sorry, Young Lady. I never thought she would…”]
[“I have no intention of blaming Miss Zhu. I already know who the real cause is.”]
[“Who is that? Just tell me and I’ll immediately…”]
[“Why, the hypocrite standing right in front of me, who cries out about benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom while refusing to keep faith with the very people who have given him their hearts. How about it? The only way for you to apologize to me is to smash your own heavenly crown point and kill yourself. Will you do it?”]
[“Young Lady!”]
I wanted to applaud her with all my heart.
‘That’s right. The bastard who actually did something wrong should die!’
But the protagonist was already a ×××-head with the mindset of ‘when I do it, it’s romance; when someone else does it, it’s adultery.’
They say the one who farts gets angry, and sure enough, he stayed quiet whenever Xiao Yanli said something that was actually true, but the moment she told him to die, he became enraged and threw a huge tantrum.
[“I hear your words have gone too far! I have no reason to endure being spoken to like that by Young Lady. Fine! If you dislike me that much, I’ll leave this place immediately!”]
And then he immediately took off.
All the while secretly harboring the wish that, ‘Even if you regret this later, I won’t forgive you,’ and, ‘Even if you cry, grab onto my pant leg, and beg me to stay, I’ll never accept you…’
‘You ×××-idiot…’
But the protagonist’s wish was never fulfilled.
[“You mean the young lady of the Xiao Family Manor? It’s been quite some time since the mourning period ended, so why are you looking for her…?”]
Because Xiao Yanli suddenly died.
As it turned out, Xiao Yanli was terminally ill. The story frequently mentioned that she didn’t have long to live, and she would actually cough up blood from time to time.
Still, since she had become involved with the protagonist, I thought she’d somehow manage to survive. But, without fail, she died young.
I was dumbfounded.
Just when I thought a supporting character I actually liked had finally appeared, they kicked her out of the story so quickly just because she said a few things that were true.
‘Should I quit too?’
I should’ve quit back then!
But regretting it now was too late, and I had already transmigrated. If there was any consolation, it was that I had figured out which novel I’d transmigrated into.
‘…Of course, I don’t remember much.’
To be honest, what I remembered wasn’t things like fortuitous encounters or miraculous medicines, but rather the various heroine archetypes and how the protagonist kept stringing the heroines along. Yet, surprisingly, I remembered quite a lot about Xiao Yanli.
Perhaps it was because I’d reread only the parts featuring Xiao Yanli several times out of regret, or perhaps because her death had been so absurd. Once I started remembering Xiao Yanli, all sorts of information about her came flooding back.
And if I had to pick the most useful piece of information among them…
[“Actually, I don’t know how to cure the illness completely either. Still, there is a way to alleviate the pain. Your approach to the illness was wrong from the beginning.”]
[“People commonly believe Young Lady’s illness to be a case of Yang deficiency and use medicinal ingredients such as ginseng, deer antler, dried ginger, cinnamon, and aconite to replenish Yang energy. But you mustn’t do that. Young Lady’s condition isn’t simply because her Yang energy is insufficient. It’s because her Yin energy is overly abundant. In short, there is so much fuel stored inside her body that it’s on the verge of exploding.”]
[“Then what should we do?”]
[“Obviously, we need to remove the fuel. Instead of using medicines that nourish the body, we need to use medicinal ingredients that disperse the energy. For example, licorice, jujube, angelica, cnidium…”]
It was information about Xiao Yanli’s illness.
The protagonist, who had fallen deeply for Xiao Yanli, once sought the advice of a physician with whom he’d become acquainted in the martial world in order to cure her illness.
Although the physician added afterward, ‘This is only a temporary measure. Even a divine physician would have difficulty treating an incurable disease like this,’ as an unnecessary afterthought, in the end, no one managed to cure the illness, and Xiao Yanli died…
Still, simply finding a way to alleviate her illness was a huge gain.
Needless to say, this was also how the protagonist gained the trust of the Xiao Family Manor Lord.
‘What if I tell them this?’
Then the Manor Lord’s trust would belong to me, wouldn’t it?
And what if I gained not only the Manor Lord’s trust but Xiao Yanli’s trust as well?
Then, if I could live high on the hog beside a wealthy villainess, I, who had been nothing more than an ordinary young female head of household, could turn my life around in one shot…!
‘This is it!’
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