【Host, what you’re doing is not good……】
In the General’s residence, listening to Ying Xu and Xie Jingchen arrange the male and female leads clearly and plainly, just short of directly saying they would take their ashes to feed dogs, the system wanted to speak but stopped, stopped and wanted to speak again, enduring all the way, until Ying Xu returned to the imperial palace and Xie Jingchen went to kill the emperor, only then did the system finally stop enduring and spoke.
“What’s not good?” Ying Xu raised her eyes, her expression contemptuous, “As you said before, I would be made to die without a burial, with a miserable ending.” Hearing that mechanical electronic voice say “Mm,” she continued, “So they all want me dead, and I kill them — is that really something excessive?”
Only allowing others to want her dead, but not allowing her to kill those who want to harm her — what kind of logic is that?
【Uh, this……】 Under Ying Xu’s questioning, the system couldn’t help but be somewhat speechless. Because in its heart, it also felt that Ying Xu’s logic of “if someone wants to harm me, then I’ll strike first” was completely correct — if the other party weren’t the male and female leads……
But thinking about it again, it had come to this world in the first place to strive to fulfill Ying Xu’s expectations and eliminate the resentment of this world; Ying Xu’s feelings and experiences were its primary service target. It was just that according to the data from its previous system seniors, in history, there had never been a situation where shortly after a system arrived in a world, the male and female leads were directly made to be killed by a resentful supporting female character……
Afterward, Ying Xu heard the system’s mechanical voice inexplicably carry a bit of grievance as it said, 【Then if the host does everything herself, doesn’t that make the system seem very useless……】
“What?” As soon as she heard this, Ying Xu’s beautiful phoenix eyes were immediately filled with shock, her tone astonished, “You don’t actually think you’re useful, do you?”
Ying Xu was truly a little shocked by the system’s words. How did this useless thing have the face to say something like that?
Thinking of how earlier the system had told her it was sent by heaven specifically to help her, boasting a great deal about how powerful it was, yet it couldn’t even kill the emperor who dared put a green hat on her when she told it to, Ying Xu couldn’t help but disdainfully curse, “Useless waste that fails at everything!”
【Host, I, I am useful……】 Seeing Ying Xu look so disdainful, afraid that its very first assignment would end just like that, the system weakly spoke up to remedy the situation, trying to win back its host’s heart, 【I know Ying Zhao’s whereabouts……】
Ying Zhao, that is, Ying Xu’s elder brother who was currently missing in Da Qi.
Upon hearing this, Ying Xu immediately narrowed her eyes, her gaze unfriendly, even her self-address changed, her tone revealing an unnamed danger, “You dare lie to this palace?”
Previously, when this system had told her that so-called plot, it hadn’t said this.
Just as the system was blocked by her words and stuck, it suddenly saw Ying Xu wave her hand and say, “Forget it, I’m too lazy to argue with you about this. Quickly tell me, where is my eldest brother? What is that tribe called? Has he married that so-called princess you mentioned?”
Under Ying Xu’s series of soul-questionings, the system’s voice couldn’t help but become weaker and less confident as it replied, 【Don’t know……】
As soon as that sentence ended, before Ying Xu could explode, it hurriedly patched itself up, 【According to the original timeline, Ying Zhao should still be unconscious now, but now the plot has had a landslide collapse, the female lead is already dead, and the male lead is about to die, so the system is not very sure whether he is awake now, or whether he has married the tribal princess.】
At this point, it observed Ying Xu’s cloudy and uncertain expression and cautiously said, 【Actually, even if he has married the princess, so what? Your brother doesn’t lose out — although this novel is low-intelligence, generally female characters with names aren’t ugly, and repaying a life-saving恩 with one’s body is also an old standard trope——】
The system’s words stopped abruptly here. Because Ying Xu suddenly put down the ring she was playing with and heavily knocked it onto the table.
The beautiful girl’s face revealed a contemptuous cold smile, carrying faint mockery, her clear voice cold and stern, “This palace thinks you’ve had too many street-scholar storybooks rot into your brain. There are thousands of ways to repay恩情. Gold and silver treasures, titles and honors — so many things to choose from. Why must it be that someone repays with their body?”
She raised her lips in ridicule, “Insisting someone repay with their body as repayment — did you ask whether the person even wanted you to save them? If it were this palace, I’d rather just die outright.”
“What’s more,” Ying Xu lowered her eyes, long eyelashes casting down, her fair fingers idly poking at the jade thumb ring on the table, rubbing it against the surface to make faint clear sounds, and then her final sentence fell, “The men of our Ying family value chastity.”
With a single sentence, she almost made the system’s brain crash.
The reason Ying Xu required that her husband could only have her and could not take others, aside from the former emperor truly loving her, had another very important reason: the influence of the Ying family’s household traditions.
From childhood, besides literary and martial cultivation, loving and protecting his younger sister, Ying Xu’s brother also received another teaching from their father: in matters of feeling, one must be faithful from beginning to end; if you are not sure you can treat a girl well, then do not harm her.
And in this regard, back then General Ying, that is, Ying Xu’s father, always led by example — in his entire life, he only ever had Ying Xu’s mother.
Therefore, after previously hearing the system say that her brother seemed to only feel gratitude but no love toward that tribal princess, Ying Xu naturally wanted to bring her biological brother back before Ying Zhao could “repay with his body.”
— This was for Ying Zhao’s good, and also for that princess’s good.
After the system gave a name, Ying Xu went to the study, sat down at the desk, picked up the brush, wrote a line of characters, and made a final confirmation with the system, “Is it this name?”
【Yes yes yes, that’s it!】 Hearing Ying Xu ask, the system hurriedly responded, trying its best to show its first host that it still had some use.
Hearing the system’s confirmation, Ying Xu raised her voice, summoned palace servants from outside, handed over the paper she had just written, and lazily said, “You take this thing to Xie Jingchen and tell him to go to this tribe to find someone.”
As for exactly who to find, naturally Ying Xu didn’t need to say it so plainly.
Looking across all of Da Qi, even tracing back four years ago, when the former emperor and General Ying were still alive, those whom she cared about could be counted on one hand, let alone now.
The palace servant who came in received Ying Xu’s order and immediately hurriedly withdrew to carry out her instructions.
If before Xie Jingchen returned, during the period when Ying Xu and the emperor were in a cold war, the palace servants did not dare neglect Ying Xu but still harbored some resentment toward this troublesome empress, then after Xie Jingchen returned and ruthlessly nearly blood-washed the palace of all young servants who had complaints, now within this palace, no matter what position the servant held, no one dared delay Ying Xu’s words even a little.
After the palace servant who was sent to deliver the message to Xie Jingchen left, the system seemed to suddenly remember something and asked Ying Xu, 【Now that the male and female leads’ matters are basically handled, what do you plan to do next, host? Are you going to marry the King of Mobei?】
Although it was still a newly minted system, based on the countless tender romance novels stored in its memory, the system felt that Xie Jingchen definitely had feelings for Ying Xu, and not just an ordinary one-sided crush.
— He even forced a coup to kill the current emperor, in other words, he was a proper emperor-in-waiting.
Yet under such circumstances, Xie Jingchen, who was already half an emperor, was still being run around by Ying Xu, going wherever she pointed, even something as huge as forcing a coup against the emperor was put aside just because Ying Xu wanted to go home, prioritizing Ying Xu’s matters first.
If this didn’t count as liking Ying Xu, then the system felt that all the romance novels in its memory had truly been input for nothing.
“Hm?” Hearing the system’s question, Ying Xu slightly frowned, seeming not to understand why it would ask this, and asked back, “Why should I marry Xie Jingchen?”
Ying Xu’s counter-question stunned the system, and it asked back in confusion, 【Why not marry him? He treats you so well.】
“He’s my follower. Isn’t it normal for him to treat me well?” Ying Xu strangely asked in return.
She didn’t understand why such a matter was even worth bringing up separately; from childhood to now, Xie Jingchen had always been the most obedient and sensible follower by her side.
【……】
The system suddenly felt that, as a villainous supporting female character in a romance novel, although she spoke clearly and logically about others, its host herself perhaps, possibly…… hadn’t yet opened her own窍？
“And also,” just as the system’s brain was still muddled, it then saw Ying Xu lightly place her hand on the table, prop her cheek, and very naturally say, “Xie Jingchen doesn’t want to marry me, and I, Ying Xu, am not someone who can’t get married. Why must I force a melon that isn’t sweet — doesn’t that lower my value?”
The system, whose brain was about to short-circuit: “……”
Case solved — as a villainous supporting female character in a romance novel, Ying Xu truly hadn’t opened her窍！
Author’s note:
Today’s update, people never admit defeat. Then that, I want to ask for pre-saves, please babies, gege really wants to write this book, please everyone look at this kid QAQ
Title: “Captivating the Lord’s Heart”
Synopsis ↓
Ying Zhi was originally the daughter of a lowly merchant family, but because she was too beautiful, she was noticed by the heir of Prince Su’s residence, descendant of a meritorious official. She refused to submit to this rumored libertine with concubines filling his household and a notorious reputation, so he killed her entire family and forcibly took her back to the residence.
After being seized and brought back to the prince’s residence, the matrons kept telling Ying Zhi that with such a lowly身份, to be noticed by the prince’s heir, to serve him, and to become his wife, was her three lifetimes’ good fortune and the blessing accumulated over eight lifetimes.
One month later, the matrons gradually discovered that the beautiful girl who, when brought back, either kept a cold, snow-white flower-like face or wanted to starve or hang herself, had begun to smile at the heir, act coquettish with him, charmingly and delicately, fully showing a maiden’s姿态.
Everyone had no doubt that she had fallen in love with the heir — the heir was born noble, had a handsome face, doted on her, and even promised a lowly girl like her the position of main wife; wasn’t it natural for a small-town girl who had never seen the world to fall in love with the heir?
Only Ying Zhi herself knew that in her heart burned a flame of hatred. She hated it. Why were her family all murdered, yet he, the culprit, could still live well?
To please him, to delight him, to submit to him — everything was only to make him take her into the imperial palace, to see the supreme emperor of power.
— Since they all said that being able to cling to nobility by relying on an unparalleled beautiful face was her honor, telling her not to be ungrateful while enjoying fortune, then why should she commit herself to a mere prince’s heir?
— Since it is clinging to the dragon and phoenix, she would gain the emperor’s favor, dominate the six palaces, and one day overthrow her enemy’s entire family, avenge her hatred, and wipe away her grievance.
Since ascending the throne, Li Yun had been searching for the little girl who once saved him when he was among the common people. He searched the whole world, yet never imagined that the person he sought so wholeheartedly was right under his heavenly feet, in the capital city Jinling.
Until one day, he saw the heir of Prince Su’s residence bring his heir wife into the palace, skin like ice and jade, beauty that toppled cities, and precisely…… the little girl he had been thinking of day and night.
He watched the girl deliberately step on her skirt hem and fall toward his embrace, drawing his attention, her eyes shimmering with watery light, her smile not reaching her eyes. Li Yun knew in his heart that she harbored hatred. So he went along with it, pretending to be captivated by Ying Zhi’s beauty, staging a scene of the emperor seizing a minister’s wife.
All the court officials discovered that since Li Yun had seen the newly married little wife of that libertine heir of Prince Su’s residence, fallen for her beauty, ordered their divorce, and immediately summoned Ying Zhi into the palace, forcibly taking a minister’s wife, the once wise and enlightened emperor began to become muddle-headed and violent, killing descendants of meritorious officials’ families without reason, even the maids and matrons in their residences were not spared.
Listening to the entire court advise him not to be bewitched by that calamity-bringing demon consort, the young emperor whom everyone regarded as wise only raised his lips in a reckless and disdainful smile,
— Once being a wise ruler and benevolent ruler was only because it was what his little girl wished.
— Now as long as she is happy, what does it matter if he becomes a foolish ruler or a tyrant?
【Highlight:】female not c, male c.