“Young Master, you’re drunk. Let’s rest in a guest room at the Xu residence for a bit.”
In a daze, Xie Zi’an felt someone supporting him as they walked into a room.
He didn’t resist, letting the person lead him along.
With the Xie family’s status, and him being the only son, no one with any sense would dare offend him.
“Young Master, sleep for a while. This servant will take his leave.”
With a creak, the room soon fell quiet, and Xie Zi’an drifted off to sleep.
He didn’t know how much time had passed.
Xie Zi’an woke with a splitting headache. Just as he raised a hand to rub his brow, his palm met a soft, smooth sensation.
Instantly forgetting his headache, he opened his eyes.
Before him lay a beautiful, tender young girl nestled in his arms.
Xie Zi’an was startled and scrambled off the bed. Only after seeing that they were both still clothed did he breathe a sigh of relief.
Which blind fool had sent someone to his bed? Were they tired of living?
Didn’t they know that Young Master Xie had never liked these tricks?
Then he realized something was off.
The room was furnished in an antique style, and even he was wearing a long robe.
He suddenly realized he had transmigrated.
The next moment, his head throbbed even harder as scenes of memories that weren’t his flooded his mind—losing his mother in childhood, a father who ignored the inner household, a stepmother who smiled while hiding a knife, brothers who mocked and sneered, studying diligently yet failing the exams time and again… until the final scene, where “he,” persuaded by a classmate, came to the Xu residence—the ancestral home of the Vice Minister of Personnel—to attend a tea gathering.
So he had transmigrated into a household-intrigue feel-good novel with a strong female lead called Reborn and Remarried: I Rampage Through the Marquis’s Household. It was a major IP his own entertainment company was about to launch, which was why he remembered the plot so well.
Now he had transmigrated into one of the cannon fodder characters, also named Xie Zi’an.
In the book, he was the female lead’s scumbag husband from her previous life—single-mindedly devoted to the imperial examinations, disliking the wife his stepmother had chosen for him, paying no attention to how the female lead was tormented by the stepmother and suffered in the inner household.
After the female lead was reborn, he was the husband of the vicious supporting female character.
The vicious supporting character had a completely different personality from the female lead. She was the late-born youngest daughter of the Vice Minister’s wife, pampered since childhood, unable to endure the slightest grievance or hardship.
After being targeted by her mother-in-law, she threw such a fit that it turned the Xie household upside down. The original owner, caught between his sweet-faced, bitter-hearted stepmother and his arrogant, domineering wife, couldn’t stand the harassment and moved out—only to fall into the honey trap of the black-hearted, white-lotus female lead, keeping a mistress outside. When the vicious supporting character discovered this, she poisoned her to death…
Xie Zi’an involuntarily looked at the girl on the bed.
The girl slept soundly, her plump cheek pressed against the pillow, a bit of flesh squished up, looking adorably endearing.
She was probably the pampered, vicious supporting character, Xu Nansong.
Before long, the reborn and blackened female lead would arrive with a crowd to catch them in the act.
Hiss.
Xie Zi’an drew in a sharp breath. Even if he wouldn’t fall for a honey trap and keep a mistress, he certainly had no desire to marry such a spoiled drama queen.
Forgetting his headache entirely, he rolled up his sleeves nimbly, ready to bolt for the door.
Only to find it was already locked.
Impressive. The female lead really intended to bind him and Xu Nansong together!
Xie Zi’an cursed inwardly. Reading the script had been fun, but being the cannon fodder himself was anything but.
Scanning his surroundings, he spotted a window—conveniently on the back side of the room.
Xie Zi’an’s eyes lit up. He pushed at it and found it wasn’t locked, and his heart leaped with joy.
He hurriedly flung open the window and was about to climb out and escape when he came face to face with a half-smiling face.
The woman stood not far from the window, surrounded by the most distinguished noble ladies of Yangzhou City.
Xie Zi’an immediately sensed something was wrong. Sure enough, the very next moment, the maid beside that woman feigned surprise and said loudly, “Oh my, isn’t that room where the Third Young Lady rests? Why is there a man inside?”
Smelling a scandalous piece of gossip, all the noble ladies looked in the direction the maid was pointing—only to see a window slam shut.
“I heard the Third Young Lady is already betrothed to the young marquis of the Jingyang Marquis Estate? Could it be the young marquis himself?” someone offered, smoothing things over.
“A betrothal isn’t marriage. The two of them alone in one room in broad daylight—utterly scandalous!”
…
The commotion outside grew louder and louder, which meant the female lead was already bringing people over.
So reality really was different from the novel. In the novel, when the original owner woke up, he and Xu Nansong were already caught in bed together. He’d thought that by waking up early he could avoid it, but in the end, he still hadn’t escaped.
Xie Zi’an was furious. Being inexplicably transmigrated to this place was one thing, but now he also had to face the social death of being caught in an adulterous tryst.
Just then, a voice came from behind him.
“Y-you! Who are you? Why are you in my room?!”
Xie Zi’an turned around and saw Xu Nansong sitting up on the bed, staring at him in shock, a sleep crease pressed into her plump cheek—quite a comical sight.
Before he could explain, there was movement outside the door.
Xie Zi’an tilted his head back and sighed, then walked over.
Xu Nansong’s eyes went wide. “What are you doing? I’m warning you—if you dare lay a finger on me, you’ll regret it!”
Xie Zi’an gave her a sidelong glance and reached out his hand. “Shut up.”
“Ahhh, get away!” Seeing this handsome man reaching toward her, Xu Nansong grew anxious, angry, and panicked all at once. Deciding to strike first, she grabbed his hand and bit down hard!
Xie Zi’an: “Hss—were you a dog in a past life?!”
He hurriedly pinched Xu Nansong’s cheek and rescued his hand from her mouth.
Truly a vicious female supporting character.
She’d nearly bitten a chunk of flesh off him!
With no time to settle scores with her, just before the people outside burst in, he pulled the blanket up and covered Xu Nansong’s face.
A large crowd broke through the door.
Before anyone could even take in the scene inside the room, Xu Nanchun cried out in disbelief, “Sister! How could you do such a thing!”
Xie Zi’an sneered inwardly. He, a grown man, was standing right there, while Xu Nansong on the bed was covered by the blanket—her figure and face completely hidden—yet Xu Nanchun insisted without hesitation that the person under the blanket was her sister.
Someone tittered awkwardly. “Perhaps it isn’t the Third Young Lady Xu…”
“As if a sister could mistake the room where her own sister rests!” Madam Wang, wife of the Vice Prefect of Yangzhou, said with displeasure.
Her natal family was a third-rank official household in the capital, and she wasn’t afraid of offending a Vice Minister of Personnel. She always prized propriety above all and could not stand a woman who violated feminine virtue, so she immediately stepped forward to pull back the blanket.
“Half a quarter of an hour ago, I saw a maid helping the Third Young Lady Xu into this room. How could it not be her?”
But someone blocked her way.
Xie Zi’an’s face was expressionless. “Madam, this is the Xu residence. Naturally, the Xu family will handle this.”
Xu Nanchun seethed with hatred as she watched. In her past life, this damned man had been a blockhead—when had he learned to protect a woman?
She shouted furiously, “Who are you?! How dare you barge into my sister’s room!”
Madam Zhou also said in a snide, mocking tone: “Oh, so now you’re defending them? And you still claim there’s nothing going on between the two. An unmarried man and woman alone in the same room—how utterly shameless!”