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Alternative
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Chi Zhou has transmigrated into a revenge-driven “face-slapping” novel. Unfortunately, he isn’t the hero, he is the absolute worst villain of the lot.
By the time he arrives, the original Chi Zhou has already completed all the death-wish prerequisites:
He fell for the “beautiful, strong, but miserable” male lead at a palace banquet.
He kidnapped the prince.
He exploited his status as a descendant of the founding fathers and used his status as a “pitiful orphan” to manipulate the Empress Dowager into pitying him.
As a result, he forced a high-born prince of the blood to marry into the Marquis’s estate as his “wife,” effectively stripping the prince of any chance to compete for the throne. According to the original plot, once the male lead eventually seizes power, he will castrate Chi Zhou, throw him into a dog kennel for forty-nine days, and then finish him off with “death by a thousand cuts.”
Chi Zhou: Some people are technically alive, but inside, they’re already dead.
The night before the wedding: Chi Zhou packs his bags and tries to climb the wall. He is chased back by the guard dog. Fails.
The wedding day: Chi Zhou tries to ditch the procession halfway through. He is cornered in an alley by a stray dog. Fails.
The wedding night: Trapped in the bridal chamber, Chi Zhou racks his brain for a way out. Finally, he whispers to his “bride” through the red veil: “Let’s strike a deal. I’ll tell you who framed you and forced you to marry me, as long as you promise not to kill me, okay?”
Xie Mingjing: Wasn’t it you who threw a tantrum and rolled on the ground until the Emperor, granted the marriage decree?
**
Xie Mingjing grew up in the Cold Palace, a place where he learned early on that the world is a cold, calculated place. To him, people fall into two categories: those who are useful, and those who have outlived their usefulness.
He is a master of turning disadvantages into leverage, always playing ten moves ahead. Realizing that staying in the palace was no longer beneficial, he actually orchestrated his own “fall from grace” to get married into the Marquis’s estate.
But on their wedding night, his supposedly hedonistic, useless playboy of a husband trembles while clutching his sleeves, pleading: “I’ll tell you who’s behind this, just don’t kill me!”
Behind the narrow view of his red veil, Xie Mingjing watches the youth. Chi Zhou’s voice is clear and bright, though laced with a poorly disguised attempt at bravado. Xie Mingjing finds it suddenly… amusing. He lets a slow smile curl his lips.
“Deal.”
