After Saving The Disabled Villain, I Was Attacked In Return! - Chapter 1

“I didn’t steal anything!”

Jiang Yu’s head felt heavy and disoriented. A voice, thick with hatred, jolted her awake. It resonated like a fiend from hell, piercing through the silence.

“My head… it’s spinning…” Jiang Yu clutched her temples. Darkness enveloped her, as if she had simply fallen asleep during the day and now awoke to the empty darkness of the night.

A strange sense of loss washed over her. She lay motionless for a long while before realizing something was not right.

Even in the darkness, Jiang Yu could vaguely figure out her surroundings. A gauzy veil hung like mist beside the bed, and a finely crafted wooden table stood opposite it. When had her family ever owned such things?

Her heart tightened in the unfamiliar environment. Fear gripped her. She clutched the brocade quilt covering her, tugging it tighter as she strained her eyes into the gloom.

Just as she felt utterly lost, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed outside, accompanied by muffled voices. As the seconds ticked by, the footsteps drew closer. The door creaked open.

Jiang Yu sat up, her gaze fixed warily on the doorway. Her palms grew slick with sweat, and she unconsciously held her breath.

“Miss, are you awake?”

The girl who entered was dressed as a maid, her youthful face still bearing traces of childishness and a hint of timidity. “Why not sleep a little longer? Are you hungry?”

Clad in a jade-green silk dress, she wore the typical maid’s hairstyle of twin buns, adorned with simple pearl ornaments. The sight of her reminded Jiang Yu of the novel she’d been reading before falling asleep. Considering her surroundings, Jiang Yu had a suspicion where she was, but lacking confirmation, she hesitated before asking:

“What’s… what’s happening outside?”

Hearing her mistress’s question, the maid timidly took a few steps forward, but fear of Jiang Yu made her stop after just a few paces. Gathering her courage, she replied, “It’s that Qi An again. Even after being demoted to a servant, her nature remains unchanged. She stole your jade bracelet and acted so brazenly! Mama Zhang is currently disciplining her outside!”

The maid glanced at Jiang Yu’s expression, seeming impatient. She hastily added, “Lu Wu will go out now and have Mama Zhang take her elsewhere for discipline.”

From the courtyard outside came muffled groans. Normally, such sounds wouldn’t penetrate the thick walls, but their forceful resonance made them audible inside, revealing the intensity of the punishment.

After confirming the woman before her was indeed Lu Wu, Jiang Yu’s sluggish mind finally kicked into gear. Wasn’t this the character from the book I was just criticizing?

The book, with its overly saccharine plot, had dominated the bestseller list. It revolved around a powerful court official doting on a strong-willed, low-born lady, with the couple remaining sweet from beginning to end.

Yet Jiang Yu hadn’t enjoyed it. Instead, she had sobbed uncontrollably under her covers when the villain, Qi An, was killed by the male and female leads working together.

Qi An, the villain, had been forced into a corner and corrupted against her will. Throughout the story, she had never harmed anyone for personal gain or selfish desires.

But witnessing her tragic fate left Jiang Yu devastated for days. Even she was surprised by how deeply she had become invested in this fictional character. Seething with frustration, the usually composed Jiang Yu wrote a thousand-word rant to the author, her eyes welling with tears. After posting the review, she collapsed into an exhausted slumber, initially blaming it on reading all night. Now, it seemed more likely that she had actually transmigrated into the book…

Jiang Yu didn’t even need to think about it. She had undoubtedly transmigrated into the body of Jiang Yu, a cannon fodder character in the General’s Residence.

Though labeled as cannon fodder, this eldest daughter of the General’s Residence played a crucial role. Her fate served as the catalyst for Qi An’s corruption.

Combining Lu Wu’s words with the current circumstances, Jiang Yu reluctantly admitted that she had indeed traveled back to the moment when Qi An began her descent into darkness.

In other words, the nightmare difficulty had begun.

Judging by the timeline, it should be the period when Qi An, stripped of her status, had been sent to the General’s Residence like a pitiful plaything—more than half a year had passed since then.

“Hurry, hurry! Bring me a cloak!” Jiang Yu was completely consumed by urgency. She needed to see this woman who had haunted her dreams for days. The mere thought of her fate twisted Jiang Yu’s heart into knots.
Lu Wu watched Jiang Yu, who had been half-asleep moments before, now rushing out in a panic. Nodding quickly, she grabbed a fox-fur cloak and hurried after her.

As Jiang Yu pushed open the door, a blast of cold wind carrying snowflakes struck her face. The warmth of the room contrasted sharply with the bitter cold outside. The courtyard was blanketed in snow, and a group of heavily bundled maids and matrons surrounded a woman dressed in thin, tattered clothes. Upon closer inspection, her body appeared stained with blood.

Seeing the matron’s stick raised to strike again, Jiang Yu shouted, “Stop!”

Jiang Yu’s voice was usually soft and sweet, even when she acted imperiously. It was precisely the type of voice that elders found pleasing. Hearing their young mistress’s voice, the matron hastily dropped her stick and led the maids in a bow to Jiang Yu.

“It’s bitterly cold outside. Why have you ventured out, young lady?”

Even as the maids and matrons stared intently at Jiang Yu, she brushed past them, her gaze fixed on the bloodied girl kneeling in the snow.

The kneeling figure had delicate, cold features that exuded an ethereal, almost celestial aura. Her eyes, with their sharply angled corners and upward tilt at the outer edges, lent her slender face an added allure. Though she wasn’t smiling, the perfect curve of her lips seemed to hold a haunting charm.

Qi An was drenched in cold sweat, her face so pale it seemed dangerous to touch. The air around her reeked of blood. Her white dress was stained with crimson droplets that bloomed like flowers across the hem.

Where her skin was exposed, deep lacerations, visible down to the bone, marred her flesh—what Jiang Yu could see, at least.

Her clothes clung to the wounds, making them difficult to tend to. Shredded fabric strips were tightly bound around the injuries, the mere sight of them making onlookers wince.

One could only imagine what further beating would have done to her.

Lu Wu stood beside Jiang Yu, holding an oil-paper umbrella. Following her mistress’s gaze, she realized Jiang Yu was looking at Qi An, who was also gazing back.

“You little vixen! What are you staring at my young mistress for?” Lu Wu’s childish voice, tinged with a streetwise air, made the accusation sound almost comical. Jiang Yu frowned slightly and strode toward Qi An.

Lu Wu never expected Jiang Yu to ignore her scolding and walk toward Qi An instead. Holding the oil-paper umbrella, she hurried after Jiang Yu, watching the snowflakes settle on her mistress’s shoulders. She quickened her pace, worried that the pampered young lady of the household might catch a cold.

The maids and servants, forbidden from rising without permission, scrambled out of Jiang Yu’s path as she hurried toward them. They watched her with astonished expressions.

At that moment, Jiang Yu saw no one else.

Her gaze was fixed on Qi An, kneeling silently in the snow. Covered in wounds, she refused to bow her head. The white skirt, now dusted with snow, made her seem utterly alone.

Jiang Yu took the umbrella from Lu Wu and, with some hesitation, tilted it toward Qi An, shielding her from the biting snow.

As Qi An lowered her head again, Jiang Yu’s embroidered satin shoes came into her line of sight. She slowly raised her head, her eyes glistening with tears, yet her gaze remained sharp and emotionless.

The first time Jiang Yu met Qi An’s gaze, she gasped. Qi An’s beauty was exactly as described in the original novel—ethereal and captivating. Her elongated eyes, now misty with tears, blurred her vision like flowers glimpsed through fog. Her delicate, fair face, pale from injury and exposure to the cold, only accentuated her fragility. No wonder the author had devoted so much ink to describing Qi An’s beauty; even before her family’s fall from grace, she had been renowned as the most beautiful woman in the capital.

“Do you have any evidence to support the claim that she stole something?” Jiang Yu asked Mama Zhang sharply, her tone implying an impending confrontation.

Mama Zhang stammered, unable to articulate a response. Qi An spoke first: “I didn’t steal anything.” Her slightly hoarse voice was strangely alluring. A smear of blood at the corner of her mouth resembled a crimson plum blossom in a sea of snow—lonely, detached from the world, yet unwittingly seductive.

When Jiang Yu noticed the confusion in Qi An’s eyes, she finally snapped out of her daze. Unsure how to handle the situation, she clumsily raised her soft, delicate hands and awkwardly patted Qi An’s head. “I know, I know… I believe you. Be good now. A little head pat will make the pain go away.”

Jiang Yu’s voice was soft, like a little sun bringing comfort in the biting wind, capable of soothing even the most hardened heart.

The moment she touched Qi An’s head, Qi An froze, then instinctively recoiled, her voice trembling. “Don’t touch me.”

Jiang Yu’s hand froze mid-air.

The elderly woman watching the scene was so shocked her jaw nearly dropped. She had been afraid that Jiang Yu, trusting Qi An’s words, would punish her instead. Now that she had finally caught Qi An in the wrong, she hurried to interject. “Miss! Look at her insolence! She dares to reject even your kindness! This old servant believes that without punishment, she will never learn.”

“Then why don’t you take charge of the General’s Residence?” Jiang Yu’s tone turned icy. She turned to face the oblivious woman, who immediately fell silent, kneeling and trembling.

Jiang Yu wasn’t in a hurry to punish the woman. Her entire focus was on Qi An. She carefully crouched down, trying to meet Qi An’s gaze, but Qi An refused to look at her. She even brushed aside the large cloak Jiang Yu had draped over her shoulders.

Jiang Yu felt awkward again.

“Don’t be angry now…” Jiang Yu stammered, her words tumbling out awkwardly after a long silence.

Qi An’s face twisted into a mocking smile, as if she’d heard a great joke. She said nothing.

Embarrassed, Jiang Yu tried to stand, but her legs, numb from squatting, buckled beneath her. She stumbled and fell against Qi An, whose slender frame couldn’t evade the impact—her frozen legs betrayed her. The two collapsed into the snow together.

Though Jiang Yu wasn’t heavy, the weight of her body pressing against Qi An’s numerous injuries undoubtedly worsened her condition.

Qi An, already clinging to consciousness, slipped into unconsciousness the moment they fell. But Jiang Yu, still pinned beneath her, clearly heard the last words Qi An uttered before losing consciousness:

“You just wait.”

Jiang Yu felt her vision darken—this is it.

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