After Transmigrating into a Book, I Was Marked by the Beautiful Mad Villain - Chapter 31.2

Getting to the bottom of things at this moment was truly inappropriate, but Su Mi just really wanted to know.

Shen Han’s gaze shifted over, light as a feather: “Someone broke a promise.”

Su Mi: “…Oh, then… then did THEY get punished?”

Shen Han narrowed her eyes and said indifferently: “Yes, they died.”

Su Mi: …Huh?

Di—died?

Could this be the punishment given by the villain?

She remembered the original plot’s description of the villain’s ruthless methods. Although nothing had happened in the text yet, that adjective might not have come from nowhere.

And just now, Shen Han had settled an old score by saying she didn’t keep her promise… was it that serious?

While Su Mi was panicking, she saw Shen Han lean a bit closer to her.

She tilted her head to look at Su Mi, her eyes narrowed slightly—piercing and unpredictable. With the corners of her mouth faintly hooked, her expression showed a few hints of danger.

Shen Han’s thoughts seemed to align with hers. After a moment’s reflection, she said: “Isn’t there someone right in front of me who just broke a promise as well?”

Su Mi: “…This can be explained.”

She stammered, not yet sure what to say, when she saw Shen Han lift a hand.

It rested directly on her shoulder.

The pressure wasn’t heavy, but it made Su Mi jump, her mind instantly racing.

A steep mountain path, a gloomy villain, and a hand resting on her shoulder—was she going to push her off!

Alarm bells rang in Su Mi’s heart, and she was already thinking about how to save herself when the tip of her ear suddenly felt cold.

It was the woman’s icy fingers pinching her earlobe.

Shen Han rested her cheek on her hand, looking at her languidly. Her fingers pinched and rubbed the earlobe twice as she said with a smile: “Ears that don’t listen… might as well be cut off.”

Su Mi: …Help help help help!

Her panicked expression was fully visible to Shen Han.

Shen Han asked unhurriedly: “How did you add them back?”

At this moment, Su Mi was telling everything she knew: “After the last unified exam, I accidentally bumped into her. I saw she was quite pitiful and thought since we’re both girls, we’d go eat hot pot. But halfway through, I was pulled away by you, Sister. She said we could team up for this excursion instead, so… so that’s how I added her on the terminal, and then…”

Su Mi’s voice grew lower: “Just now, when you went for a walk with Dr. Li, she happened to send me her location. When I went to check, I saw someone bullying her. Thinking I’m a Beta and have you as my backer, I went to help. I didn’t expect to be pushed into the water, and then you saw the rest.”

Biting her lip, she looked up at Shen Han eagerly: “I didn’t mean to.”

Shen Han narrowed her eyes and let out a light “tsk,” saying: “I think she did it on purpose.”

Su Mi was confused and blindly defensive: “What could she have done on purpose? Such a soft and weak girl…”

Immediately, force was applied to her earlobe. Su Mi instantly changed her stance: “She definitely did it on purpose!”

Shen Han released her and dusted off her hands. “You know a person’s face but not their heart. Don’t just trust anyone, and don’t play the hero without thinking. These people didn’t have any malicious intent this time, but it’s hard to guarantee you won’t encounter someone who doesn’t know your sister and is ruthless next time, understood?”

Su Mi: “Okay…”

Shen Han: “Can’t hear you.”

Su Mi obeyed: “Understood!”

She knew Shen Han was saying this for her own good, but she couldn’t help but grumble inwardly.

Ren Yue clearly didn’t have any malicious intent.

Was Shen Han prejudiced against that type of girl?

What unpleasant thing could have happened during graduation?

As Su Mi pondered, footsteps came from the mountain path behind them.

The staff had arrived with safety ropes.

They shone a light to confirm the terminal’s position, then flipped over the railing with the safety ropes and retrieved Su Mi’s terminal.

After it was returned to Su Mi, she thanked them earnestly and followed them back up.

During the small talk on the way, she asked where they had come from.

After all, the mountain top clubhouse wasn’t far from here; if Su Mi remembered correctly, it hadn’t even taken ten minutes for her and Shen Han to walk down.

But they had waited half an hour for the staff.

Speaking of this, the staff let out a headache-inducing sigh.

“Isn’t it your academy’s graduation trip? There was a couple breaking up over there. The one who didn’t want to break up tried to jump from our clubhouse roof.”

Another staff member chimed in: “Our clubhouse is only three stories high. The one who wanted to break up didn’t even try to stop them, just stood below and watched. The jumper got caught in a tree. When you called, we were busy climbing the tree to save them.”

The two staff members began to use this topic to lament how almost every two or three years during the graduation excursion, there would be some breakup drama brought before them.

Su Mi followed up with a few sighs about their hard work when she suddenly realized:

That’s right, graduation is an easy time to break up!

Loran Academy wasn’t strict about catching puppy love; she and Xu Nanqiao often saw various couples holding hands on campus.

But after graduation, everyone carried the expectations of their respective families. Some went abroad for further studies, some stayed in the country, and some even directly inherited family businesses; their paths would conflict.

So, there were many breakups.

Since that was the case, could Shen Han have been one as well?

She stole a couple of glances at Shen Han.

With the villain’s looks, figure, and family background—even after all these years, Su Mi was getting a lot of reflected glory at the academy—she must have been even more popular when she was studying at Loran.

This was a campus novel world; it could be analyzed according to campus novel logic.

A bold guess: the villain might have had a frail Omega first love at Loran Academy.

Maybe they looked similar to Ren Yue or Xu Nanqiao.

As graduation approached, the two agreed to participate in the graduation excursion together sweetly. But before the excursion, the Omega did something to betray her, and they broke up.

When Shen Han said she “found out about some unpleasant things,” it meant the Omega betrayed her, which by extension meant “breaking a promise.”

And after that, that Omega also received a punishment and lost their life…

For now, she wouldn’t guess if the punishment had anything to do with Shen Han.

But it was very likely that this was the cause of Shen Han’s so-called “heart sickness”!

Think about it: not only did your first love betray you, but they also died right in front of you.

What a perfect catalyst for a villain’s blackening; she must have a love-hate relationship with the deceased Omega. That’s why she couldn’t help but be attracted to Xu Nanqiao, yet would be suspicious of the even more frail and pitiful Ren Yue.

What do you call that? A White Moonlight!

Su Mi grew excited, feeling like she had uncovered a major scoop.

She went over this storyline in her head a few more times and felt the logic was more or less sound, with no major issues.

She shared the story arc she had sketched out with the system: “Sys, how is it?”

The system was confused: “What is this?”

Su Mi: “The reason for the villain’s blackening! I’ve had a recent epiphany: to lower the blackening value, while we can indeed start with surface-level relationships—meaning letting her and the female lead reach a fruitful conclusion—understanding the reason for her blackening is also very important!”

The system quickly played along: “It is indeed important!”

Su Mi asked it tentatively: “Then do you think this blackening cause I guessed is correct?”

The system lagged for a moment.

After a crackling sound of static, the system said tearfully: “TAT Sorry, Host, I don’t have the authority to query background stories outside of the main plot line.”

Su Mi was disappointed: “Alright…”

The system encouraged her: “But I think there’s nothing wrong with this cause; it’s very logical! It’s very similar to the blackening reasons of villains in those novels we’ve read. Why has the villain in the plot line always kept the female lead at a distance yet refused to let go? Being a stand-in seems to be just like that!”

Su Mi hadn’t thought of the stand-in angle just now and suddenly felt a chill.

“If that’s really the case, then there’s another obstacle on our mission path: the difficulty of a stand-in becoming true love,” Su Mi frowned. “It’s become harder.”

The system continued to encourage: “It’s okay, Host. Currently, the emotional line progress between the male and female leads is 0. You don’t need to be too anxious; you will definitely be able to complete the mission smoothly!”

After hearing a round of the system’s flattery and encouragement, Su Mi regained her confidence.

She and Shen Han returned to the campsite. Xu Nanqiao and Li Zhao were already there.

The massive bonfire had been removed at some point, and the people who came for the excursion were all gathered in small groups in front of their tents, roasting by the fire in basins, eating and drinking.

The same went for Xu Nanqiao and Li Zhao, sitting by the brazier with juice, chatting with relaxed expressions.

At this moment, Su Mi’s mind was full of thoughts about stand-ins and White Moonlights. Seeing the two of them together, she didn’t have much of a reaction.

Instead, her gaze toward them became a bit strange.

Xu Nanqiao… hmm, now she was the strong and independent “little white flower” stand-in with a tragic family background.

Li Zhao… was very likely an insider who knew the love story between Shen Han and the White Moonlight.

No wonder she told her not to play matchmaker for Shen Han and Xu Nanqiao back then.

Maybe she also knew some of the inside story of why Shen Han was so special toward Xu Nanqiao?

Su Mi sighed again at the thought.

Shen Han wouldn’t let her have much contact with Li Zhao. She had just been interrogated about Ren Yue; if she stepped on another landmine with Li Zhao, she might get more than she bargained for with Shen Han.

For now, the stand-in thing was still just a guess; she could only explore it slowly.

Li Zhao was completely oblivious to Su Mi’s inner conflict.

She poked the charcoal in the brazier with tongs and looked up at Shen Han.

“What were you doing? It took so long.”

Shen Han said simply: “Watched the sunset for a bit.”

Li Zhao’s expression instantly turned suggestive: “Wow… romantic.”

She nudged Xu Nanqiao beside her with her shoulder: “You weren’t there, you didn’t see it. By the stream, Shen Han just lifted her hand lightly, and…”

Su Mi: “Dr. Li!”

How could she recount it right in front of the people involved!

Su Mi’s heart, which had finally calmed down, was about to burn again.

It was only because of the “younger sister” relationship that Shen Han was relatively good to her.

If you want to talk about real love, you have to look at Xu Nanqiao beside you.

So move your shoulder away a bit!

Su Mi squeezed in between them.

She separated the two, then heard Shen Han explain calmly: “Su Mi’s terminal accidentally fell out. We were waiting for the staff to come help; the wait was quite long.”

Su Mi followed her lead to divert the topic: “Yes, I heard from the staff that someone wanted to jump off a building?”

Xu Nanqiao said: “There was one, but fortunately the building wasn’t high. She got caught in a tree and kept crying, which caused the bonfire party to be suspended.”

Li Zhao said: “If you ask me, the academy should have stopped this excursion long ago. Every time, some weird things happen. Shen Han, you should suggest it at the next board meeting.”

Shen Han said indifferently: “You compile the data for me first.”

Li Zhao refused.

After a few exchanges, the sound of a birthday song suddenly came from the tents over there.

Even without the bonfire party, the students were still full of enthusiasm. It seemed someone was having a birthday; many people gathered around, circling the birthday star’s tent and dancing while singing the birthday song together.

Su Mi watched the birthday celebration for a while, then turned to ask: “Nanqiao, is your birthday at the end of the month?”

Xu Nanqiao said yes.

In the original plot, after the unified exam, Shen Han threw a birthday banquet for Xu Nanqiao.

She invited some classmates from Loran Academy.

At this birthday banquet, there were jealous “cannon fodder” characters with ill intentions who drugged her with medication to trigger her estrus period, wanting to make her lose face in public.

But at this point in the original plot, Xu Nanqiao and the male lead had already developed feelings for each other.

Because of Xu Rou’s obstruction, Xu Nanqiao hadn’t expressed anything to the male lead, but the male lead had been silently caring for her.

So when Xu Nanqiao was induced into estrus, the male lead rescued her.

Xu Nanqiao was grateful to the male lead because of this and broke through the psychological barrier caused by Xu Rou’s obstruction; the two’s relationship grew closer.

With Su Mi around, there definitely wouldn’t be anything for the male lead to do.

Maybe it could turn into a boost for the relationship between Xu Nanqiao and Shen Han.

At the thought, Su Mi looked at Shen Han expectantly.

Shen Han was baffled and remained unmoved: ?