I Have the Aura of a Supporting Character in Yuri Novels - Chapter 76

When the three of them were in the same carriage, Zhao Qingshu felt completely out of place. She had always been the one to make others uncomfortable, but now she was experiencing the feeling of being awkward and constrained. Her eyes darted back and forth between Tang Yihuan and Zhuyun. Their nonchalant attitude made Zhao Qingshu feel less important than a plate of snacks on the table. At least those snacks eventually went into the stomachs of those two, but what about her? She felt like a superfluous chopstick, impossible to squeeze in.

“Cough.” Tang Yihuan couldn’t help but cough softly. Zhuyun’s heart jumped, and she fumbled in her bag, finding a bottle of Rejuvenation Pills. She then let Tang Yihuan lean on her shoulder and brought her a cup of warm fruit tea to take with the pill.

Zhao Qingshu’s eyes widened. She watched the two of them cuddling affectionately, and then saw the charcoal stove on which the fruit tea was being brewed. The best silver charcoal was being used not for warmth but to boil tea. Zhao Qingshu suddenly felt that a marquis’s daughter truly lived a life of luxury.

But then she reconsidered, thinking that this statement wasn’t quite right. Her luxury wasn’t being spent on herself, but on that frail and delicate Miss Zhu.

Zhao Qingshu sighed mournfully, feeling that she was truly an eyesore, a useless chopstick. She thought she should have stayed with Doudou and let the maid massage her legs instead of coming here to be annoyed by these two.

“Miss Zhu, are you feeling better?” She still owed Zhuyun a favor, and seeing her in such a state of illness, Zhao Qingshu felt a touch of pity.

Tang Yihuan smiled faintly, saying, “Thank you for your concern, Miss Zhao. I’m fine.”

She lowered her eyes, her sickness making her look delicate. Her long eyelashes concealed the emotions in her eyes, making it difficult to see clearly. Tang Yihuan leaned against Zhuyun’s embrace with a cold expression, only showing a hint of vulnerability to Zhuyun. This posture, for some reason, made Zhao Qingshu think of someone: Tang Yihuan.

Zhao Qingshu’s eyes flickered as she stared at Zhuyun. She saw Zhuyun gently patting Tang Yihuan’s slender back, a moving smile on her face. Her lips were slightly curved, as if she was born to be happy.

Zhao Qingshu furrowed her brows. “Did the old Tang Yihuan smile this much? Wasn’t she always wearing a fake, hypocritical smile? Yet, that’s the very expression that earned her praise from elders, who called her poised, dignified, and a beautiful, virtuous woman. But Zhao Qingshu always found that version of Tang Yihuan strange. She always remembered the free-spirited Tang Yihuan riding a tall horse and running freely in the manor. It was during that time that Zhao Qingshu’s relationship with Tang Yihuan grew closer. Even though Tang Yihuan’s close friend was Li Huimei, whom she disliked the most, she was willing to get to know this girl.”

“Why are you staring at me?”

“Yihuan.”

Zhuyun raised an eyebrow, waiting for her next sentence.

Zhao Qingshu hesitated for a moment, then said, “You are so devoted to Miss Zhu. Is this how you are with all your friends? Do you have the same attitude toward Li Huimei?”

Zhuyun coughed uncontrollably, ignoring her manners, and quickly shook her head like a rattle. She said, “How is that possible? I’ll only be like this for her in this lifetime.”

Tang Yihuan covered her smiling lips with her handkerchief, feeling extremely happy.

Zhao Qingshu felt that something was off about that sentence, but she couldn’t pinpoint what the problem was. She laughed dismissively, “Look how scared you are. As long as you don’t treat Li Huimei like that, it’s fine. Otherwise, I would think you’ve lost your mind.”

Zhuyun said in a huff, “If I ever had that thought, a certain someone would definitely get mad and beat me up.”

Tang Yihuan’s cool eyes glared at Zhuyun. She regretted not having learned martial arts with her father back then.

Zhuyun held her even tighter, smiling and trying to please Tang Yihuan. She didn’t dare say anything else.

Zhao Qingshu looked them up and down, left and right, and blurted out, “You two are a bit strange.”

Zhuyun teased, “What’s so strange? I’m just willing to treat her this way.”

Zhao Qingshu rolled her eyes inelegantly, once again regretting why she got on this carriage out of boredom. It was simply a terrible mistake!

The medicine-like taste filled Tang Yihuan’s mouth. The Rejuvenation Pill, which wasn’t bitter to begin with, now tasted as sweet as honey, nourishing her entire heart as it went down her throat.

Tang Yihuan closed her eyes peacefully, leaning in her embrace without a care in the world.

She was a patient now and needed to rest well.

In a secluded courtyard, there was a room with all the windows and doors tightly sealed. The wooden boards were nailed to the windows, as if to prevent any smell from escaping. If it weren’t for the need for people to enter and exit, the door would probably have been nailed shut as well.

In just over half a month, the once-beautiful Li Huimei had been reduced to skin and bones. After seeking famous doctors and finding no cure for her strange illness, Li Huimei stopped eating. She hated every servant who came in to bring her food. The contempt in their eyes felt like a stab to her proud heart. How could she be looked down upon by these ants? She shouldn’t be in this situation; she was a person of great merit! She was unwilling to be tormented by the foul smell day and night. What was the difference between this and death?

Li Huimei didn’t have much strength. Even though she refused to eat, her parents didn’t want to watch her starve to death. So, they specifically instructed the maids and nannies to force-feed her. As long as she didn’t starve, it was fine.

She struggled to sit up because she thought she heard a voice, a very familiar one, but she couldn’t remember whose it was.

Oh, it was Tang Yihuan!

“Yihuan, it’s not that I’m heartless and don’t care about Huimei. It’s just that her strange illness is truly incurable. The Li family doesn’t have just her as a daughter. I have to think about the other girls in the Li family. I can’t let her ruin the family.” The haggard woman was Li Huimei’s mother. She hadn’t been sleeping well lately and cried every day. Li Huimei was her own daughter, and her harsh treatment of her now was no different from murder. She couldn’t bear it, but she had no choice!

Madam Li was the only person in the Li family who was willing to accompany Zhuyun and her companions to see Li Huimei. With Zhuyun’s strong persuasion and Zhao Qingshu’s testimony, as someone who had received Zhuyun’s kindness, Old Master Li finally agreed to let them in.

Zhao Qingshu had come with the intention of gloating over Li Huimei’s misfortune, but she had now changed her mind.

She looked at everything before her: the dilapidated small courtyard, the pitch-black room, and the sobbing of Madam Li next to her. It all made Zhao Qingshu feel that Li Huimei was a truly pitiful creature.

All the past grudges and hatred she once held, she couldn’t bring herself to feel any schadenfreude now.

Zhuyun and Tang Yihuan remained unmoved. If they pitied the person who had harmed them, who would pity them? Li Huimei’s current predicament was simply because she had lost.

Madam Li tremblingly unlocked the door and finally, with a hard resolve, gave the key to Zhuyun. She said in a low voice, “Yihuan, I can’t bear to see Huimei fall to this. I won’t be accompanying you from now on.”

She fled in a panic. She didn’t dare to look at her daughter’s ghastly appearance, feeling as if she would suffocate if she looked any longer.

She felt compassion for Li Huimei, but Madam Li had made the same choice as everyone else.

To abandon Li Huimei.

She had used up all her courage just to get to this point.

Zhuyun looked at the key in her hand. Zhao Qingshu tugged at her sleeve, regretting, “Yihuan, let’s go. The people in the Li family are so scared of Li Huimei, we shouldn’t get involved in this mess.”

She really wanted to slap herself a few times. Why were they getting involved in something even famous doctors were helpless against? It was all her fault for innocently dragging Tang Yihuan and Zhuyun into this.

In fact, Zhao Qingshu had long wanted to back out, but Zhuyun’s persuasiveness was too strong. She had even convinced Old Master Li to let the three of them see Li Huimei. This made Zhao Qingshu brace herself and approach the small courtyard.

Zhuyun pointed to another room and said, “I have something to tell you.”

Zhao Qingshu didn’t doubt her and happily followed, thinking that Zhuyun had agreed with her. But as soon as she sat down, Zhuyun took out three incense sticks and placed them in the incense burner. Zhao Qingshu was surprised, “When did you learn to do magic tricks?”

Suddenly, the three incense sticks lit up. A deep purple, long-tailed butterfly appeared on Zhuyun’s fingertips. It hovered over the wisps of smoke, and as Zhao Qingshu watched, she slumped onto the table and passed out.

“This is harmless to Zhao Qingshu, it’s just to make her sleep for a while,” Zhuyun explained to Tang Yihuan. She took her hand and walked slowly toward Li Huimei’s room. As they walked, she said, “I love to stick a knife in people’s hearts. I said it before, I won’t let Li Huimei get away with harming you.”

Tang Yihuan smiled gently, squeezing her hand tightly. Looking at her figure, her eyes were full of tenderness.

She was protecting her. It felt so good.

Zhuyun kicked the door open with her shoe. She tightly covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief. The air outside was at least circulating, so the smell was bearable. But the stench in the room was overwhelming, just as Zhao Qingshu had said, like rotting, stinking fish. It made her eyes sting and burn.

She quickly pulled back, pushing Tang Yihuan, who hadn’t entered yet, back out.

Wiping away her tears, her eyes filled with water as she looked at Tang Yihuan. Zhuyun used her spiritual power to temporarily seal their sense of smell. She immediately felt refreshed and ready to cause trouble again!

“Let’s go, let’s go. I’ll take you to see Li Huimei.”

Tang Yihuan wiggled her nose. She couldn’t smell anything at all now. Remembering the tears that the stench had brought to Zhuyun’s eyes, she chuckled.

“You’re definitely laughing at me.”

“Yes, congratulations, you’ve guessed correctly.”

Zhuyun snorted. “Ah, how did I fall for this person? If you ask me why she’s so special, I can’t find an answer myself. I just feel happy when I see her, and I want to save all the good things for her. I also hope that she’ll be safe and sound for the rest of her life. That’s why I can’t find another person who gives me this feeling. In the original plot, I was even willing to give my life for her, so in this life, I’ll use her remaining years to make it up to me.”

The two of them finally entered the room and immediately saw Li Huimei, who was struggling to sit up.

Her clothes were loose and baggy, as if a gust of wind could blow her away.

Li Huimei’s brows were tightly furrowed. She looked at the two people who were completely unaffected. She was so jealous she was going crazy. She wanted to curse, but she was willing but not able. She could only gasp and glare at the two of them.

Zhuyun put her hands on her hips, looking down at her with a condescending pity, making a sound like she was teasing a dog. She sighed, “A perfectly beautiful girl, now she looks like a ghost, neither human nor ghost. Oh dear, how pitiful. Don’t glare at me anymore, save your strength. Are you curious why we can get in? It’s simple, my smooth talk is just that good. Of course, it’s also because your grandfather really hopes you can be cured, so the Li family won’t have to bear the bad reputation of having a strange person in the family. But, I don’t plan on getting rid of your stench. This is what you deserve.”

Li Huimei’s eyes were bloodshot as she stared at Zhuyun, who was more beautiful than a flower. With a red mole on her brow, her looks were even more stunning than before. As soon as people saw her, they couldn’t see anyone else. This was why Li Huimei had gradually come to hate her. Who would want to be a green leaf that only served to highlight a red flower? She was so hypocritical, one face in private and another in public. Why did such a scheming woman become the most beautiful woman in Tongzhou?

She licked her dry lips and said hoarsely, “You’re not Tang Yihuan.”

Zhuyun’s beautiful eyes narrowed, and a sour feeling rose in her heart. Although she hadn’t deliberately tried to act like Tang Yihuan, the fact that Li Huimei could see through her secret so quickly made Zhuyun feel a pang of jealousy.

Zhuyun turned her head away, a cold snort showing her strong dissatisfaction.

Li Huimei laughed with difficulty. Her arms had no strength to support her, so she lay back on the pillow. Tears gathered in her eyes, and her heart was in agony. She cried and laughed at the same time, “That useless scoundrel Prince Yan, and that old hag, they’ve failed! Hahahaha, it’s so ridiculous, so ridiculous! I thought I could climb to the top of the royal family, but it was all just a dream, a dream!”

Her collapsing emotions were like a raging river, mercilessly swallowing her.

Li Huimei numbly spoke, as if this would bring back her friendship with Tang Yihuan. She said, “One afternoon, I met a noble granny. She told me that I was a person with great fortune, and that you, Tang Yihuan, had offended a noble person and that she was here to take your life on behalf of that person. So after I witnessed the noble granny’s abilities, I completely believed her words. Since you were so unlucky to have offended a noble person, why should I help you? I also want to live. I want to be a person above all others!”

From that moment on, Li Huimei completely betrayed Tang Yihuan. She used a method to get Tang Yihuan’s birth details and deliberately invited her to her home to play, wanting to let Pei Ruxin’s (Gu) worm into Tang Yihuan’s body. But that time, Lingxi accidentally sprained her ankle, and the sachet that Li Huimei had specially prepared for Tang Yihuan fell into Lingxi’s hands. Later, when Pei Ruxin saw the Gu worm die, she knew she couldn’t act again, as it might arouse Tang Yihuan’s suspicion. She had to give this great credit to the noble granny. When Tang Yihuan suddenly came to visit Li Huimei that day, she happened to meet the noble granny, and this encounter forced the noble granny to advance her plan.

The rest of the story didn’t need Li Huimei to explain; Zhuyun and Tang Yihuan already knew it.

Li Huimei covered her face as she spoke, sobbing, “The stench all over me must be from that noble granny. No matter how much I tried to contact her in the past few days, she disappeared as if she had vanished from the face of the earth. I’m full of hate! So much hate! Tang Yihuan, I don’t know what method you used to let an outsider enter your body, but I know you must have asked your father’s life-saver for help, right? You once said that the person who saved your father was a hidden master and a Xuanmen warlock. They must be more powerful than the noble granny. Can I beg you to save me?”

She used her last bit of strength to slowly fall from the bed. She knelt on the ground humbly, no longer having her former arrogance. She didn’t want anything else now; she just wanted to live.

Li Huimei, full of hope, kowtowed again and said, “As long as you save me, I’ll tell you all the noble granny’s secrets! Before, I thought the person you offended was Prince Yan, Ouyang Jiannan, but these past few days I’ve been thinking carefully. The noble granny didn’t show any respect for Prince Yan. In fact, her visit to me was something that not even Pei Ruxin knew about, as if someone had guided her to come specifically to scheme against you!”

Zhuyun’s eyes widened in shock. After a while, she regained her composure.

So, Sang Gui’s intention to harm Tang Yihuan wasn’t just because of an old grudge between the two families. There was another person hiding behind her!

She felt a sense of fear. It was a good thing they came to see Li Huimei this time; otherwise, they might have missed the truth.

[Darling, don’t blame yourself too much. It’s just that this person’s plan was too perfect. Anyone who found out about Sang Gui’s identity would think her malice toward Tang Yihuan stemmed from old hatred. No one would have thought there was another person behind her.]

Zhuyun said quietly, “Sang Gui’s motive for harming people was too obvious. Scheming against Tang Yihuan was her way of hating her master. Since she couldn’t beat her master, she went to harm Tang Yihuan instead. From beginning to end, this was her only goal, so it was too pure to see any other motive. But now that I think about it, after all these years, why did she only find out this year that Tang Yihuan was her master’s daughter? There’s only one possibility: Sang Gui was a pawn, and even she didn’t know that she was being used by someone else in the shadows.”

[That person is so sneaky, dammit!]

Zhuyun wasn’t discouraged. She wanted to face the wind and rise. Could any difficult situation be harder than the one in the original plot? She hadn’t lost yet.

Zhuyun’s lips curled into a smile, a mischievous and bloodthirsty smile. She squatted down to look at Li Huimei at eye level.

The clear and pleasant laughter made Li Huimei’s scalp tingle. She looked up in fear.

Zhuyun’s smile was bright, but her slender fingers tightened around Li Huimei’s neck, squeezing her little by little. She said unhurriedly, “What right do you have to make demands of us? The choice to live or die isn’t in your hands. Do you believe that even if you die today, I have the ability to make your family think you’re still alive? When your corpse rots and becomes even stinkier than you are now, maybe your family will know that you’re dead. From now on, there will be no more Li Huimei in Tongzhou; there will only be a corpse to keep company with the dirt!”

Li Huimei was like a person who had drowned. She desperately opened her mouth to breathe. The color on her face became abnormal. Tears streamed down into her hair. The feeling of being strangled was too unbearable. She would rather live like this, stinking.

“Zhuyun!” Tang Yihuan rushed over and grabbed Zhuyun’s hand, shaking her head to signal Zhuyun not to take action in the Li family. Even if she were to kill Li Huimei, it shouldn’t be now. She didn’t want Zhuyun to take such a risk. A person she had long detested wasn’t worth Zhuyun doing something like this for.

Zhuyun’s sharp eyes softened, and she lightly tossed the provoking Li Huimei aside. She took out a handkerchief to wipe her hands and said, “Did I scare you?”

“How could you? I’d be afraid of anyone but you.” Tang Yihuan gently ran her fingers over Zhuyun’s eyebrows and said softly, “My life-saver is the most amazing person in the world. Don’t worry, and don’t get angry. I’ll always be with you.”

How could she be afraid of the person she admired so much and who had saved her life?

Zhuyun smiled and used a fire to burn the handkerchief she had just used to wipe her hands. The ashes scattered in front of Li Huimei, who laughed tragically. She looked at Tang Yihuan, who hadn’t said a word since she entered the room, and said with certainty, “I thought Tang Yihuan didn’t come. I didn’t expect you to be Tang Yihuan.”

Tang Yihuan stood beside Zhuyun without even looking at Li Huimei. She seemed not to care about the answer from Li Huimei’s mouth. Her nonchalant attitude made Li Huimei feel like a random weed on the side of the road, trampled and pulled. Even though this weed was Tang Yihuan’s life-saving grass, she was still so composed and unruffled.

“Tang Yihuan, you won! You won! I just can’t beat you! I’m getting what I deserve. If I hadn’t done anything, we would still be the best of friends.”

“The noble person the noble granny mentioned is from the capital. She once let it slip, and I overheard it.”

“Tang Yihuan, you must help me kill the noble granny and Prince Yan! They are the ones who made me this way!”

Li Huimei lay on the ground, crying. Zhuyun held Tang Yihuan’s hand and walked past her. She had no intention of saving Li Huimei. “You reap what you sow.”

“Yihuan, Miss Zhu, how did I fall asleep?” Zhao Qingshu rubbed her eyes and caught up with them. Zhuyun chuckled, “You were overcome by the smell.”

“Can Miss Zhu save Li Huimei?”

Tang Yihuan said with a calm expression, “You make your own bed, you lie in it. I can’t save her.”

Her cold and serene eyes held a hint of indifference. Zhao Qingshu touched her nose.

This girl seemed difficult to deal with. She used to look like a person who loved to smile, though she did cough a lot.

Oh, wait. Tang Yihuan also started smiling more. Is this what they call “you become what you are near”?

The two carriages separated at the intersection. The maid was sent to the front of the carriage by Zhuyun. Tang Yihuan’s throat felt itchy, and she coughed weakly a few times. Zhuyun stared at her for a while, then suddenly picked up a cup and drank the water in one gulp.

Then, Zhuyun did what she had wanted to do for a long time. She pulled Tang Yihuan’s hand and held it in her embrace, kissing her lips to moisturize them.

Her lips were soft, her tongue even softer. Their lips and teeth intertwined, lingering and tender.

Like two fish playing, chasing and being chased.

Zhuyun tilted Tang Yihuan’s chin and kissed her more passionately. They hugged intimately, and even the rolling teacup couldn’t stop their affection.

“Miss, are you alright?”

The sound of the teacup made the maid, Yuxuan, worried. Zhuyun’s voice was lazy and low. She smiled, “I’m fine, it was just my mistake.”

Tang Yihuan covered her lips and glared at her. If it weren’t for the teacup, their intimacy wouldn’t have ended.

“You’re so bold!”

Zhuyun said with a smug smile, “A certain person saw my body but isn’t willing to take responsibility. I can only be bold and ask for a name.”

“You… you!”

“Alright, alright, I know you love me.”

Zhuyun wasn’t afraid of Tang Yihuan’s glare and smilingly held her in her arms.

At this moment, Zhuyun held up two fingers and burned a talisman, saying, “Master, please return quickly, your disciple’s life is in danger!”

Someone in the capital is trying to harm your daughter. Please come back soon. If you don’t, your daughter’s life will be in danger, and then I won’t live either!

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