The Consequences of Provoking the Male Lead of a Qidian Novel - Chapter 1

◎Everything, down to the last detail, could be blamed on his right hand.◎

In the fifth year of the Yongjia era, a bitter late spring chill gripped the land.

Persistent rain and a cold snap swept across the entire capital, creating a gloomy atmosphere that had lingered for days. However, the news of the border intelligence delivered by officials racing through the post stations broke the heavy silence.

“We won!“

Before twilight had even fallen, lanterns began to flicker on street corners. Through the cold, damp air came the sound of cheerful voices. At the round tables in the teahouses, people clapped and sighed in admiration at the exciting accounts.

“That Third Prince is quite the figure. When the Emperor listened to the Empress and sent him off to the borders, did he ever imagine the Third Prince would one day reclaim the Northern Qiang?“

“When the Third Prince lost the support of his mother’s clan and was driven to the border to fight, facing death every day, everyone thought he was ruined, that he would never climb back up, and that the vacant Crown Prince position would never fall to him. No one expected that in just three years, he would pacify the Northern Qiang and achieve such great merit. Truly, the ways of the world are unpredictable.“

“Barbarians fighting barbarians, quite interesting.“

Hearing this, a sharp-featured, rat-faced middle-aged man didn’t even bother to spit out the sunflower seed shell he had been sucking on. His eyes widened as he said, “The Third Prince is returning to the capital soon because of this victory. If he heard you say that, do you want to keep your tongue?“

An incense stick of time ago, a green shadow had been standing in the darkness under the eaves, remaining silent for a long time. It was only after hearing the phrase “returning to the capital soon” that he finally reacted.

He turned and left the teahouse.

By now, the rain had stopped and the clouds had dispersed. At the end of the street hung a crescent moon. Shen Youqing walked quickly, eventually stopping in front of a residence. After a glance at the guards standing as still as pine trees at the gate, he dismissed the idea of entering through the main entrance.

Drawing on his knowledge of the Shen residence accumulated over the years, he climbed over the wall with ease and snuck into Lan Garden without any trouble.

The room inside was warm, the incense burner down to its last embers. As soon as Shen Youqing entered, the humid, fragrant air enveloped him.

“Young Master, we were almost discovered by the Master today. It was all thanks to Liu Yin stalling him… I can’t do this kind of impersonation again,” Taojin said, her face crumpled in misery as she took the fur-collared cloak from him.

Thinking back on how she had spent the entire day huddled under the quilts, trembling with fear, she still felt a lingering dread.

Shen Youqing washed away the traces of black powder on his face, took off the pale green brocade robe and moon-white silk boots that were soaked with the cold, damp air outside, and, without needing Taojin’s help, skillfully changed into an embroidered jacket and long skirt.

The flickering candlelight illuminated his exquisitely beautiful face, with lips as red as cherries, teeth as white as snow, and eyes like autumn water.

Taojin couldn’t help but be stunned. Even though she had served Shen Youqing since childhood, she was still constantly amazed by his beauty.

In the past, whenever Shen Youqing dressed in men’s clothes to go out, he was always in a great mood, bringing back all sorts of strange little things, sometimes introducing Taojin and Liu Yin to things like poker or mahjong.

But today, Shen Youqing seemed lost in thought.

“Young Master, I’ll go fetch you a bowl of ginger soup to drive out the cold.” In private, Taojin always called him Young Master; it was only in front of others that she called him Miss.

Ten-plus years ago, the world was in chaos and war was everywhere. Madam Shen had been traveling with the Great Scholar Shen when she went into premature labor while fleeing.

The Great Scholar remembered the fortune a high-ranking monk had predicted months earlier: if Madam Shen gave birth to a boy, at best the child would face bloodshed, and at worst, the entire clan would be annihilated. If it were a girl, however, she would have the destiny of a phoenix, bringing good fortune to the world.

The words of the high monk could not be ignored. Having no other choice, they had to hide Shen Youqing’s gender, bearing the pressure of committing the crime of deceiving the Emperor by declaring to the outside world that they had given birth to a daughter. But even though they attempted to “swap the fate” through this deception, Shen Youqing still hadn’t completely escaped his destiny. He had been frail since childhood and fell ill often, especially when exposed to the cold, which easily triggered a chill.

Because of this, Great Scholar Shen kept a very tight rein on his outings. The household even specially hired an old doctor who had supposedly spent years in the Imperial Medical Institute.

To this day, other than his parents, his personal guards, his maids, and the old doctor, no one knew his true gender.

Shen Youqing lay lazily on a couch covered with a cotton blanket, fiddling with the apricot blossoms embroidered on his skirt and sighing.

He had been wearing skirts for eighteen years.

From the moment he transmigrated into this world, he had been disguised as a girl, learning etiquette, needlework, and the art of playing the zither and chess, though he had only mastered the basics and wasn’t particularly skilled.

Everything, down to the last detail, could be blamed on his right hand.

That’s right, it was that same right hand that had clicked on the recently completed top-ranked novel on the Qidian male-frequency site, “Shengjing.“

He had scanned the comments section quickly, and beyond the endless praise and criticism, he had actually spotted comments mentioning the name “Shen Youqing.“

【What the hell is the author’s problem? Shen Youqing really died the day the male lead ascended the throne?】

【I’m only ten chapters in, someone tell me, why doesn’t the male lead take this beautiful girl?】

【How could he? She broke off the engagement and then backstabbed him. Isn’t it normal for the male lead to kill her?】

【The beginning spent nearly a chapter describing how beautiful Shen Youqing is, and dozens of chapters on their childhood friendship. I thought she was the prospective harem member, but then her character suddenly collapsed and the male lead killed her. The author doesn’t know anything about “Shengjing,” screw your grandmother’s legs!】

Ever since Shen Youqing learned the laws of transmigration, he had been sensitive to the fact that his name matched a character in a novel, but upon learning that the one who shared his name was a female supporting character, his heart settled.

This novel was the kind where it was tasteless to read, but not a pity to abandon. The male lead, Xue Gu, was no different from the cookie-cutter male protagonists.

During the war, his mother had been separated from the royal party while carrying him at age two. They wandered the border and searched for his father, Emperor Xue Zhao, but his mother died just a few years later. Xue Gu had grown up with cattle and sheep, living by hunting, suffering through hardship. At twelve, relying on a jade pendant token, he was found by people close to the Emperor and taken back.

Countless tropes were piled on, all requiring the early suffering as a foundation. When Xue Gu was brought back to the capital, it was just the beginning of a deeper level of hardship. He was raised by a noble consort, relying on his own strength to gradually gain power, but good times didn’t last. The noble consort’s entire family was executed. Although he didn’t have much to do with the clan behind the consort, he was still sent to the border to fend for himself due to the Emperor’s disgust, and everything returned to the starting point.

Of course, the thousands of chapters of “leveling up” that followed were just the layering of dopamine hits, a typical Qidian development: a “stud” male lead experiences adversity, defies the odds, counter-attacks, abuses scum, collects harem members and subordinates, and makes everyone pave the way for his achievements.

There was too much filler. Shen Youqing skipped through it, and having used it to pass the time when bored, he had spent a week reaching the chapter where Xue Gu became emperor.

Until the very moment before his car accident, the page on his phone had been stuck on the chapter where Shen Youqing died in the book.

“The rusty knife was very dull.”

“When the first strike landed, the pungent smell of blood rushed in. The fragile, slender, fair neck revealed bone, and blood poured out like a fountain.”

“The miserable, sharp screams and bloody foam mixed together in his mouth, an utterly wretched sight.”

“With the second strike, a teeth-grinding sound of bone cracking echoed.”

“It wasn’t until the third strike that the head finally fell to the ground with a thud.”

“Xue Gu sipped his tea, saying nothing throughout the execution. Yet, the slight curve of his lips when the head fell was an indication of his good mood.”

It felt as if a gust of cold wind had struck from behind. Shen Youqing shivered, one hand uncontrollably reaching toward his neck. The description of “Shen Youqing’s” death in the novel was simple and blunt, brushed over in a few sentences, but every time he associated it with the image, he felt the pain was extremely real and intense.

If he were killed, it would be one thing, but to be struck three times was just excessive.

After his death, the head was packed into a reward from Xue Gu to the Shen family. When the Shen family opened the box, the beautiful eyes of “Shen Youqing” had already been devoured by insects. Madam Shen, while in extreme grief, was so shocked that she dropped dead on the spot.

Xue Gu is truly not a human being…

Shen Youqing hammered the porcelain pillow beneath him, “It’s all your fault!”

He hadn’t recalled the novel’s plot for a long time. If it weren’t for hearing today that Xue Gu was setting off to return to the capital, he could have continued living his comfortable, carefree life for much longer!

In the original work, it had taken Xue Gu five or six years to sweep away the Northern Qiang, but the plot of several hundred chapters had ended prematurely like this.

Yes, it was as if heaven had hit the fast-forward button for Xue Gu, accelerating him to the new chapter and the opening of a new map.

To say he wasn’t panicked about his life as a slacker coming to an end would be a lie.

Taojin noticed Shen Youqing’s low spirits and placed a plate of honey-glazed jujube cakes on the table after he finished his ginger soup.

The sweets, which usually made him feel better, were now hard to swallow.

Shen Youqing took a bite and put it down.

“Is the Young Master troubled by something? You might as well tell me.” The last time the Young Master had appeared this restless was three years ago, on the day His Highness left.

Shen Youqing rested his chin on one hand, paused, and said softly, “I have a friend—” He finished, then looked up to see Taojin nodding solemnly, wearing a face of earnest listening, likely thinking he was truly talking about a friend.

“Well, he has an engagement that was decided at birth. The two were childhood sweethearts, and their relationship was… well… quite deep. Later, the other party suffered a disaster. My friend promised to wait for him to return, but then immediately broke the engagement. As it turns out, the other party is now flourishing and enjoying a successful career. Taojin, if you were the other party, what would you do if you ran into my friend?”

Taojin pondered for a moment, then knitted her brows and asked in a confused tone, “Young Master, I feel like I’ve seen this story somewhere.”

Shen Youqing coughed softly, “How could that be? You must be remembering wrong. Anyway, it’s probably just a story from some script book, don’t think too much about it.”

“Young Master, this friend of yours is not very kind. However, I can understand cutting losses for an open-ended wait. Who knows if the other party might change their heart, too?”

Shen Youqing’s eyes brightened, “Exactly.” Xue Gu himself had a harem full of beauties, so why should he have to stay chaste?

“I think it depends on whether the other party still has feelings for your friend. If the feelings are still there, the other party would probably try to win them back. Perhaps the two could reconcile, be happy together again, and it could turn into a beautiful story. If the feelings are no longer there, then I don’t know.”

“If the feelings are still there, perhaps I could stall him for a while…” Shen Youqing muttered to himself. In the original book, Xue Gu was quite good to the women he liked; at least none of the beauties he took into his harem ended up mutilated!

“Stall what?”

She found herself understanding less and less of what the Young Master was saying.

Shen Youqing didn’t answer and asked, “Then how can one tell if the feelings are still there?”

“Test it.” Taojin summarized it in two short words.

A plan began to take shape in Shen Youqing’s mind.

He thought he knew what he had to do now.

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