The Male Lead Always Thinks My Script is Wrong - Chapter 24

Half an hour later, in a carriage parked in a quiet corner of the street behind the Xiao Estate.

By this time, the heavenly fire had been raging for half the night, and the crowds of onlookers in the southern district of the city had gradually dispersed. Once Li Moyan confirmed that no one was wandering the back street, he finally lowered the carriage curtain. His gaze swept over the two figures inside the carriage.

“Eldest Miss,” His eyes ultimately rested on the purple-clad figure in the corner, and he rubbed his tired temples, “Can you explain now? What on earth is going on here?”

Xiao Shu leaned limply against the side of the doorframe. One of his arms hung uselessly, and ever since he had been pulled backward into the carriage, he had kept his eyes tightly shut, not uttering a single word. Ji Shinian felt pinned to the spot under Li Moyan’s intense gaze. From the corner of his eye, he couldn’t help but glance at the male lead, who looked as if he were meditating in deep contemplation. Inside, Ji Shinian desperately wished he could borrow five hundred more mouths from the heavens.

This was Just great. Not only did he have to explain how he, a mere mortal, had broken free from a Golden Core cultivator’s grip, but he also had to cook up a convincing reason for fetching this random living person right out of the heavenly fire.

Still, he felt that even if things happened all over again, anyone escaping a burning building would naturally dive headfirst into a familiar carriage.

“Haha, didn’t I already say that I’m exceptionally gifted?”

Ji Shinian brushed back his messy hair, his mind racing through all those transmigration, zero-to-hero, and hidden-expert novels he had read. He tried to recall what the protagonists usually said to their companions in moments like this.

“Eldest Miss,” Li Moyan wasn’t about to let the matter drop with such a flimsy excuse. He stared at Ji Shinian, his face solemn and his tone growing even more serious, “I deployed this carriage privately tonight. I didn’t inform the Young Master or the head steward. Therefore, the Ji family knows absolutely nothing about what you’ve done.”

As he reached the end of his sentence, the middle-aged cultivator deliberately emphasized his words.

Ji Shinian hadn’t expected Li Moyan to go to such lengths for him. Dropping his playful demeanor, he sat up straight, though his hand still lingered nervously at the tips of his hair as he tilted his head slightly, “Alright, then.”

“I… once received instruction from someone and learned a few skills to protect myself. Because it isn’t considered orthodox cultivation and falls under obscure, secret arts, it generally shouldn’t be brought to light.”

Seeing the young lady’s dejected expression, Li Moyan’s tone softened a bit, “Why is that?”

“Because my godson is Song Yuan,” Ji Shinian spread his hands, adopting a thoroughly helpless expression, “His reputation in the Central Firmament Realm is, well, I assume you’ve heard of it, Uncle Li.”

Li Moyan gasped in shock, “Eldest Miss, you practice the unorthodox, heretical path?”

Wait, doesn’t this dialogue feel incredibly familiar? The expression on Ji Shinian’s face froze. Before he could even open his mouth, Li Moyan, who sat facing Xiao Shu, displayed the deduction skills of a perfectly logical person.

“No, that’s not right. You didn’t use any heretical arts when you broke free from me yesterday,” Li Moyan shook his head, inquiring further, “Could it be the legendary inheritance of a Great Spirit?”

Ji Shinian neither nodded nor shook his head.

Li Moyan had gone out of his way to drive a carriage and rescue a notoriously reckless young lady out of pure loyalty and righteousness. Ji Shinian was not an ungrateful person who ignored such kindness, so reaching this point in the conversation, refusing to tell an outright lie was already his greatest compromise.

As for what the other man chose to believe, that was beyond his control.

Naturally, Li Moyan interpreted Ji Shinian’s silence as a silent confirmation. He nodded, and after sharing a brief silence with Ji Shinian, he spoke up once more, his voice laced with deep worry, “Eldest Miss, then what about this young master of the Xiao family?”

Though Li Moyan addressed his question to Ji Shinian, his gaze couldn’t help but drift toward Xiao Shu.

It hadn’t been long since they last crossed paths, yet this reunion lacked any of the calm civility of their previous meeting.

“The heavenly fire has descended upon the world, and I assume you saw it too, Eldest Miss,” The Golden Core cultivator didn’t care at all that the person in question was sitting right there, choosing to advise Ji Shinian directly, “As I drove the carriage over, I heard no fewer than eight different versions of the rumors. Everyone is saying the Xiao clan offended an immortal, thereby bringing down this catastrophic disaster. Though I do not know how the young master of the Xiao family managed to survive…”

“Senior Li,” Xiao Shu spoke up softly. He opened his eyes, a flicker of mockery surfacing within the dark, deep recesses of his gaze, “May I ask exactly how my Xiao family offended the immortals?”

Li Moyan caught his breath, “This… then how do you explain the way the heavenly fire fell? Surely it couldn’t have happened without any rhyme or reason?”

The author of ‘Sharpening a Sword for Ten Years’ really didn’t write a reason for it, Ji Shinian automatically chimed in mentally. His thoughts had been a tangled mess, and he hadn’t even come up with a proper excuse for why he had impulsively saved Xiao Shu. Yet, with the male lead’s sudden interruption, he felt as though something was about to burst through Xiao Shu’s calm, unbothered facade.

Li Moyan’s words were harsh. Even so, leaning against the carriage wall, Xiao Shu didn’t show any volatile reaction. His pupils seemed to merge with the surrounding darkness, and after a moment, a few words drifted out from that gloom.

He said, “I, too, would like to know the reason.”

Ji Shinian felt goosebumps break out all over his arms at the tone.

“Therefore…”

“Alright, that’s enough,” Seeing that the loyal servant was gearing up to speak again, Ji Shinian couldn’t bear to let Xiao Shu, who had just suffered the tragic loss of his entire clan, endure a second round of verbal bullying from a high-stage cultivator. He quickly cut the conversation short, “After all, it was him who carried me out of the heavenly fire.”

“Besides, he is my fiancé regardless. If he died in that sea of fire, I would lose an awful lot of face,” Ji Shinian forced a layer of logic onto his actions, “The marriage alliance between the Ji and Xiao families has stood for so many years. Now that it’s finally about to come to an end, what am I supposed to do, wait for my future son to marry his future daughter?”

“But the heavenly fire isn’t just an ordinary”

Sensing a sharp gaze locking onto him, Ji Shinian hastily cut Li Moyan off again, deliberately acting like a spoiled, overbearing young mistress, “The fire already fell anyway, and it didn’t manage to burn him to death. Furthermore, we didn’t see any immortals showing their faces. Uncle Li, if you’re so worried about another heavenly fire coming down, just remember that I’ll be heading to the Academy to study cultivation soon. When the time comes, I’ll just take him along with me!”

In truth, his earlier arguments weren’t completely without merit. Although Xiao Shu currently carried a mountain of suspicion for surviving the calamity, his identity didn’t particularly matter to the Ji family. What truly mattered was the marriage contract tied to the secret key. A core figure like Li Moyan would naturally find his resolve swaying under these points.

Moreover, this last statement served as a safety net for Xiao Shu. Otherwise, if Li Moyan took the initiative to make Xiao Shu stay behind and marry into the family, Xiao Shu would literally turn into a trope-heavy submissive son-in-law.

Most importantly, Ji Shinian had absolutely no desire to engage in any “conjugal life” with the male lead!

“In that case,” Having been interrupted multiple times, Li Moyan could only sigh helplessly, “How is the young master of the Xiao family supposed to follow you?”

Ji Shinian adopted a perfectly serious expression, “Now that is an excellent question.”

According to the plot of the original web novel, Defying the Heavens, this celestial fire arrived under mysterious circumstances. Except for Xiao Shu, the entire Xiao clan perished within it without leaving behind a single trace of their bodies. Outside, rumors that the disaster was a punishment from the gods were spreading like wildfire. Consequently, if anyone found out Xiao Shu was still alive, he would become a walking target.

Thus, after the fire burned for three days, Xiao Shu avoided He Yin, disguised his appearance, changed his name, and traveled to the Western Lands to grow stronger and uncover the truth behind the disaster.

He went there because the ruler of the four spiritual energies in the West, Lord Sha Junlan, was rumored to be a descendant of the immortals.

Of course, given the typical clichéd nature of the original story, Sha Junlan passed away right before the male lead could even climb his way up to meet him.

But now, because Ji Shinian had saved Xiao Shu, the male lead could still change his face and name, but he had transformed from a free agent into Ji Shinian’s dependent.

Then again, since he was the male lead, this was bound to turn into a classic tale of using a favorable wind to soar straight into the clouds.

Li Moyan let out a long, heavy sigh, “Very well.”

“Since it is what you wish, Eldest Miss, I shall do everything in my power,” As Li Moyan spoke, he tapped his dark-green tobacco pipe against the carriage frame. A vibrant, green spiritual current suddenly blossomed from that single point, “Pardon my intrusion, Young Master Xiao.”

He flicked his pipe, weaving and manipulating those spiritual energies until they crowded forward and wrapped themselves tightly around Xiao Shu.

“Is this… disguise magic?” Ji Shinian watched wide-eyed as Xiao Shu’s facial features were molded and twisted by the spiritual energy, “Uncle Li, where on earth did you learn a technique like this?”

Under normal circumstances, disguise magic merely sat on the surface of the face like a mask or a veil. In front of experienced cultivators, it could only hide one’s true appearance but couldn’t prevent them from realizing a disguise was being used. Yet, Li Moyan’s technique completely altered the flesh, pinching, pressing, and reshaping the facial features in a manner entirely different from ordinary illusion magic.

“It’s a secret,” Li Moyan packed away his pipe, tapped Ji Shinian lightly on the head, and stood up, “Alright. After tonight, the young master of the Xiao family no longer exists in Phoenix Crest City.”

Ji Shinian pressed further, “Then who is he now?”

The carriage curtain fluttered slightly, and Li Moyan’s voice drifted in from the outside, filled with absolute gravity.

“A distant relative of mine. Do I have to choose his name for him too?”

“Oh,” Ji Shinian pulled his head back inside.

Inside the carriage, Xiao Shu’s face had completely transformed. His sharp, prominent facial features had been smoothed down and softened. Compared to his past wild, unruly appearance that instantly commanded attention, the youth now possessed a mild, thoroughly unexceptional face, looking exactly like a gentle, unassuming passerby.

The disguise was so realistic that it left no magical traces whatsoever.

Now that Li Moyan had stepped away, Xiao Shu’s gaze became much more intense, “My thanks, Miss Ji.”

“Don’t thank me. If you weren’t so weak that you required me to save you, I wouldn’t have bothered. I have no desire to carry the reputation of bringing misfortune to my husband at such a young age,” Sensing the boy’s eyes on him again, Ji Shinian brushed off his skirt and discreetly shifted a bit further away from him, “I still need to ask you, what do you want to be called?”

“Let’s go with the surname Song,” Xiao Shu closed his eyes once more, a wave of exhaustion washing over his altered, non-threatening face, “Song Huaiqiu.”

Only then did Ji Shinian notice that Xiao Shu’s dislocated arm had been popped back into place by Li Moyan. He stopped talking, curling up into his own corner of the carriage, his gaze settling softly on the boy’s hand, which had finally stopped bleeding.

The sky was on the verge of breaking, dawn slowly seeping from the edge of the horizon to tint a corner of the sky. The carriage wheels rolled steadily across the deserted, lonely streets, silently leaving the massive inferno far behind them.

The carriage carried the three of them smoothly through the back gates of the Ji Estate. The massive residence remained quiet and still. Li Moyan took Xiao Shu, or rather, Song Huaiqiu, noting that he needed to clear things with Head Steward Zhou first, before walking off toward the front courtyard. Having resolved such a monumental crisis, the heavy stone in Ji Shinian’s heart finally lifted. The moment he returned to his small courtyard, he quickly washed up and crawled into bed.

I feel like I’ve forgotten something…

He thought sleepily as he lay beneath the covers.

However, his fleeting, waking thoughts were no match for the overwhelming exhaustion. Ji Shinian turned over, buried himself deep into the quilt, closed his eyes, and drifted back to sleep to meet the god of dreams once again.

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