The Male Lead Always Thinks My Script is Wrong - Chapter 8

Splash.

Ji Shinian was yanked hard by Li Moyan, tumbling to the ground under the sheer force of the pull. The rushing water that had been snapping at their heels only moments ago came to a grinding halt as it reached the wide-open white jade gates, as if blocked by an invisible barrier.

“Young Miss,” Li Moyan scrambled up quickly, “are you hurt?”

Ji Shinian felt the damp, cold, and prickly weeds beneath him. He took Li Moyan’s outstretched hand and stumbled to his feet. Swallowing hard, he asked with a slight delay, “Did we… did we make it out?”

This frantic escape wasn’t exactly part of his usual repertoire. Since transmuting into this book, Ji Shinian had benefited from possessing extremely powerful weapons and tools for travel. Running for his life like this was a story that belonged to his high school physical fitness tests twenty years ago.

Focus. Ji Shinian shook off the stray thoughts and realized the area beyond the white jade gates was much more spacious than the secret passage. In fact, the gates seemed to serve as the exit.

The air was thick with a faint, indiscernible fishy smell. The darkness here felt milky and hazy, unlike the ink-like blackness of the tunnels, allowing the silhouettes of trees to be vaguely visible in the night. However, it was eerily quiet. Aside from their own voices, not a single sound could be heard.

Li Moyan scanned Ji Shinian to ensure he was unharmed before surveying their surroundings. “It appears so. This place… seems to be an island?”

“An island?”

Li Moyan pressed a hand to the ground, shaking his head after a moment. “I can sense a massive presence of water energy here, yet these trees have straight trunks and massive canopies, which aren’t common near the sea.”

“Furthermore, the aura of this water energy… is incredibly strange.”

Strange is an understatement, Ji Shinian thought. His senses couldn’t match those of a Golden Core cultivator, but the moment the white jade gates opened, his soul’s instinctive reaction to that thing nearly paralyzed him. Simultaneously, a long-lost surge of rage flooded his senses like a tide.

The aura was so familiar that even though it was as faint as the scent of a flower three days after it had withered, someone whose body had been forced to gestate the “flower seed” would recognize the bone-deep residue.

Of course, that was just a metaphor. Ji Shinian had no desire to be fertilizer, but it just so happened that for the past twenty years, he hadn’t been able to untangle himself from that thing.

The Blood-Sacrifice God-Slaying Curse. Ji Shinian whispered the name in his mind, his lips feeling cold.

Whether as a reader or as a participant, he knew full well that this thing shouldn’t even exist in this world!

While Ji Shinian’s mind was in turmoil, Li Moyan remained oblivious, pacing in circles with a grim expression. “…I suspect this aura is related to those Blood Plague Insects.” He stopped and gripped Ji Shinian’s shoulder. “Young Miss, we should find a way out first. This place is far too dangerous—”

“Uncle Li.”

Li Moyan seemed to have made up his mind. He squeezed Ji Shinian’s shoulder firmly and said solemnly, “Now is not the time for your whims. Although I am at the Golden Core stage, I have no way to deal with those Blood Plague Insects. I know you are dissatisfied with the Ji family, but you cannot treat your own life so lightly.”

“Uncle Li, what I mean is,” Ji Shinian gestured helplessly toward the white jade gates, “how do we get out now?”

Behind Li Moyan, the white jade gates they had just burst through had somehow shut tight!

Seeing this, Li Moyan immediately took out his magical artifact and tried to force them open the same way they had gotten in. But even when he slammed into them with his pipe and his full weight, the doors didn’t budge.

The doors had no brass rings and the surface was flawlessly white. Pushing did nothing, and there was no grip for pulling.

Ji Shinian straightened his somewhat disheveled cloak. Seeing his loyal servant’s efforts were futile, he finally spoke up. “We might as well look for another exit along the path. Besides, didn’t Xiao Shu fall in here too? He’s supposed to know how to deal with those disgusting bugs!”

Li Moyan looked puzzled. “Didn’t you say you wanted to find the horse first, Young Miss?”

Thank you for remembering my previous performance.

Ji Shinian crossed his arms and sneered, “Isn’t he more useful than a horse right now?”

Li Moyan’s expression shifted, looking as though he wanted to say something but hesitated. “Young Miss…”

“Enough, all this chatter is just wasting time.” To prevent the loyal servant from questioning him further, Ji Shinian said arrogantly, “Besides, with the status of our Ji family, giving Xiao Shu the chance to suck up to us is his honor, isn’t it?”

As he spoke, he finally understood why those cannon-fodder villains were so punchable, saying things like this when you actually have the power to bully people feels incredibly satisfying.

Ji Shinian dropped this line, the kind that usually gets a character slapped within three chapters of a web novel—and turned around elegantly, only to come face-to-face with a person standing three paces away, leaning against a tree with a sword in hand.

Ji Shinian could bet his face looked terrible right now.

Black robes, blue belt—who else could it be but the protagonist he just claimed should be “sucking up” to him, Xiao Shu?!

Ji Shinian’s first instinct was to bolt. In his previous twenty-plus-eight years of life, he considered himself a reasonable and open-minded person who only talked behind people’s backs if they were irredeemably evil. But with Xiao Shu standing right there, he couldn’t suppress a massive wave of guilt.

He couldn’t help it. Even if he was a “hater” of the novel Slaying the Heavens, being caught talking trash by the protagonist was embarrassing enough to make him want to dig a hole and disappear!

“So, you two are here.” Xiao Shu didn’t say how much he had heard. The dim light filtering through the trees and the shadows danced across his face. He gave a slight smile. “Thank you for the reminder, Miss Ji. I apologize for not realizing my ‘honor’ sooner.”

He heard everything! Argh!

Ji Shinian remembered Li Moyan’s strange expression and realized the man must have seen Xiao Shu approaching moments ago…

Protagonist, you’re way too kind! I was insulting you! Where’s the dramatic face-slapping?

“Is, is that so?” Ji Shinian pulled his hood lower in a desperate attempt at damage control, unable to keep up the haughty act. “It’s good that you’re aware.”

Xiao Shu smiled slightly but didn’t reply. He walked over to the white jade gates, inspected them, and then spoke to Li Moyan. “It seems the Senior and Miss Ji also came from within?”

“Indeed.” Li Moyan gave Ji Shinian a helpless look but didn’t contradict his master. “Young Master Xiao, did you also encounter the insect eggs?”

Xiao Shu looked slightly confused. “I followed the secret passage all the way here. May I ask what these ‘insect eggs’ are?”

Li Moyan described what they had encountered in the passage and sighed. “I didn’t expect Young Master Xiao to have such insight at such a young age, not making a single wrong turn. It puts an old man like me to shame.”

“You flatter me, Senior. I was merely lucky. It cannot compare to the true skill of turning danger into safety,” Xiao Shu shook his head. “I have already discovered seven identical gates on this island. It looks like some sort of formation.”

“Speaking of which, I also noticed strange patterns in the passage. The aura on this island is eerie; could it be used to seal the Blood Plague Insects?”

“It’s possible,” Xiao Shu agreed.

Ji Shinian listened silently as they moved on to serious business. Finally, he couldn’t help calling out to “Heavenly Calculation” in his mind: [Was that line just now considered OOC?]

[Rest assured, Host. We aren’t a system that deducts points randomly. If we detect such tendencies, we will provide a warning,] the electronic screen of Heavenly Calculation flickered to life. [Besides, your inner emotions were fluctuating wildly just now. Heavenly Calculation could barely handle such heavy sentiments!]

[Don’t just spy on my privacy… and ‘not deducting randomly’? Was that -50 points the first time just a dream?]

[Host, please don’t turn your embarrassment into nitpicking. That first time happened under the Laws of Heaven before Heavenly Calculation was fully activated, so I couldn’t warn you. Also, I can only detect major emotional surges. We insist on providing the best service to maintain the Host’s physical and mental health—would you like some psychological counseling from the main system?]

[No thanks. Not prying into my business is the best counseling you can give me.]

While the human and the system conversed, Xiao Shu and Li Moyan had finished piecing together the situation. Chi Li was Zhou Hongluan, and Zhou Hongluan was Chi Li. But according to the “fake” illusion, the one who died was definitely Chi Li.

In other words, twenty years ago, during the Zhou family’s wedding, a switch had definitely occurred.

Now that Chi Li was dead, Zhou Hongluan, the daughter of a cultivation family, was clearly involved with something sinister.

The two couldn’t reach a definitive conclusion. Li Moyan had clearly given up on the idea of leaving, as Xiao Shu claimed to have searched the entire island without finding another exit.

The horses and Zhou Hongluan, who had fallen with them, were nowhere to be found.

Li Moyan rubbed his temples. He hadn’t expected a simple search for a horse to lead to such a mess. “What exactly is she trying to do?”

As he spoke, he finally remembered his fragile, mortal “Lady” and looked up, his voice trailing off. “…Young Miss?”

Ji Shinian’s face was mostly hidden by his cloak, with only his chin visible beneath the hood.

“What?” Ji Shinian felt Xiao Shu’s gaze fall on him. He clutched his hood and stared fixedly at the ground. “Is something wrong?”

Li Moyan said, “Nothing. I was just saying, shall we go check the water’s edge?”

Ji Shinian remained silent. He had been so focused on hiding his face that he forgot they still had to move around in this illusion.

I really don’t want the male lead to see my face! Ji Shinian screamed internally. He gripped his cloak tightly, his mind racing for an excuse to get Xiao Shu to leave them…

[Host, your intention to hide your face is so obvious!]

[Shut up,] Ji Shinian snapped. [A lady from a prestigious family doesn’t show her face in public, don’t you get it?]

[But the Zhongxiao Realm doesn’t seem to have that rule.]

[I made it up! I have a face like a monkey and deep-set eyes, I’m too ugly to be seen!]

[Host, you’re ruthless.] Looking at the normal detection interface, Heavenly Calculation was rendered speechless and went into a rare state of silence.

For the first time, Ji Shinian regretted not listening to his master and using a different face for the “Living Puppet.” This puppet was a gender-swapped version of his true self, a one-to-one replica of his features.

If the protagonist recognized his original body in the future, wouldn’t he become the world’s biggest marriage fraudster? Given the protagonist’s personality after darkening, Ji Shinian felt he might as well start preparing everyone’s funeral meals now.

Just as a desperate Ji Shinian failed to find an excuse, a hand appeared in his line of sight.

A gentle, considerate voice sounded through the cloak, “If Miss Ji doesn’t mind, you may hold my hand for support.”

Why does the guilt feel even heavier now?

Ji Shinian was silent for a moment. He looked away, hesitated, and reached out.

Then, sidestepping Xiao Shu, he instinctively grabbed Li Moyan, who was standing nearby. “No need. This lady simply doesn’t want to see you. Uncle Li is enough!”

“I see. My apologies for the intrusion.” Xiao Shu gave a soft laugh and withdrew his hand with natural poise.

Ji Shinian, who had read countless fanfics about this protagonist, clung to Li Moyan while crying invisible tears of regret:

Young man, it’s not that I don’t want to be polite. It’s just that if I take your hand, the plot of this book is going to head straight into the territory of a very dangerous web novel!

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