The Supporting Female Lead Chooses to Mark the Villain [Rebirth] - Chapter 1

It was late spring in the south, rainless, and the cloud cover pressed low.

On the winding corridor, the young girl’s smoky-blue skirt seemed like a lonely leaf on a vast sea, drifting with the waves. In a short time, she reached the end of the corridor and stopped to look at the small building ahead.

The leaderless servants scurried around like headless chickens. When one of them spotted her figure, he froze for a few seconds before reacting.

“Nian, Nian’er!”

Shen Nian nodded expressionlessly, stepped past them, and walked inside.

Unlike the ancient and classical exterior of the small building, the interior décor immediately pulled a person into modern times—the walls were covered with silver, specialized metal membranes, and in the corners, omnipresent surveillance cameras and detection equipment seemed intent on stripping an intruder bare from the inside out.

Even though she had been dealing with these things since childhood, Shen Nian still felt a slight distaste. She quickened her pace up the stairs. The iron door on the second floor was tightly shut. She stepped forward to press the bell, and it took a while to get a response.

“What do you want? Don’t you know the Young Mistress’s condition is severe?!”

Shen Nian hesitated for a moment, then steadied her voice before speaking. “It’s me.” She said, “I am Shen Nian.”

The communication was cut off. Soon, a female physician in white opened the door and ushered her in.

The doctor was very busy. After unlocking the door, she rushed back in a hurry. When Shen Nian closed the door and followed, the doctor glanced over and asked, “Why are you here?”

The second floor contained only one room, located in the southeast direction. The rest of the space was filled with medical instruments of varying sizes.

Shen Nian instinctively looked toward the room’s window but saw only a stretch of gray-white.

She turned back to the female doctor and asked, “Is she… is the Young Mistress alright?”

“The situation is not optimistic,” the female doctor focused intently on the monitoring screen. “She received an unfamiliar pheromone and is showing a very severe allergic reaction.”

The small building had excellent sealing properties; normally, not even a wisp of wind could blow inside. Shen Nian was puzzled. “Where did she go to encounter an unfamiliar pheromone?”

The doctor gave her a sidelong look but didn’t speak.

Shen Nian pulled up her sleeve and asked again, “Do you need to draw blood?”

“No need,” the female doctor shook her head. “The plasma reserves are sufficient.”

Saying this, she looked up, gazing meaningfully at Shen Nian, and scoffed mockingly, “The current problem cannot be solved by your blood alone.”

“Oh,” Shen Nian lowered her head, responding faintly.

The atmosphere was oppressive. The medical staff were extremely busy, but few spoke. Aside from the hurried footsteps, the only sound on the second floor was the occasional “beep-beep” from the instruments.

The female doctor’s face grew increasingly impatient. Just before she was about to open her mouth to dismiss Shen Nian, Shen Nian suddenly spoke.

She asked, “If I mark her, it will cure her, won’t it?”

The entire room fell silent. The medical staff’s breathing stopped for a moment.

The female doctor frowned, asking in disbelief, “What did you say?”

Shen Nian took two steps closer to her, resting both hands on the wide worktable in front of the doctor.

She parted her lips, articulating clearly and emphatically, “If I mark Shen Zui, I can cure her. Is that right?”

On the second floor, everyone looked over, accompanied by several stifled gasps.

The female doctor’s expression was incredibly complicated.

“Shen Zui is your younger aunt.”

“Please,” Shen Nian’s gaze was deep, showing indifference. “Are you only remembering now that I’m also a young miss of the Shen family?”

Without waiting for an answer, she turned and approached the only door on the second floor.

The female doctor stood up from her chair in alarm, reaching out as if to stop her, but her throat felt blocked when she tried to speak, and no sound could escape. She could only watch wide-eyed as Shen Nian’s back disappeared behind the door.

After sinking back into her chair, she suddenly remembered something and picked up her phone to dial the top-listed contact.

“The number you have dialed is currently switched off. Please try again later.”

“The number you have dialed is currently switched off, please try again…”

“The Old Madam should be on a plane right now,” a passing nurse reminded her. “We can’t contact her temporarily.”

The female doctor finally came to her senses, setting down her trembling phone.

Inside the room.

Unlike the technologically advanced exterior, the room’s décor was very ordinary, featuring large swaths of black, white, and gray that appeared somewhat monotonous.

Shen Nian was in no mood to appreciate the room. Her steps were determined as she moved toward the center, finally stopping about a meter from the edge of the bed.

A woman was lying on the bed.

The woman’s long, curly black hair was spread across the pillow. She was resting with her eyes closed, the lower half of her face hidden beneath the covers. Shen Nian deliberately softened her footsteps, confident she hadn’t disturbed her. Yet, at this moment, the woman’s slightly trembling eyelashes clearly revealed her awareness of Shen Nian’s presence.

In the past, Shen Nian was so terrified of her that she trembled and had never examined the other woman closely. Now, looking at the small area of pale skin, she belatedly realized that the woman in the bed was nothing more than an ordinary person afflicted by illness.

At this moment, Shen Zui on the bed opened her eyes, turned her head, and called out to her.

“Niannian.”

Her voice was distinctly cold, yet the tone contained a hint of a smile, making it sound unexpectedly intimate.

Shen Nian composed herself, responded with an “Mmm,” and replied, “Younger Aunt.”

Nominally, Shen Zui was Shen Nian’s aunt, but the two actually had no blood relation; Shen Nian was an adopted child of the Shen family.

However, those privy to the truth knew that Shen Nian was merely an essential ingredient for Shen Zui’s medicine.

Yes, a living ingredient.

In this world, besides male and female, humans possess three secondary genders: Alpha, Omega, and Beta. Betas are the largest group and have no special characteristics. The rare genders, Alpha and Omega, besides having genetically superior traits, secrete pheromones from a hidden gland on the back of the neck that mutually attract one another.

The currently weak Shen Zui in bed is a genuine female Omega. Generally speaking, once Omegas reach adulthood, the pheromones in their bodies cause them to enter an irregular heat cycle, which requires medication to suppress until they bond with a specific Alpha, receiving the complementary pheromones from the Alpha’s body.

Tragically, Shen Zui, like her prematurely deceased birth mother, suffers from a severe inherited family disease: she is acutely allergic to a certain phenolic substance that constitutes pheromones, making it impossible for her to be exposed to a normal environment.

Shen Nian is the only exception.

Due to a peculiar genetic mutation, Shen Nian, as an Alpha, releases pheromones that are slightly different from those of an average person, ensuring she does not trigger a rejection reaction in Shen Zui.

A long time ago, the Shen family realized this and used their influence to forcibly adopt Shen Nian, who was a small girl at the time, and keep her close. Thus, Shen Nian’s life began—meticulously raised by the Shen family, solely for the purpose of supplying large amounts of blood once a month.

Since extracting pheromones from blood for treatment has limited effectiveness, the practical solution is simply to have Shen Nian completely Mark Shen Zui. Once their pheromones are paired, Shen Zui would no longer be affected by any other pheromones.

Shen Nian feared Shen Zui and everyone in the Shen family. Her mind was constantly focused on escaping the Shen family, so she naturally never actively researched or proposed the option of marking Shen Zui.

Curiously, however, everyone in the Shen family, including Shen Zui’s primary physician, remained silent about this permanent cure.

It was much later that Shen Nian finally understood the underlying logic—

The Shen family had never truly valued her.

How could a mere adopted orphan be worthy of marking the Shen family’s most brilliant pearl?

While she was lost in thought, Shen Zui on the bed spoke again: “Niannian.”

She called softly, “Come over.”

Shen Nian walked around to her side and sat down right next to the bed edge, trying to look up calmly into the woman’s eyes.

The moment their eyes met, both fell into a brief stupor.

“What’s wrong?” Shen Zui was the first to react, curving her eyes and striking up a conversation. “It’s been a while since we met. You’ve matured quite a bit and are no longer as shy as you were when you were little.”

“…Mmm,” Shen Nian lowered her head.

Her left hand was clenched into a fist resting on her knee, and her body was uncontrollably plagued by fine tremors.

Afraid of revealing her distress, she moved away from the bed, drew back the nearby curtain, and looked out the small building’s only glass window at the vibrant scenery outside.

The sky was even gloomier than before, windless, and the clouds hiding electricity were so low they were almost parallel with the window ledge.

“Why did you suddenly come back?” Shen Zui’s voice sounded from behind her. “Uncle Qin said you and Xi You were going out to sea to have fun?”

Shen Nian turned around and saw the slender, white swan-like neck of Shen Zui as she looked up.

Her throat involuntarily constricted. She slowly began to explain, “I heard you were seriously ill, so I temporarily changed my mind and came home.”

Shen Zui raised an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced by this explanation.

The two women shared a three-tenths resemblance in their features. Looking at the frail woman in bed, Shen Nian suddenly recalled the angry and sullen look on Xi You’s face when Shen Nian broke her promise and returned from the seaside that morning.

Xi You had just turned eighteen this year, the age of a blooming spring flower, sought after wherever she went. Her anger and smiles alike possessed a youthful charm.

Yet, she was sensitive and fragile, often pestering Shen Nian repeatedly to ask if she was pretty enough.

Shen Nian had been completely devoted to her, and for a long time, she believed there was no other girl in the world more beautiful than Xi You.

Now, looking at Shen Zui, she fully understood the source of Xi You’s inexplicable lack of self-confidence.

“Did Xi You upset you?” Shen Zui asked.

“Pfft,” the suggestion was so novel that Shen Nian couldn’t help but smile upon realizing it.

Shen Zui smiled back. “What are you laughing at?”

“She didn’t. I broke my promise and made her angry,” Shen Nian lowered her hands, adjusted her smoky-blue skirt, and explained lightly.

Shen Zui narrowed her eyes. “What right does she have to be angry with you?”

Shen Nian looked up in astonishment.

She had never heard words so openly protective of her. After recovering from the shock, she took a deep breath to barely conceal her rising emotions.

“Let’s not talk about that.” Biting her lip, she moved closer to Shen Zui again. “…How is your body? How do you feel?”

Shen Zui shook her head. “It’s nothing serious.” She even glanced toward the door and smiled. “I don’t know why those people are so anxious.”

“The doctor said you had a very serious allergic reaction,” Shen Nian thought of something and lowered her gaze to Shen Zui’s legs beneath the covers.

“Hmm?” Shen Zui was confused.

Shen Nian stepped forward and gently pulled back the thin blanket.

Shen Zui was wearing a silk nightgown. Due to her posture, half of her calf was exposed. When the blanket was lifted, she felt the chill, and her pinkish toes curled up simultaneously, scratching at Shen Nian’s heart like a cat.

Shen Nian quickly suppressed the urge to stare, saw several unusual red spots growing on Shen Zui’s ankle, and immediately put the blanket back down.

“Does it hurt?” she asked.

Shen Zui shook her head, unaware of what had happened.

Shen Nian kept her voice low. “If it’s not cured, you won’t be able to save your legs.”

Shen Zui’s expression remained utterly unchanged. She only asked, “Which doctor said that?”

Shen Nian straightened up, gently shaking her head.

It was not a doctor’s diagnosis. Everything she knew was based on the situation in her previous life.

Yes, her previous life.

Shen Nian is a Reborn.

In her previous life, at this time, she had not returned home due to Shen Zui’s illness but had happily gone out to sea with Xi You as planned.

The trip had an unexpected incident, and by the time she was discharged from the hospital after two weeks of recovering from nearly drowning, Shen Zui had already passed the critical stage.

Of course, the price was that Shen Zui lost the ability to walk, becoming physically disabled and confined to a wheelchair ever since.

In theory, this shouldn’t have been blamed on Shen Nian. However, in the previous life, after Shen Zui’s disability, Shen Nian’s life in the Shen family undeniably became much harder.

No one dared to mistreat her materially, as the Shen family still needed her, the medicinal ingredient, to continuously supply blood to Shen Zui. But the emotional torment and degradation of her dignity intensified severely.

Shen Nian held onto her resentment. Several years later, she worked hard to carve out a path for herself despite the Shen family’s severe restrictions.

She thought she had finally achieved success and could escape the shadows of her life, but she was quickly thrown back into hell by Xi You’s baseless accusation of sexual assault. Finally, when she went to the rooftop for some air, she was pushed off the building from behind and died a miserable death.

Shen Nian didn’t know what happened after death, but strangely, her consciousness did not dissipate. Instead, she was pulled into a strange space.

There, she found a novel titled Feuds Among the Wealthy: The Great Female Lead’s Counterattack.

It was only after reading this novel, which featured Xi You as the female lead, that Shen Nian realized she was merely an insignificant cannon fodder supporting character on Xi You’s path to growth.

After accusing Shen Nian of assault, Xi You received immense resources and immediately became a much-watched celebrity.

At this point, the portion of the book concerning Shen Nian should have concluded with her death. However, the final villain only appeared then—upon learning of Shen Nian’s death, Shen Zui, who should have been focused on recuperating, suddenly went mad and began to retaliate against Xi You.

Xi You and her destined male lead were nearly killed under Shen Zui’s relentless pressure, only narrowly escaping by faking their deaths.

At the end of the novel, Shen Zui’s body had reached its limit. Believing she had avenged Shen Nian, she ended her own life contentedly.

After the funeral, Xi You, free of constraints, announced her return, and the novel concluded with her and the male lead’s happy ending.

Shen Nian once found her role in the book to be humble and ridiculous: she was Xi You’s pathetic admirer while alive, and after death, she became the catalyst for Shen Zui’s revenge, finding no peace anywhere.

Yet, upon opening her eyes again, she found herself reborn back to the summer of her eighteenth year.

The sky was clear, the clouds vast, and the sea waves broke one after another. Xi You, as delicate as a flower, pinched her face to wake her up, urging her to change her clothes and sail out to sea.

“Xi You.”

Shen Nian could still remember her astonishment at the time and the forced composure of her voice: “Uncle Qin said that Younger Aunt is not feeling well. I need to go back and see her.”

Xi You widened her eyes slightly, then, upon realizing the situation, hooked her arm and pressed her entire chest against Shen Nian’s body.

“Don’t go back,” her tone became delicate and clingy, but her eyes were malicious. “She won’t die.”

Shen Nian turned to look at her.

“What’s wrong?” Xi You blinked.

The two had grown up together, and Shen Nian’s pampering of her had become a habit. The eighteen-year-old girl hadn’t realized that something had quietly begun to change.

“If one day I were dying and you had to spend everything you had to save me…” Shen Nian stared into her eyes. “…Would you be willing?”

“I… how would I save you?” After a moment of panic, Xi You found her voice.

She looked down. “The Shen family is so rich; they wouldn’t let you die… If even the Shen family can’t cure you, what can I do?”

Shen Nian asked, “Then, what if one day, just by my death, you could gain everything you’ve ever wanted?”

“What?” Xi You looked up at her, her amber eyes trembling slightly.

“I mean…” Shen Nian didn’t look at her, stood up, and tied up her long hair. “…Would you want to kill me?”