Transmigrated as the Villain and Driven Crazy by the Vengeful Male Lead - Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Two “Mother-from-the-Womb” Solos — Is he an Emperor? Flipping name plaques for bed service…

Bull-fucking-shit.

Perhaps because Lyu Shuyao’s expression was too unsightly, Chang Huichen offered a hypocritical defense: “Did Young Master Lyu not just threaten the Second Young Master with sleeping alone? On a long night, if the Second Young Master were to feel lonely, it would hardly be the way to treat a guest.”

Lyu Shuyao suppressed his rage: “Seeing the Palace Master and Miss Jiang so inseparable in the hall earlier, I almost believed Palace Master Chang was a truly devoted person. Comparing the Palace Master to a dandy like He Lang or a thief of fragrance like Han Shou would be overestimating those two.”

After saying this, Lyu Shuyao was surprised to find that Jiang Zhiqing was nowhere to be seen. Chang Huichen didn’t bother to hide it anymore, admitting it quite openly: “Indeed, in my heart, I wish to be devoted, but this body of mine is fatally amorous.” He casually draped an arm over a female disciple’s shoulder. “I must watch the incense candles burn out every dawn and hear the joyous sounds of someone new every night, or else I become listless and physically drained.”

The excuses a scumbag uses for cheating are always nauseatingly “original.”

The one he was holding was Qinzhu—the girl who had explained the sword race to Su Cheyue earlier. Her oval face had turned as red as a lucky wedding egg, but being a newcomer and fearing Chang Huichen’s authority, she forced herself to stay silent, not daring to utter a word.

“Palace Master, something is wrong!” Someone rushed out from the hall in a panic. “The Eldest Senior Sister has fainted inside!”

Jiang Zhiqing fainted? While they were competing with swords??

The disciple clearly reported this to Chang Huichen, but the latter acted as if he didn’t care at all. Even Qinzhu beside him was more anxious than he was: “What happened to Senior Sister? Palace Master,” she struggled cautiously in Chang Huichen’s embrace, “Palace Master, please go see Senior Sister!”

Chang Huichen withdrew his arm and said indifferently, “What’s the panic? Your Senior Sister is just exhausted. Help her back to rest for a night and she’ll be fine.”

Right, after being tossed around by him in the main hall, she’s just ‘exhausted’…

Those who caught the subtext looked extremely awkward. Lyu Shuyao had intended to use Jiang Zhiqing as an excuse to block his unreasonable demand, but now it seemed that would be futile.

“What do you say, Second Young Master?” Chang Huichen didn’t even consider looking at the woman who had collapsed because of him; he kept his eyes fixed on Su Cheyue. “Are you willing to grant me this honor?”

Did he even need to ask? Of course not!

Su Cheyue’s fingers slid rapidly across the bamboo tablets like he was playing a zither, spelling out a few words for Lyu Shuyao. Lyu Shuyao didn’t even look; he rejected the offer immediately: “He is not willing.”

“I can see,” Chang Huichen’s fox-like eyes flickered with cunning. “The Second Young Master is using tablets to message you, right? The pits on those tablets shifted ten times—that represents at least ten characters. How many characters does ‘not willing’ take?”

He approached Lyu Shuyao and patted his shoulder like an elder to a junior: “At such a young age, you shouldn’t learn to lie.”

Standing together, the two of them looked like two beautiful peacocks facing off—except right now, one was fanning his tail and the other had his feathers standing on end.

Lyu Shuyao ground his teeth: “He said he’ll consider it.”

“Very well, that’s an honest answer. I believe it,” Chang Huichen said. “Give me your answer before nightfall, Second Young Master.”

The farcical welcoming banquet dispersed. Watching Lyu Shuyao push Su Cheyue away from the hall, Chang Huichen smiled with the confidence of a man who held all the cards. “Pass down the order: seal Zhuohua Palace immediately. This is a rare opportunity; don’t let them escape.”

…

The wooden wheelchair rolled over the fallen flowers in the valley, making a faint, scattered sound. Lyu Shuyao accompanied Su Cheyue through the multicolored flower trees for a while. Seeing the sun gradually sinking toward the west, he couldn’t help but speak first.

“What are you thinking?”

“You don’t actually want to agree to him, do you? Looking at him, who knows what outrageous things he might do. You—”

The tablets in Su Cheyue’s hand shifted their patterns: How much do you know about this Palace Master Chang?

Lyu Shuyao didn’t know much.

Aside from the name sounding familiar, his reputation for being profligate and lustful, and the fact that he eventually served as background fodder when Su Cheyue soloed the entire Zhuohua Palace, he didn’t remember the book mentioning a single word about this man’s life story.

Su Cheyue “spoke”: Decades ago, when my father and mother were still alive, no cultivation sect in the entire Huailing region was willing to settle here.

“Why?” Jiangnan is a place of poetry and painting; it’s clearly a land of auspicious feng shui!

Su Cheyue: Because Huailing is situated where the mountains are shady and the water is abundant; it lacks spiritual energy but has an excess of yin-cold. Peculiarly, among the long-term residents of Huailing, every household produces mostly girls; male heirs are scarce. Some say the environment shapes the people—that Huailing’s unique geography led to this abundance of women. Others say it’s because there are too many women that the feng shui became “Yin-prosperous and Yang-declining.” Legends about the women of Huailing are many and varied, but no answer has ever been found. Perhaps it is simply fate; perhaps there is no answer.

Then, at some point, Zhuohua Palace appeared out of nowhere in Huailing, becoming the first and, to this day, the only cultivation sect in the area. The Palace Master, Chang Huichen, with his shimmering red robes and peerless beauty, became famous overnight in a region where men were as rare as phoenix feathers. He became the dream lover of countless Huailing women. It just so happened that from its founding, Zhuohua Palace set a hard rule: it only recruits female disciples. No woman is turned away. Though outsiders call this the “most ridiculous recruitment system,” it was very effective for the women of Huailing.

Lyu Shuyao asked, “Why?”

Su Cheyue looked up: If you can’t even figure that out, you needn’t bother your brain looking for the Reward Order.

“Who said I can’t figure it out? I was just waiting for the Second Young Master to confirm it for me,” Lyu Shuyao defended himself. “Also, I already have a lead on the Reward Order.”

Su Cheyue: Is that so? Then tell me.

Lyu Shuyao said, “You said earlier that Huailing has heavy yin energy. Compared to other places, it must be easier for wandering demons and ghosts to run rampant here. Huailing must have suffered greatly from demonic interference.”

Half right. Su Cheyue spelled out: Huailing had many women and few men, and with no cultivation sects willing to station here, men who wanted to seek the Way had to leave their hometowns and travel to places like Yangshuo, Luzhou, or Penglai. Over time, those left in Huailing were mostly the elderly, children, and women. The yang energy grew weaker while the yin grew stronger, causing supernatural invasions to intensify—a vicious cycle.

Lyu Shuyao sighed. So even the cultivation world had “left-behind” elderly and children.

You and I both come from sect families; we should know that compared to men, it takes a hundred times more effort for a mortal woman to cultivate a spiritual core and break through to the Great Ascension stage. I don’t know what cultivation method Chang Huichen uses, but after Zhuohua Palace was established, the demons of Huailing all but vanished. Some say they were all destroyed by the palace; others say Chang Huichen subdued the various specters and monsters to serve under him. Because of this, almost all the women of Huailing were smitten by that red robe, willing to join Zhuohua Palace to cultivate and live under him.

Lyu Shuyao said, “Even if it’s the latter, these women still dared to enter the palace and get close to him?”

Women who enter Zhuohua Palace truly lose all contact with the outside world. Whether it’s heaven or hell inside, no one can say for sure. The situation for women in Huailing was already much worse than elsewhere, so for most, choosing Zhuohua Palace was simply a desperate attempt to grab onto a new straw in a dire situation—even if that straw couldn’t save their lives, even if it led them into a deeper abyss, they were willing to stake everything on a single throw.

Furthermore, that “straw” happens to look exceptionally stunning.

“Even so, he shouldn’t exploit the desperation of these women to take every disciple for his own! Fine, even if his charm is heavenly and he has a harem of beauties, he can’t go around making such bold, forceful demands of someone who is already married!”

Su Cheyue went silent for a moment: You know better than I why we are married.

Lyu Shuyao: “…”

Right. A sect alliance. The Lyu family was supposed to marry Lyu Qingcheng to Su Cheyue, but she backed out. To lower the Hatred Value, Lyu Shuyao chose to marry in her stead to take care of him.

At the end of the day, there was no “substantive” marital relationship.

…Still, no!

How could he let the noble and cold male protagonist be humiliated beneath someone else?? Su Cheyue was supposed to marry a “rich, beautiful lady” later, reach the pinnacle of life, and become the top tier of male-oriented webnovels! How could he be defiled halfway through!

He wouldn’t allow it!

After making a secret resolution, Lyu Shuyao continued: “You still haven’t told me why you agreed to the marriage with the Lyu family.”

Last time, his tongue slipped and he asked if Su Cheyue liked Lyu Qingcheng. Su Cheyue had given a vague “No” and nothing else.

Su Cheyue hesitated for a moment, then spelled out three characters: RECRUITING. SHADE. MAKEUP.

“I heard many people mention that term on the way here,” Lyu Shuyao asked. “What exactly is ‘Recruiting Shade’ makeup?”

Su Cheyue: A cosmetic technique invented by Zhuohua Palace. On the surface, it looks like ordinary makeup, but it can actually attract demons and ghosts within a hundred-mile radius. The reason Zhuohua Palace became so famous in just ten years is precisely because of this makeup and the Reward Order. Rumor has it that with one look at the makeup and one issuance of the Reward Order, Chang Huichen can summon countless ghosts, causing dark clouds to blot out the sun and turning day into night, striking terror into anyone who sees it.

What exactly does he want to do by summoning ghosts?

Lyu Shuyao had a sudden realization. “You are famous far and wide. To see you, the women of Huailing would rather paint themselves with this makeup and attract demons just so you would come and save them? But how would they know you’d be willing to come? The Baoshan Sect isn’t exactly the closest sect to here.”

Su Cheyue: Because my father came often.

Lyu Shuyao: “Su… Uncle Su used to come to Huailing often?”

Yes. Before Zhuohua Palace was founded, my father knew the situation in Huailing and kept an eye on it. Sometimes he would stay for half a year, confusing and repelling the majority of the demons, making them think a powerful immortal was stationed here so they wouldn’t dare invade, only leaving once they were gone.

Su Chen was a good man. But to emphasize Su Cheyue’s charm, the author came up with the “Recruiting Shade Makeup”—a vulgar setting that turned the male lead into a “femme fatale” (or male equivalent). It was… hard to watch.

Lyu Shuyao summarized: “So, to put these women’s hearts at ease, you chose to marry a lady from a great family to cut off their hopes, so they wouldn’t put themselves in danger with that makeup anymore.”

Su Cheyue: …Yes.

So, Su Cheyue was nearly thirty and still a pure young man with zero romantic experience!

Hahahaha!

Mock him! Mock him ruthlessly in his heart!

In his momentary joy, Lyu Shuyao forgot that he wasn’t much better—he had been “solo from the womb” for twenty years himself.

What is so funny that it’s written all over your face? Su Cheyue could even hear the cheerful breath escaping from him.

“Nothing, nothing.”

At that moment, a group of young girls came through the flowers and willows from deep in the valley, laughing and chatting.

“Do you think the Second Young Master will agree to the Palace Master?”

“I don’t think so. With Young Master Lyu by his side, how could he notice anyone else?”

“The Master is no worse than Young Master Lyu!”

“It’s not a matter of better or worse. Let me ask you: between the Second Young Master and Young Master Lyu, who is the husband and who is the wife?”

“Is that even a question? The Lyu family ‘married out,’ so Young Master Lyu is the wife!”

“Then if the Master and the Second Young Master are together, who is on top and who is on the bottom?”

“That…” The girl being questioned couldn’t answer.

“Can’t imagine it, right? Even if the Master likes both men and women, he wouldn’t be so desperate that he’d alternate between being the top and the bottom, right?”

“Stop it! Aren’t you ashamed to talk about such topics!” It was Qinzhu’s voice.

Parting a peach branch, they came face-to-face with Lyu and Su, and their voices cut off instantly.

“Greetings, Young Masters.”

The vibrant, pretty girls pushed and shoved each other, stealing glances at the two men.

Lyu Shuyao politely greeted them. Without further words, they quickly passed each other.

Girls always walk slowly when gossiping, allowing Lyu Shuyao and Su Cheyue to hide silently behind the flower trees and continue listening.

“If the Second Young Master really doesn’t agree, then tonight, will it be…”

“It’ll be Qinzhu!”

“Don’t talk nonsense!” Qinzhu said. “Why would it be me!”

“How could it not be you? The Master acted like that with you today; he’ll definitely summon you to his bedchamber tonight!”

What?? Is he an Emperor? Flipping name plaques for bed service?

“I—I can’t. I have to take care of Senior Sister Zhiqing…” Qinzhu stammered.

“Don’t you like the Palace Master?”

Qinzhu grew flustered: “Of course I like him! He took me in, taught me skills, and he’s so good-looking. How could I not like him?”

She paused for a moment, then added hesitantly, “But I like Senior Sister even more. She cares for us so much. If something really happened between me and the Master, she would be heartbroken.”

The disciple beside her laughed: “You’re worrying over nothing. Eldest Senior Sister is wise, kind, and gentle. When have you ever seen her lose her composure?”

“Speaking of which, Eldest Senior Sister entered the sect early. No one knows the story between her and the Master, right?”

One girl said, “What special story could there be?”

“There definitely is one. Otherwise, why would the Master dally with so many people, yet choose her as his most trusted confidante? I heard the Master even took her brother into Zhuohua Palace as a sweeping disciple because of her. You know Zhuohua Palace never takes male disciples! The Master even broke that iron-clad rule for her…”

They were chatting enthusiastically, and Lyu Shuyao and Su Cheyue were listening intently under the trees. What was a peaceful, flower-filled afternoon was suddenly interrupted by a sharp “shink”—the sound of a sword piercing the air—followed by the screams of women.