Transmigrated as the Villainous Love Rival of the Abusive Novel's Heroine [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Misinterpretation

“The body of a young lady, but the fate of a maid.” Upon waking again, Yun Qianxue was met with a blunt scolding from Yin Shaoqing.

“I knew you were stupid, but I didn’t expect you to be stupid enough to try digging Star Salt with an iron pickaxe.” Yin Shaoqing sat by the table, her dark eyes filled with sheer exasperation.

Star Salt was a forging material used in weapon refinement; it could polish away at least thirty percent of the impurities in a spiritual tool. It was a rare prize sought after by master refiners.

And the Zhoutian Pavilion lacked for nothing in this regard—even the brooms used for sweeping were forged with Star Salt.

Yun Qianxue had spent her past life entirely devoted to her Senior Brother. As for exotic weapons or precious treasures, she simply handed over whatever her father gave her to Pan Yang. She had no idea what Star Salt was.

“It is because this junior’s learning is shallow.” Her thin face flushed slightly; Yun Qianxue felt quite embarrassed.

Not only did she fail to recognize the Star Salt, but she had acted recklessly and… and had been carried back to the room by this woman.

“So you do know?” Yin Shaoqing turned around, glancing sideways at the frail person leaning on the bed. She said coldly, “This Seat did not keep you here to enjoy a life of leisure.”

If she couldn’t even handle carrying salt, what else could she do?

Yun Qianxue’s fingertips trembled. She let out two low coughs, her pale lips pressed tight, at a loss for words.

She actually didn’t understand why this Senior Yin had kept her, or what the woman wanted her to do.

In the past, she had been left by her Senior Brother with other female cultivators, but those people only knew how to humiliate her. They said filthy things that made her angry. But as time passed and it happened more often, she learned to stop caring.

“What does Senior want this junior to do?” What do you want?

No humiliation, no beating or scolding; Yun Qianxue only felt a strange sensation in her heart.

“Fix up your body and empty the salt lake.” The arrangements after that would be discussed later.

Yin Shaoqing finished speaking, then frowned, looking slightly puzzled. “Did Jiameng not tell you these words?”

Yun Qianxue answered honestly, “She did.”

She told you, yet you’re asking a second time?

Yin Shaoqing rolled her eyes imperceptibly. What kind of memory is this? Is she a mouse? Forgetting as soon as she drops her paws! Truly!

The black outer robe with gold patterns made Yin Shaoqing appear incredibly cold. With the Tiangang Sword hanging at her side, she looked even more dangerous.

However, that small gesture of exasperation was captured by the observant Yun Qianxue. She reflexively tightened her grip.

This person… is actually a bit cute?

“Since you’re awake, don’t just lie there. Get back to work.” If one cannot endure the bitterest of hardships, how can one become a person above others?

Yin Shaoqing only knew that the female lead’s sickly body needed intense exercise. Otherwise, a gust of wind would blow her over how could she then slap the scumbag across the face?

“Alright,” Yun Qianxue sighed. The ‘cute’ thing was definitely an illusion.

But as she intended to get out of bed, she suddenly realized… uh, who had wrapped her hands into “zongzi” (sticky rice dumplings)?

Unwinding the messy cloth bandages, she found not a single wound on her hands; the places that had been worn raw were completely healed.

Yun Qianxue looked up again to find the woman, but she was the only one left in the Lotus River Dock.

From afar, Jiameng’s voice calling her to work drifted in from outside. If not for that lingering scent of peach blossoms, Yun Qianxue would have truly thought she was hallucinating.

She pressed her palm; it was a bit itchy.

Yun Qianxue pursed her lips. It was really a bit itchy, carrying a faint itch into her heart as well.

“Oho, look who’s back~” As soon as Yin Shaoqing returned to her room, the fat civet cat began its sarcasm. “Who was the one who said they wouldn’t care if the female lead lived or died?”

The fat civet lazily flipped over, letting the sunlight hit the fur on its other side, feeling warm and toasty.

“What, are you feeling soft-hearted?”

“Hmph, why would I feel soft-hearted?” Yin Shaoqing sneered with disdain. “If I weren’t looking at her like”

“Like the tiny kitten you raised, you wouldn’t bother with her.” The fat civet cut her off, its hind paw scratching its ear, saying dismissively: “I’ve heard this enough to be sick of it. Can’t you come up with a different excuse?”

This time, it was Yin Shaoqing’s turn to be silent.

The evening glow filled the room with golden light, the faint radiance blurring the ink-black of Yin Shaoqing’s hair thick and complex, much like her thoughts.

Peach blossoms drifted into the Kuixing Pavilion one after another. Without that heartless person to brush them away, a petal boldly shook itself down onto those pale, porcelain hands.

Pink petals, pale fingertips such a sharp contrast, it was glaring.

“Hey… are, are you alright?” The long silence in the room made the fat civet a bit nervous. It felt like it might have said something it shouldn’t have.

Yin Shaoqing’s finger flicked lightly, and the peach blossom was brushed aside. When she looked up again, her bright eyes were as calm as still water.

“What could be wrong with me?”

She stepped forward and caught the fat civet that was trying to run, giving it a vigorous rub. She held those two meaty paws and squeezed them back and forth, mocking: “Besides, your mouth has been blabbering for more than a day or two. What good words could possibly come out of it?”

She had long since grown used to it.

The system yowled as it was being petted, wishing it could give her two scratches! Unfortunately, it couldn’t win. Meow-hu-hu…

The struggling fat civet did not see the cold flash passing through Yin Shaoqing’s half-lowered eyes.

She would not leave the masochistic novel female lead to her own devices, especially since she was still “savable.”

And the “savable” Yun Qianxue was currently chatting with Jiameng in a place she couldn’t see.

Jiameng, who had promised herself not to talk to the Righteous Path, was so stimulated by her Exalted One’s “two-faced” behavior that she wanted nothing more than to expose Yin Shaoqing’s true colors.

She wanted this girl that Yin Shaoqing cared about to go pick a fight with her—ideally a situation where both sides lost. Even if Yun Qianxue couldn’t win, Jiameng would feel satisfied if the girl just said some nasty words!

“Do you know that the bottom of this lake is the Zhoutian Star Array? It was laid by a Black-grade Array Master. As long as the array exists, the water will never run dry. Do you really think the Exalted One is being good to you? That she gave you an easy job?”

Jiameng angrily snapped at the Star Salt in her hand as if she were hitting a wooden dummy.

“I don’t.” To be honest, before Jiameng told her, she didn’t think Yin Shaoqing had sent her to carry salt for her own good.

In her eyes, this was just another form of bullying. But fundamentally, it was a bit different from humiliation. At the very least, the woman hadn’t torn away her dignity and trampled it underfoot.

“Are you stupid?” Jiameng’s eyes widened, her helplessness reaching ten thousand percent.

She said loudly: “Do you not realize that there are very few things in this world that the Zhoutian Pavilion cannot find out?”

“The Exalted One knew from the start that your spiritual root was taken and that you’re now a waste who is inferior to an ordinary person. That’s why she made you carry salt—to humiliate you.”

“Can’t you see? This is blatantly saying: Look, you are a useless piece of trash!”

Jiameng wished she could pry open Yun Qianxue’s head to see if it was stuffed with cotton. How could she be so foolishly unperceptive?

Yun Qianxue had no mind to pay attention to her; her entire focus was now on the phrase “no news that the Zhoutian Pavilion doesn’t know.”

So, that person also knew that she had entered the Star Fortune Dao and studied the Gate of Arrays?

The reason Yun Qianxue could remain by Pan Yang’s side for so long after becoming a “waste” was partly because of her mastery of arrays. Although she could no longer lay an array herself, she could guide an outsider like Pan Yang to set up arrays of moderate power.

So… could this be considered that person’s… favoritism?

No, no, no. Yun Qianxue sneered in her heart. What am I thinking?

Perhaps Senior Yin just needed her to decipher arrays. After all, Array Masters are extremely scarce in this era.

Recalling those two warm embraces and the cloth bandages on her hands, Yun Qianxue lowered her brows.

Since the woman didn’t humiliate her and treated her as a human being, what did carrying salt matter?

“If I finish clearing the salt by the lake, is that the only way to get close to that bridge?” Yun Qianxue pointed to the bridge leading directly to the pavilion in the middle of the lake, asking Jiameng, who was still grumbling and complaining.

“Yeah,” Jiameng replied, confused. “What, you want to go there?”

“Yes.” Yun Qianxue nodded. She wanted to see the array sooner.

Thus, she stood up, took the specialized Star Salt clearing tool Jiameng had brought her, and went to work with a hint of cheerfulness.

Jiameng: “???”

What the hell? Does that mean everything I just said was for nothing?!

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