When The Scheming Female Supporting Character Is Forced To Seduce The Female Lead - Chapter 21

This was why Zhao Qingdai, despite having access to the plot, had been reluctant to read it. The original text delved too deeply into the romantic development between the male and female leads, making it too immersive for a character living within the story. It made her fists clench with frustration.

But now she had no choice but to read it. Maintaining her reluctance, she forced herself to continue, feeling utterly miserable.

After finally finishing the plot summary, she took a deep breath and began listing the differences and similarities between reality and the novel.

The scenes where Du Jingmo defended Zhao Qingdai multiple times, as well as the online harassment, were naturally absent from the original text. These were new plot twists that had developed later, but they were merely superficial changes to the core narrative.

In the original story, Du Jingmo and Gu Cheng had already reached an ambiguous stage in their relationship. The novel vividly captured the atmosphere of pink bubbles and romantic tension, yet neither dared to take the next step. It was then that Zhao Qingdai made her move.

Through her meticulous planning, Zhao Qingdai orchestrated a scene where Du Jingmo witnessed the two behaving intimately. Proud and disdainful, she refused to confront Gu Cheng directly. Confused and unaware of what he’d done wrong, Gu Cheng found Du Jingmo suddenly distancing herself from him.

As a vicious female supporting character who had never succeeded before, Zhao Qingdai’s scheme was designed to force the couple through a cycle of conflict and reconciliation, ultimately deepening their bond.

Now that Zhao Qingdai, the emotional catalyst, was gone, the plot had to work incredibly hard to spark romance between two people who barely interacted. The story escalated the conflict to a corporate crisis level, bypassing the petty schemes of a vicious female supporting character.

After listing everything out, Zhao Qingdai wore her disdain plainly on her face. “Sister doesn’t even like that man, yet the plot keeps pushing her toward him. Why does this storyline feel more villainous than anything I’ve done?”

The System’s comically serious face appeared. “Although that’s true, I must correct you: you’re just a vicious female supporting character. The true villain of this novel isn’t you.”

Zhao Qingdai: “…My apologies. I overestimated myself.”

The novel’s proper villain was Lu Anshi, who publicly presented himself as a high-ranking executive at a rising corporation—a highly educated talent returned from overseas study.

In reality, he was an illegitimate son seeking revenge, his identity and background entirely fabricated. Yet his professional success was genuine. He debuted in the latter half of the story, when Zhao Qingdai alone could no longer drive the plot forward, and he entered as a new character.

Having already established himself as the villain, and with the backstory of being a love child, it naturally followed that he was Gu Cheng’s younger brother. With a vicious female supporting character and a villainous male supporting character orbiting the male and female leads, they carried the weight of driving the plot forward.

“Du Corporation’s troubles usually don’t arise until much later in the novel. Why has it been moved up so suddenly?” Zhao Qingdai rested her chin in her hands, her expression filled with worry. “Could it be that my absence has such a profound impact on the story? I need to do something.”

The System was about to smugly remark, Finally, she’s got it! when Zhao Qingdai’s next words turned its comical face into a mask of horror.

“Or maybe I should just follow the original plot and seduce Gu Cheng. Even though he’s a bit annoying to look at, I can endure it for Sister’s sake.”

“Stop that reckless thought!” the System exclaimed in alarm. “You’re a person now, you understand? You’ve already become a person! The worldline will automatically fill in the gaps now. You don’t need to push the plot forward anymore. Just live your life!”

Zhao Qingdai sighed softly, patting the System’s comical face twice in a cat-like motion. “Thank you,” she said sincerely.

The System had become increasingly adept at spouting clichés, a far cry from its original form.

She hadn’t even said anything, and it had already revealed the crucial information.

In the novel, the two characters driving the plot are Zhao Qingdai and Lu Anshi. If no new characters have emerged, then the one causing trouble right now must be him.

This male antagonist was different from her. She was merely a love-struck fool in the story, while he had his own career path, focusing solely on causing trouble—his primary goal being to retaliate against the Gu family, particularly Gu Cheng, without any romantic entanglements.

Emotions would only hinder his revenge.

Zhao Qingdai had previously focused solely on Gu Cheng, the male lead, and ignored the antagonist because he had a grudge only against Gu Cheng, with no connection to Du Jingmo whatsoever.

But now that he had appeared early to stir up trouble and even targeted Du Jingmo, the situation had completely changed.

“Why has your Blackening Value skyrocketed? What are you planning?” The System instantly sounded alarms. “I’m going to shock you! I really am! I’m about to shock you!”

The last time Zhao Qingdai’s Blackening Value fluctuated so wildly was because of Gu Cheng. Even when she saw Zhang Xinlan after years apart and her face paled, the reaction hadn’t been this extreme.

“Calm down,” Zhao Qingdai said, her thoughts already settling and the value returning to normal. “I’ve only considered causing trouble. I haven’t actually acted on it yet. What are you so afraid of?”

She had already roughly figured out how the Blackening Value worked.

Simply put: whenever she wanted to cause trouble, the Blackening Value would fluctuate. The bigger the trouble she wanted to cause, the more violently the value would fluctuate.

Last time, she wanted to make Gu Cheng, the male lead, disappear entirely. This time, she was focusing her attention on the villainous male supporting character.

As for Zhang Xinlan… she was just a character existing only in the background setting. Zhao Qingdai couldn’t influence her much.

[ The System: ] “I think you’re being a bit disrespectful. Are you calling me a ‘chicken’ right in front of me?”

Zhao Qingdai locked and password-protected the plot outline she had written in her memo. Though she joked, her brow remained furrowed, her worries unresolved.

“Damn it, after realizing the world I live in is just a book, I’ve grown indifferent to many things. But I have my limits.” She spoke with unprecedented seriousness. “Sister is my limit.”

The System remained silent for a long time, taking a long moment to process her words before finally asking: “…What did you just call me?”

“What the hell?! That’s so ugly! Is the dignity of the System to be trampled underfoot like this?”

Zhao Qingdai: “…You’re amazing.”

The System’s ability to grasp the main points was now on par with hers.

She had no time to soothe a sullen, comical head. The priority now was how to tell Du Jingmo that Gu Cheng had a younger brother who was lost and was causing trouble.

She and Gu Cheng and Lu Anshi should never have crossed paths in the first place, let alone know so much about them.

What made it worse was that she couldn’t easily go out lately, lest she be followed and expose Du Jingmo’s current address, attracting the media and gawkers.

“So annoying.” She tugged at her hair and flopped back onto the bed.

As fellow tools to advance the plot, why did the male villainous supporting character get such a badass backstory? She was stuck endlessly circling around romance, and now she’d been preemptively outmaneuvered, forced to wait for the online storm to subside before she could even leave the house.

The more she thought about it, the more frustrated she became. She rolled over, grabbed her phone, and opened Weibo to search for news about Du Jingmo.

When they’d checked earlier, the hashtag #Young Lady Du Jingmo of the Sino-German Corporation# was still marked with a “hot” tag. Now it only showed “trending.” A clarification post had to be decisive, hitting the target with one shot and leaving no room for counterarguments. The Du family was still preparing and had already begun suppressing the trending topic.

Lu Anshi’s motives remained a mystery, but he was indeed working to suppress the Du family’s online presence.

While the online fervor could be contained, Zhao Qingdai’s fury burned unchecked.

The rumors and venom directed at Du Jingmo online were enough to make her seethe with anger every time she read them, and she knew she would feel the same way for decades to come.

Juggling multiple accounts, Zhao Qingdai unleashed a barrage of scathing retorts whenever she encountered anyone spewing uninformed nonsense. She fought multiple opponents simultaneously, seamlessly switching between accounts without missing a beat. At one point, her messages failed to send due to excessive use of banned keywords.

The System hesitated, as if wanting to speak but ultimately deciding to remain silent.

In the end, Zhao Qingdai’s accounts were reported en masse, resulting in mutes ranging from seventy-two hours to permanent bans. Stripped of her digital battleground, she buried her face in her pillow and grumbled, “Resorting to reports when you can’t win? What kind of elementary school behavior is this? Have some guts and face me head-on! Young people these days have no honor!”

Du Jingmo’s voice, tinged with amusement, drifted through the air: “Perhaps your combat prowess is simply too overwhelming. They’d be dead from anger if they didn’t report you.”

Zhao Qingdai instantly flipped over, launching herself off the bed with a swift, hawk-like motion.

Du Jingmo stood by her bed. Zhao Qingdai moved too quickly and too forcefully, giving Du Jingmo no time to dodge. She collided headfirst into Du Jingmo.

Du Jingmo hissed in pain, rubbing her shoulder and chest. “What a hammer.”

How brutal.

“I didn’t mean it!” Zhao Qingdai knew her collision had been forceful. She hurried to massage the spot she’d hit, asking anxiously, “Does it hurt? Was it here?”

Du Jingmo glanced at the hand resting on her chest, speechless. If not for Zhao Qingdai’s utterly sincere expression, she’d have suspected it was deliberate.

After receiving no response, Zhao Qingdai looked up in concern. Following Du Jingmo’s gaze downward, her eyes landed on her own hand pressed against Du Jingmo’s chest. Her pupils trembled.

Silence was her only refuge now.

She silently withdrew her hand and tucked it behind her back, her mind racing frantically, unable to conjure even a single word of explanation. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess, stirring only to become more muddled. The words “So soft” swirled in her mind, rendered in ornate, golden letters.

Du Jingmo poked Zhao Qingdai’s forehead and chuckled, “You seem so timid now, but weren’t you viciously flaming people online just now?”

For at least ten minutes, Zhao Qingdai had secretly observed Qingdai switching between multiple accounts to argue with different people, never repeating a single insult.

At that moment, only one thought crossed her mind: “Xiu’er, is that you?”

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