Chapter 1: Devote yourself as a villain
“Knock, knock.”
The trembling sound of knocking on the door blended into the chirping cicadas of summer. Mu Jin dizzily rubbed her eyes and lowered her head to look at the dark blue official robe she was wearing. There was a strange dullness in her chest and she reached out to touch it, only to encounter a thick layer of fabric. What was this thing? It looked like the breast wraps women disguising as men in TV dramas used.
“Mu… Chief Steward Mu… are you there?”
A small voice was heard from outside the door. Mu Jin had no time to think and instinctively replied: “Come in.”
After speaking, she felt a little wrong and her face stiffened. She hid her hands in the wide sleeves of her costume and tried to show a cold expression.
In the next few seconds, she briefly looked at her surroundings and at the antique furniture laid out in an exquisite and orderly manner. Everything was spotless and she understood it was the world the self-proclaimed system had previously described.
She had bound something called a qualified supporting character development system, which had let her travel to the world of the novel she had just finished reading “Falling in love with you through time and space”. She was to play the role of the villain boss, the head eunuch Mu Jinwen, and as long as she completed all the randomly assigned missions of protecting the safety of the main characters, one of her wishes would be realized. And for this wish, Mu Jin had accepted the task.
She had grown up well-behaved and obedient and had been the kind of person who would help the elderly cross the road. Unlike her, the original Mu Jinwen was a villain. His real identity was the prince of the Hu tribe of the neighboring country Xiqiang and he had been ordered to infiltrate the Great Yan as a child. Unfortunately, Xiqiang had been destroyed when the Emperor was only fourteen years old and since then, only hatred had remained in his heart.
Mu Jingwen stirred up the storm for the whole plot, relying on the male lead Emperor Yu Wenrui’s trust and indulgence in him to confuse the protagonists and disrupt the dynasty, until the final confrontation when the conspiracy was exposed.
Mu Jin didn’t know how far the plot had progressed but as she was still standing in her room, alive and well, she should have not gone against the hero just yet. As she was lost in thought, the door opened and a young eunuch with his head bowed came in.
As soon as the little eunuch entered the room, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed. Shaking, he took a glance at Mu Jin’s demure and beautiful face; her bottomless eyes were as dark as ink and her gaze was cold and bleak.
“Chief Steward Mu, the court lady you ordered us to teach a lesson to just now has been struggling. She even… to… to you… she even spoke badly of you… Eunuch Zhang asked me to come to ask for further instructions.”
The little eunuch acted like he was afraid that anything he would say would arouse Mu Jin’s anger and he bowed his head even lower as soon as he finished speaking.
Mu Jin: “…” Was she really that scary?
However, the situation sounded familiar. The court lady who was being beaten, Eunuch Zhang… Dammit! Wasn’t this the scene where the two leads first met?
The heroine Duan Rongrong had traveled back to the fictional Yan Dynasty where she had become a court lady with the same name as her. After deliberate difficulties from the head eunuch, she had met the hero, Emperor Yu Wenrui of the Great Yan. And it turned out Mu Jin was now this eunuch.
[Ding! Temporary task: Save the heroine who is getting beaten to death. Reward: Voice changing card. Time limit: Three days. If the mission fails, the host will be electrocuted for ten minutes.]
The cheerful electronic tone of the system sounded and Mu Jin’s first side mission in this world was released.
Her pupils shrank slightly. Why was she being beaten to death? Where was the hero? The first scene already did not follow the plot, would she be able to maintain it in the future?
The well-behaved Mu Jin was already angry at her “colleagues”’ irreverent attitude. With a wave of her hand, she knocked the teacup off the table. It broke on the ground in a crisp sound and the little eunuch kowtowed again.
“No… Ah. Chief Steward Mu is merciful, Chief Steward Mu, please spare my life…”
“Go.” Mu Jin gritted her teeth and spit out one word. This rubbish heroine was really going to die!
Mu Jin rushed forward and strode past the little eunuch. Her expression was dark and terrifying, and all the court ladies and eunuchs retreated and bowed their heads as she walked.
The reason Mu Jinwen had survived the destruction of his country was to get revenge and he had absolutely no empathy for other human beings. Now that he had ordered the heroine to be taught a lesson and that the hero appeared to be unreliable, the situation was bleak.
Mu Jin anxiously arrived at the back of the eunuch’s office and heard a few hoarse shouts mixed with curses before she could get close; it was the voice of a girl and Mu Jin accelerated her pace.
As soon as she passed the corner, she saw a girl in a pink skirt lying on a bench. She was screaming, whip marks were on her body and blood flowed down her skirt to the ground. The girl was almost out of breath but she refused to stop talking and astonishing curses spat out of her mouth, all directed to Mu Jinwen.
Before Mu Jin could do anything, another eunuch with a stern look in his eyes ordered: “How dare you! Add ten more whips!”
The eunuch holding the whip was grinning. He raised the thick material in his hand high and as he was about to hit her—
“Stop!”
A feminine and anxious voice sounded and before anyone could react, Mu Jin had rushed to the heroine. The whip was about to touch her bruised body and without thinking about it, Mu Jin stretched out her white and slender hand and grabbed the weapon.
This whip had been specially made to punish and torture sinners. The rough and thick material was full of sharp barbs and Mu Jin felt pain coming from her palm. The blood of the heroine and hers mixed together at it slowly fell down her arm but her face remained expressionless.
Her dark gaze swept on the audience and fell on the weak heroine Duan Rongrong, who had tilted her head to look at her.
Mu Jin’s figure was straight and delicate, and her pale but beautiful face had been splashed with a string of blood. Against her cold and dark phoenix eyes, her exquisite appearance was particularly stunning. Everyone looked at her in shock and except for the weak breathing of the heroine and the sound of blood dripping on the ground, the entire space fell into eerie silence.
The young eunuch holding the whip took a step forward and quickly let it go. When he realized it was Mu Jinwen, he fell to the ground in fear.
Mu Jin slowly exhaled under the pressure, annoyed she could not tend to her wounded hand right away. But before she could soothe her anger, everybody looked behind her at the same time and a bad feeling spread in her heart.
“What happened here?”
A voice full of majesty sounded from the corner and a golden figure walked from behind a tree and the pair of sharp and deep eyes on his handsome face seemed to be able to see through people’s souls. Although a little later than expected, the hero Yu Wenrui had appeared as the plot had said.
The indescribable pressure made Mu Jin nervous but the pain coming from her hand still holding the whip sobered her up. Her eyebrows showed her reassurance the plot had not deviated too much and she kneeled down along everybody and saluted in a somewhat deflated manner.
“Long live the Emperor.”
The bright yellow figure slowly stepped forward in silence and everybody cowered under his pressure. Yet Mu Jin remained motionless, glancing from the corner of her eyes at the young eunuch who had just ordered ten more lashes; his head was pressed particularly low but not in a deferential manner. When Mu Jin looked back up, a pair of heavy wooden boots with black and gold embroidery stopped in front of her, and a paragraph of the novel appeared in her mind.
Despite the heavy lashes, the girl’s eyes were still bright and stubborn. The surging vividness that did not exist in the palace moved Yu Wenrui’s heart and before he could stop himself, he walked over to ask about her punishment.
Duan Rongrong did not timidly raise her head but looked directly at him. Her body was swaying under the pain and as she realized what the identity of the man in front of her was, she struggled to get up and salute, but fell straight at the feet of the Emperor of the Great Yan.
This had been the first encounter between the two protagonists and Mu Jinwen had not been part of this scene. Her expression remained unchanged, but her heart became anxious.
Mu Jinwen had been working for Yu Wenrui back when he was still an imperial son. Although he had trusted him very much and even allowed him to produce clouds with one turn of the hand and rain with another1 with a bizarre indulgence, he had only really been using him in the early stages.
It hadn’t been until Mu Jinwen had desperately saved his life that they had sort of became friends and the damage Mu Jinwen had caused him in the end had been even greater.
Now that she had stepped in to save the heroine, Mu Jin wondered if she had aroused the Emperor’s suspicion.
She was thinking about that when she felt a shadow over her head. Someone held her elbow and helped her stand up, while another hand touched the one that was still holding the whip. Yu Wenrui’s appearance had been so sudden she had forgotten to put it down and the bards were still deeply rooted in her flesh. The pain she felt as she moved made her frown.
“Jinwen is too impulsive.” The emperor’s voice was warm and steady, “A simple slave, why hurt yourself for her.”
Mu Jin: Wait… the plot doesn’t seem quite right.
Shouldn’t the male lead be attracted to the stubbornness of the heroine? Shouldn’t he feel so distressed he would carry her back to his bedroom? Shouldn’t they talk for the first time?
Mu Jin glanced at the heroine who was still laying on the bench like a dead fish. Worried, she forgot to reply to Yu Wenrui’s words.
The emperor also followed her gaze and looked at the wounded girl. No spark or love at first sight appeared in his expression but he coldly ordered: “Don’t you have eyes? This slave made a mistake, why is she still there?”
“Your Majesty! Spare our lives! Your majesty, this slave will deal with it right away.”
A group of young eunuchs began to slap their faces frantically and got up on shaking legs. One held the arms of the heroine and the other the feet and it looked as if they were getting ready to throw her directly into a mass grave.
Mu Jin was shocked. Scum! That’s your heroine!
“Your Majesty, please wait!” Against the oppressive gaze, she put on a stiff smile, “Your Majesty, please forgive this slave’s sins. This girl does not deserve to die and this slave could not bear to see a flower-like her wither. This slave did not expect he would hinder Your Majesty’s eyes.”
All the people around lowered their heads even more and no one dared say it had been her order in the first place.
Yan Wenrui’s inquiring eyes looked at her and he reached out his hand to touch her smiling face, pausing slightly as he wiped away the dried blood on her cheek with his thumb.
The upright and handsome Emperor of this Dynasty was still holding her wounded palm in one hand, and the wide sleeve around the other half covered Mu Jin’s delicate face. From an outsider’s point of view, it looked as if he was embracing her, yet gave a slightly sorrowful feeling.
Mu Jin was a little surprised. Yu Wenrui’s hands were hot but she only felt numb coldness as he touched her skin. A subtle chill spread along her spine and she couldn’t sense the tender sentiments he seemed to show.
Why was he doing that to a eunuch? Could it be that she needed to sacrifice2 herself for this mission?
TL note: The novel is a historical fiction with a made-up dynasty slightly based on real History and was written by the same author as I attacked because I was afraid of death. The genre this time is “struggling with the system every day when it gives dumb tasks” and romance, although really, Mu Jin is in over her head and doesn’t really know how (or want) to deal with these novel characters.
This may be confusing at first but Mu Jin is female, both in her past life and in the current one. The fact that Mu Jinwen was a woman from the very beginning was known only from her, and not even the original author and the readers were aware of it. Hence why the Mu Jinwen in the novel is always referred to as “he”. And as he is a eunuch, our main character is not particularly shocked to feel nothing between her legs and has not realized yet she was still female.
Chapter 1: Devote yourself as a villain
“Knock, knock.”
The trembling sound of knocking on the door blended into the chirping cicadas of summer. Mu Jin dizzily rubbed her eyes and lowered her head to look at the dark blue official robe she was wearing. There was a strange dullness in her chest and she reached out to touch it, only to encounter a thick layer of fabric. What was this thing? It looked like the breast wraps women disguising as men in TV dramas used.
“Mu… Chief Steward Mu… are you there?”
A small voice was heard from outside the door. Mu Jin had no time to think and instinctively replied: “Come in.”
After speaking, she felt a little wrong and her face stiffened. She hid her hands in the wide sleeves of her costume and tried to show a cold expression.
In the next few seconds, she briefly looked at her surroundings and at the antique furniture laid out in an exquisite and orderly manner. Everything was spotless and she understood it was the world the self-proclaimed system had previously described.
She had bound something called a qualified supporting character development system, which had let her travel to the world of the novel she had just finished reading “Falling in love with you through time and space”. She was to play the role of the villain boss, the head eunuch Mu Jinwen, and as long as she completed all the randomly assigned missions of protecting the safety of the main characters, one of her wishes would be realized. And for this wish, Mu Jin had accepted the task.
She had grown up well-behaved and obedient and had been the kind of person who would help the elderly cross the road. Unlike her, the original Mu Jinwen was a villain. His real identity was the prince of the Hu tribe of the neighboring country Xiqiang and he had been ordered to infiltrate the Great Yan as a child. Unfortunately, Xiqiang had been destroyed when the Emperor was only fourteen years old and since then, only hatred had remained in his heart.
Mu Jingwen stirred up the storm for the whole plot, relying on the male lead Emperor Yu Wenrui’s trust and indulgence in him to confuse the protagonists and disrupt the dynasty, until the final confrontation when the conspiracy was exposed.
Mu Jin didn’t know how far the plot had progressed but as she was still standing in her room, alive and well, she should have not gone against the hero just yet. As she was lost in thought, the door opened and a young eunuch with his head bowed came in.
As soon as the little eunuch entered the room, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed. Shaking, he took a glance at Mu Jin’s demure and beautiful face; her bottomless eyes were as dark as ink and her gaze was cold and bleak.
“Chief Steward Mu, the court lady you ordered us to teach a lesson to just now has been struggling. She even… to… to you… she even spoke badly of you… Eunuch Zhang asked me to come to ask for further instructions.”
The little eunuch acted like he was afraid that anything he would say would arouse Mu Jin’s anger and he bowed his head even lower as soon as he finished speaking.
Mu Jin: “…” Was she really that scary?
However, the situation sounded familiar. The court lady who was being beaten, Eunuch Zhang… Dammit! Wasn’t this the scene where the two leads first met?
The heroine Duan Rongrong had traveled back to the fictional Yan Dynasty where she had become a court lady with the same name as her. After deliberate difficulties from the head eunuch, she had met the hero, Emperor Yu Wenrui of the Great Yan. And it turned out Mu Jin was now this eunuch.
[Ding! Temporary task: Save the heroine who is getting beaten to death. Reward: Voice changing card. Time limit: Three days. If the mission fails, the host will be electrocuted for ten minutes.]
The cheerful electronic tone of the system sounded and Mu Jin’s first side mission in this world was released.
Her pupils shrank slightly. Why was she being beaten to death? Where was the hero? The first scene already did not follow the plot, would she be able to maintain it in the future?
The well-behaved Mu Jin was already angry at her “colleagues”’ irreverent attitude. With a wave of her hand, she knocked the teacup off the table. It broke on the ground in a crisp sound and the little eunuch kowtowed again.
“No… Ah. Chief Steward Mu is merciful, Chief Steward Mu, please spare my life…”
“Go.” Mu Jin gritted her teeth and spit out one word. This rubbish heroine was really going to die!
Mu Jin rushed forward and strode past the little eunuch. Her expression was dark and terrifying, and all the court ladies and eunuchs retreated and bowed their heads as she walked.
The reason Mu Jinwen had survived the destruction of his country was to get revenge and he had absolutely no empathy for other human beings. Now that he had ordered the heroine to be taught a lesson and that the hero appeared to be unreliable, the situation was bleak.
Mu Jin anxiously arrived at the back of the eunuch’s office and heard a few hoarse shouts mixed with curses before she could get close; it was the voice of a girl and Mu Jin accelerated her pace.
As soon as she passed the corner, she saw a girl in a pink skirt lying on a bench. She was screaming, whip marks were on her body and blood flowed down her skirt to the ground. The girl was almost out of breath but she refused to stop talking and astonishing curses spat out of her mouth, all directed to Mu Jinwen.
Before Mu Jin could do anything, another eunuch with a stern look in his eyes ordered: “How dare you! Add ten more whips!”
The eunuch holding the whip was grinning. He raised the thick material in his hand high and as he was about to hit her—
“Stop!”
A feminine and anxious voice sounded and before anyone could react, Mu Jin had rushed to the heroine. The whip was about to touch her bruised body and without thinking about it, Mu Jin stretched out her white and slender hand and grabbed the weapon.
This whip had been specially made to punish and torture sinners. The rough and thick material was full of sharp barbs and Mu Jin felt pain coming from her palm. The blood of the heroine and hers mixed together at it slowly fell down her arm but her face remained expressionless.
Her dark gaze swept on the audience and fell on the weak heroine Duan Rongrong, who had tilted her head to look at her.
Mu Jin’s figure was straight and delicate, and her pale but beautiful face had been splashed with a string of blood. Against her cold and dark phoenix eyes, her exquisite appearance was particularly stunning. Everyone looked at her in shock and except for the weak breathing of the heroine and the sound of blood dripping on the ground, the entire space fell into eerie silence.
The young eunuch holding the whip took a step forward and quickly let it go. When he realized it was Mu Jinwen, he fell to the ground in fear.
Mu Jin slowly exhaled under the pressure, annoyed she could not tend to her wounded hand right away. But before she could soothe her anger, everybody looked behind her at the same time and a bad feeling spread in her heart.
“What happened here?”
A voice full of majesty sounded from the corner and a golden figure walked from behind a tree and the pair of sharp and deep eyes on his handsome face seemed to be able to see through people’s souls. Although a little later than expected, the hero Yu Wenrui had appeared as the plot had said.
The indescribable pressure made Mu Jin nervous but the pain coming from her hand still holding the whip sobered her up. Her eyebrows showed her reassurance the plot had not deviated too much and she kneeled down along everybody and saluted in a somewhat deflated manner.
“Long live the Emperor.”
The bright yellow figure slowly stepped forward in silence and everybody cowered under his pressure. Yet Mu Jin remained motionless, glancing from the corner of her eyes at the young eunuch who had just ordered ten more lashes; his head was pressed particularly low but not in a deferential manner. When Mu Jin looked back up, a pair of heavy wooden boots with black and gold embroidery stopped in front of her, and a paragraph of the novel appeared in her mind.
Despite the heavy lashes, the girl’s eyes were still bright and stubborn. The surging vividness that did not exist in the palace moved Yu Wenrui’s heart and before he could stop himself, he walked over to ask about her punishment.
Duan Rongrong did not timidly raise her head but looked directly at him. Her body was swaying under the pain and as she realized what the identity of the man in front of her was, she struggled to get up and salute, but fell straight at the feet of the Emperor of the Great Yan.
This had been the first encounter between the two protagonists and Mu Jinwen had not been part of this scene. Her expression remained unchanged, but her heart became anxious.
Mu Jinwen had been working for Yu Wenrui back when he was still an imperial son. Although he had trusted him very much and even allowed him to produce clouds with one turn of the hand and rain with another1 with a bizarre indulgence, he had only really been using him in the early stages.
It hadn’t been until Mu Jinwen had desperately saved his life that they had sort of became friends and the damage Mu Jinwen had caused him in the end had been even greater.
Now that she had stepped in to save the heroine, Mu Jin wondered if she had aroused the Emperor’s suspicion.
She was thinking about that when she felt a shadow over her head. Someone held her elbow and helped her stand up, while another hand touched the one that was still holding the whip. Yu Wenrui’s appearance had been so sudden she had forgotten to put it down and the bards were still deeply rooted in her flesh. The pain she felt as she moved made her frown.
“Jinwen is too impulsive.” The emperor’s voice was warm and steady, “A simple slave, why hurt yourself for her.”
Mu Jin: Wait… the plot doesn’t seem quite right.
Shouldn’t the male lead be attracted to the stubbornness of the heroine? Shouldn’t he feel so distressed he would carry her back to his bedroom? Shouldn’t they talk for the first time?
Mu Jin glanced at the heroine who was still laying on the bench like a dead fish. Worried, she forgot to reply to Yu Wenrui’s words.
The emperor also followed her gaze and looked at the wounded girl. No spark or love at first sight appeared in his expression but he coldly ordered: “Don’t you have eyes? This slave made a mistake, why is she still there?”
“Your Majesty! Spare our lives! Your majesty, this slave will deal with it right away.”
A group of young eunuchs began to slap their faces frantically and got up on shaking legs. One held the arms of the heroine and the other the feet and it looked as if they were getting ready to throw her directly into a mass grave.
Mu Jin was shocked. Scum! That’s your heroine!
“Your Majesty, please wait!” Against the oppressive gaze, she put on a stiff smile, “Your Majesty, please forgive this slave’s sins. This girl does not deserve to die and this slave could not bear to see a flower-like her wither. This slave did not expect he would hinder Your Majesty’s eyes.”
All the people around lowered their heads even more and no one dared say it had been her order in the first place.
Yan Wenrui’s inquiring eyes looked at her and he reached out his hand to touch her smiling face, pausing slightly as he wiped away the dried blood on her cheek with his thumb.
The upright and handsome Emperor of this Dynasty was still holding her wounded palm in one hand, and the wide sleeve around the other half covered Mu Jin’s delicate face. From an outsider’s point of view, it looked as if he was embracing her, yet gave a slightly sorrowful feeling.
Mu Jin was a little surprised. Yu Wenrui’s hands were hot but she only felt numb coldness as he touched her skin. A subtle chill spread along her spine and she couldn’t sense the tender sentiments he seemed to show.
Why was he doing that to a eunuch? Could it be that she needed to sacrifice2 herself for this mission?
TL note: The novel is a historical fiction with a made-up dynasty slightly based on real History and was written by the same author as I attacked because I was afraid of death. The genre this time is “struggling with the system every day when it gives dumb tasks” and romance, although really, Mu Jin is in over her head and doesn’t really know how (or want) to deal with these novel characters.
This may be confusing at first but Mu Jin is female, both in her past life and in the current one. The fact that Mu Jinwen was a woman from the very beginning was known only from her, and not even the original author and the readers were aware of it. Hence why the Mu Jinwen in the novel is always referred to as “he”. And as he is a eunuch, our main character is not particularly shocked to feel nothing between her legs and has not realized yet she was still female.
